reading in esp teaching and learning

PART A: INTRODUCTION
i Rationale
Nowadays, as an effective means of international communication, English is widely used
in all fields of activity throughout the world. Therefore, there has been a growing demand
for the learning of this language of those who want to master English to serve their
different purposes. This leads to the introduction of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in
many universities in Vietnam. Being aware of the importance of ESP, Department of
Linguistics and Vietnamese Studies at University of Social Sciences and Humanities
(USSH) – VNU have had its own collections of teaching material on Linguistics Studies. It
is aimed at providing students with background knowledge and a system of terms related to
Linguistics.
In the process of acquiring English as a whole, students must learn not only language items
but also four language skills among which reading plays an important part. This is also true
to students of linguistics because they can broaden their professional knowledge in their
major as well as get access to language inputs to develop the other language skills when
reading a lot of materials on linguistics in English.
Despite the significant role of reading skills, the teaching and learning of it at the
Department have not been properly carried out. There are some exiting problems such as
the lack of experience in teaching ESP, no training course for teachers of ESP, uneven
English level of the students. Besides, Grammar-Translation method is still in use to
exploit reading texts. Reading skill is often taught separately or, in other words, there is no
integration with the other language skills. The text is, in fact, exploited as a source of
materials for a language lesson. As a result, most of the students become bored and
passive.
This has given rise to the question, “How can ESP teachers improve the situation to bring
life into the lessons and motivate the students to read in English?” And the following
answer can often be heard, “To teach reading skills in integration with the other language
skills.” But how can this be done? This study will try to answer this question.
ii Objectives of the study
The study is aimed at:
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1. identifying and analyzing strong points and weak points of ESP teaching and
learning reading skills in Department of Linguistics and Vietnamese Studies at
USSH - VNU;
2. exploiting the advantages of skill-integration in the light of Communicative
Language Teaching in teaching reading skills to students of linguistics; and
3. suggesting techniques that are applicable and useful for the improvement in ESP
teaching and learning reading skills in integration with the development of the other
language skills to students of linguistics at USSH - VNU.
iii Scope of the study
It is impossible to cover every aspect of language theory and practice in this study. Due to lack of time,
experience and reference materials, the study will focus only on studying teaching reading
ESP to students of linguistics in the light of the Communicative Approach to language
teaching.
iv Methods of the study
To carry out this study, the following methods will be employed:
1. Collection and critical review of related literature;
2. Survey questionnaires for both ESP teachers and students of linguistics at USSH -
VNU. This will be carried out in combination with classroom observation; and
3. Data analysis
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PART B: LITERATURE REVIEW
CHAPTER 1: READING IN ESP TEACHING AND LEARNING
Reading itself includes numerous issues. Therefore, it is difficult to complete the coverage
of such a vast topic. In this chapter, some different definitions of reading, the role of
reading, reasons for reading, kinds of reading, reading skills and reading in ESP teaching
and learning will be discussed.
1.1 Reading redefined
In the reading class, what the teacher understands about reading will have a great influence
on what he or she teaches in the classroom. Therefore, for the teacher of reading, a careful
look at definitions of reading is very important.

However, defining reading is not easy although a lot of attempts have been made to define
it. Different people define the term reading in different ways and each definition reflects a
different viewpoint of reading. According to Robinson and Good (1987: 9), “reading is
best described as an understanding between the author and the reader Reading is much
more than just pronouncing words correctly or simply knowing that the author intends; it
is the process whereby the printed page stimulates ideas, experiences and responses that
are unique to an individual. Reading can simply be thought of as a personal encounter
with the printed page. Basically, an important aspect of reading is the process of
constructing meaning from printed materials.”
Petty and Salzer (1989: 323) held a similar point of view, that is, “reading involves the
identification and recognition of printed or written symbols which serve as stimulus for the
recall of meanings built up through past experience and further the construction of new
meanings through the reader's manipulation of relevant concepts already in his or her
possession. The resulting meanings are organized into thought processes according to the
purposes that are operating in the reader.”
Both of the above definitions indicate that reading is not only an interaction between the
reader and the author but also between the reader and the text.
Gould, DiYanni, Smith and Standford (1990), on the other hand, defined this term by
looking at its scope. According to them, reading is a creative act, interaction, interpretation,
a social act and responding.
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Although "no definition of reading can possibly include all viewpoints and features"
(Robinson and Good - 1987: 9), for the sake of teaching and learning reading skills, the
following definition should be emphasized: “Reading means "reading and understanding".
A foreign language learner who says, "I can read the words but don't know what they
mean" is not, therefore, reading, in this sense. He or she is merely decoding - translating
written symbols into corresponding sounds.” (Ur - 1996: 138) This does not mean that the
reader needs to understand every word in a text but actively work on the text and extract
the required information efficiently.
So far we have had some knowledge of the definition of reading. The following section

will discuss the part reading plays in a language teaching programme.
1.2 Role of reading
In reality, the ability to read is very important to personal development, academic studies,
professional success, etc. Therefore, it is agreed that
1. Where there is little reading, there will be little language learning. It will be true
for a few years yet that the student who wants to learn English will have to read
himself into knowledge of it unless he can move into an English environment. He
must substitute imaginary for actual experience;
2. Only by reading can the pupil acquire the speed and skills he will need for practical
purposes when he leaves school. In our literate society, it is hard to imagine any
skilled work that does not require the ability to read;
3. Further education depends on quantity and quality of reading. All the important
study skills require quick, efficient and imaginative reading; and
4. General knowledge depends on reading. The "background" or cross - culture
problem can only is tackled by wide reading. The more the student reads, the
more background knowledge he acquires of other ways of life, behavior and
thought and the more books he finds he can understand.
(Bright & McGregor - 1977: 52)
Thus, it can be said that reading is the core of the syllabus as it helps students broaden their
general knowledge as well as professional one, improve other language skills and succeed
in their future life. As a result, it is the teacher of reading that helps and motivates students
to learn to read so that they can read to learn. To fulfill this task, he or she should give the
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student a reason for reading. The following section will, thus, discuss answers to the
question, "Why do people read?"
1.3 Reasons for reading
Most students of English expect to be able to read the language sooner or later. Their
personal desires and expectations vary from wanting to be able to read Shakespeare, Mark
Twain or a scientific journal to being able to read a tourist brochure or advertisement.
Accordingly, the reasons for reading will influence the way they read. For example, the

quick scanning of a page in the telephone directory to find a single name is very different
from the careful attention one pays to a legal document.
According to Rivers and Temperly (1978: 187), we read normally because we
1. want information for some purpose or because we are curious about some topic;
2. need instructions in order to perform some task for our work or for our daily
life ;
3. want to act in a play, play a new game, do a puzzle, or carry out some other
activity which is pleasant and amusing;
4. want to keep in touch with friends by corresponding or understand business
letters;
5. want to know when or where something will take place or what is available ;
6. want to know what is happening or has happened ;
7. seek enjoyment or excitement
Also concerning the reasons for reading, Nuttall (1989: 3) wrote: “You read because you
wanted to get something from the writing: facts, ideas, enjoyment, even feelings of family
community (from a letter).”
Sharing the same opinion, White in "Communication in Classroom" (Johnson, Morrow -
1981: 87), stated that “we read in order to obtain information which is presented in written
form. By "information" I mean content which is cognitive (or intellectual), referential (or
factual) or affective (or emotional).”
All of the above opinions agreed that reading is carried out for, at least, a reason other than
reading the language itself. When reading, readers are not concerned with the language but
with the message and its applications. In other words, they have authentic reasons for
reading. Therefore, the teacher of English should combine the teaching and learning of the
target language with the uses to which his or her students can put reading in their daily life
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outside the classroom. In addition, the teacher of reading should know how to exploit each
text with each proper strategy by making students practise different types of reading.
1.4 Kinds of reading
Although there are different ways to classify reading, the most popular one is to base on

manners and purposes of reading (or reasons for reading).
1.4.1 Classification according to manners of reading
Based on manners of reading, reading can be divided into reading aloud and silent reading.
1.4.1.1 Reading aloud
According to Doff (1995: 67), “obviously, reading aloud involves looking at a text,
understanding it and also saying it”. What he meant is that when we read aloud, our
purpose is not just to understand a text but to convey the information to someone else. In
his opinion, “reading aloud can be useful at the earliest stage of reading (recognising
letters and words); it can help students to make the connection between sound and
spelling”.
However, Doff (1995: 58) also pointed out that "for reading a text, it is not a very useful
technique" because it is not a natural activity – most people do not read aloud in real life.
In addition, when reading aloud, only one student is active at a time while the others are
either not listening at all or are listening to a bad model. And students only pay attention to
pronunciation, not understanding the text. Besides, students usually read slowly because
they find it hard to read aloud in their own language, let alone in a foreign language.
Therefore, it takes up a lot of time in class.
Hedge (1991: 14) took the same view about reading aloud. He gave out points both for and
against this kind of reading:
For
•
Students often read out loud as an aid to
making sense of sentences and finding the
boundaries of sense groups.
•
It gives extra practice in pronunciation,
word stress and rhythm.
•
It brings variety to classroom activities.
•

It is appropriate to certain kinds of texts
Against
•
Listening to inaccurate pronunciation
from classmates confuses understanding of
the sound - symbol relationship.
•
The reader is so intent on articulation
that he loses track of the content.
•
It does not allow the reader to use natural
strategies for reading quickly and forces him
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such as poetry and drama.
•
Many students enjoy oral reading and
are motivated by it.
•
Traditionally it is the mode of reading in
many educational systems.
to revert to a slow reading of every word so
that overall meaning may be lost through
attention to detail.
•
It requires a considerable amount of
classtime that might be better exploited.
As a result, according to Doff (1995: 59), "if a teacher wants students to read
aloud, it should be the final activity at the end of a reading lesson". It can be suggested that
to make full use of this type of reading, a reading lesson must be carefully prepared and
carried out in various ways to motivate and encourage the student to learn.

