A study about enhancing basic it skills with technical english for flf students at Hpu2

tude to them for their scholarly instructions, critical comments, great encouragement and valuable materials. Without these, the thesis could not have been completed. Also, I am greatly owing to students of K40 – English major for their support. Especially, I would like to indicate my special thanks to all the lecturers of FLF for giving me the opportunity and permission to implement this thesis. My special thanks go as well to my close friends for their enthusiasm and kindness in helping me. Last but not least, I owe a debt of gratitude to my beloved family for their support, encouragement and love, which were extremely important for the completion of this thesis. ABSTRACT This article aims to introduce some methods to improve basic IT skills for the student of FLF along with the Technical English vocabulary for FLF studens, base on knowledge from the IT community along with personal experience. By the way of analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of Faculty Language Foreign students at present My research will outlined some general informations which are shortcomings of the IT skills for FLF student. Moreover this research will highlight the importance of Technical English knowledge. The aspects which explored are the skills and techniques required to be successful in the IT activities daily. From results of the study, I also recommend some solutions and directions which are meaningful in reality. STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Title: A STUDY ABOUT ENHANCING BASIC IT SKILLS WITH TECHNICAL ENGLISH FOR FLF STUDENTS AT HPU2 I certify that no part of the above report has been copied from other person’s work without acknowledgements and that the report is originally written by me under instructions of my supervisors. Date submitted: March 2017 Student Supervisor Le Tien Dat Nguyen Minh Phuong TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviations Meaning HPU2 Hanoi Pedagogical University No.2 FLF Foreign Langue Faculty IT Information Technology PC Personal computer PART A INTRODUCTION I. Rationale First of all, we know that Information Technology has been appeared in Vietnam so early, we can say that: It appears almost at the same time as the evolution of IT in the world. In here, we can mention a memorable turning point in the IT Viet Nam's development, that was in 1997, our country has turned the "dream of Internet" into a reality by joining the global network. Up to now, Vietnam has become to be a fastest growing Internet country in the region and one of the highest growth countries in the world. Going along with the IT development is the growth of the user community. The percentage of Internet users in Vietnam has reached more than 50% of the population, the Internet has expanded to all regions of ourcountry. Nearly 90% of people use mobile phones, more than 40% that people use the internet on their mobile phones. Now, 100% state agencies, especially education agencies, have their own website. Finally, more than 95% of schools in Vietnam have taught knowledge of IT for students. Student is the age getting access to the internet more and more in our community. However, Vietnam has not equipped to students with skills in using the Internet during the Internet management has many shortcomings. Students become confused, get trouble about computer problems. It is particularly serious when they are not well-professional in avoiding offensive or deceptive content. The problems of students definitely come from the first reason: The language barrier. Maybe computers and devices are now available for Vietnamese users, but IT is a pioneering field, English is always preferred and applied to this field more than any other field. Therefore, equipping yourself with the IT skills comes with English is extremely important. In each interview, the recruiter spends favor and opportunities for candidates who have the ability to communicate and English skills than the remaining candidates. So, this is the opportunity if you want to work in a company with good conditions, high salaries and a stable environment. Even if you are a Japanese company, or a multinational company, you know English and use fluently. You will still be given priority. II. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES To write some theoreticals for the research topic based on public knowledge. To identify related issues base on information from user community. To lauch some solutions to improve IT skills along with English based on personal experience and support from the community. III. RESEARCH SCOPE The study focuses on most problem about IT skills especially Technical English. The target users are HPU2’s student in general and FLF’s student in particular. IV. RESEARCH METHOD To obtain the results of this study, the following instruments are applied: Qualitative, Inderence method, Interpretation and Report Writing. V. RESEARCH TASKS The study involves completing the following tasks: To provide some IT skills required for a student. To point out the FLF’s student’s weakness in solving IT problem. To provide the right solutions. To emphasis on how to acquire knowledge of Technical English. VI. RESEARCH SINGIFICANCE This research paper is high practical significance for HPU2’s student in general and FLF’s student in particular. It can support students a few skills when they encounter a problem related to IT. Beside that, it is very valuable in studying at school as well as in future life because IT will forever be parallel with life of anyone. Improving IT skills and Technical English vocabulary will not be difficult if you gathered basic knowledge and you understand the importance of this knowledge in the future. VII. DESIGN OF THE STUDY The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part is the Introduction. The second part is the Development which includes the “Theoretical Background”, the “Common issues encountered”, the “Solution and Direction”. The last part is the Conclusion. Part A: INTRODUCTION. This part tries to outline the Rationale, the Research Objective, the Scope, the Method, the Tasks, the Significance and the Design of the Study. Part B: DEVELOPMENT includes three chapters. Chapter One: Theoretical Background will provide concepts as well as some views on the issue. Chapter Two: The Common Issues Encountered will point out some type of issues and give some cause of that. Chapter Three: Solution and Direction will present some tutorial and direction to solve issues. Part C: CONCLUSION provide conclusion and summary. Finally, References. PART B DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1. LITERATURE REVIEW IT skills is one of the new skills in the era of digital technology, it includes all the fields of information technology. For some people in t–he IT industry, they will understand what IT skills people need. But with some community components, people are quite familiar with IT concepts. In fact, there is a small number of students learn outside of the specialistic IT in Vietnam, that does not have much IT skills, even basic computer skills are not well understood. In the age of IT influencing every aspect of society, the learning of basic knowledge is becoming very necessary especially with students. Moreover, IT students as well as FLF students also need more knowledge of the technical English. It is a very modern and it is also quite difficult to update daily. Therefore, equipping students with basic IT skills and knowledge of technical English vocabulary is a very important mission to prepare for your future career. This paper will synthesize many definitions and theories for improving basic IT skills and technical English vocabulary for students. This research paper may have many shortcomings in the implementation process, so I look forward to receiving more valuable feedback and practical comments from everyone so that I can further improve this research. I.2. WHAT IS THE IT SKILLS ? IT skills is a phrase that has appeared since the Internet became popular. Basically, after more than 30 years of internet development, IT skills have been defined as a set of skills that are needed in the technological age. Here are the 10 skills required for an IT-er that seclected by website: computerworld.com in 2015 Programming/application development Coding is the technique of installing codes related to each other by program language to create computer a program. Moreover, to learn coding (computer coding) requires art, science, mathematics and technology. According to VTC Academy Project management A project is usually deemed to be a success if it achieves the objectives according to their acceptance criteria, within an agreed timescale and budget. A key factor that distinguishes project management from just 'management' is that it has this final deliverable and a finite timespan, unlike management which is an ongoing process. Because of this a project professional needs a wide range of skills; often technical skills, and certainly people management skills and good business awareness. According to APM Technical support Technical support (often shortened to tech support) refers to a plethora of services by which enterprises provide assistance to users of technology products such as mobile phones, televisions, computers, software products or other informatic, electronic or mechanical goods. In general, technical support services address specific problems with a product or service rather than the provision of training, customization, or other support services. Most companies offer technical support for the products they sell, either freely available or for a fee. Technical support may be delivered over by e-mail, live support software on a website, or a tool where users can log a call or incident. Larger organizations frequently have internal technical support available to their staff for computer-related problems. The Internet can also be a good source for freely available tech support, where experienced users help users find solutions to their problems. In addition, some fee-based service companies charge for premium technical support services. According to Wiki Web development Web development is a broad term for the work involved in developing a web site for the Internet (World Wide Web) or an intranet (a private network). Web development can range from developing the simplest static single page of plain text to the most complex web-based internet applications, electronic businesses, and social network services. A more comprehensive list of tasks to which web development commonly refers, may include web engineering, web design, web content development, client liaison, client-side/server-side scripting, web server and network security configuration, and e-commerce development. Among web professionals, "web development" usually refers to the main non-design aspects of building web sites: writing markup and coding. According to Wiki Database administration Database administration refers to the whole set of activities performed by a database administrator to ensure that a database is always available as needed. Other closely related tasks and roles are database security, database monitoring and troubleshooting, and planning for future growth. Database administration is an important function in any organization that is dependent on one or more databases. According to Techopedia Business intelligence Business Intelligence (BI) are the set of strategies, processes, applications, data, technologies and technical architectures which are used to support the collection, analysis, presentation and dissemination of business information. BI technologies provide historical, current and predictive views of business operations. Common functions of business intelligence technologies are reporting, online analytical processing, analytics, data