RATIONALEVOCABULARY PLAYS AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN LEARNING A FOREIGN L...

1. - THE EFFECT OF EXPLICIT VOCABULARY TEACHING ON ESP STUDENTS VOCABULARY ACQUISITION A QUASI EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH IN VUNG TAU VOCATIONAL TOURISM COLLEGE U)
THE EFFECT OF EXPLICIT VOCABULARY TEACHING ON ESP STUDENTS VOCABULARY ACQUISITION A QUASI EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH IN VUNG TAU VOCATIONAL TOURISM COLLEGE U)

1. Rationale

Vocabulary plays an important role in learning a foreign language, especially in learning

English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Failing to acquire survival level vocabulary, the

learners are unable to understand the target language.

In Vung Tau Tourism Vocational College (VTVC), English is taught as a compulsory

subject together with other vocational ones. During the final course, students mainly use

the ESP course book “Ready to Order”. Listening and Speaking are the primary skills

which are designed on a large number of vocabulary for specific purposes (Food &

Beverage). However the fact that students cannot retain and use ESP words causes

frustration and results in their negative attitude towards the ESP course. This fact needs a

reconsideration the method of teaching vocabulary.

So far, there have been many different approaches to vocabulary teaching and learning that

were proved to help students understand, retain and use words in the target language.

Howerver, Explicit vocabulary teaching is proved particularly useful for students who

access ESP for the first time, they are seen as beginning students who have a limited

reading vocabulary and little exposure to incidental vocabulary learning outside of school.

So, a Quasi-Experimental Research was conducted on ESP vocabulary teaching in which

the Explicit and Implicit Vocabulary Teaching Approaches were implemented.