A study on the techniques of presenting vocabulary to increase motivation for grade 10 students at yen phong 1 high school

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES    NGUYEN THI MINH HAU A STUDY ON THE TECHNIQUES OF PRESENTING VOCABULARY TO INCREASE MOTIVATION FOR GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT YEN PHONG HIGH SCHOOL M.A THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 THAI NGUYEN - 2020 ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN TRƯỜNG NGOẠI NGỮ    NGUYỄN THỊ MINH HẬU NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁC THỦ THUẬT GIỚI THIỆU TỪ VỰNG NHẰM NÂNG CAO HỨNG THÚ HỌC TẬP CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT YÊN PHONG SỐ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ Ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Mã ngành: 8220201 THÁI NGUYÊN - 2020 DECLARATION I confirm that the thesis entitled “A study on the techniques of presenting vocabulary to increase motivation for grade 10 students at Yen Phong High School” is the result of my own study in the fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master at School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen university I commit that this thesis has not been submitted anywhere for any degree or qualification Approved by Supervisor Thai Nguyen, 2020 Student Phung Thi Thu Ha, Ph.D Nguyen Thi Minh Hau i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Firstly, I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Phung Thi Thu Ha, Ph.D for her wholehearted assistance Without her advice, comments, and corrections, it would have been impossible for me to fulfill the thesis Secondly, I would like to thank all of teachers in Foreign Languages Faculty at Thai Nguyen University who provided me with necessary help as well as good suggestions whenever I got into trouble Thirdly, I would also like to send my special thanks to English teachers and a lot of students at Yen Phong High School who helped me carry out the research Finally, I am willing to show my gratefulness to my family, my friends and colleagues who continuously offer spiritual support and encouragement during the process of doing this study Student Nguyen Thi Minh Hau ii ABSTRACT Vocabulary plays important role in teaching and learning English because it has the notability to stimulate students’ participation and help students improve their skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing Vocabulary learning is a crucial part of learning a second language There have been a number of researchers studying roles of learning and teaching vocabulary To enhance students in vocabulary lessons, and to achieve more effectiveness from vocabulary teaching techniques, the research was conducted to find the answer to the question “What techniques should be applied to increase students’ motivation in vocabulary lessons?” Therefore, it is necessary to use effective and interesting techniques to teach English vocabulary, especially techniques of presenting new words to raise students’ motivation in learning vocabulary The author wishes to help the learners improve their vocabulary and feel more interested in vocabulary lessons This thesis is a survey study This study was conducted to find out how vocabulary is presented and what factors effect students' motivation in learning vocabulary lesson and thus suggest some ways of improving the effectiveness of vocabulary teaching and learning at this high school The reality of teaching and learning English vocabulary of grade 10 students was made clear The data of research was collected by two research instruments that are questionnaires, and interviews The results showed that both teachers and students found a lot of benefit from using techniques in presenting vocabulary such as visual aids, verbal means However, there were some difficulties in teaching and learning new words at Yen Phong High School So, vocabulary learning of grade 10 students at Yen Phong High School is not very effective in spite of both teachers' and students' efforts This study is believed to be a reliable source of reference for teachers to enhance the effectiveness of using techniques of presenting vocabulary Hopefully, it will be the springboard for many further studies in the future on the same topic iii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF FIGURES vi CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Significance of the study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Concepts of vocabulary 2.1.1 Some definitions of vocabulary 2.1.2 Classification of vocabulary .7 2.2 The role of vocabulary in language teaching and learning 2.3 Motivation and its role in language teaching and learning 10 2.3.1 Definitions of motivation 10 2.3.2 Types of motivation 10 2.3.3 The importance of motivation in language teaching and learning 12 2.3.4 Factors affect students’ motivation in vocabulary lessons .13 2.3.5 How to motivate students to learn English .15 2.4 Principles of vocabulary teaching 16 2.4.1 Purposes of teaching vocabulary 16 2.4.2 What to teach 17 2.5 Techniques in presenting vocabulary 19 2.5.1 Visual techniques 20 2.5.2 Verbal techniques .21 2.5.3 Context building .22 2.5.4 Translation 22 iv 2.6 Previous studies 23 CHAPTER METHODOLOGY 24 3.1 Method of the study 24 3.2 Subjects of the study 24 3.3 Research procedure 24 3.4 Data collection instruments 25 3.4.1 Questionnaires 25 3.4.2 Interview 26 3.5 Data analytical method .26 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 27 4.1 Data analysis 27 4.1.1 Result from the questionnaires 27 4.1.2 Results and discussions from the interviews 46 4.2 Discussion 48 4.3 Implications and suggestions for teaching and learning English .49 4.3.1 Implications 49 4.3.2 Suggestions for teaching and learning English 50 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION .52 5.1 Conclusion 52 5.2 Limitations 52 5.3 Suggestions for further studies 53 REFERENCES 55 APPENDICES I v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Teacher's attitudes towards the role of vocabulary teaching in language teaching 27 Figure 2: Teachers' purposes of teaching vocabulary 28 Figure 3: Teachers' ideas about choosing vocabulary to teach 28 Figure 4: Aspects of a word teachers use to teach their students .29 Figure 5: Teachers' current methods in presenting vocabulary 30 Figure 6: The frequency of teachers' using techniques of presenting vocabulary 31 Figure 7: Students' reflection about teachers' current techniques of presenting new words 32 Figure 8: Teachers' attitudes towards teaching vocabulary through communicative activities .33 Figure 9: Students' motivation in the vocabulary lesson 33 Figure 10: Factors affect students' motivation in the vocabulary lesson 34 Figure 11: Teachers' current methods to increase students' motivation in the vocabulary lesson 35 Figure 12: Teachers' methods to enhance students' motivation in vocabulary lessons at Yen Phong High School 36 Figure 13: Students' attitude towards vocabulary learning 37 Figure 14: Students' current method to learn vocabulary .38 Figure 15: Teachers' current technique of presenting vocabulary 39 Figure 16: Students' comment on teachers' current techniques of presenting vocabulary 40 Figure 17: Students' purpose of learning English vocabulary 41 Figure 18: Factors affect students' motivation in learning vocabulary 42 Figure 19: External reasons caused your learning vocabulary ineffectively 43 Figure 20: Students' difficulties in learning English vocabulary 44 Figure 21: Students' expectations about teachers' methods to motivate their vocabulary learning 45 vi CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale There is a unanimous agreement that vocabulary is an important and essential element in learning a second language Saleh (1997:12) argued, “the success in mastering a language is determined by the size of the vocabulary one has learned” Wilkins (1972:111) said, “Without grammar, very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed.” That is the reason why vocabulary is one of the most important elements of language Without vocabulary knowledge, both language production and language comprehension would not be possible By enriching vocabulary, students are able to gain comprehensive using of English Insufficient vocabulary may limit one to understand and produce speech as well as text Although vocabulary plays a prominent role these days, many students have a minimal volume of vocabulary which can prevent them from producing and understanding a large coverage of speech or text However, it seems that having good vocabulary is still a challenging to quite a lot of English learners Most students often face up with some problems in leaning vocabulary They find it difficult to memorize a new word with its spelling, meaning and pronunciation Besides, some students tend to show little attention to learning vocabulary Therefore, vocabulary needs to be learned in an interesting way Recent research indicates that teaching vocabulary may be problematic because many teachers are not confident about the best practice in vocabulary teaching and at times they don’t know where to begin to form an instructional emphasis on word learning (Berne & Blachowicz, 2008) In most of the cases, the approaches of teaching vocabulary adopted by teachers are not fruitful Therefore, vocabulary must be taught in an effective way so that students can learn and understand words properly and use those in real context In Vietnam, since the 1990s, teaching English has become a topical issue appealing for concerns of both researchers and teachers Vocabulary has been taught within the lesson of reading, speaking, listening, and writing Most of students are aware of the importance of learning English in their study as well as in the future job; therefore, they have a great effort in learning However, their English competence are not the same Some of them are good and active while a lot of them are quite passive and unmotivated in learning English Their knowledge of grammar is acceptable, but their vocabulary is extremely limited From the survey of the author, it is surprising that many students are only at the beginning level of English Students usually feel bored in vocabulary lessons because they have not changed their learning habits, such as writing new words on paper, trying to learn by heart or learning passively through the teacher's explanations They find it difficult to learn and remember vocabulary Most of them claim that they don’t know the best way to learn a foreign language They don’t have a positive attitude towards learning English The majority of them doesn’t have appropriate learning strategies or have an effective habit to learn independently or creatively As a result, they seem to forget vocabulary quickly, most of them lack a great deal of vocabulary so they can’t have a certain source of the words to express their ideas in speaking and writing skills The author has been teaching English at Yen Phong High School for more ten years and she finds that most of English teachers are energetic and willing to devote their time and energy to teaching These teachers have good experience in language teaching However, their vocabulary teaching methods and strategies are quite different There are some teachers who tend to adopt a communicativeoriented and student-centered approach They frequently find out the new methodologies and they are flexible in using different vocabulary teaching strategies to different groups of students, whereas some other teachers keep traditional teaching methods When they introduce new words, they often write new words on the board, then translate them into Vietnamese and make sentences with them They read aloud first, then students repeat the words in the chorus Then they ask some students to read the words individually Sometimes the teacher shows some pictures on the projectors to illustrate new words Futhermore, many students at Yen Phong High School usually learn vocabulary passively through teachers' because of the time constraints and the researcher’s limited ability and experience.The shortcomings of the present study are essentially about the subject of the study and the content of questionnaires Firstly, the subject of the study is teachers at Yen Phong High School The finding, of course, would be more useful and effective if we recruited more teachers from different schools in Bac Ninh province Secondly, the interview was limited The researcher only interviewed teachers at Yen Phong High School, so the answers were not highly persuasive Thirdly, the number of students was only 95 The number of classes was also only two while the whole 10th grade was fifteen classes Therefore, if the whole students of 10th grade had been participated, the results would be more reliable Lastly, the time limit does not allow the reseacher to look at the issue more deeply and widely with consideration of other factors such as cultural or psychological factors In spite of these limitations, I strongly believe that my research is successful to some extent The effort of the researcher and the participants as well as serious work in data collection phases could assure the reliability and validity of the research Although it is just a small study, it may bring high school teachers of English some helpful suggestions in helping students improve English vocabulary learning 5.3 Suggestions for further studies Other researchers who develop interest in the same topic may find the following recommendations useful for their future works In further researches, a variety of test forms should be designed to test many other aspects of English vocabulary learning In addition, further researches should spread its range of participants The number of students can be increased All of students of a grade should be taken part in the study If the whole students are experienced, the results will become more and more reliable Moreover, the time limit does not allow the researcher to look at the issue more deeply and widely with consideration of other factors such as cultural or psychological factors 53 Also, the thing maybe challenging, but if researchers can it, the results will be better The last thing is that in my research, I only study about the techniques of presenting vocabulary to increse students' motivation in learning English vocabulary However, I believe that there are other techniques to improve English teaching and learning vocabulary 54 REFERENCES Allen,VF (1983) Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary Oxford University Press Brown, H.D (2001) Teaching by Principles: An interactive Aproach to Language Pedagogy, secon edition, New York, Addision Wesley Longman, Inc Carmen (2005) Working with Vocabulary Doody, Owen & Noonan, Maria (2013) Preparing and conducting interviews to collect data Nurse Researcher, 20(5), 28-32 Dörnyei, Z (2001a) Motivational strategies in the language classroom Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Folse (2014) Myths about teaching and learning second language vocabulary: What recent research says.TESL Reporter37,2 (2014) Gairns, R &Redman,S (1986) Working with words Cambridge University Press Gardner (1982) Social psychology and language learning The role of attitudes and motivation London: Edward Arnold Harmer, Jeremy 1991 The Practice of English language Teaching Essex: Longman 10 Hornby, AS (1994) Oxford Learner’s Dictionary Oxford: Oxford University Press 11 Kim, S & Kim, M (2012) Kolb’s learning styles and education outcome International journal for education media and technology, 6(1):4-13 12 Lighbown and Spada (1999, P56) How Languauges are learned Oxford Univerity Press 13 Madrid (1993) Source of motivation in EFLClassroom 14 Maslow, A (1970) Motivation and personality New York: Harper and Row 15 Nation, (2001) Learning vocabulary in another language Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 16 Nation and Waring, (2004) Vocabulary size, text coverage and word lists: Vocabulary – Description and Pedagogy 17 Nunan, D (1992) Research methods in Language Learning Cambridge Raeveska,H.M (1971) 55 18 Parsons, R., Hinson, S., Brown, D (2001) Educational psychology: practitioner- researcher models of teaching University of Virginia: Wadsworth Thomson Learning 19 Paul Nation (1990), Teaching and Learning Vocabulary 20 Reece & Walker (1997) Teaching and learnging Vocabulary 21 Richards (1976) Methodology in Language Teaching 22 Shodiqin (2015) Improving students' motivation through collaborative learning strategies 23 Taylor, L (1990), Teaching and Learning Vocabulary, New York: Prentice Hall 24 Thornbury,S (2002) How to teach vocabulary United Kingdom: Pearson Educational Limited 25 Ur, P (1996), A course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 26.Wilkins, (1982) Linguistic in language teaching London: Edward Arnold 56 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS The survey questionnaire is designed for teachers of English at Yen Phong High School to find out what types of vocabulary presenting technique are used in vocabulary lessons at Yen Phong High School Technique are used to present in vocabulary lessons at Yen Phong High School and what techniques should be applied to increase students’ motivation in vocabulary lessons What you think of the role of vocabulary teaching in language teaching? A Very important B Rather important C Not very important D Not important at all What is your purpose of teaching English vocabulary? A For the improvement of students’ language skills B For school exams C For students' communication Which vocabulary you choose to teach your students in an English lesson? A Vocabulary that is difficult to pronounce and use B Vocabulary that appears many times in the text C Vocabulary that your students ask you D Only active words I Mark X for your answer What aspects of a word you teach your students? Aspect of a word your answer Word form Word meaning Pronunciation The usage Collocation All of them Others Which of the following item of vocabulary teaching techniques you frequently use in your vocabulary presenting? Techniques your answer Using visual aids (gestures, mimes, pictures, realia) Using contexts and explanations Using verbal means (definition, antonym, synonym) Translating How often you use the following techniques in presenting vocabulary lessons? On a 1-to-5 scale, where is the LOWEST and is the HIGHEST: Always Often Sometimes Rarely Never II Mark X for your answer Techniques Using visual aids (gestures, mimes, pictures, realia) Using contexts and explanations Using verbal means (definition, antonym, synonym) Translating How your students feel when you use the following techniques in presenting vocabulary? On a 1-to-5 scale, where is the LOWEST and is the HIGHEST: Very interested Interested Neutral Not very interested Not interested Mark X for your answer Techniques Visual techniques Verbal techniques Using contexts and Explanations Translation Do you agree that teaching English vocabulary through communicative activities can motivate learning vocabulary? A Strongly agree B Agree C Disagree III What is your students' motivation in the vocabulary lessons? (You can choose more than option) A To pass the exam B To get a reward and avoid punishment C To find a good job D To use English vocabulary every day 10 Which of the following factors affect students' motivation in vocabulary lesson? (You can choose more than option) A Physical condition B Method of teaching C The teachers D The students' interest E The success F All of them G Others 11 What you often to increase the students’ motivation in vocabulary lessons? A Applying information technology in presenting vocabulary B Creating happy and friendly atmosphere in class C Giving students good marks or rewards and compliments D Guiding students to learn positively 12 What will you to increase the students’ motivation in vocabulary lessons? A Using appropriate techniques of presenting vocabulary for each lesson and student B Creating and updating new teaching methods in presenting vocabulary C Checking and scoring regularly, praising students' timely progress IV QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS The survey questionnaire is designed for grade 10 students at Yen Phong High School to find out what types of vocabulary presenting technique are used in vocabulary lessons at Yen Phong High School and what factors affect students' motivation in learning vocabulary lessons at Yen Phong High School as well as their expectation What you think of the role of vocabulary learning in language learning? A Very important B Quite important C Not very important How you usually learn new words? A Reading the word many times B Writing the word in English and its translation in Vietnamese many times C Making sentences with them D Practicing vocabulary exercise What technique does your teacher use to present vocabulary? A Showing the meaning of the words visually B Translating all the new words into Vietnamese C Showing the meaning of the new words verbally D Showing the meaning of the new words in context Which way of presenting vocabulary you like best? A Using visual aids B Using verbal means C Using contexts and explanation D Translation What is your purpose of learning English vocabulary? A To pass the exam B To develop communication skills C To get a reward and avoid punishment V What factors affect your motivation in learning vocabulary? A Teacher's methods B The students' attitude towards the lesson C The physical condition of the classroom D The class's atmosphere E The curriculum and materials What external reasons caused your learning vocabulary ineffectively? A There are too many new words B There are not enough time C Teachers don't check vocabulary regularly D There is not enough motivation What are your difficulties in learning English vocabulary? A Difficult to pronounce B Difficult to memorize the spelling and meaning C Difficult to use in correct context What would you like your teachers to to motivate your vocabulary learning? A Using visual aids more often B Teaching how to pronounce clearly C Using both English and Vietnamese to explain new words D Using various activities to check previous vocabulary VI PHỤ LỤC: CÂU HỎI ĐIỀU TRA DÀNH CHO HỌC SINH Bộ câu hỏi khảo sát thiết kế dành cho em học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Yên Phong nhằm tìm hiểu từ vựng dạy học học từ vựng trường THPT Yên Phong yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến động học tập từ vựng học sinh trường THPT Yên Phong 1 Em nghĩ vai trị việc học từ vựng việc học ngôn ngữ? A Rất quan trọng B Khá quan trọng C Không quan trọng Em thường học từ nào? A Đọc từ nhiều lần B Viết từ tiếng Anh dịch từ sang tiếng Việt nhiều lần C Đặt câu với chúng D Thực hành tập từ vựng Giáo viên em thường sử dụng kỹ thuật để dạy từ vựng? A Biểu thị nghĩa từ giáo cụ trực quan B Dịch tất từ sang tiếng Việt C Thể ý nghĩa từ lời D Biểu thị nghĩa từ ngữ cảnh Em thích cách dạy từ vựng nhất? A Sử dụng giáo cụ trực quan B Dùng lời nói để giải thích C Sử dụng ngữ cảnh giải thích D Dịch sang tiếng Việt Mục đích học từ vựng Tiếng Anh em gì? A Để vượt qua kỳ thi B Để phát triển kỹ giao tiếp C Để nhận phần thưởng tránh bị phạt VII Những yếu tố ảnh hưởng đến động lực học từ vựng em? A Phương pháp giáo viên B Thái độ học sinh học C Điều kiện vật chất lớp học D Khơng khí lớp E Giáo trình tài liệu Những lý bên khiến việc học từ vựng em khơng hiệu quả? A Có q nhiều từ B Khơng có đủ thời gian C Giáo viên khơng kiểm tra từ vựng thường xun D Khơng có đủ động lực Em gặp khó khăn học từ vựng tiếng Anh? A Khó phát âm B Khó nhớ cách viết nghĩa từ C Khó sử dụng ngữ cảnh xác Em muốn giáo viên làm để thúc đẩy việc học từ vựng mình? A Sử dụng giáo cụ trực quan thường xuyên B Dạy cách phát âm rõ ràng C Sử dụng tiếng Anh tiếng Việt để giải thích từ D Sử dụng hoạt động khác để kiểm tra từ vựng trước E Khuyến khích, kích thích học sinh tham gia vào hoạt động học tập F Kết hợp sách giáo khoa tài liệu liên quan VIII APPENDIX 2: INTERVIEW Researcher prepares five questions to interview four teachers of English at Yen Phong High School with the purpose of finding out how vocabulary is presented and what challenges they encounter in teaching vocabulary lesson Question 1: Do you think that it is necessary to teach vocabulary before each skill? Question 2: What major challenges you often encounter when presenting vocabulary to your students? Question 3: What techniques you often use to present vocabulary for your students? Question 4: How effectively the above teaching techniques work? Question 5: What you to enhance your students' motivation in vocabulary learning lessons? IX APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT WITH TEACHERS Question 1: Do you think that it is necessary to teach vocabulary before each skill? Teacher 1: In my opinion, it is necessary to teach vocabulary before each skill because it helps students understand the lesson better Teacher 2: I often teach vocabulary before each skill such as reading, speaking, listening and writing I think that if teachers don't teach new words it will be difficult for students to understand the lesson and the tasks Teacher 3: I share the opinion that we need to teach vocabulary before each skill because vocabulary plays an important role in all skills Teacher 4: I think teaching vocabulary is very important because in each skill, vocabulary is a key factor to make students feel confident in communicating with their partners in the lesson Many students in my class who know a lot of vocabulary can task well, they are active in class and willing to take part in activities in the classroom Question 2: What major challenges you often encounter when presenting vocabulary to your students? Teacher 1: I have to face with the fact that I not have enough time to present all new words because some lessons have too many new words Many students are lazy, they don't prepare the lesson at home Teacher 2: The limited vocabulary of students prevents me from applying some effective techniques I sometime use synonyms and antonyms to teach new words for them, but it is difficult for them to understand Teacher 3: Lack of time and teaching equipment such as pictures, posters or flash cards are my problem It takes me a lot of time to prepare pictures and posters before each lesson Teacher 4: Some students are very lazy They don't learn new words at home, so their vocabulary is bad They learn vocabulary passive and lack of motivation In addition, the level of students is not equal in class, so I have to design many activities for students It takes time because there are many other activities in one period X Question 3: What techniques you often use in presenting vocabulary to grade 10th students? Teacher 1: I usually write the new words on the board, explain and translate into Vietnamese Sometimes, I download pictures from the Internet and insert them into slides to present on the projector Teacher 2: Every classroom is equipped with a projector and a computer with the Internet connection, so I often teach new words through pictures which I download from the Internet then I insert them into slides Teacher 3: Translation is my main method because it is easy to explain new words to students Sometimes, I use context to explain new words to students Teacher 4: I often use translation because it is times-saving and effective to my students Question 4: How effectively does the above teaching techniques work? Teacher 1: Not very effective because I not have enough time to present all new words Teacher 2: I find it useful because my students are very excited when I show the pictures on the slides and they can guess the meaning of the words more easily and remember them for a longer time Teacher 3: It is very useful because students can understand more about the meaning and the use of new words Teacher 4: I find it is not very effective because my students are quite passive, and they lack motivation Question 5: What you to enhance your students' motivation in vocabulary learning lessons? Teacher 1: I often encourage students to take part in learning activities I give them compliments, rewards through games and competitions Teacher 2: I check new words and give them assessment regularly to enhance students' motivation Teacher 3: I check the new words regularly I try to change the way to present new words to attract students' attention Teacher 4: I choose the suitable techniques for students' level I sometimes stimulate them to learn vocabulary by organizing games and competitions between students in class to boost students' motivation XI ... students? ?? motivation in learning vocabulary lessons at Yen Phong High School? What techniques should be applied to increase students? ?? motivation in vocabulary lessons at Yen Phong High School? 1. 3... activities with the aim of enhancing students? ?? motivation learning vocabulary to increase the motivation for Grade 10 students at Yen Phong High School DESIGN OF THE THESIS Chapter 1: Introduction Introduction,... how to use a variety of activities to encourage students to take part in the lesson The other group includes 95 students at 10 th grade aged 16 in classes 1 0A1 and 1 0A2 at Yen Phong High School