INTRODUCTION
Rationale
It is a fact that there are over half a million words in English Moreover, the English language has spread over large territories for many centuries due to historical and economical reasons It is not only the official language of the UK but also of the USA, Australia, New Zealand, vast areas of India, Canada, and many countries Some people in Asia, Africa, etc speak both their mother tongue and English as official languages. Because of its importance, English is always dominant in modern society Especially in Vietnam, English is used as the most popular foreign language in all industries and is becoming more and more crucial in every school curriculum as a compulsory subject. Therefore, people aware clearly that learning English is myriad essential for them to promote in any career for their gorgeous future.
One of the most urgent phenomena of English learning is effective vocabulary learning strategies It can be said that if we consider learning English as building a house, then learning vocabulary is the foundation or bricks of that house “Without bricks, no house can be built, even when plenty of high-quality cement is available.” (Nguyen Huyen, 2004) Even, though some people said that grammar is more necessary than vocabulary, grammar is as cement to link words together The more words we know, the better we can convey our thoughts Consequently, vocabulary acquisition has always been a fundamental and important activity in English learning and teaching There are many ways to access effectively to vocabulary learning, but having a proper strategy to raise the vocabulary size is not easy
There have been so far many researches on this issue However, any research on vocabulary learning strategies applied by English-major sophomores in Hong DucUniversity has not been done before All efforts to have this study are for not only participants but also those who want to improve and promote English vocabulary The aforementioned important roles of learning strategies and vocabulary learning are the main reasons which stimulate the researcher to conduct this study to get a deeper view into this matter.
Besides, the ideas for this study also come from the researcher’s own experience as a student of English majors at Hong Duc University After 4 years of maintaining knowledge in FFL with an English environment and enthusiastic lecturers, I recognized that vocabulary learning plays a very important role in learning English However, so many English – major students do not have any strategies for learning vocabulary.
This research, therefore, sets its objectives to investigate Vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) used by English - major sophomores at HDU as well as their perception of the helpfulness of those vocabulary learning strategies Based on the findings, the researcher also aims at giving some implications and suggestions to vocabulary English teaching and learning.
Aims and objectives of the study
The study is mainly about discovering the most common strategies in learning vocabulary used by the English - major sophomores at HDU Additionally, the relationship between the popularity of these strategies among genders and contexts are also invested The study will be a basis for not only students but also even teachers to adapt and change teaching methods so that they will meet their students’ demands and interests.
To achieve the above aims, the present study attempts to gain the following objectives:
− To compare the frequency of VLSs used by different genders of English-major sophomores and in different contexts at HDU.
− To examine learners’ situation of learning English vocabulary.
− To give implications for English teaching and learning vocabulary.
Scope of the study
Because of the limitations of time, knowledge and experience, the scope of the thesis is only in a boundary of a small group of students at HDU and in a micro field. Specifically, the study is conducted with the contribution of 70 English major sophomores at the university After that, 10 students would be randomly chosen to take part in interviewing online through Zoom meeting application for a deeper analysis.
Methods of the study
The results are found out and presented in the paper that is the achievement of the following methods: the quantitative analysis of the data from research questionnaire and a qualitative analysis of Zoom interviewing as the main tools.
This study is a survey research Questionnaires and face-to-face semi-interviews were the two tools for data collection in this study Data collected from questionnaires were analyzed quantitatively via Excel software for calculating averages and sums Data from interviews were qualitatively analyzed to complement the information gained by means of the questionnaires The data are investigated online through Zoom meeting, they will be asked in Vietnamese to ensure that informants understand the whole content of questions. After that, responses will be translated into English to adapt to the thesis Questions for interviewing are evidences for the researcher to deeper understanding the answers in the questionnaire.
The study includes three main parts:
Part I: Introduction In this part, readers will get overall information about the thesis including the rationale, aims, the scope and the method of the study In addition, the researcher also presents the design of the study.
Part II: Development – the pivotal core of the study It is divided into three sub- chapters:
Chapter 1 reviews background knowledge about vocabulary learning strategies, some basis concepts related to learning strategies and vocabulary learning In addition, this chapter reviews related studies about VLSs conducted by some famous scholars in the research fields.
Chapter 2 shows detailed explanation of the methodology It includes the context of the study, the research methods, the participants and the findings of the study attached with recommendations about students’ status.
