Microsoft Word BÀI SỬA THESIS TRAN THI AI VY FINAL 2 docx i MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY THESIS LEXICAL DENSITY AND READABILITY OF ENGLISH ESSAYS WRITTEN BY IELTS LEAR[.]
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY THESIS LEXICAL DENSITY AND READABILITY OF ENGLISH ESSAYS WRITTEN BY IELTS LEARNERS AT KY NGUYEN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE CENTER Student’s name: TRAN THI AI VY Student code: 18110054 Supervisor’s name: TRAN QUOC THAO, PhD Ba Ria - Vung Tau, 2021 i MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY LEXICAL DENSITY AND READABILITY OF ENGLISH ESSAYS WRITTEN BY IELTS LEARNERS AT KY NGUYEN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE CENTER Submitted to the School of International Training and Post-Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL Student’s name: TRAN THI AI VY Student’s code: 18110054 Supervisor’s name: TRAN QUOC THAO, PhD Ba Ria - Vung Tau, 2021 i STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: LEXICAL DENSITY AND READABILITY OF ENGLISH ESSAYS WRITTEN BY IELTS LEARNERS AT KY NGUYEN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE CENTER in terms of the statement of Requirements for the Thesis in Master’s program issued by the Higher Degree Committee The thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other situations Ba Ria - Vung Tau City, June 2021 Tran Thi Ai Vy ii RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that, Tran Thi Ai Vy being the candidate for the degree of Master in TESOL, accept the requirements of Ba Ria - Vung Tau University relating to the retention and use of Master’s theses deposited in the library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the library should be assessable for the purpose of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the library for the care, loan or reproduction of the thesis Ba Ria - Vung Tau city, June 2021 Tran Thi Ai Vy iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to those who have helped and supported me during the hard time doing my research and completing this thesis First, my gratefulness goes to my respectful supervisor, Dr Tran Quoc Thao, for pushing me forward in writing up and revising my thesis and providing with constructive comments and precious guidance throughout the stages of doing research and thesis writing I am thankful for the continuing support that the management of the KNILC in Vung Tau city provided when I was working on my thesis Last but not least, I am very grateful to my incomparably caring and loving parents Without my parents, I would never have had the chance to pursue further study and to concentrate on completing my thesis Without the encouragement, support and guidance provided by those named or unlisted, I would not have completed this Master’s thesis I appreciate all iv ABSTRACT Teaching IELTS writing part to IELTS learners at Ky Nguyen international language center faced a great number of challenges These learners’ writing skills for IELTS writing part brought problems for their teachers and readers because of different levels of lexical density and readability found in their IELTS writing The study aimed to analyze the level of lexical density, the level of readability and the language use in terms of vocabulary and grammar used in 200 midterm essays written by IELTS learners at this center in Vung Tau city Each of these 100 IELTS participants, whose IELTS score bands were from to 6.5, turned in two midterms academic IELTS writing part essays during their course, so there were in total 200 essays These essays were typed and saved into the computer Then, Ure’s (1971) formula of lexical density and Microsoft Office app named Flesch’s (1948) Reading Ease were employed to analyze the collected data The findings revealed that the average level of lexical density of 200 essays was 53.86% and the average of readability of these essays was 45.65% Besides, the findings indicated the impacts of different levels of lexical density and readability on language use in terms of vocabulary and grammar in the 200 essays There was a relationship among the level of lexical density, the level of readability and the language use in IELTS learners’ essays at the center The results of the study are hoped to help IELTS writing teachers at this center improve their teaching methods in order to provide their IELTS learners, who would like to get their target IELTS band score from above when they enrolled the IELTS course, with a useful range of academic vocabulary and grammar used in IELTS writing task section and readability Key words: IELTS writing task 2, lexical density, readability, language use, writing skills, academic vocabulary v TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of originality………………………………………………………… …… …ii Retention and use of the thesis…………………………………………………… …… iii Acknowledgement…………………………………………………………… …………iv Abstract……………………………………………………………………………….… v Table of contents…………………………………………………………………………vi List of tables…………………………………………………………………… ………ix List of figures………………………………………………………………….…… x List of abbreviations…………………………………………………………………….xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION………………………………………….……………1 1.1 Background to the study………………………………………………………………1 1.2 Statement of the problem…………………………………………………………… 1.3 Aims and objectives of the study…………………………………………………… 1.4 Research questions…………………………………………………… …5 1.5 Scope of the study……………………………………………………….………… 1.6 Significance of the study………………………………………………………………5 1.7 Definitions of the terms……………………………………………………………….6 1.8 Organization of the thesis…………………………………………………………… CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………………… 2.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………… …………….8 2.2 Writing……………………………………………………………………………… 2.2.1 Definitions of writing…………………………………………………………… 2.2.2 The importance of writing in IELTS test……………………………… …………9 2.2.3 Characteristics of writing in IELTS test…………………… …………………… 2.3 Lexical density………………………………………………………………… … 10 2.3.1 Definitions of lexical density……………………………………………… …….10 2.3.2 The importance of lexical density in writing………………………………… … 12 2.3.3 The level of lexical density in learner’s writing………………………………… 13 vi 2.4 Readability………………………………………………………………… ………15 2.4.1 Definitions of readability………………………………………………… …… 15 2.4.2 The significance of readability in writing…………………………………………16 2.4.3 Readability in learner’s writing…………………………… …………………….16 2.5 Language use in academic writing……………………………………………… …16 2.6 Previous research………………………………………………………………… 20 2.7 Conceptual framework………………………………………………………………22 2.8 Summary…………………………………………………………………………….23 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY…………………………………………………… 24 3.1 Research questions………………………………………………… ………………24 3.2 Research design…………………………………………………………………… 24 3.3 Materials …………………………………………… ……………………… ……26 3.4 Data collection procedures……………… …………………………………… ….27 3.5 Data analysis procedures…………………………………………………………….27 3.6 Validity and reliability of the study………………………………………………… 28 3.7 Summary…………………………………………………………………… …… 30 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION………………………………… ……31 4.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………….31 4.2 Results……………………………………………………………………………….31 4.2.1 The level of lexical density of English essays written by IELTS learners at the context of KNILC 31 4.2.2 The level of readability of English essays written by IELTS learners at the context of KNILC 33 4.2.3 The language used in terms of grammar and vocabulary in English essays written by IELTS learners at the context of KNILC 37 4.2.3.1 Grammar used in English essays written by IELTS learners at KNILC…… … 37 4.2.3.2 Vocabulary used in English essays written by IELTS learners at KNILC………39 4.3 Discussion…………………………………………….…………… ….……….… 40 4.4 Summary…………………………………………………………………………….46 vii CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION…………………………………………… …………47 5.1 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………… …47 5.2 Implications………………………………………………………………………….48 5.3 Limitations……………………………………………………………………… …49 5.4 Recommendations for further research……………………………………… …….49 References……………………………………………………………… ……… ……50 Appendices…………………………………………… ……………………………… 53 Appendix A: Level of Lexical density of each essay of 200 ones……………………….53 Appendix B: Level of readability of each essay of 200 ones…………………………… 61 Appendix C: Hard and long words used in each essay………………………………… 68 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1.: Question types of IWT2………………………………………………………11 Table 2.2: Formula of lexical density (Ure, 1971)……………… .……….13 Table 2.3: List of topics for IELTS Writing Task 2… ……………………………… …16 Table 2.4: Band descriptions for IELTS writing task 2………………………… .……20 Table 3.1: Original Flesch Reading Ease…………………………………………… … 30 Table 3.2: Information about IELTS learners at KNILC………………………… …….32 Table 4.1: Average level of lexical density of 200 essays…………………………… …29 Table 4.2: Classification of lexical density level…………………………………… ….38 Table 4.3: Level of readability of 200 essays……………………………………… … 39 Table 4.4: The classification of readability level…………………………………… ….38 Table 4.5: Comparison of readability level and standardized tests……………………….42 Table 4.6: The correlation of readability level, IELTS score band and learners’ level… 42 Table 4.7: Average number of sentences per essay……………………………………… 43 Table 4.8: Sentences that contain nominalization…………………………………… …44 Table 4.9: Hard and long words used in 200 English essays……………………….… 46 Table 4.10: Classification and level of lexical density and reliability…………………….50 ix ... what extent is the level of lexical density of English essays written by IELTS learners at the context of KNILC? To what extent is the level of readability of English essays written by IELTS learners. ..MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING BA RIA VUNG TAU UNIVERSITY LEXICAL DENSITY AND READABILITY OF ENGLISH ESSAYS WRITTEN BY IELTS LEARNERS AT KY NGUYEN INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE CENTER Submitted... STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: LEXICAL DENSITY AND READABILITY OF ENGLISH ESSAYS WRITTEN BY IELTS LEARNERS AT KY NGUYEN INTERNATIONAL