(LUẬN văn THẠC sĩ) exploitings supplementary reading materials to consolidate and develop vocabulary for grade 11 english major students at bien hoa specialized high school, hanam

The study aims at implementing and evaluating the effectiveness of consolidating and developing English vocabulary for grade 11 English-major students through supplementary reading mater

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ ANH THOA

EXPLOITING SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS TO CONSOLIDATE AND DEVELOP VOCABULARY FOR GRADE 11 ENGLISH-MAJOR STUDENTS AT BIEN HOA SPECIALIZED HIGH

SCHOOL, HA NAM

(Nghiên cứu về việc khai thác tài liệu đọc hiểu bổ trợ để củng cố và phát triển từ vựng cho học sinh lớp 11 chuyên tiếng Anh

tại trường THPT chuyên Biên Hòa, Hà Nam)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field : English Teaching Methodology

Code : 601410

Hanoi – 2012

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ ANH THOA

EXPLOITING SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS TO CONSOLIDATE AND DEVELOP VOCABULARY FOR GRADE 11 ENGLISH-MAJOR STUDENTS AT BIEN HOA SPECIALIZED HIGH

SCHOOL, HA NAM

(Nghiên cứu về việc khai thác tài liệu đọc hiểu bổ trợ để củng cố và phát triển từ vựng cho học sinh lớp 11 chuyên tiếng Anh

tại trường THPT chuyên Biên Hòa, Hà Nam)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field : English Teaching Methodology

Code : 601410

Supervisor: Đào Thị Thu Trang, M.A

Hanoi – 2012

MOET : Ministry of Education and Training

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: The number of hours spent on learning new words every day 26

Figure 2: Students’ preference in joining the supplementary reading programme 29 Figure 3: Students’ feelings while taking part in the supplementary reading

programme 30

Figure 4: Students’ attitudes towards consolidating and developing vocabulary

through the supplementary reading texts 31

Figure 5: Students’ assessment of their vocabulary knowledge gained through the supplementary reading programme 35

Figure 6: Students’ explicit evaluation of the effectiveness of consolidating and

developing vocabulary through the supplementary reading texts plus vocabulary enhancement exercises 36

Figure 7: Students’ expectation after joining the supplementary reading

programme 36

Table 2: The sources from which the students learn new words 26

Table 3: Students’ actual ways of learning and consolidating new words 27

Table 4: Students’ difficulties in learning new words 28

Table 5: Students’ awareness of consolidating and developing vocabulary through supplementary reading texts 28

Table 6: Students’ assessment of the selected supplementary reading texts and the design of the vocabulary enhancement exercises 31

Table 7: Students’ assessment of the most effective types of the vocabulary enhancement exercises 32

Table 8: Students’ assessment of the benefits gained from reading the supplementary reading texts 33

Table 9: Students’ assessment of the benefits gained from doing the enhancement exercises after the supplementary reading texts 34

Table 10: Results of the pre-test 37

Table 11: Results of the post-test 38

Table 12: Results of the pre-test and post-test 39

Table 13: Results of the pre-test and post-tests 39

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

List of Abbreviations iv

List of Figures iv

List of Tables v

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale for the Study 1

2 Aims and Research Questions of the Study 2

3 Scope of the Study 2

4 Significance of the Study 2

5 Research Methodology 2

6 Design of the Study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Vocabulary in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning 4

1.1.1 Definitions of Vocabulary 4

1.1.2 Classification of Vocabulary 5

1.1.2.1 According to the Concept of Morpheme 5

1.1.2.2 According to the Meaning 5

1.1.2.3 According to the Function of Vocabulary Items in a Sentence 5

1.1.2.4 According to the Sequence of Use 6

1.1.3 What Needs to Be Taught? 6

1.1.3.1 Form: Pronunciation and Spelling 6

1.1.3.2 Grammar 6

1.1.3.3 Collocation 6

1.1.3.4 Aspects of Meaning 7

1.1.3.5 Word Formation 8

1.1.4 Ways to Develop and Consolidate Vocabulary…… 8

1.1.4.1 Ways to Develop Vocabulary 8

1.1.4.2 Ways to Consolidate Vocabulary 9

1.1.5 The Role of Vocabulary in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning… 11 1.2 Supplementary Reading Materials and Vocabulary Acquisition 12

1.2.1 Definitions of Supplementary Reading Materials 12

1.2.4 Studies on L2 Vocabulary Acquisition through Reading and Reading

plus Other Activities 14

1.3 Summary 16

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 17

2.1 Research Context 17

2.2 Research Approach 18

2.3 Participants 18

2.4 Data Collection Instruments 19

2.4.1 Questionnaires 19

2.4.2 Pre-Test and Post-Tests 19

2.5 Intervention: The Supplementary Reading Programme 20

2.5.1 The Supplementary Reading Materials 20

2.5.2 The Types of Vocabulary Exercises Exploited in the Supplementary Reading Texts 20

2.5.3 The Schedule for the Supplementary Reading Programme 21

2.6 Data Collection Procedures 23

2.7 Data Analysis Procedures 24

2.7.1 Questionnaires 24

2.7.2 Pre-test and post-tests 24

2.8 Summary 24

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 25

3.1 Preliminary Investigation 25

3.1.1 Students’ awareness of the role of vocabulary in their English learning 25

3.1.2 Students’ actual ways of learning and consolidating new words 25

3.1.3 Students’ difficulties in learning new words 28

3.1.4 Students’ awareness of consolidating and developing vocabulary through supplementary reading texts and their preference in joining the supplementary reading programme 28

3.2 Evaluation 30

3.2.1 Results and discussion from the post-task questionnaire 30

3.2.2 Results and discussion from the pre-test and post-tests 37

3.3 Summary 40

PART C: CONCLUSION 42

1 Summary of Major Findings 42

2 Pedagogical Implications of the Study 43

3 Limitations of the Study 43

4 Suggestions for Further Studies 44

REFERENCES 45 APPENDICES I

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the Study

Nowadays, in the time of co-operation and globalization, English is used as a means of international communication Therefore, more and more people all over the world are trying to master this language In Viet Nam, to meet the demands for development and integration of the country into the world, over the last decades, more emphasis has been put on the teaching and learning of English language At present, English is a compulsory subject in most schools of all levels, especially at high schools

It is undeniable that vocabulary plays an important role in teaching and learning English Concerning the significance of vocabulary, Wilkin (1972, p 110) stated “without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed” Also, vocabulary is an important language element that links four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing together Thus, vocabulary deficiency will lead to deficiency in other language skills

However, the reality of teaching and studying English in general, English vocabulary in particular at high schools in Viet Nam is still far from satisfaction So far, English vocabulary has not been received considerable attention from many Vietnamese learners and teachers As a matter of fact, in English lessons, words are introduced and taught quickly and most of the time is spent on grammar practice and fulfillment of the tasks As a result, most students have difficulty in learning English vocabulary especially

in using words in appropriate situations

As a teacher of English at a specialized high school, I am fully aware of the importance of English vocabulary Moreover, I am now in charge of teaching English for grade 11 English-major students These students have to take part in many examinations especially ones for gifted students Thus, they have to acquire a large amount of English vocabulary to do tests on reading, listening skills and they need good vocabulary knowledge to express their ideas in writing and speaking However, my students’ vocabulary is still limited All these reasons have motivated me to conduct a study on

“Exploiting supplementary reading materials to consolidate and develop vocabulary for grade 11 English-major students at Bien Hoa Specialized High School, Ha Nam.”

2 Aims and Research Questions of the Study

The study aims at implementing and evaluating the effectiveness of consolidating and developing English vocabulary for grade 11 English-major students through supplementary reading materials plus vocabulary enhancement exercises and exploring

their attitudes towards the supplementary reading programme after the trial period

In order to achieve the mentioned aims, the following questions have been proposed:

 Is it effective to consolidate and develop vocabulary for grade 11 English-major students through supplementary reading materials plus vocabulary enhancement exercises?

 What are the students’ attitudes towards the supplementary reading programme after the trial period?

3 Scope of the Study

This research only focuses on consolidating and developing vocabulary through supplementary reading materials for 32 grade 11 English-major students at Bien Hoa Specialized High School (BHSHS) Due to the time constraint, the researcher could only carry out the research during 10 weeks Five themes in the textbook “Tieng Anh 11 Nang Cao” were chosen and ten supplementary reading texts accompanied by some types of vocabulary enhancement exercises were exploited to help the students to consolidate and develop vocabulary Fifty vocabulary items were supposed to be mastered at the post-tests

4 Significance of the Study

This research was implemented with the hope that it would help the teaching and learning English vocabulary for grade 11 English-major students at BHSHS more effective If this way of teaching and learning vocabulary actually helps to develop the students’ vocabulary knowledge, it should be applied to the teaching and learning of English at other grades

5 Research Methodology

This is an action research conducted at the researcher’s own class at BHSHS During the process of implementing this study, the data were collected from a pre-task questionnaire, a post-task questionnaire, a pre-test, two post-tests and then analysed by means of descriptive statistic devives It is hoped that with the combination of these data collection instruments, reliable findings would be yielded from the research

6 Design of the Study

This study includes three main parts, which are presented as follows:

Part A is the introduction which includes the rationale for the research topic, aims and research questions, research methodology, scope, significance and design of the study

Part B is the development which consists of three following chapters:

Chapter 1 reviews some theoretical background relevant to the study It includes general knowledge of English vocabulary in foreign language teaching and learning and an overview of supplementary reading materials and vocabulary acquisition

Chapter 2 presents the research methodology This chapter introduces the research context, research approach, participants, intervention, data collection instruments, data collection procedures and data analysis procedures

Chapter 3 goes into details of the data analysis, results and discussion

Part C is the conclusion which includes the summary, implications, limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter will review some background information relevant to this study An overview of English vocabulary such as definitions, classification, aspects involved in teaching vocabulary, ways to develop and consolidate vocabulary and the role of vocabulary in foreign language teaching and learning is presented Moreover, a brief introduction of supplementary reading materials and vocabulary acquisition including definitions, roles, the relationship between reading and vocabulary growth and some studies on L2 vocabulary acquisition through reading and reading plus other activities is aslo discussed

1.1 English Vocabulary in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

1 1.1 Definitions of Vocabulary

It is not easy to define exactly what a word is So far, there have been a number of definitions of vocabulary Some linguists define it according to semantic criterion while others refers to it according to the phonological or potential one

According to Parmer (1983, p 37), the semantic unit may be a sequence of several words The phrasal verb “look after” is a typical example This phrase includes two words but its meaning can only be understood in the entire phrase and can not be interpreted by analyzing its single parts

According to Michael Lewis (1993, p 89), vocabulary “…may be individual words, or full sentences - institutionalized utterances - that convey fixed social or pragmatic meaning within a given community”

Penny Ur (1996, p 60) defined vocabulary “as the words we teach in the foreign

language” However, this author also added that “a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word, a compound of two or three words and multi-word idioms”

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, vocabulary is commonly considered as "all

the words known and used by a particular person"

Pyles and Algeo (1970, p 96) said that “vocabulary is the focus of language with its sound and meaning, which interlock to allow us to communicate with one another, and

it is words that we arrange together to make sentences, conversation and discourse of all kinds” It can be inferred from the statement that vocabulary is of vital importance in learning a language

In short, it can be concluded that it is very hard to give a precise definition of vocabulary For the pedagogical purposes of this study, the researcher agrees most with the definition by Penny Ur (1996)

1.1.2 Classification of Vocabulary

Vocabulary can be classified in different ways according to various criteria Below are the most common ways of classifying vocabulary

1.1.2.1 According to the Concept of Morpheme

Words can be divived into three types: simple words, derived words and compound words

- Simple words: A simple word consists of a root morpheme like red, tall, car

- Derived words: A derived word is one that consists of a root and one or more

derivational morphemes such as worker, singer, amusement

- Compound words: A compound word has at least two roots with or without

derivational morphemes like man-killer, greeting-cards

1.1.2.2 According to the Meaning

There are two main kinds of meaning in a word: lexical meaning and grammatical meaning Thus, vocabulary can be divided into notional words and functional words

Notional words are words with clear lexical meaning They address objects, actions, qualities, etc and they have meaning in themselves Notional words form a large number of each speaker’s vocabulary

Functional words are words whose meaning is grammatical and only have meaning

in relation to the other words with which they are used Functional words are particles, articles, prepositions

1.1.2.3 According to the Function of Vocabulary Items in a Sentence

Vocabulary has different functions in a sentence Therefore, it can be grouped into different items as parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and pronouns Each part of speech has its own position complying with certain grammatical rules and relating to others Hence, teachers should point out the function of each item in a sentence so that students know how to use the word correctly in terms of grammar

