The effects of semantic mapping on vocabulary retention of non english major first year students

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI UNIVERSITY HOÀNG NGỌC HƯƠNG THE EFFECTS OF SEMANTIC MAPPING ON VOCABULARY RETENTION OF NON ENGLISH MAJOR FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT HANOI COMMUNITY COLLEGE AN ACTI.

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI UNIVERSITY

-

THE EFFECTS OF SEMANTIC MAPPING ON VOCABULARY RETENTION

OF NON-ENGLISH MAJOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS

AT HANOI COMMUNITY COLLEGE:

AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER IN TESOL

SUPERVISOR: Dr ĐẶNG XUÂN THU

Hanoi, August, 2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS i

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iii

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v

ABSTRACT vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background to the study 1

1.2 Aim of the study 4

1.3 Research questions 4

1.4 The significance of the study 4

1.5 The organization of the study 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Vocabulary and its importance 6

2.1.1 Vocabulary 6

2.1.2 The importance of vocabulary 8

2.2 How to teach and learn vocabulary effectively? 8

2.3 Memorizing word meanings 10

2.3.1 Vocabulary retention 10

2.3.2 Short-term and long-term memory 10

2.3.3 Major factors affecting word memorization 11

2.3.4 Strategies to improve vocabulary retention 12

2.4 Techniques in vocabulary teaching 12

2.4.1 Traditional vocabulary teaching techniques 12

2.4.2 Semantic mapping technique 13

2.5 Relevant semantic mapping studies 18

2.6 Summary 21

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 22

3.1 Research methods 22

3.1.1 Definitions of action research 22

3.1.2 Action research procedure 23

3.2 Setting of the study 26

3.3 Participants 27

3.4 The course book “Lifelines- Pre-Intermediate” 29

3.5 Data collection instruments 29

3.5.1 VKS tests (pre-test and post-test) 30

3.5.2 Questionnaire 32

3.5.3 Interviews 35

3.6 Data collection procedure 36

3.7 Data analysis and procedure 37

3.8 Summary 38

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 39

4.1 Answers to the first research question 39

4.2 Answers to the second research question 46

4.3 Summary 61

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 62

5.1 Major contributions of the study 62

5.2 Implications of the study 64

5.3 Limitations of the study 65

5.4 Recommendations for further studies 66

5.5 Conclusions 67

REFERENCES 71

APPENDICES 75

Appendix 1: Questionnaire 75

Appendix 2: Suggested interview questions + selected quotes from the interviews 77

Appendix 3: Tests (pre-test and post-test) 79

Appendix 4: Example of a lesson plan using semantic mapping 85

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EGP: English for General Purposes

ESP: English for Specific Purposes

HCC: Hanoi Community College

VKS: Vocabulary Knowledge Scale

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure 2.1: The Structure of Semantic Maps 15

Figure 3.1: Action Research Cycle……….23

Table 4.1: Pretest and Post-test ……… 40

Table 4.1.1: Difference: word 8 & word 5 41

Table 4.1.2: Difference: from word 1 to word 22 42

Table 4.1.3: Difference: from word 16 to word 26……….……… 47

Table 4.1.4: Difference from word 17 to word 33……… ………… 43

Table 4.1.5: Difference: from word 28 to word 41………… ……… 44

Table 4.1.6: Difference: word 49……… 45

Table 4.2a: Valid percent with keywords: ……….……… 47

Table 4.2.1: keyword: enjoy……… 49

Table 4.2.2: keyword: use……….…… …… 50

Table 4.2.3: keyword: engaged ……… ……… 51

Table 4.2.4: keyword: remember and recall…… ……….…… 52

Table 4.2.5: keyword: remember longer……….…… … 53

Table 4.2.6: keyword: reasons ……… ….53

Table 4.2.7: keyword: compared with traditional methods………… ……… 54

Table 4.2.8: keyword: creative, effective……….…… …55

Table 4.2.9: keyword: further study ……….…….…….55

Table 4.2.10: keyword: suggestions……… ……… 56

Table 4.2b: Total % (agree + strongly agree)……… ……57

Second, I would like to send my thanks to all my colleagues who have helped me a lot

in creating good working conditions and sharing with me their experiences Especially, I would like to thank Ms Pham Kim Dung and Ms Nguyen Thu Huong who have provided me with constructive and insightful comments as well as suggestions for this thesis

My special thanks also go to the students of class K8-KT1 for their willingness to answer my questionnaire and semi-structured interviews Without their help, this study could not have been fulfilled

I owe a great debt of gratitude to my beloved family – my parents, my young sister’s family whose support and encouragement have always been a great deal of strength that has helped me to overcome all problems to complete this thesis

Finally, I would like to send my special thanks to my readers for their concern, interest, and constructive comments, if any

ABSTRACT

Like many other methodological innovations, semantic mapping method has been applied to English language curriculum in Vietnam to improve the vocabulary retention for Vietnamese students This thesis reports the results of an action research project regarding the effects of and students' attitudes towards the use of the semantic mapping method in relation to vocabulary retention The data were collected through a questionnaire, tests (pre-test and post-test) with 50 female students of one class intake at Hanoi Community College

Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with a smaller group of students The results provided empirical evidence to support the positive attitudes towards semantic mapping and this innovative technique is likely to improve the students’

vocabulary retention Practical implications for different stakeholders were also presented and followed by sensible recommendations for further studies In conclusion, semantic mapping turns out to be an effective technique of vocabulary teaching with extensive advantages for the students It is also suggested that other methods should be employed to accommodate different learning styles

Keywords: Vocabulary retention, teaching vocabulary, effects, semantic mapping,

students’ attitude, TESOL methodology, Vietnam

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

The objective of this chapter is to set the scene for the study, starting with the general background regarding the importance of English learning and teaching in Vietnam The aim and the research questions are presented right at the beginning to provide readers with an overall direction and specific steps towards the goal Furthermore, the significance of the study and the organization of the thesis are presented for easy navigation

1.1 Background to the study

English has already played an especially important role in the increasing development

of science, technology, and international relations, which has resulted in the growing needs for English language learning and teaching in many parts of the world English has become a compulsory subject in national education in many countries, among which Vietnam has considered learning and teaching English as a major strategic tool to develop human resources, as a way to keep up with other countries Therefore, at any level of education, from primary to tertiary or postgraduate levels, students are keen on learning English English is widely learned in Vietnam today and its popularity is increasing day by day This is due to the fact that Vietnam has recently adopted an open-door policy which broadens its relationship and cooperation with other countries

in various aspects such as diplomatic, economic, cultural, scientific and technological areas English is not only a means but also a key to gaining access to the latest scientific and technological achievements for a developing country such as Vietnam, where modern science and technology are badly needed In this regard, it is true that English is essential

Fully aware of the importance of the English language, the leadership of Hanoi Community College always encourages the students to learn English and even makes it

a compulsory subject English is also a key subject in the university curriculum This seems to be the case in many other universities and colleges in Vietnam

