VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
********************* NGUYỄN NGỌC HẢI USING TRANSLATION TO TEACH TECHNICAL VOCABULARY
TO THE 2
ND
YEAR VOCATIONAL STUDENTS AT INDUSTRIAL
UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY – THANH HOA BRANCH

Sử dụng thủ thuật dịch vào việc dạy từ vựng chuyên ngành cho sinh viên
nghề năm thứ hai tại trường Đại học Công nghiệp thành phố Hồ Chí
Minh – Cơ sở Thanh Hóa M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014 i
DECLARATION

This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Education. I certify that the thesis is the report of my own research, and
that it has not been submitted for any other university or institution. Thanh Hoa, September, 2014


Nguyen Ngoc Hai

iii
ABSTRACT
This research was done to investigate the use of Vietnamese translation in
vocabulary teaching and learning process. This action research is aimed at finding
out the         
translation in teaching and learning vocabulary at Industrial University of Ho Chi
Minh City  Thanh Hoa branch. The study focuses on issues (1) the difficulties
encountered by English teachers as well as the second year vocational students at
IUH – Thanh Hoa Branch when teaching and learning technical vocabulary. (2)
Exploring translation used in teaching technical vocabulary for the second year
vocational students at IUH – Thanh Hoa Branch. (3) Investigating how far
translation improves teaching and learning technical vocabulary for the second
year vocational students at IUH – Thanh Hoa Branch. This study involves the
participants of 170 second  year vocational students who are in their first semester
at IUH. The data was collected by a number of instruments including questionnaire

the study reveals that there exist some difficulties in teaching technical vocabulary
to second-year vocational students at IHU. However, the majority of respondents
confirm that Vietnamese translation technique is an efficient method. Vietnamese
translation has big attributions in diminishing the difficulties in teaching technical
vocabulary to second-year vocational students at IHU v
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ESP: English for specific purposes course
GE: General English
IUH : Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh city
Vocabulary 10
3. Previous Studies on L1 Translation in Teaching L2 Vocabulary 11
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 13
2.1. Rationale for the use of a survey research 13 vii
2.2. Context of the study 13
2.2.1. Textbook 13
2.2.2. Students 14
2.2.3. Teachers 15
2.3. Instruments 16
2.3.1. Interviews 16
2.3.2. Questionnaires 16
2.4. Data collection 16
2.5. Chapter summary 17
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 18
3.1. Findings from questionnaires 18
g technical
vocabulary 18
 19
 20
 21
on use in technical vocabulary
lessons. 25
3.2. Further findings from informal interview with teachers 39
PART C: CONCLUSION 33
1. Summary of major findings 33
2. Concluding remarks 34
3 .Limitations and suggestions for further study 35


Recently a lot of attention has been given to vocabulary. English teachers are being
trained in using modern methods of English teaching. Old teaching methods are
rapidly being replaced with modern ones. However, among various kinds of 2
techniques, I would like to add the debate by discussing the usefulness of translation
in teaching ESP vocabulary. Of course, translation has been given a bad name in
modern language teaching. In the past, the prevalence of grammar  translation
method led to an extraordinary phenomenon: students were unable to speak fluently
after having studied the language for a long time. For this reason, translation has
        
(Duff,1994). Recently there has been a revival of interest to translation due to the
shift of its emphasis  to using a mother tongue as a resource for promotion of
language learning. Translation method develops three qualities essential to any
language learning: accuracy, clarity, and flexibility (Duff, 1994). Therefore,
translation can serve as a good tool for improving language skills, especially in
teaching ESP vocabulary.

The facts above explain the reasons why I carried out this study entitled, Using
translation to teach technical vocabulary to the 2
nd
year vocationl students at
Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh city – Thanh Hoa Branch”. The author does
hope that this research will help the teachers in some ways to find appropriate
teaching method to improve technical vocabulary for their students.
2. Aims of the study
This study is aimed at:
- Exploring the usage of translation in teaching technical vocabulary for the second

the kind of technical vocabulary which application of Vietnamese translation
focuses on is IT vocabulary. The findings and recommendations most appropriately
applied to the teachers of English as well as the second  year vocational students at
IUH  Thanh Hoa Branch.
6. Methods of the study
This study is conducted in the form of a survey research. The data serving the
research analysis and discussion were collected by means of:
- Questionnaires for students
- Interview 4
In addition, to make the data collected more reliable and authentic, qualitative
method was applied.
7. Design of the study
The study is divided into three parts.
Part A - Introduction shows the rationale for the research, the aims, the research
questions, the significance , the scope, the methods and the design of the study.
Part B - Development consists of three chapters.
Chapter 1 - Literature review, not only deals with an overview of background to
the study, including key concepts and theories to the research topic but also
discusses previous studies of the field to reveal the research gap which needs filling.
Chapter 2  Methodology introduces the participants, instrumentation, research
process and plan of action.
Chapter 3 – Results and discussion gives a detailed presentation of data and a
detailed description of data analysis. Some explanations and interpretations of the
findings of the study are also presented.
Part C Conclusion presents the summary of major findings, points out the
limitations of the study and provides the suggestions for implication of translation


