Using graded readers ton improve grade 11th students vocabulary at nguyen gia thieu high school submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements of the degee of bachelor of pedagogy in english

The Role of Vocabulary in Second and Foreign Language Learning and Reading .... SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY After the research, it is hoped that the results will be helpful:  To contri

HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY N0.2 FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY

=== ===

TRUONG QUOC DAT

STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY AT NGUYEN GIA THIEU

HIGH SCHOOL

(SUBMITED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE

DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF PEDAGOGY IN ENGLISH)

SUPERVISOR: DANG NGOC NAM, M.A

HA NOI, 2016

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my greatest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr Dang Ngoc Nam, M.A., for his invaluable advice, instruction and comments while I was doing this thesis Also, I would like to express my particular thanks to all the lecturers of Foreign Languages Faculty whose lectures have enriched my academic knowledge of English in the past

Especially, I would like to show my sincere thanks to Mrs Phung Thuy Oanh who gave

me the opportunity and autonomy to carry out the research at Nguyen Gia Thieu high school Besides, I am thankful to my lovely students in class 11A4 for their enthusiastic participation

as well as precious effort in the tests, and questionnaires

My special thanks are expressed to my aunt, Mrs Pham Hong Thuy, Ph.D., lecturer at Hanoi University for her ideas, comments and instructions, as well as encouragement and constant support

Last but not least, I owe a debt of gratitude to my family and my friends for their support, encouragement and love, which were extremely important for the completion of this thesis

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Title:

USING GRADED READERS TO IMPROVE GRADE 11 th STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY AT NGUYEN GIA THIEU HIGH SCHOOL

(Graduation paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the Degree of Bachelor of

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART ONE INTRODUCTION

I RATIONALE 1

II RESEARCH PRESUPPOSITION 2

III RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 2

IV RESEARCH SCOPE 2

V RESEARCH METHODS 2

VI RESEARCH TASKS 2

VII SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 2

VIII DESIGN OF THE STUDY 3

PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I.1 LITERATURE REVIEW 4

I.2 AN OVERVIEW OF READING 5

I.2.1 Reading 5

I.2.1.1 The Role of Reading 5

I.2.1.2 Definition of Extensive Reading 6

I.2.1.3 Extensive Reading versus Intensive Reading 7

I.2.2 Vocabulary 8

I.2.2.1 The Importance of Vocabulary 8

I.2.2.2 The Role of Vocabulary in Second and Foreign Language Learning and Reading 8

I.2.2.3 Vocabulary Acquisition 9

I.2.3 Graded Readers 10

I.2.4 Previous Research 11

CHAPTER TWO METHODOLOGY II.1 Action Research 14

II.1.1 Rationale for the Research Design 14

II.1.2 Procedure of Action Research 14

II.2 Subjects 16

II.3 The Graded Readers Project 16

II.4 Data Collection Instruments 18

II.4.1 Vocabulary Test 18

II.4.2 Survey Questionnaire 18

II.5 Data Analysis 19

II.5.1 The Mean Score Method of Descriptive Statistic 19

II.5.2 T-tests 20

CHAPTER THREE THE RESULTS III.1 Results 22

III.1.1 The Tests 22

III.1.2 The Pre-Test and the Post-Test 23

III.1.3 The Questionnaire 25

III.2 Recommendations 26

PART THREE CONCLUSION I Conclusion 27

II Limitations and Suggestions for Further Studies 27

REFERENCES 29

APPENDIX AAttitude Questionnaire 32

APPENDIX BVocabulary Test 33

APPENDIX CReading Test 38

APPENDIX DThe Reading Worksheet 40

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

PART ONE INTRODUCTION

I RATIONALE

The English language has been making a considerable contribution to the increasing development of various fields in modern life such as economy, politics, culture, science, education and international relations As a result, English learning and teaching are essential needs in many parts of the world English has become a compulsory subject not only in many countries in the world but also in Vietnam Therefore, to meet the demands for the development and integration of Vietnam into the greater English-speaking world, over the last two decades, English language teaching and learning have been carried out at every educational level

Learning a language is a lifelong process Whenever a language is learnt or acquired, one is faced with the problem of learning vocabulary It cannot be denied that vocabulary plays an important role in the language learning process and in language use To mention the important role of vocabulary in language acquisition, Wilkins (1972) has also claimed that

“without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”

In other words, students need to enlarge their vocabulary if they want to enhance the overall English proficiency

However, for students at high schools in Vietnam, eleventh graders have to learn three

or four periods per week, each period lasts 45 minutes In each reading lesson, students have a chance to read two reading texts of about 180 words It means that they only read about 360 words in one to two weeks Thus, it is not enough time for the eleventh graders at high schools to develop reading skills and vocabulary knowledge In addition, the vocabulary in the school English text book is limited As a result, the students often complained that they could not understand and answer the reading comprehension questions or do reading comprehension exercises

Furthermore, students often learn new words passively, they usually write down new words in their notebooks Through my observation, I have found out that the students often learn new words by writing each English word with its Vietnamese meaning without other kinds of practice Then they leave it there with little revision or without revision Hence, they can quickly forget the words that they learned

From the above analysis, it can be seen that students get difficulty in learning the English due to the lack of vocabulary All the reasons mentioned above motivated me to

conduct the study „Graded readers to improve grade 11th students‟ vocabulary at Nguyen Gia Thieu high school‟

II RESEARCH PRESUPPOSITION

Through using action research, some questions are raised:

III RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The research focus on thirty-eight students at 11A4 class in Nguyen Gia

Thieu high school The study aims to improve vocabulary and change their attitudes towards reading

IV RESEARCH SCOPE

This study‟s scope is limited to students at Nguyen Gia Thieu high school There are thirty-eight eleventh grade students taking part in this study

V RESEARCH METHODS

To obtain the results of this study, the following instruments are applied:

through the given pre-test and post-test

• The attitude questionnaire was designed to measure two aspects of reading-affect (feeling) and cognition-affect (thinking)

VI RESEARCH TASKS

The study involves completing the following tasks:

acquisition improvement

English vocabulary learning or acquisition

 Testing the effects of graded readers on vocabulary acquisition and readers‟ attitudes

 Discussing and analyzing effects of graded readers as identified through the above

mentioned action research method

VII SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

After the research, it is hoped that the results will be helpful:

 To contribute additional evidences that graded readers can well improve students‟

vocabulary knowledge

 To provide us with a great amount of useful information that graded readers may help develop their positive attitudes towards reading skills as well as build up the students‟

effective reading habits

VIII DESIGN OF THE STUDY

The thesis is divided into three main parts, namely: Introduction, Development, and Conclusion

Part One: INTRODUCTION This part explains the rationale for choosing the topic and methodology, as well as the tasks and objectives

Part Two: DEVELOPMENT consists of three chapters

about Graded readers

collected

Part Three: CONCLUSION summarizes the whole the thesis before discussing some limitations of the study and then gives some suggestions for further study

PART TWO DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER ONE THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

I.1 LITERATURE REVIEW

Graded readers in improving students‟ vocabulary acquisition has been the topic of much research as well as books mentioned by Bamford (1984), Simensen (1987), Hill & Thomas (1988), Hill (1997), Nation & Ming-Tzu (1999), Richard & Schimidt (2002), Rob Waring (2001) and so on They each have their own way to talk about graded readers Generally, they often focus their attention on the ways of giving the definitions, models, characteristics and benefits of graded readers

First of all, Simensen (1987) distinguishes three types of graded reader: (a) authentic readers, not written for pedagogic purposes; (b) pedagogic readers, specially written for EFL/ESL students; and (c) adapted readers, which have been adapted from authentic texts She pays much attention to kinds of graded readers

Hill & Thomas (1988) defines a graded reader as a book „written to a grading scheme,‟ whether it is a simplified version of a previously written work or an original work written in simple language

In additions, Richard & Schimidt (2002) regards graded readers as „A text written for children learning their mother tongue, or for second language content is based on a language grading scheme A graded reader may use a restricted vocabulary or a set of grammatical structures‟

Besides, Bamford (1984) says, „For all but advanced learners, the best way to promote extensive reading is by means of graded readers‟ According to Hill (1997), he points out

„Graded readers are extended texts, mostly fiction, written in language reduced in terms of structures and vocabulary‟ This definition includes two of the most important properties of language learner literature: firstly, the texts are of a certain length suitable for extensive reading – and secondly, they contain linguistic structures, which are easy for the intended audience

Wodinsky, M & Nation, P (1988) describes graded readers as books written within a limited vocabulary which are in common use in second and foreign language teaching Also, they mention that graded readers need to provide enough repetition of all or most of the words

at a particular level to firmly establish them in the learners‟ memory and to enrich their meaning

Moreover, Waring, R (2001) describes that graded readers is written at specific levels for language learners to develop their reading ability He finds that graded readers is made easy to read by simplifying and using vocabulary and grammar limited to that level, so the learner can easily understand the story

Finally, stated by Nation & Ming-Tzu (1999), graded readers are defined as books which are specially written or adapted for second language learner This involves severely restricting the vocabulary that can occur, controlling the grammatical structures that can occur, and matching the length of text to the vocabulary and grammar controls It is stated that

a graded reading scheme consists of a series of vocabulary and grammar levels with several readers available at each levels of the scheme A low proficiency learner would begin reading books at the lowest level of the scheme, and when reading at that level was comfortable, students would move on to books at the next level

I.2 AN OVERVIEW OF READING

I.2.1 Reading

I.2.1.1 The Role of Reading

Teachers of English often ask themselves why reading is important when learning a language Actually, the importance of reading in language learning and language proficiency

is well documented in the literature

Gradman & Hanania (1991) investigates the relationship between ESL learners‟ language achievement and forty-four background variables, including formal learning experiences, exposure to the language in class and outside, and attitudes to English The results of their multiple regression analysis showed „the strongest effect to be that of extracurricular reading‟

Krashen (2005) discusses evidence for the „power of reading‟ He refers to four studies that „consistently report a positive relationship between the amount of free reading done and various aspects of second and foreign language competence.‟ – as Lee, Krashen, and Gribbons (1996) regarding the acquisition of relative clauses; Stokes, Krashen, and Kartchner (1998) regarding the acquisition of the present subjunctive in Spanish; Constantino, Lee, Cho, and Krashen (1997) regarding TOEFL scores; and Lee, S Y (2001) regarding factors which make writing difficult He also refers to later studies in which he is involved regarding the use

of teen romances in ESL learning, where „recreational reading is the only plausible

explanation for progress.‟ This research is reported more recently by Cho in the International Journal of Foreign Language Teaching (Cho, 2005)

In conclusion, many researchers have agreed upon the inevitable role of reading in language learning Many aspects of a language including vocabulary can be learnt incidentally through reading As Nuttall (1982) says that the best way to improve one‟s knowledge of a foreign language is to go and live among its speakers and the next best way is to read extensively in it

I.2.1.2 Definition of Extensive Reading

ER has been the interest of numerous linguists and language experts Therefore, many trials to work out a thorough definition of ER have been made by those who are interested in this approach

Richard & Schimidt (2002) gives an interesting definition of extensive reading ER means reading in quantity and in order to gain a general understanding of what is read Besides, they point out that ER is intended to develop good reading habits, to build up knowledge of vocabulary and structure, and to encourage a liking for reading

Ellis (1997) regards ER as the activity when students only have general understanding

of the text without necessarily understanding every word Obviously, this definition fails to depict ER since it only describes one aspect of it

In additions, Susser & Robb (1990) defines ER as a language teaching or learning procedure is „…reading (a) of large quantities material or long texts; (b) for global understanding; (c) with the intention of obtaining pleasure from the text Further, because (d) reading is individualized, with students choosing the books they want to read, (e) the books are not discussed in class.‟ This definition is distinctive from others because it provides the general characteristics of ER including the amount and primary purpose as well as the role of learners in such a kind of reading However, since ER cannot be implemented in isolation from an instructional program, the last characteristic mentioned in this definition is questionable

Notably, Day & Bamford (2002) proposes the „Top Ten Principles for Teaching

Extensive Reading‟ in order to help teachers „consider their beliefs about how best to help

their students become proficient foreign-language readers.‟ The principles are:

1 The reading material is easy

2 A variety of reading material on a wide range of topics must be available

3 Learners choose what they want to read

4 Learners read as much as possible

5 The purpose of reading is usually related to pleasure, information and general understanding

6 Reading is its own reward

7 Reading speed is usually faster rather than slower

8 Reading is individual and silent

9 Teachers orient and guide their students

10 The teacher is a role model of a reader

I.2.1.3 Extensive Reading versus Intensive Reading

Extensive reading develops at the student‟s own pace according to individual ability It

will be selected at a lower level of difficulty than that for extensive reading Where frequency word counts are available for the language being learnt, extensive reading will conform to a lower frequency word count than intensive reading Material will be selected whose choice of structure is habitually less complex and whose vocabulary range is less extensive The purpose of extensive reading is to train the students to read directly and fluently in the target language for enjoyment without the aid of the teacher Where graded texts are available, structures in texts for extensive reading will be already familiar, and new items of vocabulary will be introduced slowly in such a way that their meaning can be deduced from context or quickly ascertained The student will be encouraged to make intelligent guesses at the meaning of unfamiliar items Material consists of authentic short stories and plays, or informative or controversial articles from newspaper and magazines A few adaptations of vocabulary and structure will be made The style of writing should entail a certain amount of repetition without monotony Novelties of vocabulary should not coincide with difficulties of structure It means reading in quantity in order to gain a general understanding of what is read It is intended to develop good reading habits, to build up knowledge of vocabulary and structure and to encourage a liking for reading, increase total comprehension, acquaint the student with relevant socio-cultural material, and encourage recreational reading

According to Day & Bamford (1998), there are ten features of an ER approach First, the material is usually selected by the teacher, not the students Second, all the learners read the same material at the same time (usually in class) Third, the text is quite short (often these texts are no more than 300 words) Forth, there is a heavy emphasis on using the text to learn vocabulary and grammar Fifth, there are many difficult words (the aim is to teach them) Sixth, vocabulary is taught by translation Seventh, there is a pre-reading task (an activity before the reading begins) Eighth, comprehension is tested Ninth, there are „post-reading‟

grammar and vocabulary exercises Tenth, students rarely meet the same vocabulary items presented in earlier chapters again in later chapters

In contrast, the primary goal of intensive reading is to practice and learn the grammar and vocabulary of the target language through reading This type of reading is called intensive reading because learner is intensively involved in looking inside the text at the vocabulary and grammar, and is concentrating on a „careful reading‟ of the text Intensive reading aims to develop language knowledge rather than reading skill

This is not to say that intensive reading is necessarily bad, only that it is limited by what it tries to do This is a result of the type of texts the learner is reading and the types of tasks involved What the learner needs in addition to this kind of reading, is fluency practice through ER, and the development of the skills of reading

I.2.2 Vocabulary

I.2.2.1 The Importance of Vocabulary

Vocabulary is an inseparable part of any language learning process It would be

impossible to learn a language without vocabulary The important role that this component plays has been emphasized in all the different methods of language teaching As River (1987) states, “vocabulary cannot be taught It can be presented, explained, included in all kinds of activities, but it must be learnt by individuals” (p.28) She further states that, “As language teachers, we must arouse interest in words, a certain excitement I personal development in this area” (p 29) Besides, she also suggests that language teachers must help their students

by giving them some ideas on how to learn vocabulary and some guidance on what to learn Vocabulary as a major component of language learning has been the object of numerous studies each of which has its own contribution to the field Laufer (1988) considers vocabulary learning as the heart of language learning and language use In fact, it is this vocabulary learning that makes the essence of any language Without vocabularies, speakers cannot convey meaning and communicate with each other in any particular language

It seems that this problem is due to lack of vocabulary knowledge and that the students‟ criterion in choosing words in context is surface structure and they fail to address the depth of vocabulary knowledge Therefore, it is important to know how to teach and learn vocabulary effectively

I.2.2.2 The Role of Vocabulary in Second and Foreign Language Learning and Reading

Vocabulary is central to English language teaching because without sufficient

vocabulary students cannot understand others or express their own ideas This is true since with some useful words and expressions only, we can still communicate in a foreign language

even when we do not follow the grammar rules of that language Vocabulary is undeniably crucial to second and foreign language learning Lewis (1993) further argues, “Lexis is the core or heart of language.” Particularly as students develop greater fluency and expression in English; it is significant for them to acquire more productive vocabulary knowledge and to develop their own personal vocabulary learning strategies

According to Richard & Renandya (2002), “vocabulary is the core component of language proficiency and provides much of the basis for how well learners speak, listen, read and write Without an extensive vocabulary and strategies for acquiring new vocabulary, learners often achieve less than their potential”

To any language learners, vocabulary learning is an essential element in their language learning Many language teachers also find that the major obstacle in teaching a language is not about teaching grammar but in helping students gain sufficient vocabulary so that they can engage in meaningful conversations or read and enjoy different materials other than the textbooks only

I.2.2.3 Vocabulary Acquisition

According to Ellis (1997), there are several different aspects of vocabulary acquisition including two separable types of learning mechanism: (i) the acquisition of a word‟s form, its lexical specifications, its collocations, and its grammatical class information all result from predominantly unconscious (or implicit) processes of analysis of sequence information; (ii) acquisition of a word‟s semantic and conceptual properties, and the mapping of word form labels onto meaning representations, result from conscious (or explicit) learning processes Nation (1990) proposes the following list of the different kinds of knowledge that a person must master in order to acquire or know a word

- The meaning(s) of the word

- The written form of the word

- The spoken form of the word

- The grammatical behavior of the word

- The collocations of the word

- The register of the word

- The associations of the word

- The frequency of the word

These are known as types of word knowledge, and most or all of them are necessary to

be able to use a word in the wide variety of language situations one comes across

Chun & Plass (1996) finds that especially the availability of picture annotations facilitated vocabulary acquisition, and that vocabulary words learned with picture annotations are better retained than those learned with textual annotations Besides, they show that incidental vocabulary acquisition and text comprehension are best for words where learners look up both picture and text annotations

In this study, the term “vocabulary acquisition” and “vocabulary learning” are used interchangeably and the researcher decided to test the aspect “the meaning of the word” to decide if a student has acquired it or not

I.2.3 Graded Readers

According to Wikipedia, graded readers are „easy reading‟ books with specific levels

of grammatical complexity in mind and with vocabulary that is limited by frequency headword counts

Nation & Ming-Tzu (1999) defines graded readers as books which are specially written or adapted for second language learners

Besides, Su-Su Hung (2011) points out graded readers are books that have had the language level simplified to help language learners read them The language is graded for vocabulary, complexity of grammar structures, and also by the number of words from beginners to advanced students

Bamford (1984) says, „For all but advanced learners, the best way to promote

extensive reading is by means of graded readers.‟ Besides, Hill (1997) states that graded readers are extended texts, mostly fiction, written in language reduced in terms of structures and vocabulary This definition includes two of the most important properties of language learner literature: firstly, the texts are of a certain length suitable for extensive reading – and secondly, they contain linguistic structures, which are easy for the intended audience

Nation & Ming-Tzu (1999) defines graded readers as books which are specially written or adapted for second language learner This involves severely restricting the vocabulary that can occur, controlling the grammatical structures that can occur, and matching the length of text to the vocabulary and grammar controls Graded readers are becoming more and more popular in language teaching and learning for its benefits

Typically, a graded reading scheme consists of a series of vocabulary and grammar levels with several readers available at each levels of the scheme A pre-intermediate proficiency learner would begin reading books at the pre-intermediate level of the scheme, and when reading at that level was comfortable, would move on to books at the next level Therefore, students need different treatments when reading extensively

I.2.4 Previous Research

To date, there have been numerous studies conducted to investigate the effect of ER

and graded readers on different students‟ aspects of learning The effectiveness of ER has been demonstrated rather impressively through those researches In the narrow extent of my thesis proposal, I would like to review the previous studies focusing on the way that previous

ER programs were organized and the benefits of ER to vocabulary learning

Nation & Ming-Tzu (1999) did a research to look at the potential for vocabulary learning using a corpus of forty-two graded readers from one series of graded readers The study indicated that in order to have 95% coverage or the words at a level in the series, it was necessary to already know the vocabulary of the current level in the scheme Most of the words in the scheme should be met often, particularly if learners systematically read several readers at each of the various levels in the scheme Words that were introduced in the early levels of the scheme occur often in books written for the later levels of the scheme Learners need to read about one graded reader per week in order to meet repetitions of the new words soon enough to reinforce the previous meeting

The study by Nation & Ming-Tzu (1999) above gives me a lot of useful advices First, it gives me an idea about using graded readers as the material for my study Graded readers provide graded vocabulary and grammar levels suitable for different levels of learners Many other vocabulary experts also agree that adequate reading comprehension depends on a person already knowing between 90 and 95 percent of the words in a text (Hirsch, 2003) Knowing at least 90 percent of the words enables the reader to get the main idea from the reading and guess correctly what many of the unfamiliar words mean, which will help them learn new words Second, it is very important to choose the right level of graded readers for the subject

of the graded reading scheme or ER program

In another study by Horst (2005), 21 adults ESL immigrant learners at a community center in Montreal participated in an ER project using 35 graded readers; most of the reading was done independently at home About an hour of class time each week was devoted to activities that support ER such as discussing books in pairs, completing worksheets, adding entries to vocabulary notebook In a relatively short period (about two months), the researcher managed to build “a large-computer-readable corpus of ER materials” and identify the “word-learning opportunities that occurred in them in a systematic manner” To assess the learning gains, numbers of words rated YES (I know the meaning of this word) on the pre and post-tests were tallied and compared After collecting and analyzing the results, the figures showed

a significant mean post-test increase of about seven words rated YES and an overall mean

gain of about 17 words Horst (2005) concludes that vocabulary was learned “through encountering them in the reading materials rather than through other exposure”

The study above suggested a good way of implementing the project and creating activities at class However, in the current research situation, it would be convenient if students could read mostly at home since there was lack of time for class activities Besides,

35 graded readers are not feasible in my situation Due to the financial limit, my project could only run with a small number of books

Kweon & Kim (2008) conducts an experimental research to investigate the effects of selected authentic written texts on vocabulary acquisition among adult Korean FL learners and to examine factors affecting vocabulary acquisition including frequency and word class The participants were 12 students (11 male and 1 female) taking the intermediate English reading course at Pohang University of Science and Technology On the first day of the class, the students completed a 15-minute self-report test (pretest) on word knowledge for the 367 words The 367 words were alphabetized after the technique in Horst & Meara (1999) and Horst (2005), as cited in Kweon & Kim (2008) After that, the class met for 100 minutes every day from Monday to Friday Each day, the students were assigned three or four chapters

of a chapter book (over 100,000 words) to read at home Every class began with a comprehension quiz of 15 questions, answers to clarification questions and report of interesting or best part Then the students were divided into small groups to discuss provided topics After that it took about 20 minutes for small-group leaders to present their on-stage discussion Finally, during the last 20 minutes of each class, the students wrote an in-class response journal on a topic selected from the chapters used in the class on that day These journals were submitted at the end of each class To examine the results, posttest 1, the immediate posttest, was given on the last day of instruction Posttest 2, the delayed posttest, was given 4 weeks after the Posttest 1

The results of the tests showed significantly differences in student understanding between the Pretest and Posttest 1 but no significant differences between Posttest 1 and 2 Therefore, the researchers concluded that vocabulary was incidentally acquired through ER and that most words acquired were retained without much attrition They also found that the retention rate of the words gained incidentally through ER was quite high one month later The study above gave me useful suggestions of how to examine the results However, regarding the material, the authentic written texts (chapter books) that were uncontrolled for vocabulary and grammatical complexity are too difficult for Nguyen Gia Thieu high school students Another kind of material that can offer controlled, systematic, and comprehensive

development of vocabulary and grammar as well as cater to the different interests and levels

of the learners may be more appropriate Besides, the ER program above was applied for four weeks and the class met for 100 minutes every day from Monday to Friday At Nguyen Gia Thieu school, the English program needs to follows the exact routines strictly ruled by the MOET, so it is impossible to spend time for such class activities In the situation of my study,

I could only support and encourage the students to read extensively at home and reminded them not to use the dictionaries

Another recent quantitative study carried out by Guo (2012) using authentic materials for ER to promote English proficiency among EFL learners at a college in Taiwan indicated

“a strong relationship between ER and vocabulary development” The study employed a pre- and post-test design using a simulated TOEIC English proficiency very helpful in giving the researcher important information about the effectiveness of ER on vocabulary learning and about how to arrange an ER project/program Firstly, they gave me useful ideas about choosing the materials for my ER projects After carefully reviewing the literature, I decided

to choose graded readers as the materials for this project Secondly, the reviewed research also gave me suggestions about how to monitor the students‟ reading at home I decided that the students in my study had to fill in the weekly reading worksheet after reading and they could write them in English or Vietnamese Thirdly, I also decided to adopt the vocabulary test by Horst (2005) to measure for its mentioned advantages Fourthly, after reviewing the

literature, I decided to apply and modify Day and Bamford‟s (2002) Top ten Principles for

Teaching Extensive reading in my research As far as I know, most of the research on ER

were done outside Vietnam and used an experiment as a research methodology However, the author of this study would like to explore the effects of ER on vocabulary learning in the way

of an action research

CHAPTER TWO METHODOLOGY

In this chapter, the study aimed to answer the research questions related to graded

readers in improving students‟ vocabulary The first research question sought to find what extend can graded readers improve the students‟ vocabulary learning The second research question asked what the students‟ attitudes are towards reading This chapter will go on to describe the research methodology including the participants, a detailed description of the ER program, data collection instruments and research procedures

II.1 Action Research

II.1.1 Rationale for the Research Design

There are some research methods offered to be used in the field of applied linguistics such as experimental research method and case study However, because of its advantages discussed below, AR was selected as the research method for this study The rationale for choosing AR as a research method and the AR procedure for this study will be explained in details

As the name suggests, AR is a methodology, which has the dual aims of action and research „Action research‟ as defined by Wallace (1998) is done by systematically collecting data on teachers‟ every day practice and analysing them in order to come to some decision regarding future practice According to him, AR can be helpful for two reasons: (1) It can have a specific and immediate outcome which can be directly related to practice in the teacher‟s own context; and (2) the findings of such research might be primarily specific, that means it is not claimed that they are necessarily of general application and therefore the method might be more free-ranging than those of conventional research Nunan (1992) states

AR is “problem focus”, mainly concerned with a single case in a specific situation and tries to find solutions to the problem in focus Kemmis & McTaggart (1998) defines AR as “teacher-initiated classroom research which seeks to increase the teachers‟ understanding of classroom teaching and learning, and therefore, bring about improvement in classroom practices”

AR was selected as the main method for this study, because it can help to identify the problem and evaluate the solutions

II.1.2 Procedure of Action Research

It is said that AR project should be seen as flexible and researchers may have different

processes in different certain solutions AR study can have a number of steps or phrases,

which progress as a spiralling and evolving process AR project in McBride & Schostak (1991) consists of the following steps:

I decided to use the above process in my study In the following section, the stages of this action research are described in details:

1 Identifying the problem

The researcher‟s experience and observation helped him find that one of the students‟ biggest problems is lack of vocabulary Therefore, this aspect was selected to be the research focus in this study

2 Collecting and analysing the data

To find more information regarding the problem, I had to collect data regarding students‟ vocabulary knowledge, their reading comprehension ability and reading habits by doing several things First, I investigated the course book and saw that it provided very little vocabulary Second, I noticed that the students often complained about having difficulties when reading in English Third, I talked directly to the students and asked them whether they have habit of reading or not All of the students admitted that they had never read anything in

(1) identifying the probelm

(2) Collecting data

(3) analysing data

(4) Planning action steps

(5) Implementing action steps

(6) Collecting data to monitor change

(7) Analysis and

Evaluation

'Spiral to next circle'

English at home and none of them had a habit of reading in English extensively That leads to

a hypothesis that the students‟ lack of vocabulary would probably result from the fact that they did not read a lot in English outside the classroom On the other hand, if students read extensively, they would improve their vocabulary knowledge and attitudes towards reading With this hypothesis in mind, I reviewed the literature and found that reading extensively might be the solution to the problem and reading graded readers might help students increase their vocabulary That is also the second hypothesis of this study

3 Planning and implementing the action

Based on the hypothesis, the researcher developed an action plan An action plan, a procedure was developed based on the literature review concerning the topic to bring about the improvements in the specific areas of the research context In this study, the researcher decided to use graded readers to help learners to improve their vocabulary

4 Collecting data to monitor change

In order to collect data to monitor changes, the researcher asked the students to read the graded readers, do the tests and answer the questionnaires

5 Analysing and evaluating

After collecting the data, the researcher analysed the data to evaluate the action plan to find out whether the hypothesis is right or wrong

II.2 Subjects

The subjects of this study are thirty-eight students including 18 girls and 20 boys of

class 11A4, Nguyen Gia Thieu High School Before this project, they had not involved in any English extensive reading activity before

II.3 The Graded Readers Project

TABLE 1 The Graded Readers Project

Feb23th& 25th, 2016 + Carry out Pre-test

+ Carry out Questionnaire 1

+ Deliver reading worksheet 1

+ Deliver chapt.1 – The Little Mermaid (530 words)