External factors that affect vocabulary learning of grade 10 students at a high school in hanoi

Despite thesevaluable sources of reference, there is still a lack of insight into external factorsaffecting students‟ vocabulary learning in the context of Ngoc Hoi high school.Besides,

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIUNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

(Những yếu tố bên ngoài ảnh hưởng đến việc học từ vựng

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 8140231.01

Hanoi – 2018

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

(Những yếu tố bên ngoài ảnh hưởng đến việc học từ vựng

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 8140231.01 Supervisor: Dr VŨ THỊ THANH NHÃ

Hanoi – 2018

Post-Nguyễn Thị Hồng Nhung

Hanoi, 2018

My sincere thanks also go to my dear students at Ngoc Hoi high school for helping

me to collect data for this study and for all their support and encouragement

Finally, I would also like to give my special thanks to my family and friends whohave been interminably encouraging and facilitating me to fulfill this thesis

Vocabulary learning is a crucial part of learning a second language There havebeen a number of researchers studying roles of vocabulary learning, approaches tovocabulary and factors that affect vocabulary teaching and learning Despite thesevaluable sources of reference, there is still a lack of insight into external factorsaffecting students‟ vocabulary learning in the context of Ngoc Hoi high school.Besides, vocabulary learning of grade 10 students at this school is not very effective

in spite of both teachers‟ and students‟ efforts Therefore, this study was conducted

to find out what external factors have the most and least influences on grade 10students‟ vocabulary learning, and thus suggest some ways of improving theeffectiveness of vocabulary teaching and learning at this high school This thesis is asurvey study Questionnaire was used as the instrument to collect data for thisresearch A Likert Scale questionnaire was developed on the basis of items whichrefer to external factors affecting students‟ vocabulary learning; and SPSS programwas used to analyze the data collected The study revealed that “teachers” is themost influential factor, which is followed by English curriculum, Access to nativespeakers, Number of exposures to the new words, and Peers There is not enoughevidence to prove that Lexical factors have strong influences on students‟vocabulary learning It is expected that the findings of this study will not onlybenefit teachers and students at this high school but also evoke further study

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 R ATIONALE FOR THE STUDY 1

2 A IMS OF THE STUDY 2

3 R ESEARCH QUESTIONS 3

4 S COPE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 3

5 O RGANIZATION OF THE THESIS 3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1 V OCABULARY IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TEACHING 6

1.1 Definitions of vocabulary 6

1.2 The importance of vocabulary in language teaching and learning 7

1.3 Aspects of knowing a word 8

1.4 Types of words and vocabulary learning 10

1.5 Approaches to vocabulary 11

2 F ACTORS AFFECTING VOCABULARY ACQUISITION 13

2.1 Internal factors that affect vocabulary acquisition 13

2.2 External factors that affect vocabulary acquisition 17

3 V OCABULARY TEACHING TECHNIQUES 23

3.1 Deliberately teaching vocabulary 23

3.2 Some vocabulary teaching techniques 24

4 S UMMARY 26

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 27

1 O VERVIEW OF THE METHOD USED IN THE STUDY 27

1.1 D EFINITION OF SURVEY RESEARCH 27

1.2 Rationale for using survey research 27

1.3 Strengths and limitations of survey research 28

2 S UBJECTS 28

3 D ATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS 28

3.1 Preparation 28

3.2 Data collection 29

3.3 Techniques of data analysis 30

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 31

1 Q UESTIONNAIRE RESULTS 31

1.1 General information about the participants of the study 31

1.2 Reliability Statistics 34

1.3 Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA)\ 41

1.4 Correlation analysis 45

1.5 Regression analysis 45

1.6 Descriptive statistics 48

2 D ISCUSSION 53

PART III: RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION 55

1 S UMMARY OF MAJOR FINDINGS 55

2 P EDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS 57

2.1 Educational administrators 57

2.2 Teachers 57

2.3 Changing students’ learning attitudes 58

3 L IMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 58

4 R ECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 58

REFERENCES 60

APPENDICES 64

APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE WRITTEN IN ENGLISH 64

APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE WRITTEN IN VIETNAMESE 68

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

EFL English as Foreign Language

Table 23 Reliability Statistics – Factor V (2nd test) 40

PART I: INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents an overview of the study including rationale, aims of thestudy, the research questions, the scope and significance of the study, and the outline

of the study

1 Rationale for the study

Learning vocabulary is a very important part of learning a language The morewords you know, the more you will be able to understand what you hear and read; andthe better you will be able to say what you want to when speaking or writing Inlearning a foreign language, vocabulary learning is an important part of the languageacquisition It is one element that links the four skills of speaking, listening, readingand writing all together In order to communicate well in a foreign language, studentsshould acquire an adequate number of words and should know how to use themaccurately Wilkins (1983) states that little can be conveyed without grammar butnothing can be conveyed if there is no vocabulary Besides, Folse (2008) also indicates

in an aricle that the level of vocabulary is a key factor for English language learners toimprove their second language proficiency It can be said that a low level ofvocabulary is a major drawback for second language learners to master the languageboth in communication and in academic learning Therefore, how to make vocabularylearning effective is always an issue that both second language teachers and learnersfocus on

