The Use of First Language in Teaching ESP Vocabulary to Engineering Students at a Technical College

There has been a long-standing debate over the issue of including or excluding the student’s mother tongue (L1) in English as a foreign language (L2) classrooms. There are two opinions in this regard: monolingual approach and bilingual approach. While advocates of monolingual approach suggest that learning is determined by the exposure to L2, those advocating the bilingual approach think that L1 makes a valuable contribution to the learning process. Despite the widespread English-only use in EFL classes, the use of L1 is still a perennial topic. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the use of L1 in English for specific purposes (ESP) classes at a Technical College in Ho Chi Minh City-Vietnam (Henceforth called TC). More specifically, it attempts to explore the extent to which L1 is used and the reasons why L1 is used, and discover what attitudes engineering students have towards the use of L1 in the process of teaching ESP vocabulary to students. The instruments used for collecting data were questionnaires and class observations. The participants were 8 EFL teachers and 314 students at TC. The findings of the study indicated that all the teachers of English overused L1 in teaching ESP vocabulary. The study also revealed that the ESs had supportive attitudes towards their teachers’ use of L1 in teaching ESP vocabulary. Based on the findings, the study provided practical implications in order to help both EFL teachers and engineering students to improve their teaching and learning ESP at vocational training colleges in the Vietnamese context.