Luận văn đại học : Phương pháp học từ vựng tiếng anh 100% Full

Luận văn tốt nghiệp đại học bằng tiếng anh , đạt điểm khá cao. Hoàn chỉnh về mặt nội dung, đề ra những phương pháp học từ vựng tốt nhất cho bậc học sinh trung học phổ thông. Viết hoàn toàn bằng tiếng anh, cấu trúc rõ ràng, dễ hiểu, đáng được tham khảo.

2 Aims of the study and the scope of the study

2.1 Aims of the study

1 Cover background knowledge of vocabulary

2 Find out reality of teaching and learning English for eighth graders at Lien Hong secondary school in Hai Duong city

3 Find out appropriate methods for teaching vocabulary which draw student'sattention into the lesson The students will feel interested, enjoyable and funny when they come into the vocabulary lesson Some good techniques will be given out in order to improve their vocabulary

2.2 Scope of the study

3 Method of the study

- Researching on reference books and websites

- Attending English vocabulary periods at Lien Hong secondary school in HaiDuong city

- Interviewing and conducting the survey questionnaires for 90 students and 3teachers with a point to find out their attitudes of the matter and the difficulties inlearning and teaching vocabulary

4 Design of the study

Part II: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter1: Literature Review

I Vocabulary

1 What is vocabulary?

2 The importance of vocabulary

3 Major types of vocabulary

4 What need to be taught?

II Characteristics of Middle School Students

III Techniques for presenting new words.

IV How to Teach Academic Vocabulary to Middle-School Students

Chapter II: A study on effective methods to improve English vocabulary for eighth grade students at Lien Hong secondary school

I The reality of learning and teaching vocabulary at Lien Hong secondary school

1 Teachers

2 The students

3 English teaching and learning condition at Lien Hong secondary school

II The survey questionnaires.

1 Participants

1.1 Students

1.2 Teachers

2 Reasons for choosing survey questionnaires

3 Design of the survey questionnaires

III Data analysis

4.1 Student’s interest in learning English

4.2 Teachers’ and students’ opinion toward the role of English vocabulary

4.3 Students’ and teachers’ difficulties in learning and teaching vocabulary

5 Findings and discussion

Chapter III: Some suggested methods to improve vocabulary for eighth grade students at Lien Hong secondary school

1 Introduction

2 Teaching through poems, songs

3 Using pictures in teaching vocabulary

4 Teaching through the funny games

5 Using mass media

6 Mime and realia

8 Story telling activities

9 Encouraging wide reading

10.Pair and Group works in teaching

Part III: The Conclusion

In the process of implementing my graduation paper, I have received lots of

encouragement, precious ideas and experiences from my teachers, family and friends Especially, thanks to all teachers’ support in Hung Yen University of Technology and Education for their useful advices

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor Mrs

Le Thi Phuong, M.A who gives me great supports and guidance Without her help,

my paper would have never been completed

Besides, my sincere thank is also extended to all the teachers in the Foreign

Languages Department of Hung Yen University of Technology and Education for their lectures and whole-hearted advices supporting this study

I also would like to express my special thanks to English teachers and eighth- grade students at Lien Hong secondary school in Hai Duong for their help that I would completed my research

Last but not least, I would like to thank my family who have encouraged and supported me a lot

This study deals with the effective methods to improve English vocabulary for eighth- grade students at Lien Hong secondary school in Hai Duong city To

achieve the desired aims of the current study, the paper used survey questionnaires

as the main research instrument

Based on the findings and the suggestions researcher gives some suggestions for teachers to solve the problems In detail, the teachers are advised to use some effective methods to improve vocabulary for students The paper also comes up with some useful ways for students to learn English vocabulary effectively

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale of study

No one denies the importance of English language in the present time as globallanguage English has become more and more dominant around the worldbecause it is used widen in many fields of life such as science, technology, foreigntrade, tourism business, education and so on Actually, in some countries it isused as the mother tongue and, other countries learn it as second language in theirschools In Vietnam, since the implementation of the open door – policy, it is now

a great demand to learn English for the process of integrating into internationaleconomic and diplomatic development There is no doubt that English is language

of communication between the people from different cultures The learning offoreign languages, especially English, through a deep relationship betweenlanguage and culture, students have chances to know many interesting thingsaround the world Moreover, English is also the language of computers so that itcan help people deal with science and technology Therefore, the need of mastering

a foreign language especially English, is becoming more and more necessary

As for as we are concerned, English learners, especially the secondary studentshave to face up with many difficulties such as pronunciation, grammar, spelling,vocabulary However, almost students have difficulties in studying vocabulary at first It is true that the vocabulary is the focus of language Studying vocabularywell is one of the keys, which help learners step by step discover this interestinglanguage It plays an important role in learning four basic skills: listening,speaking, reading and writing In order to use English as an effective tool incommunication, students should know how to apply them accurately in each realsituation The more vocabulary we have, the more confident we are

However, it is not easy to study perfect vocabulary because English is very varietyand complex Students may feel difficult to memorize a new word with itsmeaning, spelling and pronunciation Many eighth- grade students are oftenconfused how to apply grammar into sentences Sometimes, they can notunderstand when listening to video and audio In addition, a word may have morethan one meaning and more than one part of speech For example, “present” may

be a noun, an adjective and a verb also Some words with different spelling andmeaning have the same pronunciation, such as “hear” and “here”

From my own experience as a English major student and my observation at LienHong secondary school I make a sketchy presentation on some effective methods

of studying vocabulary with the hope that students will be interesting in learningEnglish Due to my English knowledge limitation and the frame of the graduation

paper, the author would like to carry out this study entitle" A study on effective

methods to improve English vocabulary for eighth grade students at Lien Hong secondary school"

1.2 Aim of study

The main aim of this study is to provide some effective methods to improveEnglish vocabulary and to prepare for them to the basic knowledge of vocabularywith higher requirement for the next grades To achieve this aim, the specificobjects of the study are:

4 Cover background knowledge of vocabulary

5 Find out reality of teaching and learning English for eighth graders at Lien Hong secondary school in Hai Duong city

6 Find out appropriate techniques for teaching vocabulary which draw

student's attention into the lesson The students will feel interested,

enjoyable and funny when they come into the vocabulary lesson Some good techniques will be given out in order to improve their vocabulary 1.3 Scope of the study

In fact, there are lots of various methods to improve English vocabulary for eighthgraders Due to the limited time and resources and knowledge of mine, the study mainly focus on studying some effective methods in learning English vocabulary for eighth grade students at Lien Hong secondary school in Hai Duong city

1.4 Methods of the study

To finish this study, I carry out some following methods:

- Researching on reference books and websites

- Attending English vocabulary periods at Lien Hong secondary school in HaiDuong city

- Conducting the survey questionnaires for 90 students and 3 teachers with a point

to find out their attitudes of the matter and the difficulties in learning and teachingvocabulary

1.5 Design of the study

The study is divided into three mains:

Part I is INTRODUCTION which provides an overview of the study including rationale, aims, scope, methods of the study, and design of the study An outline of the thesis is also mentioned in this chapter

Part II named DEVELOPMENT, which consists of three chapters:

- Chapter I: " Literature review" , presents the background knowledge of

English vocabulary and tips to study English vocabulary

- Chapter II : “A study on the students’ learning vocabulary in Lien Hong

secondary school”, refers to the survey questionnaire and analyzed findings of

questionnaires results

- Chapter III: " Some suggested methods to improve English vocabulary for

eighth graders at Lien Hong secondary school", contains some techniques to

learn English vocabulary effectively

Part III is CONCLUSION in which all the issued mentioned above are summarized

Briefly, this study consists of three main parts the first is Introduction, the second

is Development and the last part is Conclusion, of which the second is the very important part

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE OF REVIEW

I Vocabulary

1 Definition

There are many definitions about vocabulary

In Viet Nam, Nguyen Bang and Nguyen Ba Hoc (2002) considered their following definition of vocabulary as “logical” According to them, when the term “vocabulary” of a language was mentioned, it should be mentioned as

consisting of all the words, compounds and idioms used to transmit information onboth “oral and written communication”

Meanwhile, In some famous dictionaries, a vocabulary is defined as "all the words known and used by a particular person" and “all the words which exist in a particular language or subject” (Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary)

According to Webster's Dictionary (1993-327) “Vocabulary is a list or group of words and phrase, usually in alphabetical order”

Besides, foreign linguists define vocabulary according to some different criteria As Steven Stahl (2005) puts it "Vocabulary knowledge is knowledge, the knowledge of a word not only implies a definition, but also implies how that word first into the world" Vocabulary knowledge is not something that can ever be fully mastered, it is something that expands and deepens over the course of

a lifetime Because instruction in vocabulary involves far more than looking

up words in a dictionary and using the words in sentence Moreover,

vocabulary is acquired incidentally through indirect exposure to words and intentionally through explicit instruction in specific instruction in specific words and word-learning strategies Lewis and Hill (1985) also considered a

vocabulary item more than one word They also mentioned a temptation to think that the core of learning a foreign language was to use words for old things

In general, vocabulary can be defined roughly from the book entitled A course in Language Teaching written by Penny Ur (1990:60) He stated

" Vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as the words we teach in foreign language However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word, forexample," Post- office" and " mother-in-law" which are made of two or three words but express a single idea There are also multi-word idioms such as

"call a day" , where the meaning of the phrase can not be deduced from an

analysis of the component words A useful convention is to cover all such cases by talking about vocabulary "items" rather than "words"

2 Types of vocabulary

According to Clark (1993), we have a minimum of two mental vocabularies:

phonological (what we use when we listen and talk) and orthographic (what we

use to read and write) Researchers refer to these four types of vocabulary as

listening, speaking, reading, and writing vocabulary, each of which is integral

to vocabulary development (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001)

3.1 Reading vocabulary

Reading vocabulary is made up of the words in print that we recognize or

can figure out A person's reading vocabulary is all the words he or she can

recognize when reading This is the largest type of vocabulary simply because it includes the other three

The extent of students' vocabulary knowledge relates strongly to their

reading comprehension and overall academic success This relationship seems logical; to get meaning from what they read, students need both a great many words in their vocabularies and the ability to use various strategies to establish the meanings of new words when they encounter them

2.2 Listening vocabulary

A person's listening vocabulary is all the words he or she can recognize when listening to speech This vocabulary is aided in size by context and tone of voice Listening vocabulary refers to the words we need to know to understand what we hear

2.3 Writing vocabulary

Writing vocabulary consists of the words we use in writing

A person's writing vocabulary is all the words he or she can employ in writing Contrary to the previous two vocabulary types, the writing vocabulary is

stimulated by its user

We expect that this writing should also enable students to use the vocabulary they have studied in a realistic context, and that they could be motivated to learn even more vocabulary they need to accomplish the task

2.4 Speaking vocabulary

A person's speaking vocabulary is all the words he or she can use in speech Due tothe spontaneous nature of the speaking vocabulary, words are often misused This misuse – though slight and unintentional – may be compensated by facial

expressions, tone of voice, or hand gestures

Nation (1990:29) has divided vocabulary in the specific reference, such a word Receptive Vocabulary: Knowing a word involves being able to recognize it when it is heard (What is the sound like?) or when it seen (What does it look like?) and having an expectation of that grammatical pattern the word will occurrence This includes being able to distinguish it from word with a similar form and being able to judge if the word form sounds right or look right

- Productive Vocabulary: Knowing a word involves being able to pronounce the word, how to write and to spell it, how to use it in grammatical pattern along with the word in usually collocates with it, it also involves not using the word too often if it is typically a low frequency word and using it in a suitable situation using the word to stand for the meaning it represents and being able to think of suitable substitutes for the word if there any

Jo Ann Aeborsold and Mary Lee Field (1997:139) Classified Vocabulary into two terms there are:

- Active Vocabulary refers to items the learner can use appropriately in speaking orwriting and it is also called as productive vocabulary, although, in fact, it is more difficult to put into practice It means that to use the productive

vocabulary, the students are supposed to know how to pronounce it well, they

must know and be able to use grammar of the language target, they are also hoped to familiar with collocation and understand the connotation meaning of thewords This type is often used in speaking and writing skill

- Passive Vocabulary refers to a language items that can be recognizes and understood in the context of reading or listening and also called as

receptive Vocabulary Passive Vocabulary or comprehension consists of the words comprehended by the people, when they read and listen

3 The importance of vocabulary

It is impossible to assume the importance of vocabulary in English learning because of different reasons

Firstly, Cynthia and Drew Johnson, Anaxos( 1981,p1) points out " Studies have shown that reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge are strongly correlated, and researchers have found that word knowledge in primary school can predict how well students will be able to comprehend texts they read in high

school Limited vocabularies prevent students from comprehending a text"

Poor readers often read less, because reading is difficult and frustrating for them This means they don't read enough to improve their vocabularies, which could, in turn, help them comprehend more This perpetuating cycle can mean that

as students continue through middle school and high school, the gap between good and poor readers grows wider

The average student learns about 3,000 words a year, or six to eight words per day- a remarkable achievement If students are taught new words at a rate of eight to ten words per week for 37 to 50 weeks, about 300 to 500 words per year can be taught through direct instruction This leaves a large portion of words to be learned through interdependent reading, which is essential to acquiring word

knowledge

Students with a limited vocabulary will be handicapped in their educational progress The most obvious effect of an underdeveloped vocabulary will be seen inpoor reading comprehension, as children struggle to extract meaning from reading passages Well-developed vocabulary and reading comprehension skills are central

to success on the standardized tests used in most states, with—in many cases—students’ promotion to higher grades directly at stake Vocabulary appears in two main ways:

1) Reading questions that directly test vocabulary

2) Comprehension questions that require strong vocabulary knowledge

Secondly, vocabulary is one of the three branches of a language beside grammar and phonology According to Wilkins, the role of vocabulary seems to bemore important as “without grammar, there are few things we can express; while without vocabulary, there is nothing we can express.” It is indicated that if

language structures make up the skeleton of a language, vocabulary provides it the vital organs and the flesh Without the mediation of vocabulary, no amount of grammatical or other types of linguistic knowledge can be employed in second language communication or discourse Obviously, the teachers should be aware ofthe vital role of vocabulary in learning a foreign language, then they should have plans to deal with teaching vocabulary

Thirdly, insufficient vocabulary or vocabulary difficulties will result in communicational barriers or failures Lack of necessary vocabulary, it will be difficult to express any ideas to others If some one has adequate vocabulary, he/she will feel more confident when communicating with others Perhaps the greatest tools we can give students for succeeding, not only in their education but more generally in life, is a large, rich vocabulary and the skills for using those words Our ability to function in today’s complex social and economic worlds is mightily affected by our language skills and word knowledge

In general, vocabulary plays an important role not only in a language but also in language teaching and learning

II TEACHING VOCABULARY

1 The methods used in language teaching

The success of a language teaching and learning depends on the methods of

teachers use As Mackey stated:" The method used has often been said to be the caused of success or failure in language learning; for it is ultimately the method

what determines the what and the how of language instruction" ( P:138)

Makey-1971-Following is a brief discussion of some major foreign language teaching methods and their role in the teaching of vocabulary:

1.1.1 The grammar- translation method

The grammar-translation method is a way of teaching foreign languages derived from the classical method of teaching Greek and Latin Students learn grammaticalrules and then apply those rules by translating sentences between the target

language and their native language Students may be required to translate whole texts word-for-word There are two main goals to grammar-translation classes One

is to develop students’ reading ability to a level where they can read literature in the target language The other is to develop students’ general mental discipline

a Advantages

Reduced Teacher Stress: Class activities or learning games are unnecessary,

because students are required to translate text to another language directly This methods stress on translations Communication between student and teacher is reduced so that it avoids misunderstandings and prevents language barriers

Focus on Grammar, Sentence Structure and Word Meanings: Grammar

translation method focuses on the application of grammar and correct sentence structure This is helpful in teaching students how to write and read in another language, allowing them to explore interchangeable words and phrases more

effectively

b Disadvantages

Learner Motivation and Participation: Students are required to learn from a

textbook and use the same method throughout their learning Because lessons using translation method is not interactive and engaging for students, they become

more likely to lose interest in their subject and less motivated to learn As a result, they will not learn how to use the language in a real- situation

Unnatural and Inaccurate Pronunciation: As children, people generally learn

how to speak before they learn how to write and read In the GTM approach, this natural learning method is reversed Students are only taught how to read and writethe language This can affect how they learn to speak the learned language

Students are only taught how to read and write the language This can affect how they learn to speak the learned language

1.1.2 The direct method

The direct method of teaching, sometimes called the natural method The method

refrains from using the learners' native language and uses only the target language

It means that people study a foreign language by speaking and listening to it During the process of teaching and learning, only target language is used, no

mother tongue is allowed Through the use of picture and pantomime, meaning was to be conveyed The objective was to make links between meaning and the target language This method requires no translation between first and second languages It emphasizes correct pronunciation and grammar

a Advantages

- Students are able to understand what they learn, think about it and then express their own ideas in correct English about what they have read and learnt As a result, students become more active and they could listen and practice the target language both inside and outside classroom

- Through this method, fluency of speech, good pronunciation and power of

expression are properly developed They are more likely to acquire fluency in speech since they concentrate in expressing themselves through English rather thanunderstanding English Students can speak or write the foreign language without the need of translating their thought or idea from the mother tongue into the secondlanguage

b Disadvantages

- Teaching and learning process will be passive if the teacher can not motivate the students to participate the class discussion Some students who do not speak often

in class because they are reflective learners, who typically develop ideas and

questions in their minds before speaking As a result, Teachers must use many techniques to attract students in her lesson They will need to take extra steps to encourage quiet students to speak up

- Unprepared teachers can be disastrous The teacher must have a mastery of the subject matter They also must prepare a well-organized content Communication skills must be excellent Without these points, the teacher could not carry out directteaching effectively as well as they might not develop higher order thinking skills

in the students

1.1.3 The audio- lingual method

The Audio-lingual method is a method of foreign language teaching which emphasizes the teaching of listening and speaking before reading and writing It uses dialogues as the main form of language presentation and drills as the main training techniques This method is different from the direct method because it allows teacher to use the mother tongue but only very little As a result,

pronunciation is considered a great importance There is little or no grammatical explanation in this method

a Advantages

Students of Audio-Lingual method were rather good at listening and speaking Therefore, Students taught in this method were more active than those taught in others Their motivation were high reflected through the enjoying learning to use language from lively text and pictures

- The use of visual aids has proven its effectiveness in vocabulary teaching Abenefit of visual aids is their function as educational tools for learning more

effectively Piece of text or classroom notes can't fully convey charts, graphs and images while visual aids can do this Teachers usually make their visual aids

accessible, such as handouts to take home and slide shows to review It helps students retain more information.

b Disadvantages

- The lessons are built on static drills in which the students have little or no control

on their own output; the teacher is expecting a particular response and not

providing that will result in a student receiving negative feedback

- The teacher would then continue by presenting new words for the students to sample in the same structure They were uncertain of its meaning and unable to useperfectly memorized materials in various contexts except the give one

2 What aspects of a vocabulary item need to be taught

During teaching process, many teachers often get confused when determining whataspects of a word need to be taught such as: meaning, word use or pronunciation The course book entitled " ESL/EFL CLASSROOM TECHNIQUES AND

PRACTICES" will help them answer this problem by giving seven following aspects:

Form: Pronunciation and Spelling

The learner has to know what a word sounds like (its pronunciation) and what itlooks like (its spelling) In teaching, we need to make sure that both these aspectsare accurately presented and learned

Grammar

The grammar of a new item will need to be taught if this is not obviously covered

by general grammatical rules An item may have an unpredictable change of form

in certain grammatical contexts or may have some idiosyncratic way of connectingwith other words in sentences; it is important to provide learners with thisinformation at the same time as we teach the base form When teaching a newverb, for example, we might give also its past form, if this is irregular (think,thought), and we might note if it is transitive or intransitive We may present verbs

such as want and enjoy together with the verb form that follows them (want to,

enjoy-ing), or adjectives or verbs together with their fallowing preposition(responsible for, remind someone of)

The collocations typical of particular items are another factor that makes aparticular combination sound "right" or "wrong" in a given context So this isanother piece of information about a new item which may be worth teaching

Aspects of meaning (1): denotation, connotation, appropriateness/ formality

The meaning of a word is primarily what it refers to in the real world, itsdenotation; this is often the sort of definition that is given in a dictionary For

example, dog denotes a kind of animal; more specifically, a common, domestic carnivorous mammal; and both dank and moist mean slightly wet.

A less obvious component of the meaning of an item is its connotation: theassociations, or positive or negative feelings it evokes, which mayor may not be

indicated in a dictionary definition The word dog, for example, as understood by

most British people, has positive connotation of friendship and loyalty, whereasthe equivalent in Arabic, as understood by most people in Arab countries hasnegative associations of dirt and inferiority

Aspects of meaning (2): meaning relationships

How the meaning of one item relates to the meaning of others It is also useful toteach There are various such relationships: here are some of the main ones

- Synonyms: items that mean the same, or nearly the same; for example, bright,

clever, smart may serve as synonyms of intelligent.

- Antonym: items that mean the opposite; rich is antonym of poor.

- Hyponyms: items that serve as specific examples of a general concept; dog, lion,

mouse are hyponyms of animal.

- Co-hyponyms or co-ordinates: other items that are the "same kind of thing; red,

blue, green and brown are co-ordinates.

- Super-ordinates: general concepts that "cover" specific items; animal is the super-ordinate of dog, lion, mouse.

- Translation: words or expressions in the learners' mother tongue that are (more orless) equivalent in meaning to the item being taught

1.7 Word formation

Vocabulary items, whether one-word or multi-word, can often be broken downinto their component "bits" Exactly how these bits are put together is anotherpiece of useful information perhaps mainly for more advanced learners.

You may wish to teach the common prefixes and suffixes: for example, if learners

know the meaning of sub, un and able, this will help them guess the meanings of words like substandard, ungrateful and untranslatable They should, however,

be warned that in many common words the affixes no longer have any obviousconnection with their root meaning (for example, subject, comfortable) Newcombinations using prefixes are not unusual, and the reader or hearer would beexpected to gather their meaning from an understanding of their components

(ultra-modern, super-hero).

Another way vocabulary items are built is by combining two words (two nouns, or

a gerund and a noun, or a noun and a verb) to make one item: a single compoundword, or two separate, sometimes hyphenated words (bookcase, follow-up,swimming pool) Again, new coinages using this kind of combination are verycommon

Chapter II: A study on effective methods to improve English vocabulary for eighth grade students at Lien Hong secondary school

I Reality

Subjects of this study are students and teachers from Lien Hong secondary school.Teaching and learning condition is also very important factor because it bringssuccess to teachers and students The focus of survey questionnaires depended onthe characteristics of teachers and students and the teaching and learning condition.All of them are the decisive factors for the achievement of the learning

1 Teachers

According to my survey, there are thirty- two teachers at Lien Hong secondary school in Hai Duong city There are total three English teachers in this school They are all enthusiastic, responsible their work and always prepare their lectures carefully and thoroughly

All of them graduated from university and most have experience in teaching for more than ten years Furthermore, They lead their English team to reach the

district' s prizes in good student' s test They have won many prizes in good teacher's test They always set goal how to communicate knowledge in the best way to help students understand and acquire in almost effectiveness However, they still keep the traditional teaching methods, teachers only use their book and material related with the lesson in accordance with the teachers' book

In my opinion, interesting teaching aids need to be used in each lesson, especially

at secondary schools The English teachers should be taken more care by

author and government to have the best teaching condition

2 Students

Most of students are interested in learning English and attracted by the new

methods in textbook guided by the teacher They are fully aware of the fact that English is really important and necessary for their future work They also have been learning English for many years

However, they still do not have effective method in English vocabulary lesson

which require students memorize words as much as possible Although students are very enthusiastic, the traditional methods are not satisfied their expectation Forexample, when teacher lectures on the board, and students takes down words and grammar in notebook Therefore, students can not express their ability of logic andactiveness.

3 English teaching and learning condition at Lien Hong secondary school

At Lien Hong secondary schools, the teaching and learning condition is satisfied the demands of students and teachers with the best teaching-equipment All infrastructures are in good condition: classroom is large and bright, new

blackboards, chairs and tables are quite comfortable They are designed according

to national standard to help students prevent from diseases of the eyes

Each classroom is equipped a radio and many English cassette, teachers also use many pictures to make English lessons more interesting and effective In addition, teaching aids such as cassette players, micros are always available The students also have a lab where they study English every week with various English books One projector is ready whenever they need to use It is the reason why students have more chance to improve their English better

Besides, school always creates good condition for teacher having opportunities to organize English contests to encourage students to express their abilities

Sometimes students have chance to talk with foreigners so that students are very interested and pleased with extra activities The school also have large halls for teachers and students taking part in the English contests to celebrate the school's anniversaries

To sum up, with these learning and teaching condition, Lien Hong secondary schools are good environment to teach English If English learning and teaching condition is being taken care more, this will be the good educational environment

It is really the good place for teachers and students to work in

II The survey questionnaires.

1 Participants of the study

Subjects of the study are eighth grade students and teachers from Lien Hongsecondary school in Hai Duong city

2 Reasons for choosing survey questionnaires

Survey questionnaires are considered one of the most effective methods forstudying There are several reasons for the authors choice of questionnaire

Firstly, questionnaires are enable for the researcher to collect data about

knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors The most important questions of research comprehend students' attitude and their knowledge to vocabulary

Questionnaires are familiar to most people and they are very helpful for author to collect unique information such as attitudes or knowledge

Secondly, well- constructed questionnaire can help author save time, cost because processing the data can also be fast and relatively straightforward by using some modern software The data is instantly available and can easily be transferred into specialized statistical software or spreadsheets when more detailed analysis is needed Moreover, the results of the survey questionnaires can usually be quickly and easily quantified by either a researcher or through the use of a software

package In addition, the cost of using questionnaire in research is relatively

inexpensive for researcher Survey questionnaires become even more cost effective

as the number of research questions increases

Thirdly, one of the conditions required in doing research is the necessity of

protecting the privacy of the participants Questionnaires are helpful in

maintaining participants’ privacy because participants’ responses can be

anonymous or confidential This is especially important if author is gathering sensitive information

With these outstanding advantages, questionnaires are considered as a relatively popular means of collecting data Nevertheless, survey questionnaires are

undoubtedly not a perfect method for study

3 Design of the survey questionnaires

There are two different questionnaires designed to survey the subjects of thisstudy One questionnaire is for students and the other is for teachers

a Survey questionnaire for teachers

The questionnaire for teachers is given to three teachers who are teaching English

at Lien Hong secondary school in Hai Duong This category contains some mainpoints as follows:

 Their attitude toward teaching English for eighth grade students

( Including 4 questions)

 The teacher's teaching techniques ( Including 6 questions)

 Difficulties in teaching English vocabulary for 8th graders ( Including 5 questions)

b Survey questionnaires for students

Questionnaire is designed for students It is given to 100 8th graders in Lien Hongsecondary school This questionnaire contains 16 questions to investigate thefollowing issue:

 Attitude toward learning English vocabulary ( Including 4 questions)

 Students' learning strategies ( Including 4 questions)

 Students' attitudes toward their teachers' teaching techniques (Including 5 questions)

 Their difficulties in learning English( Including 1 questions)

To conduct the survey, the researcher distributed 100 copies of questionnaire for students and 3 copies of questionnaire for teachers to get information Many of the copies were directly given to 8th graders when they were in break time in class andcollected right way The questionnaire for teachers was also done in the same way

4 Procedures of data collection

The procedures of data collections followed these steps:

The researcher asked for permission and help from classes and students which were chosen as participant The researchers also asked for permission of teachers who were in charge of these classes

The questionnaires were carried out for five days and took place when students andteachers had free time or at their breaks to assure amount of time for students and teachers to give reliable response Besides, the researcher introduced, demonstratedand explained when students could not understand the new vocabularies While participants are completing questionnaire, the researcher was always available to give any assistance

III Data collection and Data analysis

3.1 Data collection

3.2 Data analysis

3.2.1 English vocabulary learning situation

The survey questionnaire was conducted among 100 8th graders at Lien Hongsecondary school and following is the collected information about learning Englishvocabulary

3.2.1.1 The students' attitude toward learning English vocabulary

In my first question" Do you like to study English" 88% of students are fond ofstudying English, in which 12% of them do not like learning English When beinginterviewed, a large number of the students expressed that they felt very excitedwhen learning a new language but others said that sometimes they have somedifficulties in pronouncing and memorizing a word From that point of view,teachers should have useful methods to attract the students' interest in English

Question 2 and 3:

- In learning English, how importance is vocabulary for you?

- What do you think about vocabulary?

Basing on the two questions “ In learning English, How important do you thinkabout vocabulary?” and “What do you think about vocabulary?” The results given

in the first and the second question indicate that although most the students findlearning vocabulary important and even very important (85%), they feel difficult

on learning vocabulary (55%) Naturally, 3 % of them feel boring with learningvocabulary This leads to a status like this – students do not pay attention to thelessons and lose many knowledge

Question 4: How often do you spend on learning vocabulary?

From Figures 1, we can see that the interest of students' in learning vocabularythrough the amount of time they spend on one Most of the students (accountingfor 33 %) said that they learn vocabulary at any time they like and 50% of thempractice their English vocabulary at home when teachers require Besides, there is

a number of them only learn it at class (13%) and (4%) of students rarely spendtime on vocabulary Students have regular learning plans which are important andnecessary to improve vocabulary However, for students who rarely learnvocabulary, there is a need of using different methods to encourage them

3.2.1.2 The students' vocabulary learning strategies

Question 5: How often do you use the following techniques for revising and

enriching your vocabulary?

There are up to 49% of the students reading the text and doing exercises because this way is rather easy to follow Though the effectiveness is not high, students really do not find out another ways to enrich their vocabulary Understandably, thisalso seems to be a traditional way According to my survey result, 8th students use playing English games in class (39%) to revise their answer 42 % of the students usually watch films which have subtitle in both English and Vietnamese 36% of the students like listening to English song While watching and listening, they can extend their knowledge because of words and structures abundantly Entertainment

is also the reason why they choose this answer Apart from watching, 6% of the students enjoy reading English newspapers, magazines and 7 % reading English stories They said that they can not buy the foreign newspapers and stories becausethey are expensive In the countryside, students do not have necessary equipment supplying for learning As a result 56% of students never use the computer to search information on the internet

Question 6: Which following techniques do you often apply in memorizing words?There are different ways of memorizing a new word and each may suit or not Most students ( accounting for 50%) usually write them in English and Vietnamesemany times This is a traditional strategy of learning which has encouraged by many generations of teachers It is 30 % of students sometimes memorize by speaking aloud and reading them repeatedly Surprisingly, 39% of the participants never use write new words on cards and learn them at anytime Making sentences seems to be hard technique ( 41% rarely use this one) Besides, using pictures is applied by 51% of the students usually use Normally, pictures with various colors will capture the attention of them 42 % of the students never learn by heart to helpthem extend English vocabulary- a very high percentage Obviously, this method was not applied widely to boost students in learning English vocabulary

Question 7: What do you often do when you do not know the meaning of a new word in your lesson?

From figure 2 we can see clearly that to deal with new word if they meet during the process of learning, 55% ask teacher of friends Asking the teacher or friends isconsidered to be the commonest way When they find a new word in the text, they immediately ask teachers for help so that this made them lazier and passive in learning English Especially, they will be easy to forget new words 24% choose c)look it up in dictionary while the rest 21% often ignore it It can be seen that

students do not want to spend much time looking it up in the dictionary Asking native English speaker is unusual way When being asked "why not?" most of them said that they have never seen the native speaker before