Learning and teaching english vocabulary for 7th students obstacles and solutions

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH GRADUATION THESIS B.A DEGREE IN ENGLISH STUDY LEARNING AND TEACHING ENGLSIH VOCABULARY FOR 7th STUDENTS – OBSTACLES AND SOLUTIONS Supervisor:

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ENGLISH

GRADUATION THESIS B.A DEGREE IN ENGLISH STUDY

LEARNING AND TEACHING ENGLSIH VOCABULARY FOR 7th STUDENTS – OBSTACLES AND SOLUTIONS

Supervisor: Pham To Hoa, M.A

Name of student: Pham Phuong Mai

Date of birth: 25/06/1993

Class: K18A1 (2011-2015)

HaNoi – 2015

FACULTY OF ENGLISH

GRADUATION THESIS B.A DEGREE IN ENGLISH STUDY

LEARNING AND TEACHING ENGLSIH VOCABULARY FOR 7th STUDENTS – OBSTACLES AND SOLUTIONS

Supervisor: Pham To Hoa, M.A

Name of student: Pham Phuong Mai

Date of birth: 25/06/1993

Class: K18A1 (2011-2015)

HaNoi – 2015

CODE: 25

Pham Phuong Mai – K18A1 – (2011-2015)     

DECLARATION

students – obstacles and solutions

I certify that no part of the above report has been copied or reproduced by me from any others’ work without acknowledgement and that the report is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor

Pham Phuong Mai – K18A1 – (2011-2015)     

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my deepest gratefulness to my supervisor, Mrs Pham To Hoa, who has provided the researcher with help, advices and comments to complete this graduation thesis

I am extremely grateful to the teachers at Faculty of English who producing me with knowledge and basic skills to finish this thesis

I take this opportunity to thank the teachers and students at Khuong Thuong secondary school for their support and kind assistance during my studying time

I also would like to send my thanks to all my friends who have helped

me to develop ideas for the study

Finally, my thanks must go to my family members whose continual encouragement has been indispensable for the fulfillment of this challenging work

Pham Phuong Mai – K18A1 – (2011-2015)   

  TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TABLE OF CONTENTS PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rational 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Research questions 2

5 Methods of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Theories on vocabulary 4

1.1.1 The definitions of vocabulary 4

1.1.2 The important of teaching and learning English vocabulary 5

1.2 Classification of vocabulary 5

1.2.1 According to the meaning 5

1.2.1.1 Notional words (Lexical words) 6

1.2.1.2 Functional words (Grammatical words) 6

1.2.2 According to the concept of morphemes 6

1.2.2.1 Simple words 7

1.2.2.2 Derived words 7

1.2.2.3 Compound words 7

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  1.2.3 According to the function 7

1.2.4 According to the frequency of use 8

1.3 What need to be taught in vocabulary teaching 9

1.3.1 Word form 9

1.3.2 Grammar 9

1.3.3 Collocation 10

1.3.4 Aspects of meaning 11

1.3.4.1 Detonation 11

1.3.4.2 Connotation 11

1.3.4.3 Appropriateness 11

1.3.4.4 Meaning relationships 12

1.3.5 Word formation 13

1.4 Traditional teaching methods 14

1.4.1 Translation 14

1.4.2 Visual technique 14

1.4.3 Verbal technique 15

1.5 Overview of vocabulary learning strategies 16

CHAPTER II – THE STUDY 17

2.1 Methodology 17

2.2 Objects of the study 17

2.2.1 7 th grade students and their background 17

2.2.2 Teachers and their teaching situation 18

2.3 Data collection 18

2.3.1 The survey questionnaire 18

2.3.1.1 Purposes 18

2.3.1.2 Description of survey questionnaire 19

2.3.1.3 Data collection and analysis 20

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  2.3.2 The observation 26

2.3.2.1 Reasons for choosing the observation 26

2.3.2.2 Description of the observation 26

2.3.2.3 Results of the observation 27

2.4 Findings 28

2.4.1 The students’ difficulties 28

2.4.1.1 The meaning of words 28

2.4.1.2 The pronunciation 28

2.4.1.3 The spelling 29

2.4.1.4 The usage 29

2.4.2 The teachers’ difficulties 30

2.4.2.1 The lack of time on teaching vocabulary 30

2.4.2.2 Obstacle in using computer 30

2.4.2.3 The lack of students’ attention 30

2.4.3 Causes of the difficulties 31

2.4.3.1 Unsuitable method of teaching vocabulary 31

2.4.3.2 Unsuitable way to learn vocabulary 31

2.4.3.3 Other causes 31

CHAPTER 3: RECOMMENDATION 33

3.1 Suggestion about effective ways of teaching English vocabulary 33

3.1.1 Improving teachers’ teaching technique 33

3.1.1.1 At the presentation stage 33

3.1.1.2 At the practice stage 37

3.1.1.3 At the production stage 41

3.1.2 Improving teachers’ computer skills 44

3.2 The effective ways to improve vocabulary for students 44

PART C: CONCLUSION 46

Pham Phuong Mai – K18A1 – (2011-2015)   

  REFERENCES 47

APPENDIX LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Importance of learning English vocabulary 20

Table 2: Interest of students in learning English vocabulary 20

Table 3: Difficulties in learning English vocabulary 21

Table 4: Source(s) students use to learn vocabulary 21

Table 5: Things students do when learning English vocabulary 22

Table 6: Ways of consolidating students are interested in 23

Table 7: Ways teachers often use to present new word 23

Table 8: Frequency of using modern equipment in teaching English vocabulary 24

Table 9: Ways teachers use to consolidate knowledge for students 25

Table 10: Ostacles in teaching English vocabulary 25

Pham Phuong Mai – K18A1 – (2011-2015)  1

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rational

Nowadays, English plays an important role in many fields In addition, the more developing society is, the more necessary English is Because English can help people master a language, they will own a great knowledge

In order to carry out this, we have to learn vocabulary at first We imagine that without vocabulary, no language exists, so vocabulary is a vital part in learning English In Vietnam English is also considered the most important foreign language and taught as a compulsory subject in all schools especially

at secondary and high schools In addition, English is an essential means of communication of all countries in the world Therefore, the demand for learning English is increasing rapidly

There are three main aspects of a language including phonetics, vocabulary, and grammar In fact, vocabulary is a system of all words which are the bricks of a language More over, vocabulary is also the element that links four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing all together It is proved that teaching and learning English vocabulary is paid much attention because of its importance However, both teachers and learners are facing many difficulties in teaching and learning English vocabulary

Therefore, the researcher would like to make an investigation into

secondary school in order to find out difficulties in teaching and learning English vocabulary, to work out the cause and then offer some suggested solutions to deal with these problems These solutions are hoped to be helpful

to teacher and students in teaching and learning English vocabulary at Khuong Thuong secondary school

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2 Aims of the study

The study aims at:

_ Giving the theory on vocabulary and its relevance in teaching and learning English

Khuong Thuong secondary school are facing in teaching and learning English vocabulary

_ Finding out cause of difficulties in teaching and learning vocabulary

at Khuong Thuong secondary school

_ Suggesting some solutions to teach and learn vocabulary effectively

3 Scope of the study

The study limits itself to the investigation of obstacles in learning and

and their cause The solutions are also provided to help to improve teaching and learning English in general teaching and learning English vocabulary of

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5 Methods of the study

This study uses the combination of some methods to achieve its objectives: observing method, investigative method and theoretical method The writer has read some theoretical researches to describe aspects involving English vocabulary and methodology in teaching vocabulary By this way, she reviews the theory in the literature study section to get basic for the research

All the considerations and theories given in this study are based largely

on publication The static data from the survey questionnaires are used to investigate teacher and student’s comments and attitudes towards teaching

secondary school

From the collected results in survey questionnaire and class observation, the research analyzes to clarify current situation and then recommend some solutions

6 Design of the study

This research is designed into three chapters Chapter I: the writer introduces literature review of English vocabulary The research describes aspects involving English vocabulary and methodology in teaching and

grade at Khuong Thuong secondary school are provided in chapter II This chapter analyzes the data collected from students’ survey questionnaire and observation on teaching and learning English vocabulary to find out the

KhuongThuong secondary school Chapter III is the suggestion of ways to teach and learn vocabulary effectively

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

-*** - 1.1 Theories on vocabulary

1.1.1 The definitions of vocabulary

The term “vocabulary” appears to be a very simple concept but in fact,

it is extremely difficult to give an exact definition of vocabulary Based on different criteria, linguistics defines vocabulary in different ways

According to Ur (1996), vocabulary can be defined roughly “as the words we teach in the foreign language However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: a compound of two or three words or multi-word idioms” “It is in words that sound and meanings inter-lock to allow us

to communicate with one another and it is in words that we range together to make sentences conversations and discourses of all kinds” (5, p.32) According to Wood (1981), vocabulary or lexicon refers to information stored

in memory concerning the pronunciation and meanings of words Vocabulary

is also defined based on phonological criterion It is said that words were listed in dictionaries that they separated in writing by spaces and that they may be separated in speech by pauses according to Nation (1994)

In general, vocabulary is 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 whose meaning cannot be deduced from the analysis of the component words Vocabulary can be defined as the words we teach in the foreign language and a useful convention

is to cover all such cases by talking about vocabulary “items” rather than

“words” It can be seen that a “vocabulary” item can be more than one word

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Therefore, it is necessary not to make confusion between vocabulary item and word

1.1.2 The important of teaching and learning English vocabulary

A language that has no word is not the language It shows an important role of vocabulary in each language

“Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (13, p.13) In communication, if one uses English grammar incorrectly, it may be that others still can understand his ideas, but

he misses words, people will misunderstand him It is a failure for him Though we cannot deny the role of grammatical knowledge, we must have something to say or having meaning that we wish to express, so only vocabulary help us Grammar rules are considered the plan of a house while words are compared with all the necessary materials used to build up the house

In conclusion, vocabulary in teaching and learning language has an important role In order to have good results in learning language, especially

in learning a foreign language, learners are required to have wide knowledge

of vocabulary It means that the learners must to study as many words as possible It also emphasizes that the teachers should give words with means of combination with other words in utterance and help student how to use suitable words in each context

1.2 Classification of vocabulary

1.2.1 According to the meaning

A word can possess two kinds of meaning: lexical meaning and grammatical meaning Therefore, vocabulary can be divided into notional and functional words

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1.2.1.1 Notional words (Lexical words)

Notional words are words with clear lexical meaning They are objects, action, qualities, etc and they have meaning in themselves Notional words form a great number of each speaker’s vocabulary Example: a book, a house

to give, a pen, a bottle, etc In short, a notional word “is the realization of concept or emotion”

1.2.1.2 Functional words (Grammatical words)

Functional words are those whose meaning is grammatical and they have meaning in relation to the other words with which they are used Functional words are particles, articles, prepositions, auxiliaries, conjunctions…for example: at, on, and, because

Although the lexical words are different from grammatical words, there

is no clear – cut dividing line between the two types of word In teaching vocabulary, “the teacher should not spend too much time teaching functional words but simply tell the learners how to use the words grammatically It is important that lexical and grammatical meanings do not exits separately but always go together to make up the meaning of a word The teacher, therefore, bears in mind these characteristic of words when they teach vocabulary It means that the teachers should teach learners the use of functional words within the framework of a sentence pattern” (18, p.29)

1.2.2 According to the concept of morphemes

A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit or part of a word Words are made up from free and bound morphemes “According to the concept of morphemes, we can classify words into three types: simple words, derived words, and compound words” (2, p.14)

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1.2.2.1 Simple words

A simple word consists of one morpheme only and cannot be broken down into smallest meaningful unit For example: bank, girl, cat, pig, etc Most of simple words are root to make up compound words or complex words in a language

Compounds can function in a sentence as separate lexical units due to their integrity, semantic unity, etc Compounds are easily confused with free words However, basing on the phonological criterion, we can distinguish between compounds and free word groups Most compounds have a heavy stress on the first element, for example: ‘greenhouse’, ‘whitewash’ In other hand, free word groups have even stresses on both two elements or on the second element, for instance: ‘dancing’ girl, ‘high’ chair, etc

Thus, when teaching compounds to students, teachers should give clear examples with accurate stress to help them understand deeply

1.2.3 According to the function

In sentence, word has many different functions English words can be classified basing on functions as different parts of speech such as noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and preposition Each part of speech has to follow

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particular grammar rules so that when learning English words we have to be aware of the importance of the parts of speech of that word in sentence

For example: _Noun: a pen, a stream, a lion …

_Verb: to watch, to give, to take …

_Adjective: beautiful, big, small …

Apart from the meaning, pronunciation and spelling of new words, learners need to know these words how function in sentence A word can have many functions in the sentence For example, with the word ‘foreigner’ some learners may make sentence like this:

“she’s a foreigner student”

In that case, teacher would need to clarify that “foreigner” is a noun, and the adjective of it is “foreign” Also, teacher needs to point out that a word can have more than one grammatical function

1.2.4 According to the frequency of use

The number of words in the English language is: 1,013,913 This is the estimate by the Global Language Monitor on January 1, 2013 Obviously, there are a variety of words in English To save time, and even more important to reduce possible stress caused by learning by heart many new words each lesson, learners should be aware of words with high frequency in use and those with low frequency Words used to denote daily activities or

routines are often employed such as to go, to work, to eat (high frequency)

Many other words are only used in some specific situations such as the words

belong to some specific fields For instance: word processor, main board,

wizard… (Low frequency)

High frequency words are recognized faster by children than low

frequency words

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1.3 What need to be taught in vocabulary teaching

The relationship between spelling and pronunciation in English seems to make the language inexplicable This is clearly seen when we look at the number of similar forms which are different in their pronunciation, for example: encourage and engineer

In addition, the number of homophones in English likes soles and soul,

weight and wait also causes difficulties for students

Because of the complex relationship, the teachers should find out the effective ways to teach vocabulary It is very difficult for learners if the teachers do not write the new words on the board and pronounce it correctly The teachers need to make sure that the learners know all the spelling, pronunciation and regularization of word they are learning

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grammatical function, the unpredictable change of form in certain grammatical contexts, regularity and irregularity, the singular and plural form

of the new word so that they can use it correctly It is important to provide the learners with the information at the same time as the teachers teach the base form “When teaching a new verb, for example, the teacher might give also its

past form, if this is irregular (think, thought), and they might note if it is

transitive or intransitive Similarity, when presenting a noun, the teachers may

wish to teach its plural form, if irregular (mouse, mice), or draw learner’s attention to the fact that is has no plural at all (advice, information) The teachers may present verbs such as want and enjoy together with the verb form that follows them (want to, enjoy-ing), or adjectives or verbs together with their following preposition (responsible for, remind someone of)”

When introducing words like decision and conclusion, for example, the teachers may not that you take or make the one, but usually come to the other

In English, some words have the same meaning but they are different

in collocation, for example, to do and to make So it is important to give this information to the students When presenting the word to do, to make, the

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teachers may note that both words mean to perform but they can distinguished

by the word they collocation with We usually say to do the washing not to

make the washing or to make the phone call not to do the phone call

Teaching and learning collocation are very significant because collocations make our language will be more natural and more easily understood In addition, they also help we have alternative and richer ways of expressing ourselves and our brain remembers and uses language in chunks or blocks rather as single word Thus, when teaching new words, the teachers need to supply to the students their collocations

1.3.4 Aspects of meaning

1.3.4.1 Detonation

According to To Thu Huong, Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa, Nguyen Thi Thuy Minh, Luong Quynh Trang (2008), denotation meaning of words refers to or identifies all things or objects that are correctly covered it For instance, if you

look up the word snake in a dictionary, you will discover that one of its denotation meanings is any of numerous sallies, legless, sometimes venomous

reptiles and having a long body and found in most tropical and temperate region

1.3.4.2 Connotation

“Connotation of word is less obvious than its denotation Connotation refers to the associations that are connected to a certain word or the emotional suggestion social overtones, cultural implications related to that word” (14,

p.86) For example, the name Hollywood connotes such things as glitz,

glamour, celebrity and gream of stardom

1.3.4.3 Appropriateness

“Appropriateness indicates whether a word is appropriately used in a certain context or not Some words in English can be used correctly in this

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context but wrongly in that context Thus, it is useful for learners to know that

a certain word is very common, or relatively rare, or tend to be used in writing but not in speech, or is more suitable for formal than informal discourse, or

belong to a certain dialect” (14, p.86) For instance, you may know that kid is synonymous in denotation with child, but it is more informal and used in

speaking

1.3.4.4 Meaning relationships

It is very useful to teach how the meaning of one item relates to the meaning of others According to To Thu Huong, Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa, Nguyen Thi Thuy Minh, Luong Quynh Trang (2008), there are some main relationships:

• Synonyms: items that mean the same, or nearly the same For

example: to help, to aid, to assist, to succor

• Antonyms: words of opposite meaning and of the same part of

speech For instance: long – short, up – down, increase – decrease

• Hyponyms: items that serve as specific examples of a general

concept; sofa, television, fridge, washing machine are hyponyms of furniture

• Co-hyponyms or co-ordinates: other items that are the “same kind of

things”; black, white, yellow, green are co-ordinates

• Super-ordinates: general concepts that “cover” specific item; flower

is the super-ordinate of violet, rose, peach-blossom

• Translation: words of expression in the learner’s mother tongue that are equivalent in meaning to the item being taught

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1.3.5 Word formation

Word formation is the process of building new words from material already existing in the language according to certain root and grammar rule and formulate So word formation is very important for learners to enrich their vocabulary and use them correctly

“There are three main forms of word formation in English, graded according to their productive degree: affixation, compounding, and conversation” (14, p.86) Besides, there are shortening, back derivation (back formation), sound imitation, sound and stress interchange

Affixation consists of prefixes and suffixes Prefixes are added to the root (the stem) Prefixes rarely form new parts of speech They are divided into negative prefixes, prefixes of time and space, prefixes of reversal and

repetition, for example: unlucky, replay, and supermarket In the other hand,

suffixes modify the lexical meaning of stem and transfer words to different parts of speech Suffixes include three groups:

• Noun suffixes: teacher, kindness, friendship, etc

• Adjective suffixes: windy, childless and useful, and so on

• Verb suffixes: shorten, signify, etc

• Adverb suffixes: carefully, nicely, etc

Compound is defined as stems consisting of more than one root For instance: beside, black market, waste paper basket According to word class and syntactic relationship between the roots, we can classify compound into:

• Compound noun: any root + noun For example: black-bird, air-chair text-book

• Compound verb: any root + verb For instance: house-keep, clean, over-do

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• Compound adjective: any root (except verb) + adjective For example: blue-green, south-west, earth-bound

• Compound adverb: adverb + adverb For example: through-out

Conversion is the formation of a new word in a different part of speech without adding any element Conversion is also called “functional change” or

“zero derivation” For example, lecture – to lecture, hand – to hand Conversation most often involves a change from one word class to another The major kinds of conversation are noun – verb (bottle – to bottle), verb – noun (to go – a go), adjective-noun (poor – the poor), and adjective – verb (better – to better)

1.4 Traditional teaching methods

Traditional teaching approach can be divided into three types:

translation, visual technique, verbal technique

1.4.1 Translation

Wilkin (1972) explained that in the translation technique the teacher gives the translation of a given word into the student’s mother tongue Translation is the quickest way of demonstrating the meaning of vocabulary items However, it may discourage learners from interacting with words they are learning They often give up if the exact lexeme does not come to mind Therefore, this method should be kept under tight control

1.4.2 Visual technique

Weinstein and Mayer (1986) stated “one of the most important aspects

of language teaching is the role of visual material: the importance of using visual media to make one’s teaching more effective, communicative and interesting” (1, p.150) Thus, in teaching English vocabulary, especially at the elementary stage, the teacher should use some means of technique to

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establish a link between the word and the meaning Teacher can use photos, pictures, flashcard, slide, wall charts, gestures, actions, facial expressions, etc

to teach the meaning of words to student According to Nation (1994), the use

of various types of visual materials in teaching vocabulary increases the intrinsic motivation of the learners As to psychologists, visual materials contribute to the efficiency, depth, and variety of learning by stimulating learners’ imagination They arouse interests of the learners by appealing to several senses This is because of they have the power to make learning more permanent, and their aesthetic character makes the teaching – learning process pleasant and enjoyable

However, not all vocabulary can be presented in this way According

to Thornbury (2002) vocabulary should only be presented visually if it can be done quickly, easily and clearly

1.4.3 Verbal technique

In the sound and the meaning – phase the teacher says the new word two, three or more times, pronouncing it clearly He/she also indicates the meaning of the word at the same times, in the ostensive way (showing or pointing out objects) or just verbal (telling learners the meaning of the word)

Then there is the repetition step In this phase, the teacher gets the class

to repeat the new word several times and checks the pronunciation carefully

If the teacher is using a visual technique, he should keep it in front of the learners to ensure that they associate the sound and the meaning

In the written form phase the teacher writes the new word on the blackboard and asks the class to read it aloud First, teacher chooses two or three individuals to say it, and then gets choral repetition so that everyone in the class has the opportunity to associate the written form with the pronunciation

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Finally, in the illustrative sentences step the teacher puts a short illustrative sentence on the board so that the meaning will be clear to anyone reading the notes afterwards

1.5 Overview of vocabulary learning strategies

Learning vocabulary is one of the easy tasks when learning a foreign language There are many different learning strategies that can help them to study vocabulary effectively and easily Taylor (1990) claimed that strategies

“are the tools for active, self – directed involvement that is necessary for developing communicative skills.” (1, p.88) As Rubin (1987) stated “people learn by employing effective and flexible strategies that help them to understand, reason, memorize and solve problems” (3, p.115)

According to Weinstein (1986), “Learning strategies […] are the mental processes which learners employ to learn and use the target language” (4, p.93) Based on different criteria, many scholars classify vocabulary learning strategies in different ways Schmitt (1997) divided learning strategies According to Rubin (1994), there are three types of strategies used by learners that contribute directly and indirectly to language learning: Communication strategies, learning strategies and social strategies O’Malley (1990) divides language learning strategy into three main subcategories: Metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies and social affective strategies According to Johnson (1996), there are five main language learning strategies These are as follow: Management and planning strategies, cognitive strategies, communicative – experiential strategies, interpersonal strategies, and affective strategies In general, vocabulary learning strategy is a process that never ends Language learners have to be prepared for constant vocabulary learning experience and have effective strategies

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CHAPTER II – THE STUDY

-*** - 2.1 Methodology

In this chapter, the researcher introduces about teacher and teaching situation, students and their background, the text book English 7 to find out unsolved problems in teaching and learning English at Khuong Thuong secondary school In order to have a deep understanding of this issue, the researcher also provides methodology used in the study such as: survey questionnaire and class observation to investigate the current difficulties in learning and teaching at Khuong Thuong secondary school Beside, the researcher gives reasons for choosing the methods and describes about the methodology being used in this research

2.2 Objects of the study

Khuong Thuong secondary school is located in Dong Da district, Ha

grade to 9th grade

students A major of students come from Dong Da district because Khuong Thuong secondary school is a state school Almost all students have good opportunities for studying English at primary school or in English learning centre However, they do not have the habit of learning independently Some students do not spend much time learning English at home Besides, classes of English as other subjects are large; there are about 40 to 45 students in a class The levels of students in in the same class are different They have different learning abilities and have different attitudes toward learning English

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vocabulary Thus, it can lower learning and teaching’s quality at Khuong Thuong secondary school

2.2.2 Teachers and their teaching situation

English teachers at Khuong Thuong secondary school consit of 5 official teachers at the age from 27 to 45 They graduated from College of Foreign Language – Vietnam National University, Hanoi National University

of Education

Along with the great love of job, they give students enthusiasm and responsibility in training and educational career However, because of the effect of old teaching methods, teachers have not met the demand of students

2.3.1 The survey questionnaire

2.3.1.1 Purposes

In order to have a deep understanding about teaching and learning

the researcher has designed survey questionnaire for students The researcher finds that the survey questionnaire is a suitable method which is used

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popularly in the research The author chooses this method because of some reasons

In the research process, the researcher has little time to deliver the questionnaire as well as to collect data Thus, this method is very essential for the researcher to gather data and information of two classes with 90 students

Besides, the researcher chooses questionnaire because it is the effective survey method Researchers can survey large samples of the population across wide geographic areas much less expensively than conducting face-to-face interview because they don’t need to travel to reach participants or rent interviewer space Mail or telephone questionnaire can be conducted at a relatively low cost and online surveys are even less expensive

To sum up, the researcher chooses this method since it is easy to do, it does not cost a lot of time, effort and money, still considerable data and various ideas can be collected quickly

2.3.1.2 Description of survey questionnaire

In order to serve the purpose of the study, the researcher has designed survey questionnaire for students

secondary school and four questions (7-10) for teachers

Question 1, 2 relate to student’s opinion and their attitude to English vocabulary learning The researcher designs question 3 to find out students’ difficulties in learning vocabulary In order to know the way which students learn English vocabulary, question 4, 5 are given in the questionnaire Question 6 is designed to clarify attitude of student toward their teachers’ teaching vocabulary technique Question 7, 8, 9 relate to teacher’s teaching

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techniques Question 10 is given to find out teacher’s difficulties in teaching

English vocabulary

2.3.1.3 Data collection and analysis

a The survey questionnaire for students

It can be seen clearly from the table, the amount of students considering

vocabulary a very important element in language learning presents 38%,

while 60% of them think that vocabulary is not as important as grammar and

2% not important This means that most of these students are not well aware

of the importance of vocabulary in their English learning

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As shown in the table, 38% of these students are interested in learning

English vocabulary, 50% are not much interested in and about 12% are

uninterested in learning English vocabulary

Table 3 What difficulties do you have when you learn English

vocabulary? (can choose more than one answer)

In order to find out the difficulties that students have to cope with when

learning English vocabulary, question 3 is designed in survey questionnaire

The result of this table shows that many students (68%) find it hard to

remember the meaning of words In pronunciation, 30% of students said that

they can remember the word but cannot pronounce correctly 25% students

make complains about forgetting how to write words and the rest of students

have to cope with other difficulties

Table 4 Which source(s) do you often use in learn English

vocabulary? (Can choose more than one answer)

Percent (%)