Rationale for the study
McCarthy (2001: 2, cited in Fan, 2003: 222) explained that “Vocabulary forms the biggest part of the meaning of any language, and it is the biggest problem for most learners” McCarthy firmly believes that language is lexis-driven, and therefore, vocabulary learning is the real key to second language learning He claims that learners will be more successful if they can develop their own techniques and disciplines for vocabulary learning Therefore, an effective approach to vocabulary is always one of the great concerns of every language teacher The reason is that learning vocabulary is really challenging requiring many cognitive processes, and teachers have to make sure that students understand the word: the form of the word (pronunciation, spelling, derivations) and its meaning as well as how to use the word accurately and appropriately
There are many ways of presenting the meaning of a new word These include a definition in the second language, a demonstration, a picture or a diagram, a real object, L2 context clues, or an L1 translation (Nation, 2003) However, studies comparing the effectiveness of various methods for learning always come up with the result that an L1 translation is the most effective (Lado, Baldwin, Lobo and Mishima 1967; Laufer and Shmueli, 1997) This is probably because L1 translations are usually clear, short and familiar, qualities which are very important in effective definitions (Mc Keown, 1993)
At Vung cao Viet Bac High school, with more than 2,000 ethnic minority students come from different minority groups, each ethnic group has its own language, but Vietnamese is nominated the national language Thus, to students coming from the minority groups, English is their second foreign language As far as I can observe, these learners are much in favour of Vietnamese translation when learning English vocabulary This has motivated me to carry out this study, which aims at finding the effectiveness of using Vietnamese translation in teaching vocabulary
Hopefully, findings will reaffirm the use of mother tongue and translation as a strategic teaching method within the field of vocabulary acquisition
Furthermore, it is to partially help English foreign language teachers have a reflection on their teaching practice.
Objectives of the study
The research is aimed to investigate the effectiveness of using Vietnamese translation in teaching vocabulary to the 10 th form students at Vung cao Viet Bac High School
The objectives of the study are: a) to investigate how frequently Vietnamese translation is used as well as what activities are used to help their students consolidate words after using Vietnamese translation in teching English vocabulary b) to explore the teachers and students‟ perceptions of the effectiveness of using Vietnamese translation in teaching and learning English vocabulary.
Research Questions
To achieve the aims and objectives of the thesis, the following research questions were proposed:
1 What is the frequency of using Vietnamese translation in teaching English vocabulary to 10 th form students?
2 What are the common vocabulary activities the teachers use to help their students consolidate words after using Vietnamese translation?
3 What is the effectiveness of Vietnamese translation for learning vocabulary as perceived by the students?
4 What is the teachers‟ perceived effectiveness of Vietnamese translation used for presenting new vocabulary?
Scope of the study
The study limits itself to the effectiveness of using Vietnamese translation in teaching English Vocabulary The effectiveness of this technique would be explored from the perception of the students and teachers The study was carried out only with tenth form students and the teachers who are in charge of English teaching to those students at Vung cao Viet Bac High school in Thai Nguyen
One more noteworthy point about the scope of this study is that it focuses on the effectiveness of using Vietnamese translation technique for presenting the meaning of new vocabulary rather than the form.
Methods of the study
Both qualitative and quantitative research methods are used in this study, including questionnaire, classroom observations and interviews
Questionnaire Both open-ended and close-ended questions were administered to 152 students to find out the students‟ perceived effectiveness of Vietnamese translation technique on vocabulary learning
Classroom observations Six classes (of about 45 minutes in length) taught by three different teachers were observed to find out how frequently Vietnamese translation is used and what activities are used to help their students consolidate words after using Vietnamese translation
Interviews Teacher interviews were conducted to obtain a better understanding of the teachers‟ perceptions towards the effectiveness of using Vietnamese translation in teaching English vocabulary The interviews were transcribed fully and analyzed qualitatively.
Design of the study
The research includes three parts namely Part A, Part B, Part C
Part A is the introduction, which presents the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the methods, and the design of the study
Part B is the development which consists of three chapters
Chapter 1 is the literature review which reviews theoretical issues related to the definitions of vocabulary, and its roles in second language acquisition, approaches to vocabulary teaching, recent research about teaching and learning second language vocabulary, techniques in presenting new vocabulary, L1 and translation in vocabulary teaching and learning, previous studies on L1 translation in teaching
L2 vocabulary, the role of L1 translation in vocabulary acquisition as well as advantages and disadvantages of using L1 translation in teaching vocabulary
Chapter 2 is the study, presents the quantitative and qualitative study, the participants, the data collection instruments, and research procedures of the study
Chapter 3 is the analysis and discussion of the findings through an analysis of the data collected by means of questionnaire, classroom observations and interviews
Part C is the conclusion of the study In this part, major findings of the study will be summarized to answer the research questions Some implications on use of Vietnamese translation in teaching English vocabulary, the limitation of the study and suggestion for further research are presented.
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Introduction
This chapter focuses on providing an overview of the theoretical knowledge relevant to the study including vocabulary and its roles in second language acquisition, approaches to vocabulary teaching, recent research about teaching and learning second language vocabulary, techniques in presenting new vocabulary, L1 and translation in vocabulary teaching and learning, previous studies on L1 translation in teaching L2 vocabulary, the role of L1 translation in vocabulary acquisition, advantages and disadvantages of using L1 translation in teaching vocabulary.
