An investigation of the effect of vocabulary on speaking skill in english majored freshmen at tay do university

TAY DO UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE RESEARCH PROPOSAL AN INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF VOCABULARY ON SPEAKING SKILL IN ENGLISH-MAJORED FRESHMEN AT TAY DO UNIVERSITY Supervisor: Ms DANG THI HANH, MA Name: NGUYEN THI CAM TIEN Code: 14D220201114 Class: English CAN THO 2018 An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This research proposal could be hardly finished without enthusiastic help of many people First of all, I want to express my deep gratitude toward my supervisor, Ms.Dang Thi Hanh, MA at Tay Do University For her enthusiastic informative, thoughtful Actually, she instructed, commented and provided me useful references and materials so that I could complete my research proposal In addition, she spent her valuable time on guiding and encouraging me during the time I was conducting the research Secondly, I want to show my special thanks to all lectures in the Faculty of Linguistics and literature of TDU for their teaching and helping me widen knowledge of English over the past four years I also would like to extend my special thanks to the Faculty of Linguistic and Literature of TDU for giving me the opportunity and permission to carry out the proposal research Finally, I want to give my wholehearted thankful words to my family for the love and support They always encouraged and motivated me during my studying process I An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University COMMENTS    ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………….……………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… II An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University TABLE OF CONTENT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT…………………………………………………………I COMMENTS …………………………………………………………………….II TABLE OF CONTENTS ……………………………………………………… III ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………… IV CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………… 1.1 Rationale…………………………………………………………………… 1.2 Aims and significance of the research……………………………………….2 1.2.1 Aims the research …………………………………………………… 1.2.2 Significance of the research………………………………………… 1.3 Organization of the research…………………………………………………3 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………………… 2.1 The definitions of the vocabulary ………………………………………… 2.2 The importance of the vocabulary ………………………………………….5 2.3 Kinds of vocabulary……………………………………………………… 2.4 Some of ways to learn vocabulary ………………………………………….7 2.4.1 Discussion…………………………………………………………… 2.4.2 Learning with friend ………………………………………………….7 2.4.3 Adding music………………………………………………………….8 2.4.4 Repetition ………………………… 2.4.5 Joining online English forums…………………………………………8 2.4.6 Getting with the language …………………………………………….9 2.4.7 Reading to learn English ………………………………………………9 2.5 The definitions of the speaking………………………………………………9 2.6 The importance of the speaking ……………………………………………11 2.7The relationship between vocabulary and speaking skill……………………12 2.8 Summary of the literature review ………………………………………… 13 III An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University CHAPTER III: RESEARCH AIMS- QUESTIONS-HYPOTHESIS…………14 3.1 Research aims……………………………………………………………….14 3.2 Research questions………………………………………………………….14 3.3 Hypothesis………………………………………………………………… 14 CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY…………………………… 15 4.1 Research design…………………………………………………………… 15 4.2 Research participants……………………………………………………… 15 4.3 Instrument………………………………………………………………… 15 4.3.1 Questionnaire…………………………………………………………16 4.4 Procedure…………………………………………………………………… 17 CHAPTER V: EXPECTED OUTCOMES …………………………………….18 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………19 APPENDIX……………………………………………………………………… 21 IV An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University ABSTRACT This survey research presents the process of the study about “The Effects of Vocabulary on Speaking Skill of Freshmen majoring in English” The participants of this research are the freshmen majoring in English The results of the search will point out the impact of extensive vocabulary toward speaking skill and the freshmen can apply vocabulary to speaking English V An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the researcher would like to present the rationale, aims, significance and the organization of the research 1.1 Rationale Nowadays, language is an important tool to connect people from many different countries around the world However, different countries have different languages that required having a common voice worldwide then English has become a common and popular language in many countries In Vietnam, English is more and more important and it has become a compulsory subject in the curriculum of most of schools in Vietnam In learning English, vocabulary is an important role “it is one element that links skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing all together “(Nguyen & Khuat, 2003) If you want to learn and speak English well, you need to have knowledge of vocabulary It’s including not only words but also their meaning, pronunciation, context, culture and conjugation That is process of learning a new language Whereby people choose suitable word and should know how to use it accurately Knowledge of vocabulary is the foundation to help us learn better in the future and the best is in speaking skill But today, many young students complained about the difficulty of learning vocabulary that is when they first met and to remember them When they learn new words, they need to have effective methods to gather, learn, remember and use them in the future