Challenges in English vocabulary learning of ethnic minority grade 10 students at Muong Bi high school = Những khó khăn trong việc học từ vựng Tiếng Anh của học

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH HẠNH CHALLENGES IN ENGLISH VOCABULARY LEARNING OF ETHNIC MINORITY GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT MUONG BI HIGH SCHOOL NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH HẠNH

CHALLENGES IN ENGLISH VOCABULARY LEARNING OF ETHNIC MINORITY GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT MUONG BI

HIGH SCHOOL

(NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC HỌC TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG ANH

CỦA HỌC SINH DÂN TỘC THIỂU SỐ LỚP 10

TRƯỜNG THPT MƯỜNG BI)

M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 601410

HANOI - 2011

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ BÍCH HẠNH

CHALLENGES IN ENGLISH VOCABULARY LEARNING OF ETHNIC MINORITY GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT MUONG BI

HIGH SCHOOL

(NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN TRONG VIỆC HỌC TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG ANH

CỦA HỌC SINH DÂN TỘC THIỂU SỐ LỚP 10

TRƯỜNG THPT MƯỜNG BI)

M.A MINOR THESIS

FIELD : ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 601410

SUPERVISOR : Dr DƯƠNG THỊ NỤ

HANOI - 2011

Table of contents

Page

Declaration

Abstract

Acknowledgement

Part 1: introduction

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 1

3 Significance of the study 2

4 Scope of the study 2

5 Method of research 2

6 Organization of the study 3

Part 2 development Chapter 1: literature review 1.1 The importance of vocabulary in language teaching and learning 4

1.2 Principles of vocabulary teaching 4

1.2.1 Criteria for selecting vocabulary 4

1.2.2 Vocabulary teaching 5

1.2.2.1 Forms of a word 5

1.2.2.2 Meaning 5

1.2.2.3 Use of a word 6

1.3 Vocabulary learning 6

1.3.1 Factors affecting vocabulary learning 7

1.4 Methods in teaching vocabulary 8

1.4.1 Repetition and attention 8

1.4.2 Relationship with other words 8

1.4.3 Exceptions 8

1.5 Proficiency in the native language and the second language and the acquisition of a third language 9

1.5.1 Definition 9

1.5.2 Influence of proficiency in the native language and the second language on the acquisition of a third language 9

Chapter 2: methodology

2.1 Research setting 12

2.1.1 An overview of research setting 12

2.1.2 The materials of teaching and learning 12

2.2 Research questions 13

2.3 Participants 13

2.3.1 Description of the teachers of English 13

2.3.2 The students 13

2.4 Data Collection Instruments and procedures 14

2.4.1 The questionnaire 14

2.4.2 Classroom observations 14

2.4.3 Data Collection Procedure 14

2.5 Data Analysis Procedure 15

Chapter 3: FINDINGS and discussion 3.1 Results and discussions from the questionnaires for students 16

3.2 Results and discussions from the observation 20

3.3 Findings and discussions from the questionnaire 22

3.4 Recommendations 24

3.4.1 Motivating students to learn 24

3.4.2 Adapting the textbook 25

3.4.3 Selection of the vocabulary teaching 27

3.4.4 Practising the vocabulary 28

3.4.5 Improving learning and teaching conditions 31

3.4.6 Having local teachers to teach English for students in their communities 31

Part 3: Conclusion 1 Conclusions 32

2 Limitations of the study 32

3 Suggestions for further study 32

References 34 Appendices I

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

These days, there is no doubt about the fact that the English language is becoming something of a forerunner in global communication It is the first and second language in most countries of the world Almost 70% of the Internet is in English A huge volume of the information used on the Internet is also in English Thus, English is playing a very significant role in bringing the world together Therefore, teaching and learning English have become the necessity all over the world In Vietnam, English is a compulsory subject from primary schools to universities However, the quality of learning and teaching English is different from one school to another, especially from schools in cities, towns and those from remote and mountainous areas

In Hoa Binh mountainous province, English is a compulsory subject in the curriculum and it is considered as one of the major subjects for the high school final examination English is taught with the purpose to give students some basic knowledge of English in order to communicate and use it as a key to science and technology However, there still exist many difficulties facing teachers in teaching English to students, especially those from ethnic minorities It can be observed that ethnic minority students‟ scores are very low in English Less than 5 per cent earn good marks, even in the national graduation exams (Hoa Binh Department of Education and Training, 2008; 2009) In some remote areas, lower level students understand less than 20 per cent of what teachers say in Vietnamese (“Minority Students Needs”, 2008) Ethnic minority students mainly use their mother tongues – Muong, Thai, Hmong, Tay and other languages - to communicate inside their families and small communities From first grade onward, at school and in public places, ethnic minority students have to struggle with Vietnamese to study and communicate with other people This is why not many can understand lectures, even at high school, because they do not thoroughly comprehend Vietnamese - and very few teachers can explain things to them in their native languages (“Ethnic Schools Lack”, 2007) Thus, studying English language in addition to Vietnamese language might be very challenging for ethnic minority students

In addition, I find out that my pupils are not successful learners, only because they lack vocabulary In fact they are provided with almost every word necessary for their

communication inside and outside the classroom, but many of my pupils complain they

forget most of learned words only a few day later This proves that problems in learning vocabulary are undeniable For better vocabulary teaching and learning, I have chosen

Challenges in English vocabulary learning of ethnic minority grade 10 students at Muong Bi high school as the the topic of the study

2 Aims of the study

The study aims at investigating the areas of challenges in learning English vocabulary of ethnic minority grade 10 students in Muong Bi high school, Hoa Binh mountainous province Also, it is expected that some solutions to overcome challenges encountered will be suggested To be more specific, in realizing this study, the objectives are:

 To investigate the areas of challenges that ethnic minority grade 10 students have encountered when learning English vocabulary

 To offer some solutions with the hope of helping English language teachers in Muong Bi high school overcome difficulties in teaching vocabulary, improve the quality of their teaching, which helps improve ethnic minority students‟ language learning quality

3 Significance of the study

The study is hoped to be beneficial to both teachers and ethnic minority students in mountainous high schools First, the findings of the study, the challenges in learning English vocabulary of ethnic minority grade 10 students in Muong Bi high school could be shared among teachers of English to improve the quality of teaching and learning

in the coming years Next, it might highlight the rationale for professional development programs for high school teachers of English in mountainous areas in Vietnam Finally, the findings could be used as a data base for further study

4 Scope of the study

The study only concentrates on problems in learning vocabulary from the textbook

“Tiếng Anh 10” (by Hoang Van Van et al) of ethnic minority grade 10 students in Muong

Bi high school in Hoa Binh province and some possible solutions for teaching vocabulary

5 Methods of research

The study combined qualitative and quantitive approaches Data were collected via questionnaires and classroom observations:

- A Survey questionnaire for 100 grade 10 students was used to clarify the difficulties of ethnic minority grade 10 students in learning English vocabulary

- Classroom observations were also carried out to get information about both teachers‟ ways of teaching and students‟ ways of learning in class

6 Organization of the study

This study consists of three parts:

 Part One: Introduction presents the rationale, aims, significance, scope, method of study, and organization of the study

 Part Two: Development consists of three chapters:

- Chapter One - Literature Review provides a theoretical basis for the study

- Chapter Two – Methodology includes an overview of the approach used in conducting the study It also provides a thorough description of the data collection procedure as well as the analytical procedure

- Chapter Three – Findings and Discussion reports the findings of the study and discusses the prominent aspects

 Part Three: Conclusion presents the conclusions of major findings, recommendations, limitations for the study, and suggestions for further studies

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: Literature review Research in English teaching and learning in ethnic regions

In the past 30 years, many scholars (Naimen, et al., 1978; WEN, 1996, 2003,2004; CHENG & ZHENG,2002; CHEN,2005; ZHOU,2007) made research studies on learning strategies and/or vocabulary learning strategies, and most of them made great success However, most of them took undergraduates as subjects, and few scholars focus on the English vocabulary learning difficulties of ethnic students Very few of research studies focus on the ethnic minority students in senior high school in Vietnam

1.1 The importance of vocabulary in language teaching and learning

Vocabulary is commonly accepted to be the most important language elements among pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar Wilkins (1972) emphasized this with his saying, "without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed" (p.1l) Pyles and Algeo also supported this idea with "when we first think about language, we think first words It is words that we arrange together to make sentences, conversations and discourse " These statements are enough to conclude that vocabulary is the decisive element in language communication

This is all true in learning a foreign language If a learner has a wide range of vocabulary, he can to make himself understood and understand others easily On the contrary, if his vocabulary is limited he will surely have difficulty in doing so and in English learning Therefore, vocabulary is a "must" for all language learners by all means

1.2 Principles of vocabulary teaching

1.2.1 Criteria for selecting vocabulary

It cannot be denied that vocabulary is an essential element in learning a foreign language Therefore, it is important to concern first the criteria for selecting vocabulary to help the teacher make valid decisions on the right vocabulary items to teach at the learner's different level Gairns and Redman (1986) proposed some main criteria as frequency; student's needs and level; cultural factor and expediency In teaching, the teacher needs to select the most frequently used words to teach first The vocabulary should be appropriate

to students' level and their needs, the priority given to vocabulary for English as a subject

in the curriculum might be different from that of English for specific purposes The Culture

factor has great influenced on teaching, which means that the learners' background is to be considered, since people from different countries may need differentwords to express their ideas in the second language Expediency is one of the important criteria that needs to be concerned since the classroom is a world by itself and requires specific types of vocabulary such as grammatical terminology and activity instructions Harnler (1991) also adds more criteria for selection of vocabulary as concretion vs abstraction (concrete words should be taught at lower levels whereas abstract terms should be taught at higher lever); coverage (general words should be taught in more specific terms) and rapport (the student's involvement with the words is a major motivator for vocabulary learning)

1.2.2 Vocabulary teaching

In general, when the teacher teaches a new English word, he should, by all means, provide his learners with its meaning, forms and use at the same time Among these three areas, the use of a word is the most important, but it cannot be achieved if the forms and meaning of the word are not firmly understood and grasped by the learners

1.2.2.1 Forms of a word

 Pronunciation and spelling :

Each English word has its spelling and pronunciation Learners have to know all the spelling, pronunciation and irregularities of the word they are learning In teaching, we need to make sure that these aspects are accurately presented and learned

 Grammar

The grammar of a new word should also be taught to the learners They need to know the grammatical function, the unpredictable change of form in certain grammatical contexts, the regularity and irregularity, the singular and plural forms of the new word so that they

can use it correctly For example, when teaching the verb think, we might give its irregularity in past form thought

1.2.2.2 Meaning

 Denotative and connotative meaning

The meaning of a word is primarily what it refers to in the real world, meaning is found

in a dictionary For example, dog denotes a kind of animal, common, domestic carnivorous mammal A less obvious component of the meaning of a word is its connotation in different contexts or its connotative meaning This is the associations or positive or

negative feelings it evokes This meaning may or may not be indicated in a dictionary For instance the word , as understood by most British people, has positive connotations of friendship and loyalty: whereas the equivalent in Arabic' as understood by most of the Arab countries has negative associations of dirty and inferiority The connotative meaning

of a word is varied from one context to another

 Meaning relationship

How the meaning, especially denotative meaning, of one word relates can also be useful in teaching It is noted that the teacher has to make a careful choice of and decision

on which meaning of a word to teach and how many words to teach in the given class time

or else learners will be impeded by the pressure to absorb too many meanings and words This often results in confusion or forgetting

1.2.2.3 Use of a word

The most important thing for learners to learn a new word is to know how to use it appropriately and effectively in different oral and written contexts or else it may become a dead or forgettable word To use a new word well, they need to know how to collocate it with other words correctly Therefore, the teacher should put words into collocation For example, when introducing words like "to make” and "to do", the teacher may note that both words mean "to perform" but can be distinguished by the words they collocate with

We often say "to do the homework" but never say "to make the homework"

