The application of the four strands in learning vocabulary at binh phu high school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY ∞0∞ LY DUY NGUYEN THE APPLICATION OF THE FOUR STRANDS Tai Lieu Chat Luong IN LEARNING VOCABULARY AT BINH PHU HIGH SCHOOL MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL HO CHI MINH CITY, 2022 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY ∞0∞ LY DUY NGUYEN THE APPLICATION OF THE FOUR STRANDS IN LEARNING VOCABULARY AT BINH PHU HIGH SCHOOL Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Major code: 14 01 11 MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Supervisor: NGUYEN THUY NGA, Ph.D HO CHI MINH CITY, 2022 TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH KHOA ĐÀO TẠO SAU ĐẠI HỌC Độc lập – Tự – Hạnh phúc GIẤY XÁC NHẬN Tôi tên là:……………LÝ DUY NGUYỄN …………………………………… Ngày sinh:……02/05/1993……………… Nơi sinh:…Tiền Giang………… Chuyên ngành: ……MTESOL………… Mã học viên: … 1781401110023 Tơi đồng ý cung cấp tồn văn thơng tin luận án/ luận văn tốt nghiệp hợp lệ quyền cho Thư viện trường đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh Thư viện trường đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh kết nối tồn văn thông tin luận án/ luận văn tốt nghiệp vào hệ thống thông tin khoa học Sở Khoa học Cơng nghệ Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh Ký tên (Ghi rõ họ tên) Lý Duy Nguyễn i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that the thesis entitles “The application of The Four Strands in learning Vocabulary at Binh Phu High School” is my original work All resources used in the thesis have been documented The work has not been submitted to Open University or elsewhere Ho Chi Minh, February 28th, 2022 Ly Duy Nguyen ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest appreciation to those who helped me struggle with this thesis, without which I could not finish the thesis whenever I got stuck I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to Dr Nguyen Thuy Nga, who finally agreed to become my instructor when I had no one else to ask for help I would like to express my gratitude to Dr Nguyen Thuy Nga for her guiding me to figure out a more comprehensive picture of the literature review section and the appropriate steps to conduct a thesis I would like to express my gratitude to Dr Nguyen Thuy Nga for her calm and pleasant attitude whenever I got stuck, which saved me from any unnecessary pressure and worries I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to the controlled group and experimental group at Binh Phu High school, who played an important part to help me complete my thesis for graduation I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to my dedicated grandmother, who harboured the dream that I would finish my post-graduated education although now she has departed this life I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation my to mom, who supports me all the time and forgives me, encourages me, especially whenever I got stuck with the thesis I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to my friend, Nguyen Thai Bao, who guided the way I went in my proposal I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to my counterparts at Open University MTESOL017 course for their support and contribution, especially Nguyen Tan Loi, who has graduated, for his untiring support and motivation I would like to express my love and appreciation to my dear friends, Hoang Phuong Tieu Anh, Dao Thi Ngoc Ly, Do Le Nha Truc, Vo Thi Phuong Anh for our mutual motivation and encouragement iii I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to the knowledge and ways of teaching my teachers have encouraged me during my Master degree course, from which I can open my eye, and have a more peaceful and positive outlook towards life I wish all peace and happiness in our journey iv ABSTRACT Conventionally, learning vocabulary often occurs through accessing new lexical items through input (reading and listening skills) However, Nation (2007) said that vocabulary can also be learned through output (speaking and writing skills) and the course applied the four strands can not only facilitate learners to learn vocabulary through both input and output but also help them develop grammatical features of a word and practice fluency in speaking The current study entitled “The application of the four strands in learning vocabulary at Binh Phu High School” was conducted with the participation of 88 10th graders at Binh Phu high school (school year 2020-2021) The aim of the research was to explore the potential of the four strands to see to what extent it helped improve learners’ vocabulary test scores of Binh Phu High School and how were their attitudes towards this application In the research, both quantitative research instruments (pretest- posttest, questionnaire) and qualitative research instrument (interview) were employed Analysis from the independent T-test of pretest and posttest and paired sample T-test showed improvement in EG’s scores after the treatment The results collected from the questionnaire were analyzed and interpreted to see attitudes of 44 EG’s participants The interview was conducted with the participation of 10 participants from EG From the research, there were two conclusion that could be drawn First, the application helped improve participants scores Second, participants generally had positive attitudes towards the application The research implied that teachers can apply the four strands in their teaching and think of ways to motivate learners to actively engage during each class period The research also implied that learners should change their mindset of learning vocabulary, not only through reading and listening but also through speaking, writing and other communicative activities Therefore, they should be enthusiastically engaged and push themselves up Key words: The four strands, vocabulary test scores, attitudes v ABBREVIATIONS A: Agree ALM: Audio- Lingual Method CALL: Computer- assisted language Learning CLT: Communicative Language Teaching CG: Controlled group D: Disagree DM: Direct Method EG: Experimental group GTM: Gramma- Translation Method L1: mother language L2: target language M: Mean N: Number/ Neutral P: Participant S: student SA: Strongly disagree SD: Strongly disagree SPSS: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences S.D Standard Deviation vi LIST OF TABLES Table Three components of vocabulary and their clarifications .14 Table 2 Activities in each strand suggested by Paul Nation 30 Table Activities used in lesson plans using the four strands in this research 45 Table Procedure and timeline of the course for both controlled group and experimental group 48 Table Descriptive statistics of pretest scores 54 Table Independent Sample T-Test of pretest results 57 Table Descriptive statistics of posttests scores 58 Table 4 Independent Sample T-Test of posttest results .60 Table Paired Samples Statistics 61 Table Pair samples correlations 61 Table Participants’ general impression of the Four Strands .63 Table Participants’ evaluation of vocabulary learning strategies in the FourStrand Course 64 Table Participants’ perception of enjoyment in participating in The Four-stand activities 65 Table 10 Participants’ perception of motivation in The Four Strands 65 Table 11 Detailed explanation of participants’ general impression of the Four Strands .67 Table 12 Detailed explanation of Participants’ attitude towards skills that they can learn from The Four Strands .71 Table 13 Detailed explanation of participants’ perception of enjoyment in participating in The Four-strand activities 74 Table 14 Detailed explanation of participants’ perception of motivation in The Four Strands 76 Table 15 Summarize question in the interview 79 Table 16 Summarize question in the interview 80 Table 17 Summarize question in the interview 81 94 b If you want to prepare yourself for great achievement and have more to to your education or your work, try reading more books Pick up some of the interestingly informative and search for well-researched material that can help you grow c Once we reach a certain age, or once our schooling is completed, many of us become so in our choice of reading that we rarely read any new type of reading experience POSTTEST Task 1: Match each word in column A with correct definition in column B 11 Hummock a a person being competed against in a sports event 12 Reserve b the destruction of forests 13 Deforestation c protect 14 Dip into d the appearance of a particular disease in large number 15 Dune of people at the same time 16 Foul e a hill of sand 17 Opponent f the type of person you are 18 Personality g raised part of the ground 19 Defend h an act that is against the rules of a sport 20 Epidemic i keep something for a particular purpose j read small parts Task 2: Complete the missing blank with one word The first letter of the word is given a Pandas eat mainly b _ leaves b In modern time we consider a b _ as a set of pages that have been fastened together inside a cover to be read or written in c S _ just requires you be able to use the snorkel to swim and to breathe d She campaigned for women's r during the 1960s 95 Task 3: Listen and fill in the blanks Remember the form of the word You will listen TWICE a Women are now better _ and can promote themselves much more easily than in the past More and more women are now joining the paid force worldwide b Families in the Western world have changed greatly during the last two centuries Social _ say that this change in the family is one of the important changes from a _ society to a modern society c are extremely endangered today There are only about 600 of these black- and-white bears in the wild and a hundred in captivity One of the reasons is that the survival _ of the cubs is very low: more than half of them die shortly after birth 96 APPENDIX C – QUESTIONNAIRES QUESTIONAIRE (ENGLISH VERSION) Dear students! You are invited to participate in a questionnaire to give your opinion and evaluation about the course of learning vocabulary with The Four Strands Please tick (✔) the answer that you find most appropriate You can choose only ONE answer Thanks for your responses, which is valuable for me to complete my research entitled “The application of The Four Strands in learning Vocabulary at Binh Phu High School” 1-Strongly Disagree, -Disagree, 3- Neutral, 4- Agree, 5-Strongly Agree THEME 1: My general impression of the Four Strands Through doing the reading chosen from the list given by the teacher, I can improve vocabulary range Through speaking or writing activities, I can learn new vocabulary Doing dictation helps me pay attention to the same grammatical features of a word 4/3/2 technique helps me improve my fluency Repeated reading helps me improve my reading speed THEME 2: My evaluation of vocabulary learning strategies in the Four-Strand Course Through context clues, I can guess the meaning of the unknown words in the reading 97 Through my background knowledge, I can guess the meaning of the unknown words in the reading I can use dictionary to find an English equivalent for a Vietnamese expression I can develop my communication strategies when making a conversation or a presentation 10 I can recognize the grammatical features that have been stressed through the dictation 11 I can speak more fluently after each turn of speaking the same content THEME 3: My perception of enjoyment in participating in The Four-stand activities 12 I like learning vocabulary from doing the reading 13 I like learning vocabulary from doing speaking 14 I like learning vocabulary from doing dictation 15 I like improving my speaking through 4/3/2 activity 16 I feel comfortable to learn vocabulary from doing the reading 17 I feel comfortable to learn vocabulary from doing speaking 18 I feel comfortable to learn vocabulary from doing dictation 98 19 I feel comfortable to improve my speaking through 4/3/2 activity 20 The Four Strands motivates me to my best work 21 The Four Strands format in appropriate and effective for this course THEME 4: My perception of motivation in The Four Strands 22 The Four Strands motivates me to learn vocabulary more after the course 23 I would prefer to learn with The Four Strands format in the future Adapted from Nation (2007) and Hsieh & Ji (2013) QUESTIONAIRE (VIETNAMESE VERSION) Các em thân, Các em mời tham gia vào phiếu khảo sát để đưa nhận xét đánh giá em khóa học từ vựng áp dụng phương pháp The Four Strands Các em đánh dấu tick (✔) vào ô em thấy mức độ phù hợp với miêu tả cho câu Ở mội ô tick đáp án Cảm ơn câu phản hồi em, thông tin vô quý giá để thầy hồn thành luận văn mình, mang tên: “Ứng dụng The Four Strands vào việc học từ vựng trường THPT Bình Phú” 1-Hồn tồn khơng đồng ý, -Khơng đồng ý, 3- Khơng ý kiến, 4- Đồng ý, Hoàn toàn đồng ý 5- 99 CHỦ ĐỀ 1: ẤN TƯỢNG CHUNG CỦA TƠI VỀ THE FOUR STRANDS Thơng qua việc làm đọc chọn từ danh sách mà giáo viên đưa ra, tơi cải thiện phạm vi từ vựng Thông qua hoạt động nói viết, tơi học từ vựng Nghe viết tả giúp tơi ý đến đặc điểm ngữ pháp Kỹ thuật 4/3/2 giúp tơi cải thiện trơi chảy Việ đọc nhiều lần văn giúp cải thiện tốc độ đọc CHỦ ĐỀ 2: Đánh giá chiến lược học từ vựng The Four Strands Thông qua ngữ cảnh, tơi đốn nghĩa từ chưa biết đọc Thông qua kiến thức tảng mình, tơi đốn nghĩa từ chưa biết đọc Tơi sử dụng từ điển để tìm từ tương đương tiếng Anh cho cách diễn đạt tiếng Việt Tôi phát triển chiến lược giao tiếp trị chuyện thuyết trình 10 Tơi nhận đặc điểm ngữ pháp nhấn mạnh thơng qua việc nghe viết tả 11 Tơi nói trơi chảy sau lượt nói nội dung CHỦ ĐỀ 3: Nhận thức tơi thích thú tham gia hoạt động The 100 Four-stand 12 Tơi thích học từ vựng thơng qua việc làm đọc 13 Tơi thích học từ vựng thơng qua việc luyện nói 14 Tơi thích học từ vựng thơng qua việc nghe chép tả 15 Tơi thích cải thiện khả nói thơng qua hoạt động 4/3/2 16 Tơi cảm thấy thoải mái học từ vựng thông qua làm đọc 17 Tôi cảm thấy thoải mái học từ vựng thơng qua việc luyện nói 18 Tơi cảm thấy thoải mái học từ vựng thông qua việc nghe chép tả 19 Tơi cảm thấy thoải mái cải thiện trơi chảy nói tơi thơng qua hoạt động 4/3/2 20 The Four Strands thúc đẩy tơi làm việc tốt 21 Mỗi tiết học The Four Strands xây dựng phù hợp hiệu cho khóa học CHỦ ĐỀ 4: Động lực từ The Four Strands 22 The Four Strands thúc đẩy học từ vựng nhiều sau khóa học 23 Tơi muốn học với định dạng Four Strands tương lai 101 Adapted from Nation (2007) and Hsieh & Ji (2013) 102 APPENDIX D – INTERVIEW QUESTIONS LIST What are your impressions of the vocabulary course applied the Four Strands? What you like and what don’t you like? What skills you think you can improve during the vocabulary course applied the Four Strands? What difficulties have you encountered during the vocabulary course applied the Four Strands? What are your recommendations to make the vocabulary course better in the future? (Adapted from Ali, 2012) 103 APPENDIX E – LESSON PLAN SAMPLES A sample of a lesson plan using GTM LESSON PLAN UNIT 9- DESERTS – SECTION A : VOCABULARY Teacher’s activities - Student’s activities Content Show slides and present the - Listen and answer stretch (n.): words one by one Ask students the questions dải/nhánh - Give out translation sandy (a.): có cát Conduct repetition of new - Read the words out dune (n.): đụn cát vocabulary items chorally and loud to give the Vietnamese equivalent of each word - individually - đống Provide an English-Vietnamese wordlist - Ask students to learn by heart the - Copy down the wordlist wordlist into the stretch (n.) /stretʃ/ - T shows a picture and describes the characteristics of the word: Stretch phần đất có hình dạng dài: - T asks students to translate the word into Vietnamese sandy (a.) /ˈsændi/ - T shows a picture and asks students to translate the word into Vietnamese dune (n.) /djuːn/ hummock (n.): gò - notebook 104 - T shows picture and invites one student to describe the picture - T gives out the Vietnamese equivalent of the word hummock (n.) /ˈhʌmək/ - T shows picture and gives explanation in Vietnamese: phần đất nhô lên cao so với phần đất xung quanh - T elicits the meaning of the word Task 1: Complete the missing blank with one word The first letter of the word is given You rarely see boats on this _ of the river It is a golden beach From here you are able to see an endless range of short _ The King’s tomb was on a humble Task 2: Find the Vietnamese equivalents of the following words stretch dune sandy sloping aerial survey steep Royal Geographical Society of Australia hummock Australian Aborigine 10 crest A lesson plan using the four strands 105 UNIT - DESERTS – SECTION A : VOCABULARY Teacher’s activities Warm-up: T shows a video of a desert and Student’s activities Watch the video The video is retrieved from the people living there to lead into the topic - Content T shows the text on the slide with https://www.yout highlighted high-frequency words Other ube.com/watch?v low-frequency words can be learnt =Xj5hOoHvFRQ through dictionary use, word parts or guessing from the context - T asks students to highlight the new words in the book and take notes of the explanation - T presents the words one by one - All the activities and exchanges are conducted in English Present new words: stretch (n): an stretch (n.) /stretʃ/ area of land or - T shows picture and explains the water, especially meaning a long one sand (n.) /ˈsænd/ sandy (a.) /ˈsændi/ - - sand (n) - Highlight the words T shows picture and elicits the meaning sandy (a): having of “sand” sand T highlights the suffix “-y” and explains the meaning of it: having or being - T invites a student to elicit the meaning of - Take notes and ask dune (n): a hill of “sandy” sand on a beach questions if there are 106 dune (n.) /djuːn/ - any or in a desert T shows picture and gives the definition of the word hummock (n.) /ˈhʌmək/ hummock (n): - Consult a bilingual a small area of gr dictionary if ound that is necessary slightly higher - T shows picture and gives explanation than the ground - T elicits the meaning of the word around it - Do the exercise - T asks students to an exercise to memorize the meaning of these new words - T asks Students to use dictionary Exercise: Match the words with its - Check the definitions pronunciation of the new words Hummock – Dune – Sandy – applications on their phones to check the Stretch pronunciation of the new words Covered with sand Raised part of the ground An area of land or water - Work in pairs Speaking activity: 4/3/2 - T asks Students to work in pairs and talk sand A hill of 107 about deserts using the information provided in the text or their own knowledge - Students talk to the first partner in four minutes; the second one minutes and the last one minutes with the same content Homework: - Write a paragraph about life in the deserts in their journal Pictures used Picture 1: Source: google image Picture 2: Source: google image 108 Picture 3: Source: google image Picture 4: Source: google image