In Vietnam, due to the importance of English, much efforts have been made inteaching and learning English at schools and outside schools as well English is one ofthe core subjects in the National Curriculum set by the government and followed bystate primary and secondary schools Moreover, English, together with Maths andLiterature, is compulsory in the national examination taken by grade 12 students at theend of the school year Schools, in general and secondary schools, in particular, followthe national curriculum and syllabus Thus, learning English at secondary schools islearning reading, speaking, listening, writing, pronunciation and grammar Theacquisition of English as the foreign language is significantly affected by students‟vocabulary, so vocabulary teaching and learning is always an important part of every

English lesson no matter what the lesson is reading, speaking, listening or writing.Facts have shown that students who have larger vocabulary are often better at thesefour skills than those with poor vocabulary However, Vietnamese students usuallyfeel bored in vocabulary lessons because they find it difficult to remember the spelling,meaning, and grammatical function of the words.

In the case of the high school where the researcher is working, teachers oftenspend five to seven minutes teaching vocabulary in reading, speaking, listening andwriting lessons The time may be shorter or longer, depending on whether the topic ofthe lesson is familiar to students or not Each teacher has her own way of teachingvocabulary and checking understanding Besides some teachers who always try to usedifferent techniques in vocabulary teaching to attract students‟ interest, the othersoften teach vocabulary by expliciting the words and their meanings However, a lot ofstudents cannot remember the words and use the words later As a result, if they have awritten test several days after the lesson, they cannot do well with questions related tothe vocabulary they learn before In another situation, if teachers say somethingcontaining the vocabulary taught before, students cannot understand or response toteachers In general, students‟ vocabulary learning is not very effective in spite of bothteachers‟ and students‟ efforts

For all the reasons mentioned above, to find out the difficulties in learningvocabulary of grade 10 students at a high school in Hanoi where the researcher isworking is necessary Then, the external factors that most affect their vocabularylearning can be identified This will make it possible to give suggestions for theteachers and learners to improve the teaching and learning of vocabulary at that highschool

2 Aims of the study

The aims of this study are to find out what external factors affecting vocabularylearning of grade 10 students at a high school in Hanoi and thus suggest some ways ofimproving the effectiveness of vocabulary teaching and learning

A theoretical framework for the study is focused on the second languagevocabulary learning, and factors affecting vocabulary acquisition

3 Research questions

The study aims at finding out the most influential factors according to the learners and what is the learners‟ need in terms of the materials and the methodology

1 What are external factors affecting vocabulary learning of grade 10 students

at a high school in Hanoi?

2 What can be done to help the learners learn vocabulary better?

4 Scope and significance of the study

This study cannot cover all the aspects of needs analysis and course objectives.The study limits itself to the investigation of some external factors affectingvocabulary learning of grade 10 students at a high school in Hanoi where theresearcher is working

The results should be interpreted within the high school teaching context Theinvestigation primarily deals with reading in “Tiếng Anh 10” – the old book

Practically, the findings are believed to be beneficial to vocabulary teachingand learning of teachers and students especially grade 10 students at the school

5 Organization of the thesis

This thesis consists of three parts as follows:

PART I, INTRODUCTION, provides general information about the context ofthe research including theoretical point and personal need to conduct the study

PART II, DEVELOPMENT includes the following chapters:

Chapter 1, LITERATURE REVIEW summarises some theoriesconcerning vocabulary in the second language teaching and learning, andfactors affecting vocabulary acquisition

Chapter 2, METHODOLOGY, describes the methodology used in thestudy including description, data collection instrument, subjects,procedures, and data analysis

Chapter 3, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION presents the data analysisresults and then provide the discussion on the results

PART III, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION, presents a briefsummary of major findings, proposes some recommendations arising from the study,states the limitations of the study and offers some suggestions for future research.

In addition, the study also includes the sections of REFERENCES which displaysthe sources of referenced information and APPENDICES which presents the surveyquestionnaire

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Vocabulary in second language learning and teaching

Hornby (1995) defines vocabulary as a list of words with their meanings

Burns (1972) defines vocabulary as the stock of words which is used by a person,class or profession

According to Zimmerman cited in Coady and Huckin (1998) vocabulary is central

to language and of critical importance to the typical language learning

Penny Ur defines vocabulary as “the words we teach in the foreign language.However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: a compound oftwo or three words or multi-word idioms” (Ur, 1996:60) A similar definition fromRichards and Platt is that vocabulary is “a set of lexemes, including words, compoundwords and idioms” (Richards & Platt, 1992: 400)

Benettayeb (2010) finds that vocabulary is the most amounts of words thatcharacterize a given language Without this vocabulary, the learner would be unable touse and comprehend the target language

According to Lessard-Clouston (2013), vocabulary is implied as the words of alanguage, including single items and phrases or chunks of several words which convey

a particular meaning In other words, vocabulary not only addresses single lexicalitems – words with specific meaning(s) – but it also includes lexical phrases or chunks.With the above definitions, many researchers have established an overview of thenotion for vocabulary which is considered to be very important in languageacquisition Thus, it is becoming increasingly apparent that teachers must enable

students to learn and acquire a lexical base in order for them to achieve success inlanguage learning In summary, vocabulary is the certain number of words that aspeaker needs to convey his/her message.

