Nghiên cứu việc dạy và học từ vựng dựa trên nền tảng hình thức - nội dung làm tâm điểm tại trường THPT Chuyên Hạ Long

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HÒA INVESTIGATING TEACHING AND LEARNING VOCABULARY B

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ HÒA

INVESTIGATING TEACHING AND LEARNING

VOCABULARY BASED ON FORM-FOCUSED INSTRUCTION

AT HA LONG GIFTED HIGH SCHOOL

(NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC TỪ VỰNG DỰA TRÊN NỀN TẢNG HÌNH THỨC- NỘI DUNG LÀM TÂM ĐIỂM TẠI

TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN HẠ LONG )

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Hanoi – 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ HÒA

INVESTIGATING TEACHING AND LEARNING

VOCABULARY BASED ON FORM-FOCUSED INSTRUCTION

AT HA LONG GIFTED HIGH SCHOOL

(NGHIÊN CỨU VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC TỪ VỰNG DỰA TRÊN NỀN TẢNG HÌNH THỨC- NỘI DUNG LÀM TÂM ĐIỂM TẠI

TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN HẠ LONG )

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: NGUYỄN THI ̣ BÁCH THẢO, M.A

Hanoi – 2013

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 The Role of vocabulary in language teaching and learning 5

1.1.2 The Importance of Vocabulary in Language Teaching and Learning 6

1.2.1 What needs to be taught while teaching Vocabulary 7 1.2.2 Methods and Approaches of teaching vocabulary at high school 10 1.3 Forms-Focused Instruction versus Form-Focused Instruction 12 1.3.1 Definition of Forms- Focused Instruction and its basic features 12

1 3.1.1 Definition of Focus on Forms Instruction

1.3.1.2 Basic features of Focus on Forms Instruction 12 1.3.2 Definition of Form-Focused Instruction and its basic feature 13

1.3.2.2 Basic features of Focus on Form Instruction 15 1.3.3 Advantages of Form-Focused Instruction over Forms-Focused

1.3.5 Tendency of using Form-Focused Instruction in Language

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

3.1 Research question 1: What is the role of vocabulary in Language

3.1.1 The Teachers‟ Attitudes toward the Role of Vocabulary and

3.1.2 The Students‟ Attitudes toward the Role of Vocabulary and

3.2 Research question 2: How is vocabulary taught and learned at Ha

3.2.1 The way that Vocabulary is taught and learned at Ha Long Gifted

3.2.2 Difficulties that the Teachers and Students cope with in teaching

3.3 Research question 3: What are suggestions for Teaching and

APPENDICES

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Purposes of teaching vocabulary at HLGS (TQ-Q2)

Table 2: Purposes of learning vocabulary of students at HLGS (SQ-Q2)

Table 3: Methods of teaching and learning vocabulary items (TQ-Q3&SQ-Q3) Table 4: Aspects which teachers often choose when teaching vocabulary item (TQ-

Q8)

Table 5: Difficulties that the teachers face in teaching vocabulary (TQ-Q10)

Table 6: Difficulties that the students face in learning vocabulary(SQ- Q8)

Table 7: Reasons for students‟ preference of learning vocabulary in communicative

tasks or activities (SQ- Q10)

Figure 1: Teachers‟ attitudes toward vocabulary and teaching vocabulary (TQ-Q1) Figure 2: Students‟ attitudes toward vocabulary and teaching vocabulary (SQ-Q1) Figure 3: Frequency of teaching and learning vocabulary items separately or

isolatedly (TQ- Q4,& SQ- Q4)

Figure 4: Usefulness of teaching and learning vocabulary items separately or

isolatedly (TQ- Q5 & SQ- Q5)

Figure 5: Frequency of teaching and learning vocabulary items in communicative

activities or incorporating it in teaching four skills (TQ- Q6 & SQ- Q6)

Figure 6: Usefulness of teaching and learning vocabulary items in communicative

activities or incorporating it in teaching four skills (TQ- Q7 & SQ- Q7)

