Luận văn challenges in english vocabulary learning of ethnic minority grade 10 students at muong bi high school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNLVERSLTY OF LANGUAGES AND LNTERNATLONAL STUDLES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYEN THI BICH HANH CHALLENGES IN ENGLISH VOCABULARY LEARNING OF

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNLVERSLTY OF LANGUAGES AND LNTERNATLONAL STUDLES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN THI BICH HANH

CHALLENGES IN ENGLISH VOCABULARY LEARNING OF ETHNIC MINORITY GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT MUONG BL

TIIGTHII SCHOOIL, (NATING KHO KHAN TRONG VIEC HOC TU VUNG TIENG ANH

CỦA HỌC SINH DÂN TỘC THIẾU SỐ LỚP 10

TRUONG THPT MƯỜNG BI)

M.A MINOR THESIS

FKLELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE : 601410

HANOI - 2011

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOT UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND IXTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN THI BICH HANH

CHALLENGES IN ENGLISH VOCABULARY LEARNING OF

ETTINIC MINORITY GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT MUONG BI

HIGH SCHOOL (NHỮNG KHÓ KIIĂN TRONG VIỆC HỌC TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG ANII

CỦA HỌC SINH DẪN TỌC THIẾU SÓ LỚP 1U

TRUONG THPT MUONG BD

M.A MINOR THESIS

SUPERYISOR : Dr DƯƠNG THỊ NỤ

HANOT- 2011

1 Rationale of the study

2 Aims of the sludy

3, Sigmuticance of the StUGY neseominnnnenemensnsn

4, Soope of the study

Chapter 1: literature review

1.1 The importance of vocabulary in language teaching and learning

1.2 Principlss of vocabulary †eaching

1.3.1 Factors affecting vocabulary leaming

1.4 Methods in teaching vocabulary

1.4.1 Repetition and attertion series

1.4.2 Relationship with other words

1.5.2 Intluence of proticiency in the native language and the second language

on the acquisition of a third language

Chapter 2: methodology

2.1 Research selling

2.1.1, An overview of research setting

2.1.2, The materials of teaching and Jeaming

2.4.3, Data Collection Prooedure

2.5 Data Analysis Procedure secsseneseneneee

Chapter 3: FINDINGS and discussion

3.1 Results and discussions from the questiomnaires for stuđents

3.2 Results and discussions from the observation

3.4.2 Adapting the textbook

3.4.3 Selection of the vocabulary teaching

3.4.4, Practising the vocabulary

3.1.5 Improving leaming and teaching conditions

2 Limitations of the study

3 Suggestions for further study

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

L Rationale for the study

These days, there is no doubt about the fact that the English language is becoming something of a forerunner in global communication It is the first and second language in

most countries of the world Almos

70% of the Internet is in Tgtish A huge volume of the information used on the Intemet is also in English, Thus, English is playing a very significant role in bringing the world together ‘Therefore, teaching and leaming English

have hocome the necessity all ovor the world, In Victham, English is # compulsory subject from primary schools to universities, However, the quality of leaning and teaching English is different from one school to another, especially from schools in cities, towns and those from remote and mountainous arcas

In Hoa Binh mountainous province, English is a compulsory subject in the curriculum and it is considered as one of the major subjects for the high school final examination English is taught with the purpose to give students some basic knowledge of English in order to communicate and usc it as a key to science and technology, However, there still exist many difficulties facing teachers in teaching English to students, especially those from elhnic minorities, It ean be observed thal ethic trinorily studsnts? scores are very low in English Less than 5 per cent earn good marks, even in the national graduation

exams (Hoa Binh Department of Education and ‘raining, 2008; 2009) In some remote

areas, lower level students understand tess than 20 per cent of whal teachers

say in

Vicinamase (Minority Studonls Necds”, 2008) Rihnic minority students mainly use thair mother tongues Muong, Thai, Hmong, Tay and other languages - to communicate inside their families and small communities l'rom first grade onward, at school and in public

places, cllmic minority sludetits have to struggle with Vietnamese ta study and

communicate with other people This is why not many can understand lectures, even at high school, because they do not thoroughly comprehend Vietnamese - and very few teachers can explain things to them in their native languages (“Ethnic Schools Lack”, 2007), ‘Thus, studying English language in addition to Vietamese language might be very challenging for ethnic minority students