1.2 The importance of vocabulary in language teaching and learning

Vocabulary learning is considered a crucial part in second language learning.Therefore, vocabulary is claimed to be one of the most important components inlearning a foreign language According to Wilkins (1972), being able to createsentences with correct grammar is valuable only when one has got adequatevocabulary to express what he/ she wants to say Wilkins also adds that speakers canconvey very little without grammar while they can convey nothing withoutvocabulary That means without vocabulary one can neither express his or her ownideas nor understand others‟ ideas

Schmitt (2000) also agrees that lexical knowledge is crucial in communicationand in the second language learning Because of its important role, vocabulary is one

of the areas in L2 acquisition that a lot of researchers have had interest in from the late1980s (Nation, 1990) There have been some researchers such as Laufer and Nation(1999), Maximo (2000), Read (2000), who all agree that vocabulary acquisition is one

of the most important factors resulting in successful second language use Besides,Rivers and Nunan (1991), also state that if learners want to be successful in secondlanguage use, they need to acquire an adequate vocabulary That is because only whenlearners have an extensive vocabulary can they have comprehensible communicationusing the structures and functions they have learned before

Richards (1980) and Krashen (1989), as cited in Maximo (2000) state reasons whyvocabulary needs to be paid special attention to when a learner studies a foreignlanguage To be more detailed, the researchers state that to master a language, learnersneed to acquire a large vocabulary In fact, a number of second language learners oftenbring along dictionaries because they realize that the lack of vocabulary will result inmany difficulties studying the language skills

In addition, Nation (2011) supposes that learning vocabulary items plays anintegral part in all language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing He also

describes the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and language use ascomplementary: vocabulary knowledge enables language use and, language use alsoleads to an increase in knowledge of vocabulary.

It has been proven that vocabulary knowledge has strong impacts on readingcomprehension through a foreign language; and the main and the largest obstacle thatL2 readers have to overcome is the lack of vocabulary (Huckin, 1995)

From their own research, researchers agree that a lack of vocabulary results inboth receptive and productive difficulties for learners Therefore, learning vocabulary

is always a must for all L2 learners even those with high levels of languagecompetence and performance

As stated by Laufer (1986), even when learners have mastered syntax, they stillthink that their vocabulary is not good enough

In summary, vocabulary learning is considered an important aspect of teachingand learning a foreign language It is also an area that learners are often unsure aboutand find it hard to tackle Therefore, second language vocabulary acquisition hasbecome an increasingly interesting topic of discussion for researchers, teachers,curriculum designers, theorists, and others involved in second language learning andteaching

1.3 Aspects of knowing a word

Penny Ur (1996) claims that when vocabulary is introduced to learners, what need

to be taught are form-written and spoken; grammar; collocation; aspects of meaning:denotation, connotation, appropriateness, meaning relationships; and word formation.According to Nation (1990) and Taylor (1990), knowing a word incorporates a largeamount of information It involves not only knowing its spelling, morphology,pronunciation, meaning, or the equivalent of the word in the learner‟s mother tonguebut also knowing its collocations, register, polysemy, and even its homonym

There are different ways to define the concept of a word, but three significantaspects which are form, meaning, and use need to be paid attention to

Nation (2001) clarifies that the form of a word involves its pronunciation (spokenform), spelling (written form), and any word parts that make up this particular item(such as a prefix, root, and suffix).

Also stated by Nation (2001), meaning involves how form and meaning worktogether In other words, when one thinks of a word, what comes to his/her mind,including the concept, its reference and associations, is called meaning

The use of a word, according to Nation (2001), involves the grammatical functions

of the word or phrase, collocations that normally go with it, and finally any constraints

on its use, in terms of frequency, level, and so forth

Nation (2001, p.27) also declares that there is both a receptive and productivedimension for form, meaning, and use, which is summarized in the table below:

Aspect Component Receptive knowledge Productive knowledge

one?

words occur with this words must people use

word?

1.4 Types of words and vocabulary learning

There are 5 types of words and vocabulary learning according to Folse (2008)Type 1: Single words

It is definite that learners need to know a certain number of words According toSchmitt (2000), a second language learner needs about 2,000 words to maintainconversations, 3,000 word families to read authentic texts, and about 10,000 words tocomprehend challenging academic texts The largest and mostly used typed of words issingle words

Type 2: Set phrases

“Set phrases” refer to phrases which include more than one word, and speakerscannot make a change of any word in these phrases

Type 3: Variable phrases

Unlike set phrases, variable phrases consist of some components that can bechanged The variation in variable phrases is often personal pronouns, possessiveadjectives, or word order

Type 4: Phrasal verbs

A phrasal verb consists of a main verb and a particle Some common verbs that canform phrasal verbs are put, take, come, call, make, go, and get

Type 5: Idioms

Each language has its own idiomatic expressions which are separate vocabularyitems When a group of words has the meaning which is not formed by the meaning ofseparate word in the group, then the group is called an idiom.