The cause leading to the lack of vocabulary is the incorrect usage of the word context Thus, this case leads to difficulties in their speaking skills and the effects in speaking skill are not good This problem may be caused by many common reasons related to their English grammar and the best important reason is vocabulary Learning vocabulary is very important Without vocabulary, they will not speak well Vocabulary knowledge is An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University often viewed as a critical tool for second language learners because a limited vocabulary in a second language impedes successful communication Underscoring the importance of vocabulary acquisition, Schmitt (2000) emphasizes “lexical knowledge language” (p.55) Therefore, I would like to investigate whether the students in English-majored freshmen at Tay university about the effect of vocabulary in speaking skill This reason has inspired me to conduct a study entitled “An Investigation of the Effect of Vocabulary on speaking skill in Englishmajored freshmen at Tay Do University” 1.2 Aims and significance of the research 1.2.1 Aims of the research The main purpose of the study is the investigation of the effect of vocabulary on speaking skill in English-majored freshmen at Tay Do University This research is conducted whether the vocabulary is important in speaking skill of students or not This research aims to investigate how vocabulary affects their speaking skill and find out solutions that can help them to improve their vocabulary as well as speaking skill 1.2.2 Significance of the research The study is about speaking skills of students at Tay Do University Finding out vocabulary is the most influential factor in speaking Influence of vocabulary and many important to speaking skills People can create effective vocabulary learning ways to improve their speaking skills Besides, this research paper also carries many benefits for many students They learn more vocabulary to help them say better and become more active, proactive in talking more This research also helps many students recognize vocabulary is the bottom line in speaking English and began studying the vocabulary now An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University 1.3 Organization of the research proposal The research consists of five chapters Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Literature review Chapter 3: Research aim – Research question-Hypothesis Chapter 4: Research methodology Chapter 5: Expected outcome An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter reviews the literature related to the views of vocabulary and speaking skill The following aspects are the definitions of vocabulary and speaking skill This chapter also shows some ways to learn vocabulary and its role in speaking English This chapter presents relationship between vocabulary and speaking Finally, it states the summary of the literature review 2.1 The definitions of the vocabulary A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language A vocabulary is usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning a second language Vocabulary is commonly defined as "all the words known and used by a particular person” Knowing a word, however, is not as simple as merely being able to recognize or use it There are several aspects of word knowledge that are used to measure word knowledge Vocabulary may indeed refer to the collection of words known by an individual or by a large group of people For many people, the word vocabulary is primarily associated with the number of words that a person knows; one either has a large or a small vocabulary But the word has many shades of meaning and it is nicely representative of the nuances and multi-hues nature of so much of the English lexicon Vocabulary can be defined as '' words people e must know to communicate effectively; words in speaking (expressive vocabulary) and words in listening (receptive vocabulary)'' (Neuman&Dwyer, 2009, p 385) Hornby (1995) defines vocabulary as ''the total number of words in a language; vocabulary is a list of words with their meanings” While Ur (1998) states: “Vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as the words people An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University 2.7 The relationship between vocabulary and speaking skill Vocabulary and speaking ability has close correlation each other since vocabulary is a branch of speaking skill It is also a foundation to construct better speaking ability which has relationship to other language aspects, such as spelling, pronunciation, structure and many others It is therefore essential for students to master vocabulary in order to acquire any language skills proficiently What is more, the acquisition of an adequate vocabulary is essential to be success at second language used since without an extensive vocabulary, it is impossible to apply the structure of the language and its functions The more vocabulary develops, the easier to add new words even though the first ten words are probably the most difficult to learn (Nun an, 1991, p.117) In relation to this issue, Nunan (p 122) also emphasizes that “it is important to provide students with strategies for inferring the meaning of unknown vocabulary from the context in which it occurs” It is then clear that mastering vocabulary plays an important role to increase the speaking ability in order to comprehend how to select, to put and to use the proper word in speaking All interact with others, for example, how to understand the news or cast on the radio, TV and other media if they have limited vocabulary – Kufaisi (1988, p 42), furthermore, states that: “In communication, the most important items that have to be mastered by English language learners are vocabularies, because they will not be able to state their ideas with limited vocabularies” It actually has become the major problem in speaking Based on the description above, it can be assumed that there is a close correlation between mastering vocabulary and speaking ability 12 An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University 2.8 Summary of the literature review In this chapter, I have reviewed some documents of the Effect of Vocabulary on Speaking skill and methods to learn vocabulary I also present the importance of speaking and its relationships With vocabulary to find out what useful ways to learn vocabulary and show that vocabulary influence the speaking skill a lot 13 An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University CHAPTER III RESEARCH AIMS-RESEARCH QUESTIONS-HYPOTHESIS This chapter states the research aims, the research questions and the hypothesis 3.1 Research aims This research is conducted to find out the investigation of the effect of Vocabulary that English-majored freshmen at Tay Do University when learning speaking skill The most important purpose of this research is to help them recognize that vocabulary is effective on speaking skill 3.2 Research question This research is required to answer the following research questions: Does vocabulary affect the Speaking skill of English-majored freshmen? How can the student improve vocabulary on the speaking skill? 3.3 Hypothesis According to most of English-majored students at Tay Do University, speaking is the most difficult skill Although they have been learning speaking subject, they still have faced some difficulties in English Speaking Through the literature review and research questions, it is hypothesized that the speaking of the English-majored freshmen would be improved and developed thanks to positive effects from vocabulary 14 An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University CHAPTER IV RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 4.1 Research design The research is carried out to find out the investigation of the effects of vocabulary that freshmen have faced in speaking skill and the ways to improve vocabulary The research results are based on the instrument To achieve the above mentioned purpose, the freshmen majoring in English are chosen as the sample to the survey The data from the participants will be collected through the questionnaire for students The collected information of these instruments will be analyzed to show the effects of vocabulary in speaking skill, especially the benefits of vocabulary and some ways that students learn 4.2 Research participants The participants of this study are freshmen majoring in English studying in the same class, (English 12) they come from different areas, both rural and urban The students in English 12 speak Vietnamese as their mother language tongue and speak English as a foreign language They will be given questionnaire in order to get information about problems they have faced in speaking skill and the effects of vocabulary 4.3 Instrument Questionnaire is used to collect the participants’ ideas about the effects and the benefits of vocabulary on speaking that the students share their opinions which are essential in the research process Thus, questionnaire is used as the instrument in this research 15 An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University 4.3.1 Questionnaire The questionnaire includes groups of questions and 25 statements and it is classified into two following groups: Group a 1,2,3,4,5,6 b 7,8 c From to 16 Summary of the content of question group Students’ background Students’ attitude toward speaking The problem students have faced in speaking d 17,18 The relationship between vocabulary and speaking e from 19 to 25 The positive effects of vocabulary on speaking skill 16 An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University 4.4 Procedure Duration(12 Activities in study process weeks) Step 1: from the 1st - Designing the framework of the research week to 4th week Designing questionnaire - Step 2: from the 5th - Asking the teacher for the permission of delivering week to the 7th week questionnaire - Delivering the questionnaire to the student - Collecting the data from questionnaire Step 3: from the 8th - Analyzing the collected data from questionnaire week to the 12th - Completing the paper week 17 An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University CHAPTER V EXPECTED OUTCOME Speaking plays an important role in learning a language Students majoring in English usually face many problems when practicing it Vocabulary is a useful way to help them overcome the difficulties in speaking This research aims to point out the effects of vocabulary in speaking English-majoring freshmen 5.1 Vocabulary Students can get some new words and review old words by some ways in chapter They also learn pronunciation, culture, antonyms, and synonyms simultaneously Thus, vocabulary is a method to increase speaking skill 5.2 Background knowledge Vocabulary in English helps students widen general knowledge competence contribute a successful speaking Thanks to vocabulary, they can enhance knowledge about many fields such as culture, society, pronunciation, etc., which supply them a lot of necessary information to express their ideas in speaking 5.3 Idea arrangement Students can also learn how to organize their ideas suitable in academic speaking from vocabulary in English Doing this study, the researcher hopes that English majored freshmen at Tay Do University can recognize the positive effects of vocabulary in English on their speaking skill 18 An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University REFERENCES Advanced speaking skills Harlow: Longman Annisa, A., (2013) Techniques in presenting vocabulary to young EFL learners Journal of English and Education, 1(1), 11-20 Arnaud, P &Bejoint, H (1992) Vocabulary and Applied Linguistic Bygate, M (1987) Speaking Oxford:Oxford University Press Basingstoke: Macmillan Berne, J I., &Blachowicz, C L Z.,(2008)What reading teachers say about vocabulary instruction: Voices from the classroom The Reading Teacher 62 (4).314-323 Caldwell, K & Samuel, C (December 2001) "Test of Spoken English (TSE)", Canadian Modern Language Review, V 58, n 2, Pp: 356-357 Carter, R (1987) Vocabulary: Applied linguistic perspectives London: Allen and Unwin Diamond and Gutlohn (2006) in www.readingrockets.org/article Kenyon, D (2003) Foreign Language Test Development (Speaking Tests) Center for Applied Linguistics http://www.cal.org/tests/fltests.html, accessed on 11th August 2005 10.Gu, Y (2003b) Fine brush and freehand: The vocabulary learning art of two successful Chinese EFL learners TESOL Quarterly, 37, 73-104 11 McCarthy, M (1998) Spoken Language and Applied Linguistics Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 12 McCarthy, M J (1988) Some vocabulary patterns in conversation In R A Carter and M J 13 Miller, L (2001) “A Speaking Lesson How to Make the Course Book More Interesting” MET V.10, n.2, Pp: 25-29 14 Nation, I S P (2001) Learning vocabulary in another language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 19 An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University 15 Nelson, P (March 1999) “Developing Effective Techniques for Assessing Speaking Skills” Proceedings of the 1998 Korea TESOL Conference, Pp: 111115 16 Nunan, D (1991) Language Teaching Methodology a Textbook for Teacher UK: Prentice Hall International 17 Riggenbach, H (1990) “Discourse Analysis and Spoken Language Instruction” Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, V.2, n 2, Pp: 152-163 18 Schmitt, N (1997) Vocabulary learning strategies In Schmitt, N and McCarthy, M (eds.)Vocabulary:Descriptive, Acquisition and Pedagogy Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 19 Oxford, R L (1990) Language Learning Strategies What Every Teacher should know Boston: Heinle and 323 Heinle 20 An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University APPENDIX A QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS Dear friends, My name is Nguyen Thi Cam Tien and I am currently a senior majoring in English I am very grateful to you for spending your valuable time helping me Now I am carrying out a research entitled “An Investigation of the Effect of Vocabulary on Speaking skill in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University “ This is the questionnaire used to collect the necessary information from you , so please take your time to finish these below questions carefully because your answer are very important and helpful to my research Once again , thank you so much ! Student’s full name: ……………………………………………….Age…… Gender: Male Female Class: …………… Please read the following questions and circle the appropriate answer for each question Give specific answers if needed How long have you studied English? … years Where you from? a Urban area/city b Rural area/ country side 21 An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University Which subject did you learn when you were in high school? a Listening b Speaking c Reading d Writing Which subject you like best? a Listening b Speaking c Reading d Writing What you think about speaking? a Very important b Important c Normal d Not normal What you think about your speaking skill? a Very good b Quite good c Average d Bad e Very bad 22 An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University This below table is about your difficulties in speaking English Please read the following statements and mark (  ) in suitable column to express your opinion Strongly Statements Agree No ideas Disagree Agree (1) Strongly Disagree (2) Learning English speaking subject is not easy for you You have faced difficulties when learning speaking skill You not have enough to express your ideas, thoughts and emotions 10 You also meet difficulties in choosing appropriate words in particular contexts 11 You forget some words you have learned because you not review old words regularly 23 (3) (4) (5) An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University 12.You usually feel nervous when you faced a new topic 13 With poor background knowledge, you cannot build good ideas 14 Your English speaking is influenced by Vietnamese literature style 15 You speak a lot of sentences which are redundant and unnecessary in the communication 16 You not know how to distinct between topic sentence and supporting ideas 24 An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University This table is about the positive effects of vocabulary on speaking ability Statements Strongly Agree No ideas Disagree agree (1) Strongly disagree (2) 17 You learn to speak when you observe thoroughly what is already speaking 18 Vocabulary provides you the texts related to topics you will speak 19 Vocabulary is a chance for you to speak English well 20 Adding music is a method to increase vocabulary efficiently in order to support your speaking 21 You can understand many unfamiliar terms in some situations which help you imagine what you should mention in the speaking tasks 25 (3) (4) (5) An investigation of the Effect of the Vocabulary on Speaking skills in English-majored Freshmen at Tay Do University 22 You can learn how to organize your ideas suitable in the academic speaking 23 You are able to construct your thinking into cohesive and coherent texts 26