Vocabulary and Its Roles in Second Language Acquisition
Vocabulary is a matter which many linguists and language teachers have been concerned for a long time Vocabulary is defined differently by different scholars
Below some definitions of vocabulary that are relevant to the present study are introduced
In The American Heritage Dictionary, “vocabulary” is defined as:
2 The sum of words used by, understood by, or at the command of a particular person or a group
3 A list of words and often phrases, usually arranged alphabetically and defined or translated; a lexicon or glossary
It‟s apparent that above definition show the relationship between vocabulary and words In other words vocabulary is defined as words However, it seems important to see clear definitions, a concise explanation as sited as follow:
"Vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as the words we teach in the foreign language However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single two or three words but express a single idea A useful conversation is to cover all such cases by talking about vocabulary “items” rather than
“word” which is made up of two or three words but express a single idea.’‟(p.60)
According to Penny Ur, vocabulary should be recognized as words we teach in a foreign language Ur argues a vocabulary item can be either a single word or a multi-word phrase
Similarly, Lewis, an advocate of the lexical approach to second language teaching views vocabulary either as individual words or as full sentences, which he terms as
“institutionalized utterances, that convey fixed social or pragmatic meaning within a given community” (Lewis, 1993:89)
1.2.2 Roles of Vocabulary in Second Language Acquisition
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 Mc Carthy (1990) stated that:
“No matter how well the students learn grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to express a wider range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way”
Pyles and Algeo (1970) noted that:
“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”
In fact, vocabulary is the element that links the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing all together In order to communicate well in a foreign language, students should acquire an adequate number of words and should know how to use them accurately David Wilkin emphasized the importance of vocabulary learning:
"Without grammar very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed."
Cook‟s (1991) conclusion is also consistent with Wilkins in that “Grammar provides the overall patterns, vocabulary the material to put into those patterns” Or some authors, led by Lewis (1993) argue that vocabulary should be at the centre of language teaching, because „language consists of grammaticalised lexis, not lexicalised grammar‟ According to Meare (1995) central to learning to communicate in the target language are vocabulary and lexical units No amount of grammatical or other type of linguistics knowledge can be employed in communication or discourse without the mediation of mediation of vocabulary
“The lack of grammar knowledge can limit conversation; lack of vocabulary knowledge can stop conversation”
Learners can express themselves with poor grammar However, it is always a challenge to get the message across in a foreign language (Wallace, 1982), and because of this communication in foreign language is constrained considerably to those with limited vocabulary
Thus, the importance of vocabulary in language learning cannot be denied
Vocabulary learning is obviously an essential part of language learning Learning words can considered to be the most important aspect of second language acquisition (Knight, 1994).
Approaches to Vocabulary Teaching
There are many different methods, approaches, techniques as well as strategies to vocabulary teaching In the early decades of the 20 th century, vocabulary teaching became the focus of interest of many applied linguistic researchers and language teachers In order to fully understand this development it is certainly worth giving a brief discussion of some major approaches in teaching vocabulary It can be easily seen that several hundred years ago, bilingual teaching was favoured, with students learning through translation Howatt (1984) tells us that the idea of using L1 in the L2 classroom was a respected view during the era of The Grammar Translation Method The Grammar Translation Method had dominated late 19 th and early 20 th century teaching The aim of The Grammar Translation Method was to provide the students with a detailed literary vocabulary which is learned through long lists of translated items and a bilingual dictionary and practiced through sentence translation with little opportunity to try out pronunciation (Rivers, 1981: 28-30)
The second major foreign language teaching approach is the Direct Method The Direct Method stressed the ability to use rather than analyze a language as the goal of language instruction or in other words, the main goal was to train students to communicate in the target language and to have an acceptable pronunciation It introduced vocabulary through classroom objects, mime, drawing and explanations (Rivers, 1981: 32-33)
The Reading approach attracted more importance than grammatical skill The vocabulary used in the reading passages is controlled at beginning levels and is chosen according to their frequency and usefulness The acquisition of vocabulary is considered to be more important than grammatical skills and is expanded as fast as possible through intensive and extensive reading The translation of vocabulary items and sentences are permitted (Murcia and Prator, 1979: 3)
The Audio-lingual Approach which was dominant in the United States during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s is known to be a major paradigm shift in foreign language teaching (Larsen-Freeman, 2000) In this method, the amount of vocabulary presented was kept low (Thornbury, 2002:14) and was chosen for its simplicity (Schmitt, 2000:13) It was assumed that when grammatical fluency was present, exposure to the foreign language itself lead to vocabulary development (Coady, 1993: 4)
The Communicative Language Teaching Approach is a renowned British Approach to language teaching the emergence of which dates back to the mid-1960s Concepts like context, use, effective communication, communicative function, comprehensible pronunciation, etc were given importance in this approach Senel (2002: 243) emphasized that new words were not presented in isolation, but in the context of a complete sentence, and in a meaningful situation This way, the words acquired meaning when they appeared in a particular definition in a determined context Moreover, Thornbury (2002:14) stated that course books began to incorporate communicative activities specifically targeting vocabulary since the meaning-giving role of lexis was recognized in this approach.
Recent Research about Teaching and Learning Second Language Vocabulary
Recently, vocabulary teaching and learning has called for great attention from researchers Hunt and Beglar‟s statement that there are three approaches to teach vocabulary such as: incidental learning, explicit instruction and independent strategy development
According to Nation (2001) the incidental vocabulary learning is one of the important strategies in vocabulary acquisition This method includes learning from joining conversations; listening to radio, stories, music; watching movies, television; especially extensive reading; or any other exposure of input and output both in and out of the classrooms (Nation, 2001) As such, incidental vocabulary learning is generally acknowledged as learning words mainly in context (Nation,
1990) Therefore, Krashen (1989) suggests that incidental or uninstructed vocabulary learning takes place in both native and nonnative languages as well
Explicit instruction involves diagnosing the words learners need to know, presenting words for the first time, elaborating word knowledge and developing fluency with know words Intentional learning through instruction also significantly contributes to vocabulary development (Nation,1990; Paribakht and Wesche, 1996)
And here the researchers agree that translation has a necessary and useful role in vocabulary learning Translation makes vocabulary learning faster (Nation 1982) and once again Nation (1990) emphasized that “vocabulary lists can be effective way to quickly learn word-pair translation” However, it is more effective to use vocabulary cards because learners can control the order in which they study the words (Atkinson, 1972) Prince (1996: 488) states that simply knowing translation for L2 words does not "guarantee that they will be successfully assessed for use in an L2 context” because knowing a word means knowing more than just its translated meaning or its L2 synonyms Consequently, to presenting a new word, teacher should also create opportunities to meet recently learned words in new contexts that provide new collocations and associations (Nation, 1994) For intentional learning of vocabulary it is required that the teacher provide opportunities for developing fluency with known vocabulary And here fluency- building activities play an important role as they recycle already known word in familiar grammatical and organizational patterns, so that students can focus on recognizing or using a word without hesitation (Hunt and David Beglar, 2001)
Nation (1994: 208) also points out that developing fluency "overlaps most of all with developing skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing" As a result, giving learners many opportunities to practice these skills is essential
Independent strategy development involves practicing guessing from context and training learners to use dictionaries Guessing from contexts is a complex and often difficult strategy to carry out successfully; to guess successfully from contexts, learners need to know about 19 out of 20 words (95%) of a text which requires knowing 3,000 most common words (Liu and Nation, 1985; Nation, 1990) In fact helpful contexts are rare and difficult to guess the meaning of words in a long and difficult context If students know more new words, they can understand the text and learn more new words If students' vocabulary is poor, they can not guess words in a text containing too many unknown words In vocabulary learning process, foreign language learners should use dictionaries for vocabulary development In Nation‟s (2001) opinion, dictionary use helps learning comprehension and particularly useful for learners who do not cope well with guessing from context
Although dictionaries are important tool, learners should know how and when to use them to their advantages
In conclusion, learning vocabulary through incidental, intentional and in independent approaches requires teachers to plan a wide variety of activities and exercises “Teachers and programs decide to place on any given activity will depend on the learners level and the educational goals of the teacher and the program”
(Hunt and David Beglar, 2001) Extensive reading and listening, translation, elaboration, fluency activities, guessing from context and using dictionaries all have a role to play in systematically developing the learners‟ vocabulary knowledge.
Techniques in Presenting New Vocabulary
Actually there are numerous techniques concerned with vocabulary presentation
Some techniques are more popular and more often used than the others Also it is up to teacher which techniques he or she decides to use but always the effectiveness of teaching should be considered Nation, Paul (2005) suggested different techniques that teachers of English can implement in their teaching vocabulary
Firstly, teachers quickly give the meaning of the word by (a) using an L1 translation, (b) using a known L2 synonym or simple definition in the L2, (c) showing an object or picture, (d) giving quickly demonstration, (e) drawing a simple picture or a diagram, (f) breaking the word into parts and giving the meaning of the parts and the whole word (the word part strategy), (g) giving several example sentences with the word in context to show the meaning, (h) commenting on the underlying meaning of the word and other referents
Secondly, teachers can draw attention to the form of the word by: (a) showing how spelling of the word is like the spelling of known words, (b) giving the stress pattern of the word and its pronunciation, (c) showing the prefix, stem and suffix that make up the word, (d) getting the learners to repeat the pronunciation of the word, (e) writing the word on the board, (f) pointing out any spelling irregularity in the word
Finally, the use of the word can be explain by (a) quickly showing the grammatical pattern the word fits into (countable/uncountable, transitive/intransitive, etc), (b) giving a few similar collocates, (c) mentioning any restrictions on the use of the word (formal, colloquial, impolite, only used in the United States, only used with children, old fashioned, technical, infrequent), (d) giving a well known opposite, or a well known word describing the group or lexical set it fits into.
L1 and Translation in Vocabulary Teaching and Learning
Translation is defined by Cartford (1965: 20) as “the replacement of a text in one language by an equivalent text in another language” Newmark (1995: 5) simply defines “translation as the rendering of a written text into another language in the way the author intended in the text.”
Translation is the technique of explain the new word by the learner‟s first language
This is considered the simplest and clearest way to show the meaning of a new word Moreover, it seems to be a favourable technique by teachers thanks to its time-saving nature However, several authors suggest that first language does not play an essential role in foreign language teaching (Tang, 2002) Hence, the use of translation as a teaching technique has been viewed with suspicion by many language teachers, and many proscribe it altogether as a matter of principle It has become a famous and well-accepted creed among language teachers that the translation hinders the acquisition of L2
Other professionals in the field of second language and foreign language acquisition agree that mother tongue should be used with students who are not highly proficient in the target language such as Nation (2001) or Atkinson (1987) Schmitt and McCarthy (1997: 2) note that “… a learner‟s L1 is one of the most important factors in learning L2 vocabulary.” Nation (1982) indicates that if we study the practice of vocabulary learning and teaching also, we can see its use At least with non- advanced foreign language learners, translation of the new words (that are introduced for the first time) is acknowledged as a preferable way to teach meaning (Nation 1982, referred to by Laufer 1990) This may suggest that mother tongue plays an important role in language teaching, especially for the low proficiency learners like ethnic minority students of Vung cao Viet Bac High School.
