Nghiên cứu về vai trò của việc sử dụng tiếng việt trong dạy từ vựng tiếng anh cho học sinh dân tộc thiểu số lớp 10 tại trường PT vùng cao việt bắc

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OFPOST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THỊ MAI LIÊN A STUDY ON THE ROLE OF USIN

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF

POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *********************

NGUYỄN THỊ MAI LIÊN

A STUDY ON THE ROLE OF USING VIETNAMESE IN TEACHING

MINORITY STUDENTS AT VUNG CAO VIET BAC HIGH SCHOOL

Nghiên cứu về vai trò của việc sử dụng tiếng Việt trong dạy từ vựng tiếng Anh cho học sinh dân tộc thiểu số lớp 10 tại trường PT Vùng

Cao Việt Bắc

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF

POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *********************

NGUYỄN THỊ MAI LIÊN

A STUDY ON THE ROLE OF USING VIETNAMESE IN TEACHING

MINORITY STUDENTS AT VUNG CAO VIET BAC HIGH SCHOOL

Nghiên cứu về vai trò của việc sử dụng tiếng Việt trong dạy từ vựng tiếng Anh cho học sinh dân tộc thiểu số lớp 10 tại trường PT Vùng

Cao Việt Bắc

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111

SUPERVISOR: DƯƠNG ĐỨC MINH, PhD.

Hanoi, 2014

I, Nguyễn Thị Mai Liên, certify that the work presented in this study " A

study on the role of using Vietnamese in teaching English vocabulary to the 10 th form ethnic minority students at Vung Cao Viet Bac High School" is the result of

my own research and the material has not been submitted either in whole or in partfor any degree to any other university or institution

Hanoi, August, 2014Student‟s signature

Nguyễn Thị Mai Liên

In my capacity as supervisor of the candidate's thesis, I certify that the abovestatements are true to the best of my knowledge

Supervisor

Duong Duc Minh, Ph.D.

On the completion of this thesis, I greatfully express my deepest gratitude to

my supervisor Dr Duong Duc Minh who gave me his precious comments, expertadvice and most of his kind encouragement during my doing research

Also, I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to all of the lecturers and thestaff of the Department of Post-Graduate Studies at University of Languages andInternational Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable lecturesand supports

I am greatly indebted to my colleagues and students at Vung Cao Viet Bachigh school for their enthusiasm, helpfulness, care and patience towards myinterviews which grant great contributions for my thesis

Finally, I would like to express my special thanks to my parents, my husband andother members in my family for their love, care, support and encouragement so that

I could accomplish my study

The use of the first language in foreign language teaching and learning haslong been a controversial issue However, as a common phenomenon in Englishlanguage learning, the influence of the first language can not be ignored especiallywith low proficiency learners This paper aims at providing the evidence to the role

of using the first language (Vietnamese) in vocabulary teaching and learningprocess For these purposes, nearly 200 students of four classes of grade 10th and 6teachers of English Department at Vung Cao Viet Bac high school were participants

of the research Three research tools were used to gather the data: questionnaire,interview and observation The findings of the research were totally true to theresearch hypotheses First, Vietnamese is still widely used to teach and learnvocabulary by teachers and students of Vung Cao Viet Bac high school Frequentusing of Vietnamese for words‟ explanation, habit of using bilingual dictionary tolook up new words and doing translation exercises to practice new words are theevidences for the findings Most of participants found using Vietnamese effective totheir teaching and learning vocabulary, therefore they often apply it to improvevocabulary acquisition

