Students’ beliefs about vocabulary learning

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  NGUYỄN THỊ MINH HIẾU STUDENTS’ BELIEFS ABOUT VOCABULARY LEARNING: A MIXED METHODS STUDY ( Sử dụng phương pháp hỗn hợp nghiên cứu niềm tin học sinh việc học từ vựng) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI, 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  NGUYỄN THỊ MINH HIẾU STUDENTS’ BELIEFS ABOUT VOCABULARY LEARNING: A MIXED METHODS STUDY ( Sử dụng phương pháp hỗn hợp nghiên cứu niềm tin học sinh việc học từ vựng) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Superisor: Dr Lê Văn Canh HANOI, 2014 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis is my own work and effort and that has not been submitted anywhere for any award Where other sources of information have been used, they have been acknowledged I cede copyright of the thesis in favor of PostGraduate Department- Vietnam National University Ha noi, 2014 Nguyễn Thi ̣Minh Hiế u i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I wish to send my sincere thanks to my supervisor, Dr Lê Văn Canh for his expert guidance, helpful suggestions and critical feedback throughout the study Secondly, I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to all the lectures in the Faculty of Post-graduate Studies of Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies for their useful lessons from which I have benefited a lot for the accomplishment of this study And I am also indebted to my students from class 11A1, 11A4, 11A7 and my colleagues at Ha Long high school for their participation and assistance without which this study could not have been successful Last but not least, I would like to express my special thanks to my family, my beloved parents, my younger brother and my dear younger for their love, encouragement, immeasurable support and concrete help for me to complete this research Many thanks also go to all of you, to anyone I have forgotten to mention here ii ABSTRACT The construct of learner beliefs is a topic that has gained much attention in education in recent years Nearly two decades of research has revealed that beliefs about second/foreign language learning are strong influential factors on learning achievements This study explores the beliefs about vocabulary learning held by the secondary school students specializing in English, their employed vocabulary learning strategies as well as the extent to which their beliefs influenced their use of vocabulary learning strategies The participants were 95 secondary school students of the Englishspecialization stream in one specialized secondary school in Quang Ninh province The study used a mixed-methods design with questionnaires and interviews being the instruments of data collection The questionnaire was administered to identify the students‟ beliefs about vocabulary learning and their employed vocabulary learning strategies A small number of the questionnaire respondents were chosen for the follow-up interviews The interview questions were developed on the basis of the initial results of the analysis of the questionnaire responses The purpose of the interview was two-fold First, it was to elicit more information that the questionnaire responses failed to provide Second, it was to cross-check the responses the students gave to the questionnaire The obtained results revealed that the students in general had positive beliefs about vocabulary learning They attached great importance to the role of vocabulary and lexical knowledge to their learning English at the school However, they had conflicting beliefs about how words should be learned In addition, there is consistence between their reported beliefs about vocabulary learning and their reported vocabulary learning strategies The findings of the study also indicated that most of the strategies the students reported that they employed were cognitive trategies Even in the interview, none of them mentioned any metacognitive or motivational strategies iii LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS VLB: Vocabulary Learning Beliefs VLS: Vocabulary Learning Strategies EFL: English as a Foreign Language BALLI: Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language US: The United States of America L1: First Language L2: Second Language iv LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1 Beliefs about the importance of vocabulary 20 Table 2.2 Beliefs about vocabulary learning 22 Table 2.3 Students‟ self-report of the vocabulary learning strategies they used 23 Table 2.4 Strategies preferences reported by the students in the interviews 26 v TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration ……………………………………………………………………………i Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………ii Abstract……………………………………………………………………………… iii List of abbriviations……………………………………………………………………iv List of tables……………………………………………………………………………v Table of contents……………………………………………………………………….vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Statement of Problem Aims of the Study Research Questions Methods of the Study Significance of the Study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Definition of Learner Beliefs Why Study Learner Beliefs Research on Learner Beliefs Beliefs and Learning Successes Vocabulary Learning 11 What involves in knowing a word 12 1.7 Vocabulary Strategies 14 1.8 Beliefs and Strategy Use 15 1.9 Chapter Summary 16 CHAPTER II: THE STUDY 17 Research Methodology 17 vi 2.2 The questionnaire 18 2.3 Participants 20 Findings 20 2.4 Quantitative Data 20 2.4.2 Qualitative Data 24 2.5 Discussion 28 PART C: CONCLUSION 30 Summary of key findings 30 Implications for teaching 30 Suggestions for future research 31 REFENRENCES 33 APPENDICES I APPENDIX I APPENDIX VI vii PART A: INTRODUCTION LEARNERS’ BELIEFS ABOUT VOCABULARY LEARNING Statement of Problem In recent decades, researchers in the field of second language acquisition have shown great interest in learners‟ individual characteristics that can affect the learners‟ success in language learning The results of studies on second language learners‟ beliefs have revealed that beliefs about second/foreign language learning are strong influential factors on learning achievements, leading to a new wave of attention to beliefs about language learning (Heidari, Izadi, & Ahmadian, 2011) Researchers have found that second language learners come to the language class with some preconceived ideas or beliefs about language and language learning and that these beliefs can indicate what expectations the learners have and what actions in their language learning they will take (Abraham & Vann, 1987; Holec, 1987, Hortwitz, 1985; Wenden, 1987) Therefore, researchers have been investigating the beliefs that second language learners possess and the factors that affect learners‟ beliefs in order to find ways to help learners adjust their beliefs to facilitate their language learning Vocabulary learning has been identified as their greatest problem in English learning (Si, 2005) Vocabulary learning beliefs, another learner variable that influences vocabulary learning (Moir & Nation, 2002; Gu, 2005), is an underresearched area Although the importance of learners‟ beliefs is now generally recognized in the field of English language education, few studies have been reported about learners‟ beliefs about vocabulary learning It is widely perceived that vocabulary learning is important and that vocabulary learning outcomes are not satisfactory for most learners As beliefs are factors influencing vocabulary learning strategies, it is necessary to investigate learners‟ beliefs about vocabulary learning so as Teachers should try to understand their students‟ beliefs about vocabulary so that they can help them change their beliefs, if necessary Also, teachers‟ understanding of their students‟ beliefs about vocabulary learning and second language learning can help them to make their methods of vocabulary teaching and second language teaching compatible with learners‟ beliefs which affect their use of learning strategies As it is revealed in this study that most of the students reported that their vocabulary learning strategies were mainly cognitive, memory strategies, attention should be paid to the students‟ metacognitive beliefs Suggestions for future research This study has some limitations First, the students who participated in this study were majoring in English in a specialized secondary school They, therefore, belong to a special group of students and cannot represent the whole secondary school students in ordinary secondary schools For this reasons, no generalization of the findings of this study is intended Second, the students who participated in this study were not randomly chosen They were chosen on the basis of their willingness to participate in the study Finally, although a mixed methods design was used in this study, the number of students chosen for the interview was small and the information gained from the interview was not deep enough because the interview was not long enough with very little probing by the interviewer due to the students‟ limited available time Despite these limitations, the study was an eye-opener to the researcher herself It was the first time that she had gained empirical information about her students‟ beliefs about vocabulary learning and how those beliefs affected their use of vocabulary learning strategies The study also helps other teachers to think about the 31 importance of understanding their students‟ beliefs and the influence of those beliefs on their learning strategies In the future, a survey using the same research design should be used with students from other ordinary secondary schools However, for the purpose of generalization, participants and schools need to be randomly selected so that they can represent well both the students and the schools throughout the country 32 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A second look at retrospective accounts Applied Linguistics, 7, 186–205 38 57 Wenden, A.L (2001) Metacognitive knowledge In Breen, M.P (Ed.), Learner contributions to language learning New Directions in Research (pp 44-64) Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education Limited 58 Wilkins, D A (1972) Linguistics and language teaching London: Edward Arnold 39 APPENDICES APPENDIX A: The Questionnaire PHIẾU CÂU HỎI Các em học sinh thân mến, Tôi nghiên cứu quan niệm phương pháp học từ vựng tiếng Anh học sinh Rất mong có câu trả lời trung thực em Xin cám ơn Đánh dấu (X) vào thích hợp theo suy nghĩ em Mỗi câu chọn MỘT ô Rất Không Không Đồng Rất không đồng ý biết đồng ý đồng ý Học từ phần quan trọng việc học tiếng Anh Learning words is an important part of learning English Học từ cần phải ghi nhớ nhiều thứ tả, cách dùng, từ loại, v.v Vocabulary learning includes learning the spelling, the use and part of speech of the word Em nhớ từ cách đọc đọc lại từ nhiều lần I ý I memorize new words by reading it again and again Em thường cố gằng học thuộc lòng từ đơn lẻ I often try to learn by heart single words Nghĩa từ cố định, không thay đổi người sử dụng The meaning of the word is fixed, not changed by the user Em học từ cách ghi lại từ vào sổ từ vựng I learn new words by writing new words in my vocabulary notebook Em học từ cách dịch nghĩa từ tiếng Việt I learn new words by translating them into Vietnamese Cần học từ cách đoán nghĩa từ văn cảnh It is necessary to learn words by guessing their meaning in context Từ vựng phần quan trọng học tiếng Anh Vocabulary is the most important II part in learning English 10 Em thường liên tưởng từ với hình ảnh từ gợi lên đầu để nhớ từ Ví dụ, học từ „orange‟ em liên tưởng hình ảnh cam đầu em I connect the new word and an image or picture of the word in order to remember the word For example, I make a mental picture of ‘qua cam’ when learning the word ‘orange’ 11 Em nhớ từ cách nhóm từ lại với theo loại (ví dụ, từ đồng nghĩa, trái nghĩa, danh từ, động từ) I memorize new words by grouping them into categories (e.g., synonyms, antonyms, noun, verb) 12 Em ôn tập từ cách làm nhiều tập từ vựng I revise words by doing a lot of vocabulary exercises 13 Em nhứ từ cách xếp từ với theo chủ đề, chủ III điểm I memorize words by putting them into themes or topics 14 Thường xuyên đọc tiếng Anh cách mở rộng vốn từ vựng nhanh The quickest way of expanding vocabulary is through reading English frequently 15 Nghe tiếng Anh thường xuyên cách học từ có hiệu Listening to English frequently is effective to learning vocabulary 16 Khi gặp từ cần tra từ điển xác định nghĩa từ văn cảnh cụ thể When coming across a new word, it is necessary to look it up in the dictionary and to identify its meaning in a particular context 17 Vốn từ vựng không quan trọng kiến thức ngữ pháp Vocabulary is not as important as grammar 18 Để học giỏi tiếng Anh cần phải làm nhiều tập ngữ pháp IV It is necessary to as many grammar exercises as possible in order to study English well 19 Các tập từ vựng không giúp em học giỏi tiếng Anh Vocabulary exercises not help me learn English well 20 Em nhớ từ cách sử dụng từ thường xuyên để nói viết I memorize words by using them frequently in speaking and writing 21 Học từ vựng qua tranh ảnh minh họa giúp nhớ từ tốt Learning words through pictures is more effective 22 Học thuộc từ sách giáo khoa đủ để sử dụng tốt tiếng Anh Learning by heart words in the textbook is enough for using English well V APPENDIX B: Interview Guides The importance of vocabulary How to learn vocabulary Preferred vocabulary activities in the classroom VI ... (i) beliefs about the importance of vocabulary; (ii) beliefs about 24 how vocabulary was best learned; and (iii) beliefs about teacher‟ vocabulary instruction Beliefs about importance of vocabulary. .. epistemological beliefs (i.e beliefs about learning in general) and beliefs about language learning and also the relationship between beliefs and L2 achievement She found that strong beliefs in innate... the English L2 vocabulary learning problems, this study will focus on learner‟s beliefs about learning vocabulary only Vocabulary Learning Since the mid 1980s vocabulary learning has been drawing