Khóa luận tốt nghiệp a study on difficulties in learning english vocabulary

The data collection instrument is a quantitative research that uses the survey questionnairewith English language major freshmen about the difficulties faced when learning English vocabu

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled

“Study on difficulties in learning English Vocabulary” (submitted in partial

fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor in English Language) Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2021

Nguyen Thi Chi

Approved by SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name) Date:………

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part 2: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Review of previous studies (at home/abroad) 4

Chapter 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Student’s difficulties in learning English vocabulary 33

3.1.3 Students assessment of the importance of learning English

3.1.5 Level of students agreement with common difficulties in

learning English vocabulary

3.2.1 Level of students agreement with suggestions to learn English

Part 3: CONCLUSION

ABSTRACT

This study is carried out to figure out difficulties in learning English vocabulary

of students From those difficulties, some suggestions to help students learn English vocabulary more effectively have also been given

In order to accomplish the purpose, 101 English language major freshmen at Vietnam National University of Agriculture participated The data collection instrument is a quantitative research that uses the survey questionnairewith English language major freshmen about the difficulties faced when learning English vocabulary Based on the data obtained, the factors that cause difficulties in students' learning English vocabulary include pronunciation, spelling, word's grammar and vocabulary meanings To be able to improve the above difficulties, some ways are also given to learn vocabulary better such as: Learning vocabulary through topics, learning vocabulary by recording in notebook, learning vocabulary by reading English books, newspaper or magazines and learning vocabulary through English vocabulary apps

List of charts and tables

Charts

Chart 2.1: Student's English study time

Chart 2.2: Student’s level of English vocabulary

Chart 2.3: Student assessment of the importance of learning English vocabulary Chart 2.4: Frequency of students having obstacles in learning English vocabulary Tables

Table 2.1: Level of student’s agreement with common difficulties in learning English vocabulary

Table 2.2: Level of student’s agreement with common causes in learning English vocabulary

Table 2.3: Level of students' agreement with suggestions to help learn English vocabulary better

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1.1 RATIONALE

Vocabulary is very crucial for language learning acquisition It is also an indispensable unit for learning reading, speaking, writing, and listening skills By having rich English vocabulary, students can speak, write, read and listen to English

as they want Proficiency in English vocabulary can also help students get high scores

in exams since it is one of the compulsory subjects Nevertheless, many students in Vietnam still have difficulties learning English vocabulary

In learning any foreign language, vocabulary is the most significant component Language acquisition cannot take place without learning its lexis in various contextual variables Vocabulary is one of the most essential parts because it is the basis for language skills such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing Without learning the vocabulary, it is difficult to communicate in the language since it is central to communicative competence Low vocabulary knowledge can prevent learners from communicating effectively Therefore, without vocabulary, the learners will be demotivated to use the language

In reality, in Vietnam, almost all students only study vocabulary in their textbooks at school as well as through teacher's sources They have the habit of only learning new vocabulary in class but they do not often have the habit of reviewing vocabulary, leading to not being able to remember long and having difficulty in using words even though they have not been studying for that long Many of them are not able to use vocabulary properly in various contexts or pronounce it correctly Vocabulary mastery is one of the ways to master a foreign language The students have the ability in understanding and using the words and meanings Not only do students know the words, but also their meaning Students can learn vocabulary more

easily and understand the meaning of those words It means that it will cause a big problem if someone doesn’t have a rich vocabulary The bigger vocabulary understudies are, the better they perform their language By having a constrained vocabulary, the learners will get difficulties in English abilities

From the above perspectives, as well as an English language major senior, I hope to implement this study to find out difficulties in learning English vocabulary among English language major freshmen at Vietnam National University of Agriculture Besides that, this study will also propose some useful English vocabulary learning methods for them

1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

This study aims to find out difficulties in learning English vocabulary that English language major freshmen at Vietnam National University of Agriculture encounter

After that, some helpful suggestions will be provided to support students learning English vocabulary more effectively

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

This study is accomplished to tackle the following research questions:

- What are the difficulties in learning English vocabulary of English language major freshmen at Vietnam National University of Agriculture?

- What are the recommendations that help English language major freshmen at Vietnam National University of Agriculture vocabulary better?