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1 19

Table 2 20

Table 3 21

Table 4 23

Table 5 27

Table 6 28

FIGURE 1 22

FIGURE 2 24

FIGURE 3 25

FIGURE 4 25

FIGURE 5 26

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vi

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the Study 1

2 The Aims of the Study 2

3 Research Questions 2

4 The Scope of the Study 2

5 The Methods of the Study 2

6 Design of the Study 3

7 The Summary 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1.1 Vocabulary 4

1.1.1 What is Vocabulary? 4

1.1.2 The roles of Vocabulary in Second Language Acquisison 5

1.1.3 Approaches to Vocabulary Teaching 6

1.1.4 Explicit and Incidental Vocabulary Learning 7

1.2 L1 and Translation in Second Vocabulary Language Teaching 8

1.2.1 Translation Method in Language Teaching 8

1.2.2 The Roles of First Language on the Second Language 9

1.2.3 The Use of Translation to Facilitate Vocabulary Teaching 11

1.2.4 Empirical Studies of Translation Method in Vocabulary Teaching and Learning 12

1.3 Chapter Summary 14

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 15

2.1 Participants and Setting of the Study 15

2.2 Data Collection 15

2.2.1 Data Collection Instruments 15

2.2.2 Data Collection Procedures 18

2.2.3 Data Analysis Procedure 18

2.3 Chapter Summary 18

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 19

3.1 Findings 19

3.1.1 Findings and Discussion of Survey Questionnaires 19

3.1.1.1 Analysis of Teacher Questionnaires‟ Results: 19

3.1.1.2 Analysis of Student Questionnaires‟ Results: 23

3.1.2 Findings and Discussion of Class Observations 27

3.1.3 Findings and Discussion of Interviews 30

3.1.3.1 Summary of Teachers‟ Interviews 30

3.2 Discussion 33

3.3 Pedagogical Implications 34

3.4 Chapter Summary 34

PART C: CONCLUSIONS 35

1 Conclusions 35

2 Limitations of the Study 35

3 Suggestions for Further Study 36

REFERENCES 37

APPENDICES I

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the Study

Vocabulary forms the biggest part of the meaning of any language, and it isthe biggest problem for most learners, as described by Mc Carthy (“Interview”,2001:2, cited in Fan, 2003:222) Mc Carthy firmly believes that language is lexis-driven, and therefore, vocabulary learning is the real key to second language learning

He claims that learners will be more successful if they can develop their owntechniques and disciplines for vocabulary learning Therefore, an effective approach

to vocabulary is always one of the great concerns of every language teacher

A recent study by Ramachandran and Rahim (2004) investigated theeffectiveness of using the L1 translation in recalling the meaning and retention of thewords with elementary level ESL Their results indicated that the translation methodthrough using the first language was more effective than the non-translation method inenhancing ESL learners‟ vocabulary learning ability, and it could improve elementaryESL learner‟s ability to recall the meaning of the word learnt Auer Bach (1993) claimsthat the use of the learner‟s L1 in the L2 classroom will have a positive effect onlearners‟ second language learning, especially in the area of vocabulary Personally, theresearcher is interested in the findings of many researchers including Nation (2001) andKroll and Curley (1988) that new second language words are stored more effectively inthe brain when they are linked to their first language equivalents

At Vung cao Viet Bac High school, with more than 2,000 ethnic minoritystudents coming from different minority groups, each ethnic group has its ownlanguage, but Vietnamese is nominated the national language As far as I canobserve, these learners are much in favour of using Vietnamese when learningEnglish vocabulary This has motivated me to carry out this study, which aims atfinding the answer for the question about the real situation of using Vietnamese andits role in vocabulary teaching and learning

Hopefully, findings will reaffirm the use of L1 as a strategic teaching methodwithin the field of vocabulary acquisition

Furthermore, it is to partially help English foreign language teachers have a reflection

on their teaching practice

2 The Aims of the Study

The research is aimed to investigate the role of using Vietnamese in teaching vocabulary to the 10th form students at Vung cao Viet Bac High School

The objectives of the study are:

- to investigate how frequently Vietnamese is used in vocabulary teaching and learning of teachers and students

- to explore the teachers and students‟ perceptions of the effectiveness of using

Vietnamese in teaching and learning vocabulary

4 The Scope of the Study

The study limits itself to the role of using Vietnamese in teaching EnglishVocabulary The effectiveness of this technique would be explored from theperception of the students and teachers The study was carried out only with tenthform students and the teachers who are in charge of English teaching to thosestudents at Vung cao Viet Bac High school in Thai Nguyen

5 The Methods of the Study

Both qualitative and quantitative research methods are used in this study,including Questionnaire, classroom observations and interviews

Questionnaires

Both open-ended and close-ended questions were administered to 200students and 6 English teachers to find out their perceived effectiveness ofVietnamese use on vocabulary teaching and learning

Classroom Observations

Five periods (of about 45 minutes in length) taught by different teacherswere observed to find out how was Vietnamese used to teach vocabulary in theclass

Teacher interviews were conducted to obtain a better understanding of theteachers‟ perceptions towards the effectiveness of using Vietnamese in teachingEnglish vocabulary The interviews were transcribed fully and analyzedqualitatively

6 Design of the Study

The author chose survey research to do this study because of many reasons.First of all, the author could gather a great number of opinions from participants Asthe aim of this study was to investigate the application of using Vietnamese inteaching English vocabulary, the researcher needed a big number of participants toget the most reliable result The author could save a lot of time by getting the answersfrom delivering questionnaires in class and then interviewing some participants inperson The research adopted a mixed methodology – both qualitative andquantitative approaches in data collection and data analysis

The study consisted of 5 chapters which covered the introduction of the research, theliterature review, the methodology, findings and discussion and the conclusionchapter

There are three instruments which were used in this study, namelyquestionnaire, interview and observation Therefore the author could have veryreliable findings at the end The questionnaires were delivered to all participants withboth close questions and open questions so that they can specify their opinions Theresearcher did the observation on her own with the checklist at class The interviewsconsisted of semi-structured interviews and free interviews The researcherinterviewed three teachers who had just taught the observed periods