In addition, T find oul that any pupils are noi sueocssfbl Ieamors, only because they lack vocabulary In fact they are provided with almost every word necessary for their communication inside and outside the elassroom, but many of my pupils complain they

forget most of learned words only a few day later ‘This proves that problems in learning vònbulary ars undeniable, For bctler vocabulary teaching and learning, T have chosen Challenges in English vocabulary learning of ethnic minority grade 10 students at

Muang Bi high school as the the topic of the study

2, Aims of the study

‘The study aims at investigating the areas of challenges in leaming English vocabulary of ethnic minorily grads 10 student's im Muong Bi high school, Hoa Binh mountainous province Also, it is expected that some solutions to overcome challenges encountered will be suggested ‘I’ be more specific, in realizing this study, the objectives

3 Significance of the study

The study is hoped to be beneficial to both teachers and ethnic minority students in mountainous high schools First, the findings of the stdy, the challenges in leaming English vocabulary of cthnic minority grade 10 students in Muong Bi high school could be shared among teachers of English to improve the quality of teaching and leaming

in the coming years, Nexl, il might highlight the rationale for professional developmen! Programs for high schoot teachers of English in mountainous ars

findings could be used as a data base for further study

4 Scope af the study

in Violnan, Finally, the

The study only concentrates on problems in learning vocabulary from the textbook

“Tiéng Anh 10” (oy Hoang Van Van et al) of ethnic minority grade 10 students in Muong

Bi high school in Toa Binh province and some possible solutions for teaching vocabulary

5 Methods of research

The study combined qualitative and quantitive approaches Data were collected via questionnaires and classroom observations:

- A Survey questionnaire for 100 grade 10 students was used to clarify the

difficulties of cthnie minority grads 10 students in learning English vocabulary

- Classroom observations were also carried out to get information about both

teachers’ ways of teaching and students’ ways of leaming in class

6 Organization of the study

This study consists of three parts

Part One: Introduction presents the rationale, aims, significance, scope, method af

study, and orgamzation of the study

Part Two: Development consists of three chapters

Chapter One - Literature Review provides a theoretical basis for the study

Chapter Two — Methodology includes an overview of the approach used in conduoting the study It also provides a thorough description of the data collection procedure as well as the analytical procedure

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

Research in English teaching and learning in ethnic regions

In the past 30 years, many scholars (Naimen, ct al., 1978; WEN, 1996, 2003,2004;

CHENG & ZHENG,2002; CHEN,2005; #HOU,2007) made research studies on learning

siralsgies and/or vocabulary learning slralegies, and most of them made greal success However, most of them took undergraduates as subjects, and few scholars focus on the English vocabulary learning difficulties of ethnic students Very few of research studies focus on the ethic mmorily students in senior high school in Vietnam

1.1 The importance of vocabulary in language teaching and learning

Vocabulary is commonly accepted to be the most important language elements among pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar Wilkins (1972) emphasized this with his saying, "wilhout grammar, very lillle can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing ean bs conveyed" (p.11) Pyles and Algeo also supported this idea with "when we first think about language, we think first words It is words that we amange together to make sentences, conversations and discourse ", These statements arc cnough to conclude that vocabulary is the decisive element in language communication

This is all trus in learning @ foreign language If a leamer has a wide range of vocabulary, he can lo make himself understood and understand othors casily On the contrary, if his vocabulary is limited he will surely have difficulty in doing so and in English learning Therefore, vocabulary is a "must" for all Janguage leamers by all means 1.2 Principles of vocabulary teaching

1.2.1 Criteria for sclecting vocabulary

It cannot be denied that vocabulary is an essential element in learning a foreign language Therefore, il is important 10 concern first the criteria for selecting vocabulary to help the teacher make valid decisions on the right vocabulary items to teach at the leamer's different level Gaims and Redman (1986) proposed some main criteria as frequency, student's needs and level; cultural faclor and expettiency In caching, the teacher necds ta select the most frequently used words to teach first The vocabulary should be appropriate

to students’ level and their needs, the priority given to vocabulary for English as a subject

in the curriculum might be different for that of English for specific purposes The Culture

factor has great influenced on teaching, which means that the learners’ background is to be

since peuple from different countries may need differen, words to express ltrsir

ideas im the second language Expediency is one of the important crileria thal needs to he

concemed since the classroom is a world by itself and requires specific types of vocabulary such as grammatical terminology and activity instructions, Harter (1991) also adds mors ctitetia for selection of vecabulary as concretion vs abstraction (concrete words should be taught at lower levels whereas abstract terms should bs taught at higher lever), coverage (generat words shoutd be taught in more specific terms) and rapport (the student's involvement with the words is a major motivator for vocabulary leaming)

1.2.2 Vacabulary teaching

In general, when the teacher teaches a new English word, he should, by alt n

18, provide his leamers with its meaning, forms and use at the same time, Among these three areas, the use of a word is the most important, but it carmot be achieved if the forms and meaning of the word are nol finely understood and grasped by the learners

1.2.2.1 Forms of a word

* Pronunciation and spelling :

Each English word has its spelling and pronunciation, Leamers have to know all the spelling, pronunciation and irregularities of the word they are learning In teaching, we

The grarumar of a new word should also be taught to the Ieamers 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 usc it correctly For example, when teaching the verb unk, we might give its

irregularity in past form thougar

1.2.2.2, Meaning

* Denotative and connotative meaning

The meaning ofa word is primarity what itrefers ton the al world, meaning is found ina dictionary For cxample, dog denotes a kind of animal, common, domestic carnivorous mammal A less obvious component of the meaning of a word is its connotation in differen! contsxis or ils conmolative meaning This is the associations or posilive or

negative feelings it evokes ‘his meaning may or may not be indicated in a dictionary or instance the word , as understood by most British people, has positive comotations of Biendslmp and loyalty: whereas the equivalent in Arabic! as understood by most of the

‘Arab countries has negative associations of dirty and inferiority ‘The connotative meaning

of a word is varied from one conlext lo another

» Meaning relationship

How the meaning,

usefid in teaching It is noted that the teacher has to make a carefull choice of and decision,

on which meaning of a word to teach and how many wards to teach in the given class time

specially denotative meaning, of one word rclales cam also be

or clsc leamers will be impeded by the pressure te absorb loo many meanings and words This often results in contusion or forgetting

1.2.2.3 Use of a word

The most important thing for Icarncrs to learn a new word is to know how to usc it appropriately and effectively in different oral and waitten contexts or else it may become a dead or forgettable word ‘lo use a new word well, they need to know how to collocate it with olher words corraclly Thersfore, the teacher should put words inlo collacation, Far example, when introdueing, words like “to make” and “to do", the teacher may note that both words mean "to perform” but can be distinguished by the words they collocate with

We oflen say "to do the homework" bul never say “lo make the homework”

In shot, students should be taught the form, the meaning, and the use of words in vocatnilary lessons I'he teacher should ensure that vocabulary is regularly recyclsdrevised

because if'students do not gel the chance to pul it into use they will easily forget il

Unknown vocabulary is low in such micssages, considerable vocabulary learning can occur even though students’ attention is not directed to vocabulary leaming Rubin and Thompson (1994: 82) suggest 3 strategies for dealing with this approach of vocabulary leaming, These strategies include receding a series of texts on a rélated topic, guessing the meaning of new words from context, and breaking up a word into components Similarly,

