Difficulties encountered by the 9th form students in learning English vocabulary at Chu Văn An Secondary School, Thanh Hóa = Những khó khăn trong việc học từ vự

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* LÊ THỊ MAI STUDENTS IN LEARNING ENGLISH VOC

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

LÊ THỊ MAI

STUDENTS IN LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY AT CHU VĂN AN SECONDARY SCHOOL, THANH HÓA

Những khó khăn trong việc học từ vựng Tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 9, trường trung học cơ sở Chu Văn An, Thanh Hóa

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

LÊ THỊ MAI

STUDENTS IN LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY AT CHU VĂN AN SECONDARY SCHOOL, THANH HÓA

Những khó khăn trong việc học từ vựng Tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 9, trường trung học cơ sở Chu Văn An, Thanh Hóa

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

SUPERVISOR: Dr DƯƠNG THỊ NỤ

Hanoi, 2014

DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled

“DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY THE 9TH FORM STUDENTS IN LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY AT CHU VĂN AN SECONDARY SCHOOL, THANH HOÁ” is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University – Ha Noi and this thesis has not been submitted for any degree

at any other university or tertiary institution

Le Thi Mai

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First I would like to express my sincere and deep gratitude to my supervisor,

Dr Duong Thi Nu, who has given me great help with this thesis Without her experienced guidance, valuable suggestions and dutiful supervision, my research would be far from completed

I would also like to acknowledge my debt of gratitude to Dr Le Hung Tien,

Dr Le Van Canh and the staff members at Faculty of Graduate and Post Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University – Ha Noi for their valuable lectures, which laid the foundation of this thesis and for their knowledge as well as their sympathy

I am also grateful to the librarians at the Resource Centre, who are willing to lend me a lot of interesting books and valuable materials for my thesis

I take this opportunity to thank all students and teachers at Chu Van An secondary school for their help and co-operation during the time I collected the data

Last but not least, I would like to express my thanks to my beloved family who continually gave me a lot of support and encouragement for the fulfillment of this challenging work

ABSTRACT

No doubt that vocabulary is a significant factor in language acquisition since words play an important role in expressing our feeling, emotions, and ideas to others during the act of communication However, learning vocabulary is really a big challenge for students in learning a foreign language The aims of this study are

to find out difficulties in learning English vocabulary of the 9th form students at Chu Văn An secondary school and suggest possible solutions to help them overcome those difficulties To achieve these aims, a survey research was conducted to 130 students of Chu Văn An secondary school by means of questionnaire, an informal interview with 3 English teachers of the school and classroom observation were also used as tools to clarify the information from the students The findings from data analysis show that the difficulties were caused by both internal factors and external factors The internal factors are such factors coming from the students themselves

as, their lack of motivation and effective ways to learn vocabulary and also their natural characteristics of young age The external factors are English learning environment, vocabulary learning task and lack of time for studying English These factors affected and caused difficulties for students in learning vocabulary process The study gives some solutions to deal with these factors including encouraging students’self- study, providing students with learning vocabulary strategies and improving various techniques in teaching vocabulary

ABBREVIATIONS

L2: Second language

CVASS: Chu Van An secondary school

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Charts:

Chart 1: Students’ level of English vocabulary

Chart 2: Students’ attitudes towards the importance of vocabulary

Chart 3: Students’ attitudes towards learning new words

Chart 4: Students’ difficulties in learning new words

Chart 5: Students’ evaluation of their ways of learning new words

Chart 6: Teachers’ ways to present new words

Chart 7: Students’ evaluation towards teachers’ teaching method

Tables:

Table 1: Students’ time for learning new words

Table 2: Students’ ways of learning new words

Table 3: Students’ most interested way of vocabylary practice

Table 4: Students’ expectation towards teachers’ activities in vocabylary lessons Table 5: Students’ expectation to ways of learning new words

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

DECLARATION ……….… i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……… ii

ABSTRACT ……… iii

ABBREVIATIONS ……… ……… iv

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES ……… v

TABLE OF CONTENT vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION ……….………….………… 1

