Using language games to improve students retention of ESP vocabulary at namdinh college of construction

LIST OF TABLESTable 1: Results of the pre-test of the two groups Table 2: Comparison of mean scores in the pre-test of the two groups Table 3: Pre-test score frequencies of the two group

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor: Dr Lâm Quang Đông

Hanoi, 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

LIST OF TABLES vii

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Method of the study 2

5 Thesis Structure 2

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Vocabulary in ESP 4

1.1.1 The importance of vocabulary in ESP 4

1.1.2 What it means to know words? 4

1.2 Taxonomy of ESP vocabulary 6

1.3 Factors affecting the retention of ESP vocabulary 8

1.3.1 Memory and storage systems 8

1.3.2 Vocabulary learning strategies 9

1.3.3 Learning context 10

1.3.3.1 Language input 10

1.3.3.2 Language output 11

1.4 Language games and vocabulary acquisition and retention 12

1.5 ESP vocabulary teaching – research and practice 16

CHAPTER 2: AN OVERVIEW OF ESP VOCABULARY TEACHING AND

LEARNING CONTEXT AT NCC 19

2.1 The learners and their background 19

2.2 The teachers and their teaching method 19

2.3 The textbook 20

2.4 The teaching and learning conditions 20

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 21

3.1 The research hypothesis 21

3.2 Rationale for using a Quasi-experimental method 21

3.3 Variables 22

3.4 Participants and treatment 22

3.4.1 Participants 22

3.4.2 Treatment 22

3.5 Procedure of data collection 22

3.5.1 Test designing 22

3.5.2 Test administering 23

3.6 Results and discussion 24

3.6.1 Results of the pre-test scores of the two groups and discussion 24

3.6.2 Results of the progress-test of the two groups and discussion 27

3.6.3 Comparison of mean scores and t-scores of the pre-test and progress-test of the two groups 30

3.6.4 Results of the post-test of the two groups and discussion 31

3.6.5 Comparison of mean scores and t-scores of the progress-test and post-test of the two groups 34

PART 3: CONCLUSION 36

1 Summary of major findings 36

2 Classroom implications 36

3 Limitations and suggestions for further study 37

REFERENCES 39

APPENDIX 1 (tests and keys) I

APPENDIX 2 (tables for analysis) X

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Results of the pre-test of the two groups

Table 2: Comparison of mean scores in the pre-test of the two groups

Table 3: Pre-test score frequencies of the two groups

Table 4: Detailed pre-test scores of the experimental group

Table 5: Detailed pre-test scores of the control group

Table 6: Results of the progress-test of the two groups

Table 7: Comparison of mean scores in the progress-test of the two groupsTable 8: Progress-test score frequencies of the two groups

Table 9: Detailed progress-test scores of the experimental group

Table 10: Detailed progress-test scores of the control group

Table 11: Comparison of mean scores and t-scores of the pre-test and test of the 2 groups

progress-Table 12: Independent t-test for the gain in the progress-test of the two groupsTable 13: Results of the post-test of the two groups

Table 14: Comparison of mean scores in the post-test of the two groups

Table 15: Post-test score frequencies of the two groups

Table 16: Detailed post-test scores of the experimental group

Table 17: Detailed post-test scores of the control group

Table 18: Comparison of mean scores and t-scores of the progress-test and test of the two groups

post-Table 19: Independent t-test for the gain in the post-test of the two groups

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Recently, the teaching methodology in General English as well as English for SpecificPurposes (ESP) has shifted from a focus on the linguistic competence to an interest inthe communicative competence This trend in language teaching has resulted in theincreasingly essential role of teaching and learning vocabulary

It is of common knowledge that vocabulary is the major part in foreign languagelearning Emphasizing the importance of vocabulary, Wilkins (1972, p.11) states that

“without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary, nothing can beconveyed” McCarthy (1990, p.viii) also shares the same view when saying “No matterhow well the student learns grammar, no matter how successfully sounds of L2 aremastered, without words to express the wide range of meaning, communication in anL2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way”

According to Hutchison and Walters (1987), ESP is one branch of English LanguageTeaching, which is a variety of numerous kinds of language teaching Consequently,vocabulary acquisition has always been one of the fundamental activities in foreignlanguage learning whether it is for general purposes or for specific ones because nocommunication is possible without words

Being an English teacher at Namdinh College of Construction, I do realize thatalthough ESP vocabulary teaching and learning has received much attention so far, it isstill far from satisfactory Many students encounter difficulty in retaining ESP wordsthat they have learnt in previous lessons They often complain that they forget newwords soon after learning them They also do not know how to learn, remember anduse these words As a result, for most students, vocabulary learning in ESP lessons isboring and ineffective For the above reasons, I would like to conduct this research

entitled “Using Language Games to Improve Students’ Retention of ESP Vocabulary

at Namdinh College of Construction”.

2 Aims of the study

The main aim of the study is to investigate the effect of language games on ESPvocabulary retention, or in other words, the extent to which language games help toretain ESP vocabulary for my students at the College and suggest some teachingimplications

3 Scope of the study

There are various language activities that help students to retain ESP vocabulary.However, within the limit of a minor thesis, this study focuses on the impact oflanguage games on students‟ retention of ESP vocabulary

This study was implemented among 2 groups including 100 non-English major firstyear students at Namdinh College of Construction whose English was at the elementarylevel and who are working with the course book “Nucleus English for Science andTechnology: Architecture and Building Construction” by James Cumming (1996)

4 Method of the study

This research was conducted with quasi-experimental method with one class as theexperimental group and one class as the control group It was quasi-experimentalbecause the students of both groups were not randomly assigned, and therefore werenot of equal proficiency levels of English The experiment lasted 10 weeks and 3vocabulary tests were administered to measure students‟ retention of ESP vocabulary.Students‟ memorization of vocabulary is also continuously monitored when the gamesare being in progress so as to provide further evidence of the games‟ effectiveness Theresults of the tests were analyzed by using Paired Samples T-test to find out the gain ofeach group and Independent t-test to compare the gains of two groups

5 Thesis Structure

This thesis consists of three parts, namely Introduction, Development and Conclusion.Part 1, the Introduction, presents the rationale, the aims, the scope and the method ofthe study

Part 2 is the development which includes three chapters Chapter 1 provides theoreticalbackground to teaching and learning vocabulary, particularly in ESP Also, it reviews

some language games which help the retention of ESP vocabulary Chapter 2 gives anoverview of ESP vocabulary teaching and learning context at Namdinh College ofConstruction Chapter 3 presents detailed analyses of the data obtained through thepretest, progress-test and posttest.

Part 3, the Conclusion, discusses the major findings and limitations of the research aswell as provides suggestions for further study

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 1 Vocabulary in ESP

1.1.1 The importance of vocabulary in ESP

Recently, vocabulary has rapidly changed in status from a “neglected aspect of languagelearning” (Meara, 1980) to an area of growing research and publication The significance

of vocabulary in language learning has drawn numerous researchers‟ interest Zimmerman(1997, p.5) states that “Vocabulary is central to language and of crucial importance to thetypical language learner.” Robinson (1991) shares the same view by saying “for manypeople vocabulary, particularly specialist vocabulary (or terminology), is a key element ofESP” (as cited in Jahangard, 2007, p.8) Obviously, vocabulary is of great importance inforeign language learning whether it is for general purposes or for specific ones Toemphasize this, Keith S Folse (2004, p.1) claims that vocabulary is the most significantaspect among numerous language learning ones such as pronunciation, writing system,syntax, pragmatics, rhetorical modes for reading and composition, culture, and spelling.Carter and McCarthy (1988) also point out that the study of vocabulary is at the heart oflanguage teaching and learning Hence, it cannot be denied that vocabulary acquisition is a

“must” for language learners especially ESP learners

1.1.2 What it means to know words?

Knowledge of a word is not only limited to knowing its single meaning but this involvescomprehension of the word form, meaning, grammar and collocation… so that languagelearners can generate it for their need According to Penny Ur (1996), when the teacherteaches a new English word, he should, by all means, provide his learners with itspronunciation and spelling, word form, grammar, collocation, aspects of meaning, andword-formation

• Word form

Each English word has its spelling and pronunciation Therefore, when introducing newwords to learners, the teacher should pay careful attention to both of these forms andprovide learners with certain general guidelines which assist them in predicting the

pronunciation of new lexis However, there are so many exceptions in Englishpronunciation The complicated relationship between sound and spelling in English makes

it difficult for foreign language learners to deal with the pronunciation of new words.Hence, together with introducing general guidelines, the teacher should also offer learnersfairly specific rules for English pronunciation

• Grammar

It is important to offer information about the grammar of a word to learners They need toknow the grammatical function, the unpredictable change of form in certain grammaticalcontexts, the regularity and irregularity, the singular and plural forms of the new word sothat they can use it correctly For example, when teaching a verb, the teacher should alsogive its past and past participial form if it is irregular Similarly, when teaching a noun, theteacher should provide students with information about whether a word is countable oruncountable, its plural form, if it is irregular, information regarding different forms of aword, the preposition that collocates with the words, etc

• Collocation

Collocation is the way in which words are used together regularly in a specific language Itrefers to the restriction on how words can be used together in right contexts Lewis (2000)asserts that 70% of English language is made up of chunks of lexicon that co-occurtogether in order to produce natural sounding language Thus, this is another piece ofinformation about a new item, which may be worth teaching When introducing wordssuch as “to make” and “to do”, for example, the teacher may note that both words mean “toperform” but can be differentiated by the words they collocate with We often say “to make

a mistake” but never say, “to do a mistake”

• Meaning

Aspect of meaning consists of denotation, connotation, appropriateness and meaningrelationship

The meaning of a word is primarily what it refers to in the real word, its denotation This

meaning is found in dictionaries For example, house denotes a building for people to live

in, usually for one family

Connotation of a word is less obvious component of its meaning This is the association orpositive or negative feelings the word evokes which may be not presented in dictionaries.The connotative meaning of a word is varied from context to another.

Appropriateness is more subtle aspect of meaning that indicates whether a particular item

is appropriate one to use in a certain context or not Thus, it is useful for a learner to knowthat a certain word is very common or relatively rare in conversation or tends to be used inwriting but not in speech

Meaning relationships can also be useful in vocabulary teaching and learning They showhow the meaning of one item relates to the meaning of others There are variousrelationships such as synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms, co-hyponyms, superordinates andtranslation

 Word-formation

Vocabulary items, whether one-word or multi-word, can be broken down into their smallercomponents How these components are put together is useful information to learners.According to Gairns and Redman (1986), there are three main forms of word building,which are characteristics of English They are affixation (the process of adding prefixesand suffixes to the base item); compounding (the formation of words from two or moreseparate words) and conversion (the process by which an item may be used in differentparts of speech)

1.2 Taxonomy of ESP vocabulary

Vocabulary in ESP texts can be analyzed according to different points of view According

to Hutchison & Walter (1987, p.165), there are four types of vocabulary as follows:

structural (are, this, only, however, etc), general (table, run, dog, road, etc), sub-technical (engine, spring, value, acid, budge, etc) and technical (auricle, schistosome, fissure, electrophoresis, etc) Born-Lechleitner (1992, p.67) shares the same distinction He

explains that the meaning of highly technical words tend to be exact, specific, systematic,concrete, emotionally neutral, self-explanatory, economical and transparent Sub-technicalwords are popularly used in general English with a specialized meaning within science or

technology Certain general language vocabulary such as note, observe, item, device, etc.,

with a low priority in general language still retains its meaning in all scientific and

technical disciplines The fourth group of words, which plays a prominent role in ESPtexts, is that of structural/procedural/functional words Words like articles, conjunctions,prepositions, and auxiliary verbs amount to 50% of all words in a technical text, afrequency which is only exceeded in spoken language.

Robinson (1991, as cited in Viel, 2002) classifies vocabulary of ESP into three groups interms of their semantic ambiguity: ultra specialized vocabulary, general scientific andtechnological words and words are on the fringe of general English Ultra specializedvocabulary, with a unique and precise meaning in the science or technology, is never used

in communication except within the field of specialists General scientific andtechnological words mention situations, actions, problems, etc which are popular in mostfields from research to technology Words on the fringe of general English are utilized forgeneral purposes in any kind of communication whose frequency of use is greater inEnglish for science and technology

In discussing the teaching of ESP, it has often been said that the teaching of technicalvocabulary is not the responsibility of the ESP teacher and that priority should be given tothe teaching of “semi-technical” or “sub-technical” words (Tony Dudley-Evans & Maggie-

Jo St John, 1998, p 80) Robinson also suggests an important role for semi-technicalvocabulary: “course books…perhaps do not need to concentrate on the very specializedvocabulary items as students will get these from other sources Rather it is the sub-technical level which is often difficult” Inman (1978, p 246), in a study of over 100,000words of scientific and technical prose, found that 9% of occurrences are function words,21% technical vocabulary and 70% sub-technical vocabulary She concludes that it is “sub-technical vocabulary which should be focused on in teaching scientific and technicalEnglish Technical vocabulary …is best left to presentation through the discipline itself”

In general, the largest part of General English vocabulary is hardly or even never used inspecialized fields About 80% or 90% of GE vocabulary falls outside the range of ESP.However, a number of words are presented widely in both specialized and generalcontexts The words half way between lexis and grammar such as articles, auxiliary verbs,preposition, linking words, etc… are the backbone of the language without which nocomplex meaningful sentence can ever be built They naturally do not belong to the

language of ESP but are essential Besides, semi-technical or sub-technical should be givenpriority in teaching by ESP teacher because of its above importance.

1.3 Factors affecting the retention of ESP vocabulary

1.3.1 Memory and storage systems

“Understanding how we store information in the memory and why certain chunks

of it seem to „stick‟ while others slip away is obviously a matter of concern toanyone whose work involves helping others to learn For language teachers thisknowledge should help to establish classroom procedures that will promote moreeffective learning and retention of new language items”

(Gairns & Redman, 1986, p.86)

It is obvious that comprehending how our memory works might assist us to create moreeffective ways to teach vocabulary According to Gairns & Redman (1986, p.87-88), thereare two types of memory: short-term memory and long-term memory Short-term memoryhas the limited capacity, storing things over a brief period of time Meanwhile, long-termmemory can hold any number of items inexhaustibly Peet (2003) has a differentclassification He divides memory into three kinds: short-term memory, working memoryand long term memory Short-term memory is capable of retaining limited information for

a few seconds whereas working memory stores things for up to twenty seconds Finally,long-term memory can hold items in our mind to use later This is an automatic processingprocedure that ensures retrieval without effort

It seems that there are two phases in learning new items; that is storing them first in ourshort-term memory, and afterwards in long-term memory Although we do not take control

of this process consciously, there seem to be some important clues to consider First,retention in short-term memory is not effective if the number of chunks of informationexceeds seven Therefore, this suggests that in a given class we should not aim at teachingmore than this number However, our long-term memory can hold any amount ofinformation Secondly, word frequency is another factor that affects storage, as the mostfrequently used items are easier to retrieve Thirdly, forgetting seems to be an inevitableprocess, unless learners regularly use items they have learnt Hence, recycling is vital, andideally new words should be met again and again in different contexts one or two days

after the initial input, in different contexts so that learners can internalize them gradually.After that, weekly or monthly tests can check on previously taught items.

1.3.2 Vocabulary learning strategies

It has been suggested that teaching vocabulary should focus on not only teaching specificwords but also providing learners with strategies necessary to develop their vocabularyknowledge

Vocabulary strategy use has been proved to have effect on vocabulary acquisition as well

as retention Cohen and Aphek (1981, as cited in Chamot, 2001) state that students whoremember vocabulary by making paired mnemonic associations retain vocabulary moreeffectively than those who do not In another attempt, Sanaoui (1995) concludes thatlearners who have structured learning approach are more successful in retaining vocabularyitems than those who have unstructured learning approach Schmitt (1997) and Nation(2001) also agree that vocabulary learning strategies facilitate the acquisition of new lexis

in the second/foreign language because they aid in discovering the meaning of a new wordand in consolidating a word once it has been encountered Therefore, teachers arerecommended to train their students in different vocabulary learning strategies becausethere is no utmost best strategy for all learners learning foreign language vocabulary.Effectiveness of learning is not constrained to just one or two strategies A good languagelearner uses many different vocabulary learning strategies, then employs and individualizesthe ones that are workable and applicable to them when performing specific tasks

A number of attempts have been made to develop a taxonomy of vocabulary learningstrategies Gu and Johnson (1996) list VLS as metacognitive, cognitive, memory andactivation strategies whereas Schmitt (1997, p.207-208) distinguishes the vocabularylearning strategies as two groups: the ones to determine the meaning of new words whenencountered for the first time, and the ones to consolidate meaning when encounteredagain In a recent attempt in ESP context, Zahra Akbari & M.H Tahririan (2009, p.57-58)classify the vocabulary learning strategies into two categories: comprehension (strategiesfor the discovery of a new word‟s meaning) and learning strategies (strategies forconsolidating a word once it has been encountered) The first contains determination and

transactional strategies and the second includes the knowledge-oriented and oriented strategies.

skill/use-In short, each scholar has his/her own idea about grouping vocabulary learning strategiesbasing on results of their research on a certain type of language learners However, it isapparent that when a learner consciously chooses strategies which are suitable for his/herlearning style and the tasks, these strategies become a useful toolkit for active andpurposeful self-regulation of learning

1.3.3 Learning context

Learning context or the learning environment is the socio-cultural-political environmentwhere learning takes place Gu (2003) states that the learning context involves the teachers,the peers, the classroom climate or ethos, the family support, the social, cultural tradition oflearning, the curriculum and the availability of input and output opportunities However, inthe range of this study, the author would like to focus on two factors that directly constrainthe ways learners approach learning tasks and acquire vocabulary knowledge: languageinput and language output

1.3.3.1 Language input

According to Krashen (2004, p.2), learners acquire language when they understand whatthey are hearing and reading That is, the input must be comprehensible in order for it to beuseful and meaningful to the learners and help with acquisition (Krashen, 1982) If learners

do not understand a sizable portion of the vocabulary in the language that they are reading

or hearing, then this language is not comprehensible and therefore cannot be useful foracquisition (Folse, 2005, p.6)

Krashen‟s hypothesis states that it is important for the acquirer to understand language that

is a bit beyond his or her current level of competence This means that the language thatlearners are exposed to should be just far enough beyond their current competence thatthey can understand most of it but still is challenged to make progress He further presentsthat a second language is most successfully acquired when the focus of instruction is onmeaning rather than on form and when there is sufficient opportunity to engage inmeaningful use of that language in a relatively anxiety-free environment This suggests thatthe second language classroom should emphasize on something meaningful, such as

academic content, and that modification of the target language facilitates languageacquisition and makes academic content accessible to second language learners.

In the condition of limited natural language environment in Vietnam, the major sources ofinput for learners are the teacher and the textbooks These sources of input are notsufficient to guarantee successful language learning or vocabulary acquisition Therefore, it

is necessary to provide learners with opportunities and language activities to use the targetlanguage extensively through practice, games, presentations, and eloquence (Speaking)contest

1.3.3.2 Language output

It is acknowledgeable that the development of a learner‟s communicative competence doesnot only reply on comprehensible input; the learner‟s output has an independent andindispensable role to play, too Swain (1985) first proposed a hypothesis relating to thesecond language learner's production comparable to Krashen's comprehensible inputhypothesis termed as the Comprehensible Output Hypothesis for second languageacquisition Her hypothesis suggests that learners acquire language when there is acommunicative breakdown and learners are "pushed to use alternative means to get acrossthe message precisely, coherently, and appropriately" (as cited in Krashen, 1998, p 179).Swain also offered convincing evidence that the role of learner production is independent

in many ways of the role of comprehensible input, and the comprehensible outputhypothesis is also a necessary mechanism which aids second language acquisition in manyways Similarly, the results of Izumi & Bigelow‟s research (2000) on the effect of output

on L2 vocabulary indicated that participants in the with output groups outperformed the non-output and the control groups on post-test measures.

Obviously, foreign language learners do no have such submersion environment like nativespeakers so they have to make use of every chance to “touch” the words According toSteele (2005), words are learnt by individual but through memorable presentation,personalization tasks, and importantly, recycling Therefore, the vocabulary presentationand practice play an important role in anchoring new words into students‟ memory,especially when they do not have advantageous language environment outside the

classroom In this case, classroom practice embeds both input and output resources for thelearners.

1.4 Language games and vocabulary acquisition and retention

Many researchers agree that language games do have a role to play in vocabularyacquisition With the use of games, the teacher can create various contexts in whichstudents have to use the language to communicate, exchange information and express theirown ideas Stressing the role of games in vocabulary teaching and learning, Huang (1996,

p 1, as cited in Nguyen & Khuat, 2003) claims that “learning through games couldencourage the operation of certain psychological and intellectual factors which couldfacilitate communication, heightened self-esteem, motivation and spontaneity, reinforcinglearning, improving intonation and building confidence.”

Language games have many advantages in vocabulary teaching and learning Firstly,games can motivate learners by bringing relaxation and fun to classes They can help lowerstudents‟ anxiety, make them comfortable and want to learn more Uberman (1998)showed that those students who practiced vocabulary activity with games felt moremotivated and interested in what they were doing Hansen (1994, p.118, as cited inUberman, 1998) also presents that games can provide shy students with more chance toexpress their opinions and feeling

Secondly, games can provide language practice Lee (1995) and Marion McPherson (2006)agree that games allow the student to practice the language point being taught Sharing thesame view, Wright, et al (1996, pp.3-4) adds that “games can give practice in all the skills,

in all the stages of the teaching or learning sequence and for many types ofcommunication” Further support comes from Zdybiewska (1994, p.6), who believesgames to be a good way of practicing language, for they provide a model of what learnerswill use the language for in real life in the future

Thirdly, games can improve students‟ retention According to Wierus and Wierus (1994, p

218, as cited in Uberman, 1998), games in vocabulary help students memorize things fasterand better in a comfortable environment Nguyen and Khuat (2003) also agree that gamescan assist students to learn more quickly and retain the learned materials better

Fourthly, games encourage learners to interact and communicate Zimmerman (1997)emphasizes that communicative and interact activities can lead to better word learning Infact, when taking part in games, learners have to talk to express or exchange their ideaswith their partners Moreover, through interaction with others, they can help each other onthe meaning of unfamiliar words, including new vocabulary items (Nation and Newton,

1997, p 244) This is a good opportunity for learners to have exposures to the new itemsduring the course of activity that serves to generate better input

In summary, games are of great use and effectiveness that should be applied in vocabularyclasses The use of games in vocabulary teaching makes lessons more interesting,enjoyable as well as effective However, in order to gain the most from vocabulary games,

it is necessary to choose suitable games Whenever a game is to be organized, teachersshould take the factors such as students‟ level, the number of students, cultural context,timing, learning topic and the class setting into consideration (Nguyen and Khuat, 2003)

It has been suggested that there are large varieties of word games which are useful forvocabulary acquisition In my own teaching context, where students‟ English proficiency

is rather low as well as the learning topic seems insufficiently interesting, the followinglanguage games are expected to get students involved in vocabulary lessons and help themrecall new words more easily

a Memory game

This game can be divided into two rounds In the first one, the class will work in groups tomatch the words with the pictures as quickly as possible In the second round, each groupwill appoint one member to write all the words he/she can remember within one minute.The group that wins both rounds will be the winner

b Hot seat

The class is divided into 2 teams: A & B Team A sits in a group on one side of theclassroom, team B sits on the other side Two chairs are brought to the front of the room sothat when seated, a student is facing his or her respective team and their back is to theboard One member from each team sits in their team‟s chair The teacher writes a word,phrase, or sentence on the board The students in the chairs must not see what is written onthe board Once the teacher yells “go”, the teams have one minute using only verbal clues,

to get their seated teammate to say the item written on the board The only rule is that theymust not say the item written on the board in full or part The first student is the hot seat toutter the word scores a point for their team When the round is over, two new team playersare rotated into the hot seat and a new item is written up The first team to score a certainnumber of points wins.

c Pictionary

The class is divided into 2 teams: A & B Team A sits in a group on one side of theclassroom, team B sits on the other side One member from each team goes to the board.The teacher flashes them a word, phrase or expression written on a piece of paper Thestudents have one minute to get their respective team to say the item only by drawingpictorial clues on the board Written words, verbal clues or gestures are forbidden The firstteam to say the word scores a point

d Scrambled letters

The teacher writes up eight words with their letters shuffled on the board When he/ shesays “go”, students, individually or pair, try to arrange the letters as quickly as possible tomake the words For each word, the fastest student or pair gets a point and at the end of thegame, the student or pair with the most points will be the winner

e Noughts and crosses

only one word which they studied in the previous lesson They are expected to find the

words and pronounce it correctly

f Odd man out

The class is divided into groups The teacher writes the lists of words on the board All but

one item in each list must have something in common Each group discusses the lists and

decides which word is the odd man out, and why For each list, the fastest group gets a

point and at the end of the game, the group with the most points will be the winner

g Complete the word

The class is separated into two teams One student from each team comes forward and is

given a piece of chalk The two students must face the class while the teacher writes an

incomplete word on the board (twice, once for each team), e.g

h _ _ s_ h _ _ s_

Answer: house

The students can then look at the word The first one to complete the word correctly scores

one point for his team At the end of the game, the team with the most points will be the

winner

h Lucky numbers

This game is played with the class divided into two groups The teacher draws on the board

a table like this:

There is a question in each number The students take turns to choose a number and answer

the questions If they can answer the question, they will get 2 points If they can not answer

the question after two times guessing, they lose their chance and if the other group can

make a correct answer, they will get 3 points However, number 1, 5, 10 and 15 are lucky

numbers because for each of these numbers, students have a special question and if they

can answer the question, they will get 5 points At the end of this game, the group with the

higher score is the winner

i Hangman

The teacher thinks of a word that students will know and draws a number of dashes on theboard corresponding to the number of letter in the word The students are divided into twoteams and one student from each team suggests a letter in turn If the letter appears in theword, the teacher writes it in If the chosen letter is not in the word, the teacher starts toconstruct a gallows for that team One line is added for each wrong choice Each team canalso make a guess at the word, but only when it is that team‟s turn A wrong guess meansone more line on the gallows A correct guess finishes the game If a team wins bycompleting or guessing a word correctly a member of the team takes over as the

“hangman”

j Word chain

The students may work in groups or pairs or individually The teacher gives a word for a

start, e.g solid This word ends in -d, so the first student/ pair/ group must give a word beginning with that letter, e.g dome The next one must give a word beginning with –e.

The game will go on like that within a fixed period of time Each individual/ pair/ group isgiven only 15-20 seconds to think of a word The last who can give a word will be thewinner

1.5 ESP vocabulary teaching – research and practice

While numerous studies have been conducted in order to make improvement in theteaching of GE (General English) vocabulary, comparatively little research work has beenperformed in the field of ESP However, this does not mean that ESP teachers merelyundertake their teaching job, following the old path of methods In fact, they areendeavoring to search for better teaching methods, techniques and tools

Various researchers have conducted studies in the field of ESP vocabulary teaching Forexample, Palmero (2002) has explored the phonemic side of vocabulary teaching inLanguage for Specific Purposes courses and come to a conclusion of placing the necessary

on pronunciation and finding the adequate balance between the teaching of academic andsustained-content vocabulary Likewise, Galina Kavaliauskienë and Violeta Janulevièienë(2001) suggest that teachers should use lexical phrases for ESP vocabulary acquisitionbecause these phrases are context-bound and occur quite frequently, which makes them

highly memorable for learners Moreover, they are of great value to improve students‟competence in language Another study dealing with ESP vocabulary was carried out byIlse Born –Lechleitner (1992) He presented activities which were intended to help studentscome to terms with new words They ranged from simple word-games to fairlycomplicated tasks which provided strategies for successfully guessing the meaning of anew word by using their knowledge of the subject and the German and English languages.

In recent research, Zahra Akbari and M.H Tahririan (2009) present taxonomies ofvocabulary learning strategy in an ESP context as well as point out effective ways forteaching and learning vocabulary They claim that language teacher need to improve theirawareness of their students‟ strategy usage and needs so as to be able to facilitate theirlanguage learning process Besides, students should be taught how to develop both breadthand depth of their vocabulary knowledge so that they would be able to use their vocabularyknowledge both receptively and productively as the need arises

A number of studies on ESP vocabulary retention have been conducted Derin Atay &Cengiz Ozbulgan (2007) investigated the effects of memory strategy instruction andlearning through context on the ESP recall of Turkish EFL students The result revealedthat the experimental group with memory strategy instruction had significantly bettervocabulary gain scores than the control students Jahangard (2007) suggests that there is nostatistically significant difference between the students‟ ability to memorize the technicaland the general vocabulary In fact, memory efficiency for both types of vocabulary wasfound to be equal It seems that the pace of forgetting for both types of vocabulary isalmost the same

It can not be denied that such results are of great use in the teaching of ESP vocabulary.However, it is essential to have more and more research in this field as ESP is a largeconcept that covers numerous types of professional terms, words and phrases For eachtype, there is a need for detailed studies in order to make development in vocabulary

It is factual that little attention is emphasized on using games in context of ESP vocabularylearning and teaching in Vietnamese condition and no research has investigated strategiesfor ESP vocabulary retention among Vietnamese learners In NCC, the use of games inteaching and learning ESP vocabulary has never been taken seriously Consequently, theauthor would like to conduct a quasi-experimental research to find out whether the

application of games can improve ESP vocabulary retention among the College‟s students

or not, and what can be the most appropriate games for this particular type of ESP students

CHAPTER 2: AN OVERVIEW OF ESP VOCABULARY TEACHING AND

LEARNING CONTEXT AT NCC 2.1 The learners and their background

Most students who enter NCC are male students and aged from 18 to 24 About 90 % ofthem failed the national entrance examination to universities They are mainly from thecountryside, where there are no good opportunities for studying English Furthermore, theyconsider English an extra subject, so they learn English just to pass the exam Generally,the target students‟ English proficiency is still low

The typical learning style of the students at NCC is quite passive and dependent on theteachers They learn by heart vocabulary as well as grammatical rules and prefereverything being translated They would rather do written work and private reading thanwork in pairs or groups As a result, they pay more attention to forms than functions andmeanings

Having special knowledge in Vietnamese, students at NCC do not have difficulty inunderstanding the construction terms; however, their major problem is the vocabularylearning The technical words are not only rarely found in their daily conversation but alsolonger and more difficult to pronounce than general words Consequently, they find it hard

to remember and guess the meaning of new words

2.2 The teachers and their teaching method

The English Department at NCC consists of six teachers at the age from 25 to 38 They allgraduated from universities of foreign languages and two of them are taking MA courses.They are enthusiastic and willing to devote their time and energy to teaching However,they encounter difficulties in teaching ESP due to the lack of knowledge about the field,lack of authentic materials and lack of appropriate methodology Consequently, they do notfeel confident to teach ESP although they have positive attitudes towards it

In terms of methodology, although the teachers are aware of different kinds of teachingmethods such as the Direct Method, the Audio-Lingual method and the Communicativeapproach, they usually employ the traditional teaching method - that is Grammar-Translation In classes, explanation, translation and sentence making up exercises are thecore activities The teacher plays the key role in class, explaining new words and

translating them into Vietnamese Students often listen and take notes passively Themother tongue is mainly used as a means of instruction and communication in class Thismethod results in the shortage of motivation and few chances for students to improve theircommunicative competence.

2.4 The teaching and learning conditions

All the teachers at NCC are supplied with a cassette recorder to use for their class Thereare some modern devices such as overhead projector and multi-media projector, but rarelycan teachers and students use them because they are only reserved for Informatics classes.There are also two labs equipped with 50 cabins However, they are now in bad condition,

so students find it difficult to practice listening Besides, classrooms are not suitablydesigned for language classes Moreover, there are few materials for reference like Englishbooks, magazines, newspapers, especially ESP books in the library In short, it can not bedenied that teaching and learning facilities at NCC are poorly supported This certainly hasconsiderable negative effects on English teaching and learning

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY 3.1 The research hypothesis

The study was conducted to test the hypothesis that “Language games help improvestudents‟ retention of ESP vocabulary.” Thus, the null hypothesis is “Language games have

no impact on students‟ retention of ESP vocabulary.” Like in any experimental research, ifthe result of the experimental rejects the null hypothesis, the tested hypothesis is naturallyaccepted and this means that language games do have effect on students‟ retention of ESPvocabulary, and vice versa

3.2 Rationale for using a Quasi-experimental method

According to Christensen and Johnson (2000, p 255), a quasi-experimental design is “anexperimental research design that does not provide for full control of potential confoundingvariables In most instances, the primary reason that full control is not achieved is becauseparticipants cannot be randomly assigned” Supporting that point of view, W Borg & M.Borg (1988, p 680) claim that “If you want to make causal statements, you should conduct

a true experiment If you cannot use random assignment to design a true experiment, aquasi-experiment is the second best choice” Since random assignment of subjects to theexperimental and control groups is not always feasible, quasi-experiments becomeappropriate for accomplishing the subject assignment in particular contexts

In a quasi-experimental design, the researcher can still examine the cause-effect relationships by observing what happens, when and to whom; and by deciding what and

when to measure Moreover, the quasi-experiment is more likely to have external validity

as it is conducted under conditions closer to those normally found in educational contexts.Furthermore, as this design is less intrusive and disruptive than the true-experimentaldesign, it is easier to gain access to the subject to the population and thus more convenient

to conduct such research (Selinger & Shohamy, 1989, p 149) Consequently, it assists theresearcher to save a great deal of time in grouping the participants, which was impossibleunder the present condition

In short, for all above reasons, the quasi-experimental design becomes the most practicaland feasible for the researcher to conduct the present study

3.3 Variables

In this study, the quasi-experimental research was used as a means to explore the effect relationship between language games and students‟ retention of ESP vocabulary.Two types of variables were identified for the study: the dependent variable and theindependent variable The former was the students‟ scores in their vocabulary tests (theirretention of ESP vocabulary) while the latter were language games The relationshipbetween these two variables was defined through the analytical procedure using the paired-sample t-tests to compare the mean scores of the experimental group and those of thecontrol group before and after treatment

cause-3.4 Participants and treatment

3.4.2 Treatment

Words were presented to both control and experimental groups in the same way withattention given to their forms (more attention to pronunciation with transcription),meaning, grammar and combination in common expressions and common usage For thecontrol group, the researcher applied the popular old method of teaching vocabulary andfor the experimental group, another new method was utilized with a number of languagegames requiring students to work together much more

3.5 Procedure of data collection

3.5.1 Test designing

Three tests used in this research were designed to measure the changes in students‟ ability

to retain ESP vocabulary (if there were any) when language games were employed inteaching and learning process These tests were constructed by the researcher to assess

students‟ ability to recall lexical items for language production Most of the vocabularyitems and distracters in the tests were selected from the new lexical items in the student‟sbook Although three tests had not been established formally and had not been checked yet,the scores reflected the students‟ real ability Thus, their validity and reliability could beasserted The students did the tests without any prior notice, i.e without knowing that theywould have to do a test in the upcoming lesson.

3.5.2 Test administering

- Pre-test

The pre-test was conducted before the treatment, which was 3 weeks after the semester hadbegun and after the students had completed 3 units of the course book No specialtechniques or language practice were applied when teaching vocabulary in these units Thepre-test consisted of 3 parts In the first part, the students were expected to choose thecorrect answer to fill in the blank Part 2 involved word completion In each sentence therewas a key word which was intentionally deleted except the first letter of the word Studentswere obliged to provide the missing words In the part 3, students were required to provideequivalents of the words in Vietnamese, underline the English words‟ stress as well as givetheir part of speech The test duration was 30 minutes

The pre-test was given to the two groups in the same week to examine their memory ofimportant lexical items in the first three units The main purpose of this test was to evaluatestudents‟ ESP vocabulary size and their level of ESP vocabulary retention

- Progress-test

The progress-test was constructed in the same format applied to the pre-test and wasadministered 5 weeks after the pre-test This test covered lexical items that students hadlearnt from unit 4 to unit 7 of the course book The teacher had applied language games inteaching vocabulary to the experimental group The time allocation for the whole test was

30 minutes

The goal of this test was to measure changes in students‟ ESP vocabulary size after 5weeks of study and to find out whether there was any difference in retention of ESPvocabulary between two groups

- Post-test

The post-test was carried out after the experimental period It had the same design as thepre-test and progress-test Part 1 and 2 checked students‟ knowledge of the meanings, formand usage of the words that they had studied; part 3 required them to supply the targethidden words in the blanks It lasted 30 minutes This test involved ESP lexical items fromunit 8 to unit 12 Language games were continuously utilized in teaching vocabulary to theexperimental group

The aim of this test was to assess students‟ ESP vocabulary size after 10 weeks of study aswell as to make a precise comparison between two groups to see how much they acquiredafter the experimental process and how much progress they made after each lesson

3.6 Results and discussion

The three tests were administered to measure possible differences between the two groups

at the beginning, at the middle and at the end of the study The results of these tests wereanalyzed and compared using independent and paired samples t-test statistical procedures.The total number of students of both groups was 100

3.6.1 Results of the pre-test scores of the two groups and discussion

The result of the pre-test scores of participants in both experimental and control group arepresented in Table 1

Table 1: Results of the pre-test of the two groups

Experimental group (N = 50)

It can be seen from Table 1 that the results of the pre-test of both groups were not good.According to the test results, students in each group were graded into 3 levels: very weak,weak and average The score ranged from 2 to 6 in the experimental group and from 2 to6.5 in the control group.

Table 2 below compares mean score and t-score of the students in the two groups:

Table 2: Comparison of mean scores in the pre-test of the two groups

Groups

Data in Table 2 present almost no difference in mean scores and t-scores between the twogroups However, a closer look at score frequencies discloses some details about the twogroups‟ performance.

Table 3: Pre-test score frequencies of the two groups

of 50 students in the experimental group got marks above par whereas the number of thecontrol one was 3 out of 50, which accounted for 4% and 6% respectively Only onestudent in the control group obtained mark of 6.5 The percentage of students gainingscores below and above average reveals that the English proficiency and vocabulary size ofstudents of the control group was better than those of the experimental one

Tables 4 and 5 in Appendix 2 disclose more insights on the number of students sitting forpre-test as well as the results of each group in subsections

the former and 2 in the latter got very weak marks (<3.5).

There appeared from section 2 that most of the students of both groups did not have a goodretention of the lexical items that they had learned in the previous lesson Only 3 students

of the control group got marks above par whereas none of the students in the experimentalone could do so

In section 3 of the pre-test, students were required to provide equivalents of the words inVietnamese, underline the English words‟ stress as well as give their part of speech Thispart was designed to examine students‟ memory and understanding information of thewords: meaning, word stress and transcription Many students of both group gained marks

at average and above average for word meaning as well as part of speech, ranging from 10

to 15 (out of 20-mark-scale) However, 7 participants in the control group and 9 others inthe experimental one demonstrated very poor performance They could get marks 5 or 4compared to mark 20

The results of word stress exercise indicate that the learners did not remember word stress,

or even had no idea about it because most of them did not and could not mark any stress oflexical items The most popular scores for this part were 0, 1 and 2 out of 10

3.6.2 Results of the progress-test of the two groups and discussion

The progress-test was delivered in week 5 of the study with language games applied tostudents of the experimental group The results of the test are displayed in Table 6

Table 6: Results of the progress-test of the two groups

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Table 7 below compares mean score and t-score of the students in the two groups.

Table 7: Comparison of mean scores in the progress-test of the two groups

Table 8: Progress-test score frequencies of the two groups

A closer look into the subsections of the progress-test in Tables 9 and 10 in the Appendix 2will present a clearer insight of the test result

Section 1 reveals that scores of students in both groups were better compared to the test The number of participants getting good marks (score >7) in the control group as well

pre-as the experimental one represented 40% and 36% respectively Only one student in thecontrol group achieved mark 9