A study on the effectiveness of using task based approach in teaching vocabulary in ESP to the second year students at construction school n04

VIETNAMNATIONALUNIVERSITY – HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OFPOST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ A STUDY ON THE EFECTIVENESS OF USING TASK-BASED APPR

VIETNAMNATIONALUNIVERSITY – HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF

POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ

A STUDY ON THE EFECTIVENESS OF USING TASK-BASED APPROACH IN TEACHING VOCABULARY IN ESP TO THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT CONSTRUCTION SCHOOL N04

(NGHIÊN CỨU TÍNH TÍCH CỰC CỦA VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP

DẠY HỌC DỰA TRÊN NHIỆM VỤ VÀO VIỆC DẠY TỪ VỰNG CHUYÊN NGÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI TRƯỜNG TRUNG

CẤP XÂY DỰNG SỐ 4)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field Code

: English Language Teaching Methodology : 60140111

VIETNAMNATIONALUNIVERSITY – HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF

POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ

A STUDY ON THE EFECTIVENESS OF USING TASK-BASED APPROACH IN TEACHING VOCABULARY IN ESP TO THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT CONSTRUCTION SCHOOL N04

(NGHIÊN CỨU TÍNH TÍCH CỰC CỦA VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP

DẠY HỌC DỰA TRÊN NHIỆM VỤ VÀO VIỆC DẠY TỪ VỰNG CHUYÊN NGÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI TRƯỜNG TRUNG

CẤP XÂY DỰNG SỐ 4)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field : English Language Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111

Supervisor : Dr Phạm Thị Thanh Thủy

HANOI, 2013

This paper is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree ofMaster of Arts at Department of Post Graduate studies – University of Languages andInternational Studies-Vietnam National University I certify that this thesis is the result

of my own research, and it has not been submitted for any other degrees

Hanoi, November 2013

Student‟s signature

Nguyễn Thị Hà

This thesis is devoted to examining the comparative effectiveness of task-basedapproach in teaching ESP vocabulary to second year non-major students atConstruction School N04 In order to achieve this objective, a theoretical and practical

research is carried out In the Theoretical Background, the background of vocabulary

and relevance to teaching vocabulary is summarized An overview on task-basedapproach that has been employing in foreign language teaching, especially in teachingESP vocabulary is also introduced in this part After that, a brief background setting tothe quasi-experiment relating to teaching and learning ESP vocabulary at ConstructionSchool N04 is highlighted Subsequently, the quasi-experimental study is given toevaluate the effectiveness of task-based approach And the results we will get based ondata analysis are in the third chapter Finally, some recommendations for ESPvocabulary teaching/learning effectively are suggested

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ESP: English for Specific Purpose

EGP: English for General English

CG: Control group

EG: Experimental group

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF TABLES v

LIST OF CHARTS vi

PART I: INTRODUCTION……… 1

1 Rationale ……… 1

2 Aims of the study……… 1

3 Significance of the study……… 2

4 Scope of the study……… 2

5 Research Questions……… 3

6 Methods of the study……… 3

7 Design of the study……… 4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT……… 5

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND……… 5

1.1 An overview of vocabulary………. 5

1.1.1 Definition……… 5

1.1.2 The importance of vocabulary……… 5

1.2 English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and vocabulary in ESP…………. 6

1.2.1 English for Specific Purposes (ESP)………

1.2.2 Vocabulary in ESP 7

1.3 Teaching vocabulary……… 8

1.3.1 Purposes for teaching vocabulary……… 8

1.3.2 Principles of teaching vocabulary……… 9

1.3.3 Stages in teaching vocabulary……… 9

1.3.4 Techniques in teaching vocabulary……… 10

1.3.5 Teaching vocabulary in ESP……… 12

1.4 Task-based language teaching………. 13

1.4.2 Task-based language teaching in ESP context……… 17

CHAPTER 2: THE QUASI-EXPERIMENT………. 19

2.1 Background to the study……… 19

2.1.1 The teachers……… 19

2.1.2 The students……… 19

2.1.3 The textbooks………. 19

2.1.4 The attitudes of teachers and students at Construction School N04 about the importance of ESP vocablary teaching 20

2.1.5 The real situation of teaching vocabulary in ESP at Construction School N04 21

2.2 The quasi-experiment……… 21

2.2.1 Subjects and process of vocabulary teaching………. 21

2.2.2 Main testing instruments: Pre-test and post-tests……… 22

2.2.3 Supplementary testing instruments……… 22

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS, RESUTLS AND DISCUSSIONS… 24

3.1 Class observation result……… 24

3.2 Teacher‟s self-assessment result……… 25

3.3 The post-tests result………. 25

3.4 Vocabulary-checking test result……… 29

PART III: CONCLUSION 33

REFERENCES 34 APPENDICES I

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Teaching vocabulary especially in ESP courses is becoming a challenge forEnglish Language Teachers As far as we know, vocabulary is an inseparable part ofany teaching syllabus and vocabulary should be taught in a well-planned and regularbasis It‟s essential to carefully decide what vocabulary will be selected for teaching,and what approach or activities will be used to teach it to the students AlthoughEnglish teachers in Vietnam are now being trained in using modern methods ofEnglish teaching and attend local and international conferences, it is the fact that mostteachers at Construction School N04 still use grammar-translation method to teachvocabulary That is, when the students begin a lesson, the teacher will first have thestudents say the new words once, and then pay attention to the meaning of the words intheir native language Following this, the students will go through the conversation orreading passage while their teacher points out in the students‟ native language themeaning of the passage as well as grammatical patterns that the students must know.This type of teaching method is called the grammar-translation method which is not aneffective and suitable method in teaching vocabulary nowadays

Meanwhile, task-based approach which has been strongly advocated andpromoted by many world-leading linguists (Prabhu 1987, Nunan 1989, Willis 1996,Skehan 1998) since early 1980s is commonly used in language instruction to provide ameaningful learning process for learners It‟s closed affiliation with CommunicativeLanguage Teaching (CLT) method provides a production focus in a more structuralframework in language learning process Using task-based approach, each student canget the same opportunity to experience the learning process by putting him/her in asituation in which she/he can decide alone; mainly, the way of expressing andaccepting experience of using the target language Hence, in this study the researcherwants to explore whether task-based approach is effective or not in teachingvocabulary in ESP to the second year students at Construction School N04

2 Aims of the study

As such, the study is aimed to: firstly, explore the attitudes of teachers and students

at Construction School N04 about the importance of ESP vocabulary teaching; secondly,

whether task-based approach is effective or not in teaching vocabulary in ESP atConstruction School N04 and finally give some suggestions for teaching vocabulary inESP.

3 Significance of the study

Because of the importance of vocabulary in ESP, it is necessary to find outeffective ways to teach vocabulary to the students While modern methods has beensupported and promoted, a lot of teachers still use tradition ways, which make thelessons boring The study, thus, tries to test the effectiveness of task-based approach inteaching vocabulary in ESP and suggest some recommendations for teachingvocabulary in ESP more effectively

With this study, the writer hopes to make a small contribution toteaching/learning vocabulary in ESP effectively, which may help the students retainvocabulary and the teachers find the most appropriate way in teaching ESP

4 Scope of the study

Due to the limit of a minor thesis, the study just lasted 11- week exploration

basing on the three units (Unit 1, 2 and 3) of the textbook English for construction

– an in-house material used to teach at Construction School N04 The participants inthis study are 50 students aging from 18-25 not randomly selected from K40-TXD1and K40-TXD2 at Construction School N04 in Xuan Hoa town, Phuc Yen district,Vinh Phuc province To ensure the relative equality of English knowledge levelbetween two classes, the researcher asked one teacher of English who has taken part

in teaching these two classes at school for help to choose students in each class withthe following criteria:

- 12 students getting good mark in the two latest semesters (from 7.0 to 8.0 mark) in English for General Purposes (EGP)

- 13 students getting average mark in the two latest semesters (from 5.0 – 6.9 mark) in EGP

These two classes were assigned randomly to two groups, namely a control group(CG) and an experimental group (EG) Another teacher of English also took part inthe study with the role of preparing the lesson plan and teaching two groups -experimental and control ones The researcher herself could not teach the students,because she has to work as an observer in the study

5 Research Questions

For this study, four research questions are addressed:

1 What are attitudes of teachers and students at Construction School N04 about the importance of ESP vocabulary teaching?

2 What is the real situation of teaching vocabulary in ESP at Construction School

6 Methods of the study

First of all, the Theoretical Background relating to the research was conducted

by collecting materials, internet sources In the Development, the researcher took a

brief look at the reality of teaching vocabulary in ESP at Construction School N04including the descriptions of the teachers, students, textbook and method of teachingvocabulary as the background setting to the study

With an attempt to find out the effectiveness of task-based approach in teachingvocabulary in ESP to second year students at Construction School N04, a quasi-experiment was carried out 50 students from K40-TXD1 and K40-TXD2 were notrandomly selected One class was randomly assigned as the experiment group and theother as the control group Another teacher of English took part in the study with therole of preparing lesson plan and teaching both groups The quasi-experiment lasted 11

weeks with three first units of the textbook - English for construction The pre-test was

administered to the students of both classes at the beginning of the experiment in order

to check students‟ vocabulary knowledge After finishing one unit, a post-test, whosecontent was based on the knowledge of that unit was delivered to students of bothclasses However, the content of the last post-test included the knowledge of all threeunits Apart from the post-tests, class observation, teacher‟s self-assessment andvocabulary-checking tests were used as supplementary testing instruments to confirmthe post-test results The data obtained were thoroughly analyzed by statisticaldescriptions By these ways, we can test whether task-based approach was really

7 Design of the study

The research includes three parts The first part is Introduction, in which the

rationale, aims, scope, methods, research questions and design are identified

The second one is Development which consists of three chapters Chapter 1

-Theoretical Background gives an overview of the theories relating to teaching

vocabulary in ESP In the chapter 2 - The Quasi-Experiment, the researcher

describes the background to the study; how to carry out and the process of

conducting the quasi-experiment The last chapter - chapter 3 - Data analysis,

results and discussion prescribed the results of the quasi-experiment.

The part 3 – Conclusion, gives the summary of the study, the suggestions for

teaching/learning more effectively and the recommendations for further study

PART II:

DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 An overview of vocabulary

Therefore, vocabulary can be defined as the words of a language, includingsingle items and phrases or chunks of several words which covey a particular meaning,the way individual words do

1.1.2 The importance of vocabulary

Regarding the important roles of vocabulary in language learning and teaching,Wilkins (1972, p.111) stressed that “without grammar very little can be conveyed,without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed” According to Richards and Renandya(2002), "vocabulary is a core component of language proficiency and provides much

of the basis for how well learners speak, listen, read, and write" (Richards &Renandya, 2002, p 255) As such, by having many stocks of words learners will beable to comprehend the reading materials, catch other talking, give response, speakfluently and write some kind of topics On the contrary, if the learners do not recognizethe meanings of words used by those who address them, they will be unable toparticipate in conversations, unable to express some ideas, or unable to ask for

teaching a foreign language that researchers, teachers, and learners have paid a lotattention to To emphasize this, Chanier and Selva also states that vocabularyknowledge is a key factor in reading comprehension (1998: 489, as cited in

Constantinescu, 2007) As what Thornbury states in the book titled How to teach

vocabulary, grammar is a collection of rules while vocabulary is a collection of items

and “one rule can generate a great many sentences”, which to some extents implicatesthat “vocabulary learning never stops, even long after grammar system is firmly inplace, new words are being coined daily and old words is assuming new meaning” or

in other words, the grammar learning could be mastered at some level whereasmastering vocabulary seem to take more time than that

1.2 English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and vocabulary in ESP

1.2.1 English for Specific Purposes (ESP)

The study of Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) has a long and valid history(Streven, 1977; cited in Johns & Dudly-Evans, 1998) Especially today since the focus

of research is upon English, English for specific purposes has gained ascendency indifferent fields (Johns & Dudley-Evans, 1998) "ESP has been referred to as appliedELT as the content and aim of any course is determined by needs of a specific group oflearners" (Dudly-Evans, 1998) Howatt (1984) introduces ESP as an innovativeactivity in the domain of language teaching Strevans (1988; cited in Dudly-Evans and

St John, 1998, p 3) defines ESP in terms of four absolute characteristics and twovariable characteristics The absolute characteristics are that ESP consists of EnglishLanguage Teaching which is

 designed to meet the specified needs of the learner;

 related in content ( that is in its themes and topics) to particular disciplines,

occupations and activities;

 centered on language appropriate to those activities in syntax, lexis, discourse,

semantic and so on, and analysis of the discourse;

 in contrast with 'general English'

And the variable characteristics are that ESP

 may be restricted as to the learning skills to be learned (for example reading only);

 may not be taught according to any pre-ordained methodology

Later Dudly-Evans and St John (1998, p 4) modified Strevens‟s definition in the following way:

Absolute characteristics:

 ESP is designed to meet specific the needs of the learners;

 ESP makes use of underlying methodology and activities of the discipline it serves;

 ESP is centered on the language appropriate to these activities in terms of grammar, lexis, register, study skills, discourse and genre

Variable characteristics:

 ESP may be related to or designed for specific disciplines;

 ESP may use, in specific teaching situations, a different methodology from that of General English;

 ESP is likely to be designed for intermediate or advanced students;

 Most ESP courses assume some basic knowledge of the language systems

Robinson (1991) believes that ESP is a major activity around the world today.Huchinson and Waters (1987), make the point clear: ESP is not a matter of teachingspecialized varieties of English, nor is just matter of science words and grammar forscientists It is also not different in kind from any other form of language teaching asfar as principles of effective and efficient learning are concerned (p 18)

1.2.2 Vocabulary in ESP

In terms of vocabulary in ESP, it is most important to make a distinctionbetween two types of vocabulary: technical and semi-technical because they are ofgreat importance to the learners studying English for specific and academic purposes.Dudley-Evans and St John (1998, p 83) suggest two broad areas related to technicalvocabulary

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

occurrence in specific and technical description and discussion;

(b) Vocabulary that has specialized and restricted meanings in certain disciplines and which may vary in meaning across disciplines

It is quite clear that the first area would be referred to as semi-technical and the second area would be referred to as technical vocabulary

According to Hutchinson and Waters (1987), ESP should be seen as anapproach to language teaching which is directed by specific and apparent reasons forlearning Their specific and apparent reasons for learning English is for academicpurposes and their academic study will involve specialized areas across different

vocabulary acquisition is surely academic vocabulary A rationale behind this is thatlearners who will do academic study in English must focus on academic vocabularywhich is variously known as a general useful scientific vocabulary and semi-technicalvocabulary It is because they need to exhibit a wide range of academic skills likereading about research papers in their own fields, listening to teachers speak abouttheir work, writing academic papers and presenting oral or written evaluations ofmethods or results in many cases (Farrell, 1990).

1.3 Teaching vocabulary

1.3.1 Purposes for teaching vocabulary

One reason teachers are concerned about teaching vocabulary is to facilitate thecomprehension of a text that students will be assigned to read If students do not knowthe meaning of many of the words that they will encounter in a text, theircomprehension of that selection is likely to be compromised When the purpose ofvocabulary instruction is to facilitate the comprehension of a selection, it is obviousthat this instruction must take place as an introduction before the reading of theselection

As a rule, new words in narrative selections are not as critical to the overallunderstanding of the selection as new words in informational selections Beforeguiding students‟ reading of a particular narrative, teacher should determine if thereare any new words that represent concepts that are critical to understanding theselection and which are not adequately defined in context If there are, then thesewords should be presented and discussed before the students read The exploration ofthese prerequisite terms and concepts will establish a strong foundation for subsequentlearning

A second major reason for teaching the meaning of words is to increase thenumber of words that students know and can use in a variety of educational, social,and eventually work-related areas To increase the number of words the students learn,

it is often helpful to teach these words in morphological or semantic clusters A veryeffective way to present semantically related words is to build word webs around somecentral concepts

According to Thornbury (2002) “the acquisition of new words is the processwhich never stops” To build a good storage of vocabulary is the first and one of the

most important steps when starting to learn a new language Therefore, it is essential toteach students vocabulary.

1.3.2 Principles of teaching vocabulary

Kieran A File has shared with English language teaching staff at the University

of Economics in Ho Chi Minh City six principles when they plan a direct vocabularyteaching and learning program The six principles are:

 Choose useful words;

 Let the learners do the work;

 Focus on different aspects of a word;

 Provide meaningful learning opportunities;

 Implement a regular testing schedule;

 Be patient with their learners

According to Kieran A File, these six principles are not the only principles forvocabulary teaching and learning, but they offer teachers a good starting point fordecisions about the vocabulary they plan to spend time on in their classrooms

In another study conducted by Erin Lowry (2009), he also gave six principleswhich have some similar to those by Kieran A File These are:

 Keep teaching simple and clear No complicated explanations;

 Relate present teaching to past knowledge by showing a pattern;

 Use both oral and written presentation – write it on the board and explain;

 Give most attention to words that are already partly known;

