HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN
LANGUAGES AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (HUFLIT)
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
----o0o----

GRADUATION PAPER

THE EFFECTIVE WAYS TO IMPROVE
VOCABULARY FOR HUFLIT STUDENTS
MAJORING BUSINESS ENGLISH

Advisor: NGUYEN THI BACH YEN, M.A
Student: LE HOAI BAO NGAN
Student’s number: 15DH710565
Major: BUSINESS ENGLISH

June, 2019


NAME:

LE HOAI BAO NGAN

STUDENT ID:

15DH710565

UNIT NAME:

GRADUATION PAPER

DATE SUBMITTED:

JUNE 18th, 2019

WORD COUNT:

10,186

Declaration
I certify that the attached material is my original work. No other person’s work or
ideas have been used without acknowledgement. Except where I have clearly stated
that I have used some of this material elsewhere, I have not presented this for
assessment in another course or unit at this or any other institution.

Name/signature

Date: 18/06/2019

ii


INSTRUCTOR’S ASSESSMENT
Abstract

_________________ /10

Introduction

_________________ /10


Literature Review

_________________ /10

Research Methodology

_________________ /10

Result and Discussion

_________________ /10

Recommendation

_________________ /10

Conclusion

_________________ /10

References

_________________ /10

Marks:

i


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
INSTRUCTOR’S ASSESSMENT

i

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ii

ABSTRACT

iii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1-5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

6-14

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

15-18

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS and DISCUSSION

19-43

CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATION


44-46

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION

47-48

REFERENCES

49-51

APPENDIX

52-58

ii


ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to identify the relationship between the use of
vocabulary learning strategies and the learning outcomes of students majoring
Business English at Huflit. It aimed at discovering some effective methods in
improving vocabulary and awaking students to the importance of enriching
vocabulary in learning English. This study also attempted to find out the most-used
and least-used strategies applied by learners of Business English as their major at
Huflit. One hundred Huflit students (45 males and 55 females) joined in this
investigation. An online survey, a paper-and-pencil survey and interviews were
used for data collection. The participants answered the questionnaire and then the
filled inquiry forms and responses were collected. After the survey, the results of
this study significantly showed the majority of Huflit students frequently used

familiar vocabulary learning strategies such as using bilingual dictionaries (77%),
asking teachers for translation into Vietnamese (83%), using written repetition
techniques (61%). However, in this research, it was indicated that students who
usually employed the strategies that can give them more chances to practice new
words, for example, reading English documents, interacting with foreigners, taking
a part-time job relating to business English got better academic achievement than
those who only used simple and habitual strategies when learning new vocabularies.
As a conclusion, vocabulary learning strategies can affect directly to students’
English acquisition. More importantly, in order to be fluent in English, students
must use a variety of vocabulary learning strategies regularly.
Keywords: vocabulary learning strategies, Huflit students, English

iii


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
The globalization has greatly affected the world’s economies in recent years.
This phenomenon brought the great need for language performance and competence
specifically in English which is one of the world’s global languages. Lederer (2011)
indicated that English is the most widely spoken language in the history of our
planet, used in some way by at least one out of every seven human beings around
the globe. Majority of international phone calls are made in English, more than 70%
of International mails are written and addressed in English. Half of the world’s
books and as much as 80% of all computer texts are written and stored in English.
In a survey conducted by Ford Foundation in India in 1983, nearly 99% respondents
said that English was their best bet for a good career (as cited in Pushpa & Mani,
2016).
Thus, investigating to find out effective strategies to learn English is more
and more popular. Over the past decades, through many books and researches have
been introduced by such linguistists as Oxford (1990), O’Malley and Charmot

(1990), Nunan (1991), Nation (1990) and so on, it has been witnessed that among
difficulties students often encounter in learning English, extending vocabulary
knowledge has been specifically concerned. It is said that “without grammar very
little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” (as cited in
Hoang Tat Truong, 1985, p.1). In other words, vocabulary is an essential element of
language. All things considered, in speaking, listening, reading and writing,
vocabulary is always needed to communicate and understand others. In some
circumstances, learners make some grammar mistakes in sentences, but the receiver
can still decode their message if they use keywords appropriately. In comparison,
learners acquiring a good knowledge of English grammar may feel embarrassed
when they do not know the words to express themselves immidiately. As Allen
(1983) mentioned in his book “Through research the scholars are finding that
lexical problems frequently interfere with communication; communication breaks

1


down when people do not use the right words.” Furthermore, a great deal of
literature revealed that vocabulary provides the basis for mastering English skills
i.e. writing, reading, listening and speaking (Hammer, 2007; Carter, 1987; Iriyana,
2007). Then again, in 2008, Cook also stated his idea that “when you want to say
something in a second language, it is the words that you feel you struggle for rather
than the grammar or pronunciation.” The other noteworthy point is that vocabulary
is not only indispensable for communication, but also for academic study. On a
more advanced level of language learning, for instance as a student majoring in
English, a fluent and impressive use of vocabulary in examinations can be the
standard to distinguish the exellent students from the others. To put it another way,
vocabulary could be considered as an instrument to measure learner’s language
ability. That is the reason why most of standardized tests require knowledge of
vocabulary such as TOEIC, TOFFLE, IELTs, GMAT, etc. Having abundant

vocabulary also allows students broaden their horizons in many different areas. This
is a key to student’s success.
Everthing has its own difficulty, learning vocabulary is not an exception. It is
not easy to gain vocabulary knowledge at all, which is painstaking, demanding lots
of efforts. When learning vocabulary, the most common obstacle that learners often
meet is retention problem. That means vocabulary is hard to learn by heart but easy
to forget. Many Vietnamese students constanly groaned that “Vocabulary just can
not go inside my head” or “Water off the duck’s head.” The second problem
students deal with is the inability to apply the words they have learned into practice.
It seems to be a big problem when students do not know how to use words in
correct contexts. Another struggle that often crops up early in students’ learning is
exposing to a vast amount of vocabulary. So, it is hard to prioritize a suitable range
of vocabulary over the rest at certain stages of learning. For all above reasons, to
date there have been many researches on vocabulary learning strategies. As a result,
a variety of methods to memorize new words has been detected. Therefore, there is
more freedom in choosing the strategies used during learning English. Beside some
2


popular techniques like learning by heart, taking note, using flashcards, and so on ,
thanks to the development of technologies, many kinds of English learning software
or online programs are designed to help students enlarge their vocabulary size
easier. Markedly, Hayden (2013) recommended top three fun activities for high
school students to build vocabulary containing reading, making flash cards and
playing word building game on the Internet. In 2011, an article posted by Oxford
University Press ELT suggested five other tips to students like repeating little and
often, learning in chunks, building real contexts, using a dictionary and extensive
reading. Additionally, numerous ways to use free digital tools and Internet resources
were explored to encourage students in learning vocabulary by Dalton and Grisham
(2011). Because there are tons of quick and effective strategies to learn vocabulary,

most learners feel difficult to select the appropriate method for themselves. Up to
now, many works have been done; however, more studies need to be conducted to
find the most useful ways to enrich vocabulary for students which are exclusively
designed for Vietnamese students.
In Vietnam, there have so far been some investigations on vocabulary
learning strategies. Nevertheless, research on vocabulary learning methods
employed by students at Huflit has never been done. In the role of a student
majoring Business English at Huflit, I as well as my schoolfellows often raise many
questions relating to vocabulary learning, e.g., How to learn vocabulary effectively?
How to retain a new word in mind? How to use words that have been studied into
contexts? In my point of view, I realized that it is really indispensable providing
successful learning strategies to have a colorful vocabulary. That is the main reason
why I am interested in this topic.
This paper tackles the issue of using vocabulary learning strategies by
English language students at university level. The objectives of this research are to
find out what types of vocabulary learning strategies are most-used by EFL students
at Huflit as well as propose some strategies for students to learn words efficiently.

3


This topic was also identified as having an importance to teachers in providing them
the principal instructions to teach in foreign language classes. Above all, the
findings achieved from this investigation were to help develop learning and
teaching English generally and learning and teaching English at Huflit particularly.
This essay seeks to address the following questions:
1. What are most-used strategies by Huflit students in learning
vocabulary?
2. Do these approaches have any positive impacts on expanding their
vocabulary?

3. What are the most efficient strategies for Huflit students majoring
Business English in learning vocabulary?
This paper has been organized in the following way.
The first section is the introduction about the rationale, the objective, the
research questions and the design of the study.
Chapter 2 begins by laying out the theoretical dimensions of the research. In
this chapter, the definition and classification of learning strategies are reviewed.
Moreover, some valuable researches of previous authors having a particular
relevance on this topic are covered.
It followed by the methodology that describes how the report was carried
out. Chapter 3 includes the context of the study, the study participants and the
methods used for this investigation.
Next, chapter 4 outlines findings and discusses some effective vocabulary
learning strategies. The results will be indicated on the significant data displayed in
the tables and figures.

