The effectiveness of applying computer aids in teaching vocabulary to the second year students at the central professional school of the archives and record management no 2 luận văn

ABSTRACT This thesis study investigates the current situation of teaching and learning vocabulary, the effectiveness of computer aids in teaching vocabulary to the second-year students o

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

-W  X -

THE EFFECTIVENESS

OF APPLYING COMPUTER AIDS IN TEACHING VOCABULARY TO THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT THE CENTRAL PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL OF

THE ARCHIVES AND RECORD

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for

the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL)

Submitted by PHẠM THỊ THUÝ VÂN

Supervisor: LÊ THỊ THANH THU, Ed.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, March 2006

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I certify authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:

The Effectiveness of applying computer aids in teaching vocabulary to the second-year students at the Central Professional School of the Archives and Record Management

in term of the statement of Requirement for the Theses in Master’s Programmes issued by the Higher Degree Committee

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institution

Ho Chi Minh City, March 20, 2006

PHẠM THỊ THUÝ VÂN

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, Phạm Thị Thúy Vân, being the candidate for the degree

of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library

In term 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 theses

Ho Chi Minh City, March 20, 2006

PHẠM THỊ THUÝ VÂN

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Dr Le Thi Thanh Thu, who has provided sound advice, insightful discussion, invaluable comment and strong support in the development and completion of this thesis

I would also like to sincerely acknowledge my debt to all the lecturers of the TESOL graduate program at HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities for their helpful instruction during the course from the year 2002-2005

My special thanks go to Dr To Minh Thanh, lecturer of the Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature, HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities,

Dr Dinh Dien, Information Technology Faculty of HCM city University of Natural Sciences, Dr Do Van Nhon, the Centre for Information Technology Development, HCM city National University and Ms Nguyen Thanh Nga, Cleverlearn Foreign Language Centre for their enthusiastic and precious helps

I wish to thank the English teachers of Nguyen Cong Tru, Marrie Currie, Ly Thuong Kiet, Ngo Thoi Nhiem high schools and all the students of the Central Professional School of Archives and Record Management No2 participating in the research Never would this thesis have been accomplished without their helpful hands in the data collection and their cooperation I am grateful to Miss Vo Ho Bao Khanh of the Centre for Information Technology Development, HCM city National University for her enthusiastic assistance in designing the teaching program I am further indebted to all my colleagues and my friends, in particular, Ms Doan Linh Chi, Ms Le Thi Lan, Ms Le Hong Hue for their moral support, good friendship and enjoyable company This thesis would have never been possible without the support and facility assistance of the Central Professional School of Archives and Record Management No 2 and the Department of Basic Science Subjects

Last but not least, thanks go to my family; to my parents, sisters and brothers, who well believe in and keep on encouraging me; to my husband, an engineer of Information Technology, who has provided me precious suggestions on the experiment design, who understands me and unselfishly sacrifices his time and

ABSTRACT

This thesis study investigates the current situation of teaching and learning vocabulary, the effectiveness of computer aids in teaching vocabulary to the second-year students of the Central Professional School of Archives and Record Management No 2 (CPSARM No 2) by investigating to what extent computer aids motivate students to learn vocabulary and improve students’ scores

The results indicates that students’ previous experiences in learning vocabulary formed a habit of knowing only the meaning of word in Vietnamese and this hindered students’ ability of using vocabulary communicatively Pronunciation is the biggest problem for students in vocabulary learning and pictures are proved to be the best factor effecting vocabulary acquisition The computer aids in vocabulary teaching can help to solve these problems

Computer aids in vocabulary have a lot of effectiveness They can motivate students to learn the new words Videos, pictures, and sound presented by computers stimulate sight and hearing simultaneously in a way traditional resources

do not and so it can help students better memorise and produce the words Computer aids have brought significant positive changes in students’ vocabulary scores Suggestion of the finding are also discussed with the emphasis on applying computer applications in enhancing the language teaching quality

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality i

Retention and use of the thesis ii

Acknowledgement iii

Abstract iv

Table of contents v

List of tables and figures ix

List of appendices xi

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background 1

1.2 Research questions 4

1.3 Significance of the study 4

1.4 Limitation 4

1.5 Organization 5

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Vocabulary acquisition 6

2.1.1 Definitions of Words and Vocabulary 6

2.1.2 The role of vocabulary acquisition in language learning and teaching 7

2.1.3 Aspects of knowing a word 8

2.1.3.1 Form of the word 9

2.1.3.2 Meaning 10

2.1.3.3 Word use 12

2.2 Factors affecting vocabulary acquisition 12

2.2.1 Learners’ motivation 13

2.2.2 Comprehensible input and output 15

2.2.3 Imagery 16

2.2.4 The intrinsic difficulties of the words 17

2.2.5 The influence of learners’ previous experience and mother tongue 18

2.3 Vocabulary teaching 19

2.3.1 The approaches of teaching and learning vocabulary 20

2.3.1.1 Incidental learning 20

2.3.1.2 Explicit instruction 21

2.3.1.3 Independent strategy development 21

2.3.2 Techniques of teaching vocabulary 22

2.3.2.1 Presentation 23

2.3.2.2 Practice 24

2.3.2.3 Production 25

2.3.2.4 Review 26

2.4 Testing vocabulary 26

2.4.1 Aspects of word knowledge for testing 27

2.4.2 Vocabulary-testing techniques 28

2.5 The Effectiveness of Computer Aids in Vocabulary Teaching 29

2.5.1 The Effectiveness of Computer Aids in providing contexts, authentic materials and enhancing language environment 30

2.5.1.1 CAI providing the authentic materials 30

2.5.1.2 CAI providing the contexts 32

2.5.1.2 CAI enhancing the language environment 33

2.5.2 Computer aids motivating the learners to learn vocabulary 35

2.5.2.1 Motivating learning individualization 35

2.5.2.2 CAI enhancing the feelings of Achievement and Success 36

2.5.3 Motivating students to produce and memorise vocabulary 36

2.6 Summary 37

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH DESIGN 38

3.1 Research questions 38

3.2 Methodology 38

3.3 Research Design 40

3.3.1 The experiment 40

3.3.1.1 Time and Setting 40

3.3.1.2 Sample population 40

3.3.1.3 Experiment instrument 41

3.3.1.3.1 The tests 41

3.3.1.3.2 The test format 41

3.3.1.3.3 Scoring 42

3.3.1.3.4 CAI application 42

3.3.1.4 Procedures 43

3.3.1.4.1 Pretest 43

3.3.1.4.2 Teaching process 43

3.3.1.4.3 Posttest 43

3.3.2 The survey on students 44

3.3.2.1 Time and setting 44

3.3.2.2 Instrument 44

3.3.2.3 Procedures 44

3.3.3 The survey on teachers 45

3.3.3.1 Time and setting 45

3.3.3.2 Instruments 45

3.3.3.4 Procedures 45

3.4 Method of Data Analysis 46

CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDING 47

4.1 General student background and its relation to students’ motivation in learning English at CPSRAM No 2 47

4.1.1 Genders 47

4.1.2 Places the students studied before entering the CPSARM No2 48

4.1.3 English learning experience 49

4.1.4 Age 50

4.2 The current situation of vocabulary learning and teaching 51

4.2.1 The role of vocabulary at high schools and in students’ perception 52

4.2.1.1 The role of vocabulary at high school curriculum 52

4.2.1.2 The role of vocabulary in the students’ perception 55

4.2.2 Method of presenting the meaning of new words 56

4.2.2.1 Method of presenting the meaning of new words at high schools 56

4.2.2.2 Students’ preference of vocabulary presentation 58

4.2.3 The techniques of drilling vocabulary in the class 59

4.2.3.1 The techniques of vocabulary drilling at high schools 59

4.2.3.2 Students’ preference of the vocabulary drilling method 60

4.2.4 Students’ difficulties in learning vocabulary 62

4.2.5 Factors affecting students’ vocabulary acquisition 63

4.3 Computer effectiveness in motivating students to learn vocabulary 65

4.3.1 The students’ previous experience in learning English with computer at high school and for self- study outside the school 66

4.3.1.1 The students’ previous experience in learning English with computer at high schools 66

4.3.1.2 Students’ use of computer for self-study 66

4.3.2 Computer aids effectiveness in providing reference material for language teaching 67

4.3.3 The effectiveness of computer aids in providing the contexts to teach vocabulary 68

4.3.3.1 Frequency of using computer in teaching English 68

4.3.3.2 Forms of the computer aids the teachers usually use 69

4.3.3.3 The most explored functions of Power Point 69

4.3.3.4 Students’ preference of forms of the computer application 70

4.3.4 Judgment on the effectiveness of computer aids in language teaching 72

4.3.4.1 Teachers’ judgment 72

4.3.4.2 Students’ judgment 73

4.4 The effectiveness of computer aids in improving students’ vocabulary scores 75

4.4.1 The pretest scores of the two groups 75

4.4.2 The posttest scores of the two groups 76

4.4.3 The difference between the pretest scores and the posttest scores of each group 77

4.4.5 Classification of the test scores 78

4.5 Difficulties the teachers face with applying computer aids in language teaching 80

4.6 Summary of the findings 81

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 85

5.1 Conclusion 85

5.2 Recommendations 89

5.2.1 Intensifying communicative approach in English Vocabulary Teaching and changing the assessment criteria at high schools 89

5.2.2 The suggested teaching methods for teaching vocabulary 89

5.2.3 Suggested techniques to teach vocabulary to students at CPSARM No 2 90

5.2.3.1 Improving student's pronunciation 90

5.2.3.2 Using communicative activities to motivate students to produce English 91

5.2.3.3 Eliciting student talk 92

5.2.3.4 Some suggested activities with the computer 93

5.3 Suggestions on computer training 95

5.3.1 Training students to use computer for self-study 95

5.3 2 Training teachers with computer technology 95

APPENDICES 97

REFERENCES 119

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 2.1 What is involved in knowing a word 8

Table 2.2 Practical steps to enhance the learners’ motivation in learning a language 15

Table 2.3 Aspects of word knowledge for testing 27

Table 4.1 The students’ genders 47

Table 4.2 Places where the students studied before entering the CPSRAM No 2 48

Table 4.3 The students’ English learning experience 49

Table 4.4 The students’ ages 50

Table 4.5 Teachers’ and students’ opinions on the importance of the four skills, grammar and vocabulary in the curriculum at high school 53

Table 4.6 The students’ perception on the importance of the four skills, grammar and vocabulary 55

Table 4.7 The method of presenting the meaning of new words at high schools 56

Table 4.8 Students’ preference of the method of presenting the meaning of new words 58

Table 4.9 The techniques used for vocabulary drilling at high schools 59

Table 4.10 The students’ preference of the vocabulary drilling method 61

Table 4.11 Students’ difficulties in learning vocabulary 62

Table 4.12 Factors affecting students’ vocabulary acquisition 63

Table 4.13 The frequency of students learned English with computer aids at high schools 66

Table 4.14 Students’ use of computer aids for self-study 66

Table 4.15 Teachers’ reference to CD or VCD 67

Table 4.16 The frequency of teacher’s use of computer aids at high school 68

Table 4.17 Forms of computer aids 69

Table 4.18 The function of Power Point which teachers apply to teach

vocabulary 69

Table 4.19 Students’ preferences of the form of computer aids 71

Table 4.20 The teachers’ judgment on the effectiveness of computer aids in language teaching 72

Table 4.21 The students’ judgment on the effectiveness of computer aids in English teaching 74

Table 4.22 The pretest scores of the experimental group and control group 75

Table 4.23 Comparison of the pretest scores of the two groups 76

Table 4.24 Comparison of the posttest scores of two groups 76

Table 4.25 The posttest scores of the two groups 77

Table 4.26 Comparison of the pretest scores and posttest scores in each group 77

Table 4.27 Classification of the test scores 78

Table 4.28 Teachers’ responses on difficulties of applying computer aids 80

Figure 4.1 Classification of the test scores 79

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix 3.1 The pretest for the second- year students 97

Appendix 3.2 The posttest for the second- year students 101

Appendix 3.4 Questionnaires (for students) 105

Appendix 3.5 Questionnaires (for teachers ) 109

Appendix 3.6 Coding for questionnaires items (for students) 112

Appendix 3.7 Coding for questionnaires items (for teachers) 113

Appendix 4.1 The pretest and posttest scores of the experimental group 114

Appendix 4.2 The pretest and posttest scores of the control group 116

Appendix 4.3 The frequency distribution of pretest scores and posttest scores of the two groups 118

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background

It is said that words of a language are just like bricks of a high building Despite quite small pieces, they are vital to the great structure Those who have experience in learning a foreign language must know that at the beginning or in the end, vocabulary is always one of the biggest problems in language learning as Nation (1990:2) puts it “Learners feel that many of their difficulties in both receptive and productive language use result from an inadequate vocabulary.” It is possible for almost many language learners after a certain period of learning time, to pronounce many words sufficiently correctly and to know at least some of the basic structures and grammatical rules of the language Yet it may be more difficult for them to possess a range of vocabulary, which is wide enough to satisfy their needs

in communication It is a common fact that foreign language learners always encounter new words, which hinder their reading comprehension A limited vocabulary can prevents learners from developing ideas or arguments effectively in writing So the importance of vocabulary learning and teaching is never too far to be emphasized, especially for the students who are at the pre-intermediate or elementary level, such as the students in Central Professional School of Archives & Records Management No 2 (CPSARM No 2) where the researcher has been teaching since 1995

Vocabulary is one element that links the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing all together (McCarthy, 1990) In order to communicate well in

a foreign language, students should acquire an adequate number of words and should know how to use them accurately The problem in many Vietnamese schools, however, is that the time is short, and in these circumstances teachers will often make time of weighty matter like grammar and speaking skill at the expense of areas like vocabulary which, the teacher reasons, can be learnt well at home This tendency is perhaps reinforced by a feeling that vocabulary is somehow boring For the Vietnamese learners, although they realize the importance of vocabulary when

learning language, many of them find vocabulary lesson tedious because they have not changed their learning habits, such as writing words on paper, trying to learn by heart or learning passively through the teacher's explanations for meaning or definition, pronunciation, spelling and grammatical functions Many Vietnamese learners may recognize a word in a written or spoken form and think that they already "know the word", but they may not be able to use that word properly in different contexts or pronounce it correctly

The students of CPSARM No 2 come from different provinces and cities in the South Their English background knowledge is different Some of them come from big cities and towns, these students had opportunities to learn English for seven years Most of them come from the country or the remote areas and they had learned English for seven or three years before entering the school Although their English proficiency is different, they have a common difficulty in producing even a single, correct sentence because when they were at high school, English was taught and learnt mostly in reading and doing grammar exercises However, the students of CPSARM No 2 have not as many chances to learn English as those of other colleges or universities The current English curriculum consists of one hundred and twenty periods according to the new syllabus blueprint for the high professional school under the Decision 135/QD-LTNN of the State Archives Department, dated November 8, 2001 Our main course book is “Life - Lines" – Elementary of Hutchinson (1999) It is a new course book which is designed for integrated skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) and it also focuses on the pronunciation However, English lessons may easily become tiring and tedious if the teacher is not experienced and tactful enough to motivate all the students of different levels to engage in the class activities

There are some common characteristics of the students of the school, they know the meaning of high frequency words when they read but they are unable to produce very simple sentences using the words they have known They do not know how to use the known words properly in different contexts Especially, they seem to

be frustrated when they have to speak English or use English to express even simple

identifying an appropriate strategy to teach vocabulary and encourage the students

to produce the words they have already known or have been taught in the class is an essential requirement for English teachers of the school As Nation (1990: 1) puts it

“Our vocabulary work can be directed toward useful words and can give learners practice in useful skill We can thus feel confident that learners will get a good return for the effort that they put in.”

The advent of personal computing, softwares, CD ROMs and the Internet has created many questions as how the computer aids can supplement or perhaps even replace established teaching methodologies in teaching language The increased use

of information and instructional technology to supplement the English curriculum is

a reality in many parts of the world ( Windeatt et al, 2000, 1987; Jones & Fortescue, 1987) Ahmad et al (1985) suggests that multimedia computer-assisted techniques can be used to create a wide variety of different interactive learning environments These environments are usually designed in such a way that the learning processes are learner-controlled, participative, and highly motivational Although there is increasing awareness of the need for computers in education, Vietnamese tertiary institutions and schools do not seem to be conforming to this trend Because of financial reasons, techno-phobia and other reasons, most of Vietnamese universities and schools remain ill-resourced and under-skilled in terms of applying information technology (IT) in education in general and in teaching foreign language in particular Identifying the effectiveness of applying the computer application in education, in recent years, teachers at the CPSARM No2 are encouraged to prepare electronic lesson plans and apply computer aids in their class Since the 2004 -2005 school year, each faculty of school is equipped with one educational set which includes a laptop, a projector and an overhead projector Therefore, an investigation

to identify the current situation of teaching and learning vocabulary, seek for ways

to help teacher of English use computer aids in teaching vocabulary and find out how computer aids help motivate students to learn vocabulary and improve their score is important for the English teachers of the school

1.2 Research questions

In investigating the effectiveness of computer aids in vocabulary teaching,

the aim of this research is to provide the answers to the following questions

1 What is the current situation of teaching and learning vocabulary at CPSARM

1.3 Significance of the study

In recent years, computer aids have been applied in language teaching in a lot

of countries and have shown their effectiveness in teaching and learning vocabulary (Galavis, 1998; Mayer, 1997) Computer can create life-like situations and can motivate the learners to practise the language they have learnt in meaningful ways The word presentation, video clips and vocabulary drills designed on the software can help students better practise and memorize the words and use them confidently and accurately and so help them improve their language skills, especially their speaking and writing skills Thus, this study helps investigate the effectiveness of applying computer aids in teaching vocabulary and give suggested ways to apply computer aids at CPSARM No 2 The study is essential for the English teachers of the school and can serve as a reference for the English teachers of other schools

1.4 Limitation

The study was confined to the second year students in full-time classes at CPSARM No 2 And it just focused on the experiment and surveys of applying computer aids in teaching vocabulary, through which it identified the current situation of teaching and learning vocabulary, the effectiveness of computer aids in improving the students vocabulary scores and motivating students to learn

vocabulary, not all spects related to the effectiveness of computer aids in language learning and teaching

1.5 Organization

Chapter 1 (Introduction) presented the background to the study and identified the problem in questions and give an overview of the whole thesis Chapter 2 reviewed the literature and research which were closely relevant to this study Chapter 3 dealt with the methodology and design of the study It involved a brief description of the experiment the author applied computer aids to teach vocabulary

at the CPSARM N o 2, the surveys conducted on the students of CPSRAM N o 2 and teachers of some high schools in Ho Chi Minh city, ways of collecting data and ways of processing these data Chapter 4 presented findings in details and analysis

of the research findings Chapter 5 offered a summary and conclusion of the study with recommendations for the application of computer aids in vocabulary and language teaching

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents major issues relevant to second language vocabulary acquisition, the factors affecting the vocabulary acquisition, theoretical base of vocabulary teaching and the effectiveness of computer aids in teaching and learning vocabulary, vocabulary testing and then reviews in details related aspects to the effectiveness of computer aids in motivating students to learn and use vocabulary in different contexts

2.1 Vocabulary acquisition

2.1.1 Definitions of words and vocabulary

Before considering the role of vocabulary acquisition in foreign language learning and teaching, we need to define two central concepts: word, and vocabulary

There is no simple answer to what a word is In fact, the concept of the word

is extremely problematic and it has been studied for several decades without finding

a definite answer First of all, a word can be defined as an orthographic or a phonological unit According to Carter (1987), a word is a string of letters separated from the rest of the text with the spaces on both its sides In writing, word boundaries are usually recognized by spaces between the words In speech, word boundaries may be recognized by slight pauses This definition has some practical

problems as it does not tell whether the different forms of a word (laugh, laughs,

laughing, etc.) are separate words or a single word Moreover, idioms and

compound words consist of two or more orthographic units but they cannot be reduced without losing their meaning

Semantically thinking, a compound refers to one entity in the real-world, which would make it a word, but we can clearly see that there are two free-standing words in the compound Carter and McCarthy (1988) mention that language learners tend to have a strong psychological reality for words Accordingly, multi-word units tend to behave like one-word units if we look at the way they are organised in the

units can form one lexeme in the mental lexicon As these examples show, the

definitions of the concept are quite ambiguous That is why many linguists speak of lexeme or vocabulary instead of words According to Carter (1987: 6-7), a lexeme is

“the basic unit of vocabulary in a language It can be seen as an underlying

abstraction that covers the different variants or inflections of a word Moreover, idioms and compounds are considered lexemes

In Longman dictionary, vocabulary is defined as a set of lexemes, including

single words, compound words and idioms” (Richards, Platt & Platt, 1992: 400)

Collins COBUILD English Language Dictionary (1987) defines that the vocabulary

of a language is all the words in it

Then in this thesis, it is essential to come to a useful convention covering all such cases by talking about vocabulary instead of words or lexemes and

“vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as the words we teach in the foreign

language (Ur, 1996: 60)

2.1.2 The role of vocabulary acquisition in language learning and teaching

A lot of researchers have emphasized the important role of teaching and learning vocabulary in the foreign language classroom Nation (1990) claims that both researchers and learners think that vocabulary is extremely important and feel that inadequate receptive and/or productive vocabulary is an obstacle in using a foreign language McCarthy (1990) agrees with Nation (1990) and states that many language teachers feel that vocabulary should have a central role in language courses If the learner does not have the words to express his or her ideas, mastering grammatical rules or pronunciation does not help

McCarthy (1990) emphasizes that vocabulary helps speakers to continually improve in speaking, listening, reading and writing, irrespective of the level of language learning The lack of vocabulary is considered as student’s primary problem in second and foreign language learning (Nunan, 1999, Carter & McCarthy,1988) Therefore a majority of students studying second and foreign language and their teachers cite vocabulary as their number one priority Krahnke (1994) suggests that improving knowledge of vocabulary in a foreign language is

particularly important at the basic level; the smaller the learner’s vocabulary, the harder it is to follow teaching and learn more, the emphasis of instruction at this level should be on giving the students a large amount of vocabulary related to their interest and their need

2.1.3 Aspects of knowing a word

Knowing a vocabulary item is not a simple process- its means much more than simply memorizing the word meaning and word form Language users use knowledge of vocabulary for two different processes: in order to understand discourse and to express themselves in a foreign language Both these processes require different types of knowledge: productive or receptive According to Nation (1990), recognising a word and recalling its meaning in discourse requires receptive knowledge, whereas productive knowledge includes also producing the right word, either in its spoken or written form, at the right time and in the right place Lewis (1993) clarifies that there are different dimensions to lexical knowledge Accordingly, no-one knows all the words in a language, or knows all the meanings

of each word Related to that, Gairns and Redman (1986), and Nation (2001) agree that second language (L2) vocabulary knowledge involves many complex interrelated part Nation (2001) groups the aspects of knowing a word into three parts: form, meaning, and use including receptive (R) and productive (P) knowledge and showing the relations between the aspects as follow:

Spoken form R What does the word sound like?

P How is the word pronounced?

Written form R what does the word look like?

P How is the word written and spelled?

Form

Word parts R what parts are recognizable in this word?

P What word parts are needed to express the meaning?

Form and meaning R What meaning does this word form signal?

P what word form can be used to express this meaning? Concept and referents R what is included in the concept refer to?

P What items can the concept refer to?

Meaning

Associations R What other words does this word make us think of?

P What other words could we use instead of this one?

Grammatical function R In what patterns does the word occur?

P In what patterns must we use this word?

Collocation R What words or types of word occur with this one?

P What words or types of words must we use with this one? Use

Constraints on use

(register, style,

R Where, when, and how often would we expect to meet this word?

frequency ) P Where, when, and how often can we use this word?

Table 2.1: What is involved in knowing a word (Nation, 2001: 27)

The aspects in Table 2.1 shows what students need to know about a word and now the aspects of knowing a word wil be discussed in more detail since it is clear that there is far more to know about a vocabulary item than just one meaning For a start the form of the word will be described in details

2.1.3.1 Form of the word

Form of the word consists of its spoken form, written form and word part The learner has to know what a word sounds like (its pronunciation) and what it looks like (its spelling), what category it refers to These are fairly obvious characteristics, and each of them will be perceived by the learner when encountering the item for the first time (Ur, 1996) In teaching, the teacher need to make sure that all these aspects are accurately presented and learned

Knowing the spoken form of a word includes being able to realize the word when it is heard and being able to produce the spoken form in order to express a meaning Gairns and Redman (1986) remarks that one of the most common problems for learners of a foreign language is their inability to pronounce the word correctly Unfamiliarity with correct pronunciation can result in the learner failing to understand words in connected speech that he understands clearly in written English Careful attention to pronunciation is therefore an essential part of vocabulary teaching if new lexis is to be used effectively, or understood without difficulty, in spoken English

One aspect of gaining familiarity with the written form of word is its spelling However, according to Gairns and Redman (1986); Mc Carthy and Carter (1997), the complex relationship between sound and spelling makes the pronunciation of new word difficult and inexplicable to foreign learners There are a lot of homophones in English e.g key/quay, draft/draught; and the number of forms which differ widely in their pronunciation e.g foot, flood, food The lack of consistency between spelling and pronunciation makes it exceeding difficult if not

impossible to base pronunciation on the written form Therefore the knowledge of phonemic symbols can greatly assist the learners by providing access to the pronunciation of new words and enable them to approximate the sounds

Knowing the form of word include knowing what part of speech it belongs to and knowing it is made of a root and affixes In addition, what are considered members of the word family are necessary and will increase as proficiency develops Students need to know how to use words to fit different grammatical contexts because words can change their shape and their grammatical value Thus the verb ‘swim’ has the participles ‘swimming’ and ‘swam’ ‘swum’ The present participle ’swimming’ can be used as an adjective and ‘swim’ can also be a noun

It is important to provide learners with all the information about the form of the word when we teach vocabulary However, a lot of learners feel secured only when they know the meaning of the new word Such a feeling implies that learning

the meaning of a word is an essential part in learning a word

meaning of word in the particular context: If we see a woman in a theatre arguing at

the ticket office saying ‘But I booked my ticket three weeks ago’ we will obviously understand the verb book here means register in advance This is different from a

policeman (accompanied by an un-happy looking man at a police station) saying to

his colleague ‘We booked him for speeding’ book here means record a charge

against

Students need to understand the importance of meaning in different contexts Furthermore, understanding different meanings can also refer to understanding what the words mean for native speakers As Allen (1983) points out, even simple words can cause confusion because of cultural differences and the differences in strategy

to use language A lot of the meanings of a word do not correspondent to the meaning of its so-called equivalent in another language As Gairns and Redman (1986:13) remarks:

Languages rarely divide up the world in exactly the same way, and so

we should not be surprised if we find students using the word cup to

describe an object which is in fact a glass, a mug or even a bowl

Therefore for the learners at the beginning or elementary level, using pictures or real objects to illustrate the conceptual meaning of a new word is useful

in helping the learner have a clear reference of the word

A less obvious component of the meaning of an item is its connotation: the associations, or positive or negative feeling it evokes, which may or may not be indicated in a dictionary definition Ur (1996) provides the example of the word

‘dog’ which has positive connotation of friendship and loyalty to most British people whereas to the people in Arabic countries has negative association of dirt and inferiority Ur (1996) advises that learners should be made aware that such social meanings exist and helped to discover different meanings by paying attention to such differences Also choosing and creating contexts that include information about social and cultural concepts is recommendable

There are other facts about meaning Sometimes words have meanings in

relation to other words Thus students need to know the meaning of vegetable as a word to describe any one of other things- e.g carrot, peas, tomatoes Vegetable has a

general meaning whereas carrot is more specific We understand the meaning of a word like good in the context of a word like bad Words have opposite (antonym) and they also have other words with similar meaning (synonym) -e.g wonderful and

marvelous

When the teachers realize the importance of meaning in context and sense relations, they can have appropriate way to present the meaning of new words and show how it is used Moreover, these contexts and sense relation can be better comprehended if they are presented visually (Pusack & Otto, 1990; Ianacone, 1993) Computer aids, therefore, can help the visual presentations and context illustrations easier and more time-saving (Jones & Fortescue, 1987; Kellog & Howe, 1971)

same way If the students do not have this kind of knowledge they may come up

with erroneous sentences like He said me to come

Word meaning is also governed by collocation- that is which words go with each other “The collocations typical of particular items are another factor that makes a particular combination sound ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in a given context” (Ur,

1996:61).When introducing words like decision and conclusion, for example, the teacher may note that the user can take or make a decision, but usually come to a

conclusion

We often use words only in certain social and topical contexts What we say

is governed by the style and register we are in Since full understanding of a word

often requires knowing how native speakers feel about what the word represents, some meaning can not be found in dictionary

2.2 Factors affecting vocabulary acquisition

There are a lot of arguments on the factor affecting the language acquisition

in general and vocabulary acquisition in particular According to Nation (1990), vocabulary learning depends on three factors: the learners’ mother tongue, the way

in which the word is learned or taught, and the intrinsic difficulty of the word Nunan (1991), Krahnke (1994) and Ur (1996) emphasises the influence of learner’s characteristics on the second- language acquisition, Schwartz and Reisberg (1991), Allen (1983) support imagery’s positive effects on vocabulary memory, Krashen (1987) suggests input-output theory and its role in language acquisition To identify the factors affecting the vocabulary learning and the effectiveness of computer aids

in motivating the target learners to learn vocabulary, three main factors affecting the vocabulary acquisition will be focused in this section: (1) the learner’s motivation and language acquisition; (2) the role of comprehensible input and output, (3) the positive effects of images on vocabulary acquisition and retention (4) Intra-lexical

factors affecting the learning of words (5) The influence of learners’ previous

experience and mother tongue

2.2.1 Learners motivation

Affective and emotional factors plays an important role in the learning

process Nunan (1991) believe that if learners can be encouraged to adopt the right attitude, interest and motivation in the target language and culture, as well

as in the learning environment in which they find themselves, the successful learning will occur, and that "if these affective factors are not right, then no set

of techniques is likely to succeed regardless of how carefully they have been devised or how solidly based on the latest theories and research" (Nunan, 1991: 234) Success or failure in language teaching depends not so much on whether one adopts inductive or deductive techniques for teaching language, nor whether one engages in meaningful practice rather than in pattern drills, but in the extent

to which one caters to the learner's effective domain In the process of selecting

content, materials and learning activities, it is crucial to take into account the learner's emotional attitude toward the teacher, towards fellow learners and towards the target language and culture and to give this factor a central place Motivation considered to be the primary affective factor (Krahnke, 1994; Krashen,1981) Various studies have found that motivation is very strongly related to achievement in language learning (Gardner and Lambert, 1972 cited in

Ur, 1996; Corria, 1999) Language teachers find it necessary to increase

student's motivation “High motivation seems to have a great deal to do with success in language acquisition" (Krahnke, 1994:13) Ur (1996:274) has

indicated that "learner motivation makes teaching and learning immeasurably easier and more pleasant as well as more productive” To increase student's motivation in learning a foreign language, language teachers must be aware of different kinds of motivations and find the effective way to enhance them on the understanding that each will contribute to the other

A distinction has been made in the literature between "integrative" and

"instrumental" motivation (Ur, 1996) Integrative motivation is defined as the

desire to integrate with or join the speakers of the target- language, instrumental motivation is the wish to learn the language for purposes of study or career promotion Dulay, Burt & Krashen (1982) found that an integrative motive led to better performance in second language learning Similarly, Scrivener (1998) concludes that an attitude composed of integrative orientation, motivational intensity has been shown to be an important predictor of achievement

Another distinction, perhaps more useful for teachers is that between

"intrinsic" motivation (the urge to engage in the learning activity for its own sake) and "extrinsic" (extrinsic motivation is the one which derives from the

influence of external incentives, such as the desire of students to please their parents or their wish to succeed in an external exam or peer-group influences or the sources which are certainly affected by teacher action: success and its

rewards, failure and its penalties, teacher's demand, tests and competition) Both

of these have an important part to play in classroom motivation, and both are

partially accessible to teacher influence

Motivation is a key consideration in determining the preparedness of learners

to activate their knowledge Motivation refers to the combination of effort plus

desire to achieve the goal of learning the language plus favorable attitude toward

learning the language To motivate the learners to learn a language, according to

Nunan (1999), the following practical steps can be taken:

Factor Characteristics

1 Supportive

environment

Orderly classroom Teacher is skilled in classroom management Students nonanxious and feel comfortable taking risk

Student are given a reason to be in class

4 Strategies

Motivation strategy is matched to instructional need Particular strategies are not overused

Teacher uses a range of strategies

There is a learning how to learn dimension to instruction

5 Content Students can relate content to own experience

Topics are interesting

Table 2.2 : Practical steps to enhance the learners motivation in learning a

language (Nunan, 1999:235)

The ways students interact in the classroom and deal with the elements of

attention, emotion, and valuing are reflective of the affective dimension of

learning They reveal an individual's preferences for social setting and social

constructs of learning, e.g., working alone, in pairs, in a team To make the

teaching process more effective, teachers must address these preferences by seeking student responses to questions concerning their attitudes toward

learning, views of instructor and/or peers, and reactions to classroom procedures

2.2.2 Comprehensible input and output

The Input hypothesis is Krashen's attempt to explain how the learner acquires

a second language According to this hypothesis, the learner improves and progresses along the 'natural order' when he/she receives second language 'input' that is one step beyond his/her current stage of linguistic competence Since not all

of the learners can be at the same level of linguistic competence at the same time, Krashen (1981) & Swan (1985) suggest that natural communicative input is the key

to designing a syllabus, ensuring in this way that each learner will receive some input that is appropriate for his/her current stage of linguistic competence

Harmer (1991) suggests that in the process of teaching and learning of English

we should divide the classroom into two broad categories: "those that give

students language input, and those which encourage them to produce language

output” Whether acquisition or conscious learning is taking place, there will be

stages at which student is receiving language But exposing students to language input is not enough Teachers also need to provide opportunities for them to

activate this knowledge, since it is only when students are producing language

that they can select from the input they have received Language production

allows student to rehearse the language use in the classroom condition while receiving feedback (from the teachers or their peers, computer or themselves) which allows them to adjust their perceptions of the language input they have received (Harmer, 1991; Scrivener, 1998)

The comprehensible input and output theory of language acquisition asserts that a foreign language is learned and acquired by understanding messages that the learner is interested in understanding, that the learners need contexts to infer the meaning of some unknown language items and opportunities to produce the language According to Krahnke (1994), at elementary or pre-intermediate level,

the emphasis of instruction should be on giving the students a large amount of vocabulary related to their needs and interest so that they can begin to interact at a basic level Students should also be given a lot of comprehension work before they are asked to produce speech at that level

2.2.3 Imagery

Imagery studies have long suggested that mental imagery facilitates memory The impact of imagery on long-term remembering, as noted by Schwartz and Reisberg (1991), can be shown by manipulating the to-be-remembered vocabulary rather than the instructions to learners

Researchers have long been interested in examining the effects of pictorial and verbal cues on L2 vocabulary learning, and have found that processing supportive information such as pictures or translations enhances language learning Underwood (1989:19) suggested that we "remember images better than words, hence we remember words better if they are strongly associated with images" Other researchers suggest that foreign words associated with aural or written translations and images are learned more easily than are those presented by text alone (Jones & Plass, 2002; Plass et al, 1998; Jones, 2004) Therefore, the hi-tech visual materials are highly appreciated because of its impact on learners and their motivation:

Hi-tech visual images are a pervasive feature of young people lives Text-books, worksheets and overhead are a poor match for this

other, more complex, instantaneous and sometimes spectacular form of

experience and learning In this context, the disengagement of many

students from their curriculum and their teaching is not hard to

understand Teachers have to compete more and more with this world

and its surrounding culture of the image (Crawford, 2002: 85)

Images presented through pictures or video clips provide the authentic materials to the learners and bring good effect on language acquisition “the more realistic the language, the more easily it can cater to the range of proficiency level found in many classes” (Crawford, 2002: 85)

2.2.4 The intrinsic difficulties of the words

Knowing a word is to master all its aspects as stated in Section 2.1.3 According to Nation (1990), the more the learners are familiar with the patterns and

knowledge a words presents, the lighter its learning burden is Ease or difficulty in learnability of vocabulary has important effect on acquiring it

A language learner may understand and use some of the word’s features but not the others due to the degree of its learning burden Laufer (1997) divides the difficult factors of learning vocabulary into two types: difficulty- inducing factor and factor with no clear effect Difficulty – inducing factors include presence of foreign phonemes, phonetic irregularity, variable stress and vowel change, incongruency in sound-script relationship, inflexional complexity, deceptive morphological transparency synformy, specificity, register restriction idiomaticity, one form with several meanings Factors with no clear effect consist of word length, part of speech and concreteness

For Vietnamese learners phonological difficulty is one of the most serious problem This difficulty was explained by Avery and Ehrlich:

As the sound system of English and Vietnamese differs greatly, Vietnamese speakers can have quite severe pronunciation problems Vietnamese is a tone language; that is, pitch changes distinguish word meaning Most words in Vietnamese consist of only one syllable; there are fewer consonants than in English and there are no consonant clusters Vietnamese uses a modified Roman alphabet but many of the letters have quite different sound values from those of English (Avery and Ehrlich, 1992:153)

Besides, words may present phonological difficulties because they contain awkward (for the learners) cluster of sounds, or because spelling interferes with perception of what the sound is (McCarthy, 1990)

Spelling is also another difficult problem in memorising English words because Vietnamese language has a simple spelling pattern The words with double consonants often cause difficulty for the learner to remember It is the irregularity in the English spelling that creates difficulty for learners (Nation, 1990) Poor spelling can affect learners’ writing Learners may favor regularly spelled words and avoid words that are hard to spell

Besides the problems discussed above, there are other problems for the learners in learning vocabulary A different writing, phonological or grammatical

system of first language is certainly responsible for some learning problems and this will be mentioned in details in the next section

2.2.5 The influence of learners previous experience and mother tongue

Learner’s previous experience of English and their mother tongue affects the amount of transfer that they can make from this to their present learning (Nation, 1990) There is a lot of evidence to show that the second language (L2) vocabulary learning is influenced by first language (L1) vocabulary and the learner’s previous experience The learner’s mother tongue and their previous experience can facilitate

or hinder his/her learning or using the L2 vocabulary (Nation, 1990; Swan, 1997)

Nunan (1991) points out that a learner’s L1 and L2 vocabulary knowledge are linked together in their mental lexicon phonologically, semantically and associationally According to Nation (1990), if first and second language vocabulary are stored together in an integrated whole rather than as two separate, independently functioning units, this would encourage borrowing and interference between first and second language vocabulary Strict (1980 cited in Nation, 1990: 34) concludes that semantic development in a second language is a process of moving from native

to second language meaning and meaning structures That is, the second language learner first classifies second language meaning according to mother tongue As the learner discovers more about second language culture, these meanings change During the change, importance is first given to features of meaning that are most easily seen, but later importance given to abstract features that are most suited to the second language culture

If many of the features of a word are predictable because the learners already know some English or because of their mother tongue, the word will be easy to learn Nation (1990) suggests that teachers can reduce the learning burden by showing learners where English usage parallels mother tongue usage, choosing words with regular spelling wherever possible, showing learners how the spelling and pattern of new words is similar to the spelling or pattern of known words This use of analogy is considered as a way of drawing attention and the basis for several useful teaching techniques

The factors affecting language acquisition in general and vocabulary acquisition in particular discussed in this section makes numerous suggestions for pedagogy These suggestions will help lead to more effective teaching outcome

2.3 Vocabulary teaching

Teaching a word does not mean the students learned it Teaching and learning

do not go lockstep, hand in hand, from the easy to the difficult Students do not need

to learn every word they meet This is because not all words are equally useful The words students need to master are the general service vocabulary Written and spoken vocabulary are different Fewer (and often different) words are needed for fluent speaking and listening, than for reading and writing Teachers should carefully select words to teach, with special focus on the most frequent and useful words as they carry the most meaning senses Special attention should also be given

to words which are difficult to learn Similarly, those which will be relatively easy to learn (i.e those which there are close relatives in the first language) should be introduced early to build a start-up vocabulary base Thus an early emphasis on vocabulary growth within language teaching will help kick start their learning (Carter & Mc Carthy, 1988)

The two major concerns in teaching vocabulary are what to teach and how to teach it (McCarthy, 1990; Paulston and Bruder, 1976) What to teach is related to all the aspects mentioned in the Section 2.1.3 Therefore, it is essential to investigate in this section (1) the approaches of teaching and learning vocabulary, (2) techniques

of teaching vocabulary, especially the ones which are suitable to the researched

subject learners

2.3.1 The approaches of teaching and learning vocabulary

Hunt and Beglar (2002) discuss three approaches to vocabulary instruction and learning: Incidental learning, explicit instruction, and independent strategy development

2.3.1.1 Incidental learning

Incidental vocabulary learning is the process of acquiring vocabulary while

lists of words (Nation, 1990; Wallace, 1982) A major source of incidental learning

is extensive reading

The incidental learning of vocabulary through extensive reading can benefit language curricular and learners at all levels (Nation, 1990; Hunt and Beglar, 2002) Nation (1990) suggests that a well-organized extensive program of graded simplified reading is an important vocabulary component of a language course Low-proficiency learners can benefit from graded readers because they will be repeatedly exposed to high frequency vocabulary To improve students’ vocabulary through the extensive reading, teachers should provide opportunities for extensive reading and listening for the incidental learning of vocabulary in the class and direct students to do the reading and listening tasks outside the class or give the learners practice in the strategies of guessing the meanings of words from context (Nation, 1990; Ur, 1996)

2.3.1.2 Explicit instruction

Explicit instruction (direct vocabulary instruction) involves diagnosing the words learners need to know, presenting words for the first time, elaborating word knowledge, and developing fluency with known word (Hunt and Beglar, 2002) Explicit instruction is greatly effective to help elementary level learners to develop their vocabulary (Allen, 1983; Hunt & Beglar, 2002)

Intentional learning through explicit instruction significantly contributes to vocabulary development especially for the beginners (Coady, 1997) Coady wonders how beginners can “learn enough words to learn vocabulary through extensive reading when they do not know enough words to read well” (Coady,1997:229) Nation (2001) suggests that teacher should design communicative task to consolidate vocabulary and argues that vocabulary instruction should be integrated into the listening, speaking, reading, and writing components of a language program

Explicit instruction is useful for students at all ability levels, but it is particularly useful for beginning students who have a limited reading vocabulary and little exposure to incidental vocabulary learning outside of school

2.3.1.3 Independent strategy development

Independent strategy development involves practising guessing from context

and training learners to use dictionaries Language is best encountered and learned

in context, the focus in class should be on encouraging learners to develop strategies for inferring the meaning of new words from the context in which they occur, and teaching them to use a range of cues, both verbal and non-verbal (e.g prefixes, suffixes and roots, pictures, diagram and chart, semantic links) to determine meaning (Nunan, 1999) Honeyfield (1977 cited in Nunan, 1999) and Sokmen (1997) stress the importance of context in the teaching new vocabulary They argue that providing learners with strategies for inferring the meaning of unknown vocabulary from the context in which it occurs is much better than getting them to undertake the time-consuming task of memorising long list of words or looking up unknown words in a dictionary

To sum up, trying to deduce the meaning of an unknown word from the text

is one valuable strategy in understanding language, and so is dictionary use, but it is only by repeated exposures that a word can enter a person’s active vocabulary Therefore, a combination of all three approaches: Incidental learning, explicit instruction, and independent strategy development is the essential basic for a vocabulary program because they all have a role to play in systematically developing the learner’s vocabulary knowledge

2.3.2 Techniques of teaching vocabulary

Teachers can not apply the same techniques as well as do not need to spend the same amount of time and care on presenting all new vocabulary In teaching vocabulary for productive use), it is worth spending time giving examples and asking questions, giving practical exercises so that students can see how the word is used and can be given opportunities and encouragement to use it For receptive vocabulary, it is best to present it quite quickly, with a simple example to save time

If it appears a part of text or dialogue, teacher can often leave students to guess the word from the context In this section, the researcher will focus on the techniques applied to teach vocabulary with implication to the target students

Brown and Payne (1994) establish a model which includes the five essential steps for a full productive knowledge of words This model is based on the data collected from Payne’s formal study of vocabulary strategies used by ESL student: First encountering new words, then getting the word form, getting the word meaning, consolidating word form and meaning in memory, and using the word To help learners effectively acquire the full productive knowledge of the words, teachers follow four main stages of the lesson (Doff, 1988)

First step is presentation, the teacher presents new words, shows the meaning

of the words, gives examples, writes them on the board, teaches pronunciation

The second step is practice, students practise using words in a controlled

way, e.g making sentences from prompts, asking and answering questions, giving sentences based on a picture Practice can be oral or written

Production is the third step Students use language they have learnt to

express themselves more freely, e.g to talk or write about their own lives and interests, to express opinions, to imagine themselves in different situations Like practice, production can be oral or written

In the last step the teacher reviews language learnt in an earlier lesson, to

refresh student’s memories, or as a presentation for a new presentation

2.3.2.1 Presentation

Presentation is one of the most important and the complex preliminary stages

in the teaching vocabulary Many books on language teaching mention the different ways of presenting new lexical items They consist basically of helping students understand what the new items of vocabulary mean, what rules of form they obey (e.g grammar, syntax and pronunciation) and if appropriate, who uses them in what context Presented items should be embedded in examples or dialogue whose language is already known to students (Gower & Walters, 1983)

Allen (1983) and Doff (1988) list three ways the teachers usually use to show the meaning of the new words in the class for the elementary and pre-intermediate level students: pictures, explanation in the learners’ own language (L1 translation),

definition in simple English, elaboration by using vocabulary that the students already know

Allen (1983) comments that drawing students’ attention to an object before spending much time on the English name is an interesting technique and it can stimulate students to learn the new word Teachers can draw students’ attention by pointing to the objects (if they are available in the class), drawing pictures on the blackboard or showing the pictures in the flash card (Allen, 1983; Doff, 1988)

The first stage in teaching 3,000 most frequent words commonly begins with word pairs in which an L2 word is matched with an L1 translation (Coady, 1997) Translation has a necessary and useful role in L2 learning, but it can hinder learners’ progress if it is used to the exclusion of L2-based techniques (Prince, 1996 cited in Hunt & Beglar, 2002)

Elaboration help learners better infer the new vocabulary Elaboration involves expanding the connections between what the learners already know and new information Therefore, providing opportunities for elaborating word knowledge plays an important role in explicit instruction One way to do this is to choose L2 words from the surrounding context and to explain their connections to the recently learned word (Doff, 1988)

Willis (1981) suggests some more techniques on showing the meaning of new vocabulary: Bringing maps, charts, graphs into the class, explaining simply, miming, acting, using a model, bringing the real thing into the classroom, taking the students out of the classroom, giving a context and let students guess, using synonyms, antonyms, lexical sets Ur (1996) remarks that a concrete object is more easily illustrated visually, an action can be mimed Concepts that are very difficult

to explain in the target language because the learners are not yet sufficiently proficient to understand the explanation may be more conveniently presented through mother-tongue translation or explanation

When teaching unfamiliar vocabulary, teacher need to be aware that learners need to do more than just see the form and its meaning (Doff, 1988; Ur, 1996) They need to hear the pronunciation and practice saying the word aloud as well

Presentation of vocabulary should pay specific attention to pronunciation, in particular word stress (Channel, 1988) The syllable structure and stress pattern of the word are important because they are two ways in which words are stored in

memory (Fay and Culter, 1977 cited in Hunt & Beglar, 2002)

2.3.2.2 Practice

When the teacher presents the meaning of the words, they can only become student’s passive vocabulary and students may easily forget them or do not know how to use them properly Student’s receptive vocabulary or the new lexical items can only be activated effectively if the teachers give the learners opportunities to practise them through the vocabulary exercises or in spoken communication or other brainstorming activities

Teacher plays an important role in helping student’s vocabulary motivated Scrivener (1994) asserts the teacher’s job does not finish as soon as learner knows the meaning of some new words and so if the learners have a reasonable large receptive vocabulary but are unable to put enough of this to productive use, the teacher needs to concentrate on activities which enrich the learning of known words and improve access to them (Nation, 1990)

Scrivener (1994) points out some kinds of practical exercises to help students become more familiar with the words they have learned: Matching pictures to words; matching parts of words to other parts, e.g beginning and ending, matching words to other words, e.g collocations, synonyms, opposites, sets of related words, etc; using prefixes and suffixes to build new words from given words; classifying item into lists; using given words to complete a specific task; filling in crosswords, grids or diagram; filling in gaps in sentences; memory games Teachers should use activities such as communicative activities to promote deeper mental processing and

better retention (Ur, 1996; Nation, 2002) Associating a visual image with a word

also helps learners remember the word (Mayer, 1997; Nunan, 1999)

According to Hunt & Beglar (2002), teacher should be selective when deciding which words deserve deeper receptive and/or productive practice, as well

as which types of knowledge will be most useful for their students

2.3.2.3 Production

Developing fluency with known vocabulary is essential to help learners make the best use of what they already know Fluency-building activities recycle already known words in familiar grammatical and organizational patterns so that students can focus on recognizing or using words without hesitation (Hunt & Beglar, 2002; Hubbard et al, 1984) As Nation (1990: 208) points out, developing fluency

“overlap most of all with developing the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing.” All high frequency vocabulary must be learned to a reasonable degree of fluency so that it can be readily accessed when it is needed

Activities used to develop learners' production of vocabulary may also include the following: First and second language comparisons and translation: carried out chunk-for-chunk, rather than word-for-word—aimed at raising language awareness; repetition and recycling of activities, such as summarizing a text orally one day and again a few days later to keep words and expressions that have been learned active; noticing and recording language patterns and collocations; working with language corpuses created by the teacher for use in the classroom (Nation, 1990); Doff (1988) judges communicative activities such as information exchanging, elicitation of student -talk, games and role plays as the most effective ways to motivate students to be more actively involved in the speaking activities to produce the words they have known

2.3.2.4 Review

As most forgetting occurs immediately after initial exposure to the word (Pimsleur, 1967 cited in Hunt & Beglar, 2002), repetition and review should take place almost immediately after studying a word for the first time Stevick’s research into memory (Stevick, 1976 cited in Nunan, 1999) shows that regular revision is important for new items to enter long term memory, therefore a learner who has activated their knowledge through use will be more likely to retain it

Brainstorming round an idea is a good way to revise words the class already knows (Morgan, 1986) Teachers write a single word in the centre of the board, and ask students to brainstorm all the words that are connected with it they can think of

Every item that is suggested is written up on the board with a line connecting it to

the original word, so that the end result is a sun-ray effect The teacher can also

show a picture and ask students to brainstorm any ideas about the picture they see With the computer aids, this work becomes much easier and more interesting

The four stages in teaching vocabulary are essential for students especially at the elementary level for whom most of the new words will become productive vocabulary The stages are in no fixed order (Doff, 1988) Usually teachers present new language, then do some practice, then gets students to use language more freely But a teacher might, for example, present a structure, practise it quickly, then present and practise something else before going on to a final production activity- each stage could occur several times in a single lesson

2.4 Testing vocabulary

The purpose of vocabulary tests is to measure the comprehension and production of words used in listening, speaking, reading and writing Testing vocabulary not only is essential to measure how much students gain from a course but also affects their attitudes The results from the vocabulary tests help teacher judge their student word level and help appropriate strategy in teaching vocabulary

as Schmitt(2000:163) remarks:

There are number of reasons why vocabulary testing should be regarded as a useful element in a well-run language teaching program Most obviously, if vocabulary is considered to be an important component of language knowledge, then it naturally needs to be assessed in some ways

2.4.1 Aspects of word knowledge for testing

Vocabulary knowledge is very complex including many aspects such as form, meaning and use of the words Nation (2001:347) suggests a model of

“Aspects of word knowledge for testing”

R Can the learner recognize appropriate collocation?

P Can the learner produce the word with appropriate collocations?

P Can the learner use the word at appropriate times?

Table 2.3 : Aspects of word knowledge for testing (Nation 2001:347)

Nation’s model show essential information about learner’s lexical knowledge But the teachers can not measure all these aspects at the same time in a practical vocabulary test because the test will be too long to be administered if it covers all such aspects

2.4.2 Vocabulary-testing techniques

There are different types of vocabulary testing techniques: multiple choices, matching, circling the odd one out, writing sentences, dictation, dictation-translation, gap-filling, sentence completion (Ur, 1996; Madsen, 1983) For students at elementary and pre-intermediate level, the following types of test are