mining, process mining, complex event processing, business performance management, benchmarking, text mining, predictive analytics and prescriptive analytics and are capable of handling large amounts of structured and sometimes unstructured data to help identify, develop and otherwise create new strategic business opportunities. The goal is to allow for the easy interpretation of these big data. Identifying new opportunities and implementing an effective strategy based on insights can provide businesses with a competitive market advantage and long-term stability According to Business News Mobile applications and device management Mobile device management (MDM) is the administrative area dealing with deploying, securing, monitoring, integrating and managing mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, in the workplace. The intent of MDM is to optimize the functionality and security of mobile devices within the enterprise, while simultaneously protecting the corporate network. According to Mobilecomputing Networking Networking is a process that fosters the exchange of information and ideas among individuals or groups that share common interests. Networking may fall into one of two categories: social or business. Less commonly in finance, the term "networking" may also refer to the setting up and operation of a physical computer network According to Investopedia Big data Big data is a term for data sets that are so large or complex that traditional data processing application software is inadequate to deal with them. Challenges include capture, storage, analysis, data curation, search, sharing, transfer, visualization, querying, updating and information privacy. The term "big data" often refers simply to the use of predictive analytics, user behavior analytics, or certain other advanced data analytics methods that extract value from data, and seldom to a particular size of data set. "There is little doubt that the quantities of data now available are indeed large, but that’s not the most relevant characteristic of this new data ecosystem “Analysis of data sets can find new correlations to "spot business trends, prevent diseases, combat crime and so on."Scientists, business executives, practitioners of medicine, advertising and governments alike regularly meet difficulties with large data-sets in areas including Internet search, finance, urban informatics, and business informatics. Scientists encounter limitations in e-Science work, meteorology, genomics, connectomics, complex physics simulations, biology and environmental research. According to Wiki I.2.1. IT skills in education Our ministry of education has applied a lot of IT achievements to the teaching, the management and the development of the education system. This is a big step in expanding the potential of students as well as enhanching our Education system more modern and advanced. In teacher training According to regulation of the Ministry of Education and Training, all teachers must know how to use a computer and achieve at least IT certificate level A. The teacher should have basic knowledge such as: Know that how to use computers. Know that how to use PowerPoint. Know that how to access Internet. Know that how to use a projector. In the management Applying for student's mark management, student list management as well as management of school activities. Use Excel to calculate. Use Access to manage data. Synchronize data management from school direct to the Ministry of Education and Training. In the developing of education system Taking step by step to master the technology and apply more modern methods by the supported computer. Remote training system, E-teaching. The sms center automatically informs the learning process of student to the parent. In the educational methodology Focusing on IT skills for all falculty in collenge and university. Creating some IT tutorial learing for beginer. Putting IT subject to required condition before graduated. I.2.2. IT skills needed for student in HPU2 I.2.2.a. IT skills in theory Apart from the general course IT teaching to students, this study will indicate the necessary IT skills to students in reality that I have found out. These skills are mainly computer skills. IT skills is called something like “end user computing skills” or in a same word “how to use a computer”. Why do I think that ? As I mentioned above IT skills have a lot of variety and complexity. At our students' level, I emphasize that the skills required to achieve one of these skill. It is Technical Support. Technical Support is a skill that involves solving all the technical problems encountered while using software as well as getting a hardware failure. The basis of Technical Support skills is a mixture of: Getting your PC to do what you want it to do. Understanding what computer can help you, how it does that. 1. Getting your PC to do what you want it to do Computers, they are machines have "CPU-brain” and they still need to be “Training”. Computer is a supporter, but it also needs the boss to make decisions. And the user, you-the boss, must give the job for it to do, otherwise it will not do anything either. For example: if you tell it to type some text, it probably will not know what you want to type anything, only to help you by implement the text - the data inputted. Then, you want it to align or change the font. The computer also only offers options, recommends for you, no permission to decide. OK, so we are users and we are also the guides for this powerful assistant. The difficulty started here, how do we get the IT skills to guide this “heavyheaded” assistant. Learning to get your PC to do what you want to do is the first procees of equipping myself IT skills. 2. Understanding what computer can help you, how it does that Of course, when you want to ask someone to help you, you surely must know that person's ability to do it or not. The computer is the same, you know for sure that the computer can help you beacause you hear people say that, don’t you ? For example: Your PC installed Office 2003, you take an hour to create a powerpoint template. But another PC, even weaker than your PC, is installed Office 2016, you can create a similar template based on itself available templates in ten minutes. So why your computer is better but it takes longer. That's because you have not taken full advantage of your PC. The computer is more complex than other thing, it is very annoying to know that the PC can do something but I still don’t know how to take advantage of it. Therefore, the process of understanding what your computer can do is improving your IT skills. II.2.2.b. IT skills in fact During the time I studying and living in HPU2, I collected some data based on times of my experience support and amount of common problems are frequently seen on social forums and social networks. I had found many shortcomings of IT skills in a HPU2’s student such as: Skill of detect an error when using PC is not yet professional. Skill of using Editing Software, Office working is good but isn’t expanded. Skill of finding solution as well as tutorial is still missing. Skill of catching up new technology is not prefered. Skill of understanding Technical English vocabulary is not yet proficient. In summary, I think the following IT skills are appropriate for HPU2 students: Use: How to use software, work with computer professionally. Detect: Confirm an error occupied when working by specialized terminology. Find: Get tutorial and solution from Support Community by using Technology English keyword. Solve: Way to resolve a problem yourself with technical instruction. Catch: Way to catching up latest technology. Prepare: Always get ready to new Technology English vocabulary. It is also all part needed for IT skills and Technical English. I.3. THE IMPORTANCE OF TECHNICAL ENGLISH IN IMPROVING IT SKILLS I.3.a. The importance of English in IT Employees in the Information Technology career in addition to good at Technical expertise, it's also very good at English for Information Technology. It will shorten the distance of the way to succeed in career. Entering this century, humankind has witnessed the rapid development of Information Technology - a field grows up day by day in the world. Every day, every hour, there are many inventions, breakthoughs invented. Today, maybe this technology is advanced, but it also may be outdated tomorrow by newer and more modern inventions. Therefore, the work which updating the specialized knowledge for an IT-er is very important. However, the new knowledge of Information Technology is mainly written in English. Of course, we can't wait until people translate these documents then you know it. So you are backward already. Information technology must be updated daily. Because Information Technology is a field which originating from foreign countries, the pharse and terminological used in the tutorial are mostly in English or Vietnamized. However, some words translated to Vietnamese can not fully describe its true meaning. So knowing those words in English is the best way to get the profound of your field.   Therefore, any job related to IT needs a certain knowledge of English, especially technical terms. Moreover, employment opportunities in foreign companies in the Information Technology are much greater than in other occupations in society. It can be said that English in information technology will be important factors to success. It will be a prerequisite for employers to pay attention to your profile.   It can be said that English for IT is very necessary for people working in this field, especially the English translation skills in Information Technology. It will help people approach work closer, faster with new technology in the world, and get closer to the employer. I.3.b. Technical English knowledge required for FLF student English at school sector 2 is primarily pedagogical orientation in the social subject while technical subjects is limited. This is because Pedagogical directs students to the school environment and the social environment. It is objective conditions, not subjective conditions. I found that FLF’s students just need some technical knowledge to obtain the IT skills requirements as I mentioned above. In reality, Technical English is quite simple, because the people who write down the instructions, the tricks always trying to use the most basic words for the end-user. Several complex pharase can be easily defined for people who have learned English after taking few second to look up it. For students of FLF, you need to understand that English is the bridge to all other fields. FLF's students just need focus on equipping themselves new words, paying attention to the keywords and context when working on IT. In addition, the skills in English communication will be very important when submitting an IT related problem. IT is a high-class field, it's always evolving everyday, not only it will stick with you, but also it sticks with the development of our country. Getting more knowledge of technical English will help you be more confident to face with IT issues. The harmonious combination between IT skills and Foreign Language is the key to open the door of success in future. I.4. ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS TO ACHIEVE IT SKILLS IN FLF STUDENT I.4.a. Material elements IT is the most modern and advanced industry. At least, the IT equipment is certainly in accord with the practical conditions. Maybe it is not the latest, but it also relevant to our present life. Vietnamese people have an idiom: “An cư lạc nghiệp” it means: "to live and work in peace and contentment". Hardware investment is the investment for your future. From myself experience and introduction of social advertise, I will suggest some material element which is needed in process of IT training. The basic components for IT skills training now are: Computer. Smartphone. Internet. Computer: Surely you can not use a big computer as a classroom to work (if you have a computer like that, you certainly would be an antique collector). In here, I am referring to laptops made by many manufactures such as Apple, Asus, Dell, HP, Acer, many kinds from thick to slim, from plastic skin to metal skin, ... Some students even have both laptop and desktop. All of them in common is highly configurable, well-power to learning, entertainment and working inneed. Of course, the cost of these computers is so high. most of people think that the stronger the machine, the powerful performance. That is true, but in my opinion, it is really wasteful if the machine is strong but you do not take full advantage of it. Most HPU2's students are girl, so they are very inexperienced when choosing to buy a computer, which is affordable for the price also met the standard of job. Therefore, I want to give an advice to anyone still wondering when choosing a suitable computer. Please refer carefully to the configuration of your favorited computer, consider your demand of working and the cost of device to avoid wasting money. Saving money to equip other things really helps you in learning I would like to offer a general computer configuration. I think it is suitable for students with the amount of cost about 6-8 million VietnamDong CPU: at least dual core, speed over 1.5GHz such as Intel Pentium or Intel Core I series – This is the type of popular cpu in most of computer RAM: at least 2 GB memory – This will help you working with many task such as surfing Web at same time with typing Word or PowerPoint HDD: at least 250 GB capacity – This can store enough lesson and software for you Smartphone Smartphone (this article may be applied to tablets, phablet, ) is a new definition, which was only defined 10 years ago. It is a type of mobile phone is much more modern than fearture phone. Our 90s generation, which is the generation is eye-spotted the magic of smartphone performed. Instead of looking up dictionaries on thick books, nowadays it is possible to compact in a clearly software on the phone. Instead of having to buy audio discs then trainning to listen by computer, we can buy software license and listen on the phone anytime, anywhere. It can be said that smartphone is a miniature computer. Beside that, it also can record audio, record video, edit documents serve effectively for learning. Like computers, smartphones also have a variety of configurations, here are some suggestions for you to choose a suitable smartphone: Screen: bigger than 4 inchs, use IPS or AMOLED quality background panel with HD resolution – now most of manufature such as Apple, Samsung, Oppo, Asus, ... has bring this standard to the low price segment about 3-6 milion VietNamDong. CPU: at least dual core, speed 1 GHz – Most of smartphone from 2012 has meet this standard. Ram: at least 2 GB memory – Most of low price smartphone from 2014 has equipped. Storage: Recommend at least 8 GB internal storage and can be expanded via external storage such as memory card. Other standard such as high capacity of battery, best sensor of camera, loud speaker, uni-body design, . In summary, the phone need be ensured quality, stabilitty during usetime about 3 years. Internet This is an indispensable element in today's modern bridge that connects all human knowledge to your own computer. The internet is a great symbol associated with the birth and development of IT for almost half a century. The mission of the internet is to connect people everywhere, everytime with the fastest speed. In learning, internet is a great library, containing the knowledge for us to discover forever. Internet is modernized and advanced day-by-day, from super-slow copper cables that barely transmit kilobyte-size web pages, then the invention of fiber cable which provide us with amazing speed, can transmit a movie in 4K quality just in a short time. Wireless technology also grows equally well. It brings the internet to you when you are everywhere with the speed is no less the speed of fiber cable. Even in the future, 5G wireless technology will perform the power 5 times as strong of fiber cable now. Learning is the race of accquiring knowledge. The internet has instant qualification, so it will be a nightmare if you lose your connection or stay connected with very low speed. You may miss a lesson online. You can not download a file that a teacher sends to you, or you can not upload your assignment. Therefore, having a stable internet is very important. Also that I would like to provide some information needed to have a perfect internet connection: Register a suitable Internet Data Plan: recommend a speed at least 8 Mbps equal to 1 Megabyte per second, most of Internet Service Provider (ISP) has given many Data Plans for user such as: VNPT, Viettel and FPT. In the countryside, you should register VNPT because VNPT has the widest infrastructure. In the town or city, I encourage you to choose Viettel and FPT because they have good customer care skills to help you in fastest time. Finally, above comment is based on the basic demand of 1-3 users. Prepare a good device: I suggest you select a device equipped with 3G wireless connection and register a suitable Internet Plan from the carrier. I also encourage you to use the device equipped with wifi to connect internet at a stability speed. Nowaday, most of manufacture has equipped many latest technologies to their device so you don’t need to worry more about this matter. I.4.b. Human factor Human factor is important factor in the success of other factor such as politics, economics, culture, science, etc. in society. Human factor affect all activities from direct to indirect. The history of human development is the history of human liberation both physical and mental. It can be seen that the human factor interferes in all activities. From work performance, type of work, how to do work, etc all is