1 Rationale for the study ……….……… 1

2 Aims of the study ……… 2

3 Research questions ……… 2

4 Scope of the study ……….… 2

5 Methods of the study ……… 3

6 Organization of the study ……… 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT ……… 4

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW ……… 4

1.1 An overview of vocabulary….……… 4

1.1.1 Definitions of vocabulary ……… ……… 4

1.1.2 Importance of vocabulary in language teaching and learning 4

1.2 Vocabulary learning ……… 5

1.2.1 Knowing a word……… 5

1.2.1.1 Form of a word.……… 5

1.2.1.2 Word meanings……… 6

1.2.1.3 Use of a word.……… 7

1.2.2 Approaches to vocabulary learning……… 7

1.2.2.1 Explicit vocabulary learning……… 7

1.2.2.2 Emplicit vocabulary learning……… 7

1.3 Factors affecting vocabulary learning……… 8

1.3.1 Internal factors……… 8

1.3.2 External factors……… 9

1.4 Previous work review……… 10

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY ……… 13

2.1 Context of the study ……… 13

2.1.1 The teachers and their teaching methods……… 13

2.1.2 The students and their background……… 13

2.1.3 The teaching materials and facilities……… 14

2.2 Subjects of the study……… 14

2.3 Data collection instruments……… 15

CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ……… 17

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS ……… 26

3.Findings ……… 26

3.1 Internal factors ……… 26

3.1.1 Lack of motivation ……… 26

3.1.2 Ineffective ways of learning vocabulary ……… 27

3.1.3 Age……… 27

3.2 External factors ……… 28

3.2.1 The English learning environment……… 28

3.2.2 Vocabulary learning task ……… 30

3.2.3 Lack of time ……… 30

3.3 Others ……… 30

3.3.1 Lack of teaching aids and reference materials 30

3.3.2 Intralexical factors ……… 30

4 Suggestions ……… 30

4.1 Encouraging students’ self-study ……… 30

4.2 Providing students with different vocabulary learning strategies 32

4.3 Improving various techniques in teaching vocabulary………… 36

PART C CONCLUSION ……… 40

1 Recapitulation of the study……… 40

2 Conclusions……… 40

3 Limitations of the study ……… 41

4 Suggestions for further research ……… 41

REFERENCES ……… 42 APPENDICES I

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

As global communication among people has increased, English has become the first choice for cross-border communication worldwide English is the language most widely taught as a foreign language in more than 100 countries in the world

In Vietnam, since the economic open door policy, English has been also considered

to be the most popular foreign language Especially after becoming a member of the World Trade Organization, English has become a great demand for schooling and job opportunities

In learning a foreign language in general, and English in particular, vocabulary plays an important role Because meaning is chiefly conveyed through words, vocabulary is the foundation of communication, without which communication would be very limited McCarthy (1990) states that “No matter how well the student learns grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to express a wide range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way” By having rich vocabulary, students can improve their listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities, not only in the way they comprehend but also in the way they produce language In order to become independent users of English, students should acquire an adequate number of words and should know how to use them accurately However, vocabulary acquisition is really challenging to every student, especially students at secondary schools

In the context of Chu Văn An secondary school (CVASS), English is a compulsory subject to the students Vocabulary lessons are not paid enough attention in order to help students learn new words more effectively As a result, most of them have formed a habit of only learning new words found in their text books or through teachers’ sources They normally learn vocabulary by such methods as listing new words on a notebook and learning them by heart, writing new words repeatedly down on papers, reading new words out loud several times, and so forth These above seem not to be very effective and interesting ways for vocabulary acquisition Moreover, students only think of vocabulary learning as knowing the primary meaning of new words, they ignore all other functions of the

words Many of them may also 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 Many students, after learning English for many years, can only read and understand short and simple texts and hardly communicate in English

As a teacher of English, I have dealt with many questions relating to vocabulary learning which are raised by my students or among my colleagues For example, “why is it very difficult to remember new words?” or “what are the effective ways of learning vocabulary?”, etc Therefore, I conducted a study to find out the causes of their difficulties Then, the factors that most affect their learning of English vocabulary can be identified The solutions to these problems will be suggested to improve the learning and teaching of vocabulary at Chu Văn An secondary school

2 Aims of the study

The study aims to find out the factors that cause difficulties for the 9th form students in learning English vocabulary at Chu Văn An secondary school Once these factors have been identified, solutions to help students study vocabulary more effectively will be suggested

- What solutions should be suggested to help the students learn English vocabulary better?

4 Scope of the study

The study was designed to find out the factors that cause difficulties in learning English vocabulary faced by the 9th form students at CVASS In the context of teaching and learning English at CVASS, English vocabulary mentioned

here mean the new words in the English textbook Tieng Anh 9 that students are

taught or learn by themselves The target population is the 9th form students, who have experienced from 6 to 9 years of learning English, but their English knowledge

is not very good The solutions are also provided to improve the students’ English vocabulary learning at CVASS

5 Methods of the study

In order to achieve the purpose of the study, both qualitative and quantitative methods are used That is all comments, conclusions, suggestions given in the thesis are based on the analysis of data from a survey questionnaire responded by 130 9thform students, an informal interview answered by three English teachers of the school and author’s classroom- observation

6 Organization of the study

The thesis is organized into three main parts:

Part A - Introduction

In this part the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the method, and the organization of the study are presented

Part B - Development

This part is divided into four chapters

Chapter 1: Literature Review

This chapter presents the theoretical background for the study It focuses on some concepts in the second language vocabulary learning and some factors affecting second language vocabulary learning It also provides a brief review of previous study of similar topic

Chapter 2: Methodology

This chapter presents a detailed description of the research methodology Chapter 3: Data analysis and discussion

This chapter describes the analysis of data and discussion

Chapter 4: Findings and solutions

In this part, some main findings in the study and some teaching and learning implications are presented

Part C - Conclusion

This part summarizes the study, states the concluding remarks, the limitation

of the research and offers suggestions for further research

In this thesis, vocabulary is defined as the total number of all the words that a language possesses, including a single word, two or three word items expressing a single idea and multi-word idioms of which meaning cannot be deduced from the analysis

of the component words but only understood in the sentences, or in contexts

1.1.2 Importance of vocabulary in language teaching and learning

The prominent role of vocabulary knowledge in second language learning has been increasingly recognized Vocabulary is commonly accepted to be the most

important language elements among pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar

McCarthy (1990: viii) stated that “the biggest component of any language course is vocabulary” “No matter how well the student learns grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to express a wide range

of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way.” Wilkin (1972:11) emphasizes this in his saying, “without grammar, very little can

be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” A leading linguistic researcher Paul Nationnotes:“Vocabulary is not an end in itself A rich vocabulary makes the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing easier to perform”

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 However,

if his vocabulary is limited he will surely have difficulty in doing so and in English learning Therefore, nobody can learn a language without learning vocabulary, and nobody can be a good language user without a reasonably rich vocabulary These all show that the success of a student in becoming proficient in any language depends

in part on the extent and richness of his/ her vocabulary, so vocabulary teaching should be part of the syllabus, and vocabulary should be taught on a well-planned and regular basis

1.2 Vocabulary learning

1.2.1 Knowing a word

According to Nation (1990:30-33) and Taylor (1990:1-4) , knowing a word involves not only knowing its spelling, morphology, pronunciation, meaning, or the equivalent of the word in the learner’s mother tongue but also its collocations, register, polysemy, and even its homonym

Miller and Gildea (1987) points out that “knowing a word does not simply mean being able to recognize what it looks and sounds like or being able to give the word’s dictionary definition Knowing a word by sight and sound and knowing its dictionary definition are not the same as knowing how to use the word correctly and understanding it when it is heard or seen in various contexts

According to Cook (2001:61), “a word is more than its meaning”, knowing a word may involve four aspects: form of the word, grammatical properties, lexical properties,and general meaning and specific meaning

In summary, aspects of knowing a word compose of: form of a word, word meanings and use of a word

1.2.1.1 Form 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 To many students, the complex relationship between sound and spelling in English seems to make the language inexplicable

* Grammar: Regarding Ruth Gairns and Stuart Redman’s view (1986), foreign

language learners need some guidance on how to use vocabulary accurately They need to know the grammatical function, the unpredictable change of form in certain

contexts For example, when they learn the noun person they should learn its plural form as people The form of a word can change unpredictably in certain

grammatical contexts Therefore, when learners learn a new word, they should know this information at the same time they learn the basic form of a word For

example, when a verb such as teach is learnt, it should be noticed that its irregular past form is taught

* Collocation: Collocation is the way in which two or more words go together in a

certain context In many cases a word has more than one meaning only Then it is the context and collocations that give essential clues to recognize which meaning is intended Therefore, this is another piece of information of a new item, which may

worth paying attention to For example, we say take a photo but make a speech we cannot say a handsome girl instead of a beautiful girl

1.2.1.2 Word meanings

There are various kinds of meaning, which include denotational meaning, connotational meaning, pragmatic meaning or appropriateness, and meaning relationship The denotation refers to things or concepts This is often the sort of

definition given in dictionaries such as fish denotes a mammal that lives in the

water The connotation is association, or positive and negative feelings the word evokes which may not be indicated in a dictionary definition Appropriateness is more subtle aspect of meaning which indicates whether a particular item isappropriate one

to use in a certain context or not Associations or meaning relationships show how the meaning of one item relates to the meaning of the others

Word - formation: Words can change their shape and their grammatical value

Learners need to know affixing rules and derivation principles in word formation

and how to use words to fit different grammatical contexts For example, if learners

know the meaning of affixes dis-, in- and -able, this will help them guess the meaning of words such as , disappointed , ineffective, fashionable

by the words they collocate with , we often say I miss my family but we cannot say

I miss to post the letter

1.2.2 Approaches to vocabulary learning

1.2.2.1 Explicit vocabulary learning

A traditional and common method in teaching vocabulary is explicit vocabulary learning Nation (1990) puts it that it helps to fill the gap of vocabulary size between native speakers and a second or foreign language learner within a short

of time Nation (1990) demonstrates that explicit attention is given to direct vocabulary learning That means learners are specially instructed to pay attention directly to activities in which vocabulary acquisition occurs immediately For example, dictionary use, vocabulary lists and their translations, direct vocabulary explanations, learning affixes and roots, semantic mapping and matching words with different definitions, etc or when students are doing word-building exercises, guessing the meaning of unknown words in context, learning words in word lists, or playing vocabulary games, they are learning vocabulary explicitly Such activities usually take place in class with a lot of help and instruction from teachers

1.2.2.2 Implicit vocabulary learning

Implicit vocabulary learning has been explained by researchers as incidental vocabulary learning It is defined by Nation (2001) as one of the important strategies in vocabulary acquisition It refers to the fact that a person can expand his

or her vocabulary knowledge while being involved in any language activities without any specific intention to focus on vocabulary This method includes learning from joining conversations, listening to radio, stories, music, watching movies, television, especially extensive reading, or any other exposure of input and output both in and out of the classroom (Nation, 2001)

1.3 Factors affecting vocabulary learning

1.3.1 Internal factors

Internal factors concern the intrinsic characteristics of students that can play

an important role in learning an English vocabulary According to Felix (1977, as cited in Leontiev and Jame, 1981), “Students are the most important factor in learning an English vocabulary” (p.133) Some of these characteristics are age, motivation, behavior, and so forth According to Lingtbown and Spada (1999:49 68), “those factors that affect the learner in language learning also have an effect in his vocabulary learning”

* Age: A learner’s age is one of the important factors affecting the process of

second language acquisition Collier (1988), expresses that successful language acquisition depends on the learner’s age In the field of vocabulary learning, Singleton offers what he believes to be the most plausible conclusion now regarding the age factor and lexical acquisition:“ The age factor operates in relation to second language vocabulary learning in the same way as its operates in relation to other aspects of second language learning, ie.” (1995:20 - my italics-)

* Motivation: Motivation is one of the important aspects of second language

acquisition Motivation is a kind of desire for learning It is very difficult to teach a second language in a learning environment if the learner does not have a desire to

learn a language Reece & Walker (1997) express that motivation is a key in the

second language learning process They stress that a less able student who highly motivated can achieve greater success than the more intelligent student who is not

well motivated Therefore, the stronger learning motivation is, the more passion

learners have for learning, the more lasting the learning activity will be, the more

difficulties can be overcome

* Vocabulary learning strategies: It is know that mastery of vocabulary is a

gradual process and needs an effort invested by the learners In vocabulary learning, vocabulary learning strategies are considered important and have received much attention in the area of second language learning Gu and Johnson (1996) point out that learners who employ selective attending strategies may know which words are important and necessary for them to learn so that they are able to comprehend the passage Learners who employ self-initiation strategies may use a variety of means

to understand the meaning of vocabulary items If learners are equipped with a range of vocabulary learning strategies, they may be able to deal with the new or unfamiliar vocabulary items without difficulty as vocabulary learning strategies

help simplify the new vocabulary learning process for them

1.3.2 External Factors

External factors are factors outside students that fluence them in learning English vocabulary Those are:

* Time: Felix (1977, as cited in Leontiev & James, 1981, p 150) stated that, “Time

is the key word in determining what level students can achieve.” If there is limited time, students will tend to lack in theoretical material Felix (1977, as cited in Leontiev & James, 1981, p 175), also defied that the frequency of the learners’ contact with the language is vey important This means that regardless of the time available, the teaching and learning process should be effective as it is exposure or contact with the language that is the more important factor If it is a short period of time, but with the right objectives, the result will be likely better than learning over

a long period of time with the wrong objectives set

* Language Learning Environment: Teaching methods, quality of materials,

reward system, peer group, teacher-student relationship, classroom atmosphere, and homework assignment, are considers as a learning environment and it can affect the learners’choice of vocabulary learning strategies (Kaylani, 1996) According to the available research works, this factor can be categorized into formal and informal language learning environment

* Vocabulary learning task: A learning task is the end product in the learner’s

mind It can be broad as mastering a second language or as specific as remembering

one meaning of a word Wenden (1987), and Williams and Burden ( 1997) state that

the learning task includes the materials being learned as well as the goal the learner

is trying to achieve by using these materials According to Fluente (2006), the goal

of L2 vocabulary tasks should be acquisition of words and expansion of word’s knowledge, not only meanings but also the forms For example, learning words in a word list is different from learning the same words in a passage Remembering a

word meaning is different from learning to use the same word in real life situations

Besides the factors above, there are also some other factors causing difficulties for students to learn English vocabulary such as intralexical factors, and teaching aids and reference materials

1.4 Previous work review

A number of research studies on “difficulties in learning English vocabulary” have been conducted by many researchers in Vietnam and in other countries for recent years This part the author focuses on previous works in which the different factors causing difficuties for learners in learning vocabulary had been analyzed

A study done by Wei (2007) found that Chinese college students with positive attitudes towards vocabulary learning more frequently than those with negative attitudes and he discovered that what students believed did not yield their actual vocabulary learning While Gu and Johnson (1996) showed that Chinese university students devalued rote memorization strategies and they employed more meaning-oriented strategies than rote strategies This means that these researchers found that learners’vocabulary learning related to what they believed Fu’s (2003) study revealed that inherrent interest motivation positively correlated with students’ vocabulary learning

Besides motivation, language learning environment is considered as a factor that affects learners’vocabulary learning Nakamura (2000) conducted a mixed method study by using questionnaires, observation and oral interviews to understand the effects of learner variables and an external variable-learning environment for Japanese learners of English use strategies when learning second language vocabulary The subjects of this study were Japanese high school English learners in Japan and in England The finding of the study revealed that, the external variable of learning environment was the most significant factor affecting all aspects of vocabulary learning With regard to this factor, Kameli et al (2012) discovered that the role of teachers, peers and classroom environment affected Malaysian English as a second language students’vocabulary learning

A research conducted by Musdalifah, a student of Teacher Training and Education Faculty Sebelas Maret University in 2006, also showed that the process

of learning vocabulary at the fifth grade was conducted appropriately However, there were many weaknesses which came from the students who had simple

strategies, limited sources and lack of readiness in their vocabulary learning Meanwhile, another weakness came from the English teacher who employed simple techniques and limited media in the process of vocabulary teaching In the study, she also found that there were two factors causing vocabulary-learning difficulties They were the internal factor, which came from the students and the external one which included the family environment and the aspects of school such as the teacher, teaching techniques, the materials, and instructional media Through the study, she suggested that besides motivating and preparing students’readiness, the teacher also used various teaching techniques and various media in process of teaching and learning vocabulary to improve their understanding in achieving better English learning

In Vietnam, some research studies on “difficulties in learning English vocabulary” were done by the students of Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Language and International Studies Mai Tuyết Nhung (2011) investigated teaching and learning vocabulary in the textbook “English for Food Production Staff” for the second year students of pre-intermediate level at Hanoi Tourism College to find out their difficulties in vocabulary teaching and learning and give some solutions The study used the survey questionnaire for the students and the interview with English teachers The findings of the research showed that the students did not have right English learning strategies or good motivation in vocabulary learning while the teachers had shortage of specialized knowledge, various teaching techniques or teaching aids and reference materials were poor Through the study, she suggested to reduce these difficulties by improving specialized knowledge for ESP teachers, teachers’ activities and teaching facilities; encouraging students to develop their self-study to become more active learners Nguyễn Thị Bích Hạnh (2010) also conducted a study on “challenges in English vocabulary learning of ethnic minority grade 10 students at Mường Bi high school” The research was carried out by means of questionnaires and classroom observations In this study, she found that learners’ difficulties in learning vocabulary caused by too many new words in each lesson; students’ low level of English proficiency; teacher’s failure in applying communicative approach and classroom activities and so on In order to overcome these problems, she introduced

some suggestions such as motivating students to learn, adapting the textbook, practising vocabulary and improving learning and teaching conditions

According to the literature review above, few studies have been conducted

to examine Vietnamese lower secondary students’ vocabulary learning difficulties More importantly, no studies has been undertaken to particularly investiage Chu Văn An students’ vocabulary learning difficulties Therefore, the present study aimed to explore Chu Văn An students’ vocabulary learning difficulties and give some suitable solutions to help them overcome those problems

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

2.1 Context of the study

The study was conducted at Chu Văn An secondary school which located in the country of Thanh Hoa province Established in 1991, CVASS is the most qualified secondary school whose students have always been selected from other schools in Nga Sơn district All subjects including English are taught with new course books and new methods according to the renovation program put forth by the Ministry of Education and Training

2.1.1 The teachers and their teaching methods

In Chu Văn An secondary school, there are 4 English teachers whose teaching experience varies from 5 to 20 years All of them have BA degrees in English language teaching from different tertiary institutions in Vietnam

It is obvious that most of the English teachers at CVASS are deeply influenced by grammar-translation method Teachers at CVASS usually apply the traditional method of teaching in vocabulary lesson that Grammar- translation method In classes, the teacher play the key role, talk most of the time, explain new words and mostly translate them into Vietnamese Students often listen and copy on their notebooks passively Hence, this method leads to lack of motivation and few chances for the students to practice English in general and vocabulary in particular

2.1.2 The students and their background

The learners at Chu Văn An secondary school are the best students who have been selected basing on their results from the entrance exam There are around 45 students of mixed ability in each class There are 18 classes, among which the 9th form students take up 5 classes All of the students come from the countryside, so they have less or no exposure to authentic English In fact, most of these students commonly spend very little time learning English as they have to spend much of the time learning other subjects Especially they spend most of their time learning the subjects that they are good at and selected in the group of ten students to take the exams for good students Therefore, the majority of them learn English because it is

a compulsory school subject and they learn it just to pass the tests in the class

2.1.3 The teaching materials and facilities

The book Tieng Anh 9 by the Ministry of Education and Training has been

used as the only the textbook to teach the student at Chu Văn An secondary school

It consists of 10 units Each unit is divided into 5 lessons Every unit provides students with opportunities to learn and develop their knowledge in categories of grammar, vocabulary, communication skills, and pronunciation through practicing activities of listening, speaking, reading, and writing Especially, the number of vocabulary in each unit is rather large Thus, the students usually feel very difficult

in learning and mastering it

Teaching facilities also play an important part in teaching English and may affect the learning process positively or negatively At our school, there is no English laboratory There is one computer room but used for teaching informatics, not for English There is also one library with few English books or magazines The only facilities for learning and teaching English are some cassette-players in poor condition It is obviously that the teaching facilities are poorly equipped This certainly has considerable negative effects on teaching and learning English at Chu Văn An secondary school

2.2 Subjects of the study

In order to achieve the aims of the thesis and answer the research questions given above, the subjects of the study include 130 9th form students at Chu Văn An secondary school These participants are from 3 different classes 78 of them are male and 52 are female All of the participants are at the age of 15 and have been studying English for at least 6 years at primary schools and secondary schools All of them come from different villages in Nga Son district, Thanh Hoa province So they rarely have chance to commucicate with each other in English It is one of their difficculties in learning English generally and learning vocabulary particularly

The researcher chose the 9th form students for some reasons Firstly, this is the last grade which is always considered the most important one at lower secondary education and they have to face with many difficult subjects to prepare for the upper secondary education in the next step English is one of three subjects chosen for the 10th form entrance exam in Thanh Hoa province but their knowledge

of English in general and vocabulary specifically was very poor Secondly, the natural characteristics of the young learners make it harder for them to concentrate

on the lessons and they tend to lose their interest in learning English So they are suitable subjects for the study and their English vocabulary proficiency is of great concern for me to conduct the study on the difficulties in learning vocabulary

2.3 Data collection instruments

Questionnaire : To collect necessary data and information for the study, the

survey questionnaire was chosen as the main instrument for data collection Survey questionnaire is a simple and familiar instrument of collecting information from the

students, it is easy to administer and less time-consuming than other instruments

The questionnaires were constructed based on the literature of vocabulary learning and the discussion between the supervisor and the writer They were written in Vietnamese to make sure that the participants could fully understand the questions before giving their answers

The questionnaires for the students were designed with both close-ended and open-ended questions It consists of two sections:

Section 1 was designed to collect background information about the participants Section 2 was aimed to gather the information about the reality of the participants’ English vocabulary learning: their attitude towards learning English vocabulary, how they learn, how they are taught, and the difficulties they face when learning English vocabulary

The questionnaires were then delivered to the students while they were in their classrooms They were asked to answer the questions sincerely Before each question, they were given clear instruction Therefore, they could understand and give their appropriate answers ( See appendix 1)

Interview: Interviews are particularly useful for getting the story behind a

participant’s experiences The interviewer can pursue in-depth information around the topic Interviews may be useful as follow-up to certain respondents to questionnaires, to futher investigate their responses Hence, to get more information about the research, interview was organized to find out teachers’attidude and their methods in teaching English vocabulary as well as to achieve some suggestions to

help the students overcome their difficulties in learning English vocabulary The researcher made interviews with three English teachers face to face after lessons

and their answers were really useful to the study (See appendix 2)

Observation: Observation, which was used as a tool to get more

infromation, provided the researcher with a deep insight into the problems of the

study Through observing the process that the students learned and were taught English vocabulary, the author could find adequate amount of data to yield any conclusions about their difficulties in learning vocabulary and find out some

solutions to these problems

After I collected the questionnaires, carried out the interviews and took part

in classroom observations, I got the data for analysis

CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter deals with the treatment of all the data gathered from the survey questionnaires, interviews and observations The data is displayed in form of charts and tables The questions in the questionnaires will be analyzed one by one by counting its percentage The information getting from interview and observation will clarify students’ answers and make it more reliable

1 What is your English vocabulary level ?

Chart 1: Students’ level of English vocabulary

Chart 1 indicates that, a large number of students thought that their level of English vocabulary was average (30%) and bad ( 42%) 24 % of them supposed their vocabulary was rather good Only 4% of the students found that their vocabulary was good These figures indicate that a majority of students have English vocabulary at average or below average level This can be one of the problems in students’ vocabulary learning process

2 What do you think of the importance of vocabulary learning ?

34%

63%

3%

Very importantImportantNot important

Chart 2: Students’ attitudes towards the importance of vocabulary learning

Considering chart 2, the more than half of the students (63%) considered vocabulary a very important element in language learning 34% of them thought vocabulary was important Only 3% of them considered it as not important It is clear that most of these students are well aware of the importance of vocabulary learning in their English acquisition So it is hoped that their good attitudes towards the importance of vocabulary learning motivate them to overcome the difficulties they encounter in their learning process

When being asked about the role of vocabulary in language teaching, no teachers denied the importance of it They ensured that vocabulary was the basic level of language which enable learners to communicate and they felt very difficult

in teaching their students a foreign language when they did not have certain amount

of vocabulary in their mind The more amount of vocabulary learners had, the more improved the skills of listening and reading comprehension, speaking, and writing were Thus, it is also dreamed that all teachers realize the very important role of vocabulary, they will pay more attention to teaching vocabulary during English lessons to help students learn it better

3 What do you think of learning a new word ?

27%

62%

11%

Very difficult Difficult Not difficult

Chart 3: Students’ attitudes towards learning new words

As shown in chart 3, we can see that most of the students found learning vocabulary difficult 27% of them found it very difficult, 62 % found it difficult and only 11% found it not difficult This means that English vocabulary acquisition is really a challenge for students

4 What do you think is the most difficult for you in your learning a new word ?

Chart 4: Students’ difficulties in learning new words

It can be seen from chart 4, many students (32%) found that the most difficult in learning a new word was its use They thought that the use of the word was so complicated so they might know a word in written or spoken form but they could not use it corectly in different contexts Pronunciation was always a problem for many students (28%) in learning vocabulary because they did not know how to pronounce them correctly The number of the students who complained about word spelling (15%), word meaning (13%) and word stress (12%), declared that these were really a challenge to them

Through classroom observations, the researcher saw that the students really encourtered difficulties in pronouncing the new words When being called to read the new words, they tried to read too fast but very powerless or said rather slowly but incorrectly Especially, they were not completely confident in using them in other sentences or different contexts This means that learning pronunciation and usage of a word is a big problem which teachers need to find out the ways to help