Luận văn promoting learner autonomy in learning vocabulary for second year students at hai phong medical university

Aims and objectives of the study Firstly, the sludy aims al improving the students’ autonomous vocabulary learning by teaching them some helpful strategies, namely dictionary-related s

TRAN THI HOA

PROMOTING LEARNER AUTONOMY IN LEARNING VOCABULARY FOR SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT IIAI PIEONG

MEDICAL UNIVERSITY

(Phát huy tính tự chủ trong việc học từ vựng cho sinh viên năm thứ hai,

'Trường Đại học Y Hải Phòng)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

TRAN THI HOA

PROMOTING LEARNER AUTONOMY IN LEARNING VOCABULARY FOR SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT IIAI PIEONG

MEDICAL UNIVERSITY

(Phát huy tính tự chủ trong việc học từ vựng cho sinh viên năm thứ hai,

'Trường Đại học Y Hải Phòng)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor: Phung Ha Thanh, MEd

HANOE - 2010

Declaration ne 1

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

2 Aims and objectives of the stỗy nàn reereririreerro-Ð

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5 Sựgnificanee of the stuđy cọ chang reererireraerorooẨ

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.2 Explicit approach vs Iacidental learning approach

3.1 Dcnifloni oŸ aulonOHHV cà Hnằneneeeirirrirereeeeeeeeoce TỔ,

3.2 Prinoiples of developing autonomy

A Vocabnilary learnings stratogios

4 1 Definition of learning strategies

4.2 Classification of vocabutary learning strategies

4.3 Frameworks for strategy training

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

1.1 Current learning and tcaching af English al Hai Phong

Medical Univetsity so

1.3 1dentifieation of tho problem

2, Participants .eceosesaes wenseseenenintvtuneeeee

3, Implementation of the action research

4, Tusiruments of dala collection

4.1 Description of the pre-treatment questionnaire

4.2 Description of ths vocabulary — learning records

4.3 Description of the vocabulary learning diary

4.4, Description of the post —treatment questionnaire

5, Data collection procedures

6 Data analysis procedures

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

1 Phase One - Research question 1: Students’ problems in independent

2.1.2 Students” performance in the use of Strategy Set 3

2.2 Research question 3: Students’ participation in the use of the taught

3.1 Research question 4: Students’ maintenance of the taught strategies

in independent vocabulary learning

3.2 Research question 5: Students” perception of the effectiveness of

the slrategy taining programme

3.2.1 Students’ frequency of using the taught strategies before and after the training programme

3.2.2 Usefillness of the taught strategies

3.2.3 Students’ evaluation of the strategy training programme

APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Schmitt's laxonomy af vocabulary learning strategies (1997)

Appendix 2: ‘Three lesson plans

Appendix 3: Three word-leaminys records

Appendix 4; Sample vocabulary-leaming diaries

Appendix 5: Pro-trcutmant quostiormairs survey (Engtish version)

Appendix 6; Pre-treatment questionnaire survey (Vietnamese Version) essen

Appendix 7: Post-trealment questionnaire survey (English version)

Appendix 8: Post-troatment questionnaire survey (Victnamese version}

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

TABLES

Table 1: Criteria for evaluating word-tearning records

‘Table 2: Lolistic rubric for marking the maintenance of the trained strategy sets

Table 3: Students’ performance in the use of Dictionary-related strategies and

Vocabulary-recording strategies

Table 4: Students’ performance in the usc of Affix-studying strategies

Table 5: Students’ participation in the use of Dictionary-related strategies and

Vocabulary-recording strategies Table 6: Students’ participation in the use of Atlix - studying strafegies

FIGURES

Figure 1: Strdents’ problems in independent vocabulary learning

Figure 3: Sludenis’ maintenance of the Gnught strategies in independent

vocabulary learning Figure 3: Frequency of vocabulary strategy use before and after training

Figure 4; Usefulness of the taught strategies

Vigure 5: Liffectiveness of the strategy training programme

Figure 6; Students’ recommendations for vocabulary-leaming strategy training

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Learner autonomy, a concept promoted by Liolec (1981) and others in the context

of Turopean language education, has become a favorite topic for analysis for the last twenty years In many parts of the world, Icamer autonomy has been put forward as a goal

to achieve (Pemberton et al., 1996; Sinclar et al, 2000; Little et al, 2000; Benson, 2001) Several arguments muy be used in favor of developing aulonomy in language learners For example, according to Naimen et al (1978), autonomous learning is more effective than other approaches to leaning, and Waite (1994) specifies that learners nzed to take charge

of their own Isarning in ordor to make the most of available resources, especially outside

the classroom,

Despite being widely discussed worldwide, leamer autonomy remains a fairly novel concept in Vietnam Whether or to what extent learner autonomy is developed and practiced in Victnamese schools and universitics is still opcn to question Furthermore, since the idea of learner autonomy originated trom Westem cultures, it hardly sutlices to

just transfér the concept to an Asian context (Renson, Chik & Lim, 2003; Smith, 2003)

Rather, the implementation of icamer autonomy in Asian countrics should be tailored so that an appropriate methodology for developing leaner autonomy in non- Westem contexts can be devised (Smith, 2003) Another argument is that learner aulonomy is a universal

social phenomenon, which manifests ilsclf differenlty in different local contoxis (Holliday, 2003), Because of all these complex and interesting points, it seems appealing to explore how autonomy can be enhanced in an Asian educational institution like Iai Phong Medical

Uni

sity Morcover, developing learners? autonomy becomes increasingly important as far as tertiary education is concemed A student at university is requized to do a substantial amount of research fr his assignments, so he is supposed to know when and how to work independently so that he can achicve a satisfactory result,

Specifically, the local context of Hai Phong Medical University calls for the idea of promoting leamer antonomy The second-year students, who are at pre-intermadiate level,

do nol seem to study Bnglish as well as in the first year Tavmg taughl them for three

successive semesters, I immediately take notice of the situation and intend to design a

remedy plan to improve it After my open talk with the whole class, several problems came

to light Most of the students feel discouraged by a large number of words they encounter

in cach English lesson As toany of thom confess, learning voaabutary seems lo be the most difficult and most important to them, However, as English non-majors, the students have only four periods per week for English lessons It means the time spent on vocabulary learning is really limited in class In order to develap the stuđents` vocabulary, it is cructal that they practice independent vocabulary learning, regularly outside class, Therefore, it has become increasingly essential to provide them with useful learning strategies so that they can employ in their selfstudy time In this ease, the success of learning vocabulary depends very much on how effectively and autonomously the students practice vocabulary

self-study As Waite (1994) says, learners need to take charge of their own learning in

order to make the most of available resources, especially outside the classroom

For all the reasons above, I have decided to undertake a study on promoting learner antonomy in learning vocabulary for second-year students at Hai Phong

Medical University The focus of the study is a training programme of vocabulary —

learning strategics conducted for ten weeks

2 Aims and objectives of the study

Firstly, the sludy aims al improving the students’ autonomous vocabulary learning

by teaching them some helpful strategies, namely dictionary-related strategies, recording

vocabulary and studying affixes Secondly, it is intended to evaluate their employment of these vocabulary-learning strategies in terms of performance, participation and

maintenance These aims can be achieved by answering the following research questions:

i What are the problems thai the students encounter in their independent

4 Toa what extent do the students maintain the taught strategies in their

independent vocabulary learning?

5 Haw effective is the strategy training progranime in helping the students learn

vovabulary, as perceived by the students?

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3 Scope of the siudy

The 1 arch focuses ơn ere spcoile way of devaloping lesmer autonomy: the

explicit teaching of learning strategies, A vocabulary-learning strategy training programme

is conducted for ten weeks Within the scope of the study, only three strategy sets, namely dictionary-telated strategies, recordings vocabulary and studying affixes, are taught, The effectivenass of the taught strategies is measured in terms of performance, participation and maintenance Performance refers to the extent of correctness when the students use the laugh! stratogios white participation means bow much they usc th

ơ stralogios in their guided vocabulary practice, Lastly, maintenance refers to the extent of retaining the taught strategies in their independent vocabulary study

The participanis include 27 second-year students of the some Fnglish class at Hai Phong Medical University and their teacher In this study, the teacher is in charge of teaching the class and plays the role of the researcher at the same time

4 Methods of the study

The current study is carried out as an action rescarch, which combincs qualitative and quantitative approaches The action actually taken is a vocabulary-learning strategy training programme designed for the duration of ten weeks, The programme is divided into three phases

In phase one, pre-treatment questionnaires are distributed to seek the answer for research qnestion ane tegarding (he students’ problem in Igarning vocabulary Then, the

students are taught about three strategy sets, namely dictionary-related strategies,

vocabulary-recording and affix-stadying,

In phase two, three word-learning records are provided a3 guided practice of the laugh! strategies The data fram the word-records arm al answering the

two and three about the students’ performance and participation in the use of the tausht

to answer the research question four aboul the extent of maintaining the taught strategies in

the students’ independent vocabulary Joarning By the end of phase threc, posi-lrcatment questionnaires are distributed to answer the research question five about the learners’

perception of the strategy traming programme

‘The data fiom the pre-treatment and post-treatment questionnaires, the word-

learning records and voeabulary-Icarning diarics arc calenlaled with regard to items”

frequency, mean, and percentage

5 Significance of the study

First and foremost, the habit of indspendent vocabulary learning will hopefully be developed for the second-year students at Hai Phong Medical Univarsity The students can overcome their difficulties in learning vocabulary by means of monitoring and regulating their self-study wilh appropriate learning strategies Iv Ihis way, the rescarcher hopes that the students’ awareness of learning strategies and learner autonomy can be raised and

nurtured

Sccond, the sludy offers an cxample oC how learner autonomy can be fostered in an

Asian context, It is expected that the study will contribute an insightful picture of the

practice of Asian learner autonomy to the literature and help to shed light on the concept of Jearner autonomy

6 Overview of the study

‘The research paper consists of the following parts:

Parl, A Introduction

Part B Development

‘The development is divided into three chapters:

© Chapter one (Literature review) provides the theoretical background of the

susdy, covering the key terms and review of related studies

© Chapter two (Methadology} justifies and describes the methodology of the susdy in details

® Chapter three (Results and discussion) presents full analysis of the collected data and discusses the findings

Part C, Conclusion

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT CIIAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter offers a review of the Tilerature related io Ieaner autonomy and vooibulary Ioarning and ts

of exemcs, including singl: words, compound words and idioms” This

list or collection of words and phrases usually alphabetically arranged and explained or defined.” Itis clear from these two definitions that vocabulary inchides not only individual words but also fixed expressions This point is directly identified by Ur (1996: 60),

“Vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as the words we teach in the foreign language However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word”, He highlights that some vocabulary items such as “post office” and “mother-indaw” express a single idca

Besides,

of the componznt, words Therefore, Ur (1996: 60) suggests [hat “A useful convention is to

the moaning of idioms such as “call it a day” oan nol be deduced from an analysis

cover all such cases by talking about vocabulary items rather than words” In the same vein, McCarthy (1990) argues that multi-word units including idioms and phrasal verbs should clearly be treated as single lexical items since their meaning are partly identified by

their fixedness The central idea of these definitions can be best summed up by Lewis

(1993, cited in Nguyen, 2007: 7) who defines vocabulary as “individual words, or fall

institutionalized uttcranecs — that convey fixed social or pragmatic meaning within a given community”

1.2, Processes of vocabulary acquisition

According to Nation (2001), in order to remember a word, the leamer needs to

experience three processes, namely noticing, retrieval and creative (generative) use

sentenecs

Most simply, noticing means giving attention to an item, ‘This can happen in a variety of ways, including learners deliberately studying a word or having a word explained to them and the word appearing crucial in the textual input Noticing involves dccontextualization, which oceurs when “the word is removed from its message context to

be focused on as a language item” (Nation, 2001: 64) The role of decontextualization is

underlined by Nation (2001: 64) * in order to acquire the language, learners need to

consciously ses language items as parts of the language system rather than only as

messages”

Nation (2001) fizther distinguishes two Kinds of decontextualization: negotiation and definition Allhough a large number of studies demonstrate that negotiated vocabulary items are mare likely Lo be learned lan norenegotialed ones, he points out Uhat it is not the

mcans by which most voeabulary is kearned, suggesting the necd for ather complementary ways of decontextualizing items Especially noteworthy is the discovery that not only the learners actually negotiating but also those observing the negotiation learn the words, Regarding definition, an interesting and significant finding is that simple, short definitions are the most effective while more elaborate ones tend to be confusing rather than helpful for vocabulary learning (Ellis, 1995; Chaudron, 1982, cited in Nation, 2001) In addition,

‘Nation himself has shown that many leamers find learning faster if the word meaning is conveyed by a Gist language translation, In the classroom, lcachers directly influcnee students’ noticing process by deciding the context to pul the wanted vocabulary itains, by pre-teaching or conscicusness-raising of the items before the activity and by using different attention-drawing techniques

‘The second process of vocabulary acquisition is retrieval, which reinforces the meaning of the word in the learner’s mind, The more frequent the retrieval of a particular item in the learning process, the greater the chances that the item will strike deeper in the learner’s memory It should be noted that a repetition of a word can only be effective if there is some memory of the previous mecting with the word, Thus, the span of time belwecu cncoumters cannol be tov long As Nation (2001; 68) states:

It is very ussfial to try to estimate how much listening and reading a learner would need to be doing per week in order for incidental receptive vocabulary learning to proceed in an effective way ( ) On average learners would need to listen to stories

at least three times a week for about fifteen minutes each time, They would need to read about one graded reader every two weeks,

The last but major process of vocabulary acquisition is generation, which occurs when “previously met words arc subscquently met or used in ways that differ fiom the previous mecting with the word” (Nation 2001; 68) Those new cncounters push lamers lowards reconceptualization of their knowledge of these words There arg also receptive and productive forms of generation Receptive generation occurs when a word is encountered in listening and reading and has slightly different meaning whersas productive generation involves using the word ina new context

‘The three processes discussed above tend to correspond to the three-point scale for describing depth of processing suggested by Stahl (1985, cited in Nation, 2001) ‘The scale includes three levels, namely association, comprehension and generation

2 Vocabulary earning and teaching

24 Aspects of learning aword

The question of what it mucins for a language learner to “know” a word is a central

issue of second language vocabulary acquisition A close exarninalion of the Bteralure has

revealed that the nature of lexical knowledge can be depicted as a continuum of several dimensions

On the one hand, several writers have regarded vocabulary learning as the task of

mastering its constituents As illustrated by Ur (1996), learners have to know the word form - including prommnciation and spelling, grammar, collocation, aspects of word meaning, and word formation By grammar, he means the information such as irregular

past form, iegular plural form, which should be showed to leamcrs, especially when an

jtern has an unpredictable change of form Ur differentiates two levels of incaring aspects The first level includes denotation, connotation and appropriateness of use in a certain

context, and the second level covers meaning relationships, namely synonyms, antonyms,

hyponyms, co-hyponyms, superordinates Clearly, knowing a word requires more than just its meaning and form Sharing the view with Ur, Harmer (1991: 158) presents a more

detailed and systematic summary of “knowing a word” in the following chat:

Spelling and pronunciation

Nouns: countable and uncountable, etc

Verb complementation, WORD GRAMMAR | — phrasaf verbs, ete

Adjectives and adverbs:

position, tức.

In a much more concise manner, as stated by Finegan (2004: 40), using a word

requires that the mental lexicon of children and adults alike should store four kinds of information:

® its soumds and their sequencing (phonological information)

* its meaning (semantic information)

« how related words such as the plural and past tense are formed (morphological information)

* its calegory and how to use il ina sentence (syntactic information)

Ôn the otler hand, some reszarchers have approached the learning of vocabulary from a broader view For example, Chapelle (1994) suggests a three-component construct

of vocabulary ability including (1) the context of vocabulary use, (2) vocabulary knowledge and fundamental processes and (3) metacognitive strategies for vocabulary use

As regards context, it can influence lexical meaning in various ways The second

component is fisther divided into four elements, namely vocabulary size, knowledge of

word characteristics, lexicon organization (the way in which lexical items are organized in

the mental lexicon) and fundamental vocabulary provesses tbat users apply to access heir lexical _knowledye Finally, mslacognive strategies or stralegic competence can be avoidance, paraphrase, guessing meaning, asking teacher or consulting dictionary etc Another direction in the research of lexical competence is to head for links and interrelationships between the different kinds of word knowledge (Schmitt & Meara, 1997)

2.2 Explicif approach ws Incidental learning approach

Vocabulary learning has been emerging in the literature review as a complex, inleresting issue thal involves different processes The mos! notable lopic is the distinction belween explicil and implicit (ar incidental) learning

As regards explicit learning the central idea is thai the appticalion of vocabulary learning strategies can greatly facilitate vocabulary acquisition, and learners play an active role in processing information (Ellis, 1995) Unsurprisingly, a large number

of books have focused on mumerous activities and exervises for explicit study of vocabulary According to a survey by Sokmen (1997 cited in Schmitt, 2000: 146), explicit vocabulary teaching should adhere to the following, principles:

© build a large sight vocabulary

@ integrate new words with old

© provide a number of encounters witha word

© promote a deep level of processing

© facilitate imaging

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© make new words “real” by connceting them to the students’ world in some way

© use a variety of techniques

@ encourage independent learning strategies

In addition, Schmitt (2000) points out some other important principles Iirst, the

problem of cross — association should be prevented ‘This usually happens when similar words, such as “left” and “tight”, are initially tanght together Students are contused when matching the word torm with the right meaning Antonyms, synonyms, and closely related semantic groupings are particularly subject to cross-association, As Nation (1990 cited in Sclmill, 2000) suggests, cross association can be avoided by Icaching the inost frequent

tablished

word of a pair first and introducing the other only aler the firs! word is well

Sceond, the underlying meaning concepl of a polysemous word is worl teaching For example, to define the verb “run”, it is best to explain it a3 “go quickly, smoothly, or contimously” ‘This definition keeps the common underlying trait of several meaning

senses like “the girl ran”, “the road runs up the hill”, and “run a business” (Nation, 1990

cited in Schmitt, 2000) Accordingly, students can understand the word in a variety of contexts and the effect of teaching is maximized Last, teaching word families should be

made a habit to cnhanc vocabulary learning

Implicit Icarming, on the olber hand, is defined as “accidental learning of

information without the intention of remembering thal information” (Hustijn el al., 1996) Sternberg (1987) argues that most vocatmlary is leamed implicitly from context An

extreme position, having its roots in Krashen’s Input IEypothesis (Krashen, 1989), even

states that meanings of new words are acquired subconsciously as a result of repeated

exposures in a range of contexts, where the conscious focus is not on form, but on the message To put it simply, the key to incidental learning approach is to make sure that

learners get maximum cxposurc to the language In sccond language classrooms, this can

be best achicved through reading

However, much of the tcrature has showed thal incidenlal leaming through

reading occurs only to a limited degree This is attributed to several factors Firstly, lexical inferencing is not always successful For example, word meanings are not inferable from context or lead leamers to make wrong inferences Alternatively, not all contexts are equally conducive to make informed guesses Secondly, incidental vocabulary acquisition

is unlikely if new words are not noticed or processed deeply Furthermore, the question of

how many and what kind of exposures are necessary for acquisition to occur remains unanswered As Hulstijin ct al (1996) conchudes, incidental learning in sccond language

© Strategic knowledge of infrencing process

© Rich context with sufficicnt cues

All things considered, it is generally agreed that any vocabulary program nccds to

nai 1sarring In (he

inchile both explicit teaching and activilies which promote incid

words of Schmnilt (2000: 146), expll

whereas beyond this level, “incidental learning should be structured into the program in a principled way.” Incidental learning not only helps to consolidate vocabulary but also exposes learners to different contexts in which a word is used, thus expanding the knowledge about the word, Moreover, some aspects of word knowledge, especially collocation and register constraints, can only be fully acquired through numerous

ly leaching all the words is necessary for beginners

exposures Another rcason is that cxplicitly presenting all the uscs of a word to students is

obviously an impossible task, More specifically, Pllis (1995) contends that both imptien and explicil learning suit different levels of word meaning, In his view, implicit vocabulary learning is suitable for simple pattem recognition of surface form, called “shallow processing” while explicit learning necessarily facilitates the mapping of those surface forms te their corresponding semantic/conceptual presentation Explicit leaming, therefore, refars to the recognition of word meaning by means of “deep processing”

3 Learner autonamy

3.1 Definition of exntonomy

A close look at the filerature has revealed thal it is not easy lo pul forward a proper definition of the concep! “autonomy” There exisis a range of definitions, cach of which explores anlonomy from a different perspective and within a certain scope, Accordingly, il

is essential to study a variety of interpretations in order to capture the full meaning of the concept

To start with, Holec (198): 3), the so-called “father” of learner autonomy, provides

a broad definition which considers learner autonomy “the ability to take charge of one’s own learning” This general but concise definition, fiom the researcher's view, really

aufonomous Tsarner not only pass: sonse of responsibitity for his learning but he/she

is also selconscions of that responsibility

Other writers offer more specific definitions than Holec’s in that they detail what constitutes the ability to take charge of one’s own leaming Kor example, in terms of

behavior, Nunan (2000) desoribes auionomars learners as the ones who make decision on their own style of learning actively involve themselves in learning process and independently choose their learning materials Alternatively, Little (1991) tends to focus

on mental processes when he asserts that learner autonomy is “essentially the matter of the Icarner’s psychological relation to the process and content of tearing — a capacity for detachment, critica reflection, decision making, and independent action.”

Turing allention to the aspect of attitudes, Scharle and Sabo (2000) scem to share the same interest with Iolsc (1981) when they present a persuasive analysis of the interrelationship between autonomy and responsibility According to the anthors, autonomy is defined as “the freedom and ability to manage one’s own affairs, which entails the right to make decisions as well” whereas responsibility is understood as “being

in charge of something, but with the implication that onz has to deal with the consequences

of one’s own actions.” (Schatle & Szabo, 2000° 4), They argue that autonomy and responsibilily are inerrelated and both requize leamers* active involvement, Since successfal leaming depends considerably on learners having a responsible altilude, students need to develop a sense of responsibility together with autonomy capacity

However, Benson (2001: 47) states that it is preferable to define antonomy as the capacity to take control of one’s own learning, largely because the construct of “control” appears to be more open to investigation than the constructs of “charge” or

“esponsibility.” In his definition, he specifies three levels of control that a leaner should take in order to develop his/her learning autonomy: “An adequate description of autonomy

in language lcarning should at Icast recognize the importance of thice Levels at which Jeamner control may be excicised: learning management, cognitive processes and leaning content” (Benson, 2001: 50) This definition will be the guideline for the current smdy

Most interestingly, several writers have approached the concept of autonomy with reference to the combination between independence and interdependence Although independence from a teacher is often seen as an observable sign of autonomy, the value of interdependence, defined as “the ability of leamers to work together for mutual benefit, and to take shared responsibility for their learning” (Palffeyman, 2003: 4), can hardly be denied, Liftfe and Dam (1998) also argue for the interdependence inside independence:

We are social creatures, and as such we depend on one another in infinity of ways, Withont the stirmolus and comfort of social interaction, for example, child development is disastronsly impaired: it is our condition that we learn fram one another Thus, the independence that we exercise throngh our developed capacity for autonomous behavior is always conditioned and constrained by our inescapable

So is aulonomous learning, Teachers and Isarners collaborate Lo comtribule lo the learning

of autonomy training Likewi

community and to the proc knowing bow and when to seck for help docs nol mean tearners arc nol independent, Therefore, autanomy should be understood as the freedom to choose what action to take, whether to do it oneself or to consult others In fact, according to Palfreyman (2003), collaboration has come to be seen

as an important component of learner autonomy Boud (L981, cited in Palfreyman, 2003)

has even gone further to regard interdependence as a more developed stage of autonomy than independance

A more general interpretation of the concept “autonomy” is to put it into the frame

of daily life, An autonomous lamer is then depicted as being a fullillcd and effcetive

d in Palfrzyman, 2003:2) refers to

“autonomy in langage, learning, and above all else, in living.” Similarly, in the words of Delores et al (1996, cited in Palfteyman, 2003) “sach individual must be equipped to seize learning opportunities throughout life, both to broaden her or his knowledge skills and attitudes and to adapt to a changing, complex and interdependent world.”

All in all, learner autonomy is a stimulating, multifaceted concept which can be interpreted ftom different viewpoints Leamers” autonomy encompasses not only their

citiven in a society For example, Candlin (1997,

attitudes but also their behaviors It is both a process and a goal in language Icamning, in education and in living as well

3.2 Principles of developing autonomy

Varied as it may be, the literature on principles of developing autonomy seems to have a common feature It is all concerned with explicit teaching and providing opportunities for learner autonomy to express and develop

First and foremost, in order to foster Jeamer autonomy, it is crucial to increase a sense of responsibility A complete analysis of how to build up learner responsibility is presented by Scharle and Szabo (2000) They idcntify the building blocks of responsibility and autonomy on the part of Icarners and teachers, The building blocks required of learners imelude motivation and self-confidence, moriloring and evaluation, learning siralsgies and finally cooperation and group cohesion Particularly noteworthy is their emphasis on monitoring and evaluation According to Scharle and Szabo (2000: 7), “when we encourage students to focus on the process of their Jearning rather than the outcome, we help them consciously examine their own contribution fo their learning.” U'his is really the

vital step to the development of a responsible attitude Another key point is the teaching of learning strategies, which are regarded as the tools for students to expand their language competence and to undertake their own learning responsibilty Students should be shown a variety of available strategies and encouraged to find out which strategies work best for them in verlain cortexts, Meanwhile, certain attitudes are also required of teachers, They should be willing to sharz information with the Tearners in lerms af both short and tong term objectives, to take consislont control by clearly establishing cxpectations towards learners and lastly to delegate tasks and decisions to learners

With a view to reinforcing these skills and attitudes for learners and teachers, Scharle and Szabo (2000) go on to detail the process of developing responsibility that learners and teachers go through This process is divided into three phases: raising awareness, changing attitudes and transferring roles First, the stage of raising awareness includes highly controlled activities which are intended to present new experiences to Jeamners and to make thon conscious of the ismer processes of their leaning, Scvond, the changing — attitude — stage allows repeatable, 1

controlled acti

through which students practise and reinforce their new roles and habits, Finally, the stage of transferring roles contains loosely structured activities that give students considerable freedom It is clear that as learners move ftom one phase to the next, they are fheilitated to exercise greater autonomy and more responsibility

More specifically, Vieria (2003) puts principles in a common framework for learner and teacher development, This ftamework should be highly recommended tor ts thorough presentation of action principles to promote Ieamer autonomy Besides, it niccly compares aulonornous Kamer development side by side with reflective teacher development Llowever, for the scope of the present study, the researcher will only make use of the

principles concerning learners According to Vieria (2003: 226), the action principles ta

develop learner autonomy include:

Reflection: Developing language / learning awareness

= Developing awarensss of tanguage (formal and pragmatic properties, sociacultural dimension)

= Developing awareness of learning (Bonsc of agenoy, altitudes

vepresenlations, beliefs, preferences and styles, aims and priori

strategies: cognitive, melacoguilive, strategic, socio-affective tasks’ focus,

purpose, rationale, demands; instructional / didactic process: objectives, activities, materials, evaluation, roles)

Lixperimentation: Experiencing learning strategies

= Discovering and trying oul learning strategies (in class and outside class)

* Planning lzaming strategies

* Monitoring/evaluating attitndes, representations, beliefs, siraiegie

knowledge and ability

© Assessing leaming outcomes and progress

» Evaluating the instructional / didactic process

Negotiation: Co-constructing learning experience

© Working in collaboration

= Taking the initiative, choosing and deciding The four principles presented above indicate “major leamer roles that bring the

language leamer closer to the Jeamning content and process” (Vieria, 2003: 227) As can be

seen, each principle paves the way for a particular realization of autonomy Within the scope of this study, the researcher will exploit the first two principles: reflection and

experimentation

4 Vocabulary earning strategies

Strategy training can be uscd to help students achicve lcarnzr autonomy and linguistic autonomy (Cohen, 1998) By choosing their own sirategics wilhoul continucd

prompting from the language teacher, learners should be able to monitor and evaluate the relative effectiveness of their strategy use, and more fully develop their problem-solving skills In this way, leamers are encouraged to become more autonomous, to diagnose some

of their own learning strengths and weaknesses, and to self-direct the process of language development, This section offers a literature review concerning the training of vocabulary

learning strategies

AL Definition of learning strategies

There is no conscnsus on a definition of Icarning strategics duc to difforent

interpretations of the term strategy in the literature

Several writers seem to pay attention to the utility of learning strategies when

defining them For example, Rubin (1975: 43) provides a very broad definition of learning strategies as “the techniques or devices which a learner may use to acquire Inowledge.” Similarly, in the view of Willing (1989), leaming strategies may be identified as specific study skills or techniques, a general ability to take the initiative or just an enthusiasm for

learning while Beckman (2006) considcrs learning strategies a sct of steps to accomplish a particular task such as taking a test, comprehending text and writing a story In a more

specific manner, Oxford (1990: §) sfates thai “ leaming siralegies are operations

employed by learners to aid the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information.” She further stresses the richness of learning strategies by expanding the definition, “ learning strategies ar2 specific actions taken by learners to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations” (Oxford, 1990:8) Tl is obvians from th

too] to Íboilftatc lssming

c definitions that learning strategic: as the

Other writers, however, put more focus on the inner process that leamers experience when they employ learning strategies In a helpfull survey article, Weinstein and Mayer (1986: 315) define learning strategies broadly as "behaviours and thoughts that a learner engages in during learning" which are "intended to influence the learner's encoding process.” Later Mayer (1988: 11) more specifically defines leaming strategies as

"behaviours of a learner that are intended to influence how the learner processes information.” These definilions have (he rool in eugnitive science, with ils essential

, Rubin (1987 29) views learning as “the process by which information is obtained, stored, retrieved, and used”, so learning strategies can be any set of operations, steps, plans, routines used by the learner which afffeet this process More specifically, Cohen (1998: 4) portrays learning

assumplion that Icarning involves aforination processing, Tn a similar vi

strategies as “ learning processes which are consciously selected by the leamer.” He emphasizes that, “The element of choice is important here because this is what gives a strategy its special character, These are also moves which the Jeamer is at least partially aware of, even if full attention is not being given to them” (Cohen, 1998:4) In his view, the clement of consciousness is whal distinguishes strategies from those pros

not strategic Although some writers maintain that strategies can be used unconsciously (Barnett, 1988 and Davies, 1995, cited in Yang, 2006: 316), Cohen’s emphasis on consciousness is quite reasonable In the researcher's view, since leaming strategies are

operations used by learners to ease the learning process, the strategies can only work best if’ learners are well aware of what strategies they are using, how and when to use them

4.2, Classification of vocabulary learning strategies

Among several taxonomics of vocabulary learning stratcgics available in the literature, the one proposed by Schmitt (1997) is highly appreciated because of its advantages over the others, thus, the present sludy is conducted in the lighl of Schmitt's comprehensive taxonomy

The classification in Schmitr’s study was based on the two dimensions

developed by Oxford (1990) and Nation (1990) The first dimension was adopted from

Oxford's system of leaming strategies which contain six groups: social, memory,

Mctacognilive (MET) strategi

making đc

s involve # conscious over

iow of the learning process and

ons about planing, monitoring, or evaluating the best ways lo sludy,

Affective stralegics cxhibil how to manage one’s cmotions in Tangnage Tearning, Compensation strategies involve different ways of compensating for missing knowledge Llowever, Schmitt (1997) only adopted four strategy groups: Social, Memory, Cognitive, and Metacoenttive Besides, he added a new category — Determination Strategies (DET) to account for situations when an individual discovered a new word meaning without resource to another person’s expertise The second dimension is the distinction between initial discovery of word meanings and remembering words that divide strategies into discovery and consolidation groups respectively (Nation, 1990) Taken together, Sehmiut’s taxonomy contains 58 individual stralsgics characterized by (he discovery — consolidation division and into five groups, namely social, memory, cognitive, metacognitive and determination Appendix 1 presents Schmitt’s final version of taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies

43 Frameworks for strategy training

Before any discussion on setting an appropriate framework for strategy training, it

is important to investigate some central issues in instruetion in learning strategies

The first topic concerns whether strategy instruction should be provided as @ separale prograin of as an integrated component in the language or contzut subject course Those in favor of separate strategy training programs argue that students will Jearn strategies better if all their attention is focused on strategic processing skills (Jones et al

1987, cited in "Malley & Chamot, 1990: 152) Ilowever, integrated strategy instruction programs tend to have much more advantages First, Wenden (1987) asserts that learning

in contexts outperforms learning separate skills Scharle and Szabo (2000) also regard the regular school curriculum 2 meaningful context for strategy training, Second, it saves time and money to combine strategy training with regular courses, In the case of Victnam, where few scparate strategy training courses are offered, it is advisable that teachers

inlegrate stralegy instruction inlo their daily teaching

The second argument is between direct and embedded strategy instruction, which can be named explicit and implicit instruction respectively As defined by O"Malley and Chamot (1990: 153), “In direct instruction, students are informed of the value and purpose

of strategy training, whereas in embedded instruction, students are presented with activities

and materials structured to elicit the use of the strategies being taught buf are not informed

of the reasons why this approach to learning is being practiced.” Again, direct instruction is more advantageous than embedded one, Although Jones (1983, cited in O’Malley & Chamot, 1990) points out that embedded strategy trainmg requires Little teacher training, oller researchers crilicive i for not fostering tearner autonomy For sxeruple, in the words

of Wendsn (1987), “ students who ars not aware of the strategies they are using do nol develop indspendent teaming sizategics and have tills opportunity of becoming

autonomous learners.” In contrast, strategy training which includes a metacognitive component by informing students about the purpose and importance of the strategies can

help to maintain strategy use over time and ta transfer strategies to new tasks (Brown et al.,

1986, cited in Q’Malley & Chamot, 1990: 153) In addition, according to Scharle and Szabo (2000), explicit training may also encourage a collaborative spirit between the teacher and the Jeamer Because of the advantages discussed above, the strategy training

componenl of the present study will be conducted as an inlegraled part of lhe language

course in the most explicit manner,

As regards frameworks for learning strategy instruction, most of them have been

designed to raise students’ awareness as to the purpose and rationale of strategy use, to give students opportunities to practice the strategies that they are being taught, and to help them understand how to use the strategies in new learning contexts, Cohen (1998)

recommends seven steps towards the design of strategy training for learners They are

outlined below:

© Determining the learners’ needs and the resources available for training

Selecting the strategies

Considering the benefits of integrated strategy training Considering motivational issues

Preparing the materials and activities

Conducting explicit strategy training

Evaluating and revising the strategy training Colien (1998) emphasives that an integral part of the suategy training is ongoing evaluation and revision The training program can be evaluated by means of student performance across language tasks and skills, maintenance of the new strategies over time, effective transfer of strategies to other learning tasks and a positive attitude towards the training program (Wenden, 1987; Oxford, 1990) ‘Tus ongoing assessment is certainly based on feedback from the learners thenuselves

In the present research, the general guidelines fiom O’Malley & Chamot (1990) and Coben (1998) will bz followed

procedure, and data analysis,

1 Background of the study

LL Current learning and teaching of English at Hai Phong Medical University

English, a compulsory subjecl for all the students al Tai Phong Medical University,

is taught in two separate stages In the first stage, the students learn Genaral English for four successive semesters ‘They are expected to complete the elementary level after the

first two scrnesters and then the pre-derrnediale level aller the next two semesters Tn the

second stage, they study English for Medicine during the fifth semester, Each semester lasts 15 weeks, and the English class meets for a four-petiod lesson each week Obviously, the time spent on English learning and teaching is rather limited

1.2 Identification of the problem

By the end of 2009, the second-year class that I had been teaching at Hai Phong Medical University seemed to have a declining performance in English They showed a lack of interest in reading and vocabulary lessons and their Girst-tenn test results were rather low, Having taught them for three successive semesters, { immediately realized that they were having sore problems learning English, T decided to investigale the situation by having an open talk with the whols class The tak turned out to be a lively discussion in which my students expressed their feelings about learning English Most of them shared the view that learning vocabulary was the most difficult and most important to them More specifically, » considerable number of new words in cach English lesson might discourage them To make the matter worse, only four English periods per week meant that the in- class time for vocabulary learning was inadequate, in order to help my students overcome their difficulty in lcaming vocabulary, I intended to futher investigate the situation and then design a remedy plan Considering that the time in class was so restricted, the first thought that came to my mind then was haw to teach my students to learn vocabulary ellectively in their self-study lime Thal idea was then further clarified inta twa tasks Tim,

L needed to saise my students’ awareness of leamer autonomy in learning vocabulary Second, | wanted to teach them some vocatulary-leaming strategies that might help them

to learn vocabulary effectively on their own ‘'o fulfill these tasks, # decided to carry out a

2 Participants

The participants of the action research included 27 second-year students from the

arming stralegy training prograrm

ch wilh my students

same Tinglish class ai Tlaiphong Medical University and I myself as the teacher researcher

The students, aged 20, are all from the countryside Most of them have been learning English for over seven years, and three of them havs been learning English for aboul five yoars During their first two years al university, they arc required to attend General English courses as a prerequisite to move on to the Medical English course in the third-year Their level of English proficiency is that of pre-intermediate ‘he textbook used

The English class meets evary week for a lesson of four periods, which last nearly three hours and a hal

3 Implementation of the action research

The research was carried out fo answer the following research questions:

1 What are the problems that the students encounter in their independent

4 To what extent do the students muintuin the taught strategies in their

independent vocabulary learning?

How effective is the strategy training programme in helping the students Jearn vocabulary, as perceived hy the students?

In order to answer these research questions, a vocabulary-leaming strategy taining program was conducted as an action research because of several reasons

Virst, this research was initiated in order to help students learn vocabulary more

students Therefore, action research was chosen because “it is very focused on individual

or small-group professional practice and is not so concerned with making general statements” (Wallace, L998: 18) In other words, the characteristic of being context- specific is suitable for the current study As Cohen and Manion (1985) point out, action research is first and foremost situational, being concemed with the identification and solution of problems in a specific context

Last but not least, action research was the most suitable research methodology for the current study because it could be carried out concurrently with the teacher-researcher’s leaching The researcher herself is a Leacher, so the sesearch must not interfere with or disrupt her teaching job

The action research was conducted during the second term of school year 2009 -

2010 It was divided into three phases as follows

Phase One (Week 1-4) This phase was intended to answer research question 1: “What are the problems that the students encounter in their independent vocabulary learning?”

Week 1: The students were explicitly introduecd to the vocabulary-learning strategy training programme so that they were well aware of what they were expected to do during the second semester of the school-year As already discussed in the Titeralnre review, the dircel instruclion approach was choscn because of ils obvious advantages aver implicit training, It was also made clear to the students that their participation in the project

31

was voluntary, and would not be marked for the official assessment of the semester Then,

pre-trealinent questionnaires were distributed to the students

Week 2 4: During the next three weeks, the students were given a strategy teaching lesson each week The strategy training was designed to be integrated into the vocabulary sections of the English lessons so thal the students tsarned the vocabutary and the strategies at the same time In this way, the strategies being tamed were connected to the vocabulary of the lessons and did not affect the teaching progress of the syllabus

Erom the laxanomy of vooabdary learning stratogics suggested by Sebnnitl (1997), nine strategies were selected These strategies were then clustered into three sets based on how related they were as below:

Strategy Set | Strategy Group Strategy

DET Using a bilingual dictionary

Dictionary- EM Study the spelling of a word

1 related

strategies MEM Study the sound of a word

COG Keep a vocabulary notebook Recording

vocabulary

MEM Group words together to study them

aftixes MEM Remember affixes and roots

These three sels of strategics were taughl successively for three weeks The reason why the researcher had selected these strategy sets, namely dictionary-related strategies, recording vocabulary, and studying affixes, was that they could be considered the most basic ones ta facilitate students in their independent learning,

The lesson plans for these three strategy-training lessons can be seen in Appendix

2 The activities of the lessons were designed to present the strategy sets and offer some controlled practice of the strategies

Phase Two (Week 5-2)

The aims of this phase were to answer the follwing rescarch questions:

2 How well do the students use the taught strategies in their guided

vocabulary practice?

3 How much do the students use the taught strategies in their ynided

vocabulary practice?

Phase two, which lasted three weeks, provided the students with guided practice of

is that had alrcady boon taught in Phase One The students wars given a

the strategy s

word-learning record weekly and were supposed to complete it in their self-study time The word-leaming records are described in greater details in the section of Instruments of data sollsetion

Phase Three (Week & - 10)

‘This phase aimed at answering the last two research questions:

4 To what extent do ihe students maintain the taught strategies in their

independent vocabulary learning?

5 How effective is the strategy waining programme in helping the students

learn vocabulary, ax perceived hy the students?

During Phase Tiree, the students were asked to keep a fiee-style vocabulary learning diary 'he purpose of the vocabulary diaries was to discover the students’ practice

of independent vocabulary learning aflar Wey had been receiving strategy — training The diary details are given in the section of Instrument of data collection

By the end of the second semester, a post-treatment questionnaire survey was conducted to reveal the students’ perception of vocabulary-learning strategy traning

4 Instruments of data collection

41 Description of the pre-treatment questionnaire

The pre-treatment questionnaire consists of two questions Question | aims at

discovering the students’ problems in leaming vocabulary by asking them to rank five problems of learning vocabulary in the order of degree he five problems can be classified

inlo two categories Hems A, B, and C are contexl-bound whereas ilems TD) and Fare task-

specific Question 2 is about the stralogios used by the students in their indgpondont vocabulary learning However, only the three sets of the vocabulary strategy training programme, namely dictionary-related strategies, recording vocabulary and studying

33

affixes, are included ‘The purpose of question 2 is to investigate the students” frequency of

using these scls of stralegics when learning vocabulary For cach set of strate

students are asked to circle one of the mumbers in a Likert scale from I to 5 to indicate how often they use the strategies Thus number 1 means “never”, mumber 2 means “tarely”, rumiber 3 “sometimes” (50% of the lime), number 4 “oflen” and number 5 “always” Closed-ended questions designed as a Likert scale are helpful in that they elicit specific answers about the matter studied Space is also provided so that students can list other stratggics thal they use in Icarning vocabulary The pro-treatmen! questionnaires (English and Vietnamese versions) are presented in Appendices 5 and 6

42 Description of the vocabulary — learning records

The three vocabulary — loarning records w

¢ used to offer tho stuilents guided practice of the strategy sets that had already been taught in phase one Each record consists ofa short reading text, followed by two tasks ‘Task 1 is intended to disclose the students” actual practice of Strategy Set 1 (Dictionary-related strategies) and Set 2 (Recording vocabulary) whereas Task 2 aims at revealing their practice of Strategy Sct 3 (Studying affixes), The reason why Set I and Set 2 are investigated in the same task is that because of the nature of this specific (ask, these twa sels are quite inlerrelaled and Ihal learners may use multiple strategies at the same time to complete a task Both of the tasks are divided

into two parts: Part A and Part B Part A is designed to score the students’ performance

(how well) of using Ihe strategy sels sludied while Part, B serves lo score leir participation (how much) in using these sets to study vocabulary In the cwrent research, performance

refers to the extent of correctness when the students use the taught strategies while

participation means how much they use these strategies in their guided vocabulary practice More specifically, Parl A and Part B arm al answering research questions 2 and 3 respectively In Part A, the students are given five words taken trom the reading text and asked to complete information about them such as part of speech, pronunciation, translation, and cxample or collocation or extra note for Task 1, and to give the corresponding forms of noun, verb, adjective and adverb for Task 2 In Part B, however, the sludenls are free lo choose from any one lo five words they wis

to sludy and record them in the same way asin Parl A The intended function of Part B is to cast Fight ơn their autonomous and selidirected participation in practicing the strategies The three

vocabulary — leaming records are given in Appendix 3 A criteria ftame designed to mark the reeerds is presented in Table 1

Tuble 1 Criteria for evaluating word-learning records

A To evaluate the performance of the strategy

The performance is ranked based on the percentage of correct items out of the answered

18 To evaluate the participation in the use of the strategy

Total items to fll in: 4.x 5 — 20 items

The participation is ranked based on the percentage of filled-in items out of the total 20

Performance the extent of correctiess when the students use the taught strategies

Participation: how much the students use the taught strategies

43 Description of the vocabulary learning diary

The purpose of the ficc-style vocabulary diarics was to discover the students’ practice of independent vocabulary leaming after they had been receiving strategy training Consequently, no rigid form of the diary was given The leamers were given clear instructions before they started keeping the vocabulary leaming diarics For cach entry of the diary, the leamers were required to describe the context of the recorded vocabulary items and then record the items in any style they like ‘The context includes information

35

the students’ maintenance of the previously trained strategies Some samples of the

sluderis’ vocabulary learning diaries are shown in Appendix 4

In order to score the students’ maintenance of use of the three strategy sets, a holistic rubric was designed (See Table 2) Holistic scales or rubrics respond to language performumcs as a whole, Rach score on # holistic scale represents an overall impression, one integrated score is assigned to a performance, The emphasis in holistic scoring is on what a student does well Holistic rubrics commonly have four or six points Kor the purpose of this research, the rubric mainly focused on the dograe to whieh the students maintained using the strategies being studied By means of the rubric, each vocabulary learning diary was given three marks indicating the maintenance levels of the three

strategy sels under investigation

Table 2 Holistic rubric for marking the maintenance of the trained strategy sets

‘Arolalively large number of siralegy oocurrences or stralegy eniries, an

adequate number of words for each strategy occurence; includes full, accurate

+ laborations of each word: {items are well — organized, a variety of vocabulary

organizations)

A sufficient number of strategy occurrences, an adequate number of words for

3 eachstrategy occurrence; includes satisfactory elaborations of each word;

(clear, casy — to — follow organization

A lunited number of stratcgy ocoutronces, just a few words for cach stratcgy

2 occurrence; includes only some sketchy details of each word; (little variety of

vocabulary organivalion)

Few or no strategy occurrences, just one ot two words for each strategy

occurrence; few details of each word; (no variety of vocabulary organization)

Note: Strategy occurrence is counted according to the number of diary entries m which

the strategy is used

Those in brackets are ONLY supplemented to mark Set 2 - Recording vocabulary

44, Description of the post — treatment questionnaire

The rationale for the post — Itcalinenl queslionmairs is lo expose the students?

retention as well as their perception of the three trained strategy sets The questionnatre is made up of four parts, Part [requires the students to circle a number in a Likert scale ftom one to five 10 indicale how aflen they use a specific strategy set afler they have already attended the strategy training programme Part IL also makes use of a five-item Likert scale

to elicit the students’ evaluation of the usefiiiness of the three trained strategy sets

Simitarly, in Parl OT of the questiomire, thơ siuđemls judge the eff

strategy training program by means of a Likert scale, With a view to discovering the students’ expectations towards the training of vocabulary-leaming strategies, Part LV of the

post-treatment questionnaire consists of (hres quostions Amnon then, question § and

question 6 are designed as open ended ones so that students can tieely express their ideas concerning vocabulary strategy training The post-treatment questionnaires (iinglish and Vietnamese versions) can be seen in Appendix 7 and 8

5, Data collection procedures

‘As already mentioned this action research was divided into three phases and carried out during the second term of school year 2009 -2010 Therefore, data was collecled as zach phase went on,

During the first week of Phase One, pre-treatment questionnaires were delivered

before the strategy raining programme started From week 2 10 week 4 of Phase One, the students were explicitly taught about the three selected sets of vocabulary leaming strategies, namely dictionary-related strategies, recording vocabulary and studying affixes, Next, for three weeks of Phase ‘wo, the students handed in a word-learning record weekly Thal would result in Ihe total of three word-learning records for cach sludont Then came Phase Three with the task of keeping the vocabulary learning diaries for the next three weeks before the students submitted them to the teacher Finally, by the end of the semester, the post-treatment questionnaizcs were distributed,

All the data fiom the two questionnaires, the word-learning records and the vocabulary-learning diaries were gathered and analyzed

6 Data analysis procedures

The data were calculated by means of Microsoft Excel application The interpretation of the data was based mainly on the calculation of the percentage the

frequency and the mean 'o answer the research qnestions, the data fom the word-learning, records were used to work oul the participation in and the performance of use of the trained strategies whereas the data from the vocabulary learning diaries served to display the maintenance of these strategies

The dala form the pre-treatment and posl-lrealment, questionnaires showed other

dimensions of the students’ actual practice of using vocabulary learning strategies such as the difficulties encountered and their perception of strategy training ‘The results were illustrated int Wibles and graphs to Gieililalc interpretations

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents an analysis of the data collected fiom the pre-treatment and

post-treatment questionnaires, the word-learning records and the vocabulary-learning

problems in learning vocabulary in the order of degree with number | being the most

troublesome Therefore, the biggest problem would be the one getting the minimum score Figure | shows the degrees of the five problems as perceived by the class It is obvious

from the figure that the number one problem is not knowing how to learn vocabulary effectively (mean = 2.0) The second considerable obstacle is insufficient time spent on

vocabulary learning (mean = 2.4) Next come the two problems with approximately the

same score: not feeling interested in vocabulary self-learning and not knowing what words

to study Finally, the least problem is that the students do not possess adequate materials or

facilities for vocabulary learning such as dictionaries, reference books or computers,

2 Phase Two

‘The aims of this phase were to answer the next two research questions:

Research question 2: How well do the students use the taught strategies in their

guided vocabulary practice?

Research question 3: How much do the students use the taught strategies in

their guided vocabulary practice?

To answer research question 2, three word-learning records of each learner were marked in terms of performance score whereas research question 3 was answered by means of participation score In the current research, performance refers to the extent of

correctness when the students use the taught strategies while participation means how

much they use these strategies in their guided vocabulary practice The criteria presented in

Table 1 (Chapter 3) were used to calculate the performance and participation score of each

word-learning record

2.1 Research question 2: Students’ performance in the use of the taught strategies

2.1.1 Students’ performance in the use of Strategy Set 1 and Set 2

The students’ performance in the use of Strategy Set 1 (Dictionary-related strategies) and Set 2 (Recording vocabulary) through three word-learning records is illustrated by Table 3

Table 3 Students’ performance in the use of Dictionary-related strategies

and Vocabulary - recording strategies

Obviously, almost all the students (26 out of 27) got the satisfactory performance

scores, Which range from mark 3 to mark 5 and are shaded in pink in the table In other

words, 26 out of 27 students used dictionary-related strategies and vocabulary recording

strategies quite well Only one student, who got a substandard mark (shaded in blue), failed

to use these two taught strategy sets Most noticeably, a large number of the students got

mark 5 — the highest score, and even more noteworthy, the number of mark-five scorers increased through the three records (14, 21 and 25) It shows that more and more students

used the two strategy sets with remarkable accuracy throughout the phase of guided vocabulary practice

2.1.2 Students’ performance in the use of Strategy Set 3

Table 4 presents the students’ performance in the use of Strategy Set 3 — Studying

affixes As can be seen, nearly all the students (26 out of 27) received the standard mark

between mark 3 and mark 5, which is shaded in pink Approximately half of the students

(48%) got mark 4 and about the other half got mark 5 for word record 1 and 3 It meant that the majority of the students could use affix-studying strategies accurately and

effectively in their guided vocabulary practice Only one student got the substandard mark

shaded in blue and was unable to use this strategy set

Table 4 Students’ performance in the use of Affix- studying strategies

4I

affixes requires not only practice but also sufficient knowledge of word formation such as prefixes, suffixes and compound words, which tends to take a longer time to accumulate

and absorb than the skills of using dictionaries and recording vocabulary

To sum up, the majority of the students showed great performance of the three taught strategy sets, namely dictionary-related set, vocabulary-recording set and affix-

studying set In other words, the students used the taught strategies quite well in their

guided vocabulary practice

2.2 Research question 3: Students’ participation in the use of the taught strategies

2.2.1, Students’ participation in the use of Strategy Set 1 and Set 2

‘The students’ participation in using Strategy Set 1 (Dictionary-related strategies) and Set 2 (Vocabulary-recording strategies) for their guided vocabulary practice is

represented in Table 5 As the figures show, only about two-thirds of the participants

(96%, 63%, 78%) got the marks in the standard range from mark 3 to mark 5 (shaded in

pink) It implies that only these two-thirds used the dictionary-related strategy set and

vocabulary-recording set as much as required, which is rather low The other one-third,

who got mark 1 or 2 (shaded in blue), just used these two sets of strategies to a very limited extent in their guided vocabulary practice From a quarter to nearly half of the students

used dictionary-related strategies and vocabulary-recording strategies to the fullest extent

(48%, 26% and 33% got mark 5 for the three word records respectively) A considerable

fluctuation in the percentages of the five mark groups also indicates an uneven participation of the students throughout three word records

Table 5 Students’ participation in the use of Dictionary-related strategies

and Vocabulary - recording strategies

2.2.2 Students’ participation in the use of Strategy Set 3

Table 6 depicts the students’ participation in the use of Strategy Set 3 (Affix-

studying strategies) Like the participation scores for dictionary-related strategies and

vocabulary-recording strategies, the students getting from mark 3 to mark 5 made up over

two-thirds of the participants (70.5%, 66% and 89%) It meant two-thirds of the students

used affix-studying strategies as much as expected for their guided vocabulary practice

Also similar to dictionary-related and vocabulary recording set, the extent of using affix-

studying strategy set was uneven among three word records This is illustrated by the fluctuating proportions of the mark groups throughout three word records For example, the proportion of the mark-five scorers considerably decreased (48%, 22% and 26%)

Table 6, Students’ participation in the use of Affix - studying strategies

Phase Three aims at answering the last two research questions:

Research question 4: To what extent do the students maintain the taught

strategies in their independent vocabulary learning?

Research question 5: How effective is the strategy training programme in

helping the students learn vocabulary, as perceived by

the students?

Research question 4 is answered by calculating the maintenance scores of the taught strategies by means of the free-style vocabulary-learning diaries Unlike the guided practice of the three word records, the vocabulary learning diaries are the students’ self study, so they have the potential of revealing new aspects of the students’ independent

vocabulary learning Research question 5 is answered by means of the post-treatment

students’ maintenance of the strategies according to percentage and the four-point scale

As can be seen, about half of the students got mark 3 for maintaining dictionary — related

strategies and recording vocabulary (55.6% and 44% respectively) It means half of the

class continued using dictionary-related strategies and yocabulary-recording strategies to a

significant extent for their self-study after they had been taught to use these two strategy sets, On the contrary, nearly two-thirds of the leamers had a rather low maintenance of

affix-studying strategies: 63% got mark 1 It indicates that these two-thirds just used affix- studying strategies to a very limited degree for their independent vocabulary learning