Efficiency of gap fill exercises to 10th form students’ vocabulary acquisition

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -  - NGUYỄN THỊ KIỀU NGA EFFICIENCY OF GAP-FILL EXERCISES TO 10 TH FORM STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY ACQUISITION (Hiệu tập điền khuyết tiếp thụ từ vựng học sinh lớp 10) MINOR M.A THESIS Field: English Methodology Code: 601410 HANOI - 2011 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -  - NGUYỄN THỊ KIỀU NGA EFFICIENCY OF GAP-FILL EXERCISES TO 10TH FORM STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY ACQUISITION (Hiệu tập điền khuyết tiếp thụ từ vựng học sinh lớp 10) MINOR M.A THESIS Field: English Methodology Code: 601410 SUPERVISOR: LE VAN CANH, Ph.D HANOI - 2011 Declaration Acknowledgements Abstract Tables of contents Lists of Tables, Figures Lists of Abbreviations PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale Aims and Objectives of the study Research Hypotheses and Questions Method of the Study Scope of the study Significance of the Study Organization of the thesis PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE : LIRETATURE REVIEW 1.1 What is vocabulary? 1.2 The role of vocabulary in second language learning 1.3 The vocabulary acquisition 1.3.1 Vocabulary teaching techniques 1.3.2 Revising vocabulary 1.4 Vocabulary activities and exercises 1.5 Criteria of a good vocabulary exercise -v- 1.6 Gap-fill exercises and the acquisition of vocabular 1.7 Summary CHAPTER TWO: THE STUDY 2.1 Context of the study 2.2 Rationale for using a Quasi-experimental method 2.3 Variables 2.4 Participants 2.5 Designing and applying gap-fill exercises 2.6 Procedures 2.7 Instruments for data collection 2.7.1 Pretest and Posttest 2.7.2 Questionnaire 2.8 Summary CHAPTER THREE: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 The Effectiveness of GFEs on students’ vocabulary 3.1.1 Comparison of Pretest and Posttest Performance 3.1.2 Comparison of both group’s vocabulary gains after the experiment 3.2 Students’ attitudes towards GFEs 3.3 Discussion 3.3.1 Vocabulary gains as resulted from the application of GFEs 3.3.2 Students’ attitudes towards GFEs 3.4 Summary PART III: CONCLUSION Summary of main findings Limitations of the study -vi- Recommendations for the application of GFEs Suggestions for further study REFERENCES APPENDICES Appendix A: Test Scores Appendix B: Vocabulary pretest & key Appendix C: Vocabulary posttest &key Appendix D: The Questionnaire Appendix E: Word lists -vii- LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 3.1 Table 3.2 Table 3.3 Figure 3.1 Figure 3.2 -viii- LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS df Degree of Freedom DTH Dinh Tien Hoang EFL English as Foreign Language ESL English as Second Language GFEs Gap – Fill Exercises H0 Null Hypothesis H1 Alternative Hypothesis L1 First Language L2 Second Language MOET Ministry of Education and Training M Means N Number of Cases or Subjects of the study p Probability of chance (indicator of significance) SD Standard Deviation SPSS Statistic Package for Social Science t Obtained Value tcrit Critic Value TOEIC Test of English for International Communication X Independent factor Y Dependent factor -1- PART I: INTRODUCTION Rationale Vocabulary is an important language element that links four language skills, namely listening, speaking, reading and writing together and makes communication flow smoothly Reality shows that many students have fairly good knowledge of grammar but are hardly able to express themselves properly because of their vocabulary deficiency Vocabulary learning, therefore, becomes the central to language acquisition and interest in its role in second language learning has grown rapidly in recent years Scholars and teachers now emphasize the need of systematic and principled approach to vocabulary by both the teacher and the learner (Decarrico, 2001; Nation, 1990) One of the concerns in vocabulary is how to help students acquire their English vocabulary However, at upper secondary schools, the teaching and learning of English language in general, English vocabulary in particular are still far from satisfaction as students’ final results in most English examinations remain unchanged at low levels In fact, most secondary school students have not paid enough attention to vocabulary learning as they mainly receive basic lessons of grammar together with four skills from their teachers and textbooks It is common knowledge that there are various techniques of learning vocabulary, mastering and using it in different contexts and one of the effective techniques to help students to reinforce vocabulary is giving them appropriate vocabulary exercises, namely, gap-fill exercises This type of vocabulary exercises typically consists of leaving a gap or a blank space in a sentence or a passage which students have to fill in with the correct letter, word, phrase or whatever is missing Though vocabulary is vitally important to master any foreign languages, in reality, many grade 10 students’ English vocabulary is still limited even though they have learned English for four years at the lower secondary school It is their limited vocabulary that explains their poor performance in using English and in their test performance All these have motivated me to conduct this quasi-experimental research on the topic given, namely th efficiency of gap- fill exercises to 10 form students’ vocabulary acquisition -2- Aims and Objectives of the Study The main aim of this study is to experiment gap-fill exercises in helping grade 10 students acquire their English vocabulary To be more specific, the primary objectives of the study are set as follows:  To experiment gap-fill exercises and examine their effects on grade 10 students’ English vocabulary acquisition  To investigate the students’ attitudes towards gap-fill exercises., i.e how effective they think doing gap-fill exercises is to their vocabulary learning Research Hypotheses and Questions To achieve the aims and objectives, the study is designed to test the hypothesis: H1: Grade 10 students who apply gap-fill exercises will make more significant improvement in their English vocabulary acquisition as measured by both pre-test and post-test scores than those who not apply such exercises If the above hypothesis was fully accepted, the following null hypothesis would be obviously rejected or vice versa: H0: There is no difference in English vocabulary acquisition as measured by both pre-test and post-test scores between grade 10 students who apply gap-fill exercises and those who not apply such exercises In order to identify which hypothesis would be accepted, the following research questions are formulated and needed to answer satisfactorily: (1) What effect gap –fill exercises have on students’ vocabulary acquisition as measured by their scores in the pre-test and post-test? (2) What are the students’ attitudes towards gap-fill exercises after the experimental period? -3- Method of the Study Because the purpose of the study is to test out the impact of gap-fill exercises on students’ acquisition of vocabulary, a quasi-experiment with a pre-test- and post-test design was adopted in this study Two non-randomized groups of 82 students (one control group and one experimental group, N= 41 each) participated in this experiment The pre-test and posttest scores were analyzed by means of t-test to find out the correlation of the two means to accept or reject the null hypothesis, namely gap-fill exercises not have any effect on grade 10 students’ English vocabulary learning In addition, a post-experiment questionnaire was also used as the supplementary instrument to elicit the students’ evaluative attitudes towards gap-fill exercises after the experimental period Scope of the Study The experiment was conducted to examine the impact of one type of vocabulary exercises, i.e., gap-fill exercises on students’ acquisition of vocabulary The sample was a small group of grade 10 students who were non-randomly assigned to a control class and an experimental class (41 students for each) Therefore, no intention was made to generalize the findings Significance of the Study Although no generalization was intended, the findings of the study could inform teachers of the effectiveness of gap-fill exercises on students’ vocabulary learning Organization of the thesis This thesis is organized in three parts Part I is The Introduction which presents the rationale for the research topic, aims, research hypotheses, scope, significance, and method of the study Part II is The Development which consists of three chapters Chapter one reviews theoretical background to teaching and learning vocabulary in a second language including vocabulary’s definition, its role in second language learning, the vocabulary acquisition, vocabulary exercises and the relationship between gap-fill exercises and vocabulary -XIV- UNIT 14: THE WORLD CUP No New words & Related forms champion championship runner-up tournament passionate passionately passion globe global set up take part in host nation witness compete competition -XV- 10 competitive competitor 11 elimination game 12 finalist 13 trophy 14 continents 15 score goal – scorer 16 kick retire 17 retirement 18 ambassador 19 promote promotion 20 participate in 21 control announce 22 announcement 23 postpone -XVI- 24 volunteer 25 take place 26 contact UNIT 15: CITIES No New words & Related forms attract attraction attractive attractively base characterize character characteristic characteristically -XVII- convenient conveniently convenience inconvenient (ly) crown finance financial financially financier ice-free metropolitan metropolis mingle reserved 10 reserve -XVIII- 11 robe 12 tablet 13 statue of liberty liberty 14 liberate liberation 15 take over 16 destination 17 give sb a life 18 found 19 torch 20 friend-ship 21 concrete 22 pedestal 23 copper UNIT 16: HISTORICAL PLACES New words & No Related forms dynasty dynastic -XIX- engrave engraver feudal feudalism flourish maintenance maintain citadel bombardment bombard carve carver Confucian ornamental 10 ornate ornament 11 heritage 12 memorialize merchant -XX- 13 merchandise 14 tile – roofed representative 15 represent royal 16 royalty 17 witness certify 18 certificate 19 banyan 20 admission fee culture 21 cultural 22 mausoleum 23 brilliant 24 scholar 25 World Heritage -XXI- 26 Royal Citadel 27 Forbidden City 28 Independence Palace 29 destination 30 certified 31 recommend 32 construct 33 chart ... given, namely th efficiency of gap- fill exercises to 10 form students’ vocabulary acquisition -2- Aims and Objectives of the Study The main aim of this study is to experiment gap- fill exercises in... of gap- fill exercises after the experiment All the written questions were related to students’ feedback to the effect of gap- fill exercises on students’ L2 vocabulary acquisition The step of. .. application of gap- fill exercises is that as students become aware of the efficiency of gap- fill exercises, they can gradually build up their habit of doing vocabulary exercises to reinforce