Một nghiên cứu hành động về việc sử dụng thuật cải thiện trí nhớ trong việc nâng cao khả năng ghi nhớ từ vựng cho sinh viên hệ cao đẳng chính quy, trường cao đẳng kỹ thuật công nghiệp

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES *********************** TẠ THU HẰNG AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT ON US

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

GRADUATE STUDIES ***********************

TẠ THU HẰNG

AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT ON USING MNEMONICS IN IMPROVING VOCABULARY RETENTION FOR THE FORMAL COLLEGE STUDENTS IN COLLEGE OF INDUSTRIAL TECHNIQUES (BAC GIANG PROVINCE) IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2015-2016

(MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG THUẬT CẢI THIỆN TRÍ NHỚ TRONG VIỆC NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG GHI NHỚ TỪ VỰNG CHO SINH VIÊN HỆ CAO ĐẲNG CHÍNH QUY, TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG KỸ THUẬT CÔNG NGHIỆP (TỈNH BẮC GIANG) TRONG NĂM

HỌC 2015-2016)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

HANOI – 2017

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

GRADUATE STUDIES ***********************

TẠ THU HẰNG

AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT ON USING MNEMONICS IN IMPROVING VOCABULARY RETENTION FOR THE FORMAL COLLEGE STUDENTS IN COLLEGE OF INDUSTRIAL TECHNIQUES (BAC GIANG PROVINCE) IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2015-2016

(MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG THUẬT CẢI THIỆN TRÍ NHỚ TRONG VIỆC NÂNG CAO KHẢ NĂNG GHI NHỚ TỪ VỰNG CHO SINH VIÊN HỆ CAO ĐẲNG CHÍNH QUY, TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG KỸ THUẬT CÔNG NGHIỆP (TỈNH BẮC GIANG) TRONG NĂM

HỌC 2015-2016)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Supervisor: Prof Nguyễn Hòa

HANOI – 2017

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report

entitled “AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT ON USING MNEMONICS IN IMPROVING VOCABULARY RETENTION FOR THE FORMAL COLLEGE STUDENTS IN COLLEGE OF INDUSTRIAL TECHNIQUES (BAC GIANG PROVINCE) IN THE ACADEMIC YEAR 2015-2016”

submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master Degree atUniversity of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University,Hanoi and that this thesis has not been submitted to any degree at any otheruniversities or institutions Except where the reference is indicated, no otherperson’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis

Hanoi, 2017

Tạ Thu Hằng

A special word of thanks goes to my colleagues at my working place andmany others, without whose support and encouragement it would have never beenpossible for me to have this thesis accomplished.

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family members for thesacrifice they have devoted to the fulfillment of this academic work

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the four mnemonicstrategies in short-term and long-term vocabulary retention of formal collegestudents With the use of the pre-tests, the post-tests and the questionnaire, 22college students in College of Industrial Techniques (Bac Giang province) wererandomly assigned into the control group and the experimental group, in which thecontrol group was taught 69 items in three teaching sessions with the traditionalvocabulary instruction of repeating, translation and example sentence explanationwhile the experimental group was received these vocabulary items with the fourmnemonic devices named keyword method, visual mnemonic (pictures), grouping

or semantic organization and physical response method The results indicated thatafter the treatment, the four mnemonic strategies were really effective in vocabularyretention for students; the participants from the experimental group showed theirimprovement in recalling vocabulary items in short-term and long-term better thanthose from the control group Moreover, the participants’ attitudes towards thetraining scheme and the four used memory strategies were also discussed

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowlegements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of tables and figures vii

PART 1 – INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the Study 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

1.3 Statement of the research questions 2

1.4 Scope of the study 3

1.5 Significance of the study 3

1.6 Method of the study 4

PART 2- LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 6 2.1 Vocabulary 6

2.1.1.Definition 6

2.1.2.Types of vocabulary 6

2.1.3.Importance of vocabulary 7

2.1.4.Ways and strategies to teach vocabulary 8

2.1.5.Vocabulary retention and memory 10

2.2 Mnemonics 11

2.2.1.Definition 11

2.2.2 Classification of mnemonics 11

2.2.3 Efficiency of using mnemonics for information and vocabulary retention and recall 15

PART 3 - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 19

3.1 Restatement of research questions 19

3.2 Context of the study 19

3.2.1 Setting of the study 19

3.2.2 Participants - Subject of the study 21

3.3 Implementation of the Action Research 23

3.4 Research design 24

3.5 Research instruments 30

3.5.1 Tests 31

3.6 Data analysis procedure 34

PART 4 - DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 35

4.1 The result of the homogeneity test 35

4.2 Research question 1 (Identifying the problems): What are the problems that the students encounter in their vocabulary retention? 35

4.3 The result of pre-test 2 36

4.4 Research question 2: Is mnemonics effective in improving short-term vocabulary retention for the formal college students of College of Industrial Techniques in the academic year 2015-2016? 37

4.4.1 Results from the immediate post-test 1 37

4.4.2 Result from the immediate post-test 2 39

4.4.3 Result from the immediate post-test 3 41

4.5 Research question 3: Is mnemonics effective in improving long-term vocabulary retention for the formal college students of College of Industrial Techniques in the academic year 2015-2016? 44

4.6 Research question 4: What are the students’ attitudes towards using mnemonic strategies in vocabulary retention? 46

4.6.1 The participants’ attitudes towards the strategy training scheme 46

4.6.2 The participants’ interest towards the four mnemonic strategies 49

PART 5 – CONCLUSION 51

5.1 Summary 51

5.2 Conclusion 52

5.3 Implications 53

5.4 Limitations of the study 535.5 Suggestions for further study 54

REFERENCES 55 APPENDICES I

APPENDIX 1: IIAPPENDIX 2: XIIAPPENDIX 3: XVIIIAPPENDIX 4: XXVIIAPPENDIX 5: XXIX

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Nation’s vocabulary learning strategies (Nation, 2001)

