Vocabulary checking technique as a way of improving 10th graders vocabulary retension

1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -  - NGUYỄN THỊ BÍNH VOCABULARY CHECKING TECHNIQUE AS A WAY OF IMPROVING 10TH GRADERS' VOCABULARY RETENTION (KIỂM TRA TỪ VỰNG NHƯ MỘT HÌNH THỨC NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG LƯU NHỚ TỪ VỰNG CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10) MINOR M.A THESIS Field: English Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Hanoi, 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -  - NGUYỄN THỊ BÍNH VOCABULARY CHECKING TECHNIQUE AS A WAY OF IMPROVING 10TH GRADERS' VOCABULARY RETENTION (KIỂM TRA TỪ VỰNG NHƯ MỘT HÌNH THỨC NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG LƯU NHỚ TỪ VỰNG CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 10) MINOR M.A THESIS Field: English Methodology Code: 60 14 10 SUPERVISOR: Assoc Prof., Dr NGƠ ĐÌNH PHƯƠNG Hanoi, 2010 Candidate's statement Acknowledgements Abstract Tableof contents List of table and figures Abbreviation PART A: Rationale Aims of the study Scope of the study Method of the study Design of the study PART B: CHAPTER I: LITERATURE 1 The importance of vocabulary in second language and teaching 1.1.1 Notions of vocabulary 1.1.2 Classifications of vocabulary 1.1.2.1 According to the concept of morpheme 1.1.2.2 According to the meaning 1.1.2.3 According to the function of vocabulary items in a sentence 1.1.2.4 According to the use of word 1.2 Main principles in Vocabulary Teaching 1.2.1 Decision about the content 1.2.2 Source of vocabulary and information about vocabulary 1.3 Factors affecting the retention of vocabulary 1.3.1 Theoretical aspects of Memory 1.3.1.1 Types of memory 1.3.1.2 Language exposure with respect to pedagogical implications 1.3.1.2.1 Attention 1.3.1.2.2 Retrieval 1.3.1.2.3 Generation 1.3.2 Effective vocabulary learning strategies 1.4 Using communicative activities to check vocabulary 1.4.1 Present new vocabulary for the first time 1.4.2 Establish previously met vocabulary 1.4.3 Enrich previously met vocabulary 1.4.4 Develop vocabulary strategies 1.4.5 Develop fluency with known vocabulary 1.4.6 Memory strategies in combination with communicative activities 1.5 Vocabulary checking techniques in combination with communicative activities 1.5.1 Visual techniques 1.5.2 Verbal techniques 1.5.3 Using games 1.5.4 Role-play 1.6 Summary CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Research question and research hypothesis 2.2 Participants 2.3 Materials 2.4 The course contents 2.5 Procedure of data collection 2.5.1 Test designing 2.5.1.1 The purposes of the test 2.5.1.2 Components of the test Procedures 2.6.1 The schedules 2.6.2 Treatment 2.7 Test CHAPTER III: 3.1 Data analysis 3.1.1 Results of the pre-test scores of the two groups and discussion 3.1.2 Analysis of post-test results 3.1.2.1 Results of the post-test scores of the two groups 3.1.2.2 Frequency of distribution 3.2 Post-test means' comparison 3.2.1 Choosing the correct statistic "t-test" 3.2.2 Statistical hypotheses 3.2.3 Interpretation of results 3.3 Findings and implications for teaching PART C: CONCLUSION Conclusions Implications Limitations and recommendations for further study REFERENCES APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: Pre-test & post-test APPENDIX 2: Word games for experimental class LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Lists of tables Table 2.1: The course contents Table 2.2: The detailed timetable for the two groups Table 3.1: Pe-test scores Table 3.2: Comparison of mean scores in pre-test of the two groups Table 3.3 Pre-test score frequencies of the two groups Table 3.4 Post-test score of the two groups Table 3.5 Frequency of distribution of the two groups Table 3.6 Number of students scored less from Xi Table 3.7 Statistics of % of students scored less from Xi Table 3.8 The statistics parameters of the two groups Table 3.9: Means of pre-test & post-test Lists of figures Figure 3.1: Frequency of distribution of the two groups Figure 3.2: Cumulative frequency curves of the two groups Lists of abbreviations BB: C: E: L1: L2: STM: LTM: CLT: 10 PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale Vocabulary is an important language element that link four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing together and makes communication flow smoothly "When our first goal is communication, when we have little of new language at our command, it is lexicon that is crucial The words will make basic communication possible" (Hatch 1983: 74) Reality shows that many students have fairly good knowledge of grammar but are hardly able to express themselves properly because of their deficiency Vocabulary learning, therefore, becomes central to language acquisition, and interest in its role in second language learning has grown rapidly in recent years Specialists now emphasize the need of systematic and principled approach to vocabulary by both the teacher and the learner (Decarrico, 2001; Nation, 1994) One of concerns in vocabulary is how to help students increase their retention of learned vocabulary items Many Vietnamese students experience considerable difficulty retaining English words that they have learnt in the previous lessons Long lists of words noted down from reading texts, listening passages, vocabulary or grammar sections in the text books are limited help to them if they not know how to learn, remember and use these words That most words which have been learned are forgotten soon and then become dead is one of the reasons for students' difficulty in communication, both in oral and written forms To ensure a good communicative task performance, the ground work is to ascertain a good lead-up and preparation or learners' intake of vocabulary So far there has been little empirical evidence about the effectiveness of meaningful practice in vocabulary retention, so whether vocabulary checking technique improves students' Vocabulary Retention during the teaching and learning process is the question that the author tries to answer Retention is defined as "an ability to recall or recognize what has been learnt or experienced; memory" (Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary Oxford University Press, 1992:773) Although I have not founded any definition of vocabulary retention in the literature, I, for the purpose of my study, can define it as the "storage of vocabulary in the memory, which becomes available for use when needed" So retention of vocabulary is ability to recall words that have been learnt or encountered for online communication 11 Motivated by the idea of finding relevant checking techniques to help 10th students to retain vocabulary in integration with other communicative abilities in CLT approach , with the goal to create a context for vocabulary acquisition in the classroom in order to develop what referred to as communicative competence, I have chosen the topic th "Vocabulary checking Technique as a way of Improving 10 Graders' Vocabulary Retention" for my thesis with the hope that it may be of some help for learning and teaching English vocabulary Aims of the study This thesis has been carried out to implement these following purposes: First of all, I would like to experiment two different methods in vocabulary checking in two different classes name: control class and experimental class to find out the effect of each method th Secondly, this minor thesis was born not beyond the wish to improve 10 Graders’ vocabulary retention through different activities to check vocabulary th Last but not last, my study also hopes to help learners, especially 10 learners, to find the most effective ways to remember and develop their vocabulary In the brief, these aims are two answer the following research question: “Is there any significant relationship between the diffident vocabulary checking techniques and learners’ vocabulary retention?” The two methods are detailed as follows: The traditional method of vocabulary checking was applied into the control class in which vocabulary was revised by inviting learners to go to blackboard and write down the words by heart; the second method was applied into the experimental class where learners’ vocabulary retention was checked by various checking vocabulary techniques designed or chosen by their teacher as a means of consolidation Under this research, the following one-tailed hypothesis was made, using t-test of the null hypothesis The means for the experimental group is significantly higher than that for the control group 12 Scope or the study There are, of course, wide ranges of ways that help students to retain vocabulary However, in this minor thesis I would focus my research on vocabulary checking techniques th as a way of improving 10 Graders’ vocabulary retention The reason is that communication is the goal of most English teaching and learning endeavors today Besides that, that English vocabulary is the building blocks of English teaching and learning process In addition, if it is noteworthy that the study is limited to the area of teaching and learning vocabulary in grade 10th learners at Ha Hay Tap High school in Nghe An Method of the study To find answers to the research questions stated in the “ aims of the study”, the researcher chose quantitative research methodology for this study for a number of reasons Firstly, this study was aimed at exploring the relationships between vocabulary checking techniques and learners’ vocabulary retention, employing a quantitative approach which is an experimental designed to test a hypothesis was appropriate because experimental method researchers for effects of contain treatment on given measures Secondly, quantitative was an essential method to find the answer to the research question as it can seek the answer to the question through experimentation and appropriate statically analyses This statement clearly show the suitability of using quantitative approach for this study because the researcher would like to find out the answer for the above research question by exploring experiment and using “t-test” as an useful statistical tool The researcher exploited quasi-experimental method since it aims to answer specific questions by rejecting specific hypothesis and quasi-experiment has proved itself an appropriate method that has been effectively applied in this research To collect data on learners’ knowledge of vocabulary, a vocabulary test was produced at the end of experimental process 13 To prove how effective vocabulary checking techniques were applied in the experimental process, the researcher gave a wide range of activities for units (from unit 11 to unit 14) at the Appendix Concerning data analysis methods, the researcher used “t-test” as an useful statistical tool to help the researcher be confident that the differences found between the two groups a result of treatment are not due to by chance Design of the study The thesis is composed of three parts: part A is the introduction which presents the justification, aim as well as the scope and methods of the study Part B is the development of the study, divided into three chapters: chapter is for literature review, covering vocabulary’s definition, main principle in vocabulary teaching, factors affecting the retention of vocabulary and checking vocabulary through communicative activities Next, chapter is the main part of the study which describes the participants and instruments for the study as well as the procedure employed to carry out the research Following it is chapter with the detailed analyses of the data given by the pre-test and posttest along with discussing the findings that the researcher found out from the data collected Lastly, part C is the conclusion of the study which summarizes the result of the experiment, voices some suggestions for teachers of English at Ha Huy Tap High school and states the limitations of the study and recommendations for further research 53 19 Read J (2000) Assessing Vocabulary Cambridge University Press 20 Schimitt, N (2000) Vocabulary in Language Teaching Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University www.fare Web.net 21 Ur P (1991), A course in Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press ,Cambridge 22 http://www.teachingenglish.edu.vn nd 23 Date of retrieved: July , 2010 24 http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/try/vcabtry/vocaactivities.shtm 25 Date of retrieved: July , 2010 26 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/student%27s-t-test 27 Date of retrieved: July , 2010 nd nd APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: PRE-TEST & POST-TEST WRITTEN TEST FOR GRADE 10 Name: I/ Choose the best answer to complete the following sentences _ means music in traditional style of a country or community A Jazz Tourists go to Cuc Phuong National Park to look _ the 1,000 year-old tree A for The movies was so _ that we couldn't sleep last night A thrill Germany was the _ nation of the World Cup final A held 54 World cup is considered the most _ sporting event in the world A interest II/ Match a word in column A with its meaning or definitions in column B A rainforest emotion forward elimination spread defeat lyrical detective film III/ Supply the correct form of the word in bracket He has been living in an _ since his parents died (orphan) The giant panda is an _ species (endanger) This is the most _ race that I've ever taken part in (thrill) World Cup, the _ football tournament is held every four year (nation) I like reading _ stories very much (detect) IV/ Where is the stress on each of the following words? Put the words in the correct column 55 st syllable stressed V/ Write the word from its phonetic transcription /'intigrəl/ /'rauziɳ/ /ə'trækt/ /in'greiv/ /kik/ The end APPENDIX 2: WORDS GAMES AND VOCABULARY TASKS USED DURING THE EXPERIMENTAL PROCESS COMPETITION GAME - WORD SEARCH Source Purpose Game 56 WORD BOX: Alligator Bear Camel Source Purpose Introduction Game Source Purpose Introduction Game 58 Across: a person who sings a person who writes music the words of a song a collection of recordings issued as a single item Down: a person who plays a musical instrument a style of music with strong and loud beats a large group of musicians the systematic arrangement of musical sounds Source Purpose 59 - Practice pronunciation skill Introduction Teacher divided the class into groups and told them that they had to join the dots in the order shown by the words in the list to reveal the picture To this, they had to match words and phonetic transcriptions The fastest group with correct would be the winner To find out that the cat is doing, match the phonetic transcriptions to the Game words in the picture Then join the dots by these words in the same order as the list of phonetic transcriptions /di'lait/ /i'mouʃn/ /'fju:nərə l/ /'ʤentl/ /'intigrəl/ /'mɔ:nful/ /'rauziɳ/ /si'ri:n/ /'sɔləm/ 10 /ə'trækt/ e ren se gentle a t t r a c t Source Purpose Introduction Game source purposes Introduction LUCKY NUMBERS Source 61 purposes Introduction Game Source Purpose 62 Introduction This task was designed to use for group work among seven or eight students To make more interesting and motivating, it was designed as a competition between four groups to find out the quickest group In this type of task, students were required to put the domino pieces in way that the English words are nearest to their Vietnamese equivalents Work in groups and put the domino pieces together to make 12 pairs of English-Vietnamese equivalents The first one has been done for you as an example Game E.g: phát spreadkhán giả sâ lan truyền detec discovery nhanh k giả xem t spectator Source Purpose Introduction Game Source Purpose Introduction Game Source Purpose Introduction Game silent s i t u c at e t o n n ten years v i e y te lo c a sti s ll o e l se e m n d e c NOUGHTS AND CROSSES Source Purpose Introduction Game (1) preposition Only 13 teams took part _ the first World Cup I'm not very keen _ horror films We were all surprised _ the ending of the film (2) Past tense What is the verb form of "attraction"? Although Rose was already engaged, she and Jack in love (fall) Cuc Phuong _160 kilometers South West of Hanoi (locate) (3) Adjective Which adjective has the same meaning with "funny" Their holiday was so _ that they didn't want to go back (enjoy) Source Purpose Introduction Game fiction explore wilderness competition mournful musician character communicate endanger 10 volunteer ... wide range of meaning, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way" This claim might an overestimate of the role of vocabulary, and many language teachers can argue that an appropriate... on vocabulary checking techniques th as a way of improving 10 Graders? ?? vocabulary retention The reason is that communication is the goal of most English teaching and learning endeavors today... th "Vocabulary checking Technique as a way of Improving 10 Graders' Vocabulary Retention" for my thesis with the hope that it may be of some help for learning and teaching English vocabulary Aims