Communicative approach vocabulary communicatively for students at grade 10 in can tho city

Thesis Field of study: ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Anh Tho Student: Tran Thi Thu Class: NN0352 A3 Can tho, June 2007 Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học

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COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH- TEACHING VOCABULARY COMMUNICATIVELY FOR STUDENTS AT GRADE 10 IN CANTHO CITY

B.A Thesis

Field of study: ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Anh Tho Student: Tran Thi Thu

Class: NN0352 A3

Can tho, June 2007

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu

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CONTENTS

Contents

List of tables

Acknowledgements

Abstract

Introduction .1

Problem and Rationale 1

Thesis organization 6

Literature Review 7

An overview about Communicative Approach 7

Techniques in teaching vocabulary 14

Research Methodology: .20

Research design and procedure 20

Sample 20

Research instruments 21

Documenting the teachers’ techniques of introducing vocabulary 25

Collecting teachers’ beliefs and their barriers about teaching vocabulary communicatively 26

Research results 28

Teachers’ beliefs about communicative approach and teaching vocabulary communicatively 28

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To those who do not teach vocabulary communicatively 32

To those who teach vocabulary communicatively 33

Teachers’ problems when using visual and verbal techniques in teaching vocabulary 40

Techniques of teaching vocabulary 41

Discussions and recommendations for further research 43

Discussions 43

Limitations of the study 44

Recommendations for further research 45

References 46

Appendices 49

Appendix 1- Observation 1 49

Appendix 7- Questionnaire 62

Appendix 8- One chapter cited in New English Textbook 10 66

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LISTS OF THE TABLES

Table 1- Participants’ age……… ………… 29

Table 2- Participants’ years of teaching……… 29

Chart 1- The percentage of teachers acquiring the communicative approach from different sources………31

Chart 2-The time when teachers are acquainted with the communicative approach……….32

Chart 3- The time when teachers apply the communicative approach……… 34

Chart 4- The reasons for applying the C.A in teaching vocabulary……… 35

Chart 5- Students’ progress in using vocabulary……… 36

Chart 6- The focus on lesson(s)……… ……… 37

Chart 7- The extent and the frequency of using techniques in one vocabulary lesson………….38

Chart 8- Tests for evaluating students’ vocabulary progress……….39

Chart 9-Problems encountered when using visual and verbal techniques ……… 40

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Nguyen Thi Anh Tho for her guidance, consideration and encouragement during the process of carrying out the study

I would like to acknowledge all the teachers of the English department They have organized classes on research methodology which has orientated me on the research implementation

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I am grateful to my beloved members in my family for their supporting me to carry out the research

I am particularly indebted to the Learning Resource Center, the School of Education Library and the English Department Library, which all have provided me with valuable sources

of material

I would like to express my deep gratitude to the teachers and students at the nine high schools in Cantho city, who were willing to accept my presence for classroom observations and administer the questionnaires

Finally, my special thanks are sincerely sent to all my friends and my roommates who supported me while I was conducting this study

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and analyze the data The data for the descriptive study are collected through 35 questionnaires and 6 observations conducted at the nine high schools in Cantho city ( Phan Van Tri, Nhon Ai, Nguyen Viet Hong, Li Tu Trong, Phan Ngoc Hien, Nguyen Viet Dung, An Binh, Chau Van Liem and Bui Huu Nghia high schools) The data analysis shows that all the participants know about communicative approach because of its particular characteristics as well as its effectiveness in teaching vocabulary but only 88.57% teachers has presently applied the new techniques like posters, cards, blackboard drawings, realia, mime and gestures, synonym, antonyms, examples, definition In addition, the frequency and the extent they use these techniques are various from 20% to 90%, which helps us to conclude that most teachers in Cantho high schools have taught vocabulary communicatively for their grade 10 students communicatively Some participants do not teach vocabulary because of some problems

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Problem and Rationale

Economic open-door policy purposed by the Government of Vietnam, a Decree issued by the Prime Minister in 1995 together with the important event that Vietnam has recently joined the World Trade Organization have totally increased the demands for English learners who are expected to be able to communicate verbally with the outside world and to access technology Canh (1999) says that English now is a very important subject that should be compulsory

in language teaching and getting the Secondary School Education Certificate in Vietnam To meet the demands of "doi moi" policy, Vietnamese educational system has been appropriately changed time to time so far, especially in the past 15 years According to Brogan and Ha, Vietnamese teachers and policy makers seem to agree that a good curriculum or syllabus plays

an important role in increasing the success of an English language program Consequently, the Ministry of Education and Training, English Departments in universities as well as English language course organizers have made efforts to develop effective curricula This results in many different curricula for English course Said Brogan & Ha (n.d.)

Recently, which is more specified in 5 years, the English textbooks have been adjusted to English learners' communicative needs by course designers and teachers The content and the organization of these textbooks, which cover grades 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, have been appropriated As

a result of this change, students of educational departments in universities are currently taught and trained new teaching methods They have quite mastered the ways to present and carry out the effective approaches they have learnt in their training courses; Moreover, Canh (1999) says that new teacher training programs including pre-service and in-service are designed and served with a focus on training teaching methodologies Vietnamese teachers are interested in new

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methodologies, especially in teaching toward the communicative approach Communicative approach is discussed here with reference to Canale & Swain’s(1980) (as cited in Canh, 1999) construct of communicative competence which comprises of grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence This approach mainly focuses on shifting from teacher-centered view to learner-centered one by taking communicative activities (Grain & Redman, 1986; Lee, 1986)

Such a method as communicative approach which is based on the needs of English learners is expected to be more appropriately applied in teaching English in high schools as the most effective way ever Unfortunately, Canh (1999) indicates not much teaching methods has been improved in English classes During the training courses, Vietnamese teachers show interest in new methodologies, but after finishing those courses, they continue teaching in their own way, using traditional methods In contrast to what Canh said, some recently informal interviews conducted from my colleagues together with my teaching observation periods this year show an evidence for this fact : many teachers in high schools do use the communicative approach to present the lesson issues although some potential problems stated by Canh (1999) such as the needs of the learners, the preferences of experienced teachers, and the constraints of the school or educational setting

Such a setting of teaching method in high schools hopes to cover all the aspects of English language system and skills, including reading, language focus, writing, listening and speaking

My expectation in this research is about word study or vocabulary acquisition in the field of reading lesson

As stated in the preface at the beginning of the textbook, English textbook 10 is composed under the program of secondary English standard of The Ministry of Education and Training that

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continuously follows up the English 6, 7, 8 and 9 The sixteen theme- based topics included in the textbook are very close and meaningful to students’ daily life After every two or three units, there will be a lesson named Test Yourself in order to help students look back and review what they have learnt so far Each unit is related to one specific topic and covers these following lessons:

A READING includes one or more sections varying from 180 words to 220 words in length Such a relatively long passage is to help the students be acquainted with the topic, totally providing them with variety of information and practice language competence covered in the whole unit and to develop students’ language skills, especially to reading skill

B SPEAKING: Many activities are set in appropriate and meaningful contexts

in accordance with the topic so that the students can be able to practice their speaking

skill and communication through working individually or in pairs, in groups

C LISTENING: Every passage or dialogue is related to the topic of the unit Its

main purpose is to help students to listen and take notes Moreover, Listening also helps students to consolidate and to correct their pronunciation and language structures

D WRITING covers many kinds of exercises such as letter composing, data description, event reports, etc to improve students’ writing skill

E LANGUAGE FOCUS is divided into two parts: Pronunciation and Grammar

Pronunciation is to have students review how to utter consonants as well as vowels

contained in simple words or in the whole sentence Grammar and Vocabulary mainly

focuses on integral structures and necessary vocabulary These grammar points are

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practiced through drills or activities so that the students can easily master and use them

(Translated from Tieng Anh 10, NXB GD- Bo GD & DT)

As we can see from the appendix 8, the topic of the unit 13 is about films and cinema The unit focuses on five lessons including tasks and activities All items provided in these five lessons are in accordance with the goals introduced at the beginning of the new English textbook That means, reaching the target of teaching communicatively requires not only the teachers’ ability to be able to instruct these activities and tasks but also students’ contribution to the lesson The reading lesson, for instance, is divided into to three stages such as pre- reading, while reading and post reading It can be seen in the first stage, some warm up questions are given to help them have an overall view about the lesson they are going to learn On the basis of

“student- centered”, most activities and tasks in this lesson are to be carried out by students’ pair work and group work- a feature of communicative approach Teachers’ techniques of teaching vocabulary in the second stage is very important for the students to understand the text and then

to be able to do the three tasks That the final stage expect students’ skill to restate the text helps students review the text and improve their speaking skill In fact, without vocabulary focused, students cannot understand and perform the tasks in this unit effectively It is more persuasive to conclude that vocabulary is very important to the acquisition of learners in foreign language Carthy (1990) expresses that students cannot communicate in any meaningful way if they do not have words to express a wide range of meaning According to Krashen (1982), acquisition accounts for learners know how and understand their vocabulary through their performance That means learners can use their vocabulary to express or describe the practical situations happening

in daily life It is also true that learners will make mistakes if they learn the meaning of many

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words without learning how to put words in meaningful sentences Carthy (1990) confirms on this view that the single, biggest component of any language course is vocabulary Learners, therefore, seem to assume the needs of active vocabulary in such a communicative language environment as demanded However, vocabulary seems to be the least well catered for of all the aspects of learning English in most high school now It seems that some teachers in high schools still have followed a traditional method of teaching vocabulary in high schools Therefore, because of the importance of vocabulary in communication to cope with current trends, the research conducted during my teaching practice hopes to find the detailed answers for the following questions: is communicative approach applied in teaching vocabulary for students at grade 10 in Cantho city? If yes, to what extent? The answers for these questions have a great significance for my confirmation on the possibility of applying the communicative method to introduce vocabulary to high school students The confirmation will generally state insight aspects about English language teaching of educational administrators; the management and assignment of school managers and the implementation of teachers Also, the answers help to consider whether a communicative approach fits Vietnamese pedagogical contexts presented by Canh (1999), which comprise of three factors: first, Vietnamese learner's communicative needs; second, Vietnamese classroom culture and discourse, and third, the constraints in teaching English communicatively

The research assumes that some teachers in high schools still haven’t followed the communicative approach to teach vocabulary for their grade 10 students Because, as stated by Canh (1999), pedagogical contexts in Vietnam do not always support communicative teaching practices We may take a long time to consider whether a communicative approach really fits Vietnamese pedagogical contexts Indeed, the research findings strongly support the assumption

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Thesis organization

There are five chapters in this thesis

Chapter one provides an overview of the need of changing the teaching method supplied in the new English textbook 10 and the current state of teaching English at high schools The importance of vocabulary is also mentioned in this chapter It then introduces the thesis organization The aim and the significance of the study are also included in this section

Chapter two presents a review of literature The two basic issues (communicative approach and techniques to teach vocabulary) will be focused on The research then introduces some common techniques of teaching vocabulary towards the trend of communicative approach

Chapter three goes in depth into the research methodology which includes descriptions of the participants, the material, the research procedure, its instrument and the way data were analyzed

Chapter four is dealt with analyzing the result of collected questionnaires and classroom observation sheets for revealing how the teachers consider the communicative approach and to what extent their ways of introducing vocabulary are applied

Chapter five summarizes and interprets the result Some limitations and recommendations for further research are also mentioned

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LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, an extensive review of literature on what communicative approach is about, its contrast with the other method and how this method is applied in the field of vocabulary are presented

Here my discussion primarily focuses on some researchers' opinions toward communicative approach and how we call teaching vocabulary communicatively

An Overview about Communicative Approach

Approaches and methods in language teaching are designed to provide a detailed account

of major twentieth-century trends in language teaching They convey scientifically considerable and valuable ways into the language teaching time to time To Anthony (as cited in Richards & Kodgers, 1986:16), approach refers to “theories about the nature of language and language learning that serves as the source of practices and principles in language teaching” It is the level

at which “assumptions and belief about language and language learning are specified” He identified and contrasted the three levels of conceptualization, which he termed approach, method, and technique Definition of approach is presented above while a method is procedural that is an overall plan for the orderly presentation of language material Moreover, within one approach, there can be many methods Method is the level at which theory is put into practice and at which the particular skills and the content are chosen to be taught and the order in which the content will be presented Meanwhile, a technique actually takes places in a classroom It is a

“particular trick, or contrivance used to reach to an immediate objective” said Anthony (as cited

in Richards & Kodgers, 1986: 16) Techniques- the level at which classroom procedures are described- must be consistent with a method, and therefore in harmony with an approach as well

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Many researchers have set their own view for evaluating and conducting communicative approach To Richards & Kodgers (1986), the origins of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) are to be found in the changes in the British language teaching tradition dating from the late 1960s Then, so many changes have been occurred during the years Finally, the work of the Council of Europe; the writings of Wilkins, Widdowson, Candlin, Christopher Brumfit, Keith Johnson, and other British applied linguistics on the theoretical basic for a communicative or functional approach to language teaching; the rapid application of these ideas by textbooks writers; and the equally rapid acceptance of these new principles by British language teaching specialists, curriculum development centers, and even governments gave prominence nationally and internationally to what came to be referred to as the communicative Approach, or simply Communicative Language Teaching Both American and British proponents now see it as an approach (not a method) "that aims to (a) make communicative competence the goal of language teaching and (b) develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication." Stated Richards & Kodgers (1986) Richards and Kodgers (1986) reveal that there is no single text in it, nor any single model that is universally accepted Similarly to American and British proponents, Morrow and Johnson (1981)(as cited in The communicative approach, n.d.) present the aim of communicative language teaching mainly focuses on “communicative competence ” To Brumfit and Johnson (1979), communicative competence is the knowledge which contributes to using a language and abilities to communicate effectively Moreover, Canale and Swain (1980) (as cited in Richards & Kodgers, 1986:71) say that communicative competence comprises of four dimensions such as grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence Luckily, those four dimensions are the same with what Canh (1999) has said in the

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introduction above Grammatical competence refers to what Chomsky calls linguistic competence and what Hymes intends by what is "formally possible" It is the domain of grammatical and lexical capacity Richards & Kodgers (1986) state that sociolinguistic competence refers to understanding of the social context where communication takes place, including role relationships, the shared information of the participants, and the communicative purpose Discourse competence refers to ability to inteprete individual message elements in terms of their interconnectedness and how to represent meaning in the relationship to the entire discourse or text Strategic competence refers to the coping strategies that communicators employ to initiate, maintain, repair, and redirect communication

For some, Communicative Language Teaching means little more than an integration of grammatical and functional teaching "One of the most characteristic features of communicative language teaching is that it pays systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language."(Littlewood (1981: 1), as cited in Richards & Kodgers (1986:66)) For others, it means using procedures where learners work in pairs and groups employing available language recourses in problem-solving tasks To support this view, a national primary English syllabus (Syllabuses for Primary Schools 1981) defines the focus of the syllabus as the "communicative functions, which the forms of the language serve" Joining to this forum, Yalden (1983)- as cited

in Richards & Kodgers (1986: 66), offers her discussion of communicative syllabus design, she gives six Communicative Language Teaching design alternatives, ranging from a model in which communicative exercises are grafted onto an existing structural syllabus, to a leaner-generated view of syllabus design

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At the level of theory, Communicative Language Teaching has a rich theoretical base To Richards & Kodgers (1986: 71), some characteristics of the communicative view of language are following:

1) Language is a system for the expression of meaning

2) The primary function of language is for interaction and communication

3) The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses

4) The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features,

but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse

(Richards & Kodgers, 1986:71)

Moreover, Howatt (1984) (as cited in Richards & Kodgers, 1986:66) distinguishes between a "strong" and a "weak" version of Communicative Language Teaching The weak version, which has become “more or less standard practice in the last ten years, stresses the importance of providing learners with opportunities to use their English for communicative purposes and, characteristically, attempts to integrate such activities into a wider program of language teaching” The "strong" version of communicative teaching, on the other hand, advances the claim that language is acquired through communication, so that it is not merely a question of activating an existing but inert knowledge of the language, but of stimulating the development of the language system itself "If the former could be described as "learning to use" English, the latter entails "using English to learn it" " (Howatt, 1984: 279, as cited in Richards & Kodgers, 1986:66)

Morrow (1981) (as cited in Principles of Communicative Language Teaching, n.d.) considers 5 principles of communicative methodology, which is briefly cited as following:

1 Know what you are doing

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2 The whole is more than the sum of the parts

3 The processes are as important as the forms (including information gap, choice

and feedback)

4 To learn it, do it

5 Mistakes are not always a mistake

All those principles stress the difference between the Communicative Approach and other methods such as audio-lingual, grammar translation method and direct method

As previously mentioned, each method has their own characteristics, settings and purposes that fit various requirements of learning and teaching for periods Here discussion concentrates

on overviews on three considerable methods, Grammar Translation, Audio-lingual and Communicative Approach Grammar Translation is a way of studying a language that approaches the language first through detailed analysis of its grammar rules, followed by application of this knowledge to the task of translating sentences and texts into and out of the target language Audio-lingual, in some ways, has many definitions, which primarily focus on drills and pattern practice designed in dialogues, providing demonstrations on sentence structures, pronunciation, stress, rhythm, and intonation According to Brooks (1964, cited Richards and Rodgers, 1986:54), various kinds of drills are used, including the followings:

“repetition, inflection, replacement, restatement, completion, transposition, expansion, contraction, transformation, integration, rejoinder and restoration” All of these are put into dialogues as drill and pattern- practice exercises

According to Finochiaro and Brumfit (1983, as cited in Richards and Rodgers, 1986:67), between Audio-lingual and Communicative Approach , there are many different features; however, we just need to include some features as listed

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Audio- lingual Communicative Language Teaching

1 Structure and form are focused on

more than meaning

2.Memorization of structure-based

dialogues is demanded

3 Language items are not necessarily

contextualized

4 Language learning is learning

structures, sounds, or words

5 Mastery, or “over-learning” is sought

6 Drilling is a central technique

7 Native-speaker-like pronunciation is

sought

8 Communicative activities only come

after a long process of rigid drills and

11 Reading and writing are deferred till

Meaning is considered the most important

Dialogues, if used, center on communicative functions and are not normally memorized

Conceptualization is a basic premise

Language learning is learning to communicate

Effective communication is sought

Drilling may occur, but limited

Comprehensive pronunciation is sought

Attempts to communicate may be encouraged from the very beginning

Judicious use of native language is accepted where feasible

Translation may be used where students need

or benefit from it

Reading and writing can start from the first

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speech is mastered

12 The target linguistic system will be

learned through the overt teaching of the

patters of the system

13 Linguistic competence is the desired

goal

14 The sequence of units is determined

only by principles of linguistic complexity

15 The teachers control the learners and

prevent them from doing anything that

conflict with the theory

16 “Language is habit” so errors must be

prevented at all costs

17 Accuracy, in terms of formal

correctness, is a primary goal

18 Students are expected to interact with

the language system, embodied in machines

or controlled materials

day, if desired

The target linguistic system will be learned best through the process of struggling to communicate

Communicative competence is the desired goal

Sequence is determined by any consideration

of content, function, or meaning which maintains interest

Teachers help learners in any way that motivates them to work with the language

Language is created by the individual often through trial and error

Fluency and acceptable language is the primary goal: accuracy is judged not in the abstract but in context

Students are expected to interact with other people, either in the flesh, through pair and group work, or in their writings

Both are commonly used in foreign language teaching; however, to adjust changes in teaching and learning, Communicative Approach is preferable to Audio- lingual

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Totally different from Communicative approach, Grammar Translation has its own techniques According to Rivers (1968), in this approach the teacher gives long and elaborate explanation and demonstration of grammatical rules in the native language Usually, students practices by translating prose passages from the native language to the foreign language He also says that, texts in the foreign language are translated into the native language orally and in writing Learning vocabulary depends on the texts provided with lists of words that must be memorized by the students To Rivers (1968), pronunciation is not always taught or somehow is limited to a few introductory notes Especially, the foreign language is not used in class in any extent This is quite contrast to the communicative approach that communicative competence must be a desired goal More over, in this approach, the communication skills are neglected There is little training in using the language actively to express one’s idea even writing Therefore, Grammar Translation up to now can not meet learners’ communicative needs As a result, Vietnamese educational system has changed towards communicative approach to fit these urgent requirements for developing teaching and learning programs

Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary

As Wilkins (2004) emphasizes, nothing can be conveyed if learners do not know vocabulary; however, with a little grammar knowledge, something can be communicated This view is supported by the agreement on the great value of words in speaking of Della and Hocking (2000, cited Thornbury, 2002) This means that vocabulary acquisition has played an important role in learning foreign language These are not all for vocabulary consideration Carthy (1990) confirms his opinion about vocabulary store from short- term to long- term that without words to express, communication cannot happen in any meaningful way Four above points of view prove

a certain truth and give a deep and clear look at vocabulary acquisition in foreign language

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learning Vocabulary, therefore, is quite indispensable for language learners to communicate, which is the desired purpose of most learners and teachers in generally Thus, an essential part of teaching a foreign language, of course, is teaching vocabulary effectively

As presented by Doff (1988), showing meanings visually and giving examples are two techniques of presenting the meaning of vocabulary To show the meaning visually means that teachers use real objects, pictures and miming to elicit new words Real objects are anything that

is available in the classroom and also are objects that can be brought into the classroom Pictures can be created by either drawing on the blackboard or showing a drawing or a photograph Miming relates to the use of actions and facial expressions which are most effective in presenting action verbs like whirl, hurl or hold and some adjective of feeling like happy, sad, angry, etc Giving examples is another way in which a new word is put in the context For example, to teach lazy, the teacher creates a contextualized sentence like this: “He gets up late, and then he does nothing all day How is he?” Doff states that examples are especially useful for showing the meaning of abstract words

Thornbury (2002), Hill (1990) and Allen (1983) show two categories of visual techniques: 1) visual (flashcards, photographs, blackboard drawings, wall charts and realia) and 2) mime and gestures With the helps of visual aids, students convey meanings of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in a meaningful way Many nouns such us tables, chairs, chalks, blackboards… for instance, can be presented directly in the classroom without much verbal explanation, or teachers use their gestures to describe meanings of verbs: talk, stand up, cry, smile…

According to Hill (1990), visual aids give the images of reality to the classroom setting and can be used in most stages of a lesson, from the presentation to the production Moreover,

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Zebrowska (1975, as cited in Uberman, 1998) presents that through visual aids vocabulary can

be stored longer in the learner’s mind

Similarly, Gain and Redman (1986) state a more specific study on the techniques of teaching vocabulary They also classify presentation techniques into two groups: visual (flashcards, photographs, blackboard drawings, wall charts and realia, mime and gestures) and verbal (illustrative situations, synonym and definition, contrast / opposites, scales, examples of the type and translation) Specially, illustrative situation is an extremely useful technique for introducing abstract vocabulary It is believed that more than one situation or context should be introduced to learners to be sure of their deep understanding of a new item For the use of synonym and definition, Gain and Redman (1986) explain that synonym is applied for both levels (low and high) to restrict the long and complex explanation Definition, to them, must be directed by contextualized examples to clarify the meaning of new items Contrast/ opposite is the technique

in which a new item is illustrated by contrasting it with the opposite word that has already been known by students Scale is used only when teachers are undoubted that students have known two contrasting or related gradable items Examples of the time are the most successful in illustrating the meaning of super ordinates By listing out things like tables, chairs, beds, sofa, etc… teachers can introduce the term furniture without many explanations Unlike many researchers such as Doff (1988), Hill (1990), Thornbury (2002) and Allen (1983), Gain and Redman (1986) accept that translation can be a very effective way of conveying meaning It can save valuable time that might otherwise be spent on a torturous and largely unsuccessful explanation in English The word “ transitive” is an example, because it is an adjective we cannot explain or use any techniques to elicit its meaning, however, to save time, we should use translation to make it clear

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In addition, Harmer (1991) defines a further technique in presenting vocabulary, which is explanation Intermediate students can use explanation, and the explanation of word meanings must include introducing any facts of word use For example, if we are giving an explanation to the meaning of mate (friend), we have to show that it is a colloquial word used in informal contexts, and that it is more often used for males than females

According to Lado, besides some techniques that have just been introduced so far, presentation technique also consists of parts of words He holds the view that the parts of complex and compound words may be more common than the words themselves Separating such words into their component parts helps to clarify new words’ meaning From this technique, students are able to use their previous knowledge to speculate the meaning of new words

Two other ways to introduce new words’ meaning are in context and outside the classroom (Haycraft, 1986) If the word occurs in the text or passage, the meaning can be often deduced when the other words in the sentence are already known For instance, ‘I need the frying pan so that I can make the omelet’ It is obvious that frying pan is a new word which its meaning can be referred to a flat- shape cooker Haycraft (1986) declares vocabulary is taught in a living context

if the teacher takes his class outside to introduce words for things that can be seen in a shop or in the street According to Ying (2001), guessing vocabulary from context is the most frequent way

to discover the meaning of new words In addition to these views, researchers (Kruse 1979, Nation 1980, Oxford and Grookall 1988) agree that learning words in context and not in isolation

is an effective vocabulary learning strategy (as cited in Ying, 2001, 19) This means that a combination of giving words’ meanings together with real contexts will promote the results for introducing vocabulary

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Last but not least, Lewis (1992) states the view that teachers can vary the ways to explain the new words’ meaning by demonstration, realia, drawing or sketching, synonym / antonym, explanation or translation The final technique, which helps to add to the variety of presentation techniques, is the dictionary By requesting students to use dictionaries for looking up the meaning of a certain word, teachers show them a very important skill- dictionary using Moreover, students will benefit from examples with new words used in the context, its pronunciation or part of speech, etc

In short, with an effort to make students’ vocabulary learning effective and interesting, some representative researchers have suggested many different methods of presenting new words

To sum up, Haycraft synthesizes all of these above techniques that include twelve techniques for presenting vocabulary in class, and then he gives specific guidelines for each technique as their names listed following

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12 Wall charts

13 Word games

Not very different from Haycraft, professors in Cantho university such as Bang Nguyen et al (2003) also give their techniques of teaching vocabulary including 8 techniques: Visuals, Mime, Realia, Situation/ Explanation, Example, Synonym/ Antonym, Translation and Word formation These techniques are quite different in their names; however, they are similar in terms of methodology To me, all of them are positive teaching ways in which students can learn new words in a lively and active way

The communicative approach emphasizes using vocabulary meaningfully in contexts That learners are expected to be able to use their target language to communicate with others Also, the importance of fluency and pronunciation in communication are considered That means, to obtain these goals, the teachers have to know how to teach vocabulary or use appropriate techniques to teach vocabulary communicatively That students can or cannot acquire vocabulary depends upon teachers’ ways and techniques of teaching vocabulary Obviously, within pictures, flashcards, realia,…or examples, situations,… teachers can successfully call their students’ attention and effectively convey new items to them Thus, I would like to conduct my research

on the two potential techniques: visual technique and verbal technique An analysis on how high school teachers’ teaching methods are being applied in eliciting the meaning of new words to their students will be raised through data collection from English teachers in Cantho high schools The results will help to find the specific answers for the following research questions:

1 Is communicative approach applied in teaching vocabulary for students at grade 10 in Cantho city?

2 If yes, to what extent?

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The description of the research design, participants and instruments are the contents of the chapter

Research design and procedures

The project follows the descriptive design In fact, this descriptive research is analytic in its approach and conducted for its heuristic reason In other words, the study starts out with specific research questions and a preconceived hypothesis and uses data collection methods to describe phenomena

The procedure of the descriptive study includes five stages Firstly, I decide on the research questions They are formed by starting with a very general area of my interest in the research problem, which is then narrowed, to a more specific one The research questions easily lead me to the answers for what, why and how I will carry out the research Secondly, it is to select the sample The teachers as well as students of grades 10 of nine high schools in Cantho city are selected as my population research since my classmates’ practicing teaching period together with mine will be worth for my research progress Thirdly, I determine the methods of data collection

At this time, I carefully make a consideration about the research subjects and instruments so that the collected data will be valid and reliable Fourthly, data collection is carried out This is the time for my implementing classroom observations and delivering questionnaires as scheduled Also, as soon as I have finished collecting questionnaires and observing classes, I will analyze the data

Sample

My research sample includes 35 teachers who are responsible for teaching English for grades 10

in Cantho city All of them are experienced in teaching English Whether they are able to cooperate

or not will help to contribute to my final result

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Research instruments

According to Kumar (1996), there are two major approaches to gathering information about a situation, person, problem or phenomenon Data collected from these two approaches are categorized as secondary data and primary data

Information gathered using available resources such as articles, journals, magazines, books and periodicals…is said to be collected from secondary sources That means, researchers, in this case, have to find materials from provided sources, collect and then analyze data in order to come to the final result In other words, secondary resources provide second-hand data whereas primary sources provide first-hand information collected from interviews, personal opinions, from determining the job satisfaction of the employees or from ascertaining the quality of certain services provided by a worker The first-hand data could be valuable and changeable all times In summary, the various methods of data collection can be generally showed as following:

Methods of data collection

Secondary

sources

Primary sources

Documents Observation Interviewing Questionnaire

To Kumar(1996), none of the methods of data collection provides 100 per cent accurate and reliable information The quality of the data gathered depends upon many factors, which require a skillful researcher an ability to take care of, to be ware of and to control

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