7 Summary

In this the first part, the author introduced the thesis with the aims that inspiredher to conduct the study as well as the research questions The author also presentedthe scope of the study that the thesis‟s focus was the role of Vietnamese use invocabulary teaching and learning so she did not pay attention equally to all lessons ofthe participants

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

Part B consists of three chapters: literature review; methodology and findingsand discussion

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter focuses on providing an overview of the theoretical knowledge

relevant to the study including vocabulary and its roles in second language

acquisition, recent research about teaching and learning second language vocabulary, L1 and translation in second vocabulary language teaching and the summaries of previous researches on closely –related topics.

1.1 Vocabulary

1.1.1 What is Vocabulary?

Vocabulary is a matter which many linguists and language teachers have beenconcerned for a long time Vocabulary is defined differently by different scholars.Below some definitions of vocabulary that are relevant to the present study areintroduced

In The American Heritage Dictionary, “vocabulary” is defined as:

1 All words of a language

2 The sum of words used by, understood by, or at the command of a particular person or a group

3 A list of words and often phrases, usually arranged alphabetically and defined

or translated; a lexicon or glossary

It‟s apparent that above definition show the relationship between vocabularyand words In other words vocabulary is defined as words However, it seemsimportant to see clear definitions, a concise explanation as sited as follow:

"Vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as the words we teach in the foreign

language However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: for example, post office, and mother-in- law, which are made up of two

or three words but express a single idea A useful conversation is to cover all such cases by talking about vocabulary “items” rather than “word” which is made up of two or three words but express a single idea.’‟ (Ur, 1996:60)

According to Ur, vocabulary should be recognized as words we teach in a foreignlanguage Ur argues a vocabulary item can be either a single word or a multi-wordphrase.

In conclusion, there are many different definitions about vocabulary, but theidea that vocabulary is the total number of words existing in a language, includingsingle words as well as multi-word items of which meaning cannot be deduced fromthe analysis of the component words but only understood in the sentences; or incontexts, is more favorable

1.1.2 The Roles of Vocabulary in Second Language Acquisison

It is known that, in learning a foreign language in general, and English inparticular, the knowledge and mastery of vocabulary play an extremely importantrole Mc Carthy (1990) stated that:

“No matter how well the students learn grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to express a wider range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way” (Mc Carthy, 1990:viii)

Pyles and Algeo (1970:96) noted that: "When we first think about thelanguage, we think about words It is words that we arrange together to makesentences, conversations and discourse of all kind" In fact, vocabulary is the elementthat links the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing all together Inorder to communicate well in a foreign language, students should acquire an adequatenumber of words and should know how to use them accurately Wilkins emphasizedthe importance of vocabulary learning:

"Without grammar very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary

nothing can be conveyed." (Wilkins, 1972:111)

Cook‟s (1991) conclusion is also consistent with Wilkins in that “Grammarprovides the overall patterns, vocabulary the material to put into those patterns” Orsome authors, led by Lewis (1993) argue that vocabulary should be at the centre oflanguage teaching, because „language consists of grammaticalised lexis, notlexicalised grammar‟ According to Meara (1995) central to learning to communicate

in the target language are vocabulary and lexical units No amount of grammatical or

other type of linguistics knowledge can be employed in communication or discoursewithout the mediation of vocabulary Folse (2004:3 ) claims that:

“The lack of grammar knowledge can limit conversation; lack of vocabulary knowledge can stop conversation” (Folse, 2004:3)

Learners can express themselves with poor grammar However, it is always achallenge to get the message across in a foreign language (Wallace, 1982), andbecause of this communication in foreign language is constrained considerably tothose with limited vocabulary

Thus, the importance of vocabulary in language learning cannot be denied.Vocabulary learning is obviously an essential part of language learning Learningwords can considered to be the most important aspect of second language acquisition(Knight, 1994) Candlin (1988) stated that “The study of vocabulary is at the heart oflanguage teaching in terms of organization of syllabuses, the evaluation of learnerperformances, and the provision of learning resources.”

1.1.3 Approaches to Vocabulary Teaching

There are many different methods, approaches, techniques as well as strategies

to vocabulary teaching In the early decades of the 20th century, vocabulary teachingbecame the focus of interest of many applied linguistic researchers and languageteachers In order to fully understand this development it is certainly worth giving abrief discussion of some major approaches in teaching vocabulary It can be easilyseen that several hundred years ago, bilingual teaching was favoured, with studentslearning through translation Howatt (1984) tells us that the idea of using L1 in the L2classroom was a respected view during the era of The Grammar Translation Method.The Grammar Translation Method had dominated late 19th and early 20th centuryteaching The aim of The Grammar Translation Method was to provide the studentswith a detailed literary vocabulary which is learned through long lists of translateditems and a bilingual dictionary and practiced through translation excercises withlittle opportunity to try out pronunciation (Rivers, 1981: 28-30)

The second major foreign language teaching approach is the Direct Method.The Direct Method stressed the ability to use rather than analyze a language as the

goal of language instruction or in other words, the main goal was to train students tocommunicate in the target language and to have an acceptable pronunciation.

