External factors that affect vocabulary learning of grade 10 students at a high school in hanoi

Despite these valuable sources of reference, there is still a lack of insight into external factors affecting students‟ vocabulary learning in the context of Ngoc Hoi high school.. There

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

(Những yếu tố bên ngoài ảnh hưởng đến việc học từ vựng

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Hanoi – 2018

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

(Những yếu tố bên ngoài ảnh hưởng đến việc học từ vựng

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Dr VŨ THỊ THANH NHÃ

Hanoi – 2018

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DECLARATION

I hereby certify that the thesis entitled “External factors that affect vocabulary

learning of grade 10 students at a high school in Hanoi” is my own study in the

fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

Post-Nguyễn Thị Hồng Nhung

Hanoi, 2018

My sincere thanks also go to my dear students at Ngoc Hoi high school for helping

me to collect data for this study and for all their support and encouragement

Finally, I would also like to give my special thanks to my family and friends who have been interminably encouraging and facilitating me to fulfill this thesis

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ABSTRACT

Vocabulary learning is a crucial part of learning a second language There have been a number of researchers studying roles of vocabulary learning, approaches to vocabulary and factors that affect vocabulary teaching and learning Despite these valuable sources of reference, there is still a lack of insight into external factors affecting students‟ vocabulary learning in the context of Ngoc Hoi high school Besides, vocabulary learning of grade 10 students at this school is not very effective

in spite of both teachers‟ and students‟ efforts Therefore, this study was conducted

to find out what external factors have the most and least influences on grade 10 students‟ vocabulary learning, and thus suggest some ways of improving the effectiveness of vocabulary teaching and learning at this high school This thesis is

a survey study Questionnaire was used as the instrument to collect data for this research A Likert Scale questionnaire was developed on the basis of items which refer to external factors affecting students‟ vocabulary learning; and SPSS program was used to analyze the data collected The study revealed that “teachers” is the most influential factor, which is followed by English curriculum, Access to native speakers, Number of exposures to the new words, and Peers There is not enough evidence to prove that Lexical factors have strong influences on students‟ vocabulary learning It is expected that the findings of this study will not only benefit teachers and students at this high school but also evoke further study

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 R ATIONALE FOR THE STUDY 1

2 A IMS OF THE STUDY 2

3 R ESEARCH QUESTIONS 3

4 S COPE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 3

5 O RGANIZATION OF THE THESIS 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1 V OCABULARY IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING 6

1.1 Definitions of vocabulary 6

1.2 The importance of vocabulary in language teaching and learning 7

1.3 Aspects of knowing a word 8

1.4 Types of words and vocabulary learning 10

1.5 Approaches to vocabulary 11

2 F ACTORS AFFECTING VOCABULARY ACQUISITION 13

2.1 Internal factors that affect vocabulary acquisition 13

2.2 External factors that affect vocabulary acquisition 17

3 V OCABULARY TEACHING TECHNIQUES 23

3.1 Deliberately teaching vocabulary 23

3.2 Some vocabulary teaching techniques 24

4 S UMMARY 26

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 27

1 O VERVIEW OF THE METHOD USED IN THE STUDY 27

1.1 D EFINITION OF SURVEY RESEARCH 27

1.2 Rationale for using survey research 27

1.3 Strengths and limitations of survey research 28

2 S UBJECTS 28

3 D ATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS 28

3.1 Preparation 28

3.2 Data collection 29

3.3 Techniques of data analysis 30

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 31

1 Q UESTIONNAIRE RESULTS 31

1.1 General information about the participants of the study 31

1.2 Reliability Statistics 34

1.3 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)\ 41

1.4 Correlation analysis 45

1.5 Regression analysis 45

1.6 Descriptive statistics 48

2 D ISCUSSION 53

PART III: RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION 55

1 S UMMARY OF MAJOR FINDINGS 55

2 P EDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS 57

2.1 Educational administrators 57

2.2 Teachers 57

2.3 Changing students’ learning attitudes 58

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3 L IMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 58

4 R ECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 58

REFERENCES 60

APPENDICES 64

APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE WRITTEN IN ENGLISH 64

APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE WRITTEN IN VIETNAMESE 68

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL English as Foreign Language

KMO Test Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Test

Table 7 Reliability Statistics – Factor T (1st test) 34 Table 8 Item-Total Statistics – Factor T (1st test) 35 Table 9 Item-Total Statistics – Factor T (2nd test) 35 Table 10 Item-Total Statistics – Factor T (2nd test) 35 Table 11 Reliability Statistics – Factor E (1st test) 36 Table 12 Item-Total Statistics – Factor E (1st test) 36 Table 13 Reliability Statistics – Factor E (2nd test) 37 Table 14 Item-Total Statistics – Factor E (2nd test) 37 Table 15 Reliability Statistics – Factor P 37

Table 17 Reliability Statistics – Factor N 38

Table 19 Reliability Statistics – Factor L 39

Table 21 Reliability Statistics – Factor V (1st test) 39 Table 22 Item-Total Statistics – Factor V (1st test) 40

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Table 23 Reliability Statistics – Factor V (2nd test) 40 Table 24 Item-Total Statistics – Factor V (2nd test) 40

Table 26 Results of EFA (independent variables) 42

Table 28 Results of EFA (dependent variables) 44

Table 31 Descriptive statistics – Factor C 48 Table 32 Descriptive statistics – Factor T 49 Table 33 Descriptive statistics – Factor E 50 Table 34 Descriptive statistics – Factor P 51 Table 35 Descriptive statistics – Factor N 51 Table 36 Descriptive statistics – Factor L 52

1 Rationale for the study

Learning vocabulary is a very important part of learning a language The more words you know, the more you will be able to understand what you hear and read; and the better you will be able to say what you want to when speaking or writing In learning a foreign language, vocabulary learning is an important part of the language acquisition It is one element that links the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing all together In order to communicate well in a foreign language, students should acquire an adequate number of words and should know how to use them accurately Wilkins (1983) states that little can be conveyed without grammar but nothing can be conveyed if there is no vocabulary Besides, Folse (2008) also indicates

in an aricle that the level of vocabulary is a key factor for English language learners to improve their second language proficiency It can be said that a low level of vocabulary is a major drawback for second language learners to master the language both in communication and in academic learning Therefore, how to make vocabulary learning effective is always an issue that both second language teachers and learners focus on

In Vietnam, due to the importance of English, much efforts have been made in teaching and learning English at schools and outside schools as well English is one of the core subjects in the National Curriculum set by the government and followed by state primary and secondary schools Moreover, English, together with Maths and Literature, is compulsory in the national examination taken by grade 12 students at the end of the school year Schools, in general and secondary schools, in particular, follow the national curriculum and syllabus Thus, learning English at secondary schools is learning reading, speaking, listening, writing, pronunciation and grammar The acquisition of English as the foreign language is significantly affected by students‟ vocabulary, so vocabulary teaching and learning is always an important part of every

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English lesson no matter what the lesson is reading, speaking, listening or writing Facts have shown that students who have larger vocabulary are often better at these four skills than those with poor vocabulary However, Vietnamese students usually feel bored in vocabulary lessons because they find it difficult to remember the spelling, meaning, and grammatical function of the words

In the case of the high school where the researcher is working, teachers often spend five to seven minutes teaching vocabulary in reading, speaking, listening and writing lessons The time may be shorter or longer, depending on whether the topic of the lesson is familiar to students or not Each teacher has her own way of teaching vocabulary and checking understanding Besides some teachers who always try to use different techniques in vocabulary teaching to attract students‟ interest, the others often teach vocabulary by expliciting the words and their meanings However, a lot of students cannot remember the words and use the words later As a result, if they have a written test several days after the lesson, they cannot do well with questions related to the vocabulary they learn before In another situation, if teachers say something containing the vocabulary taught before, students cannot understand or response to teachers In general, students‟ vocabulary learning is not very effective in spite of both teachers‟ and students‟ efforts

For all the reasons mentioned above, to find out the difficulties in learning vocabulary of grade 10 students at a high school in Hanoi where the researcher is working is necessary Then, the external factors that most affect their vocabulary learning can be identified This will make it possible to give suggestions for the teachers and learners to improve the teaching and learning of vocabulary at that high school

2 Aims of the study

The aims of this study are to find out what external factors affecting vocabulary learning of grade 10 students at a high school in Hanoi and thus suggest some ways of improving the effectiveness of vocabulary teaching and learning

A theoretical framework for the study is focused on the second language vocabulary learning, and factors affecting vocabulary acquisition

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3 Research questions

The study aims at finding out the most influential factors according to the learners and what is the learners‟ need in terms of the materials and the methodology

1 What are external factors affecting vocabulary learning of grade 10 students

at a high school in Hanoi?

2 What can be done to help the learners learn vocabulary better?

4 Scope and significance of the study

This study cannot cover all the aspects of needs analysis and course objectives The study limits itself to the investigation of some external factors affecting vocabulary learning of grade 10 students at a high school in Hanoi where the researcher is working

The results should be interpreted within the high school teaching context The investigation primarily deals with reading in “Tiếng Anh 10” – the old book

Practically, the findings are believed to be beneficial to vocabulary teaching and learning of teachers and students especially grade 10 students at the school

5 Organization of the thesis

This thesis consists of three parts as follows:

PART I, INTRODUCTION, provides general information about the context of the research including theoretical point and personal need to conduct the study

PART II, DEVELOPMENT includes the following chapters:

Chapter 1, LITERATURE REVIEW summarises some theories concerning vocabulary in the second language teaching and learning, and factors affecting vocabulary acquisition

Chapter 2, METHODOLOGY, describes the methodology used in the study including description, data collection instrument, subjects, procedures, and data analysis

Chapter 3, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION presents the data analysis results and then provide the discussion on the results

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PART III, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION, presents a brief summary of major findings, proposes some recommendations arising from the study, states the limitations of the study and offers some suggestions for future research

In addition, the study also includes the sections of REFERENCES which displays the sources of referenced information and APPENDICES which presents the survey questionnaire

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PART II: DEVELOPMENT

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CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Vocabulary in second language learning and teaching

Hornby (1995) defines vocabulary as a list of words with their meanings

Burns (1972) defines vocabulary as the stock of words which is used by a person, class or profession

According to Zimmerman cited in Coady and Huckin (1998) vocabulary is central

to language and of critical importance to the typical language learning

Penny Ur defines vocabulary as “the words we teach in the foreign language However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: a compound of two or three words or multi-word idioms” (Ur, 1996:60) A similar definition from Richards and Platt is that vocabulary is “a set of lexemes, including words, compound words and idioms” (Richards & Platt, 1992: 400)

Benettayeb (2010) finds that vocabulary is the most amounts of words that characterize a given language Without this vocabulary, the learner would be unable to use and comprehend the target language

According to Lessard-Clouston (2013), vocabulary is implied as the words of a language, including single items and phrases or chunks of several words which convey

a particular meaning In other words, vocabulary not only addresses single lexical items – words with specific meaning(s) – but it also includes lexical phrases or chunks With the above definitions, many researchers have established an overview of the notion for vocabulary which is considered to be very important in language acquisition Thus, it is becoming increasingly apparent that teachers must enable

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students to learn and acquire a lexical base in order for them to achieve success in language learning In summary, vocabulary is the certain number of words that a speaker needs to convey his/her message

1.2 The importance of vocabulary in language teaching and learning

Vocabulary learning is considered a crucial part in second language learning Therefore, vocabulary is claimed to be one of the most important components in learning a foreign language According to Wilkins (1972), being able to create sentences with correct grammar is valuable only when one has got adequate vocabulary to express what he/ she wants to say Wilkins also adds that speakers can convey very little without grammar while they can convey nothing without vocabulary That means without vocabulary one can neither express his or her own ideas nor understand others‟ ideas

Schmitt (2000) also agrees that lexical knowledge is crucial in communication and in the second language learning Because of its important role, vocabulary is one

of the areas in L2 acquisition that a lot of researchers have had interest in from the late 1980s (Nation, 1990) There have been some researchers such as Laufer and Nation (1999), Maximo (2000), Read (2000), who all agree that vocabulary acquisition is one

of the most important factors resulting in successful second language use Besides, Rivers and Nunan (1991), also state that if learners want to be successful in second language use, they need to acquire an adequate vocabulary That is because only when learners have an extensive vocabulary can they have comprehensible communication using the structures and functions they have learned before

Richards (1980) and Krashen (1989), as cited in Maximo (2000) state reasons why vocabulary needs to be paid special attention to when a learner studies a foreign language To be more detailed, the researchers state that to master a language, learners need to acquire a large vocabulary In fact, a number of second language learners often bring along dictionaries because they realize that the lack of vocabulary will result in many difficulties studying the language skills

In addition, Nation (2011) supposes that learning vocabulary items plays an integral part in all language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing He also

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describes the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and language use as complementary: vocabulary knowledge enables language use and, language use also leads to an increase in knowledge of vocabulary

It has been proven that vocabulary knowledge has strong impacts on reading comprehension through a foreign language; and the main and the largest obstacle that L2 readers have to overcome is the lack of vocabulary (Huckin, 1995)

From their own research, researchers agree that a lack of vocabulary results in both receptive and productive difficulties for learners Therefore, learning vocabulary

is always a must for all L2 learners even those with high levels of language competence and performance

As stated by Laufer (1986), even when learners have mastered syntax, they still think that their vocabulary is not good enough

In summary, vocabulary learning is considered an important aspect of teaching and learning a foreign language It is also an area that learners are often unsure about and find it hard to tackle Therefore, second language vocabulary acquisition has become an increasingly interesting topic of discussion for researchers, teachers, curriculum designers, theorists, and others involved in second language learning and teaching

1.3 Aspects of knowing a word

Penny Ur (1996) claims that when vocabulary is introduced to learners, what need

to be taught are form-written and spoken; grammar; collocation; aspects of meaning: denotation, connotation, appropriateness, meaning relationships; and word formation According to Nation (1990) and Taylor (1990), knowing a word incorporates a large amount of information It involves not only knowing its spelling, morphology, pronunciation, meaning, or the equivalent of the word in the learner‟s mother tongue but also knowing its collocations, register, polysemy, and even its homonym

There are different ways to define the concept of a word, but three significant aspects which are form, meaning, and use need to be paid attention to

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Nation (2001) clarifies that the form of a word involves its pronunciation (spoken form), spelling (written form), and any word parts that make up this particular item (such as a prefix, root, and suffix)

Also stated by Nation (2001), meaning involves how form and meaning work together In other words, when one thinks of a word, what comes to his/her mind, including the concept, its reference and associations, is called meaning

The use of a word, according to Nation (2001), involves the grammatical functions

of the word or phrase, collocations that normally go with it, and finally any constraints

on its use, in terms of frequency, level, and so forth

Nation (2001, p.27) also declares that there is both a receptive and productive dimension for form, meaning, and use, which is summarized in the table below:

Aspect Component Receptive knowledge Productive knowledge

What items can the concept refer to?

What other words could people use instead of this

What words or types of

In what patterns must people use this word? What words or types of

1.4 Types of words and vocabulary learning

There are 5 types of words and vocabulary learning according to Folse (2008) Type 1: Single words

It is definite that learners need to know a certain number of words According to Schmitt (2000), a second language learner needs about 2,000 words to maintain conversations, 3,000 word families to read authentic texts, and about 10,000 words to comprehend challenging academic texts The largest and mostly used typed of words is single words

Type 2: Set phrases

“Set phrases” refer to phrases which include more than one word, and speakers cannot make a change of any word in these phrases

Type 3: Variable phrases

Unlike set phrases, variable phrases consist of some components that can be changed The variation in variable phrases is often personal pronouns, possessive adjectives, or word order

Type 4: Phrasal verbs

A phrasal verb consists of a main verb and a particle Some common verbs that can form phrasal verbs are put, take, come, call, make, go, and get

Type 5: Idioms

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Each language has its own idiomatic expressions which are separate vocabulary items When a group of words has the meaning which is not formed by the meaning of separate word in the group, then the group is called an idiom

1.5 Approaches to vocabulary

According to Boyle and Scanlon (2009), methods and techniques should be combined in teaching vocabulary for there is no single method for teaching vocabulary Below are some principles belonging to inferring from context, implicit teaching and explicit teaching, the three methods that are concerned by different researchers

Intentional learning of vocabulary

Intentional learning of vocabulary is a traditional and common method in teaching vocabulary Ellis (2001) calls it the planned method involving the use of tasks designed to elicit forms which have been selected ahead by teachers Although it will provide the greatest chance of acquisition, it is time consuming and it is too laborious for learners to learn the language Moreover, intentional teaching of vocabulary in classroom is often the teacher-centered class In general, intentional learning of vocabulary is the method of learning vocabulary by using tools to bring learners‟ attention into direct contact with the form and meaning of words, such as dictionaries, vocabulary lists, and direct vocabulary explanation

According to Hulstijn (2003), intentional learning occurs when learners are aware that they will be tested at the end of an activity (e.g vocabulary) In other words, learners are informed what activity they are going to perform, and what objectives that need to be achieved by the end of the activity Explicit vocabulary learning engages learners in activities that focus attention primarily on vocabulary According to Nation (1990), intentional vocabulary learning occurs when learners do exercises and activities that focus on vocabulary Explicit vocabulary learning is of much important

in vocabulary acquisition As stated by Decarrico (2001), without explicit vocabulary learning, implicit vocabulary learning should not be applied for students with low and intermediate levels

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Intentional learning is quick and usually preferred by learners, but it also causes some problems Learners often encounter vocabulary in an isolated form and remain incapable of using it correctly in context Hill (2005) quotes semantic errors from students For example, when students wrote “we lived (stayed) in a hotel for a week”, they mistook “live” and “stay” because when they learned words, they only paid attention to the forms and their Chinese equivalents but not collocation and relationship among words Thus, they put words in the wrong context This illustrates students‟ rely on memorization and neglect the semantic aspect of the language

Incidental vocabulary learning

Incidental vocabulary learning can be defined as natural exposure to the language through reading or listening in which the focus is on understanding the meaning of the text, not the vocabulary

Hulstijn (1996; cited in Gass, 1999) supposes that incidental learning is: learning in the absence of an intention to learn Hulstijn (2006) also considers incidental learning the mode in which participants are not foretold about an upcoming practice test for a particular type of information

Other scholars also give different definitions of incidental learning One of the definitions presented by Schmidt (2000) is that, incidental learning is learning without the intent to learn Schmidt (2001) also states that incidental learning is definitely passive in that it may occur when learners pay attention to some relevant features of input

Another definition is that, incidental vocabulary learning occurs through multiple exposures to a word in different contexts (Huckin & Coady, 1999) Similarly, Nation (2001) agrees that learners should be given multiple exposures to the word that they are supposed to learn; and new words should be presented in contexts from which learners can get the meaning

From the definitions above, it can be seen that incidental vocabulary learning occurs when the focus is not on vocabulary but elsewhere such as understanding a written or spoken text

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There have been studies conducted to investigate the importance of incidental vocabulary learning Zimmerman (1997) states some strengths of incidental vocabulary learning: (1) It gives learners a good sense of meaning and use of words because it is contextualized; (2) It is efficient because it can help learners acquire vocabulary and improve their reading skills at the same time; (3) It is more learner-based because learners can select the reading materials themselves

However, incidental vocabulary learning is beneficial if learners‟ vocabulary is large like Mathew‟s effect: the rich become richer and the poor become poorer Therefore, intentional learning is pivotal for learners at the beginning level; and incidental learning becomes practical if learners are at advanced level Schmitt (2000) declares that both explicit and incidental learning are necessary for second language learners, and these two approaches of vocabulary should be seen as complementary

Inferring from context

Belonging to the idea of Context Alone, “Inferring from Context”, also named

as context method, or contextual approaches is the method of using context to clarify the meanings of the words that students need to learn For instance, when students are asked to guess the meaning of the words through one or some given sentences, they are learning vocabulary by inferring the meaning of words from the context (Nagy, 1988) Graves (2006) suggests several principles of teaching vocabulary in context method: Students should learn the words in meaningful contexts; Students should see words in variety of contexts; Depth of meaning should be fostered; Learners should be able to access the texts‟ meaning in the target language and learning a word involves

pronunciation, spelling, morphology and syntax

2 Factors affecting vocabulary acquisition

2.1 Internal factors that affect vocabulary acquisition

According to Felix (1977) as cited in Leontiev and James (1981:133), “Students are the most important factor in learning an English vocabulary” Internal factors are those that an individual language learner brings with him or her to the particular learning situation In other words, they are the factors inside the students themselves

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According to Lightbown and Spada (1999), internal factors include age, language aptitude, intelligence, attitude and motivation, personality Similarly, Rubin and Thomson (1994) suppose that the factors including age, aptitude, attitude, personality, learning style and past experiences

Age

In term of the influence of age on second language acquisition, Ellis (1994) reports that learners who start learning a second language at early age often achieve a more native-like accent than those who start late Younger learners are quicker in acquisition of phonology but not very successful in acquiring grammar Motivated, older learners can also be successful but they usually have difficulties achieving native-speaker-equivalent pronunciation and intonation

Personality

Learners‟ emotional states have a powerful influence on their behavior and performance in the classroom and other learning situations There are various theories that claim that personality factors are important predictors of success in second language learning Personality traits such as extroversion, introversion, risk-taking, independence and empathy have been the basis of discussions and disputes relating to this topic (Ellis 1986) Theorists such as Guiora, Brannon and Dull (1972) have considered empathy to be important; and Krashen (1981) argues that an out-going personality contributes to language learning (Ellis, 1986) Research, such as that done

by Krashen (1981), has found that introverts generally perform better academically whereas an extrovert appears more likely to take advantage of social opportunities for second language input (Coleman & Klapper, 2005) Despite these theories, the available research does not demonstrate a clearly defined effect on second language learning Rather, we all have different and unique personalities and each personality trait can affect our second language learning in different ways (Ellis, 1986)

In summary, extroverted learners are better at acquiring a second language than introverted or anxious learners In other words, introverts usually make slower progress, especially in the improvement of oral skills That is because they are afraid

of making mistakes, and they tend to avoid opportunities to speak As a result, the lack

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of practice will make them less likely to fully acquire the second language vocabulary

In contrast, extroverted learners are aware that making mistakes is inevitable, so they are always willing to speak without fear of making mistakes These learners dare to take risks, so they have a lot more practice in comparison with the introverted learners

Second language intrinsic motivation is defined as the interest in learning a language for its own sake, without any external pressure

According to Noels (2000), there are three types of intrinsic motivation that are knowledge, accomplishment and stimulation Intrinsic motivation is consider having a strong relation with educational achievement Having intrinsic motivation, learners will learn to achieve competence in the language Absolutely, those who enjoy language learning and are proud of their progress will do better than students who enjoy language learning and take pride in their progress will do better than those who don't According to Medford and McGeown (2012), in almost classrooms, learners who are just beginning to learn a language are often highly motivated on their first few classes or lessons and they enjoy their learning much

Experiences

According to Lightbown and Spada (2013), it is easier for those who have acquired general knowledge and experience to develop a new language For instance,

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if a learner has already lived in two or more different countries and has been exposed

to several languages and cultures, then that learner will have much more advantages in learning another language in comparison with a student who has no experience in a second language and culture

Cognition

In acquiring new knowledge in general, and acquiring a second language in particular, it is easier and faster for students with better intelligence to make progress There have been scholars who believe that some students have stronger innate language learning ability than others

Language learning strategies

Learning strategy is one important factor A learning strategy is a series of actions a learner takes to complete a learning task A strategy starts when the learner analyzes the task, the situation, and what is available in his/her own repertoire The learner then goes on to select, deploy, monitor, and evaluate the effectiveness of this action, and decides if s/he needs to revise the plan and action

According to O‟Malley and Chamot (1990), learning strategies are the basic tools for active, self-directed involvement needed for developing L2 communicative ability

It has been proved in research that better and more effective learning strategies are often used by better language learners rather than poorer language learners (Rubin, 1975; Stern, 1983) Moreover, Rubin also indicates that the good language learner is a willing and accurate guesser; has a strong persevering drive to communicate and willing to make mistakes in order to learn or communicate; focuses on form by looking for patterns; takes advantages of all practice opportunities; monitors his or her own speech and that of others; and pay attention to meaning

According to Oxford (1990), language learning strategies can be classified, explained, and exemplified in six different groups which are memory, cognitive, comprehension, metacognitive, affective, and social The first three groups directly involve the subject matter (the target language to be learned), so they are

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known as “direct” strategies The last three groups are called “indirect” strategies because they do not directly involve the subject matter itself but are essential to language learning Chamot and Kupper (1989) mention that successful learners tend to select strategies that work together well in a highly orchestrated way, modified to the requirement of the language task These learners can easily explain the strategies they use and why they employ them (O‟Malley & Chamot, 1990)

Native language

If students learn a second language which has the same language family as their first language, then it will be much beneficial for them For example, a Chinese learner will learn Japanese more easily and quickly than an English student Moreover, if learners are aware of the similarities and differences between their mother tongue and the target language, it will be easier for them to adopt effective learning and production strategies, according to Schmitt and McCarthy (1997)

2.2 External factors that affect vocabulary acquisition

External factors are the factors outside the students that influence their learning External factors refer to particular language learning situation The learning context can include the teachers, the peers, the classroom climate, the family support, the social, cultural tradition of learning, the curriculum, and the availability of input and output opportunities

Teaching methods, quality of materials, reward system, peer group, student relationship, classroom atmosphere, and homework assignment, are considers

teacher-as a learning environment and it can affect the learners‟ choice of vocabulary learning strategies (Kaylani, 1996)

Second language curriculum

In term of curriculum, Nation and Macalister (2010) emphasize the importance

of needs analysis, sequencing the course materials, evaluation, format and presentation

of materials It can be seen that materials are paid much attention to in second language learning in general, and second language vocabulary learning in particular

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Flavell (1979), Wenden (1987), and Williams and Burden (1997) define the learning task includes not only the materials being learned but also the goal that learners try to achieve by using these materials Therefore, tasks should be designed with reference to the objectives of the lesson The goal of second language vocabulary tasks should be the combination of words acquisition and expansion of word‟s knowledge, both meanings and forms

Another definition given by Fluente (2006) is that, tasks are specific learning activities which can facilitate optimal conditions for foreign language learning

language-As stated by Nunan (1989), a task can be a real-world activity or a contrived, pedagogic activity, as long as the process of completing the task corresponds to that found in discourse based on the exchange of information

It can be concluded that different types of task materials with different levels of difficulties will have different influences on second language learners‟ vocabulary acquisition For example, how learners learn a new word in a given list is totally different from learning the same word when it appears in a passage Likely, remembering the meaning of a word does not mean the learner can use that word in real life situations Therefore, the purpose of vocabulary learning should include both remembering words and the ability to use them automatically in a wide range of language contexts when the need arises (McCarthy, 1984)

Teachers

Teachers‟ individual characteristics may have an impact on students‟ performance and their final results Teachers‟ formative experience, teachers‟ training experience and personal characteristic are named presage variables Besides, teachers‟ performance in the language learning classroom, teaching style and methodology are part of the process variables (Dunkin & Biddle, 1974)

The teacher‟s age may also be an important factor It has a strong relation with teaching experience, which helps explain the teacher‟s (1) efficiency in the language learning class; (2) activity, energy and movement in the classroom; (3) openness to innovations and new methodological approaches; (4) enthusiasm and degree of

Other factors that influence the students‟ attitudes and motivation in the language learning class are teacher‟s personality traits and his/ her behavior in class (Madrid, 1993)

Learning task

The traditional, broader understanding of task as in Flavell (1979), Wenden (1987), and Williams and Burden (1997) state that the learning task includes the materials being learned (such as the genre of a piece of reading) as well as the goal the learner is trying to achieve by using these materials (such as remembering, comprehending, or using language)

As Crookes (1986) defines, task is a piece of work or an activity, usually with a specified objective, undertaken as part of an educational course, or at work

In practice, it appears to refer to the idea of some kinds of activity designed to engage the learner in using the language communicatively or reflectively in order to arrive at an outcome other than that of learning a specified feature of the L2 A task can be a real-world activity or a contrived, pedagogic activity (Nunan, 1989), as long

as the process of completing the task corresponds to that found in discourse based on the exchange of information (Ellis, 1994)

Tasks are specific language-learning activities that may facilitate optimal conditions for second language learning (Fluente, 2006) Tasks should be structured in reference to desirable goals The goal of L2 vocabulary tasks should be acquisition of

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words and expansion of word‟s knowledge, not only the meanings but also the forms

In her research on the role of pedagogical tasks and form-focused instruction, Fluente (2006) concludes that the Presentation, Practice and Production lessons are not as effective as task-based lessons The analysis also suggests that a task-based lesson with an explicit focus-on-forms component is more effective than a task-based lesson that does not incorporate this component in promoting acquisition of word morphological aspects The results also indicate that the explicit focus on forms component may be more effective when placed at the end of the lesson when meaning has been acquired

Different types of task materials, task purposes, and tasks at various difficulty levels have various effects on the learners‟ vocabulary acquisition For example, learning words in a word list is different from learning the same words in a passage

As well, remembering a word meaning is different from learning to use the same word

in real life situations

Number of exposures to the new words

The number of exposures and recycling is also important in acquiring vocabulary Nation (2001) states that five to more than 20 repeated meetings are needed to learn words according to the various criteria in the different studies

Peers

Lantolf and Thorne (2004) claims that peers is a factor that affects the developmental process of learning occurring through participation in cultural, linguistic, and previously formed settings such as family life and peer group interaction Besides, Shah (1999) also suggests that “aspects such as an inappropriateness in the use of second language, show of dislike, boastfulness, showing off, and formality second language use are several other factors” (p.107) These factors, according to her, lead to either the lack of oral communication or practice of second language among students Seng (2006) also draws a conclusion from her research that it will be better for language learners if their peers share their inspirations and information; and if a classmate explains something to them

Motivation (extrinsic)

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If teachers and parents give students continuing, appropriate encouragement to learn, these students will perform much better than those who are not given encouragement Besides, Gardner (1985) states the concept of student's orientation to explain the reasons why students need to learn a second language Accordingly, the main reasons are: to find a good job, to travel around the world, to communicate with foreigners, and to have a better education Therefore, it can be said that a lot of social pressure is put on second language learners, especially young learners nowadays Such pressure is considered extrinsic motivation which helps students more willing to learn the language

External or environmental factors, such as parents‟ level of education, use of English in the home, amount of language input, and parents L2 proficiency have predominantly been related to the acquisition of vocabulary or general academic achievement (Oller & Eilers, 2002)

Access to native speakers

According to Felix (1977) as cited in Leontiev and James (1981), an important factor that affects vocabulary learning is the frequency of the learners‟ contact with the language It would be a great advantage if second language learners have opportunities

to communicate with native speakers both within and outside of the classroom Interacting with native speakers, learners can receive appropriate feedback so that they can make quicker progress, particularly in the oral/aural aspects of language acquisition Moreover, when learners can understand what native speakers say and can give response, it means that they have a certain amount of vocabulary and know how

to use them

Interlexical factors

Interlexical factors refer to the relationship between the new words and the words learners know in their first or second language This relationship includes similarity of form of the first and the second language and meaning relations between words in the first and second language

Intralexical factors

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According to Laufer (1997), intralexical factors arise from intrinsic word‟s properties He also states that intralexical factors that affect the learnability of lexical items include pronounce ability and multiple word meaning

Pronounce ability

Gairns and Redman (1998:50) argue that “the complex relationship between sound and spelling in English seems…to make language inexplicable to foreign learners” There are a number of words which have similar pronunciation and different forms or spelling; whereas many other words have similar forms but differ in their pronunciation

Multiple meaning words

One form of word can have several meanings and one meaning can be conveyed by diferent forms This is one of the most difficulties for learners to acquire new words and how to use them in real life situations

Length

According to Schmitt and McCarthy (1997) there are some intralexical factors that affect vocabulary learning, including length of words It seems that it is more difficult to learn longer words than the shorter ones It is also clear that one-syllable words are easier to learn in comparison with two-syllable words or three-syllable words

Morphology

Features such as irregularity of plural, gender of inanimate nouns, and noun cases make an item more difficult to learn than an item with no such complexity, since the learning load caused by the multiplicity of forms is greater

Learning context

The learning context refers to the socio-cultural-political environment where learning takes place The learning context can include the teachers, the peers, the classroom climate or the classroom interaction in general With regard to classroom interaction and second language acquisition, Ellis (1994: 606) concluded that

“Opportunities to negotiate meaning may help the acquisition of L2 vocabulary;

a clearly-defined structure and by well-adjusted teacher talk;” All of these give support

to the hypothesis: successful L2 learning may be possible in a favorable classroom environment The learning context can include the availability of input and output opportunities

Home factors

Socioeconomic status consistently predicts cognitive and academic outcomes among both native English speakers and English Language Learners (Biemiller & Slonim, 2001; CoboLewis, Pearson, Eilers, & Umbel, 2002; 3; Lara-Cinisomo et al., 2004; Neuman, 2008) To be more detailed, children from low-income homes perform less well than their more economically advantaged peers Moreover, social class differences give higher-income children better access to language-related literacy experiences including ownership of books and other reading materials (Raz & Bryant, 1990), availability of books through public libraries (Neuman, 2006), frequency of shared reading (Adams, 1990; Neuman, Caperelli, & Kee, 1998), and opportunities to engage in experiences that build conceptual knowledge needed for understanding text (Neuman, 2008) Furthermore, research on the relationship between language use in the home and learners‟ literacy development in their first or second language generally indicates that children‟s proficiency is related to family language preferences (Duursma et al., 2007)

3 Vocabulary teaching techniques

3.1 Deliberately teaching vocabulary

According to Nation (2008), deliberately teaching vocabulary is an integral part

of a well-balanced vocabulary program but this is one of the least efficient ways of developing learners‟ vocabulary knowledge Building on prior studies focused on the effectiveness of methodologies targeting the singular parts of the language as opposed

to the whole (Ashton-Warner, 1963), Nation argues that vocabulary knowledge is best

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built up over a series of varied meetings with the word At best, teaching can provide only one or two of these meetings, so other encounters must involve learners‟ deliberate study of a word, becoming acquainted with the word through meaning-focused input and output, and fluency development activities (Nation, 1990) Nation (2008) recommends that vocabulary instructors raise learners‟ awareness of the form, use and meaning of the word by designing message-focused activities that call attention to the role of the item in context

3.2 Some vocabulary teaching techniques

A number of authors have described techniques of vocabulary teaching (Cross, 1991; Nation, 1990, 2001; Gairns and Redman, 1986; Allen, 1983)

Translation

One of the most common techniques is translation that is to translate the word

in question into a learner‟s native language Some experts however do not recommend this technique (Doff, 1988, p 12) “if we only give a direct translation, the students cannot see how the word is used in an English sentence” Translation is simple, clear and quick for reaching the goal; particularly when teachers give examples then students give the word translation

Nation (1990) thinks that the value of translation depends on how and when we use it Translation into the mother tongue presents the same processes as translation into a picture, a description in English Hill (1965) criticizes translation into mother tongue as a way of communication or teaching meaning They believe that generally there is no exact correspondence between one language and another Besides, the use

of the mother tongue takes time which could better be spent in using English

Giving examples

Giving examples is another way of showing the meaning of a new word; these examples should contain the meant lexical item McCarthy (1990) believes that new vocabulary knowledge is most efficiently absorbed when it is assimilated to the already known words by using it in a context The example sentences used to explain meaning should obviously teach the meaning of the new word Showing meaning of

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words via context is very fruitful especially when the word in question is from the

list-of abstract lexis like, hate, hesitate, think and possible

Concept

A new item can be taught by concept, as a word may be distinguished from special uses of the word According to Carroll (1964) there are several conditions which help the establishment of concept Firstly, they should be positive examples of the concept, secondly, there should be negative examples Nation (1990) also recommends teaching the underlying concept in the case of words with several uses

Description and Definition

Providing definitions or descriptions of new words is also a way of teaching meaning Bright (1970, p 40) states that “the ability to produce short, clear relevant definitions of words is important to the teacher” The teacher thinks about the feature that he should capture and what contrast to make According to Nation (1990) to define a word is to show or explain its meaning An adequate definition of a word shows its meaning as distinct from the meaning of others words and Also stated by Nation (1990), an adequate definition indicates the grammatical function or the category of the word, a noun, verb, an adjective, it also indicates the typical sentence pattern in which the word enters and finally it indicates other formal aspects of the word

Pictures and Mime

Pictures and mimes can be used to teach the meaning of new vocabulary items

By pictures we mean photos, blackboard drawing, wall pictures, chart and flash card

If the teacher intends to teach words like vegetables, clothes and markets, the use of pictures will be very important because it will be very difficult and time-consuming to explain them According to Harmer (1985), pictures can also be used to create a situation or context The usage of mimes in teaching new words is also considered of great value, especially with actions such as jumping, running, writing and smoking A type of these concepts is easily explained if the teacher pretends to do them before the class

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4 Summary

In summary, the above literature on vocabulary in the second language teaching and learning indicates that there are certain factors that affect students‟ vocabulary acquisition These factors can be divided into two categories namely internal factors and external factors Some internal factors are students‟ age, personality, intrinsic motivation, experiences, cognition, language learning strategies and native language Some external factors include second language curriculum, teachers, learning task, number of exposures to the new words, peers, extrinsic motivation, access to native speakers, lexical factors, learning context and home factors All of such factors may constrain the ways learners approach learning tasks and acquire vocabulary knowledge

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the methodology that is employed to collect data for this survey study Firstly, an overview of the research method - involving definition, rationale of the method, and benefit and limitations of the method – is stated Secondly, the subjects of the study are clarified Next, the data collection procedure will be illustrated Besides, how the questionnaire was designed is also included in this chapter Finally, details of how the data collected from the questionnaire was analyzed will be presented

1 Overview of the method used in the study

1.1 Definition of survey research

The research is designed as a survey study with quantitative approach According to Creswell (2012), survey research is used to determine individual opinions Besides, survey research can be used to find out answers to raised questions, work out solutions to problems detected by researchers, analyze needs and establish goals (Isaac & Michael, 1997) In other words, survey research is used to explain what exists, what the context is, and what the amount is

Surveys are designed to process large quantities of data statistically when needed to be researched Therefore, this study mainly depends on quantitative data collection methods

1.2 Rationale for using survey research

According to Kraemer (1991), survey research is used to quantitatively describe specific aspects of a given population These aspects often involve examining the relationships among variables Moreover, survey research uses a selected portion of the population from which the findings can later be generalized back to the population

This study is to examine the relationship between dependent variable (vocabulary learning) and independent variables (external factors that affect vocabulary learning)

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1.3 Strengths and limitations of survey research

Strengths: Surveys are capable of obtaining information from large samples of

the population Moreover, they are also well suited to gathering demographic data that describe the composition of the sample (McIntyre, 1999) Surveys are inclusive in the types and number of variables that can be studied, require minimal investment to develop and administer, and are relatively easy for making generalizations (Bell, 1996) Surveys can also elicit information about attitudes that are otherwise difficult to measure using observational techniques (McIntyre, 1999)

Limitations: Pinsonneault and Kraemer (1993) notes that surveys are generally

unsuitable where an understanding of the historical context of phenomena is required Bell (1996) observes that biases may occur, either in the lack of response from intended participants or in the nature and accuracy of the responses that are received Other sources of error include intentional misreporting of behaviors by respondents to confound the survey results or to hide inappropriate behavior Finally, respondents may have difficulty assessing their own behavior or have poor recall of the

circumstances surrounding their behavior

2 Subjects

The subjects of this study were 318 grade 10 students who studied at a high school in Hanoi in the academic year 2017 – 2018 Therefore, they were at the age of

15 or 16 These students were in mixed ability classes

3 Data collection instruments

Questionnaire was used as the instrument to collect data in this survey The participants‟ opinions regarding external factors that affect their vocabulary learning were assessed through a questionnaire The questionnaire was designed specifically for the purpose of this study

3.1 Preparation

In preparation for designing the questionnaire for this survey study, the researcher reviewed the content of vocabulary learning, factors that affect vocabulary acquisition, and ways to design a questionnaire The sources of information used are

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books, journals, and studies from different researchers Besides, the researcher also reviewed several questionnaires used in different EFL studies concerning vocabulary learning Accordingly, A Likert Scale questionnaire was developed on the basis of items which refer to external factors affecting students‟ vocabulary learning

The questionnaire was written in Vietnamese to make sure that the participants could fully understand the questions before giving their answers

Details of the questionnaire

The questionnaire consists of two main parts as follow:

Part I: The respondents‟ general information

This part was designed to collect information regarding students‟ general information Data collected from this section include details about students‟ gender, how long they had been studying English, and their average grade in English subject The questions in this part were in the form of check list items

Part II: The questions about external factors that have impacts on students‟ vocabulary learning The following scales were employed to indicate the degree of students‟ agreement or disagreement with the given statements in the questionnaire

The answered questionnaires were collected right after the students finished answering them

3.3 Techniques of data analysis

The purpose of the survey is to find out the factors that have the most and least influences on vocabulary learning of grade 10 students SPSS program was used to analyze the data collected from Part II of the questionnaires To be more specific, the data was analyzed by using frequency, percentages, and means

Part I: the descriptive statistics were used to find frequencies, percentage, and mean

Part II: questionnaires of the six categories of external factors (independent factors): English curriculum – factor C, Teachers – factor T, Exposures to the new words – factor E, Peers – factor P, Access to native speakers – factor N, and Lexical factors – factor L; and Vocabulary acquisition – factor V (dependent factor)

The mean and percentage were used to compute the data Besides, factor analysis was also employed

The results of the data collection are presented in the next chapter