Using a vocabulary website to increase the vocabulary size of IT workers in hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ LƯƠNG USING A VOCABULARY WEBSITE TO INCREASE THE VOCABULARY SIZE OF IT WORKERS IN HANOI (Việc sử dụng trang web từ vựng để gia tăng vốn từ nhân viên IT Hà Nội) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Hanoi, May 2019 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ LƯƠNG USING A VOCABULARY WEBSITE TO INCREASE THE VOCABULARY SIZE OF IT WORKERS IN HANOI (Việc sử dụng trang web từ vựng để gia tăng vốn từ nhân viên IT Hà Nội) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Supervisor: Trần Thị Thu Hiền, PhD Hanoi, May 2019 DECLARATION I hereby declare that the thesis entitled “using a vocabulary website to increase the vocabulary size of IT workers in Hanoi” is my own work and effort and that it has not been submitted to any other university or institution wholly or partially Hanoi, May 2019 Nguyễn Thị Lương i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research has been accomplished with the support and encouragement of many people Hence, I hereby would like to express my appreciation to all of them Firstly, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Trần Thị Thu Hiền, PhD for her great assistance and guidance throughout my research Secondly, I also like to show my profound gratitude to the Faculty of PostGraduate Studies for the valuable lectures and precious support without which I would be unable to overcome difficulties during the time my research was carried out Besides, I would like to give my whole-hearted thanks to my students in my tutor class for their enthusiastic participation in my research Without their help, I would not have been able to complete this paper Last but not least, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my beloved family whose support and encouragement have always been a great deal of motivation that has helped me to overcome all problems to complete my thesis Nguyễn Thị Lương ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AR: Action research CARE: (Information quality categories in) contents, accessibility, representation and education EFL: English as foreign language ICT: Information communication technology IQ: Information quality L1: First language L2: Second language URL: Uniform Resource Locator WFE: Website for education iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iii LIST OF TABLES vi ABSTRACT vii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Methods of the study 1.7 Organization of the thesis CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Vocabulary in Foreign Language Acquisition 2.1.1 Definition of vocabulary 2.1.2 Principles of vocabulary learning 2.1.3 Difficulties in learning vocabulary 10 2.1.4 Approaches to teaching and learning vocabulary 11 2.2 ICT application in vocabulary acquisition 16 2.2.1 Definition if ICT 16 2.2.2 Role of ICT in education 16 2.2.3 Potential use of ICT in vocabulary learning 17 2.3 Vocabulary websites 18 2.3.1 Definition of vocabulary websites 18 2.3.2 Evaluation criteria for vocabulary websites 18 2.4 Previous studies 22 2.4.1 Oversea studies 22 2.4.2 Vietnamese studies 24 iv 2.5 Chapter summary 26 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 27 3.1 Context of the study 27 3.2 Action research 27 3.2.1 Definition 27 3.2.2 Rationale of uing AR 32 3.3 Participants of the study 33 3.4 Data collection instruments and procedure 34 3.4.1 The pre-test and post-test 34 3.4.2 The questionnaire 35 3.5 The research stages 35 3.5.1 Identifying the problem 35 3.5.2 Intervention 36 3.5.3 Post-intervention stage 36 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 38 4.1 The progress in increasing students’ vocabulary by using the vocabulary websites 38 4.1.1 Result of the pre-test 38 4.1.2 Result of the post-test 38 4.1.3 Result of the questionnaire 40 4.2 Discussion 41 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 43 REFERENCES 47 APPENDICES I APPENDIX A: PRE-TEST I APPENDIX B: POST TEST IV APPENDIX C: QUESTIONNAIRE VI APPENDIX D: Word List VII v LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 The vocabulary pre-test 38 Table 4.2 The vocabulary post – test result 39 Table 4.3 The results of students’ questionnaire answers 40 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 Types of research methodology 27 Figure 3.2 Ernest Stringer’s AR model (in Mills, G 2003, p.18) 29 Figure 3.3 Detailed AR model 31 Chart 4.1 The overall mean score in pre-test and post-test 39 vi ABSTRACT This study investigated the potential effect of using a vocabulary website on increasing vocabulary size The research aimed to figure out whether the use of vocabulary instruction website could help widen IT students’ vocabulary and to identify students’ attitude towards using the website instead of their traditional way In order to accomplish these purposes, 15 students who are IT workers in one of my tutor classes in Hanoi were selected to participate in the study All the students learned to take TOEIC exam to meet their company requirement which is 700 TOEIC and they came from the same linguistic background To achieve this target in a short period of time, the students focus mainly on increasing the passive vocabulary Three data collection instruments were employed, namely pre-test/posttests and questionnaire After one month, the post-test and a questionnaire were administered The analysis of the data collected revealed that the students made encouraging progress in boosting vocabulary size by using the vocabulary website; besides, according to the result of the questionnaire these IT workers were more motivated to learn vocabulary than they usually Key words: vocabulary learning, vocabulary increase, information communication technology (ICT) vii CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study Undoubtedly, English has become the global language which is used widely all over the world, at school and for entertainment and tourism and especially at work Among many other elements to master before one can have communicative competence at English, vocabulary plays one of the most significant roles “One thing that students, teachers, materials writers, and researchers can all agree upon is that learning vocabulary is an essential part of mastering a second language However, the best means of achieving good vocabulary learning is still unclear, partly because it depends on a wide variety of factors” (Schmitt, 2008) Wikins argued (1972) that “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” Oxford (1990a) pointed out that language learners typically have significant difficulty remembering large vocabularies Over the past recent years, numerous studies have examined English learning, and most emphasized the importance of vocabulary learning to English learning (DeCarrio, 2001) An excellent vocabulary is beneficial to inferring meaning from English sentences (Harmon, 1998, 2002; Rupley, Logan & Nichols, 1999) Nonetheless, countless learners who learn English as a second language have always found learning vocabulary frequently as a challenging and boring task to because they are too busy with their work, social relationships and family; not to mention that most of them cannot memorize words as well as young learners, especially with long or infrequently used words In addition, learning vocabulary is supposed to by themselves at home, and then it requires lots of autonomy and self-motivation Last but not least, forgetting learned vocabulary is another serious problem during learning English vocabulary Forgetting is the loss of information over time People typically recall information better just after learning than after a long delay Ebbinghaus (1985), based on experimental result, proposed the forgetting curve However, memory strategies help learners to overcome forgetting Memory APPENDIX D: Word List Topic 1: Banking and Finance No Word accept accountant accumulate aggressive asset audit balance borrow budget 10 calculate 11 cautious 12 client 13 commitment 14 conservative 15 debt 16 deduct 17 desire 18 detail 19 dividend 20 down payment 21 due 22 file 23 fill out 24 forecast VII 25 fund 26 long term 27 mortgage 28 overall 29 owe 30 penalty 31 perspective 32 portfolio 33 prepare 34 profit 35 project 36 realistic 37 refund 38 resource 39 restriction 40 signature 41 spouse 42 take out 43 target 44 transaction 45 turnover 46 typical 47 wise 48 withdraw 49 withhold 50 yield VIII Topic 2: General business attract comparable Compete Consume Consumer consumable Inspire Persuade Satisfy 10 Characteristic 11 Consequence 12 Consider 13 Expire 14 Imply 15 Promise 16 Protect 17 Reputation 18 Reputable 19 Require 20 Vary 21 Address 22 Avoid 23 Demonstrate 24 Develop 25 Evaluate 26 Gather IX 27 Offer 28 Primary 29 Risk 30 Strategy 31 Strong 32 Substitute 33 Accommodate 34 Arrangement 35 Association 36 Attend 37 Get in touch 38 Hold 39 Location 40 Overcrowded 41 Register 42 Select 43 Selection 44 Session X Topic 3: Office issues 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 XI Access Allocate Compatible Display Duplicate Fail Figure Ignore Search Warn Affordable Capacity Durable Initiative Physical Provider Recur Reduction Appreciate Casual Code Glimpse Outdated Practice Reinforce Verbal Disk Facilitate Network Popularity Process Replace Revolution Sharp Skills 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Software Storage Technical Assemble Beforehand Complicated Courier Express Fold Layout Mention Petition Proof Registered Revise XII Topic 4: Personnel 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 XIII Abundant Accomplishment Accomplish gather Candidate Profile Qualifications Qualify Recruit Submit Ability Apply Applicant Background Confidence Constantly Expert Hesitate Present Weakness Conduct Generate Hire Mentor Reject Success Training Update Basis Benefits Compensate Delicate Eligible Flexible Negotiate 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Raise Retire Vested Wage Achieve Contribute Dedication Loyal Merit Obvious Productive Promote Recognition Value Bargain XIV Topic 5: Purchasing 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 XV Bear Behavior Checkout Expand Explore Item Mandatory Merchandise Strict Trend Diverse Enterprise Essential Everyday Function Maintain Obtain Prerequisite Quality Smooth Source Stationery Accurate Catalog Fulfill Integral Inventory Minimize Remember Liability Ship Sufficient Supply Charge Compile 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 Customer Discount Efficient Estimate Impose Mistake Order Prompt Rectify Terms Adjust Automatic Crucial Discrepancy Disturb Disturbance XVI ... PhD Hanoi, May 2019 DECLARATION I hereby declare that the thesis entitled ? ?using a vocabulary website to increase the vocabulary size of IT workers in Hanoi? ?? is my own work and effort and that it. ..VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ LƯƠNG USING A VOCABULARY WEBSITE TO INCREASE THE VOCABULARY SIZE OF. .. Definition of vocabulary websites According Collins dictionary, a website is a set of data and information about a particular subject which is available on the internet In addition to this idea, Cambridge