An action research study on using social networking site to improve the tenth grade students’ vocabulary at a high school in nam dinh province

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* VŨ THỊ HUẾ AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY ON USI

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

VŨ THỊ HUẾ

AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY ON USING A SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE TO IMPROVE THE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN NAM

DINH PROVINCE

(Nghiên cứu cải tiến sư phạm về việc sử dụng một mạng xã hội để cải thiện từ

vựng của học sinh lớp 10 ở một trường THPT tỉnh Nam Định)

M.A PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 16045220

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

VŨ THỊ HUẾ

AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY ON USING SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE TO IMPROVE THE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY

AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN NAM DINH PROVINCE

(Nghiên cứu cải tiến sư phạm về việc sử dụng một mạng xã hội

để cải thiện từ vựng của học sinh lớp 10 ở một trường THPT tỉnh Nam Định)

M.A PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

VŨ THỊ HUẾ

AN ACTION RESEARCH STUDY ON USING SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE TO IMPROVE THE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY

AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN NAM DINH PROVINCE

(Nghiên cứu cải tiến sư phạm về việc sử dụng một mạng xã hội

để cải thiện từ vựng của học sinh lớp 10 ở một trường THPT tỉnh Nam Định)

M.A PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Nguyen Thu Hanh, Ph.D

DECLARATION

I declare that this thesis, which I submit to University of Languages and International Studies, is my own personal effort I have faithfully and accurately cited all my sources, including books, journals, handouts as well as any other

media, such as the Internet, letters or significant personal communication

I declare that I understood the concept of plagiarism and I acknowledge

my thesis will be rejected in case of plagiarism

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It is a pleasure to thank many people who made this dissertation possible

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Ms Nguyen Thu

Hanh for her valuable guidance, precious advice, and constructive criticism I

thank her for her understanding and encouragement I wish to address my sincere thanks to the head of English division of University of Languages and International Studies, Viet Nam National University I owe my thanks also to all the teachers who have accepted to fill in the interview, and special thanks are due

to the students of grade 10 students in my school for their time to fill in the questionnaires, answer the interview and do the tests

ABSTRACT

In the context of Vietnam, most high school students only study English

in traditional classrooms However, with the development of technology, using social networking sites, especially Facebook, may be a new trend in coming years With the deep concerns about this situation, the researcher conducted a

study titled “An action research study on using social networking site to

improve the tenth grade students’ vocabulary at a high school in Nam Dinh province” This study was an action research project which was carried out to

improve students’ vocabulary knowledge by using a social networking site: Facebook The main purpose of this study was to find out the influence of Facebook on students’ learning vocabulary process The participants were 94 students in grade 10 To collect the data for this research, quantitative and qualitative method were used Questionnaires, interviews and tests were employed to triangulate the information from various aspects to ensure the validity and reliability of the research The results showed that students’ scores improved after they joined in the research Additionally, Facebook also motivated the students to study not only at school but also at home In short, Facebook had a positive influence on the students’ learning vocabulary process

so that the students felt interested in learning English vocabulary Basing on these findings, some suggestions for using of Facebook to teach English were mentioned in the paper Therefore, the paper would be a good reference for researchers, teachers and students to have a closer look on the issue and enhance students’ vocabulary knowledge

Key words: vocabulary, social networking sites, Facebook, English

vocabulary

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Steps of teaching English vocabulary ( Marzano, 2004)

Figure 2: Five essential steps of learning new words (Brown and Payne,

1995)

Figure 3: A Facebook personal site

Figure 4: Action research steps adapted by Susman (1983)

Figure 5: An online lesson

Figure 6: Data collection procedure

Figure 7: Data from questionnaire and test analysis procedure

Figure 8: Data from interview analysis procedure

Figure 9: Students’ reasons for learning English vocabulary

Figure 10: Students’ learning means

Figure 11: The amount of vocabulary learnt in a week

Figure 12: Students’ purposes for using Facebook

Figure 13: Students’ attitudes towards learning on Facebook

Figure 14: Students’ test score improvement

Figure 15: Diagnostic test result

Figure 16: Final achievement test result

Figure 17: Test results

Figure 18: An exercise to revise student vocabulary learning

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as a Foreign Language

FL: Foreign Language

L1: First Language

SNSs: Social Networking Sites

LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Classification of the items in the two questionnaires

Table 2: Classification of the items in the semester tests

Table 3: Classification of the items in the pre- test and post- test

Table 4: Classification of the items in the interview questions

Table 5: Vocabulary delivered to students through Facebook

Table 6: Students’ studying places

Table 7: Students’ strengths and weaknesses in learning English vocabulary at

the beginning of the research

Table 8: Students’ strengths and weaknesses in learning English vocabulary at

the end of the research

Table 9: Places for students to study English vocabulary

Table 10: Advantages of using Facebook for educational purposes

Table 11: Disadvantages of using Facebook for educational purposes

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION……… i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………. ii

ABSTRACT……… iii

LIST OF FIGURES……… iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……… v

LIST OF TABLES……… v

TABLE OF CONTENTS……… vi

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION……… 1

1 Rationale of study……… 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study……… 2

3 Research questions……… 3

4 Scope of the research……… 3

5 Significance of the study……… 3

6 Hypotheses……… 3

7 Research methodology……… 4

8 Structural organization of the study……… 4

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND……… 6

1 Overall view of English vocabulary……… 6

1.1 Definition of English vocabulary……… 6

1.2 Types of English vocabulary……… 7

1.3 The importance of vocabulary in learning a language……… 8

2 Teaching and learning English vocabulary……… 9

2.1 Teaching English vocabulary……… 9

2.1.1 Principles of teaching vocabulary……… 9

2.1.2 Steps of teaching vocabulary……… 10

2.2 Learning English vocabulary……… 12

2.2.1 Principles of learning vocabulary……… 12

2.2.2 Steps of learning vocabulary……… 12

2.3 Problems in teaching and learning English vocabulary……… 15

3 Facebook as a social networking site……… 17

3.1 Definition of Facebook……….……… 17

3.2 Advantages and disadvantages of using Facebook for educational purposes……… 18

3.2.1 Advantages of using Facebook as an educational tool……… 19

3.2.2 Disadvantages of using Facebook as an educational tool 20

4 Previous studies……… 21

4.1 Previous studies overseas……… 21

4.2 Previous studies in Vietnam……… 23

Summary……… 23

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY……… 25

1 Design of the study……… 25

1.1 Action research……… 25

1.2 Mixed methods……… 27

2 The setting of the study……… 27

3 Participants……… 28

4 Data collection instruments……… 29

4.1 Questionnaires……… 29

4.2 Tests……… 30

4.2.1 Pre- test (diagnostic test)……… 32

4.2.2 Post- test (final achievement test)……… 32

4.3 Interview……… 32

5 Data collection procedure……… 34

6 Data analysis method……… 40

6.1 Quantitative Analysis Strategy……… 40

6.2 Qualitative Analysis Strategy……… 41

Summary……… 42

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION……… 43

1 Questionnaires……… 43

1.1 Students’ overall view on learning English vocabulary ……… 43

1.1.1 Students’ reasons for learning English vocabulary……… 43

1.1.2 Students’ strengths and weaknesses in learning vocabulary………… 44

1.1.3 Places for students to study vocabulary……… 47

1.1.4 Students’ learning means……… 48

1.1.5 The amount of learnt vocabulary……… 50

1.2 Students’ overall view on learning through Facebook……… 51

1.2.1 Students’ purposes of using Facebook……… 51

1.2.2 Students’ perception of learning on Facebook……… 53

1.2.3 Advantages of using Facebook for educational purposes………… 54

1.2.4 Disadvantages of using Facebook for educational purposes…… 55

2 Tests ……… 56

3 Interview……… 60

3.1 Student’ comparison of their learning vocabulary process……… 60

3.2 Students’ perception of ease and difficulty of using Facebook ………… 61

3.3 The usefulness of Facebook as a learning tool……… 62

3.4 Students’ attitude towards learning English vocabulary on Facebook… 63 4 Discussion……… 66

Summary……… 68

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION……… 70

1 Recapitulation……… 70

2 Implications ……… 70

3 Limitations of the research……… 71

4 Suggestion for future research……… 71

REFERENCES……… 73

APPENDIX 2……… V

APPENDIX 5……… XXI

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

In this part, the problem and the rationale for the study, together with the objectives and the scope of the whole paper, are clearly stated and explained Above all, this part also builds the research questions to work as clear guidelines for the whole research

1 Rationale of study

During the whole teaching period, the researcher has recognized that most of her Vietnamese students encounter several problems in learning English One of the biggest problems seems to come from their lack of vocabulary, which leads to their lack of confidence in English learning Students use language to express their ideas, opinions and thoughts so it is impossible to communicate with the other without vocabulary Limited vocabulary repertoire strictly forbids students from expressing fully and precisely their opinion

Learning English vocabulary is an important area, which takes a great deal

of time and effort to gain Working as an English teacher, the researcher always emphasizes teaching vocabulary because of its importance in language learning Vocabulary is needed for expressing meaning and in using the receptive (listening and reading) and the productive (speaking and writing) skills Despite its importance, many students tend to not focus on it As a result, they cannot deal well with their exam (even written or oral), which leads to their results not as good as teachers expected From personal point of view, there are some reasons for students

to not acquire extensive vocabulary in English (their FL) Firstly, many teachers are not confident about their practice in vocabulary teaching and at times they do not know where to begin to form an instructional emphasis on word learning Besides, because of the teaching time limitation, vocabulary is a minor part of a lesson; therefore, it is not focused in class Last but not least, students have many subjects and homework to do after school so that they spend little time studying

English, especially vocabulary at home

In Vietnam, English becomes more and more popular It is the foreign language that is compulsory in schools: from primary schools to universities Vocabulary is one of the aspects which is needed to master four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing To motivate students to study vocabulary, some English teachers and instructors have started to use social media to instruct students

to study foreign language (FL) vocabulary Social media is strong motivation for students’ engagement because students will find it fun and relax to learn vocabulary and enjoy their time

Nowadays, Facebook seems to play an important role in social life so that it could meet an educational need Several studies investigate using different technologies in learning and teaching, especially teaching foreign language However, rare studies explored the role of Facebook in learning foreign languages, particularly learning vocabulary This study attempted to assess the effectiveness of using Facebook in enhancing vocabulary of students in grade 10 at a high school in Nam Dinh province 94 students were exposed to the use of Facebook as an environment to learn and enhance their vocabulary Then, the students were given test, interview and questionnaire to assess their achievement after 9 weeks of using Facebook as an educational tool for learning English vocabulary

2 Aims and objectives of the study

The purpose of this paper is to determine benefits of using a social networking site: Facebook in teaching English More specific purpose is to explore how learning English through Facebook affects students’ achievement in vocabulary at a high school in Nam Dinh province and whether Facebook can enhance students’ vocabulary The general purpose can be categorized into some specific aims as follows:

• To investigate students’ attitudes towards using social networking sites for educational purpose;

• To investigate the advantages and disadvantages of using Facebook as an educational tool;

• To give recommendations for teachers and students to overcome the vocabulary related problems

The result of this study, hopefully, will improve students’ vocabulary storage It is also for teachers to deploy social media, especially Facebook, into their teaching

3 Research questions

The study attempts to answer the following questions:

(1) To what extent does using Facebook affect students’ English vocabulary learning?

(2) What are the students’ attitude towards the deployment of Facebook in teaching and learning English vocabulary?

4 Scope of the research

This study only focuses on the actual situations related to using Facebook to enhance students’ vocabulary knowledge

5 Significance of the study

This study is noticeable for students because through learning on the Internet, EFL students may get an exciting way to study vocabulary It is also important to the teachers, who may be encouraged to used social media in their classroom as a teaching tool to motivate students to get into learning new words

6 Assumptions

To answer above questions, the researcher hypothesizes that:

• Facebook is an additional tool for students to learn vocabulary

• Students who learn English via social networking sites (include Facebook) will be more inclined to improve their vocabulary

• Learning vocabulary via social networking sites (Facebook) is more effective than in traditional classes

7 Research methodology

In carrying out the study, action research was used Mills (2011) states action research is systematic inquiry done in teaching or learning environment to gather information Based on the definition above, it can be concluded that action research is the systematic study of efforts to overcome educational problems

• The choice of method

The research was designed as an action research study, which provided solutions for teaching vocabulary at high school In this case, the researcher adopted both quantitative and qualitative approaches The researcher used mixed method with the application of three types of data collection: questionnaires, test results and interview

• Research tools

To gather reliable data for this study, researcher collected the results of some vocabulary tests in class In addition, two questionnaires were designed for students at the beginning and at the end of the course The third tool used in the study was an interview which was adopted in the last week of the research

8 Structural organization of the study

Finally, to guide for either researcher in writing the research paper or readers in reading the whole contents of the research paper, the researcher sets up the order of the paper as follows:

Chapter 1: Introduction - provides rationale of the study, aims and

objectives, questions, significance, hypotheses and research methodology of the study

Chapter 2: Theoretical background – presents an overall view of relevant

literature on the issue of using a social networking site (Facebook) to improve students’ lexical knowledge

Chapter 3: Research methodology- provides a description of the research

methods, selection of the participants, data collection instruments, data collection procedures as well as data analysis methodology

Chapter 4: Findings and discussions - presents the results of the study and

the discussion of the results

Chapter 5: Conclusion- summarizes the main points of the study, draws

some conclusions, points out the limitation of the study and makes some suggestions for further research

To sum up, the elaborations have not only justified the major contents and structures of the study but they also work as the guidelines for the rest of the paper

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

In this chapter, the importance of vocabulary in learning English as a foreign language will be discussed It also covers the definition and types of vocabulary, steps of teaching and learning vocabulary and some problems in teaching English vocabulary as a foreign language Besides, it shows the overall view of social networking sites as well as Facebook This chapter also reviews the previous studies on the use of social networking sites in teaching languages, especially the application of Facebook to teach and learn vocabulary

1 Overall view of English vocabulary

1.1 Definition of English vocabulary

Vocabulary is an essential part of every language Hatch and Brown (1995, p.2) define vocabulary is all the words of a specific language that the speakers of this language might use Many authors have the similar definitions about vocabulary Taylor (1990, p.32) states that vocabulary is the total stock of words belonging to a branch of knowledge or known by a person Zimmerman (2007, p.19) also recommends that vocabulary acquiring is leaning a collection of words in

a target language that are used in a specific context He also emphasizes that the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, which involves words and expression This means that without firm vocabulary base, comprehension and utilization of the language cannot be accomplished Herrel (2004, p.25) enhances Zimmerman’s definition further by suggesting that lexicon organizes the mental vocabulary in an individual’s mind, which means that a speaker’s mental lexicon is that person’s knowledge of vocabulary Some other authors have more complicated definitions about vocabulary Richards (2000, p 400) defines vocabulary as a group of words containing single words, compound words and idioms He also emphasizes that vocabulary is a group of words of a particular aspect of foreign language learning and teaching Words mean the memory of the situation in which they have been observed and understood, brought out by the context they are used, which means

that to be familiar with a word is to be able to use or understand it in a situation in which the speaker has not experienced it before Additionally, Nation (2001, p.22) says that vocabulary knowledge involves understanding a word in the spoken form

of the word and the spoken form can be understood in and out of context rather than guessed Besides, Zimmerman (2007, p.115) suggests that vocabulary is a set

of words that are the fundamental building blocks adopted in the generation and understanding of sentences

From all the definitions above, it can be concluded that vocabulary is the total number of words that are needed to communicate and express idea and thoughts In brief, what all the definition above have in common is that vocabulary knowledge is not only the meaning knowledge but also the use of words in a

particular context

1.2 Types of English vocabulary

Vocabulary is variously classified into some kinds Hatch and Brown (1995, p.25) recommend two different types of vocabulary, named receptive vocabulary

and productive vocabulary Receptive vocabulary is the words that students

recognize and understand when it is put in a specific context, but they cannot produce it correctly Students can recognize these words when they appear in a reading or listening context, but they do not use them in speaking and writing Therefore, leaning receptive vocabulary is also considered as a passive process because the students only receive thoughts from the others In language application, receptive vocabulary is stated as the fundamental vocabulary, which is much more

enormous than productive vocabulary Productive vocabulary, in contrast to

receptive vocabulary, is the words that students understand and can pronounce correctly in speaking and writing It includes all the receptive vocabulary and the abilities to speak or write at the right time As a result, learning productive vocabulary can be addresses as an active process It means that to use productive vocabulary, students must be able to pronounce it correctly, use grammar of the

target language accurately, and understand the connotation meaning of the words

Nation (1990, p.98) divides vocabulary into two types according to their

basis of frequency: low frequency vocabulary and high frequency vocabulary High

frequency vocabulary includes words widely used in a particular language It is

often used for all four skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening and across the

full range of situation of use Low frequency vocabulary; meanwhile, consists of

only small percentage of the contemporary words, which means that low frequency words are hardly used in language

Brown (1994, p112) states that vocabulary can be divided into four types, which are content words, function words, substitute words and distributed words

Content words are used to describe the names of subjects or things, such as: doctor, lawyer, engineer; action done by those things like: heal, protect, work; and the

qualities of these things like: wonderful, boring and patient Function words are used to express the relation of grammar, such as conjunction: and, but, so and auxiliary, such as: do, does, did Substitute words are used to represent substitutes for whole formed classes of words, such as: nobody, everybody, and somebody

Distributed words are used to present the negative, such as: any, either or neither

From the explanation above, it is easy to understand that every author is different in categorizing types of English vocabulary In this research, content and high frequency words, such as nouns, verbs and adjectives, are concerned The kind

of material for teaching vocabulary is narrative texts related to the topics that students study in the textbook because they are interesting for students to achieve new vocabulary and new information

1.3 The importance of vocabulary in learning a language

The importance of vocabulary has been mentioned by many scholars Amer (2002, p.1) claims that vocabulary is the centre of a language and critically important to the specific learners In addition, Burton & Humpries (1992, p.40) argues that “development of lexical knowledge of lexical knowledge occupies an

important position in the learners’ struggle to master a second/ foreign language” It means that not only learning second languages but also learning foreign languages has closely connected to the total number of vocabulary students acquires Additionally, many authors agree that vocabulary is the main item for effective communication Ediger (1999, p.1) clarifies “conversation carried on with the other persons requites vocabulary” It means that the more vocabulary an individual has, the more possibly he can express his ideas He also adds that various selections of words to convey the meaning is fundamental for speaking and writing skills and diverse terms in productive skills improve the quality of communication Additionally, Shedding says that the writers should use vocabulary that the readers can understand and that are suitable with rhetorical matters Furthermore, Carl (2003) supports that a good writing is mainly relied on the author’s ability to use words to describe an event Nunan (1999, p.103) believes that people living abroad and those trying to master the target language find that studying vocabulary

is much more essential than grammatical structures

In short, learners cannot improve their target language if they do not spend time increasing vocabulary They can develop the language by focusing on words and their expressions It means that a person can enable their communication without the correct use of grammatical rules when vocabulary is available

2 Teaching and learning English vocabulary

2.1 Teaching English vocabulary

2.1.1 Principles of teaching vocabulary

Many students find it difficult to learn vocabulary because they are living in non- native environment Teachers; therefore, must pay much attention to both

“what to teach” and “how to teach” There are many challenging to for teachers to teach students FL vocabulary, such as what kinds of methods to use how many words to teach or what kind of vocabulary should be taught Schmitt (2000, p.146) points out that there are 8 main principles in teaching vocabulary to guide students

learn, memorize and use the words, which are:

• Building a large sight of vocabulary

• Integrating new words with previous words

• Providing number of encounters with a word

• Promoting deep level of processing

• Facilitating imaging

• Making new words “real” by connecting to the students’ words in some ways

• Using various techniques

• Encouraging independent learning strategies

As mentioned at the beginning, there is no standard to judge which is the best way or even the right way to teach vocabulary It depends on many areas, such as: the level of students, the school curriculum or the students’ major However, teachers should follow the basic principles to provide students with new words

2.1.2 Steps of teaching vocabulary

As mentioned above, teaching vocabulary is very important for all four language skills Scholars show many different ways to teach vocabulary One of the nearest and most popular theories used to clearly point out teaching 6 steps is Marzano’s theory published in 2004 It can be summarized as follows:

• Step 1 Explaining

In this step, teachers are expected to provide students with clear description, explanation, or example of the new terms There are many ways to introduce them

to the students, such as: telling a story, using video or computer images as a source

of information, using a current event to connect the term to something familiar

• Step 2 Restating

or examples in their own words In means that in spite of simply copying from what teachers have said students have to get their own descriptions, explanations or examples Students can keep these descriptions, explanations or examples in their private notebook

• Step 5 Refining and reflecting

The next step requires students to return their notebooks to refining and reflecting entries Students may do it in pairs or in groups by comparing their description of the terms or explaining to each other any new information they have learnt or new thoughts they have had since the last time they review the terms

• Step 6 Applying in Learning Games

The last step requires teachers to involve students in learning games that allows them to play with the terms Many types of games can be organized to keep the new terms in the forefront of the students’ thinking Steps to teach English vocabulary can be summarized as in Figure 1 bellow:

Figure 1: Steps of teaching English vocabulary (Marzano, 2004)

Step 1 Explaining Step 2 Restating Step 3 Showing Step 4 Discussing Step 5 Refining and

reflecting

Step 6 Applying in Learning Games

In short, to teach vocabulary for students, many steps should be applied In addition, teachers also need to depend on students’ proficiency to choose which steps should be emphasized more

2.2 Learning English vocabulary

2.2.1 Principles of learning vocabulary

In learning language vocabulary, many students find it difficult to choose what to learn or how to learn As a result, teachers should deliver to students some principles for studying vocabulary They can guide students to use these principles for acquiring vocabulary of target language Schmitt, N (2000, p75) suggests five principles for learning language as follows:

• Guessing words from the context, which refers to the ability to infer the meaning of an expression using contextual clues

• Using word parts techniques to remember words

• Using vocabulary cards to remember foreign language- first language word pairs

• Seeing words in different and multiple contexts

• Keeping a vocabulary notebook

There is no affirmation whether which principle is the best or the most important; however, from my point of view, students should combine more than

one technique

2.2.2 Steps of learning vocabulary

Learning vocabulary is a fundamental thing in order to master all the four skills: reading, writing, speaking and listening As Thornbury (2002, p.2) points that “without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can

be conveyed”, English teachers should focus on developing students’ vocabulary One of the most important aspects to develop their vocabulary is self- study According to Harmer (1991, p.2) students are experience some considerable

difficulties, such as: correcting connections, understanding the foreign language between the form and the meaning of words and discriminating the meaning of closely related words Brown and Payne (1995, p.267) suggest a five-step model for students to acquire vocabulary knowledge including encountering new words, getting the word form, leaning the meaning of the words, consolidate word form and meaning in the memory, and using the words

• Step 1 Encountering new words

The very first step of learning vocabulary is encountering new words, which means finding studying sources, such as: watching television, listening to the radio

or reading books In this study, students may find the narrative texts which are interesting and suitable with their language level then handle it to the teacher so that the teacher can use it as a source of teaching for students

• Step 2 Getting the word form

The next step for studying vocabulary is to get a clear image of the word form, spelling and pronunciation It is considered as an essential step of learning vocabulary, especially when students are required to define the words Students can take this step by looking the words up in the dictionary, which provides word form, pronunciation and also spelling

• Step 3 Getting the word meaning

The following step is to get the word meaning It is done with some strategies asking the native speakers about the meaning of the words Additionally, asking a bilingual friend or language teacher is also a way to get the exact definition Another strategy is to contextualize or put words in a particular situation Finally, one of the most popular ways that students apply to understand the meaning of these words is to look the words up in the dictionary or searching them on the Internet

• Step 4 Consolidating word form and meaning in the memory

The fourth step is to focus on the consolidation of word form and meaning in

the memory It is acquiring words through their appropriate context in which students can know the meaning and the form of the words at the same time

• Step 5 Using the words

The final step in learning vocabulary is to use the words After the four steps above, students have to apply the words into their communication

This learning model is summarized by the Figure 2 as follows:

Figure 2 Five essential steps of learning new words (Brown and Payne, 1995)

In short, the five step learning model seems to encapsulate the general dynamics that learners use to learn vocabulary This would be an important reference for students to follow to learn vocabulary

2.3 Problems in teaching and learning English vocabulary

Vocabulary is one of the element connecting four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) all together Therefore, to communicate well in FL, students should acquire adequate number of words and know how to use them accurately Although students understand the importance of vocabulary, most of them encounter enormous obstacles due to several factors According to Huyen and Nga (2002, p.5), there are four difficulties in teaching and learning vocabulary Firstly, because students find teachers’ explanation for definition, pronunciation, spelling and grammar function quite boring, they seem to force to listen to the teachers Secondly, most of the learners only focus on learning primary meaning of the new words As a result, they usually ignore other meanings, pronunciation and grammatical function of the words Thirdly, students learn new words mainly by reading textbook or listening to their teachers’ lessons For instance, students may read through the text in the book and then ask the teachers to explain their meaning

in L1 However, these words are not put into context so that students cannot remember them vividly Last but not least, many students find it risk when applying what they have learnt They may realize the words in the written or spoken form but they are incapable of using these words to communicate Besides, Sedita (2005, p.13) points out some types of students who have problems in learning English at school The first kind of students is those who have limited knowledge of English

so they cannot self study well Second type hardly has chance to practice using vocabulary outside the classroom The next ones are the learners who enter school with finite vocabulary knowledge Besides, she also emphasizes some difficulties in acquiring vocabulary knowledge that students usually meet, as following:

• Students’ short memory

Little reading, speaking, listening and writing outside the classroom makes students quickly forget the words They do not have chance to practice the words they have learnt in their daily life so that the words become unusual and completely forgotten

• Students’ learning habits

One of the main reasons leading to the difficulties in learning language vocabulary is students’ bad learning habits Many of them only concentrate on the meaning of words, which means that they do not understand the use of words, the pronunciation of words and even the spelling of words When they see a word in different contexts, they may get confused because of getting unfamiliar with that word

• Connotation

Connotation is the meaning that a word suggests or implies beyond its literal meaning, which means that it includes the emotions or associations that surround the words For example, the denotation of the two words “childish” and “childlike” are basically identical; however, the connotations of them are different The former one has negative connotation and often used to refer to silly or immature behavior while the latter carries the positive meaning of having the good qualities such as innocence Thus, when choosing between words which have same denotation meanings, learners seem to be confused about which words are appropriate

• Spelling and pronunciation

The spelling and pronunciation of foreign language may encounter considerable difficulties Related to pronunciation, students find it challenging to pronounce some sounds in foreign language For example, Vietnamese students tend to pronounce /t/ as /t/ in Vietnamese so that many foreigners become confused when the first time talking to Vietnamese Many of them also miss the ending sounds, which lead to the similarity between “why, wise, wife, wide and white” that causes the misunderstanding when they speak English to the foreigners

In short, there are many problems that students face when studying a foreign language, which are related to the differences between the mother tongue and the foreign language Teachers should aware of them so that they can remove these obstacles from their students

3 Facebook as a social networking site

3.1 Definition of Facebook

Recently, social networking sites (SNSs) have been a field of study for many researchers The term social networking sites refer to the form of websites to share information, ideas or to improve personal contact Besides, they are also online communities for individuals to interact with each others Davis, Amen, Aguilar and Canche (2012, p.82) state that social networking sites are web- based and mobile softwares used for users to create, engage and share ideas or existed contents in diverse form of communication in digital environment, such as: pictures, videos or written posts In other words, they allow people to communicate by building personal profiles and sending instant messages to others Additionally, Boyd and Ellison (2007, p.210) also state that the main purpose of social networking sites is

to connect all the users depending on their common language, interest, cultures or

political views

In Vietnam, there are some popular social networking sites, such as YouTube or Facebook found by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 is a big virtual community that has been one of the most well- known social networking sites on the Internet It allows individuals to create free accounts, build up personal profiles and control over the content of their Facebook pages An users’ wall can be seen by the other using the same “network” It also lets users upload photos and videos, comment on others users’ posts, send private messages to friends and join group within the community A research by Pew Research Centre (2010) emphasizes that 65% of all the learners in the age of 16 to 30 years old get an account on Facebook

To educators, it means that individuals are continuously involved in the sharing information, interacting and communicating with other users Therefore, Facebook

is firmly believed to have huge potential as an educational tool, especially for teaching languages If it is used efficiently by the teachers, it could enhance students’ academic performance in general as well as students’ vocabulary

especially In 2007, Ellison, Stenfied and Lampe state the essence of Facebook that

it can function “as a strong tool to maintain relations as people move” from different “real world” community to another such as from school community to university community (p.1164) They also emphasize that Facebook can be used to

“support relationships and keep people in contact, even when the life changes moves them away from each other” (2007, p 1165) A study carried out by Boy, D and Ellison, N.B (2007) shows that most of the users are aware of and making of Facebook in their work It also points out that Facebook is the most popular SNS among all the students and scholars

Figure 3 A Facebook personal site 3.2 Advantages and disadvantages of using Facebook for educational purposes

Originally launched in 2004, Facebook began as a social networking site created exclusively for students Facebook currently has over 150 million active users worldwide, and has expanded to allow anyone with a valid email address to sign up As it has gained in popularity, Facebook has become one of the main communication tools used by students to stay in touch with friends, organize events, and connect with classmates Some researchers have shown that Facebook can bring many advantages and disadvantages for students to study

3.2.1 Advantages of using Facebook as an educational tool

The use of Facebook for educational purposes has become popular recently McBride (2009, p.58) suggests that Facebook enhance the acquisition of foreign language skills and communicative competence Facebook also provides students with the means for finding personal language learning needs Salas & Alexander (2008, p.116) consider that Facebook has made the world smaller so that we can access to more information, more knowledge, and get better chance to socialize with other people They point out some positive effects of using Facebook for educational purposes as follows:

• By spending so much time accessing to new technologies, learners could improve their ability to use computers and other devices

• With the increasing of using advanced technology in education and business, social networking sites can be considered as a way to help students build their social skills to get over their problems

• Talent students are discovered aster For example, the ones who are good

at music can upload their video clips into SNSs and share them with the others in the online society

• Students are able to public about their issues, which develop conscious awareness and help to solve a lot of problems

• Individuals are incapable of quickly uploading their pictures, videos or stories, which leads to a considerable amount of creation In addition, they could immediately receive comments and feedback for their posts so that they can improve their skills

In short, there are many advantages of using social networking sites that teachers should consider when they need to apply social networking sites to their teaching

3.2.2 Disadvantages of using Facebook as an educational tool

A study on a Dutch adolescent group of 210 students carried out by Vakenburg et al (2006, p 590) finds out that using Facebook negatively influences

on their self worth, which leads to the students’ low happiness Cheung, R., & Vogel, D (2011) state that users tend to be more expressive in the virtual world and they will give or receive much more negative feedback and comment for almost every activities of them on the Internet than in their real life As the trend of using Facebook as recompense to the real life continues, those individuals addicted to Facebook they were at higher risk of being low self- confident

Additionally, there are some bad effects of Facebook on users that are listed

by Salas & Alexander (2008, p 116) as follows:

• The popularity of Facebook leads to the quickly published information that decreases students’ ability to use the correct spellings of words

• Many students depend on the accessibility of information on Facebook to get answers As a result, the students’ focus on knowledge and information is reduced Therefore, they are not willing to spend much time on searching, reading and understanding the information

• Learners who usually surf Facebook while studying get reduced academic performance Besides, their ability to focus on the task learning tasks is also dramatically decreased because of the distractions from these SNSs

• The more time users spend on social networking sites, the less time they spend communicating with the “real” community Moreover, the lack of body language and nonverbal communication SNSs are not enough to communicate Students spending much time on SNSs often communicate less effectively with the others

In short, although Facebook brings people many benefits, it is also the source of harm To apply these sites to teaching and learning process, teachers should carefully aware of their advantages and disadvantages

4 Previous studies

Recently, online foreign language learning has been rapidly increasing due

to the quick growth of worldwide social networking sites Some researchers (e.g Firth & Wagner, 1997; Mills, 2011) have pointed out the paradigm shift in the way foreign languages are taught They believed that foreign language teaching methodology has been moving from a cognitive orientation to social orientation and from classroom settings to naturalistic contexts As a result, traditional classrooms are no longer efficient; instead, online environment in social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook provide more opportunities for students

to enhance their language proficiency It is blamed for dynamic learning environment, in compared with the boring traditional class with black board and chalks, so that the students are motivated to acquire foreign language vocabulary However, whether social networking sites, specifically Facebook, should be used for educational purposes or not is still a controversial question

4.1 Previous studies overseas

On one side, it is believed that social networking sites (SNSs) as well as Facebook bring many benefits for acquiring language vocabulary Being developed from the sociocultural theory of Vygotsky in 1978, sosiocultuism scholars believe that the source of language learning is social interaction so the language learners use this scaffold interaction to develop their linguistic knowledge Therefore, Facebook is hoped to improve students’ vocabulary by allowing them to interact and communicate with the others A study conducted by Qian in the Malaysian higher education (HEI) context to discover whether Facebook can be used to enhance students’ vocabulary acquisition The study comes to the conclusion that Facebook is an essential tool to develop students’ word knowledge It also points

out how SNSs could positively affect students’ technology interest and trend of using Facebook for learning and teaching languages nowadays It is believed that SNSs as well as Facebook set positive educational values on teaching foreign language vocabulary A study conducted by Kabilan, Ahmad & Abidin (2010, p.179) shows that Facebook is an “useful and meaningful learning environment that could support, enhance and/ or strengthen their leaning language” They also state that Facebook is a potential environment because it builds up from technology which can engage students in meaningful web- based activities (2010, p.185) Besides, Blatterner and Fiori (2009, p.8) emphasize that Facebook provides authentic contexts for interaction because its features to share constructive educational experience but still control the privacy and safety The emphasis on the authentic interaction is considered as the key to acquire language vocabulary so teachers should not ignore it In a study of Japanese university, Promnitz (2011, p.309) concludes that Facebook is an effective but simple tool to assist a group of lower language level students t become more relax in joining in online learning vocabulary activities, such as: discussing or giving opinions Nakata (2008, p.20) states that it is essential to apply online language learning to high school students because of their high retention rate of words He also emphasizes on the positive influence of using spaced learning on students’ learning vocabulary motivation

On the other side, SNSs as well as Facebook are considered to harm students’ academic performance Despite many study results showing the positive effect of Facebook on students’ grades, there are initial indications that spending time on Facebook and SNSs negatively relates to students’ scores In terms of Facebook, Godwin and Jones (2008, p.9) do a case study on the improvement of four students after applying Facebook to their language learning The study uses some methods to analyze the data, such as: questionnaires, observation and interview In the end, they state that this form of SNSs improves individuals’ communication and interaction, which causes damages to students’ academic performance (2008, p.7) Khe (2011, p.668) suggests that Facebook has “little

educational use”; however, he indicates that more research should e conducted to explore the use of Facebook for teaching and learning languages

4.2 Previous studies in Vietnam

In Vietnam, using Facebook for educational purposes is still a new area so that there are not many studies conducted in that field Most of the research agrees that Facebook brings many benefits for students to learn languages A study conducted by Tuan (2014) in Vietnam higher education context to discover the effectiveness of using Facebook on improving students’ academic performance gives a positive result The study uses both quantitative and qualitative methodology to analyze the data The questionnaire and the interview done by 1000 students in Foreign Trade University give the same results The study comes to a conclusion that Facebook is an important tool to enhance students’ knowledge They use it not only for chatting and making friends but also for learning Thanks

to Facebook, there are numerous students improving their academic performances

in class Additionally, after carrying out a study about the effectiveness of Facebook on students’ learning process, Tu (2013) emphasizes that online social networking site (Facebook) leads UEB (University of Economics and business) students develop themselves with better performance and improved skills and support for their self- leaning These positive results provide strong evidence that UEB students and lecturers can take advantages of high technology and popularity

of Facebook to improve quality teaching as well as learning Facebook is not only vehicle that helps users expand large- scales networking capacity but also enable them to maintain close relationships with a group of friends Hence, UEB lecturers and students can connect and interact with each other better

Summary

In this chapter, some ideas related to learning and teaching vocabulary have been discussed such as definition, vocabulary types and its importance It cannot deny the importance of acquiring vocabulary when learning languages Besides,

this chapter also contributes and explains steps of learning and teaching vocabulary and gives some techniques for students and teachers There are various techniques that teachers and learners can choose to apply into their teaching and learning vocabulary process To build extensive vocabulary knowledge, students have to meet a great deal of difficulties because learning vocabulary is a complicated process It is not only knowing the meanings of words but also knowing the pronunciation, spelling, form, uses and structures However, whether the strategies using to deal with difficulties are effective or not depend mostly on students’ feeling when they study so that teacher should change students’ perspectives on vocabulary learning and Besides, the ideas of social networking sites, Facebook as

well as its pros and cons are also discussed Additionally, previous related studies

and the theoretical framework for the study are presented They are basis for the researcher to design the questionnaire and the test questions in which the investigation of the students’ improvement by using social networking sites is carried out

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter includes (1) design of the study; (2) the setting of the study; (3) participants; (4) data collection instruments; (5) data collection procedures; (6) data analysis methods and summary

1 Design of the study

1.1 Action research

The focus of the study is the effectiveness of applying technology, especially Facebook, into students’ vocabulary learning process so action research was used Action research has become a valued research methodology, an innovative approach to encourage active intervention of people in the issues being researched Though widely accepted as an effective method, action research is understood and

interpreted differently by researchers, and different aspects can be emphasized

According to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2003, p.94), action research aims to

“transform the present to produce a different future” Therefore, a researcher, who employs action research as a research method, not only intends to describe, understand, explain, but also attempts to bring about the change to the problem and

to monitor the result Beside formulating the examined problem, the researchers must generate new knowledge about these problems and take concrete actions to create a better situation Action research presents an opportunity to investigate the identified relevant and important issues, and simultaneously allows the development of critical and reflective thinking, while exploring the practical problems The model of classroom action research is modeled by Susman (1983), who states that action research consists of five main stages in a spiraling process, which are:

• Identifying the problems and planning

In this stage, researchers indentify the problems and then prepare everything that is needed in doing the action, such as preparing lesson plans and materials that will be used as well as the evaluation materials after conducting the action to give

information whether or not the vocabulary is improved

• Action planning

In this stage, researchers make a list of all the ways they might help students

to improve the particular aspect that they are focusing Talk it through with the learning partners or colleagues or supervisor to listen to their advice Then, the researcher arranges their work in priority and makes a list with the ongoing tasks Besides, they also prepare materials for the action

• Acting

After preparing the plan for the lessons, the materials and the evaluation, researchers implement the plan In this study, Facebook was implemented by the researcher in teaching vocabulary The Facebook page was created and administered by the researcher

• Evaluating

Researchers observe the effects of critically informed action in the context After those researchers reflect how the learning process runs The function of evaluating is to know the strengths and weaknesses of the action Other planning is also prepared if only the action do not improve students’ knowledge

• Specifying learning

After evaluating the data, researchers specify whether it is suitable with students to improve their knowledge on English vocabulary Researcher also gives some pieces of advices for other researchers and teachers to develop this study in the future

For this study, the investigation would be taken place on the issue of using Facebook as an educational tool for students to acquire English vocabulary The students, who joined in the research, would use Facebook to improve their English vocabulary After that the teacher gathered data and analyzed whether it was useful

or not In the end, the teacher gave advice for further research and shown some

limitations of the study

Figure 4 Action research steps adapted by Susman (1983)

1.2 Mixed methods

Mixed methods research represents research that involves collecting, analyzing and interpreting quantitative and qualitative data in a single study or in a series of studies that discover the same underlying phenomenon The researcher applied both quantitative and qualitative approaches Quantitative methods focus on the objective measurements and the statistical, mathematical, or numerical analysis

of data collected through questionnaires, surveys, tests, or by manipulating pre- existed statistical data using some computational techniques This type of research

is used to gather the numerical data, generalize it and explain a specific situation In this research, there were two ways to collect the quantitative data that the researcher used from the beginning to the end of the research, which were using questionnaires and different types of tests On the other hand, as qualitative procedures which involve collecting and analyzing non-numeric information with interview was utilized In this action research, both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used

2 The setting of the study

The context where researcher conducted her study was a high school in Nam Dinh province at which she was teaching English The school was located in