In short, students should be taught the form, the meaning, and the use of words in vocabulary lessons The teacher should ensure that vocabulary is regularly recycled/revised because if students do not get the chance to put it into use they will easily forget it

Unknown vocabulary is low in such messages, considerable vocabulary learning can occur even though students' attention is not directed to vocabulary learning Rubin and Thompson (1994: 82) suggest 3 strategies for dealing with this approach of vocabulary learning These strategies include receding a series of texts on a related topic, guessing the meaning of new words from context, and breaking up a word into components Similarly, Decanico (in Celce-Murcia 2000: 255-299) says that implicit vocabulary learning or incidents vocabulary learning is learning that occurs when the mind is focused elsewhere, such as on understanding a text or using language for communicative purposes

1 3 English vocabulary learning

It is believed that the factors that affect the learner in language learning also have

an effect on his vocabulary learning These factors include, according to Lighbown and Spada (1999: 51-68), intelligence, aptitude, personality, motivation and, attitudes, learner preferences, learner beliefs, age, some kinds of activities Rubin and Thompson (1994: 3 - 8) suggest a similar list of factors affecting learning: age, aptitude, attitude (emotions), personality (extroversion, inhibition, tolerance of ambiguity), learning style (learning by strategies Ellis (1997: 76) emphasizes the importance of learning strategies, when he states that studies have shown that successful learners use more strategies than unsuccessful learners and successful learners use different strategies at different stages of their development He emphasizes that if crucial learning strategies can be identified, they can

be taught to students Learning strategies are the decisive factor for vocabulary learning Hence many scholars have striven to introduce different vocabulary learning strategies in order to help learners of English improve their vocabulary learning The representatives of those scholars are Nation (1982,1990, 2001), Lacey, Trench, and Vanderpump (1990), Taylor (1990), not to mention many other scholars who are interested in learning strategies such as Oxford (10001, Ruhin et Thompson (1994), Nunan 1991), Cook (1993), Wenclen and Rubin (1987), Wenden (1991), etc

1.3.1 Factors Affect Vocabulary Learning

There have been different opinions or factors that affect vocabulary acquisition However, they all share some main points Below are four types of factor said to have great impact on language learners‟ vocabulary acquisition

The first type is the person- dependent factors including age, sex, language, and cognitive and learning style These factors differ from person to person They are relatively stable, and they determine to a large extent how a learner approaches a task

The second is the learning task which includes the materials being learnt (such as the genre of a piece of reading) as well as the goal the learner is trying 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 level demand different strategies

The third type of factor is the learning context It is the socio-cultural-political environment where learning takes place The learning context can include the teachers, the peer, the classroom climate, the family support, the social, cultural tradition of learning, the

curriculum, and the availability of input and output opportunities These factors have a certain effect on the ways learners approach learning task and acquire vocabulary knowledge

In short, the factors discussed above (person, task and context, ) exist together and make a configuration of a particular learning situation that will help to bring about the effectiveness of vocabulary

1.4 Methods in vocabulary teaching

Markey (1978:138) states, “The method used has been said to be the cause of

success or failure in language learning, for it is ultimately the method that determines what and the how of language instruction” This statement shows us the importance of

method It is method that determines success or failure in language teaching That is the reason why teacher have to understand well about different methods so that they can choose the best ones for their learners Below is a brief discussion on some methods in vocabulary teaching in history and their role in vocabulary teaching and learning

1.4.1 Repetition and attention

Some psychologists, according to Nation (1990: 43), believe that repetition is not as effective as the type of attention given to a new word Oral repetition of a word form is not

as effective as recalling the form of the word However, the occuring frequency of a word affects the learning burden: the more frequently it is met, the easier it is to learn Seeing the word form and a definition of its meaning is not as effective as having to make an effort to recall its meaning before being shown the defnition as feedback

1.4.2 Relationship with other words

Similarities between words can make learning easier If the student has already known the word meaning he may learn the meaning more easily However, similarities between words can also make learning more difficult: a list of words that are strongly associated with each other (e.g opposites, free associates) is more difficult to learn than a list of unrelated words

1.4.3 Exceptions

The effect of learning an exception is to make the learning of a rule more difficult For example, the word school and town are most often used as countable nouns, so when used as singular nouns, they are often preceded by an article, a demonstrative adjective, or

a possessive adjective However, in to go to school and to go to town, they neither are nor

proceeded by any of these words As a result, school and town are often used productively

incorrectly

1.5 Proficiency in the native language and the second language and the acquisition of a third language

1.5.1 Definitions

Language acquisition is one of the most impressive and fascinating aspects of

human development In website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/languageacquisition on June

20, 2011, language acquisition is defined as “the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive, produce and use words to understand and communicate This capacity involves the picking up of diverse capacities including syntax, phonetics, and an extensive vocabulary This language might be vocal as with speech or manual as in sign” Language acquisition usually refers to first language acquisition, which studies infants' acquisition of their native language, rather than second language acquisition that deals with acquisition (in both children and adults) of additional languages

With regard to second language acquisition, it is portrayed as the process by which people learn languages in addition to their native language The term "second language",

"target language", or "L2" are used to refer to any language learned after the native language, which is also called "mother tongue", "first language", "L1", or "source language" Second language acquisition also includes third language acquisition (L3)

1.5.2 Influence of proficiency in the native language and the second language on the acquisition of a third language

Although English is taught in Vietnamese high schools as a foreign language, for ethnic minority students, learning English is similar to learning a third language This is because these ethnic minority students have to learn Vietnamese in addition to their indigenous or native language This study was conducted in the Ethnic Minority Boarding High School andtwo high schools in remote districts of the mountainous province, where the majority of the students belong to ethnic minority groups Thus, what follows is a brief review of the literature on the influence of learners‟ first and second languages on the acquisition of a third language

The influence of proficiency in L1 and L2 on the acquisition of a third language has interested researchers for a few decades, but knowledge about those influences remains limited Cummings (2000) stated that according to „interdependence hypothesis‟, there is a

positive and significant relationship between students‟ first language development, specially their development of literacy skills, and their second language development A similar relationship might be expected to hold good in the case of multilingual acquisition,

so that different degrees of proficiency in the first and second languages would affect the acquisition of the third language

In addition, recent psycholinguistic research on third language acquisition has made clear that the acquisition of an L3 shares many characteristics with the acquisition of

an L2 but it also presents differences Accordingly, the educational aspects of teaching English as an L3 differ from those of teaching English as an L2 Third language acquisition

is more complex phenomenon than second language acquisition because, apart from all individual and social factors that affect the latter, the process and product of acquiring a second language can themselves potentially influence the acquisition of a third language The educational aspects of the acquisition of English as a third language differ those of English as a second language, and have more implications regarding the optimal age for introduction of the different languages and the desired level of proficiency in each

However, several studies on L3 acquisition have convincingly shown a qualitative difference between the acquisition of a true L2 and the subsequent acquisition of an L3 Some studies even indicate that L2 takes on a stronger role than L1 in the initial state of L3 syntax (e.g Bardel & Falk, 2007; Rothman & Cabrelli Amaro, forthcoming) An explanation put forward by Williams & Hammarberg (1998) and Bardel & Falk (2007) as

to why the L2 takes on a stronger role than the L1 is that of the L2 status factor According

to Falk & Bardel, the L2 status factor is an outcome of the higher degree of similarity between L2 and L3 than between L1 and L3, regarding age of onset, outcome, learning situation, metalinguistic knowledge, learning strategies and degree of awareness in the language learning process

Also, the acquisitional setting may vary from predominantly informal acquisition,

as is the case for instance in bilingual environments, to more formal settings, such as foreign language learning in the classroom On the one hand, it can be assumed that L3 learners, especially those who have learnt the L2 in a formal setting, are aware of the language learning process, and have acquired metalinguistic experiences and learning strategies to facilitate foreign language learning

Therefore, for students from ethnic minority groups, studying one more language, English – the third language, via Vietnamese – the second language might be very challenging This is because of the fact that when learning English, they comprehend English lessons by listening, switching into their native languages - and then translating or changing into Vietnamese and then English again Limited literacy or Vietnamese language skills can limit the acquisition of the third language As a result, it is observed that a large number of these students are almost illiterate in English despite many years‟ learning the language

CHAPTER 2 : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter includes a justification for the approach the author used in conducting the research It also provides a thorough description of how the author collected the necessary data as well as the analytical procedure to draw conclusions based on the collected information In the first section the author gives detailed description of the research setting where the study was conducted In the next sections, the author puts forward an explanation of the author‟s understanding of the methods used in this research and their advantages

2.1 Research setting

2.1.1 An overview of research setting

Muong Bi high school is located in Hoa Binh, a mountainous province in the

northwest of Vietnam, where over 80 % of the population belongs to ethnic minority groups, and where there have been many difficulties in life as well as in educational development, especially in the development of teaching a foreign language like English Not much attention is paid to English learning though it is among the compulsory subjects

in the national final examinations

2.1.2 The materials of teaching and learning

In terms of the materials of teaching and learning, the textbook currently used to

teach English are Tieng Anh 10, published by Ministry of Education and Training The

teaching content of English textbooks follows the theme-based approach and is developed

on six broad themes The six themes are subdivided into 16 topics corresponding with 16 units and a “Test yourself” after every 3 units All units have the same structure, starting with the theme of the unit, following four lessons focused on language skills and ending with language focus Language skills are developed in parallel with the development of such language knowledge as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation

With strengths, the textbooks are expected to contribute better quality of English learning in Vietnam high schools In terms of curriculum development, the introduction of the new textbook can be new fresh air blowing into the teaching and learning situation at secondary schools in Vietnam However, to a large number of ethnic minority students, the English textbooks are very difficult Very often the amount of new vocabulary in one unit

was too much for students In addition, many topics in their English textbooks were strange

to their daily lives and background

2.3.1 Description of the teachers of English

The five participants who are currently teaching English to ethnic minority students

at grade 10 level graduated from Hanoi Universities of Foreign Languages or have taken

an English in-service training course; All of the teachers are female and from 28 to 32 years old Their teaching experience at high schools varies from 5 to 10 years The variety

in the participants‟ age, sex, qualification, and teaching experience is expected to provide reliability and validity for the study

2.3.2 The students

Teaching English for ethnic minority students in the remote mountainous area has long been a controversial issue Many ethnic minority students‟ English level is low and Vietnamese language skills are limited Besides, there is lack of proper teaching and learning materials at primary and secondary schools For them, English is simply an obligatory subject; they learn it mainly for marks, the only goal is to pass the tests The time, the input and exposure to the language are limited to the classroom Therefore, they seem to be passive in learning Students listen to their teachers and repeat passively and give a mechanical response They are likely to become demotivated to English learning, depending much on the textbook and teachers‟ method of delivery Language activities like role plays, problem-solving tasks, or information gap activities, therefore, seem strange to their culture of learning Even, when they fail to understand something, they are not daring enough to ask for clarification in public Therefore, “the English learning environment is described as a cultural island where the teacher is expected to be the sole provider of experience in the target language" (Canh, 1999, p.74)

2.4 Data Collection Instruments and procedures

In order to get information, the main data collection instruments for this study were questionnaires and classroom observations

2.4.1 The questionnaire

At the beginning of March 2011, the author did a survey on this topic to develop an appropriate survey instrument for this study The final questionnaire was administered to 100 ethnic students In order to make sure that, all the students fully understand the questions, the questionnaires were written in Vietnamese All of the distributed questionnaires were returned with answers

The questionnaire focuses on three main factors that the author considers the causes

of the students‟ difficulties in learning English vocacbulary such as: the learners‟ background, the material and the teaching methods The purpose of the questionnaire was

to examine how important the ethnic minority students think of their learning English and what difficulties they often meet when learning vocabulary

2.4.3 Data Collection Procedure

According to Selinger and Shohamy (1989) once the researcher has selected a specific design for the study which is consistent with the objectives of the research, the next step is to collect the research data In collecting the data it is important to use procedures which elicit high quality data, since the quality of any research study depends largely on the quality of the data collected and the data collection procedure

As stated above, the study was carried out in Muong Bi high school The reason for the choice was that 100% students at these schools were ethnic minorities; that might be useful to give rich information for the data collection of the study Among the teachers of three schools, five were selected for interviews on voluntary basis and all of them were observed while teaching

The observations were conducted in five selected teachers at the beginning of the

school year

2.5 Data Analysis Procedure

The strengths of qualitative data rest very centrally on the competence with which their analysis is carried out.According to Hatch (2002), interpretation, as interpretation of interview data, is a defining element that permeates all qualitative research through making inferences, developing insights, attaching importance, refining understandings, drawing conclusions, and extrapolating lessons Since researchers carry out interpretations in the research process, they make sense of the phenomenon under investigation This interpretive analysis was intended to link interpretation to the data in order to result in meaningful data

The analysis of the observation data in this study involved careful readings of the researcher‟s field notes of sample lessons Following the observation guide, the researcher conducted the analysis as follows In the first stage, the researcher examined the field notes

of all the lessons of the five observed teachers In the second stage, the researcher reviewed the detailed field notes coupled with questionnaire In the third stage, through analysis of field notes of the sample lessons, the researcher demonstrated how the teachers of English organized classroom activities in English lessons and how they dealt with the challenges in teaching to ethnic minority students

This chapter has examined the approach used in the study to illuminate its research questions about the challenges in learning English vocabulary of grade 10 ethnic minority students It also described the data collection as well as the analytical procedure which leads to the results of the research as presented in the next chapter – Results and discussion

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

Data analysis is not a simple description of the data collected but a process by which the researcher can bring interpretation to the data (Powney & Watts,1987) In the following parts, the researcher interprets the results from the feedback of the questionnaires and observations The study mentions the ethnic students‟ constraints in learning English vocabulary

3.1 Results and discussions from the questionnaires for students

In order to get information about the students‟ attitudes toward English vocabulary learning and the factors affecting their acquisition of the language the author poses here

10 questions for the students Following is the findings

Question 1 In your opinion, what is the role of vocabulary in learning English?

Although they know clearly that English is very important almost of them choose the answer “very important”, they still do not spend enough time on learning English, because of many factors that hinder them from doing so Firstly, they do not have time to learn, secondly, some of them think they can learn it later when they have opportunity

Question 2 In Tieng Anh 10 there are … new words in one unit

The results of in question 2 show that the greatest percentage (95%) of the learners say that they are overwhelmed by the amount of vocabulary in one unit, so after 3 periods a week they had to learn a great number of the new words in the text book and the words provided

by teacher Only 5% of the students asked say there are not many vocabulary in one unit

to learn

Question 3 The topics in the textbook are…

Most of the students (85%) state that many topics in their English textbooks are unfamiliar

to their daily lives and background, that is the reason why the students usually face difficulties when they learn vocabulary The rest (15%) say that sometimes they find the contents of the lessons unfamiliar to them

Question 4 Number the following items from the least to the most difficult for you when you learn English vocabulary:

A Word form (pronunciation and spelling) 70

Question 5 Do you find it is difficult to pronounce English words?

When being asked if students find that in English pronunciation is difficult, most of them say yes (82%) It is the fact that, minority ethnic learners always face many problems

in learning vocabulary, they always confuse /d/ with /t/, /v/ with /b/ As seen in question 4

that 70% of the learners revealed that pronunciation is the most difficult item when learning English vocabulary They are totally dependent on imitating the teachers so after the lesson they cannot remember or read the words correctly by themselves

Question 6 How does your teacher present the meaning of new words?

It can be seen from the table that most of the time translation is used to teach vocabulary There may be the reason why the students often find it boring to learn vocabulary lessons There is a small number of the teachers who used visual aids to teach vocabulary (27%) Some students (15%) noted that their teachers organised them into pairs and groups and help them do different vocabulary activities It is the fact that none of the teachers explain the meaning of the new words in English because it may cause more difficulty for students

Question 7 How does your teacher introduce the use of new words?

