Second - Year information techology students’ opinions of the use of authentic materials in extensive english for specific purpose (esp) reading program at the genetic centre - Hanoi university of science and technology

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personnel management processes implemented at Hanoi Metropolitan University. Based 
on the actual situation of deploying personnel management processes at Hanoi 
Metropolitan University, the article offers solutions for raising the awareness, 
strengthening the ability, improving the process system, upgrading the facilities. It is 
hoped that the results of this study will provide some proper scientific arguments for 
personnel management task at Hanoi Metropolitan University. 
Keywords: Personnel management process, Hanoi Metropolitan University. 
SECOND- YEAR INFORMATION TECHOLOGY 
STUDENTS’ OPINIONS OF THE USE OF 
AUTHENTIC MATERIALS IN EXTENSIVE ENGLISH 
FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSE (ESP) READING 
PROGRAM AT THE GENETIC CENTRE - HANOI 
UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 
Nguyễn Khương 
Đại học Thủ đô Hà Nội 
Abstract: One of the difficult tasks in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) classes is 
helping students to retain terminology of their field of study. The research evaluated 
the process of teaching English for Specific Purpose reading program for second-year 
information technology students at the Genetic Centre-Hanoi University of Science and 
Technology using coursebooks and authentic supplementary materials and the 
innovation in the employment of these materials during the process. The results and the 
findings of the research were evaluated through such instruments as student 
questionnaires and teacher interviews. The study findings reveal some useful 
implications for teachers of ESP classrooms in integrating authentic materials and 
coursebooks. 
Key words: Information technology, authentic materials, ESP (English for Specific 
Purpose), reading skill. 
Nhận bài ngày 20.4.2020; gửi phản biện, chỉnh sửa, duyệt đăng ngày 15.5.2020 
Liên hệ tác giả: Nguyễn Khương; Email: nkhuong@hnmu.edu.vn 
1. INTRODUCTION 
152 TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC THỦ ĐÔ HÀ NỘI 
 In Vietnam, the most common practice of language teaching and learning is to employ 
materials which can be either primary (course book, for example) or secondary 
(supplementary materials, to illustrate). The employment of the above-mentioned two 
kinds of materials very much depends on the teaching strategies of the language teacher 
and the language proficiency level of the learners in particular settings of the language 
class. Within the scope of this research, I am about to discuss the use of the learning 
materials including both the course-book and the extra materials (particularly the authentic 
reading materials) given to second-year students of Information Technology at the Genetic 
Center, Hanoi University of Science and Technology and very specifically the innovation 
in the employment of these materials during the process. 
 As discussed in my previous research which deals with the question of whether there 
is significant difference between the use of course-book and the employment of authentic 
reading materials in the overall improvement of the two target groups of students namely 
the control group and the experimental group, the findings have indicated that the latter 
group demonstrates significant improvement in their reading skill and a boost in the 
motivation for the subject. This research is going to further exploit the aspect of 
improvement among the very particular group of learners which will lead to the innovation 
in terms of both the materials themselves and the methods employed in using them. 
 Since the innovation could be described as a bottom-up process as it was “indigenous 
to an institution” (White, 1998, p.118) with the researcher himself/herself taking the roles 
of the change agent, adopter and implementer. The second-year Information Technology 
students at the Genetic Center, Hanoi University of Science and Technology were clients. 
The results of the innovation were evaluated through such instruments as student 
questionnaires and teacher interviews. The results and the findings of the research showed 
that the innovation which is implemented through the use of the course-book of 
Information Technology (Eric H. Glendinning/John McEwan, 2002, Oxford University 
Press) under evaluation made the ESP materials for this designated group of students more 
effective. Some recommendations for the reading passages were also made in this report. 
