Promoting learner autonomy in learning vocabulary for second year students at hai phong medical university

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIESFACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES TRẦN THỊ HÒA PROMOTING LEARNER AUTONOMY IN LEARNING VOCABULARY FOR SEC

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN THỊ HÒA

PROMOTING LEARNER AUTONOMY IN LEARNING VOCABULARY FOR SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT HAI

PHONG MEDICAL UNIVERSITY

(Phát huy tính tự chủ trong việc học từ vựng cho sinh viên năm thứ hai,

Trường Đại học Y Hải Phòng)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

HANOI - 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN THỊ HÒA

PROMOTING LEARNER AUTONOMY IN LEARNING VOCABULARY FOR SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT HAI

PHONG MEDICAL UNIVERSITY

(Phát huy tính tự chủ trong việc học từ vựng cho sinh viên năm thứ hai,

Trường Đại học Y Hải Phòng)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Supervisor: Phùng Hà Thanh, M.Ed

HANOI - 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowledgement ii

Abstract iii

List of tables and figures viii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 3

4 Methods of the study 3

5 Significance of the study 4

6 Overview of the study 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1 Vocabulary 5

1.1 Definition of vocabulary 5

1.2 Processes of vocabulary acquisition 5

2 Vocabulary learning and teaching 7

2.1 Aspects of learning a word 7

2.2 Explicit approach vs Incidental learning approach 8

3 Learner autonomy 10

3.1 Definition of autonomy 10

3.2 Principles of developing autonomy 12

4 Vocabulary learning strategies 14

4.1 Definition of learning strategies 14

4.2 Classification of vocabulary learning strategies 15

4.3 Frameworks for strategy training 16

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 1 Background of the study 18

1.1 Current learning and teaching of English at Hai Phong Medical University 18

1.2 Identification of the problem 18

2 Participants 19

3 Implementation of the action research 19

4 Instruments of data collection 22

4.1 Description of the pre-treatment questionnaire 22

4.2 Description of the vocabulary – learning records 23

4.3 Description of the vocabulary learning diary 24

4.4 Description of the post – treatment questionnaire 26

5 Data collection procedures 26

6 Data analysis procedures 26

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 1 Phase One - Research question 1: Students’ problems in independent vocabulary learning 28

2 Phase Two 29

2.1 Research question 2: Students’ performance in the use of the taught

strategies 29

2.1.1 Students’ performance in the use of Strategy Set 1 and Set 2 29

2.1.2 Students’ performance in the use of Strategy Set 3 30

2.2 Research question 3: Students’ participation in the use of the taught strategies 31

2.2.1 Students’ participation in the use of Strategy Set 1 and Set 2 31

2.2.2 Students’ participation in the use of Strategy Set 3 32

3 Phase Three 32

3.1 Research question 4: Students’ maintenance of the taught strategies in independent vocabulary learning 33

3.2 Research question 5: Students’ perception of the effectiveness of the strategy training programme 34

3.2.1 Students’ frequency of using the taught strategies before and after the training programme 34 3.2.2 Usefulness of the taught strategies 35 3.2.3 Students’ evaluation of the strategy training programme 36 PART C: CONCLUSION 1 Conclusion 39

2 Pedagogical implications from the findings 40

3 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study 40

REFERENCES 41

Appendix 1: Schmitt’s taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies (1997) IAppendix 2: Three lesson plans IIIAppendix 3: Three word-learning records XXIVAppendix 4: Sample vocabulary-learning diaries XXXIIIAppendix 5: Pre-treatment questionnaire survey (English version) LVIIIAppendix 6: Pre-treatment questionnaire survey (Vietnamese version) LXAppendix 7: Post-treatment questionnaire survey (English version) LXIIAppendix 8: Post-treatment questionnaire survey (Vietnamese version) LXV

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Criteria for evaluating word-learning records 24

Table 2: Holistic rubric for marking the maintenance of the trained strategy sets 25

Table 3: Students’ performance in the use of Dictionary-related strategies and Vocabulary-recording strategies 29

Table 4: Students’ performance in the use of Affix-studying strategies 30

Table 5: Students’ participation in the use of Dictionary-related strategies and Vocabulary-recording strategies 31

Table 6: Students’ participation in the use of Affix - studying strategies 32

FIGURES Figure 1: Students’ problems in independent vocabulary learning 28

Figure 2: Students’ maintenance of the taught strategies in independent vocabulary learning 33

Figure 3: Frequency of vocabulary strategy use before and after training 34

Figure 4: Usefulness of the taught strategies 35

Figure 5: Effectiveness of the strategy training programme 36

Figure 6: Students’ recommendations for vocabulary-learning strategy training 38

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Learner autonomy, a concept promoted by Holec (1981) and others in the context

of European language education, has become a favorite topic for analysis for the lasttwenty years In many parts of the world, learner autonomy has been put forward as a goal

to achieve (Pemberton et al., 1996; Sinclair et al., 2000; Little et al., 2000; Benson, 2001).Several arguments may be used in favor of developing autonomy in language learners Forexample, according to Naimen et al (1978), autonomous learning is more effective thanother approaches to learning, and Waite (1994) specifies that learners need to take charge

of their own learning in order to make the most of available resources, especially outsidethe classroom

Despite being widely discussed worldwide, learner autonomy remains a fairly novelconcept in Vietnam Whether or to what extent learner autonomy is developed andpracticed in Vietnamese schools and universities is still open to question Furthermore,since the idea of learner autonomy originated from Western cultures, it hardly suffices tojust transfer the concept to an Asian context (Benson, Chik & Lim, 2003; Smith, 2003).Rather, the implementation of learner autonomy in Asian countries should be tailored sothat an appropriate methodology for developing learner autonomy in non-Western contextscan be devised (Smith, 2003) Another argument is that learner autonomy is a universalsocial phenomenon, which manifests itself differently in different local contexts (Holliday,2003) Because of all these complex and interesting points, it seems appealing to explorehow autonomy can be enhanced in an Asian educational institution like Hai Phong MedicalUniversity Moreover, developing learners’ autonomy becomes increasingly important asfar as tertiary education is concerned A student at university is required to do a substantialamount of research for his assignments, so he is supposed to know when and how to workindependently so that he can achieve a satisfactory result

Specifically, the local context of Hai Phong Medical University calls for the idea ofpromoting learner autonomy The second-year students, who are at pre-intermediate level,

do not seem to study English as well as in the first year Having taught them for threesuccessive semesters, I immediately take notice of the situation and intend to design aremedy plan to improve it After my open talk with the whole class, several problems came

to light Most of the students feel discouraged by a large number of words they encounter

in each English lesson As many of them confess, learning vocabulary seems to be the mostdifficult and most important to them However, as English non-majors, the students haveonly four periods per week for English lessons It means the time spent on vocabularylearning is really limited in class In order to develop the students’ vocabulary, it is crucialthat they practice independent vocabulary learning regularly outside class Therefore, it hasbecome increasingly essential to provide them with useful learning strategies so that theycan employ in their self-study time In this case, the success of learning vocabularydepends very much on how effectively and autonomously the students practice vocabularyself-study As Waite (1994) says, learners need to take charge of their own learning inorder to make the most of available resources, especially outside the classroom

For all the reasons above, I have decided to undertake a study on promoting

learner autonomy in learning vocabulary for second-year students at Hai Phong Medical University The focus of the study is a training programme of vocabulary –

learning strategies conducted for ten weeks

2 Aims and objectives of the study

Firstly, the study aims at improving the students’ autonomous vocabulary learning

by teaching them some helpful strategies, namely dictionary-related strategies, recordingvocabulary and studying affixes Secondly, it is intended to evaluate their employment ofthese vocabulary-learning strategies in terms of performance, participation andmaintenance These aims can be achieved by answering the following research questions:

1 What are the problems that the students encounter in their independent

4 To what extent do the students maintain the taught strategies in their

independent vocabulary learning?

5 How effective is the strategy training programme in helping the students learn vocabulary, as perceived by the students?

3 Scope of the study

The research focuses on one specific way of developing learner autonomy: theexplicit teaching of learning strategies A vocabulary-learning strategy training programme

is conducted for ten weeks Within the scope of the study, only three strategy sets, namelydictionary-related strategies, recording vocabulary and studying affixes, are taught Theeffectiveness of the taught strategies is measured in terms of performance, participationand maintenance Performance refers to the extent of correctness when the students use thetaught strategies while participation means how much they use these strategies in theirguided vocabulary practice Lastly, maintenance refers to the extent of retaining the taughtstrategies in their independent vocabulary study

The participants include 27 second-year students of the same English class at HaiPhong Medical University and their teacher In this study, the teacher is in charge ofteaching the class and plays the role of the researcher at the same time

4 Methods of the study

The current study is carried out as an action research, which combines qualitativeand quantitative approaches The action actually taken is a vocabulary-learning strategytraining programme designed for the duration of ten weeks The programme is divided intothree phases

In phase one, pre-treatment questionnaires are distributed to seek the answer forresearch question one regarding the students’ problem in learning vocabulary Then, thestudents are taught about three strategy sets, namely dictionary-related strategies,vocabulary-recording and affix-studying

In phase two, three word-learning records are provided as guided practice of thetaught strategies The data from the word-records aim at answering the research questiontwo and three about the students’ performance and participation in the use of the taughtstrategies

In phase three, the students keep free-style vocabulary learning diaries, in whichthey record the vocabulary they want to learn in their self-study time The diaries are used

to answer the research question four about the extent of maintaining the taught strategies inthe students’ independent vocabulary learning By the end of phase three, post-treatmentquestionnaires are distributed to answer the research question five about the learners’perception of the strategy training programme

The data from the pre-treatment and post-treatment questionnaires, the learning records and vocabulary-learning diaries are calculated with regard to items’

word-frequency, mean, and percentage

5 Significance of the study

First and foremost, the habit of independent vocabulary learning will hopefully bedeveloped for the second-year students at Hai Phong Medical University The students canovercome their difficulties in learning vocabulary by means of monitoring and regulatingtheir self-study with appropriate learning strategies In this way, the researcher hopes thatthe students’ awareness of learning strategies and learner autonomy can be raised andnurtured

Second, the study offers an example of how learner autonomy can be fostered in anAsian context It is expected that the study will contribute an insightful picture of thepractice of Asian learner autonomy to the literature and help to shed light on the concept oflearner autonomy

6 Overview of the study

The research paper consists of the following parts:

Part A Introduction

Part B Development

The development is divided into three chapters:

 Chapter one (Literature review) provides the theoretical background of the study, covering the key terms and review of related studies.

 Chapter two (Methodology) justifies and describes the methodology of the study in details.

 Chapter three (Results and discussion) presents full analysis of the

collected

data and discusses the findings.

Part C Conclusion

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter offers a review of the literature related to learner autonomy andvocabulary learning and teaching In each section, the definition or explanation of the keyterms is presented together with the studies worldwide

1.1 Definitions of vocabulary

There exist several definitions of vocabulary in the literature review, all of whichseem to share the idea of what vocabulary is According to Longman dictionary oflanguage teaching and applied linguistics (Richard, Platt & Platt, 1992), vocabulary isdefined as “a set of lexemes, including single words, compound words and idioms” Thisway of defining is similar to the one given in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary: “alist or collection of words and phrases usually alphabetically arranged and explained ordefined.” It is clear from these two definitions that vocabulary includes not only individualwords but also fixed expressions This point is directly identified by Ur (1996: 60),

“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” He highlights thatsome vocabulary items such as “post office” and “mother-in-law” express a single idea.Besides, the meaning of idioms such as “call it a day” can not be deduced from an analysis

of the component words Therefore, Ur (1996: 60) suggests that “A useful convention is tocover all such cases by talking about vocabulary items rather than words” In the samevein, McCarthy (1990) argues that multi-word units including idioms and phrasal verbsshould clearly be treated as single lexical items since their meaning are partly identified bytheir fixedness The central idea of these definitions can be best summed up by Lewis(1993, cited in Nguyen, 2007: 7) who defines vocabulary as “individual words, or fullsentences – institutionalized utterances – that convey fixed social or pragmatic meaningwithin a given community”

1.2 Processes of vocabulary acquisition

According to Nation (2001), in order to remember a word, the learner needs toexperience three processes, namely noticing, retrieval and creative (generative) use

Most simply, noticing means giving attention to an item This can happen in avariety of ways, including learners deliberately studying a word or having a wordexplained to them and the word appearing crucial in the textual input Noticing involvesdecontextualization, which occurs when “the word is removed from its message context to

be focused on as a language item” (Nation, 2001: 64) The role of decontextualization is

underlined by Nation (2001: 64) “ in order to acquire the language, learners need toconsciously see language items as parts of the language system rather than only asmessages”.

Nation (2001) further distinguishes two kinds of decontextualization: negotiationand definition Although a large number of studies demonstrate that negotiated vocabularyitems are more likely to be learned than non-negotiated ones, he points out that it is not themeans by which most vocabulary is learned, suggesting the need for other complementaryways of decontextualizing items Especially noteworthy is the discovery that not only thelearners actually negotiating but also those observing the negotiation learn the words.Regarding definition, an interesting and significant finding is that simple, short definitionsare the most effective while more elaborate ones tend to be confusing rather than helpfulfor vocabulary learning (Ellis, 1995; Chaudron, 1982, cited in Nation, 2001) In addition,Nation himself has shown that many learners find learning faster if the word meaning isconveyed by a first language translation In the classroom, teachers directly influencestudents’ noticing process by deciding the context to put the wanted vocabulary items, bypre-teaching or consciousness-raising of the items before the activity and by using differentattention-drawing techniques

The second process of vocabulary acquisition is retrieval, which reinforces themeaning of the word in the learner’s mind The more frequent the retrieval of a particularitem in the learning process, the greater the chances that the item will strike deeper in thelearner’s memory It should be noted that a repetition of a word can only be effective ifthere is some memory of the previous meeting with the word Thus, the span of timebetween encounters cannot be too long As Nation (2001: 68) states:

It is very useful to try to estimate how much listening and reading a learner wouldneed to be doing per week in order for incidental receptive vocabulary learning toproceed in an effective way ( ) On average learners would need to listen to stories

at least three times a week for about fifteen minutes each time They would need toread about one graded reader every two weeks

The last but major process of vocabulary acquisition is generation, which occurswhen “previously met words are subsequently met or used in ways that differ from theprevious meeting with the word” (Nation 2001: 68) Those new encounters push learnerstowards reconceptualization of their knowledge of these words There are also receptiveand productive forms of generation Receptive generation occurs when a word isencountered in listening and reading and has slightly different meaning whereas productivegeneration involves using the word in a new context

The three processes discussed above tend to correspond to the three-point scale fordescribing depth of processing suggested by Stahl (1985, cited in Nation, 2001) The scaleincludes three levels, namely association, comprehension and generation.

2 Vocabulary learning and teaching

2 1 Aspects of learning a word

The question of what it means for a language learner to “know” a word is a centralissue of second language vocabulary acquisition A close examination of the literature hasrevealed that the nature of lexical knowledge can be depicted as a continuum of severaldimensions

On the one hand, several writers have regarded vocabulary learning as the task ofmastering its constituents As illustrated by Ur (1996), learners have to know the wordform - including pronunciation and spelling, grammar, collocation, aspects of wordmeaning, and word formation By grammar, he means the information such as irregularpast form, irregular plural form, which should be showed to learners, especially when anitem has an unpredictable change of form Ur differentiates two levels of meaning aspects.The first level includes denotation, connotation and appropriateness of use in a certaincontext, and the second level covers meaning relationships, namely synonyms, antonyms,hyponyms, co-hyponyms, superordinates Clearly, knowing a word requires more than justits meaning and form Sharing the view with Ur, Harmer (1991: 158) presents a moredetailed and systematic summary of “knowing a word” in the following chart:

Meaning in context MEANING

Sense relation Metaphor and idiom

Collocation WORD USE

Style and register

Parts of speech WORDS

Prefixes and suffixes WORD INFORMATION

Spelling and pronunciation

WORD GRAMMAR phrasal verbs, etc.

Adjectives and adverbs: position, etc.

In a much more concise manner, as stated by Finegan (2004: 40), using a wordrequires that the mental lexicon of children and adults alike should store four kinds ofinformation:

 its sounds and their sequencing (phonological information)

 its meaning (semantic information)

 how related words such as the plural and past tense are formed (morphological information)

 its category and how to use it in a sentence (syntactic information)

On the other hand, some researchers have approached the learning of vocabularyfrom a broader view For example, Chapelle (1994) suggests a three-component construct

of vocabulary ability including (1) the context of vocabulary use, (2) vocabularyknowledge and fundamental processes and (3) metacognitive strategies for vocabulary use

As regards context, it can influence lexical meaning in various ways The secondcomponent is further divided into four elements, namely vocabulary size, knowledge ofword characteristics, lexicon organization (the way in which lexical items are organized inthe mental lexicon) and fundamental vocabulary processes that users apply to access theirlexical knowledge Finally, metacognive strategies or strategic competence can beavoidance, paraphrase, guessing meaning, asking teacher or consulting dictionary etc.Another direction in the research of lexical competence is to head for links andinterrelationships between the different kinds of word knowledge (Schmitt & Meara,1997)

2.2 Explicit approach vs Incidental learning approach

Vocabulary learning has been emerging in the literature review as a complex,interesting issue that involves different processes The most notable topic is the distinctionbetween explicit and implicit (or incidental) learning

As regards explicit learning, the central idea is that the application ofvocabulary learning strategies can greatly facilitate vocabulary acquisition, and learnersplay an active role in processing information (Ellis, 1995) Unsurprisingly, a large number

of books have focused on numerous activities and exercises for explicit study ofvocabulary According to a survey by Sokmen (1997 cited in Schmitt, 2000: 146), explicitvocabulary teaching should adhere to the following principles:

 provide a number of encounters with a word

 make new words “real” by connecting them to the students’ world in some way

 encourage independent learning strategies

In addition, Schmitt (2000) points out some other important principles First, theproblem of cross – association should be prevented This usually happens when similarwords, such as “left” and “right”, are initially taught together Students are confused whenmatching the word form with the right meaning Antonyms, synonyms, and closely relatedsemantic groupings are particularly subject to cross-association As Nation (1990 cited inSchmitt, 2000) suggests, cross association can be avoided by teaching the most frequentword of a pair first and introducing the other only after the first word is well established.Second, the underlying meaning concept of a polysemous word is worth teaching Forexample, to define the verb “run”, it is best to explain it as “go quickly, smoothly, orcontinuously” This definition keeps the common underlying trait of several meaningsenses like “the girl ran”, “the road runs up the hill”, and “run a business” (Nation, 1990cited in Schmitt, 2000) Accordingly, students can understand the word in a variety ofcontexts and the effect of teaching is maximized Last, teaching word families should bemade a habit to enhance vocabulary learning

Implicit learning, on the other hand, is defined as “accidental learning ofinformation without the intention of remembering that information” (Hustijn et al., 1996).Sternberg (1987) argues that most vocabulary is learned implicitly from context Anextreme position, having its roots in Krashen’s Input Hypothesis (Krashen, 1989), evenstates that meanings of new words are acquired subconsciously as a result of repeatedexposures in a range of contexts, where the conscious focus is not on form, but on themessage To put it simply, the key to incidental learning approach is to make sure thatlearners get maximum exposure to the language In second language classrooms, this can

be best achieved through reading

However, much of the literature has showed that incidental learning throughreading occurs only to a limited degree This is attributed to several factors Firstly, lexicalinferencing is not always successful For example, word meanings are not inferable fromcontext or lead learners to make wrong inferences Alternatively, not all contexts areequally conducive to make informed guesses Secondly, incidental vocabulary acquisition

is unlikely if new words are not noticed or processed deeply Furthermore, the question ofhow many and what kind of exposures are necessary for acquisition to occur remainsunanswered As Hulstijin et al (1996) concludes, incidental learning in second language

only occurs incrementally and in small quantities Besides, according to Schmitt andMcCarthy (1997), the prerequisites for successful incidental acquisition include:

 Level of language proficiency

 Strategic knowledge of inferencing process

 Rich context with sufficient cues

All things considered, it is generally agreed that any vocabulary program needs toinclude both explicit teaching and activities which promote incidental learning In thewords of Schmitt (2000: 146), explicitly teaching all the words is necessary for beginnerswhereas beyond this level, “incidental learning should be structured into the program in aprincipled way.” Incidental learning not only helps to consolidate vocabulary but alsoexposes learners to different contexts in which a word is used, thus expanding theknowledge about the word Moreover, some aspects of word knowledge, especiallycollocation and register constraints, can only be fully acquired through numerousexposures Another reason is that explicitly presenting all the uses of a word to students isobviously an impossible task More specifically, Ellis (1995) contends that both implicitand explicit learning suit different levels of word meaning In his view, implicit vocabularylearning is suitable for simple pattern recognition of surface form, called “shallowprocessing” while explicit learning necessarily facilitates the mapping of those surfaceforms to their corresponding semantic/conceptual presentation Explicit learning, therefore,refers to the recognition of word meaning by means of “deep processing”

3 Learner autonomy

3.1 Definition of autonomy

A close look at the literature has revealed that it is not easy to put forward a properdefinition of the concept “autonomy” There exists a range of definitions, each of whichexplores autonomy from a different perspective and within a certain scope Accordingly, it

is essential to study a variety of interpretations in order to capture the full meaning of theconcept

To start with, Holec (1981: 3), the so-called “father” of learner autonomy, provides

a broad definition which considers learner autonomy “the ability to take charge of one’sown learning” This general but concise definition, from the researcher’s view, reallytouches upon the spirit of autonomy It is obvious from Holec’s definition that anautonomous learner not only possesses a sense of responsibility for his learning but he/she

is also self-conscious of that responsibility

Other writers offer more specific definitions than Holec’s in that they detail whatconstitutes the ability to take charge of one’s own learning For example, in terms of

behavior, Nunan (2000) describes autonomous learners as the ones who make decision ontheir own style of learning, actively involve themselves in learning process andindependently choose their learning materials Alternatively, Little (1991) tends to focus onmental processes when he asserts that learner autonomy is “essentially the matter of thelearner’s psychological relation to the process and content of learning – a capacity fordetachment, critical reflection, decision making, and independent action.”

Turning attention to the aspect of attitudes, Scharle and Szabo (2000) seem to sharethe same interest with Holec (1981) when they present a persuasive analysis of theinterrelationship between autonomy and responsibility According to the authors,autonomy is defined as “the freedom and ability to manage one’s own affairs, which entailsthe right to make decisions as well” whereas responsibility is understood as “being incharge of something, but with the implication that one has to deal with the consequences ofone’s own actions.” (Scharle & Szabo, 2000: 4) They argue that autonomy andresponsibility are interrelated and both require learners’ active involvement Sincesuccessful learning depends considerably on learners having a responsible attitude,students need to develop a sense of responsibility together with autonomy capacity

However, Benson (2001: 47) states that it is preferable to define autonomy as thecapacity to take control of one’s own learning, largely because the construct of “control”appears to be more open to investigation than the constructs of “charge” or

“responsibility.” In his definition, he specifies three levels of control that a learner shouldtake in order to develop his/her learning autonomy: “An adequate description of autonomy

in language learning should at least recognize the importance of three levels at whichlearner control may be exercised: learning management, cognitive processes and learningcontent” (Benson, 2001: 50) This definition will be the guideline for the current study

Most interestingly, several writers have approached the concept of autonomy withreference to the combination between independence and interdependence Althoughindependence from a teacher is often seen as an observable sign of autonomy, the value ofinterdependence, defined as “the ability of learners to work together for mutual benefit, and

to take shared responsibility for their learning” (Palfreyman, 2003: 4), can hardly bedenied Little and Dam (1998) also argue for the interdependence inside independence:

We are social creatures, and as such we depend on one another in infinity of ways.Without the stimulus and comfort of social interaction, for example, childdevelopment is disastrously impaired: it is our condition that we learn from oneanother Thus, the independence that we exercise through our developed capacityfor autonomous behavior is always conditioned and constrained by our inescapable

interdependence In contexts of formal learning as elsewhere, we necessarily depend on others even as we exercise our independence.

Admittedly, autonomy does not exclude interdependence Learning, like othersocial communication activities, is more fruitful with the cooperation of people involved

So is autonomous learning Teachers and learners collaborate to contribute to the learningcommunity and to the process of autonomy training Likewise, knowing how and when toseek for help does not mean learners are not independent Therefore, autonomy should beunderstood as the freedom to choose what action to take, whether to do it oneself or toconsult others In fact, according to Palfreyman (2003), collaboration has come to be seen

as an important component of learner autonomy Boud (1981, cited in Palfreyman, 2003)has even gone further to regard interdependence as a more developed stage of autonomythan independence

A more general interpretation of the concept “autonomy” is to put it into the frame

of daily life An autonomous learner is then depicted as being a fulfilled and effectivecitizen in a society For example, Candlin (1997, cited in Palfreyman, 2003:2) refers to

“autonomy in language, learning, and above all else, in living.” Similarly, in the words ofDelores et al (1996, cited in Palfreyman, 2003) “each individual must be equipped to seizelearning opportunities throughout life, both to broaden her or his knowledge skills andattitudes and to adapt to a changing, complex and interdependent world.”

All in all, learner autonomy is a stimulating, multifaceted concept which can beinterpreted from different viewpoints Learners’ autonomy encompasses not only theirattitudes but also their behaviors It is both a process and a goal in language learning, ineducation and in living as well

3.2 Principles of developing autonomy

Varied as it may be, the literature on principles of developing autonomy seems tohave a common feature It is all concerned with explicit teaching and providingopportunities for learner autonomy to express and develop

First and foremost, in order to foster learner autonomy, it is crucial to increase asense of responsibility A complete analysis of how to build up learner responsibility ispresented by Scharle and Szabo (2000) They identify the building blocks of responsibilityand autonomy on the part of learners and teachers The building blocks required of learnersinclude motivation and self-confidence, monitoring and evaluation, learning strategies andfinally cooperation and group cohesion Particularly noteworthy is their emphasis onmonitoring and evaluation According to Scharle and Szabo (2000: 7), “when weencourage students to focus on the process of their learning rather than the outcome, wehelp them consciously examine their own contribution to their learning.” This is really the

vital step to the development of a responsible attitude Another key point is the teaching oflearning strategies, which are regarded as the tools for students to expand their languagecompetence and to undertake their own learning responsibility Students should be shown avariety of available strategies and encouraged to find out which strategies work best forthem in certain contexts Meanwhile, certain attitudes are also required of teachers Theyshould be willing to share information with the learners in terms of both short and longterm objectives, to take consistent control by clearly establishing expectations towardslearners and lastly to delegate tasks and decisions to learners.

With a view to reinforcing these skills and attitudes for learners and teachers,Scharle and Szabo (2000) go on to detail the process of developing responsibility thatlearners and teachers go through This process is divided into three phases: raisingawareness, changing attitudes and transferring roles First, the stage of raising awarenessincludes highly controlled activities which are intended to present new experiences tolearners and to make them conscious of the inner processes of their learning Second, thechanging – attitude – stage allows repeatable, less controlled activities through whichstudents practise and reinforce their new roles and habits Finally, the stage of transferringroles contains loosely structured activities that give students considerable freedom It isclear that as learners move from one phase to the next, they are facilitated to exercisegreater autonomy and more responsibility

More specifically, Vieria (2003) puts principles in a common framework for learnerand teacher development This framework should be highly recommended for its thoroughpresentation of action principles to promote learner autonomy Besides, it nicely comparesautonomous learner development side by side with reflective teacher development.However, for the scope of the present study, the researcher will only make use of theprinciples concerning learners According to Vieria (2003: 226), the action principles todevelop learner autonomy include:

Reflection: Developing language / learning awareness

 Developing awareness of language (formal and pragmatic properties; sociocultural dimension)

 Developing awareness of learning (sense of agency; attitudes,representations, beliefs, preferences and styles; aims and priorities; strategies: cognitive,metacognitive, strategic, socio-affective tasks: focus, purpose, rationale, demands; instructional /didactic process: objectives, activities, materials, evaluation, roles)

 Discovering and trying out learning strategies (in class and outside class)

 Exploring resource materials (pedagogical and non-pedagogical)

Regulation: Regulating learning experience

 Identifying learning problems or needs

 Monitoring/evaluating attitudes, representations, beliefs, strategic

knowledge and ability

 Assessing learning outcomes and progress

 Evaluating the instructional / didactic process

 Taking the initiative, choosing and deciding

The four principles presented above indicate “major learner roles that bring thelanguage learner closer to the learning content and process” (Vieria, 2003: 227) As can beseen, each principle paves the way for a particular realization of autonomy Within thescope of this study, the researcher will exploit the first two principles: reflection andexperimentation

4 Vocabulary learning strategies

Strategy training can be used to help students achieve learner autonomy andlinguistic autonomy (Cohen, 1998) By choosing their own strategies without continuedprompting from the language teacher, learners should be able to monitor and evaluate therelative effectiveness of their strategy use, and more fully develop their problem-solvingskills In this way, learners are encouraged to become more autonomous, to diagnose some

of their own learning strengths and weaknesses, and to self-direct the process of languagedevelopment This section offers a literature review concerning the training of vocabularylearning strategies

4.1 Definition of learning strategies

There is no consensus on a definition of learning strategies due to differentinterpretations of the term strategy in the literature

Several writers seem to pay attention to the utility of learning strategies whendefining them For example, Rubin (1975: 43) provides a very broad definition of learningstrategies as “the techniques or devices which a learner may use to acquire knowledge.”Similarly, in the view of Willing (1989), learning strategies may be identified as specificstudy skills or techniques, a general ability to take the initiative or just an enthusiasm forlearning while Beckman (2006) considers learning strategies a set of steps to accomplish aparticular task such as taking a test, comprehending text and writing a story In a more

specific manner, Oxford (1990: 8) states that “ learning strategies are operationsemployed by learners to aid the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information.” Shefurther stresses the richness of learning strategies by expanding the definition, “ learningstrategies are specific actions taken by learners to make learning easier, faster, moreenjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations”(Oxford, 1990:8) It is obvious from these definitions that learning strategies serve as thetool to facilitate learning.

Other writers, however, put more focus on the inner process that learnersexperience when they employ learning strategies In a helpful survey article, Weinstein andMayer (1986: 315) define learning strategies broadly as "behaviours and thoughts that alearner engages in during learning" which are "intended to influence the learner's encodingprocess." Later Mayer (1988: 11) more specifically defines learning strategies as

"behaviours of a learner that are intended to influence how the learner processesinformation." These definitions have the root in cognitive science, with its essentialassumption that learning involves information processing In a similar vein, Rubin (1987:29) views learning as “the process by which information is obtained, stored, retrieved, andused”, so learning strategies can be any set of operations, steps, plans, routines used by thelearner which affect this process More specifically, Cohen (1998: 4) portrays learning strategies

as “ learning processes which are consciously selected by the learner.” He emphasizes that,

“The element of choice is important here because this is what gives a strategy its specialcharacter These are also moves which the learner is at least partially aware of, even if fullattention is not being given to them” (Cohen, 1998:4) In his view, the element of consciousness

is what distinguishes strategies from those processes that are not strategic Although somewriters maintain that strategies can be used unconsciously (Barnett, 1988 and Davies, 1995, cited

in Yang, 2006: 316), Cohen’s emphasis on consciousness is quite reasonable In the researcher’sview, since learning strategies are operations used by learners to ease the learning process, thestrategies can only work best if learners are well aware of what strategies they are using, howand when to use them

4.2 Classification of vocabulary learning strategies

Among several taxonomies of vocabulary learning strategies available in theliterature, the one proposed by Schmitt (1997) is highly appreciated because of itsadvantages over the others; thus, the present study is conducted in the light of Schmitt’scomprehensive taxonomy

The classification in Schmitt’s study was based on the two dimensionsdeveloped by Oxford (1990) and Nation (1990) The first dimension was adopted fromOxford’s system of learning strategies which contain six groups: social, memory,

cognitive, metacognitive, affective and compensation Social strategies (SOC) useinteraction with other people to improve language learning Memory strategies (MEM)relate new material to existing knowledge Cognitive strategies (COG) exhibit the commonfunction of manipulation or transformation of the target language by the learner.Metacognitive (MET) strategies involve a conscious overview of the learning process andmaking decisions about planning, monitoring, or evaluating the best ways to study.Affective strategies exhibit how to manage one’s emotions in language learning.Compensation strategies involve different ways of compensating for missing knowledge.However, Schmitt (1997) only adopted four strategy groups: Social, Memory, Cognitive,and Metacognitive Besides, he added a new category – Determination Strategies (DET) toaccount for situations when an individual discovered a new word meaning withoutresource to another person’s expertise The second dimension is the distinction betweeninitial discovery of word meanings and remembering words that divide strategies intodiscovery and consolidation groups respectively (Nation, 1990) Taken together, Schmitt’staxonomy contains 58 individual strategies characterized by the discovery – consolidationdivision and into five groups, namely social, memory, cognitive, metacognitive anddetermination Appendix 1 presents Schmitt’s final version of taxonomy of vocabularylearning strategies.

4.3 Frameworks for strategy training

Before any discussion on setting an appropriate framework for strategy training, it

is important to investigate some central issues in instruction in learning strategies

The first topic concerns whether strategy instruction should be provided as aseparate program or as an integrated component in the language or content subject course.Those in favor of separate strategy training programs argue that students will learnstrategies better if all their attention is focused on strategic processing skills (Jones et al

1987, cited in O’Malley & Chamot, 1990: 152) However, integrated strategy instructionprograms tend to have much more advantages First, Wenden (1987) asserts that learning

in contexts outperforms learning separate skills Scharle and Szabo (2000) also regard theregular school curriculum a meaningful context for strategy training Second, it saves timeand money to combine strategy training with regular courses In the case of Vietnam,where few separate strategy training courses are offered, it is advisable that teachersintegrate strategy instruction into their daily teaching

The second argument is between direct and embedded strategy instruction, whichcan be named explicit and implicit instruction respectively As defined by O’Malley andChamot (1990: 153), “ In direct instruction, students are informed of the value and purpose

of strategy training, whereas in embedded instruction, students are presented with activities

and materials structured to elicit the use of the strategies being taught but are not informed

of the reasons why this approach to learning is being practiced.” Again, direct instruction ismore advantageous than embedded one Although Jones (1983, cited in O’Malley &Chamot, 1990) points out that embedded strategy training requires little teacher training,other researchers criticize it for not fostering learner autonomy For example, in the words

of Wenden (1987), “ students who are not aware of the strategies they are using do notdevelop independent learning strategies and have little opportunity of becomingautonomous learners.” In contrast, strategy training which includes a metacognitivecomponent by informing students about the purpose and importance of the strategies canhelp to maintain strategy use over time and to transfer strategies to new tasks (Brown et al.,

1986, cited in O’Malley & Chamot, 1990: 153) In addition, according to Scharle andSzabo (2000), explicit training may also encourage a collaborative spirit between theteacher and the learner Because of the advantages discussed above, the strategy trainingcomponent of the present study will be conducted as an integrated part of the languagecourse in the most explicit manner

As regards frameworks for learning strategy instruction, most of them have beendesigned to raise students’ awareness as to the purpose and rationale of strategy use, togive students opportunities to practice the strategies that they are being taught, and to helpthem understand how to use the strategies in new learning contexts Cohen (1998)recommends seven steps towards the design of strategy training for learners They areoutlined below:

 Determining the learners’ needs and the resources available for training

 Selecting the strategies

 Considering the benefits of integrated strategy training

 Considering motivational issues

 Preparing the materials and activities

 Conducting explicit strategy training

 Evaluating and revising the strategy training

Cohen (1998) emphasizes that an integral part of the strategy training is ongoingevaluation and revision The training program can be evaluated by means of studentperformance across language tasks and skills, maintenance of the new strategies over time,effective transfer of strategies to other learning tasks and a positive attitude towards thetraining program (Wenden, 1987; Oxford, 1990) This ongoing assessment is certainlybased on feedback from the learners themselves

In the present research, the general guidelines from O’Malley & Chamot (1990)and Cohen (1998) will be followed

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter is devoted to presenting the

including the research design, the participants,

procedure, and data analysis

1 Background of the study

methodology of the current research, the data collection instruments and

1.1 Current learning and teaching of English at Hai Phong Medical University

English, a compulsory subject for all the students at Hai Phong Medical University,

is taught in two separate stages In the first stage, the students learn General English forfour successive semesters They are expected to complete the elementary level after thefirst two semesters and then the pre-intermediate level after the next two semesters In thesecond stage, they study English for Medicine during the fifth semester Each semesterlasts 15 weeks, and the English class meets for a four-period lesson each week Obviously,the time spent on English learning and teaching is rather limited

1.2 Identification of the problem

By the end of 2009, the second-year class that I had been teaching at Hai PhongMedical University seemed to have a declining performance in English They showed alack of interest in reading and vocabulary lessons and their first-term test results wererather low Having taught them for three successive semesters, I immediately realized thatthey were having some problems learning English I decided to investigate the situation byhaving an open talk with the whole class The talk turned out to be a lively discussion inwhich my students expressed their feelings about learning English Most of them sharedthe view that learning vocabulary was the most difficult and most important to them Morespecifically, a considerable number of new words in each English lesson might discouragethem To make the matter worse, only four English periods per week meant that the in-class time for vocabulary learning was inadequate In order to help my students overcometheir difficulty in learning vocabulary, I intended to further investigate the situation andthen design a remedy plan Considering that the time in class was so restricted, the firstthought that came to my mind then was how to teach my students to learn vocabularyeffectively in their self-study time That idea was then further clarified into two tasks First,

I needed to raise my students’ awareness of learner autonomy in learning vocabulary.Second, I wanted to teach them some vocabulary-learning strategies that might help them

to learn vocabulary effectively on their own To fulfill these tasks, I decided to carry out a vocabulary-learning strategy training programme as an action research with my students.

in their second – year General English course is Headway – Pre-intermediate The Englishclass meets every week for a lesson of four periods, which last nearly three hours and ahalf

I have been working at Haiphong Medical University for five years I have beenteaching the class since they entered the university In this action research, I was thepractitioner and the researcher at the same time I was responsible for the design andimplementation of the vocabulary-learning strategy training programme, and latercollecting and analyzing the data

3 Implementation of the action research

The research was carried out to answer the following research questions:

1 What are the problems that the students encounter in their independent vocabulary learning?

2 How well do the students use the taught strategies in their guided vocabulary practice?

3 How much do the students use the taught strategies in their guided

vocabulary practice?

4 To what extent do the students maintain the taught strategies in their

independent vocabulary learning?

5 How effective is the strategy training programme in helping the students

learn vocabulary, as perceived by the students?

In order to answer these research questions, a vocabulary-learning strategy trainingprogram was conducted as an action research because of several reasons

First, this research was initiated in order to help students learn vocabulary moreeffectively in their self-study time The problem-focused nature of action-research reallysuits that purpose As Burns (2000: 293) defines, “Action research is the application of factfinding to practical problem solving in a social situation with a view to improving thequality of action within it, involving the collaboration and cooperation of researchers,practitioners and laymen” Sharing the same view, Carr and Kemmis (1983) states that

“action research is a form of self-reflective inquiry that can be utilized by teachers in order

to improve the rationality and justice of their own practice, their understanding of thesepractices and the situations in which these practices are carried out”

Second, this study was not intended to make a generalization but to offer aninsightful picture of the teacher - researcher’s own teaching practice with a class of 27students Therefore, action research was chosen because “it is very focused on individual

or small-group professional practice and is not so concerned with making generalstatements” (Wallace, 1998: 18) In other words, the characteristic of being context-specific is suitable for the current study As Cohen and Manion (1985) point out, actionresearch is first and foremost situational, being concerned with the identification andsolution of problems in a specific context

Last but not least, action research was the most suitable research methodology forthe current study because it could be carried out concurrently with the teacher-researcher’steaching The researcher herself is a teacher, so the research must not interfere with ordisrupt her teaching job

The action research was conducted during the second term of school year 2009 -

2010 It was divided into three phases as follows:

Phase One (Week 1-4)

This phase was intended to answer research question 1: “What are the problems

that the students encounter in their independent vocabulary learning?”

Week 1: The students were explicitly introduced to the vocabulary-learning strategytraining programme so that they were well aware of what they were expected to do duringthe second semester of the school-year As already discussed in the literature review, thedirect instruction approach was chosen because of its obvious advantages over implicittraining It was also made clear to the students that their participation in the project

was voluntary, and would not be marked for the official assessment of the semester Then,pre-treatment questionnaires were distributed to the students.

Week 2 – 4: During the next three weeks, the students were given a strategyteaching lesson each week The strategy training was designed to be integrated into thevocabulary sections of the English lessons so that the students learned the vocabulary andthe strategies at the same time In this way, the strategies being trained were connected tothe vocabulary of the lessons and did not affect the teaching progress of the syllabus

From the taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies suggested by Schmitt (1997),nine strategies were selected These strategies were then clustered into three sets based onhow related they were as below:

Recording

vocabulary

3.

affixes

These three sets of strategies were taught successively for three weeks The reasonwhy the researcher had selected these strategy sets, namely dictionary-related strategies,recording vocabulary, and studying affixes, was that they could be considered the mostbasic ones to facilitate students in their independent learning

Phase Two (Week 5 – 7)

The aims of this phase were to answer the following research questions:

2 How well do the students use the taught strategies in their guided

Phase Three (Week 8 – 10)

This phase aimed at answering the last two research questions:

4 To what extent do the students maintain the taught strategies in their independent vocabulary learning?

5 How effective is the strategy training programme in helping the students learn vocabulary, as perceived by the students?

During Phase Three, the students were asked to keep a free-style vocabularylearning diary The purpose of the vocabulary diaries was to discover the students’ practice

of independent vocabulary learning after they had been receiving strategy – training Thediary details are given in the section of Instrument of data collection

By the end of the second semester, a post-treatment questionnaire survey wasconducted to reveal the students’ perception of vocabulary-learning strategy training

4 Instruments of data collection

4.1 Description of the pre-treatment questionnaire

The pre-treatment questionnaire consists of two questions Question 1 aims atdiscovering the students’ problems in learning vocabulary by asking them to rank fiveproblems of learning vocabulary in the order of degree The five problems can be classifiedinto two categories Items A, B, and C are context-bound whereas items D and E are task-specific Question 2 is about the strategies used by the students in their independentvocabulary learning However, only the three sets of the vocabulary strategy trainingprogramme, namely dictionary-related strategies, recording vocabulary and studying

affixes, are included The purpose of question 2 is to investigate the students’ frequency ofusing these sets of strategies when learning vocabulary For each set of strategies, thestudents are asked to circle one of the numbers in a Likert scale from 1 to 5 to indicate howoften they use the strategies Thus number 1 means “never”, number 2 means “rarely”,number 3 “sometimes” (50% of the time), number 4 “often” and number 5 “always”.Closed-ended questions designed as a Likert scale are helpful in that they elicit specificanswers about the matter studied Space is also provided so that students can list otherstrategies that they use in learning vocabulary The pre-treatment questionnaires (Englishand Vietnamese versions) are presented in Appendices 5 and 6.

4.2 Description of the vocabulary – learning records

The three vocabulary – learning records were used to offer the students guidedpractice of the strategy sets that had already been taught in phase one Each record consists

of a short reading text, followed by two tasks Task 1 is intended to disclose the students’actual practice of Strategy Set 1 (Dictionary-related strategies) and Set 2 (Recordingvocabulary) whereas Task 2 aims at revealing their practice of Strategy Set 3 (Studyingaffixes) The reason why Set 1 and Set 2 are investigated in the same task is that because ofthe nature of this specific task, these two sets are quite interrelated and that learners mayuse multiple strategies at the same time to complete a task Both of the tasks are dividedinto two parts: Part A and Part B Part A is designed to score the students’ performance(how well) of using the strategy sets studied while Part B serves to score their participation(how much) in using these sets to study vocabulary In the current research, performancerefers to the extent of correctness when the students use the taught strategies whileparticipation means how much they use these strategies in their guided vocabulary practice.More specifically, Part A and Part B aim at answering research questions 2 and 3respectively In Part A, the students are given five words taken from the reading text andasked to complete information about them such as part of speech, pronunciation,translation, and example or collocation or extra note for Task 1, and to give thecorresponding forms of noun, verb, adjective and adverb for Task 2 In Part B, however,the students are free to choose from any one to five words they wish to study and recordthem in the same way as in Part A The intended function of Part B is to cast light on theirautonomous and self-directed participation in practicing the strategies The three

vocabulary – learning records are given in Appendix 3 A criteria frame designed to mark

the records is presented in Table 1

Table 1 Criteria for evaluating word-learning records

A To evaluate the performance of the strategy

The performance is ranked based on the percentage of correct items out of the answered

items

B To evaluate the participation in the use of the strategy

Total items to fill in: 4 x 5 = 20 items

The participation is ranked based on the percentage of filled-in items out of the total 20

Note

Performance: the extent of correctness when the students use the taught strategies

Participation: how much the students use the taught strategies

4.3 Description of the vocabulary learning diary

The purpose of the free-style vocabulary diaries was to discover the students’

practice of independent vocabulary learning after they had been receiving strategy –

training Consequently, no rigid form of the diary was given The learners were given clear

instructions before they started keeping the vocabulary learning diaries For each entry of

the diary, the learners were required to describe the context of the recorded vocabulary

items and then record the items in any style they like The context includes information

concerning the source of the selected vocabulary items, the time and the place of

self-studying Since diaries are not “predetermined”, they promise to provide the researcher

with real and rich information about how the students learn vocabulary (Rea-Dickins and

Germaine, 1992:61) They help to reveal each learner’s style or strategy of learning

vocabulary and to offer an insight into the degree to which the three trained strategy sets

work for the students In other words, the vocabulary diaries function as the tool to score

the students’ maintenance of the previously trained strategies Some samples of thestudents’ vocabulary learning diaries are shown in Appendix 4.

In order to score the students’ maintenance of use of the three strategy sets, aholistic rubric was designed (See Table 2) Holistic scales or rubrics respond to language

performance as a whole Each score on a holistic scale represents an overall impression;

one integrated score is assigned to a performance The emphasis in holistic scoring is onwhat a student does well Holistic rubrics commonly have four or six points For thepurpose of this research, the rubric mainly focused on the degree to which the studentsmaintained using the strategies being studied By means of the rubric, each vocabularylearning diary was given three marks indicating the maintenance levels of the three strategysets under investigation

Table 2 Holistic rubric for marking the maintenance of the trained strategy sets

A relatively large number of strategy occurrences or strategy entries; an adequate number of words for each strategy occurrence; includes full, accurate

4

elaborations of each word; (items are well – organized; a variety of vocabularyorganizations)

A sufficient number of strategy occurrences; an adequate number of words for

3 each strategy occurrence; includes satisfactory elaborations of each word; (clear, easy – to – follow organization)

A limited number of strategy occurrences; just a few words for each strategy

2 occurrence; includes only some sketchy details of each word; (little variety of vocabulary organization)

Few or no strategy occurrences; just one or two words for each strategy

1

occurrence; few details of each word; (no variety of vocabulary organization)

Note: Strategy occurrence is counted according to the number of diary entries in which the strategy is used

Those in brackets are ONLY supplemented to mark Set 2 - Recording vocabulary

4.4 Description of the post – treatment questionnaire

The rationale for the post – treatment questionnaire is to expose the students’retention as well as their perception of the three trained strategy sets The questionnaire ismade up of four parts Part I requires the students to circle a number in a Likert scale fromone to five to indicate how often they use a specific strategy set after they have alreadyattended the strategy training programme Part II also makes use of a five-item Likert scale

to elicit the students’ evaluation of the usefulness of the three trained strategy sets.Similarly, in Part III of the questionnaire, the students judge the effectiveness of thestrategy training program by means of a Likert scale With a view to discovering thestudents’ expectations towards the training of vocabulary-learning strategies, Part IV of thepost-treatment questionnaire consists of three questions Among them, question 5 andquestion 6 are designed as open – ended ones so that students can freely express their ideasconcerning vocabulary strategy training The post-treatment questionnaires (English andVietnamese versions) can be seen in Appendix 7 and 8

5 Data collection procedures

As already mentioned this action research was divided into three phases and carriedout during the second term of school year 2009 -2010 Therefore, data was collected aseach phase went on

During the first week of Phase One, pre-treatment questionnaires were deliveredbefore the strategy training programme started From week 2 to week 4 of Phase One, thestudents were explicitly taught about the three selected sets of vocabulary learningstrategies, namely dictionary-related strategies, recording vocabulary and studying affixes.Next, for three weeks of Phase Two, the students handed in a word-learning record weekly.That would result in the total of three word-learning records for each student Then camePhase Three with the task of keeping the vocabulary learning diaries for the next threeweeks before the students submitted them to the teacher Finally, by the end of thesemester, the post-treatment questionnaires were distributed

All the data from the two questionnaires, the word-learning records and thevocabulary-learning diaries were gathered and analyzed

6 Data analysis procedures

The data were calculated by means of Microsoft Excel application The

interpretation of the data was based mainly on the calculation of the percentage, the

frequency and the mean To answer the research questions, the data from the word-learningrecords were used to work out the participation in and the performance of use of the trainedstrategies whereas the data from the vocabulary learning diaries served to display themaintenance of these strategies.

The data from the pre-treatment and post-treatment questionnaires showed otherdimensions of the students’ actual practice of using vocabulary learning strategies such asthe difficulties encountered and their perception of strategy training The results wereillustrated in tables and graphs to facilitate interpretations

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents an analysis of the data collected from the pre-treatment and

post-treatment questionnaires, the word-learning records and the vocabulary-learning

diaries

1 Phase One: Research question 1 – Students’ problems in independent

vocabulary learning

The data gained from the pre-treatment questionnaires in this phase were to answer

the first research question: What are the problems that the students encounter in their

independent vocabulary learning? For this question, the students were asked to rank five

problems in learning vocabulary in the order of degree with number 1 being the most

troublesome Therefore, the biggest problem would be the one getting the minimum score

Figure 1 shows the degrees of the five problems as perceived by the class It is obvious

from the figure that the number one problem is not knowing how to learn vocabulary

effectively (mean = 2.0) The second considerable obstacle is insufficient time spent on

vocabulary learning (mean = 2.4) Next come the two problems with approximately the

same score: not feeling interested in vocabulary self-learning and not knowing what words

to study Finally, the least problem is that the students do not possess adequate materials or

facilities for vocabulary learning such as dictionaries, reference books or computers

Figure 1 Students' problems in independent vocabulary learning

4.0

4.0

3.5 3.0

2.4

2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5

2 Phase Two

The aims of this phase were to answer the next two research questions:

Research question 2: How well do the students use the taught strategies in their

guided vocabulary practice?

Research question 3: How much do the students use the taught strategies in

their guided vocabulary practice?

To answer research question 2, three word-learning records of each learner were

marked in terms of performance score whereas research question 3 was answered by means

of participation score In the current research, performance refers to the extent of

correctness when the students use the taught strategies while participation means how

much they use these strategies in their guided vocabulary practice The criteria presented in

Table 1 (Chapter 3) were used to calculate the performance and participation score of each

word-learning record

2.1 Research question 2: Students’ performance in the use of the taught strategies

2.1.1 Students’ performance in the use of Strategy Set 1 and Set 2.

The students’ performance in the use of Strategy Set 1 (Dictionary-related

strategies) and Set 2 (Recording vocabulary) through three word-learning records is

illustrated by Table 3

Table 3 Students’ performance in the use of Dictionary-related strategies

and Vocabulary - recording strategies

to 5