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

There have been a number of researches on the difficulties in learning English vocabulary up to now This study was performed to figure out difficulties in learning English vocabulary faced by students at Vietnam National University of Agriculture Participants are about 101 English language major freshmen at Vietnam National

University of Agriculture The time to conduct research is in the second -term of the academic year in 2021

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The significance of the study points out the difficulties in learning English vocabulary of English language major freshmen at Vietnam National University of Agriculture After pointing out the difficulties, this study gave some recommendations in vocabulary learning for students

1.6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

Apart from abstracts, references & appendices, the study consists of three main parts:

PART 1 - INTRODUCTION presents rationale of the study, aim and objective

of the study, research questions, the scope as well as the significance of the study PART 2 - DEVELOPMENT is divided into 3 chapters:

Chapter 1 - LITERATURE REVIEW – provides theoretical background for the study including Vocabulary’s aspects; Vocabulary learning; Difficulties

in learning English vocabulary

Chapter 2 – METHODOLOGY describes the methodology used in the research including: Research methodology; Research setting/context; Data collection (including Data collecting instruments, Data collecting procedures and Data analysis)

Chapter 3 - FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS - reports and discusses the findings of the study

PART 3 - CONCLUSION -summarizes the main issues that have been addressed in the study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1 - LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 REVIEW OF THE PREVIOUS STUDIES (AT HOME & ABROAD)

Firstly, according Le, T.M (2013) in “Difficulties in learning English vocabulary faced by the 10th form students at Dong Son I upper secondary school” presented some difficulties in learning English vocabulary of Dong Son I upper secondary school students such as ineffective ways of learning vocabulary, lack of motivation, difficulties related to vocabulary itself, and teacher’s teaching method Some solutions were provided by the researcher such as improving awareness of teacher’s roles, improving vocabulary method teaching and improving students' self-study

Another research, Pham, T.T.H (2010) in “Investing difficulties in learning the vocabulary of ethnic minority learners at Son La ethnic boarding high school and some suggested solutions” In that study, the researcher presented some difficulties

in learning English vocabulary such as lack of general knowledge, lack of motivation, deficiency of Vietnamese, lack of time, lack of appropriate syllabus for ethnic minority students, lack of communicative environment, and difficulties caused by the English difference between the written and spoken form About solutions, the researcher also provided some suggestions like using pictures, using word guessing games, using semantic mapping, using realia, guessing words in context, and organizing English-speaking clubs

The study on difficulties in learning English vocabulary was also studied by Afzal, N (2019) in “A Study on Vocabulary-Learning Problems Encountered by BA English Majors at the University Level of Education” of Department of English, College of Sciences & Humanities at Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University The researcher also gave several problems in learning English vocabulary such as

knowing the meanings of new words, pronunciation, using new words correctly, memorizing and spelling new vocabulary, and so on These vocabulary-learning problems cause the students to feel hard in reading comprehension, writing, and communication skills due to a lack of vocabulary knowledge

1.2 REVIEW OF THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.2.1 Statement of theoretical framework chosen

This study is performed to find out vocabulary’s aspects, vocabulary learning, difficulties in learning English vocabulary and useful methods to learn English vocabulary effectively regarding English language major freshmen at Vietnam National University of Agriculture

Richards, J and Renandya, W (2002) claimed: Vocabulary is a central component of language proficiency and provides much of the basis for how learners listen, say, interpret, and write well Students listen to words while saying, say words while reading, interpret words when writing, and use words while learning Learners often have difficulty listening to the radio, listening to native speakers, using the

language in various ways, reading, or watching tv if they lack a substantial vocabulary and techniques for learning a new vocabulary

According to Hiebert, E and Kamil, M (2005) said that: “Vocabulary can be learned by accidental learning Many of a learner's vocabulary can be acquired by activities rather than specific vocabulary instruction Repetition, context richness, and inspiration can all help with the effectiveness of incidental vocabulary learning.”

In view of Thornbury, S (2002) defines vocabulary as "a list of all the words in

a given language with a shape in a phrase that is synonymous with context." The overall number of words in a sentence, as well as the words used to convey an idea

or a feeling, are referred to as vocabulary.”

“Vocabulary is a dictionary or a collection of words for a given language,” Vocabulary is a fundamental part of language and plays a critical role in the teaching

of English”, according to Brown, D (2001)

1.2.2.2 The concept of “a word”

Definitions: There are many definitions of “a word”

According to David,C (2003), the following is true: A word is the smallest unit

of grammar that can stand alone as a complete utterance, divided in written language

by spaces and perhaps by gaps in expression

As mentioned by Hoang, T.T (1993): “A word is a dialectical unity of form and content capable of forming a sentence by itself.”

1.2.2.3 Word types:

a) Hyponymy

Definition: As said byNguyen, H (2004): “Hyponymy is a relation in which the referent of one word is fully included in the referent of another word In other words, hyponymy refers to the association between hyponyms (the "lower" words) and their superordinates (the "higher" words).”

Definition: Homonyms are words that are similar in pronunciation and/or spelling

but with distinct meanings, according to Nguyen, H (2004)

Classification: Homonyms include homophones and homographs

+ Homophones are words identical in pronunciation only

*Example: Weak - Week

Sun - Son

Plane - Plain

+ Homographs are words identical in spelling only:

*Example: Fine: good quality OR a levy

Minute: tiny OR unit of time

c) Synonyms

Definition: As opinion of Nguyen, H (2004), said that: Synonyms are phonetically

and morphologically distinct words belonging to the same part of speech, having identical denotation but differing in connotation, combination, and so on

Example: Fast, quick, rapid,

Classification:

+ Semantic synonym: are words differing in shades of meaning

*Example: hungry, starving, famished, peckish,

+ Stylistic synonyms: are words differing in styles of word

* Example: mother – mom – mommy - mama,

+ Semantic-stylistic synonyms: are words differing both in shades of meaning and stylistic aspects:

* Example: to dismiss - to shack – to fire - to lay of

House – shack – slum - pad

+ Phraseology synonyms: are words differing in their collocations

*Example: do - make; start – begin,

+ Territorial synonyms: are synonyms that belong to different countries (territories)

*Example:

In England In America In Australia

Definition: According to Nguyen, H (2004), said that: “Antonyms are words of

opposite meaning and of the same part of speech.”

Example: long – short

tidy – untidy

 Usually adjectives denoting qualities, verbs denoting actions or state and abstract nouns have antonyms:

Example: old – young

give-take

 Concrete nouns have no antonyms:

Example: book, window, fan, curtain,

 Antonyms are sometimes used for stylistic purposes:

Example: It was the best of times – It was the worst of times

It was the age of wisdom – It was the age of foolishness

Classification:

+ Root – word antonyms: are words totally distinctive in sound –forms

* Example: good - bad

peace - war

+ Derivational antonyms: are words shaped by adding affixation to root words

* Example: Like – dislike

Useful –useless

e) Polysemy

Definition: Nguyen, H (2004) presented: “Polysemy is a relation in which a single

word has two or more slightly different but closely related meanings.”

Example: The word “face” in:

+ She washes face every morning ( Face is part of the body )

+ She faced the punishment for being late ( Face is deal with something unpleasant)

Classification:

- The criteria utilized to recognize between homonymy and polysemy are

+ Meaning

+ Etymology

f) Simple word

Definition: According to Howard J and Etienne, Z.A (2007) said that “A simple

word is the basic word form with nothing added to it.”

Example boy, girl, tall, small, blue, green,

Classification:

+ Simple nouns: tree, flag, song, comb,

+ Simple adjectives: good, bad, narrow, wide,

+ Simple verbs: go, run, walk, climb,

g) Derived word

Definition: According to Howard J and Etienne, Z.A (2007) stated that: “A derived

word is one that only consists of a root morpheme and one or more derivational morphemes.”

Example : Teach -Teacher

Love -Lovely

Classification

+ Derived nouns : kill - killer, teach - teacher, act – actor,

+ Derived adjectives: good – better –best, bad – worse –worst,

+ Derived verbs: come - upcoming, go -undergoes,

+ Derived adverbs: love - lovely, happy – happily,

h) Compound word

Definition: According to Howard J and Etienne, Z.A (2007) claimed that: “A

compound word is one that has at least two roots without derivational morphemes.” Example: bookstore, notebook, fireman,

Classification

+ Compound nouns: door –handle, lady – killer,

+ Compound adjectives: hot – tempered, easy –going,

+ Compound verbs: whitewash, team –teach

+ Compound adverbs: whole – heartedly, self – confidendently,

+ Compound prepositions: onto, into,

b) Types of meaning:

In view of Hurford, J and Heasley, B (1984) claimed that there are two types

of word meaning: primary meaning and secondary meaning

The primary meaning is the first meaning or usage that the word will suggest

to most people when it is said in isolation

Example: “wing” is the thing which is used to fly by a bird

Secondary meaning of a word is context bound whereas its primary meaning is not

Example: He often plays on the wing: “Wing” means ‘side part of the playing area in football, hockey, ”

