Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS một nghiên cứu hành động về việc sử dụng thuật cải thiện trí nhớ trong việc nâng cao khả năng ghi nhớ từ vựng cho sinh viên hệ cao đẳng chính quy, trường cao đẳng kỹ thuật công nghiệp

INTRODUCTION

Rationale of the Study

For the past 20 years in Vietnam, English has become very important in many aspects of life and the activity of teaching and learning English is also paid much more attention to as well In order to learn English well, together with the investment in improving English skills such as listening, reading, writing, speaking, the role of vocabulary and vocabulary learning cannot be neglected because vocabulary helps to build up the core of knowledge and it is the foundation to facilitate the learning The English learners possibly know how to use the grammar and structures correctly but without having a sufficient vocabulary, they cannot speak, write and use English well Therefore, at any time of English learning, vocabulary should be given the top priority and major importance Thornburry

(2002) stressed on the importance of learning words in the course book titled

“Innovations” that “If you spend most of your time studying grammar, your English will not improve very much You will see most improvement if you learn more words or expressions You can say very little with grammar, but you can say almost everything with words” Consequently, it is worth doing research on vocabulary learning strategies to facilitate the vocabulary learning to enhance English learning success and achievement

Secondly, I have been teaching English for more than three years in a technical college where English is a required subject Before carrying out this research, I carried out a test (pre-test 1) with students on how well they can remember the words and to check whether they could remember the words they had learned as well as find out their difficulty in remembering words The result showed that the biggest problem encountering my students in vocabulary retention was although they saw the words familiar; they could not retrieve the meanings This fact resulted from the lack of necessary techniques for remembering vocabulary That is the reason why there should be a study on an effective vocabulary leaning method for my students Moreover, there has never been any research or study on improving vocabulary remembering efficiency for students at my college – College of Industrial Technique It is that current situation in my teaching that really encourages me to find a better way to make my students interested in learning and remembering new words

To conclude, the study proceeds from two main reasons The first lies in realizing the importance of learning vocabulary to English learners The second reason is based on the present circumstance facing my students in vocabulary retention and the fact that no available research has been carried out in this field at my college Therefore, I have chosen to focus on vocabulary learning and teaching in my study project report to make my students improve their performance of recalling words.

Aims and objectives of the study

The main purpose of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of mnemonics on improving vocabulary retention of the formal college students in College of Industrial Techniques, Bac Giang city, Bac Giang province

With the above aim, the specific objectives of this study are as follows:

- Identify the biggest problems facing students in their vocabulary retention;

- Investigate the effectiveness of mnemonic devices in short-term vocabulary retention of students;

- Investigate the effectiveness of mnemonic devices in long-term vocabulary retention of students;

- Find out the students’ attitude towards using mnemonic strategies in vocabulary retention.

Statement of the research questions

Based on the above given aim, the objectives and the background of the research, the research questions can be formulated as follows: a What are some biggest problems that the students encounter in their vocabulary retention? b To what extent is mnemonics effective in improving short-term vocabulary retention for the formal college students of College of Industrial Techniques in the academic year 2015-2016? c To what extent is mnemonics effective in improving long-term vocabulary retention for the formal college students of College of Industrial Techniques in the academic year 2015-2016? d What are the students’ attitudes towards using mnemonic strategies in vocabulary retention?

Scope of the study

The study is narrowed to the area of teaching and learning vocabulary for the formal college students at College of Industrial Techniques, Bac Giang city, Bac Giang province in the academic year 2015-2016 It was conducted at College of Industrial Techniques, Bac Giang province Because of limited time, the thesis only deals with the current situation of teaching and learning English vocabulary here

The participants were just the students who are representatives of the whole formal college students of the college.

Significance of the study

The study has its own importance in contributing a method for students to remember and recall vocabulary better and for a longer time than without applying this method It provides both of the theoretical and practical significance In terms of theory, the study can be used as a reference for improving vocabulary learning skills and it contributes to the general theory of vocabulary retention improvement techniques Students can understand how to remember the new words systematically and they are able to learn more easily and keep them in their mind in a longer time, from which they tend to get achievement in learning English

Moreover, practically, the mnemonic techniques used in this study and the list of words taught with mnemonics can be discussed and transferred to English teachers and applied in mass in the vocabulary teaching activity at College of Industrial Techniques, Bac Giang city.

Method of the study

The study was carried out by some steps as follows:

First , in order to ensure the subject’s homogeneity, the homogeneity test was implemented to filter the students, from which official study subjects (the participants) could be chosen

Secondly , pre-test 1 was carried out with the participants to find out if there were any existing problems facing them in the process of learning English vocabulary and how well the participants could remember the words After that pre- test 2 was finished in order to set up a list of words unknown for the participants

These words would be used later in the teaching activity with mnemonic strategies

Then the participants were divided into two groups including the control group and the experimental group After that, the corrective action was applied with the participants during the corrective time The control group was received the traditional way of vocabulary teaching while the experimental group was taught with mnemonic devices

Next , right at the end of each of the three sessions of correction, each immediate post-test was finished by the students (participants) of both the experimental group and the experimental one The result of each immediate post-test of the experimental group was compared to the respective one of the control group to show that whether there is an improvement in short-term vocabulary retention by using mnemonics or not

In addition , after two weeks from the last session of correction, another delayed post-test was delivered to both groups to test their long-term vocabulary recall The analysis was carried out as same as the procedure of the three immediate post-tests

After that , a questionnaire survey was conducted to the experimental group’s participants in order to study their opinion and evaluation on mnemonic techniques in their vocabulary learning

Then , the data were collected, sorted and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively to obtain realistic results

To end with , pedagogical implications for enhancing students’ performance in remembering vocabulary will be proposed based on the results found from all data collection instruments

1.7 Structural organization of the study

The study consists of five main parts:

Part I - Introduction presents the rationale of the study, the aim & objectives, the research questions, the significance, the scope, the method and the design of the study

Part 2 - Literature Review and Theoretical Background reviews the theories on vocabulary, vocabulary learning & teaching and mnemonics

Part 3 – Research Methodology describes the participants, the setting of the study involving the school, textbook and curriculum Moreover, this part shows how the researcher applied the data collection instruments and her procedure of conducting the study

Part 4 - Data analysis & Discussion in which the researcher used both qualitatively and quantitatively method to study and analyze the data and information collected

Part 5 –Conclusion summarizes all findings explored and brings out useful suggestions for the teachers to enhance the vocabulary retention of students An overall picture of what has been done in this study and suggestions for further studies are also included in this part.

LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 6 2.1 Vocabulary

Definition

Vocabulary is an important element of a language There are many definitions and concepts about vocabulary given by the experts and professionals The American Heritage Dictionary defines vocabulary as “the sum of words used by, understood by, or at the command of a particular person or group” Richard &

Schmidt (2002) considered vocabulary as a core component of language proficiency and provides much of the basic for how well learners speak, listen, read and write

Moreover, according to Nunan (2005), vocabulary is the collection of word that an individual knows In other word, vocabulary is any words that are mastered by people and it is used in communication Linse (2005) defines that vocabulary is background information which will help the user as he plans an oral written language program It can be concluded that vocabulary is a collection of words with the correct definition that is used in a language such as speaking, reading, listening, and writing to acquire and convey information It is the amount of words used in spoken and written language which are understood either in meaning or pronunciation that equips language learners with the ability to use language both oral and written language.

Types of vocabulary

According to Fries (1970) vocabulary is classified into four groups: a) Function words They function primarily or largely as means of expressing relations of grammatical structure, which include so called auxiliaries, prepositions, conjunction, interrogative, particles and miscellaneous group of words for degree, etc b) “Substitute” words such as the personal pronouns, the indefinites, negative, quantity or number c) The third kind consists of those that are distributed in the use according to such grammatical matters as the presence of the negative (some, any, too, either, already, yet, etc.) d) Content words mainly include nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs

Meanwhile Fries also agreed to group vocabulary into function and content words

The function words are a closed class in which we cannot add the prepositions or auxiliaries or any structure words of the language, while the content words can be added to make new words with new meaning

In terms of methodology, Penny (1996) and Gail (1989) divided vocabulary into two: Active and passive vocabulary Active vocabulary refers to item which learners can use appropriately in speaking or writing and it is also called productive vocabulary In contrast, passive vocabulary is the language items that can be recognized and understood in the context of reading and listening and it is also called receptive vocabulary

In terms of semantics, vocabulary can be divided into notional words and functional words In terms of grammar, it is classified based on different parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, preposition, etc.

Importance of vocabulary

David (1972) (cited in Thornburry, 2002) acknowledged the significance of vocabulary as “without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” National Reading Panel (2000) concluded “The importance of vocabulary knowledge has long been recognized in the development of reading skills” Thornburry (2002) once more emphasized the importance of vocabulary by restating an advice given to the students in the course book titled Innovation “If you spend most of your time studying grammar, your English will not improve very much You will see most improvement if you learn more words or expressions You can say very little with grammar but you can say almost everything with words” It can easily understandable that vocabulary actually plays a very important role in being successful in learning English Its importance can be compared to that of the backbone of the body.

Ways and strategies to teach vocabulary

There are some methods and strategies of teaching vocabulary proposed by various scholars and linguists

An extensive review of vocabulary instruction research which was conducted in 2003 by D Bryant, Goodwin, B Bryant, and Higgins explored four different vocabulary interventions: computer‐assisted instruction (CAI), fluency‐building vocabulary practice activities, mnemonic strategy, and concept enhancement instruction Dictionary usage, context clues, and semantic mapping were all observed and studied to find that there is no one best way to teach vocabulary It is important to use a variety of techniques that include multiple experiences to the unknown word meanings

John (2004) proposed in his paper a comprehensive approach consisting of the following components in teaching and developing vocabulary:

• Use “instructional” read-aloud events

• Provide direct instruction in the meanings of clusters of words and individual words

• Systematically teach students the meaning of prefixes, suffixes, and root words

• Link spelling instruction to reading and vocabulary instruction

• Teach the effective, efficient, realistic use of dictionaries, thesauruses, and other reference works

• Teach, model, and encourage the application of a word-learning strategy

• Create a keen awareness of and a deep interest in language and words

In her vocabulary strategy survey, Stoffer (1995) classified into nine groups:

(1) Strategies involving authentic language use,

(3) Strategy used for self-motivation,

(4) Strategies used to create mental linkages,

(8) Strategies used to overcome anxiety and

(9) Strategies used to organize words

(Stoffer, 1995, cited in Schmitt, 1997) Nation (2001) introduced 11 vocabulary language strategies with three big groups: planning, sources and processes The strategies of planning involve decisions about which lexical items to attend to, as well as how to focus attention and how often to give attention to the item Meanwhile, sources strategies concern ways to find out information about words This information may include all aspects of word knowledge and can be found in the word itself, the context, sources of reference The final set of strategies, processes include ways to remember words and make them available for use The following table demonstrates briefly vocabulary learning strategies according to Nation’s approach

Planning: Choosing what to focus on and when to focus on it

Choosing words Choosing the aspects of word knowledge Choosing strategies

Planning repetition Sources: finding information about words

Analyzing the word Using context Consulting a reference source in L1 or L2 Using parallels in L1 and L2

Table 1: Nation’s vocabulary learning strategies (Nation, 2001)

Vocabulary retention and memory

In the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2005), retention is defined as

“an ability to remember things” Although no definition of vocabulary retention in the literature has been found by the researcher, vocabulary retention can be classified as the storage of vocabulary in the memory and recalling it when necessary

There are two basic types of memory: short-term memory and long-term memory Short term memory keeps the information which is being processed (a new word which is encountered for the first time) It is fast but it can hold information for a very short time due to its small storage capacity Long term memory, on the other hand, has an unlimited storage capacity but is relatively slow

The aim of vocabulary learning and teaching is to transfer the lexical information from the short term memory to the long term memory (Schmitt, 2000) Aitchison

(2002), however, believes that our mind is like the London Underground System

By this he means that information stored in the brain is linked in different ways

Accordingly, the general picture of the mental lexicon is one in which there a variety of links between words, some strong, some weak The main way, to transfer the vocabulary items from short term to long term memory and create a strong connection there is by finding some elements in the mental lexicon to attach the new lexical item to (Schmitt, 2000)

Several factors seem to affect retention and retrieval of information One is the degree to which the structure and organization of the material is compatible with the individual cognitive network Another is the type of encoding and the depth of processing in preparation for storage in long term memory For longest retention, new knowledge must be associated with previous knowledge (Ausubel, 1968) In this regard, McDonough (1981) mentioned the retention can be prompted by several procedures and frequency of occurrence of meaningful practice promotes retention

McDonough further noted that cognitive process and learner strategies are important in retention and recall.

Mnemonics

Mnemonics are strategies that improve memory by encoding information with associations between new and previously learned information in long-term memory (Zimbardo, Johnson, & Weber, 2006) The term mnemonics is derived from the Greek word Mnemosyne, referring to the ancient Greek goddess of memory The use of mnemonics dates back to 500B.C (Yates, 1966) The first used mnemonic device was an earlier form of the modern day method of loci and since then, numerous other devices have been developed (Higbee, 1987) Memory has a key effect on eventual vocabulary and grammar achievement

According to Solso (1995), mnemonics are techniques or devices, either verbal or visual in nature, that serves to improve the storage of new information, and the recall of information contained in memory Mnemonic is a memory enhancing instructional strategy that involves teaching students to link new information taught to information they already know In other words, by using mnemonic strategies, teachers can relate new information to information students already have stored in their long-term memory For vocabulary learning, they are used to relate the word to some previously learnt information, using some form of imagery or grouping (Mastropieri and Scruggs, 1991)

Mnemonic devices have been differently classified by different scholars

Thompson (1987), for example, arranges mnemonic strategies into five classes: linguistics, spatial, visual, physical response and verbal methods Oxford (1990), on the other hand, identifies four major strategies namely, creating mental linkage, applying images and sounds, reviewing well, and employing action Meanwhile, Baddeley (1999) believes that mnemonic devices are classified into visual imagery strategies and verbal strategies Following is the one presented by Thompson (1987) which sounds to be more comprehensive a Linguistic Mnemonics a1 Peg word method

In peg word method unrelated items can be remembered easily by relating them to easily memorizable items which act as pegs or hooks Peg word method has two stages At first students are asked to remember 10 number-rhyme pairs In the second stage the students are asked to visualize the word and try to link it to rhyming words The words are, therefore, learned in a composite picture of the given word and the peg (Roediger, 1980; Groeger, 1997; Mirhassani and Eghtesadei, 2007) For example if the first word to be learned is "exploration", its peg can be “John” and after its meaning is defined to the students, they can form a metal picture in which “John is doing oil explorations”, if the second one is

"feature", its peg according to the rhyme pairs can be “shoe” and the students can form a mental picture in which some people are talking about the features of a kind of shoe a2 The key word method Key word method according to Hulstijn (1997) requires three stages At first a first or second language word that has acoustic similarity to the target word is given to the learner to act as the key word In the second stage the learner is asked to make an association between the target word and the key word Finally, he is asked to make a mental image of the combination of the keyword and the target word b Spatial Mnemonics b1 The loci method Loci method is actually the oldest mnemonic device Using this method entails imagining a very familiar place like a room or a house and then associating each new word to a part of it to be remembered (Eysenck, 1994; Mirhassani and Eghtesadei, 2007) In other words, the students take an imaginary walk along their familiar places, and retrieve the items they have put there As people's experiences are different, students may come up with different pictures (Thompson, 1987) b2 Spatial grouping

The idea behind this method is that instead of writing words in a column, students can be asked to form patterns like a triangle with them Writing words in the form of patterns help them recall the words better (Holden, 1999) As they remember the pattern, they can remember the parts which are signed by the words b3 The finger method Through this method students can be asked to associate each word with a finger This method is especially useful with children to learn numbers, days of the week and month of the year (Holden, 1999) c Visual Mnemonics c1 Pictures Words can be better learned if they are paired with pictures (Thompson,

1987) Gains and Redman (1986) believe that objects and pictures can facilitate recall Wright (1989) also believes that meaning can not be derived only from verbal language Pictures and objects not only can be used to give meaning and information but they also can be used to the motivation and interest of the students

Using this method, a picture can be used to make the meaning of the word clear It can sometimes be accompanied by its definition This method can, however, be used with concrete words and usually with elementary or pre-intermediate students c2 Visualization or imagery Instead of using real pictures, this method allows a word to be visualized

The learner imagines a picture or a scene which is associated with the target word

Abstract words can be learned through this method by relating them to a visual picture (Holden, 1999; Thompson, 1987; Mirhassani and Eghtesadei, 2007)

Visualization can be an aid in vocabulary learning (O’Malley and Chamot, 1990) d The Verbal Method d1 Grouping or semantic organization

As organized materials are easier to store in and retrieve from long-term memory, to organize the words in some fashion will enhance their recall (Anderson, 2000; Thompson, 1987) If the target words to be remembered are, for example, dog, cat, chair, sofa, table, milk, eggs and butter they can be organized and remembered under three categories: animals ( for dog and cat ), furniture ( for chair, sofa and table) and food ( for milk, egg and butter) In this way learners have the advantage of better recall than when they all are learned in a list, because if they can remember one word, they will be able to remember the rest (Mirhassani and Eghtesadei, 2007) d2 Story-telling or the narrative chain

In this method the learner links the words together by a story At first he should associate the target words with a topic or some topics, and then he should connect them by making up a story containing the words (Thompson, 1987; Holden, 1999; Mirhassani and Eghtesadei, 2007) This method is especially useful for high level students e Physical Responses Methods e1 Physical response method According to this method the learner should move his body or parts of his body in a certain way that illustrates the meaning of the word If the target word is tiptoe, for example, the student can get up on his tiptoe and move across the room

It can be imaginary too It means that he can imagine the action of moving on his tiptoe (Thompson, 1987; Holden, 1999) Thompson (1987) especially believes that if the information of a word or a sentence is enacted it can yield better understanding and recall e2 Physical sensation method This strategy is devised by Oxford and Scarcella (1994) Through this method the learner associates the new word to a physical sensation For example he can feel cold when he learns the word frigid

Among many classifications of mnemonics by different authors, the researcher has chosen the classification made by Thompson (1987) in which some sub-types of mnemonics are used in the study based on the wordlist of vocabulary found out by the pre-test to teach her students The mnemonic devices used in the research study are: Keyword method, visual mnemonics (pictures), grouping or semantic organization and physical response method

2.2.3 Efficiency of using mnemonics for information and vocabulary retention and recall

There are some studies done on mnemonic devices Most of those focusing on mnemonic devices have consistently indicated that the use of mnemonic devices substantially enhances higher levels of retention of second/foreign language vocabulary words in comparison with other learning strategies of vocabulary

A large body of research on mnemonic support practice and its effect on vocabulary retention and recall shows that mnemonic devices can improve vocabulary learning, boost memory, and increase creativity (Scruggs, Mastropieri, Berkeley & Marshak, 2010; Amiryousefi & Ketabi, 2011)

The effects of memory strategy instruction along with learning through context on the ESP vocabulary recall of Turkish EFL learners were investigated by Atay and Ozbulgan (2007).They found that mnemonic strategies can positively affect vocabulary learning

According to Mastropieri & Scruggs, 1989; Bulgren, Schumaker & Deshler

(1994), mnemonics have been proven to be extremely effective in helping people remember things

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Restatement of research questions

a What are some biggest problems that the students encounter in their vocabulary retention? b To what extent is mnemonics effective in improving short-term vocabulary retention for the formal college students of College of Industrial Techniques in the academic year 2015-2016? c To what extent is mnemonics effective in improving long-term vocabulary retention for the formal college students of College of Industrial Techniques in the academic year 2015-2016? d What are the students’ attitudes towards using mnemonic strategies in vocabulary retention?

Context of the study

College of Industrial Techniques located in Bac Giang city, Bac Giang province is an official college belonging to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and under the national education system Originally, it was named the School of Engineering II which was founded in 1966 The college trains students at various levels such as professional intermediate level, vocational intermediate level, vocational college level and formal college level From being just a vocational intermediate school, it was upgraded into a college in 2009 During 50 years of construction and development, the College has trained, fostered and re-trained over 35 thousand managing officers, highly qualified technicians and skilled technical workers for the country

At College of Industrial Techniques, students at all levels have to learn English as a compulsory subject For the formal college students, they are taught fundamental English in three semesters and moved to English for Special Purposes in the last semester of studying English The number of students in each class is varied depending on their majors At the end of each term, together with the written test, the formal college students have to take the speaking test to evaluate their speaking skill In general, students of the college have shown their ill performance in learning English because they are majored in technical fields and English for them is just a fundamental subject From their secondary and high schools, they did not pay much attention and put much effort in learning English Therefore, when they enter the college, the result of learning English is not positive in a large number of students

The textbook of English the author used in her study is New English File Elementary (Student’s Book) by Clive Exenden, Christina Latham-Koenig and Paul Seligson published by Oxford University Press It is also the official course book of English widely used in the college in teaching English It is designed for the students at fundamental level and for those who start learning English This book consists of nine big units 1-9 in which there are four sub-units A, B, C, D in each unit In addition, after the four sub-units of a big unit, there exists the part of Practical English & Skills In each sub-unit, some main parts are focused to teach the students such as reading, pronunciation, listening, speaking skills, grammar and vocabulary parts In Practical English & Skills part, the main contents of units are revised by exercises and additionally, some conversations & vocabularies in typically communicative circumstances are given out The focus of the study is vocabulary, so this part is paid attention In the textbook New English File (Elementary), the vocabulary part is a separated one in each sub-unit There are varieties of vocabularies including numbers, nationalities and countries, common objects, verb phrases, jobs, daily routine verbs, flats and houses These words, which are often shown in vivid pictures and put in groups of words or topics for facilitating the learning of students, are gathered in the part vocabulary bank at the end of the textbook Therefore, the author did not focus on the words in the vocabulary bank because the students were already supported in learning them, but she tried to build up a list of words which were included in the reading passages and other parts of the textbook without any learning supporting techniques After pre- test 2, a list of 69 words was made to be taught with mnemonic techniques

The time of applying the treatment was the same for both kinds of participant groups (the control and experimental groups), in which 69 new words of vocabulary were taught in three 50-minute periods of time It means that 23 new words were introduced to the participants in each period of 50 minutes

3.2.2 Participants - Subject of the study

The author only picked up the second-year students at formal college level to be the subject of the study The reason was that choosing the same year students ensured the initial homogeneity of participants More important, different school year formal college students were at different levels: At the time of doing research, the first year students did not enter the English learning, the second year ones were in the second modules of English and the third year ones had finished all three modules of communicative English and moved to English for Special Purposes

Therefore, in order to be suitable with the textbook used in the research and the general background knowledge, choosing the second year students to be involved in the research was the most reasonable At first, 30 temporary sample students were chosen who were the second-year formal college students from five classes majored in Environment (49CĐ-MT), Information Technology (49CĐ-TT), Economics (49CĐ-KT), Electricity (49CĐ-Đ) and Electronics (49CĐ-ĐT) There were 19 boys and 11 girls By picking up these 30 students, the author wanted to show the randomness and representativeness in choosing the later participants to take part in the study

Before being the official participants of the study, these 30 students had to do the homogeneity test given by the researcher After the test, 22 students (15 boys and 7 girls) who received the mark from five could officially become the participants of the study With the ages from 19 to 20, these participants were also from five classes in five majors and different departments as mentioned above covering a wide range of formal college students in the college In the time of doing research, they had finished the first module of communicative English with the textbook New English File (Elementary) and were progressing in the second module They came from different backgrounds and environments, varied from the cities to mountainous areas These 22 students have studied English since they were at the elementary school, some were at secondary school but they did not consider English as a priority subject Therefore, they enrolled the study with low and medium level of English proficiency In general, based on their background and after the homogeneity test, the participants were relatively homogeneous in level and they met the requirement of variety and representativeness because they were from different majors and regions

The participants of 22 students were randomly divided into the control group and the experimental group with the equal quantity of members The reason for classifying into the two groups was that the researcher wanted to gain the most objective and reliable result of teaching These participants were at the same level because they were chosen through the homogeneity test and all of them did not know the word list used for teaching them Therefore, the researcher decided to divide into the control group and the experimental group so that she could make comparison between them The only difference between the two groups was that the control group was taught vocabulary with the traditional ways of teaching vocabulary, including repeating, translation and example sentence explanation while the experimental group was involved in mnemonic devices of keyword method, visual mnemonics, grouping or semantic organization and physical response method After finishing the teaching and collecting data from the post- tests, by making comparison, the researcher could draw the conclusion about the effectiveness of using mnemonics in vocabulary retention of the students.

Implementation of the Action Research

When there is a problem arising in the class, it is compulsory to find out a solution to deal with the problem In these educational situations, action research is inevitably a very common practice that teachers in language learning often choose

This study follows the action research approach because of some following reasons:

Firstly, one of the most significant features of the action research is that it is very

“situational”, which means specific solutions can be given to specific problems to each context This research was carried out within the context of the teacher’s teaching environment – her students and her working places Therefore, action research is the best choice for the researcher in this condition Secondly, from pre- test 1, the teacher found out that her students face trouble in remembering words, so she really expected to find out a suitable solution to improve the class situation In this circumstance, action research would be a good idea Moreover, action research also gave the researcher a good chance to evaluate the intervention in her class

Action research can be defined in various ways According to Cohen and Manion (1985) “Action research is first and foremost situational, being concerned with the identification and solution of problems in a specific context The aim of action research is to improve the current state of affairs within the educational context in which the research is being carried out” In addition to, Kemmis &

McTaggart (1982) stated that “Action research is deliberate, solution-oriented investigation that is group or personally owned and conducted It is characterized by spiraling cycles of problem identification, systematic data collection, reflection, analysis, data-driven action taken, and, finally, problem redefinition The linking of the terms "action" and "research" highlights the essential features of this method: trying out ideas in practice as a means of increasing knowledge about and/or improving curriculum, teaching, and learning

There are many models of steps included in an action research Normally, there are five main stages: Problem identification, plan of action, data collection, data analysis and plan for future action In this study, the researcher followed the model proposed by Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) As suggested by Kemmis and McTaggart (1988), there are four steps in the action research cycle as follows:

Accordingly, each action research cycle should include: Planning an action, carrying out the corrective action, observing the process and results of the action, and reflecting the action Applying this model, this research underwent the following steps:

Research design

The action research was carried out in the second semester of the school year 2015-2016 Under the action research model of Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) as stated above, this action research study was implemented in the four following steps:

In the nearly five year teaching procedure, the researcher (the teacher as well) realized that the students seemed to not be able to remember words well and a large amount of students got bad English result performance mainly due to lack of vocabulary To identify the problems facing the students in vocabulary retention, the researcher prepared pre-test 1 (Appendix 2) to investigate the biggest difficulty of the students in vocabulary recall The result of pre-test 1 was that nearly half of the total times of selection of participants (46%) was for option 2 “I have seen this word before but I don’t know what it means”, which means that the students suffered disadvantages in retaining the words they had learnt previously Their biggest problem in vocabulary retention was that although they saw the words familiar, they could not give out or retrieve the meanings As a result, the study was conducted to correct the situation

In this stage, the researcher carried out all preparation before entering the stage of corrective action in the actual classroom She compiled pre-tests, post-tests and a questionnaire survey Moreover, she divided the participants into two groups:

The experimental group and control group The experimental group received mnemonic method training, while the control group was introduced with traditional vocabulary instruction, including repeating, translation, and example sentence explanation

In order to help improve the students’ vocabulary retention, the researcher decided to use four mnemonic techniques and she built up each technique used for each word in the list of 69 words items 12 words were designed to teach with physical response method, 7 words with grouping or semantic organization while 10 words were prepared to teach with keyword method and 40 words were with visual mnemonics (pictures)

The detailed schedule of the action implementation is as follows:

Teaching vocabularies with mnemonics Immediate post-test 1

Teaching vocabularies with the traditional teaching method

Teaching vocabularies with mnemonics Immediate post-test 2

Teaching vocabularies with the traditional teaching method

1 Teaching vocabularies with mnemonics Immediate post-test 3

Teaching vocabularies with the traditional teaching method

Immediate post-test 3 Week 8 1 Delayed post-test

Table 2: The schedule of the action implementation

Before doing the teaching in the actual classroom, the teacher asked the rector of College of Industrial Technique for his permission in carrying out this action research with 22 college students from five classes She also introduced the research she intended to do in order to improve the student vocabulary retention in English classes, which helped to enhance English teaching quality at the college The rector paid his interest in the research because he always paid attention to improving English teaching and learning activities in the College

At this stage, the teacher applied to teach the chosen new word list of 69 items for both the control and experimental groups in which the traditional method was used for the control group and the four mnemonic techniques were used for the experimental group

The control group was taught with the traditional ways of teaching vocabulary including repeating, translation and example sentence explanation

- The teacher showed the word list which would be taught for each session

- Next, the teacher gave the meaning of each word on the board and explained the word form

- Then, she pronounced it and guided the students to pronounce

- The teacher called some students to pronounce the word

- She gave out an example sentence including the word

- One or some students were asked to take examples using the word

- The same procedure was implemented with another word

- At the end of each teaching session, the teacher asked the students to read out once again the whole taught vocabulary list

- At first, the teacher introduced the students about what mnemonics was, the classification and effectiveness in vocabulary learning and retention

- Then she provided description of the four mnemonic strategies (keyword method, visual mnemonic (pictures), grouping or semantic organization and physical response method)

- Next, she entered the teaching with the four mnemonic techniques as follows:

- The teacher showed the target word on the slideshow, she pronounced it the first time

- Next, she showed the keyword (with similar or nearly similar sound with part of the target word)

- Then, she repeated the pronunciation of the target word and the keyword

- She continued showing a picture on the slide related to the keyword, and asked students about the content of the picture included the keyword image

- After that, she linked the meaning of the picture with the meaning of the target word and showed the target words with its meanings, its form and its phonetics on the slide

- The teacher guided students how to pronounce the target word and asked students to repeat several times the order “the target word – the keyword – the meaning of the picture”

- The teacher continued with the next target word with the same process

- The teacher showed the picture in front of the students

- Then she asked the students to guess what the picture was about

- She might supply some cues for the student to more easily figure out She called some students for their answers

- After that, the teacher showed the word by turning back the picture

- She provided the word form and the phonetics and guided the students how to pronounce the word

- The teacher showed the word directly so that the students could see and asked them to repeat the word three times Then, she turned back to show the picture and tell the students to pronounce three times as well

- Finally, she invited some students to read out loud the word by looking at the picture

- For another word, the same procedure was carried out After each learnt word, the teacher helped the students to revise all previously taught words by continuously moving among pictures for students to realize the words

- The teacher introduced two contrast semantic organizations to the students (positive and negative feelings)

- She showed the students the words of positive feeling and guided them to pronounce

- The whole class practiced pronouncing, then some of the students were asked to pronounce

- Next, the teacher showed the words of negative feelings and carried out the same above procedure

- Finally, the teacher asked the whole class to read out loud the words of both groups

- The teacher imitated the action and used her body language and facial expression to express the word

- She asked the students to look at her action and try to find out the word

- Some students were invited to say their answers

- Then the teacher guided the students to pronounce the word and explained the word form and the phonetics

- Next, she asked all the students to stand up and imitate the action together with speak out loud the word She also called some students at random to pronounce the words

- The implementation steps were the same for the next taught word

After having taught 23 words in each teaching session in 50 minutes, the teacher chose random words for revision She might show the pictures and the keywords or imitate the action for students to recall the words Sometimes, she divided the students into two groups and organized a game by showing the pictures or describing the words with action and let each group figure out The group with higher mark would be the winner

At the end of each teaching session, the students of both the control group and the experimental group were required to finish an immediate post-test (see Appendix 3) The teacher collected the post-test paper for later analysis of improvement in short-term vocabulary retention with mnemonic techniques

Two weeks after the last session of vocabulary teaching, the delayed post-test of

69 items was given without the prior notice to all participants to check their long- term memory of the learnt words The items in the delayed post-test were arranged randomly for the participants to avoid remembering positions or meanings of items as from the three previous immediate post-tests At the end, after the delayed post- test, the participants of the experimental groups were delivered a questionnaire sheet for completion, which helped the researcher find out their attitude towards the four used mnemonic strategies

In the evaluation or assessment stage, all data were gathered for the researcher to analyze to decide whether this study could solve the research questions or not Pre-test 1 was analyzed to find out the problem facing the students in the vocabulary learning and retention The immediate post-tests and the delayed post-test were compared to see any improvement in vocabulary retention performance of the participants in both short-term and long-term vocabulary retention The questionnaire helped the researcher understand the experimental participants’ attitudes towards the applied mnemonic strategies in teaching vocabulary After finishing the analysis and getting to conclusion, the teacher (the researcher) presented her study into paper for wide publication.

Research instruments

The instruments for the study were 3 kinds of tests (a homogeneity test, two pre- tests, and four post-tests (three immediate post-tests and a delayed post-test)), and one questionnaire survey after the whole teaching process Among the tests, pre-test

1 and four post-tests were in the format of Vocabulary Knowledge Scale test

The Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) test is a five-point self-report scale developed by Wesche & Paribakht (1996) that allows students to indicate how well they know items of vocabulary; in other words the knowledge of a word can be evaluated by using one of these following scales:

1 I don’t remember having seen this word before

2 I have seen this word before but I don’t know what it means

3 I have seen this word before and I think it means……

4 I know this word; it means……

5 I can use this word in a sentence, e.g…………

(Wesche M & Paribakht T.S., 1996) The same design of VKS used in pre-test 1 and four post-tests was as follows: On the test paper was the participant’ s name and then the title of the test and a detailed instruction in both English and Vietnamese on how to do the test properly were added In the main section of the test, a table of three columns was displayed in which there were vocabulary items in the first column, the rating number from 1-5 in the second columns (the more the rating number was, the better the participant could remember or recall the words) and the translation (English synonym or Vietnamese equivalence or sentence) in the third column

There were three kinds of test: The homogeneity test, the two pre-tests and the three immediate post-tests after each period of teaching vocabulary and the delayed post-test The criteria of building the tests were based on the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) test developed by Wesche & Paribakht (1996) that helped the researcher evaluate how well the participants knew and recalled items of vocabulary

The homogeneity test was adopted from the paper 1 (Reading and Writing) of the test 1 of Cambridge Key English Test published by Cambridge University Press (see Appendix 1) It can be seen that the test showed its strong validity in evaluating the students’ English performance The test is at Cambridge level one (Council of Europe Level A2), so it is relatively suitable in knowledge and skill levels for the formal college students in a technical vocational college There were 56 questions which were divided into nine parts covering both reading and writing skills The 30 temporary participants were required to finish the test in one hour and ten minutes as regulated in the Cambridge Key English Test course book After that the researcher gave marks with one mark per one right answer of each participant

Those participants who received the mark from 5 in the scale of point 10 would be the official participants of the study

There were two types of pre-test: Pre-test 1 and pre-test 2 with different design and purposes (see Appendix 4)

Pre-test 1 followed the format of a VKS test It was carried out after the homogeneity test It consisted of 20 vocabulary words which had been taught previously for the participants in the first module of English These 20 vocabulary items were selected at random from Unit 1 to Unit 3 of the textbook New English File (The first module of English in the teaching curriculum consisted of these first

3 units) The participants were asked to finish the test in 15 minutes The test aimed at checking how well they could remember these already learnt words, from that the problems facing them in the vocabulary retention could be identified Providing the data for analysis, pre-test 1 helped to answer the first research question of the study

Pre-test 2 was implemented by all the participants in order to establish a list of unknown words that would be used for teaching in the action stage for both control and experimental groups It was designed by the researcher in which she picked up randomly 100 words in the whole textbook New English File Elementary These

100 words were different from the 20 words in pre-test 1 and were mainly in the reading parts and various different parts of all units in the textbook The researcher told the participants to give the correct meanings of these 100 words in 60 minutes

After completion, the researcher collected the list of words which were unknown at all to the participants to be the teaching material

There were four post-tests in total used in the study in which three immediate post-tests after three period of teaching session for immediate short-term vocabulary retention evaluation and one delayed post-test for long-term vocabulary recall assessment

These four tests all were based on the design of a VKS test but different words were included in (see Appendix 3) The results of these tests were compared between the control group and the experimental group to reach the final conclusion of the study Each immediate post-test consisted of 23 vocabulary items which was delivered immediately to the participants after each teaching session The participants of both groups of the study had to complete each immediate post-test in

20 minutes After that the researcher collected the immediate post-tests for further analysis to come to conclusion that whether there was any improvement on the short-term vocabulary retention when mnemonics was used or not The three immediate post-tests contributed to solve the second research question of the study

In the delayed post-test, there were 69 items of words which were delivered to the participants after two weeks of the last teaching session It aimed to answer the third research question of the study on long-term vocabulary recall performance

After 60 minutes of finishing, the researcher gathered the delayed post-tests from the participants, compared and did some necessary analysis

The questionnaire was used in the study so that the researcher could investigate participants’ attitude on the application of the four mnemonic techniques and their preference towards the four used techniques It was implemented and delivered to the participants immediately after the delayed post-test had been finished The researcher divided the questionnaire into two main parts (1) the participants’ attitude towards the strategy scheme, and (2) the participants’ interest towards the four mnemonic techniques In the first part, the participants had to complete three questions to show what they thought about the importance, effectiveness and the pleasure of the training scheme These questions were designed under the format of a Likert-scale (see Appendix 4) In addition, the question in the second part was for identifying their preference towards the four learnt mnemonic techniques by giving rating from level 1 to level 4 (from the least interested to the most interested) After 10 minutes of completion, the researcher received the questionnaire sheets from the participants for later analysis.

Data analysis procedure

The data collection was implemented through the pre-tests, the post-tests and the questionnaire to serve for solving the four research questions

Regarding the first research question, in pre-test 1 under a VKS test form, the students would mark the given words from score 1 to score 5 The teacher then counted the number of selection of each mark (equivalent to each option of remembering the learnt words), expressed the figure as percentage for each participant, then calculated average percentage of options selection and illustrated in a pie chart

Next, in order to answer the next two research questions on the effectiveness of mnemonic in vocabulary retention, with the immediate post-tests and the delay post-test, first the score number (score selections) was first recorded and the mean scores of each group in all post-tests were calculated After that, the bar-charts were used to illustrate the situation of score selection and the line charts were made to show the performance of the two groups, from which coming to the conclusion of improvement in vocabulary retention with the four mnemonic devices

Finally, the data from the questionnaire was gathered to calculate the selection percentage to make the pie chart in investigating attitudes towards the training scheme and for the attitude of the four techniques preference, a table of score total for each technique preference was made to find out the techniques receiving the highest preference.

DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

The result of the homogeneity test

The homogeneity test was adopted from the reading and writing part of test

1, Cambridge Key English Test for 30 second-year formal college students to do

Giving marks of the test sheets brought the result of 22 students from mark 5 chosen These 22 students officially became the participants of the study.

Research question 1 (Identifying the problems): What are the problems that

As stated in the previous chapter, pre-test 1 (VKS test form) was the first instrument to clarify the first research question The test was designed to check whether the participants could remember the words that they had learned before, to get how well they could remember the words and identify the obstacles that 22 participants (coded names from P1 to P22) suffered in their vocabulary retention

The data analysis was based on times of choosing options and the researcher summarized the times in percentage in the following table:

Note: There are 5 options in the scale under VKS test form

Table 3: Results from pre-test 1

From the average percentage of options selection, the following pie-chart was made:

Figure 2: Results from pre-test 1

As can be seen from the pie-chart, option 2 “I have seen this word before but

I don’t know what it means” and option 3 “I have seen this word before and I think it means…” ranked the first and second place with 46% and 34% in the total times of choosing of all participants, others only accounted for a relatively small amount of percentage Especially, nearly half of selections of the participants under option 2 revealed the fact that the participants were weak and had disadvantages in retaining the words they had learnt previously Through pre-test 1 with a VKS test form, the participants expressed the biggest problem encountering them in vocabulary learning and retention was although they saw the words familiar, they could not give out or retrieve the meanings This resulted from the lack of necessary techniques for remembering vocabulary Therefore, in order to help the participants overcome their obstacle, the researcher intended to give out four mnemonic strategies proposed by Thompson (1987) including keyword method, visual mnemonics (pictures), grouping or semantic organization and physical response method.

The result of pre-test 2

To ensure an objective result in the vocabulary retention performance, pre-test 2 was carried out with the aims of finding a list of words which all the participants did

Option 1Option 2Option 3Option 4Option 5 not find familiar Among 100 words given in pre-test 2, 69 words were unfamiliar to all the participants and were listed in the official vocabulary list for teaching The detailed word list can be seen in the appendix 3.

Research question 2: Is mnemonics effective in improving short-term

In this part, to evaluate the improvement of the participants’ short-term vocabulary retention, the researcher would compare the results between the immediate post-tests 1, 2, 3 of the experimental groups with ones of the control group, respectively

The immediate post-tests were used right after the first, the second and the third teaching periods ended to check the short-term memory of words of both participants from the control and experimental groups How well the students retrieved the words was described in 5 levels ranging from mark 1 to mark 5 The higher the mark was, the better retention ability the participants had

4.4.1 Results from the immediate post-test 1

Following was the rating selection of 11 participants of the control group (with coded names from C1 to C11) after they finished learning 23 words in the first teaching session:

Mark 1 Mark 2 Mark 3 Mark 4 Mark 5

Table 4: Result of the control group in the immediate post-test 1

And here was the choosing result of 11 participants of the experimental groups (with coded names from E1 to E11) based on the scale from mark 1 to mark

5 in the immediate post-test 1:

Mark 1 Mark 2 Mark 3 Mark 4 Mark 5

Table 5: Result of the experimental group in the immediate post-test 1

This table resulted in the following figure:

Figure 3: Result of selection between the control and experimental groups in the immediate post-test 1

It can be derived from the table and figure that there was a contrast trend among the selection of two groups after the first treatment period: Score 1 (I don’t remember having seen this word before) and score 2 (I have seen this word before but I don’t know what it means) were chosen most in the control group (with 79 and

120 selections respectively) but were at the lowest levels of selection in the

Mark Scale experimental group (with 9 and 19 times of choosing) Moreover, most times of choosing of the experimental group belong to score 3 (I have known this word before and I think it means…) and score 4 (I know this words, it means…)

The whole performance of the two groups was also illustrated with mean scores as presented in the following chart:

Figure 4: The overall performance between the control group and the experimental group in the immediate post-test 1

Comparing the two mean scores of the two groups, there was a clear difference between them, which helped to prove the fact that the student’s short term memory of the experimental group was improved and better than that of the control group

By seeing times of selection and the mean scores, after the first immediate post-test 1, the participants of the experimental group showed that they could have better vocabulary retention in short-term memory than those of the control group

The four mnemonic techniques really worked on the participants compared to the traditional teaching method

4.4.2 Result from the immediate post-test 2

After the second teaching session was carried out, the immediate post-test 2 was followed The result could be as follows:

Mark 1 Mark 2 Mark 3 Mark 4 Mark 5

The control group The experimental group

Table 6: Result of the control group in the immediate post-test 2

Mark 1 Mark 2 Mark 3 Mark 4 Mark 5

Table 7: Result of the experimental group in the immediate post-test 2

With the above figures, the following bar-chart could help to visualize easily:

Figure 5: Result of selection between the control and experimental groups in the immediate post-test 2

The control groupThe experimental group

The control group once again showed that they could not recall the vocabulary items well by choosing most the score 2 with 124 selections and then the score 1 at 63 selections Meanwhile, the experimental group members still expressed their surpassing in vocabulary retention with 85 choosing times for score

3 and 100 selections for score 4 and their number of score 1 and 2 was still in the last position

Figure 6: The overall performance between the control group and the experimental group in the immediate post-test 2

The figure of mean scores demonstrated a relatively stable difference of the overall performance in retrieving items of the two groups, in which on average the participants of the experimental group could retrieve the words quite well at the point 3.49 compared to the score 2.18 of those from the control group who were still struggling in vocabulary recall

Therefore, the immediate post-test 2 continued proving the effectiveness of the four mnemonic strategies in short-term vocabulary remembering ability

4.4.3 Result from the immediate post-test 3

Mark 1 Mark 2 Mark 3 Mark 4 Mark 5

The control group The experimental group

Table 8: Result of the control group in the immediate post-test 3

Mark 1 Mark 2 Mark 3 Mark 4 Mark 5

Table 9: Result of the experimental group in the immediate post-test 3

Figure 7: Result of selection between the control and experimental groups in the immediate post-test 3

The control groupThe experimental group

Figure 8: The overall performance between the control group and the experimental group in the immediate post-test 3

The data from final immediate post-test 3 still provided a more positive and promising result in the performance of the experimental group over the control group

In summary, the general performance of the two groups in all the immediate post-tests was presented as follows:

Figure 9: The general performance between the control group and the experimental group in all the immediate post-tests

In three immediate post-tests, the mean scores of the experimental group were all much higher than those of the control groups with the differences of 1.47,

The control group The experimental group

The experimental group experimental groups against that of the control group in short-term vocabulary retention, from which showed that mnemonics was really effective in improving short-term memory of students.

Research question 3: Is mnemonics effective in improving long-term

The delayed post-test was delivered to the participants after two weeks from the last immediate post-test The data were collected as follows:

Mark 1 Mark 2 Mark 3 Mark 4 Mark 5

Table 10: Result of the control group in the delayed post-test

Mark 1 Mark 2 Mark 3 Mark 4 Mark 5

Table 11: Result of the experimental group in the delayed post-test

From the data, some following figures could be presented between the two groups as:

Figure 10: Result of selection between the control and experimental groups in the delayed post-test

Figure 11: The overall performance between the control group and the experimental group in the delayed post-test

After 2 weeks in the delayed post-test, in general, there was no big change in the selection trend between the two groups The experimental group still expressed their better word remembering ability than the control group as most of their choice was of score 3 and 4 Although the mean score of the each group in this delayed post-test (2.06 and 3.48) was a bit lower than the means scores in previous immediate post-tests due to the effect of time on the performance of word retention, the participants of the experimental group still indicated their better performance in

The control group The experimental group

Mean score recalling the learnt words than their counterparts Therefore, it can be concluded that the four memory techniques had good effect on word retention and really improved the students’ long-term vocabulary retention.

Research question 4: What are the students’ attitudes towards using

By considering the students’ evaluation on the used mnemonic strategies through the questionnaire, the researcher could get their attitudes on the four applied strategies to solve the research question 4 11 members of the experimental groups were received the questionnaire sheets for completion after the delay post-test

4.6.1 The participants’ attitudes towards the strategy training scheme

In terms of the participants’ attitudes towards the strategy training scheme, the researcher paid attention on three main aspects: The training scheme’s importance, its effectiveness and the pleasure that the students could have during the learning process

Firstly, the participants’ assessment on the importance of the training scheme was illustrated by the following table and figure:

Percentage (%) Not at all important 0 0%

Table 12: Importance of the strategy training scheme

Figure 12: Importance of the strategy training scheme

As can be seen from the above figure and table, the majority of the students agreed the training scheme to be important and extremely important (6/11 students and 2/11 students equivalent to 55% and 18% ticked these two options in the questionnaire sheet) The rest (3/11 students at 27%) chose the neutral option and no participant evaluated the treatment of using mnemonic strategies in teaching vocabulary as being unimportant or not very important

Next, the ideas of the participants in the experimental group about the effectiveness of the training scheme were shown in the following table and pie- chart:

Percentage (%) Not at all effective 0 0%

Table 13: Effectiveness of the strategy training scheme

Figure 13: Effectiveness of strategy training scheme

The above pie-chart indicated that most of the participants (73%) thought that the training scheme was effective to them, while together with that 2 students with 18% did not give a clear viewpoint about the effectiveness of the scheme

Happily, 9% had very good evaluation on how effective the scheme was on his/her

While mentioning about the pleasure that the participants can felt when learning vocabulary by mnemonic devices, the result showed that a high percentage of students (64%) found the techniques interested for learning with Especially 18% of students showed their highly motivation and great enthusiasm when they were involved in the learning process The same percentage was made with those who did not enjoy or hate the training scheme Data and illustration were presented as follows:

Table 14: Pleasure during the strategy training scheme

Figure 14: Pleasure during the strategy training scheme

In short, from the result of the questionnaire, a majority of participants had positive attitudes about the strategy training scheme in terms of its importance, its effectiveness and the pleasure on the participants with the highest percentages for good aspects of evaluation factors The negative sides received no vote from the participants

4.6.2 The participants’ interest towards the four mnemonic strategies

In the second part of the questionnaire, the participants ranked the applied four mnemonic devices based on their interest in the scale from 1 (least interested) to 4 (most interested) The data were summarized in the following table with 11 participants of the experimental group (coded names from E1 to E11):

Table 15: Student’ preference of four mnemonic strategies

Looking at the total points the students gave to each mnemonic strategy, it could be easily seen that “Visual mnemonics (Pictures) was the techniques that the students liked most with the total point of 37, followed right after was the technique

“Keyword method” This was understandable because these two devices shared some common points in using imagery The third preference belonged to the technique “Physical respond method” and “Grouping or semantic organization” was placed the last rank with the points of 24 and 14, respectively

Through careful analysis of the collected data, the research has found out the obstacle that almost students encountered in their vocabulary retrieval process was they could not remember the words although they had seen them before It posed a need of having techniques to remember words more easily Moreover, with the gathered data from the immediate post-tests and the delayed post-test, the application of four mnemonic strategies was proved to have positive improvement and effective in both the short-term and the long-term vocabulary retention of the students Finally, the questionnaire once again reconfirmed the good evaluation and interest of the participants on using the four mnemonic devices in vocabulary learning and teaching activity All these findings will pave the way for the recommendations and conclusion in the next part.

CONCLUSION

Summary

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the four mnemonic strategies in short-term and long-term vocabulary retention of college students

The researcher divided randomly 22 participants of college students in the College of Industrial Techniques (Bac Giang province) into the control group and experimental group with two different methods of teaching vocabulary, in which the control group was taught 69 items in three teaching sessions with the traditional vocabulary instruction of repeating, translation and example sentence explanation while the experimental group are received these vocabulary items with four mnemonic devices named keyword method, visual mnemonic (pictures), grouping or semantic organization and physical response method

The instruments of the study were the pre-tests, the post-tests and the questionnaire With the pre-tests, the problems encountered the participants in vocabulary retention was identified and the word list for teaching was made The researcher entered the corrective action The post-tests of the two groups were collected and compared to each other to see whether there was any improvement in remembering words in short-term and long-term of the experimental groups over the control group At the end of the treatment, the questionnaire of participants’ attitude was delivered to find out the participants’ attitudes towards the training scheme and the four used memory strategies

The researcher collected and analyzed all the necessary data to solve the research questions and purposes.

Conclusion

Firstly, the researcher could identify the problem that students had encountered in vocabulary learning and recall The biggest problem was that although they saw the words familiar, they could not give out or retrieve the meanings It was due to the fact that the students lacked techniques for recall words

Therefore, the researcher decided to introduce the four mnemonic techniques in vocabulary teaching and learning activity and do an action research study

Secondly, the research proved that applying the four memory strategies in teaching and learning vocabulary has improved the participants’ short-term and long-term vocabulary retention The performance of the experimental group surpassed substantially the result of the control group

Moreover, the findings from the questionnaire showed the participants’ positive attitudes towards the strategy training scheme and four mnemonic devices

A majority of participants agreed about the importance, effectiveness of the treatment scheme and were really interested in the learning process In addition, among the four memory strategies used, “visual mnemonics (pictures)” was most popular to the participants and was favored most by them, “keywords method” ranked the second with nearly the same percentage of interest with the previous strategy, “physical respond method” and “grouping or semantic organization” shared the third and fourth position

The study used the post-tests and the questionnaire to answer the research questions and serve for the research purposes The results of the post-tests could be seen to be consistent with the result of the questionnaire The participants of the experimental group expressed their preference and recognition of importance and effectiveness of mnemonics through the questionnaire data and this could be reciprocally confirmed by their result of the pre-tests

In conclusion, the result of the research study showed that using mnemonics could be really effective for the vocabulary retention of students This result was in line and consistent with previous research on the effects of mnemonics in vocabulary teaching and learning activity This thesis together with most of studies on mnemonic devices consistently indicated that the use of mnemonic strategies enhanced higher level of retention of foreign vocabulary words compared with the traditional way or other leaning strategies of vocabulary The study also contributed an effective way for the students in the college of the researcher to recall new words more quickly and better.

Implications

The first recommendation from the researcher when teaching vocabulary with mnemonic techniques is that the teacher should really create a favorable environment and pay attention to improve the students’ motivation of vocabulary learning The learning atmosphere should be friendly and open for all participants to freely discuss Materials of teaching with mnemonic techniques should be vivid and appealing The lesson should be carried out with various activities of interacting between the teacher and students or among students

In addition, the teacher should not only provide students with the list of vocabulary items taught with mnemonic devices but also should introduce and explain how to use these mnemonic techniques, so that the students can apply these techniques in learning other new words later It should be ensured that after the treatment stage, the students can recall the taught items more quickly in their short term and long term memory and can master and reflect the learnt mnemonic techniques with other vocabulary words

There must be a number of limitations in the study due to the lack of time and the researcher’s limited ability and experience

Firstly, about the participants, only 22 second year college students were engaged in the study The number of 22 was a quite small figure to help the researcher generalize the results and could not be completely representative for all the formal college students at College of Industrial Techniques

Moreover, when identifying the problems facing the students in learning and recalling vocabulary, only one pre-test was carried out It could be better if the researcher used additional instruments such as interviewing directly some representative students More instruments would help the researcher identify the difficulties of the participants in a more thorough and deeper way

Thirdly, the time of carrying out the corrective action was not very long It could be much better if the students had longer time in getting accustomed to the new method applied

Despite the shortcomings stated above, the effort of the researcher and the participants as well as serious data collection and analysis have contributed much to the reliability and validity of the study

The researcher also wants to contribute some suggestions for those who are interested in the same topic so that they may have better research studies in the future

Initially, further research should broaden the number or range of participants

The participants can be increased in number or modified in different levels This will create the variety in participants of further study for more reliable results

Secondly, further researchers should use more instruments in their further study Some other kinds of instruments such as interview or observation will bring more useful and valuable data, from that the analysis and generalization can be more and more reliable and efficient in solving the research aim and objectives

Finally, it will be better for the further research that the corrective treatment stage can occur in a longer period of time, creating more favorable conditions for both the researcher and participants

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APPENDIX 2: PRE-TESTS (PRE-TEST 1, PRE-TEST 2)

APPENDIX 3: POST-TESTS (IMMEDIATE POST-TEST 1, IMMEDIATE POST-TEST 2, IMMEDIATE POST-TEST 3, DELAYED POST-TEST)

APPENDIX 5: SAMPLE WORD LIST WITH MNEMONIC TECHNIQUES

APPENDIX 1: HOMOGENEITY TEST HOMOGENEITY TEST (BÀI KIỂM TRA ĐỒNG NHẤT ĐỐI TƯỢNG)

(Adopted from: Test 1, Cambridge Key English Test 3 – Cambridge University Press)

Time: 1hour and 10 minutes Full name:………

APPENDIX 2: PRE-TESTS (PRE-TEST 1, PRE-TEST 2)

Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) Look at the following list of words and give each word a rating number from 1 to 5 basing on how well you know the word

1 I don’t remember having seen this word before

(Tôi không nhớ đã nhìn thấy từ này trước kia)

2 I have seen this word before but I don’t know what it means

(Tôi đã nhìn thấy từ này trước kia nhưng không biết nghĩa của nó là gì)

3 I have seen this word before and I think it means……

(Tôi đã nhìn thấy từ này trước kia và tôi nghĩ nghĩa của nó là……….)

4 I know this word; it means………

(Tôi biết từ này; nó có nghĩa là……….)

5 I can use this word in a sentence, e.g………

(Tôi có thể sử dụng từ này trong câu, ví dụ……… ) (Wesche M & Paribakht T.S., 1996)

Words Rating (1-5) English synonym /Vietnamese equivalence/ Sentence

Spanish Smoke Autumn Twenty Empty Wear Nephew Wake up

Brown Actor Tissues September Japan Aunt Dirty Umbrella Office Surname Waiter

Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) Look at the following list of words and give each word a rating number from 1 to 5 basing on how well you know the word

1 I don’t remember having seen this word before

(Tôi không nhớ đã nhìn thấy từ này trước kia)

2 I have seen this word before but I don’t know what it means

(Tôi đã nhìn thấy từ này trước kia nhưng không biết nghĩa của nó là gì)

3 I have seen this word before and I think it means……

(Tôi đã nhìn thấy từ này trước kia và tôi nghĩ nghĩa của nó là……….)

4 I know this word; it means………

(Tôi biết từ này; nó có nghĩa là……….)

5 I can use this word in a sentence, e.g………

(Tôi có thể sử dụng từ này trong câu, ví dụ……… ) (Wesche M & Paribakht T.S., 1996)

Words Rating (1-5) English synonym /Vietnamese equivalence/ Sentence

Bike Weekend Problem Boot Different Passport Business Terrible Relax Officer Smoking Band Address Receptionist

Throw Village Amazing Queue Dance Microwave Pub

Eliminate Cry Director Traditional Advice Qualification Chef

Festival Lift Owl Lifestyle Earn Musician Celebrate Babysitter Programme Europe Language Island Castle Musical Mineral water Remote control Orchestra Zebra crossing Popular

Cycle Fascinating Famous Travel Good-looking Fantastic Play a musical instrument Horrible

Sad Soldier Bridge Temperature Jump

Completely Horror Housework Ghost Surprised Tourist Breakfast Frightened Argue Homework Stand Factory Housewife Politician Stand Interview Coffee Secret Draw Stressed Always Meat Favourite Meeting

Leader Cemetery Confusing Meditate Beach Investigate Battle

APPENDIX 3: POST-TESTS (IMMEDIATE POST-TEST 1, IMMEDIATE POST-

TEST 2, IMMEDIATE POST-TEST 3, DELAYED POST-TEST)

Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) Look at the following list of words and give each word a rating number from 1 to 5 basing on how well you know the word

1 I don’t remember having seen this word before

(Tôi không nhớ đã nhìn thấy từ này trước kia)

2 I have seen this word before but I don’t know what it means

(Tôi đã nhìn thấy từ này trước kia nhưng không biết nghĩa của nó là gì)

3 I have seen this word before and I think it means……

(Tôi đã nhìn thấy từ này trước kia và tôi nghĩ nghĩa của nó là……….)

4 I know this word; it means………

(Tôi biết từ này; nó có nghĩa là……….)

5 I can use this word in a sentence, e.g………

(Tôi có thể sử dụng từ này trong câu, ví dụ……… ) (Wesche M & Paribakht T.S., 1996)

Words Rating (1-5) English synonym /Vietnamese equivalence/ Sentence

Air conditioning Wonderful Ghost Play a musical instrument Horrible

Sad Temperature Argue Politician Relax Officer Parachute Cemetery Amazing Battle Qualification Pub

Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) Look at the following list of words and give each word a rating number from 1 to 5 basing on how well you know the word

1 I don’t remember having seen this word before

(Tôi không nhớ đã nhìn thấy từ này trước kia)

2 I have seen this word before but I don’t know what it means

(Tôi đã nhìn thấy từ này trước kia nhưng không biết nghĩa của nó là gì)

3 I have seen this word before and I think it means……

(Tôi đã nhìn thấy từ này trước kia và tôi nghĩ nghĩa của nó là……….)

4 I know this word; it means………

(Tôi biết từ này; nó có nghĩa là……….)

5 I can use this word in a sentence, e.g………

(Tôi có thể sử dụng từ này trong câu, ví dụ……… ) (Wesche M & Paribakht T.S., 1996)

Words Rating (1-5) English synonym /Vietnamese equivalence/ Sentence

Princess Sweat Cycle Fascinating Tourist Bridge Jump Draw

Terrible Leader Throw Village Confusing Meditate Beach Traditional Festival Microwave Celebrate Baby sitter Remote control Completely

Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) Look at the following list of words and give each word a rating number from 1 to 5 basing on how well you know the word

1 I don’t remember having seen this word before

(Tôi không nhớ đã nhìn thấy từ này trước kia)

2 I have seen this word before but I don’t know what it means

(Tôi đã nhìn thấy từ này trước kia nhưng không biết nghĩa của nó là gì)

3 I have seen this word before and I think it means……

(Tôi đã nhìn thấy từ này trước kia và tôi nghĩ nghĩa của nó là……….)

4 I know this word; it means………

(Tôi biết từ này; nó có nghĩa là……….)

5 I can use this word in a sentence, e.g………

(Tôi có thể sử dụng từ này trong câu, ví dụ……… ) (Wesche M & Paribakht T.S., 1996)

Words Rating (1-5) English synonym /Vietnamese equivalence/ Sentence

Castle Artist Health Funny Incredible Adventure Supermarket Surprised

Soldier Horror Frightened Secret Housewife Experiment Imagination Queue Dance Investigate Advice Chef Eliminate Cry

Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) Look at the following list of words and give each word a rating number from 1 to 5 basing on how well you know the word

1 I don’t remember having seen this word before

(Tôi không nhớ đã nhìn thấy từ này trước kia)

2 I have seen this word before but I don’t know what it means

(Tôi đã nhìn thấy từ này trước kia nhưng không biết nghĩa của nó là gì)

3 I have seen this word before and I think it means……

(Tôi đã nhìn thấy từ này trước kia và tôi nghĩ nghĩa của nó là……….)

4 I know this word; it means………

(Tôi biết từ này; nó có nghĩa là……….)

5 I can use this word in a sentence, e.g………

(Tôi có thể sử dụng từ này trong câu, ví dụ……… ) (Wesche M & Paribakht T.S., 1996)

Words Rating (1-5) English synonym /Vietnamese equivalence/ Sentence

Frightened Argue Secret Draw Factory Housewife Politician Terrible Relax Officer Experiment Parachute Leader Cemetery

Throw Village Amazing Queue Dance Confusing Meditate Beach Investigate Battle Traditional Advice Qualification Chef

Eliminate Cry Musician Celebrate Babysitter Remote control Orchestra Zebra crossing Island

Castle Musical President Artist Health Funny Incredible Adventure Princess Supermarket Sweat

Cycle Fascinating Ghost Surprised Tourist Fantastic Play a musical instrument Horrible

Sad Soldier Bridge Temperature Jump

APPENDIX 4: QUESTIONNAIRE QUESTIONNAIRE (BỘ CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT)

This questionnaire is designed for my scientific creation “An action research project on using mnemonics in vocabulary teaching activity to improve vocabulary retention for the official college students in College of Industrial Techniques (Bac Giang province)”

It is highly appreciated if you could spend your little time completing truthfully the questionnaire All the information provided by you is solely for the study purpose

Thank you very much for your cooperation!

I Attitudes towards the strategy training scheme (Quan điểm về các buổi học từ vựng)

1 How would you rate the training scheme for its importance?( Tick ) (Em xếp loại tầm quan trọng của các buổi học từ vựng ở mức nào?) (Hãy )

2 How would you rate the training scheme for its effectiveness? (Tick ) (Em xếp loại tính hiệu quả của các buổi học từ vựng ở mức nào?) (Hãy )

3 How would you rate the training scheme for its pleasure? (Tick ) (Em xếp loại mức độ thích thú khi tham gia các buổi học từ vựng ở mức nào?) (Hãy )

(Không quan trọng chút nào)

(Không hiệu quả chút nào)

(Không thích thú chút nào)

II Interest towards the four mnemonic techniques (Quan điểm về 4 thủ thuật ghi nhớ)

3 Rank these four mnemonic strategies according to your interest (1 = least interested to 4 = most interested) Write the appropriate number in the box provided (Hãy xếp loại 4 thủ thuật ghi nhớ theo mức độ yêu thích của em ( 1 = ít yêu thích nhất đến 4 = yêu thích nhiều nhất)

Thank you for your time and cooperation!

APPENDIX 5: SAMPLE WORD LIST WITH MNEMONIC TECHNIQUES