4


The last chapter assesses the conclusion, some implications, some
recommendations and some limitations of the paper as well as suggestions for
further research.

5


CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
If the previous chapter stated the rationale, the aims, the scope and the design
of the study, in this chapter, an overview of the importance of vocabulary in
business English, definitions and classification of learning strategies would be

presented generally. Moreover, some studies on effective methods to improve
vocabulary were also reviewed. This is the sound basis in theory for the research in
the next chapter.
It has been consistently found that having a huge vocabulary is important
foundation for learning English. As Allen (1983) mentioned in his book “Through
research the scholars are finding that lexical problems frequently interfere with
communication; communication breaks down when people do not use the right
words.” Similarly, a report conducted by Cook in 2008 indicated that “when you
want to say something in a second language, it is the words that you feel you
struggle for rather than the grammar or pronunciation.” On the other hand, it was
suggested that learners of foreign language and second language never stop
acquiring a new lexical item throughout the acquisition stages (Cater et al, 1988)
that also means students always come across new words in listening and reading
activities and grammar lessons and they also found themselves in a position of using
their memories to keep words in mind when speaking and writing. In the same line
of thinking, in 2006, once again, Biemiller & Boote claimed that enriching
vocabulary knowledge has also been positively correlated with reading
comprehension, listening, writing and speaking. Because of these reasons above,
there are more and more researches engaged by many scholars in many different
ways to discover the most optimal vocabulary learning method.
So far, there has been no consensus on the definition of learning strategies. In
the mid-seventies, one of the pioneers in this field, Rubin defined generally
vocabulary learning strategies as “the techniques or devices which a learner may
use to acquire knowledges.” In more explicit, many other linguists used Rigney’s
6


definition of language learning strategies as a basis when they came to conduct their
research. Particularly, Rubin defined the strategies as “any set of operations, steps,
plans, routines used by the learners to facilitate the obtaining, storage, retrieval and

use of information, that is, what learner do to learn and do to regulate their learning”
(Wenden & Rubin, 1981, p. 19). In short, O’Malley and his colleagues described
the strategies as “operations or steps used by a learner that will facilitate the
acquisition, storage, retrieval and use of information” (O’Malley at al., 1985, p.23).
In their other words, learning strategies are “special ways of processing information
that enhance comprehension, learning, or retention of the information.”
Analogously, a definition of language learning strategies as “operations employed
by the learner to aid the acquisition, storage, retrieval and use of information” was
mentioned in Oxford’s study in 1990. Besides, in her own opinion, Oxford believed
that “learning strategies are specific actions taken by the learner to make learning
easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective and more
transferable to new situation.” Seven years later, Schmitt (1997) gave a definition of
vocabulary learning strategies as “the processes by which a learner obtains, stores
vocabulary items when encountering a word for the first time and retrieves,
remembers and uses vocabulary items when communicating.”
As the definition, vocabulary learning strategies have been also classified
differently by many different researchers. In 1981, Rubin identified that there were
two kinds of learning strategies: those contributing directly to learning and those
contributing indirectly to learning. In more detail, for the direct learning strategies,
she divided into six types including clarification/verification, monitoring,
memorization, guessing/inductive inferencing, deductive reasoning and practice.
The indirect strategies were divided into two types (creating opportunities for
practice, production tricks) (Rubin, 1981, pp. 124-126). In view of the classification
from Rubin’s investigation, O’Malley et al (1985) developed a taxonomy of their
own identifying 26 strategies divided into three main subcategories: metacognitive

7


strategies, cognitive strategies, and socialaffective strategies. He also explained

more about these types of strategies
“… metacognitive strategies involve contemplating learning processes such
as planning, monitoring, analysing, and assessing learning which are indirectly
involved in learning. Cognitive strategies are more limited to specific learning tasks
and they involve more directly manipulation of the learning material itself. They
include strategies such as rehearsal, organization, inferencing, summarizing,
deducing, imaginary, transfer, and elaboration. Socialaffective strategies are related
with social medicating activity and transacting with others.”
Obviously,

the

metacognitive

and

cognitive

categories

correspond

approximately with Rubin’s direct and indirect strategies. However, the supplement
of the social mediation category created a turning point in acknowledging the
importance of interactional strategies in learning language.
Having said that, Oxford (1990) perceived that many previous strategy
inventories existed to accentuate cognitive and metacognitive strategies and to
ascribe much less importance to social strategies. Therefore, in her own study, she
decided to divide the language learning strategies into six groups: memory
strategies (which relate to how students remember language embracing creating

