An investigation into the effects of semantic mapping on vocabulary memorizing for the first year english non major students at namdinh teachers traning college submitted

That is the reason why the researcher wanted to conduct the present study.This study set out to investigate the effects o f semantic mapping on word meaning retention and retrieval o f t

T R A N TH I T H U H IE N

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTS OF SEMANTIC MAPPING ON VOCABULARY

MEMORIZING FOR THE FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH

NON-MAJOR STUDENTS AT NAMDINH

TEACHER’S TRANING COLLEGE

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT

OF REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE

OF MASTER IN TESOL

SUPERVISOR: MA PHAM HONG THUY

TRUNG TAM THÖNG TIN THlf VStN

is

H a n o i

M a y , 2 0 0 7

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1.1 Background to the study 1

1.1.1 The C ollege I 1.1.2 The Teachers 1

1.1.3 The students 1

1.1.4 The Program 2

1.1.5 The statement o f the problem 4

1.2 The aims o f the study 6

1.2.1 The aims o f the study 6

1.2.2 The research questions 6

1.3 The scopes o f the study 7

1.4 The organization o f the study 7

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 9

2.1 Vocabulary acquisition 9

2.1.1 What is vocabulary? 9

2.1.2 The importance o f vocabulary 10

2.1.3 Types o f vocabulary 11

2.1.4 Incidental and intentional vocabulary learning 11

2.2 Vocabulary teaching 12

2.2.1 Traditional vocabulary teaching techniques 13

2.2.2 Current trends in teaching vocabulary 14

2.3 Memorizing word meanings : 18

2.3.1 Short-term and long-term memory 18

2.3.2 Major factors affecting word memorization 18

2.4 Semantic mapping for vocabulary learning 20

2.5 The previous related studies 23

2.6 Summary 26

CHAPTER III: THE METHODOLOGY 28

3.1 The research design 28

3.2 The research questions 29

3.3 Description o f variables 29

3.3.1 Independent variables 29

3.3.2 Dependent variable 30

3.4 The subjects 31

3.5 Data collection 32

3.5.1 Data collection instruments 32

3.5.1.1 T ests 32

3.5.1.1.1 Justications for tests 32

3.5.1.1.2 Descriptions o f tests 33

3.5.1.2 Questionnaire 35

A

3.6.2 T-test 38

3.6.3 Thematic analysis for questionnaire results 39

3.7 Summary 39

CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS AND D ISC U SSIO N 41

4.1 Descriptive analysis 41

4.1.1 Descriptive analysis for vocabulary tests 41

4.1.1.1 Results from pretests 41

4.1.1.2 Results from the posttest 44

4.1.1.3 Results from progress tests 48

4.1.2 Results from the experimental questionnaire 50

4.1.2.1 Results for students’ attitudes towards the technique 50

4.1.2.2 Results for the effectiveness o f the technique 51

4.1.2.3 Results for the use o f the technique 53

4.2 Major findings 56

4.3 Discussion 57

4.4 The limitations o f the study 59

4.5 Sum m ary 60

CHAPTER V: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CON CLUSION 61

5.1 Implications and recom mendations 61

5.1.1 The implications which arise from the present study 61

5.1.1.1 The role o f teacher in vocabulary learning process 61

5.1.1.2 The role o f discussion in semantic mapping application 62

5.1.2 Recommendations for future research 63

5.2 Conclusion 64

REFERENCES 66

APPENDIXES 71

APPENDIX 1: T e sts 71

APPENDIX 2: Test Results 80

APPENDIX 3: Questionnaire 83

APPENDIX 4: Results from The Q uestionnaire 88

APPENDIX 5: Lesson P lan s 91

W ithout her w ell-d esig n ed plan, and m eticulous review o f the draft, this research w o u ld h av e been im possible.

1 w ould also like to acknow ledge and express m y appreciation to thank

MA N g u y en T h ai Ha, V ice D ean o f Post G raduate D epartm ent, for offerin g m e th e chance to undertake this problem and for providing me sustained g u id an c e and advice

I am also in d eb ted to Dr Tran H ong H anh for her statistical assistance and advice

I also w ish to th an k m y colleagues, my friends, m y students, and my fam ily for th e ir u n d erstan d in g and support

laced with many difficulties not only in specific language skills but also in vocabulary acquisition Because o f their learning habits and their learning strategies, they failed to memorize words for long time and to recall words when necessary Many efforts were made to help the students learn words better but the results did not satisfy both the teacher and the students Based on literature review, it is found that semantic mapping has had good effects on vocabulary learning; especially it improves the retention and retrieval o f word meanings (Schmitt, 2000; Grains & Redman, 1986; Sokmen, 1997; Decarrico, 2001; Nation, 2001) That is the reason why the researcher wanted to conduct the present study.

This study set out to investigate the effects o f semantic mapping on word meaning retention and retrieval o f the first-year English non-major students at NTTC The focus o f this study is to find whether students could remember and recall the words they learnt better with the help o f semantic mapping than other traditional techniques which were represented in this study as the wordlist technique

The experiment was commended in 15 weeks in two classes (Computer Science and Mathematics) as the two classes had almost the same background The two classes were randomly assigned as experimental group and control group For the experimental group, semantic mapping was used to teach vocabulary whereas for control group, the teaching was through wordlists Participants took English vocabulary proficiency tests at the beginning and at the end o f the study, called pretest and posttest respectively During the experiment, participants were delivered progress tests on vocabulary For experimental group, a questionnaire was completed at the end o f the study to

vocabulary tests and a questionnaire on semantic mapping for experimental group The subjects were 80 first-year English non-major students from two classes namely Computer Science and Mathematics in NTTC The data were collected through vocabulary tests and a questionnaire Then, these data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, T-test and thematic analysis with the assistance o f SPSS version 13.0.

