INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Since computers were invented, they have increasingly been used for multi purposes
to assist people all over the world. As a result, information technology (IT) has become an
essential part in all aspects of our life. Thanks to IT, everything is now becoming faster,
more convenient, more comfortable and more effective. Vietnam has recently integrated
itself into the whole world in applying IT in all walks of life, including education. When
Vietnam joined WTO in 2006, our opportunities to push the total development of education
have been increasing with IT.
IT has, in fact, contributed greatly to the renovation of teaching and learning in
Vietnam. Teachers and students are now encouraged to update the information of their
interests by searching on the Internet. Their knowledge, thus, is much broader. For the past
years, schools and universities have launched the movement of renovating the methods of
teaching and learning. IT, then, has proved its role.
The teachers and students in the field of foreign languages also take part in the
movement of renovating the methods of teaching and learning in Vietnam. The Faculty of
English at Hanoi National University of Education (HNUE) have lately renovated the
methods of teaching and learning by using IT. However, the effect remains limited.
As a lecturer at the Faculty of English, the author has been studying an aspect in
teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) for non-English-major students with the
assistance of IT: Using IT in teaching and learning Reading English for Biology for 2
nd
-
year students at HNUE.
2. Aims of the study
The thesis focuses on studying the extent to which IT can facilitate teaching and
learning reading English for Biology at HNUE. In details, it aims at:
 Discovering how IT influences foreign language teaching and learning (generally)
and reading English for Biology teaching and learning (particularly) and the extent to
which IT can assist reading English for Biology teaching and learning;
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The author has used the following main methods to do the research:
 Consulting books, journals and newspapers on applying IT in teaching and learning
foreign languages or ESP;
 Searching information on the Internet ;
 Doing a survey on 2
nd
-year students of the Faculty of Agro-biology;
 Interviewing lecturers of the Faculty of English who have taught English for
Biology; and
 Analyzing the data collected quantitatively and qualitatively to find out the real
situation of teaching and learning reading English for Biology at HNUE with IT.
6. Significance of the study
As I have mentioned above, the movement of methods of teaching and learning
renovation has been launched in HNUE, including the Faculty of English. The lecturers of
English have often used IT to teach English-major students. However, they only sometimes
teach non-English-major students with IT. Last year, they started to teach ESP for 2
nd
-year
non-English-major students. Therefore, the idea of using IT to teach ESP is fairly fresh.
The author, who has taught English for Biology at HNUE, have thought of how to
apply IT to raise the quality of teaching and learning English for Biology and the idea has, in
fact, worked well. Students were fascinated in learning reading English for Biology with IT
in class. However, due to certain reasons, such lessons with IT cannot be done frequently.
The researcher has acted her mind about the situation in order that IT will be applied
more often and more efficiently for teaching and learning reading English for Biology
promotion in the coming time. If that comes true, ESP in general and English for Biology in
particular will definitely interest non-English-major students and lecturers of English.
7. Organization of the study
This brief study is divided into three main parts: Introduction, Development and

teaching with chalk, blackboards, pens, paper and textbooks. These go with educational
technologies. Warschauer, M & Carla Meskill (2000) said nearly every type of foreign
language classroom teaching is supported by its own technologies. The blackboard can be
considered a perfect tool for grammar-translation method. The teacher uses the board for a
lot of purposes, such as note pad, explanation aid, picture frame and so on. However, all the
educational technologies above sometimes do not work well.
In Vietnam and in the world, the traditional educational technologies are currently
used by teachers or educators. To make the matter better, such modern media as radios,
cassette players, recorders, movies, televisions, computers, projectors, etc have contributed
to the renovation in teaching and learning. According to Nguyen Lan Trung (2002), they
have changed classroom structures and have assisted learners’ acquisition of knowledge.
Foreign language classroom activities have been much more fascinating and understandable
to both teachers and learners, which is due to the usage of modern media. Learners learn
foreign languages when they listen to CDs/tapes, watch films/programmes, or see images
projected from computers’ screen.
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Of all the means of modern media, undeniably, computer is now quite a useful multi-
purpose tool for foreign language education. A newly established branch called Information
Technology (IT) started the actual revolution of innovating methods in foreign language
education. Within this thesis, the researcher would like to discuss a central component of IT,
computers.
I.1.3. Computers and EFL teaching and learning
I.1.3.1. Definition of CALL (Computer-assisted Language Instruction)
To start this research, it is necessary to mention and explain the term CALL
(Computer-assisted Language Instruction). CALL is a comparatively new way to acquire
foreign languages. Hence, not many people have given adequate definitions of CALL.
Having collected and consulted relevant materials, the author would like to discuss
the definition of CALL on the website Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer-assisted_language_learning):
Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is an approach to language teaching