Table 2: The schedule of the action implementation

Table 3: Results from pre-test 1

Table 4: Result of the control group in the immediate post-test 1

Table 5: Result of the experimental group in the immediate post-test 1

Table 6: Result of the control group in the immediate post-test 2

Table 7: Result of the experimental group in the immediate post-test 2

Table 8: Result of the control group in the immediate post-test 3

Table 9: Result of the experimental group in the immediate post-test 3

Table 10: Result of the control group in the delayed post-test

Table 11: Result of the experimental group in the delayed post-test

Table 12: Importance of the strategy training scheme

Table 13: Effectiveness of the strategy training scheme

Table 14: Pleasure during the strategy training scheme

Table 15: Student’ preference of four mnemonic strategies

Figure 1: Action research cycle

Figure 2: Results from pre-test 1

Figure 3: Result of selection between the control and experimental groups in the

immediate post-test 1

Figure 4: The overall performance between the control group and the experimental

group in the immediate post-test 1

Figure 5: Result of selection between the control and experimental groups in the

immediate post-test 2

Figure 6: The overall performance between the control group and the experimental

group in the immediate post-test 2

Figure 7: Result of selection between the control and experimental groups in the

immediate post-test 3

Figure 8: The overall performance between the control group and the experimental

group in the immediate post-test 3

Figure 9: The general performance between the control group and the experimental

group in all the immediate post-tests

Figure 10: Result of selection between the control and experimental groups in the

delayed post-test

Figure 11: The overall performance between the control group and the experimental

group in the delayed post-test

Figure 12: Importance of the strategy training scheme

Figure 13: Effectiveness of strategy training scheme

Figure 14: Pleasure during the strategy training scheme

PART 1 – INTRODUCTION

In this part, I will present the rationale, the aims and objectives, the statement ofthe research question, the scope, the significance, the method and the structuralorganization of the study

1.1 Rationale of the Study

For the past 20 years in Vietnam, English has become very important in manyaspects of life and the activity of teaching and learning English is also paid muchmore attention to as well In order to learn English well, together with theinvestment in improving English skills such as listening, reading, writing, speaking,the role of vocabulary and vocabulary learning cannot be neglected becausevocabulary helps to build up the core of knowledge and it is the foundation tofacilitate the learning The English learners possibly know how to use the grammarand structures correctly but without having a sufficient vocabulary, they cannotspeak, write and use English well Therefore, at any time of English learning,vocabulary should be given the top priority and major importance Thornburry(2002) stressed on the importance of learning words in the course book titled

“Innovations” that “If you spend most of your time studying grammar, your English

will not improve very much You will see most improvement if you learn more words

or expressions You can say very little with grammar, but you can say almost everything with words” Consequently, it is worth doing research on vocabulary

learning strategies to facilitate the vocabulary learning to enhance English learningsuccess and achievement

Secondly, I have been teaching English for more than three years in a technicalcollege where English is a required subject Before carrying out this research, Icarried out a test (pre-test 1) with students on how well they can remember thewords and to check whether they could remember the words they had learned aswell as find out their difficulty in remembering words The result showed that thebiggest problem encountering my students in vocabulary retention was althoughthey saw the words familiar; they could not retrieve the meanings This fact

resulted from the lack of necessary techniques for remembering vocabulary That isthe reason why there should be a study on an effective vocabulary leaning methodfor my students Moreover, there has never been any research or study on improvingvocabulary remembering efficiency for students at my college – College ofIndustrial Technique It is that current situation in my teaching that reallyencourages me to find a better way to make my students interested in learning andremembering new words.

To conclude, the study proceeds from two main reasons The first lies inrealizing the importance of learning vocabulary to English learners The secondreason is based on the present circumstance facing my students in vocabularyretention and the fact that no available research has been carried out in this field at

my college Therefore, I have chosen to focus on vocabulary learning and teaching

in my study project report to make my students improve their performance ofrecalling words

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

The main purpose of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of mnemonics

on improving vocabulary retention of the formal college students in College ofIndustrial Techniques, Bac Giang city, Bac Giang province

With the above aim, the specific objectives of this study are as follows:

- Identify the biggest problems facing students in their vocabulary retention;

- Investigate the effectiveness of mnemonic devices in short-term vocabulary retention of students;

- Investigate the effectiveness of mnemonic devices in long-term vocabulary retention of students;

- Find out the students’ attitude towards using mnemonic strategies in

vocabulary retention

1.3 Statement of the research questions

Based on the above given aim, the objectives and the background of the

research, the research questions can be formulated as follows:

a What are some biggest problems that the students encounter in their

vocabulary retention?

b To what extent is mnemonics effective in improving short-term vocabulary retention for the formal college students of College of Industrial Techniques in the academic year 2015-2016?

c To what extent is mnemonics effective in improving long-term vocabulary retention for the formal college students of College of Industrial Techniques in the academic year 2015-2016?

d What are the students’ attitudes towards using mnemonic strategies in

vocabulary retention?

1.4 Scope of the study

The study is narrowed to the area of teaching and learning vocabulary for theformal college students at College of Industrial Techniques, Bac Giang city, BacGiang province in the academic year 2015-2016 It was conducted at College ofIndustrial Techniques, Bac Giang province Because of limited time, the thesis onlydeals with the current situation of teaching and learning English vocabulary here.The participants were just the students who are representatives of the wholeformal college students of the college

1.5 Significance of the study

The study has its own importance in contributing a method for students toremember and recall vocabulary better and for a longer time than without applyingthis method It provides both of the theoretical and practical significance In terms

of theory, the study can be used as a reference for improving vocabulary learningskills and it contributes to the general theory of vocabulary retention improvementtechniques Students can understand how to remember the new words systematicallyand they are able to learn more easily and keep them in their mind in a longer time,from which they tend to get achievement in learning English Moreover, practically,the mnemonic techniques used in this study and the list of words taught withmnemonics can be discussed and transferred to English teachers

and applied in mass in the vocabulary teaching activity at College of IndustrialTechniques, Bac Giang city.