are two kinds of vocabulary classification. They are active vocabulary and passive 6
vocabulary. Active words consist of words which the learners can understand and
pronounce the words correctly and use them constructively in speaking or writing.
Passive vocabulary includes words which the learners can recognize and understand
while they are reading or listening to someone speaking, but they do not use the
words in speaking or writing. Recently, some methodologists of the Communicative
Language Teaching approach have split vocabulary into productive and receptive
vocabulary. The productive vocabulary is concerned with the words that a learner
can use effectively to express his/ her ideas both in speaking and in writing forms.
The receptive vocabulary refers to the words that help a learner to receive and
understand information in listening and reading. There are different types of ESP
vocabulary presented by Simon Fraser (2005).They are general vocabulary,
academic vocabulary and technical vocabulary. General vocabulary consists of
words remaining after technical and academic words have been extracted. Most of
these will be high frequency words that are used in daily life as well as in a specific
field. Academic vocabulary consists of words used which are common in the
academic world, irrespective of the subject. Technical vocabulary is most obviously
associated with specialized texts or discourse. These words have their specific
meanings and they seem to be very uncommon to people who are not related to their
fields of meaning.

It can be further divided in to fully technical vocabulary, crypto technical
vocabulary, lay- technical vocabulary. Fully technical vocabulary comprises those
words whose meanings are clearly technical. They are specific to the field and not
likely to be known in general language. Crypto technical vocabulary consists of
polysemous words like transmitter and relaxation which could be said to be
  have a hidden technical meaning. Lay technical vocabulary

of language instruction or in other words, the main goal was to train students to
communicate in the target language and to have an acceptable pronunciation. It
introduced vocabulary through classroom objects, mime, drawing and explanations
(Rivers, 1981: 32-33)
The Reading approach attracted more importance than grammatical skill. The
vocabulary used in the reading passages is controlled at beginning levels and is
chosen according to their frequency and usefulness. The acquisition of vocabulary
is considered to be more important than grammatical skills and is expanded as fast 8
as possible through intensive and extensive reading. The translation of vocabulary
items and sentences are permitted. (Murcia and Prator, 1979: 3)

The Audio-lingual Approach which was dominant in the United States during the
1940s, 1950s, and 1960s is known to be a major paradigm shift in foreign language
teaching (Larsen-Freeman, 2000). In this method, the amount of vocabulary
presented was kept low (Thornbury, 2002:14) and was chosen for its simplicity
(Schmitt, 2000:13). It was assumed that when grammatical fluency was present,
exposure to the foreign language itself lead to vocabulary development (Coady,
1993: 4).

The Communicative Language Teaching Approach is a renowned British Approach
to language teaching the emergence of which dates back to the mid-1960s. Concepts
like context, use, effective communication, communicative function,
comprehensible pronunciation, etc. were given importance in this approach. Senel
(2002: 243) emphasized that new words were not presented in isolation, but in the
context of a complete sentence, and in a meaningful situation. This way, the words
acquired meaning when they appeared in a particular definition in a determined
context. Moreover, Thornbury (2002:14) stated that course books began to

non-advanced foreign language learners, translation of the new words (that are
introduced for the first time) is acknowledged as a preferable way to teach meaning
(Nation 1982, and Laufer 1997). This may suggest that mother tongue plays an
important role in language teaching, especially for the vocational students at IUH 
Thanh Hoa Branch.
2.2. Function of Translation
       unction is a
special activity or purpose of a person or thing. Basically, the special purpose or
function of translation is as a medium of communications. As Duff (1989:5) says,
  e 10
           

carry the message from the SL to TL. And it is very helpful for people which come
from around the world in communication to each other. As Nida (1981:2) states,
 three essential elements to form a
process of communication. The three essential elements are source, message, and
receptor, and these elements must be found in all   
sum up translation is a means in communication, that has source, message, and
receptor which must be found in all communication activities.
2.3. Advantages and Disadvantages of Using L1 Translation in Teaching
Vocabulary.
According to Doff (1988:12):
“Translating a new word is in itself a useful technique- it is often the
simplest and clearest way of showing what a word means’’
Liu (2009:68) sees the use of L1 in L2 vocabulary learning, or providing translation
equivalents have several advantages. They are an easy and efficient way of
depicting the core meaning of a word. Knowing the L1 equivalent also gives the