I.1.3.3. Computer uses for language teaching and learning
Over the past few years, people have exploited the uses of computers for teaching
and learning (in general) and teaching and learning FL (in particular). As far as this study is
concerned, certain applications of computers in teaching and learning FL are going to be
listed.
 Firstly, computers are widely used for reference. Teachers and students can
easily search for any information of language teaching and learning with the help
of CD/DVD-ROMs and Internet. CDs/DVDs of FL have continuously been
programmed and produced to meet the enormous needs of FL teaching and
learning. The two most distinguishing programmes to count are Encyclopedia
and FL Dictionaries. The Encyclopedia such as Encarta, Grollier, Hutchinson
contains knowledge of all fields, including maps, photos and films. To those who
teach and learn FL, FL Dictionaries can be used as a perfect tool for reference.
They are available on CD-ROM or Internet. Undeniably, Internet is now the
most convenient source of materials. “As a vast virtual library the Internet offers
a seemingly endless range of topics to choose from, all in one handy location.”
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(Dede Teeler and Peta Gray, 2001, p.36). Google, Yahoo, Alta Vista, etc have
been the most popular searching engines. Only with a key word, a teacher or
student can find a vast amount of information related.
 The second use of computers is for Computer-mediated communication
(CMC). People use computers to exchange information through Internet. E-mail,
electronic bulletin boards or electronic newsgroups facilitate their online
communication. The trend of applying IT in education encourages using CMC
for FL teaching and learning. The researcher now would like to quote the two
most common CMC forms used for FL teaching and learning, e-mail exchanging
and instant
messaging.
 E-mail
exchanging is

UNIX. Since then, IM has always been made use of by people from all walks of life. For FL
teaching and learning, the teacher and students exchange information online at any time
without meeting face to face.
 Web sites. People surf web sites every hour all over the world. “The Web has
become both a widespread and legitimate source of information retrieved”
(Paul Stapleton, ELT Journal, volume 59/2, April 2005). Importantly, FL
students and FL teachers make great use of web sites in FL as authentic
materials for research or reference. Each Web page is identified by a unique
address called URL (Uniform Resource Locator). Lina Lee from University of
New Hampshire (http://www/unh.edu/spanish/lina/internet1.html) wrote:
“Most of Web pages contain both text and images. Some browsers also have
access to sounds and videos.” A variety of web sites are designed specifically
for FL students and FL teachers to search information, exchange emails, do
exercises, play games, etc. Here is an example of this kind of web sites:
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http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org. Articles on ELT teaching and learning are
available on the Web page. Information is various on the Web sites, so the
problem is how to select suitable information to search. If we can do that, web
sites are beneficial enough for us to learn and teach FL.
 Word-processor. Nowadays, computers have been exploited in a lot of ways;
however word-processor is by far the most common computer software in FL
teaching and learning. Without it, we are not able to have materials for learning
and teaching FL. Alison Piper (1987, cited in Harmer, J., 200, p.150) said that
“the most successful educational use of computer at that time was a word-
processor”. Word-processor is typically useful for teachers to prepare materials
for their lectures in advance in the current age of IT. It is possible that a lecture
with IT cannot be done without word-processor.
I.1.4. Summary
The above section of this chapter is an overview of IT and computer, the common
application of IT and the way it has been exploited in FL teaching and learning. The

