Luận văn the impact of repetition and recycling on grade 11 students' vocabulary retention at long hai phuoc tinh high school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNLVERSLTY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES pisiolei sda dedeiier iokeiok bk PHUNG THI LAM TITE IMPACT OF REPETITION AND RECYCLING ON GRAD

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNLVERSLTY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

pisiolei sda dedeiier iokeiok bk

PHUNG THI LAM

TITE IMPACT OF REPETITION AND RECYCLING ON GRADE 11 STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY RETENTION

IN LONG IIAT— PITUO€ TINT ITIGI SCHOOL

(TAC PONG CUA VIEC LUYEN TAP CỨNG CÔ DOI VOI SU GHI NHG TU VUNG CUA HOC SINH LỚP 11

O TRUONG THPT LONG HAI — PHUGC TINH )

MINOR M.A THESIS

Kield: English Teaching Mcthodology

Code: 60 14 10

IIA NOI, 2011

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

PITUNG THT LAM

THE IMPACT OF REPETITION AND RECYCLING ON GRADE 11 STUDENTS’? VOCABULARY RETENTION

IN LONG HAI - PHUOC TINH HIGH SCHOOL

(LAC DONG CUA VIEC LUYEN TAP CUNG CO DOI VOI SU GH NITG TỪ FỰNG CA HỌC SINH LỚP 11

O TRUONG THPT LONG HÃI - PHƯỚC TĨNH )

MINOR M.A TIIESIS

Field: English Teaching Mcthodology

Code: 60 1410

Supervisor: BO BA QUY, M.A

HA NOL, 2011

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract

List oỂabbreVialiOHS nh nhn nh HH Hành cẰ)

4 Rasearch hypotheses and quesiions ca 3

1.2 The importance of vocabulary in second language leaning - - 6

1.3 Whatis involved in knowing a Word 7

2 Factors aftcting the retcntion oŸvocabulary =-

2.1.3 The Semantic Mapping on Vocabulary Learning 10

2.3 Quality of Processing "

3 Otlr fuctors - eee

3.1 Learning styles

3.2 Teaching method,

4 Repetition and Recycling in Language learning t2 4.1 The spacing ofrepatition 13 4.2 Vesting and the Retrieval Practice Effect 14

5 A review of similar studies - - 4 CHAPTER 2—- METHODOLOGY ni eeeeeeeeeoeoEÐ 1-The setting of study - - 16

LI Context of Study - - - lổ 1.2 Why quasi expetinenalresearch 17

2 Partcipants oŸ the siudy ài series 18 2.1 Participants - - - eee BB 2.2 SaMpliNg

` 19 3.1 The course book - eee AY 3.2 The cotse content scciesreisirere 19 3.3 What are relevant activities? 19

4 Data collection instruments = u

4.1.1 The pulpose oŸ thẻ fesE seo „21 4.1.7.What to test - -.- 28

413 Test 22 4.2, Questionnaires 6 seeenenctertnensin eee 222 4.2.1 Questionnaires for students - - - eee BD 4.2.1.1.The pre-treatmtsnt questiomalrc 223 4.2.1.3-The post-treatrnent questionntaiFe nano 28 4.2.2 Questionnaires for teachers 23

5 Procadure of dala collaction - -

bh ` 24

5.2 Treatment - - - - 24

vi

3.1 Results of the T Test ccooceieeieree

3.2 The result of pre-test scores of the f0 g70S

3.3 The result af post-test scores of the lwo groups 28 3.4 Summary of the test scores of the two groups in the pretest and posttest 132

3.5.1 The pro-treatment questionnaire for students - - 33 3.5.2 The Post-treatment Questionnaire for students „„34

3.5.2 Questionnaire for teachers - - 34 PART C CONCLUSIƠON - - - - 38

1 Findings and conelusion co srvetnnretrrtrrrrrorree „38

2 Pedagogical Implications nnesieenenninenmuenenenenese 40

3 Limitations of the study - - - —

4, Suggestions for further stuđios wl

REFERENCES

APPENDIX

PART A— INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Given its importance to Jeaming, vocabulary has been a prominent concem of many theorists and researchers in the field