2. CONTENT 
2.1. Methodology 
 This part describes the innovation made to the use of course-book and the extra 
materials (authentic reading materials) employed in the process working with the target-
group of 25 students of Information Technology at the Genetic Centre of Hanoi University 
of Science and Technology. The following demonstrates how the innovation is 
implemented: 
 The course-book which is employed at this stage is the Oxford English for Students of 
Information Technology. Since the material is topic-based every unit focuses on a specific 
topic, particularly 25 units themed under 25 different subject areas such as of Computer 
Users, Multimedia, the Internet, Data Security, etc. The innovation made to the course-
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book is not content-based but skill-based. Specifically, an additional activity is added into 
the prescribed activities available in the course-book. In this case, I choose the activity of 
vocabulary-build up which is placed upon the completion of every unit. The rationale for 
the selection of this very particular activity is that the ESP vocabulary learnt in the process 
of every topic-based unit should be consolidated and strengthened. This kind of 
vocabulary-building activity is aimed at building-up not only the vocabulary resources of a 
learner but also the enhancement of the skill in consolidating the learnt vocabulary. 
 The innovation activity is organized in ways varied from unit to unit and based on the 
assumed increasing levels of difficulty, targeting the improvement of team-working skill of 
the learners. Main ways in organizing the activities are group glossary build-up which is 
conducted by learners assigned into groups of 5-6 each. Each group works on a specific 
aspect of the ESP vocabulary prescribed for a particular unit which may be individual 
terms or phrases. The task is for learners to organize the vocabulary in the most convenient 
way for later use or reference, for example, constructing web of terms or building-up bank 
of related/similar terms. The extra materials (authentic reading materials) supplemented to 
the course-book serve as the basis for the second innovation in my research. This explores 
the aspect of content enhancement for the target learners. The innovation is made as 
follows: authentic reading materials, which conform to the prescribed topics available in 
the course-book, are selected or designed to provide an additional resource for the learners 
at this stage of the research. The aim is to broaden the specific knowledge towards a 
particular topic given in the mainstream course-book and facilitate learner’s logical 
thinking and their reading capacity as well. To illustrate this, an authentic reading passage 
under the topic of Computer User is picked up either from online or offline resources, 
providing additional specific knowledge to the unit of Computer User in the course-book. 
 Moreover, at this point of the research, I am about to further explore the aspect of 
teaching strategies employed in the use extra materials particularly the planning of the 
input of the selected material. This can be demonstrated in a lesson plan where instead of 
having used the material given in the course-book, an authentic reading material related to 
the topic is given to students for discussion, debate or even presentation. This is 
implemented after the students having well prepared themselves through the topic given in 
the course-book. 
2.2. Participants 
 The innovation was implemented in one class of the second-year Information 
Technology students at the Genetic Centre, Hanoi University of Science and Technology 
with 50 students in total (32 males and 18 females), aged from 19 to 22. They come from 
across the country, mostly from the Northern provinces and cities. Upon the Centre 
entrance these students had gone through from three to seven years learning English at 
secondary schools and high schools. At the second year of study at the Genetic Centre, 
they all work with English for Information Technology (Eric H. Glendinning/John 
154 TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC THỦ ĐÔ HÀ NỘI 
McEwan, 2002, Oxford University Press). To serve the purpose of the research, a 
questionnaire was designed and given to 25 Information Technology students which seek 
the students’ opinions and attitudes towards the innovation made to the course-book and 
the extra materials in helping them improve their ability to read the ESP content in English. 
2.3. Data collection instruments 
 Data for this innovation was collected through means of student questionnaire and 
teacher interview. 
 After 5 weeks of implementation of innovation made to the course-book and the extra 
materials, a set of questionnaire (ten items) was designed for 25 students of Information 
Technology at the Genetic Centre, Hanoi University of Science and Technology. The 
language used in the questionnaires was in Vietnamese to avoid misunderstanding. The 
questionnaire handouts were distributed to the students and they were asked to return the 
questionnaire two days later with their assumingly utmost true responses. All questionnaire 
handouts were returned on time and valid. 
2.4. Data analysic and discussion 
2.4.1. Data analysis 
 Results from the student questionnaire 
 The Questionnaire handouts were given to 25 students of the experimental group. 
They were gathered in a separate facility and responded to the questions in about 1 hour. 
The handouts were then collected and processed for purpose of data analysis. 
Table 1: Students’ opinion over the terms provided in a unit in the Oxford English 
for Information Technology 
Students describe the provided terms as Number of responses Equivalent (%) 
Too easy 0 0% 
Quite easy 2 8% 
Easy 3 12% 
Quite difficult 5 20% 
Difficult 15 60% 
 According to Table 1, none of the respondents consider terms provided in a unit in the 
Oxford English for Information Technology as ‘too easy’. Those who view the terms as 
‘quite easy’ and ‘easy’ are not many of 2 and 3 respectively making up a combination 
representing 20% of the respondents. 