B Give examples and students draw out the rules 54

More than half of the students under the survey express that their teachers introduce the use of new words through examples This may be the easiest and the most economical way to teach word uses Besides, it can enhance the students‟ ability to draw out rules from examples 40% of the students say that their teachers introduce word uses by explaining it in Vietnamese This way can be easy for students to follow but it does not help them really understand in English and therefore cannot use the words later Only 6% say that they are not taught word uses

Question 8 How do you practice new words in the class?

It is clear that almost all the students under the survey practice word by doing multiple choice exercises This technique is not difficult and many of them like it However, sometimes it causes the lessons boring In fact only 15% of the teachers using word games

to teach vocabulary May be doing gap filling exercises and write sentences are challenging tasks for the students so they are not used regularly

Question 9 Does your teacher give you chance to learn vocabulary in pairs/ groups?

A Make sentences with the words 20

Question 10 How much time do you usually spend learning new words at home?

D Sometimes when I am required to do

homework by the teacher

18

Although the students highly appreciate the role of learning vocabulary, only a small number of them spend enough time learning it Just 20% of the students spend in total one hour daily learning; only 5% spend more than two hours and over half students 57% spend no time at all in learning new words At school, students have to learn many subjects and they do not pay much attention to learning English They only concentrate on some subjects, which they believe to be useful for their future, such as, maths, literature, physics, chemistry or biology

3.2 Results and discussions from the observation

The researcher observed four teachers‟ ten English lessons on language skills and language knowledge at grade 10 with their permission The analysis of the observation data indicated that difficulties emerged in the actual classrooms such as lack of various types of classroom activities associated with CLT, too many new words and structures were given

in each lesson, students‟ preference of using their native languages or Vietnamese language, a large amount of teachers‟ using Vietnamese in class, and students‟ passiveness

in learning

In general, all the teachers‟ lessons the researcher observed followed the basic steps

of the lesson: warm-up activities, presentation, practice and consolidation and homework The lessons on language skills included three stages namely pre-, while-, and post-stage In the pre-stage, teachers introduced the new language inputs to their students, often new words or phrases, students learned both spelling and sounds in class, in chorus or individually However, what follows is a discussion of some prominent challenges

First, there was lack of various types of classroom activities associated with CLT in English classes, the teachers commonly organized only two types of activities such as

group and pair work in their vocabulary teaching, and left other activities out of account Some teachers often let students take part in mechanical practice such as repetition drills and substitution drills in class This monotonous ways of teaching might be one of the reasons to make English lessons tedious to ethnic minority students and reduce their interest in participating in classroom activities Jacobs and Ball (1996) noted that “more emphasis should be given to active modes of learning such as pair or group work in problem-solving tasks, nevertheless, classroom group or pair work should not be considered an essential feature used all the time, and may well be inappropriate in some contexts” Besides, some teachers were not creative in carrying out groups or pair works, especially in arranging pairs or groups Sometimes, many students were reluctant to join in activities when being put into the same groups or pairs in class

The next challenge was that too many new words and structures were given in each lesson Teachers spent too much time in presenting new words, especially in reading and listening lessons Two of the lessons the researcher attended were reading lessons, after the lessons, the researcher even could not know what was going on, what objectives of the lessons were, because the teachers presented too many new words and structures, students had to write down and learn the words, whereas the reading passage was so long that both teachers and students had to “race” to finish the lessons on time

Another challenge was that a large amount of Vietnamese language used by the teachers in teaching in English classes The classroom observations revealed that most of teachers hardly used English in teaching language skills and language knowledge lessons They used Vietnamese when introducing the topic of the lesson, analyzing grammatical structures, checking multiple answers in students‟ book, explaining students‟ assignments, and translating some difficult sentences, etc Although English was encouraged to be maximally exposed to language learners (MOET, 2006), the English language environment

in classes was limited in the observed lessons Thus, in such a poor learning environment like that, it was difficult for students to acquire a foreign language effectively

Besides, students‟ preference of using their native languages or Vietnamese language during group work or pair work caused challenges for teachers in their teaching When students were asked to have a discussion or joined in communicative activities, some students often discussed in Vietnamese or their native languages instead of English, they only shifted to English when the teachers approached them Limited English