The Reading approach attracted more importance than grammatical skill Thevocabulary used in the reading passages is controlled at beginning levels and ischosen according to their frequency and usefulness The acquisition of vocabulary isconsidered to be more important than grammatical skills and is expanded as fast aspossible through intensive and extensive reading The translation of vocabulary itemsand sentences are permitted (Murcia and Prator, 1979:3)

The Audio-lingual Approach which was dominant in the United States duringthe 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s is known to be a major paradigm shift in foreignlanguage teaching (Larsen-Freeman, 2000) In this method, the amount of vocabularypresented was kept low (Thornbury, 2002:14) and was chosen for its simplicity(Schmitt, 2000:13) It was assumed that when grammatical fluency was present,exposure to the foreign language itself lead to vocabulary development (Coady,1993:4)

The Communicative Language Teaching Approach is a renowned BritishApproach to language teaching the emergence of which dates back to the mid-1960s.Concepts like context, use, effective communication, communicative function,comprehensible pronunciation, etc were given importance in this approach Senel(2002: 243) emphasized that new words were not presented in isolation, but in thecontext of a complete sentence, and in a meaningful situation This way, the wordsacquired meaning when they appeared in a particular definition in a determinedcontext Moreover, Thornbury (2002:14) stated that course books began toincorporate communicative activities specifically targeting vocabulary since themeaning-giving role of lexis was recognized in this approach

1.1.4 Explicit and Incidental Vocabulary Learning

Explicit vocabulary learning focuses on teaching vocabulary directly tolearners in order to enhance the chance of new vocabulary acquisition Even thoughthat explicit teaching strategy is time consuming, it is worth the time to teach secondlearners the most frequent words in a language and technical vocabulary that learnerswill need in order to succeed in their education field

On the other hand, incidental vocabulary learning can occur when learnersfocused on comprehending meaning rather than focusing on learning new vocabulary(Gass and Selinker, 2001) Incidental learning can occur from reading or from havingconversations with others who speak the language Words that not explicitly taughtcan be learned incidentally from exposure It is necessary to increase the amount ofexposure in order to enhance the incidental vocabulary learning because the lack ofexposure is one of the problems facing the incidental approach (Schmitt, 2000) Alearner can start learning vocabulary incidentally from conversation from thebeginning, but when it comes to reading, a certain amount of explicit instruction isnecessary.

Written language usually uses more low frequency vocabulary than spokenlanguage; thus, teaching these infrequent words explicitly for second languagelearners is necessary especially for learners at elementary levels Thus, explicitteaching is necessary for low proficiency learners until they reach a vocabulary sizethreshold that allows them to learn words incidentally from reading (Schmitt, 2000).Sokmen (1997) states that “the pendulum has swung from direct teaching ofvocabulary (the grammar translation method) to incidental (the communicativeapproach) and now, (laudably, back to the middle: implicit and explicit learning” (ascited in Schmitt (2000: 120) These studies suggest that both explicit and incidentallearning are necessary, and they should complement each other

In conclusion, both incidental and explicit learning are necessary and theyshould be used together to bring the highest effectiveness

1.2 L1 and Translation in Second Vocabulary Language Teaching

1.2.1 Translation Method in Language Teaching

Grammar Translation Method was the predominant teaching methodologyfrom the beginning of the nineteenth century It was developed based on a procedurefor teaching Latin and evolved out of the need to standardize foreign languageteaching for children (Howatt, 1984, as cited in Schmitt, 2000) Students were givenextensive grammatical explanation in their first language, lists of bilingualvocabulary, and some practice exercises to translate from the first language into thesecond language or vice versa In this method, the content focused more on reading

and writing skills Vocabulary was only used as a way of illustrating grammar rules(Zimmerman, 1997, as cited in Schmitt, 2000) Students were expected to learn newvocabulary themselves by using bilingual word lists; thus, the bilingual dictionariesbecame an important reference tool Steinberg and Sciarini (2006: 114) stated that theGrammar- Translation Method “has enjoyed and continues to enjoy acceptance inmany countries around the world,” especially in countries where language teachersare not fluent and the classes are very large.

Although it has advantages, there are many problems associated with theGrammar-Translation Method One of the main problems with Grammar-TranslationMethod was that it focused on language analysis instead of language use It alsofocused on reading and writing skills which did not help to develop the ability tocommunicate orally in the target language (Schmitt, 2000) Therefore, this methodaims at providing students with a detailed literary vocabulary which is learnedthrough long lists of translated items and a bilingual dictionary and practiced throughsentence translation with little opportunity to try out pronunciation (Rivers, 1981:28-30) Murcia and Prator (1979:3) listed major characteristics of Translation Method:

 Classes are taught in the mother tongue, with little active use of target language

 Much vocabulary is taught in the form of lists of isolated words

 Long elaborate explanations of the intricacies of grammar are given

 Grammar provides the rules for putting the words together and instruction often focuses on the form and inflections of words

 Reading of difficult classical texts is begun early

 Little attention is paid to the content of texts, which are treated as exercises in grammatical analysis

 Often the only drills are exercises in translating disconnected sentences from the target language into the mother tongue

 Little or no attention is given to pronunciation

1.2.2 The Roles of First Language in the Second Language

Many researchers have found out that the learners‟ first language has greatinfluence on the learning and the use of second languages Second language learnersuse their L1 in learning the target language in many ways Many Vietnamese students

have ever said “What is the Vietnamese word for ?”, if they do not get the answer,immediately they will look up the bilingual dictionaries to find unknown vocabulary.Even though when this does not happen, an immediate association with a mother –tongue word is likely to be set as soon as possible There are complaints about theinfluence of the first language on second language vocabulary learning because ittakes time for students and teachers to think in the first language before they have theright word in second language However it even takes more time to explain a wordwithout translating because the teacher has to spend several minutes to find othersimple words or materials to make students understand According to Schmitt(Schmitt, 1997) many second language learners believe that translating helps them inlearning second language skills such as reading, writing, vocabulay.

Atkinson (1987) not only acknowledges the positive role of the mother tongue inthe classroom, but also identifies the following uses of it: eliciting language, checkingcomprehension, giving instructions, enhancing co-operation among learners,promoting discussions of classroom methodology, improving presentation andreinforcement of language, checking for sense testing, and development of usefullearning strategies The following are several reasons why the first languages should

be used as a tool in the language classroom:

 It is more natural to use the first language with others who have the same first language

 It is easier and more communicatively effective to use the first language

 Using the second language can be a source of embarrassment particularly for shy learners and those who feel they are not very proficient in the second language

 The first language can help to move the task along by establishing a joint

understanding of the text and to manage the task

 The first language allows learners to focus attention on vocabulary andgrammatical items or providing information and explanation about grammatical rules andconventions

 The first language may facilitate classroom activities, particularly for low

proficiency students and complex tasks

 The first language can provide a foundation for learners on which to build thesecond language structures, especially during collective activities in the classroom, and thefirst language provides a sense of security and validates the learners‟ live experiences,allowing them to express themselves.

 The first language can make learners feel more confident of using the second language, especially when their level is low

 Using the first language to explain, teachers can save a lot of time

On the contrary, using the first language causes some interference errors inEnglish because there is not always equivalence between the two languages Somelanguages like Swedish and English share some characteristics which led learners tothink that a word or structure what works in Swedish will work in English Sokmen(1997) states that vocabulary teaching was based on a top – down, naturalistic, andcommunicative approach which emphasized implicit and incidental learning ofvocabulary Inferring from the context and guessing are considered to be implicitteaching The implicit approach is commonly used in foreign language teachingclassrooms Teachers often encourage students to guess the meaning of the word bylooking at the context where the words are located They rarely use the first language

in the classroom because they are concerned that students may just rely on their firstlanguage Using the first language may lead students to the conclusion that learning aforeign language is just by translating it or foreign language is the first language inanother form

In short, the first language may support learners to learn the second language,once they understand their first language they can apply it into their second languagelearning Sometimes it may not help, and it even causes difficulties for learnersbecause of the two language differences

1.2.3 The Use of Translation to Facilitate Vocabulary Teaching

As it was discussed in the previous section, learners‟ first language has a greatimpact in the learning of the second language Thus, we come to the question: shouldtranslation be used in teaching and testing second language vocabulary? There may

be a belief that first language translation should not be used in the teaching ofvocabulary However, translation is one of number of ways of conveying meaning

and it is not better or worse than other ways, such as the use of pictures, real objects,definitions, the second language synonyms and so on Actually, the use of learners‟first language to test or convey vocabulary is quite sufficient (Nation, 2001).