1.1.2.4 According to the Sequence of Use

The sequence of use refers to the frequency of occurrence of words Basing on this criterion, words are classified into three groups including high frequency words, low frequency words and specialized words It is of great importance for teachers to pay attention to this criterion when selecting words to teach students In addition, teachers aslo need to show students which group the words belong to because it is not necessary to spend too much time on low frequency words

1.1.3 What Needs to Be Taught?

According to Penny Ur (1996, p 60), when teaching vocabulary, the teacher should focus on form, grammar, collocation, aspects of meaning, word formation

1.1.3.1 Form: Pronunciation and Spelling

Penny Ur (1996, p 60) stated that “the learner has to know what a word sounds like (its pronunciation) and what it looks like (its spelling)” In English, the sound and the spelling of a word are very different, which causes a lot of difficulties for foreign learners when they learn vocabulary Therefore, in teaching teachers need to make sure that both of these aspects are accurately presented and learned

1.1.3.2 Grammar

It is necessary for teachers to teach the grammar of a new item if this is not covered

by general grammatical rules In addition, some items may change their forms unpredictably in certain grammatical contexts or may have some idiosyncratic ways of

connecting with other words in sentences For example, when introducing a new verb rise, teachers might provide its past form rose because it is an irregular verb Moreover, teachers also point out the differences between two similar verbs like rise and raise The

former is an intransitive, but the latter is a transitive When presenting verbs, teachers need

to introduce the constructions that follow them For instance, when introducing the verb

enjoy, teachers should emphasize that a gerund (V-ing) or a noun may be used after enjoy

Aspects of meaning include denotation, connotation, appropriateness and meaning relationship

The denotational meaning refers to the meaning of a word in the real world This is

often the sort of definition that is given in a dictionary For example, cat denotes an animal

in particular and in broader sense it is domestic carnivorous mammal

Connotation of a word is the associations, or positive or negative feelings the word evokes This may or may not be indicated in a dictionary definition For instance, the

words father, dad, daddy share the same denotational meaning but their connotational

meanings are very different

Another aspect of meaning is appropriateness It indicates whether a particular item

is appropriate to use in a certain context or not Therefore, teachers should help students to know whether a certain word is very common, or relatively rare or taboo in polite conversation or tends to be used in writing but not in speech or is more suitable for formal than informal discourse, or belongs to a certain dialect

Meaning relationships show how the meaning of one item relates to the meaning of the others There are some main relationships as follows

- Synonyms: items that mean the same or nearly the same, for example, diligent,

industrious may serve as synonyms of hard-working

- Antonyms: items that mean the opposite: stupid is an antonym of intelligent

- Hyponyms: items that serve as specific example of a general concept: dog, cat,

lion are hyponyms of animals

- Co-hyponyms or co-ordinates : other items that are the same kind of thing: yellow,

blue, red and black are co-ordinates

- Superordinates: general concepts that cover specific items: poultry is the superordinate of chicken, duck, goose

Besides these, there are others, perhaps, loose ways of associating meaning that are useful in teaching Teachers can, for instance, relate part to whole or associate items that are part of the same real world context All these can be exploited in teaching to clarify the meaning of a new item for practice or tests materials

1.1.3.5 Word Formation

Vocabulary items, whether one-word or multi-word, can be divided into their components “bits” One common way vocabulary items are formed is by adding prefixes

or suffixes to the root words Thus, teachers may introduce popular prefixes and suffixes to

students For example, if students know the meaning of -ful, -ness, -ment, un-, this will help them guess the meaning of words such as useful, kindness, arrangement, unable

Another way vocabulary items are built is by combining two words to make one item This new item is a single compound word or two separate, sometimes hyphenated words like

walking-stick, bookstore, washing machine

1.1.4 Ways to Develop and Consolidate Vocabulary 1.1.4.1 Ways to Develop Vocabulary

English is one the most versatile language and be spoken worldwide One's English speaking skills is determined by his fluency and comfort ability with English grammar and

a strong vocabulary However, to build an efficient vocabulary one needs to put in efforts, time and patience Learners can only build a powerful vocabulary with practice and experience

According to the website grammar/how-to-develop-english-vocabulary.html), there are some ways to develop vocabulary as follows

(http://www.personality-development-india.com/english- Write and read

The best way to develop vocabulary is to read and adapt new words Reading insightful books will help learners familiarize with new words that can be an immaculate replacement for the conventional words In addition, learners should write these words down and put them up somewhere they can read all the time

 Use dictionary

Language learners should carry a dictionary around wherever they go This ascertains that in case they see an unfamiliar word they can instantly check it in the dictionary

 Be creative and practice

In order to develop vocabulary, language learners need to be able to think of an unconventional word for the conventional one This requires learners to be creative and innovative as they need to constantly think of a better word or synonym for the

conventional word Once they think of a replacement, they should practise using it when they write or converse with people around

 Relate words and stem relationships and relevance

The best way to work on vocabulary is to relate words Take a certain word and relate

it to all the possible words that could be related directly or indirectly to the word Draw relationships for words based on common genre or themes It's the easiest way to remember words

 Observe others and communicate

Another great way of developing word power would be by observing the words others tend to use This way is factually more effective as humans tend to get influenced easily by others Another way is to communicate with others and use new words as much as possible

in relevance

1.1.4.2 Ways to Consolidate Vocabulary

It is too often that we hear students complain that they keep learning vocabulary and forgetting them When students study vocabulary individually, it is rote learning whose effectiveness is seldom guaranteed, particularly when they do not fully understand the meaning of the vocabulary But when the students study vocabulary together, say in groups, through various activities and under the teacher’s supervision, vocabulary learning becomes more fun and effective Learning is also more effective when students understand the meaning of the new vocabulary

According to the website (http://www.lyun.edu.cn/waiyuxi/jpkc/jaoan/Unit%208.htm)

some following vocabulary consolidation activities can be done in class

 Labelling Students are given a picture They are to write the names of the objects indicated in the picture A competitive element can be introduced by making the first student to finish the winner

 Spotting the differences Students are put into pairs Each member of the pair receives a picture which is slightly different from his partner’s Students hide the pictures from one another and then,

by a process of describing, questioning and answering, discover what the differences are

 Describing and drawing Students are put in pairs One student has a picture, the other a blank piece of paper and a pencil The student having the picture must tell his partner what to draw so that the drawing ends up the same as the original picture The student must not show the picture until the drawing is completed

 Playing a game Students are shown a picture or a tray with many objects on it, or a series of different flash cards or magazine pictures They have one or two minutes to memorise as many of the objects as they can The cards, pictures, or tray are then taken away and the students have to tell what they saw, or write everything they can remember seeing, then compare their answers with the rest of the class

 Using word thermometers These are useful for indicating different degrees in size, speed, age, distance, emotion etc Students are given a list of words in jumbles order They have to place these words in the correct place on the thermometer

 Using word series Students construct the series following the example Cutlery: knife, fork, spoon

 Word bingo The teacher thinks of an area of language (e.g shopping) that the students have recently learnt Students draw nine squares on a piece of paper and put nine words connected with shopping in the squares The teacher then calls out, one at a time, words connected with shopping If the students have the word in the square, they cross it out The first student to cross out all the words in the square is the winner

A different version of word bingo is that the first student who crosses out a line of three words either horizontally, vertically or diagonally should shout out “ Bingo” and he

or she will be the winner

 Word association The teacher says a key word, e.g traveling The students have to write down all the words they can think of connected with the traveling They have a time limit When time is

up, the person with the highest number of acceptable words is the winner

 Odd man out The teacher writes a set of words on the blackboard and ask students to find the

“odd man out” For example, in the set: cheese eggs oranges, bread soap and meat, the word “soap” is the “odd man out”

 Synonyms and antonyms The students are given a list of words and ask students to find pairs of words, either synonyms or antonyms

 Using word categories Students put the jumbled words in the middle into the box marked with different categories

 Using word net-work Students fill in the blanks in a network with words that are under the same category

or sub-category

1.1.5 The Role of Vocabulary in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

It is common knowledge that language has been one of the greatest inventions of human beings Thanks to language, people can communicate to each other easily There are three main dimensions forming a language, namely, phonology, grammar and vocabulary Phonology deals mainly with the way words are pronounced Grammar is concerned with the rules of changing the forms of words and combination into sentences Vocabulary supply learners with the meanings of words to express themselves Among three mentioned dimensions, vocabulary is considered the most important Regarding the significance of vocabulary, Wilkin (1972, p 110) said that “without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without grammar, nothing can be conveyed” Therefore, it is undeniable that vocabulary plays a vital role in teaching and learning a foreign language

In the first place, the major objective of language learners is to be able to use their learning language to communicate well with people around them Thus, besides grammar, phonology, language learners have to accquire a number of words; if not, they will find it difficult to express themselves in most circumstances Wallace (1982, p 73) stated that

“failure to find the words one needs to express himself is the most frustrating experience in speaking another language”

Furthermore, rich vocabulary also helps learners develop all four skills: reading, speaking, listening and writing Obviously, learners will understand reading texts better if they know more words On the contrary, when learners do not have sufficient vocabulary

to understand what they are reading, they often avoid reading Similarly, vocabulary is very important to generate, develop and present ideas in writing and speaking For example, if language learners have good vocabulary, they can express their ideas in both oral and written forms without any difficulties and the more they write and speak, the better they can use their vocabulary

In short, the teaching and learning of vocabulary is of great importance in learning

a foreign language, especially at present when the communicative approach is widely applied

1.2 Supplementary Reading materials and Vocabulary Acquisition 1.2.1 Definitions of Supplementary Reading Materials

In the teaching and learning process, we have original materials and aslo supplementary materials “Supplementary” is a little something extra to fill in a gap or an

important part of something or just extra support The word supplement comes from the Latin supplementum which means “something added to fix a deficiency” and the suffix-

ary means “connected with” When these two items are put together, we have the word supplementary referring to something connected with filling in

So far, there have been some definitions proposed by some experts On the website (http://www.shvoong.com/social-sciences/education/2032919-definition-characteristics-supplementary-material/), two definitions on supplementary materials are given as follows

In the web dictionary it is said that supplementary materials are substantial additional work which appends, incorporates, is appended to or is incorporated into the original material However, supplementary materials have some capacity to entertain or inform independently of the original material

Another definition says that supplementary material is a part of a work, physically separate from the bibliographic unit and frequently in a different medium For example, an answer book accompanying a text book or a pamphlet accompanying an audio disc

Acoording to the website (http://www.greenstone.org), supplementary reading materials are textbooks written to support a specific course and relate directly to the syllabus of that course Reference and general books supplement course textbooks by

offering alternative approaches, additional information and knowledge of subjects not directly covered by the school curriculum

According to the website reading-materials), supplementary reading materials are books, magazines or fugitive materials, aside from basal texts, used to enrich instructional materials or to furnish additional practice in reading

(http://www.education.com/definition/supplementary-For the pedagogical purposes of this study, the researcher follows the last definition given by the website (http://www.education.com/definition/supplementary-reading-materials/)

1.2.2 Roles of Supplementary Reading Materials in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

Supplementary reading materials have played an important role in the process of teaching and learning, especially in teaching and learning a foreign language According to the website (http://www.greenstone.org), supplementary reading materials have the following roles First, they develop the ability to read and extend the vocabulary Second, they develop a teaching force which is capable of moving beyond the confines of set books and textbooks Next, they can supplement and enrich work done by pupils in the classroom Then, supplementary reading materials also encourage independent access to information and arouse the interest of pupils in matters outside the curriculum Finally, they provide training in the use and retrieval of information, a skill which is essential for

higher education and lifelong learning

1.2.3 Relationship between Reading and Vocabulary Growth

It is common knowledge that reading is of great importance in learning a foreign language Reading gives learners a number of benefits among which acquiring a number of new words through reading is one of the most significant In fact, reading has a very close relationship with vocabulary development

In the first place, written texts are often one of the major sources which provide language learners with a lot of new words Learners can acquire words by meeting them again and again when they read books or supplementary reading materials The context of

a new word in a sentence of written texts helps learners deduce the meaning Likewise, learners can also learn how to use a new word in the real situations through written texts

Moreover, reading gives learners a lot of background knowledge and life experience In turn this background knowledge and life experience supply learners with ideas and concepts associated with words This helps learners understand words better, remember them longer and use them correctly

Last but not least, persons who read widely gradually build up extensive knowledge

of vocabulary especially if they are curious about new words As this curiosity compels them to regard every unfamiliar word as break-down communication between author and reader, they may try to find the meaning of these words through the dictionary In this way, learners can acquire a number of unfamiliar words after each reading text

In short, there is a close relationship between reading and vocabulary development Thus, teachers should pay more attention to teach vocabulary through reading texts and help students know how to learn new words effectively through reading texts

1.2.4 Studies on L2 Vocabulary Acquisition through Reading and Reading plus Other Activities

Reading is a useful learning experience Reading takes us beyond ourselves, broadens our minds and perspectives and helps us have a better understanding of the world and our place in it Reading increases our vocabulary Texts supply us with a number of new words and the written contexts help us guess the meanings of these new words A number of studies during the last two decades have confirmed the widespread belief that second language learners can acquire vocabulary through reading Indeed, Krashen (1989) stated that reading in an L2 is one of the main ways language learners acquire new vocabulary knowledge However, for extensive reading to be effective, learners must be regularly exposed to large amounts of comprehensible text Since the knowledge gained from a single encounter with a lexical item is likely to be forgotten unless soon followed

by another encounter, repeated contextualized exposures are necessary to consolidate and elaborate word meaning Nation (2001, p 155) stated that “the use of reading and other input sources may be the only practical options for out of class language development for some learners” Nagy and Herman (1987) argued that teachers should promote extensive reading because it can lead to greater vocabulary growth than any programme of explicit instruction alone ever could

According to the case study “Vocabulary acquisition from extensive reading”, Pigada, M & Schmitt, N (2006) came to the conclusion that knowledge of 65% of the

target words was enhanced in some way Spelling was strongly enhanced, even from a small number of exposures Meaning and grammatical knowledge were also enhanced, but not to the same extent Overall they claimed that “more vocabulary acquisition is possible from extensive reading than previous studies have suggested”

In the context of Vietnamese schools, there have been few studies on the impact of extensive reading on learners’ vocabulary acquisition In 2008, Tran Van Trung carried out

a quasi-experimental study entiled “Developing grade 10 students’ English vocabulary through the guided extensive reading program and he concluded that “T-test which was employed to make a comparison between pretest and postest scores gained by two groups demonstrated that the experimental group had more improvement in their English vocabulary acquisition than the control group”

In general, it is common knowledge that extensive reading has played an important part in vocabulary teaching and learning However, there are many arguments against the effectiveness of learning vocabulary through extensive reading In the first place, there is little evidence of the supposedly substantial contribution of incidential L2 learning (Rapis, 1997) Moreover, it is also argued that reading for meaning does not automatically lead to the acquisition of vocabulary (Huckin & Coady, 1999) Many researchers make a distinction between guessing the meaning of a word with the use of context clues and actually retaining that meaning (see Huckin and Coady, 1999; Nation and Coady, 1988; Parry, 1993) Tran Van Trung (2008) claimed that “there existed some other factors that affected the experimental group’s improvement in vocabulary acquisition, they were indeed impossible to be examined during the experiment treatment” That’s why there have been a number of studies conducted to compare the effectiveness of reading only and reading supplemented with other activites

Paribakht and Wesche (1997, as cited in Coady, J & Huckin, T., 1997) carried out

a study on “Vocabulary enhancement activities and reading for meaning in second language vocabulary acquisition” In this study the researchers examined the effects of two reading approaches- the reading only and reading plus text-based vocabulary exercises on ESL college students’ vocabulary growth A vocabulary test called Vocabulary Knowledge Scale was employed to assess the retention of the target words After the trial period, they draw a conclusion that “although reading for meaning appears to produce significant results in vocabulary acquisition, such reading with specific vocabulary exercises produces

greater gains for the targeted words” The findings from this study have given foreign language teachers more confidence to exploit supplementary reading texts plus other vocabulary exercises to develop their students’ vocabulary

Hui- Tzu Min and Wen-Shan Shsu (1997) also conducted a study to measure the impact of supplemental reading on vocabulary acquisition and retention with EFL learners

in Taiwan The group received reading plus vocabulary enhancement activities significantly outperformed the one receiving the narrow-reading treatment on both acquisition and retention tests

In Viet Nam, there have been few studies on the effectiveness of consolidating and developing vocabulary through supplementary reading texts Hence, the researcher decided

to carry out an action research to investigate the effectiveness of consolidating and developing vocabulary through supplementary reading texts

1.3 Summary

This chapter has reviewed the key issues related to the study First, it concerns the definitions and classification of vocabulary, aspects involved in teaching a word, ways to develop and consolidate vocabulary and the role of vocabulary in foreign language teaching and learning Then comes to an overview of supplementary reading materials and vocabulary acquisition in which definitions of supplementary reading materials, roles of supplementary reading materials in foreign language teaching and learning, the relationship between reading and vocabulary growth and some related studies on vocabulary acquisition through reading and reading plus other activities are also presented The literature review shows that reading texts are valuable sources which provide learners

a lot of new words Moreover, learners can learn vocabulary more effectively through reading texts if there are more enhancement vocabulary exercises after reading texts With this theoretical background, it is expected that the study would yield reliable findings

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents a detailed description of how the research was carried out The information about the research context, research approach, participants, data collection instruments, intervention, data collection procedures and data analysis procedures will be stated in detail

2.1 Research Context

The study was carried out at BHSHS, which is located in the centre of Phu Ly city,

Ha Nam province The shool has 27 classes with an average of 30 students per class Since

1997, this school has been in charge of educating gifted students at upper-secondary education in Ha Nam province

There are 8 teachers of English and more than 70 other teachers teaching other subjects at school All of the teachers of English graduated from the University of Languages and International Studies, Viet Nam National University, Ha Noi The researcher is aslo a teacher of this school She is 30 years old and has been teaching English for 7 years Therefore, she has certain knowledge and experience in teaching English as a foreign language, which is supposed to be very valuable in conducting this action research

As for the students of the school, about 65% of them come from five districts of the province and approximately 35% of them live in the city or near the city Regarding English subject, the students who are not specialized in English just get 3 periods a week and the teaching materials for this group are the textbooks (mainstream ones) prescribed by MOET However, the students who major in English have 11 periods of English per week (5 periods in the morning and 6 ones in the afternoon) The English-major students learn the textbooks for advanced learners In addition, they can have a chance to learn other supplementary materials developed and selected by the teachers

The study was conducted with English-major students The reason for choosing this group is because the researcher is in charge of teaching English for grade 11 English-major students These students are really motivated in studying English and they have more time

to study English in class These favourable conditions help the researcher have chances to

implement new ways of teaching and learning English, especially English vocabulary, which has been assumed to be far from being effective for years

2.2 Research Approach

This study is carried out under the approach of Action Research Good

understanding of action research will lead to a deeper understanding and analysis of the research Thus, it is very important for the researcher to explain the rationale for choosing this type of research

Action research is one of the most common research approaches in applied linguistics Action research, as defined in Cohen and Manion (1994, p.186), is “small-scale intervention in the functioning of the real world and a close examination of the effects of such intervention” According to Wisker, G (2001), “action research is research that we carry out with our students in order to try out an idea or an innovation, test a hypothesis about their learning and to see what would happen if…” Another definition is that “action research is simply a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own practices, their understanding of these practices and the situations in which the practices are carried out” (Carr and Kemmis 1986, p 162, as cited in Burns, A., 1999, p 30)

Kemmis and McTaggart (1988, as cited in Nunan, D., 1992, p 17) stated the three defining characteristics of action reasearch Firstly, it is carried out by practitioners rather than outside researchers Secondly, it is collaborative Thirdly, it is aimed at changing things

These features were reflected in this study First of all, this research was carried out

at the researcher’s own class at BHSHS In addition, the researcher and the students had to work together during the process of doing the research Last but not least, the aim of the study was to improve the current situation of teaching and learning vocabulary

In order to carry out an action research, Nunan (1992) suggested seven steps They include initiation, preliminary investigation, hypothesis, intervention, evaluation, dissemination, and follow-up This research follows the main steps of an action research cycle suggested by Nunan (1992), and this will be demonstrated in Chapter 3: Results and Discussion

2.3 Participants

The participants of the study are 32 grade 11 English-major students Among them, there are 4 male students and 28 female ones They are 17 years old and they have been

learning English for 8 years Generally, the students’ knowledge and vocabulary of English are at intermediate level At BHSHS, these students have five periods of English in the morning and six ones in the afternoon In the teaching process, it is realized that many of the students lack vocabulary to do practice tests and they find it hard to express their ideas

in both oral and written forms What’s more, they do not have effective ways to learn new words as well as revise the old ones Those reasons give the researcher an impetus to carry out this action research with the hope to change the present situation

2.4 Data Collection Instruments

The study aims to implement and evaluate the effectiveness of consolidating and developing vocabulary for English major students through ten supplementary reading texts plus a set of vocabulary enhancement exercises In order to collect data for the study, the following instruments were employed: a pre-task questionnaire, a post-task questionnaire,

a pre-test and two post-tests

In this study, a pre-task questionnaire and a post-task one were handed out to 32 grade 11 English-major students at BHSHS The pre-task questionnaire was administered

to the students before the researcher implemented the supplementary reading programme

At the end of the trial period, the post-task questionnaire was also handed out to collect the feedback from the students

2.4.2 Pre-test and Post- tests

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of consolidating and developing vocabulary through ten supplementary reading texts plus a set of vocabulary enhancement exercises, the researcher aslo employed a pre-test and two post-tests The pre-test was conducted and delivered to the students at the beginning of the research and an immediate post-test and a delayed post-test were administered after the intervention All of these tests followed the version of The Vocabulary Knowledge Scale developed by Pribakht and Wesche (1997, p

180, as cited in Read, J., 2000, p 133 ) This instrument uses a 5-point scale combining self-report and performance items to elicit self-perceived and demonstrated knowledge of specific words in written form The scale ratings range from total unfamiliarity, through recognition of the word and some idea of its meaning, to the ability to use the word with grammatical and semantic accuracy in a sentence In this study, students were presented with a list of 50 target words and asked to indicate their level of knowledge for each, and, for self-report levels III- IV, to demonstrate this knowledge The Vocabulary Knowledge Scale and The Vocabulary Knowledge Scale scoring categories and a list of 50 target words are given in the appendices

2.5 Intervention: The Supplementary Reading Programme

The most important step of doing an action research suggested by Nunan (1992), as presented in “Research method” is the intervention carried out by the researcher To achieve the aims of this study, a supplementary reading programme accompanied by a set

of vocabulary enhancement exercises was designed to help the students consolidate and develop vocabulary

2.5.1 The Supplementary Reading Materials

In this study, the researcher chose the themes of the first five units in the textbook called “Tieng Anh 11 Nang Cao” by MOET The themes of these units are friendship, personal experience, parties, volunteer work and literacy program and competitions After teaching the reading lesson of each unit, the reseacher selected two supplementary reading texts and then designed some vocabulary exercises to help the students consolidate the words they had studied in the reading lesson and develop some more new words The supplementary reading texts were collected from the reference books for grade 11 students Moreover, the teacher also collected the supplementary reading texts from some websites

on the Internet All the supplementary reading texts assessed by the researcher and other teachers at BHSHS were very suitable for the students’ English proficiency

2.5.2 The Types of Vocabulary Exercises Exploited in the Supplementary Reading Texts

In this study, the following types of vocabulary were exploited They included: (1) matching the words with their definitions, (2) completing the sentences using the words provided, (3) supplying the correct forms of the words in the brackets and completing the word-formation charts, (4) making sentences with the words provided, (5) summarizing the

key information in the reading text and (6) writing an essay about the topic relating to the information provided in the text The first and second types belong to recognition vocabulary exercises which help the students guess the meaning of the words in the supplementary reading texts basing on the contexts without knowing the words The third type is called manipulation which helps the students know other forms of the word The fourth one, making sentences with the provived words, gives the students the chances to use the words in real contexts Two last types of vocabulary exercises help the students use the words learnt to express their own ideas and they are called production vocabulary exercises

2.5.3 The Schedule for the Supplementary Reading Programme

The supplementary reading programme was carried out at 12 optional periods during 10 weeks Each week a supplementary reading text plus vocabulary enhancement exercises was handed out and corrected at one optional period in the morning Following is the table which describes the schedule for the supplementary reading programme

1

Introducing the supplementary reading programme Asking students to complete the pre-task questionnaire Asking students to do the pre-test

2

Theme 1: Friendship Supplementary reading text 1:

Friendship

Asking students to read supplementary reading text 1 and

do the exercises at home Checking the answers to supplementary reading text 1

3

Theme 1: Friendship Supplementary reading text 2: The benefits of having a good friend

Asking students to read supplementary reading text 2 and do the exercises at home

Checking the answers to supplementary reading text 2

4

Theme 2: Personal Experience

Supplementary reading text 1

Asking students to read supplementary reading text 1 and do the exercises at home

Checking the answers to supplementary reading text 1

5

Theme 2: Personal Experience

Supplementary reading text 2

Asking students to read supplementary reading text 2 and do the exercises at home

Checking the answers to supplementary reading text 2

6

Theme 3: Parties Supplementary reading text 1:

Vietnamese Table Manners

Asking students to read supplementary reading text 1 and do the exercises at home

Checking the answers to supplementary reading text 1

7

Theme 3: Parties Supplementary reading text 2: Types

Supplementary reading text 1:

Voluntary Service Overseas

Asking students to read supplementary reading text 1 and do the exercises at home

Checking the answers to supplementary reading text 1

9

Theme 4: Volunteer Work and Literacy Programs

Supplementary reading text 2:

Volunteering and its Surprising Benefits

Asking students to read supplementary reading text 2 and do the exercises at home

Checking the answers to supplementary reading text 2

10

Theme 5:

Competitions Supplementary reading text 1: Miss

Asking students to read supplementary reading text 1 and do the exercises at home

Checking the answers to supplementary reading text 1

World

11

Theme 5:

Competitions Supplementary reading text 2: The Olympic Games

Asking students to read supplementary reading text 2 and do the exercises at home

Checking the answers to supplementary reading text 2

12 Asking students to complete the post-task questionnaire

Asking students to do the post-test One

month later

Asking students to do a delayed post-test

2.6 Data Collection Procedures

The data collection procedures started at the beginning of August and finished at the end of November, 2011 Following are major steps in collecting data for the research

Step 1: In early August, the pre-task questionnaires were administered to 32 grade

11 English-major students at BHSHS Each respondent was handed a copy of the questionnaire and asked to complete all the questions in the questionnaire The respondents were allowed 20 minutes to complete the questionnaires

Step 2: In the middle of August, a vocabulary test called a pre-test was given to

these students This test was designed to measure the students’ knowledge of 50 words which they would meet during the supplementary reading programme The time for the test was 40 minutes and students were not allowed to consult with their friends during the test

Step 3: From the middle of August to the end of October, the researcher started to

implement the supplementary reading programme to help the students to consolidate and learn more new words through the ten supplementary reading texts plus a set of vocabulary enhancement exercises

Step 4: At the beginning of November, after the last supplementary reading text

was corrected, the post-task questionnaires were also administered to the students to gather students’ feedback on the effectiveness of consolidating and developing vocabulary through the ten supplementary reading texts Moreover, to reaffirm the effectiveness of this

way of studying vocabulary, an immediate post-test was handed out The students had to complete this test in 40 minutes Four weeks later, at the end of November, a delayed post-test was given to the students The format and content of the the pre-test, post-test and delayed post-test was the same

Step 5: Based on the results and findings of the first cycle of the study, the

researcher decided whether to carry out the next cycle

2.7 Data Analysis Procedures

Three sets of data were obtained from the data collection procedures The first one was 64 questionnaires including 32 pre-task questionnaires and 32 post-task questionnaires The second one comprised 32 pre-tests, 32 post-tests and 32 delayed post-tests

2.7.1 Questionnaires

After the questionnaires had been collected, the researcher started to code the items Once having been coded, the data were analysed according to descriptive approach After that, the descriptive analyses were reported in percentages

2.7.2 Pre-test and Post-tests

The pre-test, the post-test and the delayed post-test were used as an instrument to measure the students' vocabulary retention and development after taking part in the supplementary reading programme plus a set of vocabulary enhancement exercises After the tests were gathered, the researcher began to grade these tests The data collected from these tests were analysed quantitatively

2.8 Summary

So as to investigate the effectiveness of consolidating and developing vocabulary through supplementary reading texts for grade 11 English-major students at BHHS, an action research was carried out during the period of 10 weeks The data were collected from pre-task and post-task questionnaires, a pre-test, two post tests The data were collected and analysed by means of descriptive statistic devices It is hoped that with the combination of these data collection instruments, the researcher could find the answers to her research questions thoroughly

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the main procedures of this action research will be briefly presentend under two major headings: Preliminary investigation (pre-task questionnaire) and Evaluation (post-task questionnaire, pre-test and post-tests)

3.1 Preliminary Investigation

During the process of teaching English for grade 11 English-major students at BHSHS, it is realized that the students’ vocabulary knowledge is poor but most of the students do not have effective ways to learn vocabulary In order to understand more about this problem, the researcher carried out a preliminary investigation via a pre-task questionnaire

This questionnaire focused on investigating the following issues: (1) students’ awareness of the role of vocabulary in their English learning, (2) students’ actual ways of learning and consolidating new words, (3) students’ difficulties in learning new words and

(4) students’ awareness of consolidating and developing vocabulary through supplementary reading texts and their preference in joining the supplementary reading programme designed by the researcher

3.1.1 Students’ awareness of the role of vocabulary in their English learning

1

Table 1: Students’ awareness of the role of vocabulary in their English learning

As can be seen from the table 1, all of the students (100%) appreciate the role of vocabulary in their English learning Most of the students (93.75%) state that vocabulary

is very important in their English learning and 6.25% of the students think vocabulary is important when they learn English

3.1.2 Students’ actual ways of learning and consolidating new words (Questions 2, 3,

4, 5)

46.88%

6.25% 3.12%

A Under one hour

B From one hour to one hour and a half

C From one hour and

a half to two hours

D Over two hours

Figure 1: The number of hours spent on learning new words every day

Figure 1 shows the number of hours that the students spend learning new words every day 43.75% of the students say that they spend under one hour learning new words and more than half of the students state that they spend from one hour to one hour and a half studying new words Two students accounting for 6.25% report they learn new words from one hour and a half to two hours and one student (3.12%) reveals that she/he spends over two hours studying new words every day The results reveal that all students pay attention to learning new words and they actually spare a certain time to learn new words

at home every day

3

B From the exercises given by the teachers 100%

Table 2: The sources from which the students learn new words

Question 3 explores the sources from which the students learn new words All students ( 100%) reveal that they learn new words from the textbook and all of them claim that they learn new words from the exercises given by their teachers 31.25% of the students state that they learn new words from reading newspapers and magazines and 15.63% say that they learn new words from other sources

Questions Answers Results

4

B Writing the words in English and their meanings in Vietnamese 100%

D Guessing their meanings of the words from the texts 15.63%

5

A Writing down the words in English many times 100%

B Writing the words in papers and stick them up wherever you can see later

31.35%

E Practising using the words in conversations with your classmates

0%

Table 3: Students’ actual ways of learning and consolidating new words

Question 4 investigates the current ways that the students have been using to learn new words All of the students (100%) admit that they only look up the words in the dictionary and all of them report that they write down these words in English and their meanings in Vietnamese A few students (15.63%) say that they guess the meanings of the words from the texts Two students (6.25%) admit that they read the words aloud to learn the pronunciation and stress and only two students (6.25%) claim that they acquire other forms of the words Generally, most students only learn the meanings of new words when they study them

Question 5 is aimed to explore how the students consolidate the words they have learnt From the results shown in the table, it can be realized that all of the students (100%) revise new words by writing them down in English many times, 31.35% choose the way to consolidate new words by writing the words in papers and sticking them up wherever they can see them later Occupying smaller percentage (6.25%) is the respondents who make sentences including the new words to remember them for a long time

The results of the two above questions help the researcher know that most of the students haven’t got effective ways to consolidate and learn new words That is the reason why they complain that they have a lot of difficulties when they learn vocabulary

3.1.3 Students’ difficulties in learning new words

6

A Memorizing the spelling and meaning of the words 62.5%

D Remembering the words for a long time 31.25%

Table 4: Students’ difficulties in learning new words

Question 6 deals with the difficulties the students have in learning vocabulary The fact shows that the majority of the students (78.13%) find it hard to use new words in real contexts, many students (62.5%) claim that they have difficulties memorizing the spelling and meaning of new words Moreover, half of the respondents think that learning other forms of new words is difficult, more than half of the students (46.88%) consider pronouncing new words as their trouble and 31.25% of the students find it difficult to remember new words for a long time From the results of this question, the researcher knows the difficulties the students have in learning vocabulary and find suitable ways to help them overcome these difficulties

3.1.4 Students’ awareness of consolidating and developing vocabulary through supplementary reading texts and their preference in joining the supplementary reading programme (Questions 7, 8)

7

A It is a very effective way to consolidate and develop vocabulary 25%

B It is an effective way to consolidate and develop vocabulary 68.75%

C It is not an effective way to consolidate and develop vocabulary 0%

Table 5: Students’ awareness of consolidating and developing vocabulary through supplementary reading texts

As can be seen from the table 5, 25% of the respodents agree that it is very effective to consolidate and develop vocabulary through supplementary reading texts, and 68.75% think that it is effective However, there are only two students accounting for 6.25% having no idea about this question The results show that most of the respondents are aware of the benefits of consolidating and acquiring vocabulary through supplementary reading materials

100%

0%

Yes, I do

No, I don't

Figure 2: Students’ preference in joining the supplementary programme

As can be seen from figure 2, when being asked whether the students want to join a special supplementary reading programme plus enhancement exercises to consolidate and develop vocabulary designed by the researcher, all of the students are eager to join

To sum up, the preliminary investigation reveals the following findings In the first place, most of the students are aware of the importance of learning vocabulary in their English learning and they actually spend time consolidating and learning new words at home However, most of the students do not have effective ways to consolidate and learn new words and they claim that they have a number of difficulties in learning new words Moreover, most of the students are aware of the benefits of consolidating and developing vocabulary through supplementary reading texts and all of them are eager to join the supplementary reading programme designed by the researcher Therefore, the preliminary investigation also suggests that the researcher should help the students build effective ways

to revise and learn new words The process of the researcher’s intervention was already described very clearly in chapter 2: Research Methodology

3.2 Evaluation

To evaluate the effectiveness of the supplementary reading programme and find out the answers to the research questions, the post-task questionnaire, the results of the pre-test and post-tests were taken into consideration

3.2.1 Results and discussion from the post-task questionnaire:

The post-task questionnaire was designed to collect the following information: (1) students’ feelings and attitudes towards consolidating and developing vocabulary through the supplementary reading texts plus vocabulary enhancement exercises, (2) students’ assessment of the ten supplementary reading texts and the design of the vocabulary enhancement exercises, (3) students’ assessment of the most effective types of the vocabulary enhancement exercises and (4) students’ evaluation of the effectiveness of consolidating and developing vocabulary through the supplementary reading texts plus vocabulary enhancement exercises

3.2.1.1 Students’ feelings and attitudes towards consolidating and developing vocabulary through the supplementary reading texts plus vocabulary enhancement exercises (Questions 1, 2)

D Not motivated at all

Figure 3: Students’ feelings while taking part in the supplementary reading programme

It can be seen from figure 3 that most of the students show great motivation during the supplementary reading programme Three-quarters of the respondents (75%) state that they feel quite motivated, 18.75 % report that they are very motivated and only two students (6.25%) are not motivated in taking part in this programme

In short, the results of questions 1, 2 show that most of the students have positive reactions towards studying vocabulary through the supplementary reading texts The findings can help the researcher not only confirm the effectiveness of studying vocabulary through reading texts proposed by many famous linguists but also be more confident when applying this way of studying vocabulary to other students

3.2.1.2 Students’ assessment of the selected supplementary reading texts and the design of the vocabulary enhancement exercises (Questions 3, 4)

4

the exercises is good or not

3.2.1.3 Students’ assessment of the most effective types of the vocabulary enhancement exercises (Question 5)

5

A Matching the words with their definitions 6.25%

B Completing the sentences wih the words provided 3.12%

C Supplying the correct forms of the words in the brackets and completing the word-formation charts

28.13%

D Making sentences with the words provided 43.75%

E Summarizing the key information in the reading text 6.25%

F Writing an essay about the topic relating to the information provided in the text

12.5%

Table 7: Students’ assessment of the most effective types of the vocabulary enhancement exercises

It can be seen from the table 6 that nearly half of the respondents (43.75%) agree that making sentences with the provided words is the most effective exercise to consolidate and develop vocabulary They also give a number of explanations for their choices Some students confide that this exercise helps them consolidate almost all aspects of the words and improve their writing skills Others confirm that this exercise helps them remember the words better and know how to use the words in real contexts 28.13% of the students think that supplying the correct forms of the words and completing the word-formation charts is

an effective way to consolidate and develop vocabulary and they also argue for their choices Some admit that this exercise helps them know how to use the words in real contexts and learn many other forms of a word Moreover, they can acquire the pronunciation and stress of the words 12.5% of the respondents declare that writing an essay about the topic relating to the information provided in the text is the most useful way

to consolidate and develop vocabulary 6.25% choose the first exercise They think that this exercise can help them learn to guess the meaning of the words basing on the context

of the reading passage and they can understand clearly the meaning of the words without having to look them up in the dictionary 6.25% think that summarizing the key information is a good way to consolidate many words they have learnt Only one student (3.12%) chooses the exercise called completing the sentences using the words provided because he/ she thinks that it can help remember the meaning of the new words better

3.2.1.4 Students’ evaluation of the effectiveness of consolidating and developing vocabulary through the supplementary reading texts plus vocabulary enhancement exercises (Questions 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)

Students’ assessment of the benefits gained from reading the supplementary reading texts

6

A It helps me have a chance to consolidate the words I have learnt in the reading lessons and learn more new words

100%

C It provides more ideas for my speaking and writing skills 78.13%

Table 8: Students’ assessment of the benefits gained from reading the supplementary reading texts