Khóa luận tốt nghiệp a study on accounting and business management students difficulties in learning esp vocabulary at vietnam national university of agriculture

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES

BA THESIS
A STUDY ON ACCOUNTING AND BUSINESS
MANAGEMENT STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN
LEARNING ESP VOCABULARY AT VIETNAM
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE
NGHIÊN CỨU NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN CỦA SINH VIÊN
NGÀNH KẾ TOÁN VÀ QUẢN TRỊ KINH DOANH
TRONG VIỆC HỌC TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN
NGÀNH TẠI HỌC VIỆN NÔNG NGHIỆP VIỆT NAM
Student

: VU THI MAI

Major

: ENGLISH

Supervisor : NGUYEN THI NGOC THU, M.A

Hanoi – 2021


CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY
I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report
entitled A study on Accounting Business Management students’ difficulties in
learning ESP vocabulary at VNUA submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirementsfor the degree of Bachelor in English Language. Except where the

reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due
acknowledgement in the text of the thesis.
Hanoi, 2021

Vu Thi Mai

Approved by
SUPERVISOR

(Signature and full name)
Date:…………………….

i


TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ..................................................................... i
TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................... ii
LIST OF ABBREVIATION………………………………………………… .... iv
ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... iv
LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................. vii
Part 1: INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................1
1. RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY .....................................................................1
2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY .................................................3
3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS ................................................................................3
4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY ..................................................................................3
5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ...................................................................3
6. DESIGN OF THE STUDY ................................................................................4
Part 2: DEVELOPMENT .......................................................................................6

Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .....................................................................6
1.1. REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES (AT HOME/ABROAD) .....................6
1.2. REVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .........................................7
1.2.1. Statement of theoretical framework chosen .................................................7
1.2.2. Review of theoretical preliminaries employable as tools for conducting the
thesis ................................................................................................................12
Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY .............................................................................14
2.1. RESEARCH GOVERNING PRINCIPLE ....................................................14
2.1.1. Research questions .....................................................................................14
2.1.2. Research hypothesis ...................................................................................14
2.1.3. Research types: ...........................................................................................14
2.1.4. Principles/ criteria for data collection and data analysis ............................15
2.1.5. Data analysis ..............................................................................................16
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2.2. RESEARCH METHODS.......................................................................... ..17
Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS .................................................. .18
3.1. QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS………………………………... .. .18
3.2. QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS……………………………...… .. .20
3.3. DIFICULTIES……………………………………………………........ .. ..32
3.3.1. Subjective reasons from the students' side…………………………….. .33
3.3.2. Objective reasons from the environment and other issues……….......35
3.4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS……………………………………... . .36
3.4.1. Findings and discussions to the teachers…………………………........36
3.4.2. Findings and discussions to the students…………………………........ .38
3.4.3. Findings and discussions to the Vietnam Universities, Vietnam Ministry
of Education and Training, Vietnam State and Authorities Universities…38
3.5. SUMMARY…………………………………………………………… ... .39
PART 3: CONCLUSION ................................................................................... 40

1. RECAPITULATION ..................................................................................... 40
2. CONCLUDING REMARKS ......................................................................... 40
3. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY ................................................................. 41
4. SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY .................................................. 41
REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 43
APPENDIX ........................................................................................................ 45

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LIST OF ABBREVIATION
ESP: English for Specific Purposes
EFL: English as a Foreign Language
ESL: English as a Second Language
EST: English for Science and Technology
EBE: English for Economics and Business
ESS: English for Social Sciences
EAP: English for Academic Purposes
EOP: English for Occupational Purposes
VNUA: Vietnam National University of Agriculture

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ABSTRACT
Nowadays, with the development of globalization and economic integration,
economics and related issues have become one of the most talked about topics all
over the world. Therefore, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is a promising
branch of English Language Teaching. The purposes of the ESP course are to
provide learners with the English language used in the specialty, often presented

in jargon. While much effort has been focused on teaching vocabulary, the
difficulty for students of Accounting and Business Management in learning ESP
vocabulary has not been sufficiently drawn to attention. By highlighting the lack
of related studies in ESP establishment in Vietnam, this paper is one of the first
studies on ESP vocabulary of Accounting and Business Management students in
Vietnam National University of Agriculture through difficulties, causes and
solutions. Thanks to a flexible combination of quantitative and qualitative
methods, valid results can be obtained from the research. The questionnaire was
used as a data collection tool to identify the most common challenges during the
three weeks of understanding, memorization, and application. 119 students
majoring in Accounting and Business Management were selected as study
participants. The reason for their difficulty is classified into subjective causes and
objective causes. Solutions proposed by students and teachers are also provided
in the study.

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: The difficulty of ESP vocabulary under the teacher's assessment.........18
Table 2: Teacher's assessment of students' current situation of learning ESP
vocabulary in Accounting and Business Management .........................19
Table 3: Assessing English vocabulary is difficult for student............................20
Table 4: Where do students come from? ..............................................................21
Table 5: The time when students seriously study English ...................................21
Table 6. Students' scores at the end of the first semester of the academic year
2020-2021 for the general English 1 (or English 2) course..................22
Table 7: Favorite level of learning English vocabulary for Accounting and
Business Management ..........................................................................23

Table 8: Do Accounting and Business Management’s students find it difficult
when learning ESP vocabulary .............................................................25
Table 9: Students' ability to remember vocabulary ..............................................25
Table 10: How often students learn English vocabulary in high school? ............26
Table 11: Students' stress levels before and during the ESP vocabulary lesson .28
Table 12: Difficulties of students when learning ESP vocabulary ......................29
Table 12.1. Lack of vocabulary............................................................................29
Table 12.2. Don't know the meaning of the word ................................................29
Table 12.3. Improper pronunciation.....................................................................30
Table 12.4. Afraid to speak for fear of being wrong............................................31
Table 12.5. Don't know how to write words ........................................................32

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Part 1: INTRODUCTION

1. RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY
In the general development of the world, the trend of globalization and
development cooperation is inevitable. Accordingly, English is considered an
international language and a means of international communication commonly
used in the world. Like a useful means, a bridge connecting each individual to
the world, English makes anyone feel more confident in a challenging life in the
market economy development as present. Vietnam is a developing country and
English is an effective support tool for the integration and cooperation to access
the world's advanced working environment and technology. Since 2015, the
ASEAN community has been deployed, this is an opportunity as well as a
challenge for Vietnam. After 2015, national barriers were removed, replaced by
the multicultural international integration environment of the countries in the
community, leading to problems of freedom of movement and the need to find

jobs in the community many areas.
At the Accounting and Business Management at Vietnam National
University of Agriculture, ESP is an important subject in order to provide
Accounting and Business Management students with specialized English terms
and help students consolidate and strengthen professional knowledge through
lessons with major-related content in English. Based on the characteristics of the
future career, the faculty has developed appropriate goals for the subject of
English majoring in accounting and selected the textbook "English for
Accounting and Business Management" to use for teaching the subject. The
curriculum mainly focuses on reading comprehension (theory) and writing skills
(practical exercises). The curriculum is used to teach 119 Accounting and
Business Management students, after completing two basic English modules 1
and 2 according to the school's common program.
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Although specialized ESP has been taught at the Accounting and Business
Management for a long time and the teachers are stable, in the teaching process
for different courses, the lecturers face certain difficulties. Those difficulties
may come from the teachers or may come from the students that the teachers did
not anticipate. On the part of the teachers, the feed instructors are all teachers
who are trained in the English major, but not formally trained in the Accounting
and Business Management major, so the teachers' knowledge of accounting is
mainly through the form of self-study and learn from teachers specializing in
Accounting and Business Management in the department. On the student side,
each student course has different qualifications and learning sense, so the
acquisition of subject knowledge is also completely different. From the actual
teaching and learning results, it is shown that learning ESP vocabulary of
students in general and students of Accounting and Business Management in
particular is still difficult to understand, improve and deal with problems in

English processing. Really, it is necessary to have possible solutions to improve
the quality of learning the ESP vocabulary for Accounting and Business
Management students in this critical period and context. For students, to get a
job as desired in all fields, one of the "prerequisites" is to have foreign language
capital - English. This has also been contributing to promoting the teaching and
learning of ESP vocabulary in VNUA which has always become "hot" over the
past time. In particular, the graduate job of Accounting Business Management
students is to communicate with foreigners, listen to customers speak, read
English documents and write reports in English. Therefore, it is essential to
improve students' foreign language proficiency so that after graduation students
with knowledge of accounting and auditing will easily find jobs and meet strict
requirements of employers.

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2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The aim of the study is to investigate Accounting and Business
Management students’ difficulties in learning ESP vocabulary at VNUA. From
there, we find out the possible reasons that affect learning ESP vocabulary of
Accounting and Business Management students and propose some possible
solutions for students to learn ESP vocabulary more easily. From the aim above,
i find out how ESP is approached at VNUA as well as Accounting and Business
Management students’difficulties in learning ESP vocabulary, discover the
factors that influence them on learning ESP vocabulary, therefore, to offer some
suggestions for studying ESP at VNUA in order to heighten the effectiveness.
3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The research is carried out with an attempt to find out answers to the
following research questions:
1. What are Accounting and Business Management students’ difficulties

in learning ESP vocabulary at VNUA?
2. What are the possible solutions for Accounting and Business
Management students in learning of ESP vocabulary at VNUA?
4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study investigated difficulties of 119 Accounting and Business
Management students learning ESP vocabulary in second term at school year
2020 – 2021 at VNUA. And then some suggested solutions are given to learn
ESP vocabulary more effectively.
5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Theoretically, this study helps to uncover Accounting Business
Management students’ obstacles in learning the ESP vocabulary. A clearer look
into the reasons for these difficulties are also be gained, and some suggested
solutions are drawn out.

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Practically, it suggests some certain ways in learning vocabulary to help the
students overcome these difficulties so that they can be confident not only in
learning ESP vocabulary but also in using these words for their future jobs.
Teachers, after going through this research is more aware of the difficulties
facing these students, and are able to help them gradually overcome these
difficulties. For educational administrators, the study provides them with a close
view into the current situation, which may then reveal some pedagogical
suggestions. The findings hopefully contribute to the improvement of students in
learning terms. Last but not least, with regards to researchers who have the same
interest in the topic, could find fundamental, and useful information to develop
their studies.
Stemming from the above reasons, we conduct research on the thesis: “A
study on Accounting Business Management students’ difficulties in learning

ESP vocabulary at VNUA”.
6. DESIGN OF THE STUDY
This study consists of three parts:
Part 1 entitled “INTRODUCTION” provides the reason why the topic is
chosen. It then provides the aim and objectives of the study. It is also in this
section that we are concerned with the scope and the design of the study.
Part 2 named “DEVELOPMENT” deals with the main contents of the
study.
Chapter 1 “Literature review” can be considered a slight overview of some
previous research on the same subject both in English and Vietnamese. It begins
with a number of previous works that have done research related to this topic.
Next is to introduce the concepts of ESP, vocabulary, ESP vocabulary, ESP
learners.

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Chapter 2 starts with the survey procedures, referring to the research
approach and questionnaire method to collect data and analyze the collected data
using SPSS software to achieve the results. best in research...
Chapter 3 focuses on presenting the research results and discussions. The
discussion took place after the statistical results were available. It is the basis of
the following conclusions.
Part 3 “CONCLUSION” presents a summary of the main ideas, causes of
difficulties and some measures to overcome them.
The study is closed with references and appendices.

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Part 2: DEVELOPMENT
Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1. REVIEW OF PREVIOUS STUDIES (AT HOME/ABROAD)
In our country, there are a number of studies on students' difficulties in
learning ESP vocabulary, studies or focusing on a few specific difficulties, or
mentioning all of the student's difficulties. In the Science Project Difficulties in
teaching and learning specialized English at the Vietnam Academy of Agriculture
and solutions of information and communication technology application, March
2018 International Conference by author Nguyen Thi Minh Tam, Nguyen Thi Bich
Ngoc, Vietnam National University of Agriculture, the authors said that learning
ESP still faces many difficulties and limitations, because students are not students
in English major. In addition, students who are not self-motivated and active in
learning, and spend a lot of time in after-hours activities also negatively affect
students' learning of specialized English.
In the seminar article Study on difficulties of the students of Animal Science
when studying English for Special Purposes at Vietnam National University of
Agriculture (2020), this study was conducted to find out the real situation of the
difficulties students of the courses belong to. Knowledge of English in particular
and specialized English in general is very necessary for students after graduation
and for future work, so the author hopes this study will help teachers. Students
and students understand and identify their own difficulties thereby helping them
improve their study of specialized English as well as specialized vocabulary in
Animal husbandry.
Scientific research An investigation into classroom vocabulary learning
activities at Dong Son I secondary school in Thanh Hoa by Bui Thi Thao also
analyzed clearly: I certify that the thesis entitled “An investigation into
classroom vocabulary learning activities at Dong Son I secondary school in
6

Thanh Hoa” is the result of my own research and the substances of this thesis
has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for a degree to any other university or
institution.
It is common knowledge that vocabulary is a very important language
element. However, the teaching and learning vocabulary at Dong Son I
secondary school in Thanh Hoa is far from satisfactory.
This study focuses on investigating how effective are currently used
classroom vocabulary learning activities at Dong Son I secondary school. This
study also attempts to find out the most effective classroom vocabulary activities
to improve vocabulary teaching and learning at this school.
I tried to find previous studies abroad but due to the limited time and
confidentiality of the documents, I could not produce any foreign studies. I will
try to earn and supplement later.
Thus, it can be seen that up to now, there have been a number of research
projects directly related to students' difficulty in learning ESP, but there are no
works for learning ESP vocabulary of Accounting and Business Management
students of VNUA.
1.2. REVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.2.1. Statement of theoretical framework chosen
1.2.1.1. Definition and classification of ESP
"ESP" stands for English for Specific Purposes. Different authors have
defined this term so far. Some people described ESP as simply being the
teaching of English for any purpose than could be specified. Others, however,
were more precise, describing it as the teaching of English used in academic
studies or the teaching of English for vocational or professional purposes.
According to Hutchinson and Waters (1997), ESP is one important branch of
EFL/ESL system that functions as the main branch of English language teaching
ELT. Specifically, Streven (1988:1) stated: "ESP is a particular case of the
7

general category of special purpose language teaching". Author Widdowson
again sets the special goals of ESP course design in close relationship with
training “ESP is essential training anatomy to provide learners with a limited
capacity to create ability for them to face certain clearly defined tasks. These
tasks constitute the special purposes for which the ESP course is designed”
(1983:6). In the diagram of English language teaching, author Hutchinson
(1987:16) divided ESP into 3 categories based on the general nature of learners'
characteristics. EST, EBE and ESS. Each ESP category includes two different
types of ESP based on learners' requirements: EAP or English for
Employment/Training (EOP/EVP/VESL). In the view of Robinson (1991:2) and
Munby (1978:55), there is a major distinction between EOP and its relevance to
needs. EAP related to academic research needs. The above views clearly show
that ESP is in the category of Business English and it is also a kind of Academic
English. The course content is designed based on training objectives,
characteristics and needs of students majoring in Accounting and Business
Management.
1.2.1.2. Vocabulary
Learning a new language cannot be separated from vocabulary. Meaning
that in learning a new language people have to know its vocabulary. Vocabulary
can be defined in various ways. Experts have proposed some terms about
vocabulary. According to Richards and Renandya (2002: 255), vocabulary is a
core component of language proficiency and provides much of the basis for how
learners speak, listen, read and write. Without an extensive vocabulary and
strategies for acquiring new vocabulary, learners often achieve their potential
and may be discouraged from making use of language learning opportunities
around them such as listening to the radio, listening to the native speaker, using
language in different context, reading or watching television. The other
definition of vocabulary states from Hatch and Brown (1995: 1), they say that

8


vocabulary refers to a list or set of words for a particular language or a list or set
of words that individual speakers of language might use. Hatch and Brown
(1995:1) also state that vocabulary is the only system involved of alphabetical
order. Ur (1994: 60) defines vocabulary as the words we teach in the foreign
language. In addition, Brown (2001: 377) views vocabulary items as a boring
list of words that must be defined and memorized by the students, lexical forms
are seen in their central role in contextualized, meaningful language. Richard in
Schmitt (1997: 241) also states that knowing a word meaning knowing how
often it occurs, the company it keeps, its appropriatness in different situations,
its syntatic behavior, its underlying form and derivations, its word associations,
and its semantic features. Vocabulary is central to second language (L2)
acquisition. As McCarthy (1990: 140) states that without words to express a
wider range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any
meaningful way. Nation in Schmitt (2000: 5) proposes a list of the different
kinds of knowledge that a person must master in order to know a words: the
meaning of word, the written form of the word, the spoken form of the word, the
grammatical behavior of the word, the collocations of the word, the register of
the word, the association of the word, and the frequency of the word. Hebert and
Kamil (2005: 3) define vocabulary is the knowledge of meanings of words. The
term vocabulary has a range of meanings. For example, some teachers use the
term to mean sight-word vocabularies, referring to students’ immediate
recognition of words in print, others teachers refer to words students understand
as their meaning vocabularies. Still other teachers use the term to mean listening
vocabularies, ỏ students’ understanding of words that they hear in the spoken
language. Content teachers use the term academic vocabulary to refer to contentspecific words. Within this section, we use the term vocabulary to refer to
students’ understanding of oral and print words. Vocabularies include
conceptual knowledge of words that goes well beyond a simple dictionary

9


definition. Students’ vocabulary knowledge is a building process that occurs
over time as they make connections to other words, learn examples and nonexamples of the word and related words, and use the word accurately within the
context of the sentence (Snow, Griffin, & Burns, 2005).
Based on those statements, it can be assumed that vocabulary is a list of
words as a basic component of language proficiency which has a form or
expression and contains of aspects, they are meaning, use of word, form
(pronunciation and spelling).
1.2.1.3. The Importance of Vocabulary
Vocabulary learning is very important for people who learn English both as
foreign language and as second language. Tozcu and Coady (2004: 473) point out
learning vocabulary is an important aspect of language two and foreign language
acquisition and academic achievement and is vital to reading comprehension and
proficiency, to which it is closely linked. Moreover, Heubener (1965: 88) states that
learning of vocabulary is based on the formation of spesific habits. Since this
involves the association of symbols and their meaning, it is clear that an enrichment
of the meaning of the word is as important as its frequent repetition. In addition,
according to Grauberg (1997: 15) the process of learning vocabulary involves four
stages:
a. Discrimination
This is the basic step. It involves the ability to distinguish sounds, letters
from those next to them, and from the sounds and letters of similar words when
listening and reading; to keep them distinct when speaking and writing. As will
be seen later, failure to discriminate is a frequent source of error.
b. Understanding meaning
This means understanding the concept of the foreign word or phrase. Often
this is straightforward because the word can be related to its referent by direct
association or because there is equivalent word in English.

10


c. Remembering
The next step after intoducing and explaining new material is to ensure its
retention. Once learners have found out the meaning of a word, they have no
reason to attend to it any more, and it will be forgotten.
d. Consolidation and extension of meaning
Learning new words is not an instantaneous process if it were, and if
presentation were the only critical variable involved, then words would not be
forgotten and need to be relearned. As it is, however, it seems that words are
absorbed slowly overtime, and that only gradually do they become fully
integrated into the learner‟s personal stock of words, when he can use them
with the same sort of fluency that characterizes the words he uses in his native
language (Meara as cited in Grauberg (1997: 22). Achieving lexical command is
a slow process. If one tries to analyze this process by relating it to linguistic
description of vocabulary learning, pronunciation and spelling are probably
acquired first, after the understanding of meaning, control over morphological
forms and syntatic links comes next and full semantic knowledge is last.
1.2.1.4. ESP vocabulary
Linguists have different definitions of ESP, however, they all have the
following in common about ESP:
According to Wright linguist (1993) English for Specific Purposes is
abbreviated as ESP. Interpretation "English used for different teaching - learning
purposes, or about linguistic circles or specialized English.
According to researchers Dudley- Evans & Hutchinson (1998): ESP is
about language teaching, so all content and teaching methods come from the
reason of language teaching. They pointed out that “there is no such thing the
differences between basic English and ESP are only different in the content of
instruction. The process of teaching English should be to teach Basic English

first, then teach to ESP. Teaching ESP is language teaching based on the needs
11


of learners, which will save time and money for learners, and benefit learners in
professional development ".
1.2.1.5. Student studying ESP
Dudley- Evans and St John (1998) states that students taking ESP courses
are students at universities or colleges, or are already working. Students taking
the ESP course should have an intermediate level of basic English or at least
beginner level.
It was a surprise that there was a coincidence with studies from countries
such as Iran, Taiwan, China, and Korea: students who learn ESP better than
learn basic English because students have high motivation to learn and learn
basic English. easier when you have some specialized knowledge.
Thus, a successful ESP learner must be someone who knows how to apply
knowledge and skills to their work; can stand alone books, letters or answer the
phone, talk to others ... in environments where English is used for work, or have
foreign elements in some fields of work. Studies by Zhang (2007) and Bouzidi
(2009) have shown that learning ESP must be derived from the practical needs
of students, from the need to use language to perform job functions at office.
1.2.2. Review of theoretical preliminaries employable as tools for conducting
the thesis
The current requirements of employers for candidates is to not only master
professional knowledge but also ensure foreign language requirements, especially
English, for 4 skills such as listening, speak, read, write and have vocabulary. But
now Accounting and Business Management students are having difficulty
learning ESP vocabulary. By studying this research, we find out what difficulties
students are facing. From there, we propose solutions for students to overcome
the above difficulties and improve their learning results.

Factors that affect learning ESP vocabulary of Accounting and Business
Management include subjective and objective factors.
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Subjective factors: student perception of the role of learning ESP
vocabulary in post-graduate learning and job search results, lack of interest and
motivation, and distribution of study time studying and after-school time is not
reasonable, does not belong to the vocabulary, does not remember the meaning
and writing of the word.
Objective factors: Most students in the hometown have quite poor English
proficiency, crowded classes, physical conditions, environment to meet
Accounting and Business Management students' requirements for learning
vocabulary ESP during class time, VNUA is not a school specializing in
language training, studying goals and strategies of VNUA, university
regulations about evaluatingAccounting and Business Management students in
using ESP vocabulary.
In fact, many Accounting and Business Management students do not
understand the value of learning ESP vocabulary as well as have appropriate
learning methods, so during their university years, in addition to professional
knowledge, Accounting and Business Management students do not improving
and training the use of ESP vocabulary in listening, speaking, reading and
writing English- something employers highly recommend.

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Chapter 2: METHODOLOGY

2.1. RESEARCH GOVERNING PRINCIPLE

2.1.1. Research questions
The research is carried out with an attempt to find out answers to the
following research questions:
1. What are Accounting and Business Management students’ difficulties in
learning ESP vocabulary at VNUA?
2. What are the possible solutions for Accounting and Business
Management students in learning of ESP vocabulary at VNUA?
2.1.2. Research hypothesis
To investigate difficulties in learning specialized vocabulary, there are
two assumptions:
1. Accounting and Business Management students have no trouble learning
ESP vocabulary at VNUA
2. Unfeasible solution for Accounting and Business Management students
in learning ESP vocabulary at VNUA
2.1.3. Research types:
Both qualitative and quantitative methods are employed to implements the
feature of a case study in which the writer has investigated students' difficulties
and factors that cause difficulties in learning ESP vocabulary. The data
collection tool used in this study is the questionnaire. It is made to know the
types and factors that students have difficulty in learning vocabulary and
possible solutions. In this study, the researcher selected 119 students of
Accounting and Business Management at VNUA and 3 English teachers.

14


2.1.4. Principles/ criteria for data collection and data analysis
2.1.4.1. Data type
Numeric data
2.1.4.2. Data source

Collected from 119 Accounting and Business Management students at
VNUA and 3 English teachers.
2.1.4.3. Accuracy of data
High, students' answers are recorded by questionnaire.
The questionnaire is designed for students to find out the following key
points:
- What difficulties do they have when learning ESP vocabulary?
- Their suggestions to overcome difficulties
In this method, questionnaires are distributed to students with questions and
answers already available. Students read and answered sample questions. The
first questionnaire consisted of 5 questions for lecturers and the remaining
questionnaire consisted of 10 questions for students. The questions are designed
from general questions to specific questions. Questionnaires for students are
written in Vietnamese and instructions in Vietnamese so that students can
understand almost exactly what they are answering, avoiding confusion.
Questionnaires are distributed to 5 to 10 students to see if they are suitable. If
the questionnaire matches, it is distributed to 119 students to get the survey
results.
In addition to multiple-choice questions, the survey also uses questions that
require respondents to score on a five-point scale (very difficult, difficult,
normal, not difficult, not difficult) to reveal the perception of respondents. Join
about the difficulty of learning ESP vocabulary. The other questions are divided

15


into three groups to answer the difficulties and reasons in each ESP vocabulary
learning process, i.e. the process of understanding, remembering and applying.
The basic steps in the questionnaire design process:
Step 1: Based on the existing theory and research to make the initial questionnaire

Step 2: The questionnaire is consulted by the instructor to supplement and
complete the questionnaire.
Step 3: The questionnaires are completed and design of the online questionnaire.
2.1.4.4. Credibility/reliability of data
The questionnaire distributed to 119 Accounting and Business Management
students. The students are instructed to fulfill all the questions freely and trustfully.
The statistics are collected at the end of the class.
In addition, three teachers are invited to take part in the other questionnaire.
The answers to the questionnaires are collected, synthesized, categorized,
described and interpreted to draw out relevant comments and conclusions. The
information was presented in percentage in the tables and chart. The data gained
was synthesized, summarized and grouped according to each question.
2.1.5. Data analysis
Data obtained from questionnaires, after collecting survey results, collected
data are entered into SPSS software, then researchers use percentage statistics to
process and analyze data. Raw data is transformed and illustrated in tabular form
for easy understanding and comparison. For the data provided from the
questionnaire, the researcher recorded their answers and opinions, then
summarized in writing and analyzed the answers.
2.2. RESEARCH METHODS
This study is based on a literature review on foreign language education in
Vietnam and some countries in Southeast Asia in recent years. In addition, I also
conducted a survey of students and teachers in VNUA. Therefore, the data is
accurate and up-to-date. To find out the difficulties of Accounting and Business
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Management students in learning ESP vocabulary at VNUA, a study was
conducted with 3 English teachers and 119 students (2020 - 2021) of the Faculty
of Accounting and Business Management at Vietnam University of Agriculture

from March 1, 2021 to June 30, 2021.
Sampling strategies (theory & practice): The questionnaire is distributed to
119 Accounting and Business Management students and 3 English teachers are
invited to participate in another questionnaire. I got 122 valid answers included
119 answers of students and 3 answers of teachers. Students gave comments on
a scale of 1 to 5 for each question (1-Very difficult; 2-Hard; 3-Normal; 4-not
very difficult; 5-not difficult). The data collected from the survey questionnaire
was coded and entered using SPSS data analysis software to facilitate data
analysis, thereby highlighting the situation

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Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

3.1. QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS
I invited three English teachers at VNUA to participate in answering this
questionnaire so that I can learn more about the difficulties that students are
facing when learning specialized English vocabulary. The questionnaire has 5
questions:
- Question 1 wants to ask teachers how to rate the difficulty of ESP
vocabulary
- Question 2 for teachers to make an assessment of the current ESP
vocabulary learning situation of Accounting and Business Management students
- Question 3 for teachers to objectively assess the difficulty of ESP
vocabulary with students of Accounting and Business Management
- Question 4 for teachers to point out the difficulties that students of
Accounting and Business Management face when learning ESP vocabulary.
- Finally, question 5 for teachers to offer possible solutions to improve
ESP vocabulary for students majoring in Accounting and Business Management.

Question 1. How do you rate English vocabulary for Accounting and Business
Management?
Table 3.1: The difficulty of ESP vocabulary under the teacher's assessment
Frequency

Percent

Valid Percent

Cumulative
Percent

Very

1

33.33

33.33

33.33

Normal

1

33.33

33.33

66.67

Not difficult

1

33.33

33.33

100.0

Total

3

100.0

100.0

difficult
Valid

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