1.5 Approaches to vocabulary

According to Boyle and Scanlon (2009), methods and techniques should becombined in teaching vocabulary for there is no single method for teachingvocabulary Below are some principles belonging to inferring from context, implicitteaching and explicit teaching, the three methods that are concerned by differentresearchers

Intentional learning of vocabulary

Intentional learning of vocabulary is a traditional and common method inteaching vocabulary Ellis (2001) calls it the planned method involving the use of tasksdesigned to elicit forms which have been selected ahead by teachers Although it willprovide the greatest chance of acquisition, it is time consuming and it is too laboriousfor learners to learn the language Moreover, intentional teaching of vocabulary inclassroom is often the teacher-centered class In general, intentional learning ofvocabulary is the method of learning vocabulary by using tools to bring learners‟attention into direct contact with the form and meaning of words, such as dictionaries,vocabulary lists, and direct vocabulary explanation

According to Hulstijn (2003), intentional learning occurs when learners are awarethat they will be tested at the end of an activity (e.g vocabulary) In other words,learners are informed what activity they are going to perform, and what objectives thatneed to be achieved by the end of the activity Explicit vocabulary learning engageslearners in activities that focus attention primarily on vocabulary According to Nation(1990), intentional vocabulary learning occurs when learners do exercises andactivities that focus on vocabulary Explicit vocabulary learning is of much important

in vocabulary acquisition As stated by Decarrico (2001), without explicit vocabularylearning, implicit vocabulary learning should not be applied for students with low andintermediate levels

Intentional learning is quick and usually preferred by learners, but it also causessome problems Learners often encounter vocabulary in an isolated form and remainincapable of using it correctly in context Hill (2005) quotes semantic errors fromstudents For example, when students wrote “we lived (stayed) in a hotel for a week”,they mistook “live” and “stay” because when they learned words, they only paidattention to the forms and their Chinese equivalents but not collocation andrelationship among words Thus, they put words in the wrong context This illustratesstudents‟ rely on memorization and neglect the semantic aspect of the language.

Incidental vocabulary learning

Incidental vocabulary learning can be defined as natural exposure to thelanguage through reading or listening in which the focus is on understanding themeaning of the text, not the vocabulary

Hulstijn (1996; cited in Gass, 1999) supposes that incidental learning is:learning in the absence of an intention to learn Hulstijn (2006) also considersincidental learning the mode in which participants are not foretold about an upcomingpractice test for a particular type of information

Other scholars also give different definitions of incidental learning One of thedefinitions presented by Schmidt (2000) is that, incidental learning is learning withoutthe intent to learn Schmidt (2001) also states that incidental learning is definitelypassive in that it may occur when learners pay attention to some relevant features ofinput

Another definition is that, incidental vocabulary learning occurs throughmultiple exposures to a word in different contexts (Huckin & Coady, 1999) Similarly,Nation (2001) agrees that learners should be given multiple exposures to the word thatthey are supposed to learn; and new words should be presented in contexts from whichlearners can get the meaning

From the definitions above, it can be seen that incidental vocabulary learningoccurs when the focus is not on vocabulary but elsewhere such as understanding awritten or spoken text

There have been studies conducted to investigate the importance of incidentalvocabulary learning Zimmerman (1997) states some strengths of incidentalvocabulary learning: (1) It gives learners a good sense of meaning and use of wordsbecause it is contextualized; (2) It is efficient because it can help learners acquirevocabulary and improve their reading skills at the same time; (3) It is more learner-based because learners can select the reading materials themselves.

However, incidental vocabulary learning is beneficial if learners‟ vocabulary islarge like Mathew‟s effect: the rich become richer and the poor become poorer.Therefore, intentional learning is pivotal for learners at the beginning level; andincidental learning becomes practical if learners are at advanced level Schmitt (2000)declares that both explicit and incidental learning are necessary for second languagelearners, and these two approaches of vocabulary should be seen as complementary

Inferring from context

Belonging to the idea of Context Alone, “Inferring from Context”, also named

as context method, or contextual approaches is the method of using context to clarifythe meanings of the words that students need to learn For instance, when students areasked to guess the meaning of the words through one or some given sentences, theyare learning vocabulary by inferring the meaning of words from the context (Nagy,1988) Graves (2006) suggests several principles of teaching vocabulary in contextmethod: Students should learn the words in meaningful contexts; Students should seewords in variety of contexts; Depth of meaning should be fostered; Learners should beable to access the texts‟ meaning in the target language and learning a word involvespronunciation, spelling, morphology and syntax

2 Factors affecting vocabulary acquisition

2.1 Internal factors that affect vocabulary acquisition

According to Felix (1977) as cited in Leontiev and James (1981:133), “Studentsare the most important factor in learning an English vocabulary” Internal factors arethose that an individual language learner brings with him or her to the particularlearning situation In other words, they are the factors inside the students themselves

According to Lightbown and Spada (1999), internal factors include age,language aptitude, intelligence, attitude and motivation, personality Similarly, Rubinand Thomson (1994) suppose that the factors including age, aptitude, attitude,personality, learning style and past experiences.

