Trang 1 --- GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AN INVESTIGATION INTO METHODS OF STUDYING VOCABULARY OF ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HAI DUONG CAMPUS OF HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECH
HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AN INVESTIGATION INTO METHODS OF STUDYING VOCABULARY OF ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HAI DUONG CAMPUS OF HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC HỌC TỪ VỰNG CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGỮ TẠI CƠ SỞ HẢI DƯƠNG TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet, MA Student: Pham Ha My Student number: 10717370 Hai Duong – 2021 HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES - GRADUATION PAPER FIELD: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AN INVESTIGATION INTO METHODS OF STUDYING VOCABULARY OF ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT HAI DUONG CAMPUS OF HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC HỌC TỪ VỰNG CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGỮ TẠI CƠ SỞ HẢI DƯƠNG TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC SƯ PHẠM KỸ THUẬT HƯNG YÊN) Student: Pham Ha My Student number: 10717370 Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet, MA (ký tên) Hai Duong – 2021 i DECLARATION I certify that the thesis “An iinvestigation into methods of studying vocabulary of English major students at Hai Duong Campus of Hung Yen University of Technology and Education” is the result of my own research and the substance of the thesis has not been submitted for a degree to any other universities or situations Hai Duong, June 2021 Signature Pham Ha My ii ACKNOWLEDMENT I am grateful to many people for giving their sincere help to me in doing this graduation paper First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Ms Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet, who guide me to the right way to complete this thesis Without her help I cannot finish this work perfectly Secondly, I would like to give my special thanks to all the teachers and students of English for their help and cooperation during data collection process Finally, I would like to thank my family, my dear friends who gave me support and encouragement during the time the study was carried out iii ABSTRACT This is a study that aims to investigate the strategies used by the students of English major in dealing with their difficulties during learning vocabulary Having good ammount of vocabulary is one of the competences that the learners have to master since the Faculty of Foreign Language often use skills as mean off asssessment Vocabulary is considered as an important task which is beneficial for the student’s English skills for intance: listening, speaking, reading, writing Many of EFL students are having a lot of problems when learning vocabulary Therefore, it is important to discover the strategies used by students that have effective ways in learning vocabulary The participants of this study are 62 students of English major at Hai Duong Campus The researcher uses quantitative and qualitative method through interview and survey questions After collecting and analyzing data, the findings will be illustrated through charts and some recommendations will be given for the further use of those activities in the way, which help the English major students Hai Duong Campus at Hung Yen university of Technology and Education boost their vocabulary iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDMENT ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES .vi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Researcher question 1.4 Scope of study 1.5 Methods of the study 1.6 Design of the study CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definitions of vocabulary 2.2 Classifications of vocabulary 2.2.1 Perceptive and productive vocabulary 2.2.2 High-frequency, low-frequency, technical and academic vocabulary 2.3 The conditions for vocabulary learning 2.3.1 Motivation 2.3.2 Repetition 2.3.3 Thoughtful processing 2.3.4 Meaningful relationships 2.4 The role of vocabulary 2.5 Vocabulary learning methods 2.5.1 Decontextualizing Techniques 2.5.2 Semi-Contextualizing Techniques 2.6 Difficulties in learning vocabulary 12 CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 14 3.1 Methodology 14 3.2 The participants 14 3.3 Data collection instruments 14 3.4 Survey questionnaire 14 v 3.5 Interview 15 3.6 Procedure of the data collection 15 3.7 Data analysis 15 3.8 Questionnaires 15 3.8.1 The current situations of learning vocabulary among the English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education 16 3.8.2 The difficulties that the English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education face in learning vocabulary 20 3.8.3 Solutions to improve vocabulary of the English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education 22 3.9 Interview 24 3.10 Discussion of the findings 26 CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION 31 4.1 Summary of the study 31 4.2 Limitation of the study 31 4.3 Suggestion for the futher study 32 REFERENCES I APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS III APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW VI vi LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Table The difficulties that students face in learning vocabulary 20 Table Students’ assessment about activities they like in learning vocabulary 22 Chart Students’ perception toward learning vocabulary 16 Chart The frequency of having vocabulary lesson in class 17 Chart 3 How students learn vocabulary 18 Chart The time students spend learning vocabulary 19 Chart The ways students learn vocabulary 20 Chart Students’ interest in leaning vocabualry Error! Bookmark not defined Chart Activities help students better their vocabulary 23 Chart Teachers’ solution to help students improve their vocabulary 24 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Currently, English plays an important role