To be a good English learner, no one can ignore vocabulary learning Vocabulary is an inseparable part of any language learning process It would be impossible to learn a language without vocabulary (Komachali & Khodareza, 2012; Vaezi, 2013a) Many learners regard language learning as synonymous with knowing a large number of words by heart Although it is not a valid assumption, it should not be forgotten that words constitute a major part of language (Baleghizade & Yousefpoori Naeim, 2011; Bogaards, 2001) Vocabulary is the most sizeable and unmanageable component in the learning of any languages (Baleghizade & Yousefpoori Naeim, 2011; Ramachandran & Rahim, 2004; Yang & Dai, 2011) In order to communicate well in many foreign languages, students should acquire an adequate number of words and should know how

to use them appropriately That is why, vocabulary is regarded at least as important as grammar (Baleghizade & Yousefpoori Naeim, 2011; Davies, 2000) Lack of adequate vocabulary knowledge is an obvious and serious obstacle for many students New words can help students to express themselves at ease, therefore, vocabulary is considered vital

to language learning For instance, vocabulary knowledge is fundamental to reading comprehension One cannot understand texts without knowing what most of the words mean

For university students, learning vocabulary is an important task, however, this is also a challenge for them Students may spend a lot of time learning vocabulary but their ability of vocabulary memorizing and recalling is limited One of the reasons for the students’ low vocabulary retention and retrieval can be their learning habits Such learning habits as writing down words on notebooks, learning words by heart, heavily depending on wordlist in textbooks, passively waiting for teacher’s explanations for new words, etc seem to be ineffective and make students feel bored with learning vocabulary In order to learn new words, the students often use rote memorization techniques Some of the common techniques are writing down the words in notebook for several times, speaking words aloud and making sentences with new words However, rote learning fails to help students recall most of the words they learn as pointed out by Nguyen and Khuat (2003, pp 2-3)

With great concern for this situation, there is a surging task of helping learners to effectively store and retrieve words in the target language with effective pedagogical methods on teaching vocabulary (Nirattisai & Chiramanee, 2014; Sokmen, 1997) It is

because a task of language teachers is to arouse students’ interest in words (River, 1987; Vaezi, 2013b) River (1987) also suggests that language teachers must help their students by giving to them ideas on how to learn vocabulary and some guidance on what to learn A number of different techniques have been utilized throughout the teaching and learning process in order to help learners remember words effectively On the one hand, learners are exposed to words in isolation without any context given and are then supposed to memorize them through repetition A constant keeping of words and their meaning in the short-term memory is hoped to transfer them to the long-term memory A good example of a meaningful technique, on the other hand, is inference or guessing techniques where learners are asked to infer, or at other times guess the meaning of certain words in a context, using any clues provided before or after that word in the context or even any other strategies However, there are some cases when it

is not feasible to include a context for every single words or when we plan to present the words before the learners go through the text In such cases, semantic mapping can be helpful

Semantic mapping includes a meaningful and a mechanical aspect It is meaningful in the sense that words is presented according to the semantic relationship among them, and it is mechanical in that the words still need to be practiced out of a context With the aim to demonstrate the effectiveness of this learning vocabulary technique, the

researcher is encouraged to undertake the study is entitled: “The effects of semantic

mapping on vocabulary retention of non-English major first-year students at Hanoi Community College: An action research project”

There has been a wide variety of previous researches into the effects of semantic mapping on vocabulary memorizing (Dilek & Yürük, 2013; El-Koumy, 1999; Hoàng, 2013; Le, 2013; Nguyễn, 2013; Ramezani & Behrouzi, 2013; Zahedi & Abdi, 2012) Those research projects all shared the positive effects of semantic mapping on vocabulary retention for students

Despite the effectiveness of the semantic mapping method, which is used elsewhere in the world, in the teaching context at Hanoi Community College (Vietnam), semantic mapping has been rarely exploited in teaching vocabulary To the best of my knowledge, there have not been any studies on the use of semantic mapping in vocabulary teaching and learning at this college

1.2 Aim of the study

Semantic mapping is used as an innovative method of vocabulary teaching It has been used elsewhere in the world with positive effects This method is not widely used in Vietnamese training institutions The aim of this study is to investigate the HCC non-English major first-year students’ perceived effects of and attitudes towards the use of

semantic mapping to improve English vocabulary retention

1.3 Research questions

As guided by the above-mentioned aim, the study tries to find answers to the following research questions:

Question 1: To what extent is the students’ vocabulary retention improved after

semantic mapping is implemented?

Question 2: What are the students’ attitudes towards the use of semantic mapping as

an innovative method of vocabulary teaching and learning?

1.4 The significance of the study

It is widely recognized that students do not learn in the same way, hence, their learning capacity as well as their styles are not the same (Gardner, 2003; Harmer, 2007) Some students are fast learners, while others are slow Thus, it is impossible to apply the same teaching technique or methods for them It is therefore important that teachers need to find innovative ways to keep the students motivated in the lessons, for instance, making students interested in learning difficult things in an easy way In this regard, the main concern of this study is to use semantic mapping as an innovative technique to help students remember and recall words better Accordingly, the researcher believes that it

is necessary to use semantic mapping for English learning and teaching Students need

to read about what they are interested in and to communicate effectively

By investigating the effects of semantic mapping on vocabulary retention of English major first-year students at Hanoi Community College, the study can help teachers to make informed decisions about the application of this technique as an effective and worthwhile method for students’ benefits of vocabulary retention

non-The results of this study is significant for the students because better vocabulary retention usually correlates to higher test scores and meaningfully facilities and supports their expression of ideas and opinions both in speaking and writing Besides, the atmosphere of vocabulary lessons can become more enjoyable when semantic mapping

is used

1.5 The organization of the study

The thesis consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1 is a brief introduction of the background to the study, the aims, scope of the

current study It ends with the significance of the study and the organization of the whole thesis

Chapter 2 reviews the prospects on the vocabulary and its importance, answer the

question ‘How to teaching and learning vocabulary effectively?’ memorizing word meanings, and techniques in vocabulary teaching The chapter ends with relevant studies and raising some gaps for present study

Chapter 3 presents the methodology used in the research with detailed description of

three data collection instruments namely VKS tests, questionnaire, semi-structured interviews In this chapter, research methods, setting of the study, participants, the data collection instruments, the data collection procedure and the data analysis and procedure are identified

Chapter 4 focuses on the results of the tests and the results from the questionnaire and

semi-structured interviews This chapter also includes the analyses and discussions of the results

Chapter 5 comes up with some major contributions of this study, some implications of

the study, and some limitations of the study drawn out by the author from the research Recommendations for further studies and conclusions of the study are also included in this chapter

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

The chapter deals mainly with fundamental background research relevant to the study There are five sections in this chapter Some basic information about vocabulary and its importance are addressed first Then, the question “How to teach and learn vocabulary effectively?” is answered Subsequently, aspects of memorizing word meanings are reviewed In addition, in the next section, some techniques in vocabulary teaching included traditional vocabulary teaching techniques and semantic mapping for vocabulary retention are mentioned The chapter ends with some relevant studies with

the present study

2.1 Vocabulary and its importance

2.1.1 Vocabulary

Many authors have similar definitions about vocabulary According to Hubbard (1983), vocabulary can be defined as a powerful carrier of meaning Additionally, Diamond and Gutlohn (2006) suggested that vocabulary is the knowledge of words and their meanings This means that without establishing a strong vocabulary base first, comprehension and use of a language will not be achieved In addition, the students should be able to recognize words, and know their meanings as well Thus, when a student is effectively able to recognize and use a word in different context, speak, write, pronounce the word well, she/he has the knowledge and meaning of that word

