Solution to learning english vocabulary of non english major students at banking academy

BANKING ACADEMY OF VIETNAM FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES  GRADUATION THESIS SOLUTION TO LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY OF NONENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT BANKING ACADEMY Full name : LE THI DUYEN Class : K20ATCC Course : 2017 - 2021 Student ID : 20A7510039 Supervisor : DR CAN THUY LIEN HANOI – May 2021 Tai ngay!!! Ban co the xoa dong chu nay!!! 17014128952601000000 DECLARATION The graduation thesis “Solution to learning English vocabulary of non-English major students at Banking Academy” is the presentation of my research work Wherever contributions are made by others, every effort is made to point this out explicitly, with due reference to the literature, and to document studies The work was carried out under the guidance of Dr Can Thuy Lien, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Vietnam Banking Academy Author of graduation thesis (Signature and Full name) Le Thi Duyen i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to teacher Dr Can Thuy Lien, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Vietnam Banking Academy for guiding, criticizing and constantly encouraging me during my completion into research I would like to sincerely thank all K20 Faculty of Law for their enthusiastic cooperation and valuable comments to complete the survey I would also like to thank all the teachers at Banking Academy, especially the teachers of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, who gave valuable lectures during my time studying here Without them, my graduation thesis would not have been completed I would also like to thank my parents and family for always believing in us, loving and supporting me throughout my life Without them, it would be difficult for me to complete this thesis Finally, a huge thank you to those who read and commented on my research paper ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS i LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .v ABSTRACT vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .1 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Background of the study .3 1.3 Objectives of the study 1.4 Significance of the Study 1.5 Scope limitation of the study .5 1.6 Definition of terms CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Literature review 2.2 Theoretical and Conceptual framework 12 2.2.1 Theoretical .12 2.2.2 Conceptual framework 12 CHAPTER RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 14 3.1 The locale of the study 14 3.2 Research design 14 3.3 Data gathering procedure 14 3.4 Population, Sample and Sampling technique 16 3.4.1 Population 16 3.4.2 Sample 17 3.5 Research instrument 17 3.6 Statistical treatment .18 3.7 Reliability and validity 18 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 20 4.1 Introduction of the English curriculum at the Banking Academy .20 4.2 The results on the status quo 20 4.2.1 The status of students' study time 20 iii 4.2.2 The reality of student learning methods 25 4.2.3 Vocabulary learning methods used by students .27 4.3 Introducing method of learning vocabulary with Flashcard .33 4.3.1 A general introduction to flashcards 33 4.3.2 Classification of flashcard 34 4.3.3 How to use flashcards effectively 35 4.3.4 Advantages of flashcards 37 4.4 The experimental method 43 4.4.1 Experimental test results 43 4.4.2 Students’ perceptions of flashcards 47 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION .51 5.1 Summary of finding 51 5.2 Conclusion 51 5.2 Recommendation .52 5.2.1 For Banking Academy .52 5.2.2 For students 56 REFERRENCE 58 APPENDIX 1: Survey about vocabulary learning solutions for non-English students at Banking Academy 61 APPENDIX 2: Pre- Experimental test: .66 APPENDIX 3: Experimental test: .68 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BA Banking Academy ESL English Second Language v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1: Vocabulary affects students’ B1 test results 21 Figure 4.2: Students’ vocabulary learning time 22 Figure 4.3: The number of new words learned in each student's English study 23 Figure 4.4: The percentage of students who remember words after a week 24 Figure 4.5: Students experimental test results 44 Figure 4.6: Students opinions on flashcards’ excitement 47 Figure 4.7: Students opinions on flashcards’ effectiveness 48 Figure 4.8: Students opinions on flashcards’ ability to encourage a responsible learning attitude 49 Figure 4.9: Students opinions on flashcards’ presence at the academy 49 LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: Percentage of students using vocabulary learning methods 25 Table 4.2 Responses for the “Look up the dictionary” method 28 Table 4.3 Responses for the method “Ignore the word and continue to read 29 Table 4.4 Responses for the method “Stop reading” 30 Table 4.5 Responses for the method “Ask friends and teachers” 30 Table 4.6 Responses for the method “Guess the meanings of the words based on the context” 31 Table 4.7 Responses for the method “Make use of prefixes and suffixes to guess the meaning” 32 Table 4.8: Average score of experimental test 45 Table 4.9: Statistics of the experiment 46 vi ABSTRACT The title of the thesis: Solution to learning English vocabulary of non-English major students at Banking Academy Author: Le Thi Duyen, student of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Banking Academy of Vietnam Advisor: Dr Can Thuy Lien, the Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Banking Academy of Vietnam Key words: Solution, vocabulary, English, learning method Abstract: This study was conducted to find out the reality of vocabulary learning of non-English majors at Banking Academy and offer effective vocabulary learning solutions Qualitative and quantitative approaches were used in the research and data were collected through a survey method of 135 final year law students Data analysis shows that students learn vocabulary through different techniques and spend different amount of time and effort studying English Additionally, students have heard of flashcards before and perceive the positive side of them Recommendations for non-English majors were made by the researcher Hopefully, students can apply the method that is highly effective in learning English in general and vocabulary in particular vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction English is considered an important tool for communication in the 21st century when the world becomes globalized in business and communication, finance, entertainment, maritime, aviation, It also is the language that plays an important role in the foreign policy of the government, science, medicine, and other professions Currently, English is the official language of more than 53 countries and territories, the second language of nearly 100 countries, and the common language of more than 400 million people around the world It is also important to have knowledge of the English language to enhance education through improved communication It encourages people in different countries to chat and business with each other One of the greatest advantages of a country in the global labor market is the proficiency of the English language by its skilled workers In the field of education, fluency in the English language also improves student learning outcomes English language acquisition has been identified as a prerequisite in a globalized economy, countries with large numbers of populations able to communicate in English often gain an economic advantage In Asian countries, this trend has been carried out by governments and individuals and thus spurred widespread interest in English language learning in the past 10 years Vietnam is not an exception to this trend as Vietnam is not one of the countries that not use English as a native language In a 2011 study by EF Education First Ltd., Vietnam was shown to have an English proficiency Index (EF EPI) of 44.32 This index is an index that compares English proficiency with non-English speaking countries from 2,368,730 candidates across 42 countries and two territories, compiled from 2007 to 2009 In the following year, Vietnam Nam showed an English proficiency index of 52.14, which has improved compared to the previous year Vietnam issued Decision 1400 of the Government in 2008 with the goal of radically improving the tasks of teaching and learning foreign languages in the national education system and through the national foreign language project of the Ministry of Education and Training aims to embark on an ambitious education reform where all levels of education will be required to reach a minimum level of English by 2020 Under this program, Vietnam does not only want students to be able to effectively use foregin languages to communicate and work (especially English), but also requires college, high school and elementary teachers to reach a certain level of English, which in this case, is C2, C1 and B2 respectively According to Dr Diana, a senior member of the Ministry of Education's foreign language improvement project, students who have studied English for years starting from grade are often unable to use English outside of the classroom Simple greetings and questions like "hello", "goodbye" and "What's your name?" This problem becomes more serious when they enter university, as freshmen, they clearly have difficulty dealing with more difficult tasks when learning not only English but also other subjects such as science and mathematics in which English is the medium of instruction In particular, vocabulary knowledge is often considered an important tool for second language learners because limited vocabulary in the second language hinders successful communication Emphasizing the importance of vocabulary acquisition, Schmitt (2000) emphasizes that vocabulary knowledge is at the heart of communicative competence and for acquiring a second language Nation (2001) further describes the relationship between lexical knowledge and language usage as complementary: lexical knowledge allows the use of language and vice versa, the use of language leads to increased vocabulary knowledge The importance of vocabulary is shown every day in and out of school Researchers such as Laufer and Nation (1999), Maximo (2000), Read (2000), Gu (2003), Marion (2008) and Nation (2011), and others have found that vocabulary acquisition is necessary for successful use of the second language and plays a key role in the formation of complete spoken and written texts In English as a second language and English as foreign language linguistics (EFL) plays an important role in all language skills (e.g listening, speaking, reading, and writing Nation, 2011) Furthermore, it is argued that having adequate vocabulary is essential for the successful use of a second language Because, if the learner does not have a broad vocabulary, we will