because it has become an international language and is used as the official language in all filed such as aviation service, commerce, science and technology, etc In Vietnam, English becomes more and more important and is included in the schools as a compulsory subject It can be said that if we consider learning English as building a house, learning vocabulary is the foundation of that house There are many ways to learn vocabulary, but to have a strategy to enrich the vocabulary effectively is not easy and in fact, the method of vocabulary learning is not really effective Although after many years of learning English, it is difficult for learners to communicate successfully They tend to use simple vocabulary instead of what they have learned Besides, vocabulary usage is also an essential factor to evaluate the quality of an article In writing, learners often have difficulty choosing vocabulary both of accurately and logical In the curriculum, the basic skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) are arranged alternately to help students improve their skills comprehensively Vocabulary is considered a very important skill, integrating many other skills and laying a foundation for learners to develop listening, speaking, reading and writing skill But in fact, they still face a lot of difficulties in learning vocabulary There are many difficulties that students encounter in the process of training and improving English vocabulary At Hung Yen university of Technology and Education, especially the s students in Faculty of Foreign Language, their vocabulary is still limited There are some main reasons that make students feel difficult in learning vocabulary Vocabulary is very important because it will help students a lot when they graduate and go to work in foreign companies Vocabulary is indispensable for working with papers and books This is shown directly through their studies and exams There are many reasons that make it difficult to learn vocabulary Perhaps vocabulary is not continuously fostered during high school, shortage of vocabulary and grammar Furthermore, students may have misconceptions about learning English skills, so learn to vocabulary is not improved regularly Lastly, the research would like to help students find methods to improve vocabulary The English major students at Hai Duong Campus are the ideal targets for the research because they had acquainted with the learning environment in university With the methods provided by the study, the researcher expects that these will help students master vocabulary Therefore, to find the factors and give some methods, the researcher conducted a study entitled: “An investigation into methods of studying vocabulary of English major students at Hai Duong Campus of Hung Yen University of Technology and Education” 1.2 Aims of the study The study is aimed at ways of study vocabulary encountered by major students of English at UTEHY The main aims of this study are: Investigating the current situations of learning vocabulary among the English major students Hai Duong campus at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education Finding out the difficulties the English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education face in learning vocabulary Providing some methods to improve the students’ vocabulary 1.3 Researcher question In order to reach the aims of the study, the following research questions were proposed: What are students’ attitudes towards vocabulary learning? What are their main difficulties in learning vocabulary? What are effective ways of learning vocabulary? 1.4 Scope of study To collect the data for researching, the author use both quantitative and qualitative methods The questionnaires and interview questions will be designed basing on the main aims of the study After getting the result, the author will use the tables and chart for 25 learn vocabulary through studying skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing I learn a lot of vocabulary from them Besides, I learn vocabulary by myself That is word list and flashcard” (student 1) “In the class, I learn vocabulary through studying skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing I learn lots of vocabulary from them but I also learn vocabulary by myself That is a keyword and word grouping” (student 2) “In the class, I learn vocabulary through studying skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing I learn a lot of vocabulary from them However, I learn it by myself That is word grouping and flashcards” (student 3) In order to check the validity and reliability of the questionnaire, especially the more extract answer of the research questions, the researchers also conducted interviews for students The next question is “What are the difficulties of learning vocabulary?” All of the students have some difficulties in learning vocabulary but their difficulties are different For example, “Each learner has his own issues but the most common that I felt in my learning are the following: lack of vocabulary, grammar, and correct pronunciation” (student 1) “English vocabulary is especially difficult because there are so many words that have multiple definitions, so it’s easy to misunderstand their meanings It’s also difficult to memorize many different definitions for each word.” (student 2) “I think the difficulty is words that don’t sound the way they look In the English language, a large number of the words aren’t spelled phonetically That means they sound very different from what you’d expect based on their spelling.” (student 3) The last question is “What are effective ways of learning vocabulary and how effective are they?” “If we come to a solution it will be easy to discuss it in the same sequence: To improve vocabulary, read an English language newspaper Reading habit will improve not only your vocabulary but also the sense of making sentences and grammar is not essential to learn a language but it is very basic to correct your language Therefore, a grammar book will be very helpful during the learning process.”(student 1) Another student said that “The only possible way to understand which definition is being used is to pay attention to context clues This means using the surrounding words and sentences to find out which definition for the word makes sense Another trick is to pay attention to the part of speech (e.g noun, adjective, etc.) Very often, the different definitions for an English word will have different parts of speech, so it’s easy to tell them apart ” “FluentU 26 can help you FluentU is an incredible tool to learn English pronunciation (and many other skills) directly from native speakers It provides real English videos—like movie trailers, music videos, inspiring talks and more that’ve been transformed into personalized English lessons” (student 3) In general, that these solutions were very good and suitable for each student because they know their weaknesses as well as their difficulties 3.10 Discussion of the findings The part discusses the study's findings to answer three research questions in the introduction 3.10.1 The current situations of learning vocabulary among the English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education By analyzing the questionnaire and interview of students, most of the students propose that they learn vocabulary through skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing However, students also have their own ways to learn vocabulary themselves such as word lists, flashcards or keywords 3.10.2 The difficulties the English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education face in learning vocabulary There are lots of difficulties that affect the students in learning vocabulary Based on the statistic questionnaire and interview of students, we can find out seven difficulties such as vocabulary’s uses, forms, meaning, pronunciations, spellings, not appropriate techniques, etc Each difficulty impacts students’ learning vocabulary However, students give out hindrances on their difficulties for learning vocabulary to find out the solutions to improve 3.10.3 The effective ways of learning vocabulary According to the survey questionnaire and interview result, most of the students approve that students’ vocabulary will be more effective when using word guessing games, using social media: TV, Internet That makes their vocabulary can be improved very much Especially, teachers should give them more chances to practice Besides, word lists, keywords and dictionary use also help students improve vocabulary very much 27 In short, after collecting data, the researcher identifies students’ perceptions in learning vocabulary and difficulties of students’ learning vocabulary The author hopes to find out some suggestions for students’ learning vocabulary at FFL, UTEHY 3.10.4 Recommendations for students According to the results of questionnaires and interview, there are some hindrances to students’ learning vocabulary such as flashcards, word list to overcome these main hindrances and improve learning vocabulary Flashcards One of the most popular ways to learn English vocabulary is to use flashcards Each flashcard will have one English word written on the front and the word’s translation or definition on the back To study them, you’ll look at one side of a card and say the word on it in the opposite language before you look at the other side of the card (so if you were looking at the English side, for example, you’d say the word in your native language) Flashcards are excellent resources because they help you memorize vocabulary words both quickly and effectively Flashcards are easy to make If you’re making paper cards, all you need are note cards (or small pieces of paper), a pencil or pen, and a list of the words you want to study For digital cards, all you need is a computer and some software or a website to make them with They’re interactive, especially if you make them yourself With paper flashcards, you must write down all of the words you want to study as well as physically thumb through the cards, helping you concentrate on what each word means They’re easy to randomize Mixing up the order in which you study is essential to ensure that you fully understand the meanings of the words you’re learning Wordlist Another helpful method is to make a list of all of the English-vocabulary words you want to learn A list is different from flashcards in that it has all of the words you need to 28 know in one place (instead of on separate cards) If you don’t want to deal with the hassle of using note cards, a study list is a solid option The biggest benefit is that lists are easy to expand as you come across new words you want to know For example, if you saw an English word you didn’t know on a sign at a restaurant, you can simply take out your list and write it down You can use your list as a base for other study methods Lists are helpful resources for identifying specific words to put on flashcards and use in vocabulary quizzes A list is less bulky than flashcards With a list, you can keep track of dozens of words on a single sheet of paper, taking up far less space than hundreds of flashcards It’s easy to make All you need to is write out each word, it's part of speech (optional), and it's meaning in your native language—nothing more! Word guessing game Learning vocabulary is hard work, so an attempt is required to understand, produce and manipulate the target words Games help and encourage many learners to learn the target language more easily They also help teachers to create contexts in which the target words are useful and meaningful; they also bring fun for students, thus help them learn and retain new words more quickly In other words, game-based learning can create a meaningful context for the language learning process Word Pics The idea is simple: guess the single word using just two pics as clues The images will have some connection all you have to is enter the right words! Sometimes the words can be easy to guess, but other times you'll have to stop and think The more picture puzzles you solve the more levels you will unlock, making this brain teaser game an endless source of fun! There are fun game modes to play: Classic - Connect two pictures and guess the word, that's it! Expert - Two pictures appear and then disappear after a few seconds Guess the word quickly, but be ready to challenge your brain! 29 Multiplayer - Engage in a fun one-on-one PvP quiz battle against other people online and in real-time! Word Pics also includes the features below - Hints and clues to help solve tough puzzles - Zoom in to see picture details - Online multiplayer with real-time puzzle-solving - Add more fun by customizing your theme's look and feel - Guess the correct words in over 1000 puzzl Being a second language learner, you learn English just like native children learn their mother tongue So imitate the way they learn, and you’ll see good results Moreover, there are picture books for all ages now You can pick the one that you find suitable for your English level How to learn English vocabulary through Picture book? • Read the narrative of the picture • Learn the expressions and and new words from the narrative • If you notice any objects in the picture that you don’t know what are in English, search the Internet for them 30 • Look at the picture and try to narrate the story in your own expressions In this way, you can learn many new words at the same time and still remember them well because: • All the words are linked to a story • It’s easier to remember the picture than the new words you learned More importantly, that picture illustrates a narrative And each time you imagine that picture in your head, you can tell the story When you tell the story, you have done a revision for your new words 31 CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION 4.1 Summary of the study The thesis aims to find out vocabulary learning difficulties perceived by the majors of English at UTEHY Basing on the findings the study has offered some implications to help the students improve their vocabulary not only in their language classroom but also in their future jobs To achieve this aim, the researcher employed survey research with the participation of 62 students of three classes, English Department, UTEHY Specifically, she studied the issues: 1) the students’ current learning vocabulary, 2) difficulties they encountered and 3) what they would like to be done to overcome those difficulties Based on the data analysis, the writer concluded that students did face problems during learning vocabulary Those problems were: vocabulary’s uses, forms, meanings, pronunciations, spellings, not appropriate techniques, not enough support from teachers, not enough time to learn, and lack of course books/references books for learning From the problems that the participants had experienced, most of them pointed out that vocabulary forms and vocabulary meanings become the most challenging when learning vocabulary The participants also gave some useful guidelines in facing those problems, such as reading background knowledge, English song lyrics and watching English films, communicating with foreigners, watching TV shows from English Chanel, listening and singing favorite E songs, reading favorite English books, watching favorite English movies 4.2 Limitation of the study Although the researcher has made effort toward carrying out this study such as the triangulation of data collection methods, namely survey questionnaires and interviews for learners due to limitation of time, lack of resources, and the researchers’ ability, shortcomings are unavoidable The first limitation has to with the extent to which the findings can be generalized beyond the samples studied The number of student participants in the study was not big enough for abroad generalization 32 Secondly, subjects of the study were only English major students, not at all the students in the university Therefore, further studies should also investigate students studying other subjects Despite these limitations, the study has generally has been successful in providing the English major students Hai Duong Campus at UTEHY some useful suggestions for better presenting and effective tips when learning vocabulary to improve their vocabulary 4.3 Suggestion for the futher study The following directions should be taken into consideration in the future research: The effects of using pictorial illustrations on vocabulary learning for a student at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education A study on ways of forming English collocations to enrich the English vocabulary I REFERENCES Baddeley, A (1990) Human memory: Theory and practice Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon Carrell, P L (1984 a) Evidence of formal schemata in second language comprehension Language Learning, 34, CrossRef Carrell, P L (1984 b) The effects of rhetorical organisation on ESL readers TESOL Quarterly, 18, CrossRef Carter (1987) Ideological Stylistics and Fictional Discourse Craik, F.I.M., & Lockhart, R.S (1972) Levels of processing: A framework for memory research Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11, 671-684 Ezra L Stieglitz (1983) A practical approach to vocabulary reinforcement, Pages 71–75 Gu, P.Y (2003) Vocabulary Learning in a Second Language: Person, Task, Context and Strategies Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language TESL-EJ Hudson, T (1988 [1982]) The effects of induced schemata on the 'short circuit' in L2 reading In P Carrell, J Devine, & D.E Eskey (Eds.), Interactive approaches to second language reading (pp 183-205) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press James Baxter (1980) The Dictionary and Vocabulary Behavior: A Single Word or a Handful? 325-336 10 Joe, A (1998) What effects text-based tasks promoting generation have on incidental vocabulary acquisition? Applied Linguistics, 19(3), 357-377 11 John T Crow.June R Quigley (1985) A Semantic Field Approach to Passive Vocabulary Acquisition for Reading Comprehension 12 Krashen, S (1989) Modern Language Journal, 73(4), 440-463 13 Laufer, B & P Nation (1999) A vocabulary size test of controlled productive ability Language Testing 16, 33- 51 14 Laufer, B (2001) Quantitative evaluation of vocabulary: How it can be done and what it is good for In Elder, C., Hill, K., Brown, A., Iwashita, N., Grove, L., Lumley, T., II & McNamara, T (Eds.) Experimenting with uncertainty Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 15 Lewis, M (1993) The Lexical Approach Hove: Language Teaching Publications 16 Maximo, R (2000) Effects if rote, context, keyword, and context/ keyword method on retention of vocabulary in EFL classroom, Language Learning, 50, 2, 385-412 17 Nation, I S P (2001) Learning Vocabulary in Another Language Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press 18 Nation, I.S.P., & Wang, K (1999) Graded readers and vocabulary Reading in a Foreign Language, 12, 355-380 19 Oxford, R L (1990) Language learning strategies: what every language teacher should know Newbury House Publishers 20 Sally A Hague (1987) Vocabulary Instruction: What L2 Can Learn from L1 21 Schmitt, N (2000) Vocabulary in Language Teaching Cambridge U.K: Cambridge University Press 22 Stahl (1983) Literacy: Major Themes in Education 23 Stuart, W., (2008): Receptive and productive vocabulary size of L2 learners, Studies in Second Language Acquisition / Volume 30 / Issue 01 / March, pp 79 – 95 24 Swaffar, J.K (1988) Readers, texts, and second languages: The interactive processes The Modern Language Journal, 72, 123-149 25 Tseng, W-T, & Schmitt, N (in press) Towards a self-regulating model of vocabulary learning: A structural equation modeling approach Language Learning 26 Webb, S (2007a) Learning word pairs and glossed sentences: The effects of a single context on vocabulary knowledge Language Teaching Research, 11(1), 63-81 27 Webb, S (2007b) The effects of repetition on vocabulary knowledge Applied Linguistics, 28(1), 46-65 28 Wilkins, D.A (1972) Linguistics and language teaching London: Edward Arnold III APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS This survey questionaire is designed for my research into “An investigation into methods of studying vocabulary of English major students at Hai Duong campus of Hung Yen University of Technology and Education” Your assistance in completing this survey is highly appreciated All the information provided by you only serve the study purpose and you can be confident that your identification will not be revealed in any discussion of the data Please complete the following questions by circling your chosen options, write your answer in the provided blanks Gender: A: Male B: Female How old are you? How long have you been learning English? …………….…… Thank you very much for your cooperation! PART I: The current situations of learning vocabulary among the English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education How you find learning vocabulary? A Interesting and understandable B Interesting but not understandable C Boring and understandable D Neutral Do you have vocabulary lesson in the class? Yes No Explain your choice if possible: …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… Do you learn any vocabulary in other subjects like listening, speaking, reding, writing, etc? IV Yes No If yes, how much vocabulary you think you can learn? A A lot B Quite a lot C Not much D Normal Do you spend time studying vocabulary at home? Yes No If yes, how many hours a day you spend learning vocabulary? A Less than an hour B More than an hour How learn vocabulary? (You can choose more than one answer) A Word list B Flashcards C Dictionary use D Word grouping E Word or Concept Association F Visual imagery G Aural imagery H Key word Others: …………………………………………………………………………………… Do you like learning vocabulary? Why? Yes No Explanations: (please write here) …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… V PART II: The difficulties that the English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education face in learning vocabulary What are the difficulties that face you when you learn vocabulary? No Difficulties Strongly Disagree Agree disagree Usage of the vocabulary Forms of the vocabulary Meaning of the vocabulary Pronunciations of Strongly agree the vocabulary Spellings Not enough supports from teachers Not enough time to learn Not enough confident to communicate Lack of books/references course books for learning Others: …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… PART III: Solutions to improve vocabulary of the English major students at Hung Yen University of Technology and Education How much you like the following activities in learning vocabulary? No Activities Very much Word guessing game Activities using pictures Information-gap activities Vocabulary activities self-study Much Normal Not much VI Pair work or group work Learning via listening Learning via speaking Learning via reading Learning via writing Which of the following activities may help you better your vocabulary (you can choose more than one) Using social media: Internet, TV, … Improving knowledge on improving your knowledge on a variety of fields: culture, country, economy, sports, … Taking part in English clubs/contests Communicate with native speakers Others: …………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………… What should your teacher to help you improve your vocabulary (You can chose more than one) Give students more practice Give students clearer instructions before any learning vocabulary activity Organize games Use technologies like videos, power-point, … Update new teaching methods Give students chances to discuss in the class Give students appreciate and immediate feedback on their vocabulary Give students more suggestions Others: ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………… APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW What is your current learning vocabulary? VII What are the difficulties of learning vocabulary? What are effective ways of learning vocabulary?