In leaming English, however, the grealest challenge is likely rolaining the words Researchers and teachers now have been drawn to the concem of how to make students enhance vocatlary retention for commmnicative value Sindies have shown that practising things makes us better in learning a language and develops automaticity In other words, Janguage learning proceeds gradually through repeated exposure and practice ‘The course

by Fducational Pross), howaver, doos not deal with it sufficiently

Many studcmis now suffer from considerable difficulties im retaining previously encountered English words They struggle to maintain retention, But not many of them are capable of it This matter of fact leads to their poor production both in speaking and writing,

2 Aims of the study

‘The am of this study is to investigate the impact of repetition and recycling on vocabrlary foarning snd retention, or to pul it diffarsntly, the extent to which short tailored activities helps

to retain vocabulary for the students at Long Hai Phuoc Tinh High school and some pedagogical implications

3 Scope of the study

In the cœrznt study, the author set the limit of investigating possibly _ applied activities

‘that can be carried out at beginning or in the middle of 45-minute periods in such large-sized classes al Long Hai — Phnae Tinh High school, vung Tau The aclivitios were related to first three units (which equal to 18 lessons} of the course book English 11

4, Research hypotheses and questions

The study is to get the answers to the following questions:

1) Zo what extent do EEL teachers encourage repetition and reeyeling vocabulary among

their students?

2) What is the effectiveness of using repetitive and recycling focused activities on enhancing

1" - graders’ vacalndary retention?

3) What are the students’ attitudes towards using activities in teaching and learning

vocabulary?

5 Method of the study

‘The study is a quasi-experimental design involving the three components of experiments:

the population (the £1" grade students at Long Hai — Phuoe Tinh high school, Ba Ria Vung

Tau), the treatment (repetitive and recycling focused activities), and the measurement of the treatment (T-test)

- Questionnaires were delivered to teachers to investigate the ways they encourage repetition

and reeycling vocabulary among students

- Questionnaires were ddlivered fo the subjects hefore treatment 1 get to know their own strategies of memorizing vocabulary

- Questionnaire s were delivered to the subjects after treatment as a supporting tool to obtain their attitude towards the technique applied

- Observation was also employed during the teaching time to recognize the participation of

students in the control group and the experimental group

6 Organization of the study

This thesis is organized around three pasts:

Part A is the introduction which presents the rationale for the research topic, aims of study, scope of study, research hypotheses and questions, and method of the study

Part Bis the development which consists of tee chapters

- Chapter one reviews scholarly theorstical background to teaching and learning vocabulary in

a second language

- Chapter two deals with the methodology of this research in terms of the setting of the study,

sampling participants, instruments and procedure of data collection

- Chapter three devotes to the ascourt of the study in Lnns of dala analysis and ñnđings interpreted from the results of the T-test and questionnaires

Part C is the conclusion which discusses the major findings and limitations of the research,

then sugges! loaching implications md proposes sornc suggestions lor further research

PART B- DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATERE REVIEW

1 Teaching and Learning Vocabulary

4.1 What Is Vocabulary?

1.1.1 Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary

1.1.2 Active and passive vocabulary

1.2 The importance of vocabulary in second language learning 1.3 What is involved in knowing 4 ward

1.3.1 Form

1.3.2 Meaning

1.3.3 Grammar

1.3.4 Collocation

2 Factors affecting the retention of vocabulary

2.1 Memory and storage system

2.1.1 The Keyword Method

2.1.2 Lhe Visual Aids on Vacabulary Learning

2.1.3 The Semantic Mapping on Vocabulary Learning

2 Frequency of mecting

2.3 Quality of processing

3 Other factors

3.1 Learning styles

3 2 Teaching method

4, Repetition and Recycling in Language learning

4.1 The spacing of repetition

4.2 ‘Testing and the Retrieval Practice Effect

5 A review pf similar sluilies

CHAPTER 2— METHODOLOCY

LThe setting of study

1.1 Context of Study

Long Tai — Phuos Tih high school is a state-run school tocated in Long Tai town in Ba Ria — Vung Tau The school has a modest educational staff of 71 poople whe provids education to 1425 students The EFL group consists of'9 teachers

‘The typical setting of instruction is three 45-minute long penods of English a week,

Duc to the Limited tine in a correspondence to a wide Tange of words lo teach and students’ low English proficiency, EFL teachers at Long Hai _ Phuoo Tình high school often teach

‘vocabulary in the traditional teacher-centered method The teachers normally dominate class to explain words by words, They often employ three following steps in teaching vocabulary First, teachers have sindents read the passage After that, new words are raised and elicited through some games, werd naps, oF simple presonlations, Then students try ta gol Vicmnamesc equivalents of the words andl read then alouel once or twies To hp stulents practice the vorabulary, the tcadhers have thorn der soane Kinds of exercises such as; gap filling, word matching, definitions matching, etc., available in the course book

1.2 Why quasi— experimental research

As this study was conducted on the students in two already existing classes which were assigned by the high school where the

searcher was working, a quasi-cxperitnental method

was naturally chosen

1 Participants of the study

2.1 Participants

The population of the study were 84 ESL students coming from two classes in Long Hai-

Phuoc Tình high school in BR-VT Most of them were born in 1995 and have stucied English

as a Forcign Language for five years or more Results of the pro-test showed thal their English

vocabulary competence differed little All in all, these two groups had a lot of common features in terms of number, gender, nglish level as well as motivation to learn Moreover, these students’ eharacteristies were typical of the 117 grade non-major students at Long Hai-

Phuoc Tinh high school

3.1 Sampling

Tn the sludy the rescarchar adopted the systomatic sampling as a strategy to select subjects

from a population list in a systematic Specifically, with the required number of 56 out of the

population of 84, the simple statistic should be use: EN: Sh

f= frequency interval

N= the total number of the wider population

Sy the required mumber in the saniple

lence the frequency interval (Dis 84:°56=1.5

As aresult, the researcher omilled every third namic on the list of cases

3.Materials

3.1 The course book

The English 11 is designed basing on the basic principles of Conumunicative Language

‘Teaching However, the course book do not include stfficient communicative activities for

practice This dsmands more work on the part af the Loacher in selocting appropriate activitios

jo altract shufents

3.2 The course content

As being stated above, due to the limitation of time and application, the study only deals with three units among sixteen ones appearing in the current course book English 11, namely

unit | “Friendship”, unit 2 “Personal Experience”, and unit 3 “A Party”

3.3 What are relevant activities?

- Activities that involve brief reading, repetition, making sentences, listing words and so on axe supposed to be relevant to provide background for practicing certain chunks or for recycling vocabulary, thus aid language processing and ultimately vocabulary retention

- When designing some extra activities, the researcher took into account all the conditions of the participants and based on the Zavonomy of Vocabulary Learning Strategies which is

adopted [rơm Schmmll 1997:207

4, Data collection instruments

4.1T-Tes

The pr

st and post-t

employed in the stufy were designed to measure the

repetitive and recycling-focused activities on students’ ability to retain vocabulary

4.1.1 The purpose of the test

+ The pre-test was given to the two groups in tho same wock with Ihe primary purpase of measuring students’ vocabulary size and their level of vocabulary retentian

~ ‘The post-test was implemented to assess how sffeoive the tailored activities utilized were

4.1.2 What to test

The pm

st served as a mcans fo measure sludonts’ vocabulary sive and their Iovel of vocabulary retention The target words in the pre-test were drawn from the word list of the course book English 10 ( from unit 9 to unit 16 inclusively) whereas ones in the progress test came fium the glossary of tree units of the course book and a number of words added by the teacher on assumption of they are unfamiliar to the students

4.1.3 Test

In the study, the test comprised five different types of exercises in the form of an objective test Here in this paper, the test frame included multiple choice, gap-filling, matching and word — formation

4.2 Questionnaires

4.2.1 Questionnaires for students

4.2.1.1 The pre-treatment questionnalre

On completing the study, 20 random subjects in the bvo groups were sampled out of the 56,

A questionnaire listed 15 memory strategies was used in the survey

4.1.1.2 The post-treatment questionnaire

The post- treatment questionnaire was administered to get students’ feedback about the treatment It was a brief questionnaire with 5 questions

4.2.2 Questionnalres for teachers

The aim of the questionnaire for teachers was to find out teachers’ attitude towards enhancing vocabulary retention and approaches they use ‘The questionnaire contains 10 questions whore 3 questions raquire orily yes anal no Tesponsos

5 Procedure of data collection

The practice of study involves the systematic collection of information about the subjects, activities, and outcomes of the experiment measuring the impact of repetition and recycling on students’ vocabulary retention This is a experimentally quantitative rescarch invalving a trial

in which the subjects ân 56) are measured before and after treatment with T-test,

5.1 Schedules