A study on perceptions and frequency of use of vocabulary learning strategies among english – major students at Banking Academy

In the age of globalization, intercultural communication has been ¡ncreasingly focused and developed. Among several major foreign languages that are widely accepted all over the world, it is a fact that English Language 1s regarded as the most common one. In the educatilon program of Asian countries Including Vietnam, English teaching has been also attached great Importance and become the mandatory foreign language in schools” curriculum. As a result, English Language becomes a primary major and 1s formally trained in most universifties and colleges in Vietnam. Accordingly, English Language major tends to appeal to a vast array of Vietnamese high school students rather than other foreign languages in Vietnam. According to official statisties in 2017 of Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam, the maJor of English Language ranked the fourth as 24.251 candidates registered as the first major for the university admission. It also accounted for the highest proportion of candidates applying for the foreign languages and culture maJors (57%) (Van, 2017). When it comes to learning a language, there are four basic language skills including listening, reading, speaking and writing in foreign language education and training (Bašceci & Yasar, 2007; Barin, 1997, as cited in Darancik, 2018). For successful and effecftive educaflon and training ¡in foreign language courses, these four basic language skills need to be developed and reinforced in accordance with the level and needs of the learners (Darancik, 2018). However, “in order to Improve these four skills, vocabulary 1s an essential building block of language and as such it makes sense to be able to measure learners° knowledge of 1t” (Schmitt, Sehmitt & Clapham, 2001, p.ŠŠ). Therefore, vocabulary has a crucial role to play 1n learning and teaching OÊ a foreign language as 1t enables learners to get access to all forms of verbal and wWriftten communication of the word (Moeller, Ketsman & Masmaliyeva, 2009). For example, in reading and listening skills, first and foremost, studenfs need to identifv key words of a passage or a speech. In wrifing and speaking skills, learners need to cover a wide range of vocabulary in order to be able to express their ideas to readers and listeners clearly and effortlessly.

BANKTNG ACADEMY THE FACULTY OE FOREIGN LANGUAGES

GRADUATION THESIS

TOPIC:

A STUDY ON PERCEPTIONS AND EREQUENCY OE USE OE

VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES AMONG ENGLISH - MAJOR

STUDENTS AT BANKTNG ACADEMY

Course : 2017— 2021

Student ID : 20A7510159

Instrucftor : MS NGUYEN THỊ THUƯ TRANG (M.A)

Hanoi, May 2021

DECLARATION

I, the undersigned, hereby state that this thesis 1s entirely an intellectual product of

my own, which was done with Iimmense effort and devotion It has not been submitted,

in whole or ín part, in any previous application for a degree Wherever contributions

of others are 1involved, every effort 1s made to indicate this clearly, with due reference

to the literature, and acknowledgement of collaborafive research and discussions

I have read the Universifyˆs current research ethics guidelines and acknowledged my obligations and the rights of the participants

Hanoi, 22° May, 2021

Signature

Le Phuong Thao

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Ftrst of all, I would like to express my sincere thanks to Ms Nguyen Thi Thu Trang (MA) for everything that she made to contribute to the completion of my dissertfafion During the process of research conduction, she has always been available to provide helpful comments and support for my thesis Had it not been for her enthusiasm in support of me, I would never have finished this thesis She has also been an excellenf mentor for developing my logical thinking, critical thinking and writing skill

I also wish to show my gratitude to all teachers at the Faculty of Foreign Languages

at Banking Academy, especially Ms Nguyen Mai Phuong, Ms Do Thu Hang, Ms Tran Thanh Giang for helping me to collecf responses of studenfs in person

Above all, I wish to express my appreciation from the bottom of my heart to my famly who are always by my side fo give me motivafonal support and encouragement There were a lot oftimes I dịd bear the thought of giving up halfway However, because of my family still being there, IÏ was moftivated to keep moving forward and reach where I am today

Save the best for last, I would like to thank myself for daring to embark on this challenging Journey, being persistenf and resilient and always striving for excellence Due to time limitations and a restricted capacity of the author, this thesis might contain certain defects Therefore, I would be really open-minded and grateful for any consfructive comments to enhance ¡fs quality

TABLE OEF CONTENTS

DECLARLA TION Ăn 00000000 003080806108840808008050806 Ỉ ACEKNOWLEDGEMENTTS c5 Ă Ăn HH nung ng 00 00100801001 0gge ii TABLE OE CONTIEEN TIS ccĂĂ HH HH H00 008803880880884888800 856 iii I0 009)209/10).0115155 V LIST OE EIGURES .c- << 55G 5< 1< 9 91 93093.88838883888388388080800800898 vỉ

LIST OE ABBREV1A TIONS Ăn HH ng ng ng g0 me, viii CHAPTER I_— INTRODUC TH ƠNN 5 5c S Ăn gen eeeee 1 1.1 Statement ofthe problem and rationale for the study ‹‹ «- l 1.1.1 Statement of the probÌem - - cv TH TH nh nrưu l 1.1.2 Rationale for the sfUdỈy .- óc 111v ng HH Hưệu 2 1.2 Aims and ODJ€CfIV€S - «cv TH TH nu 3 1.3 Significance of the SfUỈY - c1 TH TH HH Hư 3 1.4 Scope Of the SfUY Ăn TH TH TH nu h 1.5 Research SfTuCfUTe .- cọ TH TH TH HH Hư - CHAPTER H— LITERA TURE REV IEỀẨW cScĂ ng ng nen ngeee 6 2.1 VOCabullafY nh TH TH TH HH TT 6 2.1.1 Vocabulary and| [eXIS - - - c1 1n HH nu 6 2.1.2 The Importance ofvocabulary and lexical compefence: - 7 2.1.3 Classification of VocabullarV «ch HH HH 10 2.2 Vocabulary learning strategles (VLSS) LH key 10 2.2.1 Definition of vocabulary learning sfrafegy cày II 2.2.2 Importance of vocabulary learning sfrafegy - cài II 2.2.3 Classification of vocabulary learning sfrafegles .- «« «+ 12 2.3 Previous research on Vocabulary Learning Sfrafegles . - 18 2.4 Research qu€SfIOTNS - - LH HH kh 23 CHAPTER HH - METHODOLLOCY .5 5< 5SĂ S1 Seeeeeeeserse 24 3.1 Locale of the SfUY Q - SnHnH T HH HH 24 3.2 Research đeS1Ø1n HH TH TH in 25 3.3 PaTẨICIDATẨS - GHTH nọ H 26

3.4 Research ISfTUIN€IIT: - - c2 11111 0311110 131111 ni nà 26

3.5 Dafta collecflon DfOC€dUT: .- 1n 29 3.6 Dafa analyS1S DFOC€C[UT€: Ăn HH TH nh 30 CHAPTER IV - EINDING PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSIOXN 32 4.1 Finding pDreS€nfafIOTA «c1 TH HH nu kh 32 4.1.1 Reliability of the Measureimennf c5 xxx 32 4.1.2 Findings on participanfs” perceptions on VLSs application 36 4.1.3 Findings on the correlation between the year of study and amount of time spent on learning English vocabulary and the vocabulary retention rate 39 4.1.4 Findings on frequency of VLSS IS@ Ăn ve, 4I 4.2 DDISCUSSIOH1 nh TT TH TH TH TT ki 55 4.2.1 Discussion on studenfs” perception on VLSs application 55 4.2.2 Discussion on relationship between the year of studying and time spenf

on English vocabulary learning and the vocabulary retention rafe 55 4.2.3 Discussion on frequent use of VLSs among English-major students 5Ó CHAPTER V - SUMMARY OE FINDINGS, [IMPLICATIONS AND

RECOMMENDA TIONS HH HH HH n0 00000001856 62 5.1 Summary Of Íindings óc vn TH HH 62

ho cố 63 5.2.1 Implications for đisCOVerV SffAf€B1€S - LH HnHnHHnHhHku 65 5.2.2 Implications for learning/acquiring sfrafeg1es - c+ccccc+ 68 5.2.3 Implications for reViSIO' SfFAf€1©S .- - Q nnHHngrkn 71 5.2.4 Implications for eXpansion sfraf€Ø1©S - -c- cư rư 72 5.3 RecomimefndÌafIOHNS óc <1 111 vn TT TH HH nh 73 CHAPTER VI— CONCLUUSIƠNN c5 Ă Ăn ng ng 00000 1gp 75 REEFERENCES Ăn TH 000 000 000108088910808820 854 76 APPENDIYX Ăn HT 0 00 000 009 8050001850 85

LIST OE TABLES

Table I: The concept of knowing a word by Nation (2001, p 27) 10

Table 2: Sample of the study 26

Table 3: Other strategies applied by the participants 54

Table 4.1: Summary sfatistics of the Cronbach”s Alpha calculated 33

Table 4 2: The corrected Item - total correlation of section 3.l 34

Table 4.3: The corrected item - total correlation of section 3.2 35

Table 4.4: The corrected item - total correlation of section 3.3 35

Table 4.5: The corrected item - total correlation of section 3.4 36

Table 4.6: Survey parficipanfs” response on perceptlons on VLSs 37

Table 4.7: Test of Homogeneity of Varlances 39

Table 4.8: ANOVA statistics table 40

Table 4.9: Test of Homogeneity of Varlances 40

Table 4.10: ANOVA statistics table 41

Table 4.11: Overall use of VLSs by step of respondenfs 42

Table 4.12: Studenfs” responses to strategies they apply in Discovery Category 42 Table 4.13: Students” responses fo strategies they apply in learning category 46 Table 4.14: Studenfts” responses to sfrategies they apply 1n revising category 48 Table 4.15: Studenfs” responses to strategies they apply In expanding category ŠI Table Š.I: Suggested vocabulary note-taking « «- 70

LIST OE EIGURES

Figure I: Difference between vocabulary and lexis by Van (2013) 7

Figure 2: Classification of VLSs devised by Schmitt (1997) 14

Figure 4.I: The applied scale oŸ measuremenI - 37

Figure 4.2: Summary of students” responses from Table 4.6 (in percentage) 38

Figure 4.3: Summary of students” responses from Table 4.12 (in percenfage) 43

Figure 4.4: The use of dictionary by genre of the parficipant đị Figure 4.5: Elemenfs of words that are looked up 1n a dicfionary 45

Figure 4.6: Summary of students” responses from Table 4.13 (1n percentage) 47

Figure 4.7: Summary of studenfs” responses from Table 4.14 (in percentage) 50

Figure 4.8: Summary of studenfs” responses from Table 4.LŠ (in percentage) 53

Figure 4.9: Proportion of strategy cafegory gI1ven more emphasIs 54

ABSTEACT

This study 1s conductfed to 1nvestigate the perceptions of English-major studenfs at Banking Academy of Vietnam on Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLSs) and their frequency of VLSs use as well In order to achieve the research goal, the researcher decided to work on three research quesftions including (1) How studentfs in the Faculty

of Foreign Languages perceive vocabulary learning strategies; (2) Whether there are correlations between the year of study and the amount of time spent on learning vocabulary and the retention rate of newly-learned words among English-major studenfs; (3) Which vocabulary learning strategies studentfs In the Faculty of Foreign Languages apply and the corresponding frequency of use The researcher designs a quesfionnaire consisting ofthree sections and distributes online and physically to 2Š I students of all academic years in the Faculty of Foreign Language at Banking Academy The collected data are encoded and descriptively analyzed by the SPSS software version 20 It is shown in the study that the respondents have ever known or even been Instrucfed to use VLSs and believe in the benefits of applying VLSs Overall, the research also reveals that surveyed English-maljor students apply VLSs

at a medium level, of which only the discovery group was adopted ¡n a high level of frequency Besides, no statistically significant difference 1s recognized between the academic vear and the amount of time spent on vocabulary acquisition by the surveyed studenfs and their vocabulary retention rate after one-week Interval

Key words: Voeabulary Learning Strategies (VLSs), perceptfions on LSs, voeqbulary, teaching vocabulary, learning vocabulary, English as a ƒoreign language (EFL)

LIST OE ABBREVIA TIONS

EFL English as a Foreign Language

TFL Turkish as a foreign language

ESP English for Specific Purpose

LLSs Language Learning Strategles

TOEIC Test of English for International Communicafion IELTS International English Language Testing System

TOEFEL Test of English as a Foreign Language

CHAPTER I—-INTRODUCTION

1.1 Statement of the problem and rationale for the study

1.1.1 Stateinenf oƒ te problem

In the age of globalization, intercultural communication has been ¡ncreasingly focused and developed Among several major foreign languages that are widely accepted all over the world, it is a fact that English Language 1s regarded as the most common one In the educatilon program of Asian countries Including Vietnam, English teaching has been also attached great Importance and become the mandatory foreign language in schools” curriculum As a result, English Language becomes a primary major and 1s formally trained in most universifties and colleges in Vietnam Accordingly, English Language major tends to appeal to a vast array of Vietnamese high school students rather than other foreign languages in Vietnam According to official statisties in 2017 of Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam, the maJor

of English Language ranked the fourth as 24.251 candidates registered as the first major for the university admission It also accounted for the highest proportion of candidates applying for the foreign languages and culture maJors (57%) (Van, 2017) When it comes to learning a language, there are four basic language skills including listening, reading, speaking and writing in foreign language education and training (Bašceci & Yasar, 2007; Barin, 1997, as cited in Darancik, 2018) For successful and effecftive educaflon and training ¡in foreign language courses, these four basic language skills need to be developed and reinforced in accordance with the level and

needs of the learners (Darancik, 2018) However, “in order to Improve these four

skills, vocabulary 1s an essential building block of language and as such it makes sense to be able to measure learners° knowledge of 1t” (Schmitt, Sehmitt & Clapham,

2001, p.ŠŠ) Therefore, vocabulary has a crucial role to play 1n learning and teaching

OÊ a foreign language as 1t enables learners to get access to all forms of verbal and

wWriftten communication of the word (Moeller, Ketsman & Masmaliyeva, 2009) For

example, in reading and listening skills, first and foremost, studenfs need to identifv

key words of a passage or a speech In wrifing and speaking skills, learners need to cover a wide range of vocabulary in order to be able to express their ideas to readers and listeners clearly and effortlessly

Becoming an English maJor refers to specializing in English Language which requires learners to work on a huge repository ofvocabulary That 1s the reason why acquiring vocabulary and building a large vocabulary repository are leading concerns for English maJors A quesftion given here ¡is how English — major studenfs can acquire vocabulary in an easy way and build a huge language knowledge for themselves In classroom context, English lecturers have been trying to adopt some applicable vocabulay teachng methods namely Situaional XLanguage Teaching, Communicative Approach and Direct Method (Mareva & Nyota, 2012) There have been many researchers studying on language teaching methods mainly focusing on Iimproving four language skills (Demirezen, 2011; Du, 2017; Batool, N., Anosh, Batool, A & Iqbal, 2015) However, the underlying focal point for English majors to hone English language skills lies in vocabulary

1.1.2 RafIondle ƒor the sttdy

First of all, 1t is necessary to take an overall look at current situation of English teaching methods In some Asian countries In Japan, although many innovaftive plans and actions have been designed and launched to stimulate speaking skills, learning

by grammar and translation 1n a teacher-focused way continues to be driven by the

contenfs of textbooks, exam pressure and teaching methods (Goto Butler, 2015) In

Thailand, even though teachers expect studenfts to learn through communication and engage them ¡n the learning process, in the end they need to spend time giving 1n- depth instructions on grammar and reading comprehension The reason 1s that these areas are attached great importance In the National University Entrance Examination

In Vietnam, English teaching methods in classes seems to be quite similar with those features mentioned above Prior to the university admission, students tend to getf accustomed to the traditional English teaching education in secondary and high schools in which the assessment of teaching effectiveness only focuses on reading comprehension and grammar, especially in grade-level exams Therefore, the whole

education system has not yet invested effectively in teaching practfical language skills such as listening and speaking (Chon, 2018) In ESP (English for Specific Purposes) courses in higher educafion now, most mafterials are designed to develop skIlls in listening, speaking reading, writing and translation (Hoa & Mai, 2016) Vocabulary teaching for English — specialized universify students have not been emphasized and formally taught in teaching curriculum Thịs 1s partly because English teachers might hold an assumption that students are able to entirely take control of their own vocabulary acquisition as English majors Consequently, the concept of Vocabulary Learning Strategy (VLS) still remains new to many English - major studenfs Meanwhile, as mentioned above, they have to absorb a huge resource of English terminologies and Jargons in order to Increase their employability ín their field in the

fufure

Given some feafuring reasons mentioned above, If 1s essenfial for the researcher to do

a study on “Vocabulary Learning Strategies for English — maJjor students at Banking Academy of Vietnam”

1.2 Aims and objecfives

The main purpose of the current research 1s to provide important Insights into VLSs application of English- major studentfs at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Banking Academy Therefore, an invesfigafion 1s carried out to shed a light on:

(1) Perceptions of English-major studenfs In the Faculty of Foreign Language

1.3 Siønificance of the study

Thịs study has undertaken to find out the impact and Iimportance of VLSs for learning English as a major In universitles and colleges, in particular Banking Academy of

Vietnam Thus, the researcher hopes to make contributions to learning vocabulary for practicability and productivity Therefore, the researcher 1s convinced that not only studenfs but also English lecturers can derive benefits from this study:

- For students, apparently, they can have a reliable source If they search for vocabulary learning strategies that can be relevant to their current maJjor fo some extent Thus, 1t is possible for them to enhance the producfivify of vocabulary acqulsiion by themselves and thus be more confident and proficient ín four language skIlls

- - With regard to English teachers/lecturers, the study would help them to acknowledge how Important the VLSs are and how effectively English-maJor studentfs are doing 1n vocabulary learning Furthermore, it would help teachers

to formally take the integration of VLSs in the teaching program into account

or discover some other proper and useful vocabulary teaching methods that are appropriate to the current level and capacity of English majors In the Faculty of Foreign Language

1.4 Scope of the study

The research mainly focuses on providing comprehensive insighfs into VLSs Besides, this study also works on how English maJors ofthe Faculty of Foreign Languages of Banking Academy of Vietnam perceive VLSs and how they have been applying vocabulary acquisition strategles while studying Therefore, the main participanfs expected to involve in the study are current English-major students of all academic vears of Banking Academy of Vietnam

1.5 Research Structure

The research ¡s divided into six chapters as follows:

Chapter I — Introduction generally states the problem and rationale for the study and provided aims and obJectives, significance and scope of the study

Chapter II — Literature Review presents the background information of the study, including definitions, significance and classification of vocabulary and vocabulary Reviews of previous studies are also included ¡n this chapter

Chapter III - Methodology describes locale of the study, sample and Iinstruments

of the study, as well as the procedure to collect and analyze data

Chapter IV — Findings Presentation and Discuss analyzes and discusses the findings according to three research questions

Chapter V — Summary of findings, Implicafons and Recommendation summar1zes all the Íindings ¡in the study, gives some Implicatons and

recommendations for further research

Chapter VI — Conclusion concludes the main 1ssues discussed in the paper

CHAPTER II— LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Vocabulary

2.1.1 Vocabulary and leXis

When it comes to vocabulary and lexis, there might be some confulsions and uncertainty to differentiate these two terms among English learners Regarding vocabulary, most people, when being asked to give their understanding would claim that it is all words of a language that we need to learn by heart in order to facilitate communicafion, reading comprehension and writing A similar understanding 1s also defined on Online Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary and Cambridge Dictionary, stating that vocabulary ¡s all the words known and used by a particular person However, vocabulary 1s much more than Just single words (Seashore, R.H, 2014) As

Caro, K and Rosado, N (2017) summarized ideas of other researchers in the study

named Lexis, Lexical Competence and Lexical Knowledge: A Review, they have taken notice of the multidimensionality and complicaton of word knowledge, suggesfing that knowing a word completely should inelude various kinds of linguistic knowledge ranging from pronunciation, spelling, and morphology to knowledge of the word's syntactic and semantic relationships with other words ¡n the language, involving knowledge of antonym, synonymy, hyponym and collocational meanings

In many recent vocabulary-related research and journals, the term lexis has been widely used as an alternative to the term vocabulary It was explained by Barcroft,

Sunderman and Schmift (201 1) that the term lexis, from the anclent Greek for “word",

refers to all the words ¡in a language, the entire vocabulary of a language This definition 1s similarly provided by Online Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary

Nevertheless, from a more scholarly perspective, Van (2013) shared his lexis

understanding ¡illustrated ¡in the figure below to show the growing levels of complexity from word to lexis

~slngle words

Figure 1: Diference benveen vocabulary and lexis by Van (2013)

In this study, the term lexis and vocabulary are used interchangeably without any

differentiation between these two terms In order not to make all the statements,

findings and conclusion confusing and ambiguous

2.1.2 The „0< uporfance oƒvocabulary and leYical coIinpefece:

Vocabulary 1s of paramount Importance regarding learning a foreign language Ït cannot be denied that vocabulary 1s such an element as links the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing all together (Zarrin & Khan, 2014) This 1s to say a lack of vocabulary knowledge would result in difficulties and challenges ¡n the foreign language acquisition As stated by Alqahtani (2015), “vocabulary knowledge 1s offen viewed as a critical tool for foreign language learners because a limited vocabulary in a foreign language Impedes successful communication” (p.2) It was

even sfated in the research of Caro and Rosado (2017) that limited lexical knowledge

can lead EFL learners to frustration and demoftivation Vocabulary proves 1fs prImacy

in foreign language learning when many scholars and researchers have been Invesfigating 1t in recent years To be more specific, Richards and Renandya (2002)

and Aslan (2016, as cited ¡in Došan, 2014) stated the following “Vocabulary

knowledge is at the heart of language competency, and 1t forms the base for learners'” speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills Lewis (1993) concurred, “lexis 1s the core or heart of language” (p 89) From the Wilkins”s perspective (1972),

“*“There 1s not much value in being able to produce grammatical sentences 1ƒ one has not got the vocabulary that is needed to convey what one wishes to say While

7

without grammar very lifle can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”" (pp.I 10-111)”

In Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition and Pedagogy, Norbert Schmitt and Michael McCarthy shared an ¡nteresting perception of Nation (1993a), “Vocabulary knowledge enables language use, language use enables the Increase of vocabulary knowledge, knowledge of the world enables the increase of vocabulary knowledge and language use and so on” In a nutshell, lexical resource has a pivofal role to pÏay for language learners In particular, when they are trying to lay a solid foundation of great oral and wriften expression and reading comprehension, 1t 1s vifal for them to pAy attention to vocabulary acquisiftion and expansion

With regard to lexical competence, to understand this term well, first of all, the researcher intends to define each word separately as the understanding of the word lexical is already well-analyzed earlier Competence, as defined on Online Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, 1s the ability to do something well Thus, when these two words are put together, it can be sinply interpreted as “the knowledge of and ability to use the vocabulary of a language” (p.L10) provided by The Council of

Europe (2001) Marconi (1997) also shared a more specific conception of lexical

competence as “part of semantic competence, the knowledge and abilities that underlie a speaker's understanding of a language” (p 77) The question 1s how to measure the level of lexical competence of a foreign language learner This can be considered based on two dimensions which are breadth of vocabulary and depth of vocabulary Breadth of vocabulary knowledge 1s simply understood as vocabulary

Size, 1.e., the quantity ofwords that a learner at a certain level knows (Nation, 2001);

whereas depth ofvocabulary knowledge refers to the qualitative aspect of knowing a word, 1.e., what does knowing a word mean? According to Nation (2001), the concept

of knowing a word can be defined in various ways, but he emphasized on three aspects which are form, meaning, and use For form, meaning, and use, Nation (2001) asserted both receptive and productive dimensions are worth considering, so there are cerfain components 1n each aspect that are summarized ¡n the Table I below In this

regard, to assess the lexical competency of a foreign language learner, it should be assessed on both dimensions, on quantitative and qualitative aspecfs

Spoken What does the word How I¡s the word

Word parts What does the word How Is the word

look like? wriften and spelled?

recognizable In this needed to express the

Form and What meaning does What word form can meaning this word form be used to eXpress

and referents What ¡s ineluded in What Items can the Associations this concept? concept refer to?

What other words What other words

think of2 Grammatical In what patterns In what pafterns must

Collocations the word occur? What words or types Constrainfs What words or of words must people

On use types of words use with this one?

Where, when, and use this word?

1able 1: The concept oƒknowing a wordl by Nation (2001, p 27)

2.1.3 ClassjfIcafion oƒ` Wocabulary

There are several criteria to classify words, for example phonological properties (e.g monosyllabic vs polysyllabic words), social factors (e.g., general vs technical

vocabulary) and language history (e.g., loanwords vs nafive words) (International

Encyclopedia of the Soclal & Behavioral Sciences, 2001) Traditionally, words classification refers to classification of part of speech which 1s categorized into two main groups Including Open class and Closed-system class (Manh, 2013) The former øroup Includes noun, verb, adjective, adverb; while the latter group includes pronoun, article, preposition, conjunction, demonstrative and ¡nterjection This way of classification was applied by Neil Smelser and Paul Baltes as well in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences first published in 2001; however, the authors named two groups “Confent words” and “Function words” In addition, I.S.P Nation (2001) clearly stated that vocabulary can be distinguished into four kinds: high-frequency words, academic words, technical words and low-frequency words

As the scope of the study mainly focuses on English — maJor studenfs, in particular

in the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Banking Academy of Vietnam, the researcher

1s more likely to be In favor of the vocabulary classification of I.S.P Nation (2001)

By classifying words ín this way, 1t will facilitate English majors to build a better vocabulary learning strategy which will be further analyzed in the following chapters

in the study

2.2 Vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs)

As analyzed above, the Importance of vocabulary in foreign language learning 1s undeniable The big problem 1s how foreign language learners can manage to learn vocabulary productively and effectively as learners need to know the 3000 or so high frequency words of the language, not to mention a wide range oftechnical and low-

Írequency words, especially for English-specialized students (Schmitt, 1997) Although the majority of foreign language learners are aware of the significance of vocabulary acquisition, many ofthem stay unfamiliar ofinattentive to VLSs Sokmen (1997) stated that there 1s no possibility that students can acquire all new words ¡in the classroom Therefore, he advocated English learners learning vocabulary independently outside the classroom seffing

2.2.1 Defiinfion oƒwocabulary learning sfrafegy

Vocabulary learning sfrategles can be considered as a branch of language learning strategles There have been many researchers studying and giving comprehensive definition oŸ VLSs since vocabulary learning was Increasingly paid attention to in the 1970s Among them, the definition given by Oxford has been most offen cited in several research According to Oxford (1990), language learning sftrategles are particular activities adopted by learners to make learning easier, Íaster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations Basically, VLSs are a collection of approaches and methods consciously and deliberately applied by language learners on their own to strengthen and expand their vocabulary knowledge Thus, VLSs application implies an active and responsible learning in which students take more control of their own vocabulary acquisition

(Goundar, 2015) There are two aspects of VLSs that need to be taken into account

The obJective ofusing VLSs 1s to facilitate vocabulary learning process and the nafure o£using VLSs 1s learners” behaviors and actions, not merely their thoughts

2.2.2 hnportance 0ƒocabulary learning sírafegy

As sfated in the previous section, vocabulary acquisifion in foreign language learning can be facilitated considerably by VLSs The daunting and demanding challenge of acquiring vocabulary can become a lot easier, faster, much more interesting and productive 1f appropriate VLSs are adopted by English learners Many researchers have shared the same views on the importance of VLSs though If 1s inferprefed in diferent ways; for example, learners who use appropriate language learning strategies yielded greater proficiency and self-confidence (Oxford, 1990) In addition

to the role ofa facilitator, VLSs also helps encourage an Independent learning aftitude

among language learners, as stated by IIHés (2012); vocabulary-learning strategles are Iimportant because they are steps for self-directed learning which ¡1s necessary for developing learner In Nationˆs words (2001), vocabulary learning strategles make learners enable to take more responsIbility for their own learning He assumed that a wide varlety of VLSs can be useful at all steps of vocabulary acquisition and be a powerful tool to expand vocabulary repertoire He also emphasizes that foreign language learners can control their own vocabulary learning without presence of a teacher with the assistance of proper selective strategles

It is a fact that in English classes; when teaching vocabulary, teachers tend to only introduce news words accompanying the meanings and then instructf studenfs to read out loud those words repeatedly This teaching method aims to help students memorize the pronunciation, spelling and meaning of the words However, it only proves to be effective 1n case there ¡is a small number of new words needed to memor1ze In a class In the opposite case, students will have to desperately strugsle

to memorize such new words within limifed time Thịs problem prompts the necessity o£ implementing VLSs teaching ¡n classes for student Oxford and Scarcella (1994) are also 1n favor of introducing systemafic vocabulary guideline to enable learners to make use ofspecific strategles to learn vocabulary even outside the classroom context 2.2.3 Classjficafion oƒocaDulary learHing sfrdfegies

Scholars have made a lot ofattempts to give the taxonomy of VLSs As a result, since the conception of VLSs was widely paid attention to, there have been varIous ways

OÊ classification from many scholars (Rubin, 1981; Cohen, A.D & Aphek, E.,19§1;

O“Malley & Chamot, 1986,1990; GỮ & Johnson,1996; Lawson & Hogben,1996; Oxford, I9§9; Schmitt, 1997, 2000; Nation, 2001)

Based on the relationship between learning strategies and the target language learning, Oxford offered a taxonomy of VLSs info direct strategies and indirect strategles In direcf strategles øroup, If Involves memory sfrafegles, cognifive sfraftegies and compensation strategies, while indirecf strategles øroup “provide indirect support for language learning through focusing, planning, evaluating, seeking opportunifies,

controlling anxiefy, increasing cooperation and empathy and other means” (Oxford, 1989)

Cohen and Aphek (1981) and O“Malley and Chamot seemed to share the same

viewpoint on how to classify VLSs They all based their categorization on the level

Or Sort Of information-processing model of learning In this regard, they categorized VLSs into three øgroups Including metacognitive sfrategles, cognitive sfrategies and social/affective strategles Specifically, while metacognitive strategles Iindicate the management process in vocabulary learning of learners ¡including planning, monmiforing, analyzing, evaluating the success ofa learning activity (Yongwel Nie &

LI Zhou, 2017), cognifive strategles refer to the menfal processes they use to acqulre,

sort, remember, and use information (Zhihong Bai, 2018) Regarding the last two

groups, O“Malley and Chamot were likely to give more detailed explanations for each group Social strategles consisf of interaction and cooperation with other people in the vocabulary acquisition process In affective sfrategles group, learners are expected to restrain negative feelings and thoughtfs In order to keep moving forward

in vocabulary acquisition process Some exemplary actions can be self-talk and self-

motftivafion

Schmrft (1997) introduced a long list of fiffy-eight strategies; then in the year 2000,

in his published book “Vocabulary in Language Teaching”, he organized such unwieldy list into two divisions Firstly, he categorized into two main classes (1) strategies helpful for the initial discovery ofa new word and (2) strategies helpful for

consolidating a word onee ¡t has been encountered Then, each class was further sub-

divided ¡into smaller groups which can be ¡illustrated in the figure below Thịs classifiication was adopted ¡n the study of many researchers such as Kudo (1999),

Derẽcẽ (2019), Zarrin and Khan (2014)

EFigure 2: Classifleation oƒ`VLSs devised by Sehmitt (1997)

Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLSs)

m—

ị | | ị |

(MET)

Ask classmates for meaning

15

- _ Connecf Words to a previous - _ Image word”s meaning personal experience - _ Use Keyword Method

- _ Associate the word with is - _ Group words together to study them coordinates -_ Study the spelling ofa word

- _ Connect the word to is -_ Say new word aloud when studyIng synonyms and antonyms -_ Use physical action when learning a

- Image word form

- _ Verbal repetition

- _ Written repetition

- Word lists - Put English labels on physical objects -_ Keep a vocabulary notebook

-_ Use English — language media (songs, movies, efc.) -_ Use spaced word practice (expanding rehearsal)

- _ Test oneself with word tesfs

- _ SKIp Or pass new word -_ Confinue fo study word over time

Last but not least, other two taxonomies of VLSs devised by Intaraprasert (2004) and Karadaš (2013) have been commonly introduced in many studies

Intaraprasert (2004) made a categorization of VLSs for foreign language learners into 3 main categorles:

- _ Category l: Strateglies to Discover the Meaning ofNew Vocabulary Items (DMV)

- - Category 2: Strategles to Retain the Knowledge ofNewly-learned Vocabulary ltems

(RKV)

- _ Caftegory 3: Strategies to Expand the Knowledge of Vocabulary Items (RKV)

Karadaš (2013) also shared the quite similar way of VLSs classifying as Intaraprasert,

in which there were three main groups and different subgroups as follows:

(1) The strategles applied to discover the meaning ofa new word by a considering the contextual meaning of the word, b looking for the word in another statement, sentence and text, c making use of morphology awareness, d øguessing, e using dictionary (2) The strategies applied to memorize the meaning ofa word and to expand vocabulary

by a producing confext, b intertextual reading, c creating a vocabulary

notebook/glossary, d drawing up a concept map

(3) The strategles to be used to refrieve a new word or a concept by a acquiring language awareness, b being open to communicafion, c forming listening and reading habits However, in my research, in addition to base on the classifications ofIntaraprasert (2004) and Karadaš (2013), the researcher proposes to make a few slight modifications so that 1t can be aligned with the aims and scope of the study The modified classification the researcher expects to propose 1s based on each step of learning an unknown word that language studenfs are recommended to take

(1) Discover the word

(2) Learning the word

(3) Revise to retain the word

(4) Expand the lexical item

2.3 Previous research on Vocabulary Learning Strategies

There have been many researchers in many parts ofthe world exerting themselves fo work on the field of VLSs in foreign language learning The principal aim of this item 1S to provide some helpful information and findings from some recent oufstanding

relevant studies

Firstly, a study of VLSs among undergraduate learners of Aligarh Muslim University

(A.M.U), Aligarh, India was conducted by Zarrin and Khan (2014) The study also atimed

at college studenfs and worked on problems encountered by learners in language learning because of a shortage of vocabulary knowledge The study then also analyzed common VLSs proposed by some famous language scholars The authors applied the 2L out of4I Items Likert-scale VLSs questionnaire of Sehmitt and collect data from 46 undergraduate learners at A.M.U The questionnaire was divided into two categories for a more logical question classification, which consisfs of(I) when you find a new English word, you (2) When you want to remember new words and build your vocabulary, you The authors employed the SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sclence) to analyze what they had found out Their findings revealed that A.M.U studenfs used VLSs at an average level and the strategy applied the most among them ¡s the Memory strategy Another finding that was shown In their research was the correlation between various VLSs It was shown that memory strategy was considerably and positvely correlated with determinafion strategy, cognifive strategy, and meftacognifive strategy This meant respondents applied memory strategy as much as such other strategles Besides, 1t was indicated that once a respondent employed cognitive strategy, he or she would use determination strategy at the same time and vice versa The authors also offered some Iimplications and recommendations to both students and teachers in learning and teaching VLSs respectively For students, by participating in the survey, they could have an idea o£ which sfrategles out of 21 sfrategies listed in the questlonnaire they were using and

thus they were encouraged to give some sfrategies that were unknown to them a shot Furthermore, teachers were suggested to provide students with proper Instructions on using VLSs so that they could learn vocabulary effectively and self-reliantly From the perspective of the researcher, the mere limifation of this study 1s the limited number oŸ survey participanfs, which 1s also realized and claimed by the authors

Simlilarly, Zhihong Bai (2018) from China made a seven-page analysis of English Vocabulary Learning Strategles She went through her analysis logically by doing a survey to detect difficulties and problems studenfs face when learning vocabulary in the fñirst place, and then stating influencing factors of vocabulary learning and fñnally shedding light on certain VLSs She used a questionnaire survey of VLSs and 1t was specifically targeted at the non-English major sophomores 1n a universifty by using the quantitative empirical methodology In the first place, she pointed out some particular factors affecting the use of VLSs This included individual factors such as attitudes,

behaviors, emotions and so on The other basic factors were age, gender, learning

motfivation, personality and external environment According to the results of her study, most VLSs users leaned towards the cognitive sfrategy and then the mef-cognifive stratesy In the Cognitive Strategles group, dictionary use strategy was highest frequently used Most of the subJects offen consulted dictionary In the meanwhile, the social/affective strategies were the least favored She emphasized in her research that vocabulary acqulsifion 1s a conftinuous process that should be Implemented in the long run and appropriate vocabulary learning strategies can afford learners the chance to learn vocabulary in a more productive and ¡independent way without teachers” company Besides, it ¡s helpful to use English vocabulary learning strategies but not all strategies

can fit each learner

Another study that should be mentioned was carrled out in 2019 by Goundar, which aimed to find out the application o£ VLSs among adult English learners and studied on diferent VLSs and then analyzed the advantages and disadvantages in regard to each strategy The research of Gounda (2019) also mentioned the correlation between the

concept of good and poor learners and the pracfice of vocabulary learning strategles He collected the data of 53 EFL students in which nearly half of them attended the class for beginners or business class at Projects Abroad (Nadi) Flji and the rest of them already finished the English course at the Institute The responses were described In sftafistics tabulated format based on the 3-point Likert scale to investigate how frequently certain VLSs were employed by the respondenfs Particular beliefs about vocabulary learning

of the respondents were revealed in his research For example, 89% of the survey participants agreed that reception was the best way to remember words (Gounda, 2019), 91% of students admitted that their vocabulary knowledge could be broadened considerably through reading or 89% of the respondentfs claimed that they put the words they learnt into practice Apart from the beliefs about vocabulary learning, the research also found out opinions ofthe participants on certain VLSs For instance, in the category

OÊ guessing strategies, the maJority of the student claimed that guessing a new word based on their experience and common sense was their priority (96%) In memory strategles group, there were two methods frequently adopted by most students, which were repeating it aloud (77%) and visualizing the word (62%) An interesting finding was that only 4% of the survey participanfs acquired new words from their teachers in the classroom Finally, he concluded that choosing the most effective VLS seemed to be Impossible; ¡instead, students were recommended to ¡ntegrate different vocabulary acqurring strategies In a flexible way This would consequently assist them in the process

of vocabulary acquisition

A remarkable study invesfigating on the use of VLSs in learning Turkish as a foreign language should be brought to discuss ¡in this item Göcen (2020) employed the questionnaire survey and delivered ¡ft to students learning Turkish as a foreign language

at different levels including AI, A2, BI, B2, and CI In addition to the frequency of using VLSs among TL learners, this research also clarified the correlation between the level ofusing VLSs and the gender, language level, region, ancestry, and nafive language o£ TEL learners Regarding the Iinstrument of data collection, he applied the scale called

“Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning Strategy Scale (FLVLSS)” created by Kocaman and Cumaošlu (2014) As being shown ¡n the result of his research, TFL learners applied VLSs at a medium level and among all VLSs used, they were the mosf

In favor of affective sfrategles and memory strategles and the least in favor of compensafion strategies and cognifive strategles In the memory sfrategles øroup, the stratesy of repeat new words many times ranked the first according to its mean value Furthermore, the frequency of using VLSs was Inversely proportional to the language competence of TFL learners and the language competence was also direcfly proportional

to the number of VLSs used Thịs indicated that learners at AI level tended to apply the

least VLSs but at the highest level and on the other hand, learners at C1 level were VLSS

users with the lowest frequency and the bigger number of VLSs It was also revealed in the conclusions that VLSs were used by learners of Turkic and foreign ancestry at equally average level When it came to their native language, gender, region, no statistically significant difference was made mong the VLSs used by TFL learners and these factors Göcen also recommended that making learners well-informed about VLSs should be paid attention to by foreign language teachers

In Vietnam, many researchers have been attempted to conduct a number studies on foreign language learning for the past decade; however, most of the studies primarlly focus on Language Learning Strategies (LLSs) in general, not on Vocabulary Learning Strategles (VLSS) In particular (Viet, 2016; Giang & Tuan, 2018; Thao & Long, 2020) These studies all target English non - English majors in tertiary education In 2019, Duy

& Nhung carried out a research to assess the vocabulary knowledge of Vietnamese EFL learners to examine whether they met the requirement in vocabulary knowledge, but their study?s focus was on high school students Recently, Binh and Huyen (2020) has studied

on methods to help university studenfs learn new words better at private English centers 1n Hanol, Vietnam The main aim ofthetr study was to find out what Vietnamese teachers o£ English can do to help university studenfs learn new words better at private English centers in Hanoi, Vietnam (Binh & Huyen, 2020) Following this aim, their study

focused to explore how studenfs learned vocabulary by themselves and also how they perceived the teaching ofvocabulary in the class seftings and finally offered suggestions for vocabulary teaching Regarding the methodology ofthis research, the two researchers designed an online questionnaire and sought the participation on Facebook, which 1s known to be the most common social media platform among the young The types of survey questions they employed were mainly multiple - choice quesfions and open-ended questions The target participants of their research were university students, in particular who were learning English in a private English center An importanft note was that before delivering the questionnaire to participants, the authors decided to implement a pilot phase in advance by sending the questionnaire to a manager of a private English center

in Hanoi in search of his comments and feedbacks After all, the researchers chose 100 Initial responses to start analyzing the results About half of the questionnatre participants were at Intermediate level and I§%% of participants could not determine which level they were at now and mosft ofthem were currently Jjoining courses to be well- prepared for International English proficieney tests such as IELTS, TOEEL and TOEIC

A concerning finding from their survey was the average number ofnew words that more than half of respondents (Š6%) learned on a daily basis, which only stood at five words, meanwhile, 63% respondents reported that they did have a vocabulary notebook With regard to the utilization of the vocabulary notebook, interestingly, survey participants were applying a word or topic web note-taking method “*where connecfions in meaning

or use between different words are visually indicated in the structure of the diagram” (Scrivener, 201 I, p.201) more usually than the traditional method of creating a word list (30% vs 27%) Another interesting finding from the survey was related to the students” choice of dictionarles The paper dictionaries were still the most preferable type (75 out 6£ 115 choices) when digiftal dictionaries had increasingly gained the popularity The rest

OÊ quesftionnaire was relevant to the vocabulary teaching in classes It was Indicated that

most teachers tended to present 5-0 words in each lesson, which was considered to be

appropriate by haÏlf of respondents In terms of the most effecftive means to introduce new words fo students, more than half of participants agreed that pictures and examples

were their first choice From the survey, the authors concluded that it was Imperative for university English learners to practice self-regulation in learning by using dictionarles and vocabulary notebooks, which could be introduced and ¡incentivized ¡ín English classes by teachers

It is noticeable that there are two considerable limifations of such studies They are limited respondents which might have an effect on generalizing the conclusion and a lengthy questionnaire which might hinder respondenfs to do the survey carefully and SerIOUSÌy

As mentioned above, In the past decade, many studies have been implemenfed on foreign language learning However, there have not been many studies working on VLSs so far

in Vietnam, in particular among English-maJjor undergraduates It is therefore Imperative for the researcher to embark on studying on this topic, hoping that the study could

become a reference material for other scholars affterwards

(2) Are there any correlations between the year of study and the amounf oftime spent

on learning vocabulary, and between the year of study and the retenftion rate of newly-learned words among English-maJor students?

(3) Which vocabulary learning strategies do students ¡n the Faculty of Foreign Languages are applying? How offten do they apply such vocabulary learning strategles 1n their daily learning?

CHAPTEE LII —- METHODOLOGY

This chapter aims to elaborate on the research methodology before getting down to the findings It is designed to work on the locale of the study and the applied methodological approach comprising ofresearch sample, research instrument, data collection procedure and data analysis procedure

3.1 Locale of the study

In the era of global integration and interconnecfivity, English has become a common language of the world As in Rao”s words (2019)

“English, being the first world language, 1s said to be the first global lingua franca and 1† is the most widely used language ¡n the world in International trade, diplomacy, mass enterfainment, International telecommunicafions and scientific publications as welÏ as publishing newspapers and other books” (p.66)

In this regard, most universifies and colleges in Vietnam has implemented the English Language training as a major to embrace the growing development of the global language The major of English Language specializes In the study of languages, English application, history, culture and people of English-speaking countrles In addition, English-maJor studenfs are also equipped with additional knowledge in other fields such

as economics, banking and finance, hotel restauranfs, import and export, International

relations, etc to meet requirementfs 1n the International trade Integration It ¡s a fact that many universifies and colleges tend to provide English Language training 1n the form of English for Specific Purpose (ESP) According to Galina (2016), ESP refers to the teaching and learning of English where the aim of the learners ¡1s to use English in a particular academic, professional or occupational domain, focusing on learners” special needs This study 1s carried out to target English-maJor studenfs in the Faculty ofEForeign Languages of Banking Academy of Vietnam, in which they are required to specialize in English for banking and finance Accordingly, English majors have an opportunify to learn extensively not only in English but also in banking and finance sectors To be more

specific, studenfs 1n the Faculty of Foreign Languages are equipped with the intensive English training on practical skills such as listening, speaking, reading, writing, and theoretical modules namely grammar, semantics, phonetics and ¡ntercultural communIcation In addition, they are also trained financial and banking skills in English

in parallel with English skiIlls training On the one hand, students can derIve enormous benefits from this form oftraining: on the other hand, 1t seems to be conducive to a heavy burden on students Therefore, this study 1s conducted to invesfigate on the percepfions o£ English — major studenfs at Banking Academy on applying VLSs and their use and frequency ofuse of VLSs, thus to recommend some practicable strategies to them

3.2 Research desiøn

In this study, the survey quantiftative research ¡s deployed According to Aliaga and Gunderson (2002), quantatve research ¡1s explaining phenomena by collecting numerical data that are analyzed using mathematically based methods in particular sfatistics Survey research 1s fairly flexible and convenient as the researcher can collecf data of respondents In a natural way using a standard questionnaire to a sample to describe their attitudes, opinions, behaviors, expereinces or other characteristics of the population (Creswell, 2005) When carrying out a quantitative research, researchers seek

to describe current situations, esstablish relatlonships between variables (Mertler, 2016)

The principal goal of the researycher when applying this research method 1s to remain the obJectivity but still able to become Immersed in the research context and among the research participants According to many scholars and researchers, 1t 1s possible to reach

a higher population of the study and then lead to a better generalization Furthermore, 1f 1S also easy fo guarantee respondenfs” anonymity, especially with pencil-and-paper, Internet and telephone questionnaires, which may lead to more candid answers than less anonymous methods like interviews (Muijs, 2004)

3.3 Participants

The survey was delivered to studenfs of the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Banking Academy regardless of their year of study, gender and language proficieney In order to ensure the better generalization and reliablity of the study, the quesfionnaire was evenly

distributed to students of the first, second, third and final year, which means there were

approximafely 50 — 60 survey participants of each academic year They were all randomly selected to ensure the obJectivity of the study As female studenfs consftituted the overwhelming majority ofthe total English — maJor students in the Faculty ofForeign Languages, the gender of participanfs was not included in the survey

Academic year The number of participants

social media platforms, the online form 1s much more convenient for the researcher as a mass delivery of the questionnaire could be implemented effectively This enables the researcher to gain larger amount of survey data quickly at a low cost compared to more traditional survey methods Besides, the researcher can leverage the data analysIs figures available on digital survey platforms Nevertheless, there are obviously some potenftial disadvantages of online surveys that can exert a negative effect on the study It 1s noficeable that it is almost impossible for the researcher to verbally Instruct survey respondents during the research process, which can affect the participanfs° understanding

Of the quesftions and statements given in the survey As stated by Crump, MeDonnell, &

Gureckis (2013), this communication becomes much more difficult online, where the

researchers and participanfs never meet In addition, when doing Internet-based surveys, 1f 1s proven that participants are less likely to stay fully engaged for a survey of more

than 8-10 minutes than with other research methods

The researcher also tookK into such drawbacks In account and tried to minimize them by deploying additional pencil-and-paper form of survey For participants of the first, second and third year, it seems to be harder for the researcher to reach as many ofthem

as possible on online platforms due to the limited network Therefore, the researcher made a decision to deliver the survey to these studenfs in person with the facilitation of some lecfurers in the Faculty of Foreign Languages This can be beneficial not only for

a larger volume ofresponses but also for the honesf answer 1n response to the quesfions

As 1t was asserted by Dommeyer, Baum, Chapman, and Hanna (2002), students and teachers often believe that paper surveys are much more anonymous than online surveys, which lends ifself to the belief that respondents may be more honest on paper questionnaires For the senior students, the survey was distributed on social media platforms as at the time of conducting the survey, ¡it seemed to be impossible to mass- collect their responses 1n person due to their Internship schedule

The questionnaire was comprised of four main sections The first section included six background questions revolving around the amount of time spent on learning English

and current capacity of English — major students in learning new words and refaining them Specifically, this section was designed to gain some ¡n-depth insights into the amount of time spent by participants on vocabulary learning, the average number of words they can memorize each time they learn vocabulary and the corresponding retenfion rate of memorized words after one week While three ouf of six questions were

in multiple choice, the other half were open-ended questions Three multiple choice quesfions related to the year of studying, the number of hours spent on learning English

on average a week and the percentage ofwords the respondenfs can recall affter one week The other open-ended questions were designed to find out the exact number of hours spent by the participanfs on learning only English vocabulary on a weekly basis, the maximnum of new words they can memorize every time they learn and the individual vocabulary learning methods they have applied

Regarding the second section, it constituted seven statements and focused on dealing with the perceptions of participanfs on vocabulary learning strategies The definition of VLSs was also introduced in this section so that participants can have a right Íirst understanding of VLSs before getting down to answering VLSs- related questions The 5-point Likert scale was deployed to assess to what extent respondenfs agree with the statements about vocabulary learning sftrategles The statements were scaled from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree (I=Strongly disagree, 2=Disagree, 3=Neutral,

4=Agree, 5= Strongly agree)

The focal point of the third section was to Investigate the use and frequency of use of VLSs among participanfs It was divided info three sub categorles corresponding to the proposed classificatlon of vocabulary learning strategy 1n section 2.2.3 that the researcher leaned towards Each sub category Including (1) discovering the word, (2) learning the word, (3) revising the word and (4) expanding the vocabulary was classified

in an orderly way for respondenfs to follow all three categorles easily and conceive the idea of how the vocabulary learning strategles are categorized It was also highlighted at the beginning of the third section that the researcher expected to know which strategies

participants have ever actually tried, not what they want to do so that participants can be cognizant of the Importance of øgiving candid repsonses This section was made up o£ 2§ statemenfs that were selected, modified, and well combined among a wide array of statemenfs invented by many scholars This meant to be be appropriate to the scope of the survey and the underlying Intenfion of the researcher in making the survey succincf but stil complete To assess the frequency of use of VLSs among participants, on the

scale of one to five (I=Never, 2=Seldom, 3=Sometimes, 4=Often, Š5=Usually,

6=Always), respondents were required to choose an opfion out oÊ six that ¡s the most close to their frequency of use In each statement Each option was specified by the respecfive percenftage in order not to confuse participanfs (Never - 0%, Seldom - 20%, Sometimes - 40%, Often - 60%, Usually - 80%, Always - 100%)

In the last section, four questions were designed in the form ofcheckbox questions which are similar to multiple-choice questions survey, which allowed fillers to select more than one option The fwo questions out of four were directly related to the practice of participants when they look up to a new word in dictionaries This 1s regarded to be a part of the first step to discover the word in the vocabulary learning process mentioned earlier The other questions confirmed whether survey respondents wanted to give the VLSs a try in the future, aiming to consolidate the significance of the study

3.5 Data collection procedure:

Although the survey was already designed and reviewed carefully by the researcher, If was recommended by the supervisor to pilot the questionnaire prior to officially distributing to English — major students ín order to anticipafe potential problems or concerns of survey fillers when they completed the survey In the pilot phase, the quesfionnaire was delivered to ten senior English- major students They were required

to fill in the questionnaire as seriously and conscientiously as possible to give the researcher objective feedbacks and comments on the questionnaire Some consfructive helpful comments were given to the researcher, specifically, some questions in the first section should be in multiple choice, Instead of 1n open-ended form as 1t could be hard

for participants to estimate a specific number to answer such questions Others claimed that some quesftions should be explained in a more comprehensible way by using simpler words All commenfs were taken into consideration and the researcher finally decided to alter the questionnaire by paraphrasing some quesfions to make them clearer, omitting unnecessary questions and changing some open-ended questions into multiple cholce ones such as quesfion number two and four

After the pilot phase was done, it came fo the second phase of the data collection procedure, which was distributing the survey fo target audience As mentioned above, for senior studenfs, it was delivered online but for students of other academic years, if was distributed in person

The survey was distributed in two weeks until the sufficient number oŸ responses were well received Prior to Importing the data to SPSS for analysis, the research had to refine all the collected responses This could be regarded as the step of data validation, which was followed by the step of data coding This step played a crucial role in dafa preparation It involved in assigning numerical values to variables in the questionnaire and importing the coded data to the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Sofftware version 20

3.6 Data analysis procedure:

After the data were collected and carefully refined, the analysis step was Implemented with the deployment ofthe Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20 The descriptive and ¡inferential analysis were applied to analyze the data Specifically, the descriptive analysis was adopted to find out the perceptions of survey parficipants on

VLSs and the strategles used at different levels; whereas by using ¡inferential statistics,

the difference between the year of studying and the amount oftime spent on vocabulary learning, and the year of studying and the retention rate of newly-learned can be clarified and generalized Before embarking on analyzing dafa to address the threes research quesfions, the researcher displayed the Cronbach”s alpha which 1s a measure of internal

consistency and a coefficient of reliability since it 1s especially commonly used in questionnaire with the multiple Likert scale Furthermore, the means and standard deviation were also calculated in order to analyze the ordinal data and measure the dispersion of a dataset relative to is mean (Hargrave, 2021) The frequency of applicaton of each strategy category was also illustrated by bar fÍigures for the Imagination in a more detailed and comprehensive way

For the group of background questions in section I and sub-quesfions in section 3 of the quesftionnaire, the data would be graphically displayed via bars and ple charts