The effect of explicit vocabulary teaching on ESP students’ vocabulary acquisition – A Quasi-experimental research in Vung Tau Vocational College

The effect of explicit vocabulary teaching on ESP students’ vocabulary acquisition – A Quasi-experimental research in Vung Tau Vocational College Nguyễn Thị Nhung Trường Đại học Ngoại

The effect of explicit vocabulary teaching on ESP students’ vocabulary acquisition – A Quasi-experimental research in Vung Tau

Vocational College Nguyễn Thị Nhung

Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ Luận văn ThS Chuyên ngành: Theory and methodology of English teaching

Mã số: 60 14 10 Người hướng dẫn: Hoành Thị Xuân Hoa, PhD

Năm bảo vệ: 2011

Abstract: Vocabulary plays an important role in learning a foreign language, especially in

learning English for Specific Purposes (ESP) Many vocabulary teaching methods, both implicit and explicit, have been proved to be effective in improving students’ vocabulary acquisition However, which of the methods is better for students who have limited vocabulary knowledge and mainly deal with mostly nouns and verbs related to Tourism Industry in their ESP course is

an open question.This study examines the effect of Explicit Vocabulary Teaching on ESP Students’ Vocabulary Acquisition by comparing the effect of Implicit Vocabulary Teaching and Explicit vocabulary teaching on the increase of college students’ English vocabulary knowledge

A quasi-experimental design was used to assess the effect of Explicit Vocabulary Teaching Two second-year classes of Cookery at VTVC were selected as the subjects of the study and were given a pre-test, which was intended to check if there was a significant difference between the two classes’ vocabulary knowledge After 6 weeks of the application of Implicit Vocabulary Teaching versus Explicit Vocabulary Teaching methods, a post-test was administered to examine whether there was a difference in the students’ vocabulary knowledge before and after the treatment.The results of the study show that Explicit Vocabulary Teaching is more effective than the Implicit Vocabulary Teaching in increasing the students’ English vocabulary knowledge

Keywords: Từ vựng; Phương pháp giảng dạy; Tiếng Anh

Content

PART A – INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

In Vung Tau Tourism Vocational College (VTVC) where the researcher has been a teacher of English for eight years, English is taught as a compulsory subject together with other vocational ones During the final course, students mainly use the ESP course book “Ready to Order” by

Baude, A Iglesias, M and Inesta, A (2004) to learn integrated English language skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing However, Listening and Speaking are the primary skills which are designed on a large number of vocabulary for specific purposes (Food & Beverage) Most of vocabulary in this material are unfamiliar to the students During eight years of teaching, the researcher has observed the fact that many students cannot remember and retain ESP words though they try a lot in learning them The level of students at VTVC is quite low so it is difficult for them to get the word meanings in context with their limited vocabulary knowledge That students cannot understand, retain and use necessary ESP words causes frustration and results in their negative attitude towards the ESP course This situation makes the researcher as well as her colleagues reconsider their method of teaching vocabulary For this reason the research was carried out with the aim to find a solution for the problem A Quasi-Experimental Research was conducted on ESP vocabulary teaching in which the Explicit and Implicit Vocabulary Teaching Approaches were implemented

Vocabulary is very important in language learning, as McCarthy states that “the biggest component of any language course is vocabulary” (1990, p.viii) The status of vocabulary in language learning and teaching has changed dramatically in the last two decades “Since the mid-1980s there has been renewed interest in the role of vocabulary in second language learning” (Coady and Huckin, 1997, p.ix) Being aware of the important role of vocabulary, teachers have been seeking for effective vocabulary teaching approaches for their own contexts The main problem that a classroom teacher is faced with in teaching vocabulary is how best to help students understand, retain and use words in the target language So far, there have been many different approaches to vocabulary teaching and learning Chacón-Beltrán reveals that “A great deal of recent research into second language vocabulary teaching and learning has been devoted

to the comparison of explicit and implicit approaches” (2010, p.4)

Explicit vocabulary teaching is particularly useful for students who access ESP for the first time, they are seen as beginning students who have a limited reading vocabulary and little exposure to incidental vocabulary learning outside of school Current research would suggest that it is worthwhile to add explicit vocabulary to the usual inferring activities in the second language classroom where the weak students are asked to deal with new words in reading passages Explicit method seems better for students who cannot find the clues to determine the meanings

of words in a strange context, as Beck, McKeown, & Kucan (2002) cited in Archer, A.L, Hughes, C.A (2011, p.54) : “Explicit vocabulary instruction is particularly critical for struggling

readers, who do not read extensively and have more difficulty using contextual cues to determine word meaning”

2 Aim of the study

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

3 Research questions

In order to achieve the above aim, the research was carried out to find the answer to the following research question:

To what extent does the Explicit Vocabulary Teaching help to improve ESP students’ vocabulary acquisition?

The answer for the main research question was identified by answering two sub-research questions:

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

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

4 Scope of the study

The study was carried out to aim at finding the effect of Explicit Vocabulary Teaching on ESP Students’ Vocabulary Acquisition at VTVC It was conducted on 42 students at two Cookery Classes at Restaurant Management Department A quasi-experimental design was implemented

so the sample was not randomized All the subjects of the study were from two intact groups The research was carried out in one month and a half

5 Method of the study

A Quasi-Experimental Research design was conducted to gain the research’s aim Data were collected from a pre-test and a post-test Two intact classes were assigned as the control group and the experimental group The control group learned ESP vocabulary in the reading

comprehension texts through the implicit vocabulary teaching as the requirements in the course book The experimental group also received the same amount of ESP vocabulary but through the explicit vocabulary teaching in which exercises and activities are used to focus students’ attention on vocabulary The two groups were taught English in two different classes, so the experimental group did not know they were receiving a special treatment

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

6 Organisation of the thesis

The thesis consists of three parts

PART A – INTRODUCTION

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

PART B – DEVELOPMENT

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

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

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

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY

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

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DATA ANALYSIS

This part presents the results of the study and analysis of the collected data from the tests

PART C – CONCLUSION

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

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