Applying the technique of guessing word meanings from context for 11th form students at le loi high school m a thesis linguistics 60 14 10

Guessing or inferring strategy...5 I.3 Guessing word meanings from context as a technique of vocabulary teaching and learning...5 I.4.. Research questions This study was conducted to ans

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Hanoi - 2013

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES *************************

LÊ THỊ THỦY

APPLYING THE TECHNIQUE OF GUESSING WORD

STUDENTS AT LE LOI HIGH SCHOOL, THANH HOA

(SỬ DỤNG KỸ NĂNG ĐOÁN NGHĨA TỪ QUA NGỮ CẢNH ĐỐI VỚI HỌC SINH LỚP 11 TRƯỜNG THPT LÊ LỢI, THANH HÓA)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology

Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: Dr Lâm Quang Đông

Hanoi – 2013

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES

Chart 1: Result of the pre-test

Chart 2: Result of post-test 1

Chart 3: Result of post-test 2

Table 1: The effectiveness of the guessing technique

TABLE OF CONTENT

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES iv

TABLE OF CONTENT v

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

The rationale of the study 1

Aims and Objectives of the study 2

Significance of the study 2

Research questions 2

Methods of the study 3

Scope of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

I.1 Definition of context 4

I.2 Guessing or inferring strategy 5

I.3 Guessing word meanings from context as a technique of vocabulary teaching and learning 5

I.4 Previous studies on guessing word meanings from context 7

I.5 Types of context clues used in guessing word meanings 9

I.5.1 Structural clues 9

I.5.2 Inference clues 10

I.6 Approach to teaching of guessing technique 10

I.7 Vocabulary in English textbook for 11 th graders 11

I.8 Summary 12

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 13

II.1 Rationale for the use of an action research 13

II.2 Action research procedure 13

II.3 Background of the study 15

II.3.1 Participants 15

II.3.2 Data collection instruments 16

II.3.2.1 Tests 16

II.3.2.2 Students‟ diaries 16

II.3.2.3 Questionnaire 16

II.3.2.4 Focus group interview 16

II.4 Data collection procedures 17

II.5 Applying the guessing technique from context to teaching English vocabulary to 11 th learners 20

II.5.1 Activities for presenting vocabulary 21

II.5.1.1 Real objects, picture 21

II.5.1.2 Demonstration, miming 21

II.5.1.3 Giving examples 21

II.5.1.4 Giving synonyms, antonyms 22

II.5.1.5 Contextual guesswork 22

II.5.2 Activities for controlled practice stage 23

II.5.2.1 Sentence-making 23

II.5.2.2 Gap-filling 23

II.5.2.3 Fill in the blank with the right form of the word 25

II.5.2.4 Translation 25

II.5.2.5 Matching 26

II.5.3 Activities for free practice stage 26

II.5.3.1 Word-games 27

II.5.3.2.Topic discussion 27

II.6 Summary 28

CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 28

III.2 The results after the training period 29

III.2.1 The results of students’ diaries 29

III.2.2 The results of the post-tests 29

III.2.3 The results of the questionnaire 31

III.2.4 The results of focus group interview 33

III.3 Summary 35

PART C: CONCLUSION 37

1 Summary of the findings 37

2 Conclusions 38

3 Limitations of the study 39

4 Suggestions for further research 39

REFERENCES 40

APPENDIX A: PRE-TEST AND POST-TEST 1 I

APPENDIX B: POST-TEST 2 VI

APPENDIX C: TRAINING LESSON 1 XI

APPENDIX D: TRAINING LESSON 2 XIV

APPENDIX E: TRAINING LESSON 3 XVII

APPENDIX F: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS XIX

APPENDIX G: AN EXAMPLE FROM STUDENTS’ DIARIES XX

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 The rationale of the study

Vocabulary is an essential component of language, which plays a decisiverole in communication Wilkins, a famous British applied linguist, emphasized this

with his saying "without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary

nothing can be conveyed" (1972:111) Obviously, words do not occur in isolation

but within the context of sentence or a large discourse Also, a word used indifferent contexts may have different meanings; thus, simply learning thedefinitions of a word without examples of where and when the word occurs will nothelp learners to fully understand its meaning Learning an isolated list of wordswithout reference to the context is merely a memorization exercise which makes itdifficult for learners to use the words in spoken and written language

In fact, students in general and Le Loi High School students in particularoften have a habit of looking up word meanings in dictionaries withoutunderstanding how to use them Too much dictionary work can kill all interests inreading and even interfere with comprehension, because readers become moreconcerned with individual words and less aware of the context which gives themmeaning Therefore, Le Loi High School students find it difficult to globallyunderstand spoken or written discourse, most probably because they lack the ability

to guess word meanings from context Many students tend to ignore unknownwords, which is thought completely problematic to vocabulary learning Using thecontexts in which words appear, that is, a sentence in which the words to be learnedappears will help students derive the meaning of these unknown words Therefore,this problem is well worth taking into consideration