Figure 7: Teachers‟ presentation of new words (TQ- Q9)

Figure 8: Students‟ preferences of learning vocabulary(SQ- Q9)

Figure 9: Suggestions from students (SQ- Q11)

Figure 10: Suggestions from teachers (TQ- Q11)

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT : Communicative Language Teaching

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

English is a compulsory subject at all levels in the educational system in Vietnam However, the problems raised by the complexity and diversity of the English vocabulary have driven all learners confused and discouraged Thus, how to choose

an effective instructional method in teaching vocabulary is one of great concerns of many language experts and English teachers myself included

Vocabulary, as far as we know, is an important and pivotal component of a language; thus, teaching vocabulary is also important Nevertheless, it has not received much recognition it deserves in the classroom at Ha Long Gifted High school The students here tend to think grammar is important but vocabulary is not and they feel like learning grammar more than vocabulary

There are many methods and approaches applied to teaching vocabulary; however, choosing one way to teach new words effectively is not easy When I studied for my Master‟s Degree in TESOL, I was taught things like „communicative language teaching‟, „methodology of English language teaching‟, „approaches to language teaching‟, etc, and I really care about Form- Focused Instruction theory as it emphasizes the importance of communicative language use and learner-centeredness

Another reason is that classroom setting especially that at high school is often overlooked in favour of a more theoretical focus As a teacher of English at a high school, I want to comprehend more about applying Form-Focused Instruction theory to English teaching with focus on teaching English vocabulary to high school students Thus, this study attempts to explore form- focused instruction in an ESL classroom from the perspective of high school teacher cognition

This study is conducted to investigate current situation of teaching vocabulary at Ha Long Gifted high school The study attempts to cast some light on the FFI theory in vocabulary teaching that teachers find effective in practice and tries to draw some

implications for applying Form-Focused Instruction to improve teaching vocabulary

at Ha Long Gifted high school

2 Aims of the study

The study aims at:

o Investigating the current situation of teaching and learning English vocabulary at Ha Long Gifted School

o Identifying the difficulties and obstacles that the teachers and students at Ha Long Gifted School often cope with when teaching and learning vocabulary based on Form-Focused Instruction theory (Research Question 2)

o Making some recommendations for applying Form- Focused Instruction to teaching English vocabulary effectively at Ha Long Gifted School

3 Significance of the study

The study, once completed, will serve as part of continuous research on the teaching

of vocabulary with the intention to provide teachers of English at Ha Long Gifted high school with a deeper understanding of applying Form-Focused Instruction- a modification of Communicative Language Teaching- in teaching vocabulary

In addition, it is hoped that the study will be of great significance in helping students to be aware of their vocabulary learning problems; the teachers will also benefit from the findings of the research in working out an effective way to assist their students in communicative vocabulary learning

4 Scope of the study

The notion of Form-Focused Instruction has been applied in teaching grammar, pronunciation, speaking and writing However, this study only investigates the application of Form –Focused instruction in teaching and learning vocabulary Besides, due to the limited time and small scale of the research, it is only conducted

in the context of Ha Long Gifted High school with the participation of only 6 English teachers and 80 students

5 Research questions

The research paper seeks answers to the following questions:

Research question 1: What is the role of vocabulary in language teaching and learning at Ha Long Gifted School?

Research question 2: How is vocabulary taught and learned at Ha Long Gifted School?

Research question 3: What should be done to apply Form-Focused Instruction to teaching and learning vocabulary effectively at Ha Long Gifted High school?

6 Methods of the study

Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used to carry out the research First of

all, to form Theoretical Background for the research, theories, materials from

different sources including journals, books and internet are collected and analyzed, synthesized and evaluated

Then, survey questionnaire including open-ended and closed- ended questions is used in collecting data for the study due to its unprecedented efficiency in terms of research time, research effort and financial resources (Hoang & Nguyen, 2006:10) While closed questions are useful for obtaining quantitative information and are easier to analyze, open-ended questions can be useful for gathering qualitative information and for discovering new variables in response Thanks to survey questionnaire, the researcher can collect a huge amount of information in a short period of time and “with well-constructed questionnaire, processing data can also be fast and relatively straightforward” (Gillian, 2000) Thus, there are two sets of questionnaires employed The first containing 11 open-ended and closed- ended questions is for 80 students, the other containing 11 open- ended and closed- ended questions is for six teachers at Ha Long Gifted High School

The qualitative method is used in the interview Semi-structured type is chosen since “it gives the interviewee a degree of power and control over the course of the interview […] and the interviewer a great deal of flexibility” (Hoang & Nguyen,

2006:45) Moreover, “the interactions are incredibly rich and the data indicate that you can produce extraordinary evidence […] that you don‟t get in structured interview or questionnaire methodology” (Dowsett, 1886: 53 cited Hoang & Nguyen, 2006: 45) This advantage coincides with the researcher‟s purpose of using this data collection instrument to clarify participants‟ responses as well as get further information

7 Design of the study

The research includes three parts:

Part A is Introduction in which, the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the

scope, method and the design of the study are identified

Part B is Development

Chapter I is Literature Review, presents the theoretical background on which the

study is based

Chapter II is The study which presents the methodology of the study, including

the background information of the context where the study is conducted, the subject, the instruments used to collect data, and the procedures of data collection

Chapter III is Findings and discussion, which deals with three research questions

Detailed data description and analysis are presented and some explanation and interpretations of the findings are given in this chapter

Part C is Conclusion of the study, providing the summary and pedagogical

implications of the study The limitations as well as some suggestions for further research are also discussed in this chapter

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter I: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 The role of vocabulary in language teaching and learning

“A course in language teaching” that: “a new item of vocabulary may be more than

a single word”, it may be “a compound of two or three words or multi word idioms” (Ur, 1996, p.60)

It can be seen that vocabulary is the total number of words of a language and it is an essential part of language, as said by Plyes and Algeo “it is true that vocabulary is the focus of language It is in words that sounds and meanings interlock to allow us

to communicate with one another, and it is words that we arrange together to make sentences, conversation and discourse of all kinds” (1970, p.96)

According to Fran Lehr, “vocabulary is knowledge of words and word meanings” (Fran Lehr, 2004) It is true that vocabulary knowledge is something that expands and deepens over the course of a lifetime It is acquired incidentally through indirect exposure to words and intentionally through explicit instruction in specific words and word-learning strategies Not only form but other aspects such as meaning and usage should be taken into consideration in learning and teaching vocabulary

1.1.2 The importance of vocabulary in language teaching and learning

Vocabulary is one of the elements of language that should be learned and taught It cannot be denied that it will be hard or even impossible to master a language without understanding certain numbers of words and the importance of vocabulary

is summed up by David Wilkins: “Without grammar very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (Wilkins 1972: 111)

This point of view is echoed in the advice to students “If you spend most of your time studying grammar, your English will not improve very much You will see most improvement if you learn more words and expressions You can say very little with grammar, but you can say almost anything with words!” (Thornbury, 2002, p.13)

Krashen (as cited in Lewis, 1993) also confirms “when students travel, they don‟t carry grammar book, they carry dictionaries” (Krashen in Lewis 1993: iii) Needless

to say, thus, vocabulary is an essential and important component of any language, because “knowing words is the key to understanding and being understood The bulk of learning a new language consists of learning new words Grammatical knowledge does not make for great proficiency in a language.” (Vermeer, 1992: 147)

Vocabulary is basic to communication It is necessary for successful and effective communication for native speakers (Herbertson, 2003) as well as second and foreign language learners (Alderson, 2005) since words play an important role in expressing our feelings, emotions, and ideas to others during the act of communication Many researchers agree that lexis may be more important than structure, because it is using wrong words and not wrong grammar that usually breaks down communication “Mistakes in lexis much more often lead to misunderstanding and may be less generously tolerated outside classroom than mistakes in syntax” (Carter 1987: 145)

Vocabulary is a list of words, which means any unit of language used in all conversations; thus, without a sufficient vocabulary, one cannot communicate

effectively or express his ideas in both oral and written form It follows from this that vocabulary is of great importance for real communication to take place

Learning a language cannot be reduced, of course, to only learning vocabulary, but

it is true that “no matter how well the student learns grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to express a wide range

of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way” (McCarthy, 1990: VIII) For examples, in English teaching – learning process, vocabulary is one element that links the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing all together A person with a limited vocabulary may find it difficult to read and write well, hard to understand what others speak and fail to speak correctly and idiomatically

1.2 Approaches to teaching English vocabulary

1.2.1 What needs to be taught while teaching vocabulary?

Knowing a word implies knowing many things about the word- its literal meaning, its various connotations, the sorts of syntactic constructions into which it enters, the morphological options it offers and a rich array of semantic associates such as synonyms and antonyms These various aspects are related to the depth of word knowledge which is as important as learning many words

Once choosing what words to teach, it is also necessary to know what to teach about each lexical item There are many categories which can be taught to know the word properly Jeremy Harmer necessarily mentions that knowing a word does not mean

to understand only one of its meanings According to him, there are four basic aspects that students need to know when learning new vocabulary items: meaning, word use, word formation and word grammar (Jeremy Harmer, 1991, p158)

(From Jeremy Harmer(1991), The practice of English Language Teaching, p.158)

Nation (2001), however, proposes three basic criteria of knowing a word: knowing its form, its meaning and its use Following is Nation‟s description of truly knowing

a word:

According to Nation, “Knowing a word means knowing at least its forms, its meaning and its basic usage” (Nation, 2001) This means that knowing a word should not merely refer to knowing either the form or the meaning of the word Also, it should not ignore the aspect of being able to use the word accurately and

properly in a context In other words, three aspects of form, meaning and usage should be paid balance in teaching vocabulary

1.2.2 Methods and approaches of teaching vocabulary at high school

According to Edward Anthony, an American applied linguist, “…an approach is a set of correlative assumptions dealing with the nature of language teaching and learning It describes the nature of the subject matter to be taught…” He also confirms that “within one approach, there can be many methods…” (Anthony, 1963)

English is nowadays an international language, and English language teaching in general and vocabulary teaching in particular have undergone dramatic changes during the last two decades In order to fully understand this development, it is certainly worth giving a brief discussion of some major foreign language teaching approaches and methods in teaching vocabulary

The first approach is represented by the Grammar- Translation method (GTM) This method “aims at inculcating an understanding of the grammar of the language and training the students to write the new language accurately by regular practice in translating from the native language…” (Rivers, 1981, p.29)

In this method, vocabulary is taught by means of translation when students are given lists of words with their translation to be learned Language is seen as a collection of words which are isolated and independent and there must be a corresponding word in the mother tongue for each foreign word students learn In term of the teaching of vocabulary, GTM focuses on meaning, assuming that word meanings are easily learned; however, there is a lack of communicative activities through which vocabulary is learned, consolidated and used appropriately

The Audio – lingual method (ALM) represents the second approach In ALM, vocabulary is presented through dialogues Most of the drills and exercises that follow the dialogues are manipulative and pay no attention to content In this approach, the major objective of language teaching is to acquire the grammatical

and phonological structures of a language, thus, vocabulary learning is kept to a minimum (especially in the initial stages) and new words are selected and introduced directly Vocabulary, nevertheless, is strictly limited and isolated from context

The third major foreign language teaching approach is the Direct Approach

According to Freeman in Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching, “it was

revived as a method when the goal of instruction became learning how to use a foreign language to communicate” (Freeman, 1986, p.18) The main goal of this approach is to train students to communicate in the target language and to have an acceptable pronunciation In this approach, vocabulary is emphasized over grammar (Larsen- Freeman, 2000) Concrete words are taught through objects, pictures, physical demonstration, and abstract words are taught by grouping words according

to a topic or through association of ideas (Zimmerman, 1997) Direct Method is an answer to shortcomings of GTM; it focuses on communication, although oral communication skills are just built by questions - answers exchanges between teachers and students in small classes

The Reading Approach focused on reading and writing skills In this method, vocabulary is controlled and the grammar which is relevant for the reading is explicitly taught Translation reappears in this approach as a respectable classroom procedure related to comprehension of the written text, and “after a certain vocabulary is reached, supplementary readers in the form of stories or simplified novels are introduced, in order to enable the learner to consolidate his vocabulary” (Mackey, 1978, p 158)

While all of the traditional methods above were used to teach English for a long time, the Communicative Approach has dominated the last several decades of this century According to Wikepedia: “Communicative Language Teaching is an approach to the teaching of second and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of learning a language

Communicative language teaching (CLT) helps learners be more active in real life situations through means of individual, pair and group word activities This helps to enhance learners‟ communicative competence, manage their vocabulary and develop their communicative skills at the same time as well as develop procedures for the teaching of four language skills

From the brief consideration of some approaches and methods to language teaching,

it is obvious that each of those has its strong and weak points In terms of teaching vocabulary, “There is no single method or approach that can work for all teacher or for all learners or under all conditions because teaching is a socially constructed activity” (Le Van Canh, 2004, p 95) All of these approaches can be used for teaching vocabulary so long as the teacher is aware of the relevant points of them

1.3 Forms-Focused Instruction Versus Form-Focused Instruction

1.3.1 Definition of Forms-Focused Instruction and its basic features 1.3.1.1 Definition of focus on forms instruction

Focus on Forms (FonFs) Instruction, according to Long (1991), involves the pre- selection of specific features based on a linguistic syllabus and the intensive and systematic treatment of those features In other words, FonFs instruction refers to focusing on or teaching discrete lexical items out of context and isolated from meaning as in structural syllabi (Long 1991 in Ellis et al 2003: 149- 150) Thus, in FonFs instruction, the primary attention is on the form that is being targeted in a particular lesson rather than meaningful language use; and most of the lesson is devoted to teaching L2 forms of which both teacher and learners are aware In other words, in FonFs instruction, vocabulary is taught in lessons separate from communication or content, often following some kind of language syllabus For example, learners‟ attention can be drawn to words in non-communicative tasks as

in the case of matching words which are taught and listed in column A to their definition in column B, or filling these words in given sentences, one word in each sentence

According to Ellis, Basturkmen and Loewen (2002), a good example of FonFs in action is closely associated with PPP (presentation- practice- production) procedure, involving the presentations of a linguistic feature, followed by first controlled practice, and then free production In FonFs instruction, language is treated as an object to be studied and language teaching is viewed to be an activity to be practiced systematically Moreover, learners are seen as students rather than users of the language (Ellis 2001: 14)

1.3.1.2 Basic features of focus on forms instruction

From above definitions, the criterial features of FonFs can be seen as follows:

 the pre- selection of a linguistic target for a lesson

It means that the teachers can pre-select new words and some specific features to teach For example, teachers can pick up a list of the target words in one unit and then give students their translation and explanations

 awareness on the part of the teacher and students of what the linguistic target for the lesson is

FonFs refers to the teaching of discrete linguistic structures in separate lessons in a sequence determined by syllabus writers It occurs when vocabulary is taught as discrete units in the order of their linguistic complexity In this way, vocabulary is taught in accordance with a synthetic syllabus It involves language program planning based on the syllabus that the teacher and learner know, thus, both of them are aware

of what to teach and learn

1.3.2 Definition of Form-Focused Instruction and its basic features 1.3.2.1 Definition of focus on form instruction

Focus on form (FonF), in contrast, as defined by Long (1991: 45- 46) “…overtly draws students‟ attention to linguistic elements as they arise incidentally in lessons whose overriding focus is on meaning or communication” Explaining how this instruction could be implemented practically in the classroom, Long and Robinson

(1998: 23) stated that “focus on form often consists of an occasional shift of attention to linguistic code features – by the teacher and/or one or more students – triggered by perceived problems with comprehension and production” Thus, with respect to FonF instruction, the attention paid to form occurs or arises from a communicative need; or the learner‟s attention can be drawn to lexical items within

a communicative task environment if these lexical items are necessary for the completion of a communicative, or an authentic language task

There is a distinction between two types of FonF instruction, namely incidental and planned FonF

1.3.2.1.1 Incidental focus-on-form

Incidental FonF refers to drawing learners‟ attention to the linguistic features that arise occasionally during task-based activities in lessons that focus mainly on communication or meaning conveyance Incidental attention to form does not predetermine what kinds of form should be taught It occurs either as a result of a communicative problem, when users do not understand each other, or when learners want to focus on a form that has been used in communication, or in other words, the forms which emerge from the communicative tasks performed in l2 classroom Incidental FonF can be pre-emptive; it means that the teacher or learners choose specific forms to be the incidents of classroom discourse during meaning-focused classroom activities Pre-emptive incidental FonF is exemplified in some words that are synonymous with different uses that confuse L2 learners

1.3.2.1.2 Planned focus-on-form

Planned FonF refers to teaching specific L2 forms that hamper L2 learners‟ speaking and writing in a structured fashion It is characterized by drawing learners‟ attention to specific forms in a single lesson (Ellis et al 2003: 154) In planned FonF, meaning is still mainly focused on, and the activities based on the enriched input have a communicative focus, where the language to be learned is useful and natural This type of FonF instruction is similar to FonFs instruction in that a specific form is pre-selected for treatment, but it differs from that the attention to

form occurs in interaction and the learners are not made aware that a specific form

is being targeted

An important distinction between incidental FonF and planned FonF is that with incidental FonF, various linguistic forms as grammatical, lexical, phonological and pragmatic compete for the learners‟ attention; whereas, with planned FonF, the teacher can select the linguistic form to which the learner should pay attention This distinction has importance implication for the effectiveness of the way L2 English is taught in the classroom

1.3.2.2 Basic features of focus on form instruction

Although there are many different opinions and definitions by many researchers or authors; in the study, I choose the theory of Ellis in Ellis et al (1999) as basic background

Along the lines of Ellis et all (1999), FonF has five critical features:

 It is observable

FonF takes place interactionally, involves observable behavior, especially on the part of teachers as they try to draw learners‟ attention to some formal linguistic features For example, to draw learns‟ attention to plural „s”, which

is usually missing from their speech, teachers can write „cars” and “radios”

on the board, underline the “s” in each case, pronounce both words with exaggerated stress on the final sound and have learners repeat the words This way helps to increase learners‟ perceptions of target items; thus, more important sense than the teachers‟ behavior is the learners‟ internal mental stage

 It arises incidentally: FonF is employed only when a language learner‟s need arises

 It occurs in discourse that is primarily meaning-centered

FonF involves strategies that draw learners‟ attention to the form or target items within a meaningful context Lexical items are taught within a

communicative task environment and learners need the opportunity to use new linguistic forms communicatively and to engage in meaning-focused language use

 It is transitory

In FonF, teachers do not dwell on the problem

 It is extensive This feature of FonF instruction was added in Ellis et all

(2001a:441-442) It means several different forms are attended to in the context of a single lesson

In sum, the main differences between FonF and FonFs instruction can be listed as followed in the table, according to Cheng Xiaotang, School of Foreign Language and Literature, Beijing Normal University

- Form refers to language form in

general

- Primarily focus on meaning

- triggered by perceived problems in

- Primarily focus on form

- pre-selected in the syllabus

- Forms are taught in isolation

1.3.3 Advantages of Form-Focused Instruction over Forms-Focused

use In FonF, linguistic elements are taught in communicative task environment It refers to attending to lexical units within a communicative and authentic task environment when the lexical units are necessary for the completion of a communicative task It means that FonF allows meaning-focused interaction to become a means for learners to acquire linguistic forms without necessarily placing great emphasis on traditional grammar-based approaches

Moreover, FonF helps to “involve learners, simultaneously, in attending to form, meaning and use during one cognitive event” (Doughty, 2001, p.211) It is clear that establishing connections between form and meaning is an essential aspect of language acquisition While FonFs instruction primarily focuses on form, it is in FonF instruction that teachers can draw learners‟ attention to form, meaning and use during a communicative activity; and this is the distinction of FonF instruction from other pedagogical approaches

In addition, FonF is possible and effective in raising learners‟ awareness of lexical items and in facilitating immediate language use Language features noticed during communicative interaction may be more easily retrieved in communicative contexts, and FonF occurs from students‟ needs in communicative tasks; thus, it is easier for students to be aware of lexical features encountered in language use

Last, but importantly, FonF helps to speed up vocabulary learning The learners have ability to use the targeted lexical items and recall them correctly particularly when they incorporate the linguistic items into their production This instruction results in increased accuracy and accelerated progress through developmental sequences

1.3.4 Weaknesses of Form-Focused Instruction

Despite advantages of form- focused instruction, there are some limitations of it The first problem with focus on form instruction, according to Poole, 2003b, is class size FonF instruction seems to be suitable for classrooms that are small enough so that teachers can address their students‟ problematic forms as well as frequently evaluate students‟ performances Also, students can have significant amount of peer

interaction both orally and in written form Large classes may make individual attention and student-student interaction impossible

Another problem with FonF instruction relates to curriculum constrain Practically,

at Vietnamese secondary schools and high schools, teachers are obligated to teach certain forms in a specific order by using government-mandated materials Because

of mandated curriculum, teachers may meet some difficulty in applying FonF instruction; for example there is lack of time for each lesson, or the textbooks and materials do not put emphasis on oral and written communication

The last limitation of this instruction according to Long (1991) and Long and Robinson‟s (1998), is that, it requires teachers to have native-like or near native-like competence language It means teachers should possess a high level of L2 proficiency and would need to be able to spontaneously recognize students‟ form-based errors and provide them with the correct ones These are still big challenges for Vietnamese teachers in different settings

1.3.5 Tendency of using Form-Focused Instruction in language learning

Spada (1997a) concludes that form-based and meaning – based approaches need not

be in opposition to each other but can operate collaboratively This seems to be the most realistic current judgment which can be also seen in Littlewood‟s confirmation

of the tendency of combining focus on form instruction with meaning –based instruction in teaching language, as according to him, the goal of foreign language teaching is “to extend the range of communication situations in which the learner can perform with focus on meaning, without being hindered by the attention he must pay to linguistic form” (Littlewood, 1981: 89)

In sum, nowadays, many interactions occurring inside the classroom will be neither entirely form-focused nor meaning-focused but a combination of both With respect

to that tendency, Nassaji (2000: 244) believes that the most effective way is “to consider activities that result in attention to form while maintaining meaningful communication and using form for communication”

1.3.6 The summary

In brief, the pedagogical approach of form- focused instruction to second language teaching can be regarded as a modification of communicative language teaching However, it is still mostly investigated and applied in teaching grammar This study, thus, aims to investigate the application of FonF to teaching vocabulary with focus

on the setting of Ha Long Gifted high school

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 2.1 Setting of the study

The study is conducted at Ha Long Gifted high school which is situated in Ha Long city- the center of tourism in Quang Ninh province; thus, the need of communicating with foreigners is great However, almost all of the students have studied English at their secondary school in traditional approaches which focus on grammar, vocabulary and reading Therefore, their communicative competence is limited The teachers‟ difficulty lies on getting students to use English to communicate effectively

In addition, all curriculum, text books and exams are assigned by the Ministry of Education and Training; thus there is little room for communicative practice, flexibility and creativity

2.2 Participants

Students

The study is carried out with 80 students at Ha Long Gifted high school All of them come from different parts of Quang Ninh province and their ages range from

16 to 18 They are male and female students who are randomly chosen from grade

10 and 11 at school Most of these students have general knowledge of English grammar, vocabulary, phonology and have developed certain degree of four language skills; however, they do not feel confident in communicating in English

Teachers

There are six English teachers involving in the research All of them have been teaching English at HLG high school These all female teachers are from 27 to 50 years of age and they have at least 4 years of experience in teaching English Some

of them use traditional approach, while others tend to apply communicative language teaching

2.3 Data collection methods

2.3.1 Questionnaires

The instruments used to gather data in this survey are questionnaire and interview;

of which, questionnaire is the main one with two sets of questions: one for the English teachers and one for the students

The survey questionnaire for teachers contains 11 open-ended and closed- ended questions All the details of these questions are shown in the following table:

Questions for

teachers

Purposes

Q.1-Q.2 To discover the attitudes of the teachers towards teaching

vocabulary and purposes of teaching vocabulary Q.3-Q.9 To investigate the current situation of teaching vocabulary

following Focus on Form Q.10 To identify the difficulties the teachers face in teaching English

vocabulary Q.11 To elicits teachers‟ suggestions in improving teaching and

learning vocabulary Another questionnaire including 11 questions which were divided into four sections was also delivered to 80 students

Questions for

students

Purposes

Q.1-Q.2 To discover the attitudes of the students towards learning

vocabulary and purposes of their learning vocabulary Q.3-Q.7 To investigate the current situation of learning vocabulary

following Focus on Form at Ha Long Gifted school

Q.8 To identify the difficulties the students face in learning English

vocabulary Q.9-Q.11 To find out what students want their teachers to do when

teaching vocabulary

2.3.2 Interview

The interview involved 10 students and 6 teachers only All open-ended questions were included in the interview schedules The interviews were conducted face- to- face with six English teachers to ask for their opinion about their teaching methods and their ideas of applying Form-Focused Instruction in teaching vocabulary as well

as their suggestions to enhance vocabulary teaching To get more information about the students, the researcher designed some questions to ask them mainly about the difficulties that they met in learning English vocabulary and which methods of teaching vocabulary were used by teachers in their classroom and whether they liked it or not

2.4 Data collection procedure

In the initial steps, all preparation for the data collection was made After collecting, reading and analyzing materials, the author designed two sets of questionnaires Then, based on partners‟ feedback on wording, layout and contents, the questionnaires were revised so that any misunderstanding that affects the validity of the ultimate findings can be eliminated The first version of interview questions was treated in the same way Before being improved, this version had been consulted with the supervisor, whose comments made a great contribution to the final version

In the next step, the researcher had a direct interaction with the respondents and delivered questionnaires to them Before asking the participants to do the survey questionnaire, the researcher briefly explained the purpose, the format and the length of the questionnaire To ensure that the students had right understanding of the questions, the researcher carried on translating the questions into Vietnamese one after another After each question was translated, they were instructed to complete the questionnaire The researcher would be willing to answer any questions of the respondents After that, interviews with the participants were conducted in the classroom which was familiar with the interviewees to assure their comfortability

2.5 Data analysis method

Data analysis was not a single description of the data collected but a process by which the researcher interpreted the data The data were collated and analyzed to address the research questions Regarding questionnaire, answers to close-ended questions were categorized into appropriate groups before those to open- ended ones were listed and explained carefully Responses collected from the interview were analyzed Discussion and comparison between the data from the interview and that from questionnaires were also made and put into the same categories All the data were presented in table and bar charts for better illustration and explanations in

a reader- friendly way to easily compare different variables in the same category