Using teacher-designed materials in teaching
esp vocabulary to the second-year students of
fashion designing at national university of art
education: difficulties and solutions Trịnh Thị Thu Hiền Trường Đại học Ngoại Ngữ
Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành: English teaching methodology ; Mã Số: 60 14 10
Người hướng dẫn: Nguyễn Hoàng Lan, M.A
Năm bảo vệ: 2010 Abstract: This study aims at finding out difficulties faced with ESP teachers and second-year
students of Fashion Designing Faculty at National University of Art Education in using teacher-
designed materials for ESP vocabulary lessons and then suggests some solutions to overcome
these difficulties. In the study, quantitative method is employed. The findings from the research
have revealed some difficulties teachers and students face with. In terms of materials, it includes
the lack of interesting & relevant topics, the lack of a variety of exercise-types, the lack of tasks
& activites, and the lack of a vocabulary list or glossary. In terms of teachers, it includes the lack
of specialized knowledge with numerous teminologies and the lack of various teaching
techniques. In terms of students, it includes the poor knowledge of ESP vocabulary, the lack of
sufficient practice. In terms of facilities, it includes the lack of teaching aids & reference
materials.Based on the result of the study, the author has proposed some suggested suggestions.
The important thing is to adapt and the current teacher-designed materials to help teachers and
students make better use of it. It is also necessary to improve specialized knowledge for ESP
teachers and students, improve teachers’ teaching techniques and students’ learning method, and
equipe teaching facilities.The result of the study can be some help to teachers who teach ESP in
genreral and teachers who teach vocabulary to students of Fashion Designing at National

6. Design of the study………………………………………………………………
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PART II: DEVELOPMENT……………………………………………………….
Chapter one: Literature review……………………………………………………….
Introduction…… ………………………………………………………………….
1.1 An overview of supplementary materials in language teaching………………
1.1.1 Supplementary materials.………………….……………………………
1.1.1.1 Definition of supplementary materials… …… …………………
1.1.1.2 The role of supplementary materials… ……………………… ….
1.1.1.3 Characteristics of supplementary materials…….….……………
1.1.2 Criteria for evaluating supplementary materials on ESP….……………
1.1.3 Material adaptation…………………….………………………………
1.1.3.1 Why are materials adapted? …………
1.1.3.2 How are materials adapted? …………
1.2 Vocabulary teaching in ESP……………………………………………………
1.2.1 Definition of vocabulary.………………………………………………
1.2.2 Main principles in vocabulary teaching………………………………….
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2.2.2 Method of data collection: Using the questionnaire …………………
2.2.3 Data collection procedure… …………………………………………
2.2.4 Data analysis procedure ………………………………………………
Summary…………………………………………………………………………….
Chapter three: Findings and discussion ……………… …………………………….
Introduction…… ………………………………………………………………….
3.1 Data analysis to answer the first question ………………………………………
3.2 Data analysis to answer the second question ……………………………………
3.3 Data analysis to answer the third question ………………………… …………
3.4 Findings………………………………………………………….……………….
3.4.1 Students’ difficulties in ESP vocabulary learning ……………………
3.4.2 Teachers’ difficulties in ESP vocabulary teaching …………………
3.4.3 Students’ difficulties in using teacher-designed materials for ESP
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PART III: CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………
1. Conclusion…………… …………………………………………………………
2. Limitations and suggestions for futher study……………………………………
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REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………
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APPENDIX 1……………………………………………………………………….
APPENDIX 2……………………………………………………………………….
APPENDIX 3……………………………………………………………………….
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9 PART I: INTRODUCTION

The present chapter of the thesis will be dedicated to introducing the basic
principles of a thesis including the rationale, the aims of the study as well as the research


English at NUAE while they should be jointly developed by an expert team comprising
both teachers of English and teachers of Fashion Designing. General English teachers
select their own materials, they choose whatever is available to them and suitable to their
knowledge, thus in many cases the materials are not structurally coherent and cohesive.
Additionally, such materials have been used but no evaluation and consultation has been
conducted. Consequently, both teachers and students face many difficulties in teaching and
learning ESP, especially in teaching and learning ESP vocabulary.
Another problem adding to the lack of textbook in NUAE is the way vocabulary is
taught in the university. Although both teachers and students are well aware of the fact that
vocabulary plays an important role in learning language especially in ESP learning because
it is the element that links the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing all
together. The students cannot invest much time on vocabulary or have a good learning
method for the element. In the context of NUAE, the Fashion Designing students can only
get acquainted with ESP in a short time through teacher-collected supplementary materials
in which vocabulary part is not carefully designed. During this short period, teacher mainly
aims at improving reading and translating skills. Students often learn vocabulary passively
through their teachers’ explanation. It is hard for them to memorize new words, terms and
complicated expressions. The teachers share same difficulties with students in specialized
knowledge teaching, so they fail to provide every reasonable explanation.
Additionally, self study is also out of question in NUAE. ESP materials are not
easy for students to teach themselves at home as well as do exercises because the
supplementary materials have not got Answer Keys. For most of the lessons each week, the
teachers must go through 6 to 7 pages. Their main activities are helping students with
reading the text, translating the text, explaining necessary new words and correcting
exercises. Both teachers and students simply read whatever available in hand.
Consequently, their ESP vocabulary learning cannot get much improvement.
The last difficult for teachers and students in the process of ESP teaching and
learning is that they cope with the lack of various teaching technique, the lack of teaching
aids and reference materials. Tomlinson (1998: 2) defined that “language teaching

With the aim at finding out the difficulties in teaching ESP vocabulary to the
second-year students of Fashion Designing at NUAE, the study was designed to seek
answer to the following questions:
1. What are the difficulties that the teachers at NUAE face when teaching ESP
vocabulary to second-year students of Fashion Designing?
2. What are the difficulties that the second-year students of Fashion Designing at
NUAE face when learning ESP vocabulary?
3. What solutions should be offered to help teachers and students make better use
of the teacher-designed materials? 12 4. Scope of the study
Due to the limitation of time, this study has no ambition to cover all aspects of ESP
material use. The scope of this study is limitted to the teachers’ exploitation of the
supplementary materials only. The study focuses on the investigation of difficulties in
teaching ESP vocabulary to second-year students of Fashion Designing at NUAE. The
solutions are also provided to help to improve teaching and learning English in general,
teaching and learning English vocabulary of Fashion Designing in particular at NUAE.
5. Methods of the study
The method used in the study is mainly quantitative method. In order to seek
answers to the above questions, two sets of questionnaire were designed and delivered to
the teachers and the second-year students. The data were collected, synthesized and
analyzed from the survey questionnaires on ESP vocabulary teaching and learning and
using supplementary materials. Beside, more information needed for the study was
gathered by other methods such as class observation, information discussions with the
teachers and the students at NUAE.
6. Design of the study

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