Deeerico fin Celeo-Murcia 2000: 255-299) says thal implicit vocabulary learning or

incidents vocabulary learmng is lzarmng that occurs when the mind is focused elsewhere, such as on understanding a text or using language for commumcative purposes

1.3 English vocabulary learning

It is believed that the factors that affect the learner in language learning also have

an elfeel on his vouabulary learning These factors include, according lo Lighbown and Spada (1999: 51-68), intelligence, aptitude, personality, motivation and, attitudes, leamer preferences, leamer beliefs, age, some kinds of activities Rubin and Thompson (1994: 3 - 8) suggest a similar list of faclors affecting learning: age, aplitude, altitude (emotions), personality (extroversion, inhibition, tolerance of ambiguity), learning style (leaming by

strategies Kllis (1997: 76) emphasizes the importance of leaming strategies, when he states

ssfal

that studies have shawn thal successful leamners uss mors strategies than tmsu

leamers and successful leamers use different strategies at different stages of their development He emphasizes that if crucial learning strategies can be identified, they can

be taught lo students Loarning stralegios arc the decisive factor for vocabulary learning Hence many scholars have stnven to introduce different vocabulary leaning strategies in order to help learners of English improve their vocabulary learning, The representatives of those scholars are Nation (1982,1990, 2001), Lacey, Trench, and Vanderpump (1990), Taylor (1990), not to mention many other scholars whe arc interested in Icaming strategics such as Oxford (10001, Ruhin et Thompson (1994), Nunan 1991), Cook (1993), Wenelen and Rubin (1987), Wenden (1991), ele

1.3.1 Factors Affect Vocabulary Learning

There have been different opinions or factors that affect vocabulary acquisition

The second 1s the learning task which includes the materials bemg leamt (such as the genre of a piece of reading) as well as the goal the learner is trying to achieve by using these materials (such as remembering, comprchending or using language) Differcnt types

of task materials, task purposes, and tasks at various difficulty level demand different

strategies

The third type of Gictor is the loaning context Tl is the socin-cullural-politival environment where learning takes place The learning context can include the teachers, the peer, the classroom climate, the family support, the social, cultural tradition of learning, the

curriculum, and the availability of input and output opportunities hese factors have a certain cffect on tho ways Icamers approach learning lask and acquire vocabulary knowledge

In short, the factors discussed above (person, task and context, ) exist together and make a configuration of a partienkar learning siluation that will help to bring aboul the effectiveness of vocabulary,

1.4, Methods in vocabulary teaching

Murkey (1978:138) stat “The method used has heen said to he the cause of

suecesy or futlure in language learning, for it is ultimately the method thet determines

what and the how of language instruction” ‘This statement shows us the importance of

method IL is method that determines success or failure in language leaching That is the

yeason why teacher have to understand well about different methods so that they can choose the best ones for their learners Below is a brief discussion on some methods m

vocatulary teaching in history and their role in vocabulary teaching and learning

L412, Repetition and attention

Some psychologists, according to Nation (1990: 43), believe that repetition is not as

effective as the type of allenlion given toa new word Oral repetition of a word form is nal

as effective as recalling the form of the word However, the occuing frequency of a word

affects the learning burden: the more frequently it is met, the easier it is to lear Seeing the

word form and a definition of ils meaning is nol as effective as having to make arr effort to recall ils meaning before being shown the defnilion as fecdback:

14.2, Relationship with other words

Similarities between words can make learning easier If the student has already known the word moaning he may learn the tearing tore casily However, similarities

between words can also make leaming more difficult: a list of words that are strongly associated with each other (¢.g opposites fiee associates) is more difficult to learn than a list of unrelated words

2.43, Exceptions

‘The effect of learning an exception is to make the leaming of a rule more difficult Eor cxarnpls, the word school and Lown ars most, afen used as countable nouns, so wher used as singular nouns, they are often preceded by an atticle, a demonstrative adjective, ot

a possessive adjective However, in fo go to school and to go fo tawn, they neither are nor

proceeded by any of these words As a result, schoof and sown are often used productively incomeelly

1S Proficiency in the native language and the second language and the acquisition of 4

Gn both children and adults) of additional languages

With regard to sccond language acquisition, it is portrayed as the process by which people leam languages in addition to their native language ‘The term “second language",

“largel language", or “T.2" are used lo refer ta any language teamed aller the native language, which is also called “mother tongue", “first language", "Ll", or "source language” Second language acquisition also includes third language acquisition (L3)

L452 Influence of proficiency in the native language and the secand language an the acquisition of a third language

Although English is taught in Vietnamese high schools as a foreign language, for ethnic minority students, leaming Linglish is similar to learning a third language ‘This is

because these cthnic minorily students have to team Vietnamese in addition to their indigenous or native language This study was conducted in the Ethnic Manority Boarding Iligh School and two high schools in remote districts of the mountainous province, where the majority of the students belong to cthnic minority groups Thus, what follows is a brief review of the literature on the influence of learners’ first and second languages on the acquisition of a third language

The influcnes of proficicncy in Ll and 1.2 on the acquisition of a third language has interested researchers for a few decades, but knowledge about those influences remains limited Cummings (2000) stated that according to ‘interdependence hypothesis’, there is a

scoond language development, A

so that different degrees of proficiency in the first and second languages would affect the acquisition of the third language

In addition, recent psycholinguistie research on third language acquisition has made clear that the acquisition of an L3 shares many characteristies with the acquisition of

an 1.2 bul it also presents differences Accordingly, the cducatioml aspects of leaching English as an L3 differ ttom those of teaching English as an L2 Third language acquisition

is more complex phenomenon than second language acquisition because, apart ftom all individual and social faclors thal affect the Taller, the process and producl of acquiring a second language can themselves potentially mfluence the acquisition of a third language The educational aspects of the acquisition of English as a third language differ those of English as a second language, and have more implications regarding the optimal age for introduction of the different languages and the desired level of proficicney in cach,

However, several studies on L3 acquisition have convincingly shown a qualitative difference between the acquisition of a trus 1.2 and the subsequent acquisition of an 13 Some studies even indicate that L2 takes on a stronger role than LI in the initial state of L3 syntax (eg Bardel & Falk, 2007; Rothman & Cabrelli Amaro, forthcoming) An explanation pul forward by Williams & Mammuarberg (1998) and Bardel & Falk (2007) as

to why the 1.2 takes on a stronger role thin the 1.1 is thal of the 1.2 status factor, According

to Falk & Bardel, the L2 status factor is an outcome of the higher degree of similarity between L2 and L3 than between Ll and L3, regarding age of onset, outcome, learning situntion, metalingnistic knowledge, learning stratogics amd degree of awareness in the language learning process

‘Also, the acquisitional setting may vary from predominantly informal acquisition,

as is the case for instance in bilingual cnvironments, to more formal scttings, such as foreign language learning in the classroom On the one hand, it can be assumed that L3 leamers, especially those who have leamt the L2 in a formal setting, are aware of the lamguags learning process, and have acquired molalingnistie experiences and learning strategies to facilitate foreign language learning

11

‘Therefore, for students from ettmic minority groups, studying one more language, English — the third language, via Vicinamese — the sccond language might be very challenging This is because of the fact that when leaming English, they comprehend English lessons by listening, switching into their native languages - and then translating or changing inlo Vietnamese and then Tnglish again, Litnited Heracy or Vietnamese language skills can limit the acquisition of the third language As a result, it is observed that a large number of these students are almost illiterate in English despite many years” learning the language

12

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter includes a justification for the approach the author used in conducting the research, It also provides a thorough description of how the author collected the necessary dala a8 well as the analytical procedure to draw conclusions based on the collected information In the first section the author gives detailed description of the research setting where the study was conducted In the next sections, the author puts forward an explauation of the author's understanding of the msthods used in this resoarch and their advantages

2.4, Research setting

2.1.2 An overview af research setting

Muong Bi high school is located in Hoa Binb, a mountainous province in the northwest of Vietnam, where over 80 % of the population belongs to ethnic minority groups, and where there have been many difficulties in life as well as in educational development, especially in the development of teaching a forcign language like English Not mueh attention is paid to English learning though it is among the compulsory subjects

in the nalional final examinations,

3.1.2 The materials of teeching and learning

In terms of the materials of teaching and learning, the textbook curently used to teach English are Tieng Anh 10, published by Ministry of éducation and ‘Training The leaching content of English lexthooks follows the theme-based approach and is developed

on six broad themes The six themes are subdivided into 16 topies comesponding, with 16

units and a “est yourself” after every 3 units All units have the same structure, starting

with the theme of the url, following four Tessons focused on language skills and ending with language focus Language skills are developed in parallel with the development of such language knowledge as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation

With strengths, the texthooks are expected lo contribule beller quatity of Fnglish leaming in Vietnam high schools In terms of cuxiculum development, the introduction of the new textbook can be new fresh air blowing into the teaching and learning situation at

sự

ondary schools in Vietnam, However, lo alarge number of cthnic minority students, the English textbooks ate very difficult Very often the amount of new vocabulary in one unit

13

was too much for students In addition, many topics in their Lnglish textbooks were strange

to their daily lives

und background, 2.2, Research questions

Questionnaries and classroom observations in this study were intended to address the following research question

What are the challenges in leaming English vocabulary of ethnic minority grade 10

students in Muong Bi high school?

2

Participants

3.8.1 Description of the teachers uf English

‘The five participants who are currently teaching English to ethnic minority students

al grade 10 level graduated from Hanoi Universitios af Foreign Languages or have taken

an English in-service training course, All of the teachers are female and from 28 to 32

‘years old Their teachmng experience at high schools varies from 5 to 10 years The variety

in the participants’ age, sex, qualification, and teaching experience is expected to provide reliability and validity for the study,

2.3.2 The students

Teaching English for ethnic minority students in the remote mountainous area has long been a controversial issue, Many ethnie minority students’ English level is low and Visinamese language skills are Tinviled, Resides, there is lack of proper teaching and

learning materials 9L primary and sccondary schools For ther, English is sinuply ar obligatory subject; they leam it mamly for marks, the only goal is to pass the tests The time, the input and exposure to the language are limited to the classroom ‘Therefore, they seem lo be passive itt learning Stndonts listen to their leachers and repeal passively and give a mechanical response They are likely to become demotivated to Enghsh leaming, depending much on the textbook and teachers’ method of delivery Language activities like rolc plays, problem-solving tasks, or information gap activities, therefore, seem strange to their culture of learning Even, when they fail to understand something, they are not daring enough to ask for clarification in public Therefore, “the English learning environment is

described as 4 cultural island where the teacher is expected lo be the sole provider of

experience in the target language" (Canh, 1999, p.74)

14

2.4, Data Collection Instruments and procedures

In order la gel information, the main data collcetion instruments for this study were questionnaires and classroom observations

2.4.1 The questionnaire

AL the beginning of March 2011, the author did a survey om this lopie ta develop an appropriate survey instrument for this study The final questionnaire was

administered to 100 ethnic students In order to make sure that, all the students fully

undorstand the questions, the quaslionnaires wers writlon irr Vietnamese All of the distributed questionnaires were retumed with answers

‘The questionnaire focuses on three main factors that the author considers the causes

of the students’ difficulties in loaning English vacacbulary such as: the lemners" background, the material and the teaching methods The purpose of the questionnaire was

to examine how important the ethnic minority students think of their leaming English and what difficulties they often meet when leaming vocabulary

243 Data Collection Procedure

According to Selinger and Shohamy (1989) once the researcher has selected a spocific design for the stndy which is consistent with the objectives of the rescarch, the next step is to collect the research data, In collecting the data it is important to use procedures which elicit high quality data, since the quality of any research study depends largely on the quality of the data collected and the data collection procedure

‘As stated above, the study was carried out in Muong Bi high school, The reason for

the choice was that 100% students at these schools were ethnic minorities, that might be

useful lo give rich information for ths data collection of the study Among the tsachers of three schools, five were selected for interviews on voluntary basis and all of them were observed while teaching,

‘The observations were condueted in five selected teachers at the beginning of the

st

oo] year

25 Data Analysis Procedsre

The strengths of qualitative data rest very centrally on the competence with which their analysis is carried oul, According In Tlatch (2002), inierpretation, as inferpratation of interview data, is a defining element that permeates all qualitative research through making inferences, developing insights, attaching importance, refining understandings, drawing conclusions, and oxtrapolaling lessons Since +

ehers casty oul interpretations in the

research process, they make sense of the phenomenon under investigation, This

interpretive analysis was intended to link interpretation to the data in order to result in

mmeaningfal data

The analysis of the observation data in this study invelved careful readings of the researcher's field notes of sample lessons Following the observation guide, the researcher conducted the analysis as follows In the first stage, the researcher examined the field notes

of all the lessons of the five observed teachers In the second stage, the rescarcher reviewed the detailed field notes coupled with questionnaire In the third stage, through analysis of field notes of the sample lessons, the researcher demonstralsd how the teachers of Fnglish organized classroom activities in English lessons and how they dealt with the challenges in

teaching to ethnic minority students

This chapter has examined the approach used in the stufly to illuminate its research questions about the cluflongs in learning English vocabulary of grade 10 cthnic minority students, It also described the data collection as well as the analytical procedure which leads to the results of the research as presented in the next chapter — Results and

discussion.

16

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

Data analysis is not a simple description of the data collected but a process by which the researcher can bring interpretation to the data (Powney & Watts,1987) In the following parls, the researcher interprets the resulls from the feedback of the questionnaires and observations The study mentions the ethnic students’ constraints in learning English vocabulary

3.1, Results ant discussions from the questionnuires for students

In order to get information about the students’ attitudes toward English vocabulary leaming and the factors affecting their acquisition of the language the author poses here

10 questions for the students Following is the findings

Question 1, In your opinion, what is the role of vocabulary in learning English?

Although they know clearly that English is very important almost of them

choose the answer “very important”, they still do not spend enough time on learning

English, because of many factors thal hinder them from doing so Firstly, they do nol have

time to lear, secondly, some of them think they can leam it later when they have

by teacher Only 5% of the students asked say there are not many vocabulary in one unit toleam

Question 3 The topics in the texthook are.

Most of the students (85%) state that many topics in their Linglish textbooks are unfamiliar

lo their daily lives and background, thal is the reason why the students usually face difficulties when they learn vocabulary The rest (15%) say that sometimes they find the

contents of the lessons unfamiliar to them

Question 4 Number the following items from the least to the most difficult for

you when you learn English vocabulary:

‘A Word form (pronunciation and spelling) 70

teacher many times and repeat what the teacher say but they still state that their pronunciation is not better Also, half of the students write in the questionnaire that they

have difficulty with word fonnation Thal tha

re quile a tol of suffixes and prefixes in English may make students confused when they learn, As a resull, 30% of them find

grammar rules the most difficult, 20% choose aspects of meaning as the difficulty

Question 3 Da you find it is difficult to pronounce English words?

When being asked if students find that in English pronunciation is difficult, most of

them say yes (82%) It is the fact that, minority ethnic leamers always face many problems

in learning vocabulary, they always confuse “’ wilh 4/, Av with b/ As seen in question 4

that 70% of the learners revealed that pronunciation is the most difficult item when

learning English vocabulary ‘hey are totally dependent on imitating the teachers so after the lesson they camol remember or read the words comacily by thonisolvos

A Translate them into Vietnamese 90

C Explain the meaning in English 0

Question 7, How does your teacher introduce the use of new words?