Age

In term of the influence of age on second language acquisition, Ellis (1994)reports that learners who start learning a second language at early age often achieve amore native-like accent than those who start late Younger learners are quicker inacquisition of phonology but not very successful in acquiring grammar Motivated,older learners can also be successful but they usually have difficulties achievingnative-speaker-equivalent pronunciation and intonation

Personality

Learners‟ emotional states have a powerful influence on their behavior andperformance in the classroom and other learning situations There are various theoriesthat claim that personality factors are important predictors of success in secondlanguage learning Personality traits such as extroversion, introversion, risk-taking,independence and empathy have been the basis of discussions and disputes relating tothis topic (Ellis 1986) Theorists such as Guiora, Brannon and Dull (1972) haveconsidered empathy to be important; and Krashen (1981) argues that an out-goingpersonality contributes to language learning (Ellis, 1986) Research, such as that done

by Krashen (1981), has found that introverts generally perform better academicallywhereas an extrovert appears more likely to take advantage of social opportunities forsecond language input (Coleman & Klapper, 2005) Despite these theories, theavailable research does not demonstrate a clearly defined effect on second languagelearning Rather, we all have different and unique personalities and each personalitytrait can affect our second language learning in different ways (Ellis, 1986)

In summary, extroverted learners are better at acquiring a second language thanintroverted or anxious learners In other words, introverts usually make slowerprogress, especially in the improvement of oral skills That is because they are afraid

of making mistakes, and they tend to avoid opportunities to speak As a result, the lack

of practice will make them less likely to fully acquire the second language vocabulary.

In contrast, extroverted learners are aware that making mistakes is inevitable, so theyare always willing to speak without fear of making mistakes These learners dare totake risks, so they have a lot more practice in comparison with the introverted learners

Motivation (Intrinsic)

The social psychological factor of motivation has been proven to account fordifferential success in second language learning A motivated student can be defined assomeone who: “Expends effort, is persistent and attentive to the tasks at hand, hasgoals, desires and aspirations, enjoys the activity, makes attributions concerningsuccess or failure, is aroused and make use of strategies to aid in achieving goals”(Dornyei 2003, p.173) It makes sense that those individuals who are motivated tolearn the second language will learn faster and to a greater degree than those who arenot This is supported by Reece and Walker (1997) They stress that a less able studentwho is highly motivated can achieve greater success than the more intelligent studentwho is not well motivated It is very difficult to teach a second language in a learningenvironment if the learner does not have a desire to learn a language

Second language intrinsic motivation is defined as the interest in learning alanguage for its own sake, without any external pressure

According to Noels (2000), there are three types of intrinsic motivation that areknowledge, accomplishment and stimulation Intrinsic motivation is consider having astrong relation with educational achievement Having intrinsic motivation, learnerswill learn to achieve competence in the language Absolutely, those who enjoylanguage learning and are proud of their progress will do better than students whoenjoy language learning and take pride in their progress will do better than those whodon't According to Medford and McGeown (2012), in almost classrooms, learnerswho are just beginning to learn a language are often highly motivated on their first fewclasses or lessons and they enjoy their learning much

Experiences

According to Lightbown and Spada (2013), it is easier for those who haveacquired general knowledge and experience to develop a new language For instance,

if a learner has already lived in two or more different countries and has been exposed

to several languages and cultures, then that learner will have much more advantages inlearning another language in comparison with a student who has no experience in asecond language and culture

Cognition

In acquiring new knowledge in general, and acquiring a second language inparticular, it is easier and faster for students with better intelligence to make progress.There have been scholars who believe that some students have stronger innatelanguage learning ability than others

Language learning strategies

Learning strategy is one important factor A learning strategy is a series ofactions a learner takes to complete a learning task A strategy starts when the learneranalyzes the task, the situation, and what is available in his/her own repertoire Thelearner then goes on to select, deploy, monitor, and evaluate the effectiveness of thisaction, and decides if s/he needs to revise the plan and action

According to O‟Malley and Chamot (1990), learning strategies are the basictools for active, self-directed involvement needed for developing L2 communicativeability

It has been proved in research that better and more effective learning strategiesare often used by better language learners rather than poorer language learners (Rubin,1975; Stern, 1983) Moreover, Rubin also indicates that the good language learner is awilling and accurate guesser; has a strong persevering drive to communicate andwilling to make mistakes in order to learn or communicate; focuses on form bylooking for patterns; takes advantages of all practice opportunities; monitors his or herown speech and that of others; and pay attention to meaning

According to Oxford (1990), language learning strategies can be classified,explained, and exemplified in six different groups which are memory, cognitive,comprehension, metacognitive, affective, and social The first three groups directlyinvolve the subject matter (the target language to be learned), so they are

known as “direct” strategies The last three groups are called “indirect” strategiesbecause they do not directly involve the subject matter itself but are essential tolanguage learning Chamot and Kupper (1989) mention that successful learners tend toselect strategies that work together well in a highly orchestrated way, modified to therequirement of the language task These learners can easily explain the strategies theyuse and why they employ them (O‟Malley & Chamot, 1990).