According to Lyons,J (1995): “Word meaning has two types of meaning are literal meaning and figurative meaning”

+ Literal meaning is the basis or usual meaning of a word

For example: Here are some literal meanings of word “ wing”

*) Part of a bird's or insect's body (wings of dove)

**) A component of an aircraft that aids in its flight (the two wings of airplane)

***) Above the well, a portion of the vehicle's body (the left of wing of the car was damaged in the collosistion)

+ A word's figurative sense differs from its literal meaning, and it conjures up colorful mental memories in the minds of readers or listeners

For example: Here are some figurative meaning of word “wing”

*) To extend activities and interests of someone:

Her parents hope life abroad will help her to spread her wings a bit

**) To prevent someone from something:

Having new troubles to get over has clipped his wings a bit

***) Under someone's protection or care:

She always put her children under her wing

c) Components of word- meaning

Howard, J and Etienne, Z.A (2007) identified two types of word meaning: denotational and connotational In which, he said as following:

The denotational meaning signifies or points out objects, concepts, ” Example:

“dolphin” denotes an animal that can swim or “mother, mom, mommy’ indicates the female parent

The connocational meaning demonstrates how things, thoughts, and ideas are indicated It expresses the speaker's mood, feelings, and so on The personal part of meaning, the emotional connections that a word evokes, is referred to as connotation Individual experiences shape connotations, yet because humans have common experiences, certain words have shared meanings.”

Example: Dove: is peace, change and freedom

As mentioned by Fauconnier,M (1985), components of word-meaning include: Direct meaning and indirect meaning In which, he showed:

Direct meaning is a meaning that expresses something without comparing it to other things or relating it with others

Indirect meaning refers to a meaning that conveys anything only inferentially

To comprehend it, we must compare it to something else or identify it with something else

Example: The word “pen” in:

Example 1: He has a pen

Example 2: He is the best pen in Viet Nam

( “pen” in Example 1: indicate something to write, but “pen” in example 2 indicates a writer.)

1.2.4 Word structure and formation

1.2.4.1 Word structure

a) The morpheme

Definitions: It is defined in different ways:

Concurring with Hoang, T.T (1993), said that: “A morpheme is the smallest critical unit of a word that's as a part of a word.”

Example: teacher has morphemes are teach + -er

unlucky has morphemes are un + -luck + -y

b) The types of morpheme

There are two types of morphemes: the root morpheme and the affixational morpheme

The root morpheme is called the essential component of the word and possesses its basic word meaning

Example: “teacher” has root morpheme is teach

The affixational morpheme is isolated into grammatical morpheme and derivational morpheme:

The grammatical morpheme is also called the inflection about grammar of words It is utilized to make diverse shapes of the same word that carries the syntactic meaning

Example: - s in ‘cars’ or – ed in “expected”

The derivational morphemes are used to make new words New words are created by adding affixation

Example: use – useful –useless – uselessly

1.2.4.2 Word formation

Definition: In view of Finegan, E (1994): “Word-formation is the process of building new words from the material already existing in the language according to certain and semantic patterns and formulate.”

Word formation usually uses affixation Affixation is divided into prefixation

or suffixation

a) Prefixation

Classifications: In common, prefixes in English have three meanings: negative

meaning, inversion or reiteration of an activity, space and time relationship

Example:

Un-, dis-, non-, -,il,

-ir-,im-, ,

Negation Unhappy, dishonest, nonsense,

illegal, irregular, impossible,

Un- dis, -re, Reversal or

repetition

Unlock, disconnect, rewrite, retell, redo, regain Pre-, post-, fore-,

b) Suffixation

Classification: In English, suffixes fall into the following groups:

+ Noun-suffixes: -or,-er, -tion, -ness,

+ Adjective- suffixes: -al, -able,-less, -ful, -ish,

+ Verb-suffixes: -ise, -fy,,

+ Adverb-suffixes: -ly, -ward, -wise,

- Here are some suffixes is summarized by table:

Movable, drinkable, visible,

Whitish, outlandish, wolfish,

Careless, useless,

Verb-

suffixes

-ize -fy -en

Denoting action Denoting naming action Denoting action

action

Carefully, hopely,

Southwards, forward, afterward,

Salewise, otherwise

1.2.4.3 Other types of word-formation

Shortening: According to Hoang, T.T (1993) , defined: “ Shortening is the word-formation process which consists of the reduction of a word to one of its parts.” Example: exam(imation); math(ematics),