Chapter 3 presents some suggestions for students to improve their English vocabulary learning by the findings and the results the researcher collected, analyzed and compiled in chapter 2
Part III: In conclusion In this part, the researcher summarizes the main content of the thesis, besides he indicates limitations as well as suggestions for further study will be given.
DEVELOPMENT
LITERATURE REVIEW
When it comes to vocabulary, we usually think about the words listed in language books As in Cambridge Dictionary, vocabulary is considered all the words used by a particular person, or all the words that exist in a particular language or subject In Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, it is defined that a list of words with their meanings, especially in a book for learning a foreign language, also, the words that people use when they are talking about a particular subject
Yet many researchers consider vocabulary in wider definitions with deeper explanations According to Richards and Renandya (2002, 255), vocabulary is a core component of language proficiency and provides much of the basis for how learners speak, listen, read and write Without an extensive vocabulary and strategies for acquiring new vocabulary, learners often achieve their potential and may be discouraged from making use of language learning opportunities around them such as listening to the radio, listening to the native speaker, and using language in different contexts, reading or watching television.
Alqahtani (2015) stated that vocabulary can be defined as the words someone must know to communicate effectively: words in speaking (expressive vocabulary) and words in listening (receptive vocabulary) It means, without learning vocabulary, the students will be impossible to communicate effectively.
Besides, as McCarthy (1990: 140) states in his view that without words to express a wider range of meanings, communication in L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way Schmitt (2000: 5) proposes a list of the different kinds of knowledge that a person must master in order to know a word: the meaning of the word, the written form of the word, the spoken form of the word, the grammatical behavior of the word, the collocations of the word, the register of the word, the association of the word, and the frequency of the word.
The other definition of vocabulary states from Hatch and Brown (1995: 1), they say that vocabulary refers to a list or set of words for a particular language or a list or set of words that individual speakers of a language might use Hatch and Brown (1995: 1) also state that vocabulary is the only system involved in alphabetical order.
Based on those statements, it can be assumed that vocabulary is a list of words as a basic component of language proficiency which has a form or expression and contains aspects, they are meaning, use of word, form (pronunciation and spelling)
Based on many ways, we can categorize vocabulary into some types As cited in
Judy K Montgomery’s book, there are two main types of vocabulary: spoken vocabulary (speaking and listening) and written vocabulary (reading and writing) or we can call them as oral and written vocabulary She also said in her study that spoken language forms the basis for written language Each type has a different purpose and, luckily, vocabulary development in one type facilitates growth in another.
On how we use them, a rich vocabulary consists of basic vocabulary, high-frequency vocabulary, and subject-related vocabulary A word’s definition, use, context, and complexity determine its category
Hiebert and Kamil (2005, 3) propose that word has two forms: First, oral vocabulary is the set of words for which we know the meanings when we speak or read orally.Second, print vocabulary consists of those words for which the meaning is known when we write or read silently They also define knowledge of words also comes in at least two forms as follows: a Productive vocabulary: Productive vocabulary is the set of words that an individual can use when writing or speaking They are words that are well-known, familiar, and used frequently. b Receptive or recognition vocabulary: is that set of words for which an individual can assign meanings when listening or reading These are words that are often less well known to students and less frequent in use Individuals may be able to assign some sort of meaning to them, even though they may not know the full subtleties of the distinction. Typically, these are also words that individuals do not use spontaneously However, when individuals encounter these words, they recognize them, even if imperfectly
1.1.3 The importance of vocabulary in learning language
Communication without vocabulary is considered meaningless, so vocabulary acquisition is the heart of language acquisition as Laufer (1986) refers to this term Burton
(1992) adds that language learners would be self-confident when they are able to use acquired vocabulary effectively and have a good individual store of lexis Davies and Pearse (2000) suggest that vocabulary in communication situations is usually more essential than grammar as it is annoying for language users when they cannot communicate effectively due to the lack of needed vocabulary This is in consistence with Ellis’ (1994) statement in which lexical errors could block comprehension more than grammatical errors.
Vocabulary is central to language and of critical importance to typical language learners (Coady and Huckin, 1997) Vocabulary as one of the language aspects that has to be learned when people are learning a language Good mastery of vocabulary is important for anyone who learns the language used in listening, speaking, writing, and reading besides grammar A learner of a foreign language will speak fluently and accurately, write easily, or understand what he or she reads or hears if he or she has enough vocabulary and has a capability of using it accurately Recent language learning theory suggests that reducing the volume of vocabulary acquired by learners may actually harm the development of other aspects of language (Milton, 2009).