One of the greatest advantages of using learners‟ first language in vocabularyteaching is that it provides an easier way to explain the meaning of second languagevocabulary The use of the learners‟ first language meaning is like using a simplesynonym, while a second language definition usually involves a definition thatincludes a relative clause or reduced relative clause, and reading such sentencesrequire greater grammatical skills

The use of first language translation provides a useful mean of testingvocabulary, both receptively and productively, and in recall and recognition ofmeaning The difficulties that caused by no exact corresponding between meanings inboth languages are less than the difficulties that caused by the lack of connectionbetween the second language definitions and the meaning they are trying to convey

As a result, using learners‟ first language translation to establish the initial form meaning of the new second language words‟ form with the corresponding the firstlanguage words which already exist in the memory is very useful (Barcroft, 2002).Moreover, new second language words are stored more effectively in the brain whenthey are linked to their first language equivalents (Kroll and Curely, 1988 , as cited inBarcroft, 2002) Thus, using first language translation is a good method to teachsecond language words as any other methods

-1.2.4 Empirical Studies of Translation Method in Vocabulary Teaching

and Learning

There are numbers of researches on the effectiveness of Translation Method insecond language teaching in general, and in vocabulary teaching and learning inparticular

Haijti (1989) examined conditions in which oral translation was used as anexercise to build vocabulary knowledge He stated that this activity led to effectiveresults

A year later, Shamash (1990) stated that the learners started by writing abouttheir lives in their first language or a mixture of their first language and English

Then they translated the text into English with the help of bilingual tutors or learners.

By this way, learners overcome the problems of vocabulary and language confidence.The use of native language may attract those students who are at low level of English.Such findings are in accordance with current theories of second language acquisition.All of them emphasize that the use of the first language reduces anxiety andconsequently makes effective environment appropriate for learning

In another study, Knight (1994) investigated the effects of using dictionary onthe retention of unknown words during a reading activity In this experiment studentswho used computerized dictionary demonstrated more vocabulary knowledge thanthose without access to a dictionary

Furthermore, Saggara and Alba (2006) also conducted a research toinvestigate effectiveness of translation with elementary students and came to aconclusion that using key word method and direct first language translation of thesecond language words would lead to better second language vocabulary learning atthe early stages of acquisition

Another study is by Majid and Hayati (2009) conducted a research to makecomparison between task-based instruction and translation method in theeffectiveness of learning vocabulary and found out that higher range of vocabularyhad been learnt in the translation group Learning happened in the task group but not

as much as in the translation one Doing translation the learners had time to focus onevery single word Added to that, when looking up words in bilingual dictionaries,learners paid attention to the meaning and the form of the words then consideredsemantic relation of each word with its surrounding words

According to Ellis and Beaton (1993:604) knowing a lexical item involvesknowing various components such as its spelling, phonological representation, wordclass, syntactic features and delivered meaning Current trends in language educationmostly consider no role of the mother tongue in language learning but manyresearches including study of Majid suggest that translation method is effective inimproving learners‟ ability to recall meanings of words which are unknown to them

Pal Heltai (1988) did a research on conditions in which oral translation can be anexercise to build vocabulary and he came to a conclusion that translation is best used as asupplementary exercise to practice and build vocabulary at advanced level under some

conditions In countries where English is a foreign language, opportunities for naturalisticacquisition are few, students have less chances to practice real English, therefore someactivities like translation can be beneficial for learners to reach motivation to learn newwords He also stated that translation might, indirectly, through contributing to the learning

of vocabulary; help improve learners‟ communicative fluency

Another study is by Ramachandran and Abdul Rahim (2004) to investigate theeffectiveness of the translation method in teaching vocabulary to elementary levelEnglish as second language (ESL) learners The authors sought answers to thefollowing questions: Do Malaysian elementary level ESL learners who learn wordsthrough translation method recall the meaning of the words learnt more effectivelyand is the translation method effective for lasting word meaning recall? The results

of the study show two characteristics of the translation method that may havecontributed to the outperformance in word meaning recall by the participantsreceiving it First, given that participants‟ second language lexical knowledge islimited, instruction in their first language may have made their learning of secondlanguage lexical items more effective Second, the subjects found learning the newlexical items using their first language less tedious than trying to understand differentexplanations in English The findings of the study show that elementary level ESLlearners recall the meaning of the words learnt effectively by using the translationmethod The study also reveals that the effects of the translation method is morelasting for word meaning than recall among elementary level ESL learners At theend, translation method seems to have positive impact on ESL elementary learners‟recall and retention of meaning of vocabulary learning

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter consists of the design of the study; the participants; the threeinstruments, namely questionnaire, interview; observation and finally the datacollection

2.1 Participants and Setting of the Study

The participants of the research were 200 students from grade 10A5, 10A6,10A7, 10A8 at Vung cao Viet Bac high school, Thai Nguyen The researcher is also

an English teacher of this school My school is a boarding school with more than2,000 ethnic minority students Most of the students in the school come from farmerfamilies in the remote mountainous villages in the northern provinces They are pureethnic students, they have their own first language; they often use it to communicatewith their parents and other friends of their communities They use Vietnamese atschools or at public places You are sure to imagine all sorts of difficulties thoseethnic students have to overcome when they learn English Most of the participantsare at the age of 16 and all these students are ethnic minorities, they belong todifferent ethnic minorities namely: Tày, Thái, Mường, Dao, Hmong, Nùng, Sán Dìu,

La Hủ, La Chí, Cao Lan, Hoa, Pu Péo, Giáy They have been learning English forfour years in junior schools but their knowledge of English vocabulary is at a lowlevel

In terms of 6 volunteer teachers participating in the study, three of them werequite young with no more than 5 year teaching experience; two of them had less than

10 year experience There was only 1 teacher who had been teaching for 14 years inthis school They were English teachers of those 4 classes I chose They were helpful

to assist the author to deliver students the questionnaire and get their answers

of people, respondents can complete the questionnaire when it suits them, analysis of

answers to closed questions is straightforward; less pressure for an immediate response,respondents‟ anonymity; lack of interviewer bias, standardization of questions (but true

of structured interviews); can provide suggestive data for testing an hypothesis Thequestionnaires were designed in both close and open-ended questions

There are 6 different questions in questionnaire that the author delivered to sixteachers and about 200 students in their break time The questionnaire for studentswas in Vietnamese so they could clearly understand each question and respond tothem without any language barrier All the questions designed were to seek answersfor the following research questions:

1 How is Vietnamese used in vocabulary teaching and learning at Vung Cao Viet Bac High School?

2 How effective do teachers and students find Vietnamese to their vocabulary teaching and learning?

Some questions are closed questions, and the participants responded bycircling their choices, so they could save much time Some of the questions soughtanswers for frequency of actions which were typical characteristics of TranslationMethod such as using Vietnamese to explain the meaning and usage of the newwords or using translation exercises to help students drill new words or usingdictionary to look up new words, etc Other questions explored participants‟ opinionsabout the effectiveness of L1 to their new vocabulary learning and teaching and thereasons for their choices The researcher also spent 1 first questions to investigate thepersonal information of students and teachers such as their language proficiency,their teaching experience so that the author could see differences in their viewpointsabout the use of Vietnamese if they had any

The last question was an open ended question which allowed participants tospecify their ideas about the effectiveness of using translation exercises Thisquestion was also the key question that may facilitate the researcher to directlyinterview some teachers for more ideas (See appendix 3)

2.2.1.2 Class Observations

Besides using questionnaires and interviews to get deeper ideas from teachersthe researcher came to some classes and observed by herself The author alwaysasked the teachers in advanced then attended the classes randomly, so the lessonscould go on as planned The author used an observation checklist with typicalcharacteristics of Translation Method such as using Vietnamese to explain themeaning and the usage of the new words; asking students to use bilingual dictionaryand giving translation tasks (See appendix 4) Besides the checklists, she did notforget to take note other things which happened in class The researcher believed thatthese notes could lead her to other issues The author observed the classes in alllistening, speaking, reading, writing and language focus lessons

2.2.1.3 Interviews

Interviews are a research tool in which a researcher asks questions ofparticipants; interviews are often audio or video-taped for later transcription andanalysis The interviews may take one of several forms: open-ended, focused,structured or unstructured In an open-ended interview, the researcher could ask forthe informant‟s opinion on events or facts In a focused interview, the respondent isinterviewed for only a short time, and the questions asked could have come from thecase study protocol The structured interview is particularly useful in studies ofneighborhoods where a formal survey is required The unstructured interview waspreferred because it is thought that it gives a wider freedom to the interviewees toexpress their views and beliefs (Shohamy and Seliger 1989; Wallace 1998) For thisadvantage, the researcher chose unstructured interview as an instrument to get datafor her study

Unstructured interview questions were set to solicit pertinent data from the 3different teachers whose classes were observed and noted These teachers have had arather long time in teaching English and they also have good teaching methods, theresearcher interviewed them in English and they were helpul to give the answers Thepurpose of the interview was to obtain a better understanding of the teachers‟perceptions about the benefits of using Vietnamese in teaching new vocabulary Theinterviews were conducted after the lessons around 15minutes They were based onthe following key questions:

1 Do you use Vietnamese to teach new vocabulary to your students? Why?

2 What effects does Vietnamese use have on your vocabulary teaching?

3 How motivated do you think your class is when you use Vietnamese to teach vocabulary to them?

4 Do you think that the exclusive use of Vietnamese in teaching English

vocabulary has problem(s)? If yes, what are they?

2.2.2 Data Collection Procedures

The required data were collected in the second term of 2014-2015 school year.First, the questionnaires were given to students and teachers Next, 5 periods of five teachers were observed Finally, three teachers were interviewed right after they had taught around 15 minutes

2.2.3 Data Analysis Procedure

The procedures of collecting data took me nearly two months and about onemonth to analyze the data Data collected from the above different sources werecategorized into: Findings and discussion of survey questionnaires, Findings anddiscussion of class observations and Findings and discussion of interviews

The data was categorized this way simply for seeking answers to research questionsraised for this study The quantitative data from questionnaire and classroomobservation were collected, analyzed and classified to synthesize in the tablestatistics The results were shown in the figures The qualitative data from theinterview were presented by quoting relevant responses from the respondents

2.3 Chapter Summary.

This chapter includes the design, description of participants, researchinstruments and the data collection of the study This study was a survey researchwhich used the mixture of methodology: qualitative and quantitative approaches 200students and 6 teachers of Vung Cao Viet Bac high school were the participants.They not only answered the questionnaires but were interviewed to express theirideas about the use of L1 in vocabulary teaching and learning The author alsoobserved their classes with checklist and written notes to get more reliable data forthe study

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter looks at the data analysis, the discussion and the major findings

of the study

3.1 Findings

3.1.1 Findings and Discussion of Survey Questionnaires

3.1.1.1 Analysis of Teacher Questionnaires’ Results:

As it was stated before, the first questions were used to ask for teachers‟background information Only 1 out of 6 teachers had more than 10 years teaching inthis school, the rest of them are quite young with from 3 to less than 10 yearexperience

Question 2: Which technique do you use the most often to explain the meaning of the new words?

Below is the table which shows the teacher respondents‟ answers:

Table 1: Teachers’ responses to the most frequently used techniques to explain the meaning of new vocabulary.

Techniques for explaining the meaning of new Number of Percentage

4 Guessing the meaning of words from contexts 0 0

Table 1 indicates that 5 out of 6 teachers often use Vietnamese to explain themeaning of new words The number 83% is much greater than that of teachers whoapply other techniques to help students understand the meaning besides usingVietnamese The researcher found that the number of teachers who often usedVietnamese to present new vocabulary in these cases still outnumbers This method isheplful for the students to recognize the new words in form of pronunciation and

spelling Therefore, it can be concluded that using Vietnamese to explain new words‟meaning is still preferred by almost teachers.

Question 3: Do you ask your students to use bilingual dictionaries to look up new words?

This question gives respondents two choices, either Yes or No, and it issurprising that 100% of the teachers ask their students to use bilingual dictionaries tolook up new words‟ meaning Therefore, it is clear that bilingual dictionaries play anextremely important role in vocabulary teaching by teachers in Vung Cao Viet BacHigh School Bilingual dictionaries are considered precious sources which canprovide students word meaning quickly and conveniently

The below table which illustrates the percentage of teachers who ask theirstudents to use bilingual dictionaries to look up new words

Table 2: Percentage of teachers asking students to use bilingual dictionary to look

dictionaries to look up new words?

Question 4: Which aspects of vocabulary do you often pay the most attention to when you introduce new words to your students?

This question was asked to investigate the aspects of vocabulary that teachers often pay the most attention to when they introduce to their students Different

methods have different focus on the aspects of vocabulary to teach As the authod stated before one of typical characteristics of Translation Method is that it has little focus on pronunciation What is more, this method spends much time teaching

students semantic meaning of and instruction about the usage of new words Teachershave 4 choices to select, and the table below is the result:

Table 3: Aspects of vocabulary teachers pay the most attention to.

On the other hands, no teacher paid the most attention to word – form In short, fromteachers‟ viewpoints about the aspect of word they paid the most attention to, theauthor can conclude that they are using L1 through translation method in theirvocabulary teaching

Question 5: How do you think translation exercises help you teach new words to your students?

The two last questions in the questionnaire were used to investigate theteachers‟ ideas about the effectiveness of translation exercises to their vocabularyteaching

The figure below is the description of the result for question 5

21

Figure 1 : Teachers’ opinions about the effectiveness of translation exercises

Very effective Quite effective Not effective

It is very clear from the data that there is only 1 teacher (16,7%) who supposedthat translation method is not effective to her vocabulary teaching, meanwhile 4teachers (66,6%) found this method quite effective to their teaching, and 1 respondent(16,7%) thought that it is very effective In short, 83,3% teachers consideredtranslation exercises helpful to their vocabulary teaching Only 16,7% teachers didnot share the same idea However, the percentage of respondents who supported theuse of translation exercises because of its effectiveness is obviously much higher thanthe number of those who rejected it

Question 6: If your answer for question 5 is A or B, could you circle the reason and specify it?

This final question was to seek the reason why teachers suppose thattranslation exercises effective to their vocabulary teaching It is actually an open-question therefore teachers can specify their own ideas if their reasons are differentfrom the choices given

Below is the table which shows the teacher respondents‟ answers: