Using semantic mapping to improve ESP vocabulary retention of students at Thái Nguyên University of technology

DECLARATION ---***--- I, Nguyễn Thị Xuân Thu, hereby certify that this minor thesis entitled USING SEMANTIC MAPPING TO IMPROVE ESP VOCABULARY RETENTION OF STUDENTS AT THÁI NGUYÊN UNIVER

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

AT THÁI NGUYÊN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Sử dụng sơ đồ ngữ nghĩa để cải thiện khả năng ghi nhớ

từ vựng tiếng Anh chuyên ngành của sinh viên trường

Đại học Kĩ thuật Công nghiệp Thái Nguyên

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

AT THÁI NGUYÊN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

Sử dụng sơ đồ ngữ nghĩa để cải thiện khả năng ghi nhớ

từ vựng tiếng Anh chuyên ngành của sinh viên trường

Đại học Kĩ thuật Công nghiệp Thái Nguyên

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

SUPERVISOR: NGÔ HỮU HOÀNG, PhD

Hanoi, 2014

DECLARATION

-*** -

I, Nguyễn Thị Xuân Thu, hereby certify that this minor thesis entitled

USING SEMANTIC MAPPING TO IMPROVE ESP VOCABULARY RETENTION OF STUDENTS

AT THÁI NGUYÊN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

is completely the result of my own word for the Degree of Master at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi and that this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or institution

Signature

Nguyễn Thị Xuân Thu

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis could not have been accomplished without the help, encouragement and support of many people who all deserve my sincerest gratitude and appreciation

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Ngô Hữu Hoàng, for his priceless support, wholehearted guidance and encouragement during the time I conducted this research

I would like to send my thanks to my colleagues who help me a lot in with their experiences during my thesis

My special thanks also go to the students from class K41M at Thainguyen University of Technology for their willingness to join my treatment, taking part in the tests and answering my questionnaire Without their help, this study could not

be finished

Finally, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my beloved family – my mother,

my husband, my children, whose support and encouragement helped me a lot to overcome all problems to complete this thesis

Nguyễn Thị Xuân Thu

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted as an action research in which semantic mapping was applied as a technique in learning English for specific purposes (ESP) vocabulary The study aimed at evaluating the improvement of students’ vocabulary retention with the help of semantic mapping and collecting students’ attitudes towards this technique, and their own suggestions for a better future teaching and learning program For the accomplishments of these purposes, 22 students in one class at Thái Nguyên University of Technology in Vietnam were involved in the study The data instruments included a semi-structured group interview, Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) tests considered as two progress tests and a final test, and a questionnaire Through the semi-structured group interview, the results revealed that among many obstacles students encountered in their vocabulary learning, lack

of remembering techniques was the biggest problem Realizing the specific problem, the researcher made a plan in the intervention phase Semantic mapping was applied in the whole course whenever necessary After four weeks of treatment, the checking and evaluation were conducted through a VKS test The first progress test did not show a good result as mean score was only 2.74 However, the result from the second progress test was much better The final test also revealed a good result The data analysis and evaluation helped to prove the effectiveness of using semantic mapping in both short-term and long-term vocabulary retention A questionnaire was also used to investigate students’ attitudes and suggestions Their positive attitudes towards semantic mapping and their suggestions showed that semantic mapping could be applied in a bigger scale On this basis, the study gave some recommendation and future research

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

FIGURES Page

Figure 1: A sample semantic map 8

Figure 2: The data collection procedures 15

Figure 3: Individuals’ result from progress test 1 20

Figure 4: Percentage of the whole class’s scores in the progress test 1 21

Figure 5: The whole class’s performance in progress test 1 and progress test 2 22

Figure 6: Percentage of each score in progress test 1, 2 and final test 27

Figure 7: The whole class’s performance in the progress test 1, 2, and final test 27

Figure 8: Importance of semantic mapping 30

Figure 9: Effectiveness of semantic mapping 30

Figure 10: Pleasure when using semantic mapping 31

TABLES

Table 1: Result from group interview 18

Table 2: Mean score gained by the whole class in the progress test 1 20

Table 3: Result of the whole class in the progress test 1 and progress test 2 22

Table 4: Mean scores gained by individuals in progress test 1 and progress test 2 24

Table 5: Result from progress test 1 and 2 25

Table 6: Result from progress test 2 and final test 25

Table 7: The whole class’s results from the two progress tests and the final test 26

Table 8: Mean scores gained by individuals in progress test 1, 2 and final test 28

Table 9: Students’ suggestions about vocabulary learning 30

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Declaration i

Acknowledgement ii

Abstract iii

List of tables and figures iv

Table of Contents v

Part A: Introduction 1

1 Rationale for the study 1

2 Objectives and research questions of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Significance of the study 2

5 Methods of the study 3

6 Design of the study 3

Part B: Development 5

Chapter 1: Literature review 5

1.1 The importance of vocabulary in second language learning 5

1.2 ESP vocabulary 5

1.3 Semantic mapping as a strategy to improve vocabulary retention 6

1.3.1 Definition 6

1.3.2 Procedures to construct a semantic map 7

1.3.3 Advantages of semantic mapping in teaching vocabulary 8

1.4 Previous related studies about semantic mapping in teaching vocabulary 8

Chapter 2: Research methodology 10

2.1 The background of the study 10

2.1.1 The study setting 10

2.1.2 Participants 10

2.1.3 Materials 10

2.1.4 Features of mechanical engineering English 11

2.2 Implementation of the action research 11

2.3 Data collection instruments 12

2.3.1 Interview 12

2.3.2 Vocabulary Knowledge Scale tests 13

2.3.3 Questionnaire 14

2.4 Data collection procedures 15

2.5 Data analysis method 17

Chapter 3: The study 18

3.1 Result from the interview 18

3.2 Results from the tests 19

3.2.1 Results from the first progress test 19

3.2.2 Results from the second progress test 21

3.2.3 Result from the final test 25

3.3 Results from the questionnaire 29

3.3.1 Students’ attitudes towards semantic mapping 29

3.3.2 Students’ suggestions 32

Part C: Conclusion 34

1.Conclusion remarks 34

2.Limitations of the study 35

3.Recommendations and suggestions for further study 35

REFERENCES 37 APPENDICES I

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale for the study

During the recent years English for specific purposes (ESP) has become an important subject in most vocational institutes At Thái Nguyên University of Technology (TNUT), ESP courses are also delivered to students to fulfill their needs of studying English materials relevant to their majors including mechanical, electrical, electronic, civil and environmental engineering

English language involves four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing In order to master those skills, vocabulary plays the vital role No one can deny the important part of vocabulary in language acquisition, especially in English, either for general purposes or for specific purposes Its significance is emphasized

by Wilkins (1972): “without grammar, very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed” Vocabulary is also considered the key element of ESP according to Robinson (1991) Therefore, one of the most concerns about ESP teaching at our university is how to help students learn vocabulary better and improve their vocabulary intention However, being a teacher of English, the researcher has recognized some problems after students finish their ESP course

The most common problem is that they usually forget what they have learnt, especially vocabulary That means their vocabulary retention is not good enough and most students still waste a lot of time looking up the meaning of terminologies even though they were delivered during the course Lacks of vocabulary leads to many difficulties in dealing with their majors because students are required to read many English materials to look for further knowledge The motivation for me to carry out this study is helping students address their problem in vocabulary retention Semantic mapping is chosen as a new method in teaching ESP vocabulary How it improves my students’ learning and vocabulary retention is what I want to find out after the study is finished All the above-mentioned reasons

inspired me to conduct an action research titled “Using semantic mapping to

improve ESP vocabulary retention of students at Thái Nguyên University of Technology”

2 Objectives and research questions of the study

The objectives of the study are to explore the impact of semantic mapping in improving students’ ESP vocabulary retention; and to find out the attitude of students towards semantic mapping as a vocabulary learning technique To achieve those objectives, the study needs to answer two research questions:

1 Does semantic mapping help students improve their ESP vocabulary retention?

2 What are the students’ attitudes towards semantic mapping and their suggestions of semantic mapping as a vocabulary learning technique?

3 Scope of the study

The study firstly aims at finding out the influences of semantic mapping on improving students’ ESP vocabulary learning as well as their vocabulary retention Students’ perception of semantic mapping is measured by questionnaire responses and progress tests are used to clarify its impact on their vocabulary retention Secondly, this study is an action research project in a small scale since its first and foremost purpose is to improve the researcher’s teaching The study is conducted with 22 third year students majored in mechanical engineering who are students in

the researcher’s class Finally, the material used in this study is Oxford English for

Electrical and Mechanical engineering course book compiled by Eric

H.Glendinning and Norman Glendinning

4 Significance of the study

Although semantic mapping is not a new approach in English teaching and learning, little has been researched on ESP vocabulary learning The findings of this study may shed more light on the possibility of employing semantic mapping in

teaching ESP at TNUT That was drawn from the students’ perceived benefits from this vocabulary learning technique and their improvement in vocabulary retention What the researcher finds out has great impact on her teaching and it is expected that this study will overcome the difficulties of students’ in memorizing their ESP vocabulary and it can help the students be interested in learning vocabulary The study can be used a reference not only for teachers at TNUT but for those in other universities as well

5 Methods of the study

This study is actually an action research project Its data collection instrument includes a semi-structured interview, two progress tests and a final test in the format

of Vocabulary knowledge scale tests Additionally, a questionnaire for the students

is employed The interview helps the researcher identify the problem of her students The progress tests and final test are regarding to the first question about effects of the treatment on students’ ESP vocabulary retention and the questionnaire is regarding

to the second question about students’ attitudes and suggestions in learning ESP vocabulary through semantic mapping

6 Design of the study

The thesis is composed of three parts:

- Part A – Introduction – covers the rationale, the aims and objectives, the scope, the research question, the significance, the methods, the design of the study

- Part B – Development – consists of three chapters Chapter 1 provides the literature review for the study Chapter 2 covers the information about the context in which the study is conducted, the participants, the research methods, the research procedures including the treatment, methods of data collection and analysis And the last chapter deals with the study’s findings and discussions

- Part C – Conclusion – summarizes the major findings with reference to the research questions mentioned in Part A This part includes the limitations of the study and

provides some recommendations and suggestions for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 The importance of vocabulary in second language learning

It can be seen that the acquisition of vocabulary is a fundamental and important component for most second language (L2) learners in their learning as Mc Carthy (1990) stated:

“It is the experience of most language teachers that the single, biggest component

of any language course is vocabulary No matter how well the student learns

grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words

to express a wide range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen

in any meaningful way.”

Schmitt (2010) shared the same opinion: “Language vocabulary is essential part of mastering a second language”

A good mastery of vocabulary is essential for learners, especially for those

who learn English for specific purposes (ESP) “It is to direct vocabulary learning

to more specialized areas when learners have mastered the 2000-3000 words of general usefulness in English” (Nation, 2001: 87) The mastery of vocabulary can support them when they read technical documents or translate into their mother tongue

All the above quotations highly appreciate the important role of vocabulary

in language learning, especially in second language learning

1.2 ESP vocabulary

English for specific purposes (ESP) has been defined by many writers and researchers Mackay and Mountford (1978) indicated that the term ESP is generally used to refer to the teaching of English for a clear utilitarian purpose El-Minyawi (1984) pinpointed that ESP courses are based solidly upon the need to express the facts and ideas of some special subjects after which the student should

be able to read the specialized subjects confidently and speak about them fluently Hutchinson and Waters (1987) defined it as an approach to language teaching in

which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learner’s reason for learning, they added also that the term ESP implies that, it is English which is somehow peculiar to the range of principles and procedures which define that

particular profession

It is necessary to distinguish two types of ESP vocabulary:

- Technical vocabulary means lexis which is only used in the specialism

- Sub-technical vocabulary means general lexis that has a higher frequency in

the specialism, sometimes with a specific or changed meaning

Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) also suggested two broad areas:

- Vocabulary that is used in general language but has a higher frequency of

occurrence in a specific and technical description and discussion

- Vocabulary that has specialized and restricted meanings in certain disciplines

and which may vary in meaning across disciplines

It can be seen clearly that the first area would be referred to semi-technical and the second would be regarded as technical vocabulary For such characteristics, ESP vocabulary is not easy for learners to remember and recall Vocabulary can cause many difficulties for students in understanding of technical texts As English words often have more than one meaning, students would feel confused if they find some general words in a technical text but they do

not understand their meanings “Examples of such words are cycle (cf its use in the

carbon cycle or a cycle of electricity), conductor (in electricity), and resistance (in

an electrical circuit)”, according to Kennedy and Bolitho (1984:58))

1.3 Semantic mapping as a strategy to improve vocabulary retention

1.3.1 Definition

According to Baleghizadeh and Naeim (2011), “semantic mapping falls under the general category of graphic organizers and is used in different subjects areas in order to help learners understand the relationships and form concepts about broader topics” The basis of semantic mapping is the relationship among its

elements (here, the words) Once this relationship is established, the learners will remember them more easily

Semantic mapping is an approach that can be used to exhibit the associations between ideas In vocabulary explicitly teaching, it can be used as a tool for students to discover the relationships between vocabulary words As semantic mapping builds on prior knowledge, and is an active form of learning, it can be a very effective teaching tool Semantic mapping strategy has been considered a highly regarded form of elaborative learning (Novak 2005; Nesbitt and Adescope 2006) which encourages a deeper learning process for better memory formation

1.3.2 Procedures to construct a semantic map

Semantic mapping involves a graphic display, or in other words, it refers to making an arrangement of words into pictures, which has a key concept linked with related words by means of lines or arrows First, students are presented with a concept that is central to understanding a selection or a subject Then they brainstorm or freely associate words that are related to that concept As students brainstorm, the teacher writes their suggestions on the board, adding words they need to learn

The framework of semantic mapping includes: the concept word and category examples This is a very interactive process and should be modeled by the teacher first The steps involved in semantic mapping (cited in Phạm, 2012) are: introduction of the topic, brainstorming activities, presentation of target words, categorization, personalization, review of target words Following is an example of

a semantic map:

Figure 1: A sample semantic map (Duffy)

1.3.3 Advantages of semantic mapping in teaching vocabulary

Duffy (2009) stated that semantic mapping is one way to explain how to categorize word meanings It remains essential to identify key attributes distinguishing one word from another But semantic maps provide the additional benefit of helping students visualize how word meanings can be categorized

The major purpose of the semantic map is to allow students to organize their prior knowledge into these formal relations and thus to provide themselves a basis for understanding what they are about to read and study Comprehension can be thought of as the elaboration and refinement of prior knowledge What the semantic map provides is a graphic structure of that knowledge to be used as the basis for organizing new ideas as they are understood

Semantic mapping is a good vehicle for students to share their work with the class, thus becoming the teachers themselves Teaching a concept to others will increase student retention of information greatly By discussing them as well as writing them down, teachers are catering to different learning styles, and ensuring that all students are increasing their knowledge of vocabulary

1.4 Previous related studies about semantic mapping in teaching vocabulary

Semantic mapping has appeared in many studies, which means that it receives much attention for its advantages Some of recent studies are summarized as follows:

Baleghizadeh and Naeim conducted a study entitled Enhancing Vocabulary

Retention through Semantic mapping in 2011 In their paper, semantic mapping is

introduced as a vocabulary presentation technique, which is believed to help learners remember words better as they study, using semantic mapping Its results confirm that semantic mapping fosters vocabulary retention

The findings of the study entitled The effect of teaching vocabulary through

semantic mapping on EFL learners’ awareness of vocabulary knowledge at AL Imam Mohammed Ibin Saud Islamic University by Abdelrahman in 2013 revealed

that semantic mapping can be used as an efficient methodology for teaching vocabulary, a technique which is effective for EFL learners

A similar conclusion is drawn from the study The use of semantic mapping to

improve students’ vocabulary of Sianturi, Suhartono and Bunau from University

Potianak Being conducted in the school year of 2012-2013, it showed that semantic mapping is used effectively in teaching vocabulary and helps students in improving their vocabulary

In Vietnam, there is a minor thesis entitled “Using semantic mapping to

teach ESP vocabulary to final-year students of Finance and Accounting at Hanoi Tourism College” by Phạm Thị Hạnh The study aimed at exploring the teaching

ESP vocabulary through semantic mapping with reference to attitudes to, and opinions of, this instructional strategy as well as vocabulary retention It was conducted with 38 final-year students of finance and accounting at Hanoi tourism college Major findings of this study revealed that semantic mapping fosters vocabulary retention to some extent and students seemed to value this technique

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2.1 The background of the study

2.1.1 The study setting

The study was conducted at Thái Nguyên Universtity of Technology (TNUT)

in Thái Nguyên City, Vietnam The English courses at TNUT includes General English (GE) for the first and second year students and English for specific purposes (ESP) for third year students who are majored in specific technical fields Students are obligatory to finish GE courses before attending ESP course

English for mechanical engineering is one of ESP courses at TNUT It is designed for mechanical students This course provides some basic knowledge about mechanical engineering through technical texts and focuses mainly on reading and writing skills Thus vocabulary plays an important role in helping the students fulfill the demand of the course

2.1.2 Participants

The subjects of this study were twenty-two students aging from twenty to twenty three, twenty boys and two girls They all finish GE courses and most of

them are third year students

The researcher in this study was also the teacher of this class, who has been working as an English lecturer at TNUT for six years so far In this action research, she was the practitioner and the researcher at the same time She was responsible for the design and implementation of the semantic mapping in teaching ESP vocabulary, and later collecting and analyzing the data

2.1.3 Materials

All the vocabulary being taught in this course was taken from the book titled:

“Oxford English for Electrical and Mechanical Engineering” by Eric H

Glendinning and Norman Glendinning (Oxford University Press) Each unit in the

book usually includes Tuning –in, Reading, Language Study, Writing, Technical

Reading Vocabulary part was not a separated part from others It can be taught whenever necessary However, because each unit covers a specific topic, vocabulary therefore can be divided into specific groups according to the content of the unit

2.1.4 Features of mechanical engineering English (MEE)

MEE, a branch of ESP, of course, has its own features which differ from GE

In this study, the researcher only mentions about English vocabulary used for mechanical engineering According to Chen Chao and Fang Li, MEE vocabulary has two distinguished characteristics: there is “continual appearance of professional

or technical vocabulary” which are pure in meaning, narrow in application and usually limited to a specific condition such as “mechanotron” or “tribology”; and

“wide use of semi-technical words” Semi-technical words refer to those used both

in GE and MEE, which contribute to obstacles that students encounter when learning ESP vocabulary since their meanings depend on the context

For example, “die” means not alive in GE but it means

“a shaped block of metal or other hard material used to cut or form metal in adrop forge, press, or similar device/ a tool of metal, silicon carbide, or other hard material with a conical holethrough which wires, rods, or tubes are drawn to reduce their diameter/tool for cutting external threads/ a casting mould giving accurate dimensions and a good surface to the object cast” in MME To find the suitable meaning of such words is not always easy for students, especially when they do not have a good memory retention

2.2 Implementation of the Action Research

There are some reasons for the implementation of this action research project

Firstly, action research is situational, which means specific solutions can be given to specific problems in each context In this study, the researcher (also the

teacher) recognizes that her students have troubles in remembering ESP vocabulary

so she decides to find the solution to improve the situation The advantages here include time, students’ natural performance, direct treatment and observation

Secondly, it is a good chance for researcher to evaluate the treatment to find out the rising problem and give timely decision for changing In this study, the treatment is carried out twice, as the results from the first progress test is not very good as expected The researcher after analyzing the data decides to do the treatment in another phase to collect data, which leads to better results

Despite the advantages, the study still had some limitations The treatment may work well in one class but may not be applied to other classes in different contexts If the same study is carried out in another class, the results obtained may not be as effective as expected Briefly, action research lacks generalization

2.3 Data collection instruments

This study used an interview, three tests in the format of VKS tests which served as two progress tests, a final test, and a questionnaire to collect data

2.3.1 Interview

Semi -structured interviews are in-depth interviews A semi-structured interview will involve many open-ended questions, although they may also contain some closed questions A semi- structured interview was also chosen because it was considered a feasible way to identify the problem in conducting an action research like this

The semi- structured interview was carried out within the group As Michael J Wallace stated in his book “Action Research for Language Teacher” (1998) that

“most interviews are one- to- one, but it is also possible to have an “interview” with a group, which could take the form of a kind of structured discussion” In this research, semi-structured interview is chosen as it appears as a small free-talk between teacher and students in a comfortable and friendly environment

The interview at the first week of the course included two sets of questions: closed and open-ended questions The open-ended one was “How often do you learn vocabulary at home?”, “How do you learn vocabulary to remember them?” and the closed one was “Do you often have difficulties in learning ESP vocabulary? If yes, what are they?” Apart from these questions, a series of other small questions were included according to the content of students’ answers to collect the exact information

2.3.2 Vocabulary Knowledge Scale tests

During the recent years, the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) of Wesche

& Paribakht (1996) has gained significant popularity in second language vocabulary assessment and is being used in a variety of studies (Waring, 2002, cited from Nemalt, 2009) This VKS aims at checking students’ understanding of vocabulary that they learned It is a 5-point self-report scale that allows students self-report the knowledge of a word like this:

1 I don’t remember having seen this word before

2 I have seen this word before but I don’t know what it means

3 I have seen this word before and I think it means…………

4 I know this word; it means …

5 I can use this word in a sentence, e.g………

In this thesis, VKS was used as the form of the two progress tests and the final test These tests were employed to measure the effectiveness of applying semantic mapping in learning vocabulary

Progress test 1 and 2 were used to measure the short-term improvement of the students Immediately after finishing four weeks of treatment, progress test 1 was administered The test was in the format of a VKS test which aimed at measuring how well students know the word This VKS test included 50 words taken intentionally from the topics which students already learned Progress test 2

was delivered at the final week of the course, which also include 50 words from the topics in the course book

Final test was delivered two weeks after the course This is also a VKS test, including 25 words from progress test 1 and 25 words from progress test 2 This test

is also called a delayed test, “Results from this delayed recall after two weeks is normally referred to long-term retention” according to Yongqi (2003, cited in Nemalt, 2009)

2.3.3 Questionnaire

Questionnaire was also another instrument for collecting data in this study

In the words of Brown (2000, cited in Dörnyei (2003)), questionnaires are “any

written instruments that present respondents with a series of questions or statements

to which they are to react either by writing out their answers of selecting from among existing answers”

The questionnaire in this study was used in order to investigate students’ attitudes towards the application of semantic mapping in learning ESP vocabulary

It was delivered to the students immediately after they finish the final test There were two main parts in the questionnaire, namely: (1) the students’ attitudes towards semantic mapping in vocabulary learning, and (2) the students’ suggestions about the application of semantic mapping in the future

In the first part, students were expected to complete three questions to express their attitudes in terms of the importance, the effectiveness and the pleasure of the treatment These questions were designed under the format of a Likert-scale (see Appendix 5) In second part, the suggestions were given under the form of four statements; the students would share their ideas by ticking in the suitable categories There are five levels of agreements: strongly agree, agree, not sure, disagree and strongly disagree

Based on the information and results collected from the questionnaire, the teacher- researcher had a reliable basis to decide whether to go on applying semantic mapping in the future or not

2.4 Data collection procedure

Here are the basic steps in doing an action search project according to Nunan (2001):

Figure 5: Data collection procedure

Phase 1: This phase is the problem identification step The very first task in

this phase was to investigate the problems that students often encounter when they

deal with vocabulary To fulfill this task, a semi- structured group interview was carried out

In order to create a comfortable atmosphere in the classroom, the group interview was delivered at the beginning of the second session in week 1 Together with the two main questions to keep students on the right track, follow- up questions and some prompts were provided in order to orientate the interviewees and prevent them from presenting irrelevant information Students had a chance to discuss and share their own problems, and teacher took time to ask detailed questions and take notes It took about 30 minutes for the group interview to be completed

Phase 2: After the results from this interview were analyzed, the study came

to phase 2 – intervention From week 2 to week 6, the researcher planned and conducted the treatment in which the students were introduced and explained about semantic mapping during their lessons Before learning a new topic, students were asked to brainstorm about words relevant to the topic The teacher then summarized and constructed a sample semantic map for the topic After the lesson, students would have to revise all the new words given in the lesson in their own ways by using semantic mapping In the review session, the teacher then called some of her students to stand up and describe how they had learnt the required word This kind

of checking was also used as one good way to help asserting the result of the research Sample semantic maps used in the treatment could be seen in Appendix 1 After four weeks, the first progress test was delivered to check student’s short-term memory This test included 50 words from unit 1 to unit 5 in the course book (Appendix 2)

Phase 3: After collecting data from progress test 1, the teacher brought the

study to phase 3 From week 7 to week 12, the procedure was the same with phase

2 The progress test 2 was administered at the final week of the course The test consisted of 50 words from unit 6 to unit 11 in the course book (Appendix 3) This

test also aimed at checking short-term retention of the students after the same amount of treatment time with phase 2

Phase 4: The final test was delivered two weeks after the course ended The

teacher arranged a class gathering before the examination due date and delivered the final test The final test was the combination of 25 words from progress test 1 and

25 other words from progress test 2 (Appendix 4) The questionnaire on students’ attitudes and suggestions for future usage of semantic mapping was distributed right after they finished the final test (Appendix 5) At this meeting the teacher also answered all the questions of the students about the preparation for the examination The evaluation step of the project is conducted after the collected data are

analyzed After that, the reflection step is shown in the results of the project

2.5 Data analysis methods

Regarding to the first research question, in the VKS progress and final tests, the students would mark the given word from score 1 to score 5 (Appendix 2, 3, 4) Mean scores in each test were then calculated Both the performances of the total class and individuals were then indicated by comparing mean scores between the two progress tests and the final test By this way, the improvement of students’ vocabulary retention in short term and long term could be revealed

For the second research question, the data from questionnaire was independently analyzed according to two different parts The first part included three smaller questions addressing three aspects of attitudes towards semantic mapping, namely the importance, the effectiveness and the pleasure For each question, the researcher then used percentage to illustrate the data and presented them in three different pie-charts In the second part, data was counted, illustrated

by percentages and displayed in a table so that the researcher could make a

conclusion of ideas and opinions perceived by the students

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 3.1 Result from the interview

The researcher during her teaching has realized that students usually have troubles in learning ESP vocabulary To investigate more clearly, a semi-structured interview was conducted at the first week of the course The interview was in Vietnamese to make students easily share their thoughts In this study, all students’ sayings were translated in English

During the interview, students gave out a lot of difficulties they encountered The researcher noted their ideas, summarized and listed four main problems as follows:

students/22 Percentage

Table 1: Result from group interview From the table it can be seen clearly that the biggest problem is the lack of techniques for remembering the words (90.9%) The second considerable obstacle is the lack of knowledge about a word (68.18%) They do not know exactly what they have to learn when learning vocabulary They wonder what else they need to know apart from meaning and pronunciation The third difficulty comes with dictionary utilization (45.45%) 10/22 students showed their confusions when using dictionaries as they do not know how to choose a suitable dictionary or how to find the exact meaning of a word in a specific context as there exists many words with different meanings The last problem deals with insufficient output (36.36%) It is obvious that output is the smallest problem that students encounter because at TNUT students have to read many specialized English books relevant to their major They are encouraged to translate English books into Vietnamese or do

exercises in English Thus, they have many chances to retain vocabulary that they learnt

To get back to the point, the semi-interview revealed the biggest problem that students have when dealing with vocabulary is the lack of techniques to remember Since students need to acquire many terminologies to meet the demand

of the course, it is a good idea to develop a plan for learning new words every day Some said that they were very interested in learning vocabulary but sadly, they did not know how learn They just write the word again and again as many times as they can but after a period of time, they forget it Due to the lack of time, the researcher decided to help them with this biggest problem by introducing semantic mapping as a new technique in learning ESP vocabulary with a view to improving their vocabulary retention Semantic mapping is chosen because the researcher has seen many advantages through the works of many researchers The researcher hopes

it can be of great help to her students

3.2 Results from the tests

In this part, to assess the improvement of students’ vocabulary retention, the researcher would present the result of each test, compare the results between the first progress test and the second one, then compare the final test (the delayed post-test), and finally compare the three tests with each other In each group of comparison, the total group’s results were analyzed first and then some individual’s performance would be described

3.2.1 Result from the first progress test

As stated in the previous chapter, all the tests in this study were under the format of VKS test The first progress test (see Appendix 2) was conducted after four weeks of treatment Fifty words included in this first progress test were taken from their course book They belonged to the lessons that students learned during the first four week of the course How well students know the words was described

in 5 responses ranging from score 1 to score 5 The teacher then counted the number

of each mark for each student The figure was expressed as a percentage and illustrated in the chart below:

Figure: 3: Individual’s result from progress test 1

The mean score of the test was listed in the following table:

The percentage of score of the whole class was illustrated in the bar chart:

Figure 4: Percentage of the whole class’ scores in the progress test 1

From the chart and the table above, it can be seen that most students chose Score 2, 3, 4 in their tests The greatest number was 283 vocabulary items that got Score 2 (I have seen this word before but I don’t know what it means) Next come

to Score 3 with 270 items (I have seen this word before and I think it means…) Score 4 (I know this word, it means ) received a rather good number of items that

is 256 however it was still smaller in comparison with Score 2 Score 5 got the smallest number of items, only 80 After four weeks of treatment, students seemed

to be still weak at retaining the words they learned They saw the words similar but they could not give out the meaning or they could only gave the meaning

uncertainly

3.2.2 Results from the second progress test

3.2.2.1 The whole class’s performance

The difference between the two progress tests are in the following table: