The effectiveness of context clue strategy to enhance students’ vocabulary among grade 10that hoanh bo high school

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES TRAN THI HAI NHU THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CONTEXT CLUES STRATEGY TO ENHANCE VOCABULARY AMONG GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT HOANH BO HIGH SHOOL HI

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

TRAN THI HAI NHU

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CONTEXT CLUES STRATEGY TO ENHANCE VOCABULARY AMONG GRADE 10 STUDENTS

AT HOANH BO HIGH SHOOL

HIỆU QUẢ CỦA CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐOÁN TỪ DỰA VÀO NGỮ

CẢNH ĐỂ NÂNG CAO VỐN TỪ VỰNG CHO HỌC SINH KHỐI

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

TRAN THI HAI NHU

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CONTEXT CLUES STRATEGY TO ENHANCE VOCABULARY AMONG GRADE 10 STUDENTS

AT HOANH BO HIGH SHOOL

HIỆU QUẢ CỦA CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐOÁN TỪ DỰA VÀO NGỮ CẢNH

ĐỂ NÂNG CAO VỐN TỪ VỰNG CHO HỌC SINH KHỐI 10

Ở TRƯỜNG THPT HOÀNH BỒ M.A THESIS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I hereby declare that all work in this thesis entitled “The effectiveness of

context clue strategy to enhance students’ vocabulary among grade 10 th at Hoanh

Bo High School” is my own work To the best of my knowledge, it contains no

materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at SFL or any other educational institutions The thesis has not been submitted to any other examining body and has not been published Any contribution made to research by others is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis

Thai Nguyen, July 2019

Tran Thi Hai Nhu

Approved by SUPERVISORS

Supervisor 1: Dr Nguyen Thi Mai Huong

Supervisor 2: Dr Nguyen Thi Que

Date: July, 2019

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The researcher has succeeded in finishing this study, which has been greatly improved by comments, corrections, guidance and ideas of many people It is hard to even begin to acknowledge personally all those who have had an impact on her life and study during that making of this study In this occasion, the researcher would like

to express her sincerest thanks to the following persons:

To Dr Nguyen Thi Mai Huong and Dr Nguyen Thi Que, advisers, for their invaluable assistance and guidance in implementing this research, and for their constructive comments and suggestions in perfecting this thesis;

All the teachers at the School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University for their invaluable lessons, suggestions, moral support and prayers for the completion of this study;

Mrs Dang Thi Hien, the Headmaster of Hoanh Bo High School for her permission to conduct the study

All the teachers of English at Hoanh Bo High School for their suggestions and validation of the test items and questionnaires

All the students in 10A1 class at Hoanh Bo High School, the respondents of the study, for their willingness in joining the experimental learning period and answering follow-up questionnaires

The goal of this study attempted to test for the effectiveness of Context Clues Strategy in teaching vocabulary and investigated the students’ attitude towards the strategy experimented The respondents of the study were 30 grade 10 students at Hoanh Bo High School in Quang Ninh province during their second semester of the school year 2018-2019

The study compared the performance of the group before and after the experimental teaching period which lasted for 8 weeks An achievement test composed of 40 items testing different lexical resources of units 12, 13 and 14 in the course-book for grade 10 served as the pre-test and the post-test was administered to the respondents to determine if there was a significant difference in their performance Upon the accomplishment of the pilot teaching, a questionnaire was delivered to the respondents to investigate their attitudes towards the strategy used The data gathered from the pre-test and the post-test then were tabulated, analyzed and interpreted to answer the following questions:

1 To what extent does the use of Context Clues enhance students’ vocabulary?

2 What are the students’ attitudes towards the strategy used?

The experiment was conducted during the beginning periods for eight weeks The t-test for dependent samples was applied to determine the significance of the differences between the mean scores of the group prior to and after the experiment

The following are the major findings of the study:

1 The mean score of students in the post-test using Context Clues Games is

significantly higher than that of those in the pre-test The result proved that Context

Clues Strategy is effective in enhancing students’ performance in vocabulary learning

2 Students’ perceived Context Clues Strategy as beneficial to their vocabulary

learning A majority of the participants claimed that context clues were very much beneficial in helping them enhance their vocabulary learning while the rest of the respondents agreed that the use of context clues was useful in improving their lexical resources

3 Students agreed that using context clues is effective in enriching their lexical

resources

4 Students strongly agreed that teacher’s implementation of context clues was

appropriate and effective throughout the treatment period

Based on the findings, the following conclusions were drawn:

1 There is a significant difference in the pre-test and post-test mean scores of the respondents after being exposed to Context Clues Strategy is supported in this study

2 Students’ attitudes towards the use of Context Clues Strategy and the teachers’ teaching methodology are positive

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE ………

Certificate of originality ……… i

ACKNOWLEDGMENT ……… ii

ABSTRACT ……… iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ……… v

LIST OF TABLES ……… Vii LIST OF FIGURES ……… Vii APPENDICES ……… viii

I INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Introduction and rationale 1 1.2 Statement of the Problem …… …… ……… 2

1.3 Significance of the Study ……… 3

1.4 Scope of the Study ……… 3

1.5 Definition of terms ……….… 4

II REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND STUDIES 5 2.1 Review of Literature ………… ……….……… 5

2.1.1 Role of vocabulary in teaching and learning language 5 2.1.2 Strategy for vocabulary enrichment ……… 7

2.1.3 Types of context clues……….…… 12

2.2 Review of related ……… ……… 16

III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 18 3.1 Locale of the study ……… …… 18

3.2 Research Design … ……… ……… 18

3.3 Participants……… 18

3.4 Research Instrumentation……… 19

3.5 Reseach Procedure……… 20

IV PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA 23 4.1 The effectiveness of Context Clues on students’ vocabulary 23 4.1.1 Results of the pre-test scores 23 4.1.2 Results of the post-test scores 26 4.1.3 The difference between pre-test and post-test scores 28 4.2 Students’ attitudes towards the Context Clues Strategy 30 4.2.1 Students’ preferences on Types of Context Clues Strategy used by teachers 31 4.2.2 Students’ attitudes on how context clues help figure out meanings of complicated/ unfamiliar words 32 4.2.3 Students’ attitudes on benefits of CCG on vocabulary learning 34 4.2.4 Students’ evaluation on the learning period being exposed to the use of context clue games? 35 4.2.5 Students’ attitudes towards teacher’s method of context clue games 36 4.2.6 Students’ suggestions on the use of context clue games 37 V SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS 39 5.1 Summary ……….….……… 39

5.2 Finding ……… 40

5.3 Conclusions……… 40

5.4 Recommendations ……… ………… 40

REFERENCES……… 42

LIST OF TABLES

3 The result of pre - test and post - test score of students 28

4 T-test Results on the Pre-test and Post-test Scores 30

5 Preferences on Types of Context Clues Strategy used 31

6 Students’ attitudes on how context clues help figure out meanings of

7 Students’ attitudes on benefits of CCG on vocabulary learning 34

8 The effects of context clues in your vocabulary learning 36

9 Your teacher’s teaching method using context clue games 37

LIST OF FIGURES

1 Distribution of the pre - test and post - test scores of the Experimental

2 Distribution of Preferences on Types of Context Clues Strategies used 32

3 Distribution of how context clues help figure out the meaning of

4 Distribution of Students’ attitudes s on benefits of CCG on vocabulary

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix F: Statistical treatment of pre-test and post-test scores X

Appendix H The result of students’ questionnaire XIV

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction and rationale

In recent years, English has been playing a significant role in Vietnamese education since the joining of Vietnam in WTO in 2007 and the establishment of ASEAN Community in 2015 the two important and meaningful milestones for Vietnam, helping the country to integrate deeply into the region as well as the world Being an active member has helped to foster friendly and cooperative relations between Vietnam and its regional neighbors and international partners in many fields such as economy, politics, diplomacy, security, and culture The open market policy together with a free flow of foreigners to the country for travel or business purposes

is expected to offer great opportunities, new prospects as well as tough challenges for the country As a matter of fact, English is more important than ever on the ground that the charters of AEC and most global organizations require English as the official language communicate As a result, English has become a compulsory subject at all levels in the entire education system and an urgent need to master among people across the country

One of the most important goals of learning a foreign language is to communicate effectively However, in order to master the communication competence, second language learners are supposed to study the four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing well, in which vocabulary and structure play a very important role in acquiring and developing them To be more specific, language, the element for understanding the community of its speakers consists of a set of grammatical rules and vocabulary items Therefore, vocabulary is a very important segment in language learning and teaching process According to Lowanne Piccollo (2011), “the elements of a foreign language are just like a tree The trunk and branches signify grammar and the leaves signify vocabulary Leaves cannot exist without the trunk and branches and the trunk and branches serve no purpose if there are no leaves” In other words, "words are the bricks of a language”, (Tan, 2001) That is the

reason why it is impossible to understand an oral discussion or written text without having acquired some basic elements of all parts of the language Particularly, vocabulary is one of the most important goals which learners have to reach And it can be said that if the learners want to communicate in English fluently, the first step towards that goal is to have a rich vocabulary

But how to enrich vocabulary for students is always a question which every teacher wants to seek for the answer Of all prominent techniques in teaching vocabulary in ESL and EFL teaching contexts, Context clue games is claimed to be fun and motivating which may help students learn vocabulary more actively and effectively Cesar Hernandez (2011) As a suggestion, there is a need to find out if this strategy is useful and appropriate to teach in a particular context of Vietnam

As a teacher of English for many years at Hoanh Bo high school in Quang Ninh province, the researcher has realized that there still exist many difficulties and challenges in teaching and learning English in her teaching context, which is shared

by many Vietnamese educational institutions Hoanh Bo High School is a

mountainous school where students are not aware of the importance of learning English so they are not interested in this subject In addition, English teachers here all claim that one of the factors deterring the students’ mastery of English lie on students’ limited vocabulary and a lack of motivation in learning lexical items This has led to students’ bad results in English proficiency examinations as well as

hindered communication competence

The aforementioned reasons and observations have endlessly urged the researcher to find out if certain strategies are really useful and effective at her teaching context Therefore, a research on “The use of selected strategies for vocabulary enrichment among grade 10 students at Hoanh Bo High School” was conducted with the hope to offer urgent and appropriate solutions for English learning and teaching here

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The main purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of Context Clues Strategy on the vocabulary repertoire of grade 10 students at Hoanh Bo High School

in Quang Ninh province Additionally, it further investigates the students’ attitudes

towards the strategy used in teaching vocabulary

Specifically, the study aims at finding answers for the following questions:

1 To what extent does the use of Context Clues enhance students’ vocabulary?

2 What are the students’ attitudes towards the strategy used?

1.3 Significance of the study

The findings of this study would be beneficial and of great help to the following:

Students The results of this study would be helpful to the students if they

would know how to use the vocabulary learning strategies that teachers employ to help them remember words and enrich their words Thus, their vocabulary would be expanded

Teachers This study would help teachers know the effectiveness of selected

teaching the vocabulary strategies to enrich vocabulary of their students and help them remember words and use these effectively

School Administrators (Headmasters) Headmasters could evaluate the

teacher’s methods being used This study could likewise suggest administrators include in curriculum planning and programs the vocabulary strategies needed

Future Researchers This study could provide future researchers with

additional information for possible inclusion of other variables that relate to strategies

on teaching and learning vocabulary

1.4 Scope of the study

The respondents of this study were composed of 30 students studying at grade 10th at Hoanh Bo high school in the academic year 2018-2019 The study was carried out within two months of the second semester at Hoanh Bo school where students took part in 2 tests namely pre-test and post-test which was then be compared for significant differences They also answered a post questionnaire to give feedbacks to the experimental period

1.5 Definition of Terms

In order to have a clear understanding of the study, the following terms are defined operationally

Context refers to the communicative situation that the words occur

Context clue games refer to games used to teach vocabulary Students guess the

meaning of words from context

Enrichment is aimed at vocabulary It anticipates students’ vocabulary would

increase after using selected strategies to help students enrich their English vocabulary

Guessing meaning means to give the meaning of words through intuition

The pre-test is a test given to students before using context clues games to enrich

their vocabulary

Post-test is the test given to students after using context clues games to enrich their

vocabulary and determine their achievement level

The strategy is used to enrich the vocabulary of students in this study It is guessing

the meaning from context

Vocabulary is the total number of all the words that language possesses, including a

single word, two or three - word items expressing a single idea and multi-word idiom Vocabulary is needed to teach in the foreign language and a useful convention is to cover all such cases by talking about vocabulary items rather than a word

Grade 10 students are the respondents of this study which were composed of 30

students studying at grade 10th at Hoanh Bo high school in the academic year

2018-2019

Hoanh Bo school is where students have taken part in answering the questionnaires

and 2 tests namely pre-test and post-test which were then be compared for significant differences

CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

This chapter provides an essential review of literature and studies related to vocabulary teaching and learning and strategy of context clues games to enrich vocabulary for students, which shape fundamental theoretical backgrounds to support the study

2.1 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

2.1.1 Role of vocabulary in teaching and learning language

Language system basically consists of sound, vocabulary, and grammar As Lowanne Piccolo (2011) writes, “The elements of a foreign language are like a tree The trunk and branches signify grammar and the leaves signify vocabulary Leaves cannot exist without the trunk and branches and the trunk and branches serve no purpose if there are not leaves” That is why it is impossible to understand an oral discussion or a written text without having acquired some basic elements of all parts

of the foreign language Particularly, vocabulary has an important role in the language system since it is a powerful tool to carry meaning Therefore, it can be said without exaggeration that we cannot write or speak well if we do not possess adequate lexical items

According to Bui (2010), vocabulary is the total number of all the words that

a language possesses, including single words, two or three-word items expressing a single idea and multi-word idioms of which meaning cannot be deduced from the analysis of the component words but only understood in the sentences; or in contexts, etc Hence, it is important to introduce essential lexical items in order to help students build up strong stands for mastering a language during the learning process

In the teaching and learning process, vocabulary is embedded and in every skill such as reading, listening, writing and speaking and almost in all linguistic aspects Thus, vocabulary should be considered fundamental in language teaching and learning Moras, Solanage (2001) claims that “Traditionally, the teaching of

vocabulary above elementary levels was mostly incidental, limited to presenting new items as they appeared in reading or sometimes listening texts This indirect teaching of vocabulary assumes that vocabulary expansion will happen through the practice of other language skills, which has been proved not enough to ensure

vocabulary expansion Nowadays it is widely accepted that vocabulary teaching should be part of the syllabus and taught in a well-planned and regular basis Some authors, led by Lewis (2003) argue that vocabulary should be at the centre of

language teaching, because ‘language consists of grammaticalized lexis, not

lexicalized grammar’ Therefore, the teaching of lexical items should be vital and integrated into teaching all linguistic skills and communicative competence

With regards to the teaching of vocabulary, it is also noted that teachers’ methodology and strategies are the key factors deciding the success of the lessons and students’ motivation If students take part in the vocabulary learning activities voluntarily, they will become more active and inspired to learn, thus their vocabulary acquisition was improved Ly (2010) Furthermore, vocabulary learning activities should be varied to avoid boredom and encourage students’ participation It could be explained that as teenagers, high school students are usually eager to explore new things rather than carry out repeated activities Through fun and interesting activities, the interaction among students in the class can be promoted and students are brought closer to each other which creates a better studying environment and results in better learning, Nguyen (2010)

David E Freemans (2004, p 99 – 204) states “Developing vocabulary through reading, front loading and other pre-reading activities designed to help students build background stand in contrast to exercise vocabulary training is that time spent on vocabulary exercises is time taken away from reading Students acquired vocabulary

as they read Teachers who take a sociopsycholiguistic view of reading provide item for student to develop their vocabulary A number of studies support program like sustained silent reading because students see words many times as they read, and repeated encounter with words lead to acquisition Students acquired many more possibly learn as the result of direct teaching of vocabulary”

2.1.2 Strategy for Vocabulary Enrichment

Guessing meaning from context:

One of the strategies most often discussed in the literature is guessing the word meaning from context Marking the transition to independent learning can be easier and more efficient if the teacher help students learn to recognize clues to guessing the word meaning from context This strategy is a key vocabulary learning for dealing with low-frequency vocabulary, particularly in reading the authentic text

Factors that affect the likelihood of success in inference include a context-rich enough to provide adequate clues to guess a word’s meaning Because many contexts are not rich enough, a single context is often not sufficient to allow students” to guess the full word meaning This fact underscores: the need for repeated encounter with a word in diverse context: It is clear, of course, that background knowledge about the topic and the culture greatly and inferring and retention by providing a framework for incorporating the new word with information already know, but even without such a background learner can become skilled in guessing The key is to learn what clues to look for and where to find them

When Uberman (2001) researched on vocabulary presentation and revision,

he said that many sources referred to in this article emphasized the importance of vocabulary revision This process aims at helping students acquire active,

productive vocabularies Students need to practice regularly what they have learnt; otherwise, the material will fade away Teachers can resort to many techniques for vocabulary consolidation and revision To begin with, a choice of graphs and grids can be used Students may give a definition of a given item to be found by other students Multiple choices and gap filling exercises will activate the vocabulary while students select the appropriate response Teachers can use lists of synonyms

or antonyms to be matched, sentences to be paraphrased, or just some words or expressions in context to be substituted by synonymous expressions Doing cloze tests will show students' understanding of a passage, its organization, and determine the choice of lexical items Visual aids can be of great help with revision Pictures,

photographs, or drawings can facilitate the consolidation of individual words as well as idioms, phrases, and structures

In Purposes of Teaching Vocabulary, one reason teachers are concerned about

teaching vocabulary is to facilitate the comprehension of text that students will be assigned to read If students do not know the meaning of many of the words that they will encounter in a text, their comprehension of that selection is likely to be compromised When the purpose of vocabulary instruction is to facilitate the comprehension of a selection, it is obvious that this instruction must take place as an introduction before the reading of the selection A major reason for teaching the meaning of words is to increase the number of words that students know and can use

in a variety of educational, social, and eventually work-related areas

As noted earlier, written texts contain richer vocabulary and, therefore, more opportunities for expansion of vocabulary through reading as compared to the word challenge in oral language However, the probability of learning a new word’s meaning through encountering it in reading is not high—only about one chance in twenty There is research that shows that students can be taught strategic behaviors

to improve their ability to learn the meaning of words While skills such as application

of morphological clues, reference works, and spelling clues to word meanings are all useful, they become more powerful and functional when combined with the use of context clues in a deliberate strategy

According to John J Pikulski and Shane Templetion (2004) “it seems

impossible to overstate the power of words; they literally have changed and will continue to change the course of world history Perhaps the greatest tools we can give students for succeeding, not only in their education but more generally in life,

is a large, rich vocabulary and the skills for using those words Our ability to

function in today’s complex social and economic worlds is mightily affected by our language skills and word knowledge In addition to the vital importance of

vocabulary for success in life, a large vocabulary is more specifically predictive and reflective of high levels of reading achievement.” So John J Pikulski and Shane

Templetion (2004) Strategy for Deriving Word Meanings:

Strategy for Deriving Word Meanings:

Step 1: Carefully look at the word; decide how to pronounce it

Step 2a: Look around the word for context clues, including:

• Look within the sentence

• Reread previous sentences

• Read ahead for more context clues

Step 2b: Look in the word for prefixes and suffixes, base words, and root words that might offer clues

Step 3: Make your best guess at the word’s meaning

Step 4a: If you don’t have a good idea as to the word’s meaning and if the word seems important, use a dictionary or glossary

Step 4b: If you think you have figured out the meaning of the word or if the word doesn’t seem important, keep reading

According to Sholed (2011), when you come to a new word when you are reading you can sometimes figure out what the word means by thinking about the words around it Words that give you clues about what the new word means are called

"context clues" because they give you clues about the meanings of new words Sometimes the context clues come before the new word and sometimes they come after it You may find a definition of the new word in the sentence or paragraph A sentence might have a word that means the opposite of the new word (antonym), and sometimes a synonym, or word that means the same thing as the new word, will give you a clue

She introduced some ways tousle context clues to find the meaning of a word, to wit:

1 Read the whole sentence If you don't know the meaning of "amenities," skip over

it and read the rest of the sentence Then look at the words around the new one and try to make a connection Here is an example George cared little for social amenities, and sometimes his unpleasant words and actions made people feel uncomfortable The words that come after the word "amenities" explain that the word means unpleasant words and actions Now read the whole sentence including the new word

2 Read this sentence: They drove their bright new red vehicle to the park You might not know the word "vehicle," but the word "drove" is a clue that vehicle could mean

a car In this sentence, the context clue comes before the new word Read the sentence again using the word "car" instead of "vehicle" to see if the word makes sense

3 Read this sentence: He was always late; he just couldn't ever be punctual The word

"late" is the opposite of the word "punctual." In this sentence, the clue to the meaning

of "punctual" is its opposite: "late."

4’ Read this sentence: The family needed to economize, but try as they would they just couldn't save money The word "save" in this sentence means the same thing as

"economize." Save is a synonym for economizing Sometimes a synonym, or word that means the same as the new word is a context clue that can help you figure out the meaning of a new word

Moreover, context clues are words or phrases that help students figure out the meaning of unknown words they encounter while reading Many new words are learned this way in all types of texts We have to draw upon what we already know

to determine what another word means The ability to use context clues helps students enhance their vocabularies and improves their comprehension, one of the main goals

of reading There some activities to help students guess the meaning from context

- Read a section of a textbook, novel or short magazine article aloud to the class Choose a couple of paragraphs that have words that your students probably do not encounter every day

- Choose two or three words as the targeted vocabulary words Ask students to concentrate on these words while you read the selection again

- Look for definitions or restatements in the sentences preceding and following the targeted word These can usually be found in textbooks, which often state a technical term, then follow with an explanation for example

- Point out synonyms located near the targeted word For example, read the following sentences: "The man was bewildered by his son's actions He could not understand why the boy was acting like this." The phrase, "could not understand," is a synonym for the vocabulary word, "bewildered."

- Tell students to use other clues in the texts for clues Encourage beginning readers

to look at pictures in the book, which often depict the action being expressed by the vocabulary word Remind older students to look at prefixes and suffixes of unknown words Just knowing that the prefix "un-" means "not" can help them determine what the word is conveying even if they do not know the precise definition

Margo Dill (20011) gave some activities on context clues for Middle School Many standardized tests for middle school students include questions that require the use of context clues to define words Once you have taught students how to look for context clues while reading, they will need to practice this skill throughout the school year You can use games and activities with vocabulary words from novels, science textbooks or history books

Context Clue Game One way to teach middle school students context clue

skills is to turn the lesson into a game Write a list of 10 to 15 vocabulary words on the chalkboard along with page numbers where the words appear in novels or textbooks Students must define the word correctly in the context used in the text and without using a dictionary, thesaurus or other tools Students can work on their own

or in teams, depending on your preference For each correct definition, students receive one point The students or teams with the most points go on to a bonus round For the bonus round, write a word on the board with a page number The first student

or team to find it in the text and define it correctly is the winner

2.1.3 Types of Context Clues:

There are several different types of context clues I only mention these five common types of context clues Think about what information in the sentence is useful and what is not Working with your partner, see if you can come up with different examples for at least two of the types

Definition–the word is defined directly and clearly in the sentence in which it

appears Clues to definition include “that is,” commas, dashes, and parentheses

Examples:

1 His emaciation, that is, his skeleton-like appearance, was frightening to see

“Skeleton-like appearance” is the definition of “emaciation.”

2 Fluoroscopy, examination with a fluoroscope, has become a common practice The commas before and after “examination with a fluoroscope” point out the definition of “fluoroscopy.”

3 The dudeen – a short-stemmed clay pipe – is found in Irish folk tales

The dashes setting off “a short-stemmed clay pipe” point out the definition of

“dudeen.”

Antonym (or contrast)–often signaled by the words

Antonyms are words with opposite meanings An opposite meaning context clue contrasts the meaning of an unfamiliar word with the meaning of a familiar term

Words like “although,” “however,” whereas,unlike, orasopposed to and “but” may

signal contrast clues

Examples:

1 When the light brightens, the pupils of the eyes contract; however, when it grows darker, they dilate

“Dilate” means the opposite of “contract.”

2 The children were as different as day and night He was a lively conversationalist, but she was reserved and taciturn

“Taciturn” means the opposite of a “lively conversationalist.”

Synonym (or restatement)–other words are used in the sentence with similar

meanings

1 Flooded with spotlights – the focus of all attention – the new Miss America began her year-long reign She was the cynosure of all eyes for the rest of the evening

“Cynosure” means “the focus of all attention.”

2 The mountain pass was a tortuous road, winding and twisting like a snake around the trees of the mountainside

“Tortuous” means “winding and twisting.”

EXAMPLE CLUES

Sometimes when a reader finds a new word, an example might be found nearby that helps to explain its meaning Words like including, such as, and for example, point out example clues

Examples:

1 Piscatorial creatures, such as flounder, salmon, and trout, live in the coldest parts of the ocean

“Piscatorial” obviously refers to fish

2 Celestial bodies, including the sun, moon, and stars, have fascinated man through the centuries

“Celestial” objects are those in the sky or heavens

Inference–word meanings are not directly described but need to be inferred fromthe

context

Example:

She told her friend, “I’m through with blind dates forever What a dull evening! I was bored every minute The conversation was absolutely vapid.”

1 “Vapid” means “uninteresting.”

2 “Walt’s pugnacious behavior made his opponent back down.”

3 “The man gigged the large fish, but he needed his friend to enlarge the hole to drag

it out of the frigid water.”

Types of

Context Clues

What To Look For Signal Words

Examples of Signal Sentences

Definition A definition in

the Is, are, is called,

Brick made of

sun-dried clay is called

Signal punctuation: Set The Native Americans

used adobe, or

off by commas bricks made of

sun-dried clay, to build their homes

Also, as, like, The Zuni built their

homes with brick

same, similarly, made of sun-dried

clay The Hopi also

Synonym A word with a

meaning that is

similar to the too used adobe to build

their homes

meaning of the unknown word

Antonym

A word or phrase But, however, in

The Hopi lived in single-family houses,

that means the contrast, on the but the Iroquois lived

The Pueblo people

grew many crops

in a list example, for such as corn, beans,

and squash

instance, like, including

Interfere

word meanings are not directly described

“Walt’s pugnacious behavior made his opponent back down.”

Some Games:

There are a lot of games but in this study, I just to mention a few typical games that help students memorize words more easily in their lessons

Clap the board

The goal is to help students review words and remember words This game can also help teachers check and moderate pronunciation and the meaning of words for students and match the periods with many words and words with many abstract meanings In addition, it is easy to implement in most teaching periods to create an exciting and exciting class atmosphere

Matching:

- The purpose of helping students revise from combining new words with definitions,

semantics or through pictures to save time in word teaching

- Depending on the purpose of each word, teachers can design activities accordingly

It can be a combination of words with definitions in terms of abstract words or a combination of words with Vietnamese meanings for a word with an unexplainable word, or a picture when the words need to be intuitive but it is difficult to substitute

Networks

- The purpose of this game is to help students revise the vocabulary system according

to the topic learned

- The teacher writes the topic on the board

- Students work individually or in pairs, the group finds information about the given topic

Chain game

The purpose of this game is to train students' memory, giving students concentration when they work to help them remember words longer In addition, students have the opportunity to speak and pronounce clearly the words they have learned

- Divide the class into groups; The first student in the group repeats the teacher's sentence

- The second student repeats the sentence from the first student and adds another word

- The third student repeats the sentence of the first and second students and adds another new word and so on until he returns to the first student in the group

Synonym and antonym

The purpose of this game is to help students review vocabulary, this activity also helps students expand vocabulary and memorize words faster

- Teachers can give words asking students to find antonyms or synonyms

- Students work in pairs, groups to find words

2.2 REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES

The study consults research finding of several authors concerning vocabulary enrichment in the Vietnamese context, some of which can be named as Ngan‐ha (2007) as quoted by Zuraina Ali et al (2011) etc which context clue strategy is helpful and effective in enhancing students’ lexical items

Ngan‐ha (2007) as quoted by Zuraina Ali et al (2011) surveyed 60 low proficiency secondary school students pertaining to their success rate of guessing as one of the strategies of learning vocabulary The students were grouped according to their proficiency levels; highest, middle, and lowest Results from the vocabulary pre‐test and post‐test showed that there was a difference before and after the students were introduced to lexical inferencing It was reported that all groups except the lowest proficiency level used all the inferencing strategies

Green (2006) conducted a research on “Student attitudes toward

communicative and non-communicative activities: do enjoyment and effectiveness

go together?” In his research, he said that the classroom practices of contemporary

language teachers are based on certain beliefs about the enjoyment and

effectiveness of activities involving communication and the real use of language

CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the methodology of the study which includes a detailed discussion of the locale of the study, research design, population and sampling, research instrumentation, data gathering procedure, and the statistical treatment

3.1 Locale of the study

This study was carried out at Hoanh Bo high school, located at Troi town

in Hoanh Bo district with nearly 60 teachers and about 800 students And it is one of the 70 high schools in Quang Ninh province

3.2 Research Design

This study employed quantitative research design as a major means of research A group of 30 students was exposed to a modern method of teaching vocabulary named “Context clue games” and they were delivered with the pretest to check for their entrance level of vocabulary and a post-test to see if there is any improvement in their vocabulary after teaching context clues strategy In addition, a questionnaire was also delivered to this group of respondents after the treatment period to further investigate their attitudes and evaluation of the strategy used

have less chance to practice English communication than those in other areas Therefore, their English proficiency seems to be low, due to the limited vocabulary Hence, the students’ participation in communicative activities is also limited because majority of them seem be unconfident in their ability when communicating To be more specific, I conducted an experimental teaching with 30 students in 10A1 class using the textbook English 10, the only materials applied in the teaching curriculum for the students in grade 10 at Hoanh Bo High School

3.4 Research Instrumentation

Data collection included two instruments: Tests (pre-test and post-test)

and a survey questionnaire

A set of questionnaire regarding students’ evaluation and attitudes towards strategy (Context Clues Games) I used in the experimental teaching period The instruments for the research include English syllabi designed to teach Units 12, 13, 14 of the textbook English 10 (2006: Education Press) using Context clue games

Most importantly, proficiency tests in English vocabulary were delivered

in the pre-test and post-test given to the students before conducting the students and after the experimental period respectively To be more specific, the tests consisted of 40 different items testing knowledge and use of vocabulary learned

in the units 12, 13 and 14 with the maximum score of 10 and each item gets 0,25 mark

In Viet Nam's education, marks from 1 to 10 are often given to evaluate students' results Here is a specific table:

9-10 Excellent HA: Highly

Acceptable

In addition, a questionnaire asking for students’ attitude and evaluation towards the experimental learning period using Context Clues Games was delivered to seek further pieces of evidence on the effectiveness of the strategy used The attitude and evaluation were described using Likert’s Scale with a range from 1 to 4 in which number 1 showed the lowest (strongly disagree) and

4 is the highest (strongly agree) Specific labels can be seen in the following legend:

1 In order to carry out the research, I primarily asked for permission

from authorities concerned, that is, from the Headmaster of Hoanh Bo high school to conduct the investigation and to administer the research instrument to the subject

2 For the purpose of the study, I designed 7 lesson plans for units 12, 13 and 14 of the grade 10- course book using different types of Context clues games

in teaching all lessons

3 An achievement test was constructed, validated by the two advisers and then piloted to twenty students from the population who did not belong to class 10A1 to test for the validity and reliability of the test

4 Then the test items were analyzed Based on the item analysis conducted, item numbers 1, 10, 12, 21, and 28 were revised and distractors were replaced because they made the items very easy or very difficult Items number

6, 12, and 15 were replaced because they were rejected based on the item analysis because more students in the lower group had answered those items than the students in the upper group

5 I conducted lessons using Context Clues Strategy once or twice a week, having 45 - minute session for each meeting which lasted for 8 weeks (from 25th February to 30th April, 2019) inclusive of the administration of the pre-test before conducting the lessons and post-test after their accomplishment

6 A set of the questionnaire regarding students’ attitude and evaluation

of the experimental learning period being exposed to Context Clues Games was developed, validated by her advisers, and delivered to all 30 students after the treatment period finished Results of the questionnaires were described using Likert’s scale

After doing the action, I continued to the step namely reflection

In this step the researcher reflects how the teaching and learning process runs The function of reflection is to know the weaknesses and the strengths of the action The researcher made an evaluation from the results of the survey questionnaire and also from Test during the teaching and learning process

In this case, after the experimental teaching period, data analysis and interpretation, I summarized the results and gave some suggestions regarding the use of context clues games in teaching vocabulary The results and feedbacks were possitive, I would then recommend the use of this technique to

my colleagues at Quang Ninh province

7 Scores of the tests were sorted out and tabulated for the statistical computations on the basis of the problems in the study

8 Revise: Based upon the results and suggestions gathered, the author intends to further develop appropriate plans regarding the strategy used

CHAPTER 4 PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS, AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

This chapter presents the interpretation, analysis, and interpretation of the data gathered through research instrumentation used in this study

Data are presented in tabula form and order of presentation is in accordance with the sequence of the problem in this study

The researcher also examined other studies and literature to obtain meaningful discussion in analysis an interpretation of data Data are presented analyzed and interpreted in order to answer the question in chapter 1

4.1 The effectiveness of Context Clues on students’ vocabulary

4.1.1 Results of the pre-test scores

In order to seek for the answer of the research question of “To what extent does the use of Context Clues enhance students’ vocabulary?”, the researcher carried out experimental teaching of 7 lessons using context clues as to the main strategy in teaching vocabulary for grade 10 students at Hoanh Bo high school Before the experiment, students took a pre-test of vocabulary while after the treatment period, they sat in a post-test exam of vocabulary

As mentioned in previous parts, the students’ scores were categorized into four levels ranging from Not Acceptable to Highly Acceptable To be more specific, not acceptable is the score between (0 and under 5), which reflects the students’ limited mastery in English vocabularies taught in class Next, fairly acceptable (5 to under 7) shows that students can master English vocabularies at basic level And finally, the students with acceptable and highly acceptable scores are evaluated with the mastery

of vocabulary at immediate and advanced levels

According to the above result of table 1b, it is apparent that a majority of the respondents (70%) got the marks ranging from not acceptable to a fairly acceptable level in the pre-test of vocabulary Meanwhile, the number of students who achieved Acceptable and Highly Acceptable (from mark 7 to 10) accounted for more than one-fourth of the students (or 30%)

Besides, the author and her colleagues also reviewed the students’ tasks to analyze their mistakes in using English vocabularies taught in the class It is shown that most of grade 10th students made mistakes in the first exercise which revealed that a large number of them had difficulties in distinguishing how to use the vocabulary which may be resulted from their poor vocabulary and limited knowledge

of lexical resources

Here is the result of the pre-test scores of students before the teaching experiment

Table 1a The result of the pre-test scores of students

Student number Pre-test score

Table 1b The Results of the pre-test scores

Class Number of students

30

Grading level

NA (0 - < 5)

FA (5 – < 7)

A (7 –8)

HA (8.5 – 10)

4.1.2 Results of the post-test scores

Similarly, the post-test was delivered to the respondents after the experimental teaching using Context Clues The marks were also categorized in four levels, ranging from bad to excellent

It is obvious that after the experimental learning with Context Clue Games, the results of vocabulary tests of class 10A1 students had significant changes In specific, the number of students who got bad and average points decreased to less than one -fourth of total respondents It also means that most of the respondents (77%) achieved the level of Good and Excellent in the post-test Especially, the number of students having excellent marks (8.5– 10) in the post-test accounted for 20% of the total respondents, compared to only 3.3% in the pre-test The results of post-test are presented in the following table:

Table 2a The results of the post-test scores

Student number Post-test score

Table 2b The results of the post-test scores

Class Number of students

30

Grading level

NA (0 - < 5)

FA (5 – < 7)

A (7 – 8)

HA (8.5– 10)

4.1.3 The difference between pre-test and post-test scores

Table 3 and figure 1 shows the distribution of the pre-test and post-test scores

of the Experimental group It is clear from the figure that the scores in the post-test have increased as compared with the scores in the pre-test The highest score which used to be 9 only has equaled but the lowest score which used to be 2 only has increased to 4,5 This indicates that using context clues have enhanced students’ vocabulary

Table 3 The result of pre -test and post -test score of students

Student number Pre-test score Post-test score

Figure 1: Distribution of the pre - test and post - test scores of the Experimental groups

Table 4 shows the comparison of the mean scores of students in the pre-test and the post-test of the experimental group It is evident from the table that the

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Distribution of the pre - test and post - test scores

of the Experimental group

pre -test post -test

computed value of t is equal to 4,19 which is higher than the tabulated t-value which

is equal to 1.67 at 58 degrees of freedom

Hence, with 95% confidence, it can be reported that the mean scores of students in the post-test is much higher than those of the pre-test using context clues strategy in teaching and learning English or there is a significant difference between the mean scores of students in the pre-test and post-test using context clues strategy

at alpha = 0,05 This indicates that students have gained mastery of the subject matter when being exposed to this modern method of teaching English The increased level

of performance of the experimental group in the post-test scores also reveals that the students’ improvements may also be attributed to the innovation applied by the teacher The use of context clues strategy in teaching English not only motivates students in participating in the lessons more actively but it also helps to develop students’ competence in using the vocabulary more effectively

Based on the statistical findings, it can be inferred that using Context Clues Strategy significantly enhances students’ vocabulary learning In other words, Context Clues is effective in helping students master lexical resources

Table 4 T-test Results on the Pre-test and Post-test Scores

Experimental

Group

Mean Scores

Mean Difference

computed

t-t- tabα = 0.05;

df = 58 Remarks Pre-test 5,87

Post-test 7,3

4.2 Students’ attitudes towards the Context Clues Strategy

To answer the second research question regarding students’ attitude towards Context Clues Strategy, the researcher developed a questionnaire consisting of 6 different questions concerning the types of Context Clues used by teachers, students’ perceptions towards the benefits of CCG and their attitudes towards the strategy used during the pilot learning