VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

BUI THI PHUONG THAO

A STUDY ON USING VISUAL AIDS TO TEACH ESP VOCABULARY
FOR THE STUDENTS OF THE SHIPBUILDING FACULTY AT THE
CENTRAL VOCATIONAL COLLEGE OF TRANSPORT NO. II
(NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG GIÁO CỤ TRỰC QUAN ĐỂ DẠY
TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN KHOA
ĐÓNG TÀU TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG NGHỀ GIAO THÔNG VẬN TẢI
TRUNG ƯƠNG II)

M.A. MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching
Methodology
Code: 60.14.10

HANOI - 2012


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

BÙI THỊ PHƯƠNG THẢO

A STUDY ON USING VISUAL AIDS TO TEACH ESP
VOCABULARY FOR THE STUDENTS OF THE SHIPBUILDING

Abstract ………………………………………………………….

iii

Table of contents………………………………………………...

iv

List of abbreviations…………….……………………….……...

viii

PART 1: INTRODUCTION………………………………...

1

1. Rationale of the study……………………………………….

1

2. Research questions and aims of the study………………….

2

3. Scope of the study…………………………………………...

2

4. Significance of the study…………………………………….



1.2.1. Definition of vocabulary……………………………

7

1.2.2. Classification of vocabulary and ESP vocabulary….…

iv

8


1.2.3. The issue of teaching ESP vocabulary………………

9

1.2.3.1. Selection of vocabulary for teaching……………..

9

1.2.3.2. Stages in teaching vocabulary……………………

10

1.2.3.2.1. Presenting……………………………………

10

1.2.3.2.2. Practicing…………………………………….


1.4. Benefits of using visual aids to teach ESP vocabulary……..

15

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY………………………………..

16

2.1. Situation analysis…………………………………………

16

2.1.1. Learning situation……………………………………..

16

2.1.2. Textbook……………………………………………

16

2.1.3. Students……………………………………………….

17

2.2. Research methodology……………………………………

17

2.2.1. Research questions……………………………………


3.1.1.1. The teachers’ and the students’ attitudes towards the
use of visual aids in teaching and learning vocabulary…………...

20

3.1.1.2. The teachers’ and the students’ opinion on purposes
of teaching and learning vocabulary in shipbuilding……………..

21

3.1.1.3. Frequency of visual aids used in teaching
vocabulary and students’ impression of visual aids………………

22

3.1.1.4. The stages at which visual aids are often used and
the students’ response……………………………………..………

25

3.1.1.5. Benefits of using visual aids to teach and learn
vocabulary in shipbuilding…………………………………..……

26

3.1.1.6. The teachers’ and students’ difficulties in teaching
and learning vocabulary in shipbuilding through visual aids…….

28


vocabulary……………………………………………………….
PART 3: CONCLUSION………………………………………..

35
36

1. Implications………………………………………………….

36

2. Conclusions………………………………………………….

37

3. Limitations of the study………………………………...

37

4. Suggestions for further study…………………………..

38

REFERENCES………………………………………………….

39

APPENDICES

vii


I myself have experienced 10 years of working as a teacher of English at the
Central Vocational College of Transport No.II where students will be future
technicians and workers. Most of the students here find learning ESP
vocabulary the most challenging to them in acquiring English. Our students’
biggest obstacle in learning ESP vocabulary is that it is difficult for them to
identify the meaning of, to understand the use of and to remember the words
belonging to technical terms. In fact, the students’ problems always haunt the
teachers, which urge them to find a suitable solution to ESP vocabulary
teaching and learning at the college to satisfy the students’ need.
The idea of using visual aids in teaching vocabulary is a good one. This can
add colors to an English lesson and motivate students to learn vocabulary,

1


especially ESP vocabulary. There is no reason for them to feel that learning
vocabulary is dull. At my college, visual aids have been used to teach ESP
vocabulary. So I conduct this study to get an insight of the current situation of
using visual aids to teach ESP vocabulary at the Central Vocational College
of Transport No.II. It is hoped that this study will be of some values to my
colleagues and those who want to improve their ESP vocabulary teaching.
2. Aims of the study
To clarify the answer to the research question, the study aims at:
●

