DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING VOCABULARY OF ENGLISH FACULTY STUDENT AT THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY

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THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH - - GRADUATION PAPER TOPIC: DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING VOCABULARY OF ENGLISH FACULTY STUDENT AT THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY Advisor : Nguyen Thi Thuy Chung Student : Truong Thi My Hoa Class : K53N1 Student Code : 17D170013 Ha Noi 2021 ABSTRACT  No one denies the importance of English in the present time as global language It is clear that English has become more and more dominant around the world Actually, in some countries it is used as the mother tongue and, other countries learn it as second language in their schools There is no doubt that English is language of communication between people from different cultures As for as we are concerned, studying a language cannot be separated from studying vocabulary Yet it is true that the vocabulary is the focus of language It is in words that sound and meaning interlock to allow us to communicate with one another Besides, vocabulary really plays an important role because it appears in every language skill However, it is not easy to study perfect English vocabulary, especially business vocabulary Almost students of the Faculty English at Thuongmai University often face up with some problems in learning vocabulary at first because it is difficult to memorize a new word with its meaning, spelling and pronunciation Therefore, I decided to conduct a survey to identify common difficulties in learning vocabulary, in order to find effective solutions to help students learn better in this module This is the researcher’s proposal, has not been specifically applied in practice I would like to be given the steps to conduct the research, and at the same time predict the results of the research Due to the limited implementation time, there are unavoidable errors in the implementation process, the researcher sincerely hopes to receive the sympathy of the teachers ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS  To Teachers in Thuong Mai University! Especially, Mrs Nguyen Thi Thuy Chung! In fact, there is no success that is not attached to the support or help, whether directly or indirectly by others During the time since I started studying in Thuongmai university until now, I have received a lot of attention and help from teachers, family and friends First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to the teachers of English Faculty in particular and all teachers of Thuongmai University in general By your knowledge and dedication, you give me valuable knowledge throughout the study period In addition, I would like to express my deepest attitude to my supervisor, Mrs Nguyen Thi Thuy Chung, who is the English lecturer of Business English Faculty, for her valuable guidance, critical feedback, and enormous encouragement Without her incessant support, this research cannot come to this successful closing stage Last but not least, I also want to express my great appreciation to my family and friends who are always by my side during the part school years Your encouragement has made me stronger in this period of life Finally, I wish all teachers good health and success in teaching careers Sincerely, Truong Thi My Hoa TABLE OF CONTENT  LIST OF TABLE AND FIGURES  CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale Vocabulary plays an important role in language learning Vocabulary is also an essential skill for learning to read, speak, write and listen Without sufficient vocabulary, people cannot communicate and express their feeling both in form of spoken and written effectively The more people master vocabulary, the more they can speak, write, read and listen as they want Wise people know how to enrich their vocabulary through reading books and studying, thereby they can acknowledge more about your life or this world, and upgrade themselves “Words are one of our chief means of adjusting to all the situations of life The better control we have over words, the more successful our adjustment is likely to be.” (Bergen Evans, 1904-1978, American writer and educator) Hence, it is paramount to enlarge your vocabulary in your mother tongue or particularly in a language that you are learning There is a fact that, Vietnamese English learners are better at grammar than native speaker but the others skills are not good The dominance of structures made people disparage the role of vocabulary Wilkins in Thornbury (2004: 13) states that without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed It means that even someone has good grammar but it will be useless if they not know lots of vocabularies In addition, it is supported by Ur (1996: 60) that vocabulary is one of important things to be taught in learning foreign language because it will be impossible to speak up without variety of words Those statements imply the importance of teaching vocabulary as a foreign language In the context of Thuongmai University which leads in the fields of commerce, students in the faculty of English are trained in commercial English and a compulsory subject for non- majored students Fortunately, I acknowledged the importance of vocabulary as a significant aspect in foreign language methodology to accelerate my learning English journey Having spent about years studying Business English, I have got many experiences and also realized many obstacles that push me back and restrain me to move forward Unlike general vocabulary used in daily life, moreover, Business English vocabulary is truly a big hindrance The problems may be listed, for example, the amount of Business vocabulary is enormous that is overwhelming learners, it is very hard to remember those and especially students not know how to use it properly Another matter, ironically, found out through a brief interview with my peer studying the same course, is that they not remember and can’t use some Business terms without searching for it on the Internet Hence, these matters inspire me a real desire to conduct this student to figure out the problems encountered when learning Business English vocabulary and find solutions to help learners who are learning or want to learn Business English know how to find the perfect method This result, in particular, can be a guideline for students in the faculty of English at Thuongmai University 1.2 Previous studies The researcher has found some previous studies that related with this research The first study was conducted by Saniyah (2011) The title is “Students and Problems in learning English Vocabulary” The researcher used descriptive research as the research design The instruments used in this research are interview and questionnaire The results of this research showed that there are some problems in learning vocabulary that faced by English Department students of IAIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya The errors generally grouped into some categories that were words classes, homonym, homophones, homograph, polysemy and word formations Meanwhile, the common problem that found by the researcher is the students’ problem in remembering the new words The second previous study is conducted by Ningrum (2015) entitled “Students’ Problems in Learning Vocabulary at Eighth Grade in One of Junior High School in Jambi” The researcher used mixed method research as the research design The researcher used test and interview as the instruments of this research The researcher only chooses students who got the lowest score in the test The findings of this research showed that the eighth grade students of SMP N 10 Jambi were categorized into various categories Next study is conducted by Rohmatillah (2014) entitled “A Study on the Students’ Difficulties in Learning Vocabulary” In this research, the researcher used qualitative research Interview and questionnaire were the instruments that used for gaining the data The findings from this research showed that there are some difficulties that faced by the students from the first semester at IAIN Raden Intan Lampung; (1) most of the students find the difficulty in pronouncing the words, (2) they were also difficult in writing and spelling the words, (3) the other difficulty was the grammatical form of the words, (4) most of the students face the difficulties in choosing the appropriate meaning of the words and (5) they were still confused in using the words correctly and, (6) most of the students were also confused when they found idiomatic meaning of the words From those previous studies above, this research was different The researcher used qualitative method to collect the data from the participants In addition, the researcher also focused on the students’ strategies in learning vocabulary 1.3 Aims of the study This study aims at the following objectives: Investigate the problems faced by English majored Students at Thuongmai University in learning Business English vocabulary Recommend strategies that can help learners minimize problems and find out the effective ways to learn Business English vocabulary 1.4 Research Subjects This study is about the vocabulary learning difficulty used by fourth-year students majoring in English at Thuongmai University 1.5 Scope of the study This study is limited to the area of investigating in Business English vocabulary faced by fourth year students in Thuongmai University More importantly, this survey tries to serve the purpose of figuring out the most common problems in the students’ Business vocabulary learning and finding possible solutions to help learners learn vocabulary successfully 1.6 Research methodology This study adopts a quantitative approach and a qualitative approach to find out the problems that Business English learners encounter the vocabulary learning process Besides, it is helpful to list out other obstacles in Business English vocabulary The quantitative approach to gathering information focuses on describing a phenomenon across a larger number of participants thereby providing the possibility of summarizing characteristics across groups or relationships Moreover, the qualitative approach to gathering information focuses on describing a phenomenon in a deep comprehensive manner This is generally done in interviews, open-ended questions, or focus groups ( Jean Rhodes, 2014) 1.7 Organization of the study There are four main chapters in the study Chapter1: Overview of the study In this chapter, all the general information is listed as a foundation for the research such as Rationale, Previous studies, aims of the study, Research subjects, Scope of the study and Research methodology Chapter 2: Literature review In this chapter, all the theories related to this research will be mentioned to help readers understand more about the results of the research Chapter 3: Research findings and discussions This chapter divided into two parts, there are research methodology and research findings and discussions In research methodology, researchers will show the procedure to collect all the data for this survey and how to analyzed the data Any tools or materials are used in the research and the rationale for choosing these methods In research findings and discussions, it shows all results that are received and added with some discussion through the survey Based on the data collection from the survey questionnaire, the issues will be analyzed in depth to provide accurate information about some common hindrance when learning Business English vocabulary Major findings are identified Suggest some solutions which are expected to address these problems faced by learners Additions, some advice or ways to have the best learning method are suitable for each person Chapter 4: Recommendations and solutions This chapter identifies some solutions to improve teaching and learning English in general, and teaching and learning English vocabulary in particular at Thuongmai University, as well as the limitations of the study and suggestions for further study Also, “References” and “Appendix” will be listed on the study's last pages CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Theoretical background of vocabulary 2.1.1 Definition of vocabulary Learning a new language cannot be separated from vocabulary Meaning that in learning a new language people have to know its vocabulary Vocabulary can be defined in various ways Experts have proposed some terms about vocabulary According to Richards and Renandya (2002: 255), vocabulary is a core component of language proficiency and provides much of the basis for how learners speak, listen, read and write Without an extensive vocabulary and strategies for acquiring new vocabulary, learners often achieve their potential and may be discouraged from making use of language learning opportunities around them such as listening to the radio, listening to the native speaker, using language in different context, reading or watching television The other definition of vocabulary states from Hatch and Brown (1995: 1), they say that vocabulary refers to a list or set of words for a particular language or a list or set of words that individual speakers of language might use Hatch and Brown (1995:1) also state that vocabulary is the only system involved of alphabetical order Ur (1994: 60) defines vocabulary as the words we teach in the foreign language In addition, Brown (2001: 377) views vocabulary items as a boring list of words that must be defined and memorized by the students, lexical forms are seen in their central role in contextualized, meaningful language Richard in Schmitt (1997: 241) also states that knowing a word meaning knowing how often it occurs, the company it keeps, its appropriateness in different situations, its syntatic behavior, its underlying form and derivations, its word associations, and its semantic features Vocabulary is central to second language (L2) acquisition As McCarthy (1990: 140) states that without words to express a wider range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way Nation in Schmitt (2000: 5) proposes a list of the different kinds of knowledge that a person must master in order to know a words: the meaning of word, the written form of the word, the spoken form of the word, the grammatical behavior of the word, the collocations of the word, the register of the word, the association of the word, and the frequency of the word 10 ... Investigate the problems faced by English majored Students at Thuongmai University in learning Business English vocabulary Recommend strategies that can help learners minimize problems and find out... context of Thuongmai University which leads in the fields of commerce, students in the faculty of English are trained in commercial English and a compulsory subject for non- majored students Fortunately,... Business English vocabulary 1.4 Research Subjects This study is about the vocabulary learning difficulty used by fourth-year students majoring in English at Thuongmai University 1.5 Scope of