An investigation into classroom vocabulary learning activities at Dong Son I secondary school in Thanh Hoa = Nghiên cứu về các hoạt động học từ vựng trên lớp tạ

Therefore, classroom vocabulary learning activities help learners develop and use words in different contexts and make the lessons enjoyable.. Additionally, the writer‘s own experience i

UNIVERSITY OF foreign languages AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG HỌC TỪ VỰNG TRÊN LỚP

TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT ĐÔNG SƠN I, THANH HÓA

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Ha Noi, 2010

UNIVERSITY OF foreign languages AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG HỌC TỪ VỰNG TRÊN LỚP

TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT ĐÔNG SƠN I, THANH HÓA

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Phan Thị Vân Quyên, M.A

Ha Noi, 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Method of the study 2

6 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

Chapter I: Literature review 4

1 Definition of vocabulary 4

2 Classification of vocabulary 5

2.1 According to the concept of morpheme 5

2.2 According to the meaning 5

2.3 According to the function of vocabulary items in a sentence 5

2.4 According to the sequence of use 5

2.5 According to the use of word: Active and Passive vocabulary 6

3 The importance of vocabulary in language teaching and learning 7

4 Aspects of word knowledge to be included in vocabulary teaching 7

4.1 Pronunciation 8

4.2 Word – formation 9

4.3 Collocation 10

5 The most commonly used techniques in vocabulary teaching 10

5.1 Techniques in presenting vocabulary 10

5.2 Techniques in practicing new words 12

6 Factors that affect vocabulary acquisition 12

7 Classroom vocabulary learning activities 13

Chapter II: Research methodology 16

1 Research questions 16

2 The context of the study 16

2.1 The text book 16

2.2 The teachers of English 17

2.3 The 10th form students 17

3 Instruments of data collection 17

3.1 Survey questionnaire 17

3.2 Interview 26

4 Data collection and analysis 27

Chapter III: Data analysis and discussion 28

1 Data analysis from students’ questionnaires 28

2 Data analysis from teachers’ questionnaires 31

PART C: CONCLUSION 36

1 Summary of findings 36

2 Implications 38

3 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study 43

REFERENCES 44 APPENDICES I Appendix 1 I Appendix 2 III

Even though students realize the importance of vocabulary when learning a language, most Vietnamese students learn vocabulary passively due to several reasons First, they find the teacher's explanation for the new words‘ meaning, pronunciation, spelling or grammatical functions boring In processing learning English in the class, language learners have nothing to do in a vocabulary learning section but to listen to their teacher Second, students only think of vocabulary learning as learning the primary meaning of new words Therefore, they ignore all other functions of the words Third, students usually only learn new words in their textbooks or those given by teachers during classroom lessons For example, learners find many new words in a text and then ask the teacher to explain their meanings and usages Forth, many Vietnamese learners do not want to take risks in applying what they have learnt Students may recognize a word in a written or spoken form and think that they already "know the word", but they may not be able to use that word properly in different contexts or pronounce it correctly As the result, the class is often quiet and inactive and the lessons appear to be uninteresting Students just seat in silence, do the exercises, and wait for the correct answers from the teachers They seem to get bored of having the same ways of learning every day Therefore, classroom vocabulary learning activities help learners develop and use words

in different contexts and make the lessons enjoyable

It can not be denied that, classroom vocabulary learning activities are a well come break from the usual routine of the language class They help students to make and sustain the effort of learning; provide practice in the various skills, such as speaking, writing, listening and reading; encourage students to communicate Besides, vocabulary-learning activities bring real world context into the classroom, and stimulate students‘ use of English in a flexible, meaningful and communicative way That is the reason why I carry

out this research entitled, “An investigation into classroom vocabulary learning activities

at Dong Son I secondary school in Thanh Hoa”

2 Aims of the study

The study was designed to achieve the following goals:

1 To find out the English teachers and students‘ perception and attitude towards vocabulary and the current situation of vocabulary learning and teaching

2 To evaluate the effectiveness of the currently used classroom vocabulary learning activities at Dong Son I high school

3 To suggest how to use classroom vocabulary activities to improve vocabulary teaching and learning

4 Scope of the study

There are, of course, many ways to motivate the students to learn English effectively However, in this minor thesis, I would focus my research on the effectiveness

of classroom vocabulary learning activities at Dong Son I secondary school in Thanh Hoa The reason is that my students are too passive to learn vocabulary They need to participate more actively in learning activities I hope that through some classroom vocabulary activities, I will find the most effective learning activities to improve students‘ vocabulary learning My students have chance to use the words productively