Investigating the current situation of using visual aids to teach ESP

vocabulary at the Central Vocational College of Transport No.II.
●


study came from two sources: teacher respondents and student respondents at
the Central Vocational College of Transport No.II. Classroom observation
was carried out to supplement the survey questionnaires, which is hoped to
bring more reliable results for the study.
6. Design of the study
The study consists of five chapters:
Chapter 1 is “Introduction”, which deals with the background, the rationale,
the aims, the scope, the methods, the significance and the design of the study.
Chapter 2, “Literature Review” presents a brief view on ESP, the theoretical
background of vocabulary and ESP vocabulary, the overall view of some
visual aids.
Chapter 3, “Methodology” mentions the setting of the study, the participants,
the instruments, the data collection procedure, the data analysis procedure and
a brief summary.
Chapter 4, “Data presentation and discussion” presents the data collected
from the survey questionnaires and class observation as well as the discussion
of the data.
Chapter 5, “Implication and Conclusion” presents the pedagogical
implications in teaching ESP vocabulary through visual aids and the

3


conclusion of the study. Suggestion for further study is also given. Finally, the
appendix presents the survey questionnaires.

4


PART 2: DEVELOPMENT


●

center on the language appropriate to those activities in syntax, lexis,

discourse, semantics, etc;
● in

contrast with General English

Dudley- Evans and St John share the same ideas and expose their revised
view on the essence of ESP from two perspectives: absolute characteristics
and variable characteristics. The division of ESP into absolute and variable
characteristics, in particular, is very helpful in resolving arguments about
what is and is not ESP.
To sum up, the definitions above show that ESP is an approach to language
teaching which is directed by specific and apparent reasons for learning. It is
not concerned with an exact discipline and we can teach ESP to learners at
any age and at any English level.
1.1.2. Classification of ESP
The teaching of English is divided into several branches. Dudley Evans and
St John (1998:54) divide ESP into English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and
English for Occupational Purposes (EOP). EAP stands for English for
Academic Purposes in which English for Science and Technology has been
the main area. EOP (English for Occupational Purposes) includes professional
purposes in administration, medicine, law and business, and vocational
purposes for non-professionals in work or pre-work situations.
Dudley Evans and St John (1998: 6) devise a tree diagram illustrated in
figure 1 below for ESP which divides EAP and EOP according to discipline
or professional area.


English for English for
Medical
Business
Purposes
Purposes

English for Vocational
Purposes

Pre Vocational
Purposes

Vocational
English

Figure 1: ESP classification by professional area
Meanwhile, Robinson family’s tree of ESP (1991) divides it into EAP and
EOP, a useful division of courses according to when they take place. In
addition, David Carter (1983) classifies ESP into three types:
● English

as a restricted language

● English

for Academic and Occupational Purposes

● English


grammatical. Grammatically, vocabulary can be divided into different parts of
speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, etc. Methodologically,
there are two kinds of vocabulary classification. They are active vocabulary
and passive 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.

8


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

countability, past simple/participle form) and its usage (collocations and
appropriate register).
1.2.3.2. Stages in teaching vocabulary
There are three stages in teaching vocabulary namely presenting, practicing
and revising.
1.2.3.2.1. Presenting
The main aim of presenting vocabulary is to introduce the meaning, the form
and appropriate usage. There are quite a lot of methods and techniques to
present the form and meaning of vocabulary. It depends on teachers who
decide which form of presentation is the most suitable for a particular topic.

10


According to Gairns and Redman (2003:73), a variety of ways can be used in
introducing vocabulary such as:
● Visual
●

technique: visuals, demonstrating.

Verbal technique: illustrative situations (oral or written), synonyms and

antonyms, definitions and explanations, scales, example of the type,
translation, guessing from the context (matching / labeling).
1.2.3.2.2. Practicing
Students often need a little time for the new lexical items to “sink in”. Gower,
Phillips and Waters (2005) pointed out that learners may recognize new item
but often delay putting it into active use. In this case, the use of planned
activities for recycling and reactivating the new vocabulary is necessary.

namely production tasks. So, production tasks are one of the most important
tasks in this stage.
1.3. Visual aids in teaching and learning vocabulary
Visual aids are defined by Dictionary of English and Culture (1998: 1490) as
“something that people can look at to help them understand, learn, remember,
etc. such as a picture, a map, a photograph, or a film. Visual aids are often
used as materials in education”. Here are some typical types of visual aids.
1.3.1. Boards
Boards are found in most classrooms. They are chalk boards and white boards.
●

