hiệu quả của việc dạy từ vựng một cách rõ ràng, cụ thể đối với sự tiếp nhận từ vựng của sinh viên tiếng Anh chuyên ngành - một nghiên cứu giả thực nghiệm tại tr20150227.PDF

35 CHARTS Chart 3.1.2a: Distribution of vocabulary scores in control and experimental groups before explicit teaching treatment .... 32 Chart 3.1.2b: Distribution of vocabulary scores i

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CANDIDATE'S STATEMENT i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1.Rationale 1

2 Aim of the study 2

3 Research questions 2

4 Scope of the study 3

5 Method of the study 3

6 Organisation of the thesis 3

PART B - DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Vocabulary in second language learning and teaching 5

1.2 Definition of vocabulary 5

1.3 Vocabulary Teaching 6

1.3.1 Implicit vocabulary teaching 6

1.3.2 Explicit Vocabulary teaching 8

1.4 What about vocabulary needs to be taught 10

1.5 How vocabulary is to be taught 10

1.5.1 Presentation techniques 11

1.5.2 Practice and consolidation techniques 11

1.6 When vocabulary is to be taught 12

1.7 Types of vocabulary 12

1.7.1 Vocabulary classified in terms of morpheme 12

1.7.2 Vocabulary classified in terms of meaning 12

1.7.3 Vocabulary classified in terms of functions 13

1.7.4 Vocabulary classified in terms of frequency of use 13

1.7.5 Other classifications of vocabulary 13

1.8 ESP Vocabulary teaching 14

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 16

2.1 The current situation of the teaching and learning ESP at VTVC 16

2.1.1 English for Cookery Staff 16

2.1.2 The learners 17

2.1.3 The syllabus and materials 17

2.1.4 The teachers and their methods of ESP vocabulary teaching 18

2.2 Research methodology - Quasi-Experimental Design 19

2.2.1 Research questions 19

2.2.2 The participants 19

2.2.3 Research design 21

2.2.4 Data collection instrument 23

2.2.4.1 Pre-test 23

2.2.4.2 Post-test 23

2.2.5 Data collection procedure 24

2.2.5.1 Explicit vocabulary teaching methods for experimental group 27

2.2.5.2 Implicit vocabulary teaching method for control group 27

2.2.6 Data analysis 28

2 2.6.1 Descriptive data analysis 29

2 2.6.2 Experimental data analysis 30

CHAPTER3: RESULTS AND DATA ANALYSIS 31

3.1 Students' performance in vocabulary 31

3.1.1 Students' performance before the treatment 31

3.1.2 Distribution of the pre-test scores 32

3 1.3 Comparison of mean scores 33

3.2 Summary 35

CHAPTER 4: FINDING AND DISCUSSION 36

4.1 Introduction 36

4.2 Findings on students' achievement 36

PART C - CONCLUSION 38

1 Main conclusions of the study 38

2 Pedagogical implications 39

3 Limitation of the research and some suggestions for further studies 39

REFERENCES 41

Appendices I

Appendix 1: The syllabus for Cookery students at VTVC ……… I

Appendix 2: A description of the 6 explicit vocabulary teaching lessons given

to Experimental Group ……… III

Appendices 3: Vocabulary tasks used during the experimental process V

3A:Task 1 V 3B:Task 2 VIII 3C:Task 3 XI 3D: Task 4 XIV 3E:Task 5 XII 3F:Task 6 XX

Appendices 4: Vocabulary tasks used during the control process XXII

4A:Task 1 XXII 4B:Task 2 XXIII 4C:Task 3 XXV 4D: Task 4 XXVII 4E:Task 5 XIX 4F:Task 6 XXXI Appendix 5: Pre-test XXXIII Appendix 6: Post-test XXXVII Appendix 7: Score table of vocabulary test in the control and experimental

groups XLI

LIST OF TABLES, CHARTS AND DIAGRAM

TABLES

Table 2.2.3: Structure of experimental design 21 Table 2.2.4: A brief outline of the different stages of the research 26 Table 3.1.1: Mean comparison for pre-test 31 Table 3.1.3a : Vocabulary mean scores and t-test for the control group's pre-test

and post-test 34 Table 3.1.2b: Vocabulary mean scores and t-test for the experimental group's pre

test and post-test 35 Table 3.1.3: Vocabulary mean scores and a t-test for both groups' pre-test and post

test 35

CHARTS

Chart 3.1.2a: Distribution of vocabulary scores in control and experimental groups

before explicit teaching treatment 32 Chart 3.1.2b: Distribution of vocabulary scores in control and experimental groups

after explicit teaching treatment 33

DIAGRAM

Diagram 3.4: Design of control and experimental group ……… 22

ABBREVIATIONS

VTVC: VungTau Tourism Vocational College

ESP: English for special purpose

ELT: English Language Teaching

ESL: English as Second Language

L2: Second Language

PART A – INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

In Vung Tau Tourism Vocational College (VTVC) where the researcher has been a teacher

of English for eight years, English is taught as a compulsory subject together with other vocational ones During the final course, students mainly use the ESP course book “Ready

to Order” by Baude, A Iglesias, M and Inesta, A (2004) to learn integrated English language skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing However, Listening and Speaking are the primary skills which are designed on a large number of vocabulary for specific purposes (Food & Beverage) Most of vocabulary in this material are unfamiliar to the students During eight years of teaching, the researcher has observed the fact that many students cannot remember and retain ESP words though they try a lot in learning them The level of students at VTVC is quite low so it is difficult for them to get the word meanings

in context with their limited vocabulary knowledge That students cannot understand, retain and use necessary ESP words causes frustration and results in their negative attitude towards the ESP course This situation makes the researcher as well as her colleagues reconsider their method of teaching vocabulary For this reason the research was carried out with the aim to find a solution for the problem A Quasi-Experimental Research was conducted on ESP vocabulary teaching in which the Explicit and Implicit Vocabulary Teaching Approaches were implemented

Vocabulary is very important in language learning, as McCarthy states that “the biggest component of any language course is vocabulary” (1990, p.viii) The status of vocabulary

in language learning and teaching has changed dramatically in the last two decades “Since the mid-1980s there has been renewed interest in the role of vocabulary in second language learning” (Coady and Huckin, 1997, p.ix) Being aware of the important role of vocabulary, teachers have been seeking for effective vocabulary teaching approaches for their own contexts The main problem that a classroom teacher is faced with in teaching vocabulary is how best to help students understand, retain and use words in the target language So far, there have been many different approaches to vocabulary teaching and learning.Chacón-Beltrán reveals that “A great deal of recent research into second language

vocabulary teaching and learning has been devoted to the comparison of explicit and implicit approaches” (2010, p.4)

Explicit vocabulary teaching is particularly useful for students who access ESP for the first time, they are seen as beginning students who have a limited reading vocabulary and little exposure to incidental vocabulary learning outside of school Current research would suggest that it is worthwhile to add explicit vocabulary to the usual inferring activities in the second language classroom where the weak students are asked to deal with new words

in reading passages Explicit method seems better for students who cannot find the clues to determine the meanings of words in a strange context, as Beck, McKeown, & Kucan (2002) cited in Archer, A.L, Hughes, C.A (2011, p.54) : “Explicit vocabulary instruction is particularly critical for struggling readers, who do not read extensively and have more difficulty using contextual cues to determine word meaning”

2 Aim of the study

The research was intended to find out the effect of Explicit Vocabulary Teaching on ESP students’ vocabulary acquisition

2 Will there be any significant difference in the vocabulary knowledge before and after the treatment between the Explicit Vocabulary Teaching and Implicit Vocabulary Teaching?

4 Scope of the study

The study was carried out to aim at finding the effect of Explicit Vocabulary Teaching on ESP Students’ Vocabulary Acquisition at VTVC It was conducted on 42 students at two Cookery Classes at Restaurant Management Department A quasi-experimental design was implemented so the sample was not randomized All the subjects of the study were from two intact groups The research was carried out in one month and a half

5 Method of the study

A Quasi-Experimental Research design was conducted to gain the research’s aim Data were collected from a pre-test and a post-test Two intact classes were assigned as the control group and the experimental group The control group learned ESP vocabulary in the reading comprehension texts through the implicit vocabulary teaching as the requirements in the course book The experimental group also received the same amount of ESP vocabulary but through the explicit vocabulary teaching in which exercises and activities are used to focus students’ attention on vocabulary The two groups were taught English in two different classes, so the experimental group did not know they were receiving a special treatment

To provide students sufficient time to attain vocabulary progress, the research was conducted in one month and half which was also the allotted time the participants had for half of their ESP course at VTVC Students’ vocabulary knowledge in both experimental and control groups was tested before the treatment and immediately after the treatment

6 Organisation of the thesis

The thesis consists of three parts

PART A – INTRODUCTION

This part provides the rationale, aim, scope, and method of the study

PART B – DEVELOPMENT

This is the main part of the study which is comprised of 3 chapters

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the theoretical background of the study is provided It focuses on the second language vocabulary teaching of English for General Purposes (EGP) and English for Special Purposes (ESP)

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY

This part reports the collection and analysis of the data and findings of the study

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DATA ANALYSIS

This part presents the results of the study and analysis of the collected data from the tests PART C – CONCLUSION

This part summarises the findings, states the limitation of the research, draws pedagogical implications and offers suggestions for further research

PART B – DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Vocabulary in second language learning and teaching

As Harmer (1991, p.154) explains, vocabulary is the word that must be used in connection with the language structure and grammar knowledge if we want to express meanings However, vocabulary has not received the proper recognition for many years and was seen

as something additional that just helped when learning structures Now, acquisition and teaching of vocabulary is perceived as important as the acquisition and teaching of grammar The current literature on lexical pedagogy shows that vocabulary teaching and learning is central to the theory and practice of English language teaching Vocabulary is actually an important component of language The acquisition of vocabulary has assumed a more central role in learning a second language (Sökmen, 1997) Zimmerman (1997) also notes that words are of critical importance to the typical language learner The importance

of vocabulary acquisition to second language acquisition has been further emphasised by Carter (2001), who concludes that words have a central place in culture, and learning words is seen by many as the main task (and obstacle) in learning another language Failing to acquire survival level vocabulary, the learners are unable to understand the target language Laufer and Hulstijn (2001) also state that virtually all second language learners and their teachers are well aware of the fact that learning a second language involves the learning of large numbers of words

1.2 Definition of vocabulary

There have been different definitions of vocabulary The Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics defined vocabulary as “a set of lexemes, including single words, compound words and idioms” Pyles and Algeo (1970, p.96) say, “when most of us think about language, we think first about words It is true that the vocabulary is the focus of language It is in words that sounds and meanings inter-lock to allow us to communicate with one another, and it is words that we arrange together to make sentences, conversations and discourse of all kinds.”

It is, however, not easy to define exactly what a word is So far, many linguists have given out their different definitions of word In the view of the authors of The Longman

Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (2002), “word is the smallest of the linguistic units which can occur on its own in speech or writing” It is difficult to apply this criterion consistently For example, can a function word like “the” occur on its own? Is

a contraction like “can’t” (can not) one word or two? Also in terms of methodology, Penny

Ur (1996, p.60) defines vocabulary as “the words we teach in the foreign language However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: a compound of two

or three words or multi-word idioms” A similar definition from Richards and Platt is that vocabulary is “a set of lexemes, including words, compound words and idioms” (Richards and Platt, 1992, p.400) These statements indicate that vocabulary is “the total number of words in a language” (Hornby, 1995, p.1331)

1.3 Vocabulary teaching

1.3.1 Implicit vocabulary teaching

The importance of using the context for implicit vocabulary learning has been emphasized (Sőkmen, 1997) because words usually change their meaning from one context to another (e.g., The doctor ordered me to stay in bed / He called our names in alphabetical order) (Labov, 1973 cited Nagy, 1997) As Nagy (1997) points out, first-language learners pick

up most vocabulary from the context, and the acquisition of multi-meaning words is accounted for by this incidental learning He also points out that contextual inferences contribute to learners developing an understanding of word meaning at different levels of knowledge: linguistic knowledge (syntactic knowledge, word schemas, vocabulary knowledge), word knowledge and strategic knowledge The context enables a learner to know different syntactic meanings and functions, to create appropriate word schemas (Nagy & Scott, 1990 cited in Nagy, 1997), to understand the meaning of surrounding words, to infer the meaning of an unfamiliar word, and to encourage the use of strategy for making deliberate attempts to discover unknown vocabulary (Nagy, 1997) Also, context can expose learners to high frequency vocabulary (Hunt & Beglar, 1998)

Many linguists (Craik and Tulving, 1975; Nation and Coady, 1988) take the position that L2 learners have to learn vocabulary implicitly This can be done in the form of extensive reading, where readers’ aim is to understand the text without giving deliberate attention to language features including vocabulary in the text In this way, readers can only acquire

word meanings through incidental learning Nation (2001) mentions that experimental studies of extensive reading have used simplified texts written for non-native speakers to provide favourable conditions for language learning The studies show that extensive reading benefits quality of language use, language knowledge and general academic performance (p.150) There are also findings that learners incidentally gain vocabulary knowledge from each meaning focused reading of an appropriate text

Learners can develop skills in guessing meaning from the context by using gapped text - either traditional or modified cloze procedure - or by using words with English affixes (Taylor, 1990) However, there are also problems related to inferring the meaning of words from the context For example, Sőkmen (1997) points out that guessing words in context is likely to be a very slow process and is not an effective method for second language learners (Carter & McCarty, 1988) because they have a limited amount of time to learn vocabulary Secondly, inferring word meaning is not an error-proof process Students often fail to guess the correct meaning (Pressley et al, 1987, Kelly, 1990 cited in Sőkmen, 1997) and their comprehension may be low because of insufficient vocabulary knowledge (Haynes & Baker, 1993 cited in Sőkmen, 1997) Also, Giko (1978) cited in Nagy (1997) claims that context plays a relatively less important role, while explicit instruction has a relatively greater role in the vocabulary growth of second language learners This is because second language learners are less effective than native speakers

at using context, at least until they achieve a fairly high level of second language proficiency Again, the best way of teaching vocabulary is by using a variety of classroom methods Explicit teaching methods will, therefore, be described in the next section

1.3.2 Explicit vocabulary teaching

To deal with the problems of implicit vocabulary learning, current research suggests adding techniques of explicit instruction (e.g Hunt & Beglar, 1998; Sőkmen, 1997) There are various methods of teaching words explicitly to learners Duin and Graves (1987) mention that explicit vocabulary instruction can be given through providing word definitions, synonym pairs, word lists, word associations, the keyword method, semantic mapping and semantic feature analysis Harmer (1991) states that the introduction of new vocabulary can be carried out through the use of realia, pictures, mimicry, contrast,

enumeration, explanation and translation All these vocabulary teaching techniques involve direct teaching Explicit teaching is particularly emphasized because of its time-efficiency, its suitability for beginners or low proficiency students, its possibilities of improving word comprehension, and its adaptability Firstly, there is a significant emphasis on the explicit teaching of single words at an early stage of second language learning (Coady & Huckin, 1997) Coady and Huckin (1997) emphasizes that the 2,000 high-frequency words should

be learned as quickly as possible to the point of automaticizing, because after learning the basic high-frequency words, learners can more easily increase their vocabulary size through reading, especially in the case of low-frequency words or specific purpose words Secondly, because adults learn second language learners, unlike young children learning their native language, have already developed a conceptual and semantic system which is linked to their first language (Ellis, 1997), they can easily understand explicit word meanings And finally, it is possible to apply vocabulary using various techniques for increasing understanding of the word meaning and for memorization (Sőkmen, 1997) However, effective teaching of vocabulary entails not only the presentation of new words, but also the elaboration and development of the meanings of old and new vocabulary (Sőkmen, 1997) For example, to elaborate the meaning of newly learned lexis, the teacher should create opportunities for understanding recently learned words in new contexts, or organize exercises that provide new collocations, associations and so on (Hunt & Beglar, 1998)

According to the National Reading Panel (2000), explicit instruction of vocabulary is highly effective To develop vocabulary intentionally, students should be explicitly taught both specific words and word-learning strategies To deepen students' knowledge of word meanings, specific word instruction should be robust (Beck et al., 2002) Seeing vocabulary in rich contexts provided by authentic texts, rather than in isolated vocabulary drills, produces robust vocabulary learning (National Reading Panel, 2000) Such instruction often does not begin with a definition, for the ability to give a definition is often the result of knowing what the word means Rich and robust vocabulary instruction goes beyond definitional knowledge; it gets students actively engaged in using and thinking about word meanings and in creating relationships among words

Research shows that there are more words to be learned than can be directly taught in even the most ambitious program of vocabulary instruction Explicit instruction in word-

learning strategies gives students tools for independently determining the meanings of unfamiliar words that have not been explicitly introduced in class Since students encounter so many unfamiliar words in their reading, any help provided by such strategies can be useful

Word-learning strategies include dictionary use, morphemic analysis, and contextual analysis For English language learners whose language shares cognates with English, cognate awareness is also an important strategy Dictionary use teaches students about multiple word meanings, as well as the importance of choosing the appropriate definition

to fit the particular context Morphemic analysis is the process of deriving a word’s meaning by analyzing its meaningful parts, or morphemes Such word parts include root words, prefixes, and suffixes Contextual analysis involves inferring the meaning of an unfamiliar word by scrutinizing the text surrounding it Instruction in contextual analysis generally involves teaching students to employ both generic and specific types of context clues

A more general way to help students develop vocabulary is by fostering word consciousness, an awareness of and interest in words Word consciousness is not an isolated component of vocabulary instruction; it needs to be taken into account each and every day (Scott and Nagy, 2004) It can be developed at all times and in several ways: through encouraging to adept diction, through word play, and through research on word origins or histories According to Graves (2000), “If we can get students interested in playing with words and language, then we are at least halfway to the goal of creating the sort of word-conscious students who will make words a lifetime interest.”

1.4 What about vocabulary needs to be taught

In teaching vocabulary, it is necessary for teachers to know what need to be taught about lexical items Ur (1996) states that when teaching vocabulary, teachers should teach the form, grammar, collocation, aspects of meaning (denotation, connotation, appropriateness, and meaning relationship) and word formation As regards to this issue, Nu (2004) claims that knowing a word means knowing its meaning, word form (spelling, pronunciation, grammar), and its use in appropriate contexts

1.5 How to teach vocabulary

While there may be no well-established or “best” way to teach vocabulary, it is possible to derive some useful guidelines from the literature aimed at optimising vocabulary learning

In the research, increasing students’ vocabulary acquisition through explicit approaches implemented in teaching vocabulary was focused on

Sökmen (1997) provides useful principles for an explicit focus on vocabulary teaching:

• build a large-size vocabulary

• integrate new words with old

• provide a number of encounters with a word

• promote a deep level of processing

• facilitate imaging

• make new words “real” by connecting them to the student’s world in some way

• use a variety of techniques

• encourage independent learning strategies

In this research, the stages in teaching vocabulary are mentioned in terms of presentation, practice and consolidation

1.5.1 Presentation techniques

At this stage, the new words are presented, an event which involves the presentation of pronunciation and spelling The aim of presentation stage is to establish the basic meaning and the correct form of the word in the learner’s memory There are many ways how to present the meaning of new items “Most of these are means which tend to be associated with a more teacher-centred approach and consequently the items taught through these means are usually selected by the teacher rather than the learner” (Gairns and Redman,

1986, p.73) It is important to decide which form is suitable for the particular situation It is often possible to use visual techniques such as objects and pictures Actions are better to be presented by gestures or by mime There are also verbal techniques involving the use of synonyms, antonyms, and scales With intermediate learner’s, concise definitions, explanation, examples of the type, and context can be used,

It is also possible to use translation, however, as Harmer (1991, p.162) suggests it is not always the best way since it is sometimes difficult to find the appropriate translation of the word and the process of translating does not encourage the manipulation with words that is very important for the consolidation stage At intermediate levels, we can use discovery techniques They employ the learner’s previous knowledge and activate the work with words Discovery techniques together with using dictionaries and asking others activities belong to more emphasised strategies that allow the learner more autonomy than the above-mentioned techniques

1.5.2 Practice and consolidation techniques

After having provided with the new words, students are allowed to practice the new word

in a controlled setting with the aim to store the new word in the long-term memory and to turn passive vocabulary into active vocabulary The practice should be carefully organized

so that the load of new lexis would not discourage the learner In addition, it is important to emphasize “that experiments on vocabulary seem to suggest that students remember best when they have actually done something with the words they are learning” (Harmer 1991, p.160) Consequently, there are many techniques that involve more than just repeating vocabulary and that help to fix the new word in the learner’s memory Some popular techniques can be named: filling in gaps in sentences, matching words to other words, replacing words with their synonyms or antonyms, memory games, paraphrasing, using words in sentences or dialogues, role plays, discussions, picture stories, using prefixes and suffixes to build new words from given words, etc

1.6 When vocabulary is to be taught

In language learning, it is very important for learners to know some vocabulary to perform language skills such as speaking, listening, reading and writing Therefore, vocabulary should be taught before skills teaching happens However, new words can be taught at any time during a lesson (Nu, 2004) It is quite necessary for teachers to pre-teach vocabulary

in a reading or listening task

1.7 Types of vocabulary

There have been different ways of classifying types of vocabulary according to different criteria As Nu, D (2004) states “vocabulary can be classified differently according to different criteria such as morpheme, meaning, function, frequency of use, etc” Below are the most common ways of classifying vocabulary

1.7.1 Vocabulary classified in terms of morpheme

According to this criterion, words can be divided into three kinds: simple words, derived

words and compound words Simple words are ones that consist of a root morpheme like

cat, egg… Derived words are those that consist of a root and one or more derivational morphemes such as teacher, boring And compound words consist of at least two roots with or without derivational morphemes as frying pan, boiled eggs…

1.7.2 Vocabulary classified in terms of meaning

Two kinds of meaning can be identified in terms of this criterion, they are lexical meaning and grammatical meaning Therefore, vocabulary can be divided into notional and functional words Notional words are words which have clear lexical meaning They address actions, qualities, objects, etc They form a great number of each speaker’s vocabulary Functional words are words which have grammatical meaning and they only have meaning in relation with other words with which they are combined They are particles, prepositions, articles, auxiliaries, conjunctions, etc

1.7.3 Vocabulary classified in terms of functions

With different functions of words in a sentence, vocabulary can be divided into different terms as parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and pronouns Each part has to comply with grammatical rules and relates to one another The teacher is, therefore, required to point out the function of each item to the students and should provide them the family words as well In this way, students can put the words in the correct order and easy for them to restore and retain the words they have learnt so that they can widen their vocabulary size

1.7.4 Vocabulary classified in terms of frequency of use

Nation and Waring (2004) suggest 2 types of vocabulary: high frequency words and low frequency ones They state that although a language makes use of a large number of words, not all of these words are equally useful Nation and Waring (2004:11) indicate the number

of about 3,000 frequency words that learners need to know From this Nation (2001) argues that teachers should develop strategies to help learners to comprehend and know how to use low frequency words

1.7.5 Other classifications of vocabulary

According to Nu, D (2004), vocabulary can be classified basing on teaching conditions, context of situations, communicative purposes, content or aims of the lessons In language teaching, words can be divided into active (positive) words or passive (negative) words in which active words tend to be paid more attention

1.8 ESP vocabulary teaching

In the previous part, we described the situation in General English vocabulary teaching However, as it has been mentioned in the Introduction, the students in this study are vocational ones at the VTVC who should be trained in the ESP Vocabulary, namely English for Cookery that is covered by English for Occupational Purposes According to

Kennedy and Bolitho (1984, p.65), ESP vocabulary teaching has been also neglected as ELT vocabulary teaching “Perhaps this is because of the difficulties involved in teaching vocabulary rather than merely testing it” (Kennedy and Bolitho 1984, p.65) Before the special aspects of teaching ESP vocabulary is discussed, we will first define what the ESP vocabulary is

In addition to “general” English vocabulary which include grammatical words, basic lexical words, auxiliaries, “special lexical items appear in most professions, and every field has special vocabulary to cover abstract concepts” (Hatch and Brown, 1995, p.312) Kennedy and Bolitho (1984, p.56-58) provide the following specialist word categories for

teaching purposes:

- Technical Abbreviations – e.g kph, km, m3 they usually do not cause a problem, however, learners should listen to them and practise them in note-taking exercises

- Symbols and Formulae – they are the subject matter of the learner’s specialty, and teacher may explain their function in the text, or if abbreviations are concerned, to demonstrate their transfer from the written form into the spoken version and vice versa

- Sub-technical vocabulary – “words that have one or more “general” English meanings and which in technical contexts take on extended meanings (technical, or specialized in some fashion)” (Trimble, 1985, p.129) or as the Kennedy and Bolitho’s definition states

“words which are not specific to a subject specialty but which occur regularly in scientific and technical texts – e.g reflection, intense, accumulate, tendency, isolate and dense” (1984, p.57-58) According to Inman (1978), sub-technical vocabulary seems to be involved in almost 80 per cent of scientific texts that is a quite high occurrence (qut in Kennedy and Bolitho, 1984, p.58) Furthermore, as Trimble (1985, p.129) emphasizes, the sub-technical lexis have their meanings in “general” English and take on specialized meanings within a technical context, which often represent a problem for both the learner and the teacher Consequently, it is the sub-technical lexis that teacher should give high priority when teaching ESP vocabulary

- Highly technical vocabulary – these terms are very specific and so may be less comprehensible Every subject has its set of highly technical vocabulary and the gap between the generally known terms and those known just by real specialists is quite wide

in some fields Kennedy and Bolitho suggest that these terms “should arise, in context, in the specialist classes and are not normally the teacher’s responsibility” (1984, p.57)

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY

2.1 The current situation of the teaching and learning ESP at VTVC

Vungtau Tourism Vocational College (VTVC) was set up in 2008, based on Vungtau Vocational Secondary Tourism School founded in 1975 At the college, English is a compulsory subject in the curriculum of teaching and learning of all departments, but it is not considered the main subject It only serves as a means that help students to read their specialized materials in English There are several ESP courses such as English for Hotel Management, English for Restaurant Management, English for Housekeeping, English for Reception, English for Tour-Guide, and English for Cookery

This is a college which has been trained and provided quite a large amount of workforce to the local Tourism Industry With the intention of working in the Hospitality industry, students need to be informed that they will come across many types of travellers, some will

be business guests, others will be tourists and visitors Many of them will speak a different language other than their own and English, especially English in Tourism, will be the bridge for people in different countries to understand each other Aware of the fact that ESP is important for students who intend to work in the Hospitality industry, the ESP courses for students at different Departments at the college were conducted One of the

main objectives of the ESP courses is helping students obtain as many ESP vocabulary as possible because “Without grammar very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” (Wilkins 1972, p.111, cited in David Michael Singleton (1999, p.9)

2.1.1 English for Cookery Staff

This study investigated the students who were being trained to work in Hotel and Restaurant in the future where they need to use English to deal with foreign guests The learning program was designed by the teachers of English in the Restaurant Management Department three years ago The organizers of the course aimed at providing students a certain number of vocabulary on Food and Beverage so that they can read as well as create recipes and explain the dishes if necessary In the course, vocabulary items are accessed through reading and listening sections

Since vocabulary learning is believed to have “a synergistic association with reading” (Coady, J and Huckin,T 1997, p.2), the activities in this study were created based on the reading comprehension texts

2.1.2 The learners

The students at VTVC are aged from 18 to 21 and come from all parts of the country Most

of the students have learnt English at high school, but many of them have learnt English quite little and some others have never learnt a foreign language This mixed ability has caused certain problems in teaching and learning English at the college Moreover, the students are quite passive in learning Their learning style is characterized as rote learning

of vocabulary and rules They tend to prefer written work which may be resulted from their learning habits at school They also have a tendency of depending on the textbooks and the teachers for knowledge and do not have the habit of self-study

2.1.3 The syllabus and materials

The overall curriculum of the College for vocational students lasts for 2 years in which the time allocation for English constitutes a part of 500 class periods The English course is divided into stages The first stage is for General English which accounts for 375 class

periods Students are taught General English during the first, second and third terms in the academic year to achieve basic knowledge of English The textbook chosen is New Cutting Edge – Elementary by Cunningham,S, and Moor, P (2005) At this stage, the major aims are to develop students’ basic communicative skills The General English stage also serves

as the stepping stone for students to proceed to the ESP course At the end of each term, students have to take a written exam which mainly focus on grammar and vocabulary The second stage is only 125 class periods for ESP Each class meets two 5-period times a week for the English subject So the students have to spend three months finishing their ESP including revision parts and tests As mentioned in Part A, this study is limited to the ESP for Cookery Students The English teaching materials used for them is the book

“Ready to Order” by Baude A., Iglesias, M., Inesta, A (2002) The ESP course aims at providing students with a great deal of food and beverage items and developing students’ communicative skills The texts and the exercises were designed in the form of content-based syllabus rather than a task - based one The content of each unit is separated into different skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing and Vocabulary However, the fact that the Vocabulary sections are put after Listening and Reading ones causes the students’ inability to understand the listening tasks or reading passages which contain quite a lot of new words The exercises in each unit often focus on vocabulary

2.1.4 The teachers and their methods of ESP Vocabulary Teaching

At present, the Management Department consists of ten subject teachers and seven language teachers All of the language teachers (English language teachers) graduated from universities of foreign languages and two of them have Master degree in Vietnam None of them has been trained in the English speaking countries The teachers are not too young (aged from 30 to 39) and have quite much experience in ESP teaching The number of teachers is restricted while there are five departments at the college (Hotel Management Department, Restaurant Management Department, Tourism Department, Foreign Languages Department and Basic Knowledge Department) all of which have English as a compulsory subject Hence, all of the teachers have the responsibility to teach both GE and ESP Therefore, they encounter many difficulties in their teaching process such as the lack

of the speciality knowledge, the choice of methodologies and supplementary teaching materials

With the course book design as described above, the teachers at VTVC tend to apply the Implicit Teaching method in dealing with Listening and Reading sections In ESP lessons, the main activities are asking and answering questions in context There are no clear language activities for vocabulary learning

2.2 Research methodology – Quasi-Experimental Design

The research question was answered by answering these two sub-research questions:

1 Will there be any significant difference in the vocabulary knowledge between the students who are taught vocabulary explicitly and those taught vocabulary implicitly?

2 Will there be any significant difference in the vocabulary knowledge before and after the treatment between the Explicit Vocabulary Teaching and Implicit Vocabulary Teaching?

2.2.2 The participants

Participants were in two intact classes at VTVC Participants who were second-year students majoring in Cookery took ten-period ESP English course per week for one semester so as to enhance their listening and speaking abilities of English in Hospitality Two intact classes were assigned as the experimental and the control groups Each class consisted of 21 students aged from 18 to 21 All the participants have learned English for

at least three years After having been successful in the entrance exam they are assigned into different classes randomly The participants had finished the English program for first-year students in VTVC aiming at training them using fluently four language skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing before they start their ESP semester at the second-year At the time the research was conducted, all the participants were at the pre-intermediate level of English, however, their self-study ability is quite limited The reason why they spend most of the time on their vocational subjects but not English is that they think English just takes the second importance in their course Both classes were taught by the same instructor using the same teaching material with the same teaching schedule

In order to check that both experimental and control groups’ English proficiency for Hospitality-related areas was at the same level prior to different instructional treatments, the pretest consisting of 40 questions was administered and an independent samples t-test was used to compare participants’ scores of vocabulary section

Material

All the participants used the same course book entitled Ready to Order by Anne Baude, Montserrat Iglesias and Anna Inesta (2004) They were instructed by the researcher’s colleague at the Restaurant Management Department The course book focuses on different topics related to English in Hotel and Restaurant, including topics for Describing a restaurant, Dealing with enquiries, Taking reservations, Receiving guests, Describing drinks, Planning menus, Recommending dishes, and other Hotel and Restaurant correspondence However, there are some simple units for the second-year students who have finished the GE course included in the material, teachers in the Restaurant Management Department have a right to work in the control of the English leader to omit unsuitable units and design a suitable syllabus to meet the students’ level Students in this research are Cookery ones who are training to become chefs are taught with the syllabus that the teachers for Cookery designed The activities in the study were designed basing on the reading parts in the Function part from six first units in the material (See Appendix 1)

Two English teachers (the researcher and her colleague) having equal qualification, equal teaching experiences, and considerably equal teaching potential, were selected to teach the

control and experimental groups Before the experiment, both teachers sat together talking about the present problem that all teachers for Cookery in the Department met, sharing opinions in improving vocabulary teaching method At the end, they reached a decision to apply new method that is explicit method to teaching ESP vocabulary The researcher instructed the experimental group while her colleague instructed the control one

2.2.3 Research design

In this paper, the quantitative approach was followed strictly in order to gather the data for the questions raised in Part A Among various quantitative designs, quasi-experimental research was chosen and carefully constructed in this paper so that the variables under investigation could be controlled and manipulated This type of research, by nature, is concerned with studying the effects of specified and controlled treatments given to subjects usually formed into groups, in which the treatments refers to anything done to groups in order to measure its effect, and the measurement refers to how the effects of the treatment will be evaluated by means of a language test (Seliger, 1989, p.135)

There are two groups in the quasi-experimental design: an experimental group and a control group (Vaus, 2007, p.32) The data are collected at two points in time (before and after) Before Time 2 (after), the experimental group is exposed to an experimental intervention while the control group is left alone At both Time 1 and Time 2, the experimental and control groups are measured in relation to the key dependent variable that is of interest in the study In Table 2.2.3, the measure of the dependent variable is indicated by E1 and E2, and C1 and C2 (ibid.,p.33)

Since the experimental group has been exposed to the experimental intervention, it might

be due to the influence of the intervention To test for an intervention effect, the difference

is measured between E1 and E2 and the change is calculated between Time 1 and Time 2 (Echange) for the experimental group

Method of

allocation to groups

Time 1 (T1) Before

Intervention (X)

Time 2 (T2) After

Experimental group E1 Intervention E2 Echange = E2 – E1

Control group C1 No intervention C2 Cchange = C2 – C1 Table 2.2.3: Structure of experimental design (Vaus, 2007, p.32)

However, the observed change for the experimental group between Time 1 and Time 2 might be due to factors other than the experimental intervention (ibid., p 34) A change could occur due to the passing of time, be a result of being measured at Time 1, or be caused by a whole set of other possibilities For this reason, a control group is needed Ideally, this group should be identical to the experimental group at Time 1 However, unlike the experimental group, it is not exposed to any experimental intervention It can be measured on the dependent variable at both Time 1and Time 2 and obtain a measure of change over the time (Cchange) Because this group is not exposed to the experimental intervention, any change in this group is not due to this factor

The crucial thing to look at is whether the experimental group changed more than the control group If the experimental group changed significantly more, it could be concluded that this is because of the experimental intervention (ibid., p 34) This conclusion is, of course, warranted only if both groups are the same to start with and had identical experiences between Time 1 and Time 2

Specifically, this research was designed to test whether an intervention (the application of Explicit Vocabulary Teaching) which helped ESP students at VTVC improve their vocabulary acquisition would be effective The design followed the format of a Quasi-experimental design including two groups – an experimental group (Class 2) which received the special treatment and a control group (Class 1) which did not It revealed four basic characteristics: (1) a control group was present; (2) the subjects were chosen purposefully from intact groups;(3) re-test was administered to capture the initial differences between the groups; and (4) a post-test was given at the end of the treatment period to check for improvement from the experimental group It can be described in Diagram 2.2.3 below:

Diagram 3.4: Design of control and experimental group

In the diagram 3.4, T1 is used to symbolize the pre-test, T2 for the post-test, and X for the treatment

2.2.4 Data collection instrument

Two vocabulary tests were used to measure the effects of explicit vocabulary teaching Both were designed based on the form of VTVC Vocabulary Test which has been widely used in vocabulary assessment at VTVC The self-designed vocabulary knowledge test covered all 40 target words in the course book Zero point twenty-five was given for each correct item in a total of 10 points The researcher constructed these both tests, the pretest and the posttest , after a through review of the tests at VTVC Consent of the class teacher

at the researcher’s department was weighed in the designing of tests

Both the pretest and posttest were almost parallel with the same difficulty level The vocabulary knowledge test was administered on 42 students of the study

2.2.4.1 Pre-test

To find out whether all the participants were at the similar level of vocabulary knowledge before the study in order to obtain the reliability for the research, a pre-test was conducted The test were given to the students in class prior to the start of the research The result of the pretest was also be analysed to compare to that of the posttest in order to find out whether there will be any significant difference in the vocabulary use before and after the treatment between the explicit and implicit methods Students were asked to finished a 40-item vocabulary test in thirty minutes (Appendix 5) The test consisted of 4 parts: Multiple choice, Matching exercise, Odd one out and Cloze-test The items in the tests were based

on the GE course book that students had just studied with

2.2.4.2 Post-test

After 6 week of the treatment, in order to compare the two groups’ knowledge of the previously learned vocabulary after placing the application of the implicit and explicit

vocabulary teaching methods on the two groups, a post vocabulary test (Appendix 6) consisting of 40 questions testing the previously learnt vocabulary items was administered

to the 42 participants to collect quantitative data The test lasting thirty minutes was administered to both groups It is worth noting that both groups were not told they would

be given a test after the treatment lest they should use any memorization techniques to remember the learnt words, which could interfere with the effect of the processing of word acquisition during the lessons As the pre-test, the post-test also consisted of 40 questions covering the vocabulary items presented to students during the experiment to both groups, and were intended to measure the learning outcomes

After the tests, all the test papers were collected and marked by another teacher, not researcher in order to avoid the researcher’ bias And this teacher was also an ESP teacher

in the same Department to the researcher The scores for the test obtained by the two

groups were further statistically analysed by an unpaired t-test, which compared the test scores of two groups of participants to find whether there were statistically significant differences between the two groups’ test scores The format of the post test is similar to that of pre-test Content of the test was valid because it was approved by the leader of the researcher All the test items were based on the text of the units taught during the experimental

2.2.5 Data collection procedure

Two intact classes were assigned to the experimental group which received the Explicit Vocabulary Teaching and the control group receiving the Implicit Vocabulary Teaching The control group was instructed by the researcher’s colleague who has the same considerable concern about how to teach ESP vocabulary effectively, and the experimental group was instructed by the researcher Before the treatment, all the participants received a vocabulary pre-test to evaluate their vocabulary knowledge before the training During the treatment, the experimental group received the Explicit Vocabulary Teaching, while the control group was instructed under the Implicit Vocabulary Teaching

In each unit, as usual, students in the control group would be provided with vocabulary

items through the usual method at VTVC, Implicit Vocabulary Teaching The teacher instructed them to finish the vocabulary tasks in the contexts

For the students in experimental group, the same vocabulary items were taught, however through an explicit approach In each unit certain instruction guidelines suggested by Sokmen (1997) were exploited The experimental group received explicit instruction on learning new words through some activities namely: Mind-mapping, English definitions, Word lists, Guessing the meaning, Matching exercise, and Finding Vietnamese equivalents (Appendix 2)

The ESP course for Cookery students lasts three months, teachers and students have to deal with a twelve-unit course book However, due to time constraint and other issues, the research was just conducted in half a course, in one month and a half, so the experimental students had this “treatment” during six units in this time Each unit consisting 4 skills, Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking, was taught within 10 periods of 45 minutes However, the research only focused on comparing the effect of two vocabulary teaching methods (implicit and explicit) which were done through the reading passages in the textbook, so the different stages of the research were outlined and presented in Table 1

1

Pre-test - 42 participants received a vocabulary pre-test to evaluate

their vocabulary knowledge before the training

Activity: Individualized Picture matching

- The control group were asked to read the passage and then write the summary of the passage

- The control group were asked to read the passage and then write the summary of the passage

Activity: Guessing the meaning

- The control group were asked to read the passage and then write the summary of the passage

Activity: Matching exercise

- The control group were asked to read the passage and then write the summary of the passage

Activity: Guessing the names

- The control group were asked to read the passage and then write the summary of the passage

The post-test - The participants received a vocabulary post-test to evaluate

their vocabulary knowledge after the training

Table 2.2.4: A brief outline of the different stages of the research

During the study, the control group was taught through an implicit teaching method which required them to infer meaning of the target lexical items through reading passages Meanwhile, the experimental group was taught through explicit teaching method where the

researcher used three different explicit vocabulary teaching techniques (including mapping, Word lists, English definitions)

Mind-On the last day of the research, both of the groups (experimental and control group) which were taught vocabulary in different vocabulary approaches from different instructors for 6 weeks, were asked to take an immediate vocabulary knowledge recall posttest consisting of the 40 English words previously studied which then would be rated by a language teacher

to measure their learning outcomes The result of the test was also saved for data analysis

of the research Two tests (pre-test and post-test) consisting of Multiple-choice, Matching, Odd one out and Cloze Tests were given on the students’ course book

2.2.5.1 Explicit vocabulary teaching methods for experimental group

In order to expose the students to a wider variety of explicit vocabulary techniques, five different explicit vocabulary presentation techniques (Vietnamese equivalents, Mind-mapping, Word lists) and other activities were used to teach experimental group The medium of instruction was English.(Appendix 2)

2.2.5.2 Implicit vocabulary teaching method for control group

In each of the six implicit vocabulary teaching lessons, the control group was instructed to read a set of six passages in the same material The material used in ESP course was new

to the students, all the topics had not been discussed in class before but students may have obtained some background knowledge of those topics (workplaces, restaurants, recipes, menus, desserts) from books, newspapers, TV, or at their work Some vocational students were having a part-time job while they were taking the course at college Nation and Coady (1988) point out that background knowledge of the subject matter of a given text, i.e thegeneral context, can help good readers to process the text and create an expectation about the kind vocabulary that will occur Altogether the control group readsix passages in the six lessons While reading, the group focusedon understanding the messages and major ideas and do a vocabulary exercise to acquire new words The vocabulary exercises consisted of three types: Gap-fillings, Matching exercise and Classification The reading time was 30 minutes, and then fifteen minutes was allotted to writing a summary, which

aimed to make students really read thepassages during the lesson time The feedback was given about the summaries they wrote While students do vocabulary exercise, the teacher did not provide any explanation on the vocabulary items or on the topics The students were allowed to read the passages on their own only and discussions among them were not allowed.

Each of the passages was quite short Except the target words, which were low frequency academic words, all the words in the text were confirmed by English teachers at the researcher’s Department who had taught ESP course for at least three years as either high frequency words or within the subjects’ vocabulary size The content of the course book

“caters for students from elementary to pre-intermediate level” (Ready to Order course book, p.3) All teachers agreed that approximately 95% of the words in the articles were familiar to the students so that the students in the control group could guess the meaning of the unfamiliar words by inferring the word meaning from the context while they were reading Laufer (1988) suggests that, in order for readers to understand a text successfully, there should be 95% of familiar words to the readers That is to say, there can only be one unknown word in about every 20 words read

In order to understand the content of the reading passages, students had to work out the meaning of the target words during the reading time although they were not told to do so explicitly In this way, they could acquire the target words in an incidental learning situation where they infer word meanings from the context (Appendix 3)

2.2.6 Data analysis

With the use of the vocabulary knowledge test scores from all the participants, the means were first computed for the two groups and for the pre- and the post-test The preliminary descriptive statistics for cell means were examined to see if they differed from one another and from overall means Furthermore, in order to find out if the differences among the cell means were large enough to be statistically significant, a t-test was first performed

After the quantitative data were collected from the two tests, they were processed by experimental data analysis

2.2.6.1 Descriptive data analysis

In this part descriptive data will be analyzed, using mean and standard deviation

Mean (x̄)

The mean is the sum of all scores of all subjects in a group divided by the number of subjects (Seliger, 1989, p.211) It provides information on the average performance of a group on given tasks, and helps the researcher obtain insight by considering large amount

of data In this study, the mean was the average score computed from the results of one students in each of the groups after they had taken the pre-test and post-test

twenty-Standard deviation (S.D.)

It is very possible that two groups will have the same mean, but the spread of scores will

be different: while in one group all subjects obtain similar scores, in the other, there was a wider spread of scores and the group has greater variability (Seliger, 1989, p.215).There are a number of variability measures The most common one is the standard deviation, which is the square root of the averaged square distance of the scores from the mean In this paper, the standard deviation is utilized in both control and experimental group in order to supply the information on the spread of score distribution among different subjects

in both groups on the pre-tests and post-tests

2.2.6.2 Experimental data analysis

In this study, not only the descriptive data but the experimental data are also included The next parts are laid out to provide information about the two techniques applied for

analyzing the data derived from pre-test and post-test

The t-test is used to compare the means of two groups, which helps determine how confident the researcher can be that the differences found between two groups (experimental and control) as a result of a treatment are not due to chance (Seliger, 1989,

p.231) The result of applying t-test provides the researcher with a t-value This t-value is included in a special table of t-values, which indicates whether given the size of the sample

in the research, the value is statistically significant In this study, the researcher uses the test procedure to examine the differences in test scores between the two groups where one (Class 1) is exposed to a certain treatment (explicit teaching method) and the other (Class 2) is not The results of the analysis provide her with information regarding the effect of using explicit approach on ESP students’ vocabulary acquisition

t-In summary, this chapter provides the information about the methodology performed in this study From the research site, participants, research approaches, research design to materials, they are all described in details Also, the methods of data collection are explained and justified together with the analytical framework

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DATA ANALYSIS

The present study aimed at comparing the effects of two different vocabulary teaching methods on ESP students studying in VTVC In this chapter, the data which were based on the pre- and post-test scores will be analysed Raw scores obtained from pretests and postests were presented in tabular form for the purpose of interpretation For the manipulation of data, the means, standard deviations, and differences of means were computed for each group Significance of difference between the mean scores of both groups on the variable of pretest scores and posttest scores was tested at 0.05 level by applying t-test

Specifically, the data presentation is laid out in two main parts equivalent to the two research sub-questions – the students’ vocabulary knowledge between two groups as well

as the students’ vocabulary use in two groups before and after the treatment

3.1 Students’ performance in vocabulary

This section provides information related to the student’s performance on vocabulary and

is organized along the distribution of grades, and the comparison of mean scores

The students’ vocabulary scores in the pre-test and post-test of the control and experimental groups are presented separately Then, a t-test is employed to find out whether the difference in the mean scores of the two groups is statistically significant

3.1.1 Students’ performance before the treatment

Deviation

Table 3.1.1: Mean comparison for pre-test

Table 3.1.1 shows that in pre-test, Control Group and Experimental Group are quite similar

in the mean (Control Group is 6.62, Experimental Group is 6.67), this means both groups have nearly the same proficiency

3.1.2 Distribution of the pre-test scores

Chart 3.1.2a below shows the distribution of grades for the control and the experimental groups before the treatment of Explicit teaching method The distribution in both groups has the same bands ranging from 5 to 9 Specifically, marks 9,6, and 5 are reserved for 4.67%, 28.57%, and 19.05% respectively in both groups In marks 8 and 7, there are slight differences with 19.05% and 28.57% for the control group compared to 23.81% and 23.81% for the experimental groups, correspondingly

Chart 3.1.2a: Distribution of vocabulary scores in control and experimental groups before

Explicit teaching treatment

In Chart 3.1.2a, the distribution of grades for the control and experimental groups after the treatment of Explicit vocabulary teaching is presented The distribution in both groups has completely different bands with the range of 5 to 9 compared to that of 6 to 10 It is clear that the students’ scores of each band in the experimental group are all higher than those of each band in the control group except the bands of 6 to 7 with 19.05% and 28.57% compared to 28.57% and 33.33% respectively

From charts 3.1.2b, it appears that the distribution of separate scores in each group before and after the treatment of Explicit method is somehow distinctive Therefore, it is necessary to calculate the mean scores of both groups to see if there is any difference which is then compared by a t-test so as to prove whether the difference is statistically significant

Chart3.1.2b: Distribution of vocabulary scores in control and experimental groups after

Explicit teaching treatment

3.1.3 Comparison of mean scores

The calculation of the means in the pre-test and post-test together with a t-test is presented

in the table below

As shown in Table 3.1.3a, on average, participants in the control group achieved higher

scores in the post-test (x̄ = 6.71, S.D = 1.102) than in the pre-test (x̄ = 6.62, S.D = 1.161)

However, the variance was not significantly different (t(20) = -.271, p> 05) Inferentially,

learning with Implicit method was not effective in improving the students’ vocabulary acquisition

The results of means and a t-test for the experimental group in the pre-test and post-test are summarized in the table below

As shown in Table 3.1.3b, on average, the participants in the experimental group achieved

higher scores after the treatment (x̄ = 7.62, S.D =1.161) than before the treatment (x̄ =

6.67, S.D =1.197) The variance was significantly different (t(20) = -2.790, p< 05) This

result strongly supported the fact that the participants instructed through Explicit approach developed their vocabulary use after the treatment

From the data analysis above, it was proved that the students in the experimental group achieved more favorable results on vocabulary knowledge as well as vocabulary use than those in the control group did

Unexpectedly, the mean score on vocabulary post-test for the experimental group was 7.62 also higher than that of 6.71 for the control group To know whether this difference was statistically significant, an independent sample t-test was run and its result was presented in Table 3.1.3

Table 3.1.3: Vocabulary mean scores and a t-test for both groups’ pre-test and post-test

As shown in Table 3.1.3, on average, the participants in the experimental group obtained a higher mean score (x̄ = 7.62, S.D =1.161) than those in the control group (x̄ =6.71, S.D =

1.102) in the post-test The variance was significantly different (t(20) = -2.790, p< 05)

With this result, it could be concluded that Explicit vocabulary teaching better assisted the students in vocabulary acquisition than Implicit one did

3.2 Summary

This chapter presented all the data collected from tests From the data analysis and interpretation, favorable outcomes were achieved in aspect of performance in test towards effect of Explicit vocabulary teaching on ESP students

The data presentation in this chapter will be further discussed in the next chapter The discussion of the finding will be organized in line with the main research question and its two sub-questions

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

4.1 Introduction

In this chapter, data presented in the previous chapter are discussed and findings considered in relation to the aim of this research The discussion of findings is laid out in two main parts including findings on the students’ achievement in vocabulary knowledge

as well as vocabulary use towards learning with Explicit method

4.2 Findings on students’ achievement

This research was completed with considerable results achieved by the students of the experimental group over those of the control group in vocabulary knowledge and use Before the experimental started, the students in both groups were given a pre-test on vocabulary to check whether they had similar competence or not From the starting point, they shared relatively the same range of age (from 18 to 21), similar ratio of males and females (F: 52.4%, M: 47.6% in control group, and F: 47.6%, M: 52.4% in experimental group) Especially, the differences in means of the scores in the pre-test for the two groups were proved to be insignificant via the t-test (x̄ = 6.62 for control group and x̄ = 6.67, for experimental Group) With the resemblance at the outset in vocabulary, it was favorable for the researcher to apply Explicit method to the students in the experimental group Interestingly, after the treatment of Explicit approach in teaching vocabulary, the students

in the experimental group achieved better results (x̄ = 6.67 in the pretest and x̄ = 7.62 in the posttest) The statistics showed an impressive progress that the students demonstrated after the treatment They improved their performance in vocabulary knowledge and use compared to what they had done before starting the treatment Clearly, their own results got really much better when they studied with Implicit method The control group got less result than that of the experimental group (x̄ = 6.62 in the pretest and x̄ = 6.67 in the posttest) The comparison of both groups’ results revealed statistically significant difference

In brief, with all the convincing results obtained by the students in the experimental group, the researcher firmly validated that Explicit method produced more fruitful outcomes than Implicit method did on ESP students in her own context The result of the study showed better performance of the students who were taught by Explicit method