Luận văn using mind mapping technique to improve vocabulary retention of first year students

STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES USING MIND-MAPPING TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE VOCABULARY RETENTION OF FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT MILITARY TECHNICAL ACADEMY

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, IIANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAT STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

USING MIND-MAPPING TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE VOCABULARY

RETENTION OF FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS: AN ACTION RESEARCH

PROJECT AT MILITARY TECHNICAL ACADEMY

(SỬ DỤNG BẢN ĐỒ TƯ DUY ĐỀ THIỆN KHẢ NĂNG GHI NHỚ TỪ

VỰNG CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHÁT: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH

ĐỘNG TẠI HỌC VIỆN KỸ THUẬT QUÂN SỰ)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodolugy Code: 60140111

Hanoi, 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, IIANOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAT STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYEN THI LIEN

USING MIND-MAPPING TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE VOCABULARY RETENTION OF FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS: AN ACTION RESEARCH

PROJECT AT MILITARY TECHNICAL ACADEMY

(SU DUNG BAN DO TU DUY DE CAI TIMEN KIA NANG GID NHỚ TỪ VUNG CUA SINH VIEN NĂM THỨ NHẬT: MỘT NGHIÊN CUU HANH

DONG TAL HOC VIỆN KỸ THUAT QUAN SU)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME TIIESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodolugy Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyén Vin D6

Hanoi, 2016

Declaration

1 certify that I myself write this thesis entiled “Using mind-mapping

technique to improve vocabulary retention of first-year students: An action research project at Military Technical Academy.” It is not a plagiarism or amade by others Anything related to others’ works is written in quotation, the sources of which are listed on the list of references If then the pronouncement

proves wrong, I am ready to accept any academic punishment, including the

withdrawal or cancellation of my academic degree

Signature

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, | would like to express my gratitude to my

supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyén Van BS whose reference materials, support, stimulating suggestions and encouragement helped me in all stages of this research for and wriling of this thesis Without his critical comments and valuable suggestions, this research could not have been completed

J take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to all my teachers

in Faculty of Post-Graduate studies, Universily of Languages and

International Studies, National University, Ilanoi for their lectures which enable me to gain a lot of theoretical and practical knowledge

Furthermore, I want to thank my colleagues and students at Military Technical Academy who helped me carry out the investigation of the study

Finally, I am really grateful to my family and my husband for their

encouragement and support to my process of writing of the thesis

Abstract

Vocabulary is one of the most significant parts of English, and its leaning in

an efficient way gets the most attention by language learners In Vietnam, one

of the most difficulties many students face is to learn, memorize and recall

word meanings So, it should be taught in a way that leamers will be capable

of recalling them easily he purpose of this study was to bring mind-mapping technique to improve vocabulary retention of Vietnamese learners This study

was bascd on action rescarch, m which 32 students m the KS1 Information class at Military Technical Academy were investigated Based on the purposes

of the study, a pre-test and a post-test were used to investigate the effectiveness of mind-mapping on the student’s vocabulary retention Also, a survey questionnaire was designed to get the students’ attitudes about this

technique in vocabulary leaming and memorizing After the data were

elaborately calculated and analyzed, it mdicated that students were successful

in improving vocabulary retention with the implementation of the treatment

and they scomed to highly value this teaching wchnique

ii

1.1 Rationale of the study

1.2 Aims of the stuđy

1.3 Research question cee eee

1.4 Scope of the study

1.5 Significance of the study

1.6 Method of the study

1.7 Design of the study

CIIAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Vocabulary and its importancee

2.1.1 Vocabulary definition

2.1.2, The role of vocabulary in second language learning

" h Memorizing word meanings

2.4, Related studies

2.4.1 Review of related studies worldwide

2.4.2 Review of related studies in Vietnam

2.4.3 Gaps in previous research on mind-mapping

2.5 SUMMALY oe cece essen "¬ ceceneesesevietaeseistaneesetereeaae

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 The context of the study

3.1.1 Research setling dese ceceneesesevietaeseistaneesetereeaae

3.1.2 Teaching material

3.1.3 Research participants

3.2 Research methodology

3.2.1 Action research definition sess HE HH0 110 1e

3.2.2 Action research procedure dese ceceneesesevietaeseistaneesetereeaae

3.2.3 Data collection mstrument

3.23.1 Pre-test and post-test

3.2.3.2 Survey questionnaire

3.2.4 Data collection procedure

3.2.5 Data aniaÏySIS coi dese ceceneesesevietaeseistaneesetereeaae

3.3 Sunimary coi

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Quantitative description of results from the pre-test and post-test