 While the students who think that the terms provided in the course book are ‘quite 
difficult’ represent only 20% of the questionnaire’s participants, there is a sharp contrast in 
the percentage of those who label the ESP terms with ‘difficult’, accounting for 60% of the 
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respondents. This certainly outweighs every other aspect of the degree of difficulty of the 
provided terms. 
Table 2: Percentage of specific terms students are able to learn upon the completion 
of a unit 
Percentage of specific terms learnt 
within a unit 
Number of responses Equivalent (%) 
About 20% 5 20% 
About 40% 7 28% 
About 60% 6 24% 
About 70% 4 16% 
About 90% 2 12% 
 Table 2 describes the percentage of specific terms students are able to learn upon the 
completion of a unit. The data shows that most of the respondents learn little from a unit as 
only 5 of them learn about 20% of the terms, 7 – 40% and 6 – 60%. The total of 72% of 
the participants of the experimental group is able to learn no more than 60% of the terms 
provided in a unit. The situation tends to get worse as only 4 and 2 of the respondents say 
they are able to learn 70% and 90% respectively of the specific terms provided. 
Table 3: Students’ opinion of whether the additional activity of glossary build-up 
helps them learn vocabulary better 
Is the additional activity of glossary build-up 
helpful for students in learning vocabulary better 
Number of responses Equivalent (%) 
Yes 22 88% 
No 3 12% 
No idea 0 0% 
 The data in Table 3 reveals how the students react to the additional activity of glossary 
build-up. There is a sharp contrast between those who agree that the activity is helpful 
(88%) and those considering the activity useless (12%). Nobody said that he/she did not 
have any idea about the issue. 
Table 4: Percentage of specific terms learnt upon completion of additional activity 
of vocabulary build-up 
Percentage of specific terms learnt upon the 
completion of the additional activity of 
vocabulary build-up 
Number of responses Equivalent (%) 
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About 20% 1 4% 
About 40% 1 4% 
About 60% 2 8% 
About 70% 18 72% 
About 90% 3 12% 
 The figures in Table 4 show a large gap between the number of those who learn about 
70% of the specific terms upon the completion of the additional activity of glossary build-
up which is 72% equaling 18 respondents and the rest. The respondents who claim that 
they learn virtually not much of about 20%, 40% and 60% of the terms are just few of 1,1 
and 2 respectively. Those who are able to learn about 90% account for just 12% of the 
respondents. 
Table 5: Students’ opinion over the effectiveness of the integration of glossary 
build-up into every unit of the Oxford English for Information Technology 
The effectiveness of the integration of glossary 
build up into every unit of the course-book 
Number of responses Equivalent (%) 
Not effective 1 4% 
Quite effective 1 4% 
More or less effective 2 8% 
Effective 3 12% 
Very effective 18 72% 
 It can bee seen in Table 5 that a majority of the respondents say that the integration of 
glossary build-up into every unit of the Oxford English for Information Technology is very 
effective while only a small number of students view the integration as ‘not effective’ (1 - 
4%), ‘quite effective’ (1 - 4%) and ‘more or less effective’ (2 - 8%). 12% of the 
respondents say that the integration is ‘effective’. 
Table 6: Students’ opinion over the level of difficulty of the specific content 
provided in a unit in the Oxford English for Information Technology 
The level of difficulty of the specific content 
provided in a unit in the Oxford English for 
Information Technology 
Number of responses Equivalent (%) 
Too easy 0 0% 
Quite easy 2 8% 
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Easy 4 16% 
Quite difficult 5 20% 
Difficult 14 56% 
 According to Table 6, the majority of the respondents consider the specific content 
provided in a unit in the Oxford English for Information Technology ‘difficult’. None of 
them claim that the content is ‘too easy’ and 8%, 16% and 20% of the respondents view 
the content as ‘quite easy’, ‘easy’ and ‘quite difficult’ respectively. 
Table 7: Students’ opinion over the motivation brought about by the integration of 
extra materials (authentic reading materials) into every unit. 
The motivation brought about by the integration 
of extra materials (authentic reading materials) 
into every unit 
Number of responses Equivalent (%) 
Not effective 0 0% 
Quite effective 1 4% 
More or less effective 2 8% 
Effective 3 12% 
Very effective 19 76% 
 The data in Table 7 shows that the motivation brought about by the integration of extra 
materials (authentic reading materials) into every unit of the course-book is asserted by the 
respondents as 76% of them consider it as ‘very effective’. Meanwhile, none of the 
respondents views the integration as ‘not effective’. Only one respondent views the 
integration as ‘quite effective’ and 2 others label it as ‘more or less effective’. 12% of the 
respondents view the integration as ‘effective’. 
Table 8: How much of the specific knowledge in a unit in the Oxford English for 
Information Technology can you learn upon its completion? 
The volume of the specific knowledge learned in a 
unit in the course-book upon its completion 
Number of responses Equivalent (%) 
Nothing 1 4% 
Little 12 48% 
A lot 7 28% 
Almost all 4 16% 
Everything 1 4% 
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 It is clearly seen in Table 8 that respondents learn ‘little’ upon the completion of the 
prescribed course-book when 12 students (48%) reveal the true situation. 26% and 16% of 
the respondents learn ‘a lot’ and ‘almost all’ respectively. Only 1 respondent says that 
he/she has learnt ‘everything’ and the same number of the respondents claim that he/she 
learns ‘nothing’. 
Table 9: Students’ opinion of whether the authentic reading materials help students 
better understand the specific knowledge provided in every unit in the Oxford English 
for Information Technology 
If the authentic reading materials help students 
better understand the specific knowledge 
provided in every unit 
Number of responses Equivalent (%) 
Yes 23 92% 
No 2 8% 
No idea 0 0% 
 Table 9 shows that the majority of the respondents (92%) agree that the authentic 
reading materials help students better understand the specific knowledge provided in every 
unit. Only 2 of the respondents (8%) disagree and nobody expresses neutrality. 
Table 10: Students’ opinion over the integration of the extra materials (the 
authentic reading materials integrated into a unit in the Oxford English for Information 
Technology) 
The integration of the extra materials 
(authentic reading materials) into a unit in the 
Oxford English for Information Technology 
Number of 
responses 
Equivalent (%) 
Not necessary 1 4% 
Little necessary 1 4% 
Necessary 2 8% 
Very necessary 3 12% 
Essential 18 72% 
 The data in Table 10 reveals that 72% of the respondents (18 students) consider the 
integration of the extra materials (authentic reading materials) into every unit of the 
Oxford English for Information Technology. 12% suggest that the integration is ‘very 
necessary’ and a small number of the respondents view it as ‘necessary’ (8%), ‘little 
necessary’ (4%) and ‘not necessary’ (4%). 
 Results from the teacher interviews 
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 The interviews were given to 4 ESP teachers of the English Division at the Genetic 
Centre, Hanoi University of Science and Technology. The selected individuals are in 
charge of instructing the ESP content to the two groups of learners namely the control 
group and the experimental group. The rationale for the selection comes from fact that the 
ESP teachers are in better position to monitor the process of the innovative implementation 
as they teach both groups. These ESP instructors use the Oxford English for Information 
Technology and the materials specifically designed for this stage of innovation. They were 
interviewed with the same questions to give their own opinions on the innovational 
progress recorded throughout the experimental process. All 4 interview participants 
responded positively to the question of whether the integrated Glossary Build-up activity 
was helpful or effective in reaching the objectives of vocabulary enhancement, claiming 
the activity helps learners not only consolidate the resource of specific terms they acquire 
in a unit given but also expand the resource through the team/group activities such as word 
web/network building, online vocabulary sharing. The interviewed teachers noticed the 
significant motivation brought about by the activities organized in team/group which 
encouraged learners to initiate the ideas, organize themselves, set up task and worked out 
ways to complete the tasks and faster. 
 The feedback was mixed regarding the issue of class management in the context of 
integrating the additional activity of Glossary Build-up into lesson planning. According to 
the teachers, the additional activity added to the Post-reading stage demands class 
management skills par