5 Methods of the study

To gain the aims given in section 2, the study uses quantitative research approach In order to gain the most successful results, data will be collected through questionnaires (one questionnaire for students, and the other for teachers of English at high school) Collected data, then, will be processed and analyzed Besides, the study is also carried out through informal interview with some students and teachers at Dong Son I secondary school Additionally, the writer‘s own experience in designing classroom vocabulary learning activities and the analysis of current textbook and vocabulary teaching methods applied to teaching English for the 10th form students at Dong Son I secondary school in Thanh Hoa will contribute much to the evaluation of the effectiveness of these activities

6 Design of the study

The thesis is composed of three parts Part A is the introduction, which presents the rationale, aims as well as the scope, method, and the design of the study Part B is the development of the study, divided into three chapters Chapter I is for literature review, which provides the theoretical background of the study The focus of this chapter is the definition, classification, the importance of vocabulary; aspects of word knowledge to be included in vocabulary teaching; techniques in vocabulary teaching; factors that affect vocabulary acquisition and classroom vocabulary learning activities Chapter II includes the description of the participants and the data collection instruments and the methods employed to analyze these data Chapter III presents the detailed analyses of the data collected from the survey questionnaires for the teachers and the students and the discussion of the findings Lastly, part C is the conclusion of the study, the limitation of the research and recommendations for the teaching and learning activities at Dong Son I secondary school in Thanh Hoa

PART B DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Definition of vocabulary

The term ―word‖ appears to be a simple concept but in fact, it is extremely difficult

to define Some linguists define words in terms of semantics or phonology, etc For instance, Palmer noted that a word is marked, if not by ―spaces‖ or ―pauses‖, at least by some features of the sound system of the language (e.g stress and juncture in English) And yet, in rapid spoken English, we sometimes can hardly find stress and juncture, we might say ―whatchangonna do?‖ for what in writing would appear ―what are you going to do?‖ Is ―whatcha‖ one word or three and ―gonna‖ one or two? So, let us, for the time being, accept the following definition which seems to be the most satisfactory: ―A word is

a dialectical unity of form and content, independent unit of language to form a sentence by itself, for example ―book, bookish, unlucky, go, eat, lexicology, white-wash, kiss-me-quick‖ and so forth

Vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as the words we teach in the foreign language According to Harmer, if language structures make up the skeleton of a language, then it is its vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh A word is a unit of language that

native speakers can identify, “words are the block from which sentences are made”

Knowing a word means being able to do thing with it: to recognize it in connected speech

or in print, to access its meaning, to pronounce it and to be able to do these things within a fraction of a second (Stahl and Fairbanks, 1986)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ―vocabulary is a set of words known to a

person or other entity, or that are part of the specific language‖ Meanwhile, Hoang

simply defined vocabulary as ―words of a specific language‖ (Hoang, et al., 2006: 262) In

a more detailed definition, Lewis (1993: 89) states vocabulary ―…may be individual

words, or full sentences- institutionalized utterances- that convey fixed social or pragmatic meaning within a given community.‖

In short, vocabulary is the total number of all the words that a language possesses, including single words, two or three-word items expressing a single idea and multi-word idioms of which meaning can not be deduced from the analysis of the component words but only understood in the sentences; or in contexts, etc

2 Classification of vocabulary

In general, vocabulary can be classified in various ways according to different criteria Below are the most common ways of classifying vocabulary

2.1 According to the concept of morpheme

Based on this criterion, McCathy divides words in to three kinds (1990: 5)

2.2 According to the meaning

There are two main kinds of meanings in a word, lexical meaning and grammatical meaning Vocabulary, therefore, can be divided into notional words and functional words (Read, 2000:18)

Notional words

Notional words, whose meanings are lexical, form a great mass of the speaker‘s vocabulary They name objects, actions, qualities and have meanings in themselves They are nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and so on

Functional words

Functional words, whose meanings are grammatical, only have their meanings in relation to other words with which they are used They are particles, articles, prepositions, etc

2.3 According to the function of vocabulary items in a sentence

Performing different functions in a sentence, English vocabulary can be divided into different items as parts of speech They are nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and pronouns (Quirk, 1987:18) Each part of speech has its own position complying with certain grammatical rules and relating to others

