EFL STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN UNDERSTANDING BUSINESS ENGLISH TEXTS

Nguyen Kim Ngan, Nguyen Phuong Chi

Abstract


Students who learn business or economics subjects might read different business texts related to their majors. However, many English as a Foreign language (EFL) students are still struggling with their reading comprehension abilities The objectives of the study are to identify students’ perceptions of common difficulties when reading Business English texts and to explore their attitude towards a number of solutions. The participants were ninety-six Business English students who enrolled in a Business English Reading course at a public economics university in Ho Chi Minh City. A five-Likert questionnaire and a semi-structured interview were employed to collect the data for the study. The results show that EFL students often encountered difficulties in reading Business texts. The most prominent factors influencing Business English reading comprehension generally are Vocabulary, Timing, and Background Knowledge. To address those issues, Business English students proposed six solutions regarding lexical and grammatical knowledge enhancement, regular practice, metacognitive strategies, participation in business courses, and online dictionary use. These recommendations collectively aimed to empower students in mastering the skills of Business English reading comprehension.

 

Article visualizations:

Hit counter


Keywords


ELT department students, English speaking anxiety, teacher support, classmate support, self-efficacy

Full Text:

PDF

References


Allen, J. & Widdowson, H. (1978). Teaching the communicative use of English. English for Specific Purposes. London: Longman.

Anderson, R. C., Hiebert, E. H., Scott, J. A., & Wilkinson, I. A. G. (1985). Becoming a Nation of Readers. Washington, D. C.: National Institute of Education.

Carlisle, J. F. (2000). Awareness of the structure and meaning of morphologically complex words: Impact on reading. Reading and writing, 12(3), 169-190

Davoudi, M., & Yousefi, D. (2015). Comprehension Breakdown: A Review of Research on EFL Learners’ Reading Difficulty and Problems. International Journal of Language and Applied Linguistics, 1, 58-72.

Davoudi, M., &Yousefi, D. (2015). Comprehension Breakdown: A Review of Research on EFL Learners’ Reading Difficulty and Problems. All rights reserved, 58(1), 22-31.

Dreyer, C. & Nel, C. (2003). Teaching reading strategies and reading comprehension within a technology-enhanced learning environment. System, 31, 349-365.

Færch, C. & Kasper, G. (1983). Strategies in interlanguage communication. Longman.

Grabe, W. and Stoller, F. L. (2002). Teaching and researching reading. New York: Longman.

Ha, H. T. L. (2022). Reading Strategies Employed by Hue University Non-English Major Students in Reading English Level 3 Texts. Hue University Journal of Science: Social Sciences and Humanities, 131(6), 111–126.

Harmer, J. (2008). How to teach English. Oxford University Press.

Harris, A. J., & Sipay, E. R. (1971). Effective teaching of reading. D. McKay Company.

Hung, D. M., & Ngan, V. P. T. (2015). Investigating Reading Strategies Used by EFL Students at Dong Thap University. Asian Journal of Educational Research, 3(4), 10-20.

Khataee, E. (2018). Reading failure among Iranian EFL learners: Study of underlying problems. International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 6(3). 164-176.

Mehdi, V.D., & Mansoor, T. (2013) A comparative analysis of reading strategies across ESP students of humanities and engineering. International Journal of Research Studies in Language Learning, 2(5), 63-78.

Nickerson, C., & Planken, B. (2015). Introducing Business English. Routledge.

Mundhe, G. B. (2015). Teaching Receptive and Productive Language Skills with the Help of Techniques. Pune Research an International Journal in English, 1(2), 1-6.

Paris, S. C., Wasik, B. A., & Turner, J. C. (1991). The development of strategic readers. In R. Barr, M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal, & P. D. Pearson (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (Vol. 2, pp. 609–640). New York: Longman.

Qian, D. D. (2002). Investigating the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and academic reading performance: An assessment perspective. Language learning, 52(3), 513-536.

Qrqez, M., & Ab Rashid R. (2017). Reading comprehension difficulties among EFL learners: the case of first and second-year students at Yarmouk University in Jordan. Arab World English Journal, 8(3), 285-298.

Rahman, M.H. (2007). An Evaluation of The Teaching of Reading Skills of English in Bangladesh. Unpublished Thesis. Retrieved on October 1, 2023, from www.asian-efl-journal.com/Thesis/Thesis-Rahman.pdf

Thao, T. Q., & Tham, D. M. (2018). The Difficulties in ESP Reading Comprehension Encountered by English-Majored Students. VNU Journal of Foreign Studies, 34(2), 151-161.

Uribe-Enciso, O. (2015). Improving EFL students’ performance in reading comprehension through explicit instruction in strategies. Rastros Rostros, 17(31), 37-52.




DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejel.v8i5.5085

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright © 2015 - 2023. European Journal of English Language Teaching (ISSN 2501-7136) is a registered trademark of Open Access Publishing Group. All rights reserved.

This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library (Biblioteca Nationala a Romaniei). All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms.

All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).