Khóa luận tốt nghiệp a survey of beliefs and vocabulary learning strategies adopted by third year english majors at vietnam national university of agricultrure

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study Project report entitled ― A survey of beliefs and vocabulary learning strategies adadopted by thir

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES

BA THESIS

A SURVEY OF BELIEFS AND VOCABULARY

LEARNING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT VIETNAM NATIONAL

THIRD-UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE KHẢO SÁT VỀ NIỀM TIN VÀ CHIẾN LƯỢC HỌC TỪ VỰNG CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM BA NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TẠI HỌC VIỆN NÔNG NGHIỆP VIỆT NAM

Student : BUI THI THANH HUYEN

Student code : 621266

Supervisor : NGUYEN THI HOAI, M.A

Hanoi – 2021

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES

BA THESIS

A SURVEY OF BELIEFS AND VOCABULARY

LEARNING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT VIETNAM NATIONAL

THIRD-UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE KHẢO SÁT VỀ NIỀM TIN VÀ CHIẾN LƯỢC HỌC TỪ VỰNG CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM BA NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TẠI HỌC VIỆN NÔNG NGHIỆP VIỆT NAM

Student : BUI THI THANH HUYEN

Student code : 621266

Supervisor : NGUYEN THI HOAI, M.A

Hanoi – 2021

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study Project report

entitled ― A survey of beliefs and vocabulary learning strategies adadopted by third-year English majors at Vietnam national university of Agriculture‖

submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‘swork has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the

(Signature and full name)

Date:………

1.2 DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION OF VOCABULARY

2.4 DATA ANALYSIS 17

3.1 RESEARCH QUESTION 1: WHAT ARE THE LEARNERS‘ BELIEFS

3.2 RESEARCH QUESTION 2: WHAT ARE THE MOST AND LEAST COMMON STRATEGIES FOR LEARNING VOCABULARY UTILIZED

4 Recommendations/Suggestions for further study 32

ABSTRACT

This study explored ―Vocabulary Learning Beliefs and Vocabulary Learning Strategies‖ of third-year English majors students at Vietnam national university of Agriculture The purpose of the research is to find out (1) students' beliefs about vocabulary learning; (2) the least and most strategies adopted by learners The questionnaire was adopted from Hadi and Guo (2020), see Appendix, including four components: beliefs about vocabulary learning, metacognitive regulation of vocabulary learning, cognitive strategies of vocabulary learning, and affective strategies of vocabulary learning — designed for 105 third-year students at VNUA Data was analyzed using excel The results of the study show that learners: (1) prefer to learn words through memory rather than learning by using; (2) have the ability to select, understand, apply what they need to learn; (3) mostly relied on inferencing, using dictionary, rehearsal, note-taking in vocabulary learning and (4) have the ability to manage and control their emotions, positive and negative emotions in learning vocabulary

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

First of all ，I would like to acknowledge my deep gratitude to my supervisor，Mrs Nguyen Thi Hoai, MA for her valuable guidance，helpful suggestions and eritical comments throughout research ， without which my research could not been completed。

I would like to send my sincere thanks to the lecturers in the Faculty of Education and Foreign Languages at VNUA for their useful advice on this study。 Finally，I wish to send my sincere thanks to all third -year English major students at VNUA for their participation and assistance，without which this study could not have been successful

LIST OF ABRRIVIATION

VNUA : Vietnam National University of Agriculture

L2 : Second Language

VLS :Vocabulary learning strategies

ELLS : English Language Learners

EFL : English Foreign Language

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1: Participants of the study 15

Table 2.2 Description of the categories of VLS 16

Table 3.1: Beliefs about vocabulary learning 18

Table 3.2: Vocabulary learning strategies: Metacognitive strategies 20

Table 3.3: Vocabulary learning strategies: Inferencing, Using Dictionaries, Rehearsal, Note-taking, Encoding, Activation 22

Table 3.4: : Vocabulary learning strategies: Affective Strategies 28

PART 1 INTRODUCTION

1.RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

Nowadays, English has been included in the compulsory curriculum of students from a very early age The lack of vocabulary, even a lot of vocabulary, can be one of the reasons why students do not improve their English To help learn vocabulary effectively, the application of vocabulary learning strategies greatly contributes to English learning for students

―L2 learning of vocabulary is not just learning a word once and for all, but learning the range of information that goes with it.‘‘Cook (2008) Also, to learn vocabulary, especially in English, we should learn the definitions attached to it, not only help them understand that vocabulary, but we also apply it in practice, put into the wallets For example, moreover, we will learn new words through attached definitions as well as synonyms of those new words

When it comes to learning a foreign language like English, many students spend hours working with textbooks, doing grammar exercises and maybe even watching entertainment in their target language However, many people do not realize that learning vocabulary is just as important, if not more important when

it comes to success in language learning

Vocabulary knowledge is perhaps the most important factor when it comes

to reading comprehension, for both native and non-native speakers For example,

if you sit down to read a book and you don't know which vocabulary is used, you will have difficulty understanding the meaning of the text As Paul Nation (2015) noted in his paper on vocabulary learning: ―Vocabulary is not an end in itself A rich vocabulary makes the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing easier to perform ‖ Truthly, when you have a broader vocabulary in your target language, you will benefit from developing the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing

We see similar evidence when it comes to language students' listening skills Obviously, if you have never seen or heard a specific vocabulary in the second language, it will be difficult to recognize and decode sounds and thus draw meaning If you are a language learner, you may be able to understand a word through context or by relating it to other words in the same word family or

by its pronunciation ― Is vocabulary important in language learning?,Text

Inspector,2020‘‘

Rie Koizumi affirms " of the five factors (i.e pronunciation, comprehension, fluency, grammar and vocabulary), vocabulary is the only one that affects the proficiency difference between beginner and intermediate learners For intermediate learners and above, all five factors affect proficiency differences, but vocabulary often appears as the distinguishing factor "

Vocabulary learning strategies are one part of language learning strategies which in turn are part of general learning strategies (Nation, 2001).In the world, there are a lot of research on effective vocabulary learning strategies such as using context, encoding, using dictionary, note-taking and they motivate students to help them memorize or other strategies relate about cognitive and understanding abilities Learners can choose from different vocabulary learning strategies that are suitable for them Instead of learning a bunch of vocabulary, learners can get creative using the Mind Map (mind map) Mind Map is a map with lines, shapes, words and pictures, which are presented logically, very convenient for acquiring and memorizing vocabulary

At Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA), vocabulary learning strategies of students in general and students at English majors in particular is still quite limited and seems to be ineffective Specifically, there are big differences between students; Levels are not equal and different from vocabulary learning strategies In the learning process, students are afraid of

learning new words and basically cannot keep up with the vocabulary of the program, which will cause many difficulties

Before , many researchers have studied how students and English learners learn vocabulary, how they use strategies to learn vocabulary, as well as their beliefs about learning vocabulary Talking about the belief, Borg (2001: 186) shows the relationship between belief and behavior; conscious versus unconscious beliefs; beliefs as value commitments) and summarized these as:

―A belief is a proposition which may be consciously or unconsciously held, is evaluative in that it is accepted as true by the individual, and is therefore imbued with emotive commitment; further, it serves as a guide to thought and behaviour.‘‘ And Asbjornson |1999:1| also explains Gaies‘ (1998) proposition as follows: ―First, beliefs are subjective, therefore, they do not necessarily reflect external reality Beliefs reflect ―truths‖ held by individuals and, therefore, are potentially facilitative for language learning (e.g., everyone can learn a language)

or debilitative (e.g., boys are not good language learners) Second, beliefs about language learning should be stable over time, which indicates that beliefs are formed and maintained by a complex social and cultural system Finally, Gaies asserts that belief systems are unique to individuals.‘‘ Although the definitions

of beliefs are not clear are still theoretically ambiguous, what is involved in studying beliefs about language learning and greatly influence vocabulary learning strategies, shows the importance of studying beliefs of learners have been well defined

At Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA), there has been no research carried out to investigate vocabulary learning strategies that students adopt Therefore, we have decided to conduct a study on beliefs and vocabulary learning strategies adopted by third-year English majors at VNUA

2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

Research aims to examine vocabulary learning strategies applied by year English majors students at VNUA Specifically, the study examines the beliefs of third-year English majors students about vocabulary learning and the most and the least common strategies for learning vocabulary utilized by third-year English majors at VNUA

4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study investigated 105 third-year students majoring in English at

VNUA The study completes during 5 months (from February to June, 2021)

5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study aims at finding out third-year English majors‘ belief and use of vocabulary learning strategies

As for English lecturers, the findings of the study will help lecturers of English at VNUA gain an insight into how their students believe about

vocabulary learning, on the basis of which, lecturers could have better

instructions on how their students should change their understanding of

vocabulary learning, on the basic of which they will have wiser choices in terms

of vocabulary learning strategies for themselves, which in turn help improve their vocabulary learning in particular and boost their English learning in

general

As for students, providing a description of the vocabulary learning

strategies, the study helps raise awareness of the use of different vocabulary

learning strategies and encourage them to use a variety of strategies for their effective vocabulary learning Successful learners should not use one vocabulary learning strategies Therefore, knowing many other strategies and trying new strategies would give them better chance to become more advanced learners of English in their study

6.DESIGN OF THE STUDY

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

The rest of the study comprises three parts as follows:

In part one: Introduction present rationale of study, Aim and objectives of

study, Research questions, Scope of study, Significance and Design of study

In part two: Development: consist of 3 chapters as follows:

Chapter 1: (Literature review), the researcher investigates prior literature to clarify some major terms in the study

Chapter 2:( Methodology), the justifications for the use of the methodology with detailed descriptions are presented

Chapter 3: (Discussion), the researcher process the data acquired to answer the research questions

In part three: Conclusion, the researcher summarizes all the findings revealed

and suggest some contributions of the study

Reference

Appendix

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 HOW VOCABULARY SHOULD BE LEARNED

Sternberg (1983) states that ‗‘Most vocabulary is learned from context ‘‘ The reason for saying this is because the author pointed out the context that plays an important role in learning vocabulary What the document claims to imply is that teaching people to better learn from context can be a highly effective way to enhance vocabulary development, is that teaching specific vocabulary using context is the most effective way , or even relatively effective

at teaching that vocabulary It is associated with the context to help learners relate and remember longer

Brown and Payne (1994, as cited in Hashimi & Hadavi, 2015) identify fives steps in learning vocabulary The steps are: identifying new words, understanding the words form and meaning, retaining the form and meaning of words in memory, and use the words in real circumstances This finding in the author's research paper is a process of understanding and applying words To learn a word, we must deeply understand that word, form our own concept, and then apply it in practice and use it in all situations Such application of new words will make you develop more sentences and enrich your vocabulary

Brenda D Smith (2008) identifies seven essential steps in learning and remembering new words Those are ―rhyming words, association and organization, understanding the structure of words, using a dictionary, recognizing word families (prefixes, roots, and suffixes), understanding word‘s origin, and using analogies‖ ―Analogy is a cognitive process of transferin information or meaning from a particular subject (the analog, or source) to another (the target), or a linguistic expression corresponding to such a

process‖.(wikipedia foundation, ―analogy”) Like Brown and Payne (1994),

Smith also discovered that learning must follow a certain sequence, here the

author advises to understand the word structure, understand the prefix origin as well as the suffix of the word then learning a word will be easier, learners themselves will think faster about that new word

1.2 DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION OF VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES

‗‘The first development in learning strategies area began in 1970s with research to recognize the characteristics of good language learners‘‘ (Naiman et al., 1978; Rubin, 1975) O‘Malley and Chamot define learning strategies as ―the special thoughts or behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn or retain new information‖ (1990, p.1) Schmitt claims that learning is ―the process by which information is obtained, stored, retrieved and used… therefore vocabulary learning strategies could be any which affect this broadly defined process‖ (1997, p.203) Fan (2003, cited in Mo Caiyi, 2014, p 20) defines vocabulary learning strategies as ―both general approaches and specific actions

or techniques (either mental or behavioral) used by a learner to make the vocabulary learning become easier, faster and better‖

In order to learn vocabulary effectively, learners need to apply the right strategies For example, ―to understand an unfamiliar language second L2 word, people make use of a variety of strategies, such as guessing, using dictionaries, deducing meaning from the word‘s form and relating it to cognates‘‘Fraser,1999; Harler and hard, 2000) ‗‘To acquire new L2 words, people use strategies such

as repetition, organizing them in the mind, and linking them to existing knowledge‘‘(Bialystok,1983 in Soria, 2001)

According to O‘Malley and Chamot (1990), learning strategies could be classified into metacognitive, cognitive and socio-affective strategies Nation (2001) classifies vocabulary learning strategies into three categories: (1) planning (2) source, and (3) processes Nation also proposed that in vocabulary learning the following items also play a critical role: ―context, word parts,

dictionary, learning from cards, and finding and learning ―multiword units‖ (Gu, 2018) Schmitt‘s (1997) vocabulary learning taxonomy is divided into two categories: (1) discovery strategies and (2) consolidation strategies Discovery includes determination and social strategies; consolidation includes social strategies, memory strategies, cognitive strategies, and metacognitive strategies (Gu, 2018) Gu‘s (2013) taxonomy includes three components: beliefs, metacognitive and cognitive The metacognitive includes selective attention and self-initiation The cognitive includes inferencing, using dictionary, note-taking, rehearsal, encoding, and activation (Gu, 2018)

Mohamed (2017) and his colleagues pointed out 7 vocabulary learning strategies (which have been tested), including: cognition, guessing, using dictionary, taking notes, repeating words, decoding and applying words in learning process, practice using language In addition, many other studies also show that: learning words should be through communication activities ; read extension materials beyond textbooks ; method of word translation to explain the meaning of words, teach the meaning of words; encourage learners to increase awareness and use of metaphors, metaphors in language, learn words

by phrases instead of studying each single word

Schmitt (1997) developed an extensive taxonomy that organised around Oxford's (1990) about social, memory, cognitive and metacognitive categories

Gu and Johnson (1996) also developed a substantial list divided into: beliefs about vocabulary learning, metacognitive regulation, guessing strategies, dictionary strategies, notetaking strategies, memory strategies (rehearsal), memory strategies (encoding) and activation strategies

According to Oxford (1990a), memory strategies are divided into four groups The first group is to create associations, including: creating groups, linking and putting vocabulary into context The second group uses images and sounds including the use of images, language diagrams, keywords and sound

representations in memory Group three includes structured review The last group is implementation by action You can use actions or means to remember 1.3 STUDIES ON BELIEFS AND VOCABULARY LEARNING

STRATEGIES

Horwitz (1988) demonstrated that language learners have beliefs about language and language learning; especially EFL students Horwitz investigated the university's beliefs about foreign language learning and new foreign language students, between teachers and learners She affirms that the belief between students and teachers will greatly affect students' vocabulary learning and they may not participate in communication activities in class

Gu & Johnson (1996) researched the beliefs and strategies of adult Chinese learners for learning EFL vocabulary in their study Beliefs About Vocabulary Learning in their study included: Vocabulary should be memorized; Vocabulary should be picked up naturally; and Vocabulary should be studied and used.They confirmed that in general, the learners emphasize the belief that vocabulary should be remembered less than the other two types of beliefs They mainly believed that vocabulary should be studied carefully and used for learning, the participants did not seem to believe in memorization; they often react negatively to memorization strategies, with the exception of oral repetition Hadi & Guo (2020) studied on ―Beliefs about vocabulary learning and vocabulary learning strategies‖ of Afghan EFL learners at Shaikh Zayed University, Afghanistan In their conclusion affirms learners' belief that they prefer to learn words through use (contextual learning) rather than memorization; learners have the ability to ―identify, select and understand the necessary words" Cook (2008) states that ‗‘Most uses of vocabulary in textbooks imply that words have single Greek books that have vocabulary lists usually give single-word translations‘‘, ‗‘an aspect of vocabulary that has become important in recent years is how theword fits in to the structure of the sentence.‘‘ technique

(Nation, 1978a) is a useful way of learning new vocabulary, in particular becoming familiar with the spoken form of the word and linking it to its meaning Teachers can incorporate technology into students' vocabulary learning strategies to help them become more receptive throughout the learning process

Their main findings strongly supported Sanaoui‘s conclusions, which is more frequent and elaborate strategy use ―is linked to success in language learning, whereas lack of effort on the learners‘ part relates to poor achievement‖ (p 190) In addition, time and learner independence were found to be the two measures that are closely related ―to success in vocabulary learning and higher overall English proficiency‖ (p 176) (cited in, Ruutmets, 2005 )

Bera (2016) researches on strategies to use context and motivates students

to better memorize and apply vocabulary; Or, assigning exercises according to students' different cognitive abilities and understanding is also suggested as a way to promote learning, paying more attention to their vocabulary In order to help students remember new words, teachers can ask English language learners

to associate the new words with things that are already familiar to them, or the teacher can translate the words into the students‘ primary language (Colorado, 2007)

Wiley (2003) provides a descriptive study of sex differences in second language use A questionnaire was conducted for the 581 Spanish-speaking students studying Basque and English as L2 (279 boys and 302 girls) to answer the following questions: Are second language learners male and female have differ in (1) the number and (2) the vocabulary strategy range they use? The results show that they differ significantly in the number of strategies used In terms of vocabulary strategy ranges, 8 out of the 10 most frequently shared strategies are shared by men and women However, a thorough analysis of the data also reveals differences, such as women using more formal rule strategies,

invoking strategies, exercise strategies, and planning strategies Strategies and men use more visual vocabulary learning strategies In addition, the total rate of use of the strategy among women is higher than that of men, which indicates different perceptions of vocabulary learning behaviors or different patterns of using vocabulary strategies for men and women

Fan (2003) also conducted a study on Chinese EFL learners in Hong Kong, evaluating vocabulary tests and strategic questionnaires completed by more than 1,000 university students Fan found that the most proficient participants in her study used a number of different strategies (especially using multiple sources, dictionaries, guesses and known word strategies) often significantly less proficient (p 233), and she echoed Sanaoui's (1995) point of view on the importance of review and reinforcement in vocabulary learning (p 234) Fan also found that the use of the strategy is complex and that there exist notable differences between the frequency of use and the reported usefulness, perceived

by Vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) of the study participants in particular Therefore, Fan (2003) concluded by emphasizing the importance of helping EFL students understand the importance of VLS and encouraging them to develop their own effective strategies (cited in, Fan, 2003)

Researchers' previous research on vocabulary learning strategies has yielded profound results as we see in a study done by Ahmed (1989) showed that Sudanese university students successfully used dictionaries and note-taking strategies as common learning strategies

However, in another survey conducted in Japan by Schmitt (1997) among 600 high school, college and adult students, the researcher found that the strategies that the most often used are dictionaries, oral and written repetition, spelling words, and contextual guessing, while semantic mapping, keyword methods, and first language compound words are used less often regularly There is also some evidence that more proficient learners are more likely to use meaning-

centered strategies than less proficient learners After classifying vocabulary learning strategies, Kudo (1999) states that the strategy is the most and the least used He concluded that the most common and least common vocabulary learning strategies in L2 were list learning and keyword techniques, respectively Fan (2003) also studied 1067 university students in Hong Kong and realized that they were not using keyword techniques and management strategies when they used dictionary and guessing context strategies

In a recent study, Arjomand and Sharififar (2011) explored the relationship between vocabulary learning strategies and gender of Iranian EFL learners They conclude that cognitive strategy is the most commonly used strategy, while social strategy is the least used strategy Furthermore, with regard to gender, they claim that the cognitive / metacognitive strategies and social/affective strategies are the most and the least of the strategies, respectively Metacognition is a term first used by Flavell (1979) to refer to the concept of thinking about thoughts, perception of perception '' thinking about thinking, learning how to learn "

According to Derry and Murphy (1986), ―cognitive strategy is a set of mental strategies selected, used and directed by an individual in a particular learning environment to support language acquisition and skills more easily and achieve better goals‖

Metacognitive strategies, according to Schmitt (1997, p 216), ―are used by students to control and evaluate their own learning, by having an overview

or learning reflection of the learning process in general.‖ Whereas social cognitive strategies involve asking someone, usually teachers and peers, for the synonyms, definitions or example sentences of a particular unfamiliar word (Wasik& Iannone-C., 2012) According to the definition by two researchers, it is clear that metacognitive strategies are those in which learners learn from experience as well as themselves, while social strategies is a strategy to

influence learners through classroom learning, as well as following a certain pattern that has been learned through generations

In the research conducted by Scafaru and Tofan (2006), ― there was use of over seven different strategies which included micro-strategies, macro-strategies, dictionary use, memorization, practice,preferred source of information and note taking Note taking is a strategy which a lot of learners use and it has been proved to be effective as some learners prefer to work on visual memory, which meanssince they have written a new vocabulary they are able to create an image

in their mind about the word‖ Both the papers (Scafaru and Tofan (2006) and Peter (2003) confirm that ―there is a similar pattern in note- taking Learners took notes in the margin, used vocabulary books, organized words by meaning,spelling formation, word derivation, grammatical information, or vocabulary card‖ Learners may also find that taking notes is very familiar and widely used in vocabulary learning, taking notes is a very easy strategy to use and requires only a small notebook so that can take anywhere

Lip (2009, p 77) study Chinese EFL postsecondary students and found that ―the most frequently used and most useful vocabulary learning strategies are 1) spelling the word in the mind repeatedly; 2) analyzing the word by breaking down the sound segments; and 3)remembering words by doing a project; and 4) asking classmates for the meaning of the word.‖ In another study by Shiwu (2005) with EFL learners in Taiwan, it is found that" the most popular strategies used by students from different age groups and levels are using electronic dictionaries, particularly bilingual dictionaries, and guessing the meaning of the words from context"

Subekti & Lawson( 2007) claims that the use of dictionary, simple use of context and repeated pronunciation of the word and its meaning are among the most frequently used strategies of Indonesian postgraduate students

in learning new words

1.4.SUMMARY

This chapter has reviewed the main theoretical contributions and empirical studies of previous researchers as well as reviews of their studies In the first section of the chapter, we learn about how vocabulary is learned through what and by what steps a new word as we see them learned through different processes, to learn a vocabulary we have to learn about the origin, have to learn deeply about them, must understand the essence of a word so that learners can remember them longer and apply them in all different situations

Talking about definitions and classifications of vocabulary learning strategies Effective and methodical learning strategies will help learners learn new words faster than learning vocabulary without a pattern There are many vocabulary learning strategies offered such as metacognitive strategies, cognitive strategies, etc., In particular, strategies of using dictionary, taking notes, coding, guessing words, etc

This chapter is followed by research papers along with the researcher's findings and conclusions about the use of strategies for vocabulary learning Studies have come to different conclusions about the use and extent of learners' use of these strategies As Peter (2003) asserts that taking notes is a strategy used by learners

a lot in his research Thus, there will be different methods applied to learners so that they can use in their learning process

Chapter 2: RESEARCH METHODS

2.1 RESEARCH METHODS

This study applied quantitative approach: using questionnaire to collect

descriptive data to answer the research questions

2.2 CONTEXT OF THE STUDY

The research would be conducted at VNUA, second semester of the school year 2020-2021 Participants of the study are 105 third-year English majors at VNUA Most of them are 21 years old and they have studied English for 14 years

Table 2.1: Participants of the study

2.3.1 Data collection instrument

The study used questionnaire with multiple choice questions The

questionnaire was adopted from Hadi and Guo (2020) The questionnaire

consisted of two parts: (1) belief about vocabulary learning and (2) learning strategies The students asked to elicit their responses to the questions The

frequencies were measured by 5-point Likert-scale from 1 (Strongly disagree)

to 5 (Strongly agree) The questionnaire in English was then translated into Vietnamese for the effectiveness of data collection process After that, the

Vietnamese questionnaire was be piloted with some university students to

check whether there is any ambiguous expressions or questions Further

editions were be made afterwards before delivering the questionnaire to collect data for the study

Table 2.2 Description of the categories of VLS

2.3.2 Data collection procedures

The questionnaire was distributed to 2-3 students to determine which questions or expressions were ambiguous and needed correction or improvement Addition revision was then made to the questionnaire

The questionnaires were distributed to participants from five classes at various times Students who are absent were asked to complete an online questionnaire using Google Forms The researchers tried their best to ensure that all items were well understood and that no mistakes were made while completing the questionnaire Then all questionnaires were collected for the next procedure

2.4 DATA ANALYSIS

The data collected was analyzed quantitatively The data obtained from the questionnaire was analyzed using Excel by the researcher Specific work includes: overall descriptive statistics of all the strategies used (Means and Standard Deviations) Strategies which were ranked above (3) are considered the most frequent-used strategies, and those which were ranked below (3) are considered the least or never used strategies

