Investigating teaching and learning vocabulary based on form focused instruction at ha long gifted high school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HÒA INVESTIGATING TEACHING AND LEARNING VOCABULARY BASED ON FORM-FOCUSED INSTRUCTION AT HA LONG GIFTED HIGH SCHOOL (NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC TỪ VỰNG DỰA TRÊN NỀN TẢNG HÌNH THỨC- NỘI DUNG LÀM TÂM ĐIỂM TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN HẠ LONG ) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Hanoi – 2013 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HÒA INVESTIGATING TEACHING AND LEARNING VOCABULARY BASED ON FORM-FOCUSED INSTRUCTION AT HA LONG GIFTED HIGH SCHOOL (NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC TỪ VỰNG DỰA TRÊN NỀN TẢNG HÌNH THỨC- NỘI DUNG LÀM TÂM ĐIỂM TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN HẠ LONG ) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: NGUYỄN THI ̣ BÁCH THẢO, M.A Hanoi – 2013 TABLE CONTENTS Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Table of contents iv List of tables and figures viii List of abbreviations ix PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale Aims of the study Significance of the study Scope of the Research Research Questions Method of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 The Role of vocabulary in language teaching and learning 1.1.1 Definition of Vocabulary 1.1.2 The Importance of Vocabulary in Language Teaching and Learning 1.2 Approaches to teaching English Vocabulary 1.2.1 What needs to be taught while teaching Vocabulary 1.2.2 Methods and Approaches of teaching vocabulary at high school 10 1.3 Forms-Focused Instruction versus Form-Focused Instruction 12 1.3.1 Definition of Forms- Focused Instruction and its basic features 12 iv 3.1.1 Definition of Focus on Forms Instruction 1.3.1.2 Basic features of Focus on Forms Instruction 12 1.3.2 Definition of Form-Focused Instruction and its basic feature 13 1.3.2.1 Definition of Focus on Form Instruction 13 3.2.1.1 Incidental Focus- on- Form 14 1.3.2.1.2 Planned Focus-on-Form 14 1.3.2.2 Basic features of Focus on Form Instruction 15 1.3.3 Advantages of Form-Focused Instruction over Forms-Focused Instruction 16 1.3.4 Weaknesses of Form-Focused Instruction 17 1.3.5 Tendency of using Form-Focused Instruction in Language Teaching 18 1.3.6 The summary 19 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Setting of the study 20 2.2 Participants 20 Students 20 Teachers 20 2.3 Data collection methods 21 2.3.1 Questionnaires 21 2.3.2 Interview 22 2.4 Data collection procedure 22 2.5 Data analysis method CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 23 3.1 Research question 1: What is the role of vocabulary in Language Teaching and Learning at Ha Long Gifted School? 24 3.1.1 The Teachers‟ Attitudes toward the Role of Vocabulary and Teaching Vocabulary at Ha Long Gifted School 24 v 3.1.2 The Students‟ Attitudes toward the Role of Vocabulary and Teaching Vocabulary at Ha Long Gifted School 25 3.2 Research question 2: How is vocabulary taught and learned at Ha Long Gifted School? 27 3.2.1 The way that Vocabulary is taught and learned at Ha Long Gifted School 27 3.2.2 Difficulties that the Teachers and Students cope with in teaching and learning Vocabulary 33 3.3 Research question 3: What are suggestions for Teaching and Learning vocabulary effectively? PART C: CONCLUSION 35 Summary of findings 38 Implications 39 2.1 For Teachers 39 2.2 For Students 39 2.3 For Administrators 40 Limitations of the study 41 Recommendations for further studies 41 REFERENCES 42 APPENDICES Appendix 1: Questionnaire for teachers I Appendix 2: Questionnaire for students V Appendix 3: Interview questions for teachers IX Appendix 4: Interview for students X vi LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1: Purposes of teaching vocabulary at HLGS (TQ-Q2) Table 2: Purposes of learning vocabulary of students at HLGS (SQ-Q2) Table 3: Methods of teaching and learning vocabulary items (TQ-Q3&SQ-Q3) Table 4: Aspects which teachers often choose when teaching vocabulary item (TQQ8) Table 5: Difficulties that the teachers face in teaching vocabulary (TQ-Q10) Table 6: Difficulties that the students face in learning vocabulary(SQ- Q8) Table 7: Reasons for students‟ preference of learning vocabulary in communicative tasks or activities (SQ- Q10) Figure 1: Teachers‟ attitudes toward vocabulary and teaching vocabulary (TQ-Q1) Figure 2: Students‟ attitudes toward vocabulary and teaching vocabulary (SQ-Q1) Figure 3: Frequency of teaching and learning vocabulary items separately or isolatedly (TQ- Q4,& SQ- Q4) Figure 4: Usefulness of teaching and learning vocabulary items separately or isolatedly (TQ- Q5 & SQ- Q5) Figure 5: Frequency of teaching and learning vocabulary items in communicative activities or incorporating it in teaching four skills (TQ- Q6 & SQ- Q6) Figure 6: Usefulness of teaching and learning vocabulary items in communicative activities or incorporating it in teaching four skills (TQ- Q7 & SQ- Q7) Figure 7: Teachers‟ presentation of new words (TQ- Q9) Figure 8: Students‟ preferences of learning vocabulary(SQ- Q9) Figure 9: Suggestions from students (SQ- Q11) Figure 10: Suggestions from teachers (TQ- Q11) vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ALM : Audio- lingual method CLT : Communicative Language Teaching FFI : Form- Focused Instruction FonF : Focus on Form FonFs : Focus on Forms GTM : Grammar- Translation method HLGS : Ha Long Gifted School L2 : Second language Q : Question SQ : Students‟ Questionnaire TQ : Teachers‟ Questionnaire viii PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale English is a compulsory subject at all levels in the educational system in Vietnam However, the problems raised by the complexity and diversity of the English vocabulary have driven all learners confused and discouraged Thus, how to choose an effective instructional method in teaching vocabulary is one of great concerns of many language experts and English teachers myself included Vocabulary, as far as we know, is an important and pivotal component of a language; thus, teaching vocabulary is also important Nevertheless, it has not received much recognition it deserves in the classroom at Ha Long Gifted High school The students here tend to think grammar is important but vocabulary is not and they feel like learning grammar more than vocabulary There are many methods and approaches applied to teaching vocabulary; however, choosing one way to teach new words effectively is not easy When I studied for my Master‟s Degree in TESOL, I was taught things like „communicative language teaching‟, „methodology of English language teaching‟, „approaches to language teaching‟, etc, and I really care about Form- Focused Instruction theory as it emphasizes the importance of communicative language use and learnercenteredness Another reason is that classroom setting especially that at high school is often overlooked in favour of a more theoretical focus As a teacher of English at a high school, I want to comprehend more about applying Form-Focused Instruction theory to English teaching with focus on teaching English vocabulary to high school students Thus, this study attempts to explore form- focused instruction in an ESL classroom from the perspective of high school teacher cognition This study is conducted to investigate current situation of teaching vocabulary at Ha Long Gifted high school The study attempts to cast some light on the FFI theory in vocabulary teaching that teachers find effective in practice and tries to draw some implications for applying Form-Focused Instruction to improve teaching vocabulary at Ha Long Gifted high school Aims of the study The study aims at: o Investigating the current situation of teaching and learning English vocabulary at Ha Long Gifted School o Identifying the difficulties and obstacles that the teachers and students at Ha Long Gifted School often cope with when teaching and learning vocabulary based on Form-Focused Instruction theory (Research Question 2) o Making some recommendations for applying Form- Focused Instruction to teaching English vocabulary effectively at Ha Long Gifted School Significance of the study The study, once completed, will serve as part of continuous research on the teaching of vocabulary with the intention to provide teachers of English at Ha Long Gifted high school with a deeper understanding of applying Form-Focused Instruction- a modification of Communicative Language Teaching- in teaching vocabulary In addition, it is hoped that the study will be of great significance in helping students to be aware of their vocabulary learning problems; the teachers will also benefit from the findings of the research in working out an effective way to assist their students in communicative vocabulary learning Scope of the study The notion of Form-Focused Instruction has been applied in teaching grammar, pronunciation, speaking and writing However, this study only investigates the application of Form –Focused instruction in teaching and learning vocabulary Besides, due to the limited time and small scale of the research, it is only conducted in the context of Ha Long Gifted High school with the participation of only English teachers and 80 students Research questions The research paper seeks answers to the following questions: Research question 1: What is the role of vocabulary in language teaching and learning at Ha Long Gifted School? Research question 2: How is vocabulary taught and learned at Ha Long Gifted School? Research question 3: What should be done to apply Form-Focused Instruction to teaching and learning vocabulary effectively at Ha Long Gifted High school? Methods of the study Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used to carry out the research First of all, to form Theoretical Background for the research, theories, materials from different sources including journals, books and internet are collected and analyzed, synthesized and evaluated Then, survey questionnaire including open-ended and closed- ended questions is used in collecting data for the study due to its unprecedented efficiency in terms of research time, research effort and financial resources (Hoang & Nguyen, 2006:10) While closed questions are useful for obtaining quantitative information and are easier to analyze, open-ended questions can be useful for gathering qualitative information and for discovering new variables in response Thanks to survey questionnaire, the researcher can collect a huge amount of information in a short period of time and “with well-constructed questionnaire, processing data can also be fast and relatively straightforward” (Gillian, 2000) Thus, there are two sets of questionnaires employed The first containing 11 open-ended and closed- ended questions is for 80 students, the other containing 11 open- ended and closed- ended questions is for six teachers at Ha Long Gifted High School The qualitative method is used in the interview Semi-structured type is chosen since “it gives the interviewee a degree of power and control over the course of the interview […] and the interviewer a great deal of flexibility” (Hoang & Nguyen, the limited English proficiency of both teachers and students, as well as the poor teaching and learning conditions, which partly explains the reason why although the significance of FFI in teaching vocabulary has been recognized, it is not applied at HLGS as much as expected Implication 2.1 For teachers In order to apply FonF instruction effectively, teachers should take into consideration the following things: Firstly, a well-planned lesson is always necessary to contribute to the effectiveness of FonF instruction Teachers should consider the following main issues in their vocabulary lesson: the goal of the lesson, the number of lexical items and communicative activities in a lesson Preparing materials is also needed for the lesson and pointing out teaching procedures is also worth considering These preparations will not only provide the lexical items that are needed for students to learn, but it also affords the teachers a tool to guide their instruction based on both curriculum standards and students‟ interests Moreover, the teachers must have high level of language proficiency to be able to recognize the students‟ form-based errors and provide them with the correct ones To correct errors in students‟ written or spoken lexical items, teachers should help them to notice and learn from their errors Teachers should provide their students communicative tasks for written and spoken output and interaction in their class and give students praise and positive feedback on their work, whether it is oral (in class) or written (in homework) In addition, teachers must be careful when designing communicative activities for students to learn vocabulary In the context of focus on form instruction in teaching vocabulary, one common challenge of the teachers is that they should think of activities that involve students‟ attention to form while retaining meaningful communication The teachers should consider the purpose and organization of the activity, the length of the lesson and the language competence of their students 39 Lexical items might be more easily recalled and effectively used by students if they relate forms to the context of communication where they learn them Lastly, teachers should know their students and a simple in-class needs analysis to decide what, how and how much to teach to cover most of the students‟ needs because learners come to English classes with varying communicative needs, learning styles and preferences Understanding students‟ expectations about learning vocabulary to communicate, and to satisfy their needs, teachers can choose suitable teaching methods to motivate the effectiveness of teaching and learning vocabulary 2.2 For students The most important thing to deal with students is that they should be made aware of the benefits of communicative language teaching in general and communicative activities or tasks in learning vocabulary in particular Once they consider studying languages for communication, they will have motivation to acquire and use the target vocabulary Furthermore, students should express their needs and expectations to their teachers in their vocabulary lessons Instead of being passive in the class, they are expected to join all the activities conducted by the teachers actively They should also hold English club by themselves, or create communicative situations for learning their vocabulary 2.3 For administrators To assist teachers in their teaching, administrators are recommended to form smaller classes and place students of the same level into one class This would create more teachers‟ efficiency in their jobs Besides, it is necessary for administrators to organize training courses, workshops for teachers to improve their English proficiency, teaching method and management skills Teachers can also exchange their knowledge and experience with each other by that way 40 Last but not least, it is suggested that administrators should support teachers with teaching conditions and teaching aids If the classrooms are well-equipped and teachers are supplied with various and interesting teaching materials, students will be more excited and feels easier to participate in the lessons Limitations of the study Despite having been completed, this study remains some unavoidable limitations Because of the limited time, knowledge of the researcher as well as the limited size of a minor thesis, the study was only conducted in a limited setting of a high school with a small number of teachers and students If the research were conducted over longer period of time with various intakes, it would give more valuable, reliable and valid data The validity of the findings and the reliability of any implications and recommendations would also be maximized if the researcher could employ more research instrument like classroom observation In addition, the investigated matter in the study was also limited This research only found out overally whether vocabulary was taught and learned toward FonF or FonFs instruction at HLG High school as well as the difficulties that teachers and students met It hasn‟t yet investigated the effectiveness of applying FonF instruction in teaching and learning vocabulary at HLGS Recommendations for further studies Based on some limitations, the writer would like to suggest some recommendations for further research Firstly, regarding the current research‟s limitation on number of participants, later one on the same topic may need the involvement of more respondents Besides, further research should be carried out to figure in detail how FonF instruction is applied in teaching and learning vocabulary and how effective it is 41 REFERENCES Anthony, E M (1963) Approach, method and technique English Language Teaching, 17, 63 – 67 Burgess, J and Etherington, S (2002) Focus on grammatical form: explicit or implicit? System, 30, 433-458 Diane Larsen-Freeman (1986) Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching, Oxford: Oxford University Press.p 18 Ellis, R (2001) Investigating form-focused instruction Language Learning 51, Supplement 1, 1-46P Ellis, R et al (1999) Focusing on Form in the Classroom Occasional Papers, 13: Institute of Language Teaching and Learning, University of Auckland Ellis, R., Basturkmen, H., and Loewen, S (2001a) “Preemptive focus on form in the ESL classroom.” TESOL Quarterly 35 (3), 407 – 432 Ellis, R., Basturkmen, H., and Loewen, S 2002 Doing focus-on-form System, 30, 419-432 Ellis, R., Loewen, S., and Basturkmen, H (2003) Focusing on form in the classroom Journal for Language Teaching, 37 (2): 149-163 Foley, J& Thompson, L (2003) Language learning: a lifelong process, p10 Gairns R & Redman S (1986) Working with words: A guide to teaching and learning vocabulary, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Hoang, X.H & Nguyen, T.T.M., (2006) Research Methodology Reading Package, Hanoi Krashen, D.S (1987) Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition New Jersey: Prentice Hall Pub Larsen – Freeman, D (2000) Techniques and principles in language teaching, Oxford: Oxford University Press Le Van Canh, (2004) Language and Vietnamese Pedagogical Context, Teacher‟s Edition,p.95 42 Lewis, M (1993) The Lexical Approach Hove, England: Language Teaching Publications Littlewood, W., (1981) Communicative Language Teaching: An Introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Long, M., (1991) Focus on form: a design feature in language teaching methodology In: de Bot, K., Ginsberg, R., Kramsch, C (Eds.), Foreign Language Research in Cross-Cultural Perspective John Benjamin, Amsterdam, pp 39-52 Long, M.H and Robinson, P (1998) “Focus on form: Theory, research and practice” In Doughty, C and Williams, J 15-41 McCarthy, MJ (1990): Vocabulary Oxford: Oxford University Press Nassaji, H., (2000) Towards Integrating Form-Focused Instruction and Communicative Interaction in the Second Language Classroom: Some Pedagogical Possibilities, The Modern Language Journal, 84, 241-250 Nation, I.S.P (2001): Learning Vocabulary in Another Language, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press Peny Ur (1996) A course in language teaching, p.60 Richards, J.C, and Rodgers, T.S (1986) Approaches and methods in language teaching, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Spada, N.M., (1997a) Form-focused instruction and second language acquisition: A review of classroom and laboratory research, Language Teaching, 30, 73-87 Thornbury, Scott, (2002) How to teach Vocabulary, Longman Verhallen, M., & Schoonen, R (1993) Vocabulary knowledge of monolingual and bilingual children Applied linguistics, 14, 344-363 Wilkins, D.A (1972) Linguistics in language teaching London: Arnold Zimmerman, C.B (1997) Historical trends in second language vocabulary instruction, In J Coady & T Huckin (eds.) Second language vocabulary acquisition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 43 APPENDICES Appendix Questionnaire for teachers The questionnaire aims at investigating teaching and learning English vocabulary at Ha Long Gifted High School Your answer would make a great contribution to my work I hereby certificate that all of the information achieved from this questionnaire will be dealt with confidentially and anonymously Thank you f very much for your cooperation What you think of the role of vocabulary and teaching vocabulary in language teaching at your school? a Very important b Rather important c Not very important d Not very important at all What are your purposes of teaching vocabulary at your school? a To assist students in communicating with foreigners b To meet the requirement of curriculum c To prepare students for school exams d To satisfy students‟ needs for entertainment e Others (Please specify)………………………………………………………… How you often teach vocabulary items? (You can choose more than one option) a Teach vocabulary items separately or isolatedly b Teach vocabulary items while fulfilling communicative activities or tasks c Teach vocabulary items along with developing other skills as speaking, reading, writing and listening I d Others (please specify)……………………………………………………… How often you teach vocabulary items separately or isolatedly? Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Often What you think of the usefulness of teaching vocabulary separately or isolatedly? a Very useful b Quite useful c Useful d Not very useful e Useless How often you teach vocabulary in communicative activities and tasks or combine with developing language skills as listening, reading, writing and speaking? Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Often What you think of the usefulness of teaching vocabulary while fulfilling communicative activities or tasks and combine with other skills? a Very useful b Quite useful c Useful d Not very useful e Useless II Which aspects you often choose when teaching vocabulary item? (You can choose more than one option) a Meaning a1 Basic meaning a2 Meaning in context a3 Aspects of meaning (synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms…) b Form b1 Word form (pronunciation and spelling) b2 Word formation (prefixes, suffixes…) c Usage c1 Collocation (the way in which words are used together regularly) c2 Grammatical functions (the patterns in which words must be used) How you usually present new words? By giving (You can choose more than one option) a Vietnamese translation b Synonyms and antonyms c Realia d Situation e English explanation f Others (please specify)………………………………………………………… 10 Difficulties you face in teaching English vocabulary? (You can choose more than one option) a Too many new words in a lesson b Limited time for vocabulary lesson c Not much time for consolidating new words d Students‟ negative attitude to learning vocabulary e Students‟ low English proficiency f Students‟ inactive participation in class activities III g Students‟ lack of motivation in learning vocabulary h Teachers‟ poor language proficiency and teaching methods i Lack of modern visual teaching aids j Others (please specify)…………………………………………… 11 How you help your students to use and consolidate the words presented to them? (You can choose more than one option) a Make students learn by heart by themselves b Give exercises or tasks for students to c Encourage students to participate in English club or communicate with their partners d Others (please specify)……………………………………………………… IV Appendix Questionnaire for students The questionnaire aims at investigating teaching and learning English vocabulary at Ha Long Gifted High School Your answer would make a great contribution to my work I hereby certificate that all of the information achieved from this questionnaire will be dealt with confidentially and anonymously Thank you very much for your cooperation What you think of the role of vocabulary in learning a foreign language at your school? a Very important b Rather important c Not very important d Not important at all What are your purposes of learning vocabulary at your school? (You can choose more than one option) a To communicate with foreigners b To find better jobs in future c To school exams d To satisfy their own needs for entertainment e Others (Please specify)………………………………………………………… How you learn new words in your English lesson? (You can choose more than one option) a Learn new words in a separate lesson b Learn new words in communicative activities and tasks c Learn new words by combining with developing language skills as speaking, writing, reading and listening d Others (please specify)………………………………………………………… V How often you learn vocabulary items separately or isolatedly? Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Often What you think of learning new words in a separate lesson? a Very useful b Rather useful c Useful d Not useful at all e useless How often you learn vocabulary in communicative activities and tasks or combine with developing language skills as listening, reading, writing and speaking? Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Often What you think of learning vocabulary in communicative activities and along with developing language skills? a Very useful b Quite useful c Useful d Not very useful e Useless Difficulties you face in learning English vocabulary: (You can choose more than one option) a Too many new words in a lesson b Lack of activities to help learn vocabulary c Lack of time for learning vocabulary in a lesson d Teacher‟s explanation is not clear enough VI e Your teacher use only English to explain vocabulary f Your teacher use only Vietnamese to teach vocabulary g Teacher does not spend enough time to consolidate and review new words h Lack of modern visual aids i Lack of communicating environment (lack of opportunity to communicate with foreigners) j Others (Please specify)………………………………………………………… Which ways you like learning vocabulary? (You can choose more than one option) a Through pictures b Through listening to music c Through games d Through watching short movies e Through short stories f Others 10 Why you like learning vocabulary in communicative tasks or activities? (You can choose more than one option) a Feel more relaxed and interested b Remember new words better and more durably c Become more confident in communicating d Be able to use words to communicate more effectively e Improve vocabulary knowledge f Others 11 What would you like your teacher to in vocabulary lessons? (You can choose more than one option) a Use communicative activities in teaching vocabulary b Provide many examples of word usage VII c Review your vocabulary regularly d Instruct you how to pronounce words correctly e Others (please specify)………………………………………………………… VIII Appendix INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS How important you think vocabulary is in teaching and learning English? Why you think so? How you teach vocabulary in your lesson? Specify Do you think your vocabulary teaching is effective? Why you know that? Which suggestions can you give to enhance vocabulary teaching? IX Appendix INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS What is your opinion about teaching vocabulary at your school? How you learn English vocabulary at your school? Do you like learning new words isolatedly or you like learning in communicative tasks and combing with other skills (listening, speaking, writing and reading)? What you want the teacher to in your vocabulary lesson? X ... question 2: How is vocabulary taught and learned at Ha Long Gifted School? 3.2.1 The way that vocabulary is taught and learned at Ha Long Gifted School Table 3: Methods of teaching and learning vocabulary. .. What is the role of vocabulary in language teaching and learning at Ha Long Gifted School? Research question 2: How is vocabulary taught and learned at Ha Long Gifted School? Research question... 1.3 Forms -Focused Instruction Versus Form- Focused Instruction 1.3.1 Definition of Forms -Focused Instruction and its basic features 1.3.1.1 Definition of focus on forms instruction Focus on Forms