Although it is evident that the use of contextual clues can be effective inlearning and teaching English vocabulary and provide a means by which studentscan quickly increase their existing vocabulary base, it has not attracted much

attention in terms of classroom instruction Some researches on the techniques ofteaching vocabulary have mentioned this technique as a good one but little attempthas been made to integrate this technique training into normal teaching Even littlehas been made to investigate the usefulness of developing students' techniques forguessing unknown words through context on the improvement of their proficiency

in using vocabulary All these have motivated the researcher to carry out an actionresearch on applying the technique of guessing word meanings from context for 11thgraders at Le Loi high school

2 Aims and Objectives of the study

The study is aimed at applying the technique of guessing word meanings toteaching vocabulary so that students can understand word meanings as well as theirform and then use them correctly On this basis, possible suggestions for improvedeffectiveness in students‟ vocabulary learning can be derived

3 Significance of the study

The present research is carried out to encourage students to deal with wordmeanings with the help of context It is also carried out with the hope that it wouldhelp teachers as well as 11th graders at Le Loi High School be aware of theimportant role of the guessing skill as well as some guessing techniques used inteaching and learning vocabulary Moreover, it is hoped that the study could helpthe 11th graders in particular and high school students in general improve theirvocabulary and use vocabulary correctly and fluently

4 Research questions

This study was conducted to answer the following major research question:

- How effective is the technique of guessing word meanings from context in helping

11th graders at Le Loi High School learn vocabulary?

5 Methods of the study

With reference to its characteristics, this thesis can be categorized as anaction research The following instruments are applied to collect data for this study:

One pre-test and two post-tests were used to measure whether students couldimprove their vocabulary

A questionnaire of 7 questions was given to the students to find out theiropinions about the effectiveness of guessing technique in understanding wordmeanings Interviews were conducted after 6 weeks of training to obtain more in-depth data about how students assessed their progress when applying guessingtechnique and how this technique affected their vocabulary learning

Students‟ diaries were also used to support this action research Studentswere asked to write reflective journals to express their reflections on the guessingtechnique The students‟ diaries were collected after every 2 weeks of training andthen were analyzed to find out what the students thought about the technique ofguessing word meanings from context

6 Scope of the study

The study is concerned with the application of the skill to guess word meaningsfrom context in teaching and learning vocabulary so as to measure the degree ofeffectiveness of this technique in improving students‟ vocabulary The study onlyfocuses on 11th graders at Le Loi High School, so the results of the study, thoughhighly expected, may not be readily applied for all students at high schools

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the author will clarify several concepts concerning thetechnique of guessing word meanings from context In addition, different issuesrelating to this technique will also be presented

I.1 Definition of context.

Context (language context) means “textual or discoursal place in which a

particular word or structure can be found” (Gu, 2003:2) It can be as short as a

sentence or as long as several paragraphs, and it will usually contain unknownwords (Rapaport, 2003) Context refers to the words surrounding an unfamiliarword These surrounding words provide clues to the meaning of an unfamiliar word.Traditionally, context was seen as a given, existing fully and completely in anyproperly written text and the key to using it was linguistic knowledge and it plays avery important role in the identification of words in text A word used in differentcontexts may have different meaning so simply learning the definition of a wordwithout examples of where and when it occurs will not help learners to fullyunderstand its meaning If learners are not able to contextualize new words byconnecting them to words and concepts they already know, the words will likely beless meaningful to them And then if meaning is not contextualized, it will bedifficult for learners to memorize as well as to use new words appropriately

Bialystok (1983) proposes that context exists in relation and proportion to thereader‟s implicit knowledge (intuitive and unanalyzed knowledge of the secondlanguage), other knowledge (knowledge of other languages and world knowledge),and context (linguistic and physical aspects of a text which provide clues tomeaning) From this view, context is clearly not an absolute presence in a text but iscreated by the reader, and is therefore influenced by the reader‟s linguistic andworld knowledge

In short, context includes both linguistic and non-linguistic aspects.Therefore, in order to derive the meaning of a word from context, learners need toutilize not only the information presented in the text but also their generalknowledge of the topic discussed in the text.

I.2 Guessing or inferring strategy

Guessing word meanings from context most commonly refers to inferring themeanings of a word from surrounding words in a written text It is an active and

deliberate process to acquire a meaning for a word in a text, “By reasoning from

textual clues and prior knowledge, including language knowledge and hypotheses developed from prior encounters with the word, but without external sources of help such as dictionaries or human.” (Rapaport, 2005).

Grellet (1981) defined guessing as “inferring means making use of syntactic,

logical and cultural clues to discover the meaning of unknown elements” McCarthy

(1990) gave another definition: “Inferring involves creating a schema for the

unknown words, based on world knowledge and previous experience, both of the world and texts In other words, inferring means drawing conclusions as to word meaning by following certain rational steps in the face of the evidence available”.