parts of the world and at different times.
Laufer and Shmueli (1997) compared 4 ways of presenting the new vocabulary, that
is, words presented in isolation, words in a meaningful sentence, words in a text
context and words in an elaborated text context. Each of these ways contains half of

results indicate that the words with the L1 translation were retained better than those
with the L2 explanation.
In their study, Ramachandran and Rahim (2004) attempt to investigate the
effectiveness of using the translation method in recalling the meaning and retention 12
of the words with elementary level ESL. Their results indicated that the translation
method through using L1 was more effective than the non-translation method in
         

In her paper on using translation method in teaching vocabulary, Abdul Rahim
demonstrates the effect using translation method in teaching vocabulary. She
conducted her study among elementary level EFL learners in Malaysia. In this study,
         
translation method has a positive impact on learners recall and retention of the
meaning of words that they had learned.
The last study to be reviewed here is a case study conducted by Bouangeune (2009)
at the National University of Laos. The study makes an important contribution to
EFL teaching, particularly in the area of vocabulary for students with a lower
proficiency level. It shows the effectiveness of using L1 in teaching vocabulary
through translation exercises and dictation. The findings indicate that the
experimental group achieved better performance in both vocabulary in direct
translation and vocabulary in context. In fact, the results could provide empirical
support for the application of L1 in the FL classroom. The researcher concludes that

questions and open questions so that they can specify their opinions. The researcher
did the observation on her own with the checklist at class. The informal interviews
are also used to collect data. The researcher interviewed three teachers.
2.2. Context of the study
2.2.1. Textbook
Textbook plays crucial roles in language teaching, which is indicated by different
authors in the literature. Obviously, the materials provide basic for the content of
the lesson, the balance of skills taught, and the kind of language practice students
take part in.   Infotech-English for computer users  
Bui Trung Thanh, a lecturer at IUH and is used as an internal material at IUH to
teach college students of IT in 45 periods. Each week, teachers of English have to
teach 5 periods of 45 minutes. The aims and objectives of the ESP curriculum are to 14
help students consolidate, widen and enrich their English competence related to
their majors including both language knowledge and skills which they have gained
at university. From my own experience and other 
interviews with a lot of students at my school, the suitability of the textbook
including knowledge points (information and vocabulary areas) is not very
insufficient. Furthermore, linguistic competence like listening, speaking, and
writing is not covered in this textbook. Therefore, it can not help students improve
their skills like listening, speaking, or writing except for reading comprehension.
Students find it hard to understand the formulas, express their understanding in
explaining the positions, functions or operations of the parts of machines by their
own words because they lack a great number of vocabulary about the matters.
Therefore, they have little interest in learning ESP and the teaching English at my
university is not satisfactory. This is obviously manifested in teaching methods used
by most teachers in my university.
2.2.2. Students

General English and ESP to nearly 7.000 students of four departments at IUH. They
even have to teach some different ESP subjects at the same time. The teachers have
to teach themselves and learn ESP subjects from specialized teachers who are in
charge of teaching these subjects in Vietnamese. There are three teachers being
responsible for teaching English for IT. One of them has 5- year experience and 2
other teachers have 4- year experience. They are energetic and willing to devote
their time and energy to teaching. However, they find it difficult to deal with
unfamiliar subject matter. Therefore, they encounter many difficulties in their
teaching process such as the lack of the specialized knowledge, the choice of
teaching methods and teaching materials.

In terms of methodology, the teachers at IUH are intensively using the Grammar-
Translation method. Most of the spoken interaction in English classes is conducted
in Vietnamese.
16
As mentioned above, the context of IUH reveals a situation whereby students are
required to learn English, but the English they have learned in traditional language
classes may not be used effectively in real life. It is apparent that student-centered
approach has not been widely used in teaching English at IUH. The teachers still
play the key role in classroom activities and corner the students to be active
learners. Therefore, we should apply more appropriate teaching techniques to
improve the situation of teaching ESP vocabulary at IUH.
2.3. Instruments
2.3.1. Interviews
Three teachers were interviewed for approximately 10 or 15 minutes. The aims of
using these interviews were to get the ideas, perception and evaluation from
students toward teaching technical vocabulary with translation.