In addition to the statements above, Graves (2009) states some points about the importance of vocabulary, those are as follows: a Vocabulary knowledge is one of the best indicators of verbal ability. b Vocabulary knowledge contributes to young children’s phonological awareness, which in turn contributes to their word recognition. c Vocabulary knowledge in kindergarten and first grade is a significant predictor or reading comprehension in the middle and secondary grades. d Vocabulary difficulty strongly influences the readability of text. e Teaching vocabulary can improve reading comprehension for both native speakers and English language learners. f Learning English vocabulary is one of most crucial tasks for English Language Learners. g Lack of vocabulary can be a crucial factor underlying the school failure of disadvantaged students.
Word knowledge is an essential component of communicative competence (Seal,
1991), and it is important for both production and comprehension in a foreign language. Richards (1976) produced the following list:
Knowing a word means knowing the degree of probability of encountering that word in speech or print For many words, we also know the sort of words most likely to be found associated with the word.
Knowing a word implies knowing the limitations on the use of the word according to variations of function and situation.
Knowing a word means knowing the syntactic behavior associated with the word.
Knowing a word entails the knowledge of the underlying form of a word and the derivations that can be made from it.
Knowing a word entails knowledge of the network of associations between that word and other words in the language.
Knowing a word means knowing the semantic value of a word.
Knowing a word means knowing many of the different meanings associated with a word
According to Nation (1990), “knowing a word” means that learners have to master
“its spelling, pronunciation, collocations (i.e words it co-occurs with), and appropriateness”
When it comes to this, there are many issues discussed by researchers with different perspectives According to Nation (1990), what involves in “knowing” a word depends on whether a word is learned for receptive or productive skills Taylor (1990) also shared the same point of view Their argument is that knowing a word involves not only knowing its spelling, morphology, pronunciation, and meaning or the equivalent of the word in the learner’s mother tongue
Otherwise, Garins and Redman (1986) showed in their study that: knowing a word needs many more criteria than that of above:
Table 1.1 Aspects of knowing a word according to
Knowing not only what lexis refers to, but also where the boundaries are that separate it from words of related meaning.
Distinguishing between the various meaning of a single word form with several but closely related meanings (head: of a person, of a pin, of an organization).
Distinguishing between the various meaning of a single word form which has several meanings which are not closely related (e.g tear and tear)
4 Homophonym Understanding words that have the same pronunciation but different spellings and meanings (e.g flour, flower).
5 Synonymy Distinguishing between the different shades of meaning that synonymous words have.
Distinguishing between the attitudinal and emotional factors (denotation and connotation), which depend on the speakers attitude or the situation.
Being able to distinguish between different levels of formality, the effect of different contexts and topics, as well as differences in geographical variation.
8 Translation Awaring about certain differences and similarities between the native and the foreign language.
Learning the rules that enable students to build up different forms of the word or even different words from that word.
10 Pronunciation Being able to recognize and reproduce items in speech.
For Cook (2001) also states opinions to clarify the view of many people: knowing a word means knowing its meaning For Cook, knowing a word may involve four aspects: word form, grammatical properties, lexical properties, general meaning, and specific meaning
In conclusion, the aspects of words mentioned above can be summarized in detail as following:
- Word form: when learning a word, learners should not only what a word sounds like (its pronunciation or its spoken form) but also how it looks like (its spelling or its written form).
METHODOLOGY
procedures and the findings of the research based on results of the quantitative and qualitative data analysis Findings are presented according to the order of research questions (i.e background knowledge about the status of the students’ English learning as well as discovering about their difficulties and desires in learning English and their vocabulary learning strategies).
The participants are a total of 70 sophomores of the Faculty of Foreign Languages. They consist of 46 females and 24 males, of K23 - English Pedagogy and Linguistics In addition, there are 42 of them have learned English for over 7 years, the number of informants having under 5 year-experiences in English is 20 And only 8 students have learned English for 5 to 7 years They are English-major sophomores whose English level is pre-intermediate one, in general They are studying a four-year course According to the curriculum, they have to learn courses in which they need to build up their vocabulary level Therefore, at this time, improving English vocabulary is extremely important for them
The study is emplemented at Faculty of Foreign Languages which is one of the most important faculties of education and training at Hong Duc university The faculty has two main duties:
Train English majors; teach English to English non-majored staff members, postgraduate and undergraduate students at Hong Duc university; help develop English competence of staff working in different units and boards in Thanh Hoa as well as any learners when required.
Conduct research for the purpose of professional development, contributing to the growth of human resources who have good competence of foreign languages which meets social demands The students studying at the faculty major in English teacher education or English language education.
Currently the Faculty has 3 divisions:
Division of English Language Skills Development – teaching English skills for majored students.
Division of Linguistics - Culture and English Language Teaching Methodologies – teaching all courses related to linguistics, culture, and language teaching methodologies.
Division of Foreign Languages for Non-majored English Students – teaching 3 courses: English 1, 2, 3 for non- majored English students of all other faculties at Hong Duc University.
In term of teaching staff, the faculty has a total of 33 lecturers Among them, there includes 2 Ph.Ds, 3 Ph.D students, and 28 Masters
The faculty classrooms are equipted with modern equiptments such as smart TV, projectors, speakers which support alot for English language teaching and learning
The data are the results of using survey questionnaire and interview They are simple and familiar instruments of collecting information from the students and are less time- consuming than other instruments, but they give us reliable information by data.
The questionnaire (Appendix I) consists of two sections: the first one is to get background knowledge about participants’ personal information and the second one is English vocabulary learning strategies used by students The content of the questionnaire can be shown as in Table 2.1 below:
Table 2.1 Content and distribution of questionnaire
Question 1 Get background knowledge about students’ English perception period Question 2,3 Attitudes toward English learning as well as vocabulary learning Question 4 Informants’ difficulties in learning English vocabulary
Question 5,6 Participants’ desires in promoting their English vocabulary
Question 7,8 Vocabulary learning strategies students use in class and out of class to discover and consolidate their words
Because of Covid pandemic, the interview are conducted online through Zoom meeting The purposes of the interview are to give deeper understanding about the responses in the questionnaire From that, the researcher can explore their status with more detailed information for the research.
Questions for Zoom interviewing (Appendix II) are done randomly by 10 students and are recorded in Vietnamese to have better understand about participants’ expressions.After that, the researcher bases on the Vietnamese transcript to translate into English before analyzing.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
3.1.1 Students’ interests in learning English vocabulary
Students’ responses to the question about their interests in learning English vocabulary are revealed in chart 3.1 It can be seen from the chart, informants have a special concern to learning English vocabulary They consider it as one of the most important criteria in upgrading their English level
Significantly, up to 36 of 70 students like English vocabulary learning much It means that over half of them care about mastering their vocabulary and desire to improve and develop their English vocabulary level Besides, there are many students enjoy doing that in higher level is “very much” (17 personals) It shows a positive signal in priority of learning English vocabulary.
However, only one person are not into learning L2 vocabulary at all But considering in any aspects, they might desire to learn vocabulary by other ways, like learning words through learning grammar, or communication,…and when discover a new word, they will able to receive and apply in practical contexts, instead of taking note and memorizing like others.
Very much Much Not much Not at all
Chart 3.1 Students’ level of interests in learning English vocabulary
3.1.2 Students’ time spending on learning English vocabulary
Along with reflecting about the situation of students towards learning English vocabulary, time they spend is one of aspects to consider Their answers to the question of how much time they usually spend on learning English vocabulary every day are presented in chart 3.2.
It can be seen clearly from the chart that, almost participants have a strong concentration on L2 vocabulary learning
According to chart 2.2, when asked about how much time they spend on learning English vocabulary, there are up to 45 of 70 students spending over an hour per day, 22 students spend 30 minutes a day, 2 students use 15 minutes a day and 1 student does not study English vocabulary at home Although they can take time to do English exercises or prepare other subjects for tomorrow, the frequency to learn English vocabulary is necessary, when they try to do that every day, it will be a good habit or, through doing those, they can consolidate your words or in any certain circumstances, they can gain the meaning of new words and learn them.
3.1.3 Difficulties in learning English vocabulary
Chart 3.2 Time students spending on learning English vocabu- lary
The findings on the challenges students face in learning English vocabulary are illustrated in chart 3.3 as below
Chart 3.3 reveals that students have many troubles that they have to confront to solve in learning English vocabulary Indeed, from the data, we can see that 63% of students answer that they have troubles in realizing differences in the meaning and use of words. That means, there are many words that are similar in meaning but different in use For example: make and do, they are the same in meaning (làm) However, “do” cannot create anything new or any change but “make” can Like that, I do nothing (Tôi chẳng làm gì cả) and I made a cake (Tôi đã làm một cái bánh) Next, many students get in trouble in learning words because of length and complexity of them This means they are likely to learn a short word, long one instead On the other hand, simply, for single and short words, they can memorize faster than complex words For instance, “hot, warm, meet,…” are easy to remember, but it is difficult for “methodologically, irregardless, propaganda …”
Moreover, 27% and 23% of students hope to wipe out the fear of difficulties in learning vocabulary in terms of grammar and disagreement in pronunciation and spelling,
Length and complex- ity of word Similarity in meaning, differences in use Differences in grammar Disagreement in pronunciation and spelling
Chart 3.3 Difficulties in learning English vocabulary vocabulary learning difficulties They feel worried about their short-term memory to be trouble in remembering the words or synonyms, the relevance between vocabulary and the use of them in different circumstances also are their difficulties
There are so many difficulties which affect directly learning vocabulary, but basically, these are participants’ popular troubles in vocabulary perception
3.1.4 Students’ needs in learning English vocabulary
For many difficulties students have to confront with, 100% of participants hope to improve their L2 vocabulary They point out their desires is that they would like to promote their English one in the future The following bar chart will highlight participants’ needs in developing their vocabulary:
Through the chart 3.4, we can re-affirm that learning environment is always the premier selection to invest in learning English as well as other languages As we can see above, 61% of students hope to access an ideal learning environment Learning with Vietnamese teachers might be effective and comfortable or easy to understand what they say in class. Nevertheless, they also want to promote their vocabulary perception by communicating with native speakers or in an environment to apply what they learned from school Similarly, 6
Time Teachers' support Learning environment Others
Chart 3.4 Desires to promote learning English vocabulary out of 10 students of Zoom interviewing answered that they hope to have partners, foreign environment to talk and apply the word they studied It is a good opportunity to develop themselves Another concerned phenomenon is time (54%), maybe that many of them have an extra, part-time job That makes them busier and look for more time for reading, writing or practicing English
13% of others get troubles in English vocabulary learning strategies They really want to improve their methods to adapt to English vocabulary learning They desire to have certain methods to develop appropriate ways for applying new words in many English skills They hope to learn by English topics or teachers will aid them to improve thanks to that method In addition, they also want to high up your phrase words And one thing that we should concern more is that having a better memory Taking form these experiences, we can conclude that many students want to promote your vocabulary size, and especially for learning strategies to apply.
3.2 General learning English vocabulary strategies used by students
Chart 3.5 indicates the frequency of using DET strategies in learning English vocabulary used by participants As we can see clearly that, using a bilingual dictionary or word lists in discovering a new word is popular among participants involving the study. With the amount of 46% and 41% of students that use frequently for bilingual dictionary and word lists, respectively, we can determine that students tend to better seek to better understand Because when we look up a word in a dictionary, we can find out relevant meanings of word and from that, we can apply them in different circumstances, aims to improve ability in translating or interpreting for texts or documents
Also, according to the survey in interviewing, 7 out of 10 participants usually take notes and use a bilingual dictionary (English-Vietnamese) to realize a new word when they read any text and only 3 out of 10 students choose to use a monolingual one
Guessing from textual context and using wordlists are also popular strategies among the informants, they valued at 34% and 35%, respectively Otherwise, from the data, question 7 was selected to ask, but the frequency of use is not high, with 27% of students rarely utilize However, for some students asked through Zoom meeting, it is said to be convenient and interesting to bring along with them anywhere/when It shows that using flashcard, theoretically, has many benefits for students as it is easy to bring with them and creative with images besides However, in fact, nowhere or no when they can use them and in certain time, they can not pull them out and look up the meaning of word It is the reason why this method does not appear in their mind immediately when they were asked.
The chart 3.6 highlights the information about the popularity of applying SOC strategies in mastering English vocabulary in different levels through the survey of questionnaire and semi-interviewing:
Overall, almost SOC strategies are used popularly among the students, they are in stable trends Go into details, we can realize that asking the classmates for
Chart 3.5 Frequency of using DET strategies in learning
English vocabulary meaning is handled up to 39% of “always-use”, and 24% for discovering new meaning through group work activity It is a coincidence for verified students; they said that they would ask classmates when they are in the group of class or somebody nearby for meaning, if not, they would use a dictionary for the purposes Instead, students seldom choose to have teacher check their flashcards or word lists for accuracy, 57% of students do not want to use this method
However, they only desire to have their teacher answer them for an L1 translation.
CONCLUSION
Summary of the study
The thesis is a private property of the researcher The researcher found out many interesting findings about the English - major sophomores in Hong Duc University, especially for 70 participants - They are students of HDU and to be training in English major with modern equipment and high quality standards Thanks to them, I could explore and reach aims I looked forward in the past Before starting to do the thesis, I would like to discover two main questions: a What are the differences in using vocabulary learning strategies between male and female students, along with adapting to the context when utilizing these ones? b Students’ perception about using VLSs and whether are there any relationships between the most frequent strategies and helpful ones?
The results are done with the help of 70 participants involved in answering the questionnaire After completing the questions, 10 students were chosen randomly to be interviewed online through Zoom meeting Besides, based on mixed methods of qualitative and quantitative were applied to find answers for the questions above A set of questionnaire and interviewing questions are list in the part of Appendix
Through the survey, an obvious thing we can see is that, male students more rely on verbal/written repetition, word lists, flashcards, taking notes in class or putting English labels on physical objects… Otherwise, in terms of female students, we can see clearly from the data, they tend to apply flashcards, word lists, mono/bilingual dictionary, guessing from the textual context, analyzing affixes/roots and analyzing part of speech
Another striking point, I discovered from the results is that the differences between using given strategies in class and out of class When at class, participants prefer to useCOG strategies in discovering or consolidating the meaning of word However, when out class, they are likely to use DET strategies in mastering vocabulary It is a coincidence because, it is the same to using strategies in genders, when male students is about COG strategies and female is about DET ones Therefore, these are a solid basis for teachers to apply methods for their students in different circumstances and people On the other hand, teachers can base on the minor thesis to focus more on strategies which are preferred by both of genders and contexts.
However, to see in the most general way, the results from data analysis reveal some major findings for the research as follows:
- First, students applied all of the 33 VLSs in the questionnaires in their vocabulary learning at different levels of frequency of use of these strategies as he showed above in the chapter 2.
- Second, the most frequently used VLSs were: using new word in sentence, verbal/written repetition, word lists, taking note in class, listening tape in of new words, using English-language media (songs, movies, televisions,…) and ask classmates for meaning
- Third, the most helpful VLSs as perceived by students were: bilingual English/Vietnamese dictionary, grouping words together to study them, skipping or passing new word, using flashcards, putting English labels on physical objects, interacting with native-speakers, studying word with pictorial presentation.
Based on findings the researcher explored above, he also suggests some implications and suggestions for teachers and students to improve the effectiveness of mastering vocabulary Moreover, he would like to raise the awareness of VLSs of both teachers and students, teaching students how to use VLSs, designing vocabulary exercises and activities for students to practice VLSs in class and at home.
Limitations and suggestions for further study
Although the thesis obtained its objectives and give implications as well as suggestions in teaching and learning field, there are also many limitations the thesis has not mentioned yet as follows:
The study had only been done in a micro scope; the results are only investigated by
70 in total of over 300 sophomores of the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Hong Duc University Therefore, to some extent, the results may not be generalized for the completely English learning students at all of departments or at least, all of the second- year English majors at Hong Duc University.
Besides, although we know that an experimental study is myriad essential for us to have a vision to cover the effectiveness of strategies applied by the sophomores, from that, the researcher can make more helpful things in learning and training, because of the complex COVID-19 pandemic, the researcher had not done that to help students focus more on the strategies they should invest and be easy to achieve the vocabulary size as much as possible in a certain time.
As I said above, at that time, because the disease status were at alarm level, the researcher had not accomplished many plans he desired before Therefore, the researcher hopes further studies could consider these following limitations when duplicating the study:
Firstly, future studies can be conducted with a wider range of participants, instead of only 70 students as in this thesis, aims to explore the students’ status for their opinions and perspectives as well as their desires
Secondly, class observation should be used as well as progress one so that it can achieve more truthfulness for the collected data
Thirdly, the next studies should also have some interviewing questions or a questionnaire for teachers to get an overview about their opinions on ability of students’ learning vocabulary or their teaching methods From that, the researcher can summary and give many suggestions more for themselves to improve their teaching and learning strategies
Finally, an experiment study should be done to investigate the effectiveness of strategies applied by learners to have many more suggestions for students in learning and contributions to improve training
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2 https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/vocabulary? q=vocabulary
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5 Thornbury, Scott 2002 How to Teach Vocabulary London: Longman
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Full name: Le Hong Son Student’s ID: 1867020046
Class: K21B-FFL-HDU Major: English Language
Thesis’s name: A study on English vocabulary learning strategies used by English – major sophomores at Hong Duc University.
This questionnaire was designed to investigate the English vocabulary learning strategies It is a solid basis to compare the frequency of VLSs used by different gender of English-major sophomores and in different contexts, examine learners’ awareness of the effectiveness of those learning strategies and give implications to English teaching and learning vocabulary at HDU Therefore, I hope that you take some time to answer the questions below in a most honest way All information provided by you is kept completely confidential and only used for research purposes Your help will help me complete my graduation Thanks for your co-operation!
1 How long have you learned English?
☐ under 5 years ☐ 5 years ☐ 7 years ☐ over 7 years
2 How much time do you spend on learning English vocabulary?
☐ ≥1 hour a day ☐ 30 minutes a day ☐ 15 minutes a day ☐ Not at all
3 How you like learning English vocabulary?
☐ Very much ☐ Much ☐ Not much ☐ Not at all
4 Which difficulties do you have when learning English vocabulary?
☐ Length and complexity (likely to learn short word, long one instead)
☐ The similarity in meaning but difference in use (eg make vs do)
☐ Differences in grammar (eg V+ing, V+to)
☐ Disagreement in pronunciation and spelling
5 What do you want to promote your English vocabulary?
☐ Time to learn (eg Write or Read more…)
☐ Teachers need to concentrate more on English vocabulary learning
☐ Ideal learning environment (opportunity to communicate and consolidate your word)
6 Which learning strategies do you use in class?
1 Analyze part of speech (từ loại) ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
8 Ask the teacher for an L1 translation ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
9 Ask the teacher for paraphrase or synonym of new word ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
10 Ask the teacher for a sentence including the new word ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
12 Discover new meaning through group work activity ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
13 Study and practice meaning in a group ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
14 Teacher checks students' flashcards or word lists for accuracy ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
16 Study word with a pictorial representation of its meaning ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
17 Connect the word to its synonyms and antonyms ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
19 Group words together to study them ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
20 Use new words in sentences ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
21 Say words aloud when studying ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
23 Paraphrase meaning of the words ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
29 Put English labels on physical objects ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
30 Listen the tape of new words ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
31 Testing oneself with word tests ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
32 Skip or pass new word ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
(Resource: Adapted from Nobert Schmitt, 1997)
7 Which learning strategies do you use out of class to learn or consolidate a word?
Frequency Alway s Sometimes Rarely Never
1 Analyze part of speech (từ loại) ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
8 Ask teacher for an L1 translation ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
9 Ask teacher for paraphrase or synonym of new word ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
10 Ask teacher for a sentence including the new word ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
12 Discover new meaning through group work activity ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
13 Study and practice meaning in a group ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
14 Teacher checks students' flash cards or word lists for accuracy ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
16 Study word with a pictorial representation of its meaning ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
17 Connect the word to its synonyms and antonyms ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
19 Group words together to study them ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
20 Use new word in sentences ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
21 Say new word aloud when studying ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
29 Put English labels on physical objects ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
30 Listen the tape of new words ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
31 Testing oneself with word tests ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
32 Skip or pass new word ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
(Resource: Adapted from Nobert Schmitt, 1997)
1 Do you find learning English vocabulary interesting? Why?
2 Which difficulties do you have to confront with when you learn English?
3 What should you do when you discover a new word while using or learning English?
4 What do you do to promote your English vocabulary learning?
5 What strategies do you usually do to consolidate your English vocabulary and to improve your vocabulary level?
6 Do you need any other support form teacher in learning English vocabulary? If yes, what are they?