NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

BUSINESS ENGLISH MAJOR

THE HABIT OF READING SPECIALIZED ENGLISH MATERIALS

OF STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

AT NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

Supervisor: Tran Minh Chau

Students: Le Ha Linh - 11182676

Vu Thi Tuyet Mai - 11202495
Hoang Cam Tu - 11208267
Vu Thi Thien Thanh - 11184472

Class: Writing 4 (221)_02

Hanoi, 2022

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ACRONYMS ...................................................................................................................1

LIST OF FIGURES ..........................................................................................................................2
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER 1. OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................4
1.1. Background .......................................................................................................... 4
1.2. Research purpose ................................................................................................. 4
1.3. Research questions ............................................................................................... 5
1.4. Research scope.....................................................................................................5
1.5. Organization of the study......................................................................................5
CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW.....................................................................................7
2.1 Reading habit ........................................................................................................ 7
2.1.1 Definition of reading habit...................................................................... 7
2.1.2 Advantages of reading habit ................................................................... 8
2.1.3 Aspects of reading habit.......................................................................... 9
2.2 Specialized materials ........................................................................................... 11
2.2.1 Definition of specialized materials ....................................................... 11
2.2.2 Advantages of specialized materials ..................................................... 11
2.2.3. Specialized English materials used by FFL students ........................... 13
2.3. Challenges to establish a good habit of reading English materials .................... 13
2.3.1. Studies in foreign countries ................................................................. 14
2.3.2. Studies in Vietnam ............................................................................... 15
2.4. Chapter summary ............................................................................................... 16
CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................................................... 18
3.1. Research subjects ............................................................................................... 18
3.2. Research methodology ....................................................................................... 18
3.3. Procedure............................................................................................................ 18
3.3.1. Interview .............................................................................................. 18
3.3.2 Questionnaire survey ............................................................................ 19
3.3.3. Analyse quantitative data ..................................................................... 19

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CHAPTER 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ..................................................................... 21
4.1. Description of survey participants ..................................................................... 21
4.2. Current situation in the habit of reading SEM of FFL students ......................... 23
4.3. Challenges faced by FFL students to establish a good habit of reading SEM ... 30
4.4. Recommendations .............................................................................................. 33
4.4.1. Recommendations for teachers ............................................................ 34
4.4.2. Recommendations for students ............................................................ 34
CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................... 37
5.1. Summary of the research .................................................................................... 37
5.2. Limitations of the research & Suggestions for further studies .......................... 37
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................ 39
APPENDIX ...................................................................................................................................... 41
1. Interview Questions .............................................................................................. 41
2. Questionnaires ....................................................................................................... 43

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 LIST OF ACRONYMS

EFL English as Foreign Language

FFL Faculty of Foreign Language
NEU National Economics University
SEM Specialized English materials

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 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Student’s school year .................................................................................... 21

Figure 2. Student's gender ............................................................................................ 23
Figure 3. Student’s frequency of reading ..................................................................... 24
Figure 4. Student’s spending hours on each reading SEM........................................... 25
Figure 5. The average number of SEM student reads in 1 semester ............................ 26
Figure 6. The kinds of SEM student uses ..................................................................... 27
Figure 7. The main form of SEM student uses ............................................................. 28
Figure 8. Student’s motivation for reading SEM ......................................................... 30
Figure 9. Student’s difficulties in approaching SEM ................................................... 31
Figure 10. Student’ s regular level of understanding SEM .......................................... 32
Figure 11. Student’s difficulties in reading SEM ......................................................... 33

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 ABSTRACT
Along with globalization, English is becoming more and more common in teaching and
learning, which creates a higher need for reading specialized English material in every
field. Also in that context, students of the Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL) at
National Economics University (NEU) are required to read an abundance of specialized
English materials (SEM) as a habit to ensure more in-depth knowledge of not only
English but also economics, commerce, and administration. Therefore, this study is to
explore the habits of reading SEM among the FFL students at NEU, especially those
who are in the 3rd year and above. This research is conducted with a combination of
qualitative and quantitative methods. An interview and questionnaire are used as the
research instruments. This study gained a broad overview of the reading SEM habits of
104 students including the frequency, hours for reading, type of materials, motivation,
and also some challenges when approaching and reading materials. Finally, the
researchers made some recommendations to teachers and students to promote this good
reading habit among university students, especially FFL students.

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 CHAPTER 1. OVERVIEW

1.1. Background

Specialized documents are materials that provide in-depth knowledge about a particular
discipline. In the university, specialized documents are usually composed by lecturers
in the school, or purchased the copyright and translated from reputable foreign sources.
However, the amount of knowledge in specialized materials provided by the school is
still basic and limited, not meeting the needs of the "deep learning" of students. This
leads students to need to read more other specialized documents written in both their
mother tongue and foreign languages, especially in English.

The Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL) at National Economics University (NEU)

majors in training bachelors of English with an extensive background in economics,
commerce, and administration. Students of the FFL are required not only to be good at
English but also to understand the terms related to economics in English and use them
in international business transactions. Therefore, in the process of studying at the school,
especially in the third and fourth years, besides the documents provided by the school,
students need to read a huge amount of other specialized materials in English as a habit
in order to ensure the need for an in-depth understanding as well as the need to be up-
to-date. Nowadays, forming the habit of reading specialized materials in English is not
simply a good study method, it is also a core factor to help students expand and enrich
their knowledge as well as enhance their self-worth. It is an indispensable method of
acquiring knowledge and is essential for higher academic performance (Bashir &
Mattoo, 2012). However, in the process of finding and reading specialized materials in
English, there are many obstacles and barriers that make students find it difficult and
discouraged. Although the habit and factors that affect it have been existing for years,
no research has been conducted before to investigate the habits of students in reading
specialized English materials in students of FFL of National Economics University.

1.2. Research purpose

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The main purpose of this study is to ascertain the habits of reading English specialized
materials among FFL students at the National Economic University. Specifically, the
aim of the study includes the following:

1. To determine the FFL students‘ reading habits in relation to specialized English

materials.
2.   To point out the challenges that FFL students meet in order to form a good habit
of reading specialized English materials.
3.   To find out solutions that help FFL students encourage their habits of reading
specialized English materials.

1.3. Research questions

The aim of the study is to answer the following questions:

1.  What is the current situation in the habit of reading specialized English materials
of students at the Faculty of Foreign Languages at the National Economic
University?
2. What are the challenges faced by students at the FFL to establish a good habit of
reading specialized English materials?
3.  Which solutions should be offered to encourage FFL students’ habits of reading
specialized English materials?

1.4. Research scope

Duration: during the second semester of the academic year 2021-2022, from 6 January
th

to 8 April 2022.
th

Geographical location: National Economics University, Ha Noi, Vietnam.

1.5. Organization of the study

There are 5 key sections of the study as the follow:

Chapter 1. Overview: sets out the background and emerges reasons why this research
is to be chosen. The chapter also outlines the purpose, questions, scope and organization
of the research.

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Chapter 2. Literature review: describes the main definitions used in the research
process and theoretical points related to the field of the research subject.

Chapter 3. Research Methodology: In this chapter, the subjects, research instruments

and data collection procedures are introduced to the readers. The chapter also describes
the methodology that was used to design research and sanalyse data.

Chapter 4. Results and Discussion: evaluates and interprets data collected from
questionnaire and interview. Some recommendations for students and lecturers at the
FFL as well as the NEU to encourage students’ habits of reading SEM is also presented
in this chapter.

Chapter 5. Conclusion: states the main conclusions drawn from the research results
and makes suggestions for further study.

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 CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW

In this section, all the terms used in this study would be listed and explained. To be
more specific, we would clarify the definition, the advantages, and some aspects of the
reading habit which is the center topic of our study. Furthermore, specialized English
material is another important feature that needs to be illuminated. Besides, while one of
the study’s purposes is to point out the English reading challenges, overviews of several
previous relevant theories would be mentioned.

2.1 Reading habit

2.1.1 Definition of reading habit

Reading habit refers to the behavior which expresses the likeliness of reading and taste
of reading, occurring regularity of leisure reading approach (Sangkaeo, 1999). It means
a settled reading tendency measured by the number of different reading resources and
the amount of time that individuals spend on reading, according to Mngoma, N. P.
(1997). Reading habit illustrates the way of willing, thinking that is acquired through
automatic and unconscious processes involved in composing meaning from text (Zwiers,
2004). Learning letters, words, sentences, passages and complete texts are the great
achievement recorded by having a reading habit (Parlette, 2010). As it is not just reading,
it is a long-life process of studying, gaining knowledge and a mean for personal growth.
Moreover, Tuba (2017) indicated reading could become a habit if a person regards it as
a pleasurable necessity and individual engages in it regularly. Besides, researchers have
discovered a correlation between reading habits and some factors consisting of gender,
age, educational background, academic performance and professional development
(Muniandy, 2013). Reading habit accompanies individuals as they grow older and has
a great impact on their academic circumstances.

Reading habit means having a habit of reading in everyday life, not only for institution
needs but also for many specific purposes. Reading is crucial for every person to gain
knowledge and keep pace with new and changeable ways in the modern world where
science and technology are rapidly developing and changing human life. This trend

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requires people to enhance their professional, educational and social lives to adapt to
change, particularly after formal education when lifelong learning is necessary for
occupational and career growth. Besides, reading is regarded as an activity promoting
the individual to gain unique power and develop critical thinking skills. Therefore,
reading habits along these lines are considered as an elementary means of promoting
individual characteristics, mental capacity, learning, information, and cognition of a
person (Clark & Rumbold, 2006).

2.1.2 Advantages of reading habit

Chandra, Rao, Satya, and Durga (2017) in their study ‘Developing English language
reading habits among children’, stated that a habit of reading has a great contribution
to widening the experiences and knowledge of the young. Reading various kinds of
resources provides readers with a wide range of useful information, messages,
experiences and news that they cannot be taught at school. Moreover, according to
Kurtus, as cited in Ameyaw and Anto (2019), reading is a fundamental activity that
benefits people of all ages. They emphasized that reading is an excellent way to get
knowledge, but it must be useful information that encourages someone to become a
professional, pass an exam, be competent at decision-making, or have a learning status.
Reading habit assists individuals in reaching their goal, promotes them in attempting to
achieve their aim. While Grabe & Stoller (1997) indicated that a good reading habit
exerts an effect on individuals’ development of their personalities and mental abilities.
It shows that this kind of habit has the ability to form an individual’s characteristics as
well as help them to have a right-thinking method development that creates good ideas
in daily life. Good reading habits can be a strong weapon for students to have a good
life (Bashir & Mattoo, 2012). Regarding the importance of reading, students learning
English as their foreign language are required to form a good habit of English reading
due to their involvement in many English practices. Individuals from many countries
where English is not their mother tongue language may struggle to learn English since
they have to face new vocabularies, word order, and the meaning of the text that is tough
to comprehend. According to Iftanti (2012), regular repetition of reading practices leads
to reading habits becoming second nature to EFL students' daily activities. As reading

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habit allows learners to study every aspect of words mastery, grammar, jargon, and
reading techniques, students can gain a deep understanding of the English language
through reading English materials. A habit of reading English motivates pupils to open
and broaden their vocabularies, their knowledge, and their perspective on the outside
world, helping them to improve reading comprehension and master the English
language. Moreover, understanding English texts accurately leads to enhancing their
intelligence and essential skills in the task of understanding. which can be applied in
many other fields in both campus needs including academic performance, learning
subjects, and their daily life.

2.1.3 Aspects of reading habit

Reading attitude

Attitude toward reading is described as an individual’s sense of reading. Smith (1991),

as cited in (Ho, 2016, pp. 14-15), defined reading attitudes as a state of mind, feelings,
and emotions. Moreover, according to Van Schooten, et al (2004), reading attitude is
determined by some personal factors such as self-confidence and results in reading
evaluation. Other theories said that what individuals felt when they read is called
reading attitude, depending on the whole feeling of the reader. The attitude toward
reading has a great influence on people’s reading activities, deciding how many books
they read or how often they spend time reading. Similarly, Seitz (2010) indicated that
reading attitude has a great contribution to the primary factor affecting students’ reading
performance. All in all, it refers to the concept of reading attitude and the concept of
how readers like or dislike reading.

Reading frequency

Reading frequency refers to the space of time spent reading books in an individual’s
spare time. Schmidt & Retelsdorf (2016) regarded reading frequency as a reading habit
since habit is defined as the frequency with which people engage in certain behaviours.
Moreover, Clark and Douglas (2011) said that reading frequency has a significant
impact on reading achievement. The more reading resources individuals read, the better

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academic performance they have. The result of research found that students who are
having difficulty reading tend to have low reading frequency, or never read outside the
materials of the classroom. Besides that, researchers also discovered a strong correlation
between the number of books that are read and reading frequency. If a person reads
many books regularly, it means that the number of books he reads will be more either.

Reading materials

There are two main sources of information that students often find to read: printed
materials and the internet.

Printed material is the source of information that has been very popular since thousand
years ago. It has many advantages that can not be denied. Firstly, printed documents
can be easily stored and readers can read them again whenever they need them. Each of
them has its own name and they are stowed away in a bookshelf or library, so readers
do not have to memorize the files, folders, or paths to find them. Besides, those
documents are not easily lost when something goes wrong with the reader's computer
or storage account. Lastly, OECD (2021) affirms that students perform better when they
read from printed materials rather than digital devices. According to the OECD/PISA
survey, nearly one-third of students read books only seldom or never. One-third of
people prefer to read books on paper, 15% prefer to read on digital devices, and 13%
read books in both paper and digital versions equally. This proves that reading from
printed materials helps people to absorb knowledge more easily and comfortably.

However, the amount of knowledge printed in paper books is still limited, unable to
meet the needs of a part of people, so they look to the second source, which is also the
largest source of information covering all fields: the internet. The widespread global
use of the internet and the use of alternative reading resources notably using hypertexts
and multimedia resources have made drastic changes in reading patterns (Liu, 2005).
Online documents have their own advantages compared to paper documents, including
the convenience of carrying and the huge amount of information. Readers can only find
paper documents where they store them, while online documents can be carried

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everywhere because they are already stored in devices such as phones, laptops, or even
cloud storage.

Purpose of reading

According to Erdem (2015), the majority of students at both Ankara University and
Erciyes University read books/periodicals to stay informed, develop their skills, and
stay up-to-date. Reading books/periodicals for the purpose of relaxation and reinforcing
courses is at the lowest level for students at both universities. This finding could be right
for the college student and other people in general. Therefore, based on this foundation,
some surveys will be done in this research to figure out the final result.

Time spent on reading

Depending on the career and purpose of reading of an individual, time spent on reading
is not the same among different groups of people divided by the criteria of age. For the
college student, in particular, their time spent on reading could be more than that of
adults and children, because they have to read for their work, study and self-
improvement as well. Locher & Pfost (2019) said that, on average, college students
indicated reading about 30 to 60 min per day in their leisure time. Furthermore, college
students indicated spending substantially more time reading for their studies, which is
equivalent to about 1 to 2 h of reading a day.

2.2 Specialized materials

2.2.1 Definition of specialized materials

Specialized materials are documents that provide in-depth knowledge about a particular
discipline. In universities, specialized documents are usually composed by lecturers in
the school, or purchased the copyright and translated from reputable foreign sources.
Due to the nature of providing in-depth knowledge of a particular field, this type of
document is limited in scope to people who have a background of knowledge in that
field and need to find further information or study insightfully. The specialized
materials can be textbooks, and the extension includes specialized books, newspapers,
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magazines, etc. Therefore, although the scope of use of the specialized materials is
limited, its format is not.

2.2.2 Advantages of specialized materials

Textbooks and reference materials are principal implements to help students equip
themselves with knowledge in the learning process. When beginning to teach a subject,
teachers always focus on providing required learning resources and additional reading
for students' reference. In that learning resource, the textbook is the most basic type of
specialized material, providing knowledge in a systematic way, directly supporting
students in their subject research. In addition, students are required to read other types
of materials such as books, journals, lectures, research papers in the same field. In
general, the role of these types of materials is divided into 2 main categories as follows:

- Information search: Students who read specialized literature for the purpose of
finding information do not necessarily need to link textual information with reality, but
merely accept and use that information. The requirement to read documents comes from
the desire to complete major exams and assignments without motivating the need for
in-depth study of the science.

- In-depth research: In addition to providing information, specialized documents

are also used for readers to acquire knowledge through analysis, synthesis, giving
critical arguments, or also called evaluative thinking. The objectives of the reader in
two separate situations lead to two different methods of reading materials, which are
research reading and information reading. Understanding the value that the author wants
to convey is the main issue of interest to the research reading method.

Regardless of the circumstances and purposes, specialized materials still play a

significant role in the learning process of students. For the information reading method,
students will locate and obtain the necessary information to review or complete the
product of the subject. At a higher level of requirements, reading specialized materials
is not barely finding information on the text, but also acquiring knowledge from the
document. Specifically, in the process of reading and researching specialized materials,

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readers are asked to give their own point of view based on personal knowledge already
possessed and associated with the author's thesis and ideas. However, the process of
reading and absorbing knowledge can only be realized when the readers themselves
grasp the analytical elements, which have their own distinctive features of the sciences.
Therefore, the acquisition of knowledge from the text and the reproduction of meaning
come not only from specialized knowledge, but also from distinct approaches. This
leads to the conclusion that it is the professors of each discipline who must guide both
the analytical tools and the unique value of the science in which students study, as well
as approaches to promote reading and self-learning.

2.2.3. Specialized English materials used by FFL students

Nowadays, English has become an international language. Many countries, including

Vietnam, have considered English as a necessary criterion to judge the quality of the
outcomes at universities. English not only plays an important role in communication
and education but also in almost all areas including economics, politics, etc. Therefore,
to keep pace with global trends, National Economics University also has its own faculty
specializing in training bachelors of English in the field of economics, which is the
Faculty of Foreign Languages (FFL). Because of the requirements for English
proficiency along with extensive professional knowledge in the field of economics,
most of the specialized subjects in the FFL faculty are taught in English. The curriculum
used mainly comes from two sources. One is to purchase the copyright and translate
from foreign textbooks, the other is to be compiled by faculty themselves. This makes
FFL's training program become highly up-to-date and international.

However, knowledge is limitless, while knowledge in the textbook provided by the

university is finite. This leads to FFL students needing to read a lot of additional
materials to expand their knowledge as well as have a deeper understanding. There are
two basic types of additional material that students often read. One is the documents on
the economic field written in Vietnamese, another is the documents written in English.
For documents written in Vietnamese, it is usually articles, books about the
characteristics and economic situation of the world in general and Vietnam in particular.

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Meanwhile, documents written in English are much richer. Because many countries use
English. Therefore, documents written in English will have an extremely varied amount
of knowledge. At the same time, when reading specialized documents written in English,
students can also learn a lot of specialized vocabulary and common terms in the field of
economics. Instinctively, students will tend to read material written in their mother
tongue. Because they are easy to understand and absorb knowledge. Students will be
less likely to find specialized documents written in English, although the amount of
knowledge in them is extremely rich and up-to-date.

2.3. Challenges to establish a good habit of reading English materials

While being aware of the importance and advantages of reading habit, a large number
of students try their best to practice a good habit of reading, especially English materials.
However, they had to face a number of challenges and difficulties on their path of
nurturing a good reading habit, which is revealed in these below studies.

2.3.1. Studies in foreign countries

Following Asraf and Ahmad (2003), vocabulary was the major problem faced by rural
students in Malaysia in reading and learning English. The inadequacy of vocabulary
also made it difficult for students to guess the meaning of one new word. Then, even
using dictionary constantly, students felt reading as a tiring and time-consuming
activity.

According to Das (2011), the following were responsible for poor reading habit faced
by university students including the absence of a reading culture, illiteracy, poverty,
poor education systems, inadequate library systems, absence of a conducive reading
environment, demotivated library staff, the role of parents in promoting reading habits
among their children, libraries and the promotion of reading habit.

Husaini (2013) stated that the majority of female medical students in Taibah University,
Saudia Arabica had barriers and difficulties preventing them from reading including
unavailability of place for concentration, difficulty to access the desired material within

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the library, unavailability of booking list for each subject, no spare time, and source
barriers (such as difficulty to obtain and language barrier).

Akande and Oyedapo (2018) said some factors limiting reading habits included less
accessible school library, outdated reading material in the library, lack of librarian skill
services, unconducive reading environment, lack of government funds to provide
reading material, illiteracy, and poverty. Most of the challenges are from the external
environment.

The study of Nurul Fitri (2020) explores that English-major students at Ar-Raniry State
Islamic University, Indonesia, faced several challenges to establish good English
reading habits. These challenges contained a lack of vocabulary mastery, information
overload, distraction from social media, mood finding, financial problems, and book
unavailability. Most of the participants of the study admitted that vocabulary was the
very first challenge faced by non-native-English-speaking learners to comprehensive a
paper. Moreover, due to the development of the Internet, they were overloaded by
unlimited online data and the interference from social media.

2.3.2. Studies in Vietnam

In 2013, Lam, La, Nguyen and Tran assessing the ability and habits to use English
materials of undergraduate and graduate students at Can Tho University found that two
participant groups met an abundance of challenges in reading materials in foreign
languages such as lack of effective reading methods, limited reading skills, depending
greatly on dictionary, and short of supplementing general knowledge.

The findings from “An investigation into the use of authentic materials in developing
reading comprehension ability for non-English majored students at university of
Technical education in Ho Chi Minh” (Phan Thi My Thien, 2013) revealed that the
majority of students contended with the following difficulties and obstacle in reading
English authentic materials, namely, low learning motivation, limited language
knowledge, and lack of reading strategies.

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Nguyen Thi Xuyen (2019) studied the problems encountered by 83 sophomore EFL
students at HCM University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology in term
of their English press reading skills. The results of the study indicated that the biggest
difficulty to the learner was lack of vocabulary which includes specialized vocabulary,
slangs and common words. The following challenges named was newspaper’s writing
style, in particular, press’s circumstances and topics. This challenge was due to the lack
of self-consciousness in widening social and extraordinary knowledge of the
undergraduates. Other struggles were mentioned included the lack of reading skills like
scanning and skimming.

2.4. Chapter summary

As there are many different opinions about the definition of reading habits among
researchers and experts, the reading habit can be defined as the activity, the elementary
means for students to promote their personalities, mental capacity, personal
development as well as enhance their comprehensive cognition and knowledge for
themselves. The reading habit plays a pivotal role in students’ lives with great benefits
that this kind of habit brings individuals. Reading is an excellent way for students to
widen their knowledge and their experience, stimulate them to enhance necessary skills,
reach their goals and become a better version of themselves. Forming a reading habit
depends on many aspects, as a result, establishing a good habit of reading is quite tough
for students, especially universities students who need to read specialized materials
having a wide range of jargon. Moreover, students studying majors related to English
are required to read specialized English majors which is a challenge to the individual
whose first language is not English. Language barriers, lack of vocabulary, difficulties
in understanding many jargons, and other factors are the reasons that contributed to the
poor reading habits among university students.

There are many types of research conducted to study the reading habit of students at
different levels of the institution, however, researching about the reading specialized
English materials is a new point in this study. The study is going to find out the current

16
situations of the reading habits of students as well as the challenges and solutions to
form a good reading habit of specialized English materials.

17
 CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1. Research subjects

Participants for this study were undergraduate students studying Business English
Major in the years 3 and 4 at National Economics University.

The size of population is around 250, which is the number of 2 courses of students
enrolled each year. Fourth year students from Foreign Language Faculty is the subject
we have contact with, thus making up the majority of the survey respondents. However,
this group still could well represent the study scope, thus, the margin of error is
drastically reduced. The sample size is 104 with 85 female students and 19 male
students. Moreover, the proportion of male and female under investigation corresponds
to that of the whole faculty (approximately 5 females/1 male), the result is likely to
avoid gender bias.

3.2. Research methodology

A mixed-method approach, the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods,

was implemented in this research. The qualitative method provides data with flexible
and suggestive properties. The qualitative research approach fits descriptive studies to
specify immeasurable data. Meanwhile, the quantitative research method brings data in
a specific and accurate way. Quantitative data is used directly to conduct a discussion
of research results and draw conclusions. Qualitative data collection is carried out in
advance to build or extend the range of answers to questionnaires in the survey, which
is the tool to collect quantitative data.

3.3. Procedure

3.3.1. Interview

A set of interview questions was built including open-ended questions to determine

habits in terms of time, frequency, motivation, types of materials, ... along with
difficulties in reading specialized English documents. 3 students in the research scope

18
were selected randomly to conduct interviews. Interview data were analyzed to be used
for building or extending the range of answers to the questionnaire in the survey.

3.3.2 Questionnaire survey

The survey questionnaire will be designed after conducting the interview. Closed-ended
questions are constructed in the form of multiple choices and types of scales to collect
quantitative information. Google’s question form was used as a data collection tool.
Students will answer the question via the survey link received. Their responses and
survey results will be aggregated through Google's question form.

3.3.3. Analyse quantitative data

The data processing of the survey is carried out in the following order: The first step is
data editing: review the survey filling forms through the consistency of each individual's
answers, remove the completed questionnaires that are vague answers or have mistakes
in the survey-making process. The second step is data analysis: using SPSS and Google
Form results to evaluate and create descriptive statistical charts based on responses. The
last stage is data interpretation: interpret the charts and discuss the findings to answer
the research questions, thenceforth, propose solutions to encourage and facilitate for
students to establish a good habit of reading this type of materials. 

In particular, some of method used to analyse quantitative data:

- Measurement of central tendency: The satisfactory data were determined the

mean, which is the average of the scores, used to evaluate the performance or
concentration of variables. This study uses a 5-level Likert Scale from (1) Strongly
Disagree to (5) Strongly Agree. Therefore, if the mean belongs to:

 [1.00 – 1.80]: the respondents Strongly Disagree with the point of view
 [1.81 – 2.60]: the respondents Disagree with the point of view
 [2.61 – 3.40]: the respondents Neutral with the point of view
 [3.41 – 4.20]: the respondents Agree with the point of view

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  [4.21 – 5.00]: the respondents Strongly Agree with the point of view

- Measurement of the dispersion: To measure the dispersion of the data, Standard

deviation (Std.Deviation) is a calculation to measure the dispersion of data around the
mean. The smaller standard deviation, the less differences shown in the respondents’
responses. On the contrary, if this value is high, the survey participants have very
different opinions about the variable, so the scores they gave for the variable are quite
different.