2.5.SUMMARY

This chapter covers the data analysis method of the research topic The study used a quantitative method for research, specifically using a questionnaire, and the survey subjects here are third-year students majoring in English at Vietnam national university of Agricultural The survey would ask students to choose questions about their beliefs and vocabulary learning strategies that they used the most from which to draw conclusions for the survey The data collection took place according to the process, by piloting on a few students, then checking and completing to submit the survey questionnaire After data collection, data statistics along with descriptive statistics and standard deviation analysis would be applied to solve the research question

Chapter 3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 RESEARCH QUESTION 1: WHAT ARE THE LEARNERS‘ BELIEFS ABOUT VOCABULARY LEARNING

Table 3.1: Beliefs about vocabulary learning

Beliefs about Vocabulary Learning N M SD

105 3.40 1.13

2.The best way to remember words is to memorize word lists or dictionaries 105 3.38 1.04 3.The purpose of learning a word is to

4.A good memory is all you need to learn

5.Repetition is the best way to remember

6.You can only learn a large vocabulary

expressions (e.g., pick up) and collections (e.g., heavy rain; strong wind) that go with a word

105 2.38 1.19

9.Learners can learn vocabulary simply

10.The least a learner should know about

a word is its spelling, pronunciation, meaning and its basic usage

105 3.20 1.13 This table shows the means and standard deviations of students at VNUA for each item of belief in vocabulary learning strategies Items 1–6 are for Words Should be Memorized and items 7–10 are for Words Should be Learned Through Use The results show that learners the results show that almost all

learners believe that words should be memorized, and many students believe that words should be learned through use As you can see in table 3.1, item 6 (M

= 3.91, SD = 0.96 is the most commonly used or endorsed item ; item 7 (M = 2.07, SD = 1.16), is the least common or never used by learners Item 4 (M=2.64 ; SD =1.17), 7 (M = 2.07; SD = 1.16), and 8 (M =2.38 ; SD =1.19 ) had the lowest means Therefore, it can be inferred that not many students believe that good memory is all they need to learn a language well, which means they might believe that vocabulary learning strategies are important to language learners Another thing could be inferred from the results is that many students

do not read often or pay attention to multiword expressions when learning English

Comparing beliefs about learning vocabulary we find that students believe that they learn vocabulary by learning through many words ( words should be memorized) , as you can see in item 6, the mean is 3.9 The standard deviation is 0.9, so the difference in participants' responses is quite small It is also interesting that learners believe that more words should be memorized, but they

do not believe that having a good memory will make them remember more words

From item 8, we might infrer that they do not like to learn words phrases in the context, the reason may be that they are usually used to learning the meaning from Vietnamese to English, or they are more used to treating one word as isolated item, which is not a good habit in learning vocabulary In this regard, language students should use idioms, collocation and multiword expression

3.2 RESEARCH QUESTION 2: WHAT ARE THE MOST AND LEAST COMMON STRATEGIES FOR LEARNING VOCABULARY UTILIZED BY ENGLISH MAJORS AT VNUA

Table 3.2: Vocabulary learning strategies: Metacognitive strategies

Metacognitive N M SD

Selective

Attention

11.I know whether a new word is

12.I know which words are important

13.When I meet (see) a new word or

Self-Initiation

14.Besides textbooks, I look for other

15.I wouldn‘t learn what my English

16.I only focus on things that are

17.I wouldn‘t care much about vocabulary items that my teacher does not explain in class.

The strategies in this metacognition section help learners create ways of learning and evaluating In Table 3.2, two strategies are given to learners to assess: selective attention and self-initiation Item 14 (M = 3.44, SD = 1.08 ) is the most common item applied by learners Item 16 (M = 2.35, SD = 1.27), item

17 (M = 2.59, SD = 0.98) are never used or least accepted by learners Therefore, it can be inferred from Table 3.2 that learners can know important words, know which vocabulary is necessary, because in part they perceive that they have to learn by themselves rather than being forced to learn as the lower grades and this plays an essential role in increasing the vocabulary And they do not agree with studying according to the sample tests in class, from which we