B Give cxamplss and studenls draw out the rules 4

More than half of the students under the survey express that ther teachers introduce the use of new words through examples ‘This may be the easiest and the most ceonomical way to [each word uses Besides, il can enhance the students’ ability to draw out rules from examples 40% of the students say that their teachers introduce word uses by explaining it in Vietnamese This way can be easy for students to follow but it does not hetp them really understand in English aud therefore camot use the words later Only 6% say that they are not taught word uses

to teach vacabulary May be doing gap filting exercises and write sentences are challenging tasks for the students so they are not used regularly

Question 9 Does your teacher give you chance te learn vocabulary in pairs! groups?

abus

simply follow the instruction of the text book and tcach what is required in Ú

Hence, the teaching strategies used by the teachers in certain circumstances are not

relevant and effective.

20

Question 10 How much time da you usually spend learning new words at home?

D Sometimes when T am required to do 18

‘Although the students highly appreciate the role of Ieaming vocabulary, only a small number of them spend enough time leaming it, Just 20% of the students spend in otal one hour daily learning; only 5% spend more than two hours and over hal f students 57% spend no time al all in learning new words At school, students have to Ica many subjects and they do not pay much attention to leaming English, They only concentrate on some subjects, which they believe to be useful for their firture, such as, maths, literature,

physics, chemistry or biology

3.2 Results and discussions from the observation

The researcher observed four teachers’ ten English lessons on language skills and language knowledge at grade 10 with their permission ‘The analysis of the observation data indicated that difficulties emerged in the actual classrooms such as lack of various types of classroom aclivitics associaled wilh CLT, loo many new words and struclures were giver

in each lesson, students’ preference of using their native languages or Vietnamese language, a large amount of teachers” using Vietnamese in class, and students” passiveness

in learning

In general, all the teachers” lessons the researcher observed followed the basic steps

of the lesson: warm-up activities, presentation, practice and consolidation and homework The lessons on language skills inctuded three stages manly pre-, while-, and post-stage In the pre-stage, teachers introduced the new language inputs to their students, often new words or phrases, students Ieamed both spelling and sounds in class, in chorus or

individually However, whal follows is a discussion of sors promincnt chal ony

Fust, there was lack of various types of classroom activities associated with CLT in English classes, the teachers commonly organized only two types of activities such as

emphasis should be given to active modes of learning such as pair or group work in

problem-solving tasks, nevertheless, classroom group or pair work should not be

considered an csscntial fealure used all the time, and may well be inappropriate in sore

contexts” Besides, some teachers were not creative in carrying out groups or pair works,

especially in arranging pairs or groups Sometimes, many students were reluctant to join in

activities when being pul inlo the sanz groups or pairs in class

The next challenge was that too many new words and structures were given in each lesson, Teachers spent too much time in presenting new words, especially in reading and

listening lessons Two of the lessons the researcher attended were reading lessons, after the

lessons, the rescarcher cven could not know what was going on, what objectives of the

lessons were, because the teachers presented too many new words and structures, students had lo write down and leam the words, whereas [he reading passage was so long thal both

teachers and students had to “race” to finish the lessons on time

Another challenge was that a large amount of Vietnamese language used by the

ieachers in teaching in English classes The classroom observations revealed thal most of

leachots hardly uscd English in tsaching lemguage skills andl language knowledge lessons They used Vietnamese when introducing the topic of the lesson, analyzing, grammatical structures, checking multiple answers in students’ book, explaining students’ assignments, and translating some difficult scnisnecs, sla Although English was enconraged to be maximally exposed to language leamers (MOET, 2006), the English language environment

in classes was limited in the observed lessons Thus, in such a poor learning environment like that, it was difficult for students to acquire a forcign language cficetively,

Besides, students’ preference of using their native languages or Vietnamese language during group wark or pair work eansed challenges for teachers in their teaching Wher sindonts wers asked lo have a discussion or joined in conmmunigative activities, some students often discussed in Vietitamese or their native languapes instead of English, they only shifted to English when the teachers approached them Limited English