(LUẬN văn THẠC sĩ) an investigation into the use of translation method in vocabulary teaching and learning at tran nhan tong high school, hanoi

Their results indicated that the translation method through using the first language was more effective than the non-translation method in enhancing ESL learners‟ vocabulary learning abi

TRẦN THỊ VÂN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF TRANSLATION METHOD IN VOCABULARY TEACHING AND LEARNING AT

TRAN NHAN TONG HIGH SCHOOL, HANOI

(Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng phương pháp dịch trong hoạt động dạy và

học từ vựng của giáo viên và học sinh trường THPT

Trần Nhân Tông, Hà Nội)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology

Code: 60.14.10

HANOI, 2013

TRẦN THỊ VÂN

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE USE OF TRANSLATION METHOD IN VOCABULARY TEACHING AND LEARNING AT

TRAN NHAN TONG HIGH SCHOOL, HANOI

(Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng phương pháp dịch trong hoạt động dạy và

học từ vựng của giáo viên và học sinh trường THPT

Trần Nhân Tông, Hà Nội)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology

Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Phạm Thị Thanh Thủy, M.A

HANOI, 2013

most

Table 3 Aspects of vocabulary teachers pay the most attention to

Table 4 Reasons for using translation exercises

Table 5 Teachers‟ frequency of using Vietnamese to explain words‟

meaning Table 6 Frequency of translating sentences which are not in context

dictionary to look up new words

Figure 2 Teachers‟ opinions about the effectiveness of Translation

exercises to vocabulary teaching

Figure 3 Students‟ frequency of using bilingual dictionary to look up new

1.1.2 The roles of vocabulary in language teaching and learning 3

1.2 Translation Method

1.2.2 The influences of the first language on the second language 81.2.3 The use of translation to facilitate vocabulary teaching 11 1.2.4 Empirical studies of Translation Method in vocabulary teaching and 12

PART A: INTRODUCTION

This part consists of the introduction of the research, the aims that inspired the author

to do this study, the research questions, and the scope of the study

1 Rationale and statement of the Study

Learning vocabulary is an essential component in learning a second language Wilkins (1997:111) stated, “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” This statement shows us the importance of vocabulary and how hard it is to be understood without vocabulary It is a common fact that when students cannot express any statements, they would look up the dictionary to check new words

A recent study by Ramachandran and Rahim (2004) investigated the effectiveness of using the translation method in recalling the meaning and retention of the words with elementary level ESL Their results indicated that the translation method through using the first language was more effective than the non-translation method in enhancing ESL learners‟ vocabulary learning ability, and it could improve elementary ESL learner‟s ability to recall the meaning of the word learnt Auer Bach (1993) claims that the use of the learner‟s L1 in the L2 classroom will have a positive effect on learners‟ second language learning, especially in the area of vocabulary However, due to the continuously increasing demand for communication purposes, nowadays many teachers feel interested in using Communicative Approach to teach vocabulary, in which the implicit approach is used to teach students vocabulary by emphasizing on guessing the meaning of the word by looking at the context where the words are located or using visual aids to teach new words Then the teachers refuse to apply Translation Method, which mainly uses explicit instructions to directly teach students vocabulary Personally, the researcher is interested in the findings of many researchers including Nation (2001) and Kroll and Curley (1988) that new second language words are stored more effectively in the brain when they are linked to their first language equivalents So the author of this research make an investigation into a concrete case (at Tran Nhan Tong High School) to find out the

answer for the question about the real situation of using Translation Method in vocabulary teaching and learning at high school at the present

2 Aims of the study

As it was stated before, there are a number of reasons for teachers to reject using Translation Method in their teaching despite the fact that many researchers did studies and found out that this method had positive effect on students‟ vocabulary acquisition Therefore, the author did this research to investigate the real situation of applying Translation Method in vocabulary teaching and learning of teachers and students at Tran Nhan Tong High School The researcher would like to know whether they are applying this Method to their teaching and learning or not, and if Translation Method is still used, how the teachers and students think about its effectiveness towards their vocabulary teaching and learning

