Using mind mapping technique to improve vocabulary retention of first year students an action research project at military technical academy

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ LIÊN USING MIND-MAPPING TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE VOCABULARY

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ LIÊN

USING MIND-MAPPING TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE VOCABULARY RETENTION OF FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS: AN ACTION RESEARCH

PROJECT AT MILITARY TECHNICAL ACADEMY

(SỬ DỤNG BẢN ĐỒ TƯ DUY ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN KHẢ NĂNG GHI NHỚ TỪ

VỰNG CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH

ĐỘNG TẠI HỌC VIỆN KỸ THUẬT QUÂN SỰ)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60140111

Hanoi, 2016

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ LIÊN

USING MIND-MAPPING TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE VOCABULARY RETENTION OF FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS: AN ACTION RESEARCH

PROJECT AT MILITARY TECHNICAL ACADEMY

(SỬ DỤNG BẢN ĐỒ TƯ DUY ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN KHẢ NĂNG GHI NHỚ TỪ

VỰNG CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH

ĐỘNG TẠI HỌC VIỆN KỸ THUẬT QUÂN SỰ)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyễn Văn Độ

Hanoi, 2016

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Declaration

I certify that I myself write this thesis entitled “Using mind-mapping technique to improve vocabulary retention of first-year students: An action research project at Military Technical Academy.” It is not a plagiarism or made by others Anything related to others’ works is written in quotation, the sources of which are listed on the list of references If then the pronouncement proves wrong, I am ready to accept any academic punishment, including the withdrawal or cancellation of my academic degree

Signature

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Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyễn Văn Độ whose reference materials, support, stimulating suggestions and encouragement helped me in all stages of this research for and writing of this thesis Without his critical comments and valuable suggestions, this research could not have been completed

I take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to all my teachers

in Faculty of Post-Graduate studies, University of Languages and International Studies, National University, Hanoi for their lectures which enable me to gain a lot of theoretical and practical knowledge

Furthermore, I want to thank my colleagues and students at Military Technical Academy who helped me carry out the investigation of the study

Finally, I am really grateful to my family and my husband for their encouragement and support to my process of writing of the thesis

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Abstract

Vocabulary is one of the most significant parts of English, and its learning in

an efficient way gets the most attention by language learners In Vietnam, one

of the most difficulties many students face is to learn, memorize and recall word meanings So, it should be taught in a way that learners will be capable

of recalling them easily The purpose of this study was to bring mind-mapping technique to improve vocabulary retention of Vietnamese learners This study was based on action research, in which 32 students in the K51 Information class at Military Technical Academy were investigated Based on the purposes

of the study, a pre-test and a post-test were used to investigate the effectiveness of mind-mapping on the student’s vocabulary retention Also, a survey questionnaire was designed to get the students’ attitudes about this technique in vocabulary learning and memorizing After the data were elaborately calculated and analyzed, it indicated that students were successful

in improving vocabulary retention with the implementation of the treatment and they seemed to highly value this teaching technique

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

Lists of abbreviations vii

List of tables and figures viii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Research question 2

1.4 Scope of the study 2

1.5 Significance of the study 3

1.6 Method of the study 3

1.7 Design of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Vocabulary and its importance 5

2.1.1 Vocabulary definition 5

2.1.2 The role of vocabulary in second language learning 6

2.2 Memorizing word meanings 7

2.2.1 Vocabulary retention 7

2.2.2 Types of memory 7

2.2.3 Strategies of teaching and learning vocabulary 8

2.3 Mind-mapping 10

2.3.1 Definition 10

2.3.2 Steps to create a mind map 11

2.3.3 The significance of mind-mapping in language classroom 12

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2.4 Related studies 13

2.4.1 Review of related studies worldwide 13

2.4.2 Review of related studies in Vietnam 14

2.4.3 Gaps in previous research on mind-mapping 15

2.5 Summary 15

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 The context of the study 16

3.1.1 Research setting 16

3.1.2 Teaching material 16

3.1.3 Research participants 17

3.2 Research methodology 17

3.2.1 Action research definition 17

3.2.2 Action research procedure 18

3.2.3 Data collection instrument 19

3.2.3.1 Pre-test and post-test 19

3.2.3.2 Survey questionnaire 20

3.2.4 Data collection procedure 20

3.2.5 Data analysis 22

3.3 Summary 22

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Quantitative description of results from the pre-test and post-test 24

4.1.1 The distribution of the test results 24

4.1.2 Descriptive statistics 26

4.2 Quantitative description of results from the questionnaire 26

4.2.1 Students’ attitudes towards mind mapping technique 27

4.2.2 The students’ self-evaluation on the effectiveness of the MM technique 28

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4.3 Reliability analysis and correlations 30

4.3.1 Reliability analysis 30

4.3.2 Correlations 32

4.4 Summary 32

CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 5.1 Conclusions 34

5.2 Limitations of the study 36

5.3 Suggestions 36

REFERENCES 38 APPENDICES I

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LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS

MM: Mind-mapping

MMs: Mind maps

MTA: Military Technical Academy

NEFE: New English File Elementary

L1: First language

L2: Second language

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Page

Table 1: Procedure of the research 21 Table 2: Score interval of the tests 24 Figure 2: Comparison between pre-test and post-test score 25 Table 3 : The descriptive statistics of the two tests scores 26 Table 4: Students’ attitudes towards MM technique 27 Table 5: The students’ self-evaluation on the effectiveness of MM

technique

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Table 7: Item-Total Statistics

Table 8: Correlations

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study

Vocabulary is the basic factor necessary for mastering a language This is because vocabulary is integral to every language skill, including reading, writing, listening and speaking skill Individuals cannot easily make conversations or convey their thoughts in both oral and written forms without having a certain level of vocabulary knowledge David Wilkins (1972) emphasized the importance of vocabulary as “Without grammar, little can be conveyed; without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed” Therefore, the lack of vocabulary leads to many serious difficulties in foreign language teaching and learning, notably in Vietnam

Unfortunately, Vietnamese students in general and MTA students in particular find it hard to acquire vocabulary Many reasons for this problem are pointed out such as school facilities, teaching aids, etc Out of these reasons, the traditional method of teaching deserves to be blamed on most Most of the lesson

is spent on grammar, not vocabulary When introducing new vocabulary, the teacher just explains the meanings with Vietnamese equivalents and asks the students to take notes The students are explained the meaning, definition, pronunciation, spelling and grammatical functions of new words Therefore, the students cannot recall an unfamiliar word and do not have the habits of recording their vocabulary in the same place This outdated translation technique is not effective at all

Since teaching method plays an important role in learners’ success in learning English, it should be more updated so that every student feels more interested in vocabulary lessons Teachers should teach in a way that learners will be capable

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of recalling them easily In fact, there are many vocabulary learning techniques such as matching, role play, semantic-mapping, dictionary use, learning vocabulary through the context, and many others The desire to help students to memorize, recall vocabulary more effectively motivated me to conduct the study titled “Using mind-mapping technique to improve vocabulary retention of first-year students: An action research project at Military Technical Academy” Hopefully, this study may contribute to bettering the vocabulary teaching and learning

1.2 Aims of the study

The first aim of the study is to investigate whether using MM to teach vocabulary can help students at MTA to improve their vocabulary retention or not

Secondly, the study also evaluates the students’ attitudes towards using MM

as a tool to improve their vocabulary retention

1.3 Research question

Based on the above-mentioned aims, the following questions are formulated:

1 Does teaching vocabulary using MM help students at MTA to improve their vocabulary retention?

2 What are the students’ attitudes towards using MM to improve their vocabulary retention?

1.4 Scope of the study

Because of the limitation of time and resources, the researcher only focuses

on the use of MM as one technique to improve students’ poor vocabulary

retention

The study was conducted on the K51 Information class of 32 first-year students at MTA Due to the fixed curriculum and limited time, the study was

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carried out during the second term of school year 2015-2016

1.5 Significance of the study

Essentially, the practical consideration of the research is the significance of the expected research Hence, the results of this study are expected to be useful

to students, teachers and researchers in the field of English language teaching and learning The research is expected to explore and prove the effectiveness of

MM in teaching so that the teachers will conduct the teaching and learning activities more effectively Students can use MM as a technique to improve vocabulary retention The future researchers are expected to develop some dimensions which have not been developed in this research such as using different student population, different students’ condition, etc

1.6 Method of the study

The study was based on action research The subject of the research was the English non-major first-year students of MTA Because the researcher wanted to investigate whether using MM technique to teach vocabulary can improve the students’ vocabulary retention or not, a pre-test and post- test were carried out The purpose of pre-test was to know the students’ knowledge before treatment After treatment, the researcher conducted a post-test to know the effectiveness of treatment after the course of using MM Also, a survey questionnaire was designed and administered to students at the end of treatment so that they could express their ideas about treatment

1.7 Design of the study

This study is divided as followed:

Chapter 1: Introduction - provides the rationale, the aim, the research question, the scope, the significance and the organization of the study

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Chapter 2: Literature review–presents the concepts relevant to the topic of the thesis: vocabulary and its importance, memorizing word meanings, some basic knowledge about MM, the previous studies related to the fields and some gaps for present study

Chapter 3: Methodology - presents the context of the research including the research settings, teaching materials, research participants This chapter also provides information about the action research in general and the instruments, the data collection procedures and data analysis of this study

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion - focuses on the results of the tests and the results from the questionnaire This chapter also includes the analyses and discussions of the results

Chapter 5: Conclusion - points out some limitations, recommendations and suggestions for further study

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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Vocabulary and its importance

2.1.1 Vocabulary definition

English consists of four main skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing Along with these skills are other sub-skills, namely vocabulary, grammar, collocation, etc Among these sub-skills, vocabulary plays a crucial part in the language learning process Having a wide range of vocabulary is strongly related

to the degree of language proficiency Hence, it is necessary to make clarify this term in this study at first

So far there have been a lot of definitions of vocabulary Specially, Ur (1996) characterized vocabulary as the words we teach in the foreign language She also stated that a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: a compound of two or three words or multi -word idioms In addition, Read (2001) viewed words as the basic building blocks of language, the units of meaning from which the larger structures such as sentences, paragraphs and whole texts are formed (p1)

Vocabulary can be defined, roughly, according to the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, as following:

- All the words known and used by a particular person

- All the words which exist in a particular language or subject

In short, from the definition above, it can be concluded that vocabulary is

a list of words or a set of words in a language or knowledge of words regarding its forms, meanings In the present study, vocabulary refers to the words, compounds and idioms in a language that have meanings used to convey and

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receive information in oral and written communication

2.1.2 The role of vocabulary

Even though vocabulary is the sub-skill of a language, it plays a very important role in language No one can communicate in any meaningful way without vocabulary A large, rich vocabulary gives them the right words to use at the right time

According to Richards and Renandya in 2002, vocabulary is a core component of language proficiency and provides much of the basis for how well learners speak, listen, read, and write Similar opinion was also expressed by McCarthy who stated if you do not know enough vocabulary, you will be able to express yourself adequately For learners, he also claimed that no matter how well the students learn grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to express a wider range of meaning, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way

Having a wide range of vocabulary, one’s listening and reading will improve because he/she will be able to understand more of what is written or spoken Their writing will become more effective and more powerful A person with a limited vocabulary will never be able to speak, write, read or understand English effectively Hence, the lack of vocabulary shortage affects all the other skills

Nation (2001) emphasized the need to constantly expand vocabulary knowledge “acquisition of vocabulary is typically a more conscious and demanding process” Additionally, he claimed that even at an advanced level, learners are aware of limitations in their knowledge of L2 words He clarified the importance of vocabulary by bringing evidence that vocabulary knowledge is what the students most need while doing reading activities in order to make sense of what they are reading Moreover, it’s his claim that those who do not

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attain enough vocabulary cannot understand enough of what they read Furthermore, they have more limited contextual information provided by known words to allow them to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words

All in all, from various above points of view, vocabulary can be seen as priority area in language learning and teaching However, the main obstacle all students face in vocabulary learning is to recall words or memorize words Therefore, a focus on improving vocabulary retention is essential for learners to raise English proficiency

2.2 Memorizing word meanings

2.2.1 Vocabulary retention

Vocabulary retention has been defined as “the ability to recall or remember things after an interval of time In language teaching, retention of what has been taught (e.g grammar rules and vocabulary) may depend on the quality of teaching, the interest of the learners, or the meaningfulness of the materials” (Richards & Schmidt, 2002, p 457)

Vocabulary retention is of the essence in learning English as a foreign language It can be understood that as well as the learned vocabulary knowledge

is retained in the memory, the learner can get benefit from it when the time of recalling it comes Vocabulary retention is one crucial factor affecting the success of vocabulary acquisition since it is the ability to recall words that have been learnt for use when needed

2.2.2 Types of memory

Memory has been categorized into different sub-types according to duration

of memory retention and capacity of recalling information after original input According to Plotrick, R and Kouyoumdjian, H in 2013, there are three kinds of memory

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Sensory memory is an initial process that receives and holds environment information for a brief period of time, from an instant to several second In contrast, short-term memory can hold only a limited amount of information for a short period of time, two to thirty seconds Actually, if sensory memory is a little

or un-controlled processing then short-term memory is a controlled processing procedure at which the learner can retrieve their newly knowledge with effort Finally, there is long-term memory, which can store an almost unlimited amount

of information over long periods of time This is an automatic processing procedure that ensure retrieved without effort

Learning new items involves storing them first in our short-term memory, and afterwards in long-term memory However, when learning vocabulary, learners have problems with memorizing words for a long time They usually fail

to put the words into long-term memory Thus, the goal of learning vocabulary

is to transfer the lexical information from short-term memory to long-term memory during the process of learning This can be done by various techniques teachers apply The more interested in what students have learnt, the better they can remember Therefore, teachers should apply vocabulary teaching strategies effectively so that the students could feel interested in what they learnt

2.2.3 Strategies of teaching and learning vocabulary

Vocabulary has a crucial role in foreign teaching and learning However, from the researcher’s English teaching experience, vocabulary teaching in class

is less focused on than teaching English grammar Most teachers still emphasize English grammatical rules in class and neglect vocabulary teaching strategies As

a result, the learners have difficulties in memorizing large numbers of new words throughout the entire course In vocabulary lessons, the main method of word repetition, saying the L2 word form aloud with the L1 translation is likely to be used as an aid to remember the words Hence, both teachers and learners have

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little interest or enjoyment when teaching and learning vocabulary The question

is how to teach and learn vocabulary effectively Up till now, the learners need training in vocabulary learning strategies so that they are able to remember as much as possible for what they learnt

O’Malley and Chamot in 1990 defined learning strategies as special thoughts

or behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn, or retain new information Vocabulary learning strategies are one part of language learning strategies, which in turn part of general learning strategies (Nation, 2001)

In classifying learning strategies, scholars have different ways of classifying language learning strategies According to Wenden and Rubin in 1987, learning strategies consists of cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies, gaining the most attention compared to other strategies

Cognitive strategies include the tools that help a learner store, combine, and recall the information These strategies include repetition, review and development of the concept and the organization of the material In other words, cognitive strategies involve interacting with the material to be learned, manipulating the material mentally or physically or by applying a specific technique to a learning task (O`Malley and Chamot, 1990)

Meta-cognitive strategies include the tools for guidance and supervision of cognitive approaches, such as determination of learning goals, posing questions and evaluation of what has been read These strategies include supervision, monitoring, organization and planning In other words, according to O`Malley and Chamot (1990), meta-cognitive strategies are higher order executive skills that may entail planning for, monitoring, or evaluating the success of a learning activity; meta-cognitive strategies operate directly on informing information, manipulating it in ways that enhance learning

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MMs could be classified as cognitive learning strategies since they fulfill the main function of cognitive strategies by helping the learners to relate the new items to the already existing one and recall the information Therefore, the researcher elaborates on the term MMs in the following section

By now, it is clear for us to understand that MM is a technique using diagram for visual presentation of ideas The diagram is focused on a main concept which is placed in the center and therefore certain ideas, words or even phrases related to main concept can be connected Each idea, word or phrase is written down and then linked by lines, arrows, branches, or some ways of showing connections to its major or minor item This is specifically beneficial

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for young learners to recall their memories

2.3.2 Steps to create a mind map

MM may be presented in a variety of ways Tony Buzan stated that the steps

for presenting MM are as follows:

1 Start in the CENTRE of a blank page turned sideways Why? Because starting in the centre gives your brain freedom to spread out in all directions and

to express itself more freely and naturally

2 Use an IMAGE or PICTURE for your central idea Why? Because an image is worth a thousand words and helps you use your Imagination A central image is more interesting, keeps you focused, helps you concentrate, and gives your brain more of a buzz!

3 Use COLOURS throughout Why? Because colours are as exciting to your brain as are images Colour adds extra vibrancy and life to your Mind Map, adds tremendous energy to your Creative Thinking, and is fun!

4 CONNECT your MAIN BRANCHES to the central image and connect your second- and third-level branches to the first and second levels, etc Why? Because your brain works by association It likes to link two (or three, or four) things together If you connect the branches, you will understand and remember

a lot more easily

5 Make your branches CURVED rather than straight-lined Why? Because having nothing but straight lines are boring to your brain

6 Use ONE KEY WORD PER LINE Why? Because single key words give your Mind Map more power and flexibility

7 Use IMAGES throughout Why? Because each image, like the central

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image, is also worth a thousand words

2.3.3 The significance of mind-mapping in language classroom

MM is an effective form of vocabulary learning and teaching tool because

it can activate prior knowledge on a certain topic and help learners to organize and recall items of vocabulary (according to Casco in 2009) When using MM, the teacher starts with main topic or the theme as the central idea and the students think about the new and the old items related to the topic given Therefore, this will lead to more comfortable and more active learning atmosphere which is effective for longer retention of the learnt words

Additionally, MM can promote interactive learning process By implementing the MM technique in teaching, both the teacher and students can work together to build on the map building involving the targeted content The teacher can help students to recall the prior knowledge related to the topic given MMs provide students with an active interaction allowing them to learn through the use of a central image They are encouraged to join in and express their ideas

to the map building The constructing process of map building involving discussing in groups/ class, writing words down, categorizing and grouping words with related ones can reduce the students’ passive learning in vocabulary lesson

Furthermore, MM is a pattern which at least consists of picture, symbol and color that will not just make the students more enjoyable and interesting in studying vocabulary but also help students to remember vocabulary in their fast time

To sum up, MM can be an effective technique in vocabulary learning and teaching for the improvement of vocabulary retention Following is the review of

the studies related to this study

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2.4 Related studies

2.4.1 Review of related studies worldwide

There are many studies related to this topic The study “The Effect of Mind

Mapping on Vocabulary Learning and Retention” was written by Heidari &

Karimi (2015) This study attempted to explore the effects of MM on vocabulary learning and its retention 40 male first-grader high school students in Shahed High School in Hamedan, Iran took part in the study Participants were divided equally into two groups of which one was control group and the other was experimental group The study concluded that the students in the experimental group (using MM technique) were able to store the vocabulary in their long-term memory for longer periods of time MM helped the students acquire and retain English vocabulary directly and very strongly because of its “visual appeal” Because MMs were easy to review, so the students could integrate the newly acquired words with the old previously learnt ones and see connections between words Also, MMs in the present study were colorful and with their colorful structures and three tree diagrams could give the high school students adequate motivation to engage with vocabulary lessons

In “Teaching vocabulary through MM technique to the tenth grade

students of SMA Negeri 15 Palembang”, Yusuf Effendi (2004) aimed to find out

whether or not it was significantly effective to teach vocabulary through MM technique to the tenth grade students of SMA Negeri 15 Palembang 360 students of SMA Negeri 15 Palembang took part in the study Based on the analysis of the data in this study, it could be concluded that there was a significant difference between the students’ progress in the experimental group (using MM technique) and the control group (using traditional method) From the data analysis, the writer indicated that the use of MM technique was effective

in teaching vocabulary to the tenth grade students of SMA Negeri 15 Palembang

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In “The Use of Mind Mapping Technique in Teaching Vocabulary”,

Samhudi (2015) aimed to describe the procedure of MM technique on teaching vocabulary and to know the improvement of students’ vocabulary mastery after learning vocabulary through MM technique In this study, the research focused

on 35 students, 15 boys and 20 girls The participants were randomly assigned to experimental group and control group In collecting the required data, the writer did test and questionnaire The writer as teacher tried to apply MM technique in teaching vocabulary mastery of students The results of test showed that MM technique improved students’ vocabulary mastery Also, based on the data from the questionnaire, most of the students agreed that MMs could advance them, improve their vocabulary, expand their ideas, and increase their self-confidence

in learning

2.4.2 Review of related studies in Vietnam

In “Using MMs and diagrams to teach vocabulary for first year

mainstream students, Faculty of English Language Teacher Education”, Dang

Thanh Diem (2011) had the purpose of introducing using MMs and diagrams as

a technique to teach vocabulary for first-year English main stream majors It can

be concluded from the study that using MMs and diagrams to teach vocabulary could help students have better and longer memory of word items taught Students after attending a lesson with MMs and diagrams really wanted to have chance to learn with those techniques They shared the benefits that MMs and diagrams could help them remember words better

In “Using mind-mapping to teach vocabulary to the first-year

non-English major students at Bac Giang University of Agriculture and Forestry”,

Nguyen Thi Thuy Lan (2012) was to explore the effectiveness of MM in teaching vocabulary to the first-year non-English major students at Bac Giang

University of Agriculture and Forestry, using the course book New Cutting Edge

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(Elementary) The results from her study showed that MM could help students to

brainstorm a new topic and activate the prior knowledge Besides, it could be a tool to facilitate students to summarize the lessons effectively Also, students could apply MM to take note during the lesson

2.4.3 GAPS IN PREVIOUS RESEARCH ON MIND-MAPPING

From the previous studies related to the research problems, the writer found that most of the studies focused on applying MM in teaching vocabulary There are not many studies on using MM to improve students’ vocabulary retention To address this gap, the writer carried out this study on the first-year students at MTA as the target population

2.5 SUMMARY

This chapter was an overview of literature related to the study The first section of this chapter reviewed definitions of vocabulary and its importance The second part discussed vocabulary retention, types of memory as well as strategies of teaching and learning vocabulary Next, definitions of MM, the steps to create a MM and its usage in vocabulary learning were mentioned Also, some related studies worldwide and in Vietnam were presented with a clear description of the studies and the gained findings This chapter was ended with gaps in previous research on MM

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CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 3.1 The context of the study

3.1.1 Research setting

The Military Technical Academy is a polytechnic institute that was founded in 1966 It consists of sub-institutes and sub-centers whose duty is to mainly produce military engineers Since 2002, it has been assigned by the State

of Vietnam and Ministry of National Defense to train civilian engineers Together they make knowledgeable and qualified technicians of all degrees: Bachelor, Master, Doctor to serve in military and to devote to the industrialization and modernization of our country

Undergraduates of MTA are of two categories: military students and civilian students Like students of other colleges and universities in Vietnam, the students of MTA come from different English backgrounds and many different parts of the country, from the North to the South of Vietnam For civilian students, they have to study English as a compulsory subject while military students study either English or Russian depending on their majors As for those who study English, the English course is divided into two stages: General English (360 periods) and English for Specific Purposes (45 periods) General English is taught in the first two academic years and the rest is in the first semester of third year

3.1.2 Teaching material

In the 2015-2016 academic year, the “New English File – Elementary” was officially used to teach the first- year students within 180 periods during the first two semesters NEFE designed by Clive Oxenden, Christina Latham-Koenig and Paul Seligson was first internationally published in 2004 by Oxford

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University Press NEFE presents the basic structure of English and develops them through a variety of social contexts After this course, the students can make conversations for the suggested topics, describe their personality, daily activities or express their opinions in simple situations associated with their life

In NEFE Students’ Book, there are nine units, each of which is divided into sections marked with letters A, B, C, and D ( except for the last unit) At the end of each unit, three special sections follow The first one is called Practical English, the second one is Writing, and the last one is Revision and Check For each section of each unit, there are grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation

listed that are taught within the section As for Vocabulary, it is organized File

by File It includes all the words in the Vocabulary Banks in the Student’s Book and the MultiROM, all the words which are highlighted in the Student’s Book, and all the words in the More Words to Learn sections of the Workbook

3.1.3 Research participants

The participants in this study consisted of 32(2 females and 30 males) first -year students of the K51 Information class at MTA in the academic year of 2015-2016 After the first semester, the teacher-researcher found that her students’ vocabulary was very poor and their vocabulary strategies seemed to be ineffective Therefore, the researcher chose them to become volunteer participants in the action research project The total number of students was selected to do two vocabulary tests named pre-test and post-test And then, a survey questionnaire was conducted to get more opinions from students about the treatment

3.2 Research methodology

3.2.1 Action research definition

This study was carried out using action research approach

Action research is first and foremost situational, being concerned with the identification and solution of problems in a specific context The aim of action

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research is to improve the current state of affairs within the educational context

in which the research is being carried out.”(Cohen and Manion, 1985).Similar with this idea, Parsons and Brown in 2002 stated that action research is an investigation carried out by teachers attempting to find solutions to problems and improve their professional practices in their own classroom

Based on the above definitions, action research is an appropriate method in this thesis The aim of this research is to improve first-year students’ vocabulary retention by using MM techniques This leads to change the students’ attitudes positively towards English vocabulary learning

3.2.2 Action research procedure

Different authors and researcher have established and proposed different models of action research In this study, action research was designed and

conducted in line with the cycle adopted from McBride & Schostak (1995):

Figure 1: Action research cycle

As can be seen in the diagram above, the process starts with the identification of the problem area This is followed by collecting initial data,

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from which a pre-test during thirty minutes is implemented so as to confirm the problem stated in stage 1 After that, the data collected from the pre-test is analyzed to form a hypothesis The next step of this action research study is planning action In this phase, the researcher presents the alternatives to the usual practice so that the study could bring about desired changes Implementing action is the process of introducing the MM method as a major technique to see

if there is any development in the students’ vocabulary retention and their attitudes towards the use of this technique At the phase of collecting data to monitor change, the students are given the post-test during thirty minutes to determine the effectiveness of the intervention Along with the post-test, the students also receive one survey questionnaire to show their perceptions and opinions about this new technique After the researcher analyzes data collected through tests and questionnaire, reflection identifies the result of the research

3.2.3 Data collection instrument

3.2.3.1 Pre-test and post-test

In this study, the two tests were designed to examine the effectiveness of

MM on first-years students’ learning vocabulary retention Many reasons for vocabulary testing are indicated by Nation (1990): To find learners' total vocabulary size, to compare vocabulary knowledge before and after the course,

to keep a continuing check on progress, to encourage learning by setting term goals, to see the effectiveness of your teaching, to investigate learning

short-The two tests were designed with the same format including three parts: -The first part of both tests consisted of 5 sentences The students were asked to complete the missing words based on the given pictures

- The second part of both tests consisted of 30 sentences The students were asked to choose the best answer by circling the correct letter A, B, C or D

- The third part of both tests consisted of 5 sentences The students were asked to match the sentence with the appropriate picture by writing the letter A,

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B, C or D

Each test lasted thirty minutes The vocabulary items used in the tests were taken from the students’ book and the test booklet NEFE taught in the second semester Each test had 40 questions; each question was given 2.5 points,

so the total score was 100 points

3.2.3.2 Survey questionnaire

Questionnaire was selected as the second data collection instrument in this study because “ questionnaires are useful ways of gathering information about affective dimensions of teaching and learning, such as beliefs, attitudes, motivation, and preferences, and enable a teacher to collect a large amount of information relatively quickly” ( Richards & Lockhart, 1994)

In this study, the questionnaire included 8 closed-questions and used a five-point Likert Scale with five options ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree McIver and Carmines (1981) described the Likert scale as “a set of items, composed of approximately an equal number of favorable and unfavorable statements concerning the attitude object, is given to a group of subjects They are asked to respond to each statement in terms of their own degree of agreement or disagreement Typically, they are instructed to select one

of five responses: strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, or strongly disagree”

In this study, the students had 10 minutes to answer the questionnaire The questionnaire (see Appendix 3) consisted of two main parts with statements asking the students’ attitudes towards MM technique ( item 1,2,3,4,) and their self-evaluation on the effectiveness of this technique( item 5,6,7,8)

3.2.4 Data collection procedure

The MM technique was applied in 6 weeks in the K51 Information class during the second semester of the 2015- 2016 academic year at MTA The following table summarized the procedures of the research:

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Week 1 The researcher identified the issues to be changed and

prepared the instructional strategy (MM) which was theoretically effective to improve the situation and solve the problem

Week 2 - The class was given the pre-test before the treatment to

evaluate the student’s vocabulary capacity

-The data collected from the pre-test was analyzed to form a hypothesis

Week 3 -The researcher made a detailed plan of what she intended to

implement, when it has to be completed, what the modifications to the curriculum are, how the revised teaching strategies will be implemented, etc At this stage information gathering instruments should be prepared

Week 4-9 MM was implemented in the stage of teaching and learning

vocabulary during the 3 units (from unit 6 to unit 8)

Week 10 -The students were administered the post-test to determine

the effectiveness of the intervention

-The students were asked to fill in the questionnaire to figure out students’ attitudes towards MM

-The data collected from the post-test and questionnaire were analyzed to identify any improvements and evaluate students’ opinions about the treatment used

- Evaluated the effectiveness of the treatment and identified the results of the research

Table 1: Procedure of the research

As shown in the table 1, the MM technique was applied from week 4 to week 9 in the class K51 Information class During six-week treatment, the

to examine whether or not there was a statistically significant difference between two sets of tests derived from the same participants

In this study, there were two hypotheses:

The “null hypothesis” might be:

H0: The mean of two paired samples are equal

The “alternative hypothesis” might be:

H1: The mean of two paired samples are not equal

According to Cramer and Howitt (2004), the level at which the null hypothesis was rejected was usually set as 05 So, in this study, if the value of significance (p-value) is equal to or less than 05 then the null hypothesis is rejected and there is a difference before and after the treatment If the value of significance (p-value) is more than 05, the null hypothesis is accepted and there

is no difference before and after the treatment

For the survey questionnaires, after collecting them from the students, the researcher used SPSS to calculate the valid percent Then, the researcher compared the valid percent of some agree opinions with some disagree options

to get the subject’s opinions about the treatment

3.3 SUMMARY

This chapter presented the research settings, the participants and teaching

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material They were followed by action research definition, action research procedure The chapter was finally concluded by the through description of data collection instruments, data collection procedure and data analysis procedure The following chapter will show the results of the study

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CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Quantitative description of results from the pre-test and post-test

The analysis of scores from pre-test and post-test aimed at answering the first question of this study

Before and after the treatment, all the students were given a pre-test and a post-test to test the students’ retention of words under the treatment of MM The researcher herself checked the papers of the two tests and used the following score interval in her study

Table 2: Score interval of the tests

According to table 2, the students were divided into 5 groups including excellent group (85 -100), good group (70 -80), average group (50 -65), poor group (30 -45) and very poor group (0 -25) In Vietnam, mark 5 is considered as pass mark

4.1.1 The distribution of the test results

After collecting the paper tests of students, the researcher herself marked and categorized the scores according to the above score interval After that, the researcher made comparison pre-test and post-test scores to find out any difference before and after the treatment The following table presented the distribution of the test results

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Figure 2: Comparison between pre-test and post-test score

As can be clearly seen from the chart, before treatment, the majority of the students could not do the test successfully Up to 56.3% of the students got poor marks and 12.5% of them achieved very poor marks The number of the students who got 50 and 65 points comprised 15.6% Especially, only 9.4 % of the students received good marks and there were two students who got excellent marks (6.3%) The results indicated that the vocabulary retention ability of the students was comparatively low Therefore, the researcher decided to try a new method of teaching vocabulary knowledge in classroom with expectation of solving this problem

Also from the above chart, it can be clearly seen that there was considerable improvement in the students’ scores after the treatment was used The most outstanding point is the difference between the number of students who got poor marks at the post-test and that at the pre-test The number of the students who received poor marks was significantly reduced by 56.3% to 18.8 % after the post-test On the contrary, the number of the students who got average scores considerably increased by 15.6% to 34.4% In the pre-test, there were two students (6.3%) who got excellent marks, but in the post-test, there were 6

by the students in the two tests

Deviation P(t-test)

Pre-test 32 20 90 46.25 18.316

0.000 Post-test 32 30 95 64.22 17.74

Table 3: The descriptive statistics of the two tests scores

Based on the table of the statistical analyses above, it can be found that the mean score of the pre-test was 46.25 and the mean score of the post-test was 64.22 It means that students’ mean score increased by 17.97 after the post-test Furthermore, the maximum score of the post-test was higher than that of the pre-test (95>90) The minimum score increased from 20 in the pre-test to 30 in the post-test

More importantly, the significant value (p-value) was 0.000, which was much less than 0.05 It indicated that there was a significant change in the subject’s vocabulary retention after the treatment

4.2 Quantitative description of results from the questionnaire

The analysis of results collected from the questionnaire aimed at answering the second question of the study The questionnaires including eight items were to investigate the subjects’ attitudes towards the treatment Items 1, 2,

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3 and 4 investigated the students’ attitudes towards MM technique Items 5, 6, 7 and 8 aimed at presenting the students’ self-evaluation on the effectiveness of the

MM technique in vocabulary retention

4.2.1 Students’ attitudes towards MM technique

N0 Opinions Strongly

disagree Disagree Neutral Agree

Strongly agree

1 I find it easy to use MM

to recall learnt

vocabulary

3 (9.4%)

4 (12.5%)

2 (6.3%)

17 (53.1%)

6 (18.8%)

2 MM gives me more

pleasure in learning E

vocabulary

0 (0%)

2 (6.3%)

0 (0%)

18 (56.3%)

12 (37.5%)

3 I started to feel like

learning new words by

using MM technique

0 (0%)

3 (9.4%)

2 (6.3%)

19 (59.4%)

8 (25%)

4 MM is a creative

technique for

vocabulary learning

2 (6.3%)

3 (9.4%)

2 (6.3%)

14 (43.8%)

11 (34.4%)

Table 4: Students’ attitudes towards MM technique

The students were firstly asked whether using MM to recall learnt vocabulary items was easy or not As can be seen from the table 4, most of the students reported that it was not a difficult method to be applied in recalling learnt vocabulary items About 71.9 % shared this view and 21.9% disapproved

A few respondents (6.3%) had neutral feelings in this statement

Item 2 was to investigate the students’ excitement in the vocabulary lessons when the teacher used the MM technique It presented clearly that a large number of students felt pleasure in MM technique In other words, the percentage of strongly agree and agree responses were 93.8% in this item Whereas, only 6.3% of the students did not enjoy learning vocabulary through

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MMs and none of them chose neutral opinion or had no idea

The results of item 3 indicated that a large number of students started to feel like learning new vocabulary by using MM technique To be in more detail, 84.4% of students strongly agree and agree that they felt like learning new vocabulary by using MMs Only a few students (6.3%) did not know whether they liked or disliked learning new words with the use of MM and a small number of participants (9.4%) were not interested in vocabulary lessons after the treatment used

By creating branches out from the central idea, the students can free their minds to think creatively on the subjects related to the central idea Therefore, 78.2% of the students highly appreciated the creativeness of MM techniques About 15.7 % disagreed with this statement and 6.3% of them had neutral idea

4.2.2 The students’ self-evaluation on the effectiveness of the MM technique

N0 Opinions Strongly

disagree Disagree Neutral Agree

Strongly agree

5 It helps me to enhance my

vocabulary knowledge

considerably

0 (0%)

2 (6.3%)

2 (6.3%)

18 (56.3%)

10 (31.3%)

6 I can remember

vocabulary items right at

class thanks to MM

3 (9.4%)

4 (12.5%)

3 (9.4%)

17 (53.1%)

5 (15.6%)

7 It helps me to activate my

prior knowledge and link

to new items

0 (0%)

0 (0%)

4 (12.5%)

12 (37.5%)

16 (50%)

8 MM technique can help

me memorize and recall

the word meanings more

easily for a longer time

1 (3.1%)

3 (9.4%)

3 (9.4%)

18 (56.3%)

7 (21.9%)

Table 5: The students’ self-evaluation on the effectiveness of the MM

technique