2.4 According to the sequence of use

This criterion refers to the frequency of occurrence of words There are three groups

of words which appear in different frequencies: high frequency words, low frequency

words and specialized words High frequency words are the words that appear most often

in printed materials According to Robert Hillerich ―Just three words I, and, the account for

ten percent all words in printed English‖ Low frequency words are words that almost

every language user rarely uses, for example: eponymous, gibbous, bifurcate, plummet,

ploy, etc They may represent a rarely expressed idea, they may be similar in meaning to a

much more frequent word or phrase, they may be marked as being old fashioned, very formal, belonging to a particular dialect, or vulgar, or they may be a foreign words Specialized words are the words people who work in or study special areas of knowledge use a specific group of words, or specialized vocabulary, in talking about their subjects In the medical field, doctors often use terms, such as: nosocomial pneumonia, sinusitis, hypertension, asthma, bronchitis…

It is necessary for the teacher to show his learners which group the learning words belong to because it is not important for learners to learn every word with equal concentration and in equal time but the words that are more commonly used This principle

is very important in vocabulary learning

2.5 According to the use of word: Active and Passive vocabulary

Learners understand many more words than they use in their own conversations, i.e one's passive vocabulary is much larger than one's active vocabulary The total number of words actively used in one's whole life is much smaller than the total number of words understood in one's whole life Even if we learn a word, it takes a lot of practice and context connections for us to learn it well This means that one word has different meanings in different contexts When a word connected with different prepositions will give different meanings You can not be able to remember and use all words exactly at the same time So having a great English vocabulary doesn't mean that you can use these words and phrases and that you can remember them when you need them This is the difference between an active and a passive vocabulary

Passive vocabulary are words which a student can recognize but not necessarily use

in speaking or writing Passive vocabulary are useful for receptive skills such as reading and listening

Active vocabulary are words which students can both understand and use in communication Active vocabulary are especially useful for the productive skills such as speaking and writing

So, the secret is to try to "activate" the passive vocabulary knowledge

3 The importance of vocabulary in language teaching and learning

Vocabulary is the foundation of a language The size of vocabulary is an important criterion to evaluate a learner‘s English level Without adequate vocabulary knowledge, a second language learner will have problems with conversational fluency and reading comprehension

Vocabulary is a language component that plays an important role in deciding a

learner‘s language proficiency It is central to language because it is considered the ―basic

building block of language, the unit of meaning from which larger structures such as sentences, paragraphs and whole text are formed‖ (Read, 2000: 1) It is important to the

typical language learners because many of them have experienced lexical gaps, that are words or concepts they read but they simply do not understand or can not express as adequately as they could in their first language As a result, many learners see second language acquisition as essentially a matter of learning vocabulary, so they devote a great deal of time to memorizing lists of new words and rely on their bilingual dictionary as a basic communicative resource

For methodologists, vocabulary is considered the strong foundation for learners to build up their communicative castles Concerning the significance of vocabulary, Wilkin

(1972: 110) states, ―vocabulary is one of the three dimensions of languages (phonetics,

grammar, vocabulary) Without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.‖ This is true in learning a foreign language If a learner has a

wide range of vocabulary, he can help himself understood and understand others easily; on the contrary, if his vocabulary is limited he will surely have difficulty in communication Therefore, vocabulary is a ―must‖ for all language learners

4 Aspects of word knowledge

There are several aspects of lexis that need to be taken into account when teaching vocabulary The list below is based on the work of Grains and Redman (1986: 13- 52):

. Boundaries between conceptual meanings: knowing not only what lexis refers to,

but also where the boundaries are that separate it from words of related meaning (e.g cup, mug, and bowl)

. Polysemy: distinguishing between the various meaning of a single word form with

several and closely related meanings (head: of a person, of a pin, of an organisation)

. Homonymy: distinguishing between the various meaning of a single word form

which has several meanings which are not closely related (e.g a file: used to put papers in

or a tool)

Homophony: understanding words that have the same pronunciation but different

spellings and meanings (e.g flour, flower)

. Synonymy: distinguishing between the different shades of meaning that

synonymous words have (e.g extend, increase, expand)

. Affective meaning: distinguishing between the attitudinal and emotional factors

(denotation and connotation), which depend on the speakers attitude or the situation Socio-cultural associations of lexical items are another important factor

. Style, register, dialect: Being able to distinguish between different levels of

formality, the effect of different contexts and topics, as well as differences in geographical variation

Translation: awareness of certain differences and similarities between the native

and the foreign language (e.g false cognates)

. Chunks of language: multi-word verbs, idioms, strong and weak collocations,

lexical phrases

. Grammar of vocabulary: learning the rules that enable students to build up

different forms of the word or even different words from that word (e.g sleep, slept, sleeping; able, unable; disability)

Pronunciation: ability to recognise and reproduce items in speech

It is impossible for teachers to cover all these aspects in presenting vocabulary So besides presenting L1 translation, I only give some aspects to the learners due to these following reasons

4 1 Pronunciation

Teaching pronunciation is important It is ―one of the surest elements of language to

fossilise and fossilise good and hard‖ (Dr Maria Sperily – TESL-L) It needs to be taught

properly at the very beginning of language study

It is very much necessary to teach correct pronunciation because pronunciation involves for more than individual sounds Word stress, sentence stress, intonation, and word linking all influence the sound of spoken English, not to mention the way we often slur words and phrases together in casual speech

It is well-known that the teaching of English to Vietnamese learners presents unusual difficulties The biggest difficulty is that there is virtually no similarities between the two languages in the areas of sounds and/or rhythmic and intonation patterns The unusually rich system of the Vietnamese vowels (with 6 tones) and consonants can produce an extraordinary number of different sounds without having to emphasize the final consonants

in any syllables and without ever having to combine two or three consonants at any time English does not make extensive use of two, three, four and even five consonants in

"clusters" within syllables and at the end of syllables Consonants such as "th" in "think" and "thought" present considerable difficulty for the Vietnamese native speaker Equally difficult are words like "picks" and "six" in which a "k" sound is followed by an "s" at the end of the word The difficulty is more than doubled in words like "sixth" and "sixths" which have, at the end of a syllable, the series "k-s-th" and even "k-s-th-s" Since consonants and consonant clusters are extremely important in English and of little or no importance in pronouncing Vietnamese, the stumbling blocks to learning are impressive

As a result, during the teaching process, teachers should let the students be familiar with the articulators, the functions of them, help students writing correct transcription of the words, let the students be familiar with the dictionaries, and they should know how to use it Besides, teachers ought to help students practicing sounds more and more and give them more variety of pronunciation practice

4.2 Word formation

Words can change their shape and their grammatical value, too Learners need to know facts about word formation and how to twist words to fit different grammatical contexts The verb ―move‖ has the participles ―moving‖ and ―moved‖ The present participle and the past participle can be both used as an adjective and the verb ―move‖ can also be a noun There is a clear relationship between the words ―live‖, ―living‖, ―alive‖ and

―life‖ Learners also need to know how suffixes and prefixes work How can we make the words precise and excusable opposite in meaning? Why do we preface one with im- and the other with in- ? Learners also need to know how words are spelt and how they sound Words like ―conduct‖, ―increase‖ etc are stressed differently when their grammatical function is different—as with nouns and verbs Word formation means knowing how words written and spoken and knowing how they can change their form

4.3 Collocation

Many years ago, J.R Firth defined collocation as ‗the company words keep‘-their relationships with other words Another definition might be ‗the way words combine in predictable ways‘ When we think of the number of words in English, the number of potential combinations runs into many millions So, the first and most important fact about the nature of collocation is the sheer number of individual collocations which exist in English

Collocation also enables learners to identify multi-word items and further justifies their treatments as single items of the vocabulary Therefore, collocation can provide a useful framework for revising items, which are partially known, and for expanding the learner‘s knowledge of them This importance role of collocation was stated by Lewis as:

“the reason so many students are not making any perceived progress is simply because they have not been trained to notice which words go with which They may know quite a lot

of individual words which they struggle to use, along with their grammatical knowledge, but they lack the ability to use those words in a range of collocations which pack more meaning into what they say or write”

(Lewis, 2000: 14)

5 The most commonly used techniques in vocabulary teaching

5.1 Techniques in presenting vocabulary

Teaching vocabulary is a very important field, and it is more than just presenting and introducing new vocabulary to the learners Knowing words is not filling papers with new words and memorizing them What students need to understand is the word meaning in context and how words are used? To achieve this, teachers should use different techniques

in teaching English vocabulary to motivate the learners, enrich their vocabulary and enable them to speak English properly The selection of an appropriate technique depends on the age of the students, their skills, and interests as well as what the teacher think will bring desirable results The following are most commonly used techniques in presenting vocabulary items

5.1.1 Visual techniques

According to Gains and Redman (1986) these techniques can include:

Realia- this word refers to the use of real objects in the classroom These objects help to

make the meaning of word clear (ex: A pen, a postcard, a ball etc.) The teacher may also use classroom environment: a chair, a table, a board Things in the classroom can also be

― touched ―, what is important to V Allen (1983), who claims that success in learning depends on the number of senses involved in the learning process and, however, realia is a vital part in presenting vocabulary at the beginners level, where pupils learn words, using concretes

Pictures - may be the most useful ―aids‖ in language teaching, since they are used in different ways There are pictures, flashcards, blackboard drawings, wall pictures, charts, photos from magazines Those ―aids‖ are used to explain the meaning of words or to create

a situation and concept

Mine, action and gesture - this technique is useful for explaining the actions and grammar

items Such concepts as jumping, smoking or the words: “from, on, to” etc are easy items

to explain through performing those actions Mime, action is a great fun for children who like acting and moving very much

All techniques introduced above are good for presenting new vocabulary to students

at the beginners‘ level because they are very interesting and involving for them

Enumeration -this technique helps when any word is difficult to explain visually We can say ‗clothes‘ and explain this by enumerating or listing various items Teacher may list

a number of clothes e.g dress, a skirt, trousers etc, and then the meaning of the word will

became clear The same is true of ‗vegetable‘ or ‗furniture, ‘for example.(Harmer 1991) Explanation -this is such a technique which is assigned to be utilized with upper-beginners, who already have some knowledge of English It is essential for the teacher to bear in mind that while explaining certain words he should use the language that is comprehensible for the students Moreover, the information about the frequency of the word should be included

Synonyms-this technique relies on explanation of meaning of new word by giving other word, which students know and understand, and which means nearly the same For

example: little-small, huge-big etc The number of synonyms appearing in textbooks is

reasonable, in this way they can be introduced rather early

Antonyms-in this technique teacher explains the meaning of new word, by giving its opposite, if students know the word meaning contrary feature e.g warm -is not cold With saying the antonym the gesture of dent should be combined

Definition -is suitable method for upper-beginners and relies on giving the definition

of given word It can be simple, unnecessary precise and scientific definition, given by the teacher It can be the definition from the dictionary This is a good method in mobilization

of students to the usage of dictionaries

5.1.3 Polish equivalent

In this method the teacher gives the translation of given word in the native language The translation is the quickest way of demonstrating the meaning of vocabulary items However, being often exposed to this presentation technique, the students may be discouraged from interacting with words Thus, when presenting vocabulary, the teacher is obliged to bear in mind the techniques and also the fact, that words are learnt better if introduced in groups (when one word can be associated with another) Furthermore, the

lexical item, as is quoted above, must be taught in context The reason is that, “the

meaning of many words can change, according to their use in particular sentences and particular context’’ (;Forum‘July,1974) Although many linguists state that translation is

not a good presentation technique, it is only considered dangerous for students if it becomes the only presentation technique

5.2 Techniques in practicing new words

Joseph Pettigrew (2005) proposes different tips and techniques of practicing vocabulary such as matching, synonyms/opposites, filling the blank sentences, complete the phrases/ sentences Teachers give the example and students give the category or vice versa, correct the mistakes, label a picture, cross out the word that doesn‘t belong with the others in group, arrange the words on the scale and complete the definition Games are very useful to motivate students as crosswords, puzzles, category games

6 Factors that affect vocabulary acquisition

When referring the numerous factors that affect the effectiveness of vocabulary learning, theorists and researchers present slightly different opinions However, various opinions meet at some points and below are four types of factors said to have great impact

on language learners‘ vocabulary acquisition

Firstly, it is the person-dependent factors including age, sex, language aptitude, intelligence, prior knowledge, motivation, self-concept/image, personality, and cognitive and learning style These differ from person to person Needless to say, there are relatively stable and determine to a large extent how a learner approaches a task

Secondly, it is the learning task including the materials being learned (such as genre

of a piece of reading) as well as the goal the learner is truing to achieve by using these materials (such as remembering, comprehending, or using language) Different types of task materials, task purposes, and tasks at various difficulty levels demand different learner strategies For example, learning words in a word list is different from learning the same words in a passage As well, memorizing a word meaning is different from learning to use the same word in real life situations

Thirdly, it is necessary to refer to the learning context or the learning environment This means the social-cultural-political environment where learning takes place The learning context can include the teachers, the peers, the classroom climate or ethos, the family support, the social, cultural tradition of learning, the curriculum, and the availability

of input and output opportunities All of such factors may constrain the ways learners approach learning tasks and acquire vocabulary knowledge

Finally, the last but not least important factor is strategy A learning strategy is a series of actions a learner takes to complete a learning task A strategy starts when the learner analyzes the task, the situation, and what is available in his/her own repertoire The learner then goes on to select, deploy, monitor, and evaluate the effectiveness of this action, and decides if he/she needs to revise the plan and action Cohen (1998) distinguishes between language learning strategies and language use strategies, the former being strategies for learning tasks such as remembering, and the latter being strategies for language use, such as communicating in second language

All in all, person, task, context, and strategy are interrelated and word together to make a configuration of the particular learning situation that will help to bring about the effectiveness of vocabulary learning To be successful in teaching vocabulary, it is no wonder that teachers should carefully consider all these factors before making a decision

on how to teach and what to do for the best results

7 Classroom vocabulary learning activities

Students need lots of vocabulary to increase their ability and confidence in communicating in English However, learning vocabulary is never easy for learners

Teachers, who motivate the students learning English, need to make learning vocabulary a fun involving and active process In order to learn and retain new words, learners should participate in different task-based activities in their classroom whether it is a guessing task,

a describing exercise or conversation making Such activities especially focus on helping learners develop and use words in different contexts by making the lesson enjoyable Learning activities can be defined as specific interactions of learners with other people, using specific tools and resources, oriented towards specific outcomes There are many kinds of vocabulary learning activities which can be used in teaching English, such as: guess the word, dominoes, lucky number, picture matching, find someone who, word puzzle, bingo, noughts and crosses, scrambled words…etc It is better if the vocabulary learning activities are familiar for learners, because they learn in a variety of ways, for example; by watching; by listening; by imitating and by doing things

Language learning is a hard task which can sometimes be frustrating Constant effort is required to understand, produce and manipulate the target language Well-chosen learning activities are invaluable as they give students a break and at the same time allow students

to practise language skills Learning activities are highly motivating since they are amusing and at the same time challenging Furthermore, they employ meaningful and useful language in real contexts They also encourage and increase cooperation

Learning activities encourage, entertain, teach, and promote fluency If not for any of these reasons, they should be used just because they help students see beauty in a foreign language and not just problems that at times seem overwhelming

Vocabulary learning activities also lend themselves well to revision exercises helping learners recall material in a pleasant, entertaining way All authors referred to in this thesis agree that even if vocabulary learning activities resulted only in noise and entertained students, they are still worth paying attention to and implementing in the classroom since they motivate learners, promote communicative competence, and generate fluency

Some experts have also figured out characteristics of vocabulary learning activities that make vocabulary learning more effectively Lee (1995:35) lists several main

advantages when vocabulary learning activities are used in the classroom, including "a

welcome break from the usual routine of the language class", "motivating and challenging" "effort of learning", and "language practice in the various skills." Eros

(2000) holds that learning activities are highly appreciated thanks to their amusement and

interest Teachers can use learning activities to help their students practice skills of communication In addition, Uberman (1998) also affirms the helpful role of learning activities in vocabulary teaching after quoting and analyzing different opinions of experts From her own teaching experiences, Uberman observed the enthusiasm of her students in learning through vocabulary learning activities She considers vocabulary learning activities a way to help students not only enjoy and entertain with the language they learn, but also practice it incidentally

In summary, vocabulary-learning activities are useful and effective tools that should

be applied in vocabulary classes They make the lessons more interesting, enjoyable and effective

CHAPTER II: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

1 Research questions

For the purpose of this study which stated in Part A, my research questions are:

1 What are the English teachers and students’ perception and attitude towards vocabulary learning/teaching?

2 How effective are the currently used classroom vocabulary learning activities at Dong Son I High School?

2 The context of the study

2.1 The textbook

The textbook used for the 10th form students is English 10 (published in 2006), which is a theme-based compilation The textbook has 16 units and 6 review lessons Each unit focuses on a specific topic and consists of five main sections namely: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus The texts and the tasks were chosen from different sources of materials This, to some extent, stimulated students‘ interests

As I mentioned in chapter I, vocabulary is a language component that plays an important role in deciding learners‘ language proficiency When saying about the

importance of language, Pyles and Algeo said “When we first think about language, we

first think about words It is words that we arrange together to make sentences, conversation and discourse of all kinds” Because of its‘ importance, vocabulary exists in

five main sections of English 10 (reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus)