4 The scope of the study

In this study, the researcher would like to investigate the real situation of applying Translation Method in vocabulary teaching and learning field, not second language learning in general; therefore, the observation mainly happened in reading, language focus and writing periods

5 The summary

In this first part, the author introduced the thesis with the aims that inspired her to conduct the study as well as the research questions The author also presented the scope of the study that the thesis‟s focus was the application of Translation Method

in vocabulary teaching and learning so she did not pay attention equally to all lessons

of the participants

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

Part B consists of three chapters: literature review; methodology and data analysis and discussions

Chapter 1: Literature review

This chapter looks at the literature review of Translation Method and vocabulary teaching The summaries of previous researches on closely –related topics are also included

1.1 Vocabulary

1.1.1 Definitions of vocabulary

According to Penny Ur (1996:60), the vocabulary was roughly defined as “the words

we teach in the foreign language.” It was also accepted that “a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: for example, post office and mother-in-law, which are made up of two or three words but express a single idea” Added to that, Michael Lewis (1993:89) said that vocabulary “may be individual words or full sentences - institutionalized utterances - that convey fixed social or pragmatic meaning within a given community" According to Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary Third Edition (2008), vocabulary is defined as “all the words which exist

in a particular language or subject” (p.1624) This definition covers vocabulary‟s meaning on the whole However, it is not the knowledge of words and word meanings, vocabulary is more complex than this definition suggests The definition does not totally show a deep understanding about vocabulary

In conclusion, there are many different definitions about vocabulary, but the idea that vocabulary is the total number of words existing in a language, including single words as well as multi-word items of which meaning cannot be deduced from the analysis of the component words but only understood in the sentences; or in contexts,

is more favorable

1.1.2 The roles of vocabulary in language teaching and learning

It is widely accepted that vocabulary is the most important language element among pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar Wilkins (1972:111) emphasizes the special role of vocabulary in teaching and learning a language Shafaei and Nejati (2009) also strongly supported this idea that “vocabulary is one of the most important objectives in teaching of foreign languages” (p 32)

Vocabulary is important in all four language skills In terms of speaking, it is impossible to communicate without vocabulary In addition, sometimes, students have difficulties in finding the proper words to express themselves In terms of listening, the vocabulary errors caused confusion of the texts and difficulty in listening comprehension Most importantly, vocabulary plays a role in reading It is indicated that the lack of vocabulary is the most significant obstacle for readers, which prevents them from thoroughly comprehending the text Therefore, vocabulary is a language component that plays an important role in deciding a learner‟s language proficiency If a learner has a wide range of vocabulary, it is easy to understand others; on the contrary, if his vocabulary is limited he will surely have difficulty in communication

1.1.3 What should be taught in vocabulary

Richards (1976) claims that knowing a lexical item includes knowledge of word frequency, collocation, register, case relations, underlying forms, word association and semantic structure Nation and Newton (1997) look into the principled selection

of vocabulary through the following dimensions: frequency; range; the ability to combine, define or replace other words; association; and availability However, Penny Ur‟(1996) states that when teaching a new English words, the teacher should provide the learners with its pronunciation and spelling, word form, grammar, collocation, aspects of meaning, word-formation

Each English word has its spelling and pronunciation Learners have to know all the spelling, pronunciation and irregularities of the word they are learning

The grammar of a new word should also be taught to the learners They need to know the grammatical function, the unpredictable change of form in certain grammatical contexts, the regularity and irregularity, the singular and plural forms of the new word so that they can use it correctly For example, teaching the verb “pay”, we might give its irregularity in past form “paid”; when a noun such as “a foot” is taught, it should be given its plural form as “feet”

Collocation is the way in which words are used together regularly in a specific language It refers to the restriction on how words can be used together in right contexts Thus, this is another piece of information about a new item, which may be worth teaching When introducing words like “to make” and “to do”, for example, the teacher may note that both words mean, “to perform” but can be distinguished by the words they collocate with We often say, “to do the shopping” but never say, “to make the shopping”

 Aspects of meaning Aspect of meaning consists of denotation, connotation, appropriateness and meaning relationship

The denotation meaning refers to or point out things, concepts This is often the sort

of definition given in dictionaries such as "cat" denotes a small animal with soft fur, often kept as a pet or for catching mice

Connotation of a word is less obvious component of its meaning This is association,

or positive and negative feelings the word evokes which may not be indicated in a dictionary definition Connotation includes stylistic, affective, evaluation, intensifying value, pragmatic communicative values, the word acquires by virtue of where, when, how and by whom, for what purpose and in what context it is or it may

be used

Appropriateness is more subtle aspect of meaning that indicates whether a particular item is appropriate one to use in a certain context or not Thus, it is useful for a learner to know whether a certain word is very common, or relatively rare or taboo in

a polite conversation, or tends to be used in writing but not in speech, or is more suitable for a formal than informal discourse or belongs to a certain dialect For example, the word “daddy” is widely understood to be “father”, but it is only used in informal way to show the close relationship between children and father This word may never be used in formal document

Word can change their shape and their grammatical value Vocabulary items whether one-word or multi-word can often be broken down into their components "bits" Students need to know facts about word formation and how to use words to fit different grammatical contexts

In summary, three main components that students need to know when learning a new word are the form, meaning and usage

1.1.4 Explicit and incidental vocabulary learning

Explicit vocabulary learning focuses on teaching vocabulary directly to learners in order to enhance the chance of new vocabulary acquisition Even though that explicit teaching strategy is time consuming, it is worth the time to teach second learners the most frequent words in a language and technical vocabulary that learners will need in order to succeed in their education field

On the other hand, incidental vocabulary learning can occur when learners focused

on comprehending meaning rather than focusing on learning new vocabulary (Gass and Selinker, 2001) Incidental learning can occur from reading or from having conversations with others who speak the language Words that not explicitly taught can be learned incidentally from exposure It is necessary to increase the amount of exposure in order to enhance the incidental vocabulary learning because the lack of exposure is one of the problems facing the incidental approach (Schmitt, 2000) A learner can start learning vocabulary incidentally from conversation from the beginning, but when it comes to reading, a certain amount of explicit instruction is necessary

Written language usually uses more low frequency vocabulary than spoken language; thus, teaching these infrequent words explicitly for second language learners is necessary especially for learners at elementary levels Thus, explicit teaching is necessary for low proficiency learners until they reach a vocabulary size threshold that allows them to learn words incidentally from reading (Schmitt, 2000) Sokmen (1997) states that “the pendulum has swung from direct teaching of vocabulary the grammar translation method) to incidental (the communicative approach) and now, (laudably, back to the middle: implicit and explicit learning” (as cited in Schmitt,

2000, p 120) These studies suggest that both explicit and incidental learning are necessary, and they should complement each other

In conclusion, both incidental and explicit learning are necessary and they should be used together to bring the highest effectiveness

1.2 Translation Method in second vocabulary language teaching

1.2.1 Translation Method in language teaching

Grammar Translation Method was the predominant teaching methodology from the beginning of the nineteenth century It was developed based on a procedure for teaching Latin and evolved out of the need to standardize foreign language teaching for children (Howatt, 1984, as cited in Schmitt, 2000) Students were given extensive grammatical explanation in their first language, lists of bilingual vocabulary, and some practice exercises to translate from the first language into the second language

or vice versa In this method, the content focused more on reading and writing skills Vocabulary was only used as a way of illustrating grammar rules (Zimmerman, 1997,

as cited in Schmitt, 2000) Students were expected to learn new vocabulary themselves by using bilingual word lists; thus, the bilingual dictionaries became an important reference tool Steinberg and Sciarini (2006) stated that the Grammar- Translation Method “has enjoyed and continues to enjoy acceptance in many countries around the world,” especially in countries where language teachers are not fluent and the classes are very large (p 114)

Despite its advantages, there are many problems associated with the Grammar- Translation Method One of the main problems with Grammar- Translation Method was that it focused on language analysis instead of language use It also focused on reading and writing skills which did not help to develop the ability to communicate orally in the target language (Schmitt, 2000) Therefore, this method aims at providing students with a detailed literary vocabulary which is learned through long lists of translated items and a bilingual dictionary and practiced through sentence translation with little opportunity to try out pronunciation (Rivers, 1981:28-30) Murcia and Prator (1979:3) listed major characteristics of Translation Method:

 Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of target language

 Much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words

 Long elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar are given

 Grammar provides the rules for putting the words together and instruction often focuses on the form and inflections of words

 Reading of difficult classical texts is begun early

 Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in grammatical analysis

 Often the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the target language into the mother tongue

 Little or no attention is given to pronunciation

1.2.2 The influences of first language on the second language

Many researchers have found out that the learners‟ first language has great influence on the learning and the use of second languages Second language learners use their L1 in learning the target language in many ways Many Vietnamese students have ever said “What is the Vietnamese word for… ”, if they do not get the answer,

immediately they will look up the bilingual dictionaries to find unknown vocabulary Even though when this does not happen, an immediate association with a mother – tongue word is likely to be set as soon as possible There are complaints about the influence of the first language on second language vocabulary learning because it takes time for students and teachers to think in the first language before they have the right word in second language However it even takes more time to explain a word without translating because the teacher has to spend several minutes to find other simple words or materials to make students understand According to Schmitt (Schmitt, 1997) many second language learners believe that translating helps them in learning second language skills such as reading, writing, vocabulary…

Atkinson (1987) not only acknowledges the positive role of the mother tongue in the classroom, but also identifies the following uses of it: eliciting language, checking comprehension, giving instructions, enhancing co-operation among learners, promoting discussions of classroom methodology, improving presentation and reinforcement of language, checking for sense testing, and development of useful learning strategies The following are several reasons why the first languages should

be used as a tool in the language classroom:

 It is more natural to use the first language with others who have the same first language

 It is easier and more communicatively effective to use the first language

 Using the second language can be a source of embarrassment particularly for shy learners and those who feel they are not very proficient in the second language

 The first language can help to move the task along by establishing a joint understanding of the text and to manage the task

 The first language allows learners to focus attention on vocabulary and grammatical items or providing information and explanation about grammatical rules and conventions

 The first language may facilitate classroom activities, particularly for low proficiency students and complex tasks

 The first language can provide a foundation for learners on which to build the second language structures, especially during collective activities in the classroom, and the first language provides a sense of security and validates the learners‟ live experiences, allowing them to express themselves

 The first language can make learners feel more confident of using the second language, especially when their level is low

 Using the first language to explain, teachers can save a lot of time

On the contrary, using the first language causes some interference errors in English because there is not always equivalence between the two languages For example, in Vietnamese, “nhà tôi” can have two equivalents in English depending on the context: “ nhà tôi” can be “my house” or “my wife” or “ my husband” Some languages like Swedish and English share some characteristics which led learners to think that a word or structure what works in Swedish will work in English Sokmen (1997) states that vocabulary teaching was based on a top – down, naturalistic, and communicative approach which emphasized implicit and incidental learning of vocabulary Inferring from the context and guessing are considered to be implicit teaching The implicit approach is commonly used in foreign language teaching classrooms Teachers often encourage students to guess the meaning of the word by looking at the context where the words are located They rarely use the first language

in the classroom because they are concerned that students may just rely on their first language Using the first language may lead students to the conclusion that learning a foreign language is just by translating it or foreign language is the first language in another form

In short, the first language may support learners to learn the second language, once they understand their first language they can apply it into their second language learning Sometimes it may not help, and it even causes difficulties for learners because of the two language differences

1.2.3 The Use of Translation to facilitate vocabulary teaching

As it was discussed in the previous section, learners‟ first language has a great impact

in the learning of the second language Thus, we come to the question: should translation be used in teaching and testing second language vocabulary? There may

be a belief that first language translation should not be used in the teaching of vocabulary However, translation is one of number of ways of conveying meaning and it is not better or worse than other ways, such as the use of pictures, real objects, definitions, the second language synonyms and so on Actually, the use of learners‟ first language to test or convey vocabulary is quite sufficient (Nation, 2001)

One of the greatest advantages of using learners‟ first language in vocabulary teaching is that it provides an easier way to explain the meaning of second language vocabulary The use of the learners‟ first language meaning is like using a simple synonym, while a second language definition usually involves a definition that includes a relative clause or reduced relative clause, and reading such sentences require greater grammatical skills

The use of first language translation provides a useful mean of testing vocabulary, both receptively and productively, and in recall and recognition of meaning The difficulties that caused by no exact corresponding between meanings in both languages are less than the difficulties that caused by the lack of connection between the second language definitions and the meaning they are trying to convey As a result, using learners‟ first language translation to establish the initial form - meaning

of the new second language words‟ form with the corresponding the first language words which already exist in the memory is very useful (Barcroft, 2002) Moreover, new second language words are stored more effectively in the brain when they are linked to their first language equivalents (Kroll and Curely, 1988 , as cited in Barcroft, 2002) Thus, using first language translation is a good method to teach second language words as any other methods

1.2.4 Empirical studies of Translation Method in vocabulary teaching and learning

There are numbers of researches on the effectiveness of Translation Method in second language teaching in general, and in vocabulary teaching and learning in particular Haijti (1989) examined conditions in which oral translation was used as an exercise to build vocabulary knowledge He stated that this activity led to effective results According to Shamash (1990) the learners started by writing about their lives

in their first language or a mixture of their first language and English Then they translated the text into English with the help of bilingual tutors or learners By this way, learners overcome the problems of vocabulary and language confidence The use of native language may attract those students who are at low level of English Such findings are in accordance with current theories of second language acquisition All of them emphasize that the use of the first language reduces anxiety and consequently makes effective environment appropriate for learning In another study Knight (1994) investigated the effects of using dictionary on the retention of unknown words during a reading activity In this experiment students who used computerized dictionary demonstrated more vocabulary knowledge than those without access to a dictionary Saggara and Alba (2006) also conducted a research to investigate effectiveness of translation with elementary students and came to a conclusion that using key word method and direct first language translation of the second language words would lead to better second language vocabulary learning at the early stages of acquisition Majid and Hayati (2009) conducted a research to make comparison between task – based instruction and translation method in the effectiveness of learning vocabulary and found out that higher range of vocabulary had been learnt in the translation group Learning happened in the task group but not

as much as in the translation one Doing translation the learners had time to focus on every single word Added to that, when looking up words in bilingual dictionaries, learners paid attention to the meaning and the form of the words then considered semantic relation of each word with its surrounding words According to Ellis and Beaton (1993, p.604) knowing a lexical item involves knowing various components

such as its spelling, phonological representation, word class, syntactic features and delivered meaning Current trends in language education mostly consider no role of the mother tongue in language learning but many researches including study of Majid suggest that translation method is effective in improving learners‟ ability to recall meanings of words which are unknown to them Pal Heltai (1988) did a research on conditions in which oral translation can be an exercise to build vocabulary and he came to a conclusion that translation is best used as a supplementary exercise to practice and build vocabulary at advanced level under some conditions In countries where English is a foreign language, opportunities for naturalistic acquisition are few, students have less chances to practice real English, therefore some activities like translation can be beneficial for learners to reach motivation to learn new words He also stated that translation might, indirectly, through contributing to the learning of vocabulary; help improve learners‟ communicative fluency Another study is by Ramachandran and Abdul Rahim (2004) to investigate the effectiveness of the translation method in teaching vocabulary to elementary level English as second language (ESL) learners The authors sought answers to the following questions: Do Malaysian elementary level ESL learners who learn words through translation method recall the meaning of the words learnt more effectively and is the translation method effective for lasting word meaning recall? The participants who participated

in this study consisted of 60 ESL learners from a secondary school in Penang, Malaysia Subjects who participated in this study were chosen because they met the requirements of the study, which includes similar first language (Malay) and elementary level ESL learners The subjects were divided into two different groups One group was assigned as the control group and the other as the experimental group The experimental group received the translation method as the treatment; and the control group received the non-translation method as the treatment Three instruments were used in the study: testing instruments, reading materials, and teaching instruments In order to choose the study‟s materials, the authors conducted

a preliminary test to select 20 unknown lexical items from 60 lexical items which

was taken from the „Word List for the English Language Program for the Secondary Schools‟ The 45 preliminary tests was a multiple choice question format In the test, each of the 60 lexical items was supplied with four options which were the possible definitions for a given lexical item From the set of the 60 multiple choice questions,

20 lexical items which had the highest percentage of inaccurate response were chosen

to be used in the main study In the treatment sessions, the experimental group was taught the lexical items using the translation method, while the control group was taught using a non-translation method Each of the treatment sessions for the experimental and the control group lasted for 70 minutes, once a week for four weeks English and Malay were used to teach the experimental group, and only English was used to teach the control group For the experimental group, the meaning

of the new lexical item was given in English and Malay and in English only for the control group After teaching the new lexical items, reading materials were given to the subjects The reading materials for the experimental group were simplified and the occurrence of the lexical items in context was emphasized However, the reading materials for the control group were not simplified At the end of each treatment session, the participants were given an immediate test in which they had to provide meanings for the lexical items learnt in the class Subjects in both groups were allowed to give their answer either in English or Malay One month later, the subjects were given a delayed post-test In the delayed post-test, all the 20 lexical items were tested using the same format that was used in the immediate test

The authors analyzed the data using the Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) Recall the meaning of the lexical items was measured in terms of percentage and mean of correct answers The results revealed that the subjects in the experimental group outperformed in both the immediate recall test and the delayed post-test of the meaning of lexical items The results of the study show two characteristics of the translation method that may have contributed to the outperformance in word meaning recall by the 46 participants receiving it First, given that participants‟ second language lexical knowledge is limited, instruction in

their first language may have made their learning of second language lexical items more effective Second, the subjects found learning the new lexical items using their first language less tedious than trying to understand different explanations in English The findings of the study show that elementary level ESL learners recall the meaning

of the words learnt effectively by using the translation method The study also reveals that the effects of the translation method is more lasting for word meaning than recall among elementary level ESL learners At the end, translation method seems to have positive impact on ESL elementary learners‟ recall and retention of meaning of vocabulary learning

Chapter 2: Methodology

This chapter consists of the design of the study; the participants; the three instruments, namely questionnaires, interviews; observation and finally the data collection

2.1 The design of the study

The author chose survey research to do this study because of many reasons First of all, the author could gather a great number of opinions from participants As the aim

of this study was to investigate the application of Translation Method in a high school, the researcher needed a big number of participants to get the most reliable result The author could save a lot of time by getting the answers from delivering questionnaires in class and then interviewing some participants in person It took the author one month from November to December to collect the data The research adopted a mixed methodology – both qualitative and quantitative approaches in data collection and data analysis

The study consisted of 5 chapters which covered the introduction of the research, the literature review, the methodology, the data analysis and discussion and the conclusion chapter

There are three instruments which were used in this study, namely questionnaire, interview and observation Therefore the author could have very reliable findings at the end The questionnaires were delivered to all participants with both close questions and open questions so that they can specify their opinions The researcher did the observation on her own with the checklist at class The interviews consisted

of semi structured interviews and free interviews The researcher interviewed two

teachers and five students

2.2 Participants

The research participants were all from Tran Nhan Tong High School which is a good high school in the center of Hanoi About 200 male and female students and 6 female teachers of Tran Nhan Tong High School participated in the research There were two types of classes that the author took students from: 3 gifted English classes

at grade 10th, 11th, 12th where students were considered quite good at English and other classes with students at elementary level Three gifted classes were the best English classes in the school Three other classes were randomly selected under one condition that these 6 classes have different English teachers The students from gifted class had 4 periods of English meanwhile students from other classes had 3 periods per week The textbooks being used were the official English textbooks for

10th, 11th, 12th grade

In terms of 6 volunteer teachers participating in the study, three of them were quite young with no more than 5 year teaching experience; two of them had less than 10 year experience There was only 1 teacher who had been teaching for 14 years in this school They were English teachers of those 6 classes I chose They were helpful to

assist the author to deliver students the questionnaire and get their answers

2.3 The instruments 2.3.1 Survey questionnaires

There are 8 different questions in each questionnaire that the author delivered to six teachers and about 200 students in their break time The questionnaire for students was in Vietnamese so they could clearly understand each question and respond to them without any language barrier All the questions designed were to seek answers for 2 big research questions:

There are two research questions:

1 How is Translation Method applied in vocabulary teaching and learning at Tran Nhan Tong High School?

2 How effective do teachers and students at Tran Nhan Tong High School find the Translation Method to their vocabulary teaching and learning?

7 questions are closed questions, and the participants responded by circling their choices So they could save much time Some of the questions sought answers for frequency of actions which were typical characteristics of Translation Method such

as using Vietnamese to explain the meaning and usage of the new words or using

translation exercises to help students drill new words or using dictionary to look up new words, etc Other questions looked for participants‟ opinions about the effectiveness of Translation exercises to their new vocabulary learning and teaching and the reasons for their choices The researcher also spent 2 first questions to investigate the personal information of students and teachers such as their language proficiency, their teaching experience….so that the author could see differences in their viewpoints about the use of Translation Method if they had any

The last question was an open ended question which allowed participants to specify their ideas about the effectiveness of using Translation Method This question was also the key question that may facilitate the researcher to directly interview some teachers and students for more ideas (See appendix 1,2)

2.3.2 Class observation

Besides using questionnaires and interviews to get deeper ideas from teachers and students the researcher came to some classes and observed by herself The author always asked the teachers in advanced then attended the classes randomly, so the lessons could go on as planned The author used an observation checklist with typical characteristics of Translation Method such as using Vietnamese to explain the meaning and the usage of the new words; asking students to use bilingual dictionary and giving translation tasks (See appendix 5).Besides the checklists, she did not forget to take note other things which happened in class The researcher believed that these notes could lead her to other issues The author observed the classes in all listening, speaking, reading, writing and language focus lessons However, as it was stated in the scope of the study, she put more time to reading; writing and language focus rather than listening and speaking lessons

2.3.3 Interviews

The author interviewed 2 teachers and 5 students about the issues relating to Translation Method The interviews were conducted after the author collected the answers for the research questionnaires The author interviewed each participant for about 2 minutes in the break time There were 2 questions in each interview (See

appendix 3,4) For students, the author focused on asking for the effectiveness of Translation Method to their vocabulary learning; their thinking about using Vietnamese and using bilingual dictionary to learn new words The first question for the teachers is similar to the first question of students: about the effectiveness of Translation Method The second sought answers for difficulties that teachers have to deal with when applying Translation Method to teach vocabulary Both teachers and students‟ interviews were conducted in Vietnamese so that they can express themselves more comfortably The aims of the interviews were to generate in depth information from teachers and students‟ ideas about the use of Translation Method and its effectiveness in vocabulary teaching and learning

2.4 Data collection

With permission from teachers, the author delivered questionnaires to them and their students at the last 15 minutes of their periods While respondents answered the questions, she was there to clarify any questions that they did not understand clearly There were 6 teacher questionnaires and 200 student questionnaires that the researcher delivered and collected after they finished Then the author analyzed questionnaires, conducted interviews with 2 teachers and 5 students to get deeper

information The author used checklists and written notes when observing 8 classes,

in detail: 2 periods of reading, writing, language focus and 1 period of speaking and

listening

2.5 Chapter summary

This chapter includes the design, description of participants, research instruments and the data collection of the study This study was a survey research which used the mixture of methodology: qualitative and quantitative approaches 200 students and 6 teachers of Tran Nhan Tong high school were the participants They not only answered the questionnaires but were interviewed to express their ideas about the use

of Translation Method in vocabulary teaching and learning The author also observed their classes with checklist and written notes to get more reliable data for the study

Chapter 3: Data analysis and discussions

This chapter looks at the data analysis, the discussion and the major findings of the

study

3.1 Data analysis and discussion of survey questionnaires

Analysis of teacher questionnaires’ results:

As it was stated before, the two first questions were used to ask for teachers‟ background information Only 1 out of 6 teachers had more than 10 years teaching in this school, the rest of them are quite young with from 3 to less than 10 year experience

Question 3: How often do you use Vietnamese to explain the meaning of the new words?

Table 1: Teachers’ responses to the use of Vietnamese to explain new words

This table indicates that 5 out of 6 teachers often use Vietnamese to explain the meaning of new words The number 83% is much greater than that of teachers who sometimes or seldom or never use Vietnamese for new word explanation There is not a teacher who always uses Vietnamese to explain new words‟ meaning; it means that they sometimes apply other techniques to help students understand the meaning besides using Vietnamese However the number of teachers who often uses Vietnamese in these cases still outnumbers According to the table, 100% of the teachers refuse the choices “seldom” and “never” Therefore, it can be concluded that

0%

Yes No

using Vietnamese to explain new words‟ meaning is still preferred by almost teachers

Question 4: Do you ask your students to use bilingual dictionaries to look up new words?

This question gives respondents two choices, either Yes or No, and it is surprising that 100% of the teachers ask their students to use bilingual dictionaries to look up new words‟ meaning Therefore, it is clear that bilingual dictionaries play an extremely important role in vocabulary teaching by teachers in Tran Nhan Tong High School Bilingual dictionaries are considered precious sources which can provide students word meaning quickly and conveniently

Below is the figure which illustrates the percentage of teachers who ask their students

to use bilingual dictionaries to look up new words

Figure 1: Percentage of teachers asking students to use bilingual dictionary to look

up new words

Question 5: In which period do you use translation exercises the most?

This question was to investigate the skill that teachers use translation technique the most Therefore there were five choices namely language focus, reading, speaking, listening, writing

Below is the table which describes teachers‟ answers for the question

Periods Number of choices Percentage

Table 2: Proportion of periods that Teachers use translation exercises the most

Data from the table showed that most teachers (83,3%) use translation exercises in reading period, meanwhile only 1 teacher chose “language focus” It can be explained that in reading periods, students are given a lot of readings and texts in which they have to deal with a number of new words, and teachers use translation exercises to solve the problem of teaching the new words after each reading It is undeniable that reading provides the main input of language to learners of all level There was 1 teacher who needed to use translation exercises to help students practice words and grammar in language focus Surprisingly, there was no choice for listening, speaking and writing However, only the number of choice for reading makes significant difference Therefore, it can be concluded that teachers prefer to use translation exercises in reading periods to any other periods

Question 6: Which aspects of vocabulary do you often pay the most attention to when you introduce new words to your students?

This question was asked to investigate the aspects of vocabulary that teachers often pay the most attention to when they introduce to their students Different methods have different focus on the aspects of vocabulary to teach As I stated before one of typical characteristics of Translation Method is that it has little focus on pronunciation What is more, this method spends much time teaching students semantic meaning of and instruction about the usage of new words

Teachers have 4 choices to select, and the table below is the result:

Aspects of vocabulary

Number of choices Percentage

Table 3: Aspects of vocabulary teachers pay the most attention to

According to the collected data from the table, a considerable number of teachers (66,6%) paid the most attention to teach the meaning of the words to their students,

it means that they suppose the meaning of the word is the most important aspect and the very first thing students need to know when they learn new words 16,7% of the teachers give the first priority to the grammar and usage of the words On the other hands, no teacher paid the most attention to word – form In short, from teachers‟ viewpoints about the aspect of word they pay the most attention to, the author can conclude that they are using Translation Method in their vocabulary teaching

Question 7: How do you think translation exercises help you teach new words to your students?

The two last questions in the questionnaire were used to investigate the teachers‟ ideas about the effectiveness of Translation Method to their vocabulary teaching The figure below is the description of the result for question 7