However, some authors suggest there are complex definitions about vocabulary Nation (2001) states that vocabulary knowledge implies knowing a word in the spoken form of the word and the spoken form could be recognized and understood in and out of context rather than guessed at Additionally, Henriksen (1999) argues that vocabulary knowledge is often defined as precise comprehension is operationalized as the ability to translate the lexical items into L1, the ability to find the right definition in a multiple-choice task, or the ability to give a target language paraphrase This means that vocabulary knowledge requires the ability to react to words that students do not need to think about; the words just come into students’ minds to be used in an effective and natural way Even in a multiple choice task students react to multiple definitions of words and they know exactly the meaning of the words to be translated So, when

students have knowledge of a word they do not take much time to think about the word, they just have to use the word naturally and appropriately

Researchers usually suggest that vocabulary can be broken down into two forms: receptive and productive vocabulary, two relevant concepts in vocabulary acquisition whose distinction has been discussed by researchers over the years Many authors presented the similar definitions about receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary According to Kamil and Hiebert (2005), receptive or passive vocabulary refers to words that students assign some meaning, even if they do not know their full definitions Paribakht and Wesche (1993) defines productive vocabulary or active vocabulary as being words that students use when they speak or write, that is, productive vocabulary includes speaking and writing skills This is to say that productive vocabulary refer to those words students use while they are speaking or writing

Several attempts have been made to distinguish these two perspectives Most authors argue that receptive vocabulary is acquired first, followed by productive vocabulary Channell (1988) supports the view that learners gain receptive control of the new words before active control This is to say that if a word is known productively it means that the word is already known receptively, that is, comprehension precedes production In the process of vocabulary acquisition a word is recognized and understood firstly and only later students are able to use it in context in appropriate and in a natural way

Receptive vocabulary is the first contact learners have with the vocabulary items, which makes the method of instruction very important Therefore, teachers and the course books used in the classroom should recognize the relevance of vocabulary instruction in order to for learners to help develop their receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary

In short, what the definitions above about vocabulary have in common in the fact that vocabulary knowledge requires not only word meanings knowledge, but it requires the usage of the words in the appropriate context and in a natural way and also includes the relationship between new words acquired and the ones already acquired Therefore, teachers should help students knowing about the importance of vocabulary They should use strategies that teach the meaning of words in context and help students associate the

new vocabulary learned

2.1.2 The importance of vocabulary

Vocabulary is an inseparable part of any language learning process It would be impossible to learn a language without vocabulary The important role that this component plays has been emphasized in all the different methods of language teaching

As River (1987, p 28) states, "vocabulary cannot be taught It can be presented, explained, included in all kinds of activities, but it must be learnt by individuals." She further states that, "As language teachers, we must arouse interest in words, a certain excitement I personal development in this area" (River, 1987, p 29) She also suggests that language teachers must help their students by giving them some ideas on how to learn vocabulary and some guidance on what to learn

Vocabulary as a major component of language learning has been the object of numerous studies each of which has its own contribution to the field Laufer (1988) considered vocabulary learning as the heart of language learning and language use In fact, it is this vocabulary learning that makes the essence of any language Without vocabularies, speakers cannot convey meaning and communicate with each other in any particular language

It seems that this problem is due to lack of vocabulary knowledge and that the students’ criterion in choosing words in context is surface structure and they fail to address the depth of vocabulary knowledge HCC learners` poor vocabulary knowledge is a matter

of concern for all teachers, the leadership, and the researcher as well Therefore, it is important to know how to teach and learn vocabulary effectively

2.2 How to teach and learn vocabulary effectively?

Vocabulary is generally a matter of remembering, unlike e.g learning grammar, which

is a system based mainly on rules (Thornbury, 2002) To be able to teach as effectively

as possible, it is important to know, how to words are remembered and stored in students’ mind and how long term memory will be organized

Several authors agree that vocabulary is stored in the mind in a highly organized and complex web-like system, the so-called mental lexicon In the mental lexicon, words are stored, categorized, and interconnected in many ways, according to their features such

as meaning, form, collocation, syntactic properties, cultural background, etc Many historians have argued that a word being retrieved is looked up through several

pathways at once, which is extremely economical in terms of time needed (Gairns & Redman, 1992; McCarthy, 1992; Thornbury, 2002)

One of the important roles of the language teacher is to help students find the easiest way of conveying new information into the already existing system of the mental lexicon (Thornbury, 2002) Moreover, students need to acquire the ability to store the information for as long as possible

The personalizing in vocabulary practice has proved to be beneficial for remembering along with spacing, which means that presentation of new vocabulary is divided into wider separated sequences followed by repeated revision later with gradually extending periods between them, e.g the end of the lesson, next week and so on (Thornbury, 2002) The helpful element is motivation, which is closely linked with attention As Thornbury argues: “A very high degree of attention (called arousal) seems to correlate with improved recall” (Thornbury, 2002)

Finally, it is advisable to visualize a picture for a new word or to link an abstract word with some mental images (Thornbury, 2002) Images drawn by students themselves have the best outcomes Besides imaging, there are other mnemonics, such as making clues from association with similarly sounding word and its meaning in the mother tongue Again, students’ own image has the best influence on remembering

When examining this matter, Gairns and Redman (1992) stressed the importance of meaningful activities in the classroom They pointed out that meaningful task need to analyze in detail and therefore information is more likely to retain in long-term memory Furthermore, they as well as Thornbury reason the positive impact of personalization, imaging and retrieval mentioned above They also suggest a good organization of written storage of vocabulary to support retention Among other possibilities, they mention using “word diagrams”, which they claim might be very useful for “storage of lexis” (Gairns & Redman, 1992)

According Language Learning Theories, there are many learning styles such as visual, aural, and kinesthetic (perceptual learning styles), field-independent, field-dependent (cognitive learning styles) These students belong to the field independent style; they often concentrate on the details of language, and sometimes cannot see the big picture because of their attention to its parts Other students belong to the field dependent styles and they focus on the whole picture and do not care so much about the detail To be able

to learn as effectively as possible, it is important the learners to choose the suitable style for themselves When they chose the suitable style, they want to use much more of language According to the Suggestopedia method, the learners will improve self-image when they are encouraged The students will have a positive attitude towards learning Suggestopedia aims to deliver advanced conversational proficiency quickly The teachers place a high value on vocabulary recall, memorization of vocabulary pairs continues to be seen as an important goal of the Suggestopedia method Additionally, the students are able to apply the language they learnt into 'real-life' settings

In brief, the teacher and students want to build up and use a mental lexicon in such a way that they will be able to store, keep, and retrieve words when needed Moreover, the students should choose the suitable learning styles for applying the language they learnt into the “real-life” settings In the next section, we discuss about memorizing

2.3.2 Short-term and long-term memory

Cognitive psychologists divide memory into short-term and long-term memory according to duration of memory retention and capacity of recalling information after the original input

Long-term memory retains information for use in anything but the immediate future Short-term memory is used to store or hold information while it is being processed The object of vocabulary learning is to transfer the lexical information from the short-term memory to the more permanent long-term memory (Schmitt, 2000)

Long-term memory is seemingly inexhaustible and can accommodate any amount of information (Gairns & Redman, 1992) It is generally acknowledged that we need to work much harder to commit information to long-term memory, and the type of repetition that is essential to short-term retention may not be adequate for long-term retention However, the distinction between short-term retention and long-term retention

is not always clear-cut Information entering short-term memory may pass quite effortlessly into long-term memory, and some learners may find repetition a very effective way of transferring information into long-term memory