1.4.1.2 Silent reading
Different from reading aloud, silent reading is the normal and natural activity that most
students do in classroom as well as in real life. “Normally, reading is a silent and
individual activity since the writer's expectation was that the text would be read, not
heard” (Abbott and Wingard - 1985: 81).
Doff (1995: 67) added that “it involves looking at sentences and understanding the
message they convey, in other words, "making sense" of a written text.” This means that
when we read, we do not merely sit as "passive receivers" of the text but we, based on our
own knowledge of the world and of the language, extract the required information and
relate it with real life. In addition, in silent reading, the student can read at his own speed
and can go back and read whatever he wants to understand more.
1.4.2 Classification according to purposes of reading
As mentioned above, people read because of various reasons or, in other words, different
purposes. Accordingly, the ways they read also vary. Most methodologists have agreed
that the main kinds of reading according to purposes of reading are skimming, scanning,
extensive reading and intensive reading.
1.4.2.1 Skimming
Skimming can be defined as follows: “By skimming we mean glancing rapidly through a
text to determine its gist, for example in order to decide whether a research paper is
relevant to our own work , or in order to keep ourselves superficially informed about
matters that are not of great importance to us” (Nuttall - 1989: 34). Or simply speaking,
when skimming, we go through the reading material quickly to get general sense or the gist
of it without being concerned with the details. Therefore, skimming should be treated as a
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useful skill in teaching and learning reading and can be applied at the first stage of a reading
lesson with the aim that the student can have an overview of what he is going to read.
1.4.2.2 Scanning
Scanning is also a necessary technique in reading efficiently. Nuttall (1989: 34) stated
that “by scanning we mean glancing rapidly through a text either to search for a specific
piece of information or to get an initial impression of whether the text is suitable for a

given purpose ”
Unlike skimming, scanning is a kind of reading carried out when we go through the text very
fast in order to find a particular item of information, then concentrate on it. When scanning, we
only try to find what we are looking for. Therefore, this kind of reading can be very useful in
reading selectively.
1.4.2.3 Extensive reading
Extensive reading is also called "reading for fluency". The student reads long texts to have
general understanding, to practise his fluency in reading, or to relax. Therefore, this kind of
reading is often carried out individually outside classroom. In general, the student should
be encouraged to do extensive reading to improve his knowledge of the world as well as of
the target language or simply to foster fluency and pleasure.
1.4.2.4 Intensive reading
In contrast with extensive reading, intensive reading requires full understanding of the text.
Nuttall (1989: 23) wrote “intensive reading involves approaching the text under the close
guidance of the teacher , or under the guidance of a task which forces the student to pay
great attention to the text. The aim of intensive reading is to arrive at a profound and
detailed understanding of the text: not only of what it means, but also of how the meaning
is produced. The "how" is as important as the "what", for the intensive reading lesson is
intended primarily to train students in reading strategies.” Accordingly, intensive reading
should be a basic activity in a reading classroom.
In conclusion, the above kinds of reading are closely related. They can be used either
alternatively or in combination in reading one text. The teacher of reading should vary
reading strategies and make full use of each kind of reading. Furthermore, to make the
teaching and learning reading better, the teacher should select activities suitable for
promoting reading as a major language skill as well as its sub-skills which will be
discussed below.
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1.5 Reading skills
The reader employs a number of specialist skills when reading and his success in
understanding the content of what he reads depends to a large extent on his expertise in

these specialist skills. The following are some of the main reading skills required by a
learner of English listed by Matthews, Spratt and Dangerfield (1991: 65):
1. recognising the letters of the alphabet;
2. reading groups of letters as words;
3. understanding the meaning of punctuation;
4. understanding the meaning of vocabulary items;
5. understanding the grammar of a sentence;
6. understanding the relationship between sentences and clauses in a text;
7. recognizing the effects of style;
8. recognizing the organization of a text;
9. making inferences;
10. reading longer texts (extensive reading);
11. skimming for gist;
12. scanning for specific information; and
13. reading for detail
This list concerns students of different levels of reading ability. For students of linguistics,
the skills numbered (4), (5), (8), (9), (10), (11), (12) and (13) should be paid far more
attention to than the rest since they are essential skills for them not only in their major but
also in real life.
Reading skills are also identified as follows:
1. recognizing words and phrases in English script;
2. using one's own knowledge of the outside world to make predictions about and
interpret a text;
3. retrieving information stated in the passage;
4. distinguishing the main ideas from subsidiary information;
5. deducing the meaning and use of unknown words; ignoring unknown
words/phrases that are redundant;
6. understanding the meaning and implications of grammatical structures;
7. recognizing discourse markers;
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8. recognizing the function of sentences - even when not introduced by discourse
markers;
9. understanding relations within the sentence and the text;
10. extracting specific information for summary or note taking;
11. skimming to obtain the gist, and recognise the organisation of ideas within the
text;
12. understanding implied information and attitudes; and
13. knowing how to use an index, a table of contents, etc. Understanding layout,
use of headings, etc.
(Willis - 1998: 142)
Basically, Willis took the same view on reading sub-skills as Matthews, Spratt and
Dangerfield. These methodologists all emphasized that the student of foreign languages
should improve his reading ability by acquiring the ways to make prediction; how to skim
and scan; understanding the text by getting the main idea, the specific information;
recognizing the organization as well as the discourse patterns.
Also being concerned about reading skills, Harmer (1992: 183) gave another list of six
specialist skills which, to some extent, summarize all the above-mentioned skills including
1. Predictive skills;
2. Extracting specific information;
3. Getting the general picture;
4. Extracting detailed information; and
5. Recognizing function and discourse patterns
6. Deducing meaning from context
All the skills mentioned above should be paid a special attention to by both teachers and
learners of English in the process of acquiring the language. The teacher of reading should
encourage his or her students to predict what they are going to read, to know how to find
out a fact in the fastest way, how to pick out main points or detailed information rapidly,
and how to discard what is not essential or irrelevant. In addition, he or she needs to make
the students aware of discourse markers, help them develop their ability to deduce the
meanings of unfamiliar words from the context in which they appear. Perhaps, these skills

are largely subconscious in the minds of the students when reading in their mother tongue.
However, reading in a foreign language can create barriers for the students, which may
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make these sub-skills more difficult to use. The teacher’s job, then, is to re-activate these
skills which may be less effective when the students are faced with English. If the teacher
of reading can make the students feel less anxious and thus remove some of the barriers,
that alone may dramatically improve their reading ability.
1.6 Reading in ESP teaching and learning
1.6.1 What is ESP?
Obviously, different human activities require different communication skills which in turn
require specific linguistic items. Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 19) stressed that ESP
should be seen as an approach, not a product. It means that ESP students’ goal of learning
a second language might not only be to acquire general linguistics competencies but also
academic and job-related skills. Widdowson, on the other hand, argued that the distinction
between English for General Purposes and ESP is not the problem of specificity of purpose
but “the way in which purpose is defined and the manner of its implementation”
(Widdowson – 1983: 6). He also put the specification of objectives in ESP course design in
a close relation with training. It can be said that ESP basically focuses on all aspects of
language pertaining field of human activity while taking into account the time constraints
imposed by learners.
There are two central areas in ESP: content and methodology. Content is concerned with
how broad the scope of a particular course is when compared with the totality of the
language. Methodology is concerned with the ways linguistic items are introduced and
practiced. In general, ESP teaching and learning should take place in contexts which are as
authentic as possible and content-based. This means that learning materials should use
actual texts produced by people working in the ESP field and focus on specific problems
that learners are likely to encounter in their everyday working lives. As a result, learning
will have greater relevance to the employment situation and ESP learners will have greater
motivation in the course.
1.6.2 Teaching reading ESP

There are three main factors involved in a reading lesson: the ESP teacher, the student and
reading materials. But before these factors are discussed, the following question should be
answered, “What is the difference between a language lesson and a reading lesson?”
1.6.2.1 Language lessons and reading lessons
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As mentioned before, foreign language teachers should give students the authentic
purposes of reading. This means that reading is not just a linguistic exercise but is involved
with the getting of meaning out of a text for some purpose. But in fact, the most typical use
of reading in an ESP class is to teach the language itself, that is the teacher tries to present
or practise specific linguistic items such as vocabulary, structures, etc. Although language
improvement is the central purpose of a foreign language learner, this is not an authentic
use of a reading text. Furthermore, according to Nuttall (1989: 20), “We need lessons like
this, of course, but we need reading lessons too, if our students require the ability to read
in the foreign language.”
Therefore, it is necessary to point out the differences between a language lesson and a
reading lesson. Nuttall (ibid.) argued that giving a lesson based on a text is not the same as
giving a reading lesson because most of the skills practised are probably not reading skills
at all. She also gave out two features that make a reading lesson different from a language
one. “First, it is different because the type of text used is likely to be different. In a reading
lesson we need to use texts that have been written not to teach language but for any of the
authentic purposes of writing: to inform, to entertain and so on. Even if the language has
been modified to suit the level of the learners, the purpose of the text must be first and
foremost to convey a message. Second, the procedures have to be different, because the
aim of the reading lesson is to develop the student's ability to extract the message the text
contains. So, unlike a language development lesson, we are not trying to put some thing
into his head, but instead we are trying to get him to take it himself: to get him to make
use of the knowledge he already has in order to acquire new messages.”
The above differences between a language lesson and a reading lesson suggest that the ESP
teacher should use reading lessons to develop students’ reading proficiency and
communicative competence rather than only to improve linguistic competence and the

reading lessons need to make allowances for both variety of texts as well as of readers.
1.6.2.2 ESP teacher’s roles
Although it is known that reading involves the skills that the student must learn for
himself, it does not mean that there is nothing for the ESP teacher to do. There is, in fact, a
great deal of language work that can be done in an ESP reading lesson.
In general, a teacher of reading has two main roles as Richard and Amato (1988)
described: “The first role is to facilitate communicative process between all participants in
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the classroom, and between these participants and the various activities and texts. The
second role is to act as an interdependent participant within the learning - teaching
group.”
Accordingly, the teacher is an organizer of resources and as a resource himself; a guide
within the classroom procedures and activities; a researcher to improve the teaching
materials, techniques, methods; and a conductor and advisor for all learners' activities.
An ESP teacher has to fulfill these above mentioned roles. Besides, it is agreed that “The
key quality needed by the ESP teacher is flexibility: the flexibility to change from being a
general language to being a specific purpose teacher, and the flexibility to cope with
different groups of students, often at a very short notice” (Jordon - 1997: 122).
Having a good knowledge on the subject matters of the ESP materials is also very
important to the ESP teacher. It does not mean that he or she must become an expert in the
major field but “an interested student of the subject matter” (Hutchinson & Waters – 1987:
163). The ESP teacher should meet three following requirements: a positive attitude
towards the ESP content; a knowledge of the fundamental principles of the subject area;
and a awareness of how much they probably know.
Whatever role he or she plays, the ESP teacher should be responsible for helping the
students. However, the trouble is that it is easy to give too much help, or help of the wrong
kind. So what sort of help should the ESP teacher give? To answer this question, Nuttall
(1989: 22) stated that “Briefly, it (her book) sees the teacher's job as providing, first, suitable
texts and second, activities that will focus the student's attention on the text. The student must
develop his own skills, but we (teachers) must make him aware of what he is doing, and

interested in doing better.”
In addition, to fulfill the aim of an ESP course, the ESP teacher must act as a material
provider involving “choosing relevant published material, adapting material when publish
material is not suitable” (Jordon – 1997: 15). He or she should also create an environment
of a communicative classroom where meaningful and useful reading activities are carried
out so that the students can best acquire reading skills and practise other language skills in
order to communicate successfully.
1.6.2.3 Learner's roles
As "a communicative approach is essentially learner - centered" (Sheils - 1993: 1), the
roles of the learner in a reading lesson should also be discussed. Generally, although the
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roles of the student seen by different methodologists are not the same, it can be undeniable
that they all agreed that the student in a communicative classroom must do his work on his
own or with little help from the teacher. In other words, he is supposed to contribute as
much as he gains and learns in an interdependent way. And, in fact, he plays an active role
in every language lesson. This means that "the student's role as a reader", wrote Nuttall
(1989: 147), "demands that he should make sense of the text for himself. In his reading
lesson, he is supposed to learn how to do this: doing it for him will not teach him this".
In summary, the ESP teacher and the students are interrelated to each other during the
process of teaching and learning a foreign language in general, and reading skills in
particular. The teacher's job is to provide suitable texts, assign such tasks and activities that
the student can acquire his own skills while the student is supposed to do most of these
tasks and activities by himself.
1.6.2.4 Reading material's roles
It should be noted that materials for reading ESP play an important role in reading teaching
process. Firstly, they enable students to improve their fluency as well as accuracy in acquiring
the target language. Through reading materials, students can enrich their vocabulary related to
their major, structures, etc. They can also develop other language skills. Secondly, materials for
reading provide students with more knowledge of the major field. Furthermore, they help
students acquire some qualities such as creativity, imagination and so on.

To sum up, beside the course book, the ESP teacher should supply other authentic reading
materials with readability, suitability of content and exploitability. It is agreed with what
Boughton, Brumfit, Flavell, Hill and Pincas (1990: 102) wrote: “ the teacher needs to
bear in mind that the choice of an appropriate text is very important in building up pupils'
reading competence” and “texts must be properly graded and sequenced and varied so that
their linguistic content and cultural difficulty match the abilities and sophistication of the
pupils, and ensure a reasonable coverage of the various kinds of reading skill they need to
develop.”
1.6.2.5 Principles of teaching reading
It is essential for the ESP teacher to be aware of the principles of teaching reading. Burns,
Roe and Ross (1988: 22) suggested fourteen principles of teaching reading. They are as
follows:
1. Reading is a complex act with many factors that must be considered;
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2. Reading is the interpretation of the meaning of printed symbols;
3. Reading involves constructing the meaning of a written passage;
4. There is no one correct way to teach reading;
5. Learning to read is a continuing process;
6. Students should be taught word recognition skills that will allow them to
unlock pronunciations and meanings of unfamiliar words independently;
7. The teacher should diagnose each student's ability and use the diagnosis as a
basis for planning instruction;
8. Reading and the other language arts are closely interrelated;
9. Reading is an integral part of all content area instructions within the
educational program;
10. The student needs to see why reading is important;
11. Enjoyment of reading should be considered of prime importance;
12. Readiness for reading should be considered at all levels of instruction;
13. Reading should be taught in a way that allows each child to experience
success; and

14. Encouragement of self - direction and self - monitoring of reading is
important.
Although the principles listed above are, of course, not all-inclusive, it is believed that they
are helpful in guiding teachers in planning reading instruction.
1.6.2.6 Characteristics of an effectively organized classroom for reading instruction
Like the principles of teaching reading, an all-inclusive answer to this question is
impossible. Therefore, in the following, only the most common characteristics of a
classroom effectively organized for reading instruction will be presented. According to
John N. Mangieri (Lapp - 1981: 11), there are six major characteristics of an effective
reading classroom. They are
1. Individual differences of students are recognized and provision is made to
accommodate these differences. It is obvious that no two individuals are precisely
the same in every aspect. Individual differences exist in intellectual, physical,
emotional and educational traits. Thus, the effectively organized classroom has to
make instructional provisions for the diverse reading capabilities and abilities of
each student.
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2. Comprehensive, continuous diagnosis occurs in order to ascertain student reading
proficiencies and deficiencies. Diagnostic test, or in other words, diagnosis, is a
test to find out weaknesses and strengths of students. In an effectively organized
classroom, diagnosis is conducted on an initial, a final, and above all, continuous
basis. It is considered as a blueprint for instruction. Teachers of reading would do
well to remember that instruction will become exemplary only when it accurately
meets the reading needs of each student. Diagnosis can be the vehicle for
determining these needs.
3. Both immediate and long-range planning for reading instruction take place on a
regular basis. It is imperative that comprehensive planning for reading instruction
occurs prior to the actual teaching act. This planning should deal with both immediate
and long-range instructional concerns. The major objective of immediate planning is
to answer the question, “What am I going to teach tomorrow?”, whereas long-range

planning involves looking beyond tomorrow’s lesson. The process of assessing
immediate versus long-range outcomes is a continual but necessary one. Effective
planning is the prelude to effective reading instruction.
4. The nonteaching conditions of the educational situation are employed to their
maximum usage. This means that the effective teacher of reading is not the teacher
who merely has maximum conditions for instruction or works in a well-equipped
reading class. Rather, he or she is the one who employs the financial and physical
conditions of a teaching situation to maximum usage.
5. Instructional procedures are utilized, which will produce optimal reading
achievement for every child in the classroom. Reading instruction should be
learner-centered and designed to promote optimal and continuous achievement for
each student. The teacher should make provision for the learning process, paying
particular attention to motivation, reinforcement, and rate and type of learning.
6. Evaluation of the instructional process relative to reading is conducted in a
continuous and thorough manner. Most methodologists agree that the instructional
process is a three-phase task of planning, teaching and evaluating. Evaluation is
ascertaining the degree to which a teacher’s immediate and long-term instructional
objectives have been or are being attained. It plays a significant role in every
teacher’s classroom, and if properly conducted, evaluation can provide teachers
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with something more than intuition to tell them whether their students are attaining
optimal achievement in reading.
Based on the above list, the teacher of reading can know whether his or her classroom is
effectively organized for reading instruction or not. The degree to which these characteristics
exit or are absent in a classroom will determine the effectiveness of a teacher's provision for
reading instruction. However, it should be noted that all of these characteristics must be
present if a language classroom is to function optimally and produce maximum student growth
in reading. To do this difficult task, great efforts on the part of the teacher must be made. And
the teacher should not be deterred from implementing these characteristics "since students are
the bottom line of instruction and the goal of providing exemplary reading instruction is worth

optimal efforts" (Lapp - 1981: 25).
In summary, what has been done in this chapter is to focus on an overall view of reading
and teaching reading ESP. Some theoretical concepts have been also related to their
application in teaching and learning reading ESP. The next chapter will discuss how
reading skill and the other language skills are interrelated.
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CHAPTER 2: SKILL – INTEGRATION
2.1 Productive and receptive skills
In daily life, people who use language employ a number of different abilities. They are
able to speak on the telephone, write letters, listen to the radio or read books, newspapers,
etc. In other words, they possess the four basic skills of speaking, writing, listening and
reading.
According to Harmer (1992: 16), “speaking and writing involve language production and
are therefore often referred to as productive skills. Listening and reading, on the other
hand, involve receiving messages and are therefore often referred to as receptive skills.”
The following table designed by Harmer (ibid.: 17) represents a very general picture of
language skills.
MEDIUM
SKILL
SPEECH WRITTEN WORD
Receptive Listening and understanding Reading and understanding
Productive Speaking Writing
Table 2.1 The four language skills
Naturally, language users very often employ a combination of skill. Speaking and listening
usually happen simultaneously, and people can read and write at the same time when they
take notes or write something based on what they are reading. Thus, the teacher of reading
should develop not only reading skills for the student but also other language skills through
reading.
2.2 Skill-integration
2.2.1 Definition

As previously mentioned, it seems clear that, in a language class, it is the teacher's
responsibility to see to it that all the skills are practiced. This means that he or she is
supposed to apply skill-integration approach. So what is meant by integrating the skills?
Carol Read (Matthews, Spratt and Dangerfield- 1991:72) stated that “the integration of
skills in the language classroom can be defined quite simply as a series of activities or
tasks which use any combination of the four skills - Listening (L), Speaking (S), Reading
(R), Writing (W) - in a continuous and related sequence.” In other words, the four language
skills are closely intertwined and can be integrated through a series of activities within a
context naturally built in a real life situation. The activities in the sequence may be related
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through the topic or through the language or both of these. It can be said that an important
feature of the sequence is the interlocking nature of the activities. It is a whole chain of
activities involving the exercise of different skills or "each task develops from those that
have come before and prepares for those that are to follow" (by Carol Read, quoted in
Matthews, Spratt and Dangerfield - 1991: 73). The skills are, therefore, not practised in
isolation but in a closely interwoven way.
2.2.2 Reasons for skill-integration
When discussing skill-integration, many methodologists emphasize its importance by
giving some reasons for it. According to Carol Read, there are two main reasons for
devising activity sequences which integrate the skills. “The first is to practise and extend
the students' use of a particular language structure or function and the second is to
develop the students' ability in two or more of the four skills within a constant language.”
(ibid.: 73).
Harmer (1992) also explained the reason why skill-integration is needed by giving two
reasons. “Firstly, it is very often true that one skill cannot be performed without another
Secondly, people use different skills when dealing with the same subject for all sorts of
reasons.”
It is absolutely agreed that it is impossible to speak in a conversation if one does not listen
at the same time and people seldom write without reading. Another reason is that when
someone listens to a lecture, he often takes notes and then writes a report on the lecture or

describes it to his friends.
Furthermore, Carol Read (ibid.: 73) offered a number of important advantages in providing
students with the kind of integrated skills practice including:
− Continuity: Task and
activities are not performed in isolation but are closely related and dependent on each
other.
− Input before output: In an
integrated skills approach, learners can be provided with a suitable input which may be in
the form of a direct model or a much freer stimulus. This input will then form the basis for
the learners' own output - or productive use of the language - in a subsequent task.
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− Realism: It allows for the
development of all four skills within a realistic, communicative framework.
− Appropriateness: This
helps the learners to recognize the appropriateness of a particular language form and mode
in different contexts and with different participants.
− Variety: Activities
involving all four skills provide variety and can be invaluable in maintaining motivation.
− Recycling: It allows the
learners to use the familiar language in a variety of new and different ways.
− Confidence: It may be
helpful for the learner who is weaker or less confident in one particular skill.
Being aware of the significance of skill-integration, the teacher of reading in his or her
teaching will try to reflect the fact that the same experience or topic can lead to the use of
many different skills. For instance, when the student practises reading, the teacher will use
that reading as the basis for practising other language skills. Of course, all activities will
have to focus on reading skill. But the focus can later shift to one or more of the other
skills.
2.3 Relationship between reading skills and other language skills
One of the principles of teaching reading is that "reading and the other language arts are

closely interrelated" (Burns, Roe and Ross - 1988: 24). This point of view is similar to
what Rivers and Temperly (1978: 241) suggested: “Reading is not an isolated activity. In a
language class it should lead to something, and thus be integrated with the improvement of
all skills.” In other words, reading should not be taught separately from the other skills.
The following will discuss the relation between reading skill and the other language skills.
2.3.1 Reading and listening
As mentioned above, reading and listening are receptive skills. According to Durkin
(1989: 383), “the major similarity between listening and reading is very apparent: The
listener and reader both attend to language for the purpose of getting or constructing a
message. The two, thus, display language-processing behavior.”
Therefore, the two skills are closely related. Reading makes the student familiar with the
vocabulary, structures, grammar as well as provides him with background knowledge of
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the topic, which is very helpful for the student when listening. On the other hand, listening
makes great contribution to interpretation of the reading unit because the aural elements
can add vividness and daily life to it. For this close relationship, Rivers and Temperly
(1978: 259) suggested that “students may listen to a story, play, poem, or speech by a
famous person and then read it, or they may read first and then listen to a worthwhile
reading or dramatic presentation of what they have read Before listening to an English
play, students may read a synopsis of the action. In this way they are better prepared to
comprehend because they have some expectations to help them project meaning.” This
integration will surely make language lessons more interesting.
2.3.2 Reading and speaking
Obviously, reading broadens readers' knowledge of both of the target language and the world
which can enhance speaking. In addition, reading aloud itself "gives extra practice in
pronunciation, word stress and rhythm" (Hedge - ibid.: 14). Thus, Rivers and Temperly (1978:
259) suggested that “students should be provided with frequent opportunities to give in
English the gist of what they have been reading.”
They also offered some ways to exploit the reading material for speaking: “Some of the
material read will serve as a basis for oral presentation of projects; some will be

dramatized in the original form or through extempore role-playing; and some will provide
ammunition for discussions and debates.” (Rivers and Temperly - ibid.: 260)
The teacher can do this in post-reading activities in various ways. For example, he or she can
ask the student to discuss the topic of the text, give his opinions and feelings about the
content of the text, summarize the text orally, etc.
Speaking, in its turns, can serve as input for reading. At pre-reading stage, the teacher can
encourage the student to form certain expectations about the text by saying what he can guess
from pictures, photographs, headings; the student can be asked to say what he knows about the
topic, whether he agrees or disagrees with some given statements concerning the topic and
gives reasons, etc.
2.3.3 Reading and writing
There is no doubt that both reading and writing are active, thinking processes. When a
teacher teaches the two skills to the students, he or she is virtually teaching them to think.
According to Howie (1989: 5), “What students learn can only be more solidly reinforced if
the two processes are taught together, not separately. Teaching reading and writing
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together integrates the processes, interrelates them, and enhances the amount and strength
of what is being learned.”
He also added: “The processes of reading and writing are so intertwined that not to teach
them together, across the curriculum, is to shortchange students. Teaching the two
processes together allows students to learn better how to acquire and use information.”
(Howie - ibid.: 7)
Smith (1990: 137) took the same view when stating “To keep the two activities separately
does more than deprive them of their basic sense, it impoverishes any learning that might
take place.”
Both of them are right in saying that reading and writing are basically constructive
processes. The connection between them is particularly strong. The teacher, therefore, is
responsible for building a scaffold (Robinson and Good - 1987: 282) that aids the student
in getting information from the reading text and helps him to organize the information in
an appropriate form for writing about it. Accordingly, a scaffold should

1. make the students aware of the structure of the text that they read and
thereby increase their access to relevant information in the text;
2. help students to supplement this information by adding relevant background
knowledge from their own understanding of particular topic or event;
3. give students a way to organize the information, and
4. make students aware of the structure that they can use to write about the
information in order to convey it to someone else.
(Robison and Good - 1987: 282)
However, what should the teacher actually do to integrate reading with writing? We can
divide the activities that the student is asked to do in a reading lesson to tie his reading with
his writing into two broad categories: with the text and from the text. The student works
with the text when he copies and examines the writer's choices of specific linguistic and
logical features such as cohesive links, punctuation, grammar, sentence arrangement and
organization. He works from the text when he uses it to create a text on his own by
summarizing, completing, reacting, etc.
Durkin (1989) suggested some classroom activities that the teacher can use to combine
reading and writing. In his opinion, before reading, the teacher can "elect to have students
write what they know about a topic before they start to read what an author has to say
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about it" (Durkin - ibid.: 473). This means that he or she provides a genuine purpose for
the reading. He also believed that writing can take place during reading. With stories, for
example, the teacher can ask the students to read to a certain point, then they try to predict
what is likely to happen next and write their own ending. Besides, they may be required to
write a summary of what they have learned up to a certain point. Last but not least, once a
reading text has been read, many opportunities are available to use writing in ways that can
be fruitful for the reading. For instance, the students can mimic someone else's writing
after reading it because they have been provided with a model to understand language use;
or they can rewrite a story told from a first-person perspective from the point of view of
another character, etc.
Also concerning the integration of these two skills, Rivers and Temperly (1978: 258) gave

out the following activities: “Students may be asked a series of questions which, when
answered in sequence, develop a summary or resume of the material read. They may write
an ending to a story or play of which they have read part, or develop a different ending
from the one in the book. They may write letters which one character in the story might
have written to others Students may create their own stories on similar themes to those
they have been reading.” From these suggested activities, the teacher of reading can make
the reading lesson more interesting and motivate the students to learn better.
To conclude, it must be kept in mind that reading is closely related to listening, reading and
writing. By integrating this skill with the other language skills, the teacher of reading can
improve not only students' reading ability but also their knowledge and ability for language
use. Therefore, to make full use of the interrelation between these skills, the teacher is
required to interweave them creatively and flexibly in order to give the students great
motivation for acquiring the target language.
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PART C: THE STUDY
CHAPTER 3: INVESTIGATION OF CURRENT SITUATION OF TEACHING
AND LEARNING READING ESP IN DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS
AND VIETNAMESE STUDIES AT USSH - VNU
3.1 The teaching and learning reading ESP in Department of Linguistics and
Vietnamese Studies at USSH - VNU
It cannot be denied that there have been positive changes in teaching English in
Department of Linguistics and Vietnamese Studies at USSH – VNU in recent years:
language classrooms are better equipped, ESP materials are designed, teachers of English
are more qualified, etc. However, the teaching and learning of this subject in general and of
reading ESP in particular have not been properly carried out yet. This section will have a
general look at the teaching and learning of reading skills by "A collection of teaching
materials on linguistics studies” (Tập bài giảng tiếng Anh chuyên ngành ngôn ngữ học) in
Department of Linguistics and Vietnamese Studies at USSH - VNU.
First of all, at USSH – VNU, the main duty is to train students in various fields such as
Literature, History, Philosophy, Social Work, etc. As a result, English is not considered as

the main subject. Students learn the language as a means to do their future job or future
training. Therefore, the teaching reading ESP in Department of Linguistics and Vietnamese
Studies at USSH – VNU is aimed at not only improving the students’ reading skills but
also making them familiar with English for Linguistics.
For the students of linguistics, they learn English because of many reasons. They want to
get high marks in their exams. Besides, a lot of books on linguistics are written in English.
Therefore, if they want to broaden the knowledge related to their major, they should master
this language. Furthermore, being aware of the demand of the society today, they need to
use this international language in their future jobs. The students in Department of
Linguistics and Vietnamese Studies learn ESP in their fifth semester. In the first and the
second year, they learn general English in Lifelines – Elementary and Pre-intermediate
level – by Tom Hutchinson. Therefore, they are supposed to have the most basic skills
before getting access to ESP.
About the ESP material, "A collection of teaching materials on linguistics studies” (Tập bài giảng
tiếng Anh chuyên ngành ngôn ngữ học), it is designed for the third year students of linguistics.
24
It is a collection from different books on linguistics by different authors and adaption from
some softwares including Encyclopeadia Britainica and The Microsoft Encarta
Encyclopeadia. It is adapted and written in such an attempt to simplify the texts with the
basic ESP terms in order to fit the language level of the students. As stated in its syllabus,
the material aims at helping the students have opportunity to read more effectively, making
sentences grammatically by using linguistics terms and translating. It continues to train the
students in the three language skills: speaking, reading and writing but mainly focuses on
developing their reading skills. For that purpose, the material aims at introducing the
students to fundamental issues related to linguistics such as Authors in Linguistics,
Subfields of Linguistics, Kinds of Grammar, Language Changes and these are organized
into 12 units. There are four parts in each unit. The first and also the most important one is
the reading text which includes three stages namely pre-reading, while reading and post-
reading. The second part is speaking. Grammar is dealt with in the third part. And the last
part gives the students a chance to practice writing and translation.

However, it seems that there are still some problems. Firstly, listening skill is neglected in
the material. Secondly, although the material tries to provide the students with many types
of reading comprehension exercises, there are still more exercises which need designing by
the teacher so that the students can improve their reading ability.
Yet, we cannot blame the material completely. We all know that the teacher himself plays
an important role in fulfilling the aim of the reading programme. Nevertheless, many ESP
teachers find it difficult to exploit reading texts in the light of Communicative Language
Teaching. They also have troubles in using techniques to motivate students to learn. Few of
them have experience in teaching ESP for Linguistics. As a result, students become bored
and passive in learning.
It must be admitted that although the students in Department of Linguistics and
Vietnamese Studies have learnt ESP for 4 years, only 5 units have been taught. The rest
has not been put in pratice. Furthermore, despite the fact that each language classroom is
equipped with one cassette player, there is lack of modern equipment like OHP and proper
guide on choosing appropriate supplementary reading materials. Besides, the students'
uneven levels of English and background knowledge are also another disadvantage that
affects the quality of teaching and learning.
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