An investigation into learing autonomy in engliah vocabulary learning among grade 12 students

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DO THI NU AN INVESTIGATION INTO LEARNING AUTONOMY IN ENGLISH VOCABULARY LEARNING AMONG GRADE 12 STUDENTS M.A THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 THAI NGUYEN – 2020 ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN TRƯỜNG NGOẠI NGỮ ĐỖ THỊ NỤ NGHIÊN CỨU NĂNG LỰC TỰ HỌC TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG ANH CỦA HỌC SINH LỚP 12 LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ Ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Mã số: 8220201 THÁI NGUYÊN - 2020 DECLARATION I declare that this research report entitled ―An investigation into learning autonomy in English vocabulary learning among grade 12 students‖ has been composed by myself, and described my own work, unless otherwise acknowledged in the text I confirm that this work is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of master at School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University This work has not been and will not submitted for any other degree at any other institution of higher education Author’s signature Approved by SUPERVISOR Nguyen Thi Que, PhD Do Thi Nu Date: November, 2020 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am deeply indebted to a number of people for helping me to make this M.A thesis possible First and foremost, my deepest gratitude goes to Dr Nguyen Thi Que my supervisor, who supported and encouraged me generously throughout this study Without her excellent academic guidance and support, my thesis would not have been completed I would like to sincerely thank the anonymous participants who contributed data to this study Without their outstanding cooperation, this thesis would not have been completed My appreciation is also extended to a number of staff members of Ly Nam De high school for their assistance is statistical issues and for their assistance in editing work I would like to thank my family, especially my parents and my husband for their constant source of love, support and encouragement in times of difficulty and frustration Finally, I would like to thank my readers for their interests and comments on this thesis While I am deeply indebted to all these people for their help to the completion of this thesis, I myself remain responsible for any inadequacies that are found in this work ii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF TABLES v LIST OF FIGURES vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii ABSTRACT viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Statements of the problems and aims of the study 1.3 Scope of the study 1.4 Significance of study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Learning autonomy 2.1.1 Learner autonomy in language learning 2.1.2 Learner autonomy 2.1.3 Level of learning autonomy 2.1.4 Characteristics of autonomous language learners 13 2.2 Factors affecting learner autonomy 13 2.2.1 The Role of Learner Themselves 13 2.2.2 The Role of Teachers 14 2.2.3 Learner motivation and attitude 15 2.2.4 Self-regulation 15 2.2.5 Self-efficacy 15 2.2.6 Self-determination 16 2.3 Vocabulary learning strategies 16 2.3.1 Language learning strategies 17 2.3.2 Classification of vocabulary learning strategies 18 2.4 Previous Studies 25 iii CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 29 3.1 Research Design 29 3.2 Subjects and locale of the study 29 3.3 Research Instruments 29 3.3.1 Checklist: Learner‘s Autonomy Questionnaire (LAQ) 30 3.3.2 Questionnaire: Vocabulary Learning Strategies Questionnaire (VLSQ) 30 3.4 Data Gathering Procedure 31 3.5 Data analytical method 31 CHAPTER 4: PRESENTATION, INTERPRETATION, AND ANALYSIS OF DATA 33 4.1 Demographic information of the participants 33 4.2 The use of students‘ vocabulary learning strategies 34 4.2.1 General Vocabulary learning strategies by participants 34 4.2.2 Specific Vocabulary learning strategies by participants 35 4.3 Levels of learner autonomy 42 4.4 Relationship between learner autonomy and students‘ uses of vocabulary learning strategies 47 4.4.1 The results of determining the form, direction and degree of correlation on a graph and by regression analysis 47 4.4.2 The results of determining the relationship between the students‘ uses of VLS and their levels of learning autonomy with Paired Samples T-test 51 4.4.3 Summary 52 CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 54 5.1 Summary of findings 54 5.2 Conclusion 55 5.3 Recommendations 56 5.4 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further research: 57 REFERENCES 58 APPENDIX 62 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 Students' background information 33 Table 4.2: General Vocabulary learning strategies by participants 34 Table 4.3: Memory strategies employed by participants 35 Table 4.4 Determination strategies employed by participants: 37 Table 4.5: Social strategies employed by participants 38 Table 4.6: Cognitive strategies employed by participants 39 Table 4.7: Metacognitive Strategies employed by participants 40 Table 4.8: Learner autonomy checklist 43 Table 4.9: The results of regression of analyses between the students‘ learning autonomy and their uses of vocabulary learning strategies 49 Table 4.10: Model Summary 49 Table 4.11: Coefficient size in the pattern 50 Table 4.12 Mean and SD of the scores of the two variables Paired Samples Statistics 51 Table 4.13: The correlation between students' uses of Vocab learning strategies and Levels of learners' autonomy 51 Table 4.14: The Paired Samples Test Analysis of the scores between variables 52 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1 Distribution of the use of vocabulary learning strategies 42 Figure 4.2 Distribution of students‘ levels of learning autonomy 46 Figure 4.3 The linear relationship between learner autonomy and students‘ use of vocabulary learning strategies 48 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviate Meaning CLT Communicative Language Teaching EFL English as a Foreign Language LND Ly Nam De high school LA Learning Autonomy LLS Language Learning Strategies VLS Vocabulary Learning Strategies vii ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to improve students‘ uses of vocabulary learning strategies and levels of learner autonomy by determining the relationship between them To be more specific, the researcher firstly aimed at exploring students‘ levels of learning autonomy, finding out students‘ vocabulary learning strategies and finally figuring out the relationship between learning autonomy and students‘ use of vocabulary learning strategies The study employed the correlational research design A total of 145 students of grade 12 at Ly Nam De High School of Thai Nguyen province participated in the study by giving their evaluation of their learning autonomy and VLS through two different instruments of a questionnaire and a checklist Results of the study revealed that vocabulary learning strategies were used at medium level of frequency by grade 12 students In addition, the levels of learning autonomy by these participants was also measured at medium level Significantly, there was a linear, positive and rather strong correlation between students‘ uses of vocabulary learning strategies and their levels of learning autonomy The findings of the study have proposed some implications for administrators, other researchers, English educators and students on the need to enhance students‘ learning autonomy in order to improve English vocabulary in particular and English language teaching and learning in general in Vietnam viii relationship between the students' uses of VLSs and the learner autonomy As shown clearly in Table 13, the correlation coefficient 567), and the significant value (P — 0.000) is very small (