Luận văn applying the technique of guessing word meanings from context for 11th form students at le loi high school

Moreover, it is hoped thal the study could help the 11® graders am particular and high school students in general improve their vocabulary and use vocabulary correctly and fluently 4,

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HÀ NƠI

LNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES ARND INTERNATIONAL STUDLES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

Seok guesses tose dea

LE TH] THUY

APPLYING TLE TECHNIQUE OF GUESSING WORD MEANINGS FROM CONTEXT FOR THE 11™ FORM STUDENTS AT

LE LOI HIGH SCHOOL, THANH HOA

(SU DUNG KY NANG DOAN NGIIA TU QUA NGỮ CẢNH DỐI VỚI

HOC SINH LOP 11 TRƯỜNG THPT LÊ LỢI, THANH HÓA)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 1410

Tlanoi - 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

EO IOC IORIOR EOE IOES ACR EADIE

LE TI TIIỦY

APPLYING THE TECHNIQUE OF GUESSLNG WORD MEANINGS FROM CONTEXT FOR TIIE 11 FORM

STUDENTS AT LE LOT HIGH SCHOOL, THANH HOA

(SỬ DUNG KY NANG ĐOÁN NGHĨA TỪ QUA NGỮ CẢNH ĐÔI VỚI

HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TRƯỜNG THPT LẺ LỢI, THANH HÓA)

MLA MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodulogy Code: 60:14 16

Supervisor: Dr Lam Quang Ding

Hanoi — 2013

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES Chart 1: Result of the pre-test

Chart 2: Result of post-test 1

Chart 3: Result of post-test 2

Table 1: The effectiveness of the guessing technique

The rationule of the study

Aims and Objectives of the study

Methods of the study

Scope af the study

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.5 Types of context clues used in guessing word meanings

ES.1, Structural clues

IL2 Action research procedure

LL3 Background of the study

IL5 Applying the guessing technique from context to teaching English

11.5.1 Activities for presenting vacabulary

THL2 The results after the training period

HIL21 The results of students’ diaries

HE.2.2 The results of the post-

HIL23 The results of the questionnaire

HL24, The resuits of focus group interview

APPENDIX B: POST-TEST 2

APPENDIX €: TRAINING LESSON 1

APPENDIX D: TRALNING LESSON 2

APPENDIX E: TRATNING LESSON 3

APPENDIX F: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS

APPENDIX G: AN EXAMPLE FROM STUDENTS’ DIARIES

vit

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1, The rationale of the study

Vocabulary is an essential component of language, which plays a decisive role in communication, Wilkins, a famous British applied linguist, emphasized this, with his saying "without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed (1972-111) Obviously words do not occur in isolation bul within the context of sentence or a large discourse Also, a word used in different contexts may have different meanings; thus, simply learning the definitions of a word without examples of where and when the word occurs will not help Ieamers to fully understand ils meaning Learning an isolated isi of words without reference to the context is merely a memorization exercise which makes it difficult for learners to use the words in spoken and written language

In fact, students in general and Le Loi Iligh School students in particular

often have a habit of locking up word meanings in dictionaries without

understanding how lo use them Too much dictionary work can kill all interests im

reading and even interfere with comprehension, because readers become more

concemed with individual words and less aware of the context which gives them

meaning Therefore, Le Loi High School students find it diflicull to globally understand spoken or written discourse, most probably because they lack the ability

to guess word meanings from context Many students tend to ignore unknown

words, which is thought completely problematic to vocabulary learning Using the

contexts in which words appear, that is, a sentence in which the words to be learned

appears will help students derive the meaning of these urknown words Therefore,

this problem is well worth taking into consideration,

Although if is evident thal the use of contextual clues can be effeclive in

learning and teaching Unglish vocabulary and provide a means by which students

can quickly increase their existing vocabulary base, it has not attracted much

attention in terms of classroom instruction Some researches on the techniques of teaching vocabulary have mentioned this technique as a good one but little attempt has been made Lo integrate this Ischmique training into normal teaching Even Hille has been made to investigate the usefulness of developing students’ techniques for guessing unknown words through comtext on the improvement of their proficiency

in using vocabulary All these have motivated the researcher to carry out an action

research on applying the technique of guessing word meanings from context for 11™

graders at Le Loi high school

2 Aims and Objectives of the study

The study is aimed al applying the teclmique of guessing word meanings lo teaching vocabulary so that students can understand word meanings as well as their form and then use them correctly Cin this basis, possible suggestions for improved cffectiveness in students’ vocabulary learning can be derived

3 Significance of the study

The present research is carried out to encourage students to deal with word

meanings with the help of context Tis also cared ont with the hope that it would

help teachers as well as 11 graders at Le Loi High School be aware of the important role of the guessing skill as well as some guessing techniques used in

twaching and learning vocabulary Moreover, it is hoped thal the study could help

the 11® graders am particular and high school students in general improve their

vocabulary and use vocabulary correctly and fluently

4, Research questions

This study was conducted 1 answer the following major rescarch question

- How effective is the technique of guessing word meanings from context in helping

11® graders at Le Toi High Schoo! learn vocabulary?

5 Methods of the study

With reference to its characteristies, this thesis can be categorized as an achon research ‘The folowing instruments are applied to collec! data (or (hs study

One pre-test and two post-tests were used to measure whether students could

improve their vocabulary

‘A questionnaire of 7 questions was given to the students to find out their

opinions about the effectiveness of guoss

ing technique im understanding word meanings Interviews were conducted after 6 weeks of training to obtain more in- depth data about how students assessed their progress when applying guessing

technique and how this technique alfected their vocabulary learning

Students’ diaries were also used to support this action research Students were asked to write reflective journals to express their reflections on the guessing technique ‘The students’ diaries were collected after every 2 weeks of training and then were analyzed to find out what the students thought about the technique of

guessing word mearimgs From context

6 Scope of the study

‘The study is concemed with the application of the skill to guess word meanings (rom context in leaching and learning vocabulary so as to measure the degree of effectiveness of this technique in improving students’ vocabulary ‘the study only focuses on 11"" graders at Le Loi Iligh School, so the results of the study,

though highly expected, may nol be readily applied for all students al high schools.

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the author will clarify several concepts conceming the

techmiqus of guessing word meanings from context In addition, different issues

relating to this technique will also be presented

LL Definition of context

Context (language context) means “textual or discaursal place in which a

particular werd or structure can be found” (Gu, 2003:2) It can be as short as a

sentence or as long as several paragraphs, and it will usually contain unknown words (Rapaport, 2003) Context refers to the words surrounding an unfamiliar word, These surrounding words provide clues Lo the meaning of an unfanihar word Traditionally, context was seen as a given, existing fully and completely in any

properly written text and the key to using it was linguistic Imowledge and it plays a

very important role im the identificalion of words m text A word used im different

contexts may have different meaning so simply learning the definition of a word

wilhoul examples of where and when it occurs will not help leamers to fully

understand its meanng If learners are not able to contextualize new words by connecting them to words and concepts they already know, the words will likely be

less meaningful lo them And then if meaning is nol contextualized, it, will be

difficult for learners to memorize as well as to use new words appropriately,

Bialystok (1983) proposes thal cortex! exisis in elation and proportion to the reader’s implicit knowledge (intuitive and unanalyzed knowledge of the second language), other knowledge (knowledge of other languages and warld knowledge),

and conlext (linguistic and physical aspects of a text which provide clues lo

meaning) 'rom this view, context is clearly not an absolute presence in a text but is created by the reader, and is therefore influenced by the reader’s linguistic and

world knowledge

In short, context includes both linguistic and non-linguistic aspects,

‘Therefore, in order to derive the meaning of a word from context, learners need to utilize nol only the information presented im the text but also their general Jmowledge of the topic discussed in the text

1.2 Guessing ar inferring strategy

Guessing word meanings from context most commonly refers to inferring the meanings of a word from surrounding words in a written text It is an active and

deliberate prov lo acquire a meanmg for a word ina text, “By reasoning from

textual clues and prior knowledge, including language knowledge and hypotheses developed from prior encounters with the word, but without external sources of help

such as dictionaries or human.” (Rapaport, 2005)

Grellet (1981) defined guessing as “inferring means making use of syntacte, logical and cultural clues to discover the meaning of unknown elements” McCarthy (1990) gave another definition: “Inferring involves creating a schema for the unknown words, based on world knowledge and previous experience, both of the world and texts In other words, inferring means drawing conclusions as to word meaning by following certain rational steps in the face of the evidence available”

Gairns and Redman (1986) use the term “contextual guesswork” for the strategy of

making use of conloxl in which the word appears lo derive an idea of ils meaning or

in some cases from the word itself

Tơ conelude, the guessing, strategy is quite sophisticated but it plays a vary important pert in vocabulary development ‘Thus, it has been widely promoted as it tas been seen lo fit in more comfortably wilh the communicative approach than any

other

1.3 Guessing word meanings from context as a technique of vacahulary

teaching and learning

Gusssing word meanings from context is one of many available vocabulary learning techniques This technique is regarded as “the most important of all sources of vocabulary learning” (Nahou, 2001-232) Teaching meanings of single words out of context does not yield good learning outcomes because of the polysemous nature of words Thombury (2002) adds that guessing from the context

is one of the most useful skills learners can acquire and apply inside and outside

classroom and, more importantly, can be taught and implemented relatively easily (p 202) Nagy (1997:76) argues that although second-language learners are less

effective than nalive speakers al using context, they may have a grealer need Lo use

context ‘he reason is that they encounter unfamiliar words quite more often than first language readers and are more expected to encounter unfamiliar meanings of words Obviously, second language learners are able and have more opportunities lo

learn words from context

Using context clues to understand the meaning of uulamiliar words helps the reader save time since the reader does not have to look the word up in the dictionary and that also gives the reader a good sense of how a word is actually used As Smith (1971) argued, mstead of looking words up in a dictionary, the best way to identify

an unfamiliar word in a text is to draw inferences from the rest of the text Oxford & Scarcella (1994) believed that contextualized leaming helps learners grasp the full meaning of a word or phrase and become aware of the linguistic environment in which the word or phrase appears A number of other researchers (Ig Pressley, Levin & McDaniel, 1987) argued that context is helpful to generate possible

meanings for unknown words but il alone does nol foster retention of meanings To

understand the key words by using guessing meanings from context is a skill that leads the learners 10 read effectively and efficiently Guessing meaning of unfanular words in context is the most practical method to comprehend both

written and oral communication.

Graven the important role of guessing word meanings from context technique,

it is recommended that the teacher should assist students in learning to recognize clues to guessing word meaning Irom cortex! This vocabulary learning skill is effective for leaming low-frequency vocabulary (Herrel, 2008)

Nagy (1997:76) distinguishes three types of knowledge that readers possess

to contribute to comextwual inferring, which include linguistic knowledge, world Imowledge and strategic knowledge Linguistic Inowledge consists of syntactic

knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, and word schema which ws knowledge of whal

constitutes possible word meanings in a language Nagy emphasizes vocabulary

Imowledge, a key factor affecting readers' ability to make use of context According

to lam, lo infer the meaning of any unknown word in context, it is helpful to know

the meaning of the words around it World knowledge contributes to effective ue

of context The context that helps learners deduce the word meaning must be

construed (o consist of the leamers' knowledge of the world; learmng a word frum

context sometimes simply requires determining which of the several already familiar concepts the word refers to Strategic knowledge involves conscious

control over cognitive resources Nagy points out that training students in use of

context has improved their ability to guess the meaning of unknown words

Guessing the meaning of a word from context involves a relationship between the

situation medel and the text model, as well as knowledge of the nature of the

possible mappings between these two things Moreover, there are a mumber of

factors which impinge on the effectiveness of the guessing pracess that researchers should take inlo consideration belore condusting any study on this sub-skilt

14 Previous studies on guessing word meanings from context

Being one of the most important strategies in acquiring vocabulary knowledge, the guessing technique has been greal concer of many reswarchers A good number of studies have been carried out and the results have been expressed in both optimistic and pessimistic views

~

Research findings about the success of students’ guessing word meanings from context are inconclusive Bensoussan and Laufer (1984) provide a guessing lask which Ioarners had lo answer in writing Their findings show Cal learners frequently make wrong, guesses Wrong guesses resulted from giving the incorrect meaning of a word that had several meanings, or confusing the target word with one that looked or sounded similar Particularly, leamers have been found to make guesses, producing an inferred meaning, that has little relation to the wider context

of the text One point needs to be made here, that is the participants of the study have nol been specifivally trained to do lexical guessing

Liu and Nation (1985) were mare optimistic after they studied leamers’ ability lo guess the meaning of nonsense words used lo replace real word al regular intervals in written texts Lhey concluded that success was determined by the telative density of unknown words Where there was only one nonsense word per twenty-five words, they were easicr lo guess than there was one every ten words, Liu and Nation estimated that at least 85 percent of unknown words could be guessed by a class of leamers working together to pool their relevant knowledge

and skills

Recently, Redouane (2004) examined the efficacy of the guessing-from-

context stralegy versus a word-list strategy m learning French lexical words and

their meanings as well as retention of those words at the umiversity level The

findings manifested the facihtation role of guessing-from-conlexl strategy m

learning more French words Morcover, the guessing-from-context technique proved to have an impact not only on immediate recall but on long-term retention Aller carrying out a quasi-expermiental study with the usc of lwo approaches to

vocabulary teaching: Context and Non-context presentation, Zaid (2009) paid more

attention to “teach vocabulary in context’ approach, suggesting that IIL vocabulary should never be taught in isolation as im word Tists wih theh

equivalents.

15 Types of context clues used in guessing word meanings

Clues help to infer meanings of new words from context It is impossible to infer the meanings of new words if the context does not offer enough clues Both teachers and students need to be aware of this Nation (1983) suggests some types

of clues as follows:

+%1 Structural clues

Structural clues help to know the kind of meaning of the new words They are used to determine the type of grammatical category of new words They include morphology, antonyims, synonyzs, hyponyius, definilions, restatement, reference

words, altematives and punctuation

Morphology: ‘The students can derive word meanings by examining internal,

morphological features, like prefixes, suffixes, and root words

Reference words: Tdentilying the referents of pronouns may provide a clue to the

meaning of an unfamiliar word

Synonyms and antonyms: Often the reader can find the meaning of new items in

the same sentence

Hyponyms: Very often the reader can see that the relationship between an unfamiliar word and a familiar word is that of a general concept accompanied by a specific example (a hyponym)

Definitions: Sometimes the writer defines the meaning of the word right in the text

as “arcfis known as”, “are 4s described as”, “are/ 1s defined as”

Alternatives: The writer may give an altemative of an unfamiliar ward to make the

meaning known,

Restatement: Often the writer gives enough explanation for the meaning to be clear

such as: “int olher words”, “that is” and “thal is lo say”.

Punctuation: Readers can also usc clues of punctuation and type style to infor meaning, such as quotation marks (showing the word has a special meaning), dashes (showing apposition), parentheses or brackels (cnelosing a detimbon), and

italics (showing the word will be defined)

1.5.2 Inference clues

Those types of clues need a higher level of analytical skill and practice than structural clues The readers need to use rationale or reasonmg skills im order to figure out the meanings of new words Inference clues include comparison and contrast, summary, cause and result, cohesion to understand the word meanings

Swmmary: \ summary clue sums up a situation or an idea with a word or a phrase

Compurison und contrast: Writers can show similarity or dillerenee, Key worils

“but”, “instead of”, “even though”, “in contrast to”, “yet”, and “in spite of”, “like”,

“in the same way" are used by the author

Cohesion: While reading a text, cohesion is maintained through a rich mesh of contextual clues The meaning of unknown words can be shown by other words in the same sentence or in adjacent sentences because they regularly co-ocour with the unfamiliar words It is called “collocational cohesion” by Llalliday and llassan (1976: 287)

In conclusion, to make effective guesses, learners need to be trained to look

for chies in context, provided that those clues are sufficient to make inferences

possible and productive

1.6 Approach to leaching af guessing technique

Although guessing from context is a complex and often difficult technique to cary out successiully, it may still contribute to vocabulary lcanang There are different approaches to teaching the technique of guessing from context, two of which are inductive and deductive approach According to Nation and Coady

10

(1988), teachers can train students the guessing technique with a five-step inductive

procedure:

1 Determine the part of speech of unknown word;

2 Look at the immediate context and simplify it if necessary:

3 Look at the wider context This entails examining the clause with unknown

word and its relationship to the surrounding clauses and sentences;

4 Guess the meaning of unknown ward;

5 Check that ths guess is correct

As can be seen in the mentioned approache, teacher explanation and

modeling of the technique is essential at the beginning stage, followed by student

practice

17 Vocabulary in English textbook for 11™ graders

In the textbook currently in use for 11" graders, vocabulary is taught and

practiced via both materials for language skills development and in its own right in

the Language Fecus section Thus, vocabulary is both laught in meaningful contexts and further consolidated in form-focused exercises

In the readmg scction, vocabulary is taught through activities such as matching definitions with words, gap-fill, word-form, finding synonyms and

antonyins However, vocabulary 1s nol practiced as much in other parts of the unit

as expected Unfortunately, however, some vocabulary is used in speaking and listening sections, but that vocabulary is not used logically in Language locus section Students do not have much chance 10 practice the words thal they have just learnt in reading section Also, many of these activities are not properly designed, thus they are not highly likely to achieve their purposes

L& Summary

In this chapter, an overview of context and guessing technique, types of context clues, approaches to teaching of guessing technique, guessing word

ieanings as a lechnique to teach English voeabulary, some previous studies on guessing word meaning and vocabulary in English textbook for 11 form have been

presented A theoretical framework has been prepared for investigation in the next

chapter.

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGV 1.1 Rationale for the use of an action research

“detion research is the application of fact finding to practical problem

solving in a social situation with a view to improving the quality of action within it,

involving the collaboration and cooperation of researchers, practitioners and

laymen” (Burns, 1999: 293) Mills (2003-4) defines action research as “any

decisions for the future,

Action rescarch is very beneficial to the teaching and leaning provess; it helps to promote personal and professional growth, to improve practice to enhance student learning, and to advance the teaching profession (Johnson, 1995) The teacher woukl solve his problem on his ows or in collaboration with olher teachers

if he was trained to conduct action research Tsui (1993) gave three reasons why a teacher needed action research Those reasons are to solve own problems in a

scicntific process and improve own practice; Lo adapl theory to practice, to share the

results of action research with other teachers The teacher will become a better teacher because he knows how to find out and solve his problems in teaching on his

own

IL.2 Action research procedure

Some researchers presented different action research cycles but shared the

same feature, that is a typical action research needed to go from one slep to another

luleen lerrance (2000) suggested a 5 steps 1 action research Kunan (1992)

suggested seven steps of action research as follows:

- Stop 1: Initiation (Identify the problem)

- Step 2: Preliminary Investigation (Collect data through a variety of means)

- Step 3: Hypothesis (Develop research question)

- Step 4: Intervention (Devise strategies and inmovation to be implemented}

- Step 5: Evaluation (Collect data again and analyze it to work out the findings)

- Step 6: Dissemination (Report the result by running workshop or issuing a paper)

- Step 7: Follow-up (Find altermative methods Lo solve the same problem)

Finding that action research is the best choice for the purpose of improving

the students’ voeabulary acquisilion, T decided Lo carry out ant aclion research

First of all, the teacher can have a thorough look and investigation on the vovabulary acquisition of students on daily basis by carrying out an action rescarch Besides, the teacher is able to work out a detailed analysis on the students’ performance during the progress of the research It helps the teacher design a detailed program which is most suitable to the class and brings benefits to students

Secondly, in this action research, the data is taken from every student and

trealod individually so the leacher oan se students’ progress easily She will be able

to get the most up-to-date information and make sensible changes if necessary to the

research while applying il to meel the demand of the students The teacher can

spend more time practicig contextualized vocabulary presentation and paying more

attention when giving feedback to students Students’ performance monitoring records are collected every two weeks, and any potential problems can be solved int

time

Tn short, the aclion research design is the most practical and feasible for the

researcher, all above factors considered I'he research followed the seven-step

procedure suggested by Nunan (1992)

11.3 Background af the study

4.3.1 Participants:

As the research was conducted from the middle of the first semester to the

begiming of the second semester of the school-year, there were some problems

relating to the consistency of the participants Some students in the group moved to the South to have a Tet holiday with their parents who work mostly in big

companies in Bmih Duong, Binh Phnoc Also, thal was the lime for Tel holiday, so

some students were not in the mood for learning, especially one week before and

after Tet Some students were absent from some tests due to their personal business

Those students could nel bs proper participants of he rescarch program due lo the lack of participation in the very initial step of it and their performance could not be

treated as a trusted source of information

‘Laken every factor into consideration so as to minimize the risk of invalidity and to ensure that every single participant was treated under the same conditions of the research, T reached the final number of 38 students whose performance would provide appropriate data for the research They were the ones who participated thoroughly in the research from the beginning to the end In order not to make other studenis (eel excluded, T still lel them participate in the research program However, their performance was not counted on to yield any comments or interpretation of the

Tesearch

Iurther observaHon, imvestigation and talks with students revealed more information about them Mest of the participants are al the age of 17, Nearly one third of them are male and the rest are female, all from the countryside, Students

have been learning English since they were in grade 6 at secondary school, so they

had already acquired a certain level of 1.2 in order to be able to infer mean

particular words from the context,

gs of

43.2 Data collection instruments

1.3.2.1, Tests

The instrumentation used in this study included a pre-test, two post-tests to

measure whether students change over time due (o a treatment The post-Lesis were

prepared carefully by the researcher In the tests, there arc a multiple-choice tests with four options, and reading comprehension tests In each question, the students are required lo use the contextual guess work to determine their option The aim of the post-tests was to reveal the efficacy of the treatments provided to the group

during the research The post-tests were taken after week 4 and week 6

1.3.2.2 Students’ diarics

Aller every 2 wecks of training, the Leacher asked the students to write thei

diaries at home expressing what they thought about this technique of teaching

vocabulary Diaries were thought to be a valuable research tool as students could

frocly exp

ss their fovlings, reflections, cbscrvalions or interpretations about their

teacher's ways of teaching as well as the technique that teacher applied in teaching

vocabulary Al home, students could write down any thoughts or feelings without

any interferences and thew diaries would be more reliable

1.3.2.3 Questionnaire

After 6 weeks of training this technique, a questionnaire of 7 questions was

given to 38 students in the class to get the general information about how this

technique of teaching affected students in their vocabulary leaming Ihe students

were asked to fill in the questionnaire within 10 minutes, then teacher collected the

quostionmaires, read then and found out how effective the techniques was

1 'ocus group interview

After 6 weeks of waining, an interview was conducted to obtain more in- depth data about how students assessed their progress when applying guessing

16

strategics and how effective this techmque was 4 students were selected randomly among the respondents for an interview ‘hey were asked in Vietamese and they

also anawered the interview questions in Vietnamese This was lo guarantee the truthfulness of the information in case the students were not confident enough in answering in English or they may get confused in understanding the interview questions and giving answers to the asked questions All the interviews were audio- taped and transcribed for translation

TỊ.4 Data collection procedures

Step 1: Initiation (Identify the problem)

Before carrying out this research, | had informal chats with the students in the free time or break time to gain understandings of their problems in vocabulary leaning, Some students told me that when encountering a new word, they often looked up the meaning of a new word ina bilingual dictionary or asked their teacher for its meanings, and they tended to forget words quickly after classes Some others said thal they might remember words bul they didn’t know how to use ther appropriately, even just in making some simple sentences Talking with other teachers, the researcher also heard them say they did not usually present vocabulary

with the usc of guessing technique because of the limitation o[ tưng

Step 2: Preliminary Investigation (Collect data through a variety of means)

From the informal chats with both the students and teachers, I found that both students and their teachers tended to present and learn words in isolation Also,

in order to identify the students’ guessing ability before taining, | gave a pre-test for students to try to guess the meanings of unknown words and do the task To ensure the reliability and validily of the test, all the exercises were chosen from the book “Lnglish Lexico-Grammatical Lixercises for 11" graders (Bai tập từ vựng- ngữ pháp tiếng Anh 11, NXE Dai hoc Quéc gia TP Hé Chi Minh) The words

belonged to one of the six topics that students lear at grade 11, The students did the test in forty-five minutes; after that | collected the pieces of paper to get the results

Step 3: Hypothesis (Develop research question)

From the preliminary investigation, T developed the following hypothesis for

my action research:

The technique of guessing word meanings from context helps 11" graders to learn

vocatulary better

Slep 4: Intervention (Devise strategies and innavation to be implemented)

In trying to make the technique of guessing word meanings from context more ellective for sludenis, T read books on low lo present word meanings in context and selected the activities and exercises that could help me present and get students practice vocabulary in contexts The criterion for selection was the

achvilies and exercises thal were appropriate 1o the students’ proficieney Then T

used those activities and exercises in the classroom with my students during three lessons in three weeks Fach lesson lasted 45 minutes The lessons were designed as follows

Lesson 1:

There were two main parts in this lesson’

- Firstly, in the instruction part, I prosonted the guessing strategy suggested by Nation and Coady (1988) The strategy consists of five steps and I

demonslraled the sleps lo the studenis, using the examples prepared in

advance

- Secondly, the practice part inckaded an exercise On doing the exercise, the sludents could apply whal tiey have learnt in te instruction section, especially step one and step three ‘The students were required to identify the part of speech of the underlined words and predict their meanings in the text

18

Lesson 2: This lesson consisted of three exercises

- Inexercise 1, the teacher gave the students some sentences and asked them

to determine the part of speech of those words

- In exercise 2, the teacher gave students one short passage with some

nonsense words Students, basing on the context, tried to guess the meanings

of the nonsense words The teacher called on different students to do each

step

s wilh the unknown

- In exercise 3, the be cher gave students some sentare

words Students guessed the meanings of unknown words based on the

context,

Lesson 3: In this lesson, teacher gave a text for the students to list out the words they did not know and then to try to guess their meanings The text was printed and delivered to the students The students did the task in twenty minutes and after that,

the researcher checked the exercise with the whole class

Step 5: Evaluation (Collect data and analyze it Lo work out the findings)

Tn order to identify the students’ guessing abihly aller the lairmng period, T

gave two post-tests for students to de and try to guess word meanings The post- tests were at the same level as the pre-test to ensure validity 1 also carried out an

informal iterview in order Lo investigate the changes more thoroughly Four

students were selected by the researcher to answer some questions All the interviews were conducted in Vietnamese so that participants could fully articulate

their views without being constrained by the use of the second language The

interviews were recorded, then transcribed and analyzed by the author Following

were the questions for the interview:

Question 1: Llow did you guess the meanings of the unknown words in the

test?

Question 2: How effective is guessing the meanings of unknown words fiom

Step 6: Dissemination

The results of the action research are reported in this thesis

Step 7: Follow-up (Find alternative methods to solve the same problem)

Having completed the first cycle of this action research, I understand better the advantages and the limitation of the technique of guessing word meanings from

context This understanding will be the foundation for my next cyele of the action

research, which will be presented in section 2 of part C in this thesis

ILS Applying the guessing technique from context to teaching English

vocabulary to 11” learners

Dus to the lack of time, T just focused on teaching Rriglish vocabulary from

unit 4 to unit 11 in 11™ textbook and some related activitios for practicing

vocabulary that students had just leamt The new words were explained clearly in some ways so thal students could guess and undersland the word meanings and they

were able to use them effectively Below are some ways for presenting new words and for practicing those new words also in the post-reading, speaking or even writing and language Locus svetion

11.5.1, Activities for presenting vocabulary

5.1.1, Real objects, picture

In general, this method works very well with concrete nouns It can help teachers avoid boredom in the class Moreover, learners can find it easier to remember the words and recall thom for later use Teachers can use available objects in the class ar teachers can bring real objects into the class

For example, when teaching, the word “competition” (Unit 6, Knglish 11, teachers can bring some pictures an competitions such as Moming Star Television Singing Context or The Way to Olympic Peak and show them lo students saying

“this is a competition” When presenting the word “red banner”, teachers can use the banner that is available on the wall in every classroom such as “IIoc sinÏt trường THPT Lé Loi noi khéng voi Ma tiy” and say “That is a red banner” All the

students will see what the words mean

These supplements are suilable for presenting verbs aud adjectives showing man’s actions or facial expressions They make the class more active, attentive, and

thus students learn the words more easily

For example: when teaching the verb “reach” (Unit 7, English 11), the teacher can do an action as he/ she is trying to reach the picture on the wall and say

“Now, T am trying to reach the picture” to make the class understand what “reach”

means

1.3 Giving examples

Giving examples is a good way of teaching vocabulary; students not only

understand what the word means, bul also know how lo handle this word im making

sentences.

For example: when teaching the word “remote” (Unit 4, English 113, teachers can make sentences like this “MMuong Lat is @ remote mountainous region

in Thank Hoa” Tis easier Cor students to understand whal “remote” means

5.1.4, Giving synonyms, antonyms

Most students in the 11" form have low Jevel of in English Thus, lengthy and complex explanations should be avoided The use of synonyms or antonyms in showing the meaning of new vouabulary is therefore suilable as it is always shorl and easy to understand, providing that students have already known the synonyms

or antonyms

For example: when teaching the word “courteous” (Unit 9, English 11), teachers can give the synonym of this word as “polife” So the students can easily understand what “courteous” means Or when presenting the word “speedy”, teachers can give the antonym as “slow” ‘The students will see what “speedy”

means

LL: Contextual guesswork

Contextual guesswork is also a good way of presenting new words and it is

very useful for students in trying to guess word meanings in some texts, however,

many students find it difficult Lo do the guesswork because of their limited ability or too difficult texts or context In this case, teachers should give out eliciting questions that act as guides and suggestions for the students or they should make the

context easy for students to understand lhe word meaning

For example: when teaching the word “embarrassed” (Unit 2, English 11),

teachers car give sludents Ihe context in which Itns word is used, such as: 7 have the

same hat as my friend’s Yesterday after finishing the lesson, 1 took the hat and put

it on my head Suddenly, my friend stopped me and told me that I had taken her hat

by mistake 1 felt very embarrassed then In this vase, students are more likely to be able to guess what “embarrassed” means

i

Activities for controlted practice stage

Praclice is essenlial for language learning Without practice, sludsnts can

neither remember the word for long time nor use it appropriately Penny Ur (1996: 19) proves that learners can only learn from being told and understanding up to a corlain point Practice is carned out through exercises and activities which require

less contrel and intervention of teachers Hereafter are some useful techniques for

control practice stage Some of these activities can be adapted in writing or

Fangnage focus sections

2.1, Sentence-making

One very productive way of practicing the new word is to make sentences

with the word It focuses on the use of the word and pronunciation, intonation as

well if we do il orally Ttais very useful as students can make their own sentences

and thus advance more to a communicative ability Of course this is not easy for

students, therefore, leachers should give a standard example first Then, they can

ask students to make varied senteness using the same word

For example: With the word “secure” (Unil 9, English 11), teacher can say “7

feel secure after locking the door carefully” and ask students to make other

sentences with “secur

H

In this kind of exercise, sludenls are given some sentences wilh some

missing words and they ave asked to fill in blanks with the right words

Example: Choose one suilable word to [ill in cach blank to complete the followmg sentences.

decreasing informational control individual

1 What is the of your country? Is it increasing?

2 The population of Treland is There are fewer people now than 10 years ago

3 The of 8,

9, 3and 6is 6.2

4 The cìnldren blave badly and their parents car’ them

5 When there is a famine in a country, other countries send food for to

the hungry people

6 The Umited Nations is art organization

{Vocabulary in Unit 7, English 11)

Students arc also given a text with some missing words and they are asked to

fill in blanks with the suitable words

For example: Fill in cach blank wilh one proper word

Intel Science Talent Search has just (1) the Lop prive to a teenage boy from the

state of Colorado More than 1,500 students entered projects for the (2) Theu

research projects (3) nearly every area of science, (4) chemistry, physics,

maths, engineering, social scionce and medicine Well-known scientists (5)

them on their research abilities and creative thinking,

(Vocabulary in Unit 6, English 11- Adapied from English Lexico-Grammatical

Exercises for 1" graders}

This techmque can help teachers check their sludents’ vovabulary, grammar,

collocation and spelling as well Useful as it is, this technique is also difficult as it

requires a wide range of knowledge and understanding of the text

1.5.2.3 in the blank the right form of the word

This technique is useful for checking students’ grammar and word-formation which is of great use in learning and expanding vocabulary systematically Sometimes, it also requires understanding of the words and their meanings

Example: Give the right forms of the words in parentheses

1 Tewe youa debt of (grateful) for what you've done

2 She behaved (gratefull) , ,, to every one around her

3 Many (vohmteer) activities are held to help disadvantaged people in

THƠUH4IHOUS TC83

4, He took part in the gampaign (voluntser) with his friends in the summer

vacation

1.5.2.4 Translation

This Lechnique requires Ihe students nol only know the meaning of the words

but also know how to use them in contexts It helps students remember the

equivalents between Vielmamese and English betler Il can also improve the

students’ writing abilities and spelling The teacher can ask students to translate

some sentences or a paragraph from Uinglish to Vietnamese or vice-versa

For example

1 Translale this passage inlo Viebnamese

Ơn February l4 many young women give sweets to their boyfriends, and on March 14° thew boyfriends buy ther some chouolates However, the young people who do not have a girlfriend or a boyfriend can celebrate their own day on April 14" On this special day, called “Black Day”, these young people sit with their friends, who are in the same siluation, and cat jayang noodle which arv black This ensures that everyone has a day to celebrate

(Adapted from English Lexico-Grammatical Exercises for 11” graders)

kỳ Translate this passage into English

Hoat déng tinh nguyện dem lại cơ hội kết bạn cho tất cá mọi người

oP Tết là kỳ nghỉ có ý nghĩa nhất trong năm đối với người Việt Nam

Sự gia tăng dân số là một vân đê đang được quan tâm nhiều nhất hiện nay

Gia tăng dân số đề lại nhiều hậu quả cho nên kinh tế của quốc gia

This technique is useful for checking students’ vocabulary and grammar In this teclunque, the loacher gives out two columns: A and B which consists of some words or phrases or even some affixes and ask students to match one item in cohunn A to an item in column B so that they have similar meaning, collocate, or

have opposite meaning

For example: Match each item in column A to one item with similar meanings in

H.5.3, Activities for free practice stage

‘This stage allows and encourages students to use the words creatively with Tie contrel of the teacher The role of the teacher is only lo give instructions and oriented tasks while students try and use all the knowledge they have leamt to make real sentences that can be used in real situation Ilereafter are some useful techniques for this stage

1.5.3.1, Word-games

Using word-games is a very useful technique as it can arouse a lot of interest

in the students ‘The students, then, can practice new words excitedly with high inspiration and it is likely that they will recall and remember the words better The word-games can effectively be used such as: Naught and Cross, Gueswork, Slap the board, Bingo

2 Topi cussion

This is a very productive and active activity for students as it provides them a chance lo practice communicating in real life situations To do this, leachers must

give students interesting topics and pre-teach some structures they need to use

during their discussion

For example: Tet holiday is the most meaningful event for people who live

for away from their home Do you agree with this or not? Give details to support

your ideas

IL6 Summary

‘Yo sum up, 1 have just listed some techniques which may be useful for leaching vocabulary in all three stages Of course there exist many olhur techniques and activities, teachers of English may choose which one to apply depending on the real conditions of class, students or aim of language teaching,

CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

In the previous chapter, the participants, data collection instruments and

procedure of the action research are described in details In this chapter, the analysis

of data collection is presented As has been said in chapter 1, the aim of the study is

to examine the feasibility of guessing word meanings in contexts to 11" graders in a

particular high school and to measure the effectiveness of this vocabulary teaching technique on students’ vocabulary learning The results of this study, therefore, are

reported on each purpose of the study

IIL.1 The results of the pre-test

0% 5%

kha '8 Trung bình mYeu

Kem

Chart 1: Result of the pre-test

As can be seen from chart 1, the students performed poorly in the pre-test They were able to guess only a small percentage of the unknown words in the test

30 only 5% of the students got good results though the topic of the text was familiar

to them 16% of the students got mark 7 to 8 Most of the students (58%) got the

mark of 5 to 6 and, more disappointing, nearly 21% of them got mark below 5

Obviously, the results of the pre-test were not satisfactory, which proved that the

students’ skill of guessing the meanings of unknown words from context was poor

Having observed the students’ performance on the pre-test day, the researcher

noticed that the students were confused about dealing with unknown words without

28