4.1.1 The distribution of the test results

4.1.2 Descriptive statistics

4.2 Quantilalive descriptiun uf resulls from the questionnaire

42.1 Students’ alliludes towards mind mapping lechnique

4.2.2, The students’ self-evaluation on the effectiveness

of the MM technique eee "¬ ceceneesesevietaeseistaneesetereeaae

4.3 Reliability analysis and correlations

LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS

MM: Mind-mapping

‘MMs: Mind maps

MTA: Military Technical Academy

NEFE: New English File Elementary

L1: First language

L2 Second language

vũ

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Figure 1: Action research cycle

Table 1: Procedure of the research

Table 2: Score mterval of the tests

Figure 2; Comparison between pre-lest and post-test score

Table 3: The descriptive statistics of the two tests scores

Table 4: Students’ attitudes towards MM technique

table 5: The students’ self-evaluation on the effectiveness of MM

technique

Table 6 : Rehability Statistics

Table 7: Item-Total Statistics

CIIAPTER 1 TNTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study

Vocabulary is the basic factor necessary for mastering a language This is

because vocabulary is integral to every language skill, imcluding reading,

writing, listening and speaking skill Individuals cannot easily make conversations or convey their thoughts in both oral and written forms without

having a certam level of vocabulary knowledge Wavid Wilkins (1972) emphasized the importance of vocabulary as “Without grammar, little can be

" Therelore, the lack of

conveyed; without vocabulary, nothing can be convey

vocabulary leads to many serious difficulties in foreign language teaching and learning, notably in Viemam

Unforumately, Vietnamese students in general and MTA students in

particular find it hard to acquire vocabulary Many reasons for this problem are pointed out such as school facilities, teaching aids, etc Out of these reasons, the

traditional method of teaching deserves to be blamed on most Most of the lesson

is spent on grammar, not vocabulary When introducing new vocabulary, the teacher just explams the meanings with Vietnamese equivalents and asks the students to take notes ‘The students are explained the meaning, definition, pronunciation, spelling and grammatical functions of new wards Therefore, the

siuđơnis cannot recall un unfamiliar word and do not have the habits of recording their vocabulary in the same place This outdated translation technique is not

effective at all

Since teaching methed plays an important role in learners’ success in learning English, it should be more updated so that every student feels more interested in vocabulary lessons Teachers should teach in a way that leamers will be capable

of recalling them easily Tn fact, there are many vocabulary leaming techniques such as matching, role play, semantic-mapping, dictionary usc, learning vocahulary through the context, and many others The desire to help students lo memorize, recall vocabulary more effectively motivated me to conduc! the study

titled “Using mind-mapping technique to improve vocabulary retention of first-

year students: An action research project at Military Technical Acadenr Hopefully, this stady may contribute to bettering the vocabulary teaching and learning

1.2 Aims of the study

‘The first aim of the study is to investigate whether usmg MM to teach

vocabulary can help students at MTA to improve the vocabulary retention or

not

Secondly, the study also evaluates the students’ attitudes towards using MM

as a lool lo improve their vocabulary retention

1.4 Scope of the study

Because of the limitation of time and resources, the researcher only focuses

on the use of MM as one technique to improve students’ poor vocabulary retention

The study was conducted on the K51 Information class of 32 first-year students at MTA Due to the fixed curriculum and limited time, the study was

carned out during the second term of school year 2015-2016

1.5 Significance of the study

Essentially, the practical consideration of the research is the significance of the expected researcli Hence, the results of this study are expected to be useful

to students, teachers and researchers in the field of Hnglish language teaching and learning The research is expected to explore and prove the effectiveness of

MM in Waching so thal the toachers will canduet the teaching and leaming activilies more cilectively Students can use MM us a lochnique to improve

vocabulary retention The future researchers are expected to develop some dimensions which haye not been developed in this research such as using different student population, different students’ condition, ete

1.6 Method of the study

The study was based on action research The subject of the research was the English non-major first-year students of MTA Because the researcher wanted to investigate whether using ©MM technique to teach vocabulary can improve the

students’ vocabulary retention or not, a pre-test and post- test were carried out

The purpose of pre-test was to know the students’ knowledge before treatment

After treatment, the researcher conducted a post-test to know the effectiveness of

treatment after the course of using MM Also, a survey questionnaire was

designed and administered to students ul the end of treatment so that they could

express their ideas about treatment

1.7 Design of the study

‘This study is divided as followed:

Chapter 1: Introduction - provides the rationale, the aim, the research question, the scope, the significance and the organization of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review-presents the concepts relevant to the topic of the thesis: vocabulary and its importance, memorizing word meanings, some basic Jmowledge aboul MM, the previous studies related lo the fields and some gaps

for present study

Chapter 3: Methodology - presents the context of the research eluding the

resvarch soltmys, leaching malcrials, research parlicipants This chapter also

provides information about the action research in general and the instruments, the data collection procedures and data analysis of this study

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion - focuses on the results of the tests and the results from the questionnaire This chapter also includes the analyses and

discussions of the results

Chapter 5: Conclusion - points out some limitations, recommendations and suggestions for further study

CIIAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Vocabulary and its importance

2.1.1 Vocabulary definition

English consists of four main skills: listening, speaking, reading, wriling

Along with these skills are other sub-skills, namely vocabulary, grammar, collocation, etc Among these sub-skills, vocabulary plays a crucial part in the

language learning process Having a wide range of vocabulary is strongly related

to the degree of language proficiency Hence, it is necessary to make clarify this

term in this study at lirst

So far there have been a lot of definitions of vocabulary Specially, Ur (1996) characterized vocabulary as the words we teach in the forcign language She also siatcd thal a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: a

compound of two or three words or multi -word idioms In addition, Read (2001) viewed words as the basic building blocks of language, the units of meaning

from which the larger structures such as sentences, paragraphs and whole texts

are formed (pl)

Vovabulary can be defined, roughly, according to the Cambridge Advanced

Learner's Dictionary, as following:

- All the words known and used by a particular person

- All the words which exist in a particular language or subject

Tn short, from the definition above, it can be concluded that vocabulary is

a hist of words or a sot of words in a language or knowledge of words regarding ils forms, meanings In the present study, vocabulary refers to the words,

compounds and idioms in a language that have meanings used lo convey and

reccive information in oral and written communication

2.1.2 The role of vocabulary

Even though vocabulary is the sub-skill of a language, it plays a very important role in language Ne one can communicate in any meaningful way

without vocabulary A large, rich vocabulary gives them the right words to use at

the right time

According to Richards and Renandya in 2002, vocabulary is a core

component of language proficiency and provides much of the basis for how well learners speak, listen, ead, and write Similar opinion was also expressed by

‘McCarthy who stated il you do not know cnough vocabulary, you will be able to

express yourself adequately For learners, he also claimed that no matter how well the students learn grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to express a wider range of meaning, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way

Tlaving a wide range of vocabulary, one’s listening and reading will improve

because he/she will be able to understand more of what is written or spoken

Their writing will become more effective and more powerful A person with a

limited vocabulary will never be able to speak, write, read or understand Hnglish

effectively Hence, the lack of vocabulary shortage affects all the other skills

Nation (2001) emphasized the need to constantly expand vocabulary knowledge “acquisition of vocabulary is typically a more conscious and

demanding process” Additionally, he claimed thal even al an advanced level,

leamers are aware of limitations im their knowledge of L2 words He elarified the importance of vocabulary by bringing evidence that vocabulary knowledge is what the students most need while doing reading activities in order to make sense of what they are reading Moreover, it’s his claim that those who do not

attain cnough vocabulary cannot understand cnough of what they read Furthermore, they have more limited contextual information provided by known

words to allow them Lo guess the meaning of unfamiliar words

All in all, from various above points of view, vocabulary can be seen as priority aroa in language loaming and tcaching However, the main obstacle ull

sludents [ace in voeabulary learning is to recall words or memorize words

Therefore, a focus on improving vocabulary retention is essential for leamers to raise English proficiency

2.2 Memorizing word meanings

1.2.1 Vocabulary retention

Vocabulary retention has been defined as “the ability to recall or remember things after an interval of time In language teaching, retention of what has been taught (e.g grammar rules and vocabulary) may depend on the quality of teaching, the interest of the leamers, or the meaningfulness of the materials”

Richards & Schmidt, 2002, p 457) p 457)

Vocabulary retention is of the essence in learning English as a foreign

language It can be understood that as well as the leamed vocabulary knowledge

is retained in the memory, the learner can get benefit from it when the time of recalling it comes Vocabulary retention is one crucial factor affecting the success ol vocabulary acquisilion since il is the abilily to recall words thal have

'bcen loarnL for use when needed

2.2.2 Types of memory

Memory has been categorized into different sub-types according to duration

of memory retention and capacity of recalling information aller original input

According to Plotrick, R and Kouyoumdjian, H in 2013, there are three kinds of

memory.

Sensory memory is an initial process that receives and holds environment

information for a bricf period of time, from an instant to scveral second In

contrast, short-term memory can hold only a limiled amount of information for a short period of ume, two to thirly seconds Actually, if sensory memory is a lille

or wi-controlled processing then short-term memory is a controlled processing procedure at which the learner can retrieve their newly knowledge with effort Finally, there is long-term memory, which can store an almost unlimited amount

of information over long periods of time ‘his is an automatic processing

procedure thal ensure retrieved without effort

Leaming new items involves storing them first in our short-tenn memory,

and afterwards in long-term memory However, when leaming vocabulary, learners have problems with memorizmg words for a long time They usually fail

to put the words into long-term memory Thus, the goal of leaming vocabulary 1s lo transfer the lexical information from short-lerm memory to long-term

aimemory during the process of leaming This can be done by various techniques teachers apply The more interested in what students have learnt, the better they

can remember Therefore, teachers should apply vocabulary teaching, strategies

effectively so that the students could fee! interested in what they learnt

2.2.3 Strategies uf teaching and learning vocabulary

Vocabulary has a crucial role in foreign teaching and learning Ilowever, from the researcher’s English teaching experience, vocabulary teaching in class

is less focused on than teaching English grammar Most teachers still emphasize

Fnglish grammatical rules in class and neglect vocabulary teaching strategies As

a result, the Iearncrs have ditficultics m memorizing large numbers of new words

thraughout the entire course In vacabulary lessons, the main method of word repelilion, saying the L2 word form aloud with the L1 translation is likely to be

used as an aid to remember the words Hence, both teachers and learners have

little interest or enjoyment when teaching and leaming vocabulary The question

is how to teach and learn vocabulary effectively Up till now, the leamers need training in vocabulary learning strategies so thai they are able to remember as

much as possible for what they learnt

O'Malley and Chamot in 1990 defined learning stralegics as special thoughts

or behaviors that individuals use la help them comprehend, learn, or retain new

information Vocabulary leaming strategies are one part of language learning strategies, which in turn part of general leaming strategies (Nation, 2001)

In classifying leaming strategies, scholars have different ways of classifying language learning strategies According to Wenden and Rubin in 1987, leaming strategies consists of cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies, gaining the most attention compared to other strategies

Cognitive strategies include the tools that help a leamer store, combine, and recall the information These strategies include repetition, review and

development of the concept and the organization of the material In other words,

cognitive strategies involve interacting with the material to be leamed,

manipulating the matcrial menially or physically or by applying a spocilic lechnique lo a learning lask (O'Malley and Chamol, 1990)

Meta-cognitive strategies mclude the tools for guidance and supervision of cognitive approaches, such as determination of Icarning goals, posing questions and evaluation of what has boon road These stralogics include supervision,

monitoring, organization and planning In other words, according to O'Malley and Chamot (1990), meta-cognitive strategies are higher order executive skills that may entail planning for, monitoring, or evaluating the success of a learning activity, meta-cognitive strategies operate directly on informing information,

manipulating it in ways that enhance leaming

‘MMs could be classified as cognitive learning strategies since they fulfill the main function of cognitive strategics by helping the learners to relate the new items lo the already existing one and recall the information Therefore, the

xesearcher elaboraLes on the term MMs in the following section

thus promotes creative thinking, and is “a creative note-taking method, which

cases us lo remember much informauon” (De Porter, Reardon, and Nouric, 1999) The best MM 1s enhaneed and enriched with color, picture, symbol and dimension that will not just help the students to recall information but also make them feel good in mastering vocabulary knowledge

By now, il is clear for us to understand thal MM is a lochnique using

diagram for visual presentation of ideas The diagram is focused on a main concept which is placed in the center and therefore certain ideas, words or even phrases related to main concept can be connected Kach idea, word or phrase is

written down and then liked by lines, arrows, branches, or some ways of

showing connections to its major or minor item This is specifically beneficial

for young learners to recall their memories

2.3.2 Steps to create a mind map

MM may be presented in a variety of ways Tony Buzan stated that the steps for presenting MM are as follows:

1 Start in the CENTRE of a blank page tumed sideways Why? Because

starting in the centre gives your bra freedom to spread out in all directions and

to express itself more freely and naturally

2 Use an IMAGE or PICTURE for your central idea Why? Because an image is worth a thousand words and helps you use your Imagination A central

image is more interesting, keeps you focused, helps you concentrate, and gives

‘your brain more of a buzz!

3 Use COLOURS throughout Why? Because colours are as exciting to your brain as are images Colour adds extra vibrancy and life to your Mind Map, adds

tremendous cnergy to your Creative Thmking, and is fun!

4, CONNECT your MAIN BRANCHES to the central image and connect

your sccond- and third-level branches to the first and sccond levels, ete Why?

Because your brain works by association It likes to link two (or three, or four)

things together If you conmect the branches, you will understand and remember

a lol more easily

5 Make your branches CURVED rather than straight-lined Why? Because

having nolhing but straight lines are boring lo your brain,

6 Use ONE KEY WORD PER LINK Why? Because single key words give

your Mind Mup more power and flexibility

7 Use IMAGES throughout Why? Because each image, like the central

image is also worth a thousand words

2.3.3 The significance of mind-mapping in language classroom

MM is an effective form of vocabulary leaming and teaching tool because

it can activate prior knowledge on a certain topic and help leamers to organize

and recall items of vocabulary (according to Casco in 2009) When using MM,

the teacher starts with main topic or the theme as the central idea and the

siudents thmk aboul ihe now and the old iloms related to the topic given

Therefore, this will Iead to more comfortable and more active leaming atmosphere which is effective for longer retention of the leamt words

Additionally, MM can promote mlcraclive lcarning process By

implementing the MM technique in teaching, both the teacher and students can work together to build on the map building involving the targeted content The teacher can help students to recall the prior knowledge related to the topic given MMs provide students with an active interaction allowing them to learn through

the use of a central image [hey are encouraged to join in and express their ideas

to the map building ‘The constructing process of map building involving

disc: ssing in groups/ class, wring words down, calegonzing and grouping words with related ones can reduce the students’ passive learning in vocabulary

2.4 Relaled siudies

2.4.1, Review of related studics worldwide

There are many studies related to this topic The study “The Effect of Mind Mapping on Vocabulary Learning and Retention” was written by Hoidari & Karimi (2015) This study atlempled to explore the effects of MM on vacabulary leaming and its retention 40 male first-grader high school students in Shahed

High School in Hamedan, Iran took part in the study Participants were divided equally into two groups of which one was control group and the other was

experimental group ‘the study conchuded that the students in the experimental group (using MM lschniquc) were able to store the vocabulary in their long-term memory lor longer periods of timc MM helped the students acquire and retain

English vocabulary directly and very strongly because of its “visual appeal” Because MMs were easy to review, so the students could integrate the newly acquired words with the old previously leamt ones and see connections between words Also, MMs in the present study were colorful and with their colorful

structures and three tree diagrams could give the high school students adequate

motivation to engage with vocabulary lessons

In “Teaching vocabulary through MM technique to the tenth grade

students of SMA Negeri 15 Palembang”, Yusuf Effendi (2004) aimed to find out

whether or not it was significantly effective to teach vocabulary through MM technique to the tenth grade sludenis of SMA Negeri 13 Palembang 360 students of SMA Nogeri 15 Palembang tock part in the sludy Based on the

analysis of the data in this study, it could be concluded that there was a significant difference between the students’ progress in the experimental group (using MM technique) and the control group (using traditional method) From

the data analysis, the writer indicated that the use of MM technique was effective

in teaching vocabulary to the tenth grade students of SMA Negeri 15 Palembang

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In “The Use of Mind Mapping Technique in Teaching Vocabulary”, Samhudi (2015) aimed to describe the procedure of MM technique on teaching vocabulary and lo know the improvement of students’ vocabulary mastery aller learning vocabulary through MM technique In this study, the research [ocused

on 35 students, 15 boys and 20 girls The participants were randomly assigned to experimental group and control group In collecting the required data, the writer did test and questionnaire ‘Ihe writer as teacher tried to apply MM technique in teaching vocabulary mastery of students ‘The results of test showed that IM

lechnique improved students’ vocabulary mastery Also, based on the data [rem

the questionnaire, most of the students agreed that MMs could advance them, improve their vocabulary, expand their ideas, and increase their self-confidence

in learning

2.4.2, Review of related studies in Vietnam

In “Using Mids and diagrams to teach vocabulary for first year mainstream students, Faculty of English Language Teacher Education”, Dang

Thanh Diem (2011) had the purpose of introducing using MMs and diagrams as

a lechnique lo teach vocabulary [or first-year Enghsh main stream majors It can

be concluded from the study that using MMs and diagrams to teach vocabulary could help students have better and longer memory of word items taught Students after attending a lesson with MMs and diagrams really wanted to have chance to leam with those techniques They shared the benefits that MMs and

diagrams could help them remember words better

In “Using mind-mapping to teach vocabulary to the first-year non-

English major students at Bac Giang University of Agriculture and Forestry”, Nguyen Thi ‘Thuy Lan (2012) was to explore the effectiveness of MIM in

leaching vocabulary to the Lirst-ycar non-English major students at Bac Giang

University of Agriculture and Forestry, using the course book New Cutting Edge

14

(Flementary) The results from her study showed that MM could help students to brainstorm a new topic and activate the prior knowledge Besides, it could be a tool to facilitate students to summarize the lessons effectively Also, students

could apply MM to take note during the lesson

2.4.3 GAPS IN PREVIOUS RESEARCII ON MIND-MAPPING

From the previous studies related to the research problems, the wriler

found that most of the studies focused on applying MM in teaching vocabulary

There are not many studies on using MM to improve students’ vocabulary

retention I'o address this gap, the writer carried out this study on the first-year students at M''A as the target population

2.5 SUMMARY

This chapter was an overview of literature related to the study The first

section of this chapter reviewed definitions of vocabulary and its importance

‘The second part discussed vocabulary retention, types of memory as well as strategies of tcaching and Ieaming vocabulary Next, definitions of MMC the

sleps lo create a MM and ils usage in vocabulary Icaming were mentioned Also,

some related studies worldwide and in Vietnam were presented with a clear description of the studies and the gained findings This chapter was ended with gaps in previous research on MM

CIIAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 3.1 The context of the study

3.1.1 Research setting

The Military Technical Academy 1s a polytechnic institute that was founded in 1966 It consists of sub-institutes and sub-centers whose duly is la mainly produce military engineers Since 2002, il has been assigned by the State

of Vietnam and Ministry of National Defense to train civilian engineers Together they make knowledgeable and qualified technicians of all degrees: Bachelor, Master, Doctor to serve mm military and to devote to the

industrialization and modernization of our country

Undergraduates of MI'A are of two categories: military students and civilian students Like students of other colleges and universities in Vietnam, the students of MTA come from different English backgrounds and many different parts of the country, from the North to the South of Vietnam For civilian

students, they have to study Dnglish as a compulsory subject while mililary students study either English or Russian dependig on their majors As for those who study English, the English course is divided into two stages: General

English (360 periods) and English for Specific Purposes (45 periods) General

Hnglish is taught in the first two academic years and the rest is in the first semester of third year

3.1.2 Teaching material

In the 2015-2016 academic year, the “New English File — Elementary” was officially used to teach the first- year students within 180 periods during the first two semesters NETL designed by Clive Oxenden, Christina Latham- Koenig and Paul Seligson was first internationally published in 2004 by Oxford

16

University Press NEFF presents the hasic structure of English and develops them through a variety of social contexts After this course, the students can make conversations for the suggested topics, describe their personality, daily activities or express their opinions im simple situations associated with their life

In NEFE Students’ Book, there are nine units, each of which is divided into sections marked with letters A, B, C, and D ( except for the last unit) At the end of each unit, three special sections follow ‘The first one is called Practical English, the second one is Writing, and the last one is Revision and Check For

cach scclion of cach unil, there are grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation

listed that are taught within the section As for Vocabulary, it is organized File

by File It includes all the words in the Vocabulary Banks in the Student's Book and the MultiROM, all the words which are highlighted in the Student’s Book,

and all the words in the More Words to Learn sections of the Workbaok

3.1.3 Research participants

The participants in this study consisted of 32(2 females and 30 males) first

-year students of the K$1 Information class at MTA in the academic year of 2015-2016 Alter the first semester, the teacher-rescarcher lound that her students’ vocabulary was very poor and their vocabulary strategies seemed to be ineffective Therefore, the researcher chose them to become volunteer participants in the action research project ‘Ihe total number of students was selected to do two vocabulary tests named pre-test and post-test And then, a

survey questionnaire was conducted to get more opinions from students about

the treatment

3.2 Research methodolugy

3.2.1 Action research definition

This study was carried out using action research approach

AcHion roscarch is first and foremost siluational, being concemed with the

identification and solution of problems in a specific context The aim of action

17

research is to improve the current state of affairs within the educational context

in which the rescarch is being carried out."(Cohen and Manion, 1985).Similar with this idea, Parsons and Brown in 2002 stated that action research is an investigation carried out by teachers atlempting to find solutions to problems and

improve their professional practices in their own classroom

Bused on the above definitions, action research is an appropriate method in

this thesis The aim of this research is to improve first-year students’ vocabulary retention by using MM techniques This leads to change the students’ attitudes positively towards English vocabulary leaning

3.2.2 Action rescarch procedure

Different authors and researcher have established and proposed different amodels of action research In this study, action research was designed and conducted m line with the cycle adopted trom McPride & Schostak (1995):

„00 mlleingdsn

{Ninety a aru of TẾ amnlyningchin£

lntasztw nặrilen generating lạ Rothess:

tol il ior Shag

Figure 1: Action research cycle

As can be seen in the diagram above, the process starts with the

identification of the problem area ‘This is followed by collecting initial data,

from which a pre-test during thirty minutes is implemented so as to confirm the problem stated in stage 1 After that, the data collected from the pre-test is analyzed lo form a hypothesis The next slep of this action research study is planning action In this phase, the researcher presents the alternatives to the usual

practice so that the study could bring about desired changes Lnplementing action is the process of introducing the MM method as a major technique to see

if there is any development in the students’ vocabulary retention and their attitudes towards the use of this technique At the phase of collecting data to

monitor change, the sludents are given the post-test durmg thirty minutes to determine the effectiveness of the intervention Along with the post-test, the students also receive one survey questionnaire to show their perceptions and opinions about this new technique After the researcher analyzes data collected through tests and questionnaire, reflection identifies the result of the research

3.2.3 Data collection instrument

3.2.3.1, Pre-test and post-test

In this study the two lusts were designed io cxamine the ellectivencss of

MM on lirst-years students’ leaming vocabulary retention Many reasons [or

vocabulary testing are indicated by Nation (1990): To find leamers' total vocabulary size, to compare vocabulary knowledge before and after the course,

to keep a continuing check on progress, to encourage learning by setting short- term goals, to see the effectiveness of your teaching, to investigate learning

The two tests were designed with the same format inchading three parts:

-The first part of both tests consisted of 5 sentences The students were

asked Lo complete the missing words based on the given pictures

- The second part of both Lests consisted of 30 sentences The students

were asked to choose the best answer by circling the correct letter A, B, C or D

- The third part of both tests consisted of 5 sentences The students were asked to match the sentence with the appropriate picture by writing the letter A,

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B, Cor D

Fach test lasted thirty minutes The vocabulary items used in the tests were taken from the sludents’ book and the test booklet NEFI taught in the second semester Tach test had 40 questions, cach question was given 2.5 points,

so the total score was 100 points

3.2.3.2 Survey questionnaire

Questionnaire was selected as the second data collection instrument in this study because * questionnaires are useful ways of gathering information about alleclive dimensions of teaching and learning, such as belicls, altitudes, motivation, and preferences, and enable a teacher to collect a large amount of information relatively quickly” ( Richards & Lockhart, 1994)

In this study, the questionnaire included 8 closed-questions and used a five-point Likert Scale with five options ranging from strongly agree to strongly

disagree Melver and Carmines (1981) described the Likert scale as “a set of items, composed of approximately an equal number of favorable and unfavorable statements concerning the altilude object, is given to a group ol subjects They are asked to respond to cach siatement in terms of their own

degree of agreement or disagreement Typically, they are instructed to select one

of five responses: strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, or strongly disagree”

in this study, the students had 10 minutes to answer the questionnaire ‘he questionnaire (see Appendix 3) consisted of two main parts with statements

asking the students’ attitudes towards MM technique ( item 1,3,3.4,) and their self-evaluation on the effectiveness of this technique( item 5.6,7,8)

3.2.4, Data collection procedure

The MM technique was applied m 6 wecks in the K51 Information class

during the second semester of the 2015- 2016 academic year at MTA The following table summarized the procedures of the research:

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Week Research activities

Week 1 The researcher identified the issues to be changed and

prepared the instructional strategy (MM) which was theoretically cllicctive to improve the situation and solve the problem

Week 2 - The class was given the pre-test before the treatment to

evaluate the student’s vocabulary capacity

~The data collected from the pre-test was analyzed to form a

hypothesis

Week 3 -The researcher made a detailed plan of what she intended to

implement, when it has to be completed, what the modifications to the cwriculum are, how the revised teaching strategies will be implemented, etc At this stage

information gathering instruments should be prepared

Week 4-9 MM was implemented in the slage of teaching and learming

vocabulary during the 3 units (from unit 6 to unit 8)

Week 10 -The students were administered the post-test to determine

the ctfectiveness of the intervention

-The students were asked to fill in the questionnaire to figure

out students’ alliludes lowards MM

-The data collected from the post-test and questionnaire

were analyzed to identify any improvements and evaluate students’ opinions about the treatment used

- Kvaluated the effectiveness of the treatment and identified

the results of the research

Table 1: Procedure of the research

As shown in the table 1, the MM technique was applied from week 4 to week 9 in the class K51 Information class During six-week treatment, the

Z1

students had nine periods every weck and one forty-minute period for vocabulary was taught in cach lesson

3.2.5 Data analysis

The resulis of the study were presented in quantitulive data which were

collected from the results of the two tests and questionnaire,

For the two tests, the scores were calculated and analyzed by the software names Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 20 Here, the researcher used paired samples t-test to compare the means of two sets of test scores belore and aller the treatment Also, a paired sample t-test could be used

to examine whether or not there was a statistically significant difference between two sets of tests derived from the same participants

In this study, there were two hypotheses:

The “null hypothesis” might be

HO: ‘The mean of two paired samples are equal the “alternative hypothesis” might be

1: The mean of two paired samples are not equal

According lo Cramer and Howitl (2004), the level at which the null hypothesis was rejected was usually set as 05 So, in this study, if the value of significance (p-value) is equal to or less than 05 then the null hypothesis is rejected and there 1s a difference before and after the treatment If the value of significance (p-value) is more than 05, the null hypothesis is accepted and there

is no difference before and after the treatment

For the survey questionnaires, after collecting them from the students, the

researcher used SPSS to calculate the valid percent Then, the researcher

compared the valid percent of some agrce opinions with some disagree oplions

to get the subject’s opinions about the treatment

This chapter presented the research settings, the participants and teaching

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material They were followed by action research definition, action research procedure The chapter was finally concluded by the through description of data collection instruments, data collection procedure and dala analysis procedure

The following chapter will show the results of the study

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CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Quantitative description of results from the pre-test and post-test

The analysis of scores from pre-test and post-lest aimed al answering the

first question of this study

Before and after the treatment, all the students were given a pre-test and a post-test to test the students’ retention of words under the treatment of MM The researcher herself checked the papers of the two tests and used the following

score interval in her sludy

Table 2: Score interval of the tests

According to table 2, the students were divided into 5 groups including

excellent group (85 -100), good group (70 -80), average group (50 -65), poor

group (30 -45) and very poor group (0 -25) In Vietnam, mark 5 is considered as

pass mark:

4.1.1 The distribution of the test results

Aller collecting the paper tests of students, the rescarcher hersell’ marked

and categorized the scores according to the above score interval After that, the researcher made comparison pre-test and post-test scores to find out any difference before and after the treatment The following table presented the

distribution of the test results

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Figure 2: Comparison between pre-test and post-test score

As can be clearly seen from the chart, before treatment, the majority of the students could not do the test successfully Up to 56.3% of the students got poor

marks and 12.5% of them achieved very poor marks The number of the students

who got 50 and 65 points comprised 15.6% Especially, only 9.4 % of the

students received good marks and there were two students who got excellent

marks (6.3%) The results indicated that the vocabulary retention ability of the

students was comparatively low Therefore, the researcher decided to try a new method of teaching vocabulary knowledge in classroom with expectation of solving this problem

Also from the above chart, it can be clearly seen that there was

considerable improvement in the students’ scores after the treatment was used

The most outstanding point is the difference between the number of students who got poor marks at the post-test and that at the pre-test The number of the

students who received poor marks was significantly reduced by 56.3% to 18.8 %

after the post-test On the contrary, the number of the students who got average

scores considerably increased by 15.6% to 34.4% In the pre-test, there were two

students (6.3%) who got excellent marks, but in the post-test, there were 6

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students, accounting for 18.8% of the total number of students Similarly, the

number of students getting good scores in the pre-test increased from 3 students

to 9 students im the posl-test None of them gained very poor marks in the post-

Table 3: The descriptive statistics of the two tests scores

Based on the table of the statistical analyses above, it can be found that the mean score of the pre-test was 46.25 and the mean score of the post-test was

64.22 It means that students’ mean score increased by 17.97 after the post-test

Furthermore, the maximum score of the post-test was higher than that of the pre- test (95290) The minimum score mereased from 20 in the pre-test to 30 in the

post-test

More importantly, the sigmficant valuc (p-valuc) was 0.000, which was

much less than 0.05 It indicated thal there was a significant change in the subject's vocabulary retention after the treatment

4.2 Quantitative description of results from the questionnaire

The analysis of results collected from the questionnaire aimed at answering the second question of the study The questionnaires including cight

ilems were to invesligale the subjects’ ullitudes towards the treatment Items 1, 2,

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3 and 4 investigated the students’ attitudes towards MM technique Items 5, 6, 7 and 8 aimed at presenting the students’ sclf-cvaluation on the effectiveness of the

MM technique in vocabulary retention

4.2.1 Students’ attitudes tewards MM technique

Table 4: Students’ attitudes towards MM technique

The students were firstly asked whether using MM to recall leamt vocabulary iloms was easy or nol, As can be secn from the table 4, most of the siudents reported that il was not a dillicull method t© be applicd in revalling

learnt vocabulary items About 71.9 % shared this view and 21.9% disapproved

‘\ few respondents (6.3%) had neutral feelings in this statement

Item 2 was to investigate the students’ excitement in the vocabulary

lessons when the teacher used the MM technique It presented clearly that a large

number of students Lell pleasure in MM lechmique In other words, the percentage of strongly agree and agree responses were 93.8% in this item Whereas, only 6.3% of the students did not enjoy leaning vocabulary through

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MMs and none of them chose neutral opmion or had no idea

‘The results of item 3 indicated that a large number of students started to

feel like learning new vocabulary by using MM technique To be in more detail,

84.4% of students strongly agree and agree that they felt like learnmg new

vocabulary by using MMs Only a few students (6.3%) did not know whether

they liked or disliked leaming new words with the use of MM and a small

number of participants (9.4%) were not interested in vocabulary lessons after the

treatment used

By creating branches out from the central idea, the students can free their minds to think creatively on the subjects related to the central idea Therefore,

78.2% of the students highly appreciated the creativeness of MM techniques

About 15.7 % disagreed with this statement and 6.3% of them had neutral idea

4.2.2 The students’ self-evaluation on the effectiveness of the MM technique

Saeco onal dencblg (0) | (639) | (63M) [2 fae (563) (313)

6 “can remember al 3 4 3 17 5

“Ine Thank , meen * | (@.4%) | (12.5%) | (9.4%) (53.1%) (15.6%)

class thanks to À

"rẽ r Nath thew 5 (0) | (09) | (12.59) (375%) - (50%

8 | MM technique can help

the word meanings more | (3.1%) | (9.4%) | (9.4%) (56.3%) (2199) casily for a longer lime