Native language

If students learn a second language which has the same language family as theirfirst language, then it will be much beneficial for them For example, a Chinese learnerwill learn Japanese more easily and quickly than an English student Moreover, iflearners are aware of the similarities and differences between their mother tongue andthe target language, it will be easier for them to adopt effective learning andproduction strategies, according to Schmitt and McCarthy (1997)

2.2 External factors that affect vocabulary acquisition

External factors are the factors outside the students that influence their learning.External factors refer to particular language learning situation The learning contextcan include the teachers, the peers, the classroom climate, the family support, thesocial, cultural tradition of learning, the curriculum, and the availability of input andoutput opportunities

Teaching methods, quality of materials, reward system, peer group, student relationship, classroom atmosphere, and homework assignment, are considers

teacher-as a learning environment and it can affect the learners‟ choice of vocabulary learningstrategies (Kaylani, 1996)

Second language curriculum

In term of curriculum, Nation and Macalister (2010) emphasize the importance

of needs analysis, sequencing the course materials, evaluation, format and presentation

of materials It can be seen that materials are paid much attention to in secondlanguage learning in general, and second language vocabulary learning in particular

Flavell (1979), Wenden (1987), and Williams and Burden (1997) define thelearning task includes not only the materials being learned but also the goal thatlearners try to achieve by using these materials Therefore, tasks should be designedwith reference to the objectives of the lesson The goal of second language vocabularytasks should be the combination of words acquisition and expansion of word‟sknowledge, both meanings and forms.

Another definition given by Fluente (2006) is that, tasks are specific learning activities which can facilitate optimal conditions for foreign languagelearning

language-As stated by Nunan (1989), a task can be a real-world activity or a contrived,pedagogic activity, as long as the process of completing the task corresponds to thatfound in discourse based on the exchange of information

It can be concluded that different types of task materials with different levels ofdifficulties will have different influences on second language learners‟ vocabularyacquisition For example, how learners learn a new word in a given list is totallydifferent from learning the same word when it appears in a passage Likely,remembering the meaning of a word does not mean the learner can use that word inreal life situations Therefore, the purpose of vocabulary learning should include bothremembering words and the ability to use them automatically in a wide range oflanguage contexts when the need arises (McCarthy, 1984)

Teachers

Teachers‟ individual characteristics may have an impact on students‟performance and their final results Teachers‟ formative experience, teachers‟ trainingexperience and personal characteristic are named presage variables Besides, teachers‟performance in the language learning classroom, teaching style and methodology arepart of the process variables (Dunkin & Biddle, 1974)

The teacher‟s age may also be an important factor It has a strong relation withteaching experience, which helps explain the teacher‟s (1) efficiency in the languagelearning class; (2) activity, energy and movement in the classroom; (3) openness toinnovations and new methodological approaches; (4) enthusiasm and degree of

hopefulness, which may decrease with age; (5) willingness to strive and improveteaching and learning conditions, etc.

The teacher‟s social class, ideology and beliefs derived from his/ herbackground may also influence his/ her behavior and performance in class, whichaffect learners‟ acquisition For examples, some progressive teachers identifythemselves with certain practices which are associated with the progressive teachingmovement Other teachers maintain more traditional beliefs and teaching styles orcombine the progressive and traditional practices opting for different positions in thiscontinuum (Bennet, 1976)

Other factors that influence the students‟ attitudes and motivation in thelanguage learning class are teacher‟s personality traits and his/ her behavior in class(Madrid, 1993)

Learning task

The traditional, broader understanding of task as in Flavell (1979), Wenden(1987), and Williams and Burden (1997) state that the learning task includes thematerials being learned (such as the genre of a piece of reading) as well as the goal thelearner is trying to achieve by using these materials (such as remembering,comprehending, or using language)

As Crookes (1986) defines, task is a piece of work or an activity, usually with aspecified objective, undertaken as part of an educational course, or at work

In practice, it appears to refer to the idea of some kinds of activity designed toengage the learner in using the language communicatively or reflectively in order toarrive at an outcome other than that of learning a specified feature of the L2 A taskcan be a real-world activity or a contrived, pedagogic activity (Nunan, 1989), as long

as the process of completing the task corresponds to that found in discourse based onthe exchange of information (Ellis, 1994)

Tasks are specific language-learning activities that may facilitate optimalconditions for second language learning (Fluente, 2006) Tasks should be structured inreference to desirable goals The goal of L2 vocabulary tasks should be acquisition of

words and expansion of word‟s knowledge, not only the meanings but also the forms.

In her research on the role of pedagogical tasks and form-focused instruction, Fluente(2006) concludes that the Presentation, Practice and Production lessons are not aseffective as task-based lessons The analysis also suggests that a task-based lesson with

an explicit focus-on-forms component is more effective than a task-based lesson thatdoes not incorporate this component in promoting acquisition of word morphologicalaspects The results also indicate that the explicit focus on forms component may bemore effective when placed at the end of the lesson when meaning has been acquired

Different types of task materials, task purposes, and tasks at various difficultylevels have various effects on the learners‟ vocabulary acquisition For example,learning words in a word list is different from learning the same words in a passage

As well, remembering a word meaning is different from learning to use the same word

in real life situations

Number of exposures to the new words

The number of exposures and recycling is also important in acquiringvocabulary Nation (2001) states that five to more than 20 repeated meetings areneeded to learn words according to the various criteria in the different studies

Peers

Lantolf and Thorne (2004) claims that peers is a factor that affects thedevelopmental process of learning occurring through participation in cultural,linguistic, and previously formed settings such as family life and peer groupinteraction Besides, Shah (1999) also suggests that “aspects such as aninappropriateness in the use of second language, show of dislike, boastfulness,showing off, and formality second language use are several other factors” (p.107).These factors, according to her, lead to either the lack of oral communication orpractice of second language among students Seng (2006) also draws a conclusionfrom her research that it will be better for language learners if their peers share theirinspirations and information; and if a classmate explains something to them

Motivation (extrinsic)

If teachers and parents give students continuing, appropriate encouragement tolearn, these students will perform much better than those who are not givenencouragement Besides, Gardner (1985) states the concept of student's orientation toexplain the reasons why students need to learn a second language Accordingly, themain reasons are: to find a good job, to travel around the world, to communicate withforeigners, and to have a better education Therefore, it can be said that a lot of socialpressure is put on second language learners, especially young learners nowadays Suchpressure is considered extrinsic motivation which helps students more willing to learnthe language.

External or environmental factors, such as parents‟ level of education, use ofEnglish in the home, amount of language input, and parents L2 proficiency havepredominantly been related to the acquisition of vocabulary or general academicachievement (Oller & Eilers, 2002)

Access to native speakers

According to Felix (1977) as cited in Leontiev and James (1981), an importantfactor that affects vocabulary learning is the frequency of the learners‟ contact with thelanguage It would be a great advantage if second language learners have opportunities

to communicate with native speakers both within and outside of the classroom.Interacting with native speakers, learners can receive appropriate feedback so that theycan make quicker progress, particularly in the oral/aural aspects of languageacquisition Moreover, when learners can understand what native speakers say and cangive response, it means that they have a certain amount of vocabulary and know how

to use them

Interlexical factors

Interlexical factors refer to the relationship between the new words and thewords learners know in their first or second language This relationship includessimilarity of form of the first and the second language and meaning relations betweenwords in the first and second language

Intralexical factors

According to Laufer (1997), intralexical factors arise from intrinsic word‟sproperties He also states that intralexical factors that affect the learnability of lexicalitems include pronounce ability and multiple word meaning.

Pronounce ability

Gairns and Redman (1998:50) argue that “the complex relationship betweensound and spelling in English seems…to make language inexplicable to foreignlearners” There are a number of words which have similar pronunciation and differentforms or spelling; whereas many other words have similar forms but differ in theirpronunciation

Multiple meaning words

One form of word can have several meanings and one meaning can beconveyed by diferent forms This is one of the most difficulties for learners to acquirenew words and how to use them in real life situations

Length

According to Schmitt and McCarthy (1997) there are some intralexical factorsthat affect vocabulary learning, including length of words It seems that it is moredifficult to learn longer words than the shorter ones It is also clear that one-syllablewords are easier to learn in comparison with two-syllable words or three-syllablewords

Morphology

Features such as irregularity of plural, gender of inanimate nouns, and nouncases make an item more difficult to learn than an item with no such complexity, sincethe learning load caused by the multiplicity of forms is greater

Learning context

The learning context refers to the socio-cultural-political environment wherelearning takes place The learning context can include the teachers, the peers, theclassroom climate or the classroom interaction in general With regard to classroominteraction and second language acquisition, Ellis (1994: 606) concluded that

“Opportunities to negotiate meaning may help the acquisition of L2 vocabulary;

Teacher-controlled pedagogic discourse may contribute to the acquisition of formallanguage skills, while learner-controlled natural discourse may help the development

of oral language skills; Learners need access to well-formed input that is tailored totheir own level of understanding This can be achieved in teacher-directed lessons with

a clearly-defined structure and by well-adjusted teacher talk;” All of these give support

to the hypothesis: successful L2 learning may be possible in a favorable classroomenvironment The learning context can include the availability of input and outputopportunities

Home factors

Socioeconomic status consistently predicts cognitive and academic outcomesamong both native English speakers and English Language Learners (Biemiller &Slonim, 2001; CoboLewis, Pearson, Eilers, & Umbel, 2002; 3; Lara-Cinisomo et al.,2004; Neuman, 2008) To be more detailed, children from low-income homes performless well than their more economically advantaged peers Moreover, social classdifferences give higher-income children better access to language-related literacyexperiences including ownership of books and other reading materials (Raz & Bryant,1990), availability of books through public libraries (Neuman, 2006), frequency ofshared reading (Adams, 1990; Neuman, Caperelli, & Kee, 1998), and opportunities toengage in experiences that build conceptual knowledge needed for understanding text(Neuman, 2008) Furthermore, research on the relationship between language use inthe home and learners‟ literacy development in their first or second language generallyindicates that children‟s proficiency is related to family language preferences(Duursma et al., 2007)

3 Vocabulary teaching techniques

3.1 Deliberately teaching vocabulary

According to Nation (2008), deliberately teaching vocabulary is an integral part

of a well-balanced vocabulary program but this is one of the least efficient ways ofdeveloping learners‟ vocabulary knowledge Building on prior studies focused on theeffectiveness of methodologies targeting the singular parts of the language as opposed

to the whole (Ashton-Warner, 1963), Nation argues that vocabulary knowledge is best

built up over a series of varied meetings with the word At best, teaching can provideonly one or two of these meetings, so other encounters must involve learners‟deliberate study of a word, becoming acquainted with the word through meaning-focused input and output, and fluency development activities (Nation, 1990) Nation(2008) recommends that vocabulary instructors raise learners‟ awareness of the form,use and meaning of the word by designing message-focused activities that callattention to the role of the item in context.

3.2 Some vocabulary teaching techniques

A number of authors have described techniques of vocabulary teaching (Cross,1991; Nation, 1990, 2001; Gairns and Redman, 1986; Allen, 1983)

Translation

One of the most common techniques is translation that is to translate the word

in question into a learner‟s native language Some experts however do not recommendthis technique (Doff, 1988, p 12) “if we only give a direct translation, the studentscannot see how the word is used in an English sentence” Translation is simple, clearand quick for reaching the goal; particularly when teachers give examples thenstudents give the word translation

Nation (1990) thinks that the value of translation depends on how and when weuse it Translation into the mother tongue presents the same processes as translationinto a picture, a description in English Hill (1965) criticizes translation into mothertongue as a way of communication or teaching meaning They believe that generallythere is no exact correspondence between one language and another Besides, the use

of the mother tongue takes time which could better be spent in using English

Giving examples

Giving examples is another way of showing the meaning of a new word; theseexamples should contain the meant lexical item McCarthy (1990) believes that newvocabulary knowledge is most efficiently absorbed when it is assimilated to thealready known words by using it in a context The example sentences used to explainmeaning should obviously teach the meaning of the new word Showing meaning of

words via context is very fruitful especially when the word in question is from the

list-of abstract lexis like, hate, hesitate, think and possible

Concept

A new item can be taught by concept, as a word may be distinguished fromspecial uses of the word According to Carroll (1964) there are several conditionswhich help the establishment of concept Firstly, they should be positive examples ofthe concept, secondly, there should be negative examples Nation (1990) alsorecommends teaching the underlying concept in the case of words with several uses

Description and Definition

Providing definitions or descriptions of new words is also a way of teachingmeaning Bright (1970, p 40) states that “the ability to produce short, clear relevantdefinitions of words is important to the teacher” The teacher thinks about the featurethat he should capture and what contrast to make According to Nation (1990) todefine a word is to show or explain its meaning An adequate definition of a wordshows its meaning as distinct from the meaning of others words and Also stated byNation (1990), an adequate definition indicates the grammatical function or thecategory of the word, a noun, verb, an adjective, it also indicates the typical sentencepattern in which the word enters and finally it indicates other formal aspects of theword

Pictures and Mime

Pictures and mimes can be used to teach the meaning of new vocabulary items

By pictures we mean photos, blackboard drawing, wall pictures, chart and flash card

If the teacher intends to teach words like vegetables, clothes and markets, the use ofpictures will be very important because it will be very difficult and time-consuming toexplain them According to Harmer (1985), pictures can also be used to create asituation or context The usage of mimes in teaching new words is also considered ofgreat value, especially with actions such as jumping, running, writing and smoking Atype of these concepts is easily explained if the teacher pretends to do them before theclass

4 Summary

In summary, the above literature on vocabulary in the second language teachingand learning indicates that there are certain factors that affect students‟ vocabularyacquisition These factors can be divided into two categories namely internal factorsand external factors Some internal factors are students‟ age, personality, intrinsicmotivation, experiences, cognition, language learning strategies and native language.Some external factors include second language curriculum, teachers, learning task,number of exposures to the new words, peers, extrinsic motivation, access to nativespeakers, lexical factors, learning context and home factors All of such factors mayconstrain the ways learners approach learning tasks and acquire vocabularyknowledge

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the methodology that is employed to collect data for thissurvey study Firstly, an overview of the research method - involving definition,rationale of the method, and benefit and limitations of the