When learning vocabulary, learners often have problems with retention of words for a long time They usually fail to put the words into long-term memory In present study, the short-term memory is considered as the initial memory of the word meaning at the end of the lessons Whereas the number of words can be recalled at the next lessons or

at the end of the study is referred as ones from long-term memory because the participants in the study have six fifty minute lessons per week

2.3.3 Major factors affecting word memorization

There are various reasons why students remember some words better than other people such as nature of the words themselves, situations under which the words are learnt, how the words are taught to students and so on Gairns and Redman (1992) showed that learning new items involves storing them first in the short-term memory and afterwards

in the long-term memory, and the long-term memory can hold any amount of information They stated that our “mental lexicon” is highly organized and efficient, and that semantic related items are stored together Word frequency is another factor that affects storage, as the most frequently used items are easier to retrieve We can use this information to facilitate the leaning process by grouping items of vocabulary in semantic fields such as topics

Besides, storing information is not the only difficulty faced by the learners when learning vocabulary; then, retrieval is another on which the present research is centered Nunan (1992) shares the idea that learners can be encouraged to develop their own personal learning styles for vocabulary, in such areas as memorizing and retaining new words However, Cater and McCarthy (1989) assured that the storage of information does not guarantee its retrieval Learners need ways to increase the probability that retrieval cues will be effective, just as they need techniques that will permit the recall of words that are appropriate for the situation Cater also pointed out techniques that enhance production will have to be centered on the meanings of words rather than on their forms because most of our production has to do with searching for an appropriate meaning to fit the particular occasion The most effective associate bonds for production, therefore, connect the words with their meanings

2.3.4 Strategies to improve vocabulary retention

Vocabulary learning strategies are one part of language learning strategies, which in turn are part of general learning strategies (Nation, 2001) Some vocabulary learning strategies such as metacognitive, cognitive, memory and activation strategies are listed

by (Ghazal, 2007; Gu & Johnson, 1996) Metacognitive strategies consist of selective attention and self-initiation strategies Cognitive strategies entail guessing strategies, skillful use of dictionaries and note-taking strategies Memory strategies are classified into rehearsal and encoding categories Word lists and repetition are instances of rehearsal strategies Encoding strategies encompass such strategies as association, imagery, visual, auditory, semantic, and contextual encoding, as well as word-structure Activation strategies include those strategies through which the learners actually use new words in different contexts

Encoding strategies are mentioned in literature as vocabulary learning strategies that can enhance retention intervals of vocabulary (Gu & Johnson, 1996; Segler, 2001) Encoding strategies include such strategies as association, imagery, visual, auditory, semantic, and contextual encoding as well as word-structure (Ghazal, 2007) Memory of vocabulary can be enhanced when there is an association of new words and known ones sharing a similar part in spelling, sound or meaning Employing images, semantic mapping or other graphic organizer techniques (Ghazal, 2007; Nation, 2001; Segler, 2001) are encouraged for better encoding which results in better retrieving later One of implications for classroom practice that Channell (1988) derived from her research is that learners should be encouraged to make their own lexical associations when they are learning vocabulary With regard to word meaning and retrieval, many researchers (Amer, 2002; Cater, 1987; Hague, 1987) agreed that semantic mapping is effective for long-term memory and aids the recall Therefore, in this study, the researcher concerned about the techniques in vocabulary teaching that will be presented in the next section

2.4 Techniques in vocabulary teaching

2.4.1 Traditional vocabulary teaching techniques

Vocabulary has not been focused as a particular subject for students to learn for a long time It has been taught along with lessons of speaking, listening, reading, or writing For lots of English learners, whenever they think of vocabulary, they think of learning a wordlist with meanings in their native language without any real context Other learners

reveal their same learning experience of looking up words in a bilingual dictionary to find their meanings or definitions when they deal with new words They simply learn new words by heart just by writing down long lines of new words without any attachments with real context

Translation technique comes out as the most popular technique at that time Learners tend to find the equivalent words in their own language through dictionary or by asking their teacher for the meanings of the new words This makes learners heavily depend on the dictionary or the teacher

Traditional instruction in dictionary use focuses on having looked up words and use information from the definitions they find to write sentences This kind of instruction appears to produce only a superficial understanding and rapid forgetting of words (McKeown, 1993) Young students often have difficulty in interpreting the information

in definitions that has rewritten to make them more user-friendly He showed an example that after examining the errors made by students who wrote sentences based on dictionary definitions of new words; the examiners concluded that this activity is pedagogically useless

Other traditional technique such as illustration may also have their limitations Illustration, for instance, is only useful for concrete words whereas mining lends itself particularly well to action verbs (Gairns & Redman, 1992)

Overall, traditional ways of presenting a new word require many of teacher’s activities The teachers control the whole activities in class and heavily affect students’ vocabulary learning Therefore, they have trouble in remembering and recalling the words

2.4.2 Semantic mapping technique

Since memorizing the vocabulary is highly focused in learning a foreign language, there are many different technique experienced in teaching vocabulary The current trends in teaching vocabulary focus on helping students memorizing words that they have learnt and attracted the words to their relations with other words or in different contexts Semantic mapping technique is one of the current trends in teaching vocabulary

2.3.2.1 Distinguish the brainstorming, mind map and semantic mapping

Brainstorming

This is a process for generating creative ideas and solutions through intensive and freewheeling group discussion Every participant is encouraged to think aloud and suggest as many ideas as possible, no matter seemingly how outlandish or bizarre Analysis, discussion, or criticism of the aired ideas is allowed only when the brainstorming session is over and evaluation session begins See also lateral thinking and nominal group technique

Mind map

Mind map is a graphical technique for visualizing connections between several ideas or pieces of information Each idea or fact is written down and then linked by lines or curves to its major or minor (or following or previous) idea or fact, thus creating a map

of relationships

Semantic mapping

Semantic mapping is a visual representation of knowledge It displays relationships between concepts or words by connecting new information with background knowledge (John & Pearson, 1984) It is a categorical structuring of information in graphic form It

is an approach leading students to relate new words to their own experiences and prior knowledge Semantic maps as Jonassen (1993, p 98) indicates “are type of graphic organizers that visually represent relationships among categories of concepts” Figure 2.1 displays the structure of a semantic map They include a key concept, or main idea, with categorized concepts related to the key concept The categories related to the central concept and the associations among words are indicated visually in a diagram or map

Figure 2.1: The structure of semantic maps Semantic mapping is not new; it has been around for years under the labels “semantic webbing”, “semantic networking”, or “plot maps” (Heimlich & Pittelman, 1986, p 3) It has been regarded as a successful and helpful teaching strategy based on the creation and evaluation of the learner’s background knowledge or schemata There are many different definitions of semantic mapping strategies described by different researchers (Sinatra, Stahl-Gemake, & Berg, 1984; Zaid, 1995) describe semantic mapping as “a graphic arrangement showing the major ideas and relationships in text or among word meanings.” Semantic mapping can be used to underline the relationships between items, and they are an extremely practical framework for storage of terms Heimlich and Pittelman (1986, p 3) define semantic maps as “diagrams that help students see how words are related to one another.” According to Stoller and Grabe (1993, p 34),

“semantic mapping leads to better vocabulary retention because new lexical items are introduced in semantic networks”

In short, semantic mapping displays graphically information, which is related to a topic

or concept and stimulates meaningful word relations Semantic mapping in vocabulary development will be discussed in the bellow section

2.3.2 2 Semantic mapping in vocabulary development

Perhaps the most widely known use of semantic mapping as an instructional strategy is

in general vocabulary development In this strategy, semantic mapping procedure prepares students to understand, learn, and assess the information to be read John and Pearson (1984, pp 12-13) adapt a semantic mapping procedure for vocabulary development First, the teachers should choose a word or topic related to classroom work Second, they should list the word on a large chart tablet or on the chalkboard Third, they should encourage the students to think of as many words as they can that are related to the selected key word and then list the words by categories on a sheet of paper The students then should share the prepared lists orally and all words are written

on the class map in categories The last, students could gain further practice in classification by labeling the categories on the semantic map (Heimlich & Pittelman,

1986, p 5)

2.3.2.3 The effects of semantic mapping on vocabulary retention

Semantic mapping falls under the general category of graphic organizers and is used in different subject areas in order to help learners understand relationships and form concepts about broader topics

The basis of semantic mapping is the relationships among its elements As the relationships among words are established, the learners will remember them more easily Fan (2000, p 115), for instance, finds “seven vocabulary learning strategies correlated positively and significantly with active vocabulary test scores” the fifth of which is “I group words that are related to help myself remember them.”

The most important underlying reason for the effectiveness of semantic mapping might

be due to its cognitive feature The relationships among the words account for this cognitive feature of semantic mapping

According to (Shapiro & & Dusty, 2005), increasing the cognitive effort equals an enhancement in vocabulary retention This is also supported by Morin and Goebel (2001) who based on a great deal of research that they cite, believe that semantic mapping engages a very deep level of cognition

Barcroft (2004, p 200) defines semantic mapping as "the increased evaluation of an item with regard to its meaning.” A semantic mapping can be used as a tool for discovering the conceptual relationship between vocabulary items Semantic elaboration seems to enhance word learning and retention, through a learning phase called integration (Shostak, 2003) Integration is based on the view that in order for learning to occur, new information should be incorporated into what the learner previously knows (Shostak, 2003) That is instruction should guide learners to use words and ideas available to them in their word and concept repertoire to help them associate meaning with words they do not know It is believed that this will lead to deeper learning and thus longer retention of the learned words

The teacher takes part in a semantic mapping process activities students’ background information which is about the topic and provides an efficient way to strengthen key words, allows students to include the new vocabulary into their existing schemata Semantic mapping assists the learner to learn unknown words through known words in

a semantically related network

In vocabulary learning, it is important for the learner to make an effort and show required interest If the task does not involve enough effort, the learner may not be interested and may not pay his attention and enthusiasm Instead of traditional techniques that are not challenging enough, more effective and enjoyable techniques can

be used, as they require more effort The learners can get rid of the routine traditional ambiance in the classroom As this technique is new for the learners, they will be expected to interest and attend the process, especially the thought of the product which will be their own creations, will courage them to use this technique

Moreover, the typical characteristics of semantic mapping lie in its effectiveness in visually integrating new words with the old and promoting a deep level of semantic processing Both empirical and theoretical studies have justified these advantages When (Heimlich & Pittelman, 1986) observed suburban sixth graders of different cultural groups, she confirmed that students do exploit their unique experiences as a means of developing vocabulary Therefore, her findings support the usefulness of semantic mapping Margosein, Pascarella, and Pflaum (1982) and Vogt (1983) confirm

in their case studies that semantic mapping has a greater impact on vocabulary acquisition than does the context clue approach or the traditional dictionary-definition-

plus-example approach, because semantic mapping motivates the students to connect their prior knowledge to new words and to see the lexical or conceptual relationships among words Semantic mapping is reflected as effective in the empirical research because “meaningful exercises or classroom activities which promote formation of associations and therefore build up students’ semantic networks are effective for long-term retention” (Sokmen, 1997, p 249) In addition, because semantic mapping

emphasizes tapping prior knowledge, it corresponds to Schema theory’s principle that

“new learning occurs either when adding to or adjusting already existing knowledge structures” (Stoller & Grabe, 1993, p 33) As can be seen, the empirical and theoretical research has convinced us of semantic mapping’s advantages in terms of facilitating vocabulary learning visually and directly

To sum up, the semantic mapping seems to be effective in vocabulary retention for students It is a visual technique and can be used for pair work or group work in the vocabulary lessons

In contrast with the traditional vocabulary teaching techniques, the semantic mapping method shed light on a new teaching and learning approach in which the roles of teachers and learners have been remarkably changed The teachers are not only the information provider but also the guider, the initiator and the controller They have to brainstorm how to convey the new items and how to integrate the vocabulary instruction into language skills, yet still keep pace with lesson schedule As for students, they themselves are engaged with vocabulary learning They are the center of the lessons in analyzing words, organizing words systematically, practicing with words, and using words in different contexts In some learning activities, students are encouraged to work

in pair/group for exchanging ideas They also could interact with their teachers, discuss, and exchange information with their classmates The previous researches will discuss about the effect of semantic mapping method in the next section

2.5 Relevant semantic mapping studies

The current trends towards vocabulary learning use association techniques, which include semantic mapping Research on semantic mapping has been carried out and most of them focus on using semantic mapping in comparison with the traditional methods, analyzing the effects of three semantic mapping strategies together or using semantic mapping as improve students’ vocabulary retention The subjects of these

studies are students and pupils The results have shown the considerable difference in vocabulary retention Learners using semantic mapping could organize words systematically and recall word meanings easily

“Using semantic mapping technique in vocabulary teaching at pre-intermediate level”

of Dilek and Yürük (2013) has investigated the effects of using Semantic Mapping Technique in comparison to traditional technique in vocabulary learning They realized that semantic mapping technique is more effective than the traditional technique in vocabulary learning In addition, they found out that whether there is a relationship between students’ beliefs about vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) and what strategies they prefer to use In their study, the researchers focused on 32 students at the pre-intermediate level of English from Selcuk University, at the Department of School

of Foreign Languages To analyze the difference between semantic mapping technique and traditional technique, t-test calculations were used with the results of the pre-test and post-test

Comparing the effects of three semantic mapping strategies on the reading comprehension of learners of English as a Foreign Language, “Effects of three semantic mapping strategies on EFL students' reading comprehension” of El-Koumy (1999) was assigned 187 freshmen randomly in the Department of French at the Faculty of Arts, Menoufia University, Egypt to three treatment groups These subjects were randomly assigned to three treatments The researcher has used in the same reading materials, but three different semantic mapping strategies instructed these groups: (1) teacher-initiated semantic mapping, (2) student-mediated semantic mapping, and (3) teacher-student interactive semantic mapping While the pretest indicated no significant differences in the groups, post-test results revealed students in the teacher-student interactive semantic mapping group scored significantly higher than the other two groups, which had similar results

Zahedi and Abdi (2012) with "The effect of semantic mapping strategy on EFL

learners’ vocabulary learning” showed that using semantic mapping strategy resulted in

a significant difference in the participants' vocabulary learning In their study, the participants were randomly assigned to a control group that received traditional direct translation and the treatment group that received instruction on semantic mapping In

order to assess the efficiency of the strategy, a pre-test and post-test were administered

to both groups

On the other development, “The effect of semantic clustering on Iranian elementary

EFL learners' vocabulary retention” of Ramezani and Behrouzi (2013) has investigated

the impact of semantic clustering on EFL learners' vocabulary retention Participants were divided into two equal groups of 15 at elementary level, randomly assigned as experimental and control groups They were all females, within the age range of 12-15, learning English at one of English Language Institutes in Shahroud, Iran Four types of instruments were used to collect the research data They were: 1) KET test; 2) a vocabulary pretest; 3) immediate recall posttests and 4) delayed recall posttest Comparison of the results obtained from the delayed recall posttests revealed that the control group outperformed their peers in the experimental group and could retain a

larger proportion of the words in long term Recently, “Improving English vocabulary

retention by using memory strategies: An action research” of Hoàng (2013) was

combined four techniques [a Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) test, a interview, learners' diaries, pre-test and post-test to a questionnaire] to improve English vocabulary retention Her study has helped students learn English vocabulary more effectively, investigated the effect of using semantic mapping strategies for vocabulary retention She also discovered the students’ attitudes towards semantic mapping and gave some recommendations that could help both teachers and students teach and learn vocabulary more effectively In her study, nine students from one TOEIC class in an English center in Hanoi capital The results showed that the students' attitudes towards both the strategy training scheme and four memory strategies and their suggestions about the future learning and teaching vocabulary were comprised in the last questionnaire

group-Using action research, “Improving vocabulary retention in a non-English major class at

National Economic University: An action research project” of Le (2013) has intended

to help first-year students at NEU improve their economic English vocabulary retention Thirty-three first year students NEU took part in the study Questionnaire and interview were used to identify the problems and causes to these problems An action plan was developed to get improvements vocabulary teaching and learning for the first year students at NEU The information was obtained through test, interview and teaching

diary The results of the study provided encouraging evidence that the current vocabulary teaching approaches are not effective in teaching and learning vocabulary for the first year students at National Economics University and semantic mapping can improve students’ poor vocabulary retention

The last study is named “The effects of semantic mapping on vocabulary retention on

11 th graders at Duong Xa high school” of Nguyễn (2013) The study aimed to determine the effects of semantic mapping on students’ word vocabulary retention and students’ attitudes towards this technique A small-scale action research was carried out in class 11CB4 (45 students) at Duong Xa high school Three instruments were employed to collect both quantitative and qualitative data: (1) the pre-test and post-test on vocabulary knowledge, (2) the questionnaire on the students’ attitudes towards semantic mapping, and (3) the unit-based records for checking students’ progress after each unit The results after the action stage indicated the students had better memory for words and positive attitudes towards semantic mapping

2.6 Summary

This section summarizes the literature related to vocabulary learning and teaching word meaning memorizing and recalling Semantic mapping method and some effects into vocabulary retention were presented detail Some previous researches were mentioned These studies above were related directly to this study These studies have shown that semantic mapping is a useful vocabulary teaching technique that helps to memorize and recall word meanings better Findings from the above-mentioned studies are of relevant

significance which influences and guides the implementation of the current study

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

As presented in the Chapter 1 the research aims at helping the non-English major year students at HCC to improve their English vocabulary retention How successful the measures are applied?

first-This chapter is concerned with methodology employed to carry out the study Detail information about setting of study, participants, and the data collection instruments are provided Addition, the procedure of data collection, and the way of data analysis also

are presented

3.1 Research methods

3.1.1 Definitions of action research

Action research is defined as the work done by systematically collecting data on teachers’ everyday practice and analyzing them in order to come to some decision about what teachers’ future practice should be or the process of systematic collection and analysis of data in order to make changes and improvement or solve problems (Wallace, 1998)

Action research is the term that describes the integration of action (implementing a plan) with research (developing an understanding of the effectiveness of this implementation) Teachers use action research for the following reasons (Wallace,

1998, p 308) Firstly, action research deals with their own problems, not someone else’s Secondly, it can start now- or whenever they are ready – providing immediate results Third, action research provides them with opportunities to better understand, and therefore improve, their educational practices Forth, as a process, action research promotes the building of stronger relationships among staff At last, importantly, action research provides educators with alternative ways of viewing and approaching educational questions, providing a new way of examining their own practices

At the Hanoi Community College, many problems are happening in teaching and learning language at school Firstly, the students always face with poor vocabulary The teachers and students had applied many methods but the vocabulary retention of students still was not improved Secondly, the students need the time enough to become familiar and practice a new method The last not at least, the semantic mapping is not

new method because some teachers had applied it in their teaching method However, some conditions and reasons were happened, so they could not complete those studies For above-mentioned reasons, action research is chosen as the methodology for this study with the independent variable being semantic mapping, while the dependent variable is students’ attitudes towards the new vocabulary teaching method using semantic mapping to improve vocabulary retention The treatment was carried out in the second term of the non-English major first-year students and lasted for twelve weeks at HCC

3.1.2 Action research procedure

It is said that action research should be seen as flexible and that researcher may have different processes in different situations Action research has a number of steps or phrases, which progress as a spiraling and evolving process In this study, an action research was designed and implemented according to the following model (McBride & Schostak, 1995) consisting of a cycle as being demonstrated in Figure 3.1 below:

Figure 3.1: Action Research Cycle Guided by the above-mentioned procedure, the action research of this study was carried out systematically in twelve weeks Fifty female non-English major first-year students

from Accounting Department were chosen as the participants of the study Based on the principles and procedures of action research were investigated in Figure 3.1, the following stages were done one after another

3.1.2.1 Identifying problem (from the first semester to the week 1):

As stated in Chapter 1, the researcher observed from the teaching and learning experience at Hanoi Community College as well as collecting from the colleague talks, the HCC students often face many difficulties in vocabulary retention Meanwhile, vocabulary retention plays an important role in learning and teaching English Therefore, I decided to do a research with hope of improving the students’ retention on vocabulary (see Section 1.1 - Background of the study for more details)

3.1.2.2 Collecting initial data (week 2)

From initial data about teaching materials, the interests of students, students’ learning styles, teacher’ teaching styles and teaching methods, which are likely to be the main factors affecting students' retention on vocabulary were collected to identify the causes

of the problems

To confirm the problem stated in stage 1 and to measure the retention on vocabulary of students, the researcher tested the students in KT1-K8 by the pre-test during twenty-five minutes of the Program Course 1 (Appendix 3) The pre-test consists fifty words from unit 1 to unit 7 of the book Lifelines: Pre-intermediate Student’s book by Hutchinson (1997) This assessment showed that the practicing vocabulary of students in the Program Course 1 were low The students could not recall the words they have learnt before The initial data about the causes of problem was collected by analyzing Lifelines: Pre-intermediate Student’s book by Hutchinson (1997)

3.1.2.3 Analyzing data and generating hypotheses (week 3)

The data that was collected from the pre – test was analyzed by excel software to form a hypothesis, the researcher found the reasons which lead to students’ low retention on vocabulary Students blamed that they lacked of time to practice new words in the classroom This result will be analyzed and discussed detail in Chapter 4

It is clear that the most important outcome of planning action is a detailed plan of what the researcher intend to implement or the changes he/she intends to make Therefore, in

this phase, the researcher presented the alternatives to the usual practice and the implementation of the revised teaching strategies An action plan was developed to help bring about desired changes There is not a tool for monitoring students’ retention vocabulary The students learn vocabulary passively, so they cannot remember and recall the words The main cause is they have not practice regularly

3.1.2.5 Implementing the action plan (from week 4 to week 10)

Firstly, the researcher introduced the semantic mapping method as well as major advantages and disadvantages of this method right at the beginning of the study Secondly, the teacher guided students how to implement this project Finally, the action research project was implemented during the seven units (from unit 8 to unit 14), but mainly focused on reading and writing periods Reading and writing periods considered

as the section with the most numerous vocabularies for each unit During the implementation of the action research project, the students were recommended using semantic mapping for learning vocabulary After each unit in the lesson, the researcher (teacher) checked the students’ vocabulary retention by group/pair work activities The students can do these activities when they learn some new words at the beginning of lecture and they can summary the reading texts at the end of the reading lessons These activities helped the researcher to give some suitable semantic maps with the students' knowledge The students have some problems about organizing the words or doing some vocabulary exercises, they can contact the researcher (teacher) by email The researcher (teacher) will give feedback and provide some helps based on students’ problems

3.1.2.6 Collecting data to monitor change (week 10)

To assess the retention on vocabulary of students, the teacher examines the students in KT1-K8 by the post-test during twenty-five minutes of the Program Course 2 (Appendix 3) At the post-test, ten words randomly in pre-test were given back and added forty words in Program Course 2 (from unit 8 to unit 14) Along with the post-test, the students received the questionnaire to identify their perceptions on semantic mapping and elicit data related to the students’ opinions about vocabulary retention

After gathering information from the survey questionnaire, comparing the difference results the tests, the semi-structured interviews were conducted to get information deeply

3.1.2.7 Analyzing and evaluating data (from week 11 to week 12)

In this step, the results of pre-test and post-test interviews were compared together to find out the difference The semi-structured interviews were conducted to get

information deeply The first research question “To what extent is the students’ vocabulary retention improved after semantic mapping is implemented?” has

answered This analyze was done to show how effective the changes were, what the researcher of this thesis has learnt and what to change The analysis will be described

more detail at Section 4.1 of Chapter 4-Answer to the first research question More

importantly, analyzing the survey questionnaire was helped to find out the answer of the

second research question “What are the students’ attitudes towards the use of semantic mapping as an innovative method of vocabulary teaching and learning?”

After that, semi-structured interviews came back to clarify results of questionnaire This

analysis will be elaborated at Section 4.2 in Chapter 4 - Answer to the second research

question

In this thesis, the researcher did these steps necessary of an action research project to ensure that all participants in the research understand the process in which they engaged, including why their participation is necessary and how the semantic mapping method will use popular in class and at home All the answers of the participants were promised only to be used in this thesis with the purpose to improve the retention on vocabulary By answering this questionnaire, all the participants totally agreed the researcher use the response in academic publication such as thesis, journal articles, and conference papers Moreover, in the interview process, all the response of the interviewees were reported truthfully without causing any harm for them All the information of the participant was kept secret so that they could show their idea freely

3.2 Setting of the study

The study was carried out in Hanoi Community College The college is located in an urban area This college is ranked the high percentage about percentage of students graduating The teaching and learning conditions of the college are good due to

prioritize investments from the local government, the colleagues, the students, and the leadership team in college Each class has internet access, the computer, and projector being available to teachers and students There is a lab-room where students learn the listening lessons Therefore, learning vocabulary by visual aids is very easy and convenient There is a library with modern equipment where students can search and study outside their lessons There is one English center where students can improve their English knowledge All students are careful selected through a highly competitive exam into the universities and colleges The Hanoi Community College trains six different the specialized fields like Accounting, Construction, Finance, Information Technology, Business Administration, and Electricity English language has taught by the teachers who belong to Foundation Department and English Center All students in this college are learning the academic English curriculum of Ministry of Education and Training

The fifty female non-English major first-year students in class KT1-K8 of Accounting Department in Hanoi Community College were chosen for this study In this project,

students were taught the book Lifelines: Pre-Intermediate by Hutchinson (1997) from

unit 8 to unit 14 All the students have learnt English as the non-major subjects for a semester and passed the achievement test of the first semester before this action research project started They often face with some difficulties in learning English especially vocabulary retention The most teachers have considered the Communicative Language Teaching Method and the Learner Centre Approach using widely as the main

methods at HCC

3.3 Participants

The participants for this study included 50 female students in class KT1- K8 at Accounting Department at Hanoi Community College in second semester of the academic year 2013-2014 Almost students are between 20 and 21 years old and received formal English education at school for about three to six years These students come from different provinces in Viet Nam: some with good learning conditions, and some with not very good learning conditions As a result, most of the students from urban areas of high learning standard are better those from rural areas This greatly affected the teaching and learning activities to students at different levels to be placed in the same class They studied English as a non-major subject but they all were aware of

the importance of English for their future jobs During the time at the college, they attended 60 classroom hours of EGP into the first semester All students passed the achievement test of the first semester before this action research project started The achievement test scores of the first-year students of Accounting Department were higher than other achievement test scores of the first-year students in other Departments Besides that, the students in KT1-K8 often face many difficulties in vocabulary retention They could not recall the words and the meaning words they have learnt before They could not write essays and speak fluently Their marks in the tests were low They had tried to learn vocabulary through any ways like listening to music or watch movies They could not feel confident when they expressed ideas with their foreign teachers or professors They took part in the English clubs but their vocabulary still was not improved A questions raised in my head what can I do with my students? The answers will find out in this research Therefore, the researcher chose students in class KT1-K8 at Accounting Department to become volunteer participants in the action research project

As Cohen, Manion, and Morrison (2007, p 167) rightly argue whether disclosing what

a given study is about to the subjects/ participants/ informants involved is “a difficult ethical question” On the one hand, disclosing too much details to them may have induced them to form their own expectations on how they should act and act correspondingly, leading to the well-known Hawthorne effect (Cohen et al., 2007) threatening the internal validity of the findings On the other hand, hiding all such details may violate a teacher’s professional ethics and discourage the development of the currently advocated learner-centeredness (Mertens, 2010) To keep a balance between these reasons, the researcher first talked the students, the teachers and the Leadership team about the aim and procedure of the study Secondly, the researcher guaranteed the students that their performance in any parts of the study would by no means affect their results in the school assessment Then at the beginning of data collection procedure, the researcher provided the students with an oral description of how they were expected to participate at that stage and how the stages were related to each other

3.4 The course book “Lifelines- Pre-Intermediate”

The current used textbook for Hanoi Community College is Lifelines (2002) by Tom Hutchinson, which the teachers teach in two semesters (1st and 2nd) There are two books of equal use in the series: student’s book and workbook for Pre-Intermediate level They present the basic English through four skills The 14 units included are arranged in order of difficulty, from easy to more challenging The emphasis is set mainly on integrated activities including reading, listening, and writing tasks as well as discussion and role-play However, as the target objectives started above, and due to the limited time, only reading and writing are in concerns, and others skills are reserved as students’ reference materials at home Vocabulary is introduced in context through the text and exercises An academic language has been focused on each unit The dialogues are simple and unreal The book is not a good guide for students to practice English Therefore, the teachers, students, and researcher always search a new method to improve the vocabulary retention of students Within the scope of this study, the only final seven units of the textbook, introduced in 50 periods, the study focuses on the aspect of remembering and recalling words and word meanings The key points will be

present more detail in the following sections

3.5 Data collection instruments

Within the setting of the study, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used for

a broad and detailed view of the situation A combination of three tools: Questionnaires, VKS Tests, semi-structured interview were used to serve that purpose The strengths of each method and individual tool can be integrated in the same study to enhance the reliability of the data

In this study, VKS tests were used to measure the students’ vocabulary retention improvement after the course of using semantic mapping The researcher used questionnaires as a data collection instrument because of the following advantages First, a large amount the researchers to can be collected from a large number of individuals Questionnaires allow the researchers to find the answers to the questions that they want to know Moreover, questionnaires are considered as the most objective means of collecting data because students have a chance to express their opinions and needs without fear to be embarrassed or to be punished because they are not required to write their name when answering questions Semi-structured interviews were also

conducted to get deep information about the results of VKS test and students’ attitudes towards learning and using semantic mapping

3.5.1 VKS tests (pre-test and post-test)

In an attempt to explore the effects of semantic mapping on vocabulary retention, VKS Tests (pre-test and post-test) were carried out to compare the results of the application

of new method into vocabulary lessons The pre-test and post-test used in this study were adapted from published tests by (Wesche & Paribakht, 1996)

3.4.1.1 What is Vocabulary Knowledge Scale test?

The Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) is a 5-point self-report scale developed by (Wesche & Paribakht, 1996) that allows students to indicate how well they know items

of vocabulary; in other words, students could self-report the knowledge of a word by using one of these following scales:

1 = I don’t remember having seen this word before

2 = I have seen this word before but I don’t know what it means

3 = I have seen this word before and I think I means

4 = I have seen this word; its means

5 = I use this word in a sentence, e.g

(Wesche & Paribakht, 1996)

3.4.1.2 What was the purpose of VKS test in the study?

In this thesis, the first VKS (pre-test) aimed at testing students’ already learnt vocabulary items, or to check whether students could remember the basic words that they had been given in the Program Course 1 (from unit 1 to unit 7) in the first semester

of the academic year 2013-2014

In order to find out the answer for some problems that the students often face about vocabulary retention, it is argued that only the observation would not be persuasive enough since subjectivity is one problematic aspect of using ourselves teaching experience To support that, Wallace (1998, p 127) admitted that "when we ask someone question, we have very often no way of asserting the truth of reply", hence, VKS test was reasonably added as a combining tool to ensure the results reliability

Thanks for results got from the VKS tests, problems that students encounter with vocabulary retention would "raise to the surface" It was also the time for the researcher

to check the consistency between the teaching experiences and what did the students do

in the test

There existed two VKS tests: pre-test and post-test These tests followed the format of VKS test, similar to each other in terms of content to measure the effectiveness of semantic mapping on vocabulary retention Details of these two tests would discuss in the part bellow

3.4.1.3 How were the VKS tests (pre-test and post-test) designed and operated in the study?

As Mertens (2010) states that test-retest is a way to determine reliability A pre-test was administered at the beginning of the second semester before the action research project started

On the test paper, the student’s name was first required Then the title of the test and a detailed instruction on how to answer this test properly were added To further motivate the respondents, the source of the test was acknowledged right after the requirement (Wesche & Paribakht, 1996)

In the main section of the pre-test, a table of eight columns was displayed The first column was the ordinal numbers For second column, the list of fifty words taken from

the book Lifelines: Pre-intermediate Student’s book by Tom Hutchinson (1997) The

students were ensured to have experienced all these vocabulary items Varied as it may

be, the vocabularies were randomly taken from the Program Course 1 (from unit 1 to unit 7) including seven topics: everyday life, appearances, life stories, the future, comparisons, people and places, in your life Then from the third column to the seventh column, there were the numbers (from 1 to 5) which the students choose to tick the correct column The students wrote English synonym or Vietnamese equivalence or made the sentence in the last column This test was requested to complete in twenty-five minutes As for making the test, details will be discussed in the data analysis section below

All two tests were in the format of VKS test However, unlike the pre-test to identify the problems of vocabulary retention, the post-test aimed at examining what students have gained after the Program Course 2 Post-test was used to measure the long-term improvement of students Immediately, the project finished, post-test was administered The test was intended to keep the same format and content as the pre-test The post-test was the pre-test with the ten items were chosen randomly and added forty items in the Programs Course 2 (from unit 8 to unit 14) However, as noted by Mertens (2010), “one

of the drawbacks of the approach (test-retest) is the potential for practice effects or remembering items across administration of the test” Therefore, the researcher decided

to reorder all the fifty vocabulary items so that students would not feel familiar with the test; thus, reliability could be ensured On the other hand, it is also suspected that how the researcher can make sure about the validity of the test Actually, students could practice the vocabulary by not only the semantic mapping provided, but any other techniques as well

In this study, one pre-test and one post-test used for checking vocabulary retention before and after the treatment Analyzing and comparing the results from these tests aimed at measuring the students’ improvement in remembering and recalling the words after the semantic mapping method was applied, or answering the first research question

“To what extent is the students’ vocabulary retention improved after semantic mapping

is implemented?

3.5.2 Questionnaire

Questionnaire was selected as the second data collection instrument in this study Questionnaire was chosen because of a number of reasons Firstly, it is believed that questionnaire is an inexpensive way to gather data from a potentially large number of respondents Secondly, it can reach a large number of people in a very short time Besides, it is useful in gathering information about affective dimensions of teaching and learning, such as a beliefs, attitudes, motivation and preferences, etc and enables the teacher to collect a large amount of information relatively quickly (Richards & Lockhart, 1994) Questionnaires could help to retrieve from informants a large amount

of data that the researcher needed Furthermore, questionnaires, as stated by Gillham (2000, pp 9-10), “can help the researcher save time and easily get quick, focused results from a lot of people” In addition, with the characteristics of giving less pressure for an

immediate response, questionnaires could allow respondents to answer in their own time, at their own pace that motivate them to work on it Another advantage attached to this tool is the fact that the data collected from questionnaires are easy to sum up and report as all the informants answered the same questions The advantage of questionnaire had led the researcher to decision to employ the tool for this small-scale project carried out in limited time frame

3.4.2.1 Why was a questionnaire?

In the words of Brown (2007a), questionnaire was defined as “ any written instruments that present respondents with a series of questions or statements to which they are to react either by writing out their answers of selecting from among existing answers” (Mackey & Gass, 2005, p 92) In this study, a questionnaire for the data collection instrument seemed to be a sensible choice It allows the researcher to gather information about the participants/learners such as their belief, learning motivations, reactions to learning, classroom instruction and activities-information (Mackey & Gass, 2005) Secondly, in the case of the study, after the project was finished, it would be very difficult for the teacher to collect the questionnaire

3.4.2.2 How was the questionnaire distributed?

The questionnaire was distributed at the post-action stage to evaluate the students’ attitudes to the effects of the semantic mapping on vocabulary retention and give their comments for the applications in the future Opinion 1 to opinion 23 were designed to determine students’ attitudes, the classroom atmosphere when semantic mapping was applied and some suggests The questionnaire was divided into ten main parts with ten key words: (1) enjoy; (2) use; (3) engaged; (4) remember and recall; (5) longer remember; (6) reasons; (7) compared with traditional method; (8) creative effective; (9) further study; (10) suggestions

In the first part with key word "enjoy", the students were expected to complete two

opinions about their feelings when they use the semantic mapping to learn vocabulary: relax and enjoy (opinion 3 and opinion 13)

The second part with key word "use", they gave the own opinions about semantic

mapping They felt very easy to find out the new words with semantic mapping This method is suitable with their levels of English It helped them overcome the boredom of