mental linkage, applying images and sounds, reviewing well, and employing
action), cognitive strategies (relating to how students think about their learning
including practising, receiving and sending messages, analysing and reasoning, and
creating structure for input and output), compensation strategies (which help
learners overcome their knowledge gaps to continue the communication consisting
of guessing intelligently, and overcoming limitations in speaking and writing),
metacognitive strategies (which relate to how students regulate their learning
containing centering your learning, arranging, planning, and evaluating your
learning), affective strategies (relating to learners’ feelings, comprising lowering
anxiety, encouraging yourself and taking your emotional temperature), and social
8


strategies (which lead to increase interaction with the target language, such as
asking questions, cooperating, and empathizing with others). Moreover, these six
categories were further split into direct strategies and indirect strategies. Even
though the taxonomy of learning strategies worked out by Oxford was supposed to
be “perhaps the most comprehensive classification of learning strategies to date”
(Ellis, 1994, p.539), there has been still dozens and hundreds of such strategies
exist.
In recent years, several attempts connecting with taxonomy of vocabulary
learning strategies proposed by many authors such as Gu and Johnson (1996),
Schmitt (1997) and Nation (2001). If strategies of learning vocabulary were listed as
metacognitive, cognitive, memory, and activation strategies by Gu and Johnson in
1996, Nation (2010) separated those into three general classes of “planning” (which
mean creating context), “source” (relating to collocation) and “processes” (entailing
sentences containing the new word). Nonetheless, significantly, vocabulary learning
strategy classification system offered by Schmitt (1997) was the most popular. He
classified the strategies into two main types being discovery and consolidation
strategies. Then, these two broad groups were divided into determination, social,

memory, cognitive and metacognitive strategies. Perceptibly, this taxonomic system
was partly based on Oxford’s (1990) classification scheme, but Schmitt took this
process a step further. The details can be seen on the table below:

9


VOCABULARY LEARNING

GROUP OF STRATEGIES

TECHNIQUES
Analyze parts of speech
Analyze affixes and roots
Check for the cognate
Analyze available pictures and

DETERMINATION
STRATEGIES

gestures
Guess the meaning from textual
context
Bilingual dictionary
Word lists
Flashcards

DISCOVERY

Ask teacher for translating a new


STRATEGIES

word into native language
Ask teacher for paraphrase or
synonym of a new word
Ask teachers for an example
SOCIAL STRATEGIES

sentence including the new words
Ask classmates for new words’
meaning
Discover the meaning of new
words

through

group

work

activities
Study and practice the meaning of
CONSOLIDATION
STRATEGIES

new words in a group
SOCIAL STRATEGIES

Ask teachers to check students’

flashcards
accuracy

10

or

wordlists

for


Interact with native speakers
Study

word’s

meaning

with

pictures representations
Image word’s meaning
Connect

words

to

personal


experiences
Associate

words

with

their

collocations
Connect words to their synonyms
and antonyms
Use semantic mapping techniques
Use

‘scales’

for

gradable

adjectives
Group
MEMORY

words

together


into

categories

STRATEGIES

Use new words in sentences
Group

words

together

in

a

storyline
Study the spelling of a word
Study the sound of a word
Say new words aloud many times
Draw image of word’s form
Underline initial letter of the word
Configuration
Use keyword method
Use

affixes

and


roots

for

speech

for

remembering words
Use

11

part

of


remembering words
Paraphrase the words’ meaning
Use cognates in study
Learn the words of an idiom
together
Use physical action when learning
a word
Use semantic feature grids
Use verbal repetition technique
Use written repetition technique
Wordlists

COGNITIVE
STRATEGIES

Flashcards
Take note in class
Use the vocabulary section in
textbook
Listen to tape of wordlists
Keep a vocabulary notebook
Use

English-language

media

(songs, movies, newscasts, etc.)
Testing oneself with word tests
METACOGNITIVE
STRATEGIES

Use spaced word practice
Skip or pass new words in
listening and reading
Continue to study words over
time

