VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ĐẶNG THỊ HOÀNG YẾN ACTIVATING STUDENTS’ SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE THROUGH ILLUSTRATIONS FOR MARINE ENGINEERING VOCABULARY LEARNING AT MARITIME COLLEGE NO (Kích hoạt kiến thức chuyên ngành sinh viên thơng qua hình ảnh minh họa cho việc học từ vựng chuyên ngành máy tàu thủy trường Cao đẳng Hàng Hải I) MA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 HANOI - 2012 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ĐẶNG THỊ HOÀNG YẾN ACTIVATING STUDENTS’ SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE THROUGH ILLUSTRATIONS FOR MARINE ENGINEERING VOCABULARY LEARNING AT MARITIME COLLEGE NO (Kích hoạt kiến thức chun ngành sinh viên thơng qua hình ảnh minh họa cho việc học từ vựng chuyên ngành máy tàu thủy trường Cao đẳng Hàng Hải I) MA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Cấn Thị Chang Duyên, M.A HANOI - 2012 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENT iv LIST OF ABBREVIATION vi LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Aims of the study Scope of the study Methods of the study Significance of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: ENGLISH TEACHING AND LEARNING CONTEXT AT MARITIME COLLEGE N01 1.1 Students‟ language background 1.2 Teachers‟ current methods of teaching vocabulary 1.3 Material and material assessment CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 English for special purposes 2.1.1 Definition of ESP 2.1.2 Students‟ prior knowledge in learning ESP vocabulary 10 2.2 Illustrations as visual aids in learning ESP vocabulary 14 2.2.1 The advantages of illustrations 16 2.2.2 The disadvantages of illustrations 18 iv CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 3.1 Research questions 20 3.2 Participants 20 3.3 Instruments 20 3.4 The procedure 20 3.5 Findings and discussions 22 PART C: CONCLUSION 29 Summary of the study 30 Limitations of the study 31 Suggestions for further study 32 References 35 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: Survey questionnaire from the students I APPENDIX 2: Three lesson plan samples V v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS International Maritime Organization : IMO English for Specific Purposes : ESP English as a Second Language : ESL Vietnam National University, Hanoi : VNU Maritime College No : MC1 vi LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS FIGURES Figure 1: Piston with crossheads 13 Figure 2: Trunk piston 13 Figure 3: A Diesel engine 22 Figure 4: A Diesel engine 27 TABLES Table 1: Students‟ attitude towards vocabulary learning 28 Table 2: students‟ difficulty of guessing the meanings 32 Table 3: students‟ comment of vocabulary learning 33 CHARTS Chart 1: Students‟ abilities of guessing the meanings of word 30 Chart 2: Students‟ attitudes towards teaching methods of guessing 31 the meanings of the words vii PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study To be a developing country with a 3000 km coastline, Vietnam has advantages of maritime industry Our country has been supporting the international maritime big amount of seafarers Ships are like big houses, sea is like country, and seamen on board are from multi-countries and in multilanguages Therefore, in order to work and live in harmony, in a same house, seafarers are needed to have a common language – maritime English Nowadays shipping industry communicates through maritime English, the language of the sea This cross-cultural labour mobility makes many maritime English instructors aware that the quality of cadets in the global seafarer‟s community needs a proper teaching pedagogy Competent seafarers should also be proficient in understanding and using maritime English, which is essential for the safety of life at sea, effectiveness of work, ship property, pollution prevention, etc Maritime English knowledge and skills can ensure the effectiveness of communication between English speaking seafarers and non-English speaking ones; and between seafarers and offshore personnel To a certain degree safety at sea depends on seafarers‟ communication in maritime English Proper command of maritime English is not only for the necessity of seafarers but also for the appropriate operation of ship According to the above significances, IMO (International Maritime Organization) has officially adopted maritime English as the language of maritime industry which requires seafarers must gain good maritime English communication skills Mastering communication skills is one of the important components which ensure the safety at sea In order to help seafarers to achieve high quality performance, maritime English instructors should focus on communication skills that include four language skills namely listening, speaking, reading and writing The maritime terminology is the certain basic part to form understandable working environment In school days, future seafarers are in need of accumulating knowledge from learning materials One of the important elements is lecturers How to combine the students‟ prior knowledge and new vocabulary? which is a big questions for all lecturers in maritime school It requires teachers to have good methodology in explaining new words Using illustration is among the most effective ways to activate students‟ knowledge and help