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 CHAPTER 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents research results and discussion the students ‘responses to the set
of the questionnaires. The results is to answer 3 main research questions: (1) What is
the current situation in the habit of reading specialized English materials (shorten as
SEM from now) of students at the FFL at NEU?, (2) What are the challenges faced by
students at the FFL to establish a good habit of reading SEM?, (3) Which solutions
should be offered to encourage FFL students’ habits of reading SEM?

4.1. Description of survey participants

After 2 weeks of opening the survey, 113 FFL students in total participated in answering
the questionnaires. However, after reviewing and removing 9 unappropriated sheets that
do not meet the requirements of target participants, we finally collected 104 valid turns
of responses. All the information of 104 FFL students are described through two pie
charts below:

Figure 1. Student’s school year

Respondents' distribution by academic level according to the school year shows that
more than half of students (58.65%) who took part in the study were 4th-year students

21
while 38.46% were 3rd-year students. Whereas, only 2.88% of FFL students
participated in the survey were more than 4 years.

The researcher found that most of the students participating in the survey came from 3rd
year and 4th year with the percentages of 38.46% and 58.65%. It means that 3rd-year
students and 4th-year students at Faculty Foreign of Language of National Economic
University are studying academic subjects so they tend to focus on reading and using
specialized English materials more than the other academic level of FFL students. A
small number of FFL students took part in this survey were more than 4 years as as
these students are likely to have a job so they use fewer materials than the others, but a
small minority may indicate that they are studying for a higher level of education and
their current career. Whereas, only 2.88% of FFL students participated in the survey
were more than 4 years.

The researcher found that most of students participated in the survey came from 3rd year
and 4th year with the percentages of 38.46% and 58.65%. It means that 3rd-year students
and 4th-year students at Faculty Foreign of Language of National Economic University
are studying academic subjects so they tend to focus on reading and using specialized
English materials more than the other academic level of FFL students. A small number
of FFL students taken part in this survey were more than 4 years as as these students
are likely to have a job so they use fewer materials than the others, but a small minority
may indicate that they are studying for a higher level of education and their current
career.

22
 Figure 2. Student's gender

The analysis according to gender revealed a significant difference between the student
groups, in favor of female students. From the diagram above, the majority of students
participated in the survey were female with 72.12% while 27.88% were male.

In the figure 2, the number of female students participating in the survey is much more
than that of male. It is due to the fact that FFL female students account for a significant
number at all academic levels of students compared to male students.

4.2. Current situation in the habit of reading SEM of FFL students

23
 Figure 3. Student’s frequency of reading

Based on the diagram above, 39 students stated that they read 3 to 4 times per week,
accounting for the highest percentage of frequency among FFL students. The number
of students who spent 5 to 6 times per week on reading is 27, making up for nearly 26%
while the students who read more than 6 times per week were 10, with the proportion
of 9.62%. Meanwhile, the number of students reading 1 to 2 times per week was nearly
27%.

The data shows that the majority of FFL students spent more than 2 times per week
reading SEM. It is undeniable that students study academic subjects at school every
week so they tend to read the textbooks provided by the faculty or read materials relating
to their academic reading for their classroom activities and their knowledge. In
particular, the faculty of foreign languages in the field of knowledge about
specialization relating to the English Language and Business prepares for their
graduates and their future careers. To be good at their future jobs, students are required
to read lots of materials to get the necessary information and a deep understanding of
knowledge as well as help them to improve their skills in learning.

24
 Figure 4. Student’s spending hours on each reading SEM

There were 32 students spending less than 1 hour reading specialized English materials,
making up for 30.77%, while the highest number of students chose 1 to 2 hours spent
on reading, with the percentage of 35.58% (37 students). The figure shows that 27
students (30.77%) read for 2 to 3 hours whereas only 7 students spent more than 3 hours
reading, with a percentage of 6.7%.

Based on Figure 4, a large number of students chose to spend 1 to 3 hours reading SEM
while the figure for choosing more than 3 hours spent on reading was only 6.73%. This
indicates that students from 3rd year or more, are required to read and study specialized
English materials to take in knowledge. However, English materials can be very tough
for students to read due to the vocabulary, jargon, and meaning of the text so they tend
to feel difficult and bored while reading this kind of material.

25
 Figure 5. The average number of SEM student reads in 1 semester

The results observed in Figure 5 among FFL students regarding of the number of
reading specialized English materials revealed that the highest percentage of students,
about 38.5% (40 students) chose to read 2 to 3 materials, followed by the proportion of
students read 3 to 4 materials with the proportion of 26.9% (28 students). The figure for
more than 4 materials read was chosen by 22 students (21.2%) while there were 14
students read 1 to 2 materials, making up for 13.5%.

According to Figure 5, most students read more than 2 SEM in one semester. It is
apparent that FFL students from 3rd year and 4th year focus mostly on studying
specialized subjects at school, therefore, the number of SEM they read is likely to read
a lot of specialized English materials relating to their curriculum and their knowledge.

26
Figure 6. The kinds of SEM student uses

27
From the findings, it is shown that the main source’s specialized English materials is
textbook, with a proportion of 78.8% (82 students). The following was research paper,
with the figure for 69 students (66.3%) while there was no significant difference among
specialized articles, specialized magazines/newspapers, and specialized books, with the
percentages of 49%, 45.2% and 40.4% respectively.

The data from Figure 6 shows that most students chose textbooks as the main sources
of SEM. It is clear due to the fact that FFL students in the 3rd year and 4th year
concentrate most on studying specialization so they mainly read specialized English
materials related to academic reading to graduate with high scores that are provided by
the faculty which are necessary for their curriculum. The research paper was the second
source students chose to read as 3rd-year and 4th-year students tend to spend time doing
research, a project, and doing a thesis that requires a great deal of knowledge and
information as well as good ideas. Moreover, FFL students read lots of other materials
including specialized articles, specialized magazines/newspapers, and specialized
books. These materials are great sources for their school tasks and the part of the
intensive reading that help them get a deep understanding of knowledge or theory about
thesis, analyzing it to get ideas to develop and complete the tasks efficiently and
effectively.

Figure 7. The main form of SEM student uses

28
As shown in the chart above, a percentage of 36.5% of students chose digital materials
while only 9.5% of them chose printed ones. Especially, more than half of respondents
(53.8%) chose to combine two forms for their reading materials.

