Adapting reading tasks of ESP materials for the third-year students at Haiphong Medical University = Điều chỉnh những nhiệm vụ đọc hiểu theo tài liệu tiếng Anh 20150227

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Table of Contents
Declarations
Acknowledgement
Abstract
Table of contents
List of abbreviation
List of figures, charts and tables
Part I. Introduction 1
I. Rationale 1
II. Aims of the study 2
III. Methods of the study 3
IV. Scope of the study 3
V. Design of the study 3
Part II. Development 5
Chapter I. Literature review 5
I.1. An overview of ESP 5
I.1.1. Definition of ESP 5
I.1.2. Types of ESP 6
I.1.3. Characteristics of ESP 8
I.2. Material adaptation 9
I.2.1. Definition of material adaptation 9
I.2.2. Purposes of material adaptation 9
I.2.3. Techniques of material adaptation for teaching reading 10
I.2.3.1. Adaptation as addition 10
I.2.3.2. Adaptation as change 11
I.3. An overview of reading 13

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I.3.1. Definition of reading and reading comprehension 13
I.3.2. Classification of reading 14
I.3.2.1. According to manner 15
I.3.2.1.1. Reading aloud 15
I.3.2.1.2. Silent reading 15
I.3.2.2. According to purposes 16
I.3.2.2.1. Skimming 16
I.3.2.2.2. Scanning 16
I.3.2.2.3. Intensive reading 16
I.3.2.2.4. Extensive reading 17
I.4. Concluding remarks 17
Chapter II. The study 18
II.1. Situational analysis 18
II.1.1. ESP teaching and learning situation at HPMU 18
II.1.2. The material description 18
II.1.3. The course objective 19
II.2. Research methodology 20
II.2.1. Subjects of the study 20
II.2.1.1. The teachers 20
II.2.1.2. The students 20
II.2.2. Data collection instrument 21
II.2.2.1. Questionnaires 21
II.2.2.2. Follow-up class observation 21
II.3. Procedures 22
II.4. Data analysis 23
II.4.1. Questionnaires 23
II.4.1.1. Evaluation of the effectiveness of reading tasks in the ESP materials 23
II.4.1.2. The attitudes and evaluation of the reading texts in the current

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textbook 24
II.4.1.3. Needed topics perceived by the students 26
II.4.1.4. Students‟ attitudes towards pre-reading activities 26
II.4.1.4.1. The frequency of using extra pre-reading activities
designed by the teachers (responded by the students) 26
II.4.1.4.2. Students‟ attitudes towards given pre-reading activities 27
II.4.1.5. The post-reading activities used by the teachers 28
II.4.1.6. The necessity of adapting the reading tasks in the ESP materials 29
II.4.1.7. The students‟ and teachers‟ difficulties in learning and teaching
medical reading (respectively) 30
II.4.1.8. The students‟ expectations from the teachers and reading
activities employed by the teachers to help their students
overcome difficulties 31
II.4.2. Follow-up class observation 32
II.5. Concluding remarks 33
Chapter III. some suggested techniques of adapting reading
tasks for the third-year students at hai phong
medical university 34
III.1. Replacing 34
III.2. Supplementing 35
III.3. Extending 38
Part III. Conclusion 40
1. Summary of the study 40
2. Limitations of the study 41
3. Suggestions for further study 41

References

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Appendices

Abbreviations
HPMU
Haiphong Medical University
ESP
English for Specific Purposes
ELT
English Language Teaching
EOP
English for Occupational Purposes
EAP
English for Academic Purposes
EST
English for Science and Technology
EBE
English for Business and Economics
ESS
English for Social Studies

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List of tables and charts
Chart 1. Evaluation of the effectiveness of reading tasks in the ESP materials
Chart 2. The frequency of using extra pre-reading activities designed by the teachers
Chart 3. The necessity of adapting the reading tasks in the ESP materials
Table 1. The attitudes and evaluation of the reading texts in the current textbook
Table 2. Needed topics perceived by the students
Table 3. Students‟ attitude towards given pre-reading activities
Table 4. The post-reading activities used by the teachers
Table 5. Students and teachers difficulties in learning and teaching medical reading
(respectively)
Table 6. The students‟ expectations from their teachers and reading activities employed by the
teachers to help their students overcome difficulties

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Part I. Introduction

I. Rationale
Nowadays English has gained its great popularity all over the world, and this is not an
exception in Vietnam. Our country has now been in the process of regional and global
integration, which has brought about a great many arrivals of foreign visitors, especially since
the implementation of the open-door policy. This makes English the commonest language of
communication which is widely used in all aspects of life. Thus, the demands for using
English as a means of communication make the English teaching and learning more and more
necessary. This is realized by the teaching of this language at almost all universities in
Vietnam, and unexceptionally at Haiphong Medical University (HPMU).
To meet the increasing needs for using English as a means of international communication,
English has been made a compulsory subject in the curriculum of HPMU. It is taught with the
purpose that the students will use it effectively to fulfill their daily work in the future, so it
receives great deal concern of both teachers and students here. Non-stop attempts have been
made to provide the students with general English as well as English for Specific Purposes
(ESP).
ESP is now established chiefly in the universities and the teaching of adults outside the
state school system. The main objective of ESP course is aimed at providing the students with
linguistic knowledge relevant to their field and skills up to their expectation of their future
employment. However, students learning ESP in Vietnam rarely have opportunities to use
English in communication outside the classroom. They mainly have access to popular
documents written in English through reading. Hence, skills in reading English texts are
naturally of special importance in teaching and learning ESP, which is not an exception for the
ESP teaching at HPMU. HPMU is one of those where ESP involves within an English
teaching situation in response to the demand for specific language skills for the specialists –
the graduated doctors. Therefore, improving students‟ reading skills is recognized as a

principal objective of ESP course provided by teachers of English at HPMU.

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Besides, the ESP at HPMU mainly focuses on reading skills and has now been one of the
most stimulating but challenging subject. It is stimulating because, in comparison to general
English, it is more relevant course of the students‟ major concern. However, challenges appear
due to the fact that the „literary‟ teachers are constantly facing the „content burden‟ problem,
students are still immature in terms of both assumed knowledge and the English language.
Moreover, the material English in Medicine for the third-year students at HPMU is an edited
collection from various sources and is designed with nearly all exercises relating to the texts. It
is lack of realistic and interesting tasks to meet the needs and expectations of the students.
Consequently, adapting ESP reading tasks has become vital for teachers.
In fact, there have been some researches about material adaptation by I an McGrath (2002)
or Tomlinson (1998), etc. However, there have not been any studies dealing with reading task
adaptation, especially for teaching and learning English in a medical university like HPMU.
Nevertheless, it can not be denied that adapting material is a broad field to cover. In the
limit of a minor thesis, I just wish to find out the evaluation and attitudes of the teachers and
the students in the university about the ESP reading materials. This then would be taken as the
basic for my recommendation of the appropriate techniques for adapting ESP reading tasks to
make the lessons more effective and interesting.
With all the above mentioned reasons, „Adapting reading tasks of ESP materials for the
third year students at HPMU‟ is chosen for the thesis and it also has been an urgent work for
the development of ESP teaching and learning at HPMU.
II. Aims of the study
This thesis has been carried out to:
 Investigate into the evaluation and attitudes of the third-year students and teachers
at HPMU towards the current ESP reading tasks used in here for the third-year
students.
 Find out techniques of adapting ESP reading tasks in order to make ESP reading
lessons more effective, interesting and motivating to students.

In brief, these objectives are summarized into the following research questions:

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 What are the HPMU teachers and third-year students‟ evaluation and attitudes
towards the current ESP reading tasks used by them?
 What techniques of adapting materials should be used for teaching ESP reading to
the third-year students at HPMU?
III. Methods of the study
Both qualitative and quantitative methods are employed in this study.
The quantitative method, which is used to collect data by questionnaires, aims at exploring
the needs of the students, their expectations and opinions about the ESP reading tasks. The
questionnaires are administered to the third-year student population studying ESP as well as
the teachers of ESP at HPMU. The tackling methods are statistic, analytical and synthetical.
Also the qualitative method is used in the sense that relevant issues concerning reading and
reading comprehension, ESP materials, and adapting materials etc. are gathered, critical re-
examined, analyzed and synthesized in order to establish the senses in which terms or
concepts in the field are employed. Consulting the supervisor, observing classes and collecting
information for the study through the discussion with colleagues, students of HPMU are also
involved.
IV. Scope of the study
The ESP course is only for the third-year students at HPMU, so the study is only
concerned with the adaptation of ESP reading tasks to the third year students at HPMU.
V. Design of the study
The study is comprised of three parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion.
 Part I is the introduction which presents the rationale, the aims, the scope, the research
methods and the design of the study.
 Part II is the development, consisting of three chapters:
o Chapter 1 explores the literature for the thesis, relating to ESP, material
adaptation and reading theories.

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o Chapter 2 deals with subjects, research methodology, instruments, detail
description of data analysis and a brief discussion of the findings.
o Chapter 3 is devoted to some recommendations on ways of adapting ESP
reading tasks suggested in the form of giving samples.
 Part III is the conclusion which offers a summary of the study, limitations and
suggestions for further study.

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Part II. Development
Chapter I. Literature review
I.1. An overview of ESP
I.1.1. Definition of ESP
ESP which stands for “English for Specific Purposes” has developed rapidly to become a
separate activity in English Language Teaching (ELT). It has sometimes moved away from the
mainstream of ELT, when the research on ESP was beyond applied linguistics to include
various disciplines. There have been a lot of attempts to define ESP.
Hutchinson and Waters (1987:19) define ESP as “an approach to language teaching in
which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learners’ reason for learning”.
They see ESP as an approach rather than a product, by which they mean that ESP does not
purely involves a particular kind of language, teaching materials or methodology. They
propose that teaching ESP does not mean teaching a „special variety‟ of English which is
separate from the common language use. There are not such things as matters of science words
and grammar for scientist or a different kind from any other form of language teaching, but it
is an approach to language learning, which is based on the learners‟ needs.
Robinson (1991) also accepts the primacy of needs analysis in defining ESP. Her
definition is based on two key defining criteria and a number of characteristics that are
generally found to be true of ESP. Her first criterion is that “ESP is normally goal directed”
(Robinson, 1991:2). Here, she claims that a lot of students study English not because they are
interested in English language or English – language culture, but because they need English
for their job or study proposes. The second criterion is that “an ESP course is based on a
needs analysis, which aims to specify as closely as possible what exactly it is that students
have to do through the medium of English” (Robinson, 1991:3). The characteristics that she
gives are that time period should be specified clearly for an ESP course, in which their
objectives have to be achieved; and the ESP courses should be taught to adults in

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homogeneous classes with the learning content related to the students‟ work or specialist
studies.
Streven (cited in Tickoo, 1988:1) states “ESP is a particular case of the general category
of special-purpose language teaching”
Dudley-Evans and Jo St John (1998) believe that “a definition of ESP should reflect the
fact that much ESP teaching, especially where it is specifically linked to a particular
profession or discipline, makes use of a methodology that differs from that used in General
Purpose English teaching”. In ESP the teachers are more of „language consultants, enjoying
equal status with the learners who have their own expertise in the subject matter. In the class
the interaction between the teacher and learners may be very different from that in a general
English class.
According to the above-mentioned authors, ESP is one important branch of the English as
a Foreign language/ Second language system that functions as the main branch of ELT. ESP
concentrates more on language in context than on teaching grammar and language structures.
As a matter of fact, ESP combines subject matter and ELT.
I.1.2. Types of ESP
There are many types of ESP which are classified in different ways. Traditionally, ESP has
been divided into two main areas: English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) and English for
Academic Purposes (EAP).
Kennedy and Bolitho (1984: 4) explain the two areas quite early: “EOP is taught in a
situation in which learners need to use English as part of their work or profession. Instances
of EOP students would be doctors in casualty or technicians servicing equipment. They need
English, in the first case, to talk and respond to patients and other staff, and, in the second, to
read technical manuals.” And, “EAP is taught generally within educational institutions to
students needing English in their studies. The language taught may be based in particular
disciplines at higher levels of education when the student is specializing (in-study) or intends
to specialize (pre-study) in a particular subject”.
Robinson (1991: 3) shares the same view of dividing ESP into EOP and EAP by giving the
following tree diagram:

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Pre-experience
EOP Simultaneous/ In-service
Post-experience
ESP
Pre-study
For study in a specific discipline In-study
EAP Post-study
Independent
As a school subject
Integrated
This diagram shows a useful division of courses according to when they take place. These
distinctions will affect the degree of specificity that is appropriate to the course. A pre-
experience or pre-study course will probably rule out any specific work related to the actual
discipline or work as students do not have required familiarity with the content, while courses
of in-service or in-study will be provide the opportunity for specific or integrated work.
According to David Carter (1983), he identifies such three types of ESP as English as a
restricted language, English for Academic and Occupational Purposes/ English with specific
topics.
In the “Tree of ELT” (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987), ESP is broken down into three
branches, namely English for Science and Technology (EST), English for Business and
Economics (EBE), and English for Social Studies (ESS). Each of these subject areas is further
divided into two branches: English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for
Occupational Purposes (EOP). Hutchinson and Waters (1987: 16) do not note that there is not
a clear-cut distinction between EAP and EOP because “people can work and study
simultaneously; it is also likely that in many cases the language learnt for immediate use in a
study environment will be used later when the student takes up, or returns to a job”.
In short, studying various types of ESP is an important step for ESP teachers because it
provides them with an overall picture of the group of learners they are going to work with.

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Accordingly, it is helpful for ESP teachers to choose teaching materials as well as to design or
adapt an appropriate ESP course for their target students.
I.1.3. Characteristics of ESP
According to Dudley-Evans and Jo St John (1998), there are three absolute characteristics
and four variable characteristics.
Absolute characteristics:
- ESP is designed to meet specific needs of learners;
- ESP makes use of the underlying methodology and activities of the disciplines it
serves;
- ESP is centered on the language (grammar, lexis, and register), skills, discourse and
genres appropriate to these activities.
Variable characteristics:
- ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines;
- ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from that of
general English;
- ESP is likely to be designed for adult learners, either at tertiary level institution or in a
professional work situation. IT could, however, be used for learners at secondary
school levels;
- ESP is generally designed for intermediate or advanced students. Most ESP courses
assume basic knowledge of the language system, but it can be used with beginners.
The division of ESP into absolute and variable characteristics is very helpful in
defining what is and is not ESP. We can see that ESP can but is not necessarily concerned
with a specific discipline, nor does it have to be aimed at a certain age group or ability range.
ESP should be seen simple as an 'approach' to teaching, or what Dudley-Evans describes as an
'attitude of mind'.

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I.2. Material adaptation
I.2.1. Definition of material adaptation
Many teachers of English as a foreign language have recognized the importance of
adaptation. In reality, a textbook can never totally be an effective tool for teachers to follow
without any adaptation because of its intrinsic deficiencies such as linguistic inaccuracies, out-
of-datedness, lack of authenticity or lack of variety. Adaptation is to compensate for those
deficiencies. There are numbers of definitions of adaptation given by different scholars.
In their book “Materials and Methods in ELT” (1993), McDonough and Shaw devote a
chapter to the issue of adaptation materials. They quote Madsen and Bowen‟s definition
(1978: ix) claim that “every teacher is in a very real sense an adapter of the material he uses,
employing “one or more a number of techniques: supplementing, editing, expanding,
personalizing, simplifying, modernizing, localizing, or modifying, or modifying cultural/
situational content”.
Similarly, from Tomlinson‟s point of view (1998: xi), adaptation is referred to “reducing,
adding, omitting, modifying and supplementing”. He supposes that most teachers adapt
materials every time they use a textbook in order to maximize the value of the book for their
particular learners.
More or less, most of the scholars‟ viewpoints, which I base my thesis on, agree on some
kind of change and addition when mentioning “adaptation”.
I.2.2. Purposes of material adaptation
Cunningsworth (cited in Ian McGrath, 2002) gives out the two most frequently cited
purposes for adaptation as follows:
- to make the materials more suitable for the circumstances in which it is being used, i.e.
to mould it to the needs and interest of learners, the teacher‟ s own capabilities and
such constrain as time, or as McDonough and Shaw (1993: 85) put it “to maximize the
appropriacy of teaching materials in context, by changing some of the internal
characteristics of course book to a better suit our particular circumstances”

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- to compensate for any intrinsic deficiencies in the material, such as linguistic in
accuracies, out-of-datedness, lack of authenticity (Madsen and Bowen, 1978) or lack of
variety (Tice, 1991)
We could take McDonough and Shaw‟s definition of purpose a little further. Maximizing
the appropriacy of teaching materials is modifying them in such a way they seem more
relevant to learners‟ interests and needs and this is important to all teachers of English because
it can activate learners and stimulate their motivation, and increased motivation, in turn, is
likely to create a more conductive classroom atmosphere. In point of fact, when we make
changes to a course book “to better suit our particular purposes”, what we really trying to do is
to improve the effectiveness of the learning experience.
I.2.3. Techniques of adapting materials for teaching reading
I.2.3.1. Adaptation as addition
Adaptation does not always require a great deal of extra work of teachers. As stated by
Madsen and Bowen (1978) and McDonough and Shaw (1993), the most natural form of
adaptation is extemporization, that is, a spontaneous response on the part of the teacher to a
problem or an opportunity. This might take such forms as the substitution in a course book
example of the familiar for the unfamiliar; the paraphrase of a course book instruction that is
unclear or reference to previously taught items when teaching new items.
Another form of adaptation as addition is exploitation which is “the creative use of what is
already there (e.g. text, visual, activity) to serve a purpose which is additional to that foreseen
by the textbook writer”. For example, a text accompanied by a photograph may intend to
develop comprehension skills and linguistic resources but a teacher might use it for some
additional purposes. The picture might be used to predict the content or brainstorm related
vocabulary; the topic and language of the text might provide the basis for discussion of
students‟ own experiences.
The third form of addition, extension, refers to the provision by the teachers of additional
materials in order to improve understanding or learning such as further examples of a rule or

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further items in an exercise. When extending an activity, the teacher supplies more of the same

types of materials, thus makes a quantitative change in the materials.
Another form of adaptation which is quite common among teachers is supplementation.
According to Ian McGrath (2002: 80), “supplementation, which means no more than “adding
something new”, stems primarily from the recognition of a deficit: it is an attempt to bridge
the gap between a course book and an official syllabus (or statement of aims), or a course
book and the demands of a public examination, or a course book and students‟ needs”.
We can supplement a course book in one of two ways:
- By utilizing items, such as exercises, texts or activities, from another published source:
a course book, a supplementary skills book, a book of practice exercises or a teacher‟s
resource book;
- By devising our own materials; this may include the exploitation of authentic visual or
textual items.
The main difference between extension and supplementation is that extension means
“more of the same”. If the course books contains only one short exercise to practice a
grammar point which your students find particularly difficult and you devise more items of the
same type as the original exercise, this is extension. If you give them another exercise from
another source or make up another exercise yourself, this is supplementation. The distinction
is not just terminological; when we extend an exercise we can be fairly sure that we are
staying true to the design of the original material and will be contributing to the goals that
underpin this materials; when we supplement, especially when we design our own materials,
we have to be very vigilant unless we introduce a new learning objective.
I.2.3.2. Adaptation as change
When teachers of ELT consider adaptation, they should be concerned about some issues.
Cunningsworth (1984: 66) suggests three questions that might be asked when one considering
adaptation:
- What does the exercise actually get the learners to do?
- What do I want the learners to do?
- How can I get the exercise to do what I want it to do for the learners?

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To these, we should perhaps add a fourth and logically prior question:
- What is the objective of the activity?
This last question calls for a description of the linguistic intention behind an activity or
exercise, for example, to provide practice in the use of past tense questions or to provide
practice in eliciting information about someone‟s past.
Cunningsworth‟s first question, on the other hand, is oriented towards effects and is
implicitly, at least evaluative. It is the recognition that there is a gap between the two, that an
activity/ exercise does not do what was intended to be done or does not do it as effectively or
as efficiently or as interestingly as it might, that follows us to justify adaptation.
One of the reasons given above for adaptation was to maintain learner interest by varying
what might otherwise be a rather repetitive diet. The problem of “the textbook straitjacket”
and some flexible responses to this are described by Tice (1991: 23, cited in Ian McGrath,
2002): “Many course books adopt a very similar format for each unit and include rather
limited ranges of exercise types. For example, new language is always presented through a
dialogue, comprehension tested through “wh” questions, grammar practiced through gap
fills, vary the means of testing comprehension by introducing prediction tasks, nonlinguistic
tasks (such as ordering or selecting pictures) or note taking. You can also set up role-plays
and sketches based on the reading and listening texts. Grammar exercises can be adapted, for
example, supply the answers to an exercise to half of the class, and let them work with a
partner who doesn’t have the answers. Or supply the answers to an exercise, some wrong and
then do sentence auction (in groups, learners bid for correct sentences)”
According to McDonough and Shaw, there are two processes involved in adaptation: the
evaluation of materials against contextual criteria and the tailoring of the materials to suit
these criteria. What teachers of ELT have to pay much attention to is the focuses, and the
forms of this kind of change including “(1) language – the language of explanations,
examples, texts, exercises and the language that students are expected to produce; (2) the
contexts and content to which the language relates; and (3) procedures and classroom
management – who does what with whom and how this is organized”.

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McDonough and Shaw also suggest the fourth kind of change – restructuring which might
be an attempt to make the order more logical. Examples of this would include re-sequencing
activities such as cutting up a text and asking students to put it together again, presenting a
picture story in jumbled order or creating a group work task in which each learner must
describe their picture so that the group can determine the original sequence.

There are various ways to adapt materials. Tomlinson (1998) suggests the following
options:
o Omission: the teacher leaves out things deemed inappropriate, offensive and
unproductive… for the particular group.
o Addition: where there seems to be inadequate coverage, the teachers may decide to add
material, either in form of texts or exercise material.
o Reduction: where the teacher shortens an activity to give it less weight or emphasis.
o Extension: where an activity is lengthened on order to give an additional dimension.
(For example, a vocabulary activity is extended to draw attention to some syntactic
patterning).
o Rewriting/modification: teachers may occasionally decide to rewrite material,
especially exercise material, to make it more appropriate, more communicative, more
demanding, more accessible to their students.
o Replacement: texts or exercise material which is considered inadequate for whatever
reason may be replaced by more suitable material.
o Re-ordering: Teachers may decide that the order in which the materials are presented is
not suitable for their students. They can then decide to plot different course through the
materials from the one writer has laid down.
I.3. An overview of reading
I.3.1. Definition of reading
Reading is completely individual activity which takes place in all different ways from
newspapers, magazines, written texts, telephone directory, labels on medicine bottles, notices,

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etc. Attempts have been made to give a definition of what reading is. However, the act of
reading is not completely understood nor easily described.
According to Goodman (1971: 135), reading is “a psycholinguistic process by which the
reader, a language users, reconstructs, as best as he can, a message which has been encoded
by a writer as a graphic display”, and the act of reconstruction is viewed as “a cyclical
process of sampling, predicting, testing and confirming.”
Rummelhart (1977) defines “reading involves the reader, the text, and the interaction
between the reader and the text”. It means the role of learners and reading texts are placed an
important position in reading act.
Harmer (1989: 190) seems to be interested in the notion of reading. He says “reading is an
exercise dominated by the eyes and the brain. The eyes receive message and the brain then
has to work out the significance of the message.”
Rubin and Thompson (1994: 91) offer another definition of reading: “reading is active
information – seeking process in which readers relate information in the text to what they
already know”. From this point of view, the reader‟s knowledge of the language and
knowledge of the world is of importance to their reading success.
Though definitions of reading are numerous, none can certainly capture all the ideas and
features of what reading is. However, what they all share is that they try to find out the nature
of reading, and reading act, in which the readers, reading process, and reading message are
emphasized.
I.3.2. Classification of reading
In reading the objective of the reader is not always to understand everything which is
written down. Therefore, reading is divided into various types according to the manners and
purposes.




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I.3.2.1. According to manner

I.3.2.1.1. Reading aloud
“Reading aloud involves looking at the text, understanding it and also saying it.” (Doff,
1988: 70). Though reading aloud is considered a way to convey necessary information to the
others, it is unpopular activity outside classroom. For the teachers, reading aloud is more of a
speaking exercise of pronunciation. Nuttal (1996) sees reading aloud as an important aid for
beginners to improve their pronunciation. However, Greenwood (1985) criticizes this idea. He
fears that students may be unable to focus adequately on the text‟s meaning when they
concentrate too hard on pronouncing the words.
As for Doff (1988: 58), reading aloud is not a very useful technique for some reasons:
- Only one student is active at a time, the others are either not listening at all or listening
to a bad model.
- Students‟ attention is focused on pronunciation, not on understanding the text.
- It is an unnatural activity, most people do not read aloud in real life.
- Because students usually read slowly, it takes up a lot of time in class.
By whispering the words while reading, reading aloud slows the reader down and forces
him to read every word so it can distract him from understanding the text.
I.3.2.1.2. Silent reading
Unlike reading aloud, silent reading is more often used in both real life and classroom, and
“it is the method we normally use with our native language, and on the whole the quickest and
most efficient” (Lewis, 1985: 110). With silent reading we can best understand the reading
materials in the shortest possible time because we do not need to read all the words in the text,
we can read at our own speed and if we do not understand what we are reading, we can read
again or slow down for intensive reading. For the teachers, silent reading is helpful for
controlling the class. In silent reading, students are in fact concentrating on the text, obtaining
the meaning and extracting what they need.
In short, silent reading is the most useful and practical way to develop the students‟
reading ability. However, it is more beneficial when the teacher sometimes combines it with

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reading aloud to improve students‟ pronunciation and intonation because reading aloud also

has its own advantages.
I.3.2.2. According to purposes
I.3.2.2.1. Skimming
When skimming, we go through the reading material quickly in order to get the gist of it,
to know how it is organized, or to get an idea of the tone or the intension of the writer. Nuttal
(1982: 36) says “by skimming, we mean glancing rapidly through the text to determine
whether a research paper is relevant to our own work or in order to keep ourselves
superficially informed about materials that are not of great importance to us.” As for Grellet
(1981: 19) “we get its main points or the intention of the writer, but not to find the answer to
specific questions”. Clearly, the reader skims in order to satisfy a very generous curiosity
about the text. This type of reading does not aim at learners at the beginner level but it is more
suitable for gifted students of English. It helps them to organize their thought and specify what
information they can get from reading material; therefore, their subsequent reading is more
efficient.
I.3.2.2.2. Scanning
Scanning occurs when a reader goes through the text quickly searching for a specific piece
of information or to see if the text is suitable for a specific reading purpose. According to
Grallet (1981: 19), “when scanning, we only try to locate specific information and often we do
not even follow the linearity of the passage to do so”. Like skimming, scanning is a useful
reading skill that may at first strange to a learner who is used to reading everything in a
foreign language with the same degree of attention. It can be appropriately applied in teaching
and learning reading as it can be very useful as a study technique.
I.3.2.2.3. Intensive reading
Nuttal (1982: 36) defines: “Intensive reading involves approaching the text under the
guidance of a teacher or a task which forces the student to focus on the text”. Grellet (1981: 4)
states that “Intensive reading means reading short text to extract specific information. This is

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an accuracy activity involving reading for detailed”. The objective of intensive reading is to
achieve a full understanding of the text not only of what it means but also of how the meaning

is produced. Through intensive reading, the reader must arrive at a profound and detailed
understanding of logical arguments, the rhetorical arrangement, the pattern of the text, the
attitude and purposes of the writer and his linguistic means to achieve his purposes. In other
words, intensive reading is reading for accuracy which is essential to the students‟
comprehension.
I.3.2.2.4. Extensive reading
Grellet (1981: 4) points out that “Extensive reading means reading long texts, usually for
one’s pleasure. This is a fluency activity, mainly involving global understanding”. The
purpose of extensive reading is to train students to read directly and fluently in a foreign
language for his own enjoyment, without the aid of the teacher to achieve a general sense of
the text, skimming for the gist and scanning for some key details. Extensive reading is a
relatively rapid and efficient process of reading a text for global or general meaning.
In short, there are different types of reading and they are determined not by the texts but by
the reader‟s reasons for reading. However, effective readers do not use these styles isolatedly,
they must know how to use suitable style to achieve their reading purpose.
I.4. Concluding remarks
In summary, the chapter has so far discussed the issues and aspects concerning the topic of
the study. An over view of ESP, material adaptation and reading skill have presented. Basing
on this review, the research is carried out on adapting reading tasks of ESP materials for the
third-year students at HPMU.






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Chapter II. The study
In the preceding chapter, the literature on the research topic was briefly reviewed for the
theoretical basis of the whole study. Turning to the practical side, this chapter deals with the

current situation of teaching and learning ESP reading at the Foreign Language Department -
Haiphong Medical University as well as the setting of the study. The subject, instruments and
data analysis are also discussed in this chapter.
II.1. Situational analysis
II.1.1. ESP teaching and learning situation at HPMU
The setting of the study is Haiphong Medical University (HPMU) where the students learn
English for two years and a half (20 credits in total). After two years of studying general
English (with the course books: Headway Elementary and Pre-intermediate (published by
Oxford University Press in 1993), they learn Medical English (05 credits) in the last semester.
By the time, they have just finished some basic subjects such as maths, biology,
epidemiology… so they have not got much background knowledge of the field. They are
therefore at a disadvantage of struggling to learn both the language and the content at the time.
During this course of medical English, the students have only one class per week (3 periods)
in large classes (about 50 students a class). The material is English in Medicine which will be
described in the following section. At the end of the course, they have a 90-minute written
test. However, their test results are quite low (about 30 percent of the students fail and the
majority of the rest get mark 5-6) although all the test questions are taken from the course
book.
II.1.2. The material description
The teaching material currently used for the third year students is “English in Medicine”.
It is a 52-page-long “in-house” material which was collected and edited by the teachers of
English Department. It consists of two parts: Part 1 contains 10 units of different topics
excerpted from “English for medical student” written by Trịnh Thị Thuý Lan, Hồ Liên Biện,
Phạm Gia Khải, Nguyễn Văn Trường (published in 1990); Part 2 includes 10 reading texts

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which were taken from different sources, mostly from “English in Medicine” (by Eric H
Glendinning, Beverly A Holmstrom, 1987). In this part, the teachers designed exercises
themselves, often in the form of gap filling or answering questions. Though the material was
excerpted from these books, there is not any information from the authors or publisher‟s

credentials on the cover or at References.
Besides, English in Medicine does not contain an accessories package or supplementary
materials including items such as classroom tape cassettes or CD‟s, a student‟s workbook or a
teacher‟s manual. Although the answers to the exercises are shown in the original books, they
are not filed to be a teacher‟s book. This might be somewhat problematic for certain students
who wish to use the book for independent and/or additional study. It might also hamper the
execution of lesson preparation by some teachers who do not have access to those books.
Moreover, even when teachers possess those books, they just give answer keys to the exercises
in the material (some of them are even incorrect or suggest only one possible answer), they do
not help teachers understand the objectives and methodology of the texts. Also, the original
manual does not provide teachers with additional exercises, tests, and reviews. There are
merely two review units in the book. This means that students have few opportunities to
review by themselves and teachers must spend a lot of time preparing reviews and tests.
Although the objectives are not written in the material, the units aim to provide students
with a variety of grammatical structures and vocabulary to lead to a general introduction to
medical terms such as names, structures, location, functions and properties of the organs in
human body; and a number of diseases, their causes, indications and treatment…
The methodology of the material is not laid out either. However, the fact that the material
presents the exercises basing on different topics suggests the theme-based method.
II.1.3. The course objectives
The main objectives of the course are set out by the English Department of HPMU as
follows:
At the end of the course, the students should be able to:
 name the organs in human body

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 describe these organs in terms of structures, location, functions and properties
 describe a number of diseases, their causes, indications and treatment
 give and follow instructions
 acquire reading skills to read easy medical documents

 understand diagrams and common medical abbreviations
 define the medical terms and abbreviations presented by memory
II.2. Research methodology
II.2.1. Subjects of the study
The process of data collection involved the participation of both teachers of English and
the third year students as follows:
II.2.1.1. The teachers
At Foreign Language Department of Haiphong Medical University, there are totally 12
teachers: 8 teachers of English including the researcher and 4 teachers of French. Among 8
English teachers (7 females and only 1 male) participating in the survey, 3 of them are over 50
years old and also the people who designed the material. The others aged from 26 to 29 who
help in editing and printing the material at the beginning of every course. All these teachers
have taught the third-year students with the material. They are enthusiastic with their career
and have at least 1 year experienced in teaching ESP. It is notable that they are all non-major
in health science and 6 have a master degree and 2 are attending M.A. courses.
II.2.1.2. The students
The second group of the subjects of this study includes 100 third year students at HPMU.
Most of them were born in 1989 and they are both male and female. They took part in the
study after having finished their ESP course in the school year 2009-2010. Among these
students, 28 have been learning English for over 10 years, 47 for more than 4 years, and the
others for around 3 years. However, their test results of general English recorded in the four
previous semesters are quite low (about 30% get mark 1 to 4.5; 45% get 5 to 7 and the rest get
over 7).