learners to remember maritime terminology easier and better Therefore, the quality of maritime English teaching will have enough conditions which meet requirements of IMO Conventions That is the reason why the thesis named “Activating students’ specialized knowledge through illustrations for marine engineering vocabulary learning at Maritime College No 1” has been fostered and conducted In this paper I would like to give an overview of maritime English teaching at the Maritime College No 1, Hai Phong, addressing some advantages and disadvantages of illustrations and how to activate students‟ prior knowledge in learning English for Specific Purpose (ESP) vocabulary Aims of the study From the above mentioned viewpoints, the study was carried out at Maritime College No with a target to identify students‟ attitudes towards learning of ESP vocabulary, their abilities and difficulties of guessing the meanings of the words The study also draws out the ways to activate students‟ knowledge in learning marine engineering vocabulary Following that, the findings and solutions were given with hope to make contribution to the specialized vocabulary teaching for teachers in general and teachers at Maritime College No in particular Attached sample lesson plans of using illustrations in teaching marine engineering vocabulary will be shown by the author to strengthen the thesis more truthfully Scope of the study It is impossible to cover every aspect of language theory and practice in this study Therefore, the study focuses on how to activate students‟ specialised knowledge through using illustrations in teaching marine engineering vocabulary in Maritime College No It is not proposed to deal with other techniques in presenting vocabulary Based on theoretical background and actual observations, several recommendations for teaching are given Methods of the study In this section, the author provided the description of the instruments for collecting data that were used and also highlighted the strengths and weakness of the research methods chosen The thesis is developed based on a survey research with the instrument of survey questionnaires The research questions for the students are used to collect data that relate to the students‟ attitudes and abilities towards the new marine engineering vocabulary The procedures describe the whole applied performance of using illustrations Interviewing students, on the other hand, ask open questions, collects data from participating and then most importantly, clarify information collected in the survey questionnaire and observation The final part of the study is a detailed discussion Above of all, the author with her heart and attempt is to carry out a qualitative and quantitative research at Maritime College No Significance of the study Maritime College, as its name implies, is one of five Vietnamese crews and officer training centres, and also one of the schools with a large number of students specialized in maritime field MC has been contributing the success of Vietnam maritime industry and taking part in the process of international crew export In the last few years, MC has been providing maritime labour forces for the industrialization and modernization of the nation Thus, studying maritime terminology in general or marine engineering in particular, one of the most important factors, will bring out students good specialized vocabulary There are so many techniques applied in presenting vocabulary such as concise definition, detailed description, examples, illustrations, demonstration (acting, mime), context, synonyms, antonyms, translation, visual aids or real objects However, not all techniques are suited to be taught for marine engineering students in MC The study is to clearly understand how feasible technique is applying at MC Besides, the author has expected to give recommendations for enhancing teaching and learning quality of the school; providing consultation to the school‟s education managers to better understand English studies at MC and making suitable teaching methodology for lecturers; improving the qualified graduates working in maritime industry who will make a valuable contribution to the society Design of the study PART A: INTRODUCTION provides the basic information such as the aims, the scope, and significance of the study PART B: DEVEPLOPMENT contains of chapters Chapter 1: English teaching and learning context at Maritime College No provides the background of students‟ learning, current methods of teaching vocabulary and states material and assess material Chapter 2: Literature Review justifies the literature on English for special purposes, students‟ prior knowledge in learning ESP vocabulary, the advantages ... IMO Conventions That is the reason why the thesis named ? ?Activating students’ specialized knowledge through illustrations for marine engineering vocabulary learning at Maritime College No 1” has... Therefore, the author got the desire to investigate the ways of activating students‟ specialized knowledge through illustrations for marine engineering vocabulary learning 2.1.2 Students’ prior knowledge. .. THROUGH ILLUSTRATIONS FOR MARINE ENGINEERING VOCABULARY LEARNING AT MARITIME COLLEGE NO (Kích hoạt kiến thức chuyên ngành sinh viên thơng qua hình ảnh minh họa cho việc học từ vựng chuyên ngành