Teaching english vocabulary to the first year students at nghe an trading and tourism vocational college

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI LAN HUONG TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT NGHE AN TRADING AND TOURISM VOCATIONAL COLLEGE MAS

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI LAN HUONG

TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO THE

FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT NGHE AN TRADING AND TOURISM

VOCATIONAL COLLEGE

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI LAN HUONG

TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO THE

FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS 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: NGUYEN GIA VIET, Ph.D.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Gia Viet, for his kind help, careful guidance, valuable advice and encouragement from shaping the first draft till the completed thesis

I am also grateful to the head of Foreign Language Department of Nghe An Tourism-Trading Vocational College, Mrs Le Thi Mai Hong, my colleagues and students of K18D1 and 18D2 who helped me much to finish the methodology of the research

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

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

ABSTRACT

Students at Nghe An Trading and Tourism College have many difficulties in learning English Vocabulary “How to help students to learn vocabulary better?” is always a question for teachers at Nghe An Trading and Tourism Vocational College To improve vocabulary learning and teaching, two questionnaires are designed and directed to 70 students and 10 teachers The findings discuss the difficulties in teaching and learning vocabulary of both teacher and students and the methods they use to teach and learn vocabulary Simultaneously, some techniques of teaching and learning vocabulary better are recommended based on the findings of this survey

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABERIVIATION……… … 4

LISTS OF TABLES……… … 5

LISTS OF FIGURES……… 6

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 7

1.1 Rationale 7

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 9

1.3 Research questions 9

1.4 Significance of the study 9

1.5 Scope of the study 9

1.6 Methods of the study 10

1.7 Organization of the thesis 10

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 12

2.1 Vocabulary 12

2.1.1 What is vocabulary? 12

2.1.2 Types of vocabulary 13

2.1.3 Importance of vocabulary 15

2.1.4 What vocabulary to teach: criteria for selection 16

Learnability 19

2.1.5 Vocabulary in learning English as foreign language 19

2.1.6 How to teach vocabulary 20

2.1.7 Current trends in L2 vocabulary teaching 24

2.2 Teachers' beliefs 25

2.2.1 Teachers’ beliefs 25

2.2.2 Research on teachers’ beliefs and teaching practices………… 26

2.2.3 Teachers’ perceptions of learner difficulty 30

2.2.4 Teachers’ reception of vocabulary teaching 31

2.3 Previous studies on vocabulary teaching and learning 35

2.4 Summary 38

Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 39

3.1 Participants 39

3.2 Sites 40

3.3 Rationale of using the survey method 40

3.3.1 Questionnaire 40

3.3.2 Data collection procedures 42

3.4 Summary 43

Chapter 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 44

4.1 Students’ understanding in terms of English vocabulary learning 44

4.2 Teachers’ understanding in terms of vocabulary teaching 47

4.3 The students’ performance in their English vocabulary learning 50

4.4 Teachers’ performance in vocabulary teaching 52

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION 56

5.1 Summary of findings 56

5.2 Implications 56

5.2.1 For teaching 56

5.2.2 For learning 56

5.3 Suggestion for future research 57

5 4 Suggestions for Vocabulary Teaching and Learning 57

5.4.1 Teaching vocabulary through games 57

5.4.2 Teaching vocabulary through audio-visual aids and video clips 59

5.4.3 Using synonyms and antonym 59

5.4.4 Pair and group works 60

5.4.5 Role play 60

5.4.6 Using Mind-mapping 60

5.4.7 Using diagrams 63

5.4.8 Using flash cards 63

ABERIVIATION

ESL: English as a Second Language

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

ELLs: English language learners

TPLD: Teachers’ perceptions of learner difficulty SLA: Second language acquisition

%: Percent

LISTS OF TABLES

Table 4.1 Perceived contents of vocabulary learning ……… …… 45 Table 4.2 Students’ knowledge of vocabulary is helpful for their

vocabulary learning……… 47 Table 4.3 Perceived contents of vocabulary learning 48 Table 4.4 Teachers’ knowledge of vocabulary is helpful for their

vocabulary teaching 50 Table 4.5: The methods students usually use in learning vocabulary ……… 50 Table 4.6: The methods teachers usually use in teaching vocabulary 52

LISTS OF FIGURES

Figure 4.1 The position of vocabulary in English learning ……… 44

Figure 4.2 The difficulty in vocabulary learning ……… 46

Figure 4.3: The position of vocabulary in language teaching ……… 47

Figure 4.4 The difficulty in vocabulary teaching ……… 49

Figure 4.5: Students’ interest in learning English vocabulary ……… 51

Figure 4.6: Students’ efficiency evaluation in vocabulary learning ……… 52

Figure 4.7: Teacher’s interest in teaching English vocabulary ……… 53

Figure 4.8: Teacher’s efficiency evaluation in vocabulary teaching …… 54

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

This chapter is written with the purpose of giving the rationale, objectives of the study, the research questions, the significance of the study, the scope of the study, an overview of research methodology and finally introduces the outline of the

thesis

1.1 Rationale

Recently, English has become an international language which is taught in many countries all over the world English is the most commonly used language among foreign language speakers By mastering English, people can visit and communicate with foreign people easily It is the reason why learning English well

is becoming more and more important

English in Vietnam is considered as an important language Children are now required to learn it from third grade of primary school, and English becomes a subject which is rather difficult to learn because it is a second language with its different culture, grammar, pronunciation, etc Teaching English as a foreign language is not easy It is the teacher’s duty to make the students enjoy learning English because if the students enjoy the learning process, they will easily grasp what the teacher taught

In teaching and learning English, vocabulary is the most important factor in developing the four language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) Therefore, the students are expected to acquire vocabulary in order to express their ideas, feelings and opinions in speaking and writing Language elements such as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and spelling that are taught to support the development of the four skills including vocabulary are important in the teaching learning process Richard (1987, p.45) states that vocabulary and grammar are essential components of all use of language It is clear that vocabulary is the main component in learning English Myers (1993, p.150) says that the reasons of

acquiring a large important vocabulary are the indicative of wide knowledge and be able to distinguish word by word accurately

In vocational training school, studying English especially vocabulary is a compulsory subject I am myself a teacher in Nghe An Trading and Tourism Vocational College in Cua Lo Town in which English is focused to help students in their work in the future Besides four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), the teachers of English in my college spend more time on vocabulary because of its importance in learning a language However, it is not easy to study perfect English vocabulary Almost students often face up with some problems in learning vocabulary In fact, it is difficult to memorize a new word with its meaning, spelling and pronunciation, many students are often confused with knowing how can apply grammar into sentences, sometimes, they cannot understand when being opposed to video and audio Moreover, techniques to teach English is traditional teaching methods and similar activities days by days, which makes students become fed up with learning English Therefore, interesting techniques to teach English are necessary to help students learn English vocabulary better; they also attract students’ interest on English

There were some problems that made the students difficult to know the vocabulary meaning in Nghe An Trading and Tourism Vocational College such as, some students less knowledge about vocabulary, students’ lack of vocabulary, students never try to find the new words from a text

To overcome the problems, the teacher could try some ways to develop their vocabulary and explore their ideas In this case, I have the ambition of presenting some effective techniques to teach English vocabulary with hope that students will be interesting in learning English Due to my English knowledge limitation and the frame of the graduation paper, I would like to choose the

research paper entitle “Teaching English vocabulary to the first-year students at Nghe An Trading and Tourism Vocational College”

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

The aims of this study are to find out the difficulties in teaching and learning English vocabulary, as well as to find the solutions in teaching English vocabulary, and to find out more techniques in teaching English vocabulary to students at Nghe An Trading and Tourism Vocational College The scope of this research is limited only by focusing on teaching vocabulary The findings of the study can inform classroom teachers who are interested in using new techniques in their vocabulary teaching

2 What are strategies used by teachers and students to overcome difficulties

in teaching and learning English vocabulary?

1.4 Significance of the study

The researcher was conducted with the aim of finding out students’ attitude towards using some new techniques in teaching English vocabulary

From that, teachers will know the ways to apply the techniques in their teaching affectively The researcher will give the chance for the teachers in Nghe

An Trading and Tourism Vocational College to find out the best methods for teaching English vocabulary to the first-year students

1.5 Scope of the study

The study focuses on teaching and learning English vocabulary for the students at Nghe An Trading and Tourism Vocational College, mainly focus on the first year students who are learning basic English Then, the difficulties found out will be analyzed and the solutions will be made to help to improve the teaching and learning English at Nghe An Trading and Tourism Vocational College

The study pays its contributions to both theoretical and practical aspects Theoretically, by exploring difficulties in teaching and learning vocabulary, the study adds to the growing demand of strategies for learning and memorizing words for English language learners (ELLs) Also, by investigating the techniques used to teach vocabulary within academic settings, it is hoped to provide useful information about characteristics and benefits of this interesting but less-exploited strategy in dealing with vocabulary so far

Practically, the study is hopefully to provide some solutions and recommend clear guidelines for teachers to deal with vocabulary in particular and, thus, to facilitate their teaching of English in general For learners, this study hopefully provides useful instructions so that they can use them as effective vocabulary self- learning tips

1.6 Methods of the study

This study involves 10 teachers and 70 students in Nghe An Trading and Tourism Vocational College The study employs survey questionnaire as the principal method of data collection Data are analyzed statistically, resulting in percentage of items The data are presented in tables and figures in Chapter Four More details about research methodology are provided in Chapter Three

1.7 Organization of the thesis

The study consists of the following parts:

Chapter I Introduction

This part introduce the issues leading to the study, including rationale, aims,

methods, scope, and organization of the study

Chapter II: Literature review

Theoretical background relevant to the topic and surveys of articles, books and other resources relevant to a particular the study topic be presented This part

also provide description, summary, and critical evaluation of each work quoted Chapter III Methodology

This part presents the detailed procedure of the study: the methodology, population selection, data collection and analysis

Chapter IV Findings and Discussions

The part deals with the findings drawn out from the analysis of data The findings and discussion are based on the study about difficulties in teaching and learning English vocabulary and the solutions for these problems

Chapter V Conclusion

Main points and contents of the study are summarized based on the results of the study The implication of the study and the recommendation for further research will be presented

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter reviews the literature on teaching vocabulary and teachers’ perception in teaching vocabulary First, main issues related to teaching vocabulary

as a foreign language are presented, such as the definition, the types and the roles of vocabulary, etc In addition, the chapter refers to the perceptions related to vocabulary teaching Finally, the chapter states the previous studies of vocabulary teaching

2.1 Vocabulary

2.1.1 What is vocabulary?

There are many definitions of vocabulary

Vocabulary is defined as "all the words known and used by a particular person" and “all the words which exist in a particular language or subject” (Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary)

According to the Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary (1989,

p.1629), “the vocabulary of a language is the total number of words in it” and

“someone's vocabulary is the total number of words in a language that he or she knows”, However, this term will be used in a more restricted sense in this paper: we will limit ourselves to what Michael Wallace in his work Teaching Vocabulary calls

“content words” as opposed to “structure words”, and which would include nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs derived from adjectives According to this author, structure words are almost deprived of mean trip when consider in isolation and, therefore, should be considered as part of the grammar of a language (Wallace,

1988, p.18)

Another definition of vocabulary: vocabulary is knowledge of words and word meanings However, vocabulary is more complex than this definition suggests First, words come in two forms: oral and print Oral vocabulary includes those words that we recognize and use in listening and speaking Print vocabulary includes those words that we recognize and use in reading and writing

Second, word knowledge also comes in two forms, receptive and productive Receptive vocabulary includes words that we recognize when we hear or see them Productive vocabulary includes words that we use when we speak or write Receptive vocabulary is typically larger than productive vocabulary, and may include many words to which we assign some meaning, even if we don’t know their full definitions and connotations - or ever use them ourselves as we speak and write (Kamil & Hiebert, in press)

Besides, according to Webster’s Dictionary (1993, p.327) “Vocabulary is a list or group of words and phrase, usually in alphabetical order”

In general, vocabulary is a component of language that maintains all

of information about meaning and using word in language (Harimurti Kridalaksana

1993, p.27) It is one of the important factors in learning English besides sound system, grammar, and culture A vocabulary usually grows and evolves with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge Therefore, a person’s vocabulary is the set of words they are familiar with in a language

The extent of students’ vocabulary knowledge relates strongly to their reading comprehension and overall academic success This relationship seems logical; to get meaning from what they read, students need both a great many words

in their vocabularies and the ability to use various strategies to establish the meanings of new words when they encounter them

Writing vocabulary

Writing vocabulary consists of the words we use in writing

A person's writing vocabulary is all the words he or she can employ in writing

Contrary to the previous two vocabulary types, the writing vocabulary

is stimulated by its user

Speaking vocabulary

Speaking vocabulary consists of the words we use in everyday speech

A person's speaking vocabulary is all the words he or she can use in speech Due to the spontaneous nature of the speaking vocabulary, words are often misused

This misuse – though slight and unintentional – may be compensated by facial expressions, tone of voice, or hand gestures

However, according to Nation (1990, p.29), vocabulary is divided in the specific reference, such a word

Receptive vocabulary

Knowing a word involves being able to recognize it when it is heard (what is the sound like?) or when it seen ( what does it look like?) and having an expectation of what grammatical pattern the word will occurrence This includes being able to distinguish it from word with similar form and being able to judge if the word form sounds right or look right

Productive vocabulary

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

Jo Ann Aeborsold and Mary Lee Field classified vocabulary into two terms: active vocabulary and passive vocabulary

Passive vocabulary

Passive vocabulary refers to a language items that can be recognizes and understood in the context of reading or listening and also called as receptive vocabulary Passive vocabulary or comprehension consists of the words comprehended by the people, when they read and listen

From the explaining above, every experts in every book is different in classifying the kinds of vocabulary, because every person has different way in showing and telling their opinion and ideas

although not the only one that conveys meaning There ate certainly other elements such as grammar, stress, rhythm, intonation, tone of voice, pauses, hesitations or silences, not to mention the use of non-vocal phenomena such as kinetic and phonemic features Learning a language cannot be reduced, of course, to only learning vocabulary, but it is also true that “no matter how well the student learns grammar, no matter now successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to a wide range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen

in any meaningful way” (McCarthy 1990 VIII), an idea defended by many applied linguists, e.g Allen (1983, p.1), Wallace (1988, p.9), Corder (Rossner & Bolitho

1990, p.113), Taylor (1990, p.1), Willis (1990, p.1-14) etc Nevertheless, in spite of the importance of this element, vocabulary is often the least systematized and the most neglected of all the aspects of learning a second language, not only in EGP but

in ESP as well (Kennedy & Bolitho, 1984, p.65) This lack of attention is not only characteristic of older grammatical syllabuses but of more recent communicative approaches, On the contrary the emphasis is rather placed on structures, “functions, notions and communicative strategies” (Dubin & Olshtain 1986, p.111-112)

Students need to be made aware of the importance of this element because, in general, there is a tendency to concentrate on grammar, paying little attention to vocabulary This can be done through the so-called “awareness” activities such as the one that follows Two texts are produced from an English passage, one containing all the content words (text A) and the other all the structure words (text B) Half of the class is given A and the other half, B, and they are all asked to infer what the original text is about It is obvious that those having the content word can make at least some guesses whereas the others do not have a clue as to what the passage deals with

2.1.4 What vocabulary to teach: criteria for selection

When making decisions about content, one of the first questions the language teacher will have to address is what vocabulary to teach For many of them this will

be determined by the choice of the course book, the syllabus designers, or other

factors, Even so, the teacher should be concerned about the different criteria used when designing their syllabuses and materials, the ones followed in making decisions about vocabulary content in language courses, and what the objectives of these particular decisions are Otherwise, it becomes difficult to evaluate syllabuses and materials, to understand why particular vocabulary is to be taught as well as to explain to learners why they must learn particular words (McCarthy 1990, p.79) Lexis is, of course, derived in part front the notional-functional and grammatical inventory (time expressions, prepositions, verbs that fit the patterns being dealt with, etc.), but more significantly, it is drawn from the thematic content The themes or topics should be selected according to the learners’ interests, needs and background knowledge, while most of the lexis chosen derives from the treatment of each theme (Dubin & Olshtain, 1986, p.103) Sometimes, however, when the objective is spelling, pronunciation or word formation, for example, it is probably necessary to incorporate words which do not always have to do with the topic being discussed in the unit

Now, different criteria can be employed to select the particular words to be taught, but before dealing with this it is important to point out that every teaching situation is different and so essential items in one context may be quite useless in another (e.g ESP) The relative importance we attach to the various criteria about to

be described below will therefore depend on our own teaching situation

The criteria which may be used to select vocabulary are as follows:

Frequency

It seems self-evident that it is sensible to teach the most frequent words in any language before the more unusual ones are taught as they are likely to be the most useful ones for learners of that language But frequency is a more complex matter than it looks, and it is unlikely that any syllabus or course book would want

to stick to frequency lists alone (Wallace, 1988, p.16) Thus, Richards ( 1974) and later Sinclair and Renouf (1991) say that the most frequent words are not

necessarily the most useful ones for learner s and that common sense demands that the most frequent words be supplemented by intuition

Range

A word may be quite frequent, but a majority or even all of its occurrences might be in just one or two texts In this case, although its frequency might look significant, its range might be quite small The most useful words for the learner then are those which are frequent and occur across a wide variety of texts

Teachers who take their own texts into the classroom will often have to decide from experience, intuition or even the use of a dictionary, which words are likely to have the most useful range, a job which has already been done to a great extent in good course books

Availability and/or expediency

The classroom will also often dictate the need for certain vocabulary without which the SS may fail to understand their teacher, classmates or the activity they are engaged in One of these areas is grammatical terminology Many teachers do not wish to burden their SS with too many grammatical labels, but it is also true understanding such items can be very helpful On the one hand, the explanations given can be shorter and, on the other hand, the student can make a more profitable use of dictionaries and grammar books, it is the teacher who, taking into account factors such as age, course duration, etc., must weigh tips the possible benefits or harm of using such terminology The same would apply to phonological terminology

Another area of classroom language has to do with the items which often appear in language activity instructions Although constant expositive alone usually guarantees that these items with eventually inflated, it is possible to speed up the process by designing classroom activities containing many of these items and so avoid confusion or misunderstanding

Specific need/interest on the learners’ part

It is possible for students to feel they need or to be interested in different

words to those suggested by the teacher or course book, something to be taken into account for the sake of motivation, In fact, their needs or interests perhaps do not even coincide with those of the group or class Our challenge here as teachers is to combine the collective and the individual To this respect, Gairns and Redman (1989, p.57) suggest allowing SS to select any words they wish from a text and, within a given limit of time, to work on them using a dictionary, alongside conventional vocabulary work on the text In this way teat net s are encouraged to recognize their own needs, and are assisted in developing their ability to pursue those needs in organized and productive ways (McCarthy, 1990, p.90)

Learnability

According to McCarthy (1990, p.86): “The difficulty, or lack of difficulty, a word presents may override its frequency and/or range, and decisions to bring forward or postpone the teaching of an item may be based on learnability”

Here we may include words with some spelling difficulties, phonological difficulties, difficult syntactic properties, impossibility of relating the item to one’s world of experience or culture, words very close in meaning and difficult to separate and false friends

Cultural factors

A further criterion to be considered is the question of cultural differences Gairns and Redman think one drawback of word-counts is that, being based on the utterances of native speakers, they will obviously reflect the cultural interests of these speakers Such interests may not, however, be shared by L1 learners, who may wish to express ideas and experiences quite outside those of a native speaker’s (Gairns & Redman 1989: 59)

2.1.5 Vocabulary in learning English as foreign language

The vocabulary for production in learning English as a foreign language is different from that needed for recognition (Heaton 1943: 3) discusses the different between production and recognition skill to memorize vocabulary

Production or productive skill is strategies that activate one’s storage retrieving the words from memory and then by using those words in appropriate situation This productive skill employs vocabulary, words that students understand, can pronounce correctly, and use them in speaking and writing

As for recognition which also called comprehension or reception is the skill

to understand store that words that students recognize and understand when to occur

in a context

Vocabulary is an indispensable element of language that language learners need to acquire The vocabulary which are meant here are only the basic vocabulary related to the material

Vocabulary is a list of the word in a language with their meaning (Hornby,

2000, p.1331) There are several aspects of lexis that need to be taken into account when teaching vocabulary The list below based on the work of Gaims and Redman (1986):

a Polysemy: A term to refer to word which has a set of different meanings which are related by extension

b Homonym: A term to refer to one form, which is the same in both written and spoken, with two or more unrelated meanings

c Metaphors: The meaning of the word not the literal meaning of the words

d Synonym: Sameness of meaning which is not concerned with the conceptual meaning of words, but relation of words which have, more or less, the same conceptual of meaning

e Antonym: Oppositeness of meaning

f Affective meaning: The meaning of words which reflects the personal feelings of the speaker, including attitude to the listener, or attitude to something he

is talking about

2.1.6 How to teach vocabulary

The two most common ways in which the meaning of new items is conveyed

ate as follows:

- Traditional approaches and techniques, which are teacher-centred

- Student-centred learning

Traditional approaches and techniques

Teacher-centred approaches are divided into three main types: visual techniques, verbal techniques and translation

Visual techniques

In teaching the meaning of words, especially at the elementary stage, we should try to establish a link between the word and the meaning by using one of the following means or techniques depending on the word to be taught:

- Realia, i.e objects in the class, including the SS themselves, and others brought to class;

- Pictures, photos, BB drawings, flashcards, slides, wallcharts, transparencies, etc

- Mime, gestures, actions, facial expressions,

Of course, not all vocabulary can be presented in this way, According to Doff (1988, p.14) vocabulary should only be presented visually if it can be done quickly, easily and clearly However, for suitable vocabulary, it is a very effective method: it is direct, interesting and makes an impression on the class

Verbal techniques

There are certainly other techniques which can be used to present vocabulary which arc as follows:

- By giving examples of the type, e.g, to illustrate the meaning of superordinates

- By using illustrative situations, to explain abstract words, for instance

- It allows us to check correct comprehension, if necessary (e.g in the case of false friends)

On the whole, however, translation of vocabulary into the mother tongue should be kept under tight control From the lower intermediate stages onwards it is better to resort to other techniques (e.g a simple explanation in the target language) Apart from giving the student extra exposure to the target language (as students rarely listen so intently as when they are learning new words), this technique has another benefit: if on a future occasion he cannot remember the target item, lie can always give an explanation or a synonym, a technique that is iii fact often used by native speakers of the language The problem with students who have been taught through translation techniques is that they often give up if the exact lexeme does not come to mind, while those who are accustomed to operating in the target language will often fall back on some type of alternative communicative strategy (Wallace,

As regards the proper and efficient use of a dictionary, it is some- thing that students certainly ought to be trained in, if only as a way of helping the student to

be independent of the teacher and the classroom

On the other hand, many of the students’ errors derive from its wrong usage Nevertheless, recourse to the dictionary should not be typical of every reading session as:

- It may encourage the tendency to concentrate on individual words rather than on overall meaning

- The learner may not attempt to use the context to decode meaning, and

- Over-frequent use of the dictionary slows up the flow of reading, and makes the passage more boring to read and perhaps even more difficult to understand since concentration is interrupted (Wallace, 1988, p.43)

We may also choose to teach vocabulary within a within context, especially

at intermediate and advanced levels If we are thinking about a comprehension lesson the teacher should make sure that the SS have at least a general understanding of the passage The usual procedure would be to ask questions to establish the general sense of the passage first and then continue with more specific questions about the meanings of pieces of the text and individual words

This technique is probably the most efficient in the long run As the teacher will only be able to teach the student a small percentage of the words that he or she will later need, it seems to be a good idea to pro- mote extensive reading so that the SS’s vocabulary can grow naturally, and to spend some time on showing SS what Nuttall (1988, p.66) calls “word-attack skills” Through these it is possible, to infer meaning from context in the same way native speakers or competent speakers of a foreign language do, to show SS that many words can just be ignored, probably the first and most basic word-attack skill and the most difficult one to accept

Students must be taught to use sentence structure to establish the grammatical category of the new item, word structure to find out the type of word it

is and its meaning, as well as contextual, logical and cultural clues to discover the meaning (Grellet, 1990, p.14-16) And FL readers certainly do require specific training in using this skill for different reasons:

Because L2 readers have less exposure to the language than LI readers and, therefore, have to make more conscious effort to learn words (Nuttall, 1988, p.70)

Because most SS are not aware that it is possible to under stand new words without being told what they mean (Bright & McGregor , 1970)

Because we need to encourage the students to adopt a positive attitude towards new lexical items instead of the negative one they instinctively adopt

In spite of what we have said, the teacher may choose to ignore the unknown term, unless a quest ion about it is raised by the students This does not necessarily mean that the teacher is not doing his duty, as it is not always necessary to understand the meaning of every single word in a passage to grasp its general sense

as happens when reading iii out own language It depends on the teacher’s

objectives

2.1.7 Current trends in L2 vocabulary teaching

Oxford and Scarcella (1994) propose a new research-based approach to vocabulary teaching after examining relevant research concerning student motivation and need, the complexity of knowing a word, as well as factors that affect L2 vocabulary acquisition

Compared with traditional approaches, in which vocabulary is often taught unsystematically in class and teachers tend to leave their students to learn vocabulary on their own without much instruction or guidance, teachers following this new research-based approach focus on words students are expected to meet frequently, and present words systematically based on a careful consideration of needs analysis

Vocabulary instruction is personalized according to learners’ different learning needs, goals, and styles Since most vocabulary learning takes place outside of the language classroom, learners are also trained to raise their awareness

of the knowledge involved in knowing a lexical item and the process of learning a new word Substantial emphasis on vocabulary learning strategies helps students become independent language learners inside and outside class Among the numerous vocabulary learning strategies, guessing from context is held to be the most useful one However, some studies (e.g Pressley et al 1987; Kelly 1990) indicate that learners seldom guess the correct meanings In this approach, therefore, teachers guide students to use this strategy effectively and give them opportunities to practice the skill in class A final point to note is that teachers reduce “decontextualized” vocabulary learning activities in class (e.g word lists,

flashcards) whereas implementing more “partially contextualized” (e.g word association, visual and aural imagery, semantic mapping) or “fully contextualized” activities (e.g reading, listening, speaking, and writing in authentic communication activities)

The arguments mentioned above are mostly supported by Sökmen (1997), commenting that the skill of guessing/inferring from context is a useful strategy in vocabulary learning and should be covered in a language classroom Nevertheless, some potential problems arise if learners mainly acquire vocabulary in this way For example, acquiring vocabulary through guessing in context is probably a rather slow process given the limited amount of time learners can afford in class In addition, guessing from context does not necessarily help learners commit the guessed words into their long-term memory For example, a study of intermediate level adult ESL students by Wesche and Paribakht (1994, cited Sökmen 1997) shows that learners who read and complete accompanying vocabulary exercises perform better in word acquisition than those who only do extensive reading As a result, scholars come to call for a greater need of an explicit approach to vocabulary instruction, such as word unit analysis, mnemonic devices, etc Sökmen (1997) thus states that “the pendulum has swung from direct teaching of vocabulary (the grammar translation method) to incidental (the communicative approach) and now, laudably, back to the middle: implicit and explicit learning” (p.239) In addition, considerable emphasis is put on encouraging independent learning strategies among students so that they know how to continue to learn vocabulary on their own After experiencing what Resnick (1989) calls a ‘cognitive apprenticeship’, students will acquire some skills to promote the depth of word processing and manage individual vocabulary learning through the model of their teachers (Sökmen, 1997) The time and efforts spent on developing learning strategies will reflect its value afterwards

2.2 Teachers' beliefs

2.2.1 Teachers’ beliefs

Because investigating teachers’ perceptions about teaching vocabulary is set

under the umbrella of the area of teacher’s beliefs It is thus important to understand this area in order to build a vivid theoretical framework into researching teachers’ mental lives This section will present definitions of teachers’ beliefs generally and

in the area of language teaching in particular to ultimately establish an operational definition on teachers’ beliefs relevant to this study

It is difficult to define teachers’ beliefs To many researchers, beliefs are a construct not easily captured and clearly distinguished (Pajares, 1992) Furthermore, many other terms have been used to refer to this concept, such as knowledge, theories, attitudes, metaphors, assumptions, conceptions and perspectives (Borg, 2006)

According to Richardson (1996), a teacher’s belief is “a proposition that is accepted as true by the individual holding the belief” (p.104) This means that beliefs represent a teacher’s subjective proposition about aspects of their work Different from knowledge, beliefs can been seen as “judgment of the truth or falsity

of a proposition” (Pajares, 1992, p 316), rather than factual knowledge which can only be measured by correct and incorrect answers This study adopts these ideas of defining teachers’ beliefs Beliefs are then can be explored by examining teachers’ evaluative comments or statements in relation to specific aspects of their work, such

as teaching vocabulary

2.2.2 Research on teachers’ beliefs and teaching practices

A number of studies have attempted to examine the extent to which teachers’ beliefs influence their classroom practices Findings from the mainstream research collectively suggest that language teachers’ instructional practices are affected by a wide range of interacting and often conflicting factors Although teachers’ beliefs are consistently recognized to have a powerful influence on their instructional practices, they do not always reflect teachers’ stated beliefs, personal theories, and pedagogical principles (Borg, 2003)

Correspondence between Beliefs and Practices

In a study on the relationship between thirty ESL teachers’ beliefs and practices during literacy instruction, Johnson (1992, cited Richards 1998) identified three different methodological positions among these teachers: a skills-based approach, which views language as being composed of four discrete language skills;

a rules-based approach, which views language as a process of creative manipulation

of grammar rules; and a function-based approach, which focuses on the communicative ability in real-life contexts The majority of the teachers in the study were found to hold beliefs which consistently reflected one of these approaches and perform their instructional practices conforming to the corresponding theoretical orientation Woods (1991 cited Richards 1998) conducted a longitudinal study of two ESL teachers with different approaches to teaching, one of which was

“curriculum-based” while the other “student-based” The teacher with the curriculum-based view tended to implement classroom activities primarily according to what is organized in the curriculum On the other hand, the teacher with the student-based view took account of factors principally concerning the particular group of learners in the particular context when making decisions during instructional practices Woods found that “the decisions made in planning and carrying out the course were internally consistent, and consistent with deeper underlying assumptions and beliefs about language, learning and teaching” (p.4) The above two studies have positively demonstrated the influence of teachers’

beliefs on their practices

Discrepancy between Beliefs and Practices

Although some studies have produced evidence to illustrate the correspondence between teachers’ beliefs and their teaching practices, still a large amount of research has indicated the inconsistency between them Yim (1993 cited Richards 1998), for example, investigated ESL teachers in Singapore about their perceptions of the place of grammar and their classroom practices It was found that those teachers tended to implement more exam-based and structured grammar

activities which did not much reflect their stated beliefs toward a communicative orientation After a review of research, Borg (2003) comments that factors such as parents, principals’ requirements, the school, society, curriculum mandates, classroom and school layout, school policies, colleagues, standardized tests and the availability of resources may hinder language teachers’ ability to carry out instructional practices reflecting their beliefs Further evidence of how the context might conflict with beliefs comes from Richards & Pennington’s (1998) study of teachers in their first year of teaching in Hong Kong All the teachers studied received training toward a communicative approach in their pre-service education However, their classroom practices did not reflect the principles they were trained

to follow Factors like large classes, unmotivated students, examination pressures, a set syllabus, pressure to conform from more experienced teachers, students’ limited proficiency in English, students’ resistance to new ways of learning, and heavy workloads were mentioned to account for the discrepancy The researchers then conclude that:

Such factors discourage experimentation and innovation, and encourage a

‘safe’ strategy of sticking close to prescribed materials and familiar teaching approaches Without any relief from these factors and without any reward for innovating in the face of them, the teachers would naturally be led back toward a conservative teaching approach to align themselves with the characteristics of the existing teaching context Another example is provided by Chang & Huang (2001 cited Nien 2002), who investigated the relationship between teachers’ beliefs about Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and their teaching practices The study was conducted in Taiwan among 119 English teachers from Taipei public senior high schools The subject was requested to evaluate current English teaching context and express their beliefs in CLT by filling in a questionnaire The findings have shown that these teachers still adopted the more traditional teacher-centred and lecture-type approach in their classroom practices whereas they held positive beliefs toward CLT The discrepancy was also attributable to some contextual factors

mentioned previously, such as large classes and inadequacy of school facilities Lack of opportunities to receive in-service training was another impediment in performing their ideal instructional practices

Studies on pre-service or novice teachers’ beliefs and practices have also shed light on our understanding in this area After examining four ESL pre-service teachers’ emerging beliefs and instructional practices, Johnson (1994) maintains that lack of alternative images of teachers and teaching to act as a model seems to primarily account for these pre-service teachers’ difficulty in changing their behaviours Richards (1998) thus proposes to incorporate case materials from expert teachers, either in written or videotaped form, into the second language teacher education to help novice teachers develop more pedagogical reasoning skills

Following this advice, this study adopts Richardson’s (1996) definition of a teacher’s belief, which is “a proposition that is accepted as true by the individual holding the belief” (p.104) This definition is in line with that proposed by Pajares (1992) which describes teachers’ beliefs as “judgment of the truth or falsity of a proposition” (p 316) In the present study, beliefs are elicited in relation to actual classroom behaviors carried out by the teachers, and thus teachers’ beliefs are identified as interpretation of teachers’ evaluative statements about specific classroom behaviors through which personal ideas, thoughts and judgment about how language should be taught become explicit

Building on the work of Green (1971) and Rokeach (1968), Haney and McArthur (2002) and Phipps and Borg (2009) have distinguished beliefs that are core and those that are peripheral According to these authors, core beliefs are more influential and less susceptible to change The centrality of beliefs is defined by Rokeach (1968) in terms of “connectedness” (p.5) As such, beliefs that are connected with the individual’s identity and that are shared by others in the community are more connected Similarly, beliefs that are (positively) experienced

or learnt from others through observation are more connected In contrast, beliefs,

such as those about matters of taste, which are less connected to other beliefs and experience, are considered peripheral

In the present study, core and peripheral beliefs are identified according to whether such beliefs are enacted in the classroom behaviours (Haney & McArthur, 2002) As such, core beliefs are defined as those which are both expressed by the teachers and realised in classroom practices Peripheral beliefs are stated, but are not observed in their teaching

2.2.3 Teachers’ perceptions of learner difficulty

Teachers’ perceptions of learner difficulty (TPLD) in learning EFL vocabulary may influence lesson planning decisions and teachers’ feedback to learners on their performance in learning tasks; and thus, learners’ own perceptions of difficulty Tajino’s review of the SLA literature (1997) reveals that difficulty has often been viewed from a product-oriented perspective: difficulty leads to error, and error adequately reflects difficulty However, a dominant focus on apparent error or success may pre-empt efforts to understand how students arrive at points on a continuum of failure or success

In vocabulary learning, in particular, it is difficult to measure word knowledge (Read , 2000 ; Nation , 2001) and thus, teachers need to pay attention to vocabulary learning processes A product-oriented view may not dominate vocabulary acquisition research in coming years because a growing general acceptance of the complex nature of word knowledge (Richards, 1976; Nation , 2001), of the key role of the influences of the L1 lexicon (Laufer, 1997; Swan, 1997), and also, of the incremental nature of vocabulary learning (Schmitt, 1997) will likely lead to greater interest in the process of vocabulary learning Both product-oriented and process-oriented views of difficulty in vocabulary learning would contribute to a better understanding of how teachers can support their students as they learn vocabulary Attempts at objective speculations of difficulty issues need to be balanced by recognition

that individuals may view difficulty in highly personal ways Corder’s view (1973: 226) that difficulty is “a matter of subjective judgment” remains largely unexamined in vocabulary learning research Research in the field of social psychology provides some insight on the significance of individual perception of difficulty Attribution theory (Weiner, 1980; Hewstone, 1989) argues that the way we attribute the cause of difficulty can be a motivational factor because perceived difficulty can affect the process of L2 teaching and learning (Horowitz, 1987; Tajino, 1997; Dornyei and Schmidt, 2001) Explorations of teachers’ and students’ views of difficulty may provide insights that could help sustain teachers’ and students’ motivation over the long periods of time required to build second language vocabulary This paper reports a study of how upper secondary school teachers view the difficulties their learners have learning new words

2.2.4 Teachers’ perception of vocabulary teaching

Vocabulary, according to Armbruster & Nagy (1992), plays an important

part in both reading and content area lessons

Content vocabulary consists of many low-frequency words that do not appear in other contexts This limitation makes it difficult to learn these words through wide reading, as Nagy and Scott (2000) suggest as a means to develop extensive vocabularies

An effective instructional approach to content area vocabulary “must take into account the different roles that words play in a text and must utilize methods that help students build new concepts” (Armbruster & Nagy, 1992, p.550) The traditional approach to vocabulary instruction is to require students to learn definitions of words, either by drill or by looking words up in a glossary or a dictionary (Manzo & Sherk, 1972; Petty, Herold, & Stoll, 1968 as cited in Herman

& Dole, 1988) While teaching words by drill and or dictionary allows the teacher

to cover a vast quantity of words in a little time, there is no guarantee that using

either of these methods will result in students truly achieving comprehension of the definitions of the new words

This is not to say that using the definitional approach to teaching vocabulary should be avoided Rather, learning definitions of words can be very effective in teaching vocabulary when the students already have an understanding of the underlying concept of the term (Texas Education Agency, 2002) It is easy for students to make meaningful connections of new words to what they already know (Herman & Dole, 1988) Conversely, if students do not have any De Siena’s Vocabulary Instruction Capstone understanding of a new word, it will be difficult understand the new concept Using the definitional approach in this instance will most likely make it difficult for the student to commit the new word to their memory (Armbruster & Nagy, 1992; Texas Education Agency, 2002)

The focus of effective vocabulary practices should be placed on effecting and improving comprehension, not just on word knowledge alone (Beck & McKoewn, 1991; Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986) According to Nagy (1988), effective and explicit instruction of vocabulary has three components: integration, repetition, and meaningful use When teaching new words, teachers need to relate them to other words and concepts This is reflective of schema theory as it involves students relating unknown words to known concepts, with an emphasis placed on students’ background or existing knowledge (Harmon et al., 2005) Students also need to interact with new words on a regular basis across a variety of contexts so that its meaning can be automatically accessed during reading (Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986) The third feature of effectively teaching a word, meaningful use, is tied to the level

of word processing needed to perform a task, or rather, “the level at which students are actively engaged in using the word meanings” (Harmon et al., 2005, p 266) According to Nagy (1988), the higher level of engagement or processing a student has with a word, the more likely students will learn and retain the word’s meaning Ogle et al (2007) agree with this method of word learning, saying “new terms need

to be integrated with what students already know; new terms need to be taught and

retaught in multiple contexts; and students need to use new terms in ways that are meaningful to them” (p 50)

To avoid the mundane and ineffective drill and practice for teaching new vocabulary, Graves (1986) advocates teaching students new concepts in five steps Known as concept teaching, the steps are: (1) defining the new concept by giving its essential attributes; (2) De Siena’s Vocabulary Instruction Capstone distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant properties of instances of the concept; (3) giving examples of the concept; (4) giving non-examples of the concept; and (5) relating the concept being taught to superordinate, subordinate, and coordinate concepts (p 66) While Graves (1986) concedes that this method of teaching students new concepts is costly in terms of teacher time, the procedure provides a very thorough and effective introduction to new concepts

Another useful and effective strategy that encourages word comprehension is semantic mapping (Johnson et al., 1982 in Graves 1986) This method of vocabulary instruction does not require a great deal of out-of-class preparation However, mapping a word requires as much as 30 minutes of class time to firmly develop a central concept The majority of this in-class time involves teacher and whole-class discussion Semantic mapping involves the teacher placing a word representing a central concept on the board Students work in pairs or groups and list as many words related to the central concept as they can The students are then invited to share-out with the class the words they came up with for the new concept The teacher writes the student responses on the board, making sure to write them in broad categories that the students subsequently name The teacher and class then engage in a discussion about the central concept, the other words, the categories, and their interrelationships

Using semantic mapping also has the added benefit of promoting student interaction

From a sociocultural perspective, learning is a social activity (Vygotsky, 1978) When students have the opportunity to work together, they are more likely to

be actively engaged and thus develop a more positive attitude towards learning (Spencer & Guillaume, 2006) Furthermore, both Nagy and Scott (2000) affirm that knowing a word ultimately means being able to “do things with it” (p 237) In addition to providing students with the ability to actively engage in De Siena’s Vocabulary Instruction Capstone learning activities, semantic maps help students make meaningful connections between new vocabulary and prior knowledge and see the relationships among conceptual ideas (Nagy, 1998) Teaching students how

to infer word meaning is also another effective means of teaching vocabulary (Joshi, 2005) Teaching students how to locate and recognize common morphemic roots can, according to Joshi, provide insight into word meanings Nagy and Scott (2000) found that the meanings of 60% of multisyllabic words could be inferred by analyzing word parts For instance, knowing the meaning of “tract” (to draw or pull) can unlock the meaning of tractor, retract, subtract, detract, contract, and so on Learning Latin and Greek prefixes, roots, and suffixes help students unlock the meaning to a multitude of new words This is not surprising, as much of the English language comes from these two classic languages (Bromley, 2007) The ability to unpack multisyllabic words is an especially valuable skill in science, where many of the terms contain Latin or Greek roots such as geothermal, biology, microscope, zoology Endocrine, and anatomy (Bromley, 2007) One strategy to help students see the connection between Latin/Greek roots and words in English is to create root word family trees In this activity, the teacher draws a tree and writes a Latin or Greek root word and definition in the trunk Students are invited to brainstorm all the words that that they know which contain the root word (Greenleaf et al., 2005)

Nagy’s (1988) research into elements of effective vocabulary instruction reveals that there are three components that promote word learning and comprehension: integration, repetition, and meaningful use By building upon students’ background knowledge, new concepts and words can be integrated into what students already know Allen (2003) suggests that by using a graphic organizer such as the “Understanding a Concept ABC x 2”, students can easily record what