 Tell the learners if it is a high frequency word that they should remember;

 Don‟t bring in other unknown or little-known related words (like synonyms or

opposites)

Each researcher or scientist gives his/her own ideas of principles of teachingvocabulary By combining, following all these principles and putting them intopractice the teacher of language will have good and effective lessons of teachingvocabulary

1.3.3 Stages in teaching vocabulary

Basically as proposed by Gower (2005) and Thornbury (2002) there are threestages in teaching vocabulary namely Presenting, Practicing and Revising

Presenting vocabulary refers to pre-planned lesson stages in which learners are

important to show the meaning of the words as well as the form in which it is used.There are several ways to present new items, such as using translation, which is themost direct route to a world‟s meaning, illustrate meaning using pictures, mime orrealia, appropriate to teach beginners; contextualizing, defining, giving synonyms,opposites and giving detailed descriptions which are suitable for advanced learners.

After presenting the words, practicing of the words is necessary To do that,many different kinds of tasks could be implemented in order to move the words intolong term memory, the one a learner has to activate in order to retrieve the words whennecessary (Thornbury, 2002) Among these classroom activities teacher can use somedecision making ones like identifying, selecting, matching, sorting, ranking andsequencing And also production tasks, for instance, completion of sentences and textsand creation of sentences and texts

The last stage is related to the production stage with the aim of helping students

to incorporate the new items into the lexicon This can be done by usingcommunicative activities in which the learners have to retrieve the vocabulary alreadylearnt and practiced

1.3.4 Techniques in teaching vocabulary

Techniques in presenting vocabulary

The main aim of presenting vocabulary is to insert the meaning, the correct formand appropriate usage of the new word into the student‟s memory There are quite lots

of methods and techniques how to present the form and meaning of new lexical items

It depends on teachers, which form of presentation is the most suitable for theparticular topic According to Gairns and Redman (1986), there are some traditionalmethods and techniques used to present new vocabulary:

Visual techniques:

 Visuals – photographs, flashcards, blackboard drawings, pictures, videos, wall-charts,

pictograms and real objects; they are useful for teaching concrete words

 Demonstrating: mime/facial expression and gesture – useful for teaching action verbs Verbal techniques:

 Illustrative situations (oral or written) – this technique is helpful when the words are more abstract

 Synonyms and antonyms – using the words students have already known to teach them similar words

 Definitions and explanations – appropriate for intermediate learners To make

definition of words can be difficult, especially at elementary levels

 Scales – if students know 'big' and 'small', for example, other steps could be to teach 'short' and 'long' etc

 Examples of the type – give examples of words you want to introduce

 Translation – it has been the most widespread activity used for presenting the meaning

of a word in classes

 Guessing from the context, matching/labelling – learners match words to words or

sentences or pictures It belongs to so called discovery techniques: they activate the learner‟s

previous knowledge of a language and initiate the work with the new vocabulary Discoveringtechniques demands the autonomous students with higher knowledge of English

Techniques in practicing vocabulary

Presenting a word in the class does not secure that it will be remembered for a longtime There are many practice activities that include repeating of the new vocabulary tofix the new words in the learners´ memory The practice activities are divided into twomain groups: receptive and productive

Receptive practice (the learner does not really produce the target words) includesthese types (Thornbury, 2002):

 Identifying – means finding words in a text or listening, e.g underline specific words

or expressions in the text, or tick, put in the correct column or list items that you hear

 Selecting – means recognizing words and making choices among them, e.g circle the odd word in the line

 Matching – includes recognizing words and than pairing them with their synonym,antonym, definition, pictures to words etc It can be intended to matching parts of lexical items

to create collocations (there is a very popular memory game based on matching calledPelmanism)

 Sorting – putting the lexical items into different categories, e.g put these adjectives in two groups – positive and negative

 Ranking and sequencing – putting the lexical items in some kind of order, e.g

ordering items chronologically, ranking items according to personal preference etc

Productive practice (the productive skills – writing or speaking – are incorporated

in the vocabulary teaching,) includes these types (Thornbury, 2002): completion andcreation

 Completion tasks (context is given), often called gap-fills, are widely used not only inpractice but also in revision stages They include open gap-fills or closed gap-fills (multiplechoice activities), crosswords,

 Creation tasks: the learner use the word in a sentence or a story, in writing, speaking orboth forms, use affixes to build new naming units from given words

Techniques in revising vocabulary:

Vocabulary revision aims at helping students acquire active, productivevocabularies Students need to practice regularly what they have learnt; otherwise, thematerial will fade away Teachers can resort to many techniques for vocabularyconsolidation and revision In this stage, some specific tasks are listed below:

As for Thornbury, those listed activities above are some common languagegames which assist teachers in implementing a productive vocabulary lesson withlearners The final stage, as further recommended by him, highly involves productiontasks in which learners, after having made decisions will actually produce something

as a product of their own In this way, learners will turn words from receptive toproductive and put them into long-term memory (p.100)

1.3.5 Teaching vocabulary in ESP

Teaching vocabulary especially in ESP courses is becoming a challenge for EnglishLanguage Teachers In other words, teaching technical terms to students is not an easytask Teachers always have to consider best methods and techniques of teaching,characteristics of their students and vocabulary in students‟ specific field

Taking into consideration the specific factors of ESP vocabulary teaching “many of thetechniques traditionally used in ELT work can be exploited in ESP vocabularyteaching especially at the early stages when both subject and linguistic content are at

an elementary level” (Kennedy and Bolitho 59) Meanwhile, getting students toinvolve tasks is one of some ways to put these techniques into practice, which meansthe teacher applies task-based language teaching (TBLT)/ task-based approach.However, TBLT haven‟t been applied at my school to teach vocabulary until now.That is the reason why I want to study task-based approach and test its effectiveness inteaching vocabulary in ESP at my school Teaching vocabulary in ESP effectivelymeans the students can master the vocabulary their teacher teaches and use fluentlyboth in educational environment and in real world

1.4 Task-based language teaching

1.4.1 Task-based language teaching

Task-based language teaching has increasingly achieved popularity in recentyears and has been recommended as a way forward in English Language Teaching.According to Richards and Rodgers (2001), "task-based language teaching refers to anapproach based on the use of tasks as the core unit of planning and instruction inlanguage teaching" (p 223) In task-based approach, learners concentrate on meaningrather than form That is, students carry out a group of communicative tasks instead ofform-based discrete exercises Students are expected to express their own ideas, eitherorally or in a written mode, about the topic of the lesson These ideas should be based

on the analysis of meaning derived from a communicative activity

Task-based language education starts from the basic idea that students learn alanguage by performing tasks A task is generally described as an activity in whichpeople engage to attain an objective, and which involves the meaningful use oflanguage According to Willis (1996), tasks are always activities where the targetlanguage is used by learners for a communication purpose in order to achieve anoutcome (p 23) Furthermore, Willis presents a task-based approach where tasks areused as the main focus of the lesson within a supportive framework She holds that

“the aim of tasks is to create a real purpose for language use and to provide a naturalcontext for language study” (p 1) Nunan (2004) defines a task as “a piece of

interacting in the target language while their attention is focused on mobilizing theirgrammatical knowledge in order to express meaning and in which the intention is toconvey meaning rather than to manipulate form” (p 4) He believes that “task is animportant element in syllabus design, classroom teaching and learner assessment” (p.1).

When it comes to the theory of learning, Richards and Rodgers (2001), proposethat “tasks provide both the input and the output processing necessary for languageacquisition” “Task activity and achievement are motivational” (p.228) Meanwhilemotivation is a need for language learning Brown (2000) argues that “it is easy insecond language learning to claim that a learner will be successful with the propermotivation” (p 160)

Besides the above definitions, Ellis (2003: 16) provides a composite one:

A task is a work-plan that requires learners to process language pragmatically inorder to achieve an outcome that can be evaluated in terms of whether the correct orappropriate propositional content has been conveyed To this end, it requires them togive primary attention to meaning and to make use of their own linguistic resources,although the design of the task may predispose them to choose particular forms A task

is intended to result in language use that bears a resemblance, direct or indirect, to theway language is used in the real world Like other language activities, a task canengage productive or receptive, and oral or written skills, and also various cognitiveprocesses

An interesting aspect of this definition is that it includes almost all the majorpoints of contention in language pedagogy: attention to meaning, engagement withgrammar, inclusion of pragmatic properties, use of authentic communication,importance of social interaction, integration of language skills, and the connection topsycholinguistic processes

Talking about types of tasks, there are numerous types of tasks However, theyare, in general, are characterized as two main typologies: pedagogical tasks and targettasks Pedagogical tasks include any of a series of techniques designed ultimately toteach students to perform the target task Target tasks are much more specific andmore explicit related to classroom instruction In nature, tasks are categorized as one-way/two-way tasks, planned/unplanned tasks, close/open tasks, and

convergent/divergent tasks For development of the practical work in this s Targettasks are much more specific and more explicit related to classroom instruction Innature, tasks are categorized as one-way/two-way tasks, planned/unplanned tasks,close/open tasks, and convergent/divergent tasks For development of the practicalwork in this study, the definitions of these tasks suggested by Long (1989) should betaken into consideration:

 One-way tasks refer to ones in which one person describes the informationwhich only he or she can see so that others can get it For example, describe one‟s own process

of interviewing a number of people on their daily life

 Two-way tasks are the ones in which each member of a group hasexclusive access to information about the final result of a problem-solving activity An examplecould involve giving one person a version of a picture, giving another version of the samepicture to their partner, and asking them to identify the difference between the two pictures

 Planned tasks are the ones that are prepared and planned in advance toaccess their effects on written or oral work For example, planning the words, phrases and ideasbefore carrying out an interview

 Unplanned tasks: the ones that are not prepared and planned in advancebefore accessing their effects on written or oral work For example, students are asked to haveinformal face-to-face conversations

 Convergent tasks include problem-solving through social interaction,decision making, arrangement making, and information organizing through conversation orcorrespondence

 Divergent tasks include topic discussion through the exchange of

information, ideas, opinions, attitudes, feelings, experiences and plans

Lots of procedures and stages of task have been devised so far, but Ellis (2003)believes that they all have in common three principal phases: pre-task, during task, andpost-task In pre-task phase the overall purpose of this phase is to prepare the learnersfor the next phase, that is, students should get prepared for completing the task In fact,the pre-task phase has two basic functions: 1) to introduce and create interest in doing

a task on the chosen topic, and 2) to activate topic-related words, phrases and targetsentences that will be useful in carrying out the task and in the real worldcommunication In the during task phase, students work in pairs or groups although

this is dependent on the type of activity, and they use whatever linguistic resourcesthey possess to achieve the goals of the task The post-task phase in the framework, thelanguage focus, provides an opportunity for form-focused work Having completed thetask, the students prepare either a written or an oral report to present to the class Inthis phase, some of the specific features of the language, which occurred naturallyduring the task, are identified and analyzed.

Similarly, Willis (1996) gives her own framework of task-based lesson asfollows:

PRE-TASK

Introduction to topic and task

instruction

TASK CYCLE

Task  Planning Report

In details, in pre-task, there is an introduction to the topic and task It mayinvolve brainstorming, a pre-task, introduction of useful words and phrases,preparation time or listening to native speakers doing the task New structures are notpre-taught The task cycle offers learners the chance to use whatever language theyalready know in order to carry out the task and then to improve their language underthe teacher‟s guidance while their reports on the task The task cycle consists of threephases:

a Task: Learners begin by carrying out a communication task, using whateverlanguage they already have, in pairs or groups Willis (1996, pp 26-28) gives six maintypes of task: Listing, Ordering and sorting, Comparing, Problem solving, Sharingpersonal experiences and Creative tasks At this stage, the teacher monitors andencourages attempts to communicate meaning in the target language While helpingstudents to formulate what they want to say, the teacher does not correct errors Theemphasis is on spontaneity and fluency

b Planning: Having completed the task, students prepare to report on theoutcomes Now the emphasis is on organization and accuracy The teacher advisesstudents on language and helps them correct any errors they make during this phase.

c Report: Some or all of the groups report briefly to the whole class The otherslisten in order to compare findings or conduct a survey The teacher may rephrase butnot correct the language

In language focus, learners examine the language forms in the text and look in detail atthe use and the meaning of lexical items they have noticed Language focus has twocomponents:

a Analysis: Learners focus on form and ask questions about language features

b Practice: Teacher conducts activities based on the analysis work or examplesfrom the text or transcript

1.4.2 Task-based language teaching in ESP context

Cubillo and Brenes (2009) examined task-based instruction in an ESP course inthe computer center at the University of Costa Rica This study presented theadvantages of using Task -based learning to help learners from the computer center atthe university of Costa Rica infer the rule of the superlative form of adjectives inEnglish It is important to mention that the methodology based on tasks helps learnerspay more attention or concentrate more on meaning Task-based language learning is

an approach in which learners concentrate more on meaning than on form By doingthis, students perform different communicative tasks, which happen to be moremeaningful because they are close to the learners‟ reality, instead of doing form-baseddiscrete exercises, which are usually decontextualized and meaningless because they

do not see a reason to do them Cubillo concluded that it is important to point out thatimplementing the TBL methodology in an ESP context is a challenging task forlanguage teachers As Brown (2000) pointed out teachers should take advantage ofdifferent approaches and techniques and combine them to help learners improve theirskills Subsequently, by implementing task-based instruction, learners as well asteachers will certainly benefit from a different approach to language pedagogy because

it is more motivating, challenging, innovative, appealing and meaningful to studentsthan other traditional grammar-translation based approaches

On looking back at the literature review, it is obvious that using tasks inteaching is a popular method and applying tasks in teaching vocabulary in ESP context

is observable to test whether it is an effective approach or not

CHAPTER 2: THE QUASI-EXPERIMENT 2.1 Background to the study

2.1.1 The teachers

Construction School N04 is not a big school, so there are only 4 teachers ofEnglish who are at the age of from 26 to 40 Three of them have at least from 12-15years of teaching non-major English students at school and all got Master Degree atCollege of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University and Hanoi Universityfrom 3-7 years ago I am the youngest teacher and have least experience of teachingEnglish to non-majors at school One more thing worth mentioning is that teachers ofEnglish at Construction School N04 are all very enthusiastic and responsible

2.1.3 The textbooks

The textbook used for the first year non-major students in English for General

course is New Headway – Elementary but there are 9 out of 12 units taught at

Construction School N04 The textbook used in ESP course for the second year

non-majors is English for Construction – an in-house material designed by teachers of

English at school This textbook consists of 5 units which are taught in 30 periods.Each unit provides students a reading passage with a long list of vocabulary translatedinto native language and some simple exercises All the exercises are designed forstudents to practice and consolidate vocabulary In fact, there are no exercises forlistening or speaking which the teacher herself can design during the process of

teaching A remarkable point here is that English for construction is taught as an

optional, not a compulsory subject

2.1.4 The attitudes of teachers and students at Construction School N 0 4 about the importance of ESP vocabulary teaching

To find out the attitudes of teachers and students at Construction School N04about the importance of ESP vocabulary teaching, the researcher carried out aninterview with both teachers and students

There are two questions given to the teachers at Construction School N04 Theyare:

1, How do you think about teaching ESP vocabulary at your school? (Is it an easy or adifficult task? Why?)

2, What do you think of the roles of ESP vocabulary teaching at your school? (Is itimportant or not? Why?)

With the first question, all teachers at Construction School N04 stated that ESPvocabulary teaching is not an easy task There are a lot of technical terms difficult toexplain and help students remember while the students‟ English level is quite low.When being asked the second question, all three teachers said that ESP vocabularyteaching is very important because vocabulary is the foundation helping studentsdevelop other aspects related such as reading, writing, listening and speaking.However, they added at Construction School N04 English for construction is not a

compulsory subject, so ESP vocabulary teaching is simply a task to introducevocabulary in construction to the students Two teachers at Informatics & ForeignLanguage Centre (IFC) of Construction School N04 emphasized that they shouldchange their view of ESP vocabulary teaching at their school because more and morestudents who after graduation wanted to go abroad and work for foreign companiescame to IFC and asked to be taught English for construction

Students interviewed were 50 students chosen from two classes K40-TXD1 andK40-TXD2 They were given two questions in Vietnamese:

1, How is ESP vocabulary teaching in your class useful to you?

2, How is your teacher‟s ESP vocabulary taught in your class room?

Being asked these two questions, 15 out of 50 students said that they did not takenotice of their teachers‟ ESP vocabulary teaching, so they had no ideas about whether

their teachers‟ ESP vocabulary teaching affect their ESP vocabulary learning or not.The others stated their teachers‟ ESP vocabulary teaching was so monotonous that thelessons were boring, which affected a lot their ESP vocabulary learning They added ifonly their teacher could give more interesting activities while teaching ESPvocabulary, it would be better.

2.1.5 The real situation of teaching vocabulary in ESP at Construction School N 0 4

As mentioned in Introduction, most teachers at Construction School N04 stilluse grammar-translation method to teach vocabulary in their class That is, vocabularyselection is based solely on the reading texts used, and words are taught throughbilingual word lists, dictionary study, and memorization Vocabulary items arepresented with their translation equivalents In other words, the students‟ nativelanguage was the medium of instruction It was used to explain new vocabulary itemsand to enable comparisons to be made between the students‟ mother tongue and thetarget language In each unit taught in 6 periods, the teacher gives students about from40-70 new words Translating the passage and doing some simple exercises do nothelp students remember the vocabulary well and the students forget right afterfinishing that lesson The only way that the teacher asks students to learn all the newgiven words at home is learning by heart This leads to students‟ bad vocabulary usage

in both educational area and real world

2.2 The quasi-experiment

2.2.1 Subjects and process of vocabulary teaching

The quasi-experiment lasted 11 weeks with 18 sessions of vocabulary

teaching basing on the three units (Unit 1, 2 and 3) of the textbook English for

construction – an in-house material used to teach at Construction School N04 andfour classes of testing the students‟ ESP vocabulary The students took part in thestudy are 50 students aging from 18-25 not randomly selected from K40-TXD1 andK40-TXD2 at Construction School N04 in Xuan Hoa town, Phuc Yen district, VinhPhuc province To ensure the relative equality of English knowledge level betweentwo classes, the researcher asked one teacher of English who has taken part inteaching these two classes at school for help to choose students in each class withthe following criteria:

- 12 students getting good mark in the two latest semesters (from 7.0 to 8.0 mark) inEGP

- 13 students getting average mark in the two latest semesters (from 5.0 – 6.9 mark) in EGP

Two classes were assigned randomly to two groups, namely a control groupand an experimental group Each group included 23 male and 2 female students(because of characteristics of construction school) One teacher of English also tookpart in the study with the role of preparing the lesson plan and teaching two groups -experimental and control ones I myself could not teach the students, because I have

to work as an observer in the quasi-experiment

2.2.2 Main testing instruments: Pre-test and post-tests

The main instruments for assessment is tests including one pre-test and threepost-tests The pre-test was delivered to the students of both classes at the beginning ofthe quasi-experiment in order to check students‟ vocabulary knowledge The four testswere designed at the same level – elementary (low intermediate) with two parts:English for General Purposes (50%) and English for Specific Purposes (50%) Theresearcher added EGP part to the tests in order to see whether there was any differencebetween the results in ESP and the ones in EGP besides the comparison between theresults of CG and EG after carrying out the quasi-experiment The content of the first

part in the test was chosen from the book Test Your Vocabulary 1 by Peter Watcyn –

Jones (published by Pearson Education Limited) The second part of pre-test and thelast post-test was designed based on the knowledge of three units The second part ofthe other two post- tests was based on the knowledge of the first two units

The results of the students‟ tests were thoroughly analyzed and compared.Statistical methods were used to find out the level of students‟ vocabulary knowledge.Both parts of the tests were marked according to band 10 (in other words, the totalmark of the test was 20) Then the researcher thoroughly analyzed and compared themean of the tests of two groups

2.2.3 Supplementary testing instruments

Notes from class observation

What the writer noted when observing during classes of vocabulary teaching was used

to evaluate the effectiveness of TBLT employed in teaching vocabulary

Teachers’ self-assessment papers

Like tests and notes from class observation, the teachers‟ self-assessmentpapers played a supporting role in testing the effectiveness of the TBLT in the quasi-experiment In the paper, the teacher was asked to write her self- reflection before andafter teaching the class such as how she/he would change if teaching the same lessonagain

Vocabulary-checking test

Besides all above testing instruments, the researcher also used checking test for two classes to check students‟ vocabulary memorization of theprevious lessons right before starting new/next lesson The vocabulary-checkingtests were not the same form They were marked according to band 10

vocabulary-CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS, RESUTLS AND DISCUSSIONS

3.1 Class observation result

The classroom observation results reflected the reality in which the teacher oftwo classes adopted the grammar translation method activities and task-based methodactivities in teaching vocabulary In general, the teacher prepared the lessons verycarefully and during the lessons, she was enthusiastic and tried to achieve the aims andobjectives of the lessons However, there were some differences in two groups‟ classeswhen employing different methods

As for the CG, the lesson was teacher-centered That is, the teacher‟s talkingtime was more than students‟ talking time Vietnamese seemed to be the mainlanguage used during the lessons The most popular activities during the lessons weretranslating sentences or passages and answering the questions In some situations, theteacher played the role as both the teacher and as the students In other words, she didtoo many things for students Meanwhile, students in the control class studied ratherpassively All the time they noted down in their notebooks, sat quietly, paid muchattention to the course-book and the teacher‟s translation There was very littleinteraction between students Moreover, about 50% of students felt tired and boredwith the lessons,

As for the EG, it was different because the teacher used another teachingmethod The emerging thing when observing this class was that most (not all) studentsfelt interested in English classes It was reflected when the teacher entered the class,she was warmly and cheerfully welcomed The students of this class seemed moreactive in involving in the classroom activities They were motivated by differentactivities The class was student-centered and students were taught in a foreignlanguage learning atmosphere Besides, group work, pair work activities wereemployed, so students have more opportunities to communicate with each other Asthe result, the classes were a bit noisier Also, as I observed, some quiet students didnot want to take part in the classroom activities They seemed not to be self-confidentand shy while the teacher seemed not to find the effective way to motivate them.Moreover, sometimes teacher also forgot her role and did students‟ role instead, whichaffected somewhat task-based instruction implementation and its result valuation

3.2 Teacher’s self-assessment result

The teacher‟s self-assessment result showed some similar points likeobservation result After teaching CG like other classes she has taught, the teacher felttired and bored with the lessons because students seemed inactive and there was verylittle interaction between students She realized the students forgot the meanings of thewords right after translating or being translated Even after translating a certainsentence, the students did not know exactly the meaning of each word

However, after teaching EG she said she seemed to retain her interest inteaching Thanks for tasks given to the students during the lessons of teachingvocabulary, the students seemed more active, motivated and involved in the classroomactivities In the self-assessment paper, the teacher said “I was very pleased withactivities designed – they are very useful and interesting to the students” She alsoadded “interaction with other students and working in groups help the shy students bemore confident in language classes, too” The teacher stated in the self-assessmentpaper that “activities related to language games seemed to draw the students muchmore than the others, so I would designed more language games for students if I taughtother classes” She added, “if I had time, I would also design various types of tasksbecause some repeated tasks seemed boring to the students” However, she realizedthere were some students seemed to object to activities in the class They did not want

to take part in any activities and depended on other students

In short, what mentioned in her self-assessment showed that the tasks given tothe students are very important and had a good impact on vocabulary teaching andlearning quality

3.3 The post-tests result

To access the results of a teaching and learning process, the tests are really agood tool During this time, both classes‟ vocabulary acquisition was accessed bymeans of the tests: the pre-test was given at the beginning of the quasi-experiment tosee the students‟ vocabulary knowledge Three post-tests were designed to see howmuch students could remember the new words and use them in the appropriate context.The post-tests were marked to have the exact scores and necessary statistics to make acomparison between the two groups Thus, after completing a unit, a post-test was

and reflect exactly how much knowledge each student acquired and how muchprogress they made The last post- test included the knowledge of all three units inorder to check how students acquired the vocabulary knowledge during the quasi-experiment lasting in 11 weeks It was also expected that a close comparison betweenthe results of the two groups would suggest the answer to the following research

question “How is task-based approach used in teaching vocabulary in ESP at

Mean = 6.42 Mean = 6.48 Mean = 6.74 Mean = 6.64 Mean = 7.04 Mean = 6.88

Table 1: The results of the post-tests of EGP part

As can be seen in the table above, the results of three post-tests showed thatstudents of both experimental and control groups made a bit (but not much) progress inlearning vocabulary in the quasi-experiment lasting for 11 weeks That means bothteaching methods had somewhat good influence on the results of EGP vocabularyteaching However, two different methods applied in teaching ESP vocabulary haddifferent effects on the results of EGP vocabulary learning As for this point, the task-based method showed its effectiveness more than the traditional one, which was

clearly revealed in the results of the post-tests (mean of the CG in the second test is

6.64 and in the third test is 6.88 while mean of the EG is 6.74 and 7.04) though in the

first post-test the experimental students got lower average mark than the controlstudents A possible explanation is that EGP is foundation for ESP, so during theprocess of teaching ESP, EGP vocabulary were recalled but the new teaching methodwith more helpful activities really gave students in the experimental class a motivation

Take a look at the results in ESP, it seemed that there was a little progress made

by CG in the results of ESP part in comparison with those of EGP one (mean of the

second post-test in EGP is 6.64 while the one in ESP is 6.76 and in the last post-test they got mean 6.94 I EGP while in ESP they got mean 7.02) Meanwhile, after

applying task-based approach students in EG made an obvious progress in the results

of ESP part in comparison with the results of EGP one (after three tests their mean in

EGP rose about 0.6 point but it rose about 1.0 point in ESP) In comparison with CG,

EG also made much more progress in the results of ESP part, which was revealed in

the third post-test (mean of control group was 7.02 while mean of experimental group

was 7.48) This shows that task-based approach was more effective in teaching ESP

vocabulary than grammar-translation one

Below is the charts summarizing the number of students of both classes that got

the mark from 4 to 10, i.e rated from below average to excellent in ESP part: (1 ->

4.5: below average; 5; 5.5; 6; 6.5: average; 7; 7.5; 8; 8.5: good; 9; 9.5; 10:

control 4

control 6

Post test 1 Post test 2 Post test 3

Take a look at the charts above, the number of students in both groups gettingaverage mark decreased and rose in excellent mark, which means two groups madeprogress in learning ESP vocabulary Especially, both groups had the same number ofstudents getting good mark in the first and third post-test However, students in EG

28

that the number of students in EG getting average mark decreased noticeably (from 12

students to 6 students) while control group kept higher numbers and decreased 5

students (from 13 students to 8 students) In chart 3, control group also had two

students getting fewer good marks than students in experimental group in the secondpost-test In addition, according to chart 4, after three tests, experimental group had 5students getting excellent mark while control group had 3 students

Such findings showed the more effectiveness of task-based approach thangrammar translation method in teaching ESP vocabulary

3.4 Vocabulary-checking test result

Besides above test instruments, vocabulary- checking tests were also used tocheck which group memorized new words better There were 6 vocabulary – checkingtests (That is after finishing three sessions of ESP vocabulary teaching there was avocabulary – checking test) designed in different forms such as jumble words,matching, odd one out, dictation, gap filling and filling the missing letters These testswhich concluded 10 words learnt in the three previous lessons were given studentsbefore starting new lesson

Below are the results of the vocabulary-checking tests

Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean Mean

Table 3: The results of vocabulary-checking tests

The results of vocabulary-checking tests showed that both methods of teachingESP affected students‟ vocabulary memory as all the tests had different means Themeans of the tests rose after each test revealed students‟ progress in memorizing newwords However, mean of EG in test 2 was always more than that of CG, which meanstask-based approach seemed to be more effective than grammar translation method in

teaching ESP vocabulary (the highest mean of experimental class is 7.76 while the

highest mean of control is 7.2 although in the first test control class had higher mean than experimental class did).

Here the researcher also used charts to summarize the number of students ofboth groups that got the mark from 4 to 10, i.e rated from below average to excellent:

(1 -> 4: below average; 5; 6: average; 7; 8: good; 9;10: excellent.