The Impact of repetition and recycling on grade 11 students' vocabulary retention at Long Hai-Phuoc Tinh High school = Tác động của việc luyện tập củng cố đối v20150227.PDF

iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality…………… ………………………………………………………i Acknowledgements …… …………………………………………………………………ii Abstract…………………………………… …………………………………………… iii Table of content ……………………………………………………………………………iv List of abbreviations ……………………………………………………………………… v PART A – INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims of the study Scope of the study Research hypotheses and questions Method of the study Organization of the study PART B – DEVELOPMENT 54 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW Teaching and Learning Vocabulary 1.1 What is Vocabulary? 1.1.1 Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary 1.1.2 Active and passive vocabulary 1.2 The importance of vocabulary in second language learning 1.3 What is involved in knowing a word 1.3.1 Form 1.3.2 Meaning 1.3.3 Grammar 1.3.4 Collocation Factors affecting the retention of vocabulary 2.1 Memory and storage system 2.1.1 The Keyword Method 10 2.1.2 The Visual Aids on Vocabulary Learning 10 2.1.3 The Semantic Mapping on Vocabulary Learning 10 2.2 Frequency of meeting 11 v 2.3 Quality of Processing 11 Other factors 11 3.1 Learning styles 11 3.2 Teaching method 12 Repetition and Recycling in Language learning 12 4.1 The spacing of repetition 13 4.2 Testing and the Retrieval Practice Effect 14 A review of similar studies 14 CHAPTER – METHODOLOGY…………………………………………………….15 1.The setting of study 16 1.1 Context of Study 16 1.2 Why quasi – experimental research 17 Participants of the study 18 2.1 Participants 18 2.2 Sampling 18 Materials 19 3.1 The course book 19 3.2 The course content 19 3.3 What are relevant activities? 19 Data collection instruments 21 4.1 T –Test 21 4.1.1 The purpose of the test 21 4.1.2.What to test 22 4.1.3 Test 22 4.2 Questionnaires 22 4.2.1.Questionnaires for students 22 4.2.1.1.The pre-treatment questionnaire 23 4.2.1.2.The post-treatment questionnaire 23 4.2.2.Questionnaires for teachers 23 Procedure of data collection 23 5.1 Schedules 24 5.2 Treatment 24 vi 5.3 Data collecting and processing procedures 25 CHAPTER - DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 26 3.1 Results of the T – Test 26 3.2 The result of pre-test scores of the two groups 26 3.3 The result of post-test scores of the two groups 28 3.4 Summary of the test scores of the two groups in the pretest and posttest 32 3.5 Survey results 33 3.5.1 The pre-treatment questionnaire for students 33 3.5.2 The Post-treatment Questionnaire for students 34 3.5.2 Questionnaire for teachers 34 PART C CONCLUSION 38 Findings and conclusion 38 Pedagogical Implications 40 Limitations of the study 41 Suggestions for further studies 41 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………… 42 APPENDIX……………………………………………………………………………… I vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL : English as Foreign Language E.Gr : Experimental group C.Gr : Control group SLA : Second Language Acquisition viii LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES Figure The quality of control group by mean Figure 2.The quality of experimental group by mean Chart The comparison of pre – test scores of experimental and control groups Table Taxonomy of Vocabulary Learning Strategies (Adopted from Schmitt 1997:207) Table Comparison of pre – test scores Table Frequency of Pre test of Experimental Group and Control Group Table The results of the post-test Table Summary of standard deviation Table Paired Samples Correlations Table7 The results from running Wilcoxon’s test Table The results of post test Table Descriptive Statistics of the two groups Table 10 The response to pre-treatment questionnaire for students Table 11 The response to post-treatment questionnaire for students Table 12 Scores on the questionnaire Table 13 The Cronbach's alpha of the post-treatment questionnaire for students PART A – INTRODUCTION Rationale Vocabulary is central to language and is of great significance to language students Words are “the building blocks of a language since they label objects, actions, ideas without which people cannot convey the intended meaning”(Lotfi Ghazal) Given its importance to learning, vocabulary has been a prominent concern of many theorists and researchers in the field Accordingly, numerous types of approaches, techniques, exercises and practice have been introduced into the field to teach vocabulary (Hatch & Brown, 1995) When it comes to studying vocabulary, however, the greatest challenge is likely retaining the words Researchers and teachers now have been drawn to the concern of how to make students enhance vocabulary retention for communicative value Studies have shown that practising things makes us better in learning a language and develops automaticity In other words, language learning proceeds gradually through repeated exposure and practice The course book English 11 (published by Educational Press), however, does not deal with it sufficiently Being an EFL teacher in a high school in Ba Ria – Vung Tau, I recognize the fact that many students now suffer from considerable difficulties in retaining previously encountered English words They struggle to maintain retention But not many of them are capable of it This matter of fact leads to their poor production both in speaking and writing Furthermore, there is another fact that we have to face, that is most of students now have active social lives, families, studies with lots of compulsory subjects, sports and generally other things which make them really occupied – not just one of English That leaves me with the responsibility to revision lessons, review vocabulary and make sure they know what have been taught The idea of a study on how to enrich students‟ vocabulary retention of mine emerges in that situation Currently working with 11th graders in addition to continual working with them in four recent years makes me designate them A wide range of designed activities were carried out (mostly at the beginning of the classes) when teaching two classes named 11A3 and 11A5 at Long Hai – Phuoc tinh high school And the results supported my hypothesis that teachers can create repetitive and recycling-focused activities to help students improve their vocabulary retention Aims of the study The study aims at proving that repetitive and recycling focused activities can help 11th grade students to retain words better These students are non-English major ones and have three classes of English a week There exists a fact that they cannot retrieve the words which they have learnt in previous lessons for communication when needed In other words, they soon forget words they have just acquired The main aim of this study therefore is to investigate the impact of repetition and recycling on vocabulary learning and retention, or to put it differently, the extent to which short tailored activities helps to retain vocabulary for the students at Long Hai – Phuoc Tinh High school and provide some pedagogical implications Scope of the study There are enormous activities as tools of enhancing vocabulary retention available on the internet that you can approach with a mouse click Most of them are easy to be applied and tested In the current study, I set the limit of investigating possibly – applied activities that can be carried out at beginning or in the middle of 45-minute periods in such large-sized classes at Long Hai – Phuoc Tinh High school, vung Tau The activities were related to first three units (which equal to 18 lessons) of the course book English 11 introduced by Educational Press only because with the timeframe of weeks it is supposed to be infeasible to conduct a research study on a larger scale which can produce very convincing results Research hypotheses and questions In order to achieve the above purposes, the study was designed to test the following hypotheses:  Null hypothesis: The students who take part in the experiment get the same result measured in the post-test and have the same improvement in their vocabulary retention as those who not  Alternative hypothesis: Students who frequently deal with repetitive and recycling activities will perform better overall in the post test and have some improvement in their skills in comparison with those who not have extra vocabulary-oriented activities So as to draw the conclusion on the hypothesis, the study is to get the answers to the following questions: (1) To what extent EFL teachers encourage repetition and recycling vocabulary among their students? (2) What is the effectiveness of using repetitive and recycling focused activities on enhancing 11th - graders’ vocabulary retention? (3) What are the students’ attitudes towards using activities in teaching and learning vocabulary? Method of the study The first method applied in this study is a quasi-experimental design which involves the three components of experiments according to Selinger and Shohamy (1989): the population (the 11th grade students at Long Hai – Phuoc Tinh high school, Ba ria Vung tau), the treatment (repetitive and recycling focused activities), and the measurement of the treatment (T-test) In addition, questionnaires were delivered to teachers who currently teach other 11th grades to investigate how they have dealt with vocabulary teaching, especially the ways they encourage repetition and recycling vocabulary among students Another questionnaire was delivered to the subjects before treatment to get to know their own strategies of memorizing vocabulary The third questionnaire was delivered to the subjects after treatment as a supporting tool to obtain students‟ attitude towards the technique applied What is more, observation was also employed during the teaching time to recognize the participation of students in the control group and the experimental group Organization of the study This thesis is organized around three parts: Part A is the introduction which presents the rationale for the research topic, aims of study, scope of study, research hypotheses and questions, and method of the study Part B is the development which consists of three chapters Chapter one reviews scholarly theoretical background to teaching and learning vocabulary in a second language including factors which affect vocabulary acquisition process This chapter also reviews some meaningful activities which are initiated by different researchers Chapter two deals with the methodology of this research in terms of the setting of the study, sampling participants, instruments and procedure of data collection Chapter three devotes to the account of the study in terms of data analysis and findings interpreted from the results of the T-test and questionnaires Part C is the conclusion which discusses the major findings and limitations of the research, then suggests teaching implications and proposes some suggestions for further research PART B - DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter deals with theoretical base of the thesis in which notion of basic elements, and their significance were raised and discussed Accompanied with it, previous studies on similar field were mentioned as a source of references Teaching and Learning Vocabulary In the previous introduction to this thesis I have covered why I limit my interest and focus on vocabulary in the English language teaching Before dealing with the theoretical framework of the subject, I find it necessary to explain how I understand the word vocabulary and what terminology I will be using throughout my work 1.1 What is Vocabulary? Learning, as a language based activity, is fundamentally and profoundly dependent on vocabulary knowledge Learners must have access to the meanings of words that teachers, or their surrogates (e.g., other adults, books, films, etc.), use to guide them into contemplating known concepts in novel ways.(Baker, Simmons, & Kame'enui, 1997) Broadly defined, vocabulary is knowledge of words and word meanings in both oral and print language and in productive and receptive forms An extensive vocabulary is the bridge between the word-level processes of phonics and the cognitive processes of comprehension (A Focus on vocabulary - by Fran Lehr, MA; Jean Osborn, Med; Dr Elfrieda H Hiebert, Visiting Research Professor,University of California, Berkeley) Vocabulary is also defined as the total bank of words and phrases of a particular language or the sum of words used by, understood by, or at the command of a particular person or group in a number of English dictionaries 1.1.1 Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary Productive and receptive vocabulary are two different things and they have different uses receptive vocabulary is words we understand when others use them (in listening and reading ) and expressive vocabulary refers to words we use themselves (to speak and write) Vocabulary can also be classified as oral or written Thus each of us has four types of vocabulary: receptive-oral, receptive-written, expressive-oral, and expressive-written The four vocabulary items overlap but are not the same, and the relationships between them change over time X 27 Vũ Thị Mỹ Nguyệt 5.5 28 Trịnh Thị Hồng Nhung 7.5 29 Nguyễn T Thanh Phương 3.5 7.5 30 Trần Châu Yến Phượng 31 Ngơ Chí Tài 6.5 5.5 32 Nguyễn Minh Tâm 1.5 33 Trần Nhật Tây 5.5 34 Bạch Văn Thanh 4.5 5.5 35 Phạm Thanh Thảo 36 Nguyễn Bá Tiến 2.5 5.5 37 Nguyễn Thị Thanh Trâm 3.5 38 Nguyễn Quốc Trung 2.5 39 Nguyễn Thị Như Ý 40 Hoàng Thị Yến 4.5 41 Lê Thị Thu Yến 4.5 XI APPENDIX Test Score Of Class 11A5 case Name Pre-test Post - test 2.5 Đặng Nguyễn Khả Ai Nguyễn Hoàng Anh Nguyễn Thanh Bình 4.5 Nguyễn Quang Cảnh 3.5 Vũ Thành Công 6.5 Nguyễn Văn Chiến 3.5 4.5 Ngô Gia Cường 8 Nguyễn Công Danh 5.5 Trương Thị Kim Giang 6.5 10 Hồ Thị Kim Hảo 4.5 4.5 11 Trần Thị Hằng 12 Trương Ngọc Hậu 13 Đoàn Đức Huy 2.5 4.5 14 Trần Thị Ngọc Huyền 5.5 6.5 15 Lưu Thúy Hương 4.5 6.5 16 Lê Quốc Kha 5.5 17 Nguyễn Cao Kỳ 4.5 18 Võ Thành Lập 2.5 19 Nguyễn Thị Mỹ Linh 5.5 20 Hồ Đức Lợi 3.5 4.5 21 Nguyễn Văn Lương 4.5 22 Nguyễn Việt Hà Ly 23 Nguyễn Thanh Thảo My 5.5 5.5 24 Nguyễn Văn Nam 25 Vũ Hoàng Tuyết Ngân 5.5 26 Mai Trọng Nghĩa 5.5 27 Vưong Thị Kim Ngọc 3.5 XII 28 Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Nhung 5.5 29 Đào Thị Lan Phương 2.5 3.5 30 Lương Hoàng Quý 2.5 4.5 31 Lê Ngọc Tài 32 Trà Văn Thành 33 Nguyễn Thị Thanh Thảo 3.5 4.5 34 Phạm Thị Thảo 4.5 35 Võ Thị Thu Thẻ 6.5 36 Trần Nguyễn Anh Thư 1,5 37 Trương Thị Cẩm Tiên 2.5 38 Trần Hữu Tính 6.5 39 Lê Thị Bích Trâm 2.5 40 Huỳnh Thị Bích Tuyền 4.5 5.5 41 Trần Đỗ Anh Vân 3.5 4.5 42 Phạm Văn Việt 4.5 43 Nguyễn Quang Vinh 4.5 XIII APPENDIX – Test scores of the experimental and control group Case Pre –test scores Post –test scores Pre –test scores Post–test scores (C.Gr.) (C.Gr.) (E.Gr.) (E.Gr.) 5.5 4.5 6.5 3.5 4.5 5.5 6.5 9.0 6.5 8.5 7.0 6.0 8.5 8.0 5.5 5.5 6.5 7.0 6.5 10 4.5 6.5 7.5 11 4.5 4.5 12 2.5 13 3.5 4.5 2.5 14 4.5 3.5 15 5.5 5.5 3.5 16 17 5.5 18 3.5 4.5 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.5 5.5 6.0 7.0 7.5 19 2.5 3.5 7.5 20 2.5 4.5 3.5 5.5 21 6.5 XIV 6.0 22 3.5 4.5 1.5 5.5 23 6.5 4.5 24 25 6.5 3.5 26 2.5 2.5 27 3.5 4.5 4.5 28 4.5 Mean 3.8 5.2 3.9 7.0 5.0 5.0 6.0 4.5 6.5 XV APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS How long have you been teaching English as a foreign language? ……………………………………………………………………………………… What is the most difficult aspect of teaching?Please, put a tick on what you choose Reading Speaking Listening Writing Language Focus Vocabulary Is vocabulary review an important part of your everyday instruction? Please circle your answer YES NO (If Yes, specify how much time you spend on this ……………………… …) How you help students retain English vocabulary? a Teach vocabulary carefully by analyzing words (part of speech, affixes, roots, prounciation, spelling…) or translating the words into Vietnamese b Have students pronounce ad write words repeatedly c Provide them with semantic maps for better memorizing d Have students paraphrase the words’ meaning or make the words’ definitions on XVI their own e Ask students to give examples, make sentences with the words f Design in – class activities involving reusing vocabulary g Set assignments h Check vocabulary before class i Administer regular tests j Do nothing at all Which among these are your in-class vocabulary activities normally related to? a Guessing from textual contexts b Flash cards or other pictorial supplements c Pronouncing or spelling d Sentence making e Word puzzles f Others What approaches you use to help students review vocabulary? Please, list two most used a ………………………………………………………………………………………… b ………………………………………………………………………………………… How you give students training in using strategies to memorize vocabulary? …………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………… XVII …………………………………………………………………………………………… What are sources of vocabulary review activities? - Textbook - Reference books - Internet - Your colleagues - You create them yourself Do you agree with the following statement: The lesson should focus mainly on vocabulary development Please, circle your answer YES NO 10 Do you think that the teacher should be the only source for helping students to learn new English words? YES NO (If yes, please explain why ………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………………) Thank you for your valuable response Your cooperation is greatly appreciated XVIII APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS This questionnaire included items evaluating only the memory, memorizing strategies used by the learners, including 15 items related to memory strategy By completing the following questionnaire, you can help your teacher enhance your programming and better serve you The Survey should take about 10 minutes to complete How often you this to memorize vocabulary? Please rate each on the scale indicated: (1) never; (2) seldom; (3) sometimes; (4) often Draw a picture of the word to help you remember it 4 4 4 ( Phác họa tranh từ cần nhớ ) Make a mental image of the word’s meaning (Hình dung đầu hình ảnh nghĩa từ cần nhớ) Connect the word to a personal experience ( Kết nối từ cần nhớ với trải nghiệm thân) Remember the words that follow or precede the new word ( Ghi nhớ từ kèm với từ cần nhớ) Connect the word to other words with similar or opposite meanings ( Kết nối từ cần nhớ với từ có nghĩa hoạc trái nghĩa) Group words together to study them XIX ( Phân nhóm từ ghi nhớ chúng theo nhóm) Write paragraphs using newly acquired words 4 4 4 4 ( Viết đoạn văn sử dụng từ cần ghi nhớ) Make your own definition for the word ( Tự định nghĩa từ cần nhớ theo cách riêng) Write a word repeatedly in a notebook ( Viết từ cần nhớ nhiều lần vào vở.) 10 Use words in making sentences ( Đặt câu với từ cần ghi nhớ.) 11 Say the words aloud repeatedly ( Đọc to nhiều lần từ cần ghi nhớ) 12 Review the word with classmates ( Ôn lại từ cần ghi nhớ với bạn lớp) 13 Learn the word in a sentence or within context ( Ghi nhớ từ câu ngữ cảnh) 14 Test yourself with word tests ( Tự kiểm tra lại từ học) 15 Do nothing at all Learning in class is enough ( Khơng làm Học lớp với em đủ) Thank you for your valuable input; your cooperation is greatly appreciated XX APPENDIX The Post-treatment Questionnaire for students This questionnaire included items evaluating the treatment applied, including items related to memory strategy By completing the following questionnaire, you can help your teacher enhance your programming and better serve you The Survey should take about 10 minutes to complete Not at all Questions To a small To a To a To a great or only very degree moderate considerable degree degree minimal degree (1) 1.To what degree you think teachers should design extra activities on vocabulary? What level or degree of possibility you think extra activities can help encourage English practise? How you feel comfortable with the activities you have dealt with during three units? 4.How better you think your English vocabulary retention is after the treatment? How useful you believe repeating and recycling vocabulary can be to your vocabulary retention? (2) (3) (4) (5) XXI APPENDIX 10 VOCABULARY POST-TEST Name:………………………………………………………… Class:………………………… Date of testing:…………………………………… Instructions This test is designed only for the researcher’s analysis in the field study The test results have absolutely no influence on your marks record Please not use a dictionary in this test You are required to take 40 to 60 minutes for the paper Read each question carefully before you answer There are 40 questions in this test and there should be 0.25 mark for each correct answer Please as well as you can Thank you very much for your co-operation ! I Pick out the word whose underlined part is pronounced differently from that of the other words A picture B mutual C quality D childish A friend B anniversary C birthday D present A appreciate B attitude C acquaintance D appearance A cosy B confident C constancy D icing A hostess B helicopter C honest D humourous II Read the definitions and guess the words The first letter of each words has been given A person that you know but the relationship is less intimate than friendship A_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ The state of being constant or free from changes C_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ XXII A strong feeling of eageress or interest E _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ The date on which an event occurred in some previous year (or the celebration of it) A_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Snacks and drinks served as a light meal R _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ How a person looks A _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ A significant event in your life (or in a project) M _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Someone who is adored blindly and excessively I_ _ _ III Tick the correct stress pattern of each word given The first syllable is The second syllable is The third syllable is stressed stressed stressed Celebrate Complaint Enthusiasm Embarrassing Hospitable IV Complete the sentence with an appropriate word from the box Make any changes if necessary Imagine Experience hospitable capable selfish suspicion celebrate We were delighted by the wonderful …………………… of the local people They organized a party in ……………………… of the year's successes It was very ……………………… of him to offer us his room The wine had made him …………………… of thinking clearly The task needs the skills of a suitably ……………………… engineer I haven't got a picture of this so you'll just have to use your ………………………… XXIII Inform the police immediately if you see anything ………………………… V Choose a, b, c, or d that best completes each unfinished sentence; substitutes the underlined part; or has a close meaning to the original one We tried to make a _ of our situation, but it wasn't funny A joke B trick C tension D risk Mary did not approve their ideas She had no sympathy their point of view A about B off C with D within C interest D loyalty The company expects from its employees A constancy B quality He has a very outgoing and makes friends very easily A person B personal C personality D personage C dishonest D guilty I don't like that man There is a sneaky look on his face A furious B humorous A is a conversation about other people’s private lives which might be unkind or not true A quality B sorrow C secret D gossip I've got lots of , but only a few are really good friends A close friends B acquaintances C neighbors D partners C sympathetical D sympathy They were extremely to my mistakes A sympathized B sympathetic Some internationally famous football players are the _ of countless teenagers They love and admire them very much A idol B dream C present D star XXIV 10 She stood in the mucky yard and hands plunged into the pockets of her coat A floppy B soft C tough D gentle 11 We were obviously wrong to put our _ in her She is not reliable A enthusiasm B trust C concern D selfishness C embarramssent D pleasure 12 I felt my face burning with A confidence B enthusiasm 13 Teenagers often have their who they admire very much A ideals B admirers C images D idols 14 I had a glance at the article, but I haven't read it yet A close look B quick look C direct look D furtive look 15 I believe that everyone has had experiences in their life A memorable B observable C acceptable D reflexible ... Procedure of data collection The practice of study involves the systematic collection of information about the subjects, activities, and outcomes of the experiment measuring the impact of repetition and. .. supposed that the treatment worked effectively on their vocabulary retention Pedagogical Implications In conclusion, relating to the research questions posed at the outset of the study, the data obtained... based on the research questions, discusses the implications and the limitations of the study and proposes some suggestions for further research The objective of the study is to prove that recycling