Gairns and Redman (1986) use the term “contextual guesswork” for the strategy of

making use of context in which the word appears to derive an idea of its meaning or

in some cases from the word itself

To conclude, the guessing strategy is quite sophisticated but it plays a veryimportant part in vocabulary development Thus, it has been widely promoted as ithas been seen to fit in more comfortably with the communicative approach than anyother

I.3 Guessing word meanings from context as a technique of vocabulary

teaching and learning

Guessing word meanings from context is one of many available vocabulary

learning techniques This technique is regarded as “the most important of all

sources of vocabulary learning” (Nation, 2001:232) Teaching meanings of single

words out of context does not yield good learning outcomes because of thepolysemous nature of words Thornbury (2002) adds that guessing from the context

is one of the most useful skills learners can acquire and apply inside and outsideclassroom and, more importantly, can be taught and implemented relatively easily(p 202) Nagy (1997:76) argues that although second-language learners are lesseffective than native speakers at using context, they may have a greater need to usecontext The reason is that they encounter unfamiliar words quite more often thanfirst language readers and are more expected to encounter unfamiliar meanings ofwords Obviously, second language learners are able and have more opportunities tolearn words from context

Using context clues to understand the meaning of unfamiliar words helps thereader save time since the reader does not have to look the word up in the dictionaryand that also gives the reader a good sense of how a word is actually used As Smith(1971) argued, instead of looking words up in a dictionary, the best way to identify

an unfamiliar word in a text is to draw inferences from the rest of the text Oxford &Scarcella (1994) believed that contextualized learning helps learners grasp the fullmeaning of a word or phrase and become aware of the linguistic environment inwhich the word or phrase appears A number of other researchers (E.g Pressley,Levin & McDaniel, 1987) argued that context is helpful to generate possiblemeanings for unknown words but it alone does not foster retention of meanings Tounderstand the key words by using guessing meanings from context is a skill thatleads the learners to read effectively and efficiently Guessing meaning ofunfamiliar words in context is the most practical method to comprehend bothwritten and oral communication

Given the important role of guessing word meanings from context technique,

it is recommended that the teacher should assist students in learning to recognizeclues to guessing word meaning from context This vocabulary learning skill iseffective for learning low-frequency vocabulary (Herrel, 2008)

Nagy (1997:76) distinguishes three types of knowledge that readers possess

to contribute to contextual inferring, which include linguistic knowledge, worldknowledge and strategic knowledge Linguistic knowledge consists of syntacticknowledge, vocabulary knowledge, and word schema which is knowledge of whatconstitutes possible word meanings in a language Nagy emphasizes vocabularyknowledge, a key factor affecting readers' ability to make use of context According

to him, to infer the meaning of any unknown word in context, it is helpful to knowthe meaning of the words around it World knowledge contributes to effective use ofcontext The context that helps learners deduce the word meaning must be construed

to consist of the learners' knowledge of the world; learning a word from contextsometimes simply requires determining which of the several already familiarconcepts the word refers to Strategic knowledge involves conscious control overcognitive resources Nagy points out that training students in use of context hasimproved their ability to guess the meaning of unknown words Guessing themeaning of a word from context involves a relationship between the situation modeland the text model, as well as knowledge of the nature of the possible mappingsbetween these two things Moreover, there are a number of factors which impinge

on the effectiveness of the guessing process that researchers should take intoconsideration before conducting any study on this sub-skill

I.4 Previous studies on guessing word meanings from context.

Being one of the most important strategies in acquiring vocabularyknowledge, the guessing technique has been a great concern of many researchers Agood number of studies have been carried out and the results have been expressed in

Research findings about the success of students‟ guessing word meaningsfrom context are inconclusive Bensoussan and Laufer (1984) provide a guessingtask which learners had to answer in writing Their findings show that learnersfrequently make wrong guesses Wrong guesses resulted from giving the incorrectmeaning of a word that had several meanings, or confusing the target word with onethat looked or sounded similar Particularly, learners have been found to makeguesses, producing an inferred meaning that has little relation to the wider context

of the text One point needs to be made here, that is the participants of the studyhave not been specifically trained to do lexical guessing

Liu and Nation (1985) were more optimistic after they studied learners‟ability to guess the meaning of nonsense words used to replace real word at regularintervals in written texts They concluded that success was determined by therelative density of unknown words Where there was only one nonsense word pertwenty-five words, they were easier to guess than there was one every ten words.Liu and Nation estimated that at least 85 percent of unknown words could beguessed by a class of learners working together to pool their relevant knowledgeand skills

Recently, Redouane (2004) examined the efficacy of the context strategy versus a word-list strategy in learning French lexical words andtheir meanings as well as retention of those words at the university level Thefindings manifested the facilitation role of guessing-from-context strategy inlearning more French words Moreover, the guessing-from-context techniqueproved to have an impact not only on immediate recall but on long-term retention.After carrying out a quasi-experimental study with the use of two approaches tovocabulary teaching: Context and Non-context presentation, Zaid (2009) paid more

guessing-from-attention to “teach vocabulary in context” approach, suggesting that EFL

vocabulary should never be taught in isolation as in word lists with theirequivalents

I.5 Types of context clues used in guessing word meanings

Clues help to infer meanings of new words from context It is impossible toinfer the meanings of new words if the context does not offer enough clues Bothteachers and students need to be aware of this Nation (1983) suggests some types

of clues as follows:

I.5.1 Structural clues

Structural clues help to know the kind of meaning of the new words Theyare used to determine the type of grammatical category of new words They include:morphology, antonyms, synonyms, hyponyms, definitions, restatement, referencewords, alternatives and punctuation

Morphology: The students can derive word meanings by examining internal,

morphological features, like prefixes, suffixes, and root words

Reference words: Identifying the referents of pronouns may provide a clue to the

meaning of an unfamiliar word

Synonyms and antonyms: Often the reader can find the meaning of new items in

the same sentence

Hyponyms: Very often the reader can see that the relationship between an

unfamiliar word and a familiar word is that of a general concept accompanied by aspecific example (a hyponym)

Definitions: Sometimes the writer defines the meaning of the word right in the text

as “are/is known as”, “are /is described as”, “are/ is defined as”

Alternatives: The writer may give an alternative of an unfamiliar word to make the

meaning known

Restatement: Often the writer gives enough explanation for the meaning to be clear

Punctuation: Readers can also use clues of punctuation and type style to infer

meaning, such as quotation marks (showing the word has a special meaning), dashes(showing apposition), parentheses or brackets (enclosing a definition), and italics(showing the word will be defined)

I.5.2 Inference clues

Those types of clues need a higher level of analytical skill and practice thanstructural clues The readers need to use rationale or reasoning skills in order tofigure out the meanings of new words Inference clues include comparison andcontrast, summary, cause and result, cohesion to understand the word meanings

Summary: A summary clue sums up a situation or an idea with a word or a phrase Comparison and contrast: Writers can show similarity or difference Key words

“but”, “instead of”, “even though”, “in contrast to”, “yet”, and “in spite of”, “like”,

“in the same way”… are used by the author

Cohesion: While reading a text, cohesion is maintained through a rich mesh of

contextual clues The meaning of unknown words can be shown by other words inthe same sentence or in adjacent sentences because they regularly co-occur with theunfamiliar words It is called “collocational cohesion” by Halliday and Hassan(1976: 287)

In conclusion, to make effective guesses, learners need to be trained to lookfor clues in context, provided that those clues are sufficient to make inferencespossible and productive

I.6 Approach to teaching of guessing technique

Although guessing from context is a complex and often difficult technique tocarry out successfully, it may still contribute to vocabulary learning There aredifferent approaches to teaching the technique of guessing from context, two ofwhich are inductive and deductive approach According to Nation and Coady

(1988), teachers can train students the guessing technique with a five-step inductive procedure:

1 Determine the part of speech of unknown word;

2 Look at the immediate context and simplify it if necessary;

3 Look at the wider context This entails examining the clause with unknown word and its relationship to the surrounding clauses and sentences;

4 Guess the meaning of unknown word;

5 Check that the guess is correct

As can be seen in the mentioned approache, teacher explanation andmodeling of the technique is essential at the beginning stage, followed by studentpractice

I.7 Vocabulary in English textbook for 11 th graders

In the textbook currently in use for 11th graders, vocabulary is taught andpracticed via both materials for language skills development and in its own right inthe Language Focus section Thus, vocabulary is both taught in meaningful contextsand further consolidated in form-focused exercises

In the reading section, vocabulary is taught through activities such asmatching definitions with words, gap-fill, word-form, finding synonyms andantonyms However, vocabulary is not practiced as much in other parts of the unit

as expected Unfortunately, however, some vocabulary is used in speaking andlistening sections, but that vocabulary is not used logically in Language Focussection Students do not have much chance to practice the words that they have justlearnt in reading section Also, many of these activities are not properly designed,thus they are not highly likely to achieve their purposes

I.8 Summary

In this chapter, an overview of context and guessing technique, types ofcontext clues, approaches to teaching of guessing technique, guessing wordmeanings as a technique to teach English vocabulary, some previous studies onguessing word meaning and vocabulary in English textbook for 11th form have beenpresented A theoretical framework has been prepared for investigation in the nextchapter.

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY II.1 Rationale for the use of an action research

“Action research is the application of fact finding to practical problem

solving in a social situation with a view to improving the quality of action within it, involving the collaboration and cooperation of researchers, practitioners and laymen” (Burns, 1999: 293) Mills (2003:4) defines action research as “any systematic inquiry conducted by the teacher researchers to gather information about their particular school operates how they teach and how their students learn” Classroom Action Research is research designed to help a teacher find out

what is happening in his or her classroom, and to use that information to make wisedecisions for the future

Action research is very beneficial to the teaching and learning process; ithelps to promote personal and professional growth, to improve practice to enhancestudent learning, and to advance the teaching profession (Johnson, 1995) Theteacher would solve his problem on his own or in collaboration with other teachers

if he was trained to conduct action research Tsui (1993) gave three reasons why ateacher needed action research Those reasons are to solve own problems in ascientific process and improve own practice; to adapt theory to practice; to share theresults of action research with other teachers The teacher will become a betterteacher because he knows how to find out and solve his problems in teaching on hisown

II.2 Action research procedure

Some researchers presented different action research cycles but shared thesame feature, that is a typical action research needed to go from one step to another.Eileen Ferrance (2000) suggested a 5 steps I action research Nunan (1992)suggested seven steps of action research as follows:

- Step 1: Initiation (Identify the problem)

- Step 2: Preliminary Investigation (Collect data through a variety of means)

- Step 3: Hypothesis (Develop research question)

- Step 4: Intervention (Devise strategies and innovation to be implemented)

- Step 5: Evaluation (Collect data again and analyze it to work out the

findings)

- Step 6: Dissemination (Report the result by running workshop or issuing a paper)

- Step 7: Follow-up (Find alternative methods to solve the same problem)

Finding that action research is the best choice for the purpose of improvingthe students‟ vocabulary acquisition, I decided to carry out an action research

First of all, the teacher can have a thorough look and investigation on thevocabulary acquisition of students on daily basis by carrying out an action research.Besides, the teacher is able to work out a detailed analysis on the students‟performance during the progress of the research It helps the teacher design adetailed program which is most suitable to the class and brings benefits to students

Secondly, in this action research, the data is taken from every student andtreated individually so the teacher can see students‟ progress easily She will be able

to get the most up-to-date information and make sensible changes if necessary to theresearch while applying it to meet the demand of the students The teacher canspend more time practicing contextualized vocabulary presentation and paying moreattention when giving feedback to students Students‟ performance monitoringrecords are collected every two weeks, and any potential problems can be solved intime

In short, the action research design is the most practical and feasible for theresearcher, all above factors considered The research followed the seven-stepprocedure suggested by Nunan (1992)

II.3 Background of the study

II.3.1 Participants:

As the research was conducted from the middle of the first semester to thebeginning of the second semester of the school-year, there were some problemsrelating to the consistency of the participants Some students in the group moved tothe South to have a Tet holiday with their parents who work mostly in bigcompanies in Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc Also, that was the time for Tet holiday, sosome students were not in the mood for learning, especially one week before andafter Tet Some students were absent from some tests due to their personal business.These students could not be proper participants of the research program due to thelack of participation in the very initial step of it and their performance could not betreated as a trusted source of information

Taken every factor into consideration so as to minimize the risk of invalidityand to ensure that every single participant was treated under the same conditions ofthe research, I reached the final number of 38 students whose performance wouldprovide appropriate data for the research They were the ones who participatedthoroughly in the research from the beginning to the end In order not to make otherstudents feel excluded, I still let them participate in the research program However,their performance was not counted on to yield any comments or interpretation of theresearch

Further observation, investigation and talks with students revealed moreinformation about them Most of the participants are at the age of 17 Nearly onethird of them are male and the rest are female, all from the countryside Studentshave been learning English since they were in grade 6 at secondary school, so theyhad already acquired a certain level of L2 in order to be able to infer meanings ofparticular words from the context

II.3.2 Data collection instruments

II.3.2.1 Tests

The instrumentation used in this study included a pre-test, two post-tests tomeasure whether students change over time due to a treatment The post-tests wereprepared carefully by the researcher In the tests, there are a multiple-choice testswith four options, and reading comprehension tests In each question, the studentsare required to use the contextual guess work to determine their option The aim ofthe post-tests was to reveal the efficacy of the treatments provided to the groupduring the research The post-tests were taken after week 4 and week 6

II.3.2.2 Students’ diaries

After every 2 weeks of training, the teacher asked the students to write theirdiaries at home expressing what they thought about this technique of teachingvocabulary Diaries were thought to be a valuable research tool as students couldfreely express their feelings, reflections, observations or interpretations about theirteacher‟s ways of teaching as well as the technique that teacher applied in teachingvocabulary At home, students could write down any thoughts or feelings withoutany interferences and their diaries would be more reliable

II.3.2.3 Questionnaire

After 6 weeks of training this technique, a questionnaire of 7 questions wasgiven to 38 students in the class to get the general information about how thistechnique of teaching affected students in their vocabulary learning The studentswere asked to fill in the questionnaire within 10 minutes, then teacher collected thequestionnaires, read them and found out how effective the techniquee was

II.3.2.4 Focus group interview

After 6 weeks of training, an interview was conducted to obtain more depth data about how students assessed their progress when applying guessing

in-strategies and how effective this technique was 4 students were selected randomlyamong the respondents for an interview They were asked in Vietnamese and theyalso answered the interview questions in Vietnamese This was to guarantee thetruthfulness of the information in case the students were not confident enough inanswering in English or they may get confused in understanding the interviewquestions and giving answers to the asked questions All the interviews were audio-taped and transcribed for translation.

II.4 Data collection procedures

Step 1: Initiation (Identify the problem)

Before carrying out this research, I had informal chats with the students inthe free time or break time to gain understandings of their problems in vocabularylearning Some students told me that when encountering a new word, they oftenlooked up the meaning of a new word in a bilingual dictionary or asked their teacherfor its meanings, and they tended to forget words quickly after classes Some otherssaid that they might remember words but they didn‟t know how to use themappropriately, even just in making some simple sentences Talking with otherteachers, the researcher also heard them say they did not usually present vocabularywith the use of guessing technique because of the limitation of time

Step 2: Preliminary Investigation (Collect data through a variety of means)

From the informal chats with both the students and teachers, I found thatboth students and their teachers tended to present and learn words in isolation Also,

in order to identify the students‟ guessing ability before training, I gave a pre-testfor students to try to guess the meanings of unknown words and do the task Toensure the reliability and validity of the test, all the exercises were chosen from the

book “English Lexico-Grammatical Exercises for 11 th graders” (Bài tập từ

vựng-ngữ pháp tiếng Anh 11, NXB Đại học Quốc gia TP Hồ Chí Minh) The words

belonged to one of the six topics that students learn at grade 11 The students did thetest in forty-five minutes; after that I collected the pieces of paper to get the results.

Step 3: Hypothesis (Develop research question)

From the preliminary investigation, I developed the following hypothesis for

my action research:

The technique of guessing word meanings from context helps 11 th graders to learn vocabulary better.

Step 4: Intervention (Devise strategies and innovation to be implemented)

In trying to make the technique of guessing word meanings from contextmore effective for students, I read books on how to present word meanings incontext and selected the activities and exercises that could help me present and getstudents practice vocabulary in contexts The criterion for selection was theactivities and exercises that were appropriate to the students‟ proficiency Then Iused those activities and exercises in the classroom with my students during threelessons in three weeks Each lesson lasted 45 minutes The lessons were designed asfollows:

Lesson 1:

There were two main parts in this lesson:

- Firstly, in the instruction part, I presented the guessing strategy suggested byNation and Coady (1988) The strategy consists of five steps and I demonstrated the steps

to the students, using the examples prepared in advance

- Secondly, the practice part included an exercise On doing the exercise, thestudents could apply what they have learnt in the instruction section, especially step oneand step three The students were required to identify the part of speech of the underlinedwords and predict their meanings in the text

18

Lesson 2: This lesson consisted of three exercises.

- In exercise 1, the teacher gave the students some sentences and asked them todetermine the part of speech of those words

- In exercise 2, the teacher gave students one short passage with somenonsense words Students, basing on the context, tried to guess the meanings of thenonsense words The teacher called on different students to do each step

- In exercise 3, the teacher gave students some sentences with the unknownwords Students guessed the meanings of unknown words based on the context

Lesson 3: In this lesson, teacher gave a text for the students to list out the words

they did not know and then to try to guess their meanings The text was printed anddelivered to the students The students did the task in twenty minutes and after that,the researcher checked the exercise with the whole class

Step 5: Evaluation (Collect data and analyze it to work out the findings)

In order to identify the students‟ guessing ability after the training period, Igave two post-tests for students to do and try to guess word meanings The post-tests were at the same level as the pre-test to ensure validity I also carried out aninformal interview in order to investigate the changes more thoroughly Fourstudents were selected by the researcher to answer some questions All theinterviews were conducted in Vietnamese so that participants could fully articulatetheir views without being constrained by the use of the second language Theinterviews were recorded, then transcribed and analyzed by the author Followingwere the questions for the interview:

Question 1: How did you guess the meanings of the unknown words in thetest?

Question 2: How effective is guessing the meanings of unknown words fromcontext?

Question 3: How can you apply the guessing strategy to your learningprocess?

Moreover, I delivered a questionnaire of 7 questions and asked students tofill in so that I could get some general information about the students‟ reflections onthis technique More importantly, I collected students‟ diaries to find out what theythought, how they reflected to the guessing technique in teaching vocabulary

Step 6: Dissemination

The results of the action research are reported in this thesis

Step 7: Follow-up (Find alternative methods to solve the same problem)

Having completed the first cycle of this action research, I understand betterthe advantages and the limitation of the technique of guessing word meanings fromcontext This understanding will be the foundation for my next cycle of the actionresearch, which will be presented in section 2 of part C in this thesis

II.5 Applying the guessing technique from context to teaching English vocabulary to 11 th learners

Due to the lack of time, I just focused on teaching English vocabulary fromunit 4 to unit 11 in 11th textbook and some related activities for practicingvocabulary that students had just learnt The new words were explained clearly insome ways so that students could guess and understand the word meanings and theywere able to use them effectively Below are some ways for presenting new wordsand for practicing those new words also in the post-reading, speaking or evenwriting and language focus section

II.5.1 Activities for presenting vocabulary

II.5.1.1 Real objects, picture

In general, this method works very well with concrete nouns It can helpteachers avoid boredom in the class Moreover, learners can find it easier toremember the words and recall them for later use Teachers can use availableobjects in the class or teachers can bring real objects into the class

For example, when teaching the word “competition” (Unit 6, English 11),

teachers can bring some pictures on competitions such as Morning Star TelevisionSinging Context or The Way to Olympic Peak and show them to students saying

“this is a competition” When presenting the word “red banner”, teachers can use the banner that is available on the wall in every classroom such as “Học sinh trường

THPT Lê Lợi nói không với Ma túy” and say “That is a red banner” All the

students will see what the words mean

II.5.1.2 Demonstration, miming

These supplements are suitable for presenting verbs and adjectives showingman‟s actions or facial expressions They make the class more active, attentive, andthus students learn the words more easily

For example: when teaching the verb “reach” (Unit 7, English 11), the

teacher can do an action as he/ she is trying to reach the picture on the wall and say

“Now, I am trying to reach the picture” to make the class understand what “reach”

means

II.5.1.3 Giving examples

Giving examples is a good way of teaching vocabulary; students not onlyunderstand what the word means, but also know how to handle this word in makingsentences

For example: when teaching the word “remote” (Unit 4, English 11), teachers can make sentences like this “Muong Lat is a remote mountainous region in Thanh

Hoa” It is easier for students to understand what “remote” means.

II.5.1.4 Giving synonyms, antonyms

Most students in the 11th form have low level of in English Thus, lengthyand complex explanations should be avoided The use of synonyms or antonyms inshowing the meaning of new vocabulary is therefore suitable as it is always shortand easy to understand, providing that students have already known the synonyms

or antonyms

For example: when teaching the word “courteous” (Unit 9, English 11), teachers can give the synonym of this word as “polite” So the students can easily understand what “courteous” means Or when presenting the word “speedy”, teachers can give the antonym as “slow” The students will see what “speedy”

means

II.5.1.5 Contextual guesswork

Contextual guesswork is also a good way of presenting new words and it isvery useful for students in trying to guess word meanings in some texts; however,many students find it difficult to do the guesswork because of their limited ability ortoo difficult texts or context In this case, teachers should give out elicitingquestions that act as guides and suggestions for the students or they should make thecontext easy for students to understand the word meaning

For example: when teaching the word “embarrassed” (Unit 2, English 11), teachers can give students the context in which this word is used, such as: I have the

same hat as my friend’s Yesterday after finishing the lesson, I took the hat and put

it on my head Suddenly, my friend stopped me and told me that I had taken her hat

by mistake I felt very embarrassed then In this case, students are more likely to be

able to guess what “embarrassed” means.

II.5.2 Activities for controlled practice stage

Practice is essential for language learning Without practice, students canneither remember the word for long time nor use it appropriately Penny Ur (1996:19) proves that learners can only learn from being told and understanding up to acertain point Practice is carried out through exercises and activities which require lesscontrol and intervention of teachers Hereafter are some useful techniques for controlpractice stage Some of these activities can be adapted in writing or language focussections

II.5.2.1 Sentence-making

One very productive way of practicing the new word is to make sentenceswith the word It focuses on the use of the word and pronunciation, intonation aswell if we do it orally It is very useful as students can make their own sentencesand thus advance more to a communicative ability Of course this is not easy forstudents; therefore, teachers should give a standard example first Then, they canask students to make varied sentences using the same word

For example: With the word “secure” (Unit 9, English 11), teacher can say “I

feel secure after locking the door carefully” and ask students to make other

sentences with “secure”.

decreasing international control individual

distribution population limit average

1 What is the …… of your country? Is it increasing?

2 The population of Ireland is …… There are fewer people now than 10 years ago

3 The …… of 8, 5, 9, 3 and 6 is 6.2

4 The children behave badly and their parents can‟t …… them

5 When there is a famine in a country, other countries send food for …… to the hungry people

6 The United Nations is an …… organization

(Vocabulary in Unit 7, English 11)

Students are also given a text with some missing words and they are asked tofill in blanks with the suitable words

For example: Fill in each blank with one proper word

Intel Science Talent Search has just (1)… the top prize to a teenage boy from thestate of Colorado More than 1,500 students entered projects for the (2)…… Theirresearch projects (3)…… nearly every area of science, (4)… chemistry, physics,maths, engineering, social science and medicine Well-known scientists (5)……them on their research abilities and creative thinking

(Vocabulary in Unit 6, English 11- Adapted from English Lexico-Grammatical

Exercises for 11 th graders)

This technique can help teachers check their students‟ vocabulary, grammar,collocation and spelling as well Useful as it is, this technique is also difficult as itrequires a wide range of knowledge and understanding of the text

II.5.2.3 Fill in the blank with the right form of the word

This technique is useful for checking students‟ grammar and word-formationwhich is of great use in learning and expanding vocabulary systematically.Sometimes, it also requires understanding of the words and their meanings

Example: Give the right forms of the words in parentheses

1 I owe you a debt of (grateful)……… for what you‟ve done

2 She behaved (grateful) ……… to every one around her

3 Many (volunteer)…… activities are held to help disadvantaged people in mountainous areas

4 He took part in the campaign (volunteer)…… with his friends in the summervacation

II.5.2.4 Translation

This technique requires the students not only know the meaning of the wordsbut also know how to use them in contexts It helps students remember theequivalents between Vietnamese and English better It can also improve thestudents‟ writing abilities and spelling The teacher can ask students to translatesome sentences or a paragraph from English to Vietnamese or vice-versa

For example:

1 Translate this passage into Vietnamese

On February 14th many young women give sweets to their boyfriends, and onMarch 14th their boyfriends buy them some chocolates However, the young peoplewho do not have a girlfriend or a boyfriend can celebrate their own day on April

14th On this special day, called “Black Day”, these young people sit with their

friends, who are in the same situation, and eat jajang noodle which are black This

ensures that everyone has a day to celebrate

(Adapted from English Lexico-Grammatical Exercises for 11 th graders)

2 Translate this passage into English

a Hoạt động tình nguyện đem lại cơ hội kết bạn cho tất cả mọi người

b Tết là kỳ nghỉ có ý nghĩa nhất trong năm đối với người Việt Nam

c Sự gia tăng dân số là một vấn đề đang được quan tâm nhiều nhất hiện nay

d Gia tăng dân số để lại nhiều hậu quả cho nền kinh tế của quốc gia

II.5.2.5 Matching

This technique is useful for checking students‟ vocabulary and grammar Inthis technique, the teacher gives out two columns: A and B which consists of somewords or phrases or even some affixes and ask students to match one item incolumn A to an item in column B so that they have similar meaning, collocate, orhave opposite meaning

For example: Match each item in column A to one item with similar meanings incolumn B

1 to dismiss a to encourage sb to do st

2 minority b to sack sb

3 to stimulate c number

4 figure d a small number of people

II.5.3 Activities for free practice stage

This stage allows and encourages students to use the words creatively withlittle control of the teacher The role of the teacher is only to give instructions andoriented tasks while students try and use all the knowledge they have learnt to makereal sentences that can be used in real situation Hereafter are some usefultechniques for this stage:

II.5.3.1 Word-games

Using word-games is a very useful technique as it can arouse a lot of interest

in the students The students, then, can practice new words excitedly with highinspiration and it is likely that they will recall and remember the words better Theword-games can effectively be used such as: Naught and Cross, Gueswork, Slap theboard, Bingo…

II.5.3.2 Topic discussion

This is a very productive and active activity for students as it provides them achance to practice communicating in real life situations To do this, teachers mustgive students interesting topics and pre-teach some structures they need to useduring their discussion

For example: Tet holiday is the most meaningful event for people who live

far away from their home Do you agree with this or not? Give details to support your ideas.

II.6 Summary

To sum up, I have just listed some techniques which may be useful forteaching vocabulary in all three stages Of course there exist many other techniquesand activities; teachers of English may choose which one to apply depending on thereal conditions of class, students or aim of language teaching

CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

In the previous chapter, the participants, data collection instruments andprocedure of the action research are described in details In this chapter, the analysis

of data collection is presented As has been said in chapter 1, the aim of the study is

to examine the feasibility of guessing word meanings in contexts to 11th graders in aparticular high school and to measure the effectiveness of this vocabulary teachingtechnique on students‟ vocabulary learning The results of this study, therefore, arereported on each purpose of the study

III.1 The results of the pre-test

Chart 1: Result of the pre-test

As can be seen from chart 1, the students performed poorly in the pre-test.They were able to guess only a small percentage of the unknown words in the test

so only 5% of the students got good results though the topic of the text was familiar

to them 16% of the students got mark 7 to 8 Most of the students (58%) got themark of 5 to 6 and, more disappointing, nearly 21% of them got mark below 5.Obviously, the results of the pre-test were not satisfactory, which proved that thestudents‟ skill of guessing the meanings of unknown words from context was poor.Having observed the students‟ performance on the pre-test day, the researchernoticed that the students were confused about dealing with unknown words without