000028692 VOCABULARY REVISION THROUGH WORD GAMES FOR NON-MAJOR ENGLISH STUDENTS AT THE NAVY ACADEMY: A QUASI - EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ÔN TẬP VỀ TỪ VỰNG THÔNG QUA CÁC TRÒ CHƠI CHỮ VẬT DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN TIẾNG ANH KHÔNG CHUYÊN NGÀNH TẠI HỌC VIỆN HẢI QUÂN: MỘT N

000028692 VOCABULARY REVISION THROUGH WORD GAMES FOR NON-MAJOR ENGLISH STUDENTS AT THE NAVY ACADEMY: A QUASI - EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ÔN TẬP VỀ TỪ VỰNG THÔNG QUA CÁC TRÒ CHƠI CHỮ VẬT DÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN TIẾNG ANH KHÔNG CHUYÊN NGÀNH TẠI HỌC VIỆN HẢI QUÂN: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU THỬ NGHIỆM BÁN CHẾ

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN STUDIES

D E P A R T M E N T O F P O S T G R A D U A T E ST U D IE S

Đ À O T H Ị T H A N H M A I

VOCABULARY REVISION THROUGH WORD

GAMES FOR NON-MAJOR ENGLISH

STUDENTS AT THE NAVY ACADEMY:

A QUASI - EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

S U P E R V I S O R : N G U Y Ễ N Đ Ứ C H O Ạ T , P h D

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

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I Ianoi O ctober 2004

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that the MA thesis entitled ‘ Vocabulaiy Revision through Word Games for non­

m ajor English Students at the N avy Academy: a quasi- experim ental study' is the result o f

m y own w ork and that this thesis or any part o f the same has not been submitted for a higher degree to any other university or institution

1.1 Background to the study

1.2 T he aim o f the study

1.3 Research questions

1.4 The scope o f the study

1.5 The significance o f the study

1.6 Outline o f the thesis

C h a p ter II Literature Review

»2.1.1 W hat do learners need to know about words?

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6 6 6

7888

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10 12

131515151618

2.2.1 G am es for language teaching 18

2.2.1.3 The advantages o f using gam es for language teaching 20

A ppendix 6 Previous sem ester’s a chievem ent test results 81

I w ould like to begin by acknow ledging the Dean and the Staff o f D epartm ent o f Postgraduate Studies, Hanoi University o f Foreiiin Studies, for their assistance through the fulfillm ent o f this M A thesis

I w ould like to express my gratitude to Dr N s u y ễ n Đức Hoạt, my supervisor, for his instruction and valuable advice

1 am indebted to the Dean and the Staff o f Departm ent o f Natural Sciences and Foreign Languages, Navy A cadem y, for their support and encouragement

M any thanks are given to the students o f Class K H 21A and Class KT12, Navy

A cadem y, w h o have participated in the study as informants

Finally, 1 am deeply grateful for my fam ily ’s encouragem ent and tolerance

through the fulfillment o f this thesis

tI ■

!

The students at the N avy Academ y, located in N ha Trang City, are often unsuccessful in vocabulary learning It is assumed that vocabulary revision technique in use, practice exercises, which are rather boring and ineffective, is one o f the reasons for that problem This study is therefore conducted with the hope to find a more interesting and effective technique to help solve the problem

It is recom m ended that word games, which are highly am using and motivating, can be the one The study then aim s at investigating the effects o f word games to see if they are really interesting and effective as recom m ended

To reach that aim, an experim ent in which word games and traditional practiceexercises are applied to two groups o f non-m ajor English first year students at the N a v y

A c a d e m y (the former to the experimental group and the latter to the control group) iscarried out Tests are administered after the treatm ent to m easure the stu d e n ts’

On the basic o f those findings, som e recom m endations are given on the

applications o f word games as well as traditional practice exercises to vocabulary

revision, and on further studies

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES

Table 1 Sum m ary o f the pre-test results

Table 2 T-test for the post-test results

Table 3 The experimental g roup's feelings about the tasks in word games

Table 4 The control g ro u p ’s feelings about the tasks in traditional practice exercises Chart 1 T he experimental g ro u p ’s general feelings about word games

Chart 2 The experimental g ro u p ’s feelings about the cooperation in word games

Chart 3 The experimental g ro u p ’s feelings about the com petition in word gam es

Chart 4 The experimental g ro u p 's b elief about the effects o f word games

Chart 5 T he experimental g ro u p ’s view on the use o f w ord games

Chart 6 The control g roup's general feelings about traditional practice exercises

Chart 7 The control g ro u p ’s feelings about the individual work in traditional practice

Chapter I INTRODUCTION

If language structures make up the skeleton of language, then it is

vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh

(Harmer, 1991)

V ocabulary is an essential com ponent o f language It provides us with material to fix to the gram m atical structures in order to produce com plete utterances as we attach bricks or wood to the framework to build a house Even though the speaker has an ability

to m anipulate all gram m atical structures, m eaning cannot be expressed if words are not used Therefore, the acquisition o f vocabulary is as crucial as the acquisition o f gram m atical structures in the process o f language learning

H ow ever, for m any years, vocabulary was treated as supplem ent to the main focus

- gram m ar - in language teaching practice Vocabulary was given to students as a mean to learn gram m atical structures, not for the sake o f itself Learners, as a result, are often

em barrassed in expressing oneself due to their limited vocabulary stock and lexical know ledge though they k now gram m ar well

Fortunately, things have changed recently R esearchers and m ethodologists have been aware o f the significant role o f vocabulary They m ore and more pay attention to the teaching and learning o f lexical items Many researches have been done on learners’ acquisition o f lexical items and various techniques o f teaching have been recom m ended

in attempt to prom ote and improve vocabulary learning

In this dissertation, I would like to study one o f the techniques recom m ended and

exam ine its effectiveness in my own teaching situation with the hope that the findings o f the study will be o f certain use for the vocabulary teaching and learning in my institution

1.1 Background to the study

It is widely know n that teaching vocabulary does not stop at presenting new words Lexical items once introduced must be reviewed; otherwise, they will be gradually fade awav in learners’ m em ory after the initial input Judd (1978) affirms that rarely native speakers incorporate new words into the repertoire o f vocabulary on a single exposure; the foreign language learners should not be expected to do so either Therefore, ‘the more exposures given to words, the better the chances for retention are'(p.74) In order to have

such exposures, it is the teachers that create opportunities for learners to practice what have been presented through various activities o f recycling lexical items.

For the sake o f this purpose, various classroom vocabulary revision activities have been recom m ended by overseas methodologists Vocabulary can be recycled through vocabulary practice exercises (e.g multiple choice, true/false, sentence paraphrasing, sentence building, cloze test, etc.), reading, listening, writing and speaking activities, word g am es and so on Each activity has its own place and teachers are expected to base

on the learners’ needs to choose appropriate ones

A t the N a v y A cadem y, where I am working, the vocabulary revision activity has been em ployed in General English course for non-m ajor English students for m any years

is practice exercises (e.g multiple choice, gap fill-in, m atching items, translation) Unfortunately, activity o f this type is rather boring for the students and does not get them much involved in the lesson 1 assume that it is possibly one o f the reasons for the limited retention o f vocabulary in the students’ mem ory M ore enjoyable and ¡motivating activity should be sought for, for Paul (1994) points out that interesting revision m ay bring better retaining o f lexical items

Yet, w hich o f the activities recom m ended so far is the one that can m ee t that requirem ent? Docum ents o f many sources have shown that the answ er can be found in language games According to researchers and methodologists, gam es are highly entertaining and motivating They can bring a lot o f fun and a relaxed atm osphere to the learners Therefore, learners will enjoy themselves, be stimulated and get involved in vocabulary learning As a result, they will learn faster and rem em ber things better T hat is the reason w h y using games have been more and more recom m ended by m ethodologists and educators

H ow ever, all advantages o f games stated above are ju st theoretical and general Do games really w ork in real practice and in a particular teaching and learning situation? Is it possible that games may be effective for certain group o f learners som ew here but not for the students at my Academ y? In addition, the A cadem y students are familiar with the strict discipline and serious teaching and learning atm osphere in a military college Is it the case that they will not like and approve o f the idea o f playing games when learning ?

Will they probably think that gam es are purely entertaining activities and stick to the idea

o f learning in a traditional way?

O nly an experiment and a follow-up questionnaire survey can help find the answ ers

to the questions in this case G am es should be tried out in a real practice o f vocabulary teaching so that the effect o f them can be exam ined and assessed in com parison to the traditional activity, and the stu d e n ts’ attitudes toward them as well as the traditional activity can be elicited The evidences achieved from the research may help m e decide

w hether gam es are useful and suitable for the A cadem y students or not

Previously, there has been a similar experim ental research conducted by A gnieszka

U berm an, from the English D epartm ent o f Pedagogical University in Rzeszow , Poland

In her study, Uberman exam ines the use o f language gam es for vocabulary revision and

c om pares them to the traditional techniques She applies two types o f techniques, w ord gam e and one o f the traditional technique - definition matching, to two different groups,and then tests these two groups to assess the effects The test results sh<j)w that the

to word definition revision We can see that the sample o f treatm ent is too limited and the time duration o f the experiment is too short Naturally, the result o f her study m ay not be quite reliable, for one game cannot be the representative o f all the population o f w ord games in vocabulary teaching

Therefore, the experiment with the use o f games in vocabulary revision that I conduct lasts in a longer period o f time and with more samples It is perform ed right at

my A cadem y and followed by a follow-up questionnaire'survey on the students’ attitudes tow ards the new technique o f vocabulary teaching as well as the traditional one.

1.2 The aim o f the study

The study aim s at exam ining the effects o f word gam es - the new vocabulary revision technique - on non-major English students’ vocabulary learning in com parison with practice exercises - the traditional one The study is also to investigate the s tu d e n ts’ attitudes towards these two types o f vocabulary revision activities

1.3 Research questions

To reach the aim o f the study, the following questions are addressed

1 Do word games as a vocabulary revision activity better help non-m ajor English students rem em ber word m eaning than traditional practice exercises?

2 W hat are the students’ attitudes towards these two types o f activities?

1.4 The scope o f the study

The study focuses only the aspect o f rem em bering word m eaning rath e r than vocabulary acquisition as a whole, and its subjects are ju s t two classes o f fir^t y ear n o n ­

m ajor English students who are studying at the N avy A cadem y It is conducted at the

N a v y A c a de m y in the period o f four months

1.5 The significance o f the study

The study is conducted with the expectation that its findings will be u sefu l fo r the researcher herself and possibly for other teachers o f English at Navy A c a d e m y in vocabulary teaching practice It may be the basic for im proving the A cadem y stude nts' learning o f word meaning in particular and vocabulary in general Hopefully, it can be a considerable contribution to the teaching and learning o f English at the N avy Academ y

1.6.The outline o f the thesis

The thesis report consists o f five chapters:

C hapter I Introduction : In this chapter, the author states the reasons why the study

is carried out, the target that it aims at, the scope in which it is conducted and h o w important it is The outline o f the thesis report is also presented here

C hapter II Literature Review This chapter is devoted to the overview o f academ ic

view points on vocabulary teaching and learning, and on the use o f games in language teaching

Chapter III M ethod ology In this chapter, the m e t ï ï o d 'o f conducting the study is

introduced

C hapter IV Data analysis and Discussion This chapter focuses on presenting,

analyzing and discussing the results obtained from the study

Chapter V R e c o m m e n d a tio n s and C on clusion In this chapter, som e recom m endations on the application o f word g am es and traditional practice exercises to

vocabulary revision at the N a v y A c a d e m y , and on further studies will be m ade on the

basis o f the m ajor findings from the study A c onclusion will be draw n a fterw ards to sum

up all the issues presented and discussed so far in the report

Chapter II LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the academ ic view points c oncerning voca b u la ry teaching and

learning as well as language gam es will be reviewed

2 1 V ocabulary teaching a n d le a r n in g

2.1.1 W h a t do learners need to know a b o u t w o r d s?

It has been believed for long tim e that learning a w ord is sim ply k n o w in g how it isspelled and pronounced and w hat it means N evertheless, learning w ords goes beyond that A ccording to Gairns and R edm an (1986) and H arm er (1991), k n o w in g a word includes k now ing its m eaning, form, use and gram m ar

2.1.1.1 W ord m eaning

2 1 1.1.1 C o nceptual/ denotative m eaning

Gairns and R edm an (1986) state that i f a w ord has reference to an object, action or event in the physical world, this can be described as conceptual or denotative rpeaning.For exam ple, the word ‘s u n ’ has the conceptual m eaning as ‘the star thát shines in the sky during the day and gives heat and light to the e a rth ’

How ever, vocabulary items often have m ore than one m eaning O xford Advanced

L earner’s Dictionary (1995) lists tw o m eanings o f ‘m o o n ’ as a noun, one m ea n in g as averb and one m e a n in g w hen ‘ m o o n ’ 4- pro p o sitio n m a k e s u p h ra sal vciL).

Thus, as learners encounter a w ord and try to w o rk out it m eaning, they should look

at the context in which the w ord is used

2 ÌA Ì 2 A ffective/Connotative m eaning

This term is used to refer to the attitudinal and em otional factors w hich can be expressed in a vocabulary item ( G airns & R edm an, 1986)

‘A single w o m a n ’, for instance, is different from ‘a sp in s te r’ though the conceptual meaning o f both items are the same, i.e an unm arried adult female ‘S p in s te r ’ has ‘a series o f evaluative and em otional associations for an English native spe ak e r which would not be true o f ‘siimle w o m a n ’ (Gairns & R edm an, 1986: 18) The associations may contain old isolated, a sad figure, and so on

A certain lexical item can have positive or negative connotation ‘W is e ’ carries a positive connotalive m eaniny w hile ‘ a rro g a n t’ negative

H ow ever, from the view o f Gairns & Redman (198B), 'som e words depend on the situation or the speaker’s attitude to have negative or positive connotation For example,

in the statem ent ‘ It’s probably the most liberal regime in an area rife with dictatorships.’,

the word ‘liberal’ is used in a positive sense Meanwhile, ‘liberal’ in the statement like ‘ I find the g o v e rn m e n t’s policy on immigration is too liberal ’ has some sense o f negative

attitude (G airns & R edm an, 1986: 18)

G airns & Redm an (1986) therefore conclude that the affective m eaning o f an item can vary a c cording to the context and the speaker himself

2.1.1.1.3 Sense relations

H arm er (1991) asserts that the m eaning o f a word should be learnt in terms o f its relationship with other words in the language system

H e presents that there are three m ost com m on sense relations in English language:

synonym (w ords that have the same or similar m eaning in some context, e.g ‘im portant' and ‘s ignificant’), antonym (words the m eaning o f which are opposite in certain context,

e.g ‘g o o d ’ versus ‘bad’) and h y p o n y m (words that are treated as subtype jof a given

word called superordinate, e.g ‘orange’, ‘p e a r ’, ‘a p p le ’, ‘ p lu m ’, etc are hyp on ym s o f

‘fruit’)

It is noted that in studying any o f these relations, the elem ent o f context should be taken into consideration (Gairns & Redman, 1986)

2.1.1.2 W ord use

A ccording to Harm er (1991), word m eaning can be changed by the way it is used It

is often stretched through the style, register and dialect we are in, the use o f m etaphor and idiom and governed by collocation

Style is used here in a broad sense o f formality, i.e formal, colloquial or neutral, as

well as styles such as humorous, ironic, poetic, literary, etc

Registers are varieties o f language defined by the topic and context o f use

Language o f m edicine, law, computer, etc can be included in this category

D ia le c t is used to describe differences in geographical variation (e.g British English,

Am erican English, etc.) as well as variation according to social class (e.g Black English)

T w o lexical items are said to collocate when they co-occur, or are used together

frequently A w ord goes with this one but seldom or never with that one We often have

‘sprained a n k le ’ but not ‘sprained th ig h ’ We says ‘ lions r o a r ’ but ‘elephants t r u m p e t ’

M e t a p h o r is the imaginative use o f a word or phrase to describe so m e b o d y or som ething as a n o th e r object in order to show that they have the sam e qualities and to

m ake the description m ore forceful

A n idiom is a sequence o f w ords w'hich operates as a single sem antic unit The

m ea ning o f the w'hole idiom m ay not be deduced from the m eaning o f the parts (e.g ‘out

o f b lu e ’, ‘chip on their sh o u ld e r’, ‘snake in the grass’)

2 1.1.3 Word g ram m ar

W e often m ake a distinction betw een countable and uncountable nouns, reg u la r and irregular verbs, notice the order o f adjective in a phrase or the position o f ad v e rb s in a sentences A s this is done, w e are learning the gram m atical aspects o f lexical items

Learners, as studying a word, in addition to m ea n in g and use, m ust k n o w its gram m ar O thenvise, they wi 11 com m it such ridiculous errors as ‘two fu rn itu re s’ o r ‘he said m e to c o m e ’ and so on (Harm er, 1991:158)

To sum up, ‘k now ing a w o r d ’ is c om pose d o f learning w ha t they m ean, h o w they are used, h o w their form can be changed to fit different gram m atical context, ho w th e y spelt, pronounced and stressed, and how' they are built

2.1.2 M a jo r factors affecting v o ca b u la ry acquisition

2.1.2.1 Features o f input

Frequency

A ccording to Hedge (2000), learners, especially beginners, are often taught a large vocabulary o f high frequency The reason for this is sim ply that w ords which o c c u r the

m o st frequently will be the most useful for learners M ost learners k n o w the w o rd s that

th e y e ncounter or use more than seven tim es but seldom k n o w those that appeared only

on c e or twice

Contextualization

H edge (2000) states that w ords presented in context wiil be better acquired and retained than in isolation The rationale for this is presented by Hedge (2000) as follows

W ords presented as isolated elem ents will have no point o f support, no ‘cognitive

h o ld ' for them in learners’ m em ory Isolated w ords do not present a linguistic reality

M eanw hile, the m eaning o f w ords are defined partly by the context in m ost cases Isolated w ords do not present psychological reality, too, for they do not carry any

m essage A s a result, they do not evoke e m otion or involvem ent in learners

In contrast, contexts present a linguistic and psychological reality Presenting w ords

in context will provide support, thus enhancing the retention o f the w ords in le a rn ers’

m em ory

H edge (2000) states that learners are m ore likely to rem e m b e r a w ord if th ey have

w orked on it actively I f the w ords they have learnt are d eeply processed, it w o u ld turn from input to intake.

C ook (1991) shares this view point In his opinion, h o w well people re m e m b e r som ething depends on h o w deeply they process it ‘Repeating w ords as strings o f sounds

is low-level processing and badly rem em bered; w orking out h o w w ords fit in the gram m atical structure o f the sentence is de e per and leads to better m em ory; using the

m eanings o f w ords together within the m eaning o f the sentence is the deepest level o f processing and ensure the best m e m o r y ’ (p.40) So how the w ords is processed is m ore

significant than h o w often

Hedge (2000) adds that em otional response to a w ord also affect retention W ords that learners “ like" or have som e im pressive m eaning (e.g taboo) seem to stick m ore easily to the m em ory The sam e opinion com es from H a rm e r (1991) He finds from an investigation that learners rem e m b e r the most the w ords that they com e across in

a m using texts T hey rem e m be r the w ords long because they like the experience o f

learning them The words touch them in some way and have certain personal m eaning for them.

H arm er (1991) also states that learners rem em ber best if they have certain interaction with w ords having been introduced, i.e they actually do something with it (e.g m aking a noun an adjective, changing it to mean the opposites, and so on) rather than repeating a list o f words A ‘deep experience’ with the words will bring better retention

2.1.2.3 M emorization

2.1.2.3.1 Types o f m em ory

A ccording to Cook (1991), there are two types o f memory: short term m em ory and long term m em ory

He states that short term m em ory refers to the processing o f information for periods

o f tim e up to a few seconds, the m em ory process used for rem em bering phone num ber when dialing it, for instance Information stored in short-term m emory is often b rie f and

is usually forgotten then, especially when there is som e interruption Therefore, in order

to hold information over such brief period, constant repetition is often dem ànded (e.g repeating the phone num ber orally or mentally again and again before sitting dow n and dialing the number)

Long-term m em ory, on the other hand, indicates our capacity for recall o f information minutes, weeks and years after the original input Unlike short term memory, long term m em ory is not limited in capacity and can accom m odate any am ount o f new information

C om m itting information in long term m em ory is w h a t people, especially language learners, often long for However, to do it, we need to w o rk harder than what w e often do with short term retention (Cook, 1991) Repetition m ay be not enough and w e need a

m ore thorough and deeper processing, which has been m entioned in 2.1.2.1 and will be discussed in more details later, so that information can be transferred from short term

m em ory to long term one

2.1.2.3.2 Organization o f mental lexicon

As discussing the organization o f mental lexicon, we are referring to the way lexical items are organized and stored in our memory

There are various viewpoints on this organization

Foster & Loftus (1971) believe that w ords that are held in accordance with m eaning relatedness, i.e w ords that are sem antically related are stored together, for example, items as ‘a p p le ’, ‘o r a n g e ’, ‘p e a r ’ and ‘le m o n ’ are stored together under the category o f

‘fruit’ (cited in G airns & R edm an, 1986)

Foster (1979) assum es that all lexical items are held in one large ‘master file’ and there are a lot o f ‘peripheral access files’ c ontaining information on meaning, spelling, phonology and syntax Yet like the pervious view point, entries in the m aster file are also organized to be cross-referenced in term s o f m eaning relatedness (cited in Gairns &

R edm an, 1986)

A ccording to Gairns & R edm an (1986), w ord frequency is an important factor that affects the storage o f lexical items T hey im agine that lexical items are arranged into a pile o f cards, each card represents an item The m ost frequently and recently used items are at the top o f the pile That is the reason w h y learners often recognized and retrieved words that are o f high frequency or have been recently learnt or used m orejeasily than

« »

those o f loW frequency and learnt or used long ago f

The v iew on the organization o f mental lexicon varies from one to another Flowever, all o f them reflect one c om m on point, that is, lexical items are not arranged in our brain

as in a dictionary, i.e in alphabetical order (Gairns & R edm an, 1986)

2.1.2.3.3 W hy do w e forget?

Although our ‘mental lex ic o n ’ is highly organized and efficient, w e are still at tim es unable to rem e m b e r what w e have assum ed to be stored in long term m em ory W hat is the reason for this problem ?

A ccording to Gairns & Redm an (1986), there are two theories o f forgetting that can account for it: decay theory and cue-dependent theory.

if it is not activated fairly regularly It m eans that information will gradually fade in our

m emory and finally disappear unless w e practise and revise it frequently

On the contrary, the cue-dependent theory a ssum es that information actually persists

in our m em ory and does not perm anently lost; if w e are unable to recall certain information, it is because o f the fact that the cue we used for retrieving it is not appropriate So in order to rem em ber the m eaning o f words like 'ta li', ‘short’, ‘good-

lo o k in g ', ‘p retty ’ and ‘w e ll-b u ilt’, learners should be given the superordinate ‘physical

a p p e a r a n c e ' as a cue to recall

G airns & R e d m a n (1986) point out that as a language teacher, o n e ’s main concern is

to ensure that what is taught will be perm anently retained in long term m em ory, so it is clearly a matter o f som e im portance that classroom activities take into account o f these vario u s theories, and strive to c o m b a t decay and inference while developing and facilitating efficient retrieval systems

In addition to those tw o theories, there is one point that is worth m entioning as disc u ssin g ‘forgetting’ T ha t is the rate at w'hich we forget M any studies show that the process o f forgetting is very fast: m ost h u m an beings forget 80% o f new information in

24 hours Specially, the less a person is interested in som ething, the faster the process o f forgetting is This rate indicates that revision is essential in the process o f vocabulary acquisition (Gairns & R e dm an, 1986)

It is widely know n that learning styles affect language acquisition ih general Therefore, on discussing the acquisition o f vocabulary, part o f language acquisition, it is necessary to m ention learning styles

A ccording to Hedge (2000), learning styles are characteristic and preferred ways o f

a pproa c hing and learning and processing information

Oxford (2001) states that there are four m ajo r d im ensions o f learning styles that are likely to be am ong those m ost strongly associated with language learning They are as follows

Sensory preferences refer to the physical, perceptual learning channel which

learners are the m ost com fortable with T h e y can be grouped into four main areas: visual

(learning through images, pictures, realia, etc), auditory (learning by ‘he a rin g ’), kinesthetic (m ovem ent-oriented) and tactile (touch-oriented).

P e r s o n a l it y types consists o f four strands: extroverted (enjoying interaction with

people and having m any friendships) versus introverted (seeking for solitude and having

few friendships); intuitive-random (thinking in abstract, futuristic and non-sequential

w ay) versus sensing sequential (grounded in the ‘here and n o w ’), thinking (tending to

stark truth) versus feeling (valuing other people in a personal way), and closure-oriented

(serious, hardw orking and fond o f task with deadline) versus open-oriented (wanting to

have fun and perceiving inform ation by osmoses)

D e s ire d d e g re e o f g e n e r a li t y strand distinguishes learners who focus on the main idea from learners who concentrate on details Holistic learners like socially interactive or

com m unicative event and avoid analysis o f grammatical points M eantim e, analytic

learners like focus on gram m atical details and avoid freely com m u n ic a tiv e activities

B iological d iff e re n c e s reflect the differences in biological factors that learners prefer: the times o f the day that they feel good for learning, the need for food or drinks while learning and the nature o f the e n v iro n m en t (e.g., tem perature, lighting, sound and

so on)

Learning styles vary from learner to learner Learning styles can m ake the same teaching m ethod w onderful for som e and terrible for o thers (Oxford, 2001) A ccording to Zhenhui (2001), if there is a m ism atch between learning styles and instructional

m ethodology, learners tend to be bored and inattentive, get discouraged abou^ the course and give up Otherwise, in a class w here there is a h a rm ony betw een those two factors, learners possibly perform well, feel confident and less anxious In other words, a match between learning styles and teaching styles is significant in enhancing learners’ language acquisition

2.1.2.5 M otivation

Like learning styles, m otivation also has strong effects on a s tu d e n t's success or failure in learning the target language in general and acquiring vocabulary in particular.According to H arm er (1991), m otivation is a kind o f internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a course o f action H e presents that there are two m ain categories o f motivation: extrinsic m otivation and intrinsic motivation, which are described as follows Extrinsic motivation is concerned with the factors outside the classroom It is divided

into two main types: integrative m otivation, w hich is involved with the wish to integrate

oneself into the culture o f the target language com m unity, and instrum ental motivation,

which describes the situation when a student learn a language in order to get a better jo b , position or status There are also other factors that have influence on a student’s level o f ext'insic motivation such as his or her attitude to the language, the attitude o f those who

have influence with that student (e.g the parents) and his previous experiences a language learner.

Intrinsic motivation is concerned with what takes place inside the classroom There

are four m ajor factors affecting intrinsic motivation: physical condition, m ethod, the teacher and success

Physical conditions that have effect on students’ learning often include lighting, class size, the board and the atmosphere

The m ethod by which the students are taught plays a vital part in the students’ motivation It the students find it boring and lose confidence in it, they will probably be de-m otivated In the contrary, i f they like it and believe in it, they will possibly be motivated

The teacher, who takes control o f the m ethod in the classroom, is certainly an essential factor affecting intrinsic m otivation I f students believe in the teacher’s qualities, they will probably be interested in the language learning; otherwise, they may

Success or failure plays an im portant role in determ ining a student’s m otivation In the opinion o f H arm er (1991), both com ple te success and complete failure m ay have negative effect I f the students are given high challenge activities (i.e the level o f difficulty is extreme for them), they m ay be d e -m o tiv a te d A t the sam e tim e , a c tiv itie s o f low level o f challenge have equally negative impact

To help students to become intrinsically motivated is essential in language teaching

It is not a very hard job, but within the control o f the teacher

From the view point o f Lightbrown & Spada (1999), the teacher can m ake a positive contribution to students’ m otivation to learn by m aking his classroom s places where students enjoy com ing because o f interesting and relevant content and supportive and non-threatening atmosphere

Norris (2001) and T hanasoulas (2002) share this opinion A ccording to Norris(2001), the teacher can motivate students by creating enjoyable lessons in which the students’ attention is gained This can be achieved through the use o f interesting texts and encouraging students to become m ore active participants in the lessons Thanasoulas(2002) states that learners’ m otivation will reach its peak in a relaxed and safe classroom

c lim ate in which they can express their o pinions and feel that they do not run the risk o f being ridiculed He adds that increasing s tu d e n ts’ s e lf confidence is another way o f

p rom oting motivation To do so, the tea c h e r can m ake the students feel that they can

s o m e w h at contribute to a classroom task, m ake the learning context less stressful and give personal word o f encouragem ent

2.1.2.5 Attitude

A ttitude is generally defined as a state o f m ind, w hich is influenced by 1) feelings; 2)

b e lie f and 3) experiences o f the world (G ibb, 1998)

Q uite similar definition com e s from Fazic (1986): attitude com prises o f three

c om ponents: ‘an affective c o m p o n e n t involving feelings about and evaluation o f the object, a cognitive com ponent involving b e lie f about the object and a behavioral intentions c o m p o n e n t’ (cited in H oa ng Thi X uan, 2003)

The two definitions above indicate that p e o p le ’s attitudes toward certain referent object can be inferred from their feelings and b e lie f about it and their behavioijal intention

In language teaching and learning, s tu d e n ts ’ attitudes can be found in their feelings and b e lie f about language learning, a b o u t the classroom , the teacher, course books, teaching styles, etc Attitudes play an im portant part as they influence learning Depending on the learners’ attitudes, learning language can be a source o f e n richm ent nr

a source o f resentment (Lightbrow n & Spada, 1999) A ccording to Brow n (1994), language learners benefit from positive attitudes w hile negative attitudes m ay lead to decreased motivation and thus to unsuccessful attainm ent o f proficiency Edw ard (1982) has sim ilar viewpoint: positive attitudes can result in s tu d e n ts’ motivation, which leads to better learning, and the students’ learning will suffer from negative attitudes (cited in Gibb, 1998)

2.1.3 S o m e implications for vocabulary' teaching

From the discussion on the c o m p o n e n ts included in vocabulary learning and factors affecting vocabulary acquisition, researchers have given som e noticeable im plications for the teaching o f vocabulary as follows

2.1.3.1 What to teach?

As presented in previous section, learning vocabulary should not stop at the surface level o f form and m eaning Learners should know word use and word gram m ar as well

A c cording to W aring (2002), word learning can be divided up into two m ajor stages The first stage is m atching the w o r d ’s spelling and pronunciation with its meaning When this

is known, the learners should then work on deeper aspects o f word knowledge: which word it goes with, the restriction on its use, its similarity o r oppositeness to other words,

w hether it is formal or informal, h o w it is buiIt, and so on

How ever, it is unrealistic to teach all those aspects o f vocabulary to learners in the classroom T eacher cannot include everything about a word in his lesson (W aring, 2002)

A ccording to Gairns & Redm an (1986), teacher should depend on learners’ level, needs and time fund to decide which one to teach in the class and which to ignore or leave for the learners to learn themselves

That point is clarified when G airns & Redm an (1986) present some implications for teaching word m eaning They suggest that when dealing with conceptual meaning,

teacher should take the factor o f frequency and usefulness into considerationiin order to

choose one or tw o m eanings a m o n g the various m eanings o f the word to present to learners It is recom m ended that those m eanings o f higher frequency and im m ediate use are the ones that should be preferred Discussing the teaching o f affective m eaning, Gairns & Redm an (1986) point out that m any items only have conceptual meaning and in normal use have no emotional or evaluative associations attached to them At low level, learners are normally taught items which are o f imm ediate use and in majority cases, these items do not have affective m eaning However, w hen an item has emotional or evaluative association, we need to clarify this to learners Learners o f higher level are often expected to deal with a range o f spoken and written language, and this will dem and

an good understanding o f connotation

2.1.3.2 H ow to teach?

As having chosen the suitable material, it is essential for the builders to decide on a technique to carry out his building T he consideration o f the way to teach lexical items is

th u s as significant as the decision on the content in vocabulary teaching There are three

m ajor points to notice:

First, the presentation o f new lexical items should be m ade as m em orable as possible (W aring, 2002) For many years, vocabulary has been presented by writing a list o f words

o n the board and giving their equivalents in m other tongue As mentioned in 2.1.2.1, the presentation o f words in isolation o f this type often m akes learners forget w ords quickly Therefore, lexical items presentation had better be done with some contextual support, and as interesting as possible Gairns & Redman (1986) and Harmer (1991) have introduced more effective techniques o f presenting new w ords which are grouped into

tw o categories: visual technique (using flashcards, pictures, board drawings, realia,

m im e, gestures, etc.) to create a \ \ ^ z \ r ^ m o r y for the words, especially for concrete

ones, and verbal technique (using illustrated exam ple or situation, synonym , contrast, etc.) to present the meaning o f more abstract items in som e context

Second, to m ake the w ords presented to learners retain in the learners’ long term

m em ory, it is advisable to get learners interact with w ords rather than repeating their pronunciation and meaning (Harmer, 1991) M ethodologists have reepm m ended activities w'hich provide interaction with words for learners Decarrio (2001) suggests that learners can jo in semantic m apping activities in which they are given a text which contains w ords having been presented and required to draw a diagram o f relationships between them M organ & Rinvolucri (1986) introduce exercises that involve the drawing and labeling pictures, diagrams, plans, maps, etc They also introduce tasks that encourage learners to explore personal responses to words, for example, ask learners to introduce h im /h erse lf by giving him or her true name and one item from the chosen area

o f vocabulary (e.g with containers)

Third, lexical items should be recycled soon after the initial m eeting and at spaced intervals A s discussed in 2.1.2.3.3, revision is a required part o f the process o f vocabulary learning because information will fade aw ay in o n e ’s m em ory if it is not revised after the original input According to Uberm an (1998), there are various techniques for vocabulary revision that teachers can use: multiple choice and gap filling exercises will activate the vocabulary while learners select the appropriate response; lists

o f synonym s or antonym s to be matched or some words or expressions in context to be substituted by synonym ous expression will help learners recall sense relations; sentence building or sentences to be paraphrased get learners consolidate words with the

gram m atical structures they often go with; pictures, photographs or draw ings can facilitate the recycling o f concrete w ords as well as idioms From the view points o f Decarrio (2001) and U berm an (1998), gam es are activities that are useful for revising any types o f w ords or aspects o f word in a m ore am using way than m ost o f the other techniques G am es are highly enjoyable and relaxing, thus m otivating learners to vocabulary learning.

2.2 G a m es for vocabulary teaching

A s m entioned in C hapter I, language games are recently rec om m e nde d as an effective technique for language teaching in general and vocabulary teaching in particular The rest o f this chapter will be devoted to the presentation o f m ajor features

Hadfield (1990) has a similar definition o f games to R ix o n ’s (1981) but he adds that games consist o f an elem ent o f fun

Rixon (1981) adds that games include o f two m ajor features: com petition and cooperation am ong players Com petition can be ‘one person against the rest’ or each person individually, and cooperation can be ‘everyone tog eth e r’, ‘cooperating w ithin a

g ro u p ’, ‘with a team against the rest’ or ‘with a partner against the rest’ (R ixon, 1981:7)

In a game, there can be either competition or cooperation, or both

A pplying this to teaching, one can see that learners also play games w ithin a set o f rules, m aking effort to achieve some purpose in an am using way H ow ever, according Rixon (1981), the feature that distinguishes language gam es from ‘ordinary g a m e s ' is the use o f language to achieve the purpose Rixon (1981) explains that language gam es may employ som e skills exercised in 'ordina ry g a m e s ’ such as the physical skill in

c oordination o f hand and eyes like in playing tennis, or tfie intellectual and tactical skill like in playing draught or chess Yet, the focus in language games is language itself No

m atter what specific purpose a game has, the general goal embedded in all language gam es is to develop and improve linguistic skills, i.e spelling, pronunciation, listening com prehension, reading com prehension and so on

2.2.1.2 Types o f language games

R ixon (1981) divides language gam es into two groups corresponding to their main focus: code-control gam es (or linguistic games), w hose focus is on correctness, and

c om m unicative gam es, w hose focus is on c om m unicative effectiveness

2.2.1.2.1 Code-control/linguistic games

Code-control/linguistic games require players to produce correct language or dem onstrate that they have had a correct interpretation o f a certain piece o f language: sound, spelling, vocabulary or structure

A ccording to Rixon (1981), the length o f utterance used in games o f this kind is

iusually limited - often one word only and seldom longer than a sentence or twp ‘Correct repetition o f a limited range o f language is the important thing in these g a m e s ’ (p.22)2.2.1.2.2 C om m unicative games:

Unlike code-control games, the em phasis o f com m unicative g am es is on the com m unicative effectiveness, as their nam e implies, rather than the correctness o f language The success in these games ‘is ju d g e d by the outcom e o f what is said rather than by its form’ (R ixon, 1981: 27)

Therefore, according to Rixon (1981), the language employed by the players to solve the problem s in these gam es can be m uch freer or m ore varied than that used in c o d e ­control games It m ay not be perfect, yet, i f the message is understood, the objective can still be achieved

Nevertheless, Rixon (1981) asserts that it is not the case that com m unicative ga m e s

do not improve correctness C om m unication will fail if the language in use is too dis'.orted by mistakes In addition, som e c om m unicative games may also need a limited range o f language to be repeated to convey the message In other words, correctness is not eliminated in c om m unicative games though it is not the utmost objective

So far the characteristics o f two types o f language games and the differences betw een them have been presented.

H ow ever, from the view point o f Rixon (1981), it should be noted that these two

g a m e s do not conflict Each has its own role in a teaching program and reciprocates each other T he use o f correct language im proved in code-control games can then be promoted

in a m ore flexible and effective way encouraged by com m unicative games

2.2.1.3 T he a dvantages o f using gam es in language teaching

Hadfield (1990), U berm an (1998) and M e Guire (2001) have affirm ed that games

h a v e a great educational value, not j u s t time-filling activities as it has been widely believed for a long time

Hadfield (1990) states that gam es supply an opportunity for intensive language pra ctice and a co ntex t in w hich language is used meaningfully A cco rd in g to Wright,

Betteridge & B uckby (1983), the m eaningfulness is interpreted as the fact that thelearners respond to the content in a definite way I f they are am used, angered, challenged,intrigued, or surprised, the content is clearly meaningful to them In m ost tra d itio n al

iclassroom practice activities (e.g pronunciation drills, gap-filling, sentence building, etc.), learners are required to recognize the language items they have learnt or produce them correctly The target learners often think about while jo in in g these activities is learning correct language, and that is all M eanw hile, in a game, learners are to use the language to reach som e goal Though the language is also intentionally practised and

im proved, it does not act as an end but “ a m ean to an e n d ”

In addition, according to Hadfield (1990), games are highly m otivating because they are im m ensely en joyab le for learners T he fun in com peting to or c ooperating with

classm ates, in being rew arded or penalized and the unpredictable luck that gam es bring to learners stimulates their interest and get them involved in language learning

Me Guire (2001) shares this view point In his opinion, one o f the reasons for playing gam es in classroom is sim ply that they are fun I f the learners have fun and enjoy them selves, they will be m ore m otivated, more relaxed and more open to the rich language opportunities that gam es supplies

Further support com es from U berm an (1998) She believes that because they are highly entertaining, gam es can lower anxiety and tension which som etim es we m eet in a

regular class And as a result, they can m ake learners’ acquisition o f language input more likely In an easy and relaxed atm osphere, learners rem em ber things faster and better Furtherm ore, gam es give shy learners m ore opportunities to express their opinions and feelings, which is not easy for them in traditional practice activities.

A n o th e r advantage o f using gam es is that gam es can act as a diagnostic tool for teachers Hadfield (1990) believes that while playing gam es, learners can show what they know , w hat they are fam iliar with and what they are unable to produce in a n o n ­threatening way Thus, teachers can evaluate learners’ perform ance without causing tension to learners, w hich is not alw ays possible in a regular class

M oreover, according to Rixon (1981), gam es can help vary the pattern o f interaction in the classroom So far w hat has h a p p en ed in m an y classroom s betw een

teacher and learners is ‘teacher-to-w hole c la s s ’ Learners ju s t passively sit at their tables and listen carefully to the teacher Seldom do they ask teacher or talk to their classmates

H ow ever, Rixon (1981) states that such a habit can be broken through the us^ o f games With different patterns o f interaction that gam es offer: Teacher- the whole clast, Teacher- group, Teacher- individual, individual-individual, group- group, ‘players m ay becom e so engrossed in a game that they forget to act in the classic classroom pattern, and start to react directly to w ha t they their fellow s are saying and d o in g ’ (Rixon, 1981: 5) Moreover, as the basis o f players’ relationship in a game is either cooperation or competition, or both, learners are given a chance to improve their social behavior, learning how to play with other m em bers o f the g ro u p and com pete against the other group in an appropriate m an n e r ( M cG uire, 2001)

2.2.1.4 W hen to use gam es?

M any teachers have considered g a m e s as short w a rm -u p activities, extra activities at the end o f the lesson or m arginal ones when teacher and learners have nothing better to

do (Uberm an, 1998) There is certainly nothing w rong in it Yet, it is a rather narrow view o f games

According to Rixon (1981), gam es can be an integrated part o f the teaching syllabus Teachers can use gam es at any stage o f language tea c h in g process - when teaching new language items (presentation, controlled practice and com m unicative practice) or when

revising previously p resen ted language item s, providing that they are suitable to the

purpose o f each stage

2.2.1.5 Which gam es for which learners ?

In order to m ake g am es profitable for the learning and teaching process, teachers should be careful about deciding which gam es to choose for their learners T here are

m any factors to consider

L e a rn e rs ’ age is the first factor A ccording to Uberman (1998), learners’ age governs the choice o f gam es for language teaching, for not all games are appropriate for all learners irrespective o f their age, different age groups require various topic, m aterials and

m odes o f games It is alm ost im possible to get young children play the gam e Picture Dominoes, where the ability to m ake abstruse conceptual links is required (Rixon, 1981)

T eenagers are tend to be self-conscious, thus teacher should ‘take into a ccount their reticence’ when c hoosing a gam e for them (Wright, Betteridge & Buckly, 1983: 2) It

m ay be useful in this case to use g am es which are played in pairs or in groups, i

Uberm an (1998) adds that learners’ abilities and prior know ledge Is also an

im portant factor Structural gam es that practise or reinforce a certain gram m atical aspect

o f language, for instance, have to related learners’ abilities and prior know ledge, otherw ise games w ould becom e difficult for the learners

From the view point o f R ix o n ( 1081 ), besides le a rn e rs’ age, a b ilit ie s and p rio r know ledge, self-reliance is a factor that needs considering He explains that m any students are reluctant to recognize their own success unless it is endorsed by praise from the teacher In this case, in his opinion, it is advisable to concentrate on gam es w h e re the teacher is the ju d g e and aw ards credit for correct answ ers or use o f language, o r to

m onitor and start with gam es in which som ething is written or drawn, so that there is a record o f an achievement

Rixon (1981) adds that learners’ socio-cultural background is another factor that m ay influence the decision on the appropriateness o f a game In his opinion, it w ould be unsuccessful to play the w ell-know n English parlour gam e ‘Botticeli’, for exam ple, if

there is not a com m on cultural k n ow ledge a m ong learners In this game, the challenger thinks o f a famous person or w orks o f art and tells other players only the initial letter o f his/its name, e.g ‘P \ Players try to m ake som e guesses by asking questions like ‘A re you

a fam ous abstract p a in te r? '(th e y are possibly thinking o f Picasso) To com plete such a task, players need a vast a m ount o f shared knowledge The ga m e will get stuck if either the challenger or the players do not know w h o Picasso is.

G enerally speaking, it is the tea c h e r’s responsibility to c h o o se the games and adjust his organization o f them in order to cater for the learners’ present needs, abilities and expectations (Rixon, 1981)

2.2.2 W o r d g a m e s

Word gam es are language gam es w hose focus o f attention is initially on words (Wright, B etteridge & Buckly, 1983)

Hadfield (1998) and Wright et al (1983) introduce various word games that can be

used for practising and c onsolidating vocabulary

Wright et al (1983) introduce word gam es in accordance with the language in focus:

spelling, m eanings, w ords for sentence-m aking and so on

In spelling ga m e s that W right et a l (1983) introduce, learners are required to

With w ord m ea ning gam es, they give players chances to revise w ord m eaning by asking for and giving definitions o f w ords, or making, c o m p a rin g and discussing definitions o f w ords, or grouping w ords according to categories or ‘o dding o u t’ the word that does not belong to a certain category

In gam es that involve w ords for sentence-m aking, learners are required to make sentences containing selected vocabulary items, or to cooperate w'ith other players to

m ake as m any sentences as possible by c o m b in in g w ords that each o f them has in their cards

The interaction pattern in the above gam es can be teacher-to-w hole class, learner-to- Iearner or group-to-group

Hadfield (1998), on the other hand, introduces word gam es in a quite different way

In his opinion, to retain a w'ord in o n e ’s m em ory after the presentation o f it, learners should go through three distinct processes: fixing the m eaning o f the w ord in their mind, making the w'ord their own by personalizing it so that it takes on a colour and a character for them and becom es part o f their individual word store, and then using it creatively in a context for them selves He therefore groups the word g a m e s being introduced in

accordance with those processes: memorization games, personalizing games and

c om m unication games He describes these groups o f gam es as follows

M emorization games focus on accuracy rather frequency Therefore, all o f them are linguistic games In games o f this type, learners are required to recognize or produce just

a single word, or produce a simple sentence that contains the revised word The games make use o f these techniques: matching, guessing, ordering, arranging and collecting.Personalizing games are not really games, but hum anistic activities When playing the games, learners are required to relate the words they have learnt to their own life or experiences

Com m unication games focus on completion o f tasks such as com pleting a picture rather than production o f right words or sentences These games em ploy a variety o f techniques: guessing, searching, matching, exchanging, com bining, arranging, puzzle- solving, etc

Hadfield (1998) also presents that in these word ga m e s there are three majn types o f activities: pairwork, small groupwork (groups o f 3 or 4 students) and whole class activities The average length tim e for each game is from 15 to 20 minutes

So far in this chapter, I have reviewed some basic principles in vocabulary teaching and learning as well as presented a b r ie f d e scrip tio n o f langu age gam es in gen eral and games for vocabulary teaching in particular These information will be the theoretical background for the study, discussion and recom m endation in the following sections

Chapter III METHODOLOGY

A s presented in C hapter II, vocabulary learning and teaching is a complicated process consisting o f different stages - presentation, practice and revision, and involving various aspects o f lexical items - word m eaning, form, use and grammar As an effective technique, -theoretically, ga m e s can be applied to any o f those aspects in any o f those stages to prom ote the teaching and learning

In an attem pt to investigate the effectiveness o f games in practice, it will be o f great value if gam es can be applied to the teaching o f all o f those aspects and all stages to seek for sufficient evidence

H ow ever, within the limit o f an M A thesis, my study cannot cover all o f them It ju s t

focuses on a “ small plot” o f that “ vast area” : the revision o f w ord meaning.

The word m eaning involved in the study is mainly conceptual meaning T he reason

is that the students taking part in the study are at elem entary level and the lea rn in g o f affective m eaning and sense relations is still limited M oreover, m ost o f the vocabulary listed in the lexical syllabus o f this sem ester are basic military and naval terms w hich chiefly have conceptual m eaning rather than affective meaning

The study then aim s at exam ining the effects o f word gam es on students’ learning o f

investigating the stu d e n ts’ attitudes tow ards these two techniques after the treatment

To reach the aim o f the study, the following questions are addressed

1 Do word games as a vocabulary revision activity better help non-m ajor English students rem em ber word m eaning than traditional practice exercises?

2 What are the stu d e n ts’ attitudes tow ards these two types o f activities?

This chapter is devoted to the description o f the m ethod employed to carry out the study The outline o f the chapter is as follows

3.] Description o f the subjects

3.2.Description o f data collection instruments

3.3.Description o f data analysis tools

3.1 Description o f the subjects

T he subjects taking part in the experim ent as well as the survey are 48 first year students o f non-m ajor English in tw o classes (K.H21 A and KT12) at the N avy Academ y

M ost o f the students had not learnt English before they entered the A cadem y By the time the experim ent was conducted, they w ere at the second sem ester at the A cadem y and had

j u st finished the first m odule o f the English course here

T he two classes are selected for the experim ent due to their relatively similar results

in the previous final a chievem ent test (See A ppendix 6 for detailed information)

H ere is some o ther information about those students:

• Age: 18 to 22

• Gender: all males

• Level o f English: Elem entary

• Major: N avigation / M arine Radio C om m unication

D uring the tim e o f the experim ent, both classes attend tw o lessons o f English a week, study the sam e course book {English fo r M arine Cadets, Vol 1) a n d 'fo llo w the

same lexical syllabus The time allocation for vocabulary learning in each o f their English lessons is about 20 to 25 m inutes The tw o classes are instructed by the sa m e teacher and offered the same content and techniques o f vocabulary teaching T h e only differencebetw een these two c la ss e s is that they re v is e w ord m e a n in g t ln u u y li two d iffe re n t types o factivities

3.2 Description o f data collection instrum ent

A n experiment is carried out to find the a n sw e r to the first research question: ‘Do word gam es in form o f vocabulary revision activity better help non-m ajor English students rem em ber word m eaning than traditional practice e x e rc ise s? ’, and a follow -up questionnaire survey is conducted to find the an sw e r to the second research question:

‘What are the students’ attitudes tow ards these two types o f activities?’

3.2.1 C om ponents o f the experim en t

Fourteen word gam es are applied to the experim ental group to revise the meaning o f

the lexical items presented in the second m odule o f the English course

All o f the gam es are code-control ones The reason for such a choice is that the aim o f the revision is the correct recognition or production o f w ord meaning M oreover, the practice o f using language com m unicatively has not been so popular at the Navy

A c a d e m y yet, thus rather unfam iliar to the students This has been proved w h e n I tried organizing a c o m m unicative gam e before carrying out the experiment Learners were

e m barrassed as being required to use English to com m unic a te and unable to m ake their

m essa ge s com prehensible The goal o f the gam e - to c o m m u n ic a te effectively in English

- could not be reached, thus the gam es failed So, it is safer to m ake experim ent w'ith a new technique on the basis o f w hat is fam iliar rather than w ha t is also new

The w ord gam es are adapted from m em orization g am es designed by Hadfield (1998) and w ord m eaning gam es by W right et al (1983) (See A ppendix 1 for samples) In these

gam es, the students were required to either recognize o r produce single w ords, or to produce simple sentences with the w ords that need revising 1

The games in which single w ords are to be recognized or produced m ake use o f the following tasks

- m atching written w ords with images

m atching spoken w o rd s with images

m atching written w ords w'ith definition

m atching spoken w'ords with definition

- guessing word m eaning through m im ing gestures

The games in w'hich sim ple sentences w'ith the revised w ords are to be produced

em ploy these two tasks

m aking sentences with w ords already learnt in written form

making sentences w'ith w ords already learnt in spoken form

The process o f organizing the gam es is as follow's

- Explaining what to do:

Before starting a game, the teacher presents in m other ton g u e its rule and objective to the learners so that they k now what they have to do A short dem onstration o f parts o f the gam e is given at this stage, too

- Playing the game:

A s all the material needed for the game is available and learners all understand what

to do, the game begins

W hile the gam e is going on the teacher acts as the master o f ceremonies, who raises the questions or challenges the class, as the evaluator o f responses, who judges correctness, and as the scorer who gives marks to correct answers

- Sum m arizing and com m enting

W hen the gam e is ended, the teacher sum m arizes the results, gives c om m ent on what the students have performed and corrects the errors they have m ade while playing the game

T he relationship am ong the students in each gam e is either competition or cooperation, or both The interaction patterns are varied from gam e to game: Teacher-

w hole class, student-student, pair-pair or group-group, but the person w ho takes control

o f the gam es is the teacher, who acts as a m aster o f cerem ony, an evaluator and a scorer

It is not only due to the fact that the gam es are linguistic ones but also because o f the interest o f the learners: they are familiar with and feel safe when being directed and

j u d g e d on their success by the teacher

3.2.1.2 Traditional practice exercises

Traditional practice exercises are applied to vocabulary revision for the control group They make use o f those tasks that are frequently in use at Navy Academy: word-

definition matching, multiple choice, gap-filling, V ietnam ese-Engiish translation and

se n te n c e building (See A ppendix 1 for samples)

T h e y are carried out in the following process:

• T eacher writes the exercises on the board or delivers copies o f the exercises to the students, and then gives instruction

• Students do the exercises individually within a permitted period o f time

• Then students are required to stand at their tables or go to the blackboard, and give their answ ers orally or in written form to the teacher

• Teacher gives feedback and corrects errors

3.2.1.3 Tests

In order to assess the students' ability before the treatment and their achievement after the treatm ent, two types o f tests were administered: pre-test and post test.

A ccording to Seliger & S hoham y (1989), it is ideal to use ready-m ade tests which can be found in m any published materials in an experimental study They explain that these tests are developed by experts and thus considered to be well-constructed

H ow ever, the majority o f the lexical items that Navy A cadem y students learn are not those o f general use but basic military and naval terms It is impossible to make use o f these standardized tests for the sake o f content validity Therefore, the tests used for this

e x p e rim e n t were adapted from published tests by Gairns & R edm an (2001) To design the tests, G airns & R edm an (2001) have used various techniques (matching, com pletion and

m ultiple choice) and language material and images taken from the book English Vocabulary in Use (CUP, 2001) The tests in this study also make use o f the techniques

m entioned above, but the language material and the images used to write test items are taken from the N a v y A c a d e m y ’s course book, English f o r Marine Cadets, Yol 1, and

the tw o classes were really o f the same ability as assumed It was done to m ake sure that the possible differences betw een two classes after the treatm ent was not due to the difference in stu d e n ts’ a b ilit y T h e le x ic a l item s b ein g tested w ere selected from those they have learnt in the previous semester

ends to assess the stu d e n ts’ rem em bering o f word m eaning after the experiment The lexical items being tested in the test were selected from those which had been revised through two types o f activities

Each test takes 30 m inutes to complete The scores on each test range from 0 to 10 and are grouped into levels o f perform ance as follows

3.2.1.4 Experim ental group and Control group

They w ere under the treatm ent o f using word games for word m eaning revision

traditional practice exercises to revise word meaning

3.2.1.5 T h e procedures

The e x perim ent was conducted in the following procedures

* A dm inistering the pre-test on both groups Both sit the test at the same time

* C onducting the experim ent: applying word games to the experimental group and traditional practice exercises to the control group in lessons o f consolidation and revision during 60 periods o f English in the second term

* A dm inistering the post-test on both groups as the course ends

3.2.2 F o llo w -u p questio nn a ire survey

T w o sets o f questionnaires (in Vietnamese) were distributed to investigate the stu d e n ts’ attitudes tow ards w'ord gam es and traditional practice exercises, after the experim ent (See A ppendix 3 for samples o f English and V ietnam ese versions o f questionnaires)

Q uestio nna ire 1 was delivered to the experim ental group The aim o f this

Questionnaire is to see w hat the attitudes o f the students in this group towards the new technique o f vocabulary revision are

Q uestionnaire 2 was distributed to the control group The aim o f this Questionnaire

is to investigate the attitudes o f the students in this group towards this traditional technique o f vocabulary revision

Each set o f questionnaire consists o f three sub-parts as follows

Su b p a rt 1 is about the students’ feelings about each type o f activity It is composed

o f three questions: Question 1, Question 2 and Question 3

Q uestion 1 in this sub-part aims at investigating the stu d en ts’ feelings about playing

games or doing practice exercises in classroom in general

Q uestion 2, Q uestion 3 and Question 4 go to more details: Question 2 and Question

3 are about the classroom interactions taking place in word games or traditional practice exercises, and Question 4 the tasks through which vocabulary are revised

S u b p a r t 2 consists o f one question: Q u e s tio n 5 It is about the students' b e lie f on the effect o f each activity on the their vocabulary learning The purpose o f this sub-part is

to know to which extent the students believe in the effectiveness o f each type o f activities

S u b p a r t 3 is com posed o f two questions: Q uestion 6 and Q u e s tio n 7 It is designed

to elicit the stu d e n ts’ opinions on the use o f each type o f activities for vocabulary revision in classroom : w hether it should be used for vocabulary revision in the future and why Q u e s tio n 8 is included in Subpart 3 o f Questionnaire 1 to ask for the s tu d e n ts’

c o m m e n t or suggestion on the organization o f word games in classroom

3,3 Description o f data analysis tools

3.3.1 T-test for test results analysis

It is assum ed that a difference would be found between the experimental group and the control group after the treatment M ore specifically, the perform ance o f the experim ental group in the post-test would be better than that o f the control gi^oup thanks

to the effects o f w ord games However, it can be the case that the difference is due to chance rather than the result o f the treatment

Therefore, /-test is used in this study By testing if those possible observed differences between tw o groups are significant or not, it will help determ ine ho w

c onfident the researcher can be that the difference is not due to chance.

The t-test used for the study is independent samples t-test The reason is that the /-

test is on the difference 'be tw e en subjects’: difference in perform ance betw een two independent groups (the experimental group and the control group) in the same test (the post-test)

The level o f significance for a t-test is conventionally set at 05 So, in this study, if the probability value (/>value) obtained from the /-test on the observed difference betw een the experimental group and the control group in the post-test is equal to or less than 05 ( p < 05), the difference is significant

In sum, the t-test m ade use for test results analysis in this study is ind ep en d en t sam ples t-test and the level o f significance set for the t-test is 05.

3.3.2 T h e m a t ic a n a ly s is f o r q u e s t i o n n a i r e results a n a ly s is