(SKKN 2022) using hot potatoes software to facilitate vocabulary learning for students at lam son gifted high school

TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Vocabulary is one of the essential elements in foreign language learning It is the total number of words in a language If grammar is considered to be “the skeleton” of the language, it is claimed that lexicology is “the flesh” (Harmer, 1991) It is also stated only little can be conveyed without grammar but nothing without vocabulary Therefore, whether the language produced by foreign language learners is rich or poor, effective or ineffective, basic or advanced, it heavily depend on the amount and level of lexicology used In addition, it is vocabulary that connects the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing all together In order to communicate well in a foreign language, students should have an acquisition of an adequate number of words and know how to use them accurately Hence, learning vocabulary is increasingly viewed as extremely important Learners as well as teachers are aware that vocabulary is the basic foundation for mastering language skills However, learning and memorizing lexicology is often only seen as an adjunct to other skills and not as important as its importance in textbooks According to 6-level Framework of Reference for language issued by MOET, learners who graduate from high schools have to master level 3, which means they will become an independent user of this language, which is equivalent to grasping English vocabulary of intermediate level Furthermore, in order to meet the requirements, students are required to pass many tests and assessments during their learning process such as mid-terms tests, progress tests, final term tests in oral and written forms Moreover, in the very end of this educational level, grade 12th students are required to take a national exam in which English is a compulsory Some even a the burning desire to obtain an IELTS certificate to apply for scholarships offered by prestigious universities all over the world Therefore, it is of great importance for them to be exposed to the use of the words they have learnt in various contexts to consolidate and master a great amount of of vocabularies such as: daily activities, environmental, social issues, education, culture, etc Though important as vocabulary may be, vocabulary teaching and learning are usually considered to be the most tedious and arduous Vocabulary is taught and learned as an integrated part of reading, listening, speaking and writing lessons, so it is only a part of the lesson with a limited amount of time, which is not proportional to the time allocated to teaching and learning procedures A wide variety of techniques concerned with vocabulary presentation and consolidation have been adopted However, the number of vocabularies students grasp has not come up to both teachers and learners’ expectations Students should be given more exposure to vocabulary put into authentic language using tasks, presented vocabulary through interactive contexts Traditionally, students often revise it by writing newly learned words repeatedly and try to remember them by heart This procedure is showing its tediousness and low effectiveness as it is effort consuming but the number of words students can remember after a period of time is limited From the above-mentioned reasons, as a teacher of English, the author carried out the study “Using hot potatoes software to facilitate vocabulary learning for students at Lam Son Gifted High School” The author hope that it would help student be motivated in learning vocabulary and they would find an effective way to enhance their lexico repertoire 1.2 Aims of the study The present research aims at: • Exploring the effectiveness of using Hot Potatoes software to help students consolidate and entirely master the vocabulary they learnt outside classrooms • Providing a friendlier way to assist students in their vocabulary learning • Helping students master a wide ranges of lexico resources in diverse contexts 1.3 Participants In this research, we only focused on the application HOT POTATOES software to enhance the English vocabulary repertoire for the 10 th form nonEnglish majored students at Lam Son Gifted High School Therefore, the research was carried out with the participation of only 140 non-English majored students from the four classes: 10S, 10H, 10D, 10F and five teachers of English All the participants are Vietnamese, the students were high school freshmen and had the same level of English and most of them had been learning English as a foreign language at school for years In this study, major material was the official textbook English 10 published by the Ministry of Education and Training, which was used as the main course book and some other reference books 1.4 Methodology This main methodology used in this method was experimental First, students’ English levels are evaluated via a standardized test Then, they will experience the learning process in which a system of English vocabulary exercises built on hot potatoes is applied to English vocabulary learning Finally, another test will be conducted to assess the effectiveness of this method To gather essential data, the author utilized a survey questionnaire, a general English test, a pre-test and a post-test The general test was used to ensure that the participants were at similar levels of English The pre-test and post-test were applied to assess the improvement if there was any, that the group made after the experiment 1.5 The significance of the study This research was carried out with the hope that it would be of great help for teacher and students at Lam Son Gifted High School when teaching and learning vocabulary in combination with the software Hot Potatoes to build a system of exercises related to the classroom curriculum It would help students revise the words they learnt in class, master them and accumulate improve their lexico resources, which would lay the solid foundation for language acquisition and language skills Create a closed design - application - assessment model, so that software users in teaching and learning English can apply the designed content package, including a system of exercises on the software , package of assessment tests (Test) included, can be widely applied throughout the school Encourage the application of technology in teaching, through the convenience of using the system of exercises on software CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Vocabulary 2.1.1 Definition Vocabulary is the words of a language But what is a word? Although it seems likely that “everyone knows what a word is” (Carter & Mc Carthy, 1988, p.4), for academic research purposes, at least, sometimes the meaning is so clear Words are recognitions of lexemes A lexeme is the basic form of a word that is listed in the dictionary, and is the root of all the variations of that word The lexeme DO, for example, comprises all of the grammatical conjugations of that verb in terms of person (does, do) and tense (do, doing, did, done) Lexemes can also be” prefabricated chunks” of language, i.e multi-word items that are stored and recalled in a grammatically unanalyzed form 2.1.2 Word aspects According to vocabulary acquisition literature, “knowing” a word implies more than just meaning identification and form familiar The nature of word knowledge can be described as multi-dimensional, incremental and having a receptive/ productive duality That is, word knowledge is gained incrementally, as each encounter with a word contributes to the depth of knowledge of the multi-dimensional aspects For examples, often one can understand or recognise a word encountered in speech or in written text, but are unable to use it in our own production of the language (Schmitt, 2001) This situation indicates that word knowledge has various scopes; understanding and recognising a word when reading or listening to spoken language is known as ‘receptive knowledge’, whereas being able to use a word in discourse is ‘productive knowledge’ Different aspects of the word knowledge have been identified (Schmitt, 2001), including: - The meaning(s) of the word - The written form of the word - The spoken form of the word - The grammatical behaviour of the word - The collocations of the word - The register of the word - The associations of the word - The frequency of the word In addition, a variety dimensions of knowledge of words consists of: - The limitations of use of the word - The place of the word in a network of association An understanding of most of the above aspects of words is required by learners in order for them to be competent with the use of a word across a wide range of language use situations It is worth noting that different types of word knowledge are not necessarily acquired simultaneously That is, often, a learner may know the pronunciation of a word but is unable to spell it correctly This, again, reinforces the incremental nature of word knowledge, as types of word knowledge are acquired gradually, at variable rates, however, the test used in this study does not cover all of the aforementioned aspects of vocabulary knowledge The focus of this study is uncovering participants’ knowledge of the syntactic behaviour of a word, as well as their knowledge of the meanings of words 2.2 The importance of vocabulary in learning English language Vocabulary plays a crucial role in an individual's foreign language capability According to Read (2004) vocabulary is the total number of words that a person knows Vocabulary is one of the essential elements in foreign language learning Learners as well as teachers are aware that vocabulary is the basic foundation for mastering language skills According to Wilkin (1972), “without grammar little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” Currently, there has been increased emphasis on the need to equip learners with adequate lexical tools to facilitate their performance of receptive (reading or listening) and productive skills (speaking and writing) (Schmitt, 2008) For example, with regard to receptive skills, without sufficient knowledge of vocabulary, learners may have difficulty in reading comprehension (Laufer 1998) Additionally, in terms of productive skills, without a satisfactory lexico resource, learners may be incapable of demonstrating communicative tasks Furthermore, a correlation has been identified between learners’ amount of vocabulary size and their writing quality 2.3 The role of information technology in foreign language teaching According to Kern (2006), information technology plays the role of a guide, a facilitator and a mediator As an instructor, the computer provides instruction, feedback, and testing for grammar, vocabulary, writing, pronunciation, and other aspects of learning the target language and culture As an aid, computers provide learners with the opportunity to access visual, audio, and written materials of the local language and culture At the same time, they also provide reference facilities such as online dictionaries, grammar and style checkers The Internet provides databases for research As an intermediary, technology provides websites that support interpersonal communication, distance learning, and online community participation Barr (2004) gives the following specific roles: - Information technology plays a role in supporting learning Barr (2004) argues that learning aids are used to enhance student learning in many different areas of learning, including language learning Like Kern, Barr sees software as a guide, "taking on the role of a teacher" and as a means of developing learning materials - Information technology as a reference source According to Barr, language learning software can be downloaded from the Internet This helps teachers choose the right programs for their lessons Students can also download and use software programs as self-study materials Thus, the role of information technology in foreign language teaching can be summarized as follows: Reference tools: Through the Internet, CD/DVD-ROMs, teachers and learners can search all kinds of information related to foreign language teaching and learning as well as any information about the world around Encyclopedias such as Encarta, Grollier, Hutchinson on CD-ROM contain information in all fields English dictionaries on CD-ROM and online such as LacViet Dictionary, Cambridge Advanced Language Dictionary, Oxford Genie are useful tools for looking up The Internet is considered the most convenient reference tool - Computer Communication: This is the process of using a computer to facilitate communication between two or more people This communication can be in the form of e-mail, or in the form of internet chat As a result, teachers and learners can exchange information over the Internet Moreover, learners can communicate with many people in many different countries around the world, especially English-speaking countries to develop their foreign language ability - Websites: Most websites have great potential for English learners, because learners have the opportunity to interact with the actual language used Learners can search for all kinds of information in different formats such as texts, sounds and images There are a number of websites designed specifically for English learners where learners can grammar exercises, listening comprehension, speaking practice, and writing practice - Foreign language teaching and learning programs: Foreign language teaching software meets the needs of learners at different levels with diverse learning purposes to make teaching and learning English easier These software allow learners to participate in many learning activities at the same time such as listening to the lesson and recording their own voice for comparison, doing grammar and vocabulary exercises, etc 2.4 Benefits of using software in teaching foreign languages Software can be beneficial and be used in teaching because the software, unlike a teacher, never gets tired and can be used over and over again Furthermore, once students have used the software, they will have more time to prepare other parts of the lecture, focusing on problems students may face In addition, the software has eye-catching images, colors, and vivid sounds to help students get excited and enhance their ability to focus and remember for a long time Galavis (1998) also states that "Computer video, images and sound stimulate the visual and auditory abilities simultaneously, which is not possible with traditional sources." According to him, the software provides various types of real documents Thus, it can be said that the benefits of using software in teaching foreign languages in general and English in particular are as follows: - When students participate in class using software, students can interact with the native language This helps students to expose, imitate and practice and remember longer Galavis (1998) argues that "computers with - - - - - CD-ROMs can provide a large amount of input knowledge and voice diversity" The use of software in teaching speaking skills develops students' learning motivation Vivid images and sounds attract attention and prolong the study time without making students feel bored or tired The use of highly interactive software between learners and computers Most software has the ability to recognize language and provide feedback to learners So when a student makes a mistake, the computer will make a comment and the learner can correct it In addition, the software meets the different learning styles and methods of students The software offers a number of different programs to varying degrees Therefore, students can choose the type of exercise, level, and learning speed that is right for them Using software brings convenience to learners Students can study on their own at a time that suits them Software to help students reduce pressure in learning Self-study students at home avoid embarrassment and disappointment when facing too many difficulties during class time CHAPTER III: THE STUDY 3.1 Problems students at Lam Son gifted high school face in learning English lexicology Lam Son Gifted High School has 33 classes, specializing in different subjects namely Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Informatics, Literature, History, Geography and English Compared to students majoring in English, the non- English majored ones at Lam Son gifted high school struggled to remember the new words they were taught at school outside class They had the habit of remembering the meaning of the words or phrases in isolation instead of grasping linguistic environment in which they appear This leads to the fact that those words and phrases were generally not retained for a long period of time They found it difficult to commit the words to memory owing to little practice Therefore, setting the words specific contexts which are interesting, plausible, vivid and relevant to the daily lives of the learners, is an essential prerequisite for vocabulary teaching as this helps not only motivate students but also maintain the interest and attention of the learners during their vocabulary learning To make sure the language surrounding the context is easy to comprehend, the teacher should start eliciting the target vocabulary Currently, there are not many softwares designing exercises related to the lexico resources equivalent to the course book Tieng Anh 10 Little exposure to those vocabulary in contexts resulted in their poor academic performance when taking regular tests, mid-term tests and final tests During the outbreak of Covid 19 pandemic, our teaching and learning had to switch between online and offline modes because a large number of students were infected with corona viruses and they had to stayed at home for medical treatment and prevented the risk of spreading the viruses This had negative impact on their English learning in general and vocabulary learning in particular The vast majority of students and teachers of English expressed their disappointment with the result of the first semester of the school year 2021-2022 regarding English subject Quick interviews were conducted by the authors to their students to find out the main reasons Most of the respondents blamed their low results on poor lexico resources, which made them incapable of completing the tests with flying colors From the current situation of teaching and learning English vocabulary, this research was carrired out to facilitate teaching and learning English vocabulary process 3.2 The application of Hot Potatoes software in vocabulary learning It is widely acknowledged that 10-15 minutes of vocabulary learning every day will exert significant effects on promoting language skills With the goal of giving students more opportunities to expose to the words they learnt inside and outside class, the author built user-friendly exercise system on Hot Potatoes software for the 10th form students at Lam Son gifted High School The author built repetitive and interconnected activities and asked students to completing a certain exercises in small groups or in pairs and in individual after class Only by this way were they given time to explore vocabulary together and familiar with the use of the words in diverse contexts The author focused on requiring students’ memorizing roots and related words in a field instead of memorizing individual words Most of the words were put in contexts in which they were used so that learners could learn them naturally and easily The number of new vocabulary related to each topic of their textbook was learned through practising listening and speaking (inside class) and reading and writing Further practice was required to ensure student grasp not only the meaning but also the uses of the words whenever they had free time The amount of vocabulary carefully selected belongs to the text book Tieng Anh 10 that the students use Specifically, this experiment focused on the vocabularies related to the topics taught during second semester such as gender equality, culture, education, environment, tourism They were the words which were thought to appear in other context more frequently compared to the rest in each unit From the words provided in each unit, the author introduced their derivatives, antonyms and synonyms to help them enhance their vocabulary and deepen their knowledge of vocabulary so that they can independently guess the meaning of the new words even in other new contexts For example: With the topic related to Unit 9: preserving the environment, 30 original words were chosen (see Appendix I) However, students had to master 55 words which was nearly double (see appendix II) 3.2.1 Hypothesis and research questions It was assumed that using Hot Potato software and a system of English vocabulary exercises would be one of the contributing factors to enhancing students vocabulary learning It would be of great help in revising the lexical items, which would result in fully mastering the use of the words in a multitude of contexts Therefore, this experiment was conducted to find the answer to the question: • Will using Hot Potatoes software facilitate students’ retention of lexico items they learn in class? 3.2.2 Procedures The experiment lasted during the second semester Before the treatment, the results of the first term tests were collected to assess students’ competence Then a pre-test was distributed to all the participants (Appendix III) at the same time When they finished these exercises, the teachers collected their papers and measured their accuracy The participants’ performance was rated in terms of accuracy Accuracy in participants’ exercises was measured by counting the correct sentences students made After that, the control classes followed the general English program at school and are taught without applying Hot Potatoes software and the designed exercises to revise the vocabulary they learnt out of classes while the experimental group used the software to ensure more exposure to the lexical items every week 10 During the treatment, the vocabulary of the five units from to 10 were introduce conventionally to both control group (participants from class 10H, 10S) and experimental group (students from 10D, 10F) Different types of exercise were designed on the software using the wordlists of each unit from to 10 and links of the exercises were sent to experimental groups through class groups on Zalo or Messenger by their teachers Students’ participation was closely observed to make sure they completed the exercises on the software They were required to complete the exercises of each unit at least times and they had to capture the screenshot to hand the results in to their teachers Bonus marks were given to them according to the number of correct answers they had Each week, the links were sent to experimental groups so that during the experimental time, they could a wide variety of exercises To avoid cheating, the multiple choice questions and matching exercises were designed to ensure each time they visited the link, the order of the questions were shuffled to create a new test and they had to remember all the words to obtain 100% correct The software provided feedback right after each choice the participants made However, right answers were not given, and they could choose to continue doing the exercise or close the link, reset it and redo it The more time they did the exercise, the more exposed they were to the new words The exercises were designed on the Hot Potatoes software as follows i Matching 11 ii Close reading a Reading (guided) b Reading (open cloze) 12 iii Crossword 13 iv Multiple choice questions In the next step , post- test (Appendix IV) was given to both groups at the same time Then the teachers collected their papers and measured their accuracy The test scores of the pre-test and post-test were compared to tell the difference in improvements of the two groups before and after the experiment Data collected from the results of the pre-test and post-test taken before and after the experiment were analyzed and compared to see if there was much difference between the improvements of the two groups namely control groups (10S, 10H) and experimental groups (10D,10F) The vocabulary test was designed in multiple choice format, which was familiar, to test participants’ vocabulary ability via 50 questions The question content was based on the word lists from unit to unit 10 in English 10 textbook, aiming to test students’ vocabulary in terms of word pronunciation, word meaning, collocation, word derivation, synonyms and antonyms The questions were mixed to create test codes, two of which (132, 209) were used for the pre-test and the two other (357, 485) were used for the post-test The participants were under the tight control of the teachers of English in the 14 division of English teachers, including author and the cameras installed in classrooms so that the results would reflect students ‘ability in a reliable way A survey questionnaire was also delivered to the participants in experimental groups to have an insight into their views about the influence of using the software after the experiment Pre-test Using Hot software Post-test Potatoes Control group (10S, 10H) Yes No Experimental group (10D, 10F) Yes Yes Yes Yes 3.2.3 Findings and discussion 3.2.3.1 Results from pre-vocabulary test and post-vocabulary test Control groups 10H's Pre-test 10H's Post-test 10H's Results of vocabulary tests 10S's Pre-test 10S's Post-test 10S's Results of vocabulary test The above pie charts present the result of the pre and post-tests for vocabulary of class 10H and 10S during the research time It can be seen that there were slight improvements in the students’ vocabulary repertoire 15 Concerning class 10H, 11% of the students got under average marks and 57% got average marks in the pre-test but these figures dropped to 0% and 54% in the post-test respectively At the same time, nearly a third of students got good marks in the first test while in the second, this number went up by 8% Besides, although no students performed excellently in the pre-test, there were 6% getting marks to 10 in the post-test Looking at the data collected from class 10S, we can see that the students in this class performed somewhat better than class 10H in both tests A small rate of students (8%) in class 10H got under average marks but this figure fell to zero at the end of the period A large percentage of 60% of students got average marks at first then went down to 51% The percentage of students got marks from 7.0 to 8.8 increased from 32% to 40% and % got excellent marks in the post-test Experimental Group 10D's Pre-test 10D's Post-test 10D's Results of vocabulary test 10F's Pre-test 10F's Post-test 10F's Results of vocabulary test These pie charts illustrate the result of vocabulary tests of two class 10D and 10F It is evident that students made a big progress in their vocabulary A glance at the result of students from class 10D reveals that at the beginning of the period, there was a relative difference in the rate of mark 16 levels under-average, average and good, which account for 25%, 32% and 43% respectively However, at the end of the period, figure for average marks nearly halved while that of good marks increased dramatically to more than a half It is also noticeable that the students no longer got under-average marks, while nearly a quarter got excellent ones Regarding class 10F, while the number of students getting average marks in the pre-test accounted for the largest part (57%), there was a threefold reduction to 20% at the end of period The percentage of good marks rose from around a third to nearly a half Strikingly, while there was no excellent marks at first but at the end, the number was approximately a third of the total An overall glance at the charts reveals that although students in all four classes made progress, their vocabulary repertoire was bigger However, it is apparent that those in class 10D and 10F had a much better improvement in vocabulary resources Data shows that learning by conventional methods helped students boost their English vocabulary in a modest extent Roughly a half of students could get good and excellent marks Meanwhile, those who experienced games to revise new words could make much more progress with a large majority of students in class 10D (83%) and 10F (80%) getting mark 7.0 and above 7.0 Looking at the percentage of average marks and under, the figure for control group dropped by roughly 15% while that of experimental group halved This shows that integrating online games into teaching procedure has a positive effect in boosting students ‘vocabulary, students can gain more from playing games Percentage of good and excellent marks (7-10) Pre-test Post-test 10 H 32% 46% 10 S 32% 49% 10 D 43% 83% 10F 29% 80% Percentage of under-average and average marks (