Based on Figure 7, more students preferred digital materials compared to printed

materials while more than half of respondents (53.8%) chose to combine two forms for
their reading materials. The rapid development of technology makes smartphones and
computers essential equipment for students’ learning, providing great sources of
information and knowledge. In particular FFL students, printed documents for
specialized English materials are few as they are foreign documents and are expensive
to buy. Therefore, students tend to go wireless and use the Internet for digital materials
as it is convenient and cheap for them to learn and take in knowledge.

Motivation for reading specialized English materials

Std. Strongly Strongly
Statements N Mean Disagree Neutral Agree
Deviation Disagree Agree
Class lectures
do not provide
enough 104 3.6 0.93 1.90% 10.60% 27.90% 45.20% 14.40%
information as I
expect
To understand
the curriculum 104 3.87 0.95 1.00% 7.70% 23.10% 40.40% 27.90%
more deeply
To prepare for
upcoming 104 3.76 0.94 1.90% 6.70% 26.90% 42.30% 22.10%
lesson
To prepare for
tests,
104 4.25 0.77 1.00% 1.00% 11.50% 45.20% 41.30%
presentations, or
assignments
Recommended
by teachers or 104 3.74 0.94 1.90% 6.70% 27.90% 42.30% 21.20%
friends
Reading for
curiosity or 104 3.53 0.93 1.90% 11.50% 31.70% 41.30% 13.50%
interest
The fear of
being inferior to 104 3.22 1.01 3.80% 21.20% 33.70% 31.70% 9.60%
others

29
 To meet future
job 104 3.81 0.96 1.00% 8.70% 25.00% 39.40% 26.00%
requirements

Figure 8. Student’s motivation for reading SEM

Most of the observed variables have an average rating within the range [3.41 - 4.2],
which means that students are nearly influenced by the listed motivations in reading
specialized English materials. Among the eight observed variables, the factor “To
prepare for tests, presentations, or assignments” has the highest mean value of 4.25.
This is also the observed variable with the lowest standard deviation of 0.77, which has
a large difference from that of the other variables. It demonstrates that students focus
on 2 options: Agree and Strongly Agree. In contrast, the factor “The fear of being
inferior to others” has the lowest mean value of 3.22, within the range [2.61 - 3.4].
Thus, this is not entirely part of the reason why people read specialized English
materials. This is the only observed variable with a standard deviation greater than 1.0,
which means that people have many different answers spread across the five levels
above. These are the only two factors that fall outside the agreed rating level.

For the variable with the highest value, corresponding to the biggest motivation of
students when reading specialized English documents is to prepare for tests,
presentations, or assignments. The reason for this is that assignments and tests are
subjects directly impacting students in the short term. Score is the most specific and
objective scale, which is also the goal that students aim for in the process of acquiring
and applying knowledge. To achieve the desired score in assignments and tests, students
need to invest time in reading specialized literature. On the other hand, the factor that
has the least influence on student motivation is “The fear of being inferior to others”.
This factor has an almost equal amount of agreeing and disagreeing opinions. This result
shows that students' motivation to read SEM primarily comes from students' internal
demands and is not influenced too much by their peers.

4.3. Challenges faced by FFL students to establish a good habit of reading SEM

30
 Difficulties in approaching specialized English materials
Std. Strongly Strongly
Statements N Mean Disagree Neutral Agree
Deviation Disagree Agree
Textbook is not
104 3.62 0.969 0.0% 15.4% 26.9% 38.5% 19.2%
available in Vietnam
Buying printed
material costs much 104 3.88 0.972 1.0% 9.6% 19.2% 41.3% 28.8%
time and money
Doubt about
104 3.65 0.993 2.9% 10.6% 23.1% 45.2% 18.3%
reliability
Online material
104 4.04 0.682 0.0% 1.0% 18.3% 56.7% 24.0%
charges fees
No permission to
104 4.10 0.757 0.0% 1.0% 21.2% 45.2% 32.7%
access some sites
Excessive sources
that I could not find
104 3.75 0.932 0.0% 12.5% 21.2% 45.2% 21.2%
the most appropriate
one
Borrowing process at
the library is not 104 3.56 0.923 0.0% 13.5% 33.7% 36.5% 16.3%
convenient

Figure 9. Student’s difficulties in approaching SEM

The observed variables have the lowest average rating of 3.56 and the highest of 4.10,
within the range [3.41 - 4.2], which shows that most of the students agree that they have
difficulty in approaching specialized materials in English because of the above reasons.
In which, "Borrowing process at the library is not convenient" has the lowest average
rating among the factors, at 3.56. The factor “Textbook is not available in Vietnam” has
the second-lowest average rating of 3.62.

Students at FFL do not really consider the inconvenient borrowing process at the library
an obstacle, because at the present, not many students choose the library as a place to
borrow documents anymore. Along with the strong development of the global
information network, documents have become richer and easier to find on the Internet
than ever before. So, except in the case of needing to read the internal documents of the
school, students will not choose the library as a source to borrow learning materials
anymore, instead, they consider the library as an ideal space to concentrate more when
they study. In addition, borrowing from the library is controlled by time. This means

31
that students are responsible for keeping and returning the intact documents to the
library at a certain time. This regulation makes students more afraid to borrow materials
from the library than to find materials from outside sources. Besides, because the
Vietnam Cyber Security Department basically does not block academic information
sources, as long as they do not contradict the state's regime or bring false and harmful
information to users. Therefore, the situation that the document is not available in
Vietnam is very unusual. In general, despite the differences in the answers, most of the
students still agree with the difficulties in accessing the materials presented by the
survey team.

Figure 10. Student’ s regular level of understanding SEM

According to the analysis results from the survey, only 1% of students can only
understand the title of the document. In contrast, up to 54.8% of students can only
understand the title, main ideas, and supporting details of the documents. This number
is the largest and even more than double the percentage of students who can understand
the entire document (26.9%).

The figures above show that students have encountered difficulties in the process of
understanding specialized materials in English. However, they can still understand the
main meaning of the texts. That is not surprising, as students of the FFL of NEU have
undergone 4 level English skills courses before entering the third school year to ensure
that students have enough proficiency in English to meet the requirements of specialized

32
subjects. To find out these difficulties in the most objective way, a short interview was
conducted. Based on the interview results, difficulties were classified into two groups:
Difficulties in approaching specialized English materials and difficulties in reading and
understanding specialized English materials.

Difficulties in reading specialized English materials

Std. Strongly Strongly
N Mean Disagree Neutral Agree
Deviation Disagree Agree
Do not understand
vocabularies and 104 3.97 0.919 0.0% 6.7% 23.1% 36.5% 33.7%
terms
Too long paper 104 3.88 0.889 0.0% 7.7% 23.1% 43.3% 26.0%
Complicated
104 3.51 0.965 1.0% 12.5% 39.4% 28.8% 18.3%
grammar
Could not locate
the information that 104 3.65 0.973 1.0% 10.6% 32.7% 33.7% 22.1%
I need
Lack of reading
skills (scanning and 104 3.37 1.015 3.8% 15.4% 33.7% 34.6% 12.5%
skimming)
Limited knowledge
about paper’s
104 3.70 0.891 1.9% 7.7% 24.0% 51.0% 15.4%
circumstances and
topics
Distracted by the
surrounding
104 3.67 0.970 1.0% 11.5% 27.9% 38.5% 21.2%
environment
(sounds, people…)
Distracted by smart
devices (phone, 104 3.82 0.879 0.0% 7.7% 26.0% 43.3% 23.1%
computer…)
No interest in the
104 3.74 0.995 1.0% 11.5% 25.0% 37.5% 25.0%
field
Short of reading
104 3.79 0.910 0.0% 10.6% 22.1% 45.2% 22.1%
time

Figure 11. Student’s difficulties in reading SEM

Most of the observable variables have an average rating within the range [3.41 - 4.2]
which means that most of the students agree that they have difficulty in reading the
specialized literature in English because of the above reasons. The factor “Lack of
reading skills (scanning and skimming)” has the lowest average rating of 3.37, within

33
the range [2.61 - 3.4], and has the highest standard deviation of 1.015, which means that
students do not necessarily find it difficult to read specialized materials because of this
factor and there is a bit different among their choices. The variable “Do not understand
vocabularies and terms” has the highest average rating of 3.97. It means that most of
the students find themselves hindered by this factor.

Students from the FFL of NEU have undergone 4-level English skills modules in the
first and second years, including reading skills. Therefore, students did not feel that their
reading skills were an obstacle when reading materials in English. However, capacity
is a personal factor. Not every student thinks their reading skill is good enough to not
be a hindrance. This is demonstrated by the highest standard deviation index, which
proves that there is a big difference among the choices of the students. Another problem
is that specialized materials in English often include specialized words that are not
common in daily communication but are only used in specific fields. This makes it
difficult for students to read while looking up the meaning of words, causing
interruptions and time-consuming. In general, the quality of students' reading
comprehension of specialized materials in English is affected by various factors,
including objective factors from the environment and subjective factors from
individuals.

4.4. Recommendations

According to the current situation of reading specialized English materials of FFL

students in NEU, this study draws out some suggestions as well as recommendations
for teachers and students for better improvement in future reading habits.

4.4.1. Recommendations for teachers

It seems that there are lots of problems emerging during the process of implementing
SEM as the external sources for students. In order to help both teachers and students
overcome difficulties and complications using SEM, there are three main
recommendations for teachers in choosing and using SEM in classes. In order to make

34
full use of this type of document, teachers should take these factors including suitability
of content, readability and facilitation into consideration.

Firstly, the suitability of content of the SEM is the most important concern that teachers
should take care of encouraging students in reading and meeting their needs. That means
it is vital for teachers not only to stimulate the students’ reading interest but also to show
the necessity and value of reading, especially external materials. For instance, there
would be quizzes whose answers could only be found in other reading materials or
somewhere the teacher wouldn't mention in class. This activity could motivate students
to search for specialized materials to read with their own interest. In addition, it is
known that the sources of usable SEM are infinite such as: books, newspapers,
magazines, articles, etc. Of which, the most useful source is the internet because it
contains an endless amount of text types and it is often updated and interesting enough
to stimulate students to read. However, the use of SEM extracted from the internet
should be taken into careful consideration. Therefore, teachers should take time to look
up the appropriate texts and related tasks to motivate and make students more interested.

Secondly, readability describes the combination of structural and lexical difficulty of

the text and the volume of new words and grammatical structures presented in it. For
students from 3rd year and above of FFL, their proficiency in English skills has reached
a certain level, which allows them to read common content fluently. However, the
percentage of students who have difficulty with the amount of new specialized words
and complex structures is still significant. Therefore, teachers could explain the terms
and give easy-to-understand examples so that students can understand more easily. If
specialized materials are offered without teacher support, they may lead students to feel
frustrated, confused, and more seriously de-motivated.

Finally, facilitation is the situation that teachers create favorable conditions for students
after orienting essential documents in the course. In terms of reading time, teachers need
to assure students have enough time for the materials throughout the course. Teachers
may provide all the materials at the beginning because that is the time when some of
students are free to read about their course. In terms of instructing reading practice,

35
teachers should inform students how to find and read information because some subjects
taught in class are not like in the textbook. Moreover, instead of forcing students to read
too much without purpose or layout, they can figure out chapter’s outline and important
sections.

4.4.2. Recommendations for students

From the results of the interview and the survey as well as concerning students’
difficulties in approaching and reading SEM, the research gave out some
recommendations for students’ improvement in reading SEM:

First, FFL students should improve their self-interest in reading by reading about their
favorite subjects and putting knowledge gained into practice. Building good reading
interest provides students with the constant pleasure and attention to internalize this sort
of material. Thereby, they not only can take in the language knowledge but also can
find a suitable way of reading that can be adapted to other SEM.

Second, FFL students should pay more attention to teachers’ lectures and ask teachers
for an explanation when finding the information hard to understand. To get a deep
comprehension of the lecture, they need to highlight the main points, write comments
and notes in the margins of the book or the notebook. In the meantime, they also should
participate in-class activities such as a debate, discussions, or teamwork to revise their
knowledge and apply them in reality.

Third, FFL students should improve coordination and organization of study time and
spaces as learning spaces should eliminate distractions and sounds. This will bring about
more productive study time as students are likely to focus more on reading and studying.

Finally, FFL students should prepare themselves for the strategies to conquer extensive
and intensive skills. Good strategies encourage regular reading in students, leading to
an increase in confidence, cognition, and motivation for them to read.

36
 CHAPTER 5. CONCLUSION

5.1. Summary of the research

This study investigates the reading habits of FFL students. The results show that: Due
to the need of learning specialized subjects as well as doing research at the university,
100% of FFL's 3rd and 4th-year students read SEM, in which, most of them read 2-3
books per semester, with a rate of 3-4 times per week, and the time for each reading is
1 -2 hours. The main source of SEM that students usually use is textbooks and research
papers in the form of digital or printed materials. They seem to invest time in reading
specialized literature to achieve the desired score in assignments, tests, and research.

Another significant finding is that, although the development of the internet makes it
easier to find and translate the SEM, most of the students agree that they have
difficulties in approaching and reading specialized materials in English because of
various reasons. In terms of approach, they find it difficult to access the SEM because
of their prices, availability, reliability, permission, etc. In terms of reading, they agree
to meet some difficulties in reading SEM given in the survey, especially with the
specialized terms and vocabulary. This can be because specialized materials in English
often include specialized words that are not common in daily communication but only
in specific fields. This makes it difficult for students to read while continuously looking
up words' meaning, causing interruptions and time-consuming in reading SEM. These
findings will hopefully help FFL students assess their own level and ability to read SEM,
see their weaknesses and the reasons behind them. From there, students can choose the
right methods to improve their productivity in reading.

Finally, the study pointed out some recommendations for both teachers and students
with the hope that they will use the suggestions effectively and comprehensively.

5.2. Limitations of the research & Suggestions for further studies

Besides its contributions, this study remains some limitations that need to be improved
in future research. Firstly, the scope of the study is small, mainly concentrating on 3 rd

37
year students and above, from the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Economics, NEU.
Therefore, results may not remain the truth for other studies with a larger scope.
Secondly, because of the time limitation, the survey did not collect all of responses from
research subjects, which could affect to general evaluation. Thirdly, the difficulties
named in this study is mostly drawn from the short number of interviewees’ responses.
Thus, there might be more challenges faced by other students have not been named.

The shortcomings of the research should be overcome in further study with a longer
time and the increasing number of participants. The future research should be done into
more students to provide more reliable information. Furthermore, the study also can
enlarge research subjects that are students in other majors of other universities, not only
in Business English in NEU. Finally, if the scope of the study is expanded, more
problems might be found out, which makes the study more general, and more options
for improvement will be suggested.

38
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 APPENDIX

1. Interview Questions

Hello everyone!

We are from the Faculty of Foreign Languages of National Economics University. We

are now researching ‘The habit of reading specialized English materials of students at
the Faculty of Foreign Languages at National Economics University’.

Specialized materials provide in-depth knowledge about a particular discipline. They

can be textbooks used by FFL students in the curriculum such as Specific topics of
Banking and Finance, English for International Business, Basic English Lexicology,
etc., except 4-fundamental-skill textbooks. They also can be specialized books,
newspapers, magazines, research papers that focus on the field.

We really hope that you can spend some of your precious time participating in this
interview to investigate FFL students’ habits of reading specialized English materials.
Each of your responses plays a crucial role in the procedure and the result of this study.
We are committed that all the information provided from you for this interview will be
thoroughly confidential and be used for research purposes only.

We thank you very much for your time and your contribution!

1. Do you read specialized English materials? Can you describe some of your
reading habits?
How often do you read? (How many times per week? How many hours per each
reading?)
How many documents do you usually read in a semester?
2. What types of materials do you read (textbook, specialized magazine, printed
book, ebook, research paper, ... )?
3. How could you approach those materials? Do you face any challenges when
approaching them?
4. What motivates you to read specialized English documents?
41
5. What is your level of understanding the papers?
6. Do you face any challenges or problems in reading specialized English materials?
(External and internal challenges)
7. What strategy do you use to solve those challenges or problems?
8. Do the strategies work? Could you explain the results of the strategies?
9. Which one of those is the most difficult challenge?
10. Do you have any recommendations (to teachers, faculty, college, library,
parents…) to solve those problems/challenges as well as to improve students’
reading habits?

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 2. Questionnaires

Hello everyone!

We are from the Faculty of Foreign Languages of National Economics University. We

are now conducting a survey on ‘The habit of reading specialized English materials of
students at the Faculty of Foreign Languages at National Economics University’.

Specialized materials provide in-depth knowledge about a particular discipline. They

can be textbooks used by FFL students in the curriculum such as Specific topics of
Banking and Finance, English for International Business, Basic English Lexicology,
etc., except 4-fundamental-skill textbooks. They also can be specialized books,
newspapers, magazines, research papers that focus on the field.

We hope that you can spend some of your precious time participating in the survey since
each of your responses plays a crucial role in the procedure and the result of the study.
We are committed that all the information provided from you for this survey will be
thoroughly confidential and be used for research purposes only.

We thank you very much for your time and your contribution!

I. Respondent information

1. Which year are you in?

□ 1st-year □ 2nd-year □ 3rd-year □ 4th-year □ More than 4 years
2. What is your gender?
□ Male □ Female

II. The habit of reading specialized English materials

3. What is your frequency in using specialized English materials?
□ Never
□ 1-2 times per week

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□ 3-4 times per week
□ 5-6 times per week
□ More than 6 times per week

4. How many hours do you spend on each reading time?

□ Less than 1h □ 1h-2h □ 2h-3h □ More than 3h

5. On average, how many specialized English documents do you read in one

semester?
□ 1-2 □ 2-3 □ 3-4 □ More than 4

6. What kind of materials that you usually use?

(You can choose more than one answer.)
□ Textbook
□ Specialized article
□ Specialized magazine/newspaper
□ Specialized book
□ Research paper

7. What is the main form of information that you often find to read?
□ Printed materials
□ Digital materials
□ Combination of the two forms above

8. What motivates you to read specialized English documents?

1.Strongly 2.Disagree 3.Undecided 4.Agree 5.Strongly
Disagree Agree

Class lectures do not

provide enough
information as I expect

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To understand the
curriculum more
deeply
To prepare for
upcoming lesson
To prepare for the test,
presentation, or
assignment
Recommended by
teachers or friends
Reading for curiosity
or interest
The fear of being
inferior to others
To meet future job
requirements

III. Challenges in reading specialized English materials

9. What is your regular level of understanding the papers?
□ Only title
□ Title and main ideas
□ Title, main ideas, and supporting details
□ The whole document

10. What challenges do you face when approaching specialized English materials?
1.Strongly 2.Disagree 3.Undecided 4.Agree 5.Strongly
Disagree Agree

Textbook is not
available in Vietnam

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Buying printed
material costs much
time and money
Doubt about
reliability
Online material
charges fees
No permission to
access some sites
Excessive sources that
I could not find the
most appropriate one
Borrowing process at
the library is not
convenient

11. What difficulties do you encounter when reading specialized English materials?
1.Strongly 2.Disagree 3.Undecided 4.Agree 5.Strongly
Disagree Agree

Do not understand
vocabularies and
terms
Too long paper

Complicated grammar

Could not locate the

information that I need
Lack of reading skills
(scanning and
skimming)

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Limited knowledge
about paper’s
circumstances and
topics
Distracted by the
surrounding
environment (sounds,
people…)
Distracted by smart
devices (phone,
computer…)
No interest in the field

Short of reading time

12. Do you have any recommendations (to teachers, faculty, college, library,
parents…) to solve those problems as well as improve students’ reading habits?
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