An application of semantic mapping in teaching English vocabulary for students of food processing at Nghe An trading and tourism vocational college

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGVINH UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI LAN PHUONG AN APPLICATION OF SEMANTIC MAPPING IN TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR STUDENTS OF FOOD PROCESSING AT NGHE AN TRADI

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI LAN PHUONG

AN APPLICATION OF SEMANTIC MAPPING IN TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR STUDENTS OF FOOD PROCESSING AT NGHE AN

TRADING AND TOURISM VOCATIONAL COLLEGE

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Nghệ An, năm 2014

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI LAN PHUONG

AN APPLICATION OF SEMANTIC MAPPING IN TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR STUDENTS OF FOOD PROCESSING AT NGHE AN

TRADING AND TOURISM VOCATIONAL COLLEGE

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

Code: 60140111

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

SUPERVISOR:: TRAN BA TIEN, Ph.D

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that the thesis entitled “An application of semantic mapping in

teaching English vocabulary for students of Food Processing at Nghe An Trading and Tourism vocational college" is the result of my own work, and that the minor

thesis or any part of the same has not been submitted to any university or institution

Vinh, August 2014

Author’s signature

Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong

i

I wish to thank my parents and my loved family who love, care, support andencourage me a lot in the production of this study.

Finally, I am too aware that despite all the advice and assistance, I feel thatthe thesis is far from perfect, it is therefore, my sole responsibilities for anyinadequacies that it may be considered to have

At Nghe An Trading and Tourism vocational college, when studentslearn English, they usually face with many difficulties not only in specific languageskills but also in vocabulary Semantic mapping is considered as a good strategy beapplied in teaching of vocabulary Based on literature review, it is found thatsemantic mapping has had good effects on vocabulary learning; especially itimproves the retention and retrieval of word meanings This study wasconducted to explore the students’ vocabulary performance under the treatment

of semantic mapping and their reflections on the teacher’s application of thismethod This experimental study followed a two-group pre-test and post-testdesign The participants were 87 freshmen of Food processing students at At Nghe

An Trading and Tourism vocational college Three instruments: (1) the tests onvocabulary knowledge, (2) the questionnaire on the students’ perceptions towardssemantic mapping, and (3) the interview on the students’ reflections towardssemantic mapping were employed to collect both quantitative and qualitative data

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS 5

LIST OF TABLES 6

LIST OF FIGURES 7

LIST OF CHARTS 8

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 9

1.1 Rationale 9 1.2 Aims of the study 11 1.3 Research questions 12 1.4 Significance of the study 12 1.5 Organization of the study 12 Chapter 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 14 2.1 What is vocabulary? 14

2.2 The importance of vocabulary 15

2.3 Approaches to teaching vocabulary16

2.3.1 General traditional methods 16

2.3.1.1 The grammar-translation method 16

2.3.1.2 The direct method 16

2.3.1.3 The audio-lingual method 17

2.3.2 Communicative approach to teaching vocabulary 17

2.4 Semantic mapping 21

2.4.1 Definitions of semantic mapping 21

2.4.2 A typology of semantic mapping 23

2.4.2.2 Story mapping 25

2.4.2.3 Concept mapping 27

2.4.3 The use of semantic mapping in empirical research 29

2.4.3.2 Stage to use 32

2.4.3.3 Way to use 33

2.5 The roles of semantic mapping in EFL classrooms 35

2.5.1 Improvement in success and rate of foreign language acquisition 352.5.2 Improvement in attitudes towards foreign language acquisition 362.6 Implications for English vocabulary teaching practices 37

3.2 Participants 40

3.2.1 The Control Group 41

3.2.2 The Experimental Group41

3.4.1 Quantitative analysis of pre- and post-tests 47

3.4.2 Qualitative analysis of interview 48

3.4.3 Quantitative analysis of questionnaire 48

2

Chapter 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 494.1 Results from the experiment49

4.1.1 Pre-test results 49

4.1.1.1 The Control Group 49

4.1.1.2 The Experimental Group 50

4.1.1.3 Pre-test similarities 50

4.1.2 Post-test results 51

4.1.2.1 The Control Group 51

4.1.2.2 The Experimental Group 52

4.1.2.3 Post-test differences 52

4.1.3 A comparison of pre- and post-test results for each group 53

4.1.3.1 Means53

4.1.3.2 Distribution of score types 54

4.2 Results from interviews and questionnaires 55

4.2.1 About the role of vocabulary and the application of semantic mapping inits teaching 56

4.2.1.1 The students’ preference for the approach to teach vocabulary 564.2.1.2 The students’ impression on semantic mapping 57

4.2.1.3 The students’ reflections on the teacher’s application of semanticmapping58

4.2.1.4 The students’ opinions for the frequency of using semantic mapping65

4.2.2 Summary 66

4.3 Discussion 66

4.4 Overall summary 67

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION 685.1 Conclusions 68

5.2 Recommendations for English language practitioners 70

5.2.1 For teachers 70

5.2.2 For students 71

5.3 Suggestions for further research 71

5.4 Summary 72

REFERENCES 73

APPENDIX A 78

APPENDIX B 82

APPENDIX C 86

APPENDIX D 87

APPENDIX E 88

APPENDIX F 93

4

Table 3.1: The Control Group’s background information 41

Table 3.2: The Experimental Group’s background information 41

Table 4.1: Pre-test score analysis for Control Group 49

Table 4.2: Pre-test score analysis for Experimental Group 50

Table 4.3: Post-test score analysis for Control Group 51

Table 4.4: Post-test score analysis for Experimental Group 52

Table 4.5: Approaches to teach vocabulary that the students’ former teachers used 56

Table 4.6: How the students found semantic mapping 57

Table 4.7: Students’ responses to the effect of S.M on creating motivation 58

Table 4.8: Students’ responses to the effect of S.M on stimulating the vocabulary learning process 60

Table 4.9: Students’ responses to the effect of S.M on facilitating the vocabulary learning process 61

Table 4.10: Various strengths realized by the students 62

As can be seen in table 4.11, for the Students’ responses to the effect of S.M on promoting group-work competence 63

Table 4.11: Students’ responses to the effect of S.M on promoting group-work competence 64

Table 4.12: Students’ responses to the constraints of S.M 64

6

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: Model of a word mapping (Source: http:// graphic.org) 24

Figure 2.2: Items in bedroom (Gairns and Redman, 1986) 25

Figure 2.3: Basic framework of a story mapping (Source: http:// graphic.org) 26

Figure 2.4: Semantic mapping for “human life circle’(Gairns and Redman, 1986) 26

Figure 2.5: Detailed example of a story mapping (Source: http:// graphic.org) 27

Figure 2.6: Model of a Double Cell Diagram (Source: http:// graphic.org) 28

Figure 2.7: Model of a Project Concept Mapping (Source: http:// graphic.org)… 28

Figure 2.8: Word Scroll by Beers (2003, p 192) 30

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 4.1: The change in pre- and post-test means for each group 53

Chart 4.2: Control Group’s score type distribution 54

Chart 4.3: Experimental Group’s score type distribution 55

Chart 4.4: Students’ impression on semantic mapping 57

Chart 4.5: Students’ opinions for the frequency of using semantic mapping 65

8

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

Vietnam is entering a unique stage of its development With impressiveeconomic growth over the last ten years, it has been integrating with the region andthe world exemplified by its recent accession to WTO, membership of the UNSecurity Council, and active participation in various major regional andinternational activities To sustain the growth and enhance its status in internationalarena in the years to come, more than ever it needs a highly-skilled workforce thatcan help achieve its stated goals of modernization, industrialization andinternational integration One of the important skills needed is the mastery offoreign languages, especially English, as claimed by Vietnam’s Prime MinisterDung Tan Nguyen (as cited in Tran, 2008 para 2) that from now on to 2020, it will

be the nuclear point in the foreign language educational policy and incommunication

Indeed, during the last ten years English has maintained its dominant role asthe first foreign language in Vietnam This phenomenon comes from variousdemands in both personal and social aspects In the light of the former, Englishproficiency is seen as a vital requirement for employment or overseas highereducation For example, the mastery of basic English is one of the prerequisitedemands for applicants for jobs in offices and companies, and certifications such asTOEFL, IELTS or TOEIC are a must for those students who want to studyoverseas In regard to the latter, English plays an extremely important role ininternational co-operation For instance, with the recent economic policypromulgated by the government to attract capital investment, it has significantlyfacilitated economic co-operation “with an ever greater influx of foreigninvestment, mostly from capitalist countries” (Do, 2006 p 2)

Due to such necessary demands, in the last decade English has developed

“with an unprecedented speed in Vietnam” (ibid., p 8) Specifically, hundreds of

language centres have been established all over the country, with an overwhelmingmajority of learners studying English (Ministry of Education and Training, as cited

in Do, 2006, p 2) Though it has not yet fully documented, “around 90% of foreignlanguage learners have been studying English” (ibid., p 8)

Despite the recent English learning boom, “the basic knowledge about thispopular language of a great majority of the learners has not met the demands inreality” (Nguyen, 1992, p 21) One of the major reasons for this problem is theirshortage of vocabulary stock Truly, in a language, lexical items are the buildingblocks, since they label objects, actions and ideas, without which people cannotconvey the intended meaning Many students’ difficulties, both receptive andproductive, result from inadequate vocabulary, and even when they are at a higherlevel of language, they are still in need of it Hence there is no doubt that lexicalknowledge can directly influence the success of language learning in which

“students with affluent vocabulary tend to have advantages in enhancing the fourlanguage skills” (Nguyen, 2006, p 2)

Although it is of such great importance and in high demand, the interest invocabulary in the teaching of English as second or foreign language has long beenneglected Until the last decade or so, it was a common practice to consider theteaching of vocabulary as an afterthought or an “appendage” to the more importanttasks of teaching other levels in the study of language such as grammar andpronunciation This misconception is proven by the fact that the teaching of

vocabulary in many schools and universities in Vietnam is strategically limited A

recent report by the Department of Education and Training of Quang Ninh Province(2008) shows that the teaching of vocabulary in many schools tends to be

“conventionally restricted to translation into the mother tongue or improvised” (p.2) Obviously, practices such as listening to teachers, writing down the targetlanguage new words and their mother tongue equivalences, and trying to memorizeword lists passively are what students normally involve themselves in Thesepractices surely cause students a feeling of boredom and indigestibleness Likewise,

10

as asserted by Nguyen (2006, p 4) “such obsolete and poor presentations haveresulted in students’ negative attitude to vocabulary learning; thus most of themrarely remember the meanings of new terms beyond the tests” What is worse, asarticulated by Hoang and Wright (2005), the recent strategies to instruct vocabulary

in Vietnam “rarely take place in a communicative environment” (p 3)

Although this field has recently begun to take a greater interest in thestrategies for vocabulary instruction manifested with the appearance of studieswhich suggest some interesting and efficient strategies for teaching and retrievingvocabulary, such as the investigation of teaching vocabulary through games(Nguyen & Khuat, 2003; Nguyen, 2006) and the exploration of creative approaches

to build vocabulary (Hoang & Wright, 2005), none have exploited the strategieswhich can create mental linkages to reinforce the memorization of words yet

Hence the call for employing such strategies to diversify the lexicalinstruction is necessary, and it is high time the strategies which can synchronize theeasy retrieval of words with the creation of a relaxed and communicative learningatmosphere were applied As there has hardly been any investigation into semanticmapping and its effects on the improvement of the memorization of words as well

as the creation of a positive and exciting learning attitude for students until now inVietnam, such a useful strategy captures the researcher’s curiosity and deserves dueresearch attention

The expectation of effectively employing this strategy for vocabularyinstruction, therefore, generated ideas from which this study came into being

1.2 Aims of the study

The study is, thus, conducted in an attempt to investigate the feasibility andeducational values of applying semantic mapping as a strategy into the teaching ofvocabulary to enhance its effectiveness and, concurrently, students’ positiveattitudes towards lexical acquisition

2 What are their reflections on the teacher’s application of this strategy into

their learning of vocabulary?

1.4 Significance of the study

The study pays its contributions to both theoretical and practical aspects.Theoretically, by exploring semantic mapping, the study adds to the growingdemand of strategies for learning and memorizing words for English languagelearners (ELLs) Also, by investigating semantic mapping within academic settings,

it is hoped to provide useful information about characteristics and benefits of thisinteresting but less-exploited strategy in dealing with vocabulary so far

Practically, the study is hopefully to provide helpful knowledge about kinds

of semantic mapping and recommend clear guidelines for teachers to use thisstrategy to deal with vocabulary in particular and, thus, to facilitate their teaching ofEnglish in general For learners, this study hopefully provides useful instructions sothat they can use semantic mapping as an effective vocabulary self-learning tip

1.5 Organization of the study

The study consists of 5 chapters Chapter 1 provides an introduction to thetopic of the study by stating its context, aim, research questions, significance, andstructure Chapter 2 reviews relevant theories of vocabulary and semantic mapping

which are organized along five main categories: definition, typology, use in empirical research, roles in language pedagogy, and implications for language

teaching practices Chapter 3 justifies the design and methods of investigation bytaking the four features of setting, participants, data types of methods of datacollection, and analytical framework into account Chapter 4 presents the dataanalysis and interpretation for the three types of data: experiment, journals and

12

questionnaire It then discusses the findings in the light of the data alreadypresented Chapter 5 draws conclusion by explicitly answering the researchquestions, gives some recommendations for English language practitioners, andproposes topics for further research.

Chapter 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

As presented in the previous chapter, the teaching and learning of vocabularyhave not been effective up till now in Vietnam due to the limitative application ofstrategies Therefore, an exploration of one of them – semantic mapping – isnecessary To know how to apply it into practice effectively to solve the problem ofvocabulary teaching, a theory of vocabulary and semantic mapping needs to becarefully worked out

Thus this chapter shapes the background that is relevant to the topic underinvestigation in the present study by firstly exploring the concept of vocabulary,roles of vocabulary and methods to teach vocabulary Secondly, it give definition ofsemantic mapping, it classifies its types; however, as only three of them will beemployed to teach the selected lessons, these three are theoretically examined indetail Thirdly, it reviews some empirical research in which this strategy is used.Fourthly, it considers the roles this strategy plays within English as a foreignlanguage (EFL) classrooms The chapter ends with some implications for Englishvocabulary teaching practices

2.1 What is vocabulary?

So far there have been a lot of definitions of vocabulary Vocabulary isdefined as words in a specific language or freestanding items of language that havemeaning (McCarthy, 1990) Penny Ur (1996) defined vocabulary roughly as “thewords we teach in the foreign language” She also suggested that “a new item ofvocabulary may be more than a single word, a compound of two or three words(e.g., post office, mother-in-law), and multi-word idioms (e.g., call it a day)”

Besides, vocabulary is broadly defined as knowledge of words and wordmeanings (Lehr et al., 2004) According to Lehr and his colleagues, vocabulary ismore complex than this definition suggests First, words come not only in oralforms including those words that can be recognized and used in listening andspeaking but also in print forms to be recognized and used in reading and writing

14

Second, word knowledge also comes in two forms: receptive and productive.Receptive vocabulary is words that can be recognized in reading and listening.Productive vocabulary refers to words that can be used in speaking and writing(Lehr et al., 2004) Therefore, vocabulary is understood as knowledge of wordspelling, pronunciation, collocations (i.e words it co-occurs with), andappropriateness (Nation, 1990) However, Pyles (1970) confirmed that vocabulary

is the focus of language with its sounds and meaning, which interlock to allow us tocommunicate with one another

As discussed above, vocabulary can be seen in many different ways.Vocabulary refers to words or a set of words in a language or knowledge of wordsregarding its forms, meanings and how to use it accurately in the context In thepresent study, vocabulary refers to the words, compounds and idioms in a languagethat can be used to conveyed and received information in oral and writtencommunication

2.2 The importance of vocabulary

Regarding the importance of vocabulary, Krashen (1989) pointed out that “alarge vocabulary is, of course, essential for mastery of a language”(pp 73, 440-463)

as without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed (Wilkins, 1972)

Rubin and Thompson (1994) considered the significant role of vocabulary incommunication as stating that “one cannot speak, understand, read or write aforeign language without knowing a lot of words Vocabulary learning is at theheart of mastering a foreign language” Nguyen and Khuat (2003) also acceptedthat vocabulary knowledge plays an important role in learning a foreignlanguage Vocabulary is one element that links the four skills of speaking,listening, reading and writing all together Vocabulary is a core component oflanguage proficiency and provides much of the basis for how well learnerslisten, speak, read, and write (Richards and Renandya, 2002)

In fact, vocabulary is a means to support communication It is a necessarycomponent of language instruction In order to communicate well in a foreign

language, learners should acquire an adequate numbers of words and should knowhow to use them accurately When emphasizing the importance of vocabulary incommunication, Della and Hocking (1992) also claimed that with a littlegrammar, the learners can have a little smooth communication, but withoutvocabulary, it is difficult for others to understand the information the learners want

to express For this reason, a lack of good grammatical structures may notinterrupt communication However, if we lack vocabulary, there is no successfulcommunication With a good knowledge of vocabulary, learners may feel confident

in communication, and it contributes to the success in communication However,the question to arise is which words are necessary for learners to know andhow to remember these words

2.3 Approaches to teaching vocabulary

The two most common ways in which the meaning of view items isconveyed as follows: General traditional methods and communicative method ofteaching vocabulary

2.3.1 General traditional methods

The former includes various approach such as: grammar – translation method, directmethod, audio- lingual method, suggestopedia method

In the scope of thesis, I only focus on three major traditional methods: thegrammar-translation method; the direct method and the audio-lingual method

2.3.1.1 The grammar-translation method

The grammar - translation method is the oldest method of teaching Thegrammar translation method is a foreign language teaching method derived from theclassical (sometimes called traditional) method of teaching Greek and Latin Thismethod has been used from the classical times to translate classical languages, Latinand Greek, it has been called Classical method

2.3.1.2 The direct method

The direct method of teaching foreign languages, sometimes called thenatural method, refrains from using the learners' native language and uses only the

16

target language The direct method was an answer to the dissatisfaction with theolder grammar translation method, which teaches students grammar and vocabularythrough direct translations and thus focuses on the written language.

2.3.1.3 The audio-lingual method

The audio-lingual method was widely used in the United States and othercountries in the 1950's and 1960's The Audio-lingual Method was developed in theU.S.A during the Second World War At that time, the U.S government found agreat necessity to set up a special language-training program to supply the war withlanguage personnel The audio-lingual method, Army Method, or New Key is astyle of teaching used in teaching foreign languages It is based on behavioristtheory, which professes that certain traits of living things, and in this case humanscould be trained through a system of reinforcement—correct use of a trait wouldreceive positive feedback while incorrect use of that trait would receive negativefeedback

This approach to language learning was similar to another, earlier methodcalled the direct method Like the direct method, the audio-lingual method advisedthat students be taught a language directly, without using the students' nativelanguage to explain new words or grammar in the target language However, unlikethe direct method, the audio-lingual method didn’t focus on teaching vocabulary.Rather, the teacher drilled students in the use of grammar

In conclusion, when using general traditional methods to teach vocabulary,vocabulary items are imparted mostly by translation: either a list of words with theirtranslation at the beginning of the lesson or the translation of the content havingnew words or glossaries at the very end This is an erroneous practice as it leads to astate of confusion for the learners

2.3.2 Communicative approach to teaching vocabulary

The communicative approach could be said to be the product of educatorsand linguists who had grown dissatisfied with the audio-lingual and grammar-translation methods of foreign language instruction They felt that students were not

learning enough realistic, whole language They did not know how to communicateusing appropriate social language, gestures, or expressions; in brief, they were at aloss to communicate in the culture of the language studied Interest in anddevelopment of communicative-style teaching mushroomed in the 1970s; authenticlanguage use and classroom exchanges where students engaged in realcommunication with one another became quite popular.

In the intervening years, the communicative approach has been adapted tothe elementary, middle, secondary, and post-secondary levels And the underlyingphilosophy has spawned different teaching methods known under a variety ofnames, including notional-functional, teaching for proficiency, proficiency-basedinstruction, and communicative language teaching

Communicative Approach is aimed at training students' listening andspeaking, so it relatively ignores the training of reading and writing The ability ofwriting and reading is quite important for an intellectual to enter universities, studyabroad, read plenty of original books, hoop up into the international webs lookingfor information, write papers or dissertations in English, etc All these cannot beacquired merely from "Communicative Approach." Therefore, "extensive reading"can compensate for the fault of "Communicative Approach" and the two can workside by side

There are a lot of techniques to teach vocabulary in language learning incommunication method

 Using real objects

Real objects or models of real objects are very effective and meaningful inhawing meanings but in handling of real objects, a teacher must be practical andshould not be superfluous

 Using pictures and drawings

Pictures of many types and colors can be used successfully to show the meaning

of words and sentence Handmade pictures can also be used as there is no need to

be very artistic

18

Drawings can be used to explain the meaning of things, actions, qualities,and relations A line drawing of a head, for example, provides many useful nounsand verbs.

 Online Videos.

Another visual way to teach vocabulary is to find videos that showcase thewords used in lesson Videos created for people learning English as a secondlanguage are also ideal for teaching younger students words with which they havehad little or no exposure You Tube Teachers’ Language Arts section is a goodplace to look for video content that is safe for classroom viewing

 Using synonyms and antonym

When one member of a pair of opposites is understood, the meaning of theother can be easily comprehended This helps the student to understand thedifferent shades of meanings of a word

A synonym may be used to help the student to understand the differentshades of meaning if the synonym is better known than the word being taught Synonyms help to enrich a student's vocabulary bank and provide alternative wordsinstantly

 Brainstorm

Vocabulary builds upon itself, and association with words that are alreadyfamiliar to students is one of the most effective means of teaching studentsunfamiliar words Teachers who help students to associate new words with wordsthey already know well will help students with long-term retention

 Act it Out

Students can take turns acting out one of the vocabulary words, while theother students guess the word In order for charades with vocabulary words to work,students need some basis in the vocabulary, so teachers should schedule the game ofcharades a few days after students first get their vocabulary words Teachers maywant to release the word list on Monday, for instance, and make Friday game day

 Word of the Day

Educators who grew up in the 1980s surely remember “Pee-Wee’sPlayhouse” and “Pee-Wee’s Word of the Day.” When the word of the day wasspoken, everyone in the playhouse, and the kids at home, were supposed to scream.Teachers who want to encourage students to use their new vocabulary words (andwho can stand a little noise) could benefit from this method Teachers can makeeach day’s word of the day a different vocabulary word, and let students yellwhenever someone says it Then, at the end of the yell, teachers can remind students

of the word’s definition Even teachers will admit vocabulary isn’t the most excitingthing to teach, but adding fun ways to teach vocabulary words can help keep theprocess fresh and entertaining

 Some games help pupils to review vocabulary

Language games are often used to fill a few minutes at the end of the lesson

or to copy some of the faster students while others catch up on an exercise Thereare many kinds of games such as communication game, code control game and so

on And these games can be played at any level of language specially students atcollege Games play an important role in teaching and learning English Game is thebest way to help students remember rapidly and review vocabulary effectively.There are kinds of game for teacher to teach and check vocabulary, as follows:Hang man; Bingo; which one is it; Spelling Bee; Crossword puzzle, etc…

According to Frisby (1957), the most suitable method to teach a foreignlanguage is Communicative Approach The students have the need to communicateoutside the classroom, real communication, not prepared exercises or drills In order

to get this aim, the Communicative Approach offer us a great variety of techniquesand activities we can use as teachers with our students, using authentic materials,motivating for the pupils, and similar to the real world The CommunicativeApproach is a valid Method, because there is a lot of different learning needs,different students, different situations and each one can be deal with the mostsuitable method in each case

20

Semantic mapping is one of technique of teaching vocabulary incommunicative method The teaching and learning of vocabulary have not beeneffective up till now in Vietnam due to the limitative application of strategies.Therefore, an exploration of one of them – semantic mapping – is necessary

2.4 Semantic mapping

To know how to apply it into practice effectively to solve the problem ofvocabulary teaching, a theory of semantic mapping needs to be carefully workedout

2.4.1 Definitions of semantic mapping

As cited in Buis (2004, p 18), such researchers as Nagy (1988), Biemiller(2001), and Beck, McKeown and Kucan (2002) caution us that vocabularyinstruction must be more substantial for words to really stick In this manner, thecreation of associative links among words is quite a potential way to stick them.Furthermore, “associative vocabulary instruction is a more effective approach topromote learning than instruction in which students only hear context mentioning ofdefinitions,” as proclaimed by Beck, McKeown and Kucan (2002, as cited in Buis,

2004, p 18) Therefore, since its introduction in the early 1980s, semantic mappinghas received a great deal of attention thanks to its original creativeness like that Tounderstand it more clearly, it is essential to know what underlies this notion

The notion of semantic mapping dates back to the dyad Johnson and Pearson(1978) when they firstly proposed a categorical model of information in graphicform as a classroom strategy to build and extend vocabulary knowledge It was thenconsidered a breakthrough in language pedagogy, since at the same time it couldanalyze and group words into categories in a text, create the links within the lexicalnetwork describing them, and establish visual displays to show their relationships

It can be said that this strategy was essentially built up on the ground of

Chomsky’s doctrine of mentalism in 1960s which bestowed an emphasis on human

language learning capacity (as cited in Pateman, 1987, p 120) In that light,learning is considered to be an active mental process, and the utilization from

Chomskyan doctrine in this strategy lies in the creation of links to connect relatedinformation, thus activating the mentally acquired process about the language morefavorably

Later, the perspective about semantic mapping is further discerned byJohnson, Heimlich and Pittelman (1986), who make an important contribution inputting forward semantic mapping as:… a graphic arrangement of a word orconcept in relation to other related words and ideas… The key to success of thisarrangement builds upon students’ background knowledge and makes explicit theconnections between new vocabulary words and what they already know Bybuilding the connections between old words and new words, students begin tounderstand relationships among the words they encounter pp 778-780

Thus, by putting the emphasis on the connections between old words instudents’ background knowledge and new words to make the comprehension ofthem clear, this triad differentiates their viewpoint about semantic mapping fromthat of Johnson and Pearson, who point out the connections between new words in atext only

Afterwards, Nagy (1988, p 10) refines these definitions by offering a shorterone according to which semantic mapping is “a classroom activity reflecting theintegration of instructed words with other knowledge” This can be considered as acombination of the two perspectives about semantic mapping above, as it shows thatthe understanding of new words through this activity is connected with otherknowledge, including old and new

Obviously, though the ways of expression are various, these perspectivesrepresent the unanimity in confirming the original ability of semantic mapping tocreate the association in knowledge Semantic mapping, as a strategy, is a creativecapitalization of mentalist viewpoint in which “language is a specific behavior andcertain modes of perceptions, categorizing, and language-related mechanisms arebiologically determined” (Brown, 1980, p 22) Accordingly, it can link andintegrate not only words or concepts to the related ones within the scope of a text,

22

but also new knowledge to prior one Such a viewpoint at once drew a great deal ofattention because at the time researchers were placing the stress on the need to usestrategies that were fundamentally “associative” in nature.

Whilst the researchers mentioned above delve into the mentalist essence ofthis strategy, Braden (1982, p 10) takes a different view of what constitutes asemantic mapping, limiting it to schema overview With this in mind, he comes up

with a very simple definition in which semantic mapping structurally takes “the

form of labeled nodes connected to unlabeled lines”

As such, the notion of semantic mapping can be looked at from two mainaspects With regard to a mentalist perspective, it, as a strategy, creates association

in the acquired process of knowledge thanks to the establishment of the links amongthe related items and even between the new and the old one Consequently, thelearning has become an active and connective mental process Viewed from astructural perspective, it is simply considered as an organizer to connect nodes tolines Then the former has revealed the essence of its operation and the latter added

to the description of the form Thus an understanding of semantic mapping needs toinclude these two aspects

2.4.2 A typology of semantic mapping

According to Buis (2004), semantic mapping “can take a number of differentforms – chart, boxes, outlines, webs, mappings, clusters, networks, graphicorganizers – depending on the key words and genre of the text study” Also for thisresearcher, even the types for each form are indefinite because it can be presented in

“a wide variety of formats” (ibid., p 20) However, as alerted in the introductoryparagraph of this chapter, this study takes into consideration only three types amongthem, based on the nature of the reading texts selected to teach They are wordmapping, story mapping and concept mapping The last one includes the two sub-types of Double Cell Diagram and Project Concept Mapping

2.4.2.1 Word mapping

Word mapping is “a visual display through which the understanding of keywords is clarified by graphically mapping them” (Masters, Mori & Mori, 1993, p.118) In this type of mapping, the key word is put in the centre then the branchesdescribing its characteristics or attributes are created and expanded from the centre.When one branch stops or an idea does not fit, new branches are created Such aword mapping model can be seen in Figure 2.1 and Figure 2.2 below:

Figure 2.1: Model of a word mapping (Source: http:// graphic.org)

Semantic mapping is one of word association techniques It is defined as atechnique to make arrangement of words into a diagram, which has a keyconcept at the centre or at the top, and related words and concepts linked tothe key concept by means of lines or arrows (Gairns and Redman, 1986)

24

trout eyes

Fish Parts

Fish

freshwat er

freshwat er

Hair brush, comb

Blankets, pillows, sheets

Mattres s

Mattres s

Beside table

Alarm clock

Alarm clock

Figure 2.2: Items in bedroom (Gairns and Redman, 1986)

2.4.2.2 Story mapping

“A story mapping is a visual representation of the logical sequence of events

in a narrative text Places for the setting, characters, climax, and a solution areincluded on the map” (Gay, 1991, p 18) In other words, it is a visual depiction ofthe settings or the sequence of major events and actions of story characters Thebasic framework and the detailed example of a story mapping can be respectivelyseen in Figure 2.3, Figure 2.4 and Figure 2.5 as follows:

Figure 2.3: Basic framework of a story mapping (Source: http:// graphic.org)

Figure 2.4: Semantic mapping for “human life circle’(Gairns and Redman, 1986)

26

Fall in love

Life Cycle

Figure 2.5: Detailed example of a story mapping (Source: http:// graphic.org)

2.4.2.3 Concept mapping

In general, concept mapping, as stated by Novark (1990, p 937), “involvesassigning a hierarchical relationship of information, beginning with broadcategories and branching into related concepts with each then branching into lowerlevels”

As mentioned in the introductory paragraph of 2.2 Typology of semanticmapping, a Double Cell Diagram is the first sub-type of concept mapping which can

be “used for comparing likeness and differences among subjects which can be facts,people, events, or concepts” (Gay, 1991, p 18) Normally in this organizer, thesimilar characteristics are placed between the subjects compared, whereas differentfeatures are put around them Figure 2.6 below is a model of the Double CellDiagram:

Checks his piggy bank and no money

Asks parents and no money

Asks parents and no money

Asks siter And no money

Asks siter And no money

Builds a latte stand

Sells lattes after school and on weekends

Sells lattes after school and on weekends

Decides to put money

in bank

Decides to put money

Shops for bike

Saves enough money to buy bike

Saves enough money to buy bike

Final Outcome Sam buys bicycle

Final Outcome Sam buys bicycle

Figure 2.6: Model of a Double Cell Diagram (Source: http:// graphic.org)

Meanwhile, Project Concept Mapping, the other type of concept mapping, is

“a visual organization in which the key concept is modified with informationpredetermined to provide a clearer understanding about it” (Gay, 1991) Also, thekey concept is put in the centre of the map and supplementary information, oftenraised in the form of instructive questions relating to the key concept, is around it.The answers which can be expressed in words, phrases, or even sentences arebranched from the corresponding questions Figure 2.7 depicting this type ofmapping can be seen as follows:

Favorite food is Pizza

swim

classmate s

classmate s

Ramona

girl

skis

Figure 2.7: Model of a Project Concept Mapping (Source: http:// graphic.org)

2.4.3 The use of semantic mapping in empirical research

In a narrower sphere of application, semantic mapping, as a strategy, isrecognized to be extremely effective to promote vocabulary teaching and learning

To manifest this fact, it is helpful to mention the aspects relating to its use inempirical research Thus the following sub-sections will present these aspects in this

specific order of presentation: types to use, stage to use and way to use.

2.4.3.1 Types to use

It can be said that semantic mapping has shown its great attraction,exemplified by a number of investigations in succession conducted into the deepexploration of the effects of its various types

What do they eat Where do they live

Where do they live have squirrels People never

for pets

People never have squirrels for pets

Who are their enemies

Do they like people

Do they like people

Squirrels Squirrels like to

eat nuts that people leave for them

Squirrels like to eat nuts that people leave for them

Are they mammals

Are they

protect themselves

How do they protect themselves

Squirrels are afraid to be petted by people

Squirrels are afraid to be petted by people

trees fast

They climb trees fast little claws They have

They have little claws

For instance, in an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of semanticmapping, Beers (2003, pp 192-194) used a “Word Scroll” map to instructvocabulary in a way that helped the students most clearly understand the words Theinstructor began the map by following the order of introducing the target word,asking the students to write it in the centre of the map with a working definition,and gave two words that fit the statement “what it is” and two words for thestatement “what it isn’t” on both the sides For example, if the target word was

courageous, “what it is” could be brave and strong and “what it isn’t” could be afraid or scared Then below the scroll map, students came up with two examples

of the word and contrasting examples (Superman and running into a burning

building; Scooby-do and running from danger) After that, they used the target

word in a sentence The example of Word Scroll Map shown by Beers can be seen

in Figure 2.8 below:

Figure 2.8: Word Scroll by Beers (2003, p 192)

30

Word ScrollsName: Charles

or very brave

afraid

Soared

after you full off

Not getting on the horse againScooby - do

The results of this investigation show that the students understood newwords more thoroughly and acquired lexical knowledge more largely through thisstrategy.

Afterwards, the research by Salameh (2006) showed that story mappingcould improve students’ predictive ability In the procedure of examining this type,the researcher prepared guiding questions to lead students through the mapping such

as “Where did the story take place?”, “When did the story take place?”, “Could thesetting have been different?”, or “Why do you think the author choose this setting?”(ibid., p 30) Then cue sentences with crucial words describing the plot of the storywere provided The researcher continued by asking the students to discuss in groups

to find an appropriate cue sentence to answer the guiding questions based on theprediction of the meaning of key words After two weeks, she found that herstudents’ predictive ability of both word meaning and story plot was improvedfairly greatly

At the level of a variety in the types of semantic mapping, the most recentresearch conducted by Hunter, Monroe-Ossi and Fountain (2007) focused onpromoting vocabulary development for pre-school children by using conceptmapping to document the hierarchical relationships among items described by them.The researchers, drawing on Novark and Gowin’s (1984) work, believed thatthrough concept mapping children were able to make visible their association aboutthe relationships among the concepts being studied

With this thought in mind, they set a goal to examine this type as a tool to

teach the concept plant for children from three to four years of age at a learning

centre They identified the key concept in front of the class by raising the focusquestion “What do you know about the plants?” To help the children be easier topose words or ideas, they conducted demonstrations showing that plant needed

water, air, soil (nutrients), and sunlight Besides, they asked the children to plant

bean (seeds) in cups so that they would learn about roots, stems, leaves, and

flowers Then the three researchers incorporated with the class to construct the

preliminary concept mapping The big ideas and essential questions (The world is

made up of living and non-living things What do living things need from the environment to survive? What are the characteristics of living things?) were also

made to serve for lesson discussions After that, the final concept mapping wasconstructed with pictures and word cards of plant and parts of plant provided by theresearchers

The final result reveals that the children could correctly identify concepts andtheir hierarchical relationships through which they developed their vocabularyknowledge In detail, they could make propositions connecting second- and third-level concepts, e.g., a plant (first level) can have a flower (second level) that canprovide fruit (third level)

In sum, the research works delved into some depth above raise the awarenessthat there are various types of semantic mapping and each of them brings differenteffects in terms of understanding, prediction and recognition of the relationship:Word mapping makes the understanding of words deeper and enlarges the lexicalknowledge, story mapping improves the prediction, and concept mapping helps torealize hierarchical relationships of words The use of each type in an appropriatecase to best utilize the benefits is, therefore, very important

2.4.3.2 Stage to use

In the investigation of the strategies which can assist reading comprehension,

a number of researchers have used semantic mapping in the pre-reading stage as anactivity to facilitate this process

In their research, Johnson, Heimlich and Pittelman (1986, p 782) found outthe potential of semantic mapping as a tool to serve “as a pre-reading strategy toassess whether students are ready for the reading or not” Its application in this stagethen became an attractive issue

Carrel, Pharis and Liberto (1989, p 651) used it as a pre-reading activity to

“provide the students with a lexical availability on the topic” In this activity, theyasked their students to brainstorm about the reading topic and the information was

32

displayed on a graphic map Thanks to their associations, the map turned out to be athorough summary of the content as well as the concepts and words that they wereabout to encounter in the reading.

Six years later in 1995, in an effort to help students focus on the details in thereading texts, Zaid implemented a pre-reading activity with semantic mapping Inthis stage, he first wrote the noun phrase “Muslim carpets” which was the topic ofthe reading text on the board and asked his students to tell what they knew about it.Their suggestion of “red and blue often used” was instructed to conceptualize into

“color” and “popular” Then, “large” and “small” generated the category “sizes”and “flowers” and “no animals” were categorized as “geometric patterns”.(ibid., p.5) Immediately, the researcher found that the value of using it in this stage becameapparent, since the map supplied students with a graphic conceptualization of theirrandomly given ideas which delved into the topic about to read

Likewise, Rosenbaum (2001) employed this stage to apply word mapping.Accordingly, after providing the mapping which consisted of key words of thereading text, the researcher asked students, based on their understanding about theassociative connections among those words, to pose the definitions, synonyms andantonyms in their own words As a result, its use in this stage “encouraged students

to utilize the prior vocabulary knowledge to interact with the text” (ibid., p 44)

Indeed, the use of this strategy in the pre-reading stage can facilitate thecomprehension in many ways It can help to assess students’ readiness to involvethemselves in the reading text, prepare them for a lexical knowledge, instruct them

to conceptualize the items representing the topic, or foster their relating priorknowledge to the new one Using it in this pre-reading stage, therefore, keeps onappealing to more research

Recently, the teacher-student interaction in a classroom setting has highlybeen appreciated In this manner, the teacher plays a role as a guide on the siderather than a sage on the stage, thus promoting students’ independence andcreativeness With the purpose to test whether such a kind of interaction accordswith this strategy, El-Koumy (1999) conducted research with 187 freshmen at anEgyptian university who were randomly assigned to three semantic mappingtreatment groups: teacher-initiated, student-mediated and teacher-studentinteractive Treatment was administered over five months in one session per week.The subjects were pre-tested and post-tested in reading comprehension While thepre-test indicated no significant differences in the groups, post-test results revealedstudents in the teacher-student interactive semantic mapping group scoredsignificantly higher than the other two groups, which had similar results

As the researcher found, initiated by the teacher, semantic mapping savesstudents’ time and adds information to what they already know; however, it mayinhibit their creativity and fail to create independent readers Mediated by thestudents, it forces them to think about what they read and helps them recognizewhat they already know in light of new information as a platform to learn more; yetthis way may be time-consuming and hard for students with limited priorknowledge Above all, “the teacher-student interaction capitalizes on the strengths

of the two ways above and thereby shares the weaknesses of neither” (ibid., p 167)

In regard to another aspect relating to the way to use this strategy, thoughsemantic mapping is considered to be “easy to capture” (Avery, Baker & Gross,

1996, p 279), it can become overwhelming if the teacher does not know to controlthe construction The reality shows that when students are asked to think of wordsrelated to the key word or topic, “they often generate too many new words” (Stoller

& Grade, 1993, p 34), which could induce overload, especially for students atlower language levels As a result, these researchers warned that “the use ofsemantic mapping should not be overly detailed and multileveled” (ibid., p 34) In

34