It is arranged with various themes, such as, a days in life (Unit 1), school talks (Unit 2), or undersea world (Unit 9)…etc It can not be denied that vocabulary is central of each unit Because of its‘ importance in language, so, in the textbook, the authors always consider many ways to improve vocabulary to students They have suggested some vocabulary classroom activities But there are not many and various activities To help students learn vocabulary more effectively, I think that teachers should give more activities, such as: playing vocabulary games, guessing the meanings, using visual aids…etc However, in order to achieve the most from vocabulary classroom activities, it is essential that suitable vocabulary classroom activities are chosen Therefore, I often consider that how to use classroom vocabulary activities to improve students‘ vocabularies

at my school

2.2 Teachers of English

Nine teachers who were teaching at Dong Son I school are invited to join the study (80% are female aged from thirty to fifty) They have been teaching English for at least seven years Most of them have to teach in a large class of over 45 students in each and each teacher has to teach four or five classes of this kind so that they are to be responsible for the learning results of around 180 students All the teachers at Dong Son I school are experienced and enthusiastic in teaching

2.3 The 10 th form students

Nearly 180 of 10th form students at Dong Son I secondary school in Thanh Hoa are the target subjects of the study They are both male and female students aged from sixteen

to seventeen and have learnt English at junior high school for four years Their proficiency

in English is more than elementary because many of them did not pay attention to studying English at lower classes They do not know the best way to learn English, especially, vocabulary They find it difficult to learn and memorize vocabulary During vocabulary learning activities, it is the teachers who have to talk much and students have a very passive learning habit

3 Data collection instruments

This study attempts to investigate the current situation of vocabulary learning and teaching as well as the effectiveness of the vocabulary learning activities which have been used in 10th form classes at Dong Son I secondary school To achieve the aims mentioned above, two survey questionnaires are conducted to collect data for the study One is for

students and one for teachers Teachers and students can evaluate how effective the

currently used classroom vocabulary learning activities are Informal interviews with teachers and students also provide useful information for the study

3.1 Survey questionnaires

There are varieties of methods that can be employed to collect data such as questionnaire, interview, observation and so on Each method has its own advantages and disadvantages The researcher chose questionnaire because it is one of the most popular instruments It is quite easy to prepare and it can be used with a large number of subjects What is more, the information collected is not very difficult to tabulate and to analyze (Brown, 1995) Hence, survey questionnaire was chosen to collect Teachers and Students‘ perception and attitudes toward the effectiveness of the currently used classroom vocabulary learning activities They have opportunities to reflect on their experience of

using classroom vocabulary activities to improve vocabulary learning and teaching The information, therefore, would be more detailed and more accurate

There are two sets of questionnaire with both close-ended and open-ended questions used for both teachers and students Questionnaires are administered to nine teachers and

180 students

 Questionnaire for students

The questionnaire consists of 4 questions (see Appendix 1) Question 1, 2, 3 aim at gathering the general information about students‘ own learning By answering question 4 students comment on the classroom vocabulary learning activities that their English teachers often use and evaluate their effectiveness

 Questionnaire for teachers

The questionnaire designed for teachers also consists of 4 questions (see Appendix 2) Question 1, 2, 3 aim at finding teachers‘ perception of the importance of vocabulary learning, their students‘ vocabulary learning and the difficulties they encounter when using classroom activities in vocabulary teaching Question 4 is for evaluating the effectiveness and frequency of use of the currently used classroom vocabulary learning activities

The activities stated in the questionnaire 4 (for all teachers and students) are currently used

to teach vocabulary Below is the description of these activities:

Classroom vocabulary learning activities

Activity 1: Word matching

This activity helps students revise vocabulary before listening or speaking This is an example when you teach speaking (Unit 9) Students are divided into many pairs and delivered handouts Students are asked to match the words in column A with their definitions in column B After 3 minutes, the teacher receives the answer of the first five pairs The teacher reads the answer of 5 pairs, comments and gives good marks to the pair which has the best answer Afterward, the teacher asks students to use these words to practice speaking about the actions which we should or should not do to protect our oceans

E.g: Match the following words in column A with their explanations in column B

A a substance added to soil to make it more fertile

B a substance used to kill plants growing where they are not wanted

C suitable, appropriate

F get rid of something

G a chemical substance used to kill insects

H a bin that hold rubbish until it is collected

Activity 2: Guess the word

―Guess the word‖ game is useful in vocabulary presentation The class is divided into four or five groups The teacher writes one of the new words on the board and asks students to listen carefully to the explanations in English Depending on the explanations, the groups try to guess the Vietnamese equivalent of the word For each correct guess, they get a point For example: When presenting new words in Unit 11 (National parks), our teachers say: ―This is an insect with four wings that can sting‖ The quickest group who can find out the Vietnamese meaning of ―bee‖ as ―con ong‖ will get a point After all the words have been presented, the group with the highest score is the winner

Activity 3: Word to sentence

This activity is used to review the text in reading skill and related vocabulary This is

an example in Unit 6 (An excursion)

T divides all class into many pairs

1 T writes three words on the board Sts make three sentences to summarize the main ideas of the learned letter in Unit 6

2 After three minutes, T checks up and gives marks

Given words: visiting, weather, permission

Suggested answer:

Lan ‗s classmates is visiting Huong Pagoda at the end of the first term They believe they will enjoy good weather Lan hopes she can get her parents‘ permission to stay the night from home

Activity 4: Rearrange letters to form new words

This game is very popular game used for English language teaching Teachers in my school exploited this game for vocabulary revision with students working in groups, trying

to rearrange the letters as quickly as possible to form meaningful words For each word, the fastest group got a point and at the end of the game, the group with the most points was the winner Here are some examples of scrambled words used for Unit 4 (Special education)

Exercise 5: Arrange the letters to make 10 words you have learned These words begin with the first letter

Activity 5: Missing words

Procedure

1 Select a paragraph or a short text at a level suitable for your class Delete lexical selected words from the text Number the blanks in the text Select words that can not be predicted too easily but allow prediction

2 Divide the class into groups, and give each group a copy of the text Ask them to fill in each blank with a suitable word in the box

3 Ask a member of each group to come to the board and write up their answer for each blank

4 Ask students to compare their answers Are they all acceptable? Would they reject any? Why?

5 Give the class feedback on their answers Use this phase of the activity to develop the students‘ awareness of lexical choice, vocabulary restrictions, and collocation

Below is an example for unit 12 (Music):

E.g.: Complete the article by filling each blank with a word from the box

Paul McCartney‘s Space Station concert

Sir Paul McCartney has become the first (1)…… to sing live to an audience in space The former Beatle woke up the crew of International Space Station with special (2)…… of two songs that were carefully chosen for the space concert The first was the

Beatles classic Good Day Sunshine The second tune was a track titled English Tea from his new (3) …… Chaos and Creation in the Backyard NASA‘s own television (4) ……

Channel versions canceled musician traditionally

Listening favor album space song

Showed the songs and live images of two-man space audience (5) …… to them This is the first time live music has woken up astronauts NASA (6) …… Uses recorded songs Sir Paul said he decided to sing Good Day Sunshine to repay a (7) …… NASA used it to wake the Space Shuttle Discovery crew earlier this year The (8) …… Signaled to the crew that landing conditions on Earth were perfect for their second attempt at returning from space The first landing was (9) …… because of bad weather Before his performance, Sir Paul said: ―I can‘t believe that we‗re actually transmitting to (10) …… This is sensational I love it.‖ Astronaut Bill McArthur also seemed happy and told Sir Paul: ―We consider you an explorer, just as we are.‖

Activity 6: Finding synonyms and antonyms

This type of task is exploited for vocabulary practice or revision Students are asked

to find words of similar meanings or those of opposite meanings to match a word in A with

a word in B to have a pair of synonym or a pair of antonym Below are some examples for this type of exercise quoted from unit 3 and unit 4

Exercise 7: Match a word in A with a word in B to have a pair of synonyms

Answer: 1e; 2f; 3a; 4b; 5d; 6c

Exercise 9: Match a word in A with a word in B to have a pair of antonyms

1 poor a worst

2 oppose b professional

Answer: 1c; 2g; 3e; 4h; 5b; 6d; 7a; 8j; 9i; 10f

Activity 7: Using visual aids

It can‘t be denied that visual aids are a very useful tool for vocabulary teaching and learning Teachers achieved more success from clines, diagrams and spidergrams as well

as pictures in process of teaching vocabulary Below are some examples of using visual

aids:

1 Guess the meaning

The aim of this activity is getting learners to listen to a lot of repetitions of new vocabulary For example in unit 1, we can use this activity to review nouns of the traffic

Procedures:

1 Put 9-10 objects or pictures where all the class can see them

2 Call a learner to come to the front

3 Repeatedly say the name of one of the objects while the learner guesses which object has that name by pointing at each object in turn If the learner points to the wrong object, keep repeating the words When the learner points to the correct, say

―Yes!‖ and repeat the name of the object

4 Say the name of another objects, while the learner points When the learner eventually points to the correct one, quickly revise the previous items by saying their name and getting the learner to point

5 Continue until all the objects have been named

3