is taught with IT.
I.2.3. Computers and reading ESP
I.2.3.1. Possible applications and advantages of using computer in reading ESP
teaching and learning
Three ideas will be mentioned and discussed: (1) model of teaching ESP reading
with computers, (2) programmes used in reading ESP teaching and learning and (3)
advantages of using computers in reading ESP teaching and learning.
I.2.3.1.1.Model of teaching ESP reading with computers
Some models of using computers in teaching FL can be applied for the past few
years. They are one-computer classroom, several-computer classroom and networked
classroom. The author only mentions one of them for teaching ESP reading within this
thesis, one-computer classroom model.
For this model of classroom, only one computer is used while teaching. In Vietnam,
most teachers use their laptop connected with a LCD Projector to show their lectures on a
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big white screen in front of all the students in the classroom. This model of teaching is quite
common in Vietnam recently.
LCD Projector
For teaching ESP reading, teachers use the above model so that all their prepared
materials and lectures can be seen by the students clearly and vividly on the big white screen.
They read words and see pictures or films, then do reading ESP exercises without looking in
the textbooks. Hereinafter is the photo of the combination of a computer and a LCD
Projector in a classroom.
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A classroom with a computer and a LCD Projector
I.2.3.1.2. Programmes used in reading ESP teaching and learning
There have been a lot of computer programmes designed for FL education; For
example, word-processing, email exchanging, Web pages, Microsoft Powerpoint, Microsoft
Encarta. These programmes were designed for multi-purposes. FL teachers and learners have
taken advantage of their good points in order to make the study and teaching more

considered as an encyclopedia since it contains information (in some languages) of all fields.
The information is in the form of articles, photos, maps, exercises and games. A teacher or
student only needs to type some key words to search the information they want. The
information is simplified for all readers to understand easily. Thus, ESP teachers and
students can copy quite a vast amount of information from Microsoft Encarta if they know
how to exploit it. Then, the information can be used as extra reading texts or designed with
reading exercises.
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* Word processor
The uses of word processor have been discussed by Scott (1996), Cunningham
(2000), Harmer (2001), Jones, C and Sue Fortescue (1991), Keiser (1999), Morgan (1997),
Johnson (2004), etc. This software helps us show our thoughts on the screen with words and
documents. We can easily move around the document, edit, change and add as thoughts
occur. These things seem impossible with pen and paper or even with a typewriter.
For ESP teachers and students, they can use word processor to type texts, exercises
and answers for required tasks. This software is especially useful to the teachers who teach
ESP reading. To prepare for their lectures, they type reading texts and accompanied
exercises on Microsoft Word or Microsoft Powerpoint documents. In class, they show the
lectures on a big screen with a LCD projector. Importantly, they can edit the documents
anytime they want.
* Microsoft Powerpoint.
This is the most common software used in teaching and studying nowadays in
Vietnam. The teachers who are good at IT often use the software to prepare their lectures.
Instead of writing on the blackboard, teachers type what they want the students read and note
down on the screen of Microsoft Powerpoint, then show it with a LCD projector. If the
teacher knows IT well, his/ her lecture on Microsoft Powerpoint is vivid, colourful, realistic
and informative. He/ she can type words of all types and colours, insert pictures, add films to
make the lecture easily understood. Students, therefore, find the lecture extremely
fascinating and understandable.
ESP teachers can do the same as other teachers with Microsoft Powerpoint. If they

Instead of looking at the board, they now look at the computer screen shown in front of them
with a LCD projector. If they want to take note, they need to be very quick because the
words on the screen can run very fast.
Secondly, the teacher is the most important variable. The teacher can only have a
computer-aided ESP reading lesson with a LCD when he/she owns good knowledge and
skills of computers. He/she has to apply a new method of teaching, too. He/she not only
shows their prepared lecture on the computer screen but also explains for the points to make
students interested in the lesson and understand the lecture more quickly and easily.
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Thirdly, the setting contributes to the success of a computer-aided ESP reading
lesson. The computer and LCD projector needs to work well during the lesson. All the
softwares used for the lesson have to be checked in advance in case there are sudden
mistakes.
I.2.3.3. Considerations of computer-aided ESP reading teaching and learning
There are some considerations to be borne in mind for teaching and learning ESP
reading with a computer.
For teaching, the teacher should be dynamic, flexible and knowledgeable of
computer skills so that he/she can deal with all the unexpected incidents during the lesson. A
common incident is the technical errors with the computer or the LCD projector.
Moreover, the teacher should know how to interest students to cooperate with the
teacher properly and effectively. The teacher can instruct them how to learn with IT in class
in advance.
For learning outside the class, the teacher should guide students about working with
the Internet, searching information and assign them tasks to do. Then, students know what
they have to do outside the class.
The students should ask the teacher questions if they do not know how to do the tasks
at home. They should also improve their computer skills to be able to accomplish at-home
tasks with computers.
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