A case study on exploring the vocabulary development through extensive reading practice without formal instructions

M IN ISTRY O F ED U C A TIO N A N D TRA IN IN G H A N O I U N IV E R S IT Y PHAM TH I VAN PH U O N G A CASE STUDY ON EXPLORING THE VOCABULAR DEVELOPMENT THROUGH EXTENSIVE READING PRACTICE WITHOUT FORMAL INSTRUCTIONS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER IN TESOL SU PERV ISO R: PH A M HONG TH U Y , M.A Hanoi January, 2008 ST A T E M E N T O F A U T H O R S H IP I certify th«.u the minor thesis entitled “ A case study on exploring the vocabulary development through extensive reading practice without formal instructions” submitted in partial fulfillment o f (he requirem ent for the degree o f Master o f Arts in TESOL is the result o f my work, excepi where otherw ise acknowledged The researcher reported in this thesis was approved by the Hanoi University ACK NOW LEDGEM ENT "Acknowledgement can never be made to all that have nourished one's intellectual life." First o f all, I gratefully acknowledge my deep indebtedness to Mrs Pham Hong Thuy M.A, my supervisor, whose advices, comm ents, criticism s and directions were o f great assistance to m e in carrying out this study My sincere thanks go to Mr Vu Van Dai Ph.D, M rs Nguyen Thai Ha M A and the whole staff o f the Post-Graduate Studies Departm ent o f Hanoi University for their invaluable lectures and guidance from which I have benefited greatly in the writing of this report I also owe the invaluable contribution made by N guyen Thi Van Hanh, the subject o f this study, without which I could have never com pleted m y dissertation Last but far from least, my heartfelt thanks go to m y parents, my husband and my little daughter for their great and unflagging support, everlasting love, encouragement, and inspiration, which are extrem ely im portant to my education endeavour ABSTRACT Once English is widely taught and leamt in Vietnam to meet the needs of almost every body, from the youngers to the olders, from pupils to government officials and workers and so on, the importance of developing English vocabulary is also widely recognized As a result, many programs are designed somewhere with the aim at vocabulary improvement While the same trend takes place in Hoa Binh province, the government officials here find no suitable programs Immediately, the author of this thesis took the chance to research an older government official's vocabulary development through extensive reading practicing process without formal instructions by setting up a special 3-month extensive reading program for a single subject In the research, the 44-year-old subject practiced extensive reading for a period of nearly three months (12 weeks) without formal instructions It means she practiced mainly on her own at home or anywhere convenient for her out of any classes During the practicing period, the subject of the study had to take two tests (hereafter pre-test and post-test) The pre-test was administrated at the beginning of the 'special course of English extensive reading', and the post­ test was at the end of the course The results of the tests and the data drawn from her journal entries she wrote along the course were used as the valuable source to analyze whether and how her English vocabulary knowledge developed through extensive reading practices without formal instructions The challenges that the subject of the study had to face during the practicing period and the way she dealt with them were also addressed The researcher of the study sometimes played the role of the participant's tutor who gave the her help if necessary The author o f the research is also the test constructor, marking and scoring The study results were finally found to be encouraging to those who support Nuttall's argument for the effects o f extensive reading: The best way to im prove one's knowledge o f a foreign language is to go and live among its speakers The next best w ay is to read extensively in it Nuttall (1982:168, cited in Yu, 1993) LIST O F ABBREVIATIONS AND TABLES A b b reviations APO Asian Productivity Organization EFL/ESL English as a Foreign/Second Language ELT English Language Teaching EPER Edinburg Project on Extensive Reading ER Extensive Reading GP Green Productivity ICR The I Can Read LI First language L2 Second/Foreign Language LLL The Longman Literacy Land ORT Oxford Reading Tree SLVA Second Language V ocabulary A cquisition SSR Sustained Silent Reading USSR Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading Table 1: Results of the tests TABLE O F CONTENTS A C K N O W LED G EM EN T I A B S T R A C T II LIST OF A B BR EV IA TIO N S A N D TA B LES Ill CHAPTER I: IN T R O D U C T IO N 1.1 Background to the S tu d y 1.2 A im s o f the Study .3 1.3 Significance o f the Study 1.4 Scope o f the S tu d y 1.5 O utline o f the T h e sis 1.6 Sum m ary CHAPTER II: LITER A TU R E R E V IE W 2.1 Background to Extensive R ead in g 2.2 Definition o f Extensive R eading 10 2.3 M ajor C haracteristics o f oil Extensive Reading P ro g ram 14 2.4 Benefits and Lim itations o f Extensive Reading for V ocabulary L earn in g 16 2.5 Studies on Vocabulary Growth through Reading and through Extensive Reading 18 2.5.1 Incidental V ocabulary Acquisition R esearch 19 2.5.2 Extensive R eading R esearch 21 2.6 S um m ary 25 CHAPTER III: M ETH O D O LO G Y 27 3.1 Rationale for the R esearch D esign 27 3.2 The Subject o f the Study 31 3.3 The Setting o f the S tu d y 33 3.4 The W ords and M aterials .34 3.5 The M easurem ent Procedure 36 3.6 M arking Procedure 38 3.7 S um m ary 38 CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS AND D ISCU SSIO N 39 4.1 The Data from the Journal E n tries 39 4.2 Testing R esu lts 50 4.3 Sum m ary 54 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIO N , RECOM M ENDATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER ST U D IE S 55 5.1 C onclusion 55 5.2 R ecom m endations 56 5.3 Lim itations and Suggestions for Further S tu d ie s 57 R EFER EN C ES 60 A PPEN D IX ES 69 CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION This introductory chapter provides background to the study; It states its aims, significance, scope, and presents an overview o f the whole thesis 1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY Practically, the past decades have produced an explosion o f research in the field o f second language vocabulary acquisition (SLVA) I believe that this increased emphasis on the lexicon is warranted as teachers and researchers have com e to understand the role o f the lexicon in language teaching and com m unication, the increased attention to vocabulary teaching and learning has become more important than ever before The same trend also takes place in English teaching and learning since English has been widely used in V ietnam Since English has become m ore and more important to many people o f different ages in Vietnam, almost everybody realizes the need o f learning English in general and developing English vocabulary during learning English in particular A s such, there are multiple programs designed aim ing at improving English vocabulary in different types of learners A lot o f them are extensive reading programs However, m y colleagues, middle-aged and older governm ent o f f i c i a l s i n Iloa Binh Science and Technology Department, who, like m any other governm ent officials in the country, w ish to improve their English vocabulary in learning English in spite o f their busy work can find no suitable program available for them here These officials' wish have inspired me to carry out a study o f which one o f the colleagues becam e the only subject Although it is virtually impossible for somebody to have opportunity to experience, as adult, an extended period of time learning to read and develop vocabulary in her/his first/mother language (L I) because learning how to read in L I is norm ally mastered by most ordinary people prior to the eighth grade, it is possible to find oneself in such a fortuitous situation in a second/ foreign language (L2) This situation arose for the subject o f this study when she had about thirteen w eeks to leam English, preparing for the 4-week practicum workshop on Green Productivity (GP) in K ular Lumpur, Malaysia During the w orkshop sponsored by Asian Productivity Organization (APO) in Malaysia, the participants, who arc required to be able to com m unicate and sometimes read professional materials in English, will spend time visiting selected factories or service I enterprises and com m unity projects, traveling to the famous sight-seeing in Malaysia Since Hanh, the subject o f the study, was appointed to attend the practicum workshop she was aware o f the fact that although she herself felt quite confident about her basic English gram m ar and structures, her English vocabulary was really poor to read any texts and com m unicate, she decided to take this chance to spend thirteen weeks before the workshop self-studying in order to enrich her vocabulary by practicing Extensive Reading (ER) without formal instructions It means she did not join any English classes but practices ER on her own with the researcher's (also the tutor's) help There were some reasons why she decided to learn by herself Firstly, during the thirteen weeks in Vietnam prior to the workshop she still had to work at the office so that she did not have enough tim e to attend any English class In addition, since w e could not find any English courses featuring extensive reading for beginning learners whose object was to improve vocabulary as hers in Hoa Binh city, where she lives and works, an ideal way to carry out this study was to set a "special" course Furtherm ore, she was persuaded by the researcher - her closest niece - that she would be helped with all the researcher's best and that ER would w ork effectively in her situation since theoretically, Stanovic (1956) states that vocabulary ability w ill develop as a result o f ER Elley (1991) and Krashen (1989) also argue for the importance o f ER in effectively developing language ability Claims that ER could lead to significant improvement in learner’s vocabulary dated back some decades ago M otivated by the continued growth o f research on ER and the positive results from a variety o f studies (e.g., Bell, 2001; Camiciottoli, 2001; Elley and M angubhai, 1983; M ason and Krashen, 1997; Nash and Yuan, 1992; Renandya, Rajan, and Jacobs, 1999; Tse, 1996; W alker, 1997), this case study was conducted on the impact of ER w ithout formal instructions on a middle-aged governmental official's self study o f English in general and English vocabulary in particular over a thirteen-week period Data were collected from multiple sources, including a learner's diary, and a set vocabulary tests The results o f this study are expected to support the hypothesis that ER without formal instructions can enhance vocabulary acquisition (meaning and using) even in such a kind o f quite old learner Besides, the study also aims to explore the challenges that the learner has to encounter during 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