DRAWING UP SELF STUDY TASKS TO INCREASE VOCABULARY RANGE OF ENGLISH MAJOR FRESHMEN AT QUANG BINH UNIVERSITY

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUẢNG BÌNH  BÁO CÁO TỔNG KẾT ĐỀ TÀI NGHIÊN CỨU KHOA HỌC CỦA SINH VIÊN ĐỀ TÀI: DRAWING UP SELF-STUDY TASKS TO INCREASE VOCABULARY RANGE OF ENGLISH MAJOR FRESHMEN AT QUANG BINH UNIVERSITY Giảng viên hướng dẫn: TS.GVS Lê Thị Hằng Nhóm sinh viên thực hiện: Hà Cơng Thành Hồng Thị Anh Tú Nguyễn Thùy Lan Ngành: Ngơn ngữ Anh Khoa: Ngoại ngữ Khóa học: 2014 - 2018 Quảng Bình, năm 2016 TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUẢNG BÌNH  BÁO CÁO TỔNG KẾT ĐỀ TÀI NGHIÊN CỨU KHOA HỌC CỦA SINH VIÊN ĐỀ TÀI: DRAWING UP SELF-STUDY TASKS TO INCREASE VOCABULARY RANGE OF ENGLISH MAJOR FRESHMEN AT QUANG BINH UNIVERSITY Giảng viên hướng dẫn: TS.GVC Lê Thị Hằng Nhóm sinh viên thực hiện: Hà Cơng Thành Hồng Thị Anh Tú Nguyễn Thùy Lan Ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Khoa: Ngoại ngữ Khóa học: 2014 - 2018 Quảng Bình, năm 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT LIST OF PHOTOS LIST OF FIGURES CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1.Rationale of the study 1.2 Aims of the study 1.3 Reseach questions 1.4 New contributions of the study 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 The organization of the research CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 11 2.1 Prior studies related to the research 11 2.2 Theoretical background 12 2.2.1 Definition of self-study task 12 2.2.2 The process of vocabulary acquisition 12 2.2.2.1 Definition of vocabulary acquisition 12 2.2.2.2 The process of vocabulary acquisition 13 2.2.3 The importance of vocabulary acquisition 13 2.2.4 Factors affecting English vocabulary learning 17 2.2.4.1 Person-dependent factors 17 2.2.4.2 Vocabulary learning task 18 2.2.4.3 Vocabulary learning strategies 19 2.2.4.4 Learning vocabulary in context 19 2.2.5 Activities of vocabulary acquisition with a communicative approach 16 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 22 3.1 Participants 22 3.2 Data collection methods 23 3.2.1 Questionnaires 23 3.2.2 Interview 23 3.3 Procedure 24 3.4 Data analysis methods 25 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 26 4.1 The vocabulary concerns by freshmen and the reality students’ 26 vocabulary learning 4.1.1 The reality students’ vocabulary learning 26 4.2 Some suggestions about self-study tasks to help students learning English vocabulary more effectively 30 4.2.1 Some self-study tasks intergrated into a notebook 30 4.2.2 Games 36 5.1 Summary 39 5.2 Limitations 41 5.3 Suggestions for further research 41 APPENDICE 43 INTERVIEW 43 VOCABULARY TEST 44 QUESTIONNAIRES 46 REFERENCES 50 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to our supervisor - Le Thi Hang, Ph.D Thanks to her guidance, caring, patience, we are provided wide knowledge and experience for doing research Therefore, we can carry out our research favorably We would like to send our sincere gratefulness to Quang Binh University for financial support for our research We also want to express our thanks to the students who were willing to spend their time participating on the questionnaires, vocabulary tests as well as the interviews Moreover, there is no word deserved to express the gratitude to our friends who are always by our side and give us more inspirations to finish the research with a sense of satisfaction ABSTRACT How to master vocabulary learning skill seems to be the most challenging task that students have to face, especially freshmen In fact, there is a great deal of research done to solve concerns To be English – major students, we would like to help the first year students learn English vocabularies more effectively, which urged us to carry out this study Moreover, in this study, the researchers conducted an investigation into the difficulties in learning vocabulary encountered by the English – major freshmen at Quang Binh University The study attempts to figure out the difficulties that they often meet during learning and using vocabularies Based on those difficulties and theories of vocabulary acquisition, the research group suggested some self-study tasks integrated in a vocabulary notebook resources that students can use to improve their English vocabulary capital and games Finally, suggestions for further studies for students who are interested in this problem We also made effort with the hope of contributing to self-study improvement of the English major freshmen at Quang Binh University LIST OF PHOTOS Photo 1: Diary Photo 2: Wordlists Photo 3: Exercise LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: The ways that students self-study vocabulary Figure 2: The ways which the students use to remember vocabulary Figure 3: The students is spending time learning vocabulary Figure 4: The reason leads to the difficulties of freshmen when acquiring English vocabulary CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study Nowadays, English has become an international language, which is also required for any public sectors Excellent English learners will have more opportunities to find jobs Nevertheless, it is not easy to learn English well, especially to learn and to use English vocabularies When we were first year students of English language a year ago, we faced difficulties in methods of English vocabulary learning Normally, students who are studying in some central provices have fewer chances to practice English than those in other central cities; their vocabularies to learn skills and to communicate are not enough In addition, because of the effects of Vietnamese and dialect, they hesitate to speak English Inevitably, it leads to use vocabulary incorrectly and appropriately In spite of determining the importance of vocabulary self-study, most of the students not have an effective learning method Besides, at Universities, teachers mainly guide and teach the basic skills such as listening, speaking, reading, writing in which only a few vocabularies of lessons are taught as the time does not allow Therefore, students need to use methods and effective self-study habits to increase their vocabulary range In learning a foreign language in general and learning English in particular, that the learner has got the ability of use a wide range of vocabularies is the most significant factor Vocabulary acquisition process requires the learner to give it time, they have to constantly learn and use vocabularies in the real context, therefore the learner must become patient Moreover, the learner should soon have the appropriate learning method from the start, especially freshmen in the English language sector All these main reasons urge the research group to this study 1.2 Aims of the study Within six months, this research focuses on English-major freshmen at Quang Binh University The research help student learn with a good method and acquire vocabulary effectively From the above reasons, the specific aims of the research are as follows: (1) Drawing-up a self-study activities that are integrated into a Student Vocabulary Notebook (2) Designing some vocabulary games to improve using vocabulary effectively (3) Introducing to the freshmen some resourses to take up their self-study (4) After applyingng the tasks of vocabulary self-study, students of English Language at Quang Binh University will have the passion, excitement and they can take up English vocabulary self-study everyday (5) Being students of a foreign language, we wish we would be more natural and confident when using English, the quality of students graduated in English Language major at Quang Binh University will be improved 1.3 Reseach questions This research aspires to answer these following questions: 1, Is vocabulary deficiency is one of difficulties in learning English of English major freshmen? 2, What are the ways of the freshmen’s English vocabulary self-study? 3, What self-study tasks should be applied to increase the freshmen’s English vocabulary range ? 1.4 New contributions of the study The reseachers hope that there will be many benefits if the reseach are sucessful They are for the English major’s freshmen at Quang Binh University, other major’s students or anyone who want to learn English and the researchers - As for the students of English major freshmen, the use of the reseach results will help them extend vocabulary range and discover the methods of more effective English vocabulary self-study; Students can use vocabulary flexibly, reasonably in the different contexts of communication This will facilitate their English communication, then this in turn will probably accommodate students to become graduates who are good at English in the future - As for students of other majors at Quang Binh University who want to study English vocabulary better, the reseach result can be also useful - As for the reseachers, after conducting this research, we ourselves can develop knowledge, skills and experiences for reseaching and enhancing our vocabulary Moreover, the findings of this research can be useful as a references and other considerations to investigate problems related to self study in further research 1.5 Scope of the study This study focuses on investigating difficulties that English-major freshmen and sophomore at Quang Binh University encounter in learning vocabulary and suggests some methods to self-study English effectively The participants are first year students of English major at Quang Binh University, whose English vocabulary is estimated to be at pre-intermediate and intermediate levels Besides, after two years, we have not had an effective method in self-studying yet 1.6 The organization of the research The research paper consists of five chapters as follows: Chapter 1: Introduction In this chapter, the reseachers present the rationale, aims of the study, the research questions, the significance of the research, the scope of the study and the organization of the researches Chapter 2: Literature review and theorical background This chapter states a theoretical background with two main parts The first part contains the prior studies related to the current research The second is about the theoretical background It also includes the definition of vocabulary acquisition, the definition of self-study task, the process of vocabulary acquisition, the role of this skill be mentioned and finally, the factors affecting English vocabulary learning Chapter 3: Methodology This chapter describes the research methodology used so as to achieve the objectives of the study It includes a brief description of the basic type of the research, participants in the study, data collection methods and data analysis Chapter 4: Finding and discussion This chapter presents the findings and discussions for the study The findings are classified and interpreted into the perceptions of whom on the self-study vocabulary tasks, the difficulties in learning vocabulary, and some possible solutions to minimize the difficulties We are proposing a notebook, some games and several websites Chapter 5: Conclusions and recommendations This chapter summarizes the main points and provides some pedagogical implications, proposing the Student Vocabulary Notebook (with a training course), three Games to be applied in self-studying, and the limitations and suggestions for further research CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND This chapter states a theoretical background with two main parts The first part contains the prior studies related to the current research The second is about the theoretical background It also includes the definition of vocabulary acquisition, definition of self-study task, the process of vocabulary acquisition, and the role of this skill be mentioned Finally, factors affecting English vocabulary learning 2.1 Prior studies related to the research Since the difficulties met by learners in mastering vocabulary learning skill, there have been researches conducting investigation into vocabulary Henriksen [10] investigates three dimensions of vocabulary development, relationships among those dimensions, and the way they function in word learning and practice His study reveals that three dimensions involved in lexical competence are “partial to precise knowledge,” “depth of knowledge,” and “receptive to productive use ability” Besides, Aitchison [2] who investigates the process of how a learner acquires a vocabulary word, a learner goes through three stages in vocabulary learning: labeling, packaging, and network building Paribakht and Wesche [18] develope five steps of vocabulary exercise types: selective attention, recognition, manipulation, interpretation, and production Moreover, according to Laufer & Hulstijn [11] , noticing, elaboration, motivation, or need play an essential role in second language vocabulary acquisition Photo 2: Wordlists Word + pronunc -iation + Part of speech Grammar Examples Meaning + special style Collocations Family words Synonym / Antonym Photo 3: Exercise DIARY 4.2.2 Games To meet the requirement of the process acquisition vocabulary which consists of processes: learning and practicing Besides, learning activities are not enough interesting to attract the students so they propose three games to students can not only play but also learn With this way, students will feel comfortable and relax so they must have been learnt vocabulary easily  A game show “Who am I describing” Instructions : Have students (the player) sit in two groups One in the role of the host – participants take it in turns to be the host, and the other in the role of players The host determines player incidentally A player will show a slide composing of things or famous people in different sectors about minutes then turn off The host will describe one thing or one person and give a question “ who am I describing” , remaining student will guess If player is incorrect, remaining one will make more sentences The game continues until players give right answer Benefit: • When the hosts describe the things or the people, they will have to use new words which they learnt and the players can listen carefully then try to identify those things or people so they all can remember the new words longer • Practicer makes sentences naturally  About me Instructions: Have students (the player) sit in group of 3-4 Each player rolls the dice in turn Players then finish the sentence written on the space (called a “prompt” or a “cue”) The game continues until one or all players reach the “finish” space Determine who goes first and whether the turn will progress clockwise or counterclockwise On their turns, the player move their game pieces along the path according to the number of space indicated by the dice Where they land, using personal experience, imagination, and/or critical thinking skills Note that some space, like 6, 13 and 17 in About me, penalize players by requiring them to go back to an earlier space These are meant to increase the “chance” aspect of the game and usually foster mildly negative feelings for a moment, but it is all in fun! The victim will probably groan; the other players will probably laugh Benefit: • The game helps students feel comfortable and less stressful after school • The students can practice with vocabulary which they studied • Forming quick reflexes • Practicing grammar Story Instruction Have students (the players) sit in two groups Students give their answer for questions Show the videos we down load on the Internet, video last about 15 minutes While showing students a video, then they will discuss to answer the questions, may be questions in the videos, may be teachers give them or each group ask each other Check the answers After students listen and repeat in the vocabulary Having practiced pronunciation, student After all, they will hear the story again Benefit • Story provides an opportunity for students to have a native English language environment to practice two skills: listening, speaking In addition, they also learn pronunciation and vocabulary • Watching video is an effective way to help student remember the words and phrases, the native speakers will teach them how to speak like native people and more naturally • Student have chance to approach to the English reality environment Having entertainment Some other websites to learn English • Actually, students can study at home with the website: www.ucan.vn • They can listen to many songs in the website: http://www.ucan.vn/baihoc/hoc-tieng-anh-quacac-bai-hat • Everyone can find the film Mind Your Language to self-study and entertainment CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS This chapter starts with a summary of the findings and their implications for the improvements in enhancing vocabulary capital of the English-major first year students at Quang Binh University The contribution and limitation of the study are discussed accordingly The chapter ends with the suggestions for further studies 5.1 Summary It can be said that this study is an answer to readers who have trouble with English vocabulary That is really a challenge for English - major students in learning process The investigation into difficulties that the English - major freshmen at Quang Binh University encounter, so we can help them have a better insight of what obstaclesin reality and what solutions should be made to improve their English vocabulary acquisition This research paper ends with some suggested solutions to minimize the difficulties in acquiring vocabulary Regarding to the research question 1, most of the students are aware of the importance of learning English All of them meet many difficulties although some students also spend much time on learning vocabulary Relating to the research question 2, from the questionnaire data, the researchers havefound the difficulties that the English - major freshmen at Quang Binh University encounter Question answering task is considered as the most difficult one Moreover, they cannot understand the word meanings, or they don’t know how to use vocabulary, which are two common obstacles in vocabulary Besides, the influence of their mother tonge accent of Vietamese also a factors makes them not able to speak English as well as native people Many students are bad at pronunciation Especially, a word with various meaning, but freshmen lack of vocabulary capital They are not confident in communicating in English because some word are not common and very difficult With the last research question, the Student Vocabulary Notebook and three games are the new contribution The Notebook require student to spend more time at home self-studying vocabulary For the games, learner will have chance to entertain and practice English in reality, they surely get better in learning English if a native teacher take part in the games In short, this research paper brings to the forefront an overall picture of difficulties in enhancing of the English - major first year students at Quang Binh University It emphasizes that they are lack of vocabulary and the inability of have a good foreign language environment The tasks or activities in self-studying English vocabulary appropriately has to be taken into consideration with great efforts from the teachers and the positive cooperation from the students As mentioned above, there have been some changes in teaching freshmen and their selfstudying English vocabulary at Quang Binh University to improve effectiveness of students' learning However, some problems still obstruct the developing process Through the investigation, the researchers show a number of problems and suggestions which may help contribute to the promotion of students’ vocabulary acquisition From this study, several proposals were drawn for the freshmen to have more success in buiding up their English vocabulary range Firstly, students need to be aware of the importance of vocabulary in comparison with others And hence, they should spend more time practicing vocabulary They should have better methods for their own learning Moreover, students should enrich their vocabulary by keeping the Vocabulary Student Notebook, in order that new word are oder in the topic However; they should attend a training couse to instruct them how to use the notebook Secondly teachers should show students some game to play such as: About me, Who am I describing and Story Last but not least, at home student can refer video on the internet to watch film, listen to music of native people 5.2 Limitations The limitation of this study may emerge from the fact that the study has been carried out in a small scope of 36 English-major first year students at Quang Binh University within a limited time frame of implementation This may have an influence on the reliability of the results found and discussed in the research In addition, the results of the research may be more convincing if some video films are proposed to be refered 5.3 Suggestions for further research The most serious limitation of this research is that it has been conducted on a smallscale and within a limited time of implementation Thus, similar research on a largescale with larger number of the students should be made to achieve more convincing conclusion The research on finding supplementary materials for students as well as supporting materials for teaching English vocabulary should be made Also, it is suggested that further studies should be done to otherstudent not only English freshmen In order to improve other skills of student such as listening, writing, speaking, and reading Students will have the souce of references and inappropriate parts in order that students can have the best results in language acquisition Moreover, studies suggest methods to improve students vocabulary in the form ofentertainment such as watching video, movies should be carried out APPENDICE INTERVIEW The purpose of interview Gather information, consult the students grade English Language University 57 courses of studying English vocabulary notebook (Student’s Vocabulary Notebook) was applied after the first semester From there, we can add, adjust the information to make the notebook more complete Respondents The students in the class University of English Language - Course 57 at Quang Binh University Time interview From 08:00 am to 10:00 am, 28th February, 2016 Location of interview 10 random students in classroom C402 at Quang Binh University Interview questions - Personally, has the Student’s Vocabulary Notebook itself helped you learn English vocabulary words better? - Which contents in the notebook you like? Why? - Which contents has been inadequate? Why? - In your opinion, we need to change and supplement which contents? Why that? - How you find the diary section (Diary) of the Vocabulary Student Notebook? Why is it helpful for you? ..* The end *. VOCABULARY TEST Name:………………………………………………… Class:………………… I - Write the English names of the it ems II-Make sentences with the given words 1, murderer: 2, camera: 3, wave: 4, terrorism: 5, smooth: 6, ridiculous: 7, cross leg: 8, autobiography: 9, victim: 10, wink: III-Choose the best way to record the meaning of each word in the list by filling the gaps in table below What other information would be useful to record with this word(e.g pronunciation, part of speech, grammar, common partners, etc.) QUESTIONNAIRES (For sophomores) 1) When you was a freshman, did you have any difficulty in learning vocabulary? Word + pronunciation + part of speech Meaning (có thể dịch tiếng Việt) Grammar Special style shake crime home flower kid □ Yes 2) Why you find it difficult to learn vocabulary? □ No Collocations (Các từ kết hợp) Examples (Ví dụ) □ Do not understand the meanings □ Do not know how to use vocabulary □ Pronounce not ready because of the influence of the mother tongue □ Do not recognize the meaning of words by because of the shortage of your vocabulary capital □ you are not confident when using difficult words □ Some words and phrases are uncommon, little used □ comment: 3) You regularly spend how much time to learn vocabulary? □ Every week 4) □ Every day The main place you study vocabulary? □ At school □ At home □ Both at school and at home □ Other hours: 5) How have you learnt vocabulary? □ Learning in books □ Listening to music, watching films with English subtitles □ Communicating with native speakers □ Talk to teachers, friends in English □ comment: 6) Do you find yourself using words flexibly? □ Flexibly 7) □ Depending on the words □ Not flexibly Are you trying to use the new vocabulary learned in practicing to communicate or not? □ Regularly 8) □ Occasionally Do you use any way to investigate the vocabulary? □ By electronic software □ By investigation of dictionaries □ Few 9) The way that you use to remember vocabulary better? □ Learn by heart □ Put sentence that uses the vocabulary required □ Learn to remember the word with its collocations □ Comment: 10) Would you like to participate in some games to improve vocabulary or not? □ Yes □ No Thank you! 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ALLA Review : Vocabulary Acquisition, 75-85 [23] Taylor, Linda (1999): Teaching and Learning Vocabulary New York: Prentice Hall [24] Wenden,A.(1987) Metagonition: An expanded view of the cognitive abilities of L2 learners Language learning, 37(4), 573-597) [25] Wilkins, David A (1972) Linguistics in language teaching Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, III [26] Williams,M.,& Burden,R.L (1997) Psychology for language teachers Cambridge: Cambridge University press ... on drawing up self- study tasks to enhance vocabulary capital of English major freshmen at Quang Binh University upself-studying In short, with the combination of both quantitative and qualitative... learning English of English major freshmen? 2, What are the ways of the freshmen? ??s English vocabulary self- study? 3, What self- study tasks should be applied to increase the freshmen? ??s English vocabulary. .. with the hope of contributing to self- study improvement of the English major freshmen at Quang Binh University LIST OF PHOTOS Photo 1: Diary Photo 2: Wordlists Photo 3: Exercise LIST OF FIGURES