USING SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS TO DEVELOP VOCABULARY FOR FIRST YEAR STUDENTS AT THE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY AND FOREIGN RELATION ECONOMY HANOI

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIUNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ KIM OANH USING SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS TO DEVELOP

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL

STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ KIM OANH

USING SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS TO DEVELOP VOCABULARY FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT THE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY AND FOREIGN

RELATION ECONOMY, HANOI (Sử dụng tài liệu đọc hiểu bổ trợ để phát triển từ vựng

cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất tại trường Trung Cấp Công nghệ và Kinh tế

đối ngoại, Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60 140 111

Hanoi – 2015

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL

STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ KIM OANH

USING SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS TO DEVELOP VOCABULARY FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT THE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY AND FOREIGN

RELATION ECONOMY, HANOI (Sử dụng tài liệu đọc hiểu bổ trợ để phát triển từ vựng

cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất tại trường Trung Cấp Công nghệ và Kinh tế

đối ngoại, Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 140 111

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Kiều Thị Thu Hương

Hanoi – 2015

I certify that this minor thesis entitled “Using supplementary reading materials to develop vocabulary for first-year students at the College of Technology and Foreign Relation Economy, Hanoi”, which is submitted in

partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master ofArts, is the study of my own research and that the substance ofthis thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for a degree

to any other universities or institutions

Hanoi, March 2015

Nguyen Thi Kim Oanh

Next, my thanks are due to the lecturers and the staff of theFaculty of Post-Graduate Studies at University of Languages andInternational Studies – Vietnam National University for their usefullectures, careful guidance and enthusiasm, which fostered andnurtured my love of learning and doing research.

I take this opportunity to thank the teachers and students atthe College of Technology and Foreign Relation Economy for theirsupport and kind assistance during my study

I am also grateful to Assoc Prof Dr Lê Văn Canh who hassent me documents and helped me to develop ideas for the study

Great acknowledgement is made to all authors of the booksand the articles listed in the references whose ideas have inspiredand stimulated my thinking and my writing of this study

Last but not least, my thanks go to my family members and

my best friends whose support and continual encouragement havebeen indispensable for the fulfillment of this challenging study

Hanoi, March 2015

Nguyen Thi Kim Oanh

ABSTRACT

In order to broaden students’ vocabulary, the researcher hasplanned to use supplementary reading materials in line with thecore material This study aims at developing vocabulary for first-year students at the College of Technology and Foreign RelationEconomy through supplementary reading materials It is based on

a survey research to obtain its objectives The subjects of thestudy are 85 first-year students at the elementary level in theacademic year of 2014-2015, and three classes have beenobserved The data have been collected from two main sources:two sets of questionnaires and class observations The results ofthe study show that there have been improvement in students’vocabulary knowledge after students took part in the program.Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to use the supplementaryreading materials besides the core material However, they shouldpay attention to the selection of suitable reading texts plusvocabulary-enhancement exercises and additional vocabularyexercises so as to develop students’ vocabulary