Previous studies on L1 Translation in Teaching L2 Vocabulary…
To investigate areas in which L1 translation is resorted to for teaching vocabulary, the researcher has reviewed a number of relevant studies conducted in different parts of the world and at different times
Laufer and Shmueli (1997) compared 4 ways of presenting the new vocabulary, that is, words presented in isolation, words in a meaningful sentence, words in a text context and words in an elaborated text context Each of these ways contains half of the target words in the students‟ L1 and the other half was explained in English The results indicate that the words with the L1 translation were retained better than those with the L2 explanation
In their study, Ramachandran and Rahim (2004) attempt to investigate the effectiveness of using the translation method in recalling the meaning and retention of the words with elementary level ESL Their results indicated that the translation method through using L1 was more effective than the non-translation method in enhancing ESL learners‟ vocabulary learning ability, and it could improve elementary ESL learner‟s ability to recall the meaning of the word learnt
In her paper on using translation method in teaching vocabulary, Abdul Rahim demonstrates the effect using translation method in teaching vocabulary She conducted her study among elementary level EFL learners in Malaysia In this study, learners‟ L1 was used as the medium of instruction The results showed that the translation method has a positive impact on learners recall and retention of the meaning of words that they had learned
The last study to be reviewed here is a case study conducted by Bouangeune (2009) at the National University of Laos The study makes an important contribution to EFL teaching, particularly in the area of vocabulary for students with a lower proficiency level It shows the effectiveness of using L1 in teaching vocabulary through translation exercises and dictation The findings indicate that the experimental group achieved better performance in both vocabulary in direct translation and vocabulary in context In fact, the results could provide empirical support for the application of L1 in the FL classroom The researcher concludes that ''in order to prevent the misunderstanding of the meaning of the new word, teachers should provide clear, simple, and brief explanations of meaning, especially in the learners' first language'' (Bouangeune, 2009:189)
The Role of L1 Translation in Vocabulary Acquisition…
Nowadays, vocabulary acquisition is one of the main aspects of students‟ attention when it comes to language learning They stress the necessity to learn vocabulary through various exercises: reading, repetition, using words in context, conversations, and most certainly, translations
Using L1 translation accelerates students‟ L2 acquisition process Students learn new vocabulary faster through L1 Laufer and Shmueli claim “studies comparing the effectiveness of various methods for learning always come up with the result that an L1 translation is the most effective” (as quoted in Nation, 2001) If students are aware of similarities and differences between L1 and L2, they can avoid errors which could be derived from the transfer of their L1
Rana Raddawi (2005:75) shows that “there was one factor that was tested and proved that translation is effective when used in vocabulary acquisition, and that was the time factor” He concludes that in the vocabulary learning process, instead of using various contexts, definitions in L2 and sometimes visual aids, the instructor can utilize translation as a way of teaching the words especially in conveying the meaning of abstract and unclear concepts like: happiness, sadness, success, failure, health, luck, depression, etc Providing the equivalent words in L1 is proven to be less time consuming to both the instructor and student as far as comprehension is concerned As to quantity and recall process of word acquisition, previous experiments (Prince, 1996 and Grace, 1998) have proven word learning through translation to be superior to word inference from L2 contexts
Saggara and Alba (2006), in their research the effectiveness of using translation with elementary level learners was assessed They investigated the implication of three methods of learning vocabulary among 788 second language learners The methods include: rote memorization, semantic mapping and key word method The results show that: using key method and L1 translation of the new L2 word would led to better L2 vocabulary learning at the early stages of acquisition
There is a research which supports the idea that an L1 translation of a word is beneficial in vocabulary learning For example Grace (as cited in Folse 2004) investigated the role of L1 translation in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) She concluded that students who were provided with L1 translations performed better than those who did not have access to L1 translations Her findings suggest that L1 translations enabled students to be ensured about the correct meanings and the students who had L1 translations reached a higher retention rate
Sze (1998) compared the influence on retention of three conditions of vocabulary presentation, namely with Chinese (L1) equivalents, with context, and with association, on tertiary students She reported that the most common method in remembering vocabulary was using Chinese equivalents Subjects from the L1 translation group remembered significantly more words than the other two groups
She inferred that the reason for the reliance on L1 translations is that students can conceptualize the meanings more easily and can make more associations with their prior knowledge about the concept or the language they are familiar with.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Using L1 Translation in Teaching Vocabulary
“Translating a new word is in itself a useful technique- it is often the simplest and clearest way of showing what a word means’’
Liu (2009:68) sees the use of L1 in L2 vocabulary learning, or providing translation equivalents have several advantages They are an easy and efficient way of depicting the core meaning of a word Knowing the L1 equivalent also gives the learner a sense of certainty about the meaning of a word, a certainty that is a vital first step for reinforcing the form-meaning connection and retaining the new word in long tern memory As Grabe and Stoller (1997: 114) put it, “Perhaps, for adults, there are times when it is important to know that a word is understood accurately”
What‟s more, using L1 translation may link a L2 word with well-established semantic and linguistic structure which help the learner retain the word better, because the L1 and its semantic structures are no doubt the steadiest “cognitive hook to hang the new item on”(Fraser,1999: 238)
Translation has also advantage of being the most direct route to a word‟s meaning
It is therefore economical and especially suitable for dealing with incidental vocabulary that may crop up in a lesson Many teachers find it extremely effective in case the new words are too complicated or difficult to explain in English, for example: to deal the word “patriotism” The teacher can say “patriotism có nghĩa là: lòng yêu nước”
One of the advantages is that it is not time-consuming and leaving more time for the study of some other important language aspects Using translation is the surest and most economical way to convey the meanings during the lesson Thus, translating new words into Vietnamese can save the teachers‟ time of unsuccessful explanation in English Instead of going through a long explanation in the target language, it would sometimes be easier and more efficient to give a translation of a vocabulary item
However, this way is not considered as creative way because it makes students fail to develop an independent L2 lexicon, with the effect that they always access L2 words by means of their L1 equivalent rather than directly.
Summary
In this chapter, some theoretical background knowledge and view on vocabulary and the roles of vocabulary in second acquisition, an overview of approach to teaching vocabulary, recent research about teaching and learning second language vocabulary, techniques in teaching vocabulary, a summary of previous studies on L1 and translation in vocabulary teaching and learning, L1 translation in teaching L2 vocabulary, the use of L1 translation in vocabulary acquisition, advantages and disadvantages of using L1 translation in teaching vocabulary However, this issue remains under-researched in the context of boarding high school in the mountainous province This small study is an attempt to fill this gap The following chapter presents the study.
THE STUDY
A quantitative and qualitative study
Qualitative research, broadly defined by Strauss and Corbin (1990: 17), means "any kind of research that produces findings not arrived at by means of statistical procedures or other means of quantification" Strauss and Corbin (1990) also claim that qualitative methods can be used to better understand any phenomenon about which little is yet known They can also be used to gain new perspectives on things about which much is already known, or to gain more in-depth information that may be difficult to convey quantitatively
The quantitative approach, as defined by Burnes (1999: 21), “values objectivity through the discovery of facts or truths” and “tests pre-established hypotheses through the collection and measurement of data” Creswell (2003:18) states, quantitative research “employ strategies of inquiry such as experimental and surveys, and collect data on predetermined instruments that yield statistical data”
The findings from quantitative research can be predictive, explanatory, and confirming
This study used both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection, including classroom observation, interviews and questionnaire The reason of using both qualitative and quantitative methods is minimize the weaknesses of single measuring instruments to achieve greater reliability and validity (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004) Quantitative research using questionnaire is able to produce quantifiable findings form of quantified figures Qualitative research using interview yields descriptive information of greater depth of the problem
Observation was used in each incident to record the actual behaviour display in actual situation They enable gathering data on events that are exceptionally significant Triangulated sources of data collected provided more accurate results and would be more reliable and valid Triangulation is “one of the most commonly used and best known ways of checking for validity” (Wallace, 1998:163).
Participants
The participants of the research were 152 students from grade 10A1, 10A2,10A3 at Vung cao Viet Bac High school, Thai Nguyen The researcher is also an English teacher of this school My school is a boarding school with more than 2,000 ethnic minority students Most of the students in the school come from farmer families in the remote mountainous villages in the northern provinces They are pure ethnic students, they have their own first language; they often use it to communicate with their parents and other friends of their communities They use Vietnamese at schools or at public places, so they seem to have two foreign languages You are sure to imagine all sorts of difficulties those ethnic students have to overcome when they learn English Most of the participants are at the age of 16 Nearly half of them are male and more than a half of them are female All these students are ethnic minorities, they belong to different ethnic minorities namely: Tày, Thái, Mường, Dao, Hmong, Nùng, Sán Dìu, La Hủ, La Chí, Cao Lan, Hoa They have been learning English for four years in junior schools but their knowledge of English vocabulary is at a low level
Three English teachers were the target population of the study The teacher participants have graduated from universities for teacher of foreign languages Their experience of teaching English varies from 6 years to 17 years.
Data collection instruments
Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used, including class observations, interviews and a student questionnaire to collect relevant information for the study
The questionnaire was administered to students It contains nine items including both close and open-ended items in Vietnamese so that the students can fully understand the questions (See appendix 1) Questionnaire is preferred to interviews to reduce the possible anxiety brought to the ethnic minority students
The questionnaire emphasizes on: The students‟ preference and perceived towards the use of Vietnamese translation in teaching English vocabulary and the usefulness of this vocabulary teaching technique on students‟ vocabulary learning The strong point of questionnaire is the ability of collecting data from a wide group of participants and it has fairly reliability (Mackey and Gass, 2005: 29)
Six classes conducted by 3 teachers were observed to find out frequently Vietnamese translation is used for presenting the meaning of new vocabulary and activities are used to help their students consolidate words after using Vietnamese translation The lessons were not video-taped Instead, the researcher observed and noted the moments when the teacher used techniques and activities As noted by Mackey and Gass (2005:175), observations are advantageous in that they provide the researcher with the opportunity to collect large amounts of rich data on the participants‟ behavior and actions within a particular context Thanks to its benefits, in this research, class observation was utilized together with the above methods
Interviews are a research tool in which a researcher asks questions of participants; interviews are often audio or video-taped for later transcription and analysis The interviews may take one of several forms: open-ended, focused, structured or unstructured In an open-ended interview, the researcher could ask for the informant‟s opinion on events or facts In a focused interview, the respondent is interviewed for only a short time, and the questions asked could have come from the case study protocol The structured interview is particularly useful in studies of neighborhoods where a formal survey is required The unstructured interview was preferred because it is thought that it gives a wider freedom to the interviewees to express their views and beliefs (Wallace 1998) For this advantage, the researcher chose unstructured interview as an instrument to get data for her study
Unstructured interview questions were set to solicit pertinent data from the 3 different teachers whose classes were observed and noted The purpose of the interview was to obtain a better understanding of the teachers‟ perceptions about the benefits of using Vietnamese translation in presenting new vocabulary The interviews were conducted after the lessons.
Data collection procedure
The required data were collected in the second term of 2011-2012 school year First, the questionnaire was given to students Next, 6 classes of three teachers were observed Finally, each teacher was interviewed right after they had taught the two classes around 15 minutes They were based on the following key questions:
1 Do you use Vietnamese translation technique to present new vocabulary to your students? Why?
2 What activities do you often use to help your students to consolidate and remember the taught words after using Vietnamese translation?
3 What effects does Vietnamese translation have on your vocabulary teaching?
4 How motivated do you think your class is when you use Vietnamese translation to teach vocabulary to them?
5 Do you think that the exclusive use of Vietnamese translation in teaching English vocabulary has problem(s)? If yes, what are they?
Data analysis procedure
The procedures of collecting data took me nearly three months and about one month to analyze the data Data collected from the above different sources were categorized in to: i) The frequency of using Vietnamese translation in teaching English vocabulary to 10 th form students, ii) Common classroom vocabulary activities, iii) The effectiveness of Vietnamese translation for learning vocabulary as perceived by students, iv) Teachers‟ perceptions of the effectiveness of using Vietnamese translation for presenting new vocabulary
The data was categorized this way simply for seeking answers to research questions raised for this study The quantitative data from questionnaire and classroom observation were collected, analyzed and classified to synthesize in the table statistics The results were shown in the figures The qualitative data from the interview were presented by quoting relevant responses from the respondents.
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Findings
Table 1 shows the number of times that techniques was used in presenting the meaning of words
Table 1: The Frequently used techniques to present new the meaning of new vocabulary
Techniques for presenting the meaning of new vocabulary
2 Explaining the words in English 7 3 14 24
3 Giving examples to illustrate meaning 4 5 5 14
4 Guessing the meaning of words from contexts 2 10 4 16
As can be seen from the table1, the frequency of techniques use varies from teacher to teacher However the common technique was that teachers used Vietnamese translation most frequency for presenting the meaning of new words to the students
Translation seemed to be one common technique teachers used to teach vocabulary
From the observations, the researcher found that there was a strong trend towards the techniques of saying the word clearly one by one, writing them on the board then explaining the meaning This is necessary for the students to recognize the new words in form of pronunciation and spelling To explain the new words‟ meaning, using Vietnamese translation was applied most by the participants
Using Vietnamese translation was the most frequently used strategy adopted by teacher 1 She employed it 17 times For instance, students did not understand a word “horror, thriller, detective…” in task 1 She used Vietnamese translation to explain the word
T: Below is some kind of films You are going to read silently in 1 minute, then underline the new words
T: 1 minute later Reads aloud kind of film, writes new words on the board, and explains their meaning in Vietnamese
T: horror film : phim kinh dị detective film : phim trinh thám cartoon film : phim hoạt hình
T: reads the new words and asks Ss to repeat in chorus and individually
While teacher 1 did the task 2 with students, she gave sentence translation after reading each sentence
T: I find horror films really terrifying
( Mình thấy những bộ phim kinh dị thực sự khiếp sợ)
Teacher 2 used Vietnamese translation in teaching vocabulary She employed it 16 times But she could not give Vietnamese translation immediately right after students saw the word Instead, she often used the word to make sentences for students to guess the word meaning After they got it, she would use Vietnamese to explain it again since there were some students who had really low standard of English
T: What is the meaning of postpone?
Ss: …in silent T: The football match between Hanoi and Hai phong has been postponed because of the bad weather
T: Ok ( write on the board) to postpone means: trì hoãn
T: Now repeat, postpone St: repeat in chorus
(Observation 3: Unit 14, Grade 10) Teacher 3 showed in the observation that she usually used Vietnamese translation after she explained the word meaning in English It could ensure that every student got the meaning This strategy was used 18 times
T: „jointly‟ means: involving two people or groups Ss: in silent
T: What do you say „jointly‟ means in Vietnamese
Ss: in silent T: „jointly‟ means : liên kết T: Now, repeat, jointly Ss: repeat in chorus
27.63% 54.61% never rarely sometimes usually always
With the data collection from questions 1 in the questionnaire, figure 1 illustrates the frequency of using Vietnamese translation in presenting the meaning of new words as perceived by students:
Figure 1: Students’ perceptions of the frequency of their teachers’ using Vietnamese translation in presenting the meaning of new vocabulary
The students‟ perceptions of the frequency of using Vietnamese translation in vocabulary classes are clearly shown in figure 1 As can be seen, as perceived by the students, though the category “rarely” received few votes, “always” seems to be in the same situation No one thought that their teachers never used Vietnamese translation for presenting new vocabulary Thus, that is to say “sometimes” and
“usually” are the two categories of frequency that many students have chosen 92.11
% of students reported that Vietnamese translation was used to teach vocabulary
54.61 % of students claimed that their teachers sometimes used Vietnamese translation and the minority of students (7.89%) thought that their teachers rarely used Vietnamese translation to teach vocabulary
With regards to vocabulary consolidation, 3 teachers agreed on the necessity of designing exciting and practical activities to help students strengthen their word memory Teacher 1 proposed that “vocabulary consolidation can be supported by tests” Teacher 2 said that “vocabulary consolidation should be regular check of the taught words” Teacher 3 proposes that students should be given a variety of exercises to help them review the previously learnt words and remember the words taught
However, the researcher observed that after teaching vocabulary or at the end of the lesson, the teachers didn‟t spend much time checking and consolidating students‟ vocabulary understanding Table 2 shows the number of times that activities were used for word consolidating after teachers used Vietnamese translation
Table 2: The frequently used activities to help students consolidate words
Activities for word consolidation Teacher
1 Studying the spelling and pronunciation of a word with students again and again
To consolidate words in students‟ minds, teacher 1 studied the word meaning, spelling and pronunciation regularly with students She used it 6 times Besides, she often used vocabulary exercises in workbooks and textbooks This strategy was used 3 times
The words in the box all appear in the passage Use them to fill the blanks in the sentences: ice-free mingle metropolitan attracted ancient conquered
2) Sydney is _in all reasons
4) Viet tri is a place where three rivers join and _their water
5) Visitors are to Ha Long because of its beautiful natural resorts
6) There are many streets in Hanoi
(Unit 15, Grade 10) For consolidation, teacher 2 studied the spelling and pronunciation of words with students repeatedly, she used 5 times She also used word card game: Two sets of word cards, with five target words and their corresponding Vietnamese equivalents, were turned over and placed into two columns on the board, with the target words on the left and their corresponding explanations in Vietnamese on the right Some subjects were invited to reverse the cards Two cards were chosen each time The cards were left opened if they were a pair (the target word and its equivalent) The subjects were then divided into nine groups Each group received a set of five English word cards and their equivalent Vietnamese translations The group members were required to take turn to select cards and continue the activity until all cards are done All word cards were collected at the end The activity was merely based on the rote learning of the Vietnamese meanings of the English words And the researcher observed that using this game was effective because game could motivate students to participate in learning activity and increase the interest of learning vocabulary When the use of an L1 translation is combined with the use of word cards for the initial learning of vocabulary, then learners have a very effective strategy for speeding up vocabulary growth (Nation 2001: 296-316)
Teacher 3 also liked to use vocabulary exercises for consolidating words She used this strategy twice
Complete each blank in the following passage with a suitable word/phase in the given box host nation representative every four years elimination rounds tournament competition
World Cup is the most important competition in international football, and the world‟ s most (1) _ team sport event was organized by FIFA, the sport „s governing body, the World Cup is contested by men‟s national football teams which are FIFA members
The World Cup is held (2) _( except in times of war), but the (3) _of the (4) _(which narrows the field of as many as 197 teams down to the final 32 teams) take place over a three-year period, using regional elimination tournaments The final (5) phase( often called the “Finals”) involves 32 teams competing over a four-week period in a previously nominated (6) Only seven nations has won the World Cup Finals
3.1.3 The effectiveness of Vietnamese translation for learning vocabulary as perceived by students
The perceptions of the students about the effectiveness of using Vietnamese translation on the students‟ vocabulary learning included 8 questions in the questionnaire for students The results were presented in the following table and figures
Table 3: Students’ preference for Vietnamese translation use in vocabulary lessons
Item’s stem and options Responses
2 Do you think Vietnamese translation is the useful technique should be used in English vocabulary lessons?
3 Do you like your teachers use Vietnamese translation in teaching vocabulary?
4 In your opinion, how much does English teachers‟ use of
Vietnamese translation help you to learn English vocabulary? a a lot b some c very little d not at all
5 How difficult do you think it would be for you to understand the meaning of new words if your teachers exclusively used English to explaining new words? a Extremely difficult b Very difficult c Difficult d Not difficult
It is interesting that only 5.92 % agree that Vietnamese translation shouldn‟t be used in vocabulary lessons 94.08 % think that should use this technique in teaching English vocabulary According to their responses to question 3, the majority of students (90.13%) preferred their teachers‟ use of Vietnamese translation technique in teaching vocabulary However, 9.9 % disliked this method 76.31 % of the respondents regarded word meanings taught by this method help them in their
Ve ry e ffe ctvive Quite e ffe ctive
Ne utral Little e ffe ctive Ine ffe ctive
It he lps stude nts to unde rstand the me aning of words faste r and more cle arly
It he lps stude nts to re me mbe r words be tte r and more e asily
It save s time It make s stude nts fe e l at e ase and le ss stre sse d
Discussion
The findings of the study show that all the teachers and students participating in the study had positive perceptions towards Vietnamese translation use in teaching vocabulary
Firstly, data from observations and the results from students questionnaire and teachers‟ interview revealed that the most frequently used technique for presenting the meaning of words is Vietnamese translation They used translation to teach vocabulary more often than other techniques My observation of three classes suggests that without translation, learners would be likely to get confuse and it would be time consuming The results of this study were in accordance with early studies (Franklin, 1990; Al-abdan, 1993) which has pointed to using L1 for translating new word as a common practice among teachers The teachers in the study employed translation after using other techniques such as: guessing the meaning of words from contexts or explaining the words in English
Secondly, there is one point that is worth-noting is that teachers used very limited types of activities to help their students consolidate words They only used some simple vocabulary exercises such as matching the words with their meaning, doing gap-filling exercise, they sometimes studied the spelling and pronunciation of words with students again and again Only one teacher used word game
Thirdly, the results of students questionnaire indicated that students realized fully aware of perceived of the effectiveness of Vietnamese translation use for learning vocabulary
In terms of using Vietnamese to translate words, students‟questionnaire results showed that students preferred teachers‟ translation of words The preference indicated by subjects in the current study is in line with earlier studies (Gu and Johnson, 1996; Schmitt, 1997) which reported that more mechanical strategies were favoured over more complex ones by Asian learners A number of learners expected to learn the target word meanings in L1 without any context They may consider understanding of an English target word means (only means) learning of L1 equivalent meanings of the word
Regarding the effectiveness of Vietnamese translation for learning vocabulary, student questionnaire results showed that students would understand the meaning of the new words faster and more clearly They found it easier and more comfortable and motivated because the use of this technique reduced learner anxiety and created a more relaxing learning environment, so students felt more motivated in learning new words Besides, it helped them memorize words better because students could learn English words from the Vietnamese meanings
When it comes to problems facing by students in learning vocabulary through Vietnamese translation, the biggest problem is that the students is that learning through translation make them bored and passive because the students were required to do nothing but memorized new words in an awfully mechanical way
Fourthly, the results of teachers‟ interview indicated that teachers perceived the effectiveness of Vietnamese translation used in presenting vocabulary Translation is really a useful technique, especially when students‟ proficiency is low They also shared the view that, besides the benefit Vietnamese translation brought to them such as simple, direct, easy to be understood and remembered and save time, it still had some drawbacks It might prevent the students from developing an independent lexicon in English In addition when translating into Vietnamese there may not be a one-to-one translation equivalent between the Vietnamese word and the English word Vietnamese translation didn‟t allow the student to be in contact with English
So it should not be overused
From all what discussed above, there can be some conclusions and implications which will be presented in the next part
This study sets out to explore the effectiveness of Vietnamese translation in teaching vocabulary at a particular secondary school In the previous part, Part B, I presented and discussed the findings of the study with reference to the research questions In this chapter, some conclusions of the study will be drawn out to summarize all the main findings as well as the implications, limitations and suggestions for further studies.
Conclusions
In an attempt to examine how frequently Vietnamese translation is used as well as what activities are used to help their students consolidate words after using Vietnamese translation, to explore the teachers and students‟ perceptions of the effectiveness of using Vietnamese translation in teaching and learning vocabulary, data gathered from the students questionnaires, teachers' interviews, and class observations were involved to draw the conclusions
Firstly, the research has exploited the frequency of the teachers‟ using Vietnamese translation in their vocabulary classes According to the collected data, teachers at Vung cao Viet Bac High school have applied different vocabulary teaching techniques; however, these techniques seemed far from being satisfactory Students‟ knowledge of vocabulary in general was not good, which could not satisfy both teachers and students Most teachers used translation for presenting the meaning of word
Secondly, it can be revealed that teachers were heavily dependent on the textbook, which presents limited activities for word consolidation, limited types of vocabulary exercises with great emphasis on accuracy rather than on fluency
Next, the students‟ and their teachers‟ evaluation of effectiveness of Vietnamese translation on their learning and teaching vocabulary has been clearly discussed
The collected data showed that most of the teachers and students agreed on the high effectiveness of translation on vocabulary teaching and learning The findings show that Vietnamese translation is highly appreciated by the majority of the participants
Although the positive effects Vietnamese translation brings about are assumed by both teachers and students, it should be borne that translation of vocabulary into Vietnamese should be kept under control, not the overuse of it Hopefully, these findings will partially help more language learners and teachers acknowledge the effectiveness of Vietnamese translation in teaching vocabulary and stimulate further study in this area.
Implications
The findings in this study have suggested some implications which should be put into consideration
Firstly, findings of the study indicate that the use of Vietnamese translation meet the students‟ expectations Both teachers and students had positive attitudes towards translation use in vocabulary teaching and learning Teachers believed that Vietnamese translation was one of the most effective vocabulary teaching strategies to their ethnic minority students since Vietnamese translation can present meanings directly and help students learn remember words easily, it also saves time and makes students feel easy and comfortable when they are provided with Vietnamese equivalents Vietnamese translation can break the gap between the English proficiency of students and the expected level Explanations would be clearer with the aid of Vietnamese translation However, teachers understand that using Vietnamese will decrease the exposure of English to their students and students will depend on Vietnamese explanations gradually Therefore, teachers should keep a balance on the use of Vietnamese and English and should try out best to use simple English, use pictures or body languages to explain words first
Secondly, although most teachers said that teaching time was too tight and it might not have time to have vocabulary activities such as vocabulary game, vocabulary tests , teachers can still create a competitive atmosphere for students to answer different vocabulary questions at any time of lesson The researcher created that learning atmosphere on her class and found that her students worked harder in learning and remembering vocabulary since they knew that their teacher always asked questions about the new words and if students could answer it correctly, they could get more good marks for themselves
Last but not least, it's worthwhile to teach vocabulary learning strategies to students especially with ethnic minority students who are weak in vocabulary and only know limited words Beside vocabulary learning strategies that teachers should teach their students like asking them to keep a vocabulary notebook, teaching word parts like prefixes and suffixes, teaching the skills of guessing words from context…The curriculum designer should plan a systematic vocabulary learning strategies lessons for lower proficiency students When they have the opportunities to learn vocabulary learning strategies in their junior forms, they can grasp the skills to learn vocabulary well and improve their English proficiency finally.
Limitations
The study has some limitations It was small scale in its scope with limited participants Therefore, no generalizations can be drawn from the study and the findings could not be representative for the whole student population of the school
Another limitation is that although the teachers in this study were observed and interviewed, the number of observations was limited while the interviews didn't yield sufficient in-depth information
Other studies should therefore be conducted in the future Teachers should be observed more frequently and the observed lessons should be video-taped to record the significant episodes where Vietnamese translation is used Then in-depth interviews should be conducted with both teachers and students
On the basis of the findings and limitations of the study, the following suggestions are made for further research
Since this study was just carried out on a small number of teachers and the 10 th form students in Thai Nguyen with a period of nearly 4 months, it would have been better if further studies would be been done on a large number of participants for a longer time What is more, since the research mainly focused on the perceptions of teachers and students about the effectiveness of using Vietnamese translation in teaching vocabulary, other researchers may wish to give evidence for the effectiveness of this technique in teaching This may require studies which give comparisons between the effects of this technique with other vocabulary teaching methods on different groups of students It is expected that the results of such studies would be helpful in encouraging teachers to further exploit Vietnamese translation in teaching vocabulary
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Giới tính: Nam/ Nữ Dân tộc:………
Dưới đây là những câu hỏi điều tra thái độ của học sinh đối với việc sử dụng thủ thuật dịch nghĩa từ sang tiếng Việt trong giảng dạy từ vựng Các câu hỏi sẽ được sử dụng cho mục đích nghiên cứu Cảm ơn sự giúp đỡ của các em
1 Giáo viên dạy tiếng Anh của em có thường xuyên sử dụng phương pháp dịch nghĩa từ sang tiếng Việt để giới thiệu nghĩa của các từ mới trong bài học không? a Không bao giờ b Hiếm khi c Thỉnh thoảng d Thường xuyên e Luôn luôn
2 Em có cho rằng việc dịch nghĩa từ sang tiếng Việt là có ích trong các tiết học từ vựng tiếng Anh? a Có b Không
3 Em có thích cô giáo của em sử dụng phương pháp dịch nghĩa từ sang tiếng Việt để giới thiệu các từ mới không? a Có b Không c Bình thường
4 Theo ý kiến em, việc cô giáo dạy tiếng Anh sử dụng phương pháp dịch nghĩa từ sang tiếng Việt để giới thiệu các từ mới có tác dụng đối với việc học tiếng Anh của em như thế nào? a Rất nhiều b Một chút c Rất ít d Không có ích gì
5 Nếu Cô giáo chỉ sử dụng tiếng Anh để giải thích nghĩa của từ mới trong bài học thì em nghĩ rằng để hiểu nghĩa của từ mới sẽ khó như thế nào? a Cực kì khó b Rất khó c Khó d Không khó
6 Em có thể học từ mới hiệu quả như thế nào khi cô giáo dạy tiếng Anh sử dụng phương pháp dịch nghĩa từ sang tiếng Việt để giới thiệu các từ mới ? a Rất hiệu quả b Khá hiệu quả c Bình thường d Ít hiệu quả e Không hiệu quả
7 Tại sao em cho rằng việc sử dụng phương pháp dịch nghĩa từ sang tiếng Việt để giới thiệu nghĩa các từ mới có hiệu quả đối với việc học nghĩa từ mới của em? Bởi vì:( Em có nhiều hơn một sự lựa chọn) a Nó giúp em hiểu từ nghĩa mới nhanh hơn và rõ ràng hơn b Nó giúp em nhớ từ mới lâu hơn và dễ dàng hơn c Nó tiết kiệm thời gian d Nó giúp em cảm thấy dễ dàng và bớt căng thẳng e Các lý do khác ( hãy viết cụ thể)
8 Theo em không khí lớp học có thoải mái và có động lực hơn không khi cô giáo dạy tiếng Anh sử dụng phương pháp dịch nghĩa từ sang tiếng Việt để giới thiệu các từ mới? a Rất thoải mái và có động lực b Thoải mái và có động lực c Không thoải mái và không có động lực
9 Em có gặp phải những vấn đề gì không trong khi học từ vựng với phương pháp dịch nghĩa từ sang tiếng Việt?(Em có nhiều hơn một sự lựa chọn) a Nó làm em thấy giờ học buồn tẻ b Nó làm em thụ động c Nó làm em lẫn lộn (nghĩa từ này với từ kia,ví dụ từ: deny và refuse) d Các lý do khác ( hãy viết cụ thể)
This survey is designed on the purpose of getting necessary data for the study on the effectiveness of Vietnamese translation in teaching English vocabulary to the 10 th form students Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential Please give your answers truthfully for a guaranteed success of the research
Thank you so much for your participation
1 How often does your school English teacher use Vietnamese translation for presenting new vocabulary? a never b rarely c sometimes d usually e always
2 Do you think Vietnamese translation is the useful technique that should be used in English vocabulary lesson?
3 Do you like your teachers use Vietnamese translation for presenting new vocabulary?
4 In your opinion, how much does English teachers‟ use of Vietnamese translation help you to learn English vocabulary? a a lot b some c very little d not at all
5 How difficult do you think it would be for you to understand the meaning of new words if your teachers exclusively used English to explaining new words? a Extremely difficult b Very difficult c Difficult d not difficult
6 How effectively can you learn new words when your teacher uses Vietnamese translation for presenting them? a Very effective b Quite effective c Neutral d Little effective d Ineffective
7 Why do you think that the way the teacher presented words using Vietnamese translation is effective for learning English vocabulary meanings? Because: