Vocabulary enhancement teaching affixes to secondary school students = nâng cao vốn từ vựng thông qua việc dạy phụ tố cho học sinh graduation paper, major english pedagogy

HO CHI MINH CITY, June 18th, 2019 NAME: Lương Nguyễn Hương Nguyên STUDENT ID: 15DH710437 EMAIL ADD: luongnhnguyen97@gmail.com DATE SUBMITTED: June 18th, 2019 WORD COUNT: 5238 STUDENT DECLARATION I DECLARE THAT THIS ASSIGNMENT IS ORIGINAL AND HAS NOT BEEN SUBMITTED FOR ASSESSMENT ELSEWHERE I DECLARE THAT THIS ASSIGNMENT IS MY OWN WORK AND DOES NOT INVOLVE PLAGIARISM OR COLLUSION NO OTHER’S WORK OR IDEAS HAVE BEEN USED WITHOUT ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, EXCEPT WHERE I CLEARLY STATE THAT I HAVE USED SOME OF THE MATERIAL ELSEWHERE NAME/ SIGNATURE DATE: 18/6/2019 Lương Nguyễn Hương Nguyên ADVISOR’S ASSESSMENT Page | _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ABSTRACT Page | Word formation plays an important role in not only enhancing vocabulary but also supporting students in accomplishing language tasks Because of its importance, students’ methods of learning new words, their attitudes and awareness towards word formation, and their results of two tests were analyzed Then some suggestions were made to improve the effectiveness of teaching word formation The total participants were 100 ninth-graders from Nguyen Gia Thieu secondary school in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City The data analysis demonstrated students’ remarkable improvement after being taught affixes In a comprehensive view, teaching affixes had a considerable impact on students’ performance Page | TÓM TẮT Cấu tạo từ đóng vai trị quan trọng khơng việc nâng cao vốn từ vựng mà hỗ trợ học sinh hồn thành tập ngơn ngữ Với tầm quan trọng cấu tạo từ, phương pháp học từ vựng học sinh, thái độ nhận thức học sinh cấu tạo từ, kết họ hai kiểm tra phân tích Bài nghiên cứu đưa đề xuất để cải thiện hiệu giảng dạy mảng cấu tạo từ Tổng số học sinh lớp từ trường trung học sở Nguyễn Gia Thiều quận Tân Bình, thành phố Hồ Chí Minh tham gia khảo sát 100 Số liệu phân tích cho thấy tiến rõ rệt học sinh sau dạy phụ tố Nhìn chung, việc giảng dạy phụ tố có ảnh hưởng đáng kể đến kết học tập học sinh Page | ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I appreciate the opportunity that The Board of Directors and the members of the Foreign Languages Department gave me to conduct this research I would like to express my deep gratitude towards my advisor Yen Chau for her expert guidance, understanding, and especially encouragement throughout my project She has always been very enthusiastic and open to discussions as well as providing constructive comments and orientation Had it not been for her patience and support, this thesis would not have been possible I am highly indebted to the principal, the teachers, and all the participants of secondary school Nguyen Gia Thieu for their cooperation I would also like to express my sincere appreciation towards my wonderful parents for their unceasing support and encouragement They have always been there for me, supporting me in every possible way Last but not least, I would like to thank my friends for their great help and feedback Special thanks are sent to Hoa Tang Khanh, who has helped me with technical issues on various occasions and has been willing to read and provide feedback on my writing Thanks should also be sent to Thu Le for candid discussions and support throughout my project Page | TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT…………………………………… …………………………3 Chapter INTRODUCTION ………………………… ……………8-10 1.1 Background…………………………………………………….8 1.2 Scopes………………………………………………………… 1.3 Research Objectives……………………………………………9 1.4 Research Questions………………………………………… 10 1.5 Organization………………………………………………… 10 Chapter LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………….11-16 2.1 Definitions and Hypothesis………………………………… 11 2.2 Vietnamese Students’ Difficulties in Learning English Vocabulary……………………………………………………… 12 2.3 Effects of Morphological Awareness ………………………13 2.3.1 Effects of morphological awareness on vocabulary size………………………………………………………… 13 2.3.2 Effects of morphological awareness on reading… 14 Chapter RESEARCH METHODOLOGY……………………….17-20 3.1 Overview of Previously Applied Methods …………………17 3.2 Overview of the Experiment…………………………………18 3.3 Subjects of the Experiment………………………………… 19 3.4 Procedures…………………………………………………….19 Chapter DATA ANALYSIS 21-24 4.1 Background Information of Students……………………….21 4.2 Students’ Awareness of and Attitudes towards Word Formation……………………………………………………… 22 Page | 4.3 Students’ Vocabulary Learning Methods.………………… 23 4.4 Students’ Performance in the Pretest and Posttest…………25 4.5 Students’ Suggestions……………………………………… 26 Chapter THE PROCEDURE OF TEACHING WORD FORMATION……………………………………………………………27 Chapter CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION……………43 6.1 Limitations of the Current Study……………………………43 6.2 Further Research…………………………………………… 43 REFERENCES 44 APPENDICES …………………… 47 Page | CHAPTER INTRODUCTION Globalization has offered many advantages to most countries’ development Thus, to integrate successfully, learning an international language is essential, which makes the demand for mastering the English language now higher than ever (Crystal, 2012) At the very first stages, to learn a language is equivalent to learn how to develop the four basic skills (listening, reading, speaking, writing) effectively (Hinkel, 2006), and the framework to build up those is vocabulary (Alqahtani, 2015) Among a plethora of different vocabulary teaching strategies, teaching word formation is considered one of the most useful methods to learn new words (Kame'enui & Baumann, 2012) This research will collect data from Vietnamese ninth graders, who study English as a foreign language 1.1 Background to the Study Enriching vocabulary is among the most fundamental aspects of learning a language for the enormous benefits it provides to learners A large vocabulary size can help learners improve their reading comprehension (Hiebert & Kamil, 2005), fluency in communication (Boonkit, 2010), accuracy in aural tasks (Smidt & Hegelheimer, 2004), and quality of writing works (Olinghouse & Wilson, 2013) Therefore, a myriad of researches on vocabulary learning strategies have been conducted; however, most of them explore memory strategies or rehearsal strategies (Crothers & Suppes, 1967; Lado, Baldwin, & Lobo, 1967), ignoring examining whether word formation is an effective method to develop vocabulary Besides, selecting the words that are worth focusing on is among the most major challenges since one’s lexicon is limited Therefore, breaking a word into small, Page | understandable segments by learning how a word is formed through the combination of a base word and affixes, learners can build a much larger vocabulary size more effortlessly Hence, understanding the formation of words is considered a critical component of learning new words (Schmitt & Zimmerman, 2002) With word formation, students just need to learn a base word and the affixes instead of learning words separately (Gu & Johnson, 1996) In Vietnam, the usefulness of learning word formation has been disregarded or ignored while it greatly helps students in both word form and Reading tasks of entrance exams The common method chosen to teach vocabulary is memory method by repeating words many times, which can build a conditioned reflex for quick recognition of the words Nonetheless, vocabulary learnt this way will only be archived in short-term memory and be faded if no constant repetition is carried out (Gu & Johnson, 1996) Hence, profound grasp of how a word is formed is considered a necessity for successful foreign language learning 1.2 Scopes There are also many other strategies for teaching and learning vocabulary (Gu & Johnson, 1996); however, this research paper will only focus on the guessing strategy due to its limited scope The research will be carried out in Nguyen Gia Thieu secondary school in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 1.3 Research Objectives This study aims to examine whether teaching affixes is an effective approach to increase vocabulary size for secondary school students Page | 1.4 Research Questions Is teaching affixes an effective method for increasing students’ vocabulary size? 1.5 Organization The organization of this study includes five parts First, the general view of the importance of learning vocabulary is stated along with current situation of the word formation teaching and learning in Vietnam in section In section 2, academic literature, which depicts a general picture of the effects of affixes awareness on one’s vocabulary size and reading skills will be reviewed The methodology introduced in section will include steps: (1) identifying research subjects, (2) setting up a list of questionnaire, (3) determining the methods to collect data, and (4) analyzing the collected data The results obtained will be discussed in section In the last part, conclusions and recommendations will be proposed Page | 10 Task Besides common exercises, the researcher aroused students’ interests by turning exercises into fascinating games such as word scramble, crossword, word search puzzle, etc Unscramble the words below olteivccel epuirtano ctntveeirai vncoilee unrwdeflo iredto blanieednu fereodm baieohvr 10 psirusvaee pertaining to collect opinions people have on someone talking together extreme force making you feel happy person whose job is editing definitely true or certain the right to what you want things that a person does able to make people believe you Figure 5.1 Word scramble Page | 36 Across Could you send me details of courses for _, who have not learnt English before (begin) He is always _ of is parents (depend) Ba’s family and Liz had a very day in the countryside last weekend (enjoy) Down 1.A large number of car accidents are caused by fast and driving (care) 2.The company has made a new motorbike having very low fuel _ (consume) 3.Both competitors are strong and fast (surprise) 4.The local government has plans to _ this city (modern) 6.The Internet has helped students study more _ (effect) Figure 5.2 Crossword Page | 37 After each lesson, the researcher would give students group assignments such as analyzing complex words in signs that they found Picture 5.1 Caution and traffic signs Task To check students’ knowledge about word family and parts of speech, researcher gave students exercises similar to those of First Certificate in English test (FCE) Those exercises could also help students improve the ability of identifying words Page | 38 After the recent floods, (1) are calling for CONSERVE beavers to be reintroduced to Britain You may wonder how animals that build dams prevent floods when (2) _ the opposite is SURE true However, beavers construct dams in upland areas, creating small pools and (3) that retain water and release water to lowland areas much more (4) _ DIVERSE GRADUAL Until the 16th century, Beavers lived wild in parts of Britain, but they were hunted to (5) _ for their fur However, EXTINCT recently (6) British wildlife organizations have applied VARY to reintroduce beavers to the countryside Along with their potential value in flood (7) they would create wetland habitats and PREVENT promote (8) TOUR But such measure are (9) _ Beavers recently CONTROVERSY reintroduced to Estonia have flooded large areas of forest and (10 _ land, and this, in turn, has damaged crops As a AGRICULTURE result, it has been necessary to cull beavers when the population becomes too large Many people think it unethical to reintroduce a species which will then be killed Page | 39 Task Passages with words containing affixes were given to check students’ abilities in identifying the affixes and guessing the words’ meanings Agriculture in Australia Traditionally, Australia was famous for producing wheat and wool, but times have changed recently, with many farmers electing to be more diverse in their crop and livestock range It is now quite common to see farms with more exotic fruit and vegetables Farmers are unlikely to sell their products locally nowadays, but rather to the factories in the cities As a result, farms are now large-scale producers where thousands of tons of crops are cultivated Another aspect that is different nowadays is irrigation In the past, farmers would just flood the fields but now it is common to see sprinkler systems everywhere This means that more water is conserved, which has been helpful with the drought that has severely impacted the majority of the farms in the southern states of the country Hopefully, the creativity the farmers have shown in recent times will continue The posttest Finally, a posttest was given to check students’ performance and progress Page | 40 Student’s name: _ PART Match the prefixes with their meanings The first one has been done for you il- a not (words start with /l/) E.g: illegal ir- b too much E.g: overcook im- c not (words start with /r/) E.g: irrelevant inter- d to cause to be (to make verbs) E.g: enrich en- e not (words start with /m/ or /p/) E.g: impossible over- f between E.g: international a 2. _ 3. _ 4. _ 5. _ 6. _ Match the suffixes with their meanings The first one has been done for you -ism a state or quality E.g: heroism -less b a person, who concerned with a special major (usually to make nouns from nouns) E.g: pianist -ist c without E.g: homeless -able d make, cause E.g: beautify -fy e can be E.g: lovable -ion f action or process E.g: action 1.a 2. _ 3. _ 4. _ 5. _ 6. _ Page | 41 PART Fill in the blank with one suitable affix from part E.g: It is illegal to sell cigarettes to someone under 16 You can always trust him He is a depend man Those preservation s are looking for a solution of deforestation Sugar _ food is good for people who want to lose weight The government is trying to simpli the law She will help you She just needs a little gentle persuas The next stage in the development of television is active TV His breathing has become regular after the accident He is always late I am getting patient with him Global warming is _dangering our lives 10 Apparently her alarm clock did not ring at am, so she _slept and woke up at 10 am Page | 42 CHAPTER CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS The aims of this thesis were to examine students’ morphological awareness, which contributed to the creation and development of another approach to teach English vocabulary Furthermore, the limitations of this thesis and suggestions for future research taking an interest in the linguistic situation of Singapore will also be noted in the current chapter 6.1 Limitations of the Current Study Due to the scope of the study and limitation of time, the number of participants was relatively small, and the teaching process lasted for a short period of time Therefore, further studies may wish to expand the scope so as to achieve a more holistic view of the relations between students’ morphological awareness and their performance in tasks related to vocabulary 6.2 Further Research Considering the limitations above, future research may expand the scope of the current thesis Larger number of participants and longer period of time for teaching process may contribute to more precise results Interviews can be conducted to further investigate students’ understanding of word formation Moreover, some other aspects such as the satisfaction levels of students and contributory factors that may affect students’ performance can also be investigated in further research Besides, researchers can also interview teachers With opinions from both teachers and students, studies will be more objective Most importantly, affixes should be taught early in the sixth grade so that students can get used to and are more aware of affixes Page | 43 REFERENCES Alqahtani, M (2015) The importance of vocabulary in language learning and how to be taught International journal of teaching and education, 3(3), 21-34 Bauer, L., & Nation, P (1993) Word families International journal of Lexicography, 6(4), 253-279 Byrne, D (1979) Teaching writing skills (p 1) London: Longman Carlisle, J F., & Feldman, L B (1995) Morphological awareness and early reading achievement Morphological aspects of language processing, 189209 Carlisle, J F., & Fleming, J (2003) Lexical processing of morphologically complex words in the elementary years Scientific studies of reading, 7(3), 239-253 Cruz-Ferreira, M., & Abraham, S A (2006) The Language of Language: Core Concepts in Linguistic Analysis Pearson/Prentice Hall Deacon, S H., & Kirby, J R (2004) Morphological awareness: Just “more phonological”? The roles of morphological and phonological awareness in reading development Applied psycholinguistics, 25(2), 223-238 Freyd, P., & Baron, J (1982) Individual differences in acquisition of derivational morphology Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 21(3), 282-295 Page | 44 Goodwin, A P., Huggins, A C., Carlo, M S., August, D., & Calderon, M (2013) Minding morphology: How morphological awareness relates to reading for English language learners Reading and Writing, 26(9), 1387-1415 Gu, Y., & Johnson, R K (1996) Vocabulary learning strategies and language learning outcomes Language learning, 46(4), 643-679 Hiebert, E H., & Kamil, M L (2005) Teaching and learning vocabulary: Bringing research to practice Routledge Hinkel, E (2006) Current perspectives on teaching the four skills Tesol Quarterly, 40(1), 109-131 Kame'enui, E J., & Baumann, J F (Eds.) (2012) Vocabulary instruction: Research to practice Guilford Press Kieffer, M J., & Lesaux, N K (2012) Direct and indirect roles of morphological awareness in the English reading comprehension of native English, Spanish, Filipino, and Vietnamese speakers Language Learning, 62(4), 1170-1204 Koda, K (2007) Reading and language learning: Crosslinguistic constraints on second language reading development Language learning, 57, 144 Kuo, L J., & Anderson, R C (2006) Morphological awareness and learning to read: A cross-language perspective Educational Psychologist, 41(3), 161-180 Marslen-Wilson, W., Tyler, L K., Waksler, R., & Older, L (1994) Morphology and meaning in the English mental lexicon Psychological review, 101(1), Page | 45 O'Grady, W., Dobrovolsky, M., & Katamba, F (Eds.) (1997) Contemporary linguistics St Martin's Ramirez, G., Chen, X., Geva, E., & Luo, Y (2011) Morphological awareness and word reading in English language learners: Evidence from Spanish-and Chinese-speaking children Applied Psycholinguistics, 32(3), 601-618 Rubin, H (1988) Morphological knowledge and early writing ability Language and speech, 31(4), 337-355 Scott, J A., & Nagy, W E (2004) Developing word consciousness Vocabulary instruction: Research to practice, 201-217 Schmitt, N., & Zimmerman, C B (2002) Derivative word forms: What learners know? Tesol Quarterly, 36(2), 145-171 Schmitt, N., & McCarthy, M (1997) Vocabulary: Description, acquisition and pedagogy Cambridge University Press Štekauer, P., & Lieber, R (Eds.) (2006) Handbook of word-formation (Vol 64) Springer Science & Business Media Templeton, S (2012) The vocabulary-spelling connection and generative instruction: Orthographic development and morphological knowledge at the intermediate grades and beyond Vocabulary instruction: Research to practice, 116-138 Wysocki, K., & Jenkins, J R (1987) Deriving word meanings through morphological generalization Reading Research Quarterly, 66-81 Yule, G (2016) The study of language Cambridge university press Page | 46 APPENDICES Appendix Questionnaire and Pretest Student’s name: I am doing research entitled Vocabulary Enhancement: Teaching Affixes to Secondary School Students, and this questionnaire is intended to collect data about students’ awareness of word formation and its functions There are parts in this questionnaire, taking only 15 minutes The first part includes 10 questions on students’ backgrounds while the second is a short test on one’s knowledge of word formation Thank you so much for your cooperation PART 1 How long have you been studying English? A years B - years C More than years Besides studying at school, where you learn English? A At home by myself B At English centres C Extra classes after school How you learn new words? (you can choose more than one answer) A By repeating the words aloud many times B By rewriting the words many times C By applying the words into real contexts D By learning the meaning of each parts of the words E Others: _ Page | 47 What you know about word formation? (you can choose more than one answer) A The creation of a new word B A kind of exercise C A way to learn vocabulary Strongly Moderately Slightly Slightly Moderately Strongly disagree disagree disagree agree agree agree Do you find word formation necessary? Should teachers focus more on word formation in class? Are you interested in how a word is formed? Do you think learning word formation will improve your vocabulary size efficiently? Page | 48 What can be the benefits of learning word formation? (you can choose more than one answer) A Making reading easier B Making writing more expressive and vivid C Saving time in learning new words D Others: _ 10 What are your suggestions to make word formation teaching more effective? (you can choose more than one answer) A Teaching meaning of affixes and base words B Adding more examples of real life contexts C Adding interesting games and activities D Others: _ Page | 49 Appendix Pretest PART Fill in the blank with one suitable affix E.g: These berries are edible, but those are poisonous He has no religion He is a(n) religious person I think I will fail the exam, but I can always _take it in September We were late because we estimated how long it would take I not like her She always talks to me politely! She is _working at the moment She looks really tired The whole issue is still under investigat _ Hong Kong is one of the most popul in the world Its population is more than millions Shakespeare is such an invent _ author You have to electri the power lines to use that machine 10 The interview has to complete this questionnaire before having the interview Page | 50