Difficulties in using references which 2nd year English majors face when doing secondary research (SR) in Hanoi University

Difficulties in using references which 2nd year English majors face when doing secondary research (SR) in Hanoi University I. Introduction Doing secondary research in term 3 at Hanoi University is challenging work for students because it is an important kind of writing in tertiary level which requires students move from essays to research papers. One remarkable thing in doing this task is that it needs their ability to work with sources. Each main point will be stronger if it is backed with good supporting references. However, using references is not considered as an easy task. It includes many steps such as finding, evaluating and integrating (integrating references means that you combine your sources with your own ideas by quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing). And despite the fact that a large number of students encounter obstacles, few studies have been conducted about this subject. In fact, it is very necessary for them to take a closed look at this. Within the scope of our project, we investigated difficulties in using references which 2nd English majors face when doing secondary research to clarify what makes it hard. II. Materials and Methods In order to gather data for our study, a questionnaire (see Appendix) was designed. The very first question is to identify students’ opinion about using references. The next question is mentioned about common places where they often gain information for secondary research. Whereas, the third and forth aim to probe difficulties in finding references. The subsequent one concentrates on difficulties in evaluating references. Lastly, the rest of questions are figured out difficulties in integrating references. 1 Second-year English students at Hanoi University were participants of our research. 30 students were chosen randomly from different classes. Most of them are female and at the age of 20 on average. Their attendance was purely voluntary. The survey was implemented in Hanoi University in April, 2009. The questionnaires were distributed to the participants in each class in the break time. Firstly, the students read the questions carefully. Then they were explained with some unclear points. They fulfilled the questionnaires for 30 minutes. After that, we collected all the handouts. III. Results and Discussion In general, almost students consider using references as a difficult task. The fact is that 70% of asked students find it difficult, 30% of them find it normal and no one finds it easy. In this study, the distribution of facts relate to difficulties in using references is conducted. It will make clear why students feel it difficult. 1. Difficulties in finding references 1.1 Time consuming Table 1: Time consuming to find references Spending time The number of respondents Not much Much 1 20 Very much 9 3% 67% 30% The first things we figure out about difficulties in finding references are time consuming. When being asked about time, 20 of 30 respondents answer that they spend much their time on finding references, 9 of 30 respondents spend very much their time on that and only 1 person report that finding materials does not cost their time much. These numbers indicate that finding material is a task which require much 2 time. Masson stated, “There are seventy million books in American libraries, but the one I want to read is always out” (As cited in Atkinson, R. H. (1999), p.416). Hence, to follow by a set amount of time for writing is not easy for them. 1.2 Other difficulties Because writing a research paper is not limit the data resources, participants can look for materials from a variety of sources. However, the majority of their information gathering is found in Hanu’s library (42%) and on the Internet (47%). Only some percentage they report that they have information from friends, teachers or other people (8%) and have materials from other libraries (3%). Based on this numbers, we can focus on the difficulties of finding materials in Hanu’s library and on the Internet. To be more specific, we categorize difficulties into printed sources (mainly in document room of Hanu’s library) and electronic sources (mainly on the Internet). 1.2.1 Difficulties in document room of Hanu’s library 60% 57% 50% 40% 40% 40% 20% 10% 0% 0% 3% 0% Never Rarely Sometimes Often Shortage of references Being unable to find relevant materials Bar-chart 1: Frequency of facing obstacles in document room It can’t be denied that many students have troubles with printed source in Hanu’s library. As illustrated in bar-chart 1, the students’ responses show how often they face with “shortage of materials” and “being unable to find relevant materials”. 3 A half of respondents (50%) often face with shortage of materials, 12 respondents (40%) sometimes face with shortage of materials and only 3 respondents (10%) rarely face with shortage of materials. There is no stick that fall into “never”. This number indicates that shortage of materials is difficult for more than half of respondents. Moreover, the percentage of students having problem with finding relevant materials is higher than shortage of materials. More than a half of respondents (57%) are sometime not able to find relevant materials and 40% of them are often unable to find relevant materials. These difficulties are mentioned above associated with the variety books in library and students’ ability to work with sources. 1.2.2 Difficulties on the Internet 60% 50% 40% 40% 30% 20% 13% 17%17% 10% 0% 0% 0% Never Rarely 47 50 53% 33% 0% 0% Sometimes Often Lack of computer skills Some websites (messy, in accessible and unprinted) Slow internet connection Bar-chart 2: Frequency of facing obstacles on the Internet As be shown in bar-chart 2, lack of computer skills is not big problem compare to problem with some websites and slow internet connection, 47% sometimes, 40% rarely and 13% never face with. Trouble with some websites (such as messy, inaccessible and unprinted) and slow internet connection seem have the same rate. There were only 5 respondents (17%) rarely meet these obstacles, the rest of 4 them (83%) sometimes or often meet. Searching Internet hides some obstacle which is hard to avoid. Messy website is an example for that. “The Web is messy in that it cannot always provide clear directions on how to get where we want to go. The hyperlinks that exist among different Websites often send people on a trip to nowhere or somewhere totally unexpected” (Herd, 2006). And for some websites, students are asked for money to access. In addition, some website they can access but they cannot copy or print. Finally, slow internet connection is problem wide common. In the computer lab, because there are a large number of students accessing Internet at the same time, Internet connections are sometimes slow. The fact is that the more people access Internet in the same network, the more slowly it is. 2. Difficulties in evaluating references Table 2: Frequency of facing obstacles in evaluating How often do you face with these Never following obstacles when evaluating references? Have a lot of new words 0 Not fully understand author’s opinion 1 Gather out-of-date materials 1 Gain one-sided materials 0 Take too much time to read 1 Rarely Sometimes Often 3 21 6 4 20 5 9 18 2 7 19 4 2 6 21 The table above shows how frequency students face when evaluating references. As we can see, a number of respondents answer that they are “sometimes” and “often” for “have a lot of new words”, “not fully understand author’s opinion”, “gather out-of-date materials”, “gain one-sided materials” and “take too much time to read” are 27, 25, 20, 23 and 27, respectively. And these are big number for each category. In doing secondary research, students have to gain many materials. But “not every thing that is published is accurate, worthy of your respect, or credible” 5 ... - tailieumienphi.vn