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Luận văn tiếng Anh: Difficulties in learning English vocabulary faced by the 10th from students at Đông Sơn 1 upper secondary school = Những khó khăn trong việc học từ vựng Tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 10 tại trường THPT Đông Sơn I. M.A. Thesis Linguistics: 60 14 10
Nhà xuất bản: University of Languages and International Studies
Ngày: 2013
Chủ đề: Tiếng Anh
Từ vựng
Phương pháp giảng dạy
Lớp 10
Miêu tả: Vocabulary is the key part in learning a foreign language. However, learning vocabulary is really a challenge for students. The aim of this study was to find out difficulties in learning English vocabulary faced by the 10th form students at Dong Son I upper secondary school then offers some suggestions to overcome those difficulties. In order to achieve this aim, a theoretical and practical research was carried out. A review of literature related to vocabulary and learning vocabulary as well as difficulties in learning vocabulary is summarized. Subsequently, a survey research was conducted to 120 10th form students by means of questionnaire and interview. Data analysis reveals the difficulties faced by students when they learn English vocabulary originate from the students themselves, that is their lack of motivation and ineffective learning strategies and also from teachers’ teaching method and teaching facilities. The study gives some suggestions to reduce these difficulties including improving teacher’ role and teaching method, teaching facilities as well as improving students’ self-study
M.A. Thesis. English Linguistics Teaching Methodology -- University of Languages and International Studies. Vietnam National University, Hanoi, 2013
LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES …… ……………………………….. v
PART A: INTRODUCTION ………………….………….………….... 1
1. Rationale for the study ……………………………………….……… .. 1
2. Aims of the study …………………………………………………… ... 2
3. Research questions …………………………………………………… 2
4. Scope of the study ………………………………………………… .… 2
5. Methods of the study ………………………………………………… . 3
6. Organization of the study …………………………………………… .. 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT …………………………………………... 5
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW ………………………………... 5
1.1. Introduction…………………………………………………….….... 5
1.2. An overview of vocabulary….……………………………………… 5
1.2.1. Definitions of vocabulary …………………...……………….. 5
1.2.2. The notion of word …………………………………………… 5
1.2.3. Vocabulary item ……………………………………………… 6
1.2.4. Roles of vocabulary in foreign language learning …………… 6
1.3. Vocabulary learning .……………………………………………….. 7
1.3.1. Aspects of knowing a word ………………………………… ... 7
1.3.2. Explicit and implicit vocabulary learning …………………… . 9
1.3.3. Difficulties in vocabulary learning ...……………….……....... 10
1.4. Summary………………………………………………………… ….. 12
CHAPTER II: THE STUDY ………………………………………… …. 13
2.1. Introduction ……………………………………………………….... 13
2.2. The context of teaching and learning English at DSUSS ………...... 13vii
2.3. Research methodology …………………………………………… ... 15
2.3.1. Restating the research question ……….……………………….. 15
2.3.2. Participants …………………………………………………….. 15
2.3.3. Data collection ………………………………………………… 15
2.3.3.1. Data collection instruments ……………………………... 15
2.3.3.2. Data collection procedure ……………………………….. 16
2.4. Data analysis and discussion ……………………………………….. 17
2.4.1. Students’ level of English vocabulary …………………… ……. 17
2.4.2. Students’ attitudes towards learning English vocabulary …… ... 18
2.4.3. Students’ difficulties in learning a new word …………… ……. 19
2.4.4. Students’ preference and attitudes towards ways of learning
English vocabulary ……………………………....................................
20
2.4.5. Students’ preference, attitudes and expectation towards English
vocabulary teaching method …………………… .................................
23
2.5. Summary …………………………………………………………… . 26
CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS ………………….... 27
3.1. Introduction ………………………………………………………… 27
3.2. Students’ difficulties in learning English vocabulary …………….... 27
3.2.1. Difficulties related to students themselves …………………….. 27
3.2.1.1. Ineffective ways of learning vocabulary ………………... 27
3.2.1.2. Lack of motivation …………………………………......... 27
3.2.2. Difficulties related to vocabulary itself ……………………....... 28
3.2.3. Difficulties related to teachers ………………………………… 30
3.2.3.1. Teachers’ attitude to students ………………………….... 30
3.2.3.2. Teacher’s teaching method ……………………………… 30
3.2.4. Others ……………………………………….............................. 31
3.2.4.1. The poor application of teaching aids and reference
materials
31
Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phiviii
3.2.4.2. The challenging curriculum ……………………………... 31
3.3. Suggestions ………………………………………………………..... 31
3.3.1. For the teachers ………………………………………………. 31
3.3.1.1. Improving awareness of teachers’ roles ………………… 31
3.3.1.2. Improving vocabulary teaching method ………………… 32
3.3.1.3. Improving students’ self-study ………………………...... 33
3.2.2. For the students ….………………………………………….... 38
3.2.3. For the administrators at DSUSS ....………………………...... 39
3.4. Summary …………………………………………………...……….. 39
PART C. CONCLUSION ……………………………………………... 40
1. Recapitulation ……………………………………………………........ 40
2. Concluding remarks …………………………………………… ……... 41
3. Limitations of the study …………………… …………………………. 41
4. Suggestions for further research ……………………………………… 42
REFERENCES ……………………………………………………….... 43
APPENDICES ………………………………………………………………….I
APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE
APPENDIX 2: SURVEY INTERVIEW1
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale for the study
As far as we know, English is a common language in international
communication. In Vietnam, with the reformation of the economy and society, as
well as the implementation of the open - door policy, English has been used more
and more widely. English also becomes a compulsory subject in education
curriculum.
It is known that, in learning a foreign language in general, and English in
particular, the knowledge and mastery of vocabulary play an extremely important
role. McCarthy (1990) states that “No matter how well the student learns grammar,
no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to express
a wide range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any
meaningful way.” By having rich vocabulary, students can improve their listening,
speaking, reading and writing abilities; not only in the way they comprehend but
also in the way they produce language.
In reality, in Viet Nam, vocabulary lessons are not paid enough attention in
order to Giúp students learn new words more interestedly and effectively. As a
result, most of them have formed a habit of only learning new words found in their
text books or through teacher’s sources. They normally learn vocabulary by such
methods as listing new words on a notebook and learning them by heart, writing
new words repeatedly down on papers, reading new words out loud several times,
and so forth. These above seem not to be very effective and interesting ways for
vocabulary acquisition. Moreover, students only think of vocabulary learning as
knowing the primary meaning of new words, they ignore all other functions of the
words. Many of them may also recognize a word in a written or spoken form and
think that they already "know the word", but they may not be able to use that word
properly in different contexts or pronounce it correctly. Many students, after
learning English for many years, they can only read and understand short and
simple texts and hardly communicate in English.
Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi2
As a teacher of English, I have dealt with many questions relating to
vocabulary learning which are raised by my students or among my colleagues. For
example, what are the effective ways of learning vocabulary? How to retain a new
word in the mind? Therefore, I conducted a study to find out the main difficulties in
learning vocabulary faced by the 10th form students at Dong Son I upper secondary
school (DSUSS). Then I would like to give some suggestions to Giúp students learn
English vocabulary more effectively.
2. Aims of the study
The study aims to find out the difficulties faced by the 10th form students at
DSUSS when they learn English vocabulary. Then some suggestions will be given
to Giúp students learn English vocabulary more effectively.
3. Research questions
This research was carried out to find out the answers to the following
research questions:
- What are the difficulties in learning English vocabulary faced by the 10th form
students at DSUSS?
- What are the suggestions that Giúp the students learn English vocabulary better?
4. Scope of the study
The study was designed to find out the difficulties in learning English
vocabulary faced by the 10th form students at DSUSS . In the context of teaching
and learning English at DSUSS, English vocabulary mentioned here mean the new
words in the English textbook Tieng Anh 10 that students are taught or learn by
themselves. The target population is the 10th form students. They have experienced
from 4 to 7 years of learning English, but their English knowledge is not very good.
The findings of the study would be much beneficial to both teachers who are
considering whether to improve their students’ vocabulary and students who wants
to overcome the difficulties and boredom in learning vocabulary.3
5. Methods of the study
In order to achieve the purpose of the study, both qualitative and quantitative
methods were used. A survey questionnaire and an informal interview were
implemented with 120 10th form students who were chosen randomly. The
questionnaire consists of 18 questions grouped into 2 main parts, that is background
information which helps to seek for information concerning students’ background
and the reality of learning English vocabulary which serves for gathering
information of students’ attitudes to vocabulary learning, the ways the students
learn English vocabulary, some difficulties they face when learning English
vocabulary, the ways they are taught English vocabulary and their expectation
towards English vocabulary teaching method. The informal interview with 30
students was conducted basing on the students’ answers in the survey questionnaire.
6. Organization of the study
The thesis is composed of three main parts:
Part A - Introduction.
In this part the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the method,
and the organization of the study are presented.
Part B - Development
This part is divided into three chapters.
Chapter 1: Literature Review
This chapter presents the theoretical background for the study. It focuses on some
concepts in the second language vocabulary learning and some difficulties in second
language vocabulary learning.
Chapter 2: The study
This is the main part of the study. It describes the context of the study, the
participants, the data collection methods and data analysis procedure.
Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi4
Chapter 3: Findings and Suggestions
This chapter presents some main findings in the study, the relevant discussion and
some teaching and learning implications.
Part C - Conclusion
This part summarizes the study, states the concluding remarks, the limitation of the
research and offers suggestions for further research.5
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Introduction
This chapter provides a brief review of the theoretical knowledge relevant to
the study including An overview of vocabulary; Vocabulary learning; What can
cause difficulties in vocabulary learning.
1.2. An overview of vocabulary
1.2.1. Definitions of vocabulary
Different linguistics defined vocabulary in different ways. Penny Ur
(1996:60) defined vocabulary as “the words we teach in the foreign language.
However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: a compound
of two or three words or multi-word idioms”. Richards and Platt (1992: 400) also
noted that vocabulary is “a set of lexemes, including words, compound words and
idioms”. These statements indicate that vocabulary is “the total number of words in
a language” (Hornby, 1995:1331).
1.2.2. The notion of “word”
Vocabulary mastery begins with a word. So what is a word? Michael
McCarthy (1990) defined words as “free-standing items of language that have
meaning. For example: the word eating is free-standing in itself, and that within it
has another potentially free-standing element eat, independently meaningful from
the second element -ing.
Pyles and Algeo (1970:96) said “when most of us think about language, we
think first about words. It is true that the vocabulary is the focus of language. It is
in words that sounds and meanings inter-lock to allow us to communicate with one
another, and it is words that we arrange together to make sentences, conversations
and discourse of all kinds”.
Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi6
1.2.3. Vocabulary item
As in Penny Ur’s definition of vocabulary, a new item of vocabulary may be
more than a single word. For example, post office and mother-in-law, which are
made up of two or three words but express a single idea. Another term to call for
vocabulary is “chunks” as stated by Schmitt, N & McCarthy, M (1997): “Some of
the vocabulary people know is originally learned as parts of multi-word chunks,
often as phrases, idioms, or proverbs”. A useful convention is to cover all such
cases by talking about vocabulary “items” rather than “words”.
1.2.4. Roles of vocabulary in second language learning
The prominent role of vocabulary knowledge in second language learning
has been increasingly recognized. According to Bogaards, P. and B. Laufer (2004:
1), “… much has been done in the field of vocabulary in the context of the
acquisition of foreign or second languages… The growth of interest in L.2
vocabulary since the days of “a neglected aspect of language learning” (Meara,
1980) has also been reflected in authored and edited books specifically devoted to
vocabulary”.
Michael West (1930: 514) stressed that “the primary thing in learning a
language is the acquisition of a vocabulary, and practice in using it”.
McCarthy stated that “the biggest component of any language course is
vocabulary” (McCarthy, 1990: viii). “No matter how well the student learns
grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words
to express a wide range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in
any meaningful way.”
A leading linguist researcher Paul Nation notes: “Vocabulary is not an end in
itself. A rich vocabulary makes the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing
easier to perform”. When learners’ working memory is not loaded with hesitation
about the correct spelling, pronunciation and contextual use of the words, they can
concentrate fully on higher level aspects of language such as using precise sentence7
structures and appropriate expressions for the type of conversation that is going on.
These all show that the success of a student in becoming proficient in any language
depends in part on the extent and richness of his/ her vocabulary, so vocabulary
teaching should be part of the syllabus, and vocabulary should be taught on a wellplanned and regular basis.
To sum up, vocabulary is considered an important aspect of learning a
foreign language. Second language vocabulary acquisition has become an
increasingly interesting topic of discussion for researchers, teachers, curriculum
designers, theorists, and others involved in second language learning and teaching.
1.3. Vocabulary learning
1.3.1. Aspects of knowing a word
There have been many definitions as to what it is exactly to know a word.
According to Cook (2001:61), “a word is more than its meaning”, knowing a
word may involve four aspects: form of the word (for instance spelling and
pronunciation), grammatical properties (for example, grammatical category of a
word, its possible and impossible structure), lexical properties (for instance, word
combinations and appropriateness), and general meaning and specific meaning.
Nation (1990:30-33) and Taylor (1990:1-4) share the same idea that knowing
a word involves not only knowing its spelling, morphology, pronunciation,
meaning, or the equivalent of the word in the learner’s mother tongue but also its
collocations, register, polysemy, and even its homonym. There is also the issue of
precision with which we use a word, how quickly we understand a word, and how
well we understand and use words in different modes, receptive or productive; and
for different purposes
Yings (2000) describes some types of context clues that may be available to
the readers to guess the meaning of unknown words: the morphology (for instance,
derivation), reference word (such as pronouns), cohesion (for instance, coKet-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi8
occurrence), definitions, antonyms, synonyms, hyponyms (sometimes provided in
the same sentence), alternatives, restatements, examples, summary, comparison and
contrast, and punctuation.
In summary, aspects of knowing a word compose of:
- Word form: pronunciation and spelling
The basic, and by all learners first perceived, characteristics of each lexical
item are what it sounds and looks like. Both these aspects ought to be accurately
presented and learned. There are two parts of the form of a word – written
(spelling) and spoken (pronunciation) form. If learners have encountered only one
of the forms, they “have receptive, but not productive, knowledge of the word”
(Thornbury, 2002: 15).
- Grammar: The form of a word can changes unpredictably in certain grammatical
contexts. Therefore, when learners learn a new word, they should know this
information at the same time they learn the basic form of a word. For example,
when they learn the noun person they should learn its plural form as people.
- Collocation: collocation is the way in which two or more words go together in a
certain context. In many cases a word has more than one meaning only. Then it is
the context and collocations that give essential clues to recognize which meaning is
intended. Therefore, this is another piece of information of a new item, which may
worth paying attention to. For example, we say throw a ball but toss a coin, we
cannot say dense hair instead of thick hair.
- Word meanings include denotation, connotation, appropriateness and meaning
relationship.
+ The denotation refers to things or concepts. This is often the sort of
definition given in dictionaries such as whale denotes a very large mammal that
lives in the sea or rose denotes a kind of flowers with red color and symbolizes for
love.9
+ The connotation is association, or positive and negative feelings the word
evokes which may not be indicated in a dictionary definition. Connotation includes
stylistic, affective, evaluation, intensifying value, pragmatic communicative values,
the word acquires by virtue of where, when, how and by whom, for what purpose
and in what context it is or it may be used.
+ Appropriateness is more subtle aspect of meaning which indicates whether a
particular item is appropriate one to use in a certain context or not. Thus, it is useful
for a learner to know whether a certain word is very common, or relatively rare or
taboo in polite conversation, or tends to be used in writing but not in speech, or is
more suitable for a formal than informal discourse or belongs to a certain dialect.
+ Associations or meaning relationships show how the meaning of one item
relates to the meaning of the others. These are various relationships and here are
some of the main ones like synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms, co- hyponyms or coordinates, super ordinates, and translation.
- Word - formation: Words can change their shape and their grammatical value.
Vocabulary items whether one- word or multi- word, can often be broken down into
their components "bits". Learners need to know affixing rules and derivation
principles in word formation and how to use words to fit different grammatical
contexts. For example, if learners know the meaning of affixes sub, un and able,
this will Giúp them guess the meaning of words such as substandard, uncomfortable
and enable.
1.3.2. Explicit and implicit vocabulary learning
1.3.2.1. Explicit (or Direct) vocabulary learning
In explicit vocabulary learning, learners do exercises and activities that focus
their attention on vocabulary (Nation, 1990:2). For example, when students are
doing word-building exercises, guessing the meaning of unknown words in context
learning words in word lists, or playing vocabulary games, they are learning
Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi10
vocabulary explicitly. Such activities usually take place in class with a lot of help
and instruction from teachers. To make successful instruction for explicit
vocabulary learning, teachers often consider the following to teach high-frequency
words, to maximize vocabulary learning by teaching word families instead of
individual words, and to consider meaning associations attached to the word.
Thanks to such careful explanations and guidance of teachers, students at low and
intermediate levels may acquire vocabulary explicitly before they begin implicit
learning mainly by themselves.
1.3.2.2. Implicit (or Incidental) vocabulary learning
Implicit vocabulary learning has been explained by researchers as incidental
vocabulary learning. It is the learning of new words as a by-product of a meaningfocused communicative activity, such as reading, listening, and interaction. It
occurs through “multiple exposures to a word in different contexts” (Huckin and
Coady, 1999).
Krashen (1981) believes that there are some certain conditions for such
learning to occur. Firstly, the learners must be interested in understanding the
message. From the point of view of vocabulary learning, this interest creates a need
to understand the unknown words in the message. Secondly, the message should
contain some items that are just outside the learners' present level of achievement.
These items, however, should be understandable from the context in which they
occur. This includes both language and non-language contexts. Thirdly, the learners
should not feel worried or threatened by their contact with the foreign language.
2. Concluding remarks
2.1. The difficulties in learning English vocabulary faced by the 10th form
students at DSUSS are unavoidable and caused by both subjective and objective
factors. In terms of subjective factors, it is the students’ traditional way of learning,
that is writing new words repeatedly, students’ lack of motivation and the teachers’
traditional teaching method, that is speaking new words aloud and translating
directly that mainly hinder students from English vocabulary acquisition. The
objective factors include English vocabulary itself, the challenging curriculum and
lack of teaching facilities and reference materials. In reasearcher’s opinion, the main
difficulties faced by the students originate from subjective factors. The subjective
factors can be changed while the objective factors can hardly be changed by the
students and teachers themselves. Therefore, the difficulties should be overcome
foremost by the students and teachers themselves.
2.2. To Giúp students learn English vocabulary better, both teachers and students
must improve their awareness of their role in teaching and learning process and the
role of English in their further study and future work, which Giúp to create a
motivation for students’ learning. Moreover, teachers should varify their teaching
techniques and Giúp students find out their learning strategies that suit their abilities
in learning vocabulary. This will make students more motivated to learn and have a
higher sense of confidence in their own learning ability.
3. Limitations of the study
As a matter of fact, nothing is perfect and limitations are inevitable. The
study presented in this thesis is of no exception.
Firstly, because of time limitation, knowledge and limited size of a minor
thesis, the research was conducted only on a small size of population. This number
is not enough for the researcher to have a full understanding of difficulties in
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Nhà xuất bản: University of Languages and International Studies
Ngày: 2013
Chủ đề: Tiếng Anh
Từ vựng
Phương pháp giảng dạy
Lớp 10
Miêu tả: Vocabulary is the key part in learning a foreign language. However, learning vocabulary is really a challenge for students. The aim of this study was to find out difficulties in learning English vocabulary faced by the 10th form students at Dong Son I upper secondary school then offers some suggestions to overcome those difficulties. In order to achieve this aim, a theoretical and practical research was carried out. A review of literature related to vocabulary and learning vocabulary as well as difficulties in learning vocabulary is summarized. Subsequently, a survey research was conducted to 120 10th form students by means of questionnaire and interview. Data analysis reveals the difficulties faced by students when they learn English vocabulary originate from the students themselves, that is their lack of motivation and ineffective learning strategies and also from teachers’ teaching method and teaching facilities. The study gives some suggestions to reduce these difficulties including improving teacher’ role and teaching method, teaching facilities as well as improving students’ self-study
M.A. Thesis. English Linguistics Teaching Methodology -- University of Languages and International Studies. Vietnam National University, Hanoi, 2013
LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES …… ……………………………….. v
PART A: INTRODUCTION ………………….………….………….... 1
1. Rationale for the study ……………………………………….……… .. 1
2. Aims of the study …………………………………………………… ... 2
3. Research questions …………………………………………………… 2
4. Scope of the study ………………………………………………… .… 2
5. Methods of the study ………………………………………………… . 3
6. Organization of the study …………………………………………… .. 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT …………………………………………... 5
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW ………………………………... 5
1.1. Introduction…………………………………………………….….... 5
1.2. An overview of vocabulary….……………………………………… 5
1.2.1. Definitions of vocabulary …………………...……………….. 5
1.2.2. The notion of word …………………………………………… 5
1.2.3. Vocabulary item ……………………………………………… 6
1.2.4. Roles of vocabulary in foreign language learning …………… 6
1.3. Vocabulary learning .……………………………………………….. 7
1.3.1. Aspects of knowing a word ………………………………… ... 7
1.3.2. Explicit and implicit vocabulary learning …………………… . 9
1.3.3. Difficulties in vocabulary learning ...……………….……....... 10
1.4. Summary………………………………………………………… ….. 12
CHAPTER II: THE STUDY ………………………………………… …. 13
2.1. Introduction ……………………………………………………….... 13
2.2. The context of teaching and learning English at DSUSS ………...... 13vii
2.3. Research methodology …………………………………………… ... 15
2.3.1. Restating the research question ……….……………………….. 15
2.3.2. Participants …………………………………………………….. 15
2.3.3. Data collection ………………………………………………… 15
2.3.3.1. Data collection instruments ……………………………... 15
2.3.3.2. Data collection procedure ……………………………….. 16
2.4. Data analysis and discussion ……………………………………….. 17
2.4.1. Students’ level of English vocabulary …………………… ……. 17
2.4.2. Students’ attitudes towards learning English vocabulary …… ... 18
2.4.3. Students’ difficulties in learning a new word …………… ……. 19
2.4.4. Students’ preference and attitudes towards ways of learning
English vocabulary ……………………………....................................
20
2.4.5. Students’ preference, attitudes and expectation towards English
vocabulary teaching method …………………… .................................
23
2.5. Summary …………………………………………………………… . 26
CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS ………………….... 27
3.1. Introduction ………………………………………………………… 27
3.2. Students’ difficulties in learning English vocabulary …………….... 27
3.2.1. Difficulties related to students themselves …………………….. 27
3.2.1.1. Ineffective ways of learning vocabulary ………………... 27
3.2.1.2. Lack of motivation …………………………………......... 27
3.2.2. Difficulties related to vocabulary itself ……………………....... 28
3.2.3. Difficulties related to teachers ………………………………… 30
3.2.3.1. Teachers’ attitude to students ………………………….... 30
3.2.3.2. Teacher’s teaching method ……………………………… 30
3.2.4. Others ……………………………………….............................. 31
3.2.4.1. The poor application of teaching aids and reference
materials
31
Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phiviii
3.2.4.2. The challenging curriculum ……………………………... 31
3.3. Suggestions ………………………………………………………..... 31
3.3.1. For the teachers ………………………………………………. 31
3.3.1.1. Improving awareness of teachers’ roles ………………… 31
3.3.1.2. Improving vocabulary teaching method ………………… 32
3.3.1.3. Improving students’ self-study ………………………...... 33
3.2.2. For the students ….………………………………………….... 38
3.2.3. For the administrators at DSUSS ....………………………...... 39
3.4. Summary …………………………………………………...……….. 39
PART C. CONCLUSION ……………………………………………... 40
1. Recapitulation ……………………………………………………........ 40
2. Concluding remarks …………………………………………… ……... 41
3. Limitations of the study …………………… …………………………. 41
4. Suggestions for further research ……………………………………… 42
REFERENCES ……………………………………………………….... 43
APPENDICES ………………………………………………………………….I
APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE
APPENDIX 2: SURVEY INTERVIEW1
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale for the study
As far as we know, English is a common language in international
communication. In Vietnam, with the reformation of the economy and society, as
well as the implementation of the open - door policy, English has been used more
and more widely. English also becomes a compulsory subject in education
curriculum.
It is known that, in learning a foreign language in general, and English in
particular, the knowledge and mastery of vocabulary play an extremely important
role. McCarthy (1990) states that “No matter how well the student learns grammar,
no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to express
a wide range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any
meaningful way.” By having rich vocabulary, students can improve their listening,
speaking, reading and writing abilities; not only in the way they comprehend but
also in the way they produce language.
In reality, in Viet Nam, vocabulary lessons are not paid enough attention in
order to Giúp students learn new words more interestedly and effectively. As a
result, most of them have formed a habit of only learning new words found in their
text books or through teacher’s sources. They normally learn vocabulary by such
methods as listing new words on a notebook and learning them by heart, writing
new words repeatedly down on papers, reading new words out loud several times,
and so forth. These above seem not to be very effective and interesting ways for
vocabulary acquisition. Moreover, students only think of vocabulary learning as
knowing the primary meaning of new words, they ignore all other functions of the
words. Many of them may also recognize a word in a written or spoken form and
think that they already "know the word", but they may not be able to use that word
properly in different contexts or pronounce it correctly. Many students, after
learning English for many years, they can only read and understand short and
simple texts and hardly communicate in English.
Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi2
As a teacher of English, I have dealt with many questions relating to
vocabulary learning which are raised by my students or among my colleagues. For
example, what are the effective ways of learning vocabulary? How to retain a new
word in the mind? Therefore, I conducted a study to find out the main difficulties in
learning vocabulary faced by the 10th form students at Dong Son I upper secondary
school (DSUSS). Then I would like to give some suggestions to Giúp students learn
English vocabulary more effectively.
2. Aims of the study
The study aims to find out the difficulties faced by the 10th form students at
DSUSS when they learn English vocabulary. Then some suggestions will be given
to Giúp students learn English vocabulary more effectively.
3. Research questions
This research was carried out to find out the answers to the following
research questions:
- What are the difficulties in learning English vocabulary faced by the 10th form
students at DSUSS?
- What are the suggestions that Giúp the students learn English vocabulary better?
4. Scope of the study
The study was designed to find out the difficulties in learning English
vocabulary faced by the 10th form students at DSUSS . In the context of teaching
and learning English at DSUSS, English vocabulary mentioned here mean the new
words in the English textbook Tieng Anh 10 that students are taught or learn by
themselves. The target population is the 10th form students. They have experienced
from 4 to 7 years of learning English, but their English knowledge is not very good.
The findings of the study would be much beneficial to both teachers who are
considering whether to improve their students’ vocabulary and students who wants
to overcome the difficulties and boredom in learning vocabulary.3
5. Methods of the study
In order to achieve the purpose of the study, both qualitative and quantitative
methods were used. A survey questionnaire and an informal interview were
implemented with 120 10th form students who were chosen randomly. The
questionnaire consists of 18 questions grouped into 2 main parts, that is background
information which helps to seek for information concerning students’ background
and the reality of learning English vocabulary which serves for gathering
information of students’ attitudes to vocabulary learning, the ways the students
learn English vocabulary, some difficulties they face when learning English
vocabulary, the ways they are taught English vocabulary and their expectation
towards English vocabulary teaching method. The informal interview with 30
students was conducted basing on the students’ answers in the survey questionnaire.
6. Organization of the study
The thesis is composed of three main parts:
Part A - Introduction.
In this part the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the method,
and the organization of the study are presented.
Part B - Development
This part is divided into three chapters.
Chapter 1: Literature Review
This chapter presents the theoretical background for the study. It focuses on some
concepts in the second language vocabulary learning and some difficulties in second
language vocabulary learning.
Chapter 2: The study
This is the main part of the study. It describes the context of the study, the
participants, the data collection methods and data analysis procedure.
Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi4
Chapter 3: Findings and Suggestions
This chapter presents some main findings in the study, the relevant discussion and
some teaching and learning implications.
Part C - Conclusion
This part summarizes the study, states the concluding remarks, the limitation of the
research and offers suggestions for further research.5
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Introduction
This chapter provides a brief review of the theoretical knowledge relevant to
the study including An overview of vocabulary; Vocabulary learning; What can
cause difficulties in vocabulary learning.
1.2. An overview of vocabulary
1.2.1. Definitions of vocabulary
Different linguistics defined vocabulary in different ways. Penny Ur
(1996:60) defined vocabulary as “the words we teach in the foreign language.
However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: a compound
of two or three words or multi-word idioms”. Richards and Platt (1992: 400) also
noted that vocabulary is “a set of lexemes, including words, compound words and
idioms”. These statements indicate that vocabulary is “the total number of words in
a language” (Hornby, 1995:1331).
1.2.2. The notion of “word”
Vocabulary mastery begins with a word. So what is a word? Michael
McCarthy (1990) defined words as “free-standing items of language that have
meaning. For example: the word eating is free-standing in itself, and that within it
has another potentially free-standing element eat, independently meaningful from
the second element -ing.
Pyles and Algeo (1970:96) said “when most of us think about language, we
think first about words. It is true that the vocabulary is the focus of language. It is
in words that sounds and meanings inter-lock to allow us to communicate with one
another, and it is words that we arrange together to make sentences, conversations
and discourse of all kinds”.
Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi6
1.2.3. Vocabulary item
As in Penny Ur’s definition of vocabulary, a new item of vocabulary may be
more than a single word. For example, post office and mother-in-law, which are
made up of two or three words but express a single idea. Another term to call for
vocabulary is “chunks” as stated by Schmitt, N & McCarthy, M (1997): “Some of
the vocabulary people know is originally learned as parts of multi-word chunks,
often as phrases, idioms, or proverbs”. A useful convention is to cover all such
cases by talking about vocabulary “items” rather than “words”.
1.2.4. Roles of vocabulary in second language learning
The prominent role of vocabulary knowledge in second language learning
has been increasingly recognized. According to Bogaards, P. and B. Laufer (2004:
1), “… much has been done in the field of vocabulary in the context of the
acquisition of foreign or second languages… The growth of interest in L.2
vocabulary since the days of “a neglected aspect of language learning” (Meara,
1980) has also been reflected in authored and edited books specifically devoted to
vocabulary”.
Michael West (1930: 514) stressed that “the primary thing in learning a
language is the acquisition of a vocabulary, and practice in using it”.
McCarthy stated that “the biggest component of any language course is
vocabulary” (McCarthy, 1990: viii). “No matter how well the student learns
grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words
to express a wide range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in
any meaningful way.”
A leading linguist researcher Paul Nation notes: “Vocabulary is not an end in
itself. A rich vocabulary makes the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing
easier to perform”. When learners’ working memory is not loaded with hesitation
about the correct spelling, pronunciation and contextual use of the words, they can
concentrate fully on higher level aspects of language such as using precise sentence7
structures and appropriate expressions for the type of conversation that is going on.
These all show that the success of a student in becoming proficient in any language
depends in part on the extent and richness of his/ her vocabulary, so vocabulary
teaching should be part of the syllabus, and vocabulary should be taught on a wellplanned and regular basis.
To sum up, vocabulary is considered an important aspect of learning a
foreign language. Second language vocabulary acquisition has become an
increasingly interesting topic of discussion for researchers, teachers, curriculum
designers, theorists, and others involved in second language learning and teaching.
1.3. Vocabulary learning
1.3.1. Aspects of knowing a word
There have been many definitions as to what it is exactly to know a word.
According to Cook (2001:61), “a word is more than its meaning”, knowing a
word may involve four aspects: form of the word (for instance spelling and
pronunciation), grammatical properties (for example, grammatical category of a
word, its possible and impossible structure), lexical properties (for instance, word
combinations and appropriateness), and general meaning and specific meaning.
Nation (1990:30-33) and Taylor (1990:1-4) share the same idea that knowing
a word involves not only knowing its spelling, morphology, pronunciation,
meaning, or the equivalent of the word in the learner’s mother tongue but also its
collocations, register, polysemy, and even its homonym. There is also the issue of
precision with which we use a word, how quickly we understand a word, and how
well we understand and use words in different modes, receptive or productive; and
for different purposes
Yings (2000) describes some types of context clues that may be available to
the readers to guess the meaning of unknown words: the morphology (for instance,
derivation), reference word (such as pronouns), cohesion (for instance, coKet-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi8
occurrence), definitions, antonyms, synonyms, hyponyms (sometimes provided in
the same sentence), alternatives, restatements, examples, summary, comparison and
contrast, and punctuation.
In summary, aspects of knowing a word compose of:
- Word form: pronunciation and spelling
The basic, and by all learners first perceived, characteristics of each lexical
item are what it sounds and looks like. Both these aspects ought to be accurately
presented and learned. There are two parts of the form of a word – written
(spelling) and spoken (pronunciation) form. If learners have encountered only one
of the forms, they “have receptive, but not productive, knowledge of the word”
(Thornbury, 2002: 15).
- Grammar: The form of a word can changes unpredictably in certain grammatical
contexts. Therefore, when learners learn a new word, they should know this
information at the same time they learn the basic form of a word. For example,
when they learn the noun person they should learn its plural form as people.
- Collocation: collocation is the way in which two or more words go together in a
certain context. In many cases a word has more than one meaning only. Then it is
the context and collocations that give essential clues to recognize which meaning is
intended. Therefore, this is another piece of information of a new item, which may
worth paying attention to. For example, we say throw a ball but toss a coin, we
cannot say dense hair instead of thick hair.
- Word meanings include denotation, connotation, appropriateness and meaning
relationship.
+ The denotation refers to things or concepts. This is often the sort of
definition given in dictionaries such as whale denotes a very large mammal that
lives in the sea or rose denotes a kind of flowers with red color and symbolizes for
love.9
+ The connotation is association, or positive and negative feelings the word
evokes which may not be indicated in a dictionary definition. Connotation includes
stylistic, affective, evaluation, intensifying value, pragmatic communicative values,
the word acquires by virtue of where, when, how and by whom, for what purpose
and in what context it is or it may be used.
+ Appropriateness is more subtle aspect of meaning which indicates whether a
particular item is appropriate one to use in a certain context or not. Thus, it is useful
for a learner to know whether a certain word is very common, or relatively rare or
taboo in polite conversation, or tends to be used in writing but not in speech, or is
more suitable for a formal than informal discourse or belongs to a certain dialect.
+ Associations or meaning relationships show how the meaning of one item
relates to the meaning of the others. These are various relationships and here are
some of the main ones like synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms, co- hyponyms or coordinates, super ordinates, and translation.
- Word - formation: Words can change their shape and their grammatical value.
Vocabulary items whether one- word or multi- word, can often be broken down into
their components "bits". Learners need to know affixing rules and derivation
principles in word formation and how to use words to fit different grammatical
contexts. For example, if learners know the meaning of affixes sub, un and able,
this will Giúp them guess the meaning of words such as substandard, uncomfortable
and enable.
1.3.2. Explicit and implicit vocabulary learning
1.3.2.1. Explicit (or Direct) vocabulary learning
In explicit vocabulary learning, learners do exercises and activities that focus
their attention on vocabulary (Nation, 1990:2). For example, when students are
doing word-building exercises, guessing the meaning of unknown words in context
learning words in word lists, or playing vocabulary games, they are learning
Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi Ket-noi.com kho tai lieu mien phi10
vocabulary explicitly. Such activities usually take place in class with a lot of help
and instruction from teachers. To make successful instruction for explicit
vocabulary learning, teachers often consider the following to teach high-frequency
words, to maximize vocabulary learning by teaching word families instead of
individual words, and to consider meaning associations attached to the word.
Thanks to such careful explanations and guidance of teachers, students at low and
intermediate levels may acquire vocabulary explicitly before they begin implicit
learning mainly by themselves.
1.3.2.2. Implicit (or Incidental) vocabulary learning
Implicit vocabulary learning has been explained by researchers as incidental
vocabulary learning. It is the learning of new words as a by-product of a meaningfocused communicative activity, such as reading, listening, and interaction. It
occurs through “multiple exposures to a word in different contexts” (Huckin and
Coady, 1999).
Krashen (1981) believes that there are some certain conditions for such
learning to occur. Firstly, the learners must be interested in understanding the
message. From the point of view of vocabulary learning, this interest creates a need
to understand the unknown words in the message. Secondly, the message should
contain some items that are just outside the learners' present level of achievement.
These items, however, should be understandable from the context in which they
occur. This includes both language and non-language contexts. Thirdly, the learners
should not feel worried or threatened by their contact with the foreign language.
2. Concluding remarks
2.1. The difficulties in learning English vocabulary faced by the 10th form
students at DSUSS are unavoidable and caused by both subjective and objective
factors. In terms of subjective factors, it is the students’ traditional way of learning,
that is writing new words repeatedly, students’ lack of motivation and the teachers’
traditional teaching method, that is speaking new words aloud and translating
directly that mainly hinder students from English vocabulary acquisition. The
objective factors include English vocabulary itself, the challenging curriculum and
lack of teaching facilities and reference materials. In reasearcher’s opinion, the main
difficulties faced by the students originate from subjective factors. The subjective
factors can be changed while the objective factors can hardly be changed by the
students and teachers themselves. Therefore, the difficulties should be overcome
foremost by the students and teachers themselves.
2.2. To Giúp students learn English vocabulary better, both teachers and students
must improve their awareness of their role in teaching and learning process and the
role of English in their further study and future work, which Giúp to create a
motivation for students’ learning. Moreover, teachers should varify their teaching
techniques and Giúp students find out their learning strategies that suit their abilities
in learning vocabulary. This will make students more motivated to learn and have a
higher sense of confidence in their own learning ability.
3. Limitations of the study
As a matter of fact, nothing is perfect and limitations are inevitable. The
study presented in this thesis is of no exception.
Firstly, because of time limitation, knowledge and limited size of a minor
thesis, the research was conducted only on a small size of population. This number
is not enough for the researcher to have a full understanding of difficulties in
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