AN INVESTIGATION ON VOCABULARY TEACHING IN THE ADVANCED LEVEL TEXTBOOK PROGRAM FOR ENGLISH SPECIALIZED STUDENTS GRADE 11TH IN CHU VAN AN HIGH SCHOOL

thạc sỹ, luận văn, ngoại ngữ, tiếng anh, khóa luận, chuyên đề

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT

PHƯƠNG NHÂN

AN INVESTIGATION ON VOCABULARY TEACHING IN THE ADVANCED LEVEL TEXTBOOK PROGRAM FOR

VAN AN HIGH SCHOOL

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC GIẢNG DẠY TỪ VỰNG TRONG CHƯƠNG TRÌNH SÁCH GIÁO KHOA NÂNG CAO DÀNH CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11 CHUYÊN ANH TRƯỜNG CHU

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT

PHƯƠNG NHÂN

AN INVESTIGATION ON VOCABULARY TEACHING IN THE ADVANCED LEVEL TEXTBOOK PROGRAM FOR

VAN AN HIGH SCHOOL

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC GIẢNG DẠY TỪ VỰNG TRONG CHƯƠNG TRÌNH SÁCH GIÁO KHOA NÂNG CAO DÀNH CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11 CHUYÊN ANH TRƯỜNG CHU

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I certify my authorship of the minor thesis submitted today entitled

“An investigation on vocabulary teaching in the advanced level textbook programfor English specialized students grade 11th in Chu Van An High School”

in terms of the statement of requirements for the thesis and the field study reports inMasters’ programs is the result of my own work, except where otherwise acknowledgedand that this minor thesis or any part of the same had not been submitted for a higherdegree to any other universities or institution

Signature

Date: December 29th, 2008

First of all, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Dinh Hai Yen,M.Ed, for her academic guidance and support throughout this study Without her valuableassistance, my thesis would not have been completed

I would like to sincerely thank the lecturers of the Department of Post Graduate Studies,College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National University for their useful lessons that havehelped in the clarification of many points

Last but not least, many special thanks are due to the teaching staff and students fromEnglish specialized classes 11th grade in Chu Van An High School, who contributed data tothe study Without their enthusiastic cooperation, I would not have been able to conduct

my research I hope that the insights this paper has yielded will be of benefit for futurestudents in the program

Vocabulary acquisition is one of the most challenging obstacles language learnersmust overcome This is especially true for students in English specialized classes wherecomprehension of academic texts is required This minor thesis investigates the vocabularystrategy teaching component of an advanced-level course book for students in the grade

11th of Chu Van An High School It first describes the course and the issues whichprompted the study The present study is an effort that aims to examine the students’ usage

of vocabulary learning strategies that occurs as the course progresses and to analyse thedevelopment of passive and active vocabularies over a three-month period It then reviewsthe literature relevant to the topic of research which serves as a theoretical for frameworkfor the study The data were collected by means of questionnaires and interviews Resultsshowed that students employed some certain determination, social, memory, cognitive andmetacognitive strategies during the course However, the frequency of determinationstrategies use was significantly higher than that of social and metacognive ones Thefindings emphasize the potential influence of these strategies on the learners’ vocabularydevelopment Particularly, this study can claim to have achieved its goal of measuringimprovements in students’ passive vocabularies and matching them to suitable targets after

a three-month period However, the findings from these studies have neither beencompletely sufficient nor consistent, which requires further research into particularstrategies employed by learners of different proficiency levels in varied contexts Thestudy has developmental implication for researchers and teachers It provides acategorization scheme of vocabulary learning strategies that are applicable to other studies

in this field In addition, based on the findings, it suggests explicit instruction to improve

the efficiency of teaching vocabulary strategies

3.2 Summary of major findings 30

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Vocabulary size and text coverage in the Brown corpus

(Nation and Waring, 1997, p.9)

Figure 2 Text coverage in written academic text (Nation and Newton, (1997, p.239) Figure 3 Determination strategy survey results

Figure 4 Social strategy survey results

Figure 5 Sample of Memory strategy survey results

Figure 6 Cognitive strategy survey results

Figure 7 Metacognitive strategy survey results

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

It is common knowledge that learning a foreign language mainly involves learningthe sound system, grammar, and vocabulary of that language among which vocabularylearning plays a very crucial role Seal, (1990, as cited in Celce-Murcia, 1991, p.269) statethat

to the non-language specialist, the common sense how languages are learned is that you substitute the words in your first language for the corresponding words in the second language Words are perceived as the building blocks upon which knowledge of the second language can be built.

Considering the crucial role attributed to vocabulary learning in second or foreignlanguage learning, one can implicitly understand the importance of vocabulary teaching aswell In the past, vocabulary teaching and learning were often given little priority in secondlanguage programs, but recently there has been a renewed interest in the nature ofvocabulary and its role in learning and teaching (Richards & Renandya, 2002)

A number of research studies have dealt with lexical problems, that is, problemswhich language learners face in vocabulary learning The given research findings haverevealed that lexical problems frequently interfere with communication As a matter offact, communication breakdown occurs when people do not use the right words (Allen,1983)

It is also generally accepted that second or foreign language learners who possessgood word power or knowledge of vocabulary are usually more successful languagelearners To put it simply, people with large vocabularies are more proficient readers thanthose with limited vocabularies In fact, there is usually a positive correlation betweenone’s knowledge of vocabulary and his/her level of language proficiency (Luppescu &Day, 1993)

In most English classrooms in Vietnam today, a significant amount of time is spent

on lexis teaching and learning Indeed, many EFL learners favour the type of vocabularybook that lists words frequently appearing in entrance examinations However, these areunhelpful for the communicative purposes since they do not present information on usage Therefore, considering the treatment of lexis in current English textbooks for EFL learners

and what improvements that could be made has become a major concern for languageprofessionals nationwide The significance then is not simply a focus on lexical elements,but a careful consideration of the kinds of lexical features that should be presented andapplied.

Advanced ESL (English as a Second Language) learners, particularly those whohave been admitted to English specialized classes which use English as the mode ofinstruction such as the case of Chu Van An high school, ostensibly have a sizeablevocabulary To begin with, they must pass the school entrance exams, which test thebreadth of vocabulary at the disposition of the learner In the English specialized classes,vocabulary learning is of great importance to the students because they need to work with alot of English books and materials to support their studies In recent advanced-level

courses I taught, the learners were expected to learn the entire Academic Word List

(Coxhead, 2000) and sublist over the course of one three-month semester Remarkably,the students in these particular classes consistently received 80%-100% correct answers onAWL vocabulary quizzes, representing a gain of approximately 560 new word families.However, apart from some students who are quite good at English, most students findvocabulary acquisition one of the biggest challenges, especially when they have to workwith a wide range of academic materials They often complain that they have littleunderstanding of the texts they have read and gain little knowledge from their readingexercises in the advanced textbooks Having worked with the newly developed advancedtextbooks for more than two years, I am fully aware of the students’ problems and want tohelp them improve their vocabulary learning efficiency Therefore, I intend to carry out aninvestigation on vocabulary teaching in the advanced level textbook program for Englishspecialized class students who are in the grade 11th in Chu Van An High School

2 Scope, aims and significance of the study

2.1 Scope of the study

The study investigates the vocabulary teaching in the advanced level textbookprogram for English specialized class students who are in the grade 11th in Chu Van AnHigh School Particularly, this minor thesis only refers to the learners’ lexical strategytraining That is how to develop learners’ lexical learning strategies in the most efficient

way Thus, the study of learning and teaching strategies involving other aspects would bebeyond the scope

2.2 Aims of the study

This study evaluates the vocabulary teaching component of an advanced Englishstudy program The aims of the study are:

a) to examine the students’ usage of vocabulary learning strategies that occurs

as the course progresses,

b) to analyse the development of passive and active vocabularies over a month period in order to assess whether students finishing the program haveacquired sufficient knowledge of lexical items to comprehend different types ofacademic texts

three-To realize the given aims, an attempt is made to seek answers to the followingresearch questions:

(1) To what extent does the vocabulary component of the advanced level textbook program for grade 11 th students support their own vocabulary development? (2) What is the students’ evaluation of the effectiveness towards vocabulary learning strategies that they employ after a three – month period?

(3) What are the suggested solutions to improve the efficiency of teaching vocabulary strategies?

2.3 Significance of the study

The study is the first one to be carried out in the field of vocabulary teaching at ChuVan An High school It gives a detailed description of vocabulary development used bystudents in English specialized classes More importantly, it works out changes in studybehavior over a three-month period The findings of the vocabulary teaching of thetextbooks newly developed for the advanced level can help teachers to understand moreabout their students’ vocabulary acquisition and can serve as the foundation for somefurther recommendations on how to improve students’ vocabulary breadth

3 Methods of the study

This study is to be conducted as a descriptive study that utilizes both quantitativeand qualitative approaches The quantitative analysis is employed through the process ofdata collected from written questionnaires to reveal changes in study behavior over a three-month period and to measure passive vocabulary growth over the same period In addition,the qualitative approach is used to deal with the data collected from interviews with theteaching staff that are fully responsible for the teaching of some 11th English specializedclasses in Chu Van An High School The combination of these data collection methodswill help ensure both reliability and validity of the study

4 Organization of the thesis

The study consists of three parts:

Part I is the Introduction, which states the rationale, scope, aims, significance,method and organization of the study

Part II consists of three chapters

Chapter 1 reviews the literature relevant to the topic of research and summarizes somerelated studies on vocabulary acquisition, which serves as a theoretical framework for thestudy

Chapter 2 presents the research methodology of the study It provides information aboutthe participants, the instruments, and the data collection procedures and data analysis.Chapter 3 is the main part of the study that reports and discusses the main findingsaccording to the research questions

Part III is the Conclusion that summarizes the major findings, presents theimplications and limitations of the study and gives some suggestions for further research

PART II: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

For long, vocabulary learning has occupied an uncertain position in literature Sincethe 1970s though, there has been a growing appreciation of the importance of lexicalknowledge for learners This, together with the gradual shift away from prescribedmethods of teaching, has led to a greater emphasis on developing the use of learningstrategies Until recently, however, there have been few attempts to accurately describe thestrategies that learners can bring to bear on the task of acquiring vocabulary (Schmitt,

1997, p.199) Several key questions stand out regarding current thinking on vocabularylearning, some of which attract a remarkable consistency of opinion, while others provokemore debate

1.1 Vocabulary in SLA

Some specialists in methodology believe that the meaning of words can not beadequately taught, so it is better not to try to teach them Others in methodology fear thatstudents would make mistakes in sentence construction if too many words are learnedbefore the basic grammar has been mastered Actually, vocabulary learning is not simply amatter of learning that a certain word in one language means the same in all contexts It iswidely accepted that vocabulary is more important than grammar in SLA Firstly, wordsstill can be used to communicate successfully without the grammatical correction Forexample, as in baby’s utterance “Mummy, water”, one can easily get his intention that heasks his mother for water, although his utterance which lacks a subject and a predicate isgrammatically wrong Secondly, knowledge of grammar is limited but that of words arenot Thus, learning vocabulary should last as long as the language is being in use

Vocabulary breadth in learning a foreign language is viewed as a primordial factor

in successful communication and, to a great extent, in high-level reading ability andcomprehension Furthermore, reading itself is frequently singled out as the most importantvocabulary-building activity both for the first language (L1) and the second language (L2).The impact of reading on vocabulary acquisition outweighs by far the impact of aurallanguage because of the relatively simple lexicon used in the spoken language (Krashen,

1989, p 455) A large number of the studies on SLA (e.g., Horst, Cobb, & Meara, 1998;

Knight, 1994; Krashen, 1989; Nagy, Herman, & Anderson, 1985; Nation & Coady, 1988)examine the role of context in vocabulary acquisition which takes place through reading orreading-associated tasks Context plays a significant role in this acquisition by supplyingthe necessary input In many cases, the vocabulary acquisition which occurs while we arereading is incidental and is largely dependent on the learners' guessing (Krashen, 1989).However, numerous articles concerned with the controversy between guessing fromcontext and the use of a dictionary or glosses (marginal or computerized) in L2 acquisitionprovide data in favor of dictionary/ gloss use in addition to vocabulary embedded in anatural context (Groot, 2000 ; Hulstijn, 2000 ; Lomicka, 1998; Lyman-Hager & Davis,1996; Summers, 1988) Dictionaries are particularly helpful for rarely occurring, low-frequency words and for cases where the subjects do not have enough background forcorrect guesses Moreover, even a correct guess does not necessarily lead to acquisition.This conclusion can be explained by the assumption that learners who guess wordscorrectly do not pay sufficient attention to the link between form and meaning in thelearning stage nor think they know the words well.

1.2 Linguistic Input of Word

1.2.1 Necessary information of ‘knowing’ a word

It is important for learners to recognize that there is more to ‘knowing’ a word thanchecking its definition in a dictionary Teachers need to emphasize that vocabularylearning is an incremental, ongoing process, and that learners will be able to improve theirunderstanding of words by encountering them repeatedly

Word knowledge can be thought of as encompassing three elements: the word’sform, meaning and use Knowledge of form might include phonological and orthographicalform as well as any recognizable word parts Beyond the word’s definition as given in adictionary, meaning also encompasses connotation and synonyms Using the word requires

an understanding of appropriate grammatical function, common collocations, appropriacy

in different contexts and frequency of use, all of which can be acquired from incidentalexposure to language (Ellis, 1997, p.127)

In Laufer’s study (1998) of vocabulary development in Israel high school students ,productive knowledge is further subdivided into two parts Controlled productive

knowledge can be accessed when prompted by a task but free productive knowledge isused spontaneously without prompts This is an important point, since learners who arebeing prompted to use a particular word are being provided with a context, and aretherefore not exhibiting complete control of a lexical item unaided It is only when itemsare used appropriately without any prompts that a teacher can be sure that an item has beenfully acquired.

1.2.2 Receptive and Productive knowledge

Much has been written about receptive and productive vocabulary However, verylittle work has been done to distinguish the two More importantly, we must be carefulwhen using the terms 'receptive' and 'productive' and we don't necessarily know what weare talking about when we refer to receptive or productive vocabulary nor do people agreewhat they exactly are It is not certain by any means that the two can be so neatlyseparated

Many attempts have been made to distinguish the terms 'receptive' and 'productive'from theoretical and quantitative perspectives These terms differ in productive use andrequire more accurate mastery of connotations and denotations, register, syntacticconstraints, co-occurrence restrictions and so on Quantitatively, Waring (1996b,forthcoming) look at the relative vocabulary size of some Japanese learners of English andfound a difference between ‘receptive’ ‘and productive’ terms He found that if a highfrequency word was known receptively, there was good chance (64%) that it would beknown productively However, if a low frequency word was known receptively there waslittle chance (15%) it would be known productively This means that we know far manymore words receptively than productively, but that there is no linear relationship betweenthe amounts known

1.2.3 How many words do learners need to know?

Two possible answers to this question are offered The first is that learners shouldattempt, as far as is possible, to match the vocabularies of native speakers The secondanswer is to learn vocabulary in increments, based on the frequency, and therefore likelyusefulness, of each group of words

When estimating the vocabulary size of native speakers, the number of wordfamilies known appears to be a commonly accepted measure A word family is defined as ahead word, plus its inflected and derived forms Recent conservative estimates of thevocabulary size of an educated native speaker have been around 20,000 word families Thegrowth rate of a native speaker’s vocabulary is estimated at approximately 1,000 wordfamilies a year during early life (Nation and Waring, 1997, p.7) This is a challenging, yetnot insurmountable goal for a learner, but obviously is a long-term goal and as such is oflittle use to the lower level learner

A more practical solution for learners would be to make use of the frequency ofinformation provided by corpora, and in particular to concentrate initially on the mostfrequent words and then to move on to less frequent items Figure 1 shows the percentage

of text covered by vocabularies of increasing sizes

Vocabulary size Text coverage1,000

2,0003,0004,0005,0006,00015,851

72.0 %79.7 %84.0 %86.8 %88.7 %89.9 %97.8 %

Figure 1 Vocabulary size and text coverage in the Brown

corpus

(Nation and Waring, 1997, p.9)

As can be seen in the table, each increase in vocabulary size is accompanied bygreater text coverage, but at each level, the increase in coverage becomes smaller andsmaller Therefore, it is likely that learners will reach a point in their studies when learningthe next 1,000 words would be inefficient; they would benefit more by focusing onvocabulary appropriate to their own likely English needs The question is of course, howare we to know when that point has been reached?

In a 1990 study of written academic text, Nation and Newton produced thefollowing table of text coverage.

High-frequencywords

1.3 Vocabulary Learning Strategies

The communicative approach to learning which became popular in the 1970semphasized a naturalistic, incidental approach to vocabulary learning Krashen argued thatunconscious acquisition, through natural communication, was the only possible way toacquire a language Word meanings could be understood from context and repeatedencounters would help to improve the depth of understanding of each word, as well asaiding retention There is much to be said for naturalistic learning which provides a richdiet of comprehensible input Firstly, this approach closely matches our L1 learningexperience, and appeals to our sense of a ‘normal’ way of learning – there is nomemorization of word lists or other rote learning Furthermore, the sheer number of words

to be learned, as well as those with multiple meanings, also suggests a primary role forincidental learning (Nagy, 1997, p.71-72) The risk with explicit instruction, it is argued, isthat it is difficult to provide a sufficient number of encounters with a word for learning totake place Nagy also states that there is a likelihood of between one in twenty and one inseven that a word will be learned after just one exposure

The drawbacks of incidental learning lie in the difficulties of guessing fromcontext Sokmen (1997, p.238) lists several points which suggest a place for other, moreintentional, methods of vocabulary instruction The first point is that while learning fromcontext may provide a huge amount of exposure, it is likely that acquisition rates will beslow Other concerns include the error-prone nature of context-guessing, the fact thatemphasizing only one method neglects individual learning preferences, and mostsignificantly, that guessing a word successfully does not mean that the word has beenacquired Schmitt (2000, p.121) refers to the ‘depth of processing hypothesis’, which statesthat “the more one manipulates, thinks about and uses mental information, the more likely

it is that one will retain that information” (p.122)

Current thinking seems to point toward a combination of incidental and intentionallearning Time constraints ensure that guessing from context remains among the mostvaluable skills a learner can possess (Nation, 2000, p.232), and the ‘book flood’ studies byElley (in Nagy, 1997, p.76, and Schmitt, 2000, p.122) shows the benefits of extensivereading, but other studies investigating combinational methods have shown positiveresults Paribakht and Wesche’s (1997) study showed greater gains for students whocompleted vocabulary exercises after reading activities than for those who were only givenreading work

Many researchers today (e.g Nation, Sokmen, Ellis) seem to advocate intentionallearning for highly frequent words and the teaching of learning strategies to cope with lessfrequent ones Other worthwhile activities include: building a large sight vocabulary,making use of ‘schema’ to access encyclopedic knowledge to integrate with newinformation, using deep-processing techniques, encouraging learner independence, andmaking use of learning strategies (Sokmen, 1997, p.239; Fan, 2003, p.223)

1.3.1 Determination strategies

One group of determination strategies involves analyzing the unknown word, itsconstituent elements or the surrounding context to determine the meaning Identifying thepart of speech will offer some information; the learner might be able to identify the word

as an entity, state, action or quality Inflectional or derivational word parts could also beexamined Due to the limited number of inflections available in English, learners should

encounter and understand them quite rapidly Derivational affixes are far more numerous,yet they offer tremendous insights into word class and definition Nation (2001, p.264)refers to a study which found that 60% words containing the prefixes un-, re-, in- and dis-could be understood if the base word was known.

Dictionaries, while lacking the depth of processing that comes with guessingstrategies, are commonly used by many learners of foreign languages Althoughmonolingual dictionaries may offer better quality anchovy information and also improvelearners’ ability to paraphrase, Schmitt’s (1997, p.209) survey of attitudes to learningstrategies showed a clear preference for bilingual dictionaries This might be due to thesense of security they provide – Grabe and Stoller (1997, p.112) noted a learner’sunwillingness to give up his “accuracy anchor”

To achieve maximum benefit, dictionary skills have to be taught in the samemanner as other skills It is important that learners are taught when not to use dictionariesbecause they may be overused, resulting in the neglect of other strategies and increasingthe length of time taken to complete tasks Nation (2001, p.283) presents a summary ofstudies carried out on dictionary use, which show a positive effect on vocabularycomprehension for all but high-level learners, but also an increase in completion time.Nation (2001, p.239) suggests that inferencing skills should be prioritized, but thatfollowing up with dictionaries has a significant impact on retention

Teachers can also offer L2 paraphrases, synonyms, or example sentence using theunknown word If the goal of learners is to use the L2 productively, then these methodswill be more beneficial than translation The teacher must, however, consider theknowledge necessary to use each word while also making an efficient use of class time.

Although this information could also be provided by classmates instead of teachers,some learners might feel that information from a teacher is more reliable However, ifclassmates all work together at providing information through group work or pair work, thewhole class will benefit from improved paraphrasing skills and by becoming lessdependent on the teacher

Social strategies can also be used to consolidate information Sanaoui’s (1995)study highlighted the need for learners to create their own opportunities for language useoutside the classroom Students may make an effort to use the L2 together outside class, orseek opportunities to speak to native speakers or even to their teacher outside class Thereare obvious benefits to practising L2 vocabulary in a less academic setting The moreopportunities to speak a learner has, the more he/she will be able to experiment with newlanguage Accordingly, the experience of using the language for genuine communication islikely to increase learner motivation (Schmitt 1997, p.211)

1.3.3 Memory strategies

Researchers have identified a large number of strategies that learners use to aidrecall of vocabulary Schmitt’s (1997) taxonomy, for example, lists no less than 27separate memory strategies One group of strategies involves using images when learning

to form a stronger association with the word and its meaning These images can besketched in notebooks, formed in the mind or even drawn from personal experience This

is a good example of how a deeper level of processing can be achieved without itbecoming excessively arduous and thus potentially demotivating

There is another large group of strategies that link or group words together to assistretrieval There is evidence that the brain stores vocabulary in a “lexical matrix”, withindividual words entering into a variety of semantic relationships including: synonymy,antonymy, hyponymy and meronymy (Miller and Fellbaum, 1991, p.199-204) Usingwords in sentences can also be considered a memory strategy because the added context

may make retrieval easier Grouping L1 words spatially has also been shown to improverecollection L1 words arranged into patterns can be recalled easier than when the wordsare in a list Schmitt postulates that the same approach is likely to work for L2 vocabulary(1997, p.213).

A final group of memory strategies uses aspects of word knowledge to consolidatemeaning This includes paying special attention to the word’s orthographical orphonological form, memorizing affixes and roots and learning the word class Matchingsome words to their corresponding physical action, as is taught in the Total PhysicalResponse Method (Richards and Rogers, 2001, p.73-74), will also aid recall (Schmitt,

1997, p.215)

1.3.4 Cognitive strategies

Cognitive strategies focus on the mechanical aspects of learning vocabulary Thesemethods may be required parts of the course, set as homework by the teacher or habits ofindividual learners

Vocabulary notebooks are a valuable way of increasing learner independence Bygiving the learner the responsibility of choosing the words, the notebooks help to developgreater self-awareness, and at the same time, remove the teacher from some of the learningprocess Schmitt (1995, p.139) emphasize the necessity of giving learners the responsibility

of selecting vocabulary to increase their sense of discovery Fowle’s introduction ofvocabulary notebooks to a school in Thailand also brought about increased metacognitiveknowledge in the form of appropriacy of strategy selection a better understanding of thedemands of vocabulary learning and a greater tolerance of ambiguity (2002, p.385)

One cognitive strategy that was commonly employed by learners in Schmitt’s(1997) survey of learning strategies was repetition In order to improve vocabulary,learners repeat the words either orally or in written form This method lacks the depth ofprocessing recommended by researchers and seems to review only a limited amount of theknowledge that is necessary for communicative use However, both Nation (2001, p.383)and Read (2004, p.148) noted that learners in the past used rote methods to reach highlevels of proficiency

Other examples of cognitive strategies include taking notes and highlighting words,using the vocabulary sections in textbooks, and labeling physical objects These strategiescould all be said to assist noticing, an important first element in bringing an item intoconscious attention (Schmitt, 1990) Once an item has been noticed, learners are morelikely to focus attention on it and so the process of acquiring the item has begun

The first requirement for a learner is to find sufficient opportunities to learn.English learners are fortunate in that there is a vast number of commercially producedpedagogic materials available and the internet and other electronic resources are also easilyaccessed, thus providing EFL learners with an even wider range of potentially usefulmaterial Once vocabulary has been encountered, it is vital that it is recorded and reviewed

in an organized fashion Without such a system in place, learning is likely to be haphazardand sporadic, as a number of the studies reviewed earlier in this chapter have shown.Finally, learners should also consider which words most deserve their attention It iscommonly agreed that learners usually have a limited amount of time available forstudying Hence, learning to skip infrequent or obviously technical vocabulary when it isnot crucial to overall comprehension will greatly improve their proficiency

1.4 Vocabulary teaching in language education

Vocabulary instruction is one of the most misunderstood aspects of languagelearning and language teaching Research shows that most teachers deal with vocabulary in

a haphazard and rather unprincipled way, and most teachers leave the selection ofvocabulary to the course book Nevertheless, for a program aimed at blending a largeamount of incidental learning with a smaller amount of intentional learning, certainpractices stand out in the literature In addition to establishing an optimal learningenvironment, teachers also have to consider the learners themselves Rather than merely

disseminating information, a successful program will train participants how to become

better learners Nation has stated that teachers can “play a critical role in directly and

indirectly shaping approaches to learning” (2001, p.229) This role carries heavyresponsibility, so rather than imposing a potentially unsuitable learning style, teachersought instead to present learning strategies as a toolbox – allowing learners to select theirown remedial action This implies that teachers should also aim to help language learnersdevelop a more reflective and self-directed approach to learning their new language Inorder to bring about this improved self-awareness, learners will need to be givenopportunities and encouragement to plan, monitor and evaluate their own learning.Learners will also need to be aware of the range and appropriacy of vocabulary learningstrategies

Research has produced mixed results on the effectiveness of explicit strategytraining Among the reasons given for the unsuccessful tests were: learner acceptance,proficiency and culture and also whether the strategy could be used immediately (Schmitt,

2000, p.136) Nunan (1995, p.56) argues that the overriding factor regarding strategypreference is personality If this is true, then knowledge gleaned from the learnersthemselves in this regard can be further utilized in future course planning Schmitt (2000,p.136) suggests that

vocabulary learning strategies have a great deal of potential, but we must be very sensitive to our learners and their needs when we incorporate strategy instruction into our curriculum.

Acquiring a large sight vocabulary must be regarded as imperative at the verybeginning Rote-learning and regular rehearsal of words may be unfashionable, says Read(2004, p.148), but they will offer greater gains for low-level learners than incidentallearning Nation and Warring (1997, p.11-12) also support the use of vocabulary cards toprovide an initial stage for learning a large number of words in a short period of time Afurther way to help expand vocabulary, which, unlike the other methods, could becontinued into higher levels of proficiency, is to raise awareness of word families Evenfrom a beginner’s level, learners could be taught inflected or derived forms of the targetword to improve knowledge of the inter-relatedness of vocabulary

Discouraging learners from viewing unknown words as isolated semantic problems

is best begun while they are still at a relatively level, says McCarthy (1984, p.16) Lexicalsets and collocations are examples of activities which promote paradigmatic andsyntagmatic knowledge, thus deepening learners’ understanding of lexical items Sokmenadvises using these, and other “deep” methods, such as verbalizing thoughts on thedefinitions and nuances of words, to provide “richer encoding”, which will help students tolearn better than if they had simply memorized a definition (1997, p.242) Ellis (1997,p.138) cites a summary of almost one hundred studies which demonstrated that exposinglearners to words in multiple contexts greatly enhanced their comprehension in laterreading activities

As mentioned above, ‘knowing’ lexical items requires understanding on manylevels It is only by repeatedly encountering a word that a full appreciation of its uses candevelop It has been estimated that 5-16 encounters with a word are necessary foracquisition to take place (Nation, 1990) Teachers, then, must allow vocabulary recycling

to occur in class whether this is through expanded vocabulary activities or regular review

of vocabulary notebooks Reviewing words soon after they have been studied and then atincreasing intervals has been shown to aid retention (Schmitt, 2000, p.130) This method,known as ‘expanded rehearsal’, could easily be introduce by teachers and then encouraged

as an independent learning strategy

Finally, once learners have reached an appropriate level, the bulk of vocabularylearning should take place in context, i.e incidentally The only true test of vocabularylearning is whether or not a lexical item is understood when the learner’s attention is on themeaning of the whole text, rather than on that particular item Although Nation concedesthat experiments in learning from context have only shown small gains in vocabulary(2001, p.238), extensive reading will clearly increase those gains To put it simply, “peoplewho read more know more vocabulary” (Ellis, 1997, p.134)

1.5 Summary

Since it has been apparent that individual effort has a greater influence onvocabulary acquisition than aptitude, researchers have identified a large number ofvocabulary strategies (determination, social, memory, cognitive and metacognitive

strategies) used by learners The definition of a strategy contains four criteria: that it is one

of several options a learner may select, that it involves multiple steps, that it can beimproved by training and that it will be benefitial for learners when learning or usingvocabulary

One of the key features of successful learners has been highlighted by researches isthat they make use of a variety of learning strategies If strategies are indeed trainable, thenthey can be taught to less successful learners It is also likely that learners will be moreproficient in certain aspects of vocabulary learning than in others, and so by encouragingthe use of different classes of strategy, teachers may be able to target individualweaknesses to improve Therefore, having taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategieswould enable teachers to select appropriate strategies for learners and instruct them in theiruse Previous studies on several aspects of vocabulary learning and teaching were reviewed

in this chapter: the important role of vocabulary in SLA; varying approaches to vocabularylearning; the number of items that should be learned and strategies for aiding learning.These issues serve as a theoretical and methodological foundation of the study

CHAPTER 2 METHODOLOGY 2.1 Participants and settings of the study

2.1.1 The advanced English program at Chu Van An High School

The context for this study is the advanced program in English for the 11th gradestudents in Chu Van An High School, Hanoi, Vietnam The first aim of the program is toimprove students’ language skills to the desired level at which students are expected to beable to use English as a second language fluently The second is to prepare them for furtheracademic education in colleges and universities - both in Vietnam and overseas - byteaching them how to become more independent learners All of the students in theprogram are in English specialized classes in Chu Van An High School and they have beenlearning English for at least five or six years at junior and senior secondary schools

The advanced program with 16 units of different themes covers two semesters Oneunit consists of 7 lessons, each of which lasts 45 minutes The English specialized classeshave five lessons a week The lessons cover reading, listening, structured speaking practice(SSP), writing and language focus There are testing periods after every two units and twofinal tests at the end of each semester Those students whose English meets the requiredlevel of the final term tests progress into higher level classes Those who fail have to moveinto basic English classes

2.1.2 Vocabulary in the curriculum

In most classes, a vocabulary lesson is taught once a week, which provides explicitinstruction and communicative practice of lexical items as well as vocabulary buildingskills, including learning common affixes and word roots The main emphasis of the lesson

is to provide students with an opportunity to build on their productive vocabularies,without the pressure of being judged on the grammatical correctness

Skills for guessing the meanings of unknown words are introduced in the readingclasses in the very first lessons and then reviewed and repeated in all subsequent ones.Learners are encouraged to overcome their natural desire to check the meaning of everyunknown word and instead concentrate on understanding the text as a whole If knowing