Taxonomic system of vocabulary learning strategies
(Source: Schmitt, 1997, pp.207-208)
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It is an undeniable fact that the more strategies explored, the more researches
conducted so as to prove the effectiveness of those. For instance, studies of Baxter
(1980), Krashen (1989), Luppescu & Day (1993) has demonstrated that dictionaries
have a great impact in learning language. Further, it has been shown that the most
frequent strategy in learning vocabulary was using bilingual dictionaries (Karipour,
Yazdi, Soori & Shokrpour., 2011).
In 1927, Seibert revealed an important finding that studying aloud
significantly efficient than studying aloud with written and studying silently. As
well as Seibert, Peter (2003) also investigated on the use of repeating aloud strategy.
Results from Peter’s work have also supported that repeating words aloud helps
retention far better than silent repetition (as cited in Goundar, 2015).
On the other hands, there have been many studies confirming that guessing is
also a beneficial strategy in learning vocabulary. As a case in that point, Day,
Komura and Hamamatsu (1991) operated an attempt in Japan with 181 high school
and 397 university students. In the research, students had to read a short story for
approximately 30 minutes and soon after reading the text they had to do a multiple
choice test. Finally, it was found that students of both high schools and universities
performed well (as cited in Goundar, 2015).
What’s more, the effects of vocabulary journals on the students’ vocabulary
mastery were highlighted when Fika (2013) conducted his research on fifty students
of a Junior High School in Bandung. After collecting data from pre-test, post-test,
and interview, Fika (2013) concluded that the use of vocabulary journals was
effective in enhancing vocabulary development.
Additionally, in 2010, it was said that “the Internet has a great many
resources for the development of vocabulary knowledge” (Kitao, 2010, p. 208). In
Kitao’s study, some examples of the types of Internet resources both for vocabulary
teaching and learning were given.

13



From these arguments, I would like to make outstanding contribution to
display some most effective techniques that can help Huflit students improve their
vocabulary size, especially for students majoring Business English. With this in
mind, some vocabulary learning strategies mentioned above will be used as the
theoretical framework of the study in this thesis. Thus, the exemplification of those
strategies will be used in the questionnaire presented in Appendix.

14


CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter includes the research questions, the context of the study,
participants, the procedures to collect and analyse data.

3.1. Research questions
As indicated earlier, the purpose of this study is to find answers to the
following research questions:
1. What strategies do Huflit’students commonly use in learning
Business English vocabulary?
2. Do these approaches have any positive impacts on expanding their
vocabulary?

3.2. Settings
To cater my research, I used nonexperimental study. This approach allowed
me to conduct an online survey questionaire posted on my Facebook page.
Additionally, the paper survey and some pencil-and-paper interviews were also
conducted at Huflit. Form of questionaire and questions used both in the survey and
interview were attached in Appendix. Most of questions found in the questionnaire

are closed-ended questions, which are followed by response options. However,
there are several questions being open-ended questions to explore the valuable
answers of the respondents. Throughout the survey, some effective ways of learning
business vocabulary were presented.

3.3. Participants
One hundred students studying at Huflit were recruited for this study. Forty
five of them were male and fifty-five were female. All of volunteers chose Business
English as their major. The age of participants was between 20 and 25. Most of
them came from HoChiMinh City.

15


3.4. Data collection:
I decided choosing survey questionnaire to collect data because it is familiar,
simple and time-saving. Most of items in the questionnaire targeted at habits of
learning vocabulary and effectiveness of these customs.
The questionnaire created by Google Form consists of three sections. The
first section contains the questions to get participant’s personal information. The
second one includes multiple choice questions about methods that students have
applied in enriching vocabulary knowledge. In this section all vocabulary learning
strategies were presented to the participants in statements with five options (always,
usually, sometime, seldom and never). These five options were used as indicators
for the frequencies of strategies use. In the final section, the participants answered
essay questions relating to virtues and defects of vocabulary learning strategies that
they used. The questionnaire was written in both Vietnamese and English so that all
the informants could understand all questions obviously. This questionnaire was
based on the taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies proposed by Schmitt
(1997).

Furthermore, to increase the reliability of the survey, some interviews were
organized directly with volunteers being juniors, seniors, trainees, alumni, and
alumnae in accordance with the prepared questions. These conversations helped to
have oppotunity to determine participants’attitudes, beliefs and behaviors so as to
gain valuable information. For more details, both interview questions and the online
questionnaire forms were attached in Appendix.
Participants needed about 10 minutes to complete the questionnaire on
Facebook, nearly 15 minutes to answer all of the interview questions and around 20
minutes to reply the paper survey questionnaire. Before filling out the questionnaire,
students were expressed that their contribution was voluntary and responses about
their personal information would remain confidentially. Simultaneously, they also

16


undertook that they would give opinions as they truly think. This is the determinant
of the study’s success.

3.5. Data statistics
After 2 weeks, the data were gathered and calculated. The quantitative
method was applied for statistical analysis to explore some vocabulary learning
strategies that Huflit students used most and how effective they are. The questions
in the survey were analysed one by one. The familiar answers were counted and
converted to percentage out of 100 percent. Then, all the outcomes were conveyed
into bar charts. In addition, all the interviewees’ responses and replies to essay
questions were taken note and coded. Some of these answers were transformed into
a pie chart so as to make it easier in making comparison and the remainder was
discussed to discover new helpful approaches in learning business English
vocabulary.
With reference to cover the strategies of vocabulary learning that Huflit

students used most, the students’ responses to questions in section 2 in the
questionnaire were counted and analyzed. Then, the percentages of five options
(always, usually, sometime, seldom and never) were calculated and tabulated as
aggregation of participants’ answers. The term most-used, least-used, high
frequency and low frequency were used in the data analysis procedure. Most-used
or high frequency includes percentage of always and usually responses. Likewise,
least-used or low frequency consists of percentage of sometimes, seldom and never
responses. As an example, for the strategy statement “Use bilingual dictionary”, it is
indicated that it is the most-used strategy. The aggregation of this is number is
always = 36 and usually = 41, so the most-used percentage of this strategy is 77%
which is aggregated from 36% for always and 41% for usually respectively. The
percentages of most-used, least-used strategies for learning vocabulary were
displayed according to five main categories of vocabulary learning strategies
including determination, social, memory, cognitive and metacognitive strategies.
17


In terms of some effective strategies that help Huflit students increase their
vocabulary knowledge faster and easier, the answers of question “Which
accumulated average mark did you get at Huflit?” and “What scaled score did you
get in Toeic test?” were considered and compared with vocabulary learning
strategies that students chose in section 2 of the questionnaire. For each
accumulated average mark interviewees got at Huflit, the vocabulary learning
strategies used were noted. Then, the percentages of these strategies were counted
so as to find the most-used strategies. The same procedure also applied for the scale
score students achieved in Toeic test. After that, the results were conveyed to tables
and the effective approaches are the strategies that good students (who
accomplished over 8.0 as their average mark at Huflit and accomplished Toeic test
with the scale score above 605) employed with high frequency in learning
vocabulary.

On the other hand, this procedure had some difficulties in convincing people
to take part in because former students were so busy that they were not willing to
spend their time in this survey. Besides, because of limited time and condition, this
research was only applied for a small number of students at Huflit, which might not
be accurate results for some other people.

18


CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In this chapter, all the results from the survey questionnaire were presented.
Then, I also discussed and analyased those findings so as to find out the answers to
the research questions made formerly.
2%

want to live and work abroad in
the future
want to earn a lot of money

10%

37%

20%

want to follow the trend
have passion for foreign trade

6%


25%

want to improve English ability
in business
others

Figure 1: Reasons for students to choose Business English as their
major

In term of the reasons why students at Huflit chose Business English as their
major, the results, most of those interviewees reported that they studied Business
English because they want to improve their English ability in business. Besides,
25% of students really have passion for international trade. Another popular reason
is the desire to earn a lot of money, which was the intention of about 20% Huflit
students when they decided to take in Business English. Ten percent of participants
said that studying for a degree in Business English could help them live and work
abroad in the future easier while 6% of ones chose this major only for following the
trend. Just over 2% of volunteers had other reasons that were Business English is
easy to learn, this major is close to their part-time job, and so on.

19


8%

4%

Enriching your vocabulary in
business
Communicating in business

english
Writing in business

25%
55%

Reading comprehensive texts
in business english
Others

8%

Figure 2: Some difficulties students met in learning Business
English

As can be seen from the pie chart, the most common problem students have
had to cope with when studying Business English is how to enrich their vocabulary,
chosen by 55% (over half of the participants). 25% of students said that they felt
hard to write in business. Just below 10% of interviewees reported that
communicating in business was their obstacle in learning Business English.
Reading comprehensive texts in business was considered as a difficulty by the same
percentage of contributors, at 8%. The rest were got other troubles such as how to
apply knowledge into practice, how to search information about business in English,
etc. Overall, the majority of Huflit students believed that improving vocabulary is
their biggest problem in learning Business English.

20