1.6 Method of the study

The study was carried out by some steps as follows:

First, in order to ensure the subject’s homogeneity, the homogeneity test was

implemented to filter the students, from which official study subjects (theparticipants) could be chosen

Secondly, pre-test 1 was carried out with the participants to find out if there were

any existing problems facing them in the process of learning English vocabularyand how well the participants could remember the words After that pre-test 2 wasfinished in order to set up a list of words unknown for the participants These wordswould be used later in the teaching activity with mnemonic strategies

Then the participants were divided into two groups including the control groupand the experimental group After that, the corrective action was applied with theparticipants during the corrective time The control group was received thetraditional way of vocabulary teaching while the experimental group was taughtwith mnemonic devices

Next, right at the end of each of the three sessions of correction, each immediate

post-test was finished by the students (participants) of both the experimental groupand the experimental one The result of each immediate post-test of theexperimental group was compared to the respective one of the control group toshow that whether there is an improvement in short-term vocabulary retention byusing mnemonics or not

In addition, after two weeks from the last session of correction, another delayed

post-test was delivered to both groups to test their long-term vocabulary recall Theanalysis was carried out as same as the procedure of the three immediate post-tests

After that, a questionnaire survey was conducted to the experimental group’s

participants in order to study their opinion and evaluation on mnemonic techniques

in their vocabulary learning

Then, the data were collected, sorted and analyzed quantitatively and

qualitatively to obtain realistic results

To end with, pedagogical implications for enhancing students’ performance in

remembering vocabulary will be proposed based on the results found from all datacollection instruments

1.7 Structural organization of the study

The study consists of five main parts:

Part I - Introduction presents the rationale of the study, the aim & objectives, the

research questions, the significance, the scope, the method and the design of thestudy

Part 2 - Literature Review and Theoretical Background reviews the theories on

vocabulary, vocabulary learning & teaching and mnemonics

Part 3 – Research Methodology describes the participants, the setting of the study

involving the school, textbook and curriculum Moreover, this part shows how theresearcher applied the data collection instruments and her procedure of conductingthe study

Part 4 - Data analysis & Discussion in which the researcher used both qualitatively

and quantitatively method to study and analyze the data and information collected

Part 5 –Conclusion summarizes all findings explored and brings out useful

suggestions for the teachers to enhance the vocabulary retention of students An overall picture of what has been done in this study and suggestions for further studies are also included in this part

PART 2- LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This part provides a review of literature in theory and practice to the study interms of two main contents: Vocabulary and mnemonics

2.1 Vocabulary

2.1.1.Definition

Vocabulary is an important element of a language There are many definitions

and concepts about vocabulary given by the experts and professionals The

American Heritage Dictionary defines vocabulary as “the sum of words used by,

understood by, or at the command of a particular person or group” Richard &Schmidt (2002) considered vocabulary as a core component of language proficiencyand provides much of the basic for how well learners speak, listen, read and write.Moreover, according to Nunan (2005), vocabulary is the collection of word that anindividual knows In other word, vocabulary is any words that are mastered bypeople and it is used in communication Linse (2005) defines that vocabulary isbackground information which will help the user as he plans an oral writtenlanguage program It can be concluded that vocabulary is a collection of words withthe correct definition that is used in a language such as speaking, reading, listening,and writing to acquire and convey information It is the amount of words used inspoken and written language which are understood either in meaning orpronunciation that equips language learners with the ability to use language bothoral and written language

2.1.2.Types of vocabulary

According to Fries (1970) vocabulary is classified into four groups:

a) Function words They function primarily or largely as means of expressingrelations of grammatical structure, which include so called auxiliaries, prepositions,conjunction, interrogative, particles and miscellaneous group of words for degree, etc

b) “Substitute” words such as the personal pronouns, the indefinites, negative, quantity or number.

c) The third kind consists of those that are distributed in the use according to suchgrammatical matters as the presence of the negative (some, any, too, either, already, yet,etc.)

d) Content words mainly include nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs

Meanwhile Fries also agreed to group vocabulary into function and content words.The function words are a closed class in which we cannot add the prepositions orauxiliaries or any structure words of the language, while the content words can beadded to make new words with new meaning

In terms of methodology, Penny (1996) and Gail (1989) divided vocabularyinto two: Active and passive vocabulary Active vocabulary refers to item whichlearners can use appropriately in speaking or writing and it is also called productivevocabulary In contrast, passive vocabulary is the language items that can berecognized and understood in the context of reading and listening and it is alsocalled receptive vocabulary

In terms of semantics, vocabulary can be divided into notional words andfunctional words In terms of grammar, it is classified based on different parts ofspeech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, preposition, etc

2.1.3.Importance of vocabulary

David (1972) (cited in Thornburry, 2002) acknowledged the significance of

vocabulary as “without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary

nothing can be conveyed” National Reading Panel (2000) concluded “The importance of vocabulary knowledge has long been recognized in the development

of reading skills” Thornburry (2002) once more emphasized the importance of

vocabulary by restating an advice given to the students in the course book titled

Innovation “If you spend most of your time studying grammar, your English will not

improve very much You will see most improvement if you learn more words or expressions You can say very little with grammar but you can say almost

everything with words” It can easily understandable that vocabulary actually plays

a very important role in being successful in learning English Its importance can becompared to that of the backbone of the body

2.1.4.Ways and strategies to teach vocabulary

There are some methods and strategies of teaching vocabulary proposed byvarious scholars and linguists

An extensive review of vocabulary instruction research which was conducted

in 2003 by D Bryant, Goodwin, B Bryant, and Higgins explored four differentvocabulary interventions: computer‐assisted instruction (CAI), fluency‐buildingvocabulary practice activities, mnemonic strategy, and concept enhancementinstruction Dictionary usage, context clues, and semantic mapping were allobserved and studied to find that there is no one best way to teach vocabulary It isimportant to use a variety of techniques that include multiple experiences to theunknown word meanings

John (2004) proposed in his paper a comprehensive approach consisting ofthe following components in teaching and developing vocabulary:

• Use “instructional” read-aloud events

• Provide direct instruction in the meanings of clusters of words and individualwords

• Systematically teach students the meaning of prefixes, suffixes, and root words

• Link spelling instruction to reading and vocabulary instruction

• Teach the effective, efficient, realistic use of dictionaries, thesauruses, and otherreference works

• Teach, model, and encourage the application of a word-learning strategy

• Encourage wide reading

• Create a keen awareness of and a deep interest in language and words

In her vocabulary strategy survey, Stoffer (1995) classified into nine groups:(1) Strategies involving authentic language use,

(2) Strategy involving creative activities,

(3) Strategy used for self-motivation,

(4) Strategies used to create mental linkages,

(5) Memory strategies,

(6) Visual/auditory strategies,

(7) Strategies involving physical action,

(8) Strategies used to overcome anxiety and

(9) Strategies used to organize words

(Stoffer, 1995, cited in Schmitt, 1997)Nation (2001) introduced 11 vocabulary language strategies with three big

groups: planning, sources and processes The strategies of planning involve

decisions about which lexical items to attend to, as well as how to focus attention

and how often to give attention to the item Meanwhile, sources strategies concern

ways to find out information about words This information may include all aspects

of word knowledge and can be found in the word itself, the context, sources of

reference The final set of strategies, processes include ways to remember words

and make them available for use The following table demonstrates brieflyvocabulary learning strategies according to Nation’s approach

strategiesPlanning: Choosing what Choosing words

to focus on and when to Choosing the aspects of word knowledge

Planning repetitionSources: finding Analyzing the word

information about words Using context

Consulting a reference source in L1 or L2Using parallels in L1 and L2

Processes: Establishing Noticing

Table 1: Nation’s vocabulary learning strategies (Nation, 2001)

9

2.1.5.Vocabulary retention and memory

In the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2005), retention is defined as

“an ability to remember things” Although no definition of vocabulary retention inthe literature has been found by the researcher, vocabulary retention can beclassified as the storage of vocabulary in the memory and recalling it whennecessary

There are two basic types of memory: short-term memory and long-termmemory Short term memory keeps the information which is being processed (a newword which is encountered for the first time) It is fast but it can hold informationfor a very short time due to its small storage capacity Long term memory, on theother hand, has an unlimited storage capacity but is relatively slow The aim ofvocabulary learning and teaching is to transfer the lexical information from the shortterm memory to the long term memory (Schmitt, 2000) Aitchison (2002), however,believes that our mind is like the London Underground System By this he meansthat information stored in the brain is linked in different ways Accordingly, thegeneral picture of the mental lexicon is one in which there a variety of links betweenwords, some strong, some weak The main way, to transfer the vocabulary itemsfrom short term to long term memory and create a strong connection there is byfinding some elements in the mental lexicon to attach the new lexical item to(Schmitt, 2000)

Several factors seem to affect retention and retrieval of information One isthe degree to which the structure and organization of the material is compatible withthe individual cognitive network Another is the type of encoding and the depth ofprocessing in preparation for storage in long term memory For longest retention,new knowledge must be associated with previous knowledge (Ausubel, 1968) Inthis regard, McDonough (1981) mentioned the retention can be prompted by severalprocedures and frequency of occurrence of meaningful practice promotes retention.McDonough further noted that cognitive process and learner strategies are important

in retention and recall

According to Solso (1995), mnemonics are techniques or devices, eitherverbal or visual in nature, that serves to improve the storage of new information,and the recall of information contained in memory Mnemonic is a memoryenhancing instructional strategy that involves teaching students to link newinformation taught to information they already know In other words, by usingmnemonic strategies, teachers can relate new information to information studentsalready have stored in their long-term memory For vocabulary learning, they areused to relate the word to some previously learnt information, using some form ofimagery or grouping (Mastropieri and Scruggs, 1991).

2.2.2 Classification of mnemonics

Mnemonic devices have been differently classified by different scholars.Thompson (1987), for example, arranges mnemonic strategies into five classes:linguistics, spatial, visual, physical response and verbal methods Oxford (1990), onthe other hand, identifies four major strategies namely, creating mental linkage,applying images and sounds, reviewing well, and employing action Meanwhile,Baddeley (1999) believes that mnemonic devices are classified into visual imagerystrategies and verbal strategies Following is the one presented by Thompson (1987)which sounds to be more comprehensive

a Linguistic Mnemonics

a1 Peg word method

In peg word method unrelated items can be remembered easily by relatingthem to easily memorizable items which act as pegs or hooks Peg word method hastwo stages At first students are asked to remember 10 number-rhyme pairs In thesecond stage the students are asked to visualize the word and try to link it torhyming words The words are, therefore, learned in a composite picture of thegiven word and the peg (Roediger, 1980; Groeger, 1997; Mirhassani andEghtesadei, 2007) For example if the first word to be learned is "exploration", itspeg can be “John” and after its meaning is defined to the students, they can form ametal picture in which “John is doing oil explorations”, if the second one is

"feature", its peg according to the rhyme pairs can be “shoe” and the students canform a mental picture in which some people are talking about the features of a kind

of shoe

a2 The key word method

Key word method according to Hulstijn (1997) requires three stages At first

a first or second language word that has acoustic similarity to the target word isgiven to the learner to act as the key word In the second stage the learner is asked tomake an association between the target word and the key word Finally, he is asked

to make a mental image of the combination of the keyword and the target word

b Spatial Mnemonics

b1 The loci method

Loci method is actually the oldest mnemonic device Using this methodentails imagining a very familiar place like a room or a house and then associatingeach new word to a part of it to be remembered (Eysenck, 1994; Mirhassani andEghtesadei, 2007) In other words, the students take an imaginary walk along theirfamiliar places, and retrieve the items they have put there As people's experiencesare different, students may come up with different pictures (Thompson, 1987)

b2 Spatial grouping

The idea behind this method is that instead of writing words in a column,students can be asked to form patterns like a triangle with them Writing words inthe form of patterns help them recall the words better (Holden, 1999) As theyremember the pattern, they can remember the parts which are signed by the words.

b3 The finger method

Through this method students can be asked to associate each word with afinger This method is especially useful with children to learn numbers, days of theweek and month of the year (Holden, 1999)

c Visual Mnemonics

c1 Pictures

Words can be better learned if they are paired with pictures (Thompson,1987) Gains and Redman (1986) believe that objects and pictures can facilitaterecall Wright (1989) also believes that meaning can not be derived only fromverbal language Pictures and objects not only can be used to give meaning andinformation but they also can be used to the motivation and interest of the students.Using this method, a picture can be used to make the meaning of the word clear Itcan sometimes be accompanied by its definition This method can, however, be usedwith concrete words and usually with elementary or pre-intermediate students

c2 Visualization or imagery

Instead of using real pictures, this method allows a word to be visualized The learner imagines a picture or a scene which is associated with the target word Abstract words can be learned through this method by relating them to a visual picture (Holden, 1999; Thompson, 1987; Mirhassani and Eghtesadei, 2007)

Visualization can be an aid in vocabulary learning (O’Malley and Chamot, 1990) d.The Verbal Method

d1 Grouping or semantic organization

As organized materials are easier to store in and retrieve from long-termmemory, to organize the words in some fashion will enhance their recall (Anderson,2000; Thompson, 1987) If the target words to be remembered are, for example,

dog, cat, chair, sofa, table, milk, eggs and butter they can be organized andremembered under three categories: animals ( for dog and cat ), furniture ( for chair,sofa and table) and food ( for milk, egg and butter) In this way learners have theadvantage of better recall than when they all are learned in a list, because if they canremember one word, they will be able to remember the rest (Mirhassani andEghtesadei, 2007).

d2 Story-telling or the narrative chain

In this method the learner links the words together by a story At first heshould associate the target words with a topic or some topics, and then he shouldconnect them by making up a story containing the words (Thompson, 1987; Holden,1999; Mirhassani and Eghtesadei, 2007) This method is especially useful for highlevel students

e Physical Responses Methods

e1 Physical response method

According to this method the learner should move his body or parts of hisbody in a certain way that illustrates the meaning of the word If the target word is

tiptoe, for example, the student can get up on his tiptoe and move across the room It

can be imaginary too It means that he can imagine the action of moving on histiptoe (Thompson, 1987; Holden, 1999) Thompson (1987) especially believes that

if the information of a word or a sentence is enacted it can yield betterunderstanding and recall

e2 Physical sensation method

This strategy is devised by Oxford and Scarcella (1994) Through thismethod the learner associates the new word to a physical sensation For example he

can feel cold when he learns the word frigid.

Among many classifications of mnemonics by different authors, theresearcher has chosen the classification made by Thompson (1987) in which somesub-types of mnemonics are used in the study based on the wordlist of vocabularyfound out by the pre-test to teach her students The mnemonic devices used in the

research study are: Keyword method, visual mnemonics (pictures), grouping orsemantic organization and physical response method.

2.2.3 Efficiency of using mnemonics for information and vocabulary retention and recall

There are some studies done on mnemonic devices Most of those focusing

on mnemonic devices have consistently indicated that the use of mnemonic devicessubstantially enhances higher levels of retention of second/foreign languagevocabulary words in comparison with other learning strategies of vocabulary

A large body of research on mnemonic support practice and its effect onvocabulary retention and recall shows that mnemonic devices can improvevocabulary learning, boost memory, and increase creativity (Scruggs, Mastropieri,Berkeley & Marshak, 2010; Amiryousefi & Ketabi, 2011)

The effects of memory strategy instruction along with learning throughcontext on the ESP vocabulary recall of Turkish EFL learners were investigated byAtay and Ozbulgan (2007).They found that mnemonic strategies can positivelyaffect vocabulary learning

According to Mastropieri & Scruggs, 1989; Bulgren, Schumaker & Deshler(1994), mnemonics have been proven to be extremely effective in helping peopleremember things

Mnemonic devices are proved to be effective in all ages They are, however,more useful for low level students because they are involved mostly in activitiesrequiring them to remember and recall information (Levin, 1993)

Ellis (1995) indicated that learners can enhance their retention of new words

if they employ various mnemonic strategies, such as visual methods and verbalmethods Visual methods contain pictures, visualization or imagery and physicalresponse methods

Thompson (1987) has acknowledged the usefulness of mnemonic devices bystating that they can help learners learn faster and recall better by integration of newmaterial into existing cognitive units and by providing retrieval cues

According to Groeger (1997), mnemonic devices can be very effective andcan make the students motivated and the classroom more interesting Worthen andHunt (2008), accordingly, suggest that a specific combination of processes isnecessary for the effectiveness of mnemonic instruction and use The teachersshould, therefore, use several techniques at the same time (Hulstijn, 1997;Thompson, 1987; Holden, 1999; Mirhassani and Eghtesadei, 2007) Atay andOzbulgan (2007) investigated the effects of memory strategy instruction along withlearning through context on the ESP vocabulary recall of Turkish EFL learners Thestudy showed that memory strategies or mnemonic strategies can improvevocabulary learning.

Loan (2013) in her M.A thesis proved that applying the four memorystrategies in teaching and learning vocabulary has improved students’ vocabularyretention

Beside some researches on general effects of mnemonics on vocabularylearning and information retention and recall, there are some other ones on usingspecific types of mnemonic strategies Actually, the powerful impact of thekeywordmethod on the learners' memory concerning recall and retention has been confirmed

by many researchers: Roediger (1980) took into consideration four mnemonictechniques All four mnemonic groups recalled the 20-word list better than thecontrol group Overall, the method of loci and the peg word system proved to beresourceful Scruggs, Mastropieri, Jorgensen, & Monson (1986) asked the subjects

of their study to transfer mnemonic strategy that was taught by the researchers to anovel content area Interestingly, both gifted and non-gifted students benefitted frommnemonic strategy instruction Rodriguez and Sadoski (2000) examined the effects

of rote rehearsal, context, keyword, and context/keyword methods on immediateand long-term retention of English vocabulary in Venezuela Raugh and Atkinson(1975) compared the keyword method with various control procedures for learning

a Spanish vocabulary In all cases, the keyword method proved to be highlyeffective, yielding in one

experiment a final test score of 88% correct for the keyword group compared to28% for the control group Moreover, Pressley et al (1981) studied on children 3 to

6 years of age learning simple Spanish vocabulary items through keyword method.The results showed that children who used the keyword method remembered morevocabulary than children who were not instructed in keyword method usage.Carlson, Kincaid, Lance, and Hodgson (1976), however, found significantly betterrecall when a group trained on the method of loci was compared to a control group.Another study by Roediger (1980) looked at the method of loci along with threeother well-known mnemonic methods Results of the study revealed that all fourmnemonic groups recalled the 20-word list better than the control group However,the method of loci and the peg word system were found to be better methods to usewhen the order of words remembered was important Baleghizadeh and Ashoori(2010) compared the effect of keyword and word list methods on immediateretention of vocabulary The meaning recall test indicated that the keyword groupoutperformed the word list group In a similar study, Soleimani, Saeedi andMohajerani (2012) explored the comparative effects of the keyword and contextmethod on immediate and long-term vocabulary retention of Iranian EFL learners.Learners who received the keyword strategy training recalled more words right aftertraining and one week later than the learners who were in the context group

Despite the fact that using mnemonic-based methods has frequently beenreported to be useful in a number of studies, investigators have demonstrated somelimitations of the mnemonic key word method A study conducted in 1987 byMcDaniel and Pressley discussed long-term retention of vocabulary after usingstrategies such as the Keyword Method Although the keyword method facilitatedinitial learning of the vocabulary meanings; there were no differences in long termretention Gruneberg (1998) argues that the keyword method in general is inferior torote learning in the longer-term retention of vocabulary In another study, Camposand Gonzalez (2003) attribute ineffectiveness of keyword method to participants''lack of training They investigated in four experiments the effectiveness of the

mnemonic key word method using two groups of adults and adolescents In all theexperiments, the rote method was more effective than the keyword method for bothadolescents and adults.

For many advantages and strong points of effectiveness of mnemonicssurpassing its limitation on supporting vocabulary short-term and long-termretention, I have chosen using mnemonic devices to teach vocabulary for mystudents and I really hope it would be a successful choice when the positive resultcan be expressed and shown in reality

PART 3 - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This part will present restatement of research questions, context of the study,research instruments, implementation of the action research, research design, anddata analysis procedure

3.1 Restatement of research questions

a What are some biggest problems that the students encounter in their

vocabulary retention?

b To what extent is mnemonics effective in improving short-term vocabulary retention for the formal college students of College of Industrial Techniques in the academic year 2015-2016?

c To what extent is mnemonics effective in improving long-term vocabulary retention for the formal college students of College of Industrial Techniques in the academic year 2015-2016?

d What are the students’ attitudes towards using mnemonic strategies in

vocabulary retention?

3.2 Context of the study

3.2.1 Setting of the study

College of Industrial Techniques located in Bac Giang city, Bac Giang province

is an official college belonging to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and under thenational education system Originally, it was named the School of Engineering II

which was founded in 1966 The college trains students at various levels such as

professional intermediate level, vocational intermediate level, vocational college

level and formal college level From being just a vocational intermediate school, it

was upgraded into a college in 2009 During 50 years of construction anddevelopment, the College has trained, fostered and re-trained over 35 thousandmanaging officers, highly qualified technicians and skilled technical workers for thecountry

At College of Industrial Techniques, students at all levels have to learn English

as a compulsory subject For the formal college students, they are taught

fundamental English in three semesters and moved to English for Special Purposes

in the last semester of studying English The number of students in each class isvaried depending on their majors At the end of each term, together with the writtentest, the formal college students have to take the speaking test to evaluate theirspeaking skill In general, students of the college have shown their ill performance

in learning English because they are majored in technical fields and English forthem is just a fundamental subject From their secondary and high schools, they didnot pay much attention and put much effort in learning English Therefore, whenthey enter the college, the result of learning English is not positive in a large number

of students

The textbook of English the author used in her study is New English FileElementary (Student’s Book) by Clive Exenden, Christina Latham-Koenig and PaulSeligson published by Oxford University Press It is also the official course book ofEnglish widely used in the college in teaching English It is designed for thestudents at fundamental level and for those who start learning English This bookconsists of nine big units 1-9 in which there are four sub-units A, B, C, D in eachunit In addition, after the four sub-units of a big unit, there exists the part ofPractical English & Skills In each sub-unit, some main parts are focused to teachthe students such as reading, pronunciation, listening, speaking skills, grammar andvocabulary parts In Practical English & Skills part, the main contents of units arerevised by exercises and additionally, some conversations & vocabularies intypically communicative circumstances are given out The focus of the study isvocabulary, so this part is paid attention In the textbook New English File(Elementary), the vocabulary part is a separated one in each sub-unit There arevarieties of vocabularies including numbers, nationalities and countries, commonobjects, verb phrases, jobs, daily routine verbs, flats and houses These words,which are often shown in vivid pictures and put in groups of words or topics forfacilitating the learning of students, are gathered in the part vocabulary bank at theend of the textbook Therefore, the author did not focus on the words in the

vocabulary bank because the students were already supported in learning them, butshe tried to build up a list of words which were included in the reading passages andother parts of the textbook without any learning supporting techniques After pre-test 2, a list of 69 words was made to be taught with mnemonic techniques.

The time of applying the treatment was the same for both kinds of participantgroups (the control and experimental groups), in which 69 new words of vocabularywere taught in three 50-minute periods of time It means that 23 new words wereintroduced to the participants in each period of 50 minutes

3.2.2 Participants - Subject of the study

The author only picked up the second-year students at formal college level to bethe subject of the study The reason was that choosing the same year studentsensured the initial homogeneity of participants More important, different schoolyear formal college students were at different levels: At the time of doing research,the first year students did not enter the English learning, the second year ones were

in the second modules of English and the third year ones had finished all threemodules of communicative English and moved to English for Special Purposes.Therefore, in order to be suitable with the textbook used in the research and thegeneral background knowledge, choosing the second year students to be involved inthe research was the most reasonable At first, 30 temporary sample students werechosen who were the second-year formal college students from five classes majored

in Environment (49CĐ-MT), Information Technology (49CĐ-TT), Economics(49CĐ-KT), Electricity (49CĐ-Đ) and Electronics (49CĐ-ĐT) There were 19 boysand 11 girls By picking up these 30 students, the author wanted to show therandomness and representativeness in choosing the later participants to take part inthe study

Before being the official participants of the study, these 30 students had to do thehomogeneity test given by the researcher After the test, 22 students (15 boys and 7girls) who received the mark from five could officially become the participants ofthe study With the ages from 19 to 20, these participants were also

from five classes in five majors and different departments as mentioned abovecovering a wide range of formal college students in the college In the time of doingresearch, they had finished the first module of communicative English with thetextbook New English File (Elementary) and were progressing in the secondmodule They came from different backgrounds and environments, varied from thecities to mountainous areas These 22 students have studied English since they were

at the elementary school, some were at secondary school but they did not considerEnglish as a priority subject Therefore, they enrolled the study with low andmedium level of English proficiency In general, based on their background andafter the homogeneity test, the participants were relatively homogeneous in leveland they met the requirement of variety and representativeness because they werefrom different majors and regions

The participants of 22 students were randomly divided into the control groupand the experimental group with the equal quantity of members The reason forclassifying into the two groups was that the researcher wanted to gain the mostobjective and reliable result of teaching These participants were at the same levelbecause they were chosen through the homogeneity test and all of them did notknow the word list used for teaching them Therefore, the researcher decided todivide into the control group and the experimental group so that she could makecomparison between them The only difference between the two groups was that thecontrol group was taught vocabulary with the traditional ways of teachingvocabulary, including repeating, translation and example sentence explanation whilethe experimental group was involved in mnemonic devices of keyword method,visual mnemonics, grouping or semantic organization and physical responsemethod After finishing the teaching and collecting data from the post-tests, bymaking comparison, the researcher could draw the conclusion about theeffectiveness of using mnemonics in vocabulary retention of the students

3.3 Implementation of the Action Research

When there is a problem arising in the class, it is compulsory to find out asolution to deal with the problem In these educational situations, action research isinevitably a very common practice that teachers in language learning often choose.This study follows the action research approach because of some following reasons:Firstly, one of the most significant features of the action research is that it is very

“situational”, which means specific solutions can be given to specific problems toeach context This research was carried out within the context of the teacher’steaching environment – her students and her working places Therefore, actionresearch is the best choice for the researcher in this condition Secondly, from pre-test 1, the teacher found out that her students face trouble in remembering words, soshe really expected to find out a suitable solution to improve the class situation Inthis circumstance, action research would be a good idea Moreover, action researchalso gave the researcher a good chance to evaluate the intervention in her class

Action research can be defined in various ways According to Cohen and

Manion (1985) “Action research is first and foremost situational, being concerned

with the identification and solution of problems in a specific context The aim of action research is to improve the current state of affairs within the educational context in which the research is being carried out” In addition to, Kemmis &

McTaggart (1982) stated that “Action research is deliberate, solution-oriented investigation that is group or personally owned and conducted It is characterized

by spiraling cycles of problem identification, systematic data collection, reflection, analysis, data-driven action taken, and, finally, problem redefinition The linking of the terms "action" and "research" highlights the essential features of this method: trying out ideas in practice as a means of increasing knowledge about and/or improving curriculum, teaching, and learning.

There are many models of steps included in an action research Normally,there are five main stages: Problem identification, plan of action, data collection,data analysis and plan for future action In this study, the researcher followed the

model proposed by Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) As suggested by Kemmis andMcTaggart (1988), there are four steps in the action research cycle as follows:

Figure 1: Action research cycle

Accordingly, each action research cycle should include: Planning an action,carrying out the corrective action, observing the process and results of the action,and reflecting the action Applying this model, this research underwent thefollowing steps:

3.4 Research design

The action research was carried out in the second semester of the school year2015-2016 Under the action research model of Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) asstated above, this action research study was implemented in the four followingsteps:

* Step 1: Identifying the problem

In the nearly five year teaching procedure, the researcher (the teacher as well)realized that the students seemed to not be able to remember words well and a large

amount of students got bad English result performance mainly due to lack ofvocabulary To identify the problems facing the students in vocabulary retention, theresearcher prepared pre-test 1 (Appendix 2) to investigate the biggest difficulty ofthe students in vocabulary recall The result of pre-test 1 was that nearly half of the

total times of selection of participants (46%) was for option 2 “I have seen this

word before but I don’t know what it means”, which means that the students

suffered disadvantages in retaining the words they had learnt previously Theirbiggest problem in vocabulary retention was that although they saw the wordsfamiliar, they could not give out or retrieve the meanings As a result, the study wasconducted to correct the situation

* Step 2: Planning the action

In this stage, the researcher carried out all preparation before entering thestage of corrective action in the actual classroom She compiled pre-tests, post-testsand a questionnaire survey Moreover, she divided the participants into two groups:The experimental group and control group The experimental group receivedmnemonic method training, while the control group was introduced with traditionalvocabulary instruction, including repeating, translation, and example sentenceexplanation

In order to help improve the students’ vocabulary retention, the researcherdecided to use four mnemonic techniques and she built up each technique used foreach word in the list of 69 words items 12 words were designed to teach withphysical response method, 7 words with grouping or semantic organization while 10words were prepared to teach with keyword method and 40 words were with visualmnemonics (pictures)

The detailed schedule of the action implementation is as follows:

1 Pre-test 1

Week 3 1 Orientation and Introduction

Experimental group Control groupTeaching vocabularies Teaching vocabularies with

Immediate post-test 1 method

Immediate post-test 1Teaching vocabularies Teaching vocabularies with

Immediate post-test 2 method

Immediate post-test 2

1 Teaching vocabularies Teaching vocabularies with

Immediate post-test 3 method

Immediate post-test 3

Questionnaire

Table 2: The schedule of the action implementation

* Step 3: Implementing the action

Before doing the teaching in the actual classroom, the teacher asked the rector ofCollege of Industrial Technique for his permission in carrying out this actionresearch with 22 college students from five classes She also introduced the researchshe intended to do in order to improve the student vocabulary retention in Englishclasses, which helped to enhance English teaching quality at the college The rectorpaid his interest in the research because he always paid attention to improvingEnglish teaching and learning activities in the College

At this stage, the teacher applied to teach the chosen new word list of 69 itemsfor both the control and experimental groups in which the traditional method wasused for the control group and the four mnemonic techniques were used for theexperimental group

The control group

The control group was taught with the traditional ways of teaching

vocabulary including repeating, translation and example sentence explanation

- The teacher showed the word list which would be taught for each session

- Next, the teacher gave the meaning of each word on the board and explained the word form

- Then, she pronounced it and guided the students to pronounce

- The teacher called some students to pronounce the word

- She gave out an example sentence including the word

- One or some students were asked to take examples using the word

- The same procedure was implemented with another word

- At the end of each teaching session, the teacher asked the students to read out onceagain the whole taught vocabulary list

The experimental group

- At first, the teacher introduced the students about what mnemonics was, the classification and effectiveness in vocabulary learning and retention

- Then she provided description of the four mnemonic strategies (keyword method,visual mnemonic (pictures), grouping or semantic organization and physical responsemethod)

- Next, she entered the teaching with the four mnemonic techniques as follows:

- Then, she repeated the pronunciation of the target word and the keyword

- She continued showing a picture on the slide related to the keyword, and asked students about the content of the picture included the keyword image

- After that, she linked the meaning of the picture with the meaning of the targetword and showed the target words with its meanings, its form and its phonetics on theslide.

- The teacher guided students how to pronounce the target word and asked students

to repeat several times the order “the target word – the keyword – the meaning of the picture”

- The teacher continued with the next target word with the same process

Visual mnemonics (pictures)

- The teacher showed the picture in front of the students

- Then she asked the students to guess what the picture was about

- She might supply some cues for the student to more easily figure out She called some students for their answers

- After that, the teacher showed the word by turning back the picture

- She provided the word form and the phonetics and guided the students how to pronounce the word

- The teacher showed the word directly so that the students could see and askedthem to repeat the word three times Then, she turned back to show the picture and tellthe students to pronounce three times as well

- Finally, she invited some students to read out loud the word by looking at the picture

- For another word, the same procedure was carried out After each learnt word, theteacher helped the students to revise all previously taught words by continuously movingamong pictures for students to realize the words

Grouping or semantic organization

- The teacher introduced two contrast semantic organizations to the students

(positive and negative feelings)

- She showed the students the words of positive feeling and guided them to

pronounce

- The whole class practiced pronouncing, then some of the students were asked to pronounce.

- Next, the teacher showed the words of negative feelings and carried out the same above procedure

- Finally, the teacher asked the whole class to read out loud the words of both groups

Physical response method

- The teacher imitated the action and used her body language and facial expression

to express the word

- She asked the students to look at her action and try to find out the word

- Some students were invited to say their answers

- Then the teacher guided the students to pronounce the word and explained the word form and the phonetics

- Next, she asked all the students to stand up and imitate the action together withspeak out loud the word She also called some students at random to pronounce thewords

- The implementation steps were the same for the next taught word

After having taught 23 words in each teaching session in 50 minutes, the teacherchose random words for revision She might show the pictures and the keywords orimitate the action for students to recall the words Sometimes, she divided thestudents into two groups and organized a game by showing the pictures ordescribing the words with action and let each group figure out The group withhigher mark would be the winner

At the end of each teaching session, the students of both the control group andthe experimental group were required to finish an immediate post-test (seeAppendix 3) The teacher collected the post-test paper for later analysis ofimprovement in short-term vocabulary retention with mnemonic techniques

Two weeks after the last session of vocabulary teaching, the delayed post-test of

69 items was given without the prior notice to all participants to check their