Luận văn tác Động của hướng dẫn trực tiếp Đến việc học từ vựng của học sinh lớp 11 trường trung học phổ thông gia viễn b

FACULTY OF POST — GRADUATE STUDIES Jeane EMH VŨ NGỌC HẢI ‘THE IMPACT OF DIRECT INSTRUCTION ON STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY LEARNING: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT ON 11" FORM STUDENTS AT GIA V

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, IIA NOL

UNIVER: Y OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST — GRADUATE STUDIES

Jeane EMH

VŨ NGỌC HẢI

‘THE IMPACT OF DIRECT INSTRUCTION ON STUDENTS’

VOCABULARY LEARNING: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT ON 11"

FORM STUDENTS AT GIA VIEN B HIGH SCHOOI

Tác động của hướng dẫn trực tiếp đến việc học từ vựng của học sinh lớp LÍ

trường trung hục nhỗ thông Gia Viễn B: Một nghiên cứu hành dộng

MLA MINOR PROGRAMME TIIESIS

Field: English ‘I'caching Methodology Code: 60140111

IIANOT, 2016

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, IIA NOI

UNIVER: Y OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

414113121123121t

VŨ NGỌC HÁI

THE IMPACT OF DIRECT INSTRUCTION ON STUDENTS’

VOCABULARY LEARNING: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT ON 117

FORM STUDENTS AT GLA VLEN 3 LIGU SCHOOL

Tắc động của hướng dẫn trực tiếp đến việc học tử vựng của học sinh lớn 11 trường trung học phổ thông Gia Viễn B: Một nghiên cứu hành động

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English ‘Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Dr Nguyén Thi Ngoc Quynh

HANOI, 2016

DECLARATION:

T, Vu Ngoc Hai, hereby certsly that the thesis cnlilled “The impact of direct instruction on students’ vocabulary learning: An action research project on 11" form students at Gia Vien B igh School.” is submitted for the partial fulfillment of the Degree of Master of Aris al the Facully of Post-Graduale Studies, University of Languages and Intemational Studies- Vietnam National University, Tlanoi, J also declare that this thesis is the result of my own research and efforts and

it has nol been submitted for any olher purposes

Hanoi, 2016

‘Va Ngoc Hai

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Virst of all, | would like to express my sincere and deepest gratitude to my supervisor Dr Nguyen Thi Ngoc Quynh for her unfailing support, patience and continuous help in the process of writing up this dissertation Her aisightful ideas and constructive suggestions have enriched my knowledge about the research in the field of direct vocabulary instruction and it thus broadened the scope of my project

Besides, my deep thanks and appreciation also go to all the lecturers and the stall’ of the Facully of Post Graduate Studios al University of Languages and Intemational Studies for their valuable lectures and knowledge on which my minor thesis was laid the foundation In addition, I am also grateful to my lovely 11"" form English major students at Gia Vien B High School who were highly cooperative in any study

Laat bul nol least, T deeply indebted to my family whose love and greal

support help me complete this thesis.

ABSTRACT

‘This study, which is an action research project, sets out to examine the

impact of direct instruction on the vocabulary retention of 11" form student al Gia

Vien B High School in Ninh Binh and to gain their self-evaluation of the impact of

teachers’ direct instruction on their vocabulary retention at the same time The

yesearch started with a scmi-structure inlerview lo explore siudenia’ alfitudes toward

and their problems in learning vocabulary Based on results of this analysis, the researcher decided to design activities to present vocabulary through direct

instruction during a six-week intervention, During this period, the students had to take a post-treatment test and a delayed post-treatment test which were designed to measure their retention of taught words By the end of the intervention, the survey

queshionnaire was admimstered fo all students arud semi-structured interviews were carried out with four selected students to find out the students’ opinions and attitude

toward the impact of teachers’ direct instruction on their vocabulary retention

Findings of the study revealed thal direcl instruction did not make great

improvement in the students’ vocabulary retention, ‘This might be because the time

of the inlervention was uot long enough (6 weeks) for the intervention to bring about significant difference However, the students’ attitudes toward vocabulary

leaming were positive despite their insignificant change in the test scores

TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION

4, Method of the Study

5, Scope of the Study

6 Significance of the Study

7 Organization of the thesis

L2 Approaches to vocabulary ïnstruction 5c

1.3 Direct Insfrucfion co cho eoeireier seein LO

1.3.2 The Characteristics of Direct Instruction TT

1.5 Related previous studies on the impact of direct instruction on the

2.5 Techniques of analyzing data

CHAPTER 3, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Analysis of the preliminary study

3.2 Data analysis

3.2.1 The findings fram the post-treatment tests 29

3.2.3 The findings Bom observation co 34

3, Limitations of the study

4, Plan for the next cycle

Appendix 3: Vocabulary delayed post-treatment test

Appendix 4: Posl-trealment questionnaire for students

Appendix 5A: Interview questions for students

xxvm XXX

Appendix SB: Transcripts of the students’ interview

Appendix 6: Classroom Observation Evaluation Sheol

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

GVB: Gia Vien B

MOET: Ministry of Education and Training

EFL: English Foreign Language

LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS

Figure 1: The model of action research áàc cà cà cào c8

Table 2: The results of the students’ tests - - 30

Table 3: Students’ poreeption of the impact of direct instruction on their retention of

Figure 2: Students’ atlilude toward activities in leaching learmng process 32

Figure 3: Students’ evaluation on teacher's vocabulary teaching style 33 Figure 4: Students’ attitude to vocabulary teaching learning process 34

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Vovabulary is crucial to language learning since il Cunelions as a commerstane

of language use According to Nation (2001), “vocabulary leaming is not a goal in itself; it is done to help leamers listen, speak, read, or write more effectively” (p 362) Tn other words, a nevessary skill to strengihon reading and listening comprehension as well as to communicate successfully is the ability to grasp the meaning of new words This can positively impact overall academic success and can develop skills for real world applications Rivers (cited in Nunan 1991) also argued that acquisition of an adequate vocabulary is vital for using second language successfully because without an extensive vocabulary, we will be unable to use the siructuzes and functions we may have leamed for comprehensible communication The vital importance of vocabulary is also reaffirmed through famous line “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (Wilkins, cited in Guo 2010, p 50) Truly, without vocabulary, there will be no sentence, no text and no language Vocabulary learning, therefore, becomes central

to language acquisition, and interest in ils role in second language learning has

grown rapidly in recent years

With two years’ experience of teaching at Gia Vien 3 Ligh School (GVB),

the writer has realived thal for GVB students who slusly English as a part of iheir general education requirement, vocabulary is an integral part in mastering other skills [lowever, through the pre-research observation, the writer found that they

have been facing some obstacles in learning vocabulary They are: (1) they had

limited number of vocabularies, (2) they had trouble in memorizing the meaning of words, (3) and they forget taught words quickly By considering the problems as

mentioned above, Ihe writer conducled more observation and the interview fo the

students in the class to get more information By doing so, the writer explored some factors causing those problems They are: (I) the teacher’s way of teaching is

conventional Sluderds are just asked to read, repeat and wrile words all the tines Tt

can also be said that tcacher’s vocabulary teaching technique is less varied, (2) students do not have many chance to review words after the lesson and (3) they are

fed up with monotonous class’ atmosphere

Therefore, in order to help the students achieve success in learning vocabulary, an appropriate method for teaching vocabulary is very urgent As

known, there are a lot of common methods such as conlextual learning, defimlion

instruction, strategy instruction, direct instruction, to name just a few Direct

instruction is defined as a teacher-led instructional procedure in that students are

grovided with specific instructions on the task, modeling, teacher-led practice,

independent practice, and frequent feedback on their performance (Lender, cited in

Rockwell 1995) According to Rosenshine (1979), direct instruction has the

followin, characteristics’ an acaderme (oeus; a teacher-centered focus, and use of

factual questions; and controlled practice in instruction Direct Instruction, as

Setiawan (2010} stated, not only uses more controlled and repetitive delivery of

instruction, but also provides the teacher with siricl guidelines fer lesson

presentation, their introduction of successive skills It also gives students the chance

to work independently, work in groups when taking part in vacabulary games

Based on tus background, the writer finds that direct instruction will be casier for

the teacher to conduct the students in teaching learning process In addition, the

repelilion delivery of vocabulary instruction can help the students review newly

leamed words What is more, the students will no longer be passive ones obediently sitting in desks and taking notes because they will be given the opportunities to take

part in the activities in groups The teaching learning process hecomes more

interesting for them

Trom the explanation above, it can be concluded that direct instruction method can he applied for dealing with the difficulties which GVB students have

been encountering As a result, the writer is motivated in conducting an action yesearch on the impact of direct instruction on 11\*-form students! vocabulary learning al GVB High School

2 Aims and Objectives of the Study

‘The study aims to find out the impact of direct vocabulary instruction on

vorabulary learmng of 11"-form studonls al GVB High School in Ninh Bình

‘Therefore, the study seeks to achieve the following objectives

a To explore the impact of direct vocabulary instruction on students’

1 To what extent does direct vocabulary instruction impact the students’

vovabulary retention as tcasured by the post-Ireatment test and the delayed post-

treaunent test?

2 How do the students self-evaluate the aupact of leacher’s direct vocabulary instruction on ther vocabulary retention?

4, Method of the Study

As the aim of the siudy is to improve the (caching ol vocabulary to the -writer’s own students, the study adopted an action research approach The data were collected by means of:

- Tests (post-treatment test and delayed post-treatment test)

- Questionnaires

- Interviews

These three research instruments are used in this study to collect data for

preliminary study, the process and the effects that the action created, and reflection

on the action eycle

5 Scape nf the Study

‘To improve student’s vocabulary learning, LJI'L teachers can use varieties of

techniques However, this study merely focused on siudying how elleelive vocabulary direct instruction is to students’ retention of vocabulary Type of vocabulary was introduced to the students through direct instruction method was reeaptive vocabulary

‘This action research was applied in six sessions ‘The action was carried out for 11 form students ma class of 37 students at GVB Tigh School The collected

data were analyzed and discussed to figure oul how vocabulary direct mstruction works to help improve 1] form students’ vocabulary leaming Then some solutions were proposed to improve the quality of teaching and learning vocabulary

6 Significance of the Study

Tor the teachers of Lnglish division, this study is hoped to bring them the detailed and full view on the reality of teaching and leaming vocabulary at 11" form students of GVB High School, and the nce

sary use of Direcl Tnstruclion to

improve vocabulary leaning of students As a result, they can apply this method in

teaching vocabulary Tt is also hoped thal for the students who learn Bnglish as a

compulsory subject at High School, this action rescarch can provide them casy ways

to memorize vocabulary In addition, they are also given chance to practise

vocabulary which helps Ihem improve the ability of vooabulary retention

7 Organization of the thesis

The study consists of three major parts:

Part A, Introduction, presents the rationale of the study, the aims and

objectives, the research questions, the method, the scope, the significance and the design of the study, and review of previous studies

Part B, Development, includes three chapters

Chapter 1, Literature Review, reviews the theories on vocabulary, types of vocabulary, aspects of vocabulary, approaches to vocabulary instruction; retention:

and Ihe overview of dire! insinuchion imeluding defirilion, characloristics, process.

Chapter 2, Methodology, describes the sctting of the study, the participants and materials used during six sessions of the research, Moreover, this chapter shows how the researcher applied the dala collection instruments and my procedure of conducting the study

Chapter 3, Data analysis and findings, the writer used quantitative and qualitative method to study and analyze the figure and information collected

Part C, Conclusion, gives a summary of the study, reflection, limitations of the study, and plan for the next cycle

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CUAPTER 1, LITERATURE REVIEW

In order to lay a foundation for this research, some theoretical background

imawledge conceming concepts of vocabulary, the role of vocabulary in second

language learning, vocabulary acquisition and dirccl instruction have beon reviewed,

1.1 An overview of vocabulary

1.1.1 Definition of vocabulary

There are various definitions about vocabulary from researcher to researcher,

even though from điclionary to dictionary and wt depends on the criteria in terms of

linguistic, semantic According to Ur (1996, p 60), vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as words we teach in a foreign language Llowever, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: (or example, post office and mother-in- Jaw, which are made up of two or three words but express a single idea There are also multi - word idioms such as call it a day, where the meaning of the phrase camot be deduced from an analysis of the component words In other words, il can

be understood that vocabulary is the total munber of words ina language It can be a single word, two or three word items expressing a single meaning, even though TnuÌl — word idioms used in specihie contexts

atch and Brown (1995, p 1) argued that the term vocabulary refers to a list

or set of words for particular language or a list of wards that individual speakers of

language use Since vocabulary is a list, the only system involved is alphabetical order The choice in vocabulary selection and methods used in teaching vocabulary

are important factors Sharing the same idea with Hatch and Brown, Hornby (1995,

p 1331) states that “vocabulary is the total number of the words” (with their smeaning and with rules for combining them) making up the language

From the definitions above, iL can be concluded thal vocabulary is the total

number of words which are needed to communicate ideas and express the speaker’ s

means ‘That is the reason why it is essential to learn vocabulary.

1.1.2 Types of vocabulary

‘There are varieties of kinds of vocabulary Llarmer (1998, p 159) adds that

active vocabulary refers to vocabulary thal studenis have been taught or learnt and which the students will recognize when they mest then but which they will probably not be able to produce Iaycraft (cited in latch & Brown 1995) divides two kinds

of vocabulary, namely receplive ard productive vocabulary

a Receptive vocabulary is words that the leamers recognize and understand when they occur in context, but which cannot produce comectly It is

vocabulary thal the learners recoginze when they see i in reading conlex| but do nat

use it in speaking and writing ‘fhe receptive vocabulary is also called a passive process because the leamer only receives thought form others In language application, the receptive vocabulary ix considered Ihe basic vocabulary Tt is much larger than productive vocabulary because there are many words recognized when

the leamer hears or reads but do not use when he speaks or writes In these respects,

Richards and Rodgers (1987, p 308) give a profound explanation thal the listening

vocabulary is larger than speaking vocabulary and similarly to the reading

vocabulary thal is relatively larger than writ

1g vocabulary

b, Productive vocabulary is the words that the leamers can understand,

pronounce correctly, and use constructively either in speaking or writing It involves

what is neaded for recoplive vocabulary plus ihe abilily to speak or write at Ihe

appropriate time Therefore, productive vocabulary is also called active vocabulary,

In conclusion, the leamers are in receptive control of the words that they

understand when they hear them or read them Meanwhile, the learners are

in productive control of the words that they use to express themselves, in speech or

in writing (Benjamin & Crow, 2012) In this research, receptive vocabulary in

reading texts is chosen to introduce to the students through direct, instruction,

approach because direct instruction was proved to be effective once it was done

prior to a reading and reviewed or assessed after the reading (Coyne et al., 2009)

1.1.3 Aspects of Vocabulary Knowledge

When teaching vocabulary, three significant aspects teachers need to be

aware of and foeus on are form, meaning, and use (I.cssard-Clouston,

2013).According to Nation (2001), the form of a word or a phrase involves its prommeiation (spoken form), spelling (written form), and any word parts that make

up this particular item which consist of prefix, rool, suffix The meaning ol a word surrounds the way that form and meaning work together In other words, the meaning of a word or a phrase is the concept and what items it refers to, and the

associations lal come to nang to the people when they see thal word or (hat phrase

(Nation, 2001) Nation (2001) stated that the use of a word or a phrase involves the prammatical functions of the word or phrase, collocations that normally combine wilh it, and any constraints on its use Thore are both receptive and productive dimension for form, meaning, and use Therefore, Lessard-Clouston (2013) claimed

that knowing the three aspects of each word ar phrase relates to 18 types of lexical

knowledge which is simmnarized tn the following lable

‘Aspect Component — _Recoptive knowledge Productive knowledge

Spoken What does the word Ilow is the word

Written What does the word look How is the word writlen

Word parts What parts are What word parts are

recognizable in this ward? needed to express the

meaning?

fom and What meaning does this meaning wordfommsignal?

Meaning concepts What is included in this What word form can be

associations What other words does What ilems can the concept

this make people think of? refer to?

grammatical In what pattems does the In what pattems must functions word occur? people use this ward?

collocation; What words or types of What words ar types of

words occur with this words musk people use

constraints Where, when, and how Where, when, and how

onuse often would people expect often can people use this

to meet this word? word?

‘Table 1; What is involved in knowing a word

(Adapted from Nation, 2001, p.27)

Ta this research, receplive vocabulary is selected 10 teach through direct

instruction ‘Therefore, the table above is really useful for teacher research so that

she knows which components should be mentioned and focused when presenting

and reviewing vocabulary

1.2 Approaches to vocabulary instruction

According to Homby (1995), “teaching” is defined as giving instruction to

somehody’s knowledge, skill, cle Based on his explanation, teaching vocabulary is

an activity that the teacher gives the students knowledge about vocabulary and how

fo use if

To get the best result on language learning, it is important to choose good and appropriate technique in teaching vocabulary There are numerous techniques that can be applied in introducing vocabulary Allen (1983) suggested some techniques of introducing vocabulary that can be prepared and chosen as follows

a Demonstration

The technique, which belongs to demonstration, is gesture and action

performing, ‘The teacher can use real objects and command, or demonstrate the

smaterial using of real objects available in the classroom namely, book, pencil, table,

and board

5 Visual aids

Visual means something visible Teacher may use visual aids such as flashcards, photograph, blackboard, drawings, wall figures, and realia in the

teaching of vocabulary to enable studenis to observe and idenlily the objects

vividly Besides, visualization may interest the students in their learning vocabulary

e Verbal Explanation

Verbal explanation can be conducted through definition and translation

Allen (1983) states that teacher can use explanation in the students’ own language, definitions in simple English, and using vocabulary that students have already

known lo show the meaning For example, the word “rainceat” can be introduced

by explaining what it looks like and when it is usually used

d Word List

Vocabulary selection should be paid atlention io carefully by English teacher when using word list technique ‘the words selected to teach should be suitable to

the students’ need and their level

Tt gocs without saying that all these techniques arc more or leas useful for a

particular situation, student’s level or kinds of vocabulary, the best way would be in

amany cases lo combine them and use several together when presenting vocabulary

In this thesis, the writer could be flexible in choosimg suitable techniques to

demonstrate or explain vocabulary [lowever, verbal explanation is not an effective

technique to introduce vocabulary because definitions do not appear to be useful instructional tools as explained by Marzano (2014)

1.3 Direct Instruction

1.3.1 Definition of Direct Instruction

Direct Instruction is defined as an approach to teaching It is skills-oriented, and the teaching practices which it implies are teacher-directed It emphasizes the use of small-group, face-to-face instruction by tcachors and aides using carefully

10

articulated lessons in which cognitive skills are broken down into small units,

sequenced deliberately, and taught explicitly (Canine, 2000; ‘Traub, 1999, cited in Caine, Silbert, Kame'onui, & Tarve 2013) Bonder in Sylvia Rockwell (1995, p

54) defines direct instruction as a “teacher-led instructional procedure in that

students are provided with specific instructions on the task, modeling, teacher-led

practice, independent practice, and frequent feadback on their performance” Direct

instruction is mentioned as a pre-planned approach with “brisk paced instruction” that enables students to learn systematically through steps and a sequence of well-

organived assignments (Engelmann, Hanmer, & Johnson, cited in Parker 2014) Bursuck and Damer (2007) contributed a clear and adequate notion of the

components of direct instruction in the following ways: explicit instruction is the

clear, direct leaching of skills and strategies, systernalic instruction is tcaching, that

clearly identifies a carefully selected and useful set of skills and then organizes

those skills into a logical sequence for instruction

TLis also slated thal, direct instruction means teaching specihe words, such as

pre-teaching vocabulary prior to reading a selection It is estimated that students can

be taught explicitly some 400 words per year in school (Beck, 2013)

In general, the term direct instruction refers to (1) mstructional approaches

that are structured, sequenced, and led by teachers, and/or (2) the presentation of

academic coment to students by leachers, such as in a lecture or demonstration Tn

other words, teachers are “directing” the instructional process or instruction is being

“directed” at students

1.3.2 The Characteristics of Direct Instruction

According to Marzano (2004), the main characteristics of effective direct instruction include:

a Effective vocabulary instruction does nol rely on defimtions,

b Students must represent their knowledge of words in linguistic and nonlinguistic ways:

11

c Effective vocabulary instruction involves the gradual shaping of word meanings through multiple exposures;

d Teaching word parls enhances sludents* understanding of terms;

e Different types of words require different types of instruction;

£ Students should discuss the terms they are learning;

g Students should play with words:

h Instuction should focus on terms that they have a high probability of

enhance academic success

Teacher researcher followed these characterislics of direcl instruction strictly

and applied them in her vocabulary teaching as well as vocabulary revision

1.3.3 Process of Direct Instruction

According 1o Aronds (1997, p 82), direel instruction relies heavily on the

preposition that much of what is learned comes from observing others The behavior

of others, both good and bad, thus becomes a guide for the learner's own behavior Teaming by imitation saves students much needless Irial and error The teaching

procedure of direct instruction is as follows

1 Clarify goals and main poinls

a State the goals or objectives of the presentation ;

b, Foous on one thought (point, direction) at a time;

« Avoid digressions,

d Avoid ambiguous phrases or pronouns

2 Give step- by- step presentations

a Present the material in small steps;

b Organize and present the material so that one point is mastered before the next point is given;

6 Give explicit, slep- by- step directions (when possible),

d Present an outline when the material is complex

3 Carry out specific and concrete procedures

a Madet the skill or process,

b Give detailed and redundant explanations for difficult points,

© Provide students with concrete and varied examples

4 Cheek lor students’ understanding

a Be sure that students understand one point before proceeding to the next

points,

b Ask students questions to monitor their comproherision of whal has been presented,

c Have students summarize the main points in their own words;

d Re-leach the parls of the presentation that the students bave difficulty in

comprehending, either by further teacher explanation or by students tutoring other students

Meanwhile, Marvano (2004) suggested sielep process to eflective vocabulary direct instruction They are:

a, Provide a description, explanation, or example of the new term;

b Ask stndenls Lo restate the description, oxplanalion, or example in their own words;

c Ask students 1o construct a picture, piclograph, or symbolic representation

of the tezm,

di lingage students periodically in activities that help them add to their knowledge of the lerms in their vocabulary notebooks,

e Periodically ask students to discuss the terms with one another,

f Involve students periodically in games that enable them to play with

as a powerlul tool that can be used in classrooms al any grade level (Marzano,

13

2004) Secondly, the steps in teaching procedure of direct instruction are logic and scientific, In specific, there is a balance between introducing new term[s to students

and reviewirys them The first Uhre slops are appliod when introducing a term to students while the last three ones are used when the teacher reviews newly learned

term These later ones need not be executed in sequence as long as the students can

get more knowledge of vocabulary Al fast, these six sleps are casy [or the author of

this investigation to apply during the process of conduoting the research at GVB Iligh School In specific, each step in Marzano’s process describes the vocabulary

instructions clearly; therefore, it provides the leacher research a strict guideline for

her vocabulary presentation as well as vocabulary revision In addition, this process consists of six steps, which is convenient for teacher researcher to apply during six

scasions

1.4 Vocabulary retention

Retention is defined as “an ability to recall or recognize what has been learnt

or experienced; memory” (Oxlord Advanced T.carner’s Dictionary, 1992, p 773)

Vocabulary retention has been defined as “the ability to recall or remember

things after an interval of Gime Tn language leaching, retention of what has heen taught (¢.g granunar rules aud vocabulary) may depend on the quality of teaching,

the interest of the learners, or the meaningfulness of the materials” (Richards & Schrmdt, 2002, p 457) Bahrick (1984) states that how well people remember

something depends on how

deeply they process if, [low deeply people understand words depends on repeating,

re-cycling, and re-presenting vocabularies as well as re-noticing them by the

learner

According to Frost (2008), human mind’s ability to retain information can be

divided in to shoriclerm memory and long-lerm memory based on the duration of

amemory retention Short-term memory is used to store or hold information while it

is being processed while long-term memory retains information for use in anything dul ke immediate future The objccl of voudbulary learning is lo Iransfkr (he lexical

14

information from the short-term memory to the more permanent long-term memory (Schmitt, 2000) In this study, short-term memory is considered as the initial

memory of the word meanmg al the end of the lessons whereas Ihe number of words

can be recalled at the next lessons or at the end of the study

1.5 Related previous studics on the impact of direct instruction on the students’

vocabulary learning

A number of studies have investigated the effects of direct instruction on the

students’ vocabulary leaming Some recent studies have been selected and

discussed here

Setiawan (2010) contends that direct instruction method could improve the

students’ vocabulary mastery In specific, it helped the children remember the

imeaning ol words casily and motivaled (her lo leam vooabulary

The National Reading Panel’s findings suggest that direct instruction in

vocabulary is effective in improving both vocabulary and comprehension (McCardle & Chhabra, 2004)

Beck and McKeown (2007) carried out two studies with kindergarten and

first grade children from fow achieving schools The first study compared a direct

instruction approach to ne instruction The direct teaching of words consisted of the

following steps: he word was contextualized in the story, the meaning was

explained, children were asked 10 repeal the word, addilional examples of the word

in context were provided, children made judgments about examples, children constructed their own examples, and the word meaning was reinforced through

subsequent questioning The no instruction group did not receive direct instruction,

but did participate in daily read-aloud as a part of the school’s curriculum The

Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-3, 1997) and pre/posttests were used to

examme the extent of leaning Students who received direcl instruction on

vocabulary leamed significantly more vocabulary In the second study, the authors

compared two groups receiving the same direct instruction as described in the first

study, the only difference was the amount of instructioval time The gains were twice as large for the students who received more instruction

Biemiller and Boote (2006), aller conducting two studies to compare Ihe effects of repeated reading without word explanations to repeated reading with direct instruction of word meaning, came to a conclusion that direct explanations of

word ineanings while reading sLories provides explicit opportunities for children to relate words to meaning

Direct instruction can be beneficial for older students Middle school and

high school curricula tely heavily on lextbooks, which include a greal number of

multisyllabic words that are barriers to comprehension Analyzing word parts can help to infer the meaning of 60% of multisyllabie (Bromley, 2007) Students can

analyze words and independently determine moaning Wf knowing the mearing of

common root words and affixes Bromley (2007) states that explicit instruction that

focuses on meaning and word structure can help students connect unknown words

to known words Older students should be Laught to break down multisyllabic words

to aid them in analyzing word parts

Kucan el al (2006) conducted a professional development imiliative which

deseribes a collaborative cffort between high school teachers and university faculty

to enhance vocabulary instruction in secondary classrooms Teachers were taught

how to develop rich representations of word moanings through the usage of various classroom activities Some of these activities inclided teaching students how to

locate synonyms and antonyms, constructing visual representations, comparing and

contrasting words, identifying examples and non-examples, and reading words in

snultiple contexts Teachers were also taught how to help their students Jean about

how wards work These activities are: (a) direct instruction of root word and affix

Tnearings, (b) Ieaching students how to identify rool words and affixes, (c} leaching

students the parts of speech and how to identify them, and (d) getting students generate various forms of words This study’s findings provide support for direct

instruction

l6

To put it in the nutshell, the reviewed studics showed that the impact of direct instruction on the students’ vocabulary learning remains inconclusive, In

addition, there are few studies that have imvestiguled the elleelL of direct

instruction on high school students’ vocabulary retention, ‘therefore, the present

study aims to explore the impact of direct vocabulary instruction on 11'"-form students’ vocabulary retention, and gain understanding of the students’ opinions of

and attitudes towards direct vocabulary instruction regarding its impact on their vooabulary retention,

CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY

The purpose of the chapter is to present the specific procedure of the study

In the first place, this chapter describes the context, participants of the study as well

as material used during sessions, Then, it explains why action research is used to

undertake this sludy and the procedure of research The ex! parts in this chapter are

to present the instruments used to collect and analyze data

2.1 Setting of the study

The rescarch was carried out in GVB High School, where English is considered as one of the most important subjects in training the students The

leaders have always created the best possible conditions for Buglish teaching and

leaming For example, in order to help students to improve listening and speaking ability effectively, English speaking club has been established recently Llowever, there are no scparated classrooms for teaching and learning English As a Tesult, English teachers often avoid the activities namely games and group-work discussion which may cause a lot of noise This is one of reasons why students are not 1uotivaled to learn English

As for the students, they are just students with average scores of English test when entering the school They are divided into two streams: stream A (students

wilh higher scores in waLural sciences) and stream Pi for the rest of the The students

of stream A receive three Lnglish periods a week whereas students of the other

receive four periods per week However, the teaching materials for both streams are

the textbooks and workbooks proscribed by MOET and the supplementary exercises for the basic stream selected by the classroom teachers

Tn the stage of learning English, both the teachers and the students have to

face a great deal of difficulties Despite a Jot of effort made by teachers, most of students find it boring to learn Hnglish ‘They spent not much time practicing

Ruglish: especially, they nearly ignore vocabulary learning TLis an urgent problem which is expected to be solved in this study to attract more the students’ attention

and enhance their autonomy in learning, specifically in vocabulary learning

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2.2 Participants

The students

The subject of this research was the 11 form students of GVB High School,

Ninh Binh province ‘the 11" form class consists of 37 students, 18 boys and 19

girls They are better at natural science subjects than social science subjects

Allhough all the students learned English from seven lo cight ycars al elementary

and secondary school, most of them were not really motivated in Jearning English and they did not intend to take English as one of the subject in their college entrance

exam Their English knowledge was jusl al the pre-intermediate level, some ever

could not introduce about themselves in Uinglish In addition, students almost live in Gia Vien, a rural district which is far from the centre of the city As a result, all have

no opporlunities Lo use English [or communicative purposes outside the classroom

At the time this research was conducted, they were in the second term of the

academic year and leamed $7 main periods and 19 consolidation periods of English

in 19 weeks, which covered the last 7 ums of “11 English lextbook” Each urn

lasted 5 or 6 periods, in which reading accounted for one period

Materials

In this study, the materials were chosen from reading texts which are selected

in 1] Lnglish textbook published by the MOLT

2.3 Research design

2.3.1 Rationale for using action research method

The research was conducted as a classroom action research It was conducted

by the writer in order to explore “the impact of direct instruction on students’

vocabulary leaming” Some definitions of action research have been proposed by experts It is defined by Elliot (1991, p 54) that action research integrates teaching

and teacher development, curriculum development and evaluation, research and

philosophical reflection into a unified conception of a reflective educational practice “Insider”, ie teachers, is empowered by a unified education practice Regarding to teachers, Wallace (1998) slates tha action research is a way of

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reflecting on the teacher’s teaching (or teacher-taining, or management of an linglish department, or whatever the teacher does in HLT) It is done by syslomalically collecting data on lisher everyday practice and analyzing vin order

to come to some decision about what the future should be Kemmis and Me Taggart (cited in Nunan 1988) claims that action research is a group activity It is a piece of description research is carried out by a teacher im his or her own classroom without the mvolvement of others, which is aimed at increasing our understanding rather than changing the phenomenon under investigation For Kemmis and Mo Taggart,

the necessary impetus for carrying oul aclion research was to change the syste

Cohen and Manion (1985) offered a similar set of characteristics ‘hey argued that action research was first and foremost situational, being cancemed with the identification and sol

ion of problems in a spocilic context They also argued that the aim of action research was to improve the current state of affairs within the educational context in which the research was being conducted In other words, action research is situalional, the research is initiated by practilioncr and derived

from a seal problem in the classroom Using action research concwrently to solve a

problem, improve the curren stale of affairs and generate new knowledge Sharing

the same ideas with Cohen and Manion, Mills (2003, p 4) detine action research as

“any systematic inquiry conducted by teacher researchers to gather information

about the ways that their particular school operates how they teach, and how well

their students learn Ihe information is gathered with the goals of gaining insight, developing reflective practice, effecting positive changes in the school environment

and on educational practices in generals, and improving student outcomes.”

Yo sum it up, the characteristics of action research can be identified as

follows: (1) Action research is carried out by practitioners (2) The results of the

vesearch have direct application to real word problems (3) The trealments and

approach that are investigated are flexible

Based on the characteristics of action research above, this research was

appropriately underlaken as classroom aclion research in order to bring about

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educational change and improvement in vocabulary learning and students’ learning attitude ‘The application of direct instruction in vocabulary teachmmg and learning

process im this rescarch was Mexible and coukd be monitored

Kemmis and McTaggart (cited in Burns, 1999) explain that action research

proceeds through a dynamic and complementary process which consists of four gssential steps: planning, action, observation, and reflection Fach step in this modct

of action research can be explained in the following:

L Identifying problems and planning the action;

2 Implementing the action and observing the effect of the critically informed action in the context in which it ocours;

3 Reflecting the result of the observation, and

4 Revising the plan for the following step

This model can be illustrated in diagram as follow:

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Tn this sLudy, the four steps af the above inodel can be extended info six sleps

which are included in each procedure of the action research: i) identifying the problem; 4i) planning the action; iii) implementing the action; iv) observing the

action; y) reflecting the action; and vi) revising the plan, Each step will be explained

as follows:

i Identifying the Problem

‘The researcher observed that students had problems with vocabulary

retention, i.e they could not memorize taught words As said in the Literature

Review, vocabulary plays a pivotal role in language learning success, so poor

xetention of vocabulary is obviously one of the main barriers to students” improved proficiency In order to get a deeper insight mto that matter, semi-structured

interview were conducted with four students selected randomly among 37 11 form

students in class 11 A2 Besides the problems with vocabulary retention, the findings from the interviews also indicated that students did not enjoy learning

vorabulary Therefore, ihe writer as the classroom leacher felt the responsibilily to

help students to address this problem

ii, Planning the Action

A general plan was developed before implementing the action Speciiteally, the

following actions were done:

1) Designing sheels for classroom observation in order to know the situation,

of teachung-learmmng process when the techmque is applied

2) Planning the lessons for the intervention (Le using techniques of direct

vorabulary Isaching)

3) Preparing necessary teaching aids such as pictures, slides, real objects to

support classroom teaching

4) Designing post-treatment test to evaluate students’ vocabulary learning after the treatment and designing delayed post-treatment test to evaluate if students’ vocabulary retention enhanced or not

5) Experimenting the Inlervertion tm the classroom as plarmed

6) Administering the delayed post-treatment test and evaluating the result,

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7) Then, comparing the result of the post-treatment test and delayed post- treatment test to evaluate the degree of durable learning of students in learning

voabulary aller Ihe action

iii, Implementing the Action

The researcher conducted the action to her own class She applied direct

instruction mathed in teaching English vocabulary during six sessions Fach session jasted 45 minutes First, in order to help students be able to understand the content

of reading passage clearly, the writer applied direct instruction to pre-teach new

words that seemed to be difficult for students before each reading lesson Vocabulary

was taken from reading passages in unit 12 and unit 16 in textbook published by

MOET Second, during these lessons, the researcher acted as a teacher and an observer

fo sludy students? altttudes in vocabulary lessons Aller Gnishing applying direct instruction for 6 weeks, the researcher administered post-treatment test to evaluate

students’ vocabulary learning after the treatment Two weeks later, delayed post-

ireatment tesis were seri to sludents in order to evaluate (heir vocabulary retention

Next, post-treatment questionnaires were delivered to the students to gain understanidiry of their altiLudes toward and opinions of the impact of direct instruction on their retention of vocabulary After that, the researcher collected the

data and then carried out to analyze the data In order to check if what students evaluated mm questiormaires were reliable or nol, the writer asked for the help from one of her colleague to interview four selected students about the students’ self-

evaluation to the impact of direct instruction on their vocabulary retention as well as

on their attitudes toward learning vocabulary

iv Observing the Action

The researcher observed all students’ activities during teaching leaming

process, She also marked key points in the observation sheet prepared as soon as

finishing each lesson

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v Reflecting the Action

‘The researcher made an evaluation on the observation result to find out the

strength and weakness during the action The weaknesses were refined in he next

cycle, so that finally the impact of using direct instruction to teach vocabulary was

determined

vi Revising the Plan

Based on the weaknesses which were found in reflecting process, the writer revised the plan for the next cycle

2.4, Techniques of cullecting data

A number of instruments were used as data collection tools to collect the

data The study used both quantitative and qualitative data collected by means of

post-trealmeni tests, student, questionnaires and inderviews

Tests (see Appendix 2 & 3)

During the action research, the writer conducted two tests, each of which had

40 items which consisted of five matching questions, 10 mulliple choice (MC)

questions of synonyms and antonyms, 5 questions of word formations, 10 MC

questions lo complele sentences, 5 MC queslions of reading comprehension, and 5 questions of word spelling The test auned to evaluate the students’ retenuon of new

words in different aspects: form, meaning, and use Post-treatment test was piloted

as soon as the final session linished Delayed post-lreatment tesl was adioinistered

two weeks after the post-treatment test to evaluate the degree of durable learning of

the students

Questionnaires (see Appendix 4)

The purpose of the questionnaires is to collect data about the students’ perception to leaming vocabulary when direct instruction was applied during

leaching-learning proces

and to see low they evaluate the impact of direct

instruction on their vocabulary retention ‘hese are likert-scale questionnaires with

10 statements for each in Vietnamese They were delivered to all 37 students in

class 11 A2 aller six sossions of applying the action

Interviews with the students

‘The semi-structured interview was used in this study Using this kind of

interview gave the rescarcher a great deal of Mexibilily and allows a degree of

freedom in getting information from interviewees ‘fhe interviews were used to test

the validity of the information obtained from the questionnaires and observations

The very firsl infervicws were conduted al prelimiuary study with the air

of exploring the students’ attitade toward learning vocabulary and the difficulties they have been facing when leaming vocabulary There were two questions in the

Ost interview

a) Do you like leaming vocabulary? Why or why not?

b) What difficulties you often encounter when learning vocabulary?

The post-treatment mlerviews (sec m Appendix $A) were carried out al the

end of the study fo gain more insights for the students’ self-evaluation to the impact

of direct instruction on their vocabulary retention

Tn the pre-action inlerviews, Cour sturleuts were chosen randomly in the name list while in the post-treatment ones, four students were chosen based on the scores

they achieved im the tests Two of them were most achievable ones, one siudert gained a Little bit and the last onc seemed te gam nothing

‘wo days before the interviews were undertaken; four selected students were informed about the inferviews The purpose of this advance notice was to help

students prepare and promote their “professional” attitude The interviews were recorded under the interviewees’ permission for the purpose of the study The

interview was conducted one-by-one to allow the research to delve deeply into the

issue

The students were allowed to speak in Vietnamese so that the writer can

elici more information from the subjects The data from the semi-structured

interviews was analyzed after gathering

2.5 Techniques of analyzing data

Two ways were applied to analyze the dala, they arc:

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24.1 Descriptive technique

In descriptive technique, the researcher analyzed the transcript gained through the inlerview with the leachers, questionnaires to studerts, and the observation sheet,

2.4.2, Statistical technique

A statistical techrique was used to know if there was any impaci lo the student’s vocabulary or no from the result of post-treatment test and delayed post-

treatment test In this study, the students’ post-treatment test scores were analyzed

‘by means of paired-samples (-lest, using SPSS version 20.

CHAPTER 3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents the analysis of the data collected through the research procedure in order to deal with two research questions raised at the beginning of the study Based on the results and discussions, these two questions will be addressed in

‘tum in this chapter

3.1 Analysis of the preli

inary study

Preliminary research was conducted before implementing the action

research It was done in order to identify the problems during the teaching leaming

process dealing wilh students’ vocabulary learning, to find oul the students’

attitudes toward learning vocabulary, and to evaluate the students’ vocabulary

proficiency before applying a new method

Soveral ways were done lo gather dala for preliminary study including

having observed the teaching leaming process during 4 weeks before 2™ semester

started, then inlerviewing students

First of all, data collected from the observation, which focused on three main aspects: the techniques the Linglish teacher used to introduce and revise vocabulary,

students’ attitudes toward learning vocabulary during the lessans, and problems

they were facing in leaning vocabulary, was analyzed and some findings were

withdrawn as follow Firstly, the techniques applied in presenting vocabulary were

less varied Verbal explanation was a common technique She used the same way

she conducted one meeting in the next including: giving Vietnamese equivalent translations for new words/phrases or translated Vietnamese words/phrases into

English, then asking students 10 repeat words/phrases after her She sometimes used

visual aids such as pictures to elicit the meaning of words and rarcly provided the

synonyms or antonyms for new words Secondly, the students did not involve the

lesson, They were busy wilh themselves when the teacher cxplamed the lesson

While their friends went to the board and did the task assigned by the teacher, most

of them made noise in the class At last, students’ retention of vocabulary was poor Beoanse revision wes nol, paid much atlention on and revision techniques were also

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css varied, most of students could not memorize newly presented werds and their ameaning even right after the class

To ascerlam whelher the students fell bored with learmng vocabulary and

had trouble in retaining taught words or not, the follow-up interviews were

conducted with 4 students selected randomly in the name list When being asked if they enjoy learning vocabulary or not all of students said “no”, this moans that they

were not interested in learning vocabulary at all ‘They shared the same points of reasons they were not motivated to leaming vocabulary, which can be summarized

as follow:

©) The ways the leacher explains new words are boring

« Lam fed up with monotonous class atmosphere The teacher works a

lol while the students listen lo and did the lasks she asks

© This difficull lo remember words and their meaning quickly as well as

retain them for a long tune

‘he students said in the interview that they had some difficulties in leaming vorabulary Firstly, they could nol memorize the taught words in terms of form and

smeaning, Secondly, they could not recall the meaning and different fonns of the

taught words when they encountered them in the tests

From the observation and interview, it can be concluded that (1) the students

were fed up with monotonous class atmosphere, and (2) they bad difficult in retaining words and their meanings

3.2 Data analysis

3.2.1 The findings from the post-treatment tests

N Mimmum Maximum Mean Std_ Deviation

Table 2 shows the variance of the mean score of two post-treatment tests It

can be seen that there was no significant change between the post-treatment test and the delayed post-treatment test (M_ 5.3 vs 5.97) This may be duc lo the following

reasons First, the trestment, which was taken in only 6 sessions, was not long

enough to make the students progress in their vocabulary retention through direct

vocabulary mstraclion Secondly, beeause the ime of the trealment was limited, the

students did not have enough exposure to practice the newly taught words

3.2.2 The findings from questionnaires

Tue 1o the resulls taken from the pre-action, direck vocabulary instrucion

method was chosen to apply in teaching vocabulary «After the action had been

undertaken, the questionnaire was delivered to students to collect data then to

evaluate students’ perception af their motivation to vocabulary learning and the

effectiveness that direct instruction could bring them to improve their vocabulary

retention The results were shown in the tables below

Table 3: Students’ perception of the impact of direct instruction on their

\ meaning of the new wards helps me to

Telamm the new words better

I can retain words better when their

tạ meariings are presented visually 0% 544 |27% |595 |334

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The assaciation between words and | 0 2 2 21 13

¿ eit representing images helps me|ox, s44 |5.494 |S6§ |324

long time

4 synonyms, anfonyms, olher forms af | gag 5.4% | 5.4% |73% |162

root, suffix) help me remember new

wards for a long time

Vocabulary games help me remember

© ear words for a long time 0% 0% =| 5.4%] 568 |318

As can be seen from Table 3, the majority of students highly appreciated the

enedils that direct instruclion brought them in recalling newly taught words Ta go

deeper into details, the highest percentage, which was 94 6% agreed and strongly

agreed that revising vocabulary through vocabulary games could improve their

vocabulary retention This greatly contributes to the success and effectiveness of

direct instruction method applied Almost all respondents shared the same view that

constructing a picture, pictograph, or symbolic representation of the taught words

was useful for their retention of vocabulary The percentages of those who agreed

and strongly agroed were 59 5% and 32.4% respectively There was only one

student having no idea and one was in opposition to the effectiveness of the

association between words and their representing images on his/her vocabulary

rolentiont

The percentages of proponents of the effectiveness of restating in their own

words what their teacher had preserted about new words and thal of the benefits of

discussing your description, explanation, examples, and pictures of newly taught

words with their partners on their vocabulary retention were almost the same with 83.8 % of and 89.2% respectively

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