The findings o f the study showed that the experimental students outperformed the control students in terms o f vocabulary retention and retrieve and that the experimental students have positive responses to semantic mapping technique The findings o f the study also indicated that semantic mapping can be used for future vocabulary learning Some implications also rose from the present study such as the teacher’s role and the role o f discussions in vocabulary learning

CM: Control M athematicsHCS: Experimental Com puter ScienceEFL: English as a foreign languageESL: English as a second languageFL: Foreign language

GET: General English training

NTTC: Nam dinh Teachers’Training College

fable 4.1 : Descriptive Statistics o f pretest.

fable 4.2: Independent Sample T-test for pretest

l able 4.3: Descriptive Statistics o f gender difference for pretest.Fable 4.4: Descriptive Statistics o f posttest

Table 4.5: Independent Sample T-test for posttest

Table 4.6: Descriptive Statistics o f gender difference for posttest Table 4.7: Paired Sample T-test results

Table 4.8 Descriptive Statistics o f progress testsFeature 2.1 Semantic feature analysis for means o f transport

Feature 2.2 Semantic mapping for human life cycle

Feature 2.3 Semantic mapping for items in bedroom

Feature 2.4 Semantic mapping for word “unfaithfulness”

Feature 2.5 Semantic mapping for word “sumo”

Feature 4.1 : Pretest scores

Feature 4.2: Posttest scores

Feature 4.3: Pretest and posttest scores

Feature 4.4: Progress test scores

Feature 4.5: Responses to the attitudes towards the semantic mapping Feature 4.6: Responses to the effectiveness o f the semantic mapping Feature 4.7: Responses to the uses o f semantic mapping

C H A P T E R I: IN T R O D U C T IO N 1.1 Background to the study.

in TESOL and one has MA degree in Education Management They are enthusiastic with teaching, creative in applying new materials in their teaching and willing to help students learn better

1.1.3 The students.

375 first-year English non-major students found the population for the study They enroll in the College to become teachers at secondary schools They come from different districts in the province Their age ranges from 18 to 22 There may be no big problem among students in terms o f age and this is one of advantages for teachers to choose the appropriate teaching method First-year English non-major students are divided into classes according to their professionals namely Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics, Biology Art, English, Literature, and Geography The average number o f students in each class is 40 to 45 This means that the class size is too big for a language class

and that teachers may have some difficulties in controlling students' activities and in managing the class.

With regards to linguistic level, it is assumed that students have learnt a foreign language at their high schools The results obtained from students’ school reports show that some students studied French, some studied Russian and most o f them studied three-year English program It implies that the entrance level o f students is different and most o f them are at low proficiency in terms

of English However, according to the article issued by the Ministry o f Education and Training, students must start their foreign language study at the pre-intermediate level as they are assumed that they had their elementary linguistic proficiency after leaving high schools In addition, at the NTTC, students have to study English as a compulsory subject That means some students start the language course at the pre-intermediate, some at elementary and others from nothing in terms o f English knowledge All these things possibly bring teachers a lot o f difficulties in teaching a multi-level class

Students’ attitudes towards learning English are different, too Most o f them found English difficult and they try to learn English for exams at the end o f each term Most o f students think English is unnecessary for their future jobs as most o f them become teachers o f science subjects at secondary schools in districts o f the province where they have little chance to use English in their jobs and to access to English documents

In sum, first-year English non-major students at NTTC must start their English study at pre-intermediate level although most o f them are at elementary linguistic proficiency Their main aim to learn English is to pass the exams It seems to be challenges for teachers to help students learn English well and to motivate them in learning English

1.1.4 The Program.

For students who study a pure science such as Mathematics, Physics, Computer Science or Biology, English is compulsory subject which is taught in the first

two years General English Training program (GET) for English non-major students is targeted at providing students with basic knowledge on vocabulary and grammar structures at intermediate level, and communicative skills through four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) It consists o f 10 credits equivalent to 150 contact periods 150 periods are further divided into four terms (term I to term IV) Every week, students have one class o f English which lasts for two forty-five minute periods.

The textbook used for this study is Lifelines Pre-Intermediate which was the second book in Lifelines series written by Hutchinson The book is the four- skill integrated one with various interesting topics All the four language skills are developed systematically in the book In order to help students practice language skills better, massive topic-based vocabulary is provided As vocabulary learning is the focus o f the present study, the description o f vocabulary section in the textbook is taken into consideration Vocabulary in the book is presented by topics It is systematically recycled within the unit Students practice words by doing vocabulary tasks such as matching, grouping,

filling in the gaps, picture labeling The vocabulary section is placed next to either o f the reading, listening and speaking section It draws its focus from these sections and aims to practice some o f the vocabulary that students will need when working on them The vocabulary section also provides the students opportunity to “practice some useful expressions for dealing with vocabulary;

to revise some basic vocabulary areas; to think about how to record vocabulary” (Hutchinson & Ward, 1997) Although the vocabulary section was well-designed, first-year English non-major students still have difficulties in learning vocabulary That is why the researcher wants to conduct the study on this field When the researcher commenced the study, participants have just finished the first book “Lifelines Elementary” in term I In term II, the students work on the first seven units in “Lifelines Pre-intermediate” in 15 weeks as mentioned above The rest units o f the textbook will be covered in the next term Although the textbook has a lot o f good features on not only in grammar,

the language skills development but also vocabulary, first-year English non­major students at NTTC still have difficulties in working with words especially

in remembering and recalling the word meaning These problems will be discussed in the next section

/ 1.5 The statement o f the problem.

Vietnam 's "open door” policy toward the West poses an increasing interest in

communication It is used in most aspects o f life such as education, trade and commerce, tourism and entertainment Vietnamese people learn English for different purposes such as for their jobs, their studies, and their entertainment

so on They try to acquire knowledge and skills o f the new language to communicate well In order to communicate well in a foreign language (FL), learners should acquire an adequate number o f words and should know how to use them effectively That is why Davies, P (2000) stated that “in communication, vocabulary is often more important than grammar”

The importance o f vocabulary in English as a second language (ESL) or English as a foreign language (EFL) learning process has been widely recognized and well-established Much o f the research indicates that enlarging language vocabulary has been one o f the objectives o f many EFL learners This

is true for English non-major students at NTTC When learning English, they try to improve their vocabulary knowledge However, they have to cope with many difficulties in learning vocabulary, especially in memorizing and recalling the word meanings Low vocabulary proficiency makes an obstacle for them to acquire language knowledge and to participate in activities in class

It is really frustrating for them when they discover they can not communicate effectively because they do not know enough words they need They easily forget the words they learnt or fail to use words communicatively They can not get words they learnt into long-term memory and recall them when necessary Although they spend most o f their time learning vocabulary, the results are disappointing

One o f reasons for the students’ low vocabulary retention and retrieval can be addressed as their learning habits Their learning habits such as writing down words on note-books learning words by heart, heavily depending on word list

in textbook, passively waiting for teacher’s explanations for new words seem to

be ineffective and make them bored with learning vocabulary In order to remember new items, the students often use rote memorization techniques As they reported, they used to write down the words in notebook for several times,

to speak aloud words and to make sentences with words They admitted that they failed to recall most o f the words they had learnt before as there were no clues It can be seen that students’ bad memory is due to lack o f appropriate vocabulary memorizing strategies They are not provided different vocabulary learning techniques and are not encouraged to use them They also have no chance to work with words in a deeper process This is pity because working with words can be enjoyable and satisfying for learners

The questions posed for teachers o f English at NTTC are how to help their students memorize vocabulary effectively and how to motivate the students in vocabulary lessons Teachers can encourage their students to systematically and effectively record vocabulary that they taught in class They also provide their students with strategies to transfer this record into their long-term memories so that each item is added to the repertoire o f words and phrases that they can understand and, when necessary, use

Research on vocabulary memorization (Cohen, 1981; Thompson, 1987; Hulstijin, 1997; Levin, 1993) is focus on the effectiveness o f mnemonic strategies that facilitate vocabulary learning The researchers paid more attention to mnemonic techniques, especially the key-word method and often compare these techniques with rote learning ones They shared the views that mnemonic techniques help students remember words better in their experimental conditions However, they also admitted that these devices mainly aim for the retention o f paired-associates whereas the vocabulary o f an L2 is far more than a collection o f L1-L2 word pairs and the retention o f a

word is the beginning rather than the end o f the long process o f vocabulary acquisition These techniques also emphasize on one-to-one relationship between form and meaning And the most importance is that not all the words are equally suitable for mnemonic mediation such as abstract words (Ellis, 1997).

In another development, many efforts have been made to improve students' bad memory such as using games, or reading passages which were proved to help students in a certain context However, they also have their weak points Let take games as an example Although game could help motivate students and assist the retrieval o f word meanings, they are time-consuming In addition, games can be useful for young learners but not much for the adult ones

As there is no perfect treatment for all contexts, teachers o f English should base

on their certain situation to make changes Using semantic mapping to teach vocabulary is one o f these efforts, which the researcher would like to try using

in this study to help her first-year English non-major students remember and recall words they learnt

1.2 The aims of the study.

1.2.1 The aims o f the study.

The purpose o f the study is to investigate the effect o f semantic mapping on word retention and retrieval o f first year English non-major students at Namdinh Teachers’ Training College

1.2.2 The research questions.

The study is conducted based on the hypothesis that semantic mapping helps students remember and recall word meaning better To achieve the aim, the study seeks information to answer the following questions:

1 Does semantic mapping help first-year English non-major students memorize word meanings better?

2 Does semantic mapping assist the students recall word meanings effectively?

3 What are experimental students' attitudes towards semantic mapping technique?

1.3 The scopes of the study.

In this study, I would like to study one o f the vocabulary teaching techniques recommended and examine its effectiveness in my own teaching situation with the hope that the findings o f the study will be o f certain use for vocabulary teaching and learning in my institution The study focuses on only the aspect o f remembering and recalling word meanings rather than vocabulary acquisition

as a whole

1.4 The organization of the study.

Chapter I presents the background for the present study including the settings and the program It also presents an account o f the necessity and importance o f doing the present study It poses the aims and research questions It ends with the organization o f the whole thesis and the scope o f the current study

Chapter II reviews the established findings concerning vocabulary learning in order to provide a strong frame-work and reference system for the study Information on semantic mapping technique is provided and analyzed to indicate the possible effects o f the treatment used in the study

Chapter III identifies the subjects, the settings o f the study It gives description

o f variables, data collection instruments, procedure and techniques for data analysis It also evaluates the data collection instruments used: tests and questionnaires

Chapter IV reports the results o f the study using statistical analysis to assess the validity o f the research hypothesis which was concretized in research questions It provides major findings with discussion

Chapter V addresses the possible limits o f the study such as the limited time for implementing the treatment, the small number o f subjects Based on the major findings and limits o f the study, it gives implications raised from the present study, indications for future research in this field, recom mendations for further study and applications o f the findings to other contexts.

Finally, a bibliography and appendices, including a glossary, the tables, the data collection instruments, the lesson plans are attached to the thesis

C H A P T E R II: L IT E R A T U R E R E V IE W

In this chapter, relevant literature will be reviewed, underlying the necessity and importance o f the present study First, some basic information about vocabulary and vocabulary teaching and learning will be provided to found the fundamental background for the study Then, relevant studies will be reviewed The findings from those previous studies which seem most important and useful to the present study will be discussed in creating hypotheses about possible outcomes, based on the research questions

2.1 Vocabulary acquisition.

2.1.1 What is vocabulary?

There are different definitions o f vocabulary Each linguist gives his own definition o f vocabulary depending on the criteria that he considers the most important in terms o f linguistics, semantics, lexicology etc In her book “A course in language teaching”, Penny Ur (1991: 60) defined vocabulary roughly

as '‘the words we teach in the foreign language” However, she also accepted

single word, a compound o f two or three words such as post office, mother-in-

law,; and multi-word idioms such as call it a day, like father like son" Pyles

and Angelo (1970) said “it is true that vocabulary is the focus o f language with its sound and meaning, which interlock to allow us to communicate with one another” Ta Tien Hung & Nguyen Van Do (1994: 23) focused on word meanings when they defined words as “small pieces o f language which carry bits o f meaning” They stated that “knowing many words does not guarantee a person will be able to speak a language, but not knowing enough words can prevent a person from effectively speaking or understanding a language” In

my opinion, it is logical to say that the vocabulary o f a language is all its words, compounds and idioms used to convey and receive information in oral and written communication

2.1.2 The importance o f vocabulary.

Vocabulary plays an important role in learning a foreign language It is an element that links the four language skills: speaking, listening, reading and writing Krashen (1989: 439) pointed out that “a large vocabulary is o f course, essential for mastery o f a language’' as "without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed" (Wilkins, 1972: 111) McGinnis and Smith (1982: 236) also believed that "without words a students can seldom understand what is being communicated to him nor can he express his thoughts to others" In this respect, Pittelman and Heimlich (1991) also added that vocabulary knowledge

is important in understanding both spoken and written language They stated:

It is not surprising that vocabulary knowledge, or knowledge o f word meanings, is critical to reading comprehension In order for children to understand what they are reading, they must know the meanings o f words they encounter Children with limited vocabulary knowledge will experience difficulty comprehending both oral and written text (p.37)

Rubin & Thompson (1994) shared the same view to the significant role o f vocabulary in communication They stated that “one can not speak, understand, read or write a foreign language without knowing a lot o f words Vocabulary learning is at the heart o f mastering a foreign language” (p.79)

The interrelation between vocabulary and reading comprehension has been proven Many pieces o f works show that vocabulary knowledge helps improve learners’ reading comprehension and reading passages help enlarge learners’ vocabulary stock To support the crucial roles o f vocabulary in reading comprehension, Crow (1986) claims that for adult L2 readers, the biggest difficulty in reading is not the concept o f the text, but the words representing these concepts Laufer (1997) argues that although vocabulary is not the equivalent o f reading comprehension, “no text comprehension is without understanding the text’s vocabulary” (quoted in Hyde, 2002)

Together with the acquisition o f four language skills, L2 learners try their best

to master a large stock o f L2 vocabulary and their vocabulary knowledge has

been improved intentionally and incidentally However, the question is which words are most necessary for learners to know and how to remember these words Learners seem to have more problems with low-frequency words than high-frequency ones This matter will be further discussed in the following section: types o f vocabulary.

2.1.3 Types o f vocabulary.

Researchers (Nation, 2001; Hyde, 2002; Ellis, 1998) have categorized groups

o f English vocabulary by frequency o f overall occurrence to determine which words are most necessary for learners to know Two common divisions are high-frequency words and low-frequency words High-frequency words include function words and content words, and make up the majority o f the running words in the text They cover a very large proportion o f running words

in spoken and written texts and occur in all kinds o f uses o f the language Low - frequency words make up 7 to 15 percent o f running text They range from several thousand words that fall just outside the list o f high-frequency words, to proper name, non-topic-related technical words, formal, dialectal, archaic and foreign words They are these words which are most likely unknown by learners and therefore must applicable to glossing Low-frequency words are words that occur infrequently and cover only a small proportion o f any text These words pose challenge to L2 or FL learners in memorizing and retrieving their meanings

2.1.4 Incidental and intentional vocabulary learning.

Vocabulary acquisition or learning occurs intentionally or incidentally Intentional learning is a type o f learning that teachers or students design, plan for or intend to learn vocabulary whereas incidental learning is a product of doing or learning something else (Hatch & Brown, 1995) Hulstijin (1996) defined incidental vocabulary acquisition as “learning in the absence o f intention to learn” This does not mean that the learners do not notice the target words but the learners’ attention is focused on “understanding the passage as a

whole” and memory for the new word comes as a natural result o f this process

In other words, a conscious effort to learn the target words is still necessary in the incidental learning process

In a comprehensive review o f research on incidental vocabulary learning in mostly LI contexts, Krashen (cited in Gu Y, 2002) concluded that incidental vocabulary learning achieves better results than intentional vocabulary learning Although incidental vocabulary learning seems to be better than intentional vocabulary learning, there is, in fact, already evidence in recent studies o f L2 learners that a combined approach is superior to incidental vocabulary learning alone Nation (2001) and Smith (2000) shared similar view'

to the combination o f incidental and intentional learning as a vocabulary learning strategy Gu, Y (2002) cited Parry’s opinions about the combination o f the two ways He said that Parry went a step further and demonstrated how exactly a combination o f incidental and intentional learning o f vocabulary during reading (1) could be possible and (2) helped the overall development o f both L2 vocabulary and academic success in L2

2.2 Vocabulary teaching.

With hundreds o f thousands o f words in the English language, learners will not need to produce every word they learn, some they will ju st need to recognize Therefore, selecting what to teach based on frequency and usefulness to the needs o f particular learners is essential Once the teacher has chosen what to teach, the next important steps are to consider what learners need to know about the items, and how the teacher can present the items for them

There are lots o f ways o f getting across the meaning o f a lexical item such as illustration, mine, definition, guessing or associating The teacher tries to make use o f the techniques to help his students learn vocabulary better Based on his teaching and learning contexts, the teacher decides which techniques to use, and how to present the words effectively Together with the development of

vocabulary in L2 the techniques for learning vocabulary are also developed, improved or added.

In this study, the researcher categorized them into two groups: traditional and current one Traditional teaching techniques refer to which used to be applied

in teaching L2 With regards to current trends in teaching vocabulary, the researcher emphasized on movements in teaching vocabulary which have recently been preferred and encouraged to use by teachers o f English

2.2.1 Traditional vocabulary teaching techniques.

Traditionally, vocabulary has not been a particular subject for students to learn, but has been taught within lessons o f speaking, listening, reading or writing During the lesson, students use their own vocabulary or are introduced to new words provided by the teacher and classmates which they apply to classroom activities For many learners o f English, whenever they think o f vocabulary, they think o f learning a list o f new words with meanings in their native language without any real context practice A number o f learners may share the same experience o f looking up words in a bilingual dictionary to find their meanings or definitions when they encounter new words They may even write down lines o f new words without any idea o f the real use o f them in context.Take translation technique as an example Learners tend to find the equivalent words in their own language through dictionary or by asking their teacher for the meanings o f the new words Unfortunately, it is sometimes difficult to find the equivalent one for a L2 word as not every word has direct translation In addition, when learners recall word meanings, they often think of the LI meaning first rather than the L2 words This makes learners heavily depend on the dictionary or/ and the teacher Working this way, after a short period of time, many learners may find out that learning vocabulary in lists or through translation does not satisfy themselves, and they think the cause for it is just their bad memory

Traditional instruction in dictionary use focuses on having students look up words and use information from the definitions they find to write sentences

T his kind o f instruction appears to produce only a superficial understanding and rapid forgetting o f words (McKeown, 1993) Young students often have difficulty in interpreting the information in definitions which has been rewritten

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

"pedagogically useless” Young learners have difficulties choosing the appropriate meanings from a dictionary entry for unknown words The simplified definitions found in school dictionaries and glossaries are often failed to adequately describe the word meaning

Other traditional techniques such as illustration, mine also have their own limits Illustration, for instance, is only useful for concrete words whereas mining lends itself particularly well to action verbs (Gainer & Redman, 1986)

In sum, traditional ways o f presenting a new word require a lot of teacher’s activities The teacher controls the whole activities and heavily affects students’ vocabulary learning The teacher is the centre o f the class, the students are only listeners They listen to the teacher all the time, hoping for the explanation on word meaning from their teachers, receiving information without using their own minds In order to save the time or finish the teaching task on schedule, the teacher also gives students only a little time for performing the vocabulary tasks, and then gives the answers, without encouraging them to think why This kind o f teaching turned students into bookworms and made them tired The students seem passive to receive the word meanings Therefore, they have difficulties in remembering and recalling the words

2.2.2 Current trends in teaching vocabulary.

Since memorizing the vocabulary plays a significant role in learning a foreign language, teachers as well as researchers experience different techniques to get

students to more involve in greater depth o f processing which would result in better vocabulary learning The current trends in teaching vocabulary focus on helping students memorizing words that they have learnt and attached the words to their relations with other words or in different contexts.

According to Harmer (2001), what a word means is often defined by its relationship to other words It means that when studying a word, learners should not study it in isolation; they should study its relationship to other words Deccarico (2001) shared the view with Harmer in this field She suggested that new words should not be presented in isolation and should not

be learnt by simple rote memorization It is important that new vocabulary items be presented in context rich enough to provide clues to meaning and that students be given multiple exposure to items they should learn

Let take semantic elaboration as an example Semantic elaboration consists o f a series o f techniques as semantic feature analysis, ordering, pictorial schemata and semantic mapping (Ellis, 1995; Sôkmen, 1997) Semantic mapping and semantic feature analysis draw learners’ prior knowledge and use discussion to elicit information about word meanings Semantic feature analysis is similar to semantic mapping, with the exception that it uses a grid rather than a map as graphic display Following examples will illustrate the two techniques

Means

o ftransport

onewheeled

twowheeled

fourwheeled

footpowered

motorpowered

onland

in the water

in the air

Feature 2.2 Semantic mapping fo r “human life cycle” (Grains & Redman, 1986)

Semantic elaboration focuses on word meaning association attached to words Words appear to be organized into semantically related sets in mind and thus the associations attached to a word will affect the way that it is stored in the brain Furthermore, knowing a range o f associations for a word helps understand its full meaning and helps recall the word form or its meaning in appropriate contexts (Nation, 2001)

Although current vocabulary teaching techniques have some advantages over the traditional one, they also have their disadvantages Semantic elaboration posed the danger o f presenting closely related new words at the same time If a different response is required for each item in a group o f closely related items, the differences between the items will interfere with each other, thus making the learning task more difficult As Nation (1990:190) stated “the network o f associations between words in a native speaker’s brain may be set as a goal for L2 learners, but this does not mean that directly teaching these associations is the best way to achieve this goal” Though guessing words from context is

“still seen as an important part o f vocabulary-building, especially among advanced learners, but it requires a great deal o f prior training in basic vocabulary, word recognition, metacognition and subject matter” (Huckin & Coady, 1999)

The current-used techniques in teaching vocabulary require efforts o f both teachers and their students in fulfilling vocabulary activities The role o f the

teachcrs has been changed They are not only the information provider but also the guider and the controller They also have to spend more time on planning their lessons They have to think how to present the new items and how' to integrate the vocabulary instruction into language skills without seriously affecting the lesson schedule For students, they themselves take part in vocabulary learning They have opportunities to analyze word, organize word systematically, practice with words and use words in different contexts They may be more motivated in learning vocabulary as learning vocabulary is not their own study They could interact with their teachers, discuss and exchange information with their classmates.

In brief, words should not be learnt separately or be memorized without understanding (Decarrico, 2001) Moreover, "learning new words is a cumulative process, with words enriched and established as they are met again" (Nation, 2000:6) Traditional or current techniques for teaching vocabulary both use to convey the meaning o f words to learners Though they show their effectiveness, they still have their limitations Research and publications have shown that there is no teaching technique that is suitable for all kinds o f words The teacher should bare in minds that the technique used will depend on the item that will be taught, and that each technique is more suitable for particular words Techniques should be made use o f and often a combination of techniques can be both helpful and memorable

According to many authorities (Sôkmen, 1997; Johnson, 1986, Nation, 2001), effective vocabulary instruction should include three components

( 1 ) Definitional and contextual information about word(2) Multiple exposures to a word in different contexts(3) Encouragement students’ active participation into their word learning

2.3 Memorizing word meanings.

2.3.1 Short-term and long-term memory.

Cognitive psychologists divide memory into short-term memory and long-term memory according to duration o f memory retention and capacity o f recalling information after the original input The short-term memory corresponds approximately to the initial moment that an item is perceived It is characterized by the duration o f memory retention from seconds to minutes It

is generally characterized as o f strictly limited capacity and duration Stored information can also be retrieved in a period o f time which ranges from days to years; this type o f memory is called long-term memory Unlike short-term memory which is limited in capacity, long-term memory is seemingly inexhaustible and can accommodate any amount o f new information (Grains & Redman 1986; 86)

When learning L2 or FL vocabulary, learners often have problems with retention o f words for a long time They fail to put the words into long-term memory In the present study, short-term memory is considered as the initial memory o f the word meaning at the end o f the lessons whereas the number o f words can be recalled at the next lessons or at the end o f the study is referred as ones from long-term memory because the subjects o f the study have only three forty-five-minute lessons per week

2.3.2 M ajor fa c to rs affecting word m em orization.

There are various reasons why learners remember some words better than other: nature o f the words themselves, under what circumstances they are learnt, the method o f teaching and so on Followings are the factors listed in a comprehensive review o f research on memory which was conducted by Sharifian (2000) The finding o f the cognitive research on this field can provide teachers with insights about the nature o f memory and memory enhancement Sharifian stated that learners are more likely to remember the items that they have generated in one way or another, either totally or partially, that the items

they have just read or memorized The retention for an item is also improved in memory when it is placed among a set o f items that are semantically homogenous with each other but the odds with the new item For example, if the word “car” is inserted into a list o f vocabulary items that pertain to breakfast such as bread, butter, cereal, eggs, coffee, etc, the memory for car is enhanced Research has also shown differences in comprehension and general memory for a text at different times o f a day, too In that point, immediate recall and recognition o f sentences and texts involved more maintenance of superficial linguistic forms (i.e holding them in short-term memory without elaboration) in the morning and elaborative and integrative process (i.e elaborating information in long-term memory and integrating it with prior knowledge) in the afternoon This simply means that in the morning the surface linguistic forms, which are usually retained in short-term memory for a limited period o f time, were remembered better, while in the afternoon the semantic features, which are mainly retained in long-term memory, were remembered better In addition, Sharifian pointed out that the first few items in a list were remembered best, the last few next best and the items in the centre is the hardest to recall.

Grains and Redman (1986) showed that learning new items involves storing them first in the short-term memory and afterwards in the long-term memory, and the long-term memory can hold any amount o f information They also stated in their research that: “Our “mental lexicon” is highly organized and efficient, and that semantic related items are stored together Word frequency is another factor that affects storage, as the most frequently used items are easier to retrieve We can use this information to attempt to facilitate the learning process

by grouping items o f vocabulary in semantic fields such as topics.” (p37)

In brief, the deeper the mental processing that learners engaged in when learning a new lexical item, the more likely they are to remember it By deep processing the researcher means that the learners work out the meaning o f the item by referring to their existing knowledge or they work on personalizing the meaning Research shows that if there is elaboration on the meaning, for

example encountering the item in different contexts, subsequent retrieval is enhanced Shallower processing is more sensory than semantic, remembering

by seeing or hearing the item only, not fully engaging with the meaning This means the learner meets the item in only one context which is much more forgettable in the long term

Storing information is not the only difficulty faced by learners when learning vocabulary, retrieval is the other which is aimed at in this study Cater el ta (1989) assures that the storage o f information does not guarantee its retrieval Learners need ways to increase the probability that retrieval cues will be effective, just as they need techniques that will permit the recall o f words that are appropriate for the situation Cater and the other researchers pointed out techniques that enhance production will have to be centered on the meanings o f words rather than on their forms, because most o f our production has to do with searching for an appropriate meaning to fit the particular occasion The most effective associate bonds for production, therefore, connect the words with their meanings SOkmen (1997) mentioned four techniques for semantic elaboration: semantic feature analysis, semantic mapping, ordering, and pictorial schemata In this study, the researcher concerned about the semantic mapping technique which will be presented in the next section

2.4 Semantic mapping for vocabulary learning.

Developments in “ lexical semantics” have prom pted the development o f the

"semantic field theory”, “semantic networks” or “semantic grids” strategies which organize words in terms o f interrelated lexical meanings The “semantic field” theory suggests that the lexical content o f a language is best treated not

as a “mere aggregation o f independent w ords” or an “unstructured list o f words” but as a collection o f interrelating netw orks o f relations between words (Stubbs quoted in Amer, 2002) The meaning o f most words is governed, in part, by the presence in the language o f other words whose semantic functions are related in one or more ways to the same area o f situational environment or culture (Robins, 1980) It is noteworthy that words may be grouped together

(related to each other) according to different criteria Animals, for example, may he grouped in terms o f physical features; they may be grouped in terms of nonphysical features such as pet, wild, food, etc (Grains & Redman, 1986).Since vocabulary consists o f a series o f interrelating systems and is not just a random collection o f items, there seems to be a clear case for presenting items

to students in a systematized manner which will both illustrate the organized nature o f vocabulary and at the same time enable him to internalize the items in

a coherent way Words are related to each other in various ways Two examples are that: (1) the meaning o f a word depends to some extent on its relationship to other similar words, often through sense relations, and (2) words

in a word family are related to each other inflectional and derivational affixes (Schmitt, 2000) In semantic mapping, words are grouped according to the former

Semantic mapping is one o f word association techniques It is defined as a technique to make arrangement o f words into a diagram, which has a key concept at the centre or at the top, and related words and concepts linked to the key concept by means o f lines or arrows (Grains & Redman, 1986)

Another kind o f semantic set has to do with “stimulus-response pairs’', such as accident, car, and baby, mother “These seem to be a great uniformity in people’s responses to certain stimulus words which ought to be exploited to help students form more effective associations” (Cater el ta, 1989:71) Sokmen (1997) shared the same view with them In his study, when asked to give words they thought o f when they heard the word “unfaithfulness”, low intermediate ESL students generated 16 words or phrases After clustering words, which went together, they mapped the relationship between these words as follows:

OppositesFaithfulness

Ampials^

Believe in friendship

Feature 2.4.Semantic mapping for word “unfaithfulness” (Sokmen, 1997:250)

Furthermore, Nation (2001) saw the interaction between the teacher and his learners when using semantic mapping He stated that “semantic mapping involves the teacher and learners working together to build up on the blackboard a visual framework o f connections between ideas” This technique helps students remember the stock of vocabulary they have learnt related to the subjects

He pointed out in his study that there could be several starting points for semantic mapping It can involve the recall o f a previously read story, a recent current event, a film, a unit o f study or simply learner’s general knowledge o f a topic He also cited Stahl and Vancil’s opinions that the discussion occurring during the building up o f the semantic map that makes the activity contribute to vocabulary learning and the skill is important in the way the teacher enters into

a dialogue with learners encourages them and supports their participation in the dialogue

In comparison with the three other semantic elaboration techniques (ordering, semantic feature analysis and pictorial schemata), semantic mapping is commented suitable for not only beginning learners but also for advanced ones Although semantic feature analysis also draws on learner’ prior knowledge, it causes many ambiguities in determining the feature o f a concept for learners, especially for beginning learners (Amer, 2002, Neilsen, 2000) With regard to word meaning retention and retrieval, many researchers (Hague, 1987); Machalias, 1991; Carter, 1987; Amer, 2002) agreed that semantic mapping is

effective for long-term memory and aids the recall The effectiven ess o f semantic mapping recognized in previous related study will be discussed in the following section

2.5 The previous related studies.

The current trends towards vocabulary learning use word association techniques which include semantic mapping Research on semantic mapping has been carried out and most o f them focus on using semantic mapping as pre­activities for reading, speaking or writing lessons The subjects o f these studies are often intermediate learners And the results are shown the significant difference in vocabulary learning Learners using semantic mapping could organize word systematically and recall word meanings easily

Amer (2002) realized that adult learners are better at remembering words from lists that contain semantically related subsets than words from lists o f unrelated

words In addition, he found out that if the semantically related words are separated in the list, adults tend to cluster them by meaning in output.

Ward & A nita's study with intermediate students in Marion County Aduli Learning Center conducted in 1988 showed that semantic mapping, which involved the application o f vocabulary meanings, increased cognitive processing, and developed the cognitive structure They suggested using semantic mapping as a pre-reading or pre-writing stimulus, or as a post-reading check o f comprehension They explained that developing post-reading maps helped motivate their students, since these maps were a graphic illustration o f how much the reader had learned from the text As a prewriting activity, semantic mapping obliged students to brainstorm and organize their thoughts before writing Most importantly, semantic mapping was highly motivating for adult students because it allowed them to interact with teachers regarding the context o f the lesson, rather than merely on a specific point o f skill development They concluded the ultimate goal o f semantic mapping is to introduce the students

to a technique that they could use regularly to organize what they had read, relate

this content to what they already know, and expand their store o f knowledge

through reading

On the other development, researchers compared the effectiveness o f semantic mapping with this o f other techniques For example, Pikula (1987) compared the effectiveness o f the two techniques (semantic m apping and dictionary) for

38 students o f experimental and control groups In his study, the experimental groups developed the network o f semantic categories using their existing knowledge o f vocabulary whereas the control group used dictionary to learn vocabulary Posttest results at the end o f the six-week period indicated statistically significant difference between the two groups The experimental group exhibited a great enough gain over the control sample

In Magosen’s study (1982), forty-four junior high school students were randomly assigned to two vocabulary instruction treatments One treatment

used context-rich, three-sentence passages as sources for target word definition The other, the semantic mapping treatment, entailed learning new words by identifying the similarities and differences with related, known words Results indicated significant main effects favoring the semantic mapping treatment on average weekly test scores, post-treatment test scores, and a standardized measure o f general vocabulary knowledge These findings suggested that focus

on word features in related, known words may be an effective method for teaching new vocabulary

Recently, Tran Thi Thu Huong (2004) combined three techniques (pair-word association, semantic mapping and pictorial schemata) to teach vocabulary In the thesis, she used these techniques to teach vocabulary as a whole for English major students at intermediate level She taught vocabularies that were found new to her students from the pre/post tests She did not use the three techniques

to teach vocabulary in the course-book As three techniques were used together

so the effects o f each technique on learners’ vocabulary learning was not clear Moreover, the knowledge o f how students made use o f these techniques was not proven

The interrelation between vocabulary and reading comprehension prompts research on the effectiveness o f semantic mapping on reading vocabulary learning A study investigated whether semantic mapping is more effective for poor readers instructed in a small group o f poor readers or in a class o f students with mixed reading abilities was done by Pitlman (1985) The results showed that poor readers who received semantic mapping instruction had significantly higher pretest to posttest gained scores than did students in the heterogeneously grouped outside control classes

Decarrico (2001) also conducted a research on semantic mapping She thinks that semantic mapping is an activity that helps bring into consciousness relationships among words in a text and help deepen understanding by creating associative networks for words A text is chosen based on the words to be

learnt and students are asked to draw a diagram o f the relationship between particular words found in the text A variation on this technique, a “vocabulary network” could be designed to help even beginning students learn to make semantic associations within particular superordinate heading She concluded that “especially at the beginning levels the teaching o f word lists through word association techniques has proven to be successful way to learn a large number

o f words in a short period and retain them over time” (p.288-289)

A closer look at research mentioned above shows that subjects o f most research are intermediate learners who have acquired a volume o f vocabulary However, the participants o f the present study are at their elementary o f language proficiency The research wanted to find out whether the semantic mapping is useful for beginners as Deccarico suggested

2.6 Summary.

This chapter reviews the overall knowledge o f vocabulary acquisition and semantic mapping technique The chapter also presents the previous related studies in brief These studies have made it clear that semantic mapping is a useful teaching technique which helps to remember and recall word meanings better Findings from the above studies reveal some aspects o f research values influencing and guiding the implementation o f the present study These studies were carried out with small number o f participants and the participants were often at intermediate language proficiency They also indicate some suggestions from a pedagogical point o f view These studies recommended using semantic mapping as pre-activities for reading, writing, speaking or even listening lessons The usefulness o f semantic mapping in vocabulary learning which was recognized through literature review are as follows: (1) Semantic mapping is evident to make students organize word systematically as it requires them to classify words into groups and sub-groups with their meaning concerned, which encourages students to study words in a deeper level Once students work with words at a deeper level, they can remember and recall words better (2) Semantic mapping also helps students organize words which

do not belong to the same topics or semantic fields These words are linked by ideas in a certain context (3) Semantic mapping helps students deepen their understanding by creating associative networks for words (4) Semantic mapping creates interactions between the teacher and his students, which helps motivate students in vocabulary learning (5) With regards to reading comprehension, semantic mapping can gauge students' understanding through mapping their thought (6) The textbook Lifelines Pre-Intermediate used to teach English to non-major students at NTTC was designed as a content based one, in which vocabulary are thematically related Thus, semantic mapping seems to work well for vocabulary in the Lifelines Pre-Intermediate textbooks.

C H A P T E R III: T H E M E T H O D O L O G Y

This chapter is concerned with the methodology employed to carry out the study Detail information o f the variables, subjects and the data collection instruments is provided, and the design o f study, the procedure o f data collection, the techniques for data analysis are also presented

3.1 The research design.

This study had a quasi-experimental design Participants were from two first- year English non-major classes: Computer Science and Mathematics These two classes were already assigned by the college In this study, Computer Science class is randomly assigned as an experimental group (ECS) and the Mathematics class as a control group (CM) Before the experiment, both groups were given a pretest to measure students’ vocabulary proficiency During the experiment, semantic mapping technique, a treatment, was used to help the experimental students remember and recall word meaning whereas the word list, as a traditional vocabulary teaching way, was taught to control students In order to measure the participants’ progress in terms o f vocabulary, participants were delivered progress tests for every two units The results o f these tests would help the researcher find the effects o f the two techniques on participants’ vocabulary learning After the experiment, the two groups took the vocabulary proficiency test 2 which was called posttest The comparison was between the experimental group’s perform ance with treatm ent and the control group’s performance without treatment Besides, there was a comparison within each group between pretest and posttest To get more detail and further information on the treatment, experimental students were given a questionnaire All the data were collected and then analyzed by data analysis techniques which will be presented in details in next sections

3.2 The research questions.

The aims, the hypothesis and the research questions have already stated in chapter I For the sake o f highlighting the selected research method, the hypothesis and the research questions are presented here again

The study attempted to answer the following questions:

1 Does semantic mapping help first-year English non-major students memorize word meanings better?

2 Does semantic mapping assist the students recall word meanings effectively?

3 What are experimental students’ attitudes towards semantic mapping technique?

These research questions were based on the hypothesis that students would remember and recall words easily and efficiently by using semantic mapping technique, and that semantic mapping would make them interested in learning vocabulary

3.3 Description of variables.

3.3.1 Independent variables.

As stated in chapter II, semantic mapping establishes the relationships among new and old words by having students brainstorm, categorize, label the categories, and discuss words related to a target word

In this study, semantic mapping was encouragingly used not only in vocabulary section but also in skill development sections To begin instructions, students were presented with a concept or a topic that is central to understanding a selection or a subject They then brainstormed or freely associated words that were related to that concept During brainstorming, students were let discuss and define all o f the words on the list As students brainstormed, the teacher also wrote their suggestions on the board, adding words they need to learn During the lesson, the teacher continued using semantic mapping The teacher

could help students refine their understanding o f the words by asking them to group related words together to create a semantic map For example, in a vocabulary section, experimental students categorized words in sub-groups In

a reading section, they organized words from the texts based on the related meaning proposed in the texts After reading the text, students sometimes drew their own semantic maps to illustrate the content o f the text and tried to relate all new words together The researcher assumed that students would remember word meaning better if they found relations among w'ords they worked with.For the control group, word lists were used as an example for traditional techniques mentioned in 2.2.1 In this study, the word list refers to lists o f words with the Vietnamese version given either at the end o f the text book or

by the teacher during the lesson Before each lesson, control students were given a concept that they would brainstorm all words related to the concept However, related words were presented in a list There was no organization for the list, so words appeared in a list according to their sequences o f appealing Based on the wordlists students discussed and defined the words meaning in groups The teacher explained words students needed to know During the lesson, students added more words in the list After that, the control group used word lists to rem em ber the vocabulary they learnt following their order in the lists When recalling word meanings, they could turn back to the word lists if they fail to retrieve

3.3.2 Dependent variable.

The dependent variable in this study is the ability o f retention and retrieval o f word meaning As word meaning refers to several aspects such as connotation, denotation and sense relations, word meaning, in this study, is mainly denotation meaning which has “reference to an object, action, or event in the physical world” (Grains & Redman 1986) The reason is that most o f students taking part in the study are at elementary linguistic proficiency and the learning

of affective meaning and sense relations is still limited in GET course taught at NTTC Students have little chance to encounter the other aspects o f word

meaning Moreover, the researcher want to know whether students could memorize words from the textbook easily and effectively; and whether they could recall the words correctly in different contexts when given a treatment.

3.4 The subjects.

The participants o f the present study are 80 male and female first-year students from the two classes namely Computer Science and Mathematics They were chosen for this study because o f the following reasons: (1) They had no significant difference in the scores at the final term I test (see appendix); (2) They had the same teacher in charge o f the English subject; (3) They were at the elementary level o f language proficiency at the beginning o f the study; (4) Most o f them had problems with words which was observed from the test results and informal talks; and (5) They studied the same textbook Lifelines pre-intermediate for GET The two classes would receive the usual training based on the procedure suggested by the English Department at NTTC The only difference can be seen from these two classes is their professional training One class studies Computing and the other studies Mathematics This

difference may not affect the results o f the present study as the subjects receive the same training procedure in their first-year study in the college

The participants shared the same characters o f the first-year English non-major students as mentioned in 1.1.3 The number o f students for each class is 40 The experimental class (ECS) has 27 females and 13 males whereas 30 females and 10 males belong to control class (CM) There is an unbalance in the number o f females and males in the samples which may lead to the difficulty in comparison o f the test scores There seems to be no difficulties resulted from their ages which range from 18 to 22 Most o f the participants come from different districts in the Namdinh province where they learnt a foreign language for three years at their high schools such as English or French Four out o f 80 participants studied French at their high schools It can be inferred that the linguistic proficiency o f the participants is not equal They had passed final achievement test in term I with at least 50 percent o f the whole score