Problems faced by the first-year students at Thanhhoa College of Culture and Arts in developing vocabulary for speaking in different subject areas Nguyễn Thị Hà My Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn ThS. Chuyên ngành:English Methodology; Mã số: 60 14 10 Người hướng dẫn: Nguyen Bang, M.A Năm bảo vệ: 2011 Abstract: The importance of vocabulary is undeniable in language learning. Therefore, understanding the difficulties faced by students in learning vocabulary is apparently necessary to gain effective learning. This minor thesis was carried out with an attempt to investigate the difficulties and obstacles that the first year students at Thanh Hoa College of Culture and Arts (THCCA) have faced when learning English vocabulary. It first described the issues which prompted the study. It then reviewed the literature relevant to the topic of research which served as a theoretical framework for the study. The data were collected by means of questionnaires and interviews. From that the findings emphasized the problems influencing on the learners’ vocabulary development. In addition, based on the findings, some solutions were suggested to improve the quality of learning English vocabulary in speaking sections at THCCA. Keywords: Từ vựng; Phương pháp giảng dạy; Tiếng Anh Content PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale In Vietnam, the teaching and learning of English have recently gained significance firstly because it is an international language; secondly it is also seen as a means to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between Vietnam and other countries, especially since Vietnam has became an official member of WTO. It has an increasing number of people desiring to know English with the hope of keeping up with the latest modern technology in the world. English has now been taught at all universities and colleges, and it is considered as a compulsory subject at secondary school. At THCCA, where the author carries out the research, English is a compulsory subject in the curriculum. It is taught with the purpose that students have some basic knowledge of English in order to communicate well. To achieve this aim, speaking skills should be focal content of English language teaching. However, there still exist many difficulties facing English language teachers in Vietnam in general and those in THCCA in particular. In reality they find it difficult to teach speaking successfully. Many students who have good knowledge of grammar and can do well at reading and writing tasks but can not express themselves in spoken English. In fact, in real-life situations, students find it hard to communicate with English speaking people. Being a teacher of THCCA, the researcher found that one of the main reasons why students are not positive in English is that they do not have adequate vocabulary. In fact they are provided with almost every word necessary for their learning and their communication outside the classroom, but for some certain reasons, these words are not appropriately used. Many of my students complain that they learn a lot of new words, but they soon forget most of them. There may be problems in their ways of learning vocabulary and problems in teaching it. All of the above reasons have inspired the author to carry out a research on “Problems faced by the first-year students at Thanh Hoa College of Culture and Arts in developing vocabulary for speaking in different subject areas” with the hope of making a small contribution to finding out some problems students at THCCA have met with when they use vocabulary in English speaking activities and some suggested solutions to the problems are provided as well. 2. Aims of the study This study aims at finding out the difficulties that the first year students at THCCA have faced with in learning vocabulary for speaking skills. To fulfill this aim, the following objectives are established: + Surveying the current learning situation at THCCA by delivering questionnaires and interviews to the participants. Then analyzing the collected data from the participants and evaluating the results from the surveyed data. + Giving some solutions to the development of vocabulary learning. From these, the researcher tries to give some recommendations to teach vocabulary more effectively. 3. Research questions To achieve the objectives of the study, the following questions were raised: 1. What is the reality of learning vocabulary in speaking skills at THCCA? 2. What difficulties have the first year students at THCCA faced with in developing vocabulary for speaking skills? 3. What techniques should be applied to improve vocabulary learning for speaking skills? 4. Scope of the study The study is limited to the area of learning vocabulary in the current learning materials for the first year students at THCCA. This minor thesis deals with the common problems which students have met, and basing on these problems, some effective and feasible solutions will be provided. 5. Methodology In order to find out the answers to the research questions, this study is to be conducted as a descriptive study that utilizes both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative analysis is employed through the process of data collected from written questionnaires and the qualitative approach is used to deal with the data collected from interviews with the teaching staff and the first year students that are fully responsible for the teaching and learning English vocabulary in speaking sections in the learning material “Lifeline-Elementary” for speaking skills. The combination of these data collection methods will help ensure both reliability and validity of the study. 6. Design of the study This study consists of three parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion. Part A: Introduction presents the rationale, the aims and objective, the scope, the methods and design of the study. Part B: Development The development comprises three chapters: + Chapter I provides relevant literature concerning definition of speaking skills and the role of vocabulary in teaching and learning speaking skills. A brief introduction of the vocabulary teaching methods is mentioned. + Chapter II describes the methods employed in the study and introduces the situations of learning vocabulary at THCCA. + Chapter III presents the data analysis discussion and offers some recommendations for vocabulary learning at THCCA. Part C: Conclusion This chapter gives a brief of description of the study and states the limitations as well as recommendations for further research. 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Problems faced by the first-year students at Thanhhoa College of Culture and Arts in developing vocabulary for speaking in different subject areas Nguyễn Thị Hà My. students that are fully responsible for the teaching and learning English vocabulary in speaking sections in the learning material “Lifeline-Elementary” for speaking skills. The combination of these