Luận văn a study on english vocabulary learning strategies used by the first year students at hai phong community college

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, ILANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES DO THT KIM OANTT A STUDY ON ENGLISH VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATE

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, ILANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

DO THT KIM OANTT

A STUDY ON ENGLISH VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES USED BY THE FIRST YEAR STUDENTS

AT TIAI PHONG COMMUNITY COLLEGE

NGHIÊN CỨU VE CAC CHIẾN LƯỢC HỌC TỪ VỰNG

TIENG ANI CỦA SINII VIÊN NĂM THỨ NIẮT TRUONG CAO BANG CONG DONG HAI PHONG

TABLE OF CONTENT 'FAILU OI' CON TNT ke ke sees iv

5 Significance of the study ¬— ¬— ¬— 3

1.1.1 Background of language leaming strategies ¬— 5

1.1.2 Delinton öŸ langtrage Ïearring siralepies 6

1.1.3 Classtfieation of learning stratogios ¬— 7

1.1.4 The importance of language learnung strategies in language learning,

1.2 Vocabulary leaning strategies sesesntnee sesesntnee 10

1.2.1 Definition of vocabulary leaming strategies sesesntnee 10 1.2.3 Classification of vocabulary teaming strategies "1

1.2.2.1 Classification of Gu and Johnson (1996) 12 1.2.2.2 Classification of Schmitt (1997) 3 1.2.2.3 Classification of Nation (2001) 15 1.2.3 Sumniayy, HHu re HHu re HHu re 16

1 Recapitulation sec HHu re HHu re

2 Limitations and suggestions for further study

REFERENCES

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES List of tables:

Table 1: Gu and Johnson's (1996) taxonomy of vocabulary leaming

SỈAIEBi©S co — —

Table 2: Norbert Schmmilt’s (1997) laxonomy of vocabulary learning

SÍTBEEBl8 nniiioooicee — —

Table 3: Nation's (2001) taxonomy of vocabulary learning stratepies

Table 4: Table of test specifications

Table 5: Vocabulary learning strategies for discovery a new word's

meaning used by the Pilot study participants

Table 6: Vocabulary learning strategies for consolidalion a word in

memory used by the Pilot study participants

Table 7: Vocabulary learning, strategies in survey questionnaire

Table 8: Descnplive statistics of students’ use of Delermination

SÍTBEEBl8 noiiioooicee — —

Table 9: Descriptive statistics of students’ use of Social strategies

Table 10: Descriplive statistics of students’ use of Social strategies

(CensolidaHon) — —

Table 11: Descriptive slalistics of students’ use of Memory strategies

Table 12: Descriptive statistics of students’ use of Cognitive

SỈAIEBi©S co — —

Table 13: Descriptive statistics of students’ use of Metacognitive

SiateBle8 co — —

Table 14: Strategies use according to descending order of mean

Table 15: Mean of six categories

Melacognilive strategy

Number of students

Second Language Acquisition

Social strategy Vocabulary Learmng Stralegies

Mean of frequency of use

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

Vocabulary is very important for people’s communication and language

learning, which plays an important role in the process of scuond language acquisition Wilkins (Wilkins, 1972: 111) stated that “without grammar little can be

conveyed, wilhout vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” Hence, we cannot deny

that skills of language learning inckiding listening, speaking, reading and writing cannot be successfully achieved without vocabulary So the study of vocabulary

learning slralegies is as an important slop i sccord language acquisition

During the 1950s and 1960s, the study on vocabulary learning received little attention Kortunately, vocabulary learning has been studied more widely since the

1980s Tt has atiracted more and more imicrest from rescarchers, educationalisis as

well as teachers Many of them, both at home and abroad, have pointed out their view on the vocabulary learning’s significance As Decarrico (2001: 285) stated that

“Although vocabulary has uol always been recoguized as a priority in language teaching, interest in its role in second language learning has grown rapidly in recent years and specialists now emphasize the need for a systematic and principled

approach lo vocabulary by both the teacher and the leamer” Or Nguyen Huyen

(2004: 1) compared “If a language could be considered as a house, then its grammar

could be considered as cement and its vocabulary could be figuratively compared to

bricks To build a complete house, not only coment but also bricks are needed

Without bricks, no house can be built, even when plenty of high quality cement is

available.” This means that to be a competent English communicator, one must

avquire a good knowledge of English grammar and have a rich amounl of English

vocabulary as well

In Vietnam in general and in my college, Hai Phong Community College in particular, English is the compulsory course for students However, there is a large gap between the students’ English ability and requirements settled in the syllabus

As vocabulary becomes a big obstacle in English learning and their specd of vocabulary improvement is quite slow Jesides that, many Linglish teachers think that their students can achieve vocabulary themselves Fvery new word can be looked up in English Vietnamese dictionary which is marked with phonetic symbol and its Vietnamese meaning, so it is unnecessary to make great effort to

teaching vocabulary In addition, there are some teachers still adopt the traditional

teaching methods which are proved to be inefficient by many researchers On the other hand, as a teacher of English, I have dealt with many questions relating to

vocabulary leaning which are raised by my sludents Ever some of them have

worked hard on learning new words but the result is so disappointing Personally, 1 found it necessary to provide with them successful learning, strategies to lea

English words

Those reasons above encourage me to conduct a study on English vocabulary Icamning strategies uscd by the [inst year students at Hai Phong Commuraty College

2 Aims of the study

‘The ultimate goal of the study is to help improve teaching and leaming English in general, and teaching and learning English vocabulary in particular at Hai Phong Community College Therefore, the specific aims of this study are to find oul the students’ awareness of the important of vocabulary learning and whal strategies are commonly used in learning vocabulary

3 Research questions

The research questions that the present study socks to answer arc:

1 What is the students’ awareness of the importance of vocabulary leaning?

2 What vocabulary leaning strategies do the first year students at Hai Phong Community College commonly use?

4 Scope of the sLudy

The study focused on the investigation of vocabulary leaming strategics which are employed by the first year students at Lai Phong Community College during the second term of school year 2011-2012

5 Significance of the study

Schmitt and McCarthy (1997) points out that vacabulary leaming has been

regarded as one of ihe most important parts in a sccond or foreign language acquisition On the basis of the idea above, this study helps raise the students’

awareness of the imporlance of vocabulary learmmg and thal there are many other

vocabulary leamg strategies and therefore the strategy training is necessary to be done by the teachers Vurther, it reveals the most and least frequently used vocabulary learning stralogics adopicd by the students, which can be implemented

to support both teachers and students in teaching and learning vocabulary at Hai Phong Community College

6 Mcthods of the study

In order to achieve the aims of the study mentioned above, the study was

carried out on the basis of semi-structured interview and survey questionnaire The

Rnglish tcachors al Hai Phong Community College wero interviewed about the strategies their students use in leaning, vocabulary to support information for the

survey questionnaire Then, vocabulary learning strategies listed im the survey

questionnaire were compiled from a review of the literature on vocabulary learning strategies and the interviews’ data After the results were analyzed, the findings

were reporled and discussed then some suggestions wore raised in the sinndy

7 Structure of the study

The study is divided into four chapters Each chapter deals with an important

aspect of the study

Chapter 1 is the introduction of the study, which inchades the rationale, aim, research questions, scope, significance the study as well as the methods and

structure of the study:

Chapter 2 presents the information about some basis concepts related Lo

language loarning stratogics and vocabulary caring strategies In addition, the classifications of language learning strategies and vocabulary learning strategies are

data analysis and implications

Chapter 4 summarizes the main issues of the whole stady and gives the

fulure directions for further rescarch and lunitalions of lhe study.

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, a brief review of vocabulary Jeaming, strotegies is given; some basic concepts related to language leaming and vocabulary learning strategies are also presented In addition, the classification of language learning strategies in genoral ond vocabulary learning strategies in particular are reviewed lo sel up the

theoretical framework for the investigation in the next chapter

1.1 Language learning stvategics

1.1.1, Background of language learning strategics

‘There has been a prominent shift within the field of language learning and teaching, over the last twenty years with greater emphasis being put on leammers and Icarning rather than on teachers and teaching, In parallel to this new shift of interest, how leamers process new information and what kinds of strategies they employ to

understand, learn or remember the information has been the primary concem of the

researchers dealmg with the area of forcign language learning So, language learning strategies (LLS) for foreign language learning and the teacher's role in

strategy training is very important

Research into LIS began in the 1960s Particularly, developments in

cognilive psychology influenced much of the research dous on LLS In most of the research on LLS, the primary concern has been on “identifying what good language

learners report they do to learn a second or foreign language, or, in some cases,

are observed doing while learning a second or foreign language” (Rubin and

Wenden 1987:19) In 1966, Aaron Carton published his study entitled “Ihe Method

of Inference in Forsign Language Study”, which was the first atlempl on learner strategies After Carton, in 1971, Rubin started doing research focusing on the strategies of successful learners and stated that, once identified, such strategies could be made available to less successful learners Rubin classified strategies in

terms of processes contributing directly or indirectly to language learning, Wong-

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Fillmore (1976), Tarone (1977), Naiman ct al (1978), Cohen and Aphek (19811, Wenden (1982), Chamot and O'Malley (1987), Politzer and Mc Groarty (1985), Conli and Kolsody (1998), and many olhers studied stratogies uscd by language

learners during the process of foreign language learning,

1.1.2 Definition of language learning strategies

TL is cloarly seen that research on Iearning strategies in general and language learning strategies in particular is becoming increasingly popular So far, there has been no consensus among the linguists regarding to the definitions of leaning

information.” Similarly, Weinstein and Maver (1986) (in ©" Malley and Charmot

1990-43) have learning facilitation as a goal and are intentional on the part of the

learner The goal of strategy use is lo affect the leaner’s motivational or affective

state, or the way in which the learner selects, acquires, organizes, or integrates new

Imowledge.”

Oxford (1990-8) defines learning strategies as “specific actions taken by the learner lo make learning casier, faster, more enjoyable, more self directed, more

effective and more transferable to new situation.”

Ellis defines learning strategies as “the particular approaches or techniques that leamer employs to try to learn an L2,” (1997:76) Ie further explains that

learning strategies can be behavioral or mental and are lypically problem - oriented

Rubin (in Wenden and Rubin 1987:19) is even more explicit when he defines leaming strategies as “any set of operations, steps, plans, routines used by the

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learner to facilitate the obtaining, storage, retricval and use of information, that is, what learner do to ean and do to regulate their learning.”

According to O’Malley and Charmot (1990:1), leaming strategies are special ways of processing information that enhance comprehension, learning, or retention

of the infonnation” or in their other words learning strategies are the “special thoughts or behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, lear, or retain new information.”

Obviously, learning strategies are defined in different words and from different perspectives such as cognitive, social or pragmatic Therefore, researchers worked out the taxonomy of learning strategies instead of defining them This can

be seen in the following part

1.1.3 Classification of learning strategies

In the 1980s and early 90s, research mainly focused on categorizing the strategies found in the studies of the previous decade As a result, several taxonomies were proposed to olassify them, including classifications of LLS in general and language sub-skills strategies in particular

One of the most famous to date that proposed by O'Malley and Chamot

(1990) Their hicrarchical framework of strategies dislinguishes three major strategy

types:

= Metacognitive Strategies

= Cognitive Strategies

* Socio-affective Strategies

O'Malley and Chamot's framework of strategies has considerable intuitive

appeal and many practitioners have used this taxonomy in planning their teaching

However, O'Malley and Chamat have never examined the construct validity of their taxonomy As a result, it is unclear enough te teach students and to train them to use

these three separate strategies.

According to Rubin, there are three types of strategies used by learners that contribute directly or indirectly to language leaming ‘I'hese are:

* Memory strategies * Metacognitive strategies

* Cognitive strategies * Affective strategies

* Compensation strategies * Social strategies

It can be seen that much of the recent work in this area has been underpinned

by a broad concept of LLS that goes beyond cognitive processes to include social

and communicative stratcgics.

1.1.4, The importance of language learning strategies in language learning and teaching

Bridging the gap between students’ leaming styles and teachers’ teaching styles will be a powerful means to guide students towards successfull learning Thus, teaching students leaming strategies should not be neglected Oxford (1990) describes leaming strategies as “specific actions taken by the learners to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effectwe, and more Iransferable to new situations” Loarning stratogics will compensate for the weakness of a leaming stvle and maximize the strengths of a leaming style powerfully

To emphasize the importance of LIS, Chamol et al (1999) stated,

"Differences between more effective learners and less effective learners were found

in the mumber and range of strategies used, in how the strategies were applied to

the task, and in whether they were appropriate for the task” Therefore, teaching learning strategies is especially useful for the latter leamers If they can find effective strategies, they will be able to successfully, through effective strategy teaching, students will acquire nol only vovabulary but also the way Lor studying

The language learner capable of using a wide variely of LLS appropriately

can improve his language skills in a better way According to Oxford (1990),

memory strategies “help students stove and retrieve new information”, cognitive

strategics “enable learners to understand and produce new language by many

different means”, compensation strategies “allow learners to use the language

despite their often large gaps in knowledge”, metacognitive strategies “allow

learners to control their enwn cognition - thal is, to coordinate the learning process

by using functions such as centering, arranging, planning, and evaluating”,

allective stralegies “help lo regulate emotions, motivations, and altitudes" and

social “help students learn through interaction with other” Developing skills in

three areas, such as metacognitive, cognitive, and socio-affective can help the

language learner build up Jeamer independence and autonomy whereby he can take control of his own leaming Lessard-Clouston (1997-3) states that LS contribute to

the development of the communicative competence of the students Being a broad concept, LLS are used to refer to all strategies foreign language leamers use in learning the target language and commumication strategies are one type of LLS As

Oxford (1990-1) stated, LLS “ ave especially important for language learning

because they are tools for active, self-directed movement, which is essential for developing communicative competence" Besides developing the communicative

competence of the sLudents, teachers who train students to use L1.S can help them

become better language leamers Llelping students understand good LLS and training them to develop and use such good LLS can be considered to be the approcialed characteristics ol a good language leachor Research into the good LI.S revealed a number of positive strategies so that such strategies could also be used by

bad language leamers trying to become more successful in language learning

However, there is always the possibility that bad language learners can also use the same good LLS while becoming unsuccessful owing to some other reasons At this

point, it should be strongly stressed thal using the same good LLS does not

guarantee that bad learners will also become successtil in language learning since

other factors may also play role in success

1.2 Vocabulary learning strategies

1.2.1 Definition of vocabulary learning strategies

Furst of all, it should be noted that in the literatue on language leaming strategies, there is no official definition for vocabulary learning strategies Perhaps there is no need [or such a definition because vovabulary learning stralogies are part

of language learning strategies, which, in turn, are art of leaming strategies

With reference to the definitions of leaming strategies mentioned above, in this research, following Oxford (1990-8), the working definition of vocabulary learning stratogies is as follows:

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Vocabulary leaming stratogios are specific behavioral or mental action taken

by learners to make their vocabulary learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more

self-dirceled, more ofTeelive and more transferable Lo new situation,

1.2.2 Classification of vocabulary learning strategies

Word knowledge is an essential component of communicative competence (Seal, 1991), and it is important for botht production and vormprehension in a

foreign Knowing a word involves knowing:

* a great deal about its general frequency of use, syntactic and

situational limitations on its use

ils underlying form and the form that can be derived from i,

« the network of its semantic features and,

«the various meaning associated with the item

(Richards, 1997:6)

Knowing a word is also defined as knowing its spelling pronunciation,

collocalions (ie words if, occurs with), and appropriatoness (Nation, 1990)

‘Therefore, lexical competence is far more than the ability to define a given number

of words and covers a wide range of knowledge which in tum requires a variety of

strategies to gain the knowledge Foreign language learners may thon use various strategies to acquire the target language word knowledge ‘aking this into consideration, language researchers have made various attempts to classify vocabulary learning strategies cmployed by forcign and sccond language leamers

Instances of such classifications are the taxonomies proposed by Gu and Johnson (1996), Schmitt (1997) and Nation (2001) which are briefly discussed below

1.2.2.1 Classification of Gu and Johnson (1996)

Gu and Johnson (1996) list second language (L2) vocabulary leaming strategies inlo melacognilive, cagnifive, memory and activation strategies

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Metacognitive strategies consist of selective attention and sclf-mitation strategies Leamers who employ selective attention strategies know which words are imporlant for them lo leem and essential for adequate comprchension of a passage Leamers employing self initiation strategies use a variety of means to

make the meaning of vocabulary items clear

Cognitive strategies in Gu and Johnson’s taxonomy entail guessing

strategies, skillful use of dictionaries and note-taking strategies Learners using

guessing stralogivs draw upon their background knowledge and use linguistic clues

like grammatical structures of a sentence to guess the meaning of a word

Memory strategies are classified inta rehearsal and encoding categories

Word hsls and repetition are instances of rehearsal strategies Encoding stralegics

encompass such strategies as association, imagery, visual, auditory, semantic, and

contextual encoding as well as word-structure (ic., analyzing a word in terms of

prefixes, sloms, and sullixes.)

Activation strategies include those strategies through which the leamers

actually use new words in different contexts For instance, learners may set

sentences using the words they have just leamed

All these suggested strategies can be summarized in a table as follows:

« — Notetrldng

Memory * Rehearsal: word lists, repetition, ete

* Encoding: association (imagery, visual, auditory, ote.)

Activation ` Using new words in different contexts

Table 1: Gu and Johnson's (1996) taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies

1.2.2.2 Classification of Schmitt (1997)

A comprehensive inventory of vocabulary learning strategies is developed by Norbert Schmitt (1997) He distinguishes the strategies into twa groups: The ones ta determine the meaning of new words when encountered for the first time, and the ones to consolidate meaning when encountered again The former contains

determination and social strategies and the latter contains cognitive, metacognitive,

memory and social stralegies Schmit includes social strategies in both calegerics since they can be used for both purposes This categorization is based, in part, on

Oxford’s (1990) classification scheme The delails can be seen on the table below:

Analyze parts of speech

‘Analyze affixes and roots

Analyze any available piclures or gestures

Guess the moaning from jextual context Bilingual dictionary

Word lists Flash cards

‘Ask classmates for meaning

Study and practice meaning in a group

Teacher checks students’ flash cards or word lists for accuracy

Interact with tualive speaker

Study word with a pictorial presentation of its meaning

Use keyword method

Learn the words of an idiom together

Flash cards

Take nole im class

Use spaced word practice

Skip or pass new word

Continue to study ward over time Table 2: Norbert Schmitt’s (1997) taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies 1.2.2.3, Classification of Nation (2001)

Tn a more recent aflermpl, Nation (2001) proposes taxonomy of variaus

vocabulary learning strategies ‘Ihe strategies in the taxonomy are divided into three general classes of ‘planning’, ‘source’ and ‘processes’ Planing strategies involve

deciding on what words and aspects of words to foous an, whal strategies lo use and

how often to give attention to certain words Meanwhile, sources strategies concern

ways to find out information ahout words This information may embrace all

aspects of word knowledge and can be found in the word ilsell (word part analysis),

the context (guessing from context), sources of reference (dictionaries) or L1 (via analogy) The final set of strategies (processes) includes ways to remember words

and make the available for usc The particular strategies in this sct arc divided into

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three sub-categories related to three conditions of vocabulary leaming, namely

noticing, retrieving and generating ‘fhe whole taxonomy is illustrated in the

following table

‘General class of strategies ‘Types of strategies Plamiing: choosing what te focus on and © Choosing words

Imawledge

© Choosing the strategies

« Planning repetition Sources: finding information about words & — Analyzing the word

In general, although the taxonomies cited above may slightly differ in terms

of strategies they calegorive, they all provide a list of widely applicable vocabulary

Icarning strategies

The strongest point of Nation’s taxonomy is probably its simplicity: only classes and types of strategies are mentioned and plain terms are used ‘his is in

sharp contrast with Schmitt’s taxonomy in which up to 58 strategies are named and

with Gu and Johnson’s taxonomy in which psychological terms such as

metacognitive, cognitive, activation self-initiation, etc are widely used Ilowever,

the other two have their own advantages over nation’s categorization

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For its comprehensive treatment of individual vocabulary learning strategies, Schmitt's taxonomy is an effective research instrument for investigation into vovabulary learning strategies followed by # particular group or keamners This remark has been confirmed in reality by Schmitt’s research on Japanese learners of English (1993) It is due to the taxonomy’s proven research value that it has been chosen as the basic for data analysis procedure of the study on vocabulary leaming strategies of the first year students at Hai Phong Community College

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.1 The context of the study

At Hai Phong Community College, there is only General English course which is applied for students of all departments ‘his Linglish course is taught

during the first and second year It means thai there are four terms of studying

English with the total 240 periods The textbook chosen for the first Iwo terms is

New Cutting Edge — Elementary (Students’ Book) by Sarah Cunningham and Peter

Moor, 2005 Dunng the two terms later, the students are mitroduced New Culting

Edge — Pro-intermediate (Students’ Book) by Sarah Cunningham and Peter Moor,

2005 These materials were chosen to teach because it combines the comprehensive

syllabus and reliable leaching rescurves thal have wade the course so popular, with

brand-new features, making it even fresher and easier to use

‘The textbook New Cutting Edge Elementary (Students” Hook) for the first year students comprises fifteen theme-based modules and three review modules Each module is about one topic and consists of six parts: Language focus, Vocabulary, Reading/Listening, ‘Task, Further skills and Study practice remember The average time for each module is seven periods Three review modules are in form of “Consolidation module” lo help students check their understanding and study’s result by themselves

Each vocabulary part deals with a familiar issuc such as people and places, everyday life, transportation, food and drink, films, clothes, weather etc which are considered the important poinls of cach module Vocabulary input is closely related

to topic and task in the modules so it provides a necessary foundation for practicing,

every other part of the modules

By the time of the survey, the first year students at Iai Phong Community College have finished one-half of the second term

In this term, they study vocabulary of seven modules (from module 9 to module 15), which contains following vocabulary issues:

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- Shops and shopping

- Clothes and describing people

- Animals and natural features

- Going cut and staying in; the weather

- Education and careers

- Ways of communicating

- Things in a tawn

At the end of the term, the students have to take an online exam called

“Online multiple choice test on LAN network” which is designed with 35 multiple choice questions in total The students have 30 minutes to answer after signing in to

accept the test Completed or not completed the Lest within 30 minutes the computer

will send student’s test mark 35 multiple choice questions including multiple choice format of phonetics, vocabulary, grammar, reading comprehension Following is the form ofa final examination

Mediam | questions & short poins

answers

Medium | questions & short —_points

answers

1V Reading 5 Medium & Multiple choise 5 paints

comprehension Difficult | questions & short

Table 4: Table of test specifications

As can be seen from table, the Vocabulary contams al least fifleen mullipts-

choice questions in a test, which holds 15 points in total 35 points Besides, in the

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Pronuneiation and Reading comprehension part, cach of them also has five multiple-choice questions, If the students really de not know or have any idea about the new and strangle words, they cannot give the correcl answers in these parts

‘Therefore, the vocabulary often holds more than a half of the total mark of a test

2.2 Research questions

As mentioned ahove, the sludy was conducted to answer tho following

questions:

1 What is the students’ awareness of the importance of vocabulary learning’?

2 What vocabulary leaming, strategies do the first year students at Hai Phong,

Communily College commonty use?

2.3, Pilot study

Before conducting the present study, a pilot smdy was done with the same

sample The aim was to est the reliability of the resesrch Tretrumenls Ín addition, i

was to test if the students knew all strategies mentioned in the survey questionnaire

that is if the students were aware of the existence of so many vocabulary learning

strategies There were four students and two teachers randomly chosen lo

participate in the pilot study

Fustly, the interview was conducted in English with the teachers who are chosen The interviewees were mainly asked open-ended questions according to interview guidelines (see Appendix 2) and were encouraged to express their thoughts freely It took place for fifteen minutes and was done at the office of Faculty of Foreign Language

Afterwards, based on the reported data and literature review, the survey questionnaire was compiled and delivered to the students, It was the same version used for the main study (see Appendix 3) The participants were asked to answer some questions before rating how often they used the strategies to leam and

remember new words by putting a tick i the column they chose from level af

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always, often, sometimes, seldom to never The procedure lasted for a half of day and it was done in one classroom at LIPCC

Vinally, the data were analyzed and some results were drawn from pilot study

Results for research question 1: What is the students’ awareness of the

importance of vocabulary Tearing?

All students asked to do the survey questionnaire have boon leaming English for more than seven years ‘his means that most students have a rather long time

gelling familiar with English 1 is very essential for each studer to recogrize the

role of vocabulary Icarning in learning English The survey questionnaire showed that all the students recognized the importance of vocabulary leaming Three siudenls, which meant 75% of the students, agreed (hal vocabulary earning played

a very important role in leaming Knglish Other 25% find it important ‘Therefore, it

is not surprising to find that no one underrate the role of vocabulary learning in

learning English

The issue of knowing vocabulary learning strategies could not reach the

consensus among students who were asked ‘here were 25% of them said that they had ever heard of vocabulary learning strategies while 75% said that they had never

heard of anything tke that All students asked agreed thal vocabulary learning

strategics should be taught in class When being questioned why they thought so, most of them answered that they did not want ta depend totally on the vocabulary

learning taken place im class

Th can be concluded that the students were all aware of the mportanes of and the need to learn and to be taught vocabulary learning strategies

Results for research question 2: What vocabulary learning strategies do the first

year students at Iai Phong Community College commonly use?

It seemed that the participants used many strategies but they did not know

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how to uame thom Table 5 shows three most used vocabulary leaming strategies for discovery a new word's meaning,

4 | Analyze any available | 4] pictures or gestures 55] y Jas y | 2s ofolo | o | sas

Table 5: Vocabulary learning strategies for discovery a new word's meaning uxed

by the Pilot study participants

‘As can be seen from table 5, the first most used strategy Use an Enplish -

Vivtnamose dictionary was used by 4 parlicipanis (100%) TL seers that the students

use a bilingual dictionary (English — Victnamese) with a high frequency The second most used strategy Ask the teacher for the meaning was also used a lot with

the mean of / This definitely shows that the students rely on a teacher too much

Another vocabulary learning stralegy used with a relatively high frequeney with the

mean of 425 was Analyze any available pictures or gestures It is worth noting that the students seldom leam words through Analyze the part of speech, Analyze

prefixes, sulfixes and roots Actually, word fealures such as prefixes, sullixes and

stems are useful clues for lexical inference

The following table slows three most used vocabulary learning stralegics for

consolidation a word in memory

Degree of Frequency

Always nse | Otten nse

Table 6: Vocabulary learning strategies for consolidation a word in memory

used by the Pilot study participants

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From table 6, we can see clearly that the participants preferred repetition

(written repetition and verbal repetition) in learning words that they have

encountered, Their means in tum are 4.75 and 4.25 The results suggest that those

students relied heavily on learning the meaning and form of a word by rote Another vocabulary learning strategy used with a high frequency was Take notes in class

There are a half of the participants always used it This finding is not surprising

because the students’ main perceived source of vocabulary studying in class or from

the teacher

To conclude, the pilot study was useful because it was noticed that the

students were willing to support the project and they enjoyed leaning more about

vocabulary learning strategies Definitely, the list of the strategies should remain the

same for the main study but it will involve more participants and the results will be

analyzed in more detail

= required sample size

X° = the table value of chi-square for 1 degree of

JSreedom at the desired confidence level (3,841)

n= xe *N*P"(1-P) N=population size

(ME? *(MN—1))~(X? *P*(1—P))_ Ì P = populafion proportian (assumed to be 0.5 since

this would provide the maximum sample size)

ME = cksired Margin of Error expressed as a

The students are chosen randomly from the first year students enrolled at

HPCC in school year 2011-2012 Of the 276 participants, 70 were male and 206

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wore female, all at the age of 19 and 20 They are from different provinces, towns and cities in the North of the country such as Hai Phong, Hai Duong, Thai Bình,

Quang Ninh, ect Most of them come from countryside Most of them have studied

English since their tenth form at the high school None of them has learnt Knglish in

an English speaking country Ilowever, such variables as gender, place of living are

not considered in this study

Tn order to have an in-depth study, nine Fnglish teachers were also invited to

participate in the interview They are from 28 to 50 years old They are six females and two males Three of them are with Master of Arts and the rest are with Bachelor

of Arts They have been teaching English al HPCC for five to more than fileen

years

2.4.2 Data collection instruments

The study was carried oul im two phases The purpose of the first phase - interviews is to elicit information from the teachers about the strategies used by students in learning vocabulary Interviews are the appropriate instruments to

develop the initial list of vocabulary learning sualegies for the questionaire

because with these qualitative ones, the researcher can gain detailed description ahout each strategy and can have spontaneity and responsiveness to check understanding immediately (Patton, 2002, p.343) While the second phase — survey questionnaire aims to seek information about the students’ awareness of the

importance of vocabulary learning, which is to collect quantitative information

In the first phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted among the

teachers in order to elicit data about the strategies their students use in leaning

vocabulary Rased on the reported data and Hierature review, a list of vocabulary

learning, strategies was compiled for the survey questionnaire among the 276 participants in the second phase to collect data about the vocabulary learning

strategies are commonly used by the students In addition, a part in the survey

questionnaire called general information was designed with five questions to seek

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