The effects of concordance task based instruction on non english majors vocabulary learning and retention m a

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HO CHI MINH CITY VIETNAM UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE  THE EFFECTS OF CONCORDANCE TASK-BASE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HO CHI MINH CITY VIETNAM

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE



THE EFFECTS OF CONCORDANCE TASK-BASED INSTRUCTION ON NON-ENGLISH MAJORS’ VOCABULARY LEARNING AND RETENTION

A thesis submitted to the

Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature

in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL

By

NGUYEN NU HUYEN TRANG

Supervised by

NGUYEN THU HUONG, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, MAY 2019

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

I hereby certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:

THE EFFECTS OF CONCORDANCE TASK-BASED INSTRUCTION

ON NON-ENGLISH MAJORS’ VOCABULARY LEARNING AND

RETENTION

in terms of the statement of the Requirements for the Theses in Master’s Program issued by the Higher Degree Committee This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institutions

Ho Chi Minh City, May 2019

Nguyễn Nữ Huyền Trang

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, Nguyễn Nữ Huyền Trang, being the candidate for the degree of Master of Arts in TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s theses deposited in the Library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of the thesis

Ho Chi Minh City, May 2019

Nguyễn Nữ Huyền Trang

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The completion of my thesis is one of the most rewarding achievements in my life I would like to take this opportunity to express my immense gratitude to all those persons who have given me their invaluable support and assistance

First and foremost, I am profoundly indebted to my thesis supervisor for being such

an inspirational and devoted mentor Dr Nguyen Thu Huong, with his whole-hearted guidance, valuable feedback and constant encouragement in each step to complete the thesis He is truly an inspired soul

A sincere word of thanks should be sent to Atron, who has always been willing to help, share experience, patiently spend hours explaining sophisticated concepts to me

as well as being my demanding proofreader, giving me a much-needed sense of direction whenever I am in times of trouble

I would also like to extend thanks to all my students and colleagues at University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Center for Foreign Languages (USSH CFL) Throughout the various stages of this research, their participation and their support more or less assisted me to reach its final success

Last but not least, special thanks is reserved for my whole family They have been an important and indispensable source of spiritual support for my writing this Master thesis I love my family This thesis is dedicated to them

Notwithstanding all of the above support for this project, any errors or omissions are solely my own

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY i

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xii

LIST OF TABLES xiv

LIST OF FIGURES AND DIAGRAMS xv

ABSTRACT xvi

CHAPTER 1 1

1.1 Background to the research 1

1.1.1 The rising role of vocabulary in modern pedagogy 1

1.1.2 The intolerable situation of students’ vocabulary knowledge from the current study setting 2

1.1.3 The prevailing trend of concordance-oriented research in vocabulary teaching 3

1.2 The purpose of the study 4

1.3 Research questions and hypotheses 5

1.3.1 Research questions 5

1.3.2 Research hypotheses 5

1.4 Significance of the study 6

1.5 Organization of the study 6

CHAPTER 2 8

2.1 Definition of vocabulary 8

2.1.1 Features of vocabulary 9

2.1.2 Vocabulary size in relation to proficiency levels 11

2.2 Vocabulary Learning 12

2.2.1 The process of vocabulary learning 12

2.2.2 Incremental nature of vocabulary learning 13

2.2.3 The concept of concordance 14

2.2.4 How should vocabulary be learned? 16

2.3 Vocabulary Instruction 17

2.3.1 Tendency of teaching vocabulary in an L2 classroom 17

2.3.2 Essential components of vocabulary instruction 19

2.3.3 Proposals for vocabulary instruction 21

2.3.3.1 Task-based instruction (TBI) 21

2.3.3.2 Theoretical grounds behind concordance task-based instruction 23

2.4 Review of prior studies 27

2.4.1 Studies into the role of CTBI in L2 teaching in general 27

2.4.2 Studies into the role of web-based CTBI in L2 vocabulary teaching 28

2.4.3 Studies into the role of paper-based CTBI in L2 vocabulary teaching 29

2.5 A summary of the gaps found 30

2.6 Conceptual Framework 31

2.7 Chapter Summary 33

CHAPTER 3 35

3.1 Research questions 35

3.2 Research Design 35

3.2.1 Quantitative phase 36

3.2.1.1 Quasi-Experimental Design 36

3.2.1.2 Nonrandom sampling and threat to internal validity 37

3.2.2 Qualitative phase 37

3.2.2.1 Interview 37

3.3 Research Site and Participants 39

3.3.1 Research Site 39

3.3.2 Participants 39

3.4 Research Instruments 40

3.4.1 Pretest – Posttest – Delayed Posttest 40

3.4.1.1 Vocabulary size test description 40

3.4.1.2 Test administration and scoring criteria 41

3.4.2 Progress Tests 42

3.4.3 Interviews 42

3.5 Research Materials 45

3.5.1 Textbooks 45

3.5.2 Concordance-based materials 46

3.5.3 Basis for the selection of the vocabulary to be taught 47

3.6 Data collection procedure 48

3.6.1 Experiment Conducting 48

3.6.2 Interview Conducting 51

3.7 Data Analysis Procedure 51

3.7.1 Experimental Data Analysis 51

3.7.2 Interview Data Analysis 52

3.8 Chapter Summary 52

CHAPTER 4 54

4.1 Results of quantitative research 55

4.1.1 Demonstration for the test scores’ normal distribution 55

4.1.2 Statistical analysis of Pre-test result 56

4.1.3 Statistical analysis of progress test results 57

4.1.4 Statistical analysis of post-test result 59

4.1.5 Paired Samples T Test for both groups 60

4.1.5.1 Paired Samples T-Test for the Comparison Group 60

4.1.5.2 Paired Samples T-Test for the Experimental Group 61

4.1.6 Statistical analysis of Delayed Posttest result 62

4.2 Results of qualitative research 62

4.2.1 Favorable attitudes towards CTBI 63

4.2.2 The existing challenges of CTBI 63

4.2.3 Preference for the application of CTBI 64

4.2.4 Participants’ autonomous behaviors as a result of CTBI 65

4.2.5 Respondents’ comments and suggestions 65

4.3 Discussion of the findings 66

4.3.1 Research Question 1: Do English non-majored students at USSH CFL who receive concordance task-based instruction have a higher level of vocabulary learning and retention than those who receive a textbook task-based instruction? 66 4.3.1.1 From noticing to deep processing 67

4.3.1.2 Multiple exposures in multiple contexts 68

4.3.1.3 Opportunities for active involvement 69

4.3.1.4 Fostering learners’ autonomy 70

4.3.2 Research Question 2: To what extent does concordance treatment affect student motivation with regard to those in the experimental group? 71

4.4 Chapter summary 73

CHAPTER 5 74

5.1 Summary of the key findings 74

5.2 Implications 76

5.3 Limitations of the study 77

5.4 Recommendations for further research 77

5.5 Chapter summary 79

REFERENCES 80

APPENDIX 1 92

APPENDIX 2 101

APPENDIX 3 109

APPENDIX 4 127

APPENDIX 5 129

APPENDIX 6 135

APPENDIX 7 136

APPENDIX 8A 137

APPENDIX 8B 138

APPENDIX 8C 139

APPENDIX 9A 140

APPENDIX 9B 142

APPENDIX 9C 144

APPENDIX 9D 146

APPENDIX 9E 148

APPENDIX 9F 150

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

BNC: British National Corpus

CFL: Center for Foreign Languages

CG: Comparison Group

COCA: Corpus of Contemporary American English

CTBI: Concordance task-based instruction

DelayedT: Delayed Posttest

d: Cohen’s effect size

EAL: English as an Additional Language

ESL/EFL: English as a Second / Foreign Language

EG: Experimental Group

ELT: English Language Teaching

Sig (2-tailed): Significance (two-tailed)

SPSS: Statistics Package for the Social Sciences

USSH: University of Social Sciences and Humanities – Ho Chi Minh City VST: Vocabulary Size Test

X : Mean Score

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 What Is Involved in Knowing a Word 11

Table 3.1 Approximate EFL vocabulary size scores associated with CEFR levels and formal EFL exams 12

Table 3.2 The function of main questions in the interview 45

Table 3.3 Summary of Tentative Time for Both Groups 49

Table 3.4 Content of the lessons outlined for 6 weeks 49

Table 3.5 Summary of the Treatment for the EG vs CG 49

Table 4.1 Summary of the Independent Samples T-Test result for the Pre-test 57

Table 4.2 Criterion-referenced results for two teaching approaches 58

Table 4.3 Summary of the Independent Sample T-test result for the Posttest 60

Table 4.4 Paired Samples Statistics for the CG Pretest and Posttest 61

Table 4.5 Paired Samples Statistics for the EG Pretest and Posttest 61

Table 4.6 Summary of the Independent sample t-test result for the DelayedT 62

LIST OF FIGURES AND DIAGRAMS

Figure 2.1 A concordance display of Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) 15 Figure 2.2 The four essential components of vocabualry instruction 19 Figure 2.3 The original 2-stage model of the Atkinson-Shiffrin memory model 25 Figure 2.4 Four essential components of the concordance task-based instruction 26 Figure 2.5 How concordance task-based instruction foster vocabulary growth –retention and student motivation 33 Figure 3.1 Explanatory Sequential Mixed Methods Design 36 Figure 4.1 Distribution demonstration for the test scores of both groups 55 Figure 4.2 The estimated mean scores between of 2 groups in 3 progress tests 59 Diagram 3.1 Summary of the research design 38

ABSTRACT

The current thesis aimed at testifying the effects of concordance task-based instruction (CTBI) on vocabulary learning and retention of non-English majors at University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Center for Foreign Languages (USSH CFL) Furthermore, to what extent the students’ motivation was affected after the

concordance treatment will also be indicated

For the purpose of tackling this rather multifaceted issue, the quasi-experimental design was properly employed for 49 pre-intermediate students in the study first After the pretest, the experimental group will be taught with CTBI while the comparison group will learn with the textbook task-based instruction (TTBI) Additionally, vocabulary learning process of the two groups was assessed via three progress tests during the six-week treatment stage Next, a posttest was administered

to both groups After four weeks of the first posttest, the second posttest was exploited

to determine the effect of CTBI on vocabulary retention T-tests and descriptive mixed ANOVA were employed to analyze the collected data from the vocabulary tests including a pretest, progress tests and posttests Besides, some of the treated students’ motivation was also examined through interviews to further confirm the credibility of CTBI

That the treated subjects who learned with concordances excelled those experienced TTBI was statistically affirmed in terms of vocabulary learning and retention Moreover, the majority of the students interviewed declared their positiveness towards CTBI in learning and retaining vocabulary Briefly, these yielded results proved that the concordance-based instruction has a significant effect on students’ vocabulary learning and the effect will not fade away over time This has offered foundations for the intriguing pedagogical implications, which can bring fruitful results for EFL teachers, learners and even material developers for future developments

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This first thesis chapter, providing the introduction to the present research, includes (1) background to the study, (2) research purpose, (3) research questions and research hypotheses, (4) significance of the study and (5) organization of the thesis First, brief background information leads to the researcher’s motivation for choosing the current topic Then, the purposes will be fully clarified for carrying out this research Next, the research question as well as research hypotheses will be addressed Finally, the significance and the overall structure of the thesis will be presented

1.1 Background to the research

The framework within which this study came into shape entails the subsequent key urgencies

1.1.1 The rising role of vocabulary in modern pedagogy

Over recent decades, the prominence of vocabulary in developing language proficiency has been highlighted In the early 1990s, Wilkins declared that “little can

be conveyed without grammar but nothing can be conveyed without vocabulary” (p.111) Lewis (1993) went further to argue, “lexis is the core or heart of language” (p 89) Underscoring the vital role of vocabulary, Nation (2001) also emphasized that vocabulary is a key area for any comprehension in all aspects of foreign language learning Obviously, many researchers have agreed on devoting attention to vocabulary in learning English as a second or foreign language (ESL/EFL) due to its contribution to the mastery of other skills of language learning (Nation & Webb, 2011) This can be apparently seen from the fact that textbook writers have a tendency

to attach the increasing importance to vocabulary Especially, its principal role clearly shown through many widely-used textbooks such as New Cutting Edge, Interaction, Mosaic, Outcomes, etc., in which vocabulary is more commonly introduced in the

very first part of each unit A perceived reality is that students currently do have a lot

of opportunities to be exposed to a variety of those frequently updated coursebooks in the academic environment as well Nevertheless, nearly all ESL/ EFL learners still encounter certain obstacles regarding vocabulary and it becomes one of the undeniable leading difficulties of language instruction (Cobb, 2003) Vocabulary learning has become a constant challenge for learners since several researchers Scott

& Nagy (1997) and Biemiller (2005) have documented the small percentage of instructional time dedicated to vocabulary teaching and the frequent absence of systematic, explicit vocabulary instruction The same situation exists in the researcher’s English teaching context In fact, many linguists, lexicographers, applied linguists and ELT practitioners increasingly recognize the importance of vocabulary knowledge and are exploring ways of promoting it more effectively in foreign language learning nowadays In classroom settings, however, it is always a “tough assignment” for the language teachers to create the favorable learning conditions so that their students can boost their own vocabulary growth as well as keep the instructed words long-lasting This is also the current research’s focus of attention

1.1.2 The intolerable situation of students’ vocabulary knowledge from the

current study setting

More particularly, working as a teacher for a foreign language center where this research was conducted, the researcher with more than 2–year teaching experience grasps the problem From her personal observations as well as several casual chat with students, the researcher noticed that minimal attention has been paid to vocabulary instruction in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms In particular, the class time there has been spent much on improving learners’ English skills, whereas the part of vocabulary instruction was overlooked in most of the teachers’ syllabuses Teaching vocabulary there simply means depending on the content of several accredited coursebooks which are already assigned by the school curriculum developers so as to follow dogmatically Since teachers do not always have adequate resources for developing alternative activities to make vocabulary

instruction more productive and powerful, vocabulary instruction in most of classrooms was usually incidental, mostly driven via student questions More specifically, whenever students encountered any unfamiliar word, they were usually directed to a dictionary or were provided a quick oral definition or even direct translation It is not surprising that these limited exposures did not bring about long-term vocabulary learning It is definitely contrary to Nagy (2005)’s viewpoint, the well-known author believes that it is really necessary for students to have a number of encounters with words in multiple contexts in the classroom before they understand, remember, and apply them

Such unpalatable facts gave rise to the thorny problem that most of the students there still have limited lexical knowledge and especially cannot keep the acquired vocabulary and retrieve it after a period of time As Zhang (2002) pointed out that how EFL learners can effectively remember, retain, and retrieve the newly learned English vocabulary is one of the biggest challenges for themselves Additionally, students’ motivation for learning vocabulary seems to be low due to prevalent teacher-led instruction with common tasks in conventional classrooms mentioned above As a consequence, under this study, isn’t it high time relieving this huge burden on our students’ shoulders?

1.1.3 The prevailing trend of concordance-oriented research in vocabulary

teaching

Those issues have raised the researcher’s concerns about how to ensure maximal vocabulary acquisition as well as durable vocabulary retention Meanwhile, the researcher by chance got access to McCarthy’s (1990) book named “Vocabulary” in

which the author noticeably mentioned concordance as a kind of data for vocabulary

learning Likewise, Ellis (1992, as cited in Schmitt, 2000, p.85) has promoted giving students language data so that they can be given key words to learn and can find their meanings and behavior in context by looking at numerous concordance examples Moreover, the research also found that (Dang, 2014) recently investigated the collocational knowledge of English-majored students as well as recommended

relevant pedagogical implications for future research This author highlighted the significance of explicit instruction and using corpora in teaching and learning of collocations - one aspect of vocabulary learning The aforementioned cues altogether seem to provoke a strong argument for explicit teaching of vocabulary in the classroom which is increasingly becoming a subject of empirical investigation as well

as reinforce the researcher’s belief in the potential of data obtained from corpora (concordances) for vocabulary teaching This strongly urged her to seek for an immediate rectification those unpleasant situations above The researcher first administered concordance-based instruction in pre-teaching vocabulary to a group of

10 pre-intermediate students for a trial period and realized that this application surprisingly got favorable attitudes from most of the participants From this preliminary result of the initial observations, the researcher decided to carry out the present study in order to thoroughly examine whether the provided input in association with a particular vocabulary teaching approach can have more profound impact on students’ vocabulary learning and retention or not, in a larger scale

The pervasion of concordance data into lexical facet of language has been apparently shown over the past two decades, concordance-based research was simultaneously introduced to the area of language education and has been searched worldwide (Fox, 1998); however, to the best of the researcher’s knowledge, no research has been found

so far focusing on concordances or concordance-based instruction, particularly in the area of teaching and learning English vocabulary in the Vietnamese ELT context Taking all those gaps into consideration, this study is an attempt to examine the effectiveness of concordance task-based instruction (CTBI) on teaching vocabulary to non-English majors at University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Center for

Foreign Languages (USSH CFL)

1.2 The purpose of the study

As a consequence of the aforesaid gaps identified in the lexical field, this study will

address a vocabulary instruction, which can help USSH CFL non-English majors gain

and retain more vocabulary in its courses An explanatory sequential mixed methods design will be used, and it will involve collecting quantitative data first and then explaining the quantitative results with in-depth qualitative data In the first quantitative phase of the study, vocabulary proficiency data will be collected from English non-majors at USSH CFL to assess whether concordance task-based instruction relates to vocabulary learning and retention The second qualitative phase will be conducted as a follow up to the quantitative results to help explain those results In this exploratory follow-up, the tentative plan is to explore the students'

motivation with six students of the experimental group will be mentioned in chapter 3 1.3 Research questions and hypotheses

2 To what extent does concordance treatment affect student motivation with regard to those in the experimental group?

1.3.2 Research hypotheses

This study is conducted to nullify the hypothesis that there is no difference in vocabulary learning and retention between English non-majors who do or do not attend concordance task-based classes The expected result that the study aims to achieve is that USSH CFL English non-majors receiving the concordance task-based instruction will perform significantly better than those who receive textbook task-based instruction, which is considered as a 'traditional' method of vocabulary instruction

1.4 Significance of the study

The current study contributes to our knowledge by addressing two important issues First, this research described here seeks to add to the growing body of research in terms of using printouts of concordance lines in English vocabulary instruction in academic settings In fact, many related studies were mostly web-based or specifically designed programs for checking collocation patterns, even the very recent study of Dang (2014) also focused on the usefulness of corpora or concordancing programs in learning collocations only, not concordance data in the area of general vocabulary teaching at USSH

Second, even though concordances and their printouts were also seen in previous studies, the researcher has not found any research which focuses merely on using this form of data for teaching vocabulary particularly in Vietnamese educational settings

so far In this way, the present research is expected to introduce and expand insights into how to apply paper-based concordances in Vietnamese classroom contexts with the purpose of solving non-English majors’ limitation of vocabulary learning and retention To a certain extent, it will be probably one of the very first contributions of the concordance-based tasks to English vocabulary instruction in the researcher’s context if its results turn positive The study therefore has the potential to provide a better theoretical understanding and practical implementation of this vocabulary instruction

1.5 Organization of the study

The study consists of five chapters

 Chapter One presents an introduction to the study consisting of the

background to the study, the aims of the study, the research questions, the research hypothesis, the significance of the study, and the organization of the study

 Chapter Two covers the key definitions of the study, the review of literature,

and previous researches relevant to the thesis Furthermore, a conceptual

framework is formed and apparently stated in order to provide the background for the research design, the data collection and analysis

 Chapter Three explains the methodology implemented for conducting the

research as well as for the analysis of the data used in this study It firstly presents the further expansion of the research questions and research design with a discussion of sampling and then describes study sites and participants, research instruments and materials for data collection, the selection of data for analysis, and the method of interview analysis for this study

 Chapter Four reports the statistical analysis and discussion of the collected

data, and summarizes the results of the study after the treatment Furthermore, simple descriptive results of interview analysis are presented, providing an in-depth discussion of the reported key findings Those major results were gathered to form the foundation on which some implications would be stated

 Chapter Five summarizes the research results, draws the conclusion and

indicates some of pedagogical implications of the findings for vocabulary learning and instruction Limitations of the study as well as recommendations for further research in this field are considered

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

As mentioned in chapter 1, the main purpose of this study is to find out the effects of concordance task-based instruction on non-English majors’ vocabulary learning and retention This second chapter will provide a theoretical orientation for establishing the conceptual framework of the study Initially, a number of key terminologies related to the study are fully clarified Then, the present chapter attempts to summarize and synthesize several past and more recent studies concerning concordance task-based instruction The thorough review also highlighted not only achievements but also limitations of those previous studies over the decades with the purpose of giving a justification for the chosen topic to take on sealing the identified research gaps

2.1 Definition of vocabulary

The first stage of the review of the literature is to understand what vocabulary is and the related aspects that it involves In fact, no precise and simple definition of vocabulary or word provided by linguists, scholars or researchers all over the world

Several vocabulary studies draw on a simple understanding of word, which means as

a “collection of the words of a language” (McCarthy, 1990, p.8) or “refers to all the words in a language, the entire vocabulary of a language” (Barcroft et al., 2011, p 571) The notion of vocabulary likely has something to do with all of the words in a

particular language, which is possibly how most people think of vocabulary, and that

is true since vocabulary does deal with words Yet vocabulary is far more than just single words, it also contains lexical chunks, phrases of two or more words such as

Good morning or Nice to meet you, which you learn as single lexical units As

Singleton (2000) identifies vocabulary also as a “collective expression in linguistic terminology” (p.1) Likewise, as Graves (2000) states, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, which includes words and expressions Due to requirements of learning a

foreign language, vocabulary gradually plays an indispensable part in an English Language Teaching; it is actually more complex than what those definitions suggested, it is bigger than just the meaning of words It covers a huge aspect of language and is the medium to express ideas As this study will indicate, the definition

of vocabulary is not only defined by online Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary in a loose way “vocabulary is all the words in a particular language” Broadly defined, however, vocabulary is knowledge of words and word meanings As Stahl (2005) stated that “vocabulary knowledge is knowledge; the knowledge of a word not only implies a definition, but also implies how that word fits into the world” (p.135) More specifically, from Gardener’s (2009, as cited in Adger, 2002) view, vocabulary is not only confined to the meaning of words but also includes how vocabulary in a language is structured: how people use and store words and how they learn words and the relationship between words, phrases, categories of words and phrases

2.1.1 Features of vocabulary

Indeed, linguists around the world such as Laufer (1997), Henricksen (1999), and Schmitt (2000) presented various views on the number of features to be acquired; however, most of them center on three significant aspects indicated by Nation

(2001): form, meaning, and use Those aspects of word knowledge are generally

agreed by most linguistic scholars as well as teachers Each component of word knowledge is considerably important for learners to learn about the word First of all, the most visible one is the word form which can be presented orally and in writing

The form of a word involves its pronunciation (spoken form), spelling (written

form), and any word parts that make up this particular item (such as a prefix, root, and suffix) Several teachers insist on the assumption that if learners can recognize the form, they have already known the word Nevertheless, the process of mastering

a word is so sophisticated that it appears to be, in which learners have to also discover what is inside the word The second common feature is the word meaning

as Ellis (1994) pointed out that more explicit attention should be given to meaning

According to Nation (2001), meaning encompasses the concept and what items it

refers to, and the associations that come to mind when people think about a specific

word or expression Use, Nation (2001) noted, involves the grammatical functions of

the word or phrase, collocations that go with it, and any constraints on its use, in terms of frequency, level, and so forth There is both a receptive and productive

dimension for these three aspects of each word or phrase (form, meaning, and use),

which actually involves 18 different types of lexical knowledge, as more specified in the following table Whenever teachers teach vocabulary, assisting students in learning any and all of these different components helps them in expanding their English vocabulary knowledge

Form spoken What does the word How is the word

written What does the word How is the word

look like? written and spelled?

word parts What parts are What word parts are

recognizable in this needed to express the

Meaning form and What meaning does What word form can

meaning this word form signal? be used to express

does this make people could people use think of? instead of this one?

Use grammatical In what patterns does In what patterns must

functions the word occur? people use this word?

collocations What words or types What words or types

of words occur with of words must people this one? use with this one?

constraints Where, when, and Where, when, and

on use how often would how often can people (register, people expect to meet use this word?

Frequency) this word?

Table 2.1 What Is Involved in Knowing a Word (adapted from Nation, 2001, p 27)

From what are shown in Table 2.1, knowing what are counted as aspects of word knowledge would enable EFL teachers to further explore the concepts of how vocabulary is acquired by learners when they learn a foreign language It also helps to identify the factors influencing the process of vocabulary acquisition, and thus to find out suitable ways to enhance vocabulary learning which also leads to the next section

2.1.2 Vocabulary size in relation to proficiency levels

It is widely believed that vocabulary tests are often used to make inferences about students’ level of L2 competence, it is also important to consider how vocabulary knowledge grows in relation to proficiency (Milton, 2009) In order to gain a detailed view of the interrelationship of vocabulary knowledge and proficiency, Milton and Meara (2003) produced estimates of the vocabulary knowledge EFL learners can be expected to have at each of the six stages of the CEFR (Council of Europe 2001) It

would be an element of the objective growth in vocabulary knowledge assessment as

Cambridge Advanced English (CAE)

As table 3.1 indicates, both groups are in the same B1 level that is equivalent to

2750-3250 vocabulary size scores of EFL independent users, the researcher decided to only choose the first four parts of the overall Vocabulary Size Test as the main test of the present study because of the restricted time and the difficulty of the whole original test

2.2 Vocabulary Learning

2.2.1 The process of vocabulary learning

General speaking, language learning cannot take place without what is called

“noticing” – the process of attending consciously to linguistic features of the input In

1995, Schmidt argued that this is not surprising as giving attention to language

learning generally makes that learning more effective More particularly, according to Nation and Meara (2002), vocabulary learning will become more focused and goal-directed if learners’ attention is specifically drawn to lexical features of the input to which they are exposed In this respect, it contrasts with incidental learning Learners

can knowingly focus their attention on the formal properties of language, facilitating

their vocabulary learning To put it simply, noticing only happen when it is influenced

by some particular features and frequency in input is clearly one of them For example, if a lexical item of the second language (L2) knowledge occurs a lot in the learner’s sight that may make it more likely to be noticed After being noticed, that individual lexical item needs to be met many times in order to be learned (Nation, 2001) as a result of the incremental feature of vocabulary acquisition

2.2.2 Incremental nature of vocabulary learning

It is no doubt that vocabulary learning is a fundamental part of foreign language acquisition As Gersten and Baker (2000) clearly stated that “vocabulary learning plays a major role in successful programs for English-language learners” (p.462) Learning vocabulary is a rather more complex process than it might at first sight appear because of the fact that it is incremental in nature It is not something that can ever be fully mastered; it is something that expands and deepens over the course of a

lifetime since there has been a consensus on the multiplicity of word knowledge

Schmitt (2000) mentioned that complete mastery of a word entails a number of components of word knowledge, not all of which can be completely learned simultaneously As a matter of fact, some types of word knowledge are established before others in order for a lexical item to be properly acquired since vocabulary acquisition is incremental in nature Hence, multiple exposures to a particular word is

a large contributing factor to consolidate word knowledge The accumulation of knowledge of different aspects of a word from repeated exposures can eventually strengthen retention as well as retrieval of such lexical knowledge In fact, although the tasks in the textbooks are also designed according to this incremental feature, students are still not exposed enough to new words in order to be able to retain and

retrieve in new contexts This seems to be a constructive suggestion for a form of data with the prominent feature that is providing multiple contextual exposures to learn, recall and remember the lexical items better

2.2.3 The concept of concordance

As regards the idea getting from McCarthy’s (1990) suggestion mentioned in the previous chapter, concordance lines are considered to be systematically meaningful when attached to teaching method in the classroom With the format of Key-Word-In-Context displays (KWIC), concordance lines are examples of words or phrases under investigation are situated in the center of the page with their left and right contexts Concordances usually display several lines of context Through concordance listings,

it is possible to see the meanings and words related to the word being investigated, as well as how it behaves in a context (Biber et al., 1998) Hyland, a renowned researcher in the field of concordance data, defined:

A concordance brings together all instances of a search word or phrase in the corpus

as a list of unconnected lines of text with the node word in the centre together with a sample of its linguistic environments These lines therefore give instances of language use when read horizontally and evidence of system when read vertically This makes

it possible for the user to see regularities in its use that might otherwise be missed (2006, p.61)

Concordance lines are usually produced by the concordancing programs since a raw corpus of any realistic size is far too large for the human analyst to be able to observe and remember significant patterns A corpus is a compilation of natural texts that contains an abundance of contextual examples for any given vocabulary item, as O’Keeffe et al (2007) briefly defined a corpus is a collection of texts, written or spoken, which is stored on a computer However, in the context of this study, those web-based programs or software are not practical due to the restriction of technology

in the researcher’s academic setting as well as there were already too many

concordancing research Therefore, concordance lines were selected from a corpus

and prepared in the form of paper-based materials by the researcher In this way, EFL

teachers and learners can easily focus on the target words in their real contexts and

benefit from the information on both lexical and grammatical patterns of real

language (Gaskell & Cobb, 2004) Here are some sample lines from a concordance of

the word “priority” using the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA)

Figure 2.1 A concordance display of Corpus of Contemporary American English

(COCA)

A number of researchers have been recommended the application of concordances as

a basic method of promoting vocabulary learning as well as several advantages of

examining concordances First, learners meet vocabulary in real contexts Second, multiple contexts provide rich information on a variety of aspects of knowing a word Third, the use of concordance involves discovery learning in which learners are challenged to actively construct generalizations and not patterns Finally, learners can control their learning and develop their own investigative strategies On account of containing all necessary features of a potential data for learning, concordance lines are suggested to be used as a new tool for students in learning vocabulary This fact is congruent with the statement of Cobb (1999a), “knowledge encoded from data by learners themselves will be more flexible, transferable and useful than knowledge encoded for them by experts and transmitted to them by an instructor or other delivery agents” (p.15)

In spite of its numerous advantages, the difficulty with concordances lies in its initial inaccessibility Students are faced with large quantities of text which are not in sentences to be read from left to right, but snippets of text, with a central keyword, intended to be scanned from top to bottom This can be extremely off-putting for a learner who is struggling to make sense of the language, and can lead to a great deal

of initial resistance to this kind of data However, with preprinted and presorted concordances of limited length, learners feel easier to answer questions that encouraged them to process the text in an appropriate way This might make the tasks more manageable, motivating and interesting for the learners (Gilquin & Granger, 2010) All in all, the role of concordance data here is obviously stressed in this learning context

2.2.4 How should vocabulary be learned?

In order to argue for the potential pedagogical application of concordance data on vocabulary learning, it is crucial to consider the way students should learn vocabulary Through empirical research in the domain of L2 vocabulary learning and their further student observations, the authors (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001) reported the result that learners have always shown a keen interest in finding out how words can best be learned” In answering that question, researchers’ perspectives tend to diverge There

have been numerous studies focusing on choosing a suitable strand of learning

vocabulary As Schmidt (2008) mentions, there are two main types of vocabulary learning including incidental and intentional vocabulary learning However, according

to the purpose of this study, the researcher is in agreement with the prevalent strand which is intentional vocabulary learning because “explicit learning focuses directly on the information to be learned, which gives the greatest chance for its acquisition” (Schmitt, 2000, p.120) Intentional vocabulary learning is a process, in which words are intentionally focused on by the learners or explicitly taught in the class through learning strategies (Schmitt, 2010) Several other evidences also suggest that the knowledge aspect (both breadth and depth) requires more conscious and explicit learning mechanisms whereas the skill aspect involves mostly implicit learning (Ellis, 1994) More importantly, Hulstijn (2011) added that incidental vocabulary learning refers to acquisition of a word when there is no conscious intention whereas the intentional vocabulary learning refers to “a deliberate attempt to commit factual information to memory” (p.1)

2.3 Vocabulary Instruction

In general, EFL students are still not provided enough conditions to accelerate their vocabulary learning as mentioned in chapter 1 Given a restricted time in academic settings, learners desire a formal instruction to prepare themselves for dealing with the demand of real language learning and retention Similarly, students in the researcher’s context urgently need strong instructional opportunities to learn and retain vocabulary better, whereby both the study and experiment are initially aware of getting enough scientifically based foundation for designing a rich and multifaceted vocabualry instruction which is like a remedial work on bridging this gap

2.3.1 Tendency of teaching vocabulary in an L2 classroom

Throughout the history of EFL teaching, there have been numerous instructional approaches to vocabulary teaching, each with different perspectives on vocabulary learning However, as can be observed from the overwhelming majority of reviews on vocabulary pedagogy conducted by Schmitt (2000), Thornbury (2002), and Ellis

(2009) as well as some other empirical researchers, there are two dominant trends to vocabulary acquisition: implicit and explicit instruction For many of the EFL teachers, their perspective on teaching vocabulary was greatly influenced by the top-down, naturalistic, and communicative approaches of the 1970s and 1980s The emphasis was implicit, incidental learning of vocabulary This mode tends to be heavily weighted in favor of self-vocabulary learning via extensive reading, through which learning is fostered through repeated exposure to reading input As for implicit vocabulary instruction, material grading could be said to be a principal role of ELT practitioners More specifically, teachers devote most of their time to selecting the appropriate input for their students and hope that adequate immersion in reading will promote vocabulary learning on the part of the students Meanwhile, several advocates of explicit instruction have also raised doubts about the claim that learners are able to learn vocabulary from reading itself According to Pigada and Schmitt’s (2006) study, learning does occur but with modest efficiency if learners are exposed

to texts in a natural way without deliberate intervention Moreover, Sokmen (1997) also concluded that learning vocabulary incidentally does not necessarily result in long-term retention It was also worth noticing that students were encouraged to read more language materials for learning vocabulary, this seems to be far different from the view regarding how new words could be best taught in an L2 classroom Current research, therefore, would suggest that it is worthwhile to add explicit vocabulary instruction to the usual incidental learning activities in the L2 classroom (Stoller & Grabe, 1993), (Wesche & Paribakht, 1994) Nevertheless, the question remains about how best to implement this kind of vocabulary instruction in the classroom Throughout the literature, there is a number of key pedagogical principles of explicit vocabulary teaching, which are indeed based on our most recent understanding of how words are acquired and remembered These traits fit very well with the requirements of an effective vocabulary instruction

2.3.2 Essential components of vocabulary instruction

Broadly speaking, an effective vocabulary instruction is a long-term comprehensive proposition Although the exact nature of effective instruction changes across grade levels, the focus on and commitment to vocabulary instruction is a sustaining component According to Graves (2006), an effective instruction must be multifaceted, encompassing four key components: rich and varied language experiences, direct teaching of individual words, independent word-learning strategies, fostering word consciousness

Figure 2.2 The four essential components of vocabualry instruction (adapted

or context clues as stated in chapter 1 The researcher will pre-teach vocabulary before language use activities and this is one of various forms of intentional vocabulary instruction, according to Schmitt (2000) “explicit teaching can supply valuable first introductions to a word” (p.137) With the purpose of teaching words explicitly, there are three steps and four strategies to follow (NICHD, 2000; Beck, et al.,2002; Graves, 2006; PREL, 2008) In this paper context, three steps and only three strategies of the last step will be further elaborated below

1 Identify the potential list of words to be taught

2 Determine which of these words to teach

3 Plan how to teach the words using the following strategies

First, students need strong instructional opportunities to develop deep levels of word knowledge from context clues There is a tendency to think of vocabulary knowledge

as consisting of isolated, memorized information about the meanings of specific words, but such a conception is clearly inadequate A variety of types of knowledge about words contributes to word learning Scott and Nagy (2004) suggested that using context to learn various aspects of words – their word parts, their meanings, relationships with other words Teaching context clues involves good planning, explicit instruction, and opportunities for students to practice (Blachowicz et al., 2005) This brings us to the other components of effective vocabulary instruction

Second, an effective vocabulary instruction requires educators to intentionally provide multiple exposures for students to learn words, related concepts, and their meanings According to Hiebert and Kamil (2005), in order to promote the large-scale, long-term vocabulary growth that is necessary for academic success, we need to do more than teach individual words The need for exposure to rich language is especially acute for less able readers – students who tend to have limited vocabularies Many researchers believe that a substantial proportion of vocabulary growth occurs as learners gradually

learn new words through repeated encounters with the words in texts or in conversation Beck et al.(2002) also noted that extensive exposure to both written and oral language is the primary engine that drives vocabulary growth Furthermore, the greatest gains in word knowledge were achieved when an interactive approach was used This continues leading us to another essential component of a comprehensive approach

Finally, offering opportunities for active involvement also contributes to the process

of enhance students’ vocabulary growth As highlighted by Coyne et al.(2007), an active vocabulary instruction should permeate a classroom, contain rich information and include teacher – student activities and interactive activities that target new words In this way, addressing the value of scaffolding questions as students become more familiar with words when teachers initially ask low-demand questions and gradually increase the complexity of the questions to the high-demand level, improving students’ abilities to apply word knowledge to the task of comprehension

2.3.3 Proposals for vocabulary instruction

In fact, the effectiveness of explicit vocabulary teaching has been empirically proved

in the literature by studies of Nation (2001), Elgort (2011) As a result, the explicit

vocabulary instruction, with its more considerable powers, will offer crucial points of reference for the researcher when it comes to the search for a feasible vocabulary instruction for the present study This is absolutely consistent with Schmidt’s (2000) suggestion that “in any well-structured vocabulary program there needs to be the proper mix of explicit teaching and activities from which incidental learning can occur” (p.145) Regarding this suggestion, explicit vocabulary instruction is the full attempt of teaching vocabulary by exploiting different teaching techniques, which take the teacher-student interaction into account

2.3.3.1 Task-based instruction (TBI)

In response to these limitations about the traditional PPP method of teaching, several researchers have offered alternatives to it With more innovative teaching ideas, task-

based instruction (TBI) is one of those Indeed, TBI is argued to be such an approach creates more favorable and better conditions for the development of second language ability than does an approach that focuses solely on the explicit teaching and learning

of the rules of the language (Robinson, 2001) In Ellis’s (2012) words, it is an approach that emphasizes holistic learning, it is learner-driven and it entails communication-based instruction Adopting this approach from the current textbooks for the present study context, the researcher believes that explicit approach could look more “innovative” and “energetic” once integrated into the task-based teaching framework where teachers model on a language facilitator, actively avoiding kinds of activities such as drilling or error correction that facilitators do not use Learners are also trained to be their own managers since they learn the necessary skills in order to deal well with this linguistic feature in class by themselves before asking for any help from their teachers With those outstanding characteristics, task-based instruction is apparently a key part of the desired instruction This teaching approach has the indication that language learning is a developmental process promoting communication and social interaction rather than a product acquired by practicing language items, and that learners learn the target language more effectively when they are naturally exposed to task-based activities

The explicit teaching of target words before students perform a communicative task is the approach most commonly associated with the presentation – practice – production (PPP) method and is not accepted by many supporters of TBI However, Nunan (2005) does see a place for language focus before the main task, and it has remained popular with teachers (Carless, 2009) In this study context, the researcher is also in line with the idea that there is a place for explicit vocabulary instruction (some kind of preplanned language focus) in task-based language teaching This is the so-called indirect explicit instruction mode, in which classroom procedures still aim at fostering deliberate vocabulary teaching, but the way teachers introduce vocabulary is less direct through carefully designed tasks, leaving students more space for self-

exploration This is a brief of some theoretical grounds upon which concordance based instruction is built could be found hereafter

task-2.3.3.2 Theoretical grounds behind concordance task-based instruction

Concordance task-based instruction (CTBI), which is also termed shortly as

concordance-based tasks, is a kind of method typically involves corpus compilation from authentic texts, grading the corpus, producing concordance output as reference materials for the task-based instruction In language pedagogy application, this instruction is underpinned by another learning approach called “data-driven learning”

It is supported by current approaches within language teaching pedagogy, being learner-centered, using authentic language input and encouraging learners to “notice” linguistic features It can be viewed as a task-based approach with language as topic, and one in which “learning by doing interacts thoroughly with learning by reflection” (Little, 1996, p.210), a feature encouraging autonomous behavior The notion of data-driven learning was first introduced by Johns (1990) referred to the use of a corpus of texts with designed concordancing software (web-based programs) to find answers to linguistic questions in the classroom The learners here are viewed as “research workers whose learning needs to be driven by access to linguistic data”, whose role is

to “identify – classify – generalize” (Johns, 1991, p.4) that data, rather than relying on their teachers’ intuition or research

At the theoretical aspect, CTBI, as a matter of fact, is formed on four basic assumptions

First, this approach uses authentic language input - concordance lines, encouraging learners to “notice” linguistic features from different examples with various contexts According to Noticing Hypothesis developed by Schmidt, “nothing can be learned without noticing it first” (Tavakoli, 2013, p.248) That is to say, noticing is supposed

to be a vital prerequisite to acquisition and learning will not occur without the process

of attending consciously to linguistic features in the input By noticing, learners first perceive some kind of external feature and allow working memory to attend to it,