Towards improving vocabulary for the first year students at the faculty of english, hanoi open university

HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY CODE: 15 FACULTY OF ENGLISH GRADUATION THESIS B.A DEGREE IN ENGLISH STUDY TOWARDS IMPROVING VOCABULARY FOR THE FIRSTYEAR STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF ENGLISH, HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY Supervisor Student Date of birth Course : Le Thi Vy, M.A : Do Thu Huong : 28.02.1994 : K19A03 (2012-2016) Hanoi – 2016 Graduation Paper DECLARATION Title: Towards improving vocabulary for the first year students at the Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University I certify that no part of the above report has been copied or reproduced by me from any other’s work without acknowledgement and that the report is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor Hanoi, 15 April, 2016 Student Signature Supervisor Signature Full name Full name Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation Paper ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks to Mrs Le Thi Vy, M.A – my supervisor A person of varied skills and experiences in English teaching, she has eased my research through valuable suggestions, careful and detailed comments Without her help, my thesis would not have been completed I wish also to express my great thanks to the lecturers of the Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University who have provided me with not only knowledge but also the study condition as well as their useful advice, their concerns and supports during the time I am studying here My gratitude also goes to the class K19A02, for their continuing supports and sharing their ideas with me both as classmates and friends for the wonderful time we had in Hanoi Open University I also would like to extend my thanks to the 100 first-year students of the Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University for their aid in implementing the survey Finally yet importantly, I am indebted to my family especially my mother who have had no knowledge of English but their helps, supports and encouragements to my English study are uncountable If there had not been great help from the above people, the study could not have been fulfilled For which I am truly grateful Hanoi, 15 April, 2016 Do Thu Huong Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation Paper TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF TABLES PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Aims and purposes of the study Scope of the study Research questions Methods of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW An overview of vocabulary 1.1 Definitions of vocabulary .5 1.2 Classification of vocabulary 1.2.1.The meaning .6 1.2.2.The function 1.2.3.The concept of morphemes 1.3 The importance of vocabulary 10 Vocabulary study 12 2.1 Meaning .12 2.2 Form 12 2.3 Collocation 13 2.4 Word formation .14 Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation Paper 2.5 Grammar 16 Summary 16 CHAPTER II: THE STUDY 18 Methodology 18 1.1 Subjects .18 1.2 Survey questionnaires 18 Findings 19 2.1 Data collection and analysis .19 2.2 Findings .26 2.3 Summary 27 CHAPTER III: SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY AT THE FOE, HOU 28 Reading the materials 28 Guessing words from context 29 Making it personal 32 Using Stick notes or Flash cards 33 Making friends with the dictionary 35 Taking advantages of mass media 36 Studying and Reviewing regularly 39 PART C: CONCLUSION 42 Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation Paper LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS HOU : Hanoi Open University FOE : Faculty of English Etc : Et cetera Et al : Et alia Q : Question Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) Graduation Paper LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Students’ opinions and attitudes toward learning English vocabulary (Question 1, 2, 3, 4) Table 2: Students’ problems in English vocabulary learning (Question 5) Table 3: Students’ understanding of English vocabulary learning (Question 6) Table 4: Students’ common ways in English vocabulary learning (Question 7, 8) Table 5: Students’ expectation to teachers (Question 9) Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Each country in the world has their own language, custom and culture But nowadays, the development of the society and economy makes chances to all nations co-operate to each other Thus, they have to use a common language to communicate – English English is becoming very popular and important because it is used widely in many fields of life such as technology, tourism business, education, health, science especially foreign trade and so on… To be specific, in Vietnam – a developing country with the open door-policy, it is now a great demand to learn English for the process of assimilating and promoting into regional and international economy Therefore, English is also considered the most important foreign language in Vietnam and taught as a compulsory subject at almost every school Moreover, English is taught at all levels of education from kindergartens, elementary schools, junior and senior high schools to colleges and universities Everyone has to experience new words first if they want to learn a language The more words you know, the more knowledge you will be able to understand Thus, vocabulary is a useful key and plays an important role in learning English However, it is not easy work because English is very varied and complex All of the learners in general and the first-year students at the FOE, HOU in particular always have to face up with many difficulties when they start learning English as a second language, namely vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation in which vocabulary is the hardest issue In fact, a word may have more than one meaning and more than one part of speech; therefore, students cannot avoid forgetting vocabulary in the process of studying English Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) For example, the word “increase” may be a noun and a verb also Besides, some words with different spelling and meaning have the same pronunciation such as “sun” and “son” In this graduation paper, the author would like to carry out a study on how first-year students at the FOE, HOU are learning English vocabulary in order to find out their current situation of studying vocabulary and then to suggest them some effective solutions to deal with their problems in learning as well as improve their English vocabulary With all the above reasons, the author decided to choose the research title “Towards improving vocabulary for the first-year students at the Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University” to help the mentioned students as well as others enrich their English vocabulary Aims and purposes of the study The graduation paper is about to help the first-year students at the FOE, HOU make progress in studying vocabulary and improve their own vocabulary as well as to prepare for their basic knowledge of vocabulary with higher requirement for the next levels by suggesting some common useful ways To summarize the above, the study is aimed at: - Covering background knowledge of vocabulary - Giving a brief overview of how first-year students at the FOE, HOU study vocabulary - Finding out difficulties that first-year students are facing in learning English vocabulary - Suggesting some useful techniques to learn English vocabulary Hopefully, the students will be interested in studying English especially English vocabulary and get better results in this subject Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) Scope of the study The study limits itself to the investigation of the difficulties in learning English vocabulary of the first-year students at the FOE, HOU and the solutions are also provided to help them learn English vocabulary more easily and effectively Research questions - What are the vocabulary and its importance? - What is the real situation of learning English vocabulary for the first- year students at the FOE, HOU? - What are the main difficulties experienced by the first-year students at the FOE, HOU in the process of learning English vocabulary? - What are some recommendations for the first-year students to improve their vocabulary? Methods of the study To complete this graduation paper, some methods have been applied: investigative method, descriptive method and theoretical method All of the considerations and theories given in this study are based largely on publication The statistics are collected from the survey questionnaires of the first-year students at the FOE, HOU The results of this survey will be analyzed to clarify the current situation and then recommend some effective solutions Design of the study The study is divided into three parts: Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) students have more interests in learning vocabulary The mere act of filling out flash cards or stick notes can help commit facts to memory and subsequently using them as study aids can follow the students to absorb copious amounts of knowledge in a short amount of time Flash cards and stick notes are hands-down, the most effective way for motivated learners to study and retain factual knowledge especially when they are used smartly When the students look at the front side of a flashcard and think of the answer, they are engaging a mental faculty known as active recall In other words, they are attempting to remember the concept from scratch rather than simply staring at the passage in their textbooks or recognizing it on a multiple choice quiz Active recall has been proven to create stronger neuron connections for that memory trace And because flashcards can so easily facilitate repetition, they are the best way to create multiple memory-enhancing recall events What is more, when the students reveal the answer side of a flashcards to assess their correctness, they are essentially asking themselves: “How did my answer compare to this correct answer?” and “How well did I know (or not) it?” This act of self-reflection is known as cognition Research shows that applying cognition tends to ingrain memories deeper into their knowledge Flashcards exist loosely, rather than tied to a book or document, the students are able to separate them into piles based on whether (or how often) they need to study them again This practice of confidence-based repetition is proven by Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) 34 decades of research to be the most scientifically optimized way in order to improve memory performance Besides, the students should always try to learn new concepts using projectbased learning or by asking their own questions But when it comes to studying or reviewing concepts in the most effective way possible, nothing comes close to flashcards Making friends with the dictionary As analyzed in chapter II, the students might have obstacles in memorizing the word’s meaning, parts of speech or the usage That is why the first-year students should use dictionary to solve their above problems because there are many useful things in the dictionary such as some examples with the specific usage, synonyms or antonyms, etc Thus, it cannot be denied that the dictionary should be one of the most often used books of the students The students often choose English-Vietnamese dictionary because of its easy understanding But they not know that it will make them can hardly develop vocabulary It is suggested that students should using English-English dictionary which will help them better in vocabulary learning process Moreover, they should place the dictionary somewhere so that they can find it immediately and use it often The home dictionary might be large enough to contain much more than just spellings (American versus British) As well as understanding the meaning, the students are able to check pronunciation, the grammar of the word (for example: verb patterns, verb forms, plurality, comparatives, etc) and examples that illustrate usage Thus, students can get more knowledge about words and use them in right context Nowadays, Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) 35 students tend to use electric dictionary on smart phones, Internet in spite of their convenience In addition, besides paper dictionary and the online one, the students are also recommended that carrying in their purse or backpack a pocket dictionary with more concise definitions is a good idea in order to learn vocabulary whenever they have time The freshmen should get in the habit of turning to it often because a well-worn dictionary is really a beautiful and valuable thing The author suggests this method with hope that students will always work out the meaning of new words in order to increase their amount of vocabulary instead of ignoring them Taking advantages of mass media According to the statistics in chapter II, all freshmen usually learn English vocabulary by using mass media such as watching TV, listening to radio, accessing to the Internet, etc Therefore, the author would like to give students more details about this method to help students make a right progress in learning vocabulary It is known that learning English as a second language can be an arduous task and overwhelming Most students have hard time understanding native English speakers especially if they have learned from books and are trying to apply their knowledge in the real world Thankfully, we live in an information age where we can easily access tons of resources in just one click The author has compiled a list of forms of mass media which are the most effective, hassle-free, low-cost and fun ways to improve the students’ English vocabulary Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) 36 a Movies Movies are the all-time king of entertainment and watching them is one of the best methods for learning English vocabulary The students can pick up many expressions and new vocabulary, a genuine accent as well as the non-verbal communication that goes along with everyday conversation If they are not very familiar with watching English movies without the help of dubbing or subtitles in their own language, they should probably start experimenting with watching their favorite Hollywood movies in English By doing this, the students can easily learn words in context and hear their pronunciation If the freshmen have favorite movies, they should watch it with English subtitles first When watching it the second time, try to switch the captions off Since, they can develop the habit of watching movies as they really are in order to enrich the vocabulary every single day b News The English students hear when listening to or watching the news will definitely deviate from the English they hear when watching movies “News” English is quite dry, fact-oriented, and information rich, and those facts and information are being delivered within a short period of time Most of the news is usually presented without subtitles, which makes it even harder for a non-native speaker to understand However, this is a good way for the students to train their own English and improve their listening skills as well Moreover, by doing this, they can also enlarge their vocabulary in many different topics If the students want to improve their understanding the news, they should start by reading newspapers, then turn to watch high-quality news Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) 37 channels such as BBC News, CBC News, CNN, Financial Times, etc The first-year students can also find news videos on YouTube, so that they can watch them again and again until they understand the gist as well as know all new words in these videos c TV shows There are so many entertaining TV shows, programs and sitcoms (situation comedies) to watch The students can simply choose any that interest them There are also many TV shows with famous hosts and TV presenters The most popular ones are Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and others If they spend time watching these programs day by day, both their listening skill and the number of vocabulary are developed Furthermore, the students’ pronunciation will be improved when listening and imitating their accents TED.com is one of the most popular sites with a lot of unique presentations in which people from different backgrounds share their ideas and knowledge What is more, the students can see how diversified they use the words, even their intonation Best of all, the students should watch it any time For example, the topics vary from top-notch robot technology to “the joy of surfing in ice-cold water”, so surely the students will find something that inspires them such as interesting information and several interesting new words which might be applied in their conversations or writings Most of the presentations last from to 20 minutes and some of them have subtitles When watching these videos, the students can also learn presentation skills and cultivate the vocabulary on a chosen topic Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) 38 d Music Music is a universal language Songs make it easier to learn the language especially Singing and repeating lyrics of favorite songs mean that the students are already working on their English pronunciation as well as a list of new words The first-year students should try to understand the meaning of each word and remember them in case they have to use them in fixed situations Besides, karaoke is also a great way to improve their English as it allows the students to learn the lyrics and practice pronunciation while they are a singer e Radio and podcasts Radio and podcasts can be challenging to understand because the students not have visual support as they when watching movies or TV shows On the other hand, listening to the radio or podcast is quite useful, especially if the students are preparing for the listening sections of IELTS or TOEFL exams The more they listen to the native speech, the more new words they get Even if the students not understand 100% of what is being said, their brain gets used to the rhythms of English and they can improve the listening skills without even noticing If the freshmen devote enough time to every form of the above-mentioned mass media, they will definitely make their English fluent and have no problems understanding native speakers Studying and Reviewing regularly As mentioned before, the freshmen spend less time studying vocabulary and they find it difficult to memorize all words’ meaning, parts of speech or their Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) 39 usage, etc Hence, the author recommends that students should study and review vocabulary regularly in order to remember them in a long time Learning how to build a better vocabulary can be a pleasurable and profitable investment of both their time and effort At least fifteen minutes a day of concentrated study on a regular basis can bring about a rapid improvement in their vocabulary skills, which in turn can increase their ability to communicate by writing, conversing or making speeches Acquiring a large vocabulary can benefit them in school, at work and socially It will enable them to understand others’ ideas better and to have the satisfaction of getting their thoughts and ideas across more effectively The students already know thousands of words and continue to learn more whether they work at it or not The fact is that many words are probably learned simply by coming across frequently in the students’ reading, in conversation, and even while watching television Increasing the pace of their learning requires a consistent, dedicated approach If they learn only one new word a day for the next three years, the students will have over a thousand new words in their amount of vocabulary However, if they decide right now to learn ten new words a day; thus, in one year, they will have added over three thousand to what they have already known and probably have established a lifetime habit of learning and self-improvement Once the students have begun looking up words and they know which ones have to study, vocabulary building is simply a matter of reviewing the words regularly until they fix them in the memory This is the best done by setting aside a specific amount of time each day for vocabulary study During that time, the students can look up new words which they have noted during the Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) 40 day and review old words in the process of learning Setting a goal for the number of words which the students would like to learn and by what date, then arrange their schedule accordingly Fifteen minutes a day will bring better results than half an hour once a week or so However, if half an hour a week is all the time the students have to spare, they should start with that Besides, they may find more time later on and move in the right direction In order to review words effectively, all the information on a word should be kept in one place – in a notebook, for example, or on an index card Index cards are convenient because the words can be placed in alphabetical order, which makes them easy to find when reviewing; and the cards can be carried around with the students; therefore, they can study them anywhere Moreover, the freshmen should try to be systematic about studying so that they are sure to review each word at least once every couple of words Do not throw cards away, though; the first-year students can get a great feeling of accomplishment by looking at the growing stack of words they have learned and by occasionally glancing at an old card and thinking “Once I actually didn’t know the meaning of this word” Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) 41 PART C: CONCLUSION In the last part of the thesis, an overall picture of the study is provided with a brief description of the study as well as the findings In addition, there are some suggested solutions for the first-year students at the FOE, HOU in order to help them improve their vocabulary level This paper was carried out with the purpose of finding the real situation of the first-year students’ vocabulary learning at the FOE, HOU and giving some recommended methods so that students can make their own vocabulary learning progress The author begins the paper with the literature review which sets an academic background of vocabulary The second chapter looks at the first-year students’ situation of English vocabulary studying From the survey questionnaires, the students express their opinions, attitudes towards learning vocabulary; moreover, they also address their wishes to teachers with hope that they can be taught with methods which is more interesting and easier to apply Based on the survey’s analysis, chapter III recommends several learning vocabulary strategies to help students come over difficulties or even the fear of themselves in order to make their learning more efficient Through this study, the author finds that many first-year students at the FOE, HOU have various reasons for their poor vocabulary such as laziness, unconcentration, problems about pronunciation, spelling, word-collocation, synonyms/antonyms, words’ usage and parts of speech, etc This paper is aimed to help students in our Faculty realize their weaknesses as well as find Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) 42 out suitable methods for studying this subject However, learning English vocabulary is a long-term skill; therefore, students should be patient to master this Consequently, the thesis has been completed with a special care and interest Nevertheless, mistakes and shortcomings are unavoidable; therefore, any further comments and contributions for perfection of this paper are gratefully appreciated Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) 43 APPENDIX Survey questionnaire This survey questionnaire is designed to find out the real situation of learning English vocabulary to the first-year students at the FOE, HOU as well as their attitudes and expectations toward learning vocabulary Your answers will be used for studying purpose of the graduation entitled: “Towards improving vocabulary for the first-year students at the Faculty of English, Hanoi Open University” Please answer the following questions as honestly as you can by circling the answers you choose Thank you very much! How important you think learning English vocabulary is? A Very important B Important C Not important How often you learn vocabulary outside classroom? A Never B Sometimes C Often D Always How you feel about learning English vocabulary? A Boring B Head-aching C Interesting Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) How effective is your learning English vocabulary? A Not very effective B Very effective What are your difficulties when learning English vocabulary? (choose more than one) A Spelling B Pronunciation C Meaning D Word collocations E Others (please specify: ……………………………………………… ) What knowledge you have learned is helpful for your vocabulary learning? (choose more than one) A Translation B Word collocations C Lexical knowledge (suffix, root and stem of words) D Native language E Society-related knowledge A Others (please specify: ……………………………………………… ) When coming across a new item, how you work out the meaning of the words? You base on: (choose more than one) A Contexts B Word formation C Synonyms / Antonyms D Illustrating pictures Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) E Others (please specify: ……………………………………………… ) How you usually learn English vocabulary? (choose more than one) A By learning by heart B By reading repeatedly C By writing automatically D By association E By keeping word cards with pictures, photographs, objects, etc F By using Mass Media (TV, radio, computer, etc) G By analyzing affixes and roots H Others (please specify: ………………………………………………) Which techniques you expect the teachers using in teaching vocabulary? (choose more than one) A Using simple English to show the word’s meaning B Showing the new words in the contexts C Using visual aids D Translation E Using synonyms/antonyms F Using games G Others (please specify: ………………………………………………) -Thank you - Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) REFERENCES Alexander, F (2006) Understanding Vocabulary Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Bauer, L (2002) English Word – Formation Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Coulmas, F (1996) The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems Oxford, Blackwells Gaims, R & Redman, S (1986) Working with Words – A Guide to Teaching and Learning Vocabulary Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Lewis, M & Hill, J (1985) Practical Techniques for Language Teaching London Commercial Colour Press Mackey, W.F (1971) Language Teaching Analysis Longman, London Nation, P (1994) New Ways in Teaching Vocabulary Pantagraph Printing Bloomington Nguyen B & Nguyen N (2002) A course in TEFL – Theory and Practice II Hanoi English Department College of Foreign Languages, National University To Thu Huong, Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa, Nguyen Thi Thuy Minh, Luong Quynh Trang (2008) ELT Methodology II Viet Nam National University Publisher, Ha Noi 10 Ur, P (1996) A Course in Language Teaching Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 11 Ur, P (2012) A Course in Language Teaching (second edition) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016) 12 Wilkin, D (1972) Linguistics in Language Teaching Arnold, London 13 Wood, L (1981) Foreign and Second Language Learning Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Do Thu Huong – K19A03 – (2012 – 2016)