Abbreviation: According to Hoang, T.T (1993), stated: “Acronyms are words built from the initials of several words:

Example: BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation); VOA (Voice of America); UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), Clipping:

Initial clipping: (mobile)phone; (air)plane,

Final clipping: lab(oratory); sis(ter); bro(ther); uni(versity);

Intio – final clipping: )Re)fridge(rator)

Medical clipping: V(victory)- day,

Elliptico-conversational: pop (popular music); pub (publishing house); perm (permanent);

According to Crow, J and Quigley, J (1985), gave definition of semantic fields:

“Every word in our lexicon has a precise meaning that we recognize right away when

we see it Some of the terms are more semantically connected to one another than others, in the sense that when we hear one, we automatically think of the other.When

we hear the word teacher, we may think of school or student When we hear the word door, we may think of window or wall These basic examples demonstrate that these words belong to distinct categories, which we can all perceive The term "semantic field" refers to the interaction between the words.”

Example 1: The semantic field of school terms: teacher, students, subjects, Example 2: The semantic field of adjectives describing human emotional states: excited, angry, depressed, afraid,

In terms of definition, Cowie, A and Howarth, P (1996) also said that

“Phraseology can be loosely defined as the study of conventional phrases, where 'phrase' means any multi-word expression up to sentence level.”

1.2.6.2 Phraseology features

a) Structural features:

As mentioned by Hoang, T.T (1993): “Phraseological includes set expressions that may be completely or partially fixed In other words, they are either non-changeable or changeable expressions.”

Example: “in high feature”, we can not replace “high” by “tall” or “feature” by

“hair’

b) Semantic and stylistic features

Hoang, T.T (1993)said that : ‘Phraseological units are reproduced in speech and in many cases can be replaced by words.”

Example: to pull sb’s leg = to tease

to go to heaven = to die

- Metaphor and metonymy

Example: a heart of stone = a pitiless and unfeeling natures

a lion in fight = bravely and successfully

- Based on alliteration and contrast:

Example: now or never

a) Phraseological fusions: They are also called “completely idiomatic”

because the meaning of the whole unit is not a mere sum of the meanings of its

component:

Example: “ a nice kettle of fish”; “to beat about the bush”;

b) Phraseological units: They are also called “partial units” because the

meaning of the whole unit is not the sum of the meanings of its component but it is based on them We may deduce or guess the general meaning:

Example: “to fish in troubled water”; “to make one’s way in life”; “all of a sudden”

direct meaning In phraseological combinations, words retain their semantic independence despite their being limited in combinative power

- Nouns: “ skeleton in the cupboard”; “a nice kettle of fish”

- Verbs: “to pull one’s leg”;

- Adjectives: “as meek as lamp”; “as brave as a lion”

- Adverbs: “once in blue moon”

- Prepositions: “In consequence of”; “in spite of ”; “to sum of ”

- Interjections: “Damn it!”; “Son of a bitch”

1.2.7 Etymology

1.2.7.1 Basic assumption

Definition: In linguistics, etymology is a field of lexicology that studies the

origins and history of words and their meanings

English vocabulary is divided into two layers: native words and borrowed words

Native words are those of Anglo-Saxon origin brought to the British Isles in the

5th century by the Germanic tribes-the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes This layer takes up only 30% of the entire English vocabulary

Borrowed words are words borrowed from other languages They may be completely or partially assimilated in the English vocabulary This layer takes up 70% of the whole English vocabulary

For example: “red” in English acquired the meaning “revolutionary” because of the influence of the French word “rouge”

According to Ilson, R (1983),pointed out “Etymological information in a broad way, covering four parts: (1) original words and cognates; (2) morphological analysis

of word structure; (3) morphological analysis of word formation; and (4) cognitive analysis of word formation and evolution.”

1.2.7.2 Parts of etymology

a) Etymon and Cognate

Etymons are phrases that are one of a kind or prime words When it comes to cognates, they refer to words that have the same origin or beginning, such as the English word "home" and the German word "haus." In French and Italian, the English word "cotton" is pronounced "cotton" and "cotone," respectively This is a win-win

situation for Indo-European speakers

Since cognates share a common origin, their meaning is regularly similar and clear, so learners are able to relate a word with its cognates For instance, “Cattle” and “capital” and cognates, and “cattle” is people’s property, so “capital” ought to have a similar meaning as “property” or “wealth” In this way, learners can learn the word “capital” as well In this way, many English words are experiencing some loss

of case affixes, and become demotivated

Inclining historical underpinnings makes a difference to the understudies in senior a long time to know the history of words, and culture stacked with the words and the country’s culture from which words were from That's the relationship between work inspiration and culture

b) Word Structure

The etymological analysis of word structure contributes to vocabulary in-depth acquisition and also will enlarge learners’ vocabulary For illustration, in morphology, “flat” may be a root, which may be a sort of morpheme and the base frame of a word And from an etymological see, “flat” infers from the Latin word

“flare”, which breaks even with “blow” So the morphological part and etymological meaning of “flat” limit these words to implications related to “blow”, such as

“inflate” implies “to fill with air”

As mentioned, the etymology of word structure is crucial Following etymological data of English words’ roots, attaches, stems, and other morphemes, learners are able to extend the viability and accuracy of lexicon learning and will be more curious about the word’s history

1.2.7.3 Significance of learning etymology

a) Expanding vocabulary

In the event that the word contains the root “vis” ( meaning: see) such as

“visible”, “invisible”, “visit”, “revise”, and so on

Other examples are the suffix with academic meaning:

*) -graphy, stands for “science and writing”: biography, calligraphy, and geography;

*) -ic, ics, stand for “science”: logic, mechanics, optics, and electronics;

*) -ology, stands for “science”: biology, zoology, and technology;

b) Lessening spelling mistakes and distinguishing similar words

Numerous learners cannot recognize between “proceed” and “precede”, but when they know their roots and joins; the distinction would be made clear Really, the two words share the same root “cede”, meaning “to go”, and “ceed” is as it were

a variety of “cede” in “proceed” But they have diverse prefixes: in “proceed”, “pro” implies “for” or “towards”, whereas “pre” in “precede” alludes to “before” So prepared with etymological words knowledge well, learners can recognize comparable words and hence diminish spelling blunders

With more knowledge about etymology, learners can be clear about the arrangement of words That will dodge the incorrect spelling of the words For

example, in English, words like “altitude” and “altruism” are words with alt- implies

“high” and -itude means the word could be a thing And the altru- implies “other”

So with the knowing of alt- and altru-, learners effectively keep in mind the spelling

1.2.8 Lexicology

1.2.8.1 Definitions:

Kuznetsova (1968), said that: “Lexicology as a branch of linguistics has its own aims and methods of scientific research, its basic task being a study and systematic description of vocabulary in respect to its origin, development, and current use Lexicology is concerned with words, variable word-groups, phraseological units, and with morphemes that makeup words.”

1.2.8.2 Lexicology in the system of linguistic disciplines

Firstly, in characterizing the meaning of any word, its phonetic characteristics are to be taken under consideration (quality of phonemes, stress, ) In this way, the association between the two etymological disciplines: Phonology and Lexicology gets to be self-evident

Example: The comparison of the combine bun (sweet cake)/barn (secured building on cultivating) outlines the association between the articulation and spelling

of the words on the one hand and their implications on the other

On the other hand, any speaker of English is beyond any doubt to have taken note that the sound clusters [dl] and [θl] never happen at the starting of the English word, or that the sound [h] isn't common in last positions It is well-known that long vowels and diphthongs do not go before last [ŋ]; [e, æ ] don't happen as last sounds; [ŋ] does not show up at the starting of a word These are phonotactic regularities of the English dialect that ought to not be ignored by a lexicologist

The next linguistic discipline with Lexicology is Grammar Grammatical forms prove essential in distinguishing the meanings of words For illustration, the word

“custom” implies “way of carrying on a long set up in society”, but in capitalized plural form, “Customs” signifies “department of government that collects consequence duties” Another example: The adjective "empty" and the verb "empty" function differently, even if we combine them with the same noun basket – ‘the empty basket’ and “empty the basket” These cases illustrate the significance of Grammar in Linguistic use when characterizing the implications of the words and their regular collocations

1.2.8.3 The issues and regions of lexicology

It can be deduced that the word is a fundamental unit at the level of discourse Especially, at the level of lexicological analysis already, the word still being the most center - the word is decreased to its extraordinary basic components - morphemes (roots, joins) Hence, when we say that lexicology is the science of the word, we mean that it thinks about different lexical units counting morphemes, words, variable word-groups and phraseological units

This being so, present-day lexicological approaches meet two levels of examination: Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic In other words, the semantic structure,

or meaning of the word is characterized in connection with other words in connected discourse This implies that the semantic highlights of the word are considered in its typical contexts

For case, in Syntagmatic the word “make” can be seen in the sentences, when

it shows its diverse implications due to the interaction with the implications of the words encompassing it:

A settlement has been made with our previous enemies

Christie’s books make great reading

He made his living by giving piano lessons

In Pragmatic, the meaning of the verb "make" can be completely caught on as

it were in the event that we compare it with the other things of its synonymic set: create, produce, prepare, obtain, set, cause, compel, etc

1.2.9 Difficulties in learning English vocabulary

According to Thornbury, S (2002), recommended that students can face some difficulties in learning English vocabulary, such as: pronunciation; spelling; words grammar and words meaning Because of limitations, this study only finds out these difficulties in learning English vocabulary among English language major freshmen

at Vietnam National University of Agriculture

1.2.9.1 Pronunciation

According to Brown, D (2001), one component of communicative ability is pronunciation, which is referred to as Psychomotor skills Pronunciation is a talent that involves the way a person pronounces a letter or a language, and it consists of three components: sound, intonation, and rhythm

Furthermore, Christiane, D and Barbara, S (1994), define pronunciation as the production, reception of sound speech and analyze the relationship between pronunciation and actions of speaking In a nutshell, pronunciation is a component

of speaking skill that deals with how to produce appropriate sounds in order to get meaning in the context of usage

According to Penny, U (1996): “Pronunciation includes sounds found in language and phonology; accent and rhythm; intonation; tonal combination; sounds connection.”

* Sounds:

Lestari, D (2019), presented: Individual sounds combine to form words For instance, "beat" = /b + t/ (i: is the symbol for the sound ee) /kofi:/ = "coffee" Phonetic symbols (/b/, /i:/, and /k/, for example) are used to represent sounds However, there is a difference between written letters and spoken sounds As a result, the “c” of "cat" differs from the “c” of "case," but is the same as the “c” of “coffee” This can make students have difficulties in learning English pronunciation

Stress:

The emphasis is placed in words and sentences The stressed syllable is the part

of a word or phrase that has the most emphasis because the speaker emphasizes it by increasing the volume or changing the pitch of their voice when saying it Furthermore, various dialects of English might emphasize differently

For example, ‘export is a noun or ex’port is a verb

Pitch and intonation

Pitch: The level at which the learner talks is described Some people speak with

a high-pitched tone, while others speak in a low-pitched tone We employ a range of pitch levels when we say things: higher when we're eager or afraid, for example, but lower when we're drowsy or bored

Intonation: is commonly referred to as "speech music," and it refers to the occasions when we vary the pitch of our voices to convey specific meanings It is really necessary for conveying our message For example, the word "Yes" can be said in a falling or rising voice, or a combination of the two We may make "Yes" signify "I agree" or "Perhaps it is true" by shifting the direction of the voice

Vowels and consonants

Roach, P (1991) showed that sounds in English are divided into two types: vowels and consonants

A vowel is a sound in spoken language, pronounced with an open larynx The opposite of vowels are consonants that have several constricted or closed positions

on the larynx

Sentence intonation and stress

In sentences, stressed words are often pronounced louder and slower than the rest Sentence stress is very important, because when speaking, the word that speakers stress as well as the way they stress the same word can completely change the meaning contained in the sentence In addition, sentence stress also creates melody for the language It's the tone that makes the change in the speed of speaking English

Speech is like music, there is also a change in pitch: speakers can change the pitch of their voice when they speak, making it higher or lower as they please Therefore, it can be said that speech also has a melody, called intonation

1.2.9.2 Spelling

a) Definition:

According to Wehmeler (2003) said that : “Spelling is the writing of a word or words with the necessary letters, an arrangement of letters that form a word and the process of forming words by putting letters together.”

Graham, S and Miller, L (1979) said that: “Spelling as the ability to recognize, recall, reproduce or obtain orally or in written form the correct sequence of letters in words”

Graham, S and Miller, L (1979) stated that: “English spelling system is so complex is the fact that there are only 26 alphabets that represent 44 different sounds For example, the phoneme /i/ can be spelled with graphemes ee, ea, ei, e, and i Similarly, graphemes are also pronounced in different ways depending on their