Chalk boards are usually black or green. They are easy, cheap to use and

very adaptable. Some chalks boards are magnetized allowing pictures, word
cards, etc. to adhere to the surface if magnets are placed on top of them.
●

White boards are rather common nowadays. They are more expensive than

chalk boards. Special pens must be used. White boards are easier to keep

12


clean and to stick pictures and cards to their surface with sticky or adhesive
plastic than chalk boards.
It is obvious that boards are common and very important. They can serve
different purposes. As they can be used to present vocabulary, spelling, giving
a model. More importantly, teachers can draw on the board to present new
words. Also, by that way they can create visual aids and make their lessons



word flash cards. Picture flash cards are normally used by the teachers in oral
work for cueing responses to questions or in more open communicative work,
for stimulating conversation, story-telling. Meanwhile, word flash cards are
principally used in the teaching of reading and writing.
●

Work cards and worksheets: are for individual student use or for use by

students working in small groups. They provide an extremely useful basis for
the development of not only reading but also all other skills without the
teachers’ immediate involvement.
1.3.4. Objects
There are two types of objects: real objects (realias) and representational
objects.
●

Real objects (realias) are anything available around class without special

preparation or materials that students can see in class such as tables, chairs,
chalks, pens, boards, etc. They are the simplest thing and easily to be used for
teaching and learning’s purposes.
● Representational

objects are objects that can replace real objects in case the

teachers and students can not prepare realias for use in classroom. Using
representational objects can lead to misunderstanding of word meanings so
teachers should make a choice carefully and prepare well.

learning process. With the assistance of visual aids teachers can save time,
energy and add interest. They can improve students understanding of
vocabulary and they allow for different learning styles.
This chapter has briefly reviewed literature such as vocabulary and ESP
vocabulary and visual aids that best suits the scale of the study. It is seen as
the ground for the study. In the next chapters, the presentation and discussion
of the data collected from the questionnaires and class observation served to
answer the research questions will be given.

15


CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, the research methodology chosen for the achievement of the
aims and objectives of the study will be discussed in detail.
2.1 Situation analysis
2.1.1. Teaching and learning situation
The Central Vocational College of Transport No.2 is located in Kien An
district, Hai Phong city. Founded in 1965, it is one of the colleges that have
trained a lot of shipbuilders and technical workers for Hai Phong city. At
present, there are 76 classes with 1520 students placed into different faculties.
They are 7 faculties at CVCOT. More than a half of students are at the
Faculty of Shipbuilding. There are 15 English teachers here but only ten of
them teach both GE and ESP, the rest only teach GE. Students at the Central
Vocational College of Transport No.2 need English for their future job. In
order to read English drawings, documents written in English to improve their
career-related knowledge or work with foreigners, they have to learn English
well, especially ESP.
2.1.2. Textbook
English is taught for the first year and the second year students at CVCOT.

not need to use English as shipbuilders or technical workers. Vocational
students with a lack of motivation and some learning difficulties with
acquiring ESP vocabulary is a challenge for English teachers at CVCOT.
2. 2. Research methodology
2.2.1. Research questions
The main purpose of the study as mentioned in chapter one can be realized
through the questions:

17


1. What are the teachers’ and students’ attitudes toward the use of
visual aids in teaching and learning vocabulary in shipbuilding?
2. How do teachers use visual aids to teach vocabulary in shipbuilding?
3. What are the difficulties of teachers and students in using visual aids to
teach and learn vocabulary in shipbuilding?
4. What should be used to teach ESP vocabulary through visual aids more
effectively?
2.2.2. The participants
The questionnaires have been prepared for two groups:
The first group includes ten English teachers. All of them had taught English
for at least five years at CVCOT and are experienced in teaching ESP courses
for the students of Shipbuilding Faculty. Among ten English teachers, five of
them are Masters of Arts in English and three of them are attending M.A
courses. The other two are Bachelors of Arts.
The second group involves one hundred second year students at the
Shipbuilding Faculty at CVCOT. They all have finished GE course with the
textbook “Lifelines” and are taking part in ESP course with the textbook
“English for Shipbuilders”.
2.2.3. The instruments