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

- CTFRE: College of Technology and Foreign Relation Economy

- L2: Second Language

- EFL: English as a Foreign Language

- ESL: English as a Second Language

- SRP: Supplementary Reading Program

Table 5: Students’ attitudes towards supplementary reading

materials………25

Chart 4: Students’ assessment of the benefits of the

materials……… 26

Chart 5: Students’ assessment of the benefits of the

supplementary reading texts 27

Chart 6: Students’ assessment of their vocabulary knowledge

SRP……… 28

Table 6: Students’ perceptions of the effect of the SRP on their

vocabulary

knowledge………28

Table 7: Students’ favorite topics in the supplementary reading texts……….29

Table 8: Students’ suggestions for good supplementary reading texts……….30

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ABSTRACT i

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS i

LIST OF TABLES i

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale for the study 1

2 Aims of the study 1

3 Research questions 1

4 Scope of the study 1

5 Significance of the study 1

6 Research methodology 1

7 Design of the study 1

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 1

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1

1.1 English vocabulary in EFL/ESL teaching and learning 1

1 1.1 Definitions of vocabulary 1

1.1.2 Role of vocabulary in EFL/ESL teaching and learning 1

1.1.3 Components of vocabulary taught in class 1

1.2 Approaches to vocabulary learning 1

1.2.1 Incidental and intentional vocabulary learning 1

1.2.2 Implicit and explicit vocabulary learning 1

1.3 Vocabulary development and reading comprehension 1

1.3 1 Related studies 1

1.3 2 Relationship between vocabulary and reading 1

1.4 Supplementary reading materials 1

1.4.1 Definitions of supplementary materials 1

1.4.2 Criteria for selecting appropriate supplementary materials .1 1.5 Summary 1

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 1

2.1 Research context 1

2.2 Subjects 1

2.3 Description of materials 1

2.3.1 Course book “New Headway Elementary” 1

2.3.2 First-year students’ syllabus 1

2.3.3 Supplementary reading materials 1

2.4 Application of the supplementary reading program 1

2.5 Data collection instruments 1

2.5.1 Survey questionnaires 1

2.5.2 Class observations 1

2.6 Data collection procedures 1

2.7 Summary ……… 20

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS, RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 1

3.1 Data analysis 1

3.1.1 Students’ attitudes towards current vocabulary learning 1

3.1.2.Students’ attitudes towards supplementary reading materials .1

3.1.3 Data collected from classroom observations 1

3.2 Discussions of research questions 1

3.2.1 Students’ attitudes towards current vocabulary learning 1

3.2.2 Students’ perceptions of supplementary reading materials .1 PART C: CONCLUSION 1

1 Major findings 1

2 Recommendations 1

2.1 Suggestions for selecting the supplementary reading materials .1

2.2 Suggestions for teaching vocabulary 1

3 Limitations of the study 1

4 Suggestions for further studies 1

REFERENCES 1 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE I………I APPENDIX 2: BẢNG CÂU HỎI ĐIỀU TRA I APPENDIX 3: QUESTIONNAIRE II I APPENDIX 4: BẢNG CÂU HỎI ĐIỀU TRA I APPENDIX 5: SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS I

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

As Folse (2008:12) states “To improve their second languageproficiency, English language learners need a solid knowledge ofvocabulary While a basic level of vocabulary will allow learners tocommunicate some ideas to a certain degree, bettercommunication – whether in speaking/listening or writing/reading –can be accomplished when learners have acquired morevocabulary”

Thus, vocabulary is a core component of languageproficiency and provides the fundamental basis for learners tospeak, listen, read, and write In fact, for many students,vocabulary is the greatest threat of all They cannot get theirmessages across because they do not have adequate vocabulary

to make what they want to convey understood Many studentscannot do well in English as they possess a small vocabulary size

At the College of Technology and Foreign Relation Economy,vocabulary has not been taught separately, but mixed withlessons of reading, speaking, writing or listening Vocabulary isparticularly important because students have to acquire a largeamount of English vocabulary to do tests on reading, listeningskills and they also need good vocabulary knowledge to expresstheir ideas in writing and speaking However, first-year students’English vocabulary knowledge is still limited even though theyhave been learning English for seven years at secondary and highschools As a result, they find it difficult to focus on learningEnglish Some even say it is boring to learn English because theirinsufficient vocabulary is one of their biggest frustrations

In Vietnam, there have been few studies on the effectiveness

of developing vocabulary through the supplementary readingmaterials so far Hence, as a teacher of English at the College ofTechnology and Foreign Relation Economy, I realize theimportance of finding out an effective method to develop students’vocabulary, so I have decided to conduct the study entitled

“Using supplementary reading materials to develop vocabulary for first-year students of the College of Technology and Foreign Relation Economy”.

2 Aims of the study

The study aims at exploring the use of supplementaryreading materials to develop vocabulary for first-year students atthe College of Technology and Foreign Relation Economy and togive recommendations on how to use supplementary readingmaterials efficiently

The aims of the research are as follows:

 Finding out first-year students attitudes towardsdeveloping vocabulary,

 Examining first-year students’ perceptions ofsupplementary reading materials for vocabularydevelopment

2 What are first-year students’ perceptions of supplementary reading materials for vocabulary development?

4 Scope of the study

The research only focuses on developing first-year students’vocabulary through supplementary reading materials at theCollege of Technology and Foreign Relation Economy (CTFRE fromnow on) Given time constraint, the study has been conducted onfirst-year students in three classes only

5 Significance of the study

This research has been done with the hope that it will helpthe teaching and learning English vocabulary for first-yearstudents at CTFRE more effective If this way of teaching andlearning vocabulary actually helps to develop students’ vocabularyknowledge, it can be applied to the teaching and learning ofEnglish at other colleges and universities

6 Research methodology

The methods used in the study are both qualitative andquantitative In order to find out answers to the above researchquestions, two sets of questionnaire have been designed anddelivered to 85 first-year students The data have been collected,synthesized and analyzed The questionnaires are aboutvocabulary activities and the supplementary reading materials todevelop vocabulary Besides, more information needed for thestudy have been gathered through class observations at CTFRE

7 Design of the study

This study includes three main parts, which are presented asfollows:

Part A is the introduction which includes the rationale for

the research topic, aims and research questions, researchmethodology, scope, significance and design of the study

Part B is the development which consists of three chapters: Chapter 1 reviews some theoretical background relevant to

the study It includes general knowledge of English vocabulary inEFL/ESL teaching and learning and an overview of thesupplementary reading materials

Chapter 2 presents the research methodology This chapter

introduces the research context, subjects, materials, datacollection instruments and procedures

Chapter 3 goes into details of data analysis, results and

discussion

Part C is the conclusion which includes the major findings,

recommendations, limitations of the study and suggestions forfurther studies

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter will review some background informationrelevant to this study An overview of English vocabulary such asits definitions and components taught in class; role of vocabulary

in EFL/ESL teaching and learning; and approaches to vocabulary ispresented Moreover, the relationship between vocabulary and

reading comprehension, some related studies on vocabularyacquisition through reading and some points on supplementaryreading materials are also referred to

1.1 English vocabulary in EFL/ESL teaching and learning

1 1.1 Definitions of vocabulary

There have been different definitions of vocabulary Ur(1996:60) defines vocabulary as “the words we teach in theforeign language” However, he also asserts,“a new item ofvocabulary may be more than a single word: a compound of two orthree words or multi-word idioms”

Similarly, in “Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics”, Richards and Schmidt (2002:580) give the

same definition of vocabulary Vocabulary is defined as “a set oflexemes, including single words, compound words and idioms”

1.1.2 Role of vocabulary in EFL/ESL teaching and learning

Vocabulary is central to English language teaching becausewithout sufficient vocabulary students cannot understand others

or express their own ideas Talking about the role of vocabulary,Wilkins says “There is not much value in being able to producegrammatical sentences if one has not got the vocabulary that isneeded to convey what one wishes to say While withoutgrammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothingcan be conveyed” (Wilkins, 1972:110-111)

This point reflects my experience with foreign languages too.Very often, I can manage to make myself understood using wordsonly In fact, vocabulary is the decisive element that helps developthe four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing In order

to communicate well in a foreign language, students shouldacquire an adequate number of words and should know to usethem accurately and appropriately.

McCarthy affirms that vocabulary is “the biggest component”

of any language course (McCarthy, 1990: viii) He states “Nomatter how well the student learns grammar, no matter howsuccessfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words toexpress a wide range of meanings, communication in an L2 justcannot happen in any meaningful way” (McCarthy, 1990: viii)

Vocabulary is an essential component of language

“Vocabulary is central to language” and “words are of criticalimportance to the typical language learner” (Coady and Huckin,1997:1)

Nowadays, vocabulary always plays an important role in EFL/ESL teaching and learning because vocabulary knowledge canhelp language users perform and develop language skills.Therefore, it is undeniable that vocabulary plays an extremelyimportant role in making language learning successful and thatthe acquisition of adequate vocabulary is essential for propersecond language use The main objective of language learners is

to be able to use language to communicate well with peoplearound To achieve this objective, they have to master enoughvocabulary of that language; if not, they will find it impossible toexpress themselves in different circumstances Indeed, asstudents succeed in obtaining wide knowledge of vocabulary, theyoften get more confidence in using language and they can performother language skills for various communicative purposes

1.1.3 Components of vocabulary taught in class

According to Ur (1996:60), when vocabulary is introduced tolearners, pronunciation and spelling, word form, grammar,collocation, aspects of meaning and word formation need to betaught

Pronunciation and spelling

The pronunciation and spelling are introduced in vocabularylessons To many students, the relationship between sound andspelling is complex Teachers help students understand

homophones in English such as “son/sun”, “their/ there” They are

words with the same pronunciation but different spellings andmeanings The English language is full of these and,unfortunately, they are among the most common words in thelanguage In addition, students also meet difficulty in recognizingwords with the same spelling and pronunciation but different

meanings such as the pair “left” (past tense of leave) and “left”

(opposite of right)

Grammar

It is necessary for teachers to show students thegrammatical patterns that vocabulary forms – or the grammar ofvocabulary Teaching the rules enable students to build updifferent forms of the word or even different words from that word

like “sleep, slept, sleeping”, “able, unable, disability”, etc.

Collocation

Students need to be aware of the importance of patternssuch as collocation The term collocation generally refers to theway in which two or more words are typically used together For

example, we talk about “heavy rain” but not “heavy sun”, or we say that we “make/ come to a decision”, but not “do a decision”.

So, “heavy rain” and “make a decision” are often referred to as collocations and we say that “heavy” collocates with “rain”, or that

“heavy” and “rain” are collocates of each other However,

students usually get confused with the uses of two words andteachers should emphasize the words that these two wordscollocate with

The denotation of a word is its explicit definition as listed in

a dictionary Let us use the word “home” as an example The denotative or literal meaning of “home” is “a place where one lives; a residence The expressiveness of language, however,

comes from the other type of word meaning - connotation, or the

association or set of associations that a word usually brings to

mind The connotative meaning of “home” is a place of security,

comfort and family

Appropriateness indicates whether a particular item is

appropriate one to use in a certain context or not Thus, it is usefulfor a learner to know whether a certain word is very common, orrelatively rare or taboo in a polite conversation, or tends to be

used in writing but not in speech, or is more suitable in a formalway than an informal one.

Aspects of meaning can also be useful in vocabulary

teaching and learning They show how the meaning of one itemrelates to the meaning of others These are various relationshipsand here are some of the main ones like synonyms, antonyms,hyponyms, co-hyponyms or co-ordinates, super-ordinates, andtranslation

Word formation

Word can change their shape and their grammatical value.One common way vocabulary items are formed is by addingprefixes or suffixes to the root words Thus, teachers mayintroduce popular prefixes and suffixes to students For example, if

learners know the meaning of “im”, "un" and "able", this will help them guess the meaning of words such as "impatient", "unhappy", and "enable"

Sharing with Ur’s point of view (1996), Folse (2008:14) writes

“In theory, mastering vocabulary should not be so different fromlearning any other component of a language, such as grammar,spelling, or pronunciation Vocabulary, however, is a specialproblem because there are multiple aspects of vocabularyknowledge that learners must master, including polysemy,connotation and usage, part of speech, frequency, andcollocation”

In fact, teaching vocabulary is a very important field, and it ismore than just presenting and introducing new vocabulary tolearners Teachers help students understand the word meaning incontext and know how words are used Teachers can help their

learners enrich and increase their vocabulary They can also helplearners build a new store of words Therefore, teachers are a veryimportant factor in selecting and teaching English vocabulary.Teachers need to know what kinds of classroom activities they canuse to help their students gain new vocabulary The selection ofwords which are to be taught to students is a very importantprocedure in the language learning process What students need

to know regarding vocabulary is the word meaning, word use,word formation and word grammar

1.2 Approaches to vocabulary learning

1.2.1 Incidental and intentional vocabulary learning

In L2 lexical teaching and learning, there are two types ofvocabulary learning: incidental learning and intentional learning

Incidental learning is the process of “learning something

without the intention to learn it or learning one thing whileintending to learn another” (Richards & Schmidt, 2002:252) On

the contrary, intentional learning is the process of “learning by

following a deliberate programme of study to enhance vocabulary

or grammar” (Richards & Schmidt, 2002:252)

In terms of vocabulary learning, sharing the same idea with

Nation, Yali writes “Incidental learning always means the

approach of learning vocabulary through texts, working on tasks

or doing other activities that are not directly related to vocabulary

In contrast, intentional learning always focuses on vocabulary

itself, and combines with all kinds of conscious vocabulary learningstrategies and means of memorizing words Vocabulary form,collocation and parts of speech are mainly the results of incidental

learning, while the sense of a word, meaning symbolizing andinnuendo between words need intentional learning” (Yali, 2010:74)

Yali (2010:75) says, “Focusing on incidental learning alone isnot sufficient” For fast vocabulary development, however, moreand more research shows the ineffectiveness of just usingincidental learning and the need to be in line with intentionallearning In other words, besides intentional vocabulary learning,many researchers argue that vocabulary can be acquiredincidentally

1.2.2 Implicit and explicit vocabulary learning

Explicit learning is “learning language items (e.g.

vocabulary) by means of overt strategies, such as techniques of

memorization” (Richards and Schmidt, 2002:192) Implicit

learning, in general, non-conscious learning, contrasted with

explicit learning, which is more conscious.(Richards and Schmidt,2002:250)

Various writers define the difference between implicit andexplicit learning in slightly different ways, for example:

Explicit learning involves such conscious operations as

hypothesis formation and testing, while implicit learning doesnot

Implicit learning is learning without awareness of what has been learned, while in explicit learning the learner is aware

of what has been learned

Explicit learning is accompanied by awareness that one is learning, while implicit learning is not (Richards and

Schmidt, 2002:250)

1.3 Vocabulary development and reading comprehension 1.3 1 Related studies

A number of studies have shown that second languagelearners acquire vocabulary through reading

According to the case study “Vocabulary acquisition fromextensive reading”, Pigada and Schmitt (2006:1-22) have come tothe conclusion, “knowledge of 65% of the target words wereenhanced in some way” The study of a learner of French hasexplored whether an extensive reading program can enhancelexical knowledge Overall they have claimed, “more vocabularyacquisition is possible from extensive reading than previousstudies have suggested” (Pigada and Schmitt 2006:1)

Matsuoka and Hirsh (2010:56-70) have carried out a study on

“Vocabulary learning through reading: Does an ELT course bookprovide good opportunities?” The findings demonstrate a need tosupplement use of such texts with an extensive reading programand other forms of language rich input to promote vocabularydevelopment

Hui- Tzu Min and Wen-Shan Shsu (1997:83-101) have alsoconducted a study “The impact of supplemental reading onvocabulary acquisition and retention with EFL learners in Taiwan”.The group receiving the reading-plus-vocabulary-enhancementactivities significantly outperformed the one receiving the narrow-reading treatment on both acquisition and retention tests (Hui- TzuMin and Wen-Shan Shsu, 1997:83)

In the context of Vietnamese schools, Trần Văn Trung(2008:1-42) has carried out a quasi-experimental study entitled

“Developing grade 10 students’ English vocabulary through the

guided extensive reading program” and he has concluded, “T-testwhich was employed to make a comparison between pretest andpos-test scores gained by two groups demonstrated that theexperimental group had more improvement in their Englishvocabulary acquisition than the control group”.

1.3 2 Relationship between vocabulary and reading

It is common knowledge that reading is of great importance

in learning a foreign language Reading gives learners a number ofbenefits among which acquiring a number of new words throughreading is one of the most significant In fact, reading has a veryclose relationship with vocabulary development

There are several studies that have shown the relationshipbetween vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension (Joshi,2005; Joshi & Aaron, 2000; Manyak & Bauer, 2009; Martin-Chang &Gould, 2008; Ricketts, Nation, & Bishop, 2007)

As Nation (2001:144) says, “Research on L1 reading showsthat vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension are veryclosely related to each other This relationship is not directional.Vocabulary knowledge can help reading and reading cancontribute to vocabulary growth”

In his study entitled “The effects of vocabulary knowledgeand background knowledge on reading comprehension ofTaiwanese EFL students”, Tze-Ming Chou shares Hancock’sopinion He writes, “In reading comprehension involvesunderstanding the vocabulary, seeing relationships among wordsand concepts, organizing ideas, recognizing the author’s purpose,evaluating the context, and making judgments…(Tze-Ming Chou,2011:108)

The study shows that a limited vocabulary size, as well as alack of sufficient knowledge of word meanings, often hinderslearners from understanding the meaning of the text.

Hedge (1985:23) also agrees that every student needs tomaster a progressively expanding vocabulary, both active andpassive The teacher can introduce new words carefully throughthe context lessons or course materials, but the main way for astudent to gain control of an adequate vocabulary is throughreading

It is assumed that sharing with Harmer’s point of view(2007), Tze-Ming Chou affirms “the more a person reads, the morethey will develop their vocabulary knowledge (Tze-Ming Chou,2011:108) Therefore, the teachers should provide their studentswith reading texts in class With proper textbooks and readingmaterials, students will be able to develop their vocabularyknowledge

1.4 Supplementary reading materials

1.4.1 Definitions of supplementary materials

Supplementary materials may be defined differently.According to Tomlinson, supplementary materials are “Materialsdesigned to be used in addition to the core materials of a course.They are usually related to the development of skills of reading,writing, listening or speaking rather that to the learning oflanguage items” (Tomlinson, 1998:13)

Richards and Schmidt (2002:529) states “In languageteaching, supplementary learning materials which are used inaddition to a course book often deal more intensively with skillsthat the course book does not develop or address in detail.”

Actually, most language-teaching course books probablyneed supplementing to some extent, if only in order to tailor them

to the needs of a particular class or to offer richer options.Supplementary materials have various types As Ur (1996:190-191) asserts, “There are packages of supplementary materialssuch as computers, simplified readers, overhead projectors,posters, pictures or games Each type, obviously, has certaincontribution in language teaching and its own good points as well

as drawbacks.”

To sum up, it is necessary for teachers to use supplementarymaterials in the classroom to help learners develop their fourskills Importantly, teachers need to know how to select suitablesupplementary materials and how to adapt them appropriately forteaching purposes In this study, the researcher focuses on thesupplementary reading materials plus vocabulary-enhancementexercises selected from other textbooks by the teachers

1.4.2 Criteria for selecting appropriate supplementary materials

When selecting supplementary materials, Nunan says “It isimportant to match the materials with the goals and objectives of

the course …with one’s learners’ attitudes, beliefs andpreferences” (Nunan, 1991:209).

According to Nuttall (1996:170), three main guidelinesshould be taken into consideration when choosing a text:

suitability, exploitability and readability.

Suitability of content is concerned with the text’s ability to

address students’ needs and interests A text with interestingcontent makes the learners’ task far more rewarding and theclassroom more effective

Exploitability means facilitation of learning When you

exploit a text, you make use of it to develop students’ competence

as readers Reading texts should not only interest the readers, butalso develop their language competence Therefore, differentkinds of exercises and activities should be designed to best exploitthe text so that the course’s objectives could be obtained

Readability refers to the combination of structural and

lexical difficulty That means the text must be suitable withstudents’ English proficiency levels in terms of vocabulary, syntax,and style The teachers must know what their students’ languageproficiencies are to find out what vocabulary and structures thestudents are familiar with in order to choose text at the right leveland balance different levels of proficiencies

1.5 Summary

This chapter has reviewed the key issues related to thestudy First, it concerns the definitions of vocabulary, the role ofvocabulary in EFL/ESL teaching and learning and the approaches

to vocabulary In this chapter, the relationship between vocabulary

and reading comprehension and some related studies onvocabulary acquisition through reading are also discussed; thedefinition of supplementary reading materials is mentioned aswell The following chapter will be devoted to the discussion ofmethodology of the study.

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents a detailed description of how theresearch has been carried out The information about the researchcontext, subjects, data collection instruments, data collectionprocedures will be stated in detail

2.1 Research context

The study has carried out at the College of Technology andForeign Relation Economy, which is located in Minh KhaiCommune, Bac Tu Liem District, Hanoi This college trainsstudents to work in a variety of contexts such as marketing,business, tourist guides, etc

At CTFRE, English is common and compulsory for all kinds ofstudents from different majors First-year students practice English

in the textbook “New Headway-Elementary” (3rd edition) by John &Liz Soars The first year is considered to be important to students’development of the four macro language skills However, classtime allocation for the four skills in general and for vocabularylessons is not always sufficient It is not enough for first-yearstudents to develop their vocabulary as well as four English skills

When students enter the college, they are at different levels

of English language proficiency Their level of English proficiency isquite low and varies a lot due to the fact that they come fromdifferent places in Vietnam Many of them come from thecountryside where there are no favorable English learningconditions The others who come from towns and cities havebetter chances for learning English However, students are not

divided into different groups depending on their levels of languageproficiency, because there has never been an official examination

to classify students’ levels Accordingly, all of them take the sameEnglish coursefor the beginners of English language Especially,first-year students’ vocabulary knowledge is still poor so they areafraid of learning English They have problems in speaking,listening, writing and reading That is the reason why students arenot interested in English In order to help them improve theirEnglish level, especially develop their English vocabulary, it isessential to supply them with other reading materials in addition

to the current course book used in class

2.2 Subjects

The study has been carried out with the participation of 85(out of 95) first-year students at the College of Technology andForeign Relation Economy in 2014-2015 Academic Year

Of the total number of 95 students in the three classes underinvestigation namely Group08, Group 19 and Group 51, 10 wereabsent on the day of questionnaire delivery Therefore, the totalnumber of students who took part in the research was 85 Thesestudents are aged from 19-21, most of them are male, only 20 arefemale They come from different places in Vietnam with differentbackground knowledge Generally, first-year students’ Englishvocabulary knowledge is at the elementary level Many of thestudents lack vocabulary to do tests and they find it hard toexpress their ideas in both oral and written forms These problemsgave the researcher an impetus to carry out this survey with thehope to change the present situation

2.3 Description of materials

2.3.1 Course book “New Headway - Elementary”

The main teaching material is the textbook “New Headway Elementary” by John & Liz Soars (2003, 3rd edition, OxfordUniversity Press) The textbook include 14 units Each unit focuses

-on specific topics and c-onsists of four main skills namely reading,speaking, listening and writing Vocabulary has not been taughtseparately, but mixed with lessons of four skills

The course provides a foundation in the structure of thelanguage, gradually building students’ understanding of the basicgrammar, vocabulary and functions of English

2.3.2 First-year students’ syllabus

In CTFRE, students have a three-semester English course (twosemesters in the first year and the first semester of the secondyear) with 150 lesson periods (a 45-minute period) First-yearstudents’ syllabus in each semester is as follows:

Semes

ter

Level Time

(45-minute lesson periods)

Uni t

Course book

First Elementa

ry

45 lessonperiods

1-4 New Headway

ElementarySecond Elementa

ry

45 lessonperiods

5-8 New Headway

ElementaryThird Elementa

ry

60 lessonperiods

14

9-New HeadwayElementary

Table 1: First-year students’ syllabus

First-year students have been learning English for 90 lessonperiods, covering the first 8 units of the Headway Elementary

Moreover, below are the key points of those 8 units: (see nextpage)

Unit Topic Grammar Vocabulary Reading item

types

Writing task type

1 Hello

everybo

dy!

- Verb to be (am/is/are)

- Possessiveadjectives

(my, your, his, her)

- Countries

bilingualdictionary

- Everydayobjects

- Plural nouns

Readingcomprehension

- Gap-filling

Writing a short text about yourselves

2 Meeting

people

Verb to be

Questions and

negativesNegative and short answersPossessive

‘s

- Family

- Food and drink

- Opposite adjectives

Reading comprehension

- True-False sentences

- Writequestions forgiven

answers

Writing a letter

3 The

world of

work

- Present simple

- Questions and

negatives

- Verbs

- Jobs

Reading comprehension

- Match sentences with photographs

- Answer questions

4 Take it

easy!

- Present simple

 Verbs

 Leisure activities

Reading comprehension

- Fill in the gaps

- Short answers

- Correct mistakes

Writing a letter

5 Where

do you

- There is/are

- Rooms

- Household

Reading comprehension

Describin

g where

live? - some/any

- How many?

- Places

- Short-answeritems

- True-false sentences

- Verbs

Reading comprehension

- Short-answeritems

Writing a letter of applicati

on for a job

7 Then

and now

- Past simple

- Verbs Reading

comprehension

- Gap-filling

- Mark False

True Write questions

Describin

g a holiday

8 How

long

ago?

Past simpleNegative and ago

- Relationship Reading

comprehension

- Reading for specific information

Describin

g an old friend

Table 2: Key points of 8 units taught for first-year students

2.3.3 Supplementary reading materials

In addition to the core material, teachers often spend a smallamount of time providing students with supplementary readingtexts plus vocabulary enhancement exercises or additionalvocabulary exercises to help students develop their vocabulary Itmeans that teachers consequently have to collect more readingtexts and vocabulary exercises from other materials besides thetextbook and workbook

2.4 Application of the supplementary reading program

The supplementary reading program lasted for the period of

4 weeks In the program, supplementary readings and vocabularyexercises have been given to students All of these exercises havebeen carefully chosen by teachers to ensure that they wereappropriate to students’ English level and they contained thevocabulary topics taught in the course book

2.5 Data collection instruments

In this study, the researcher has employed two instruments

to collect data: survey questionnaires and class observations

To obtain data for the study, there have been two sets ofquestionnaire She has delivered questionnaire I to theparticipants before the supplementary reading program (SRP fromnow) applied After finishing the 4-week supplementary readingprogram, she has distributed questionnaire II to collect students’feedbacks on the program

2.5.1 Survey questionnaires

Reasons for choosing survey questionnaires

It is generally accepted that the survey questionnaire is themost plausible and the frequently-used tool in doing research.According to Nunan (1992), using this instrument is economicaland time saving Theoretically, this method includes usingquestionnaires to collect the data, as “questionnaires often seem alogical and easy option as a way of collecting of information frompeople” (Wisker, 2001:32) They gather information directly byasking people questions and using them as data for analysis

Furthermore, questionnaires are often used to gatherinformation including attitudes, behaviors, activities and responses

to events Therefore, questionnaires are used here as the study

aims at investigating students’ attitudes towards the use ofsupplementary reading materials to develop their vocabulary.

Descriptions of survey questionnaires

The questionnaires have been designed with closedquestions All the questions in the questionnaires are simple and

concise They include Yes-No questions, multiple choices, etc.

Consisting of 5 questions, questionnaire I focuses on investigatingfirst-year students’ attitudes towards the current vocabularylearning Questionnaire II includes 10 questions which aim atcollecting students’ perceptions of supplementary readingmaterials for vocabulary development and givingrecommendations for using the supplementary reading materialsefficiently

2.5.2 Class observations

Reasons for choosing class observations

For purpose of confirming the results of the questionnaires,another instrument employed is class observations Theresearcher chooses this tool to have a chance to eye-witness howthe supplementary reading program is carried out in a realcontext Moreover, using the class observations can help gathermore in-depth information for the discussion part

2.6 Data collection procedures

The data were collected from July24th, 2014 to March 2rd,2015

Firstly, the researcher met three teachers in who are charge

of Group 08, Group 19 and Group 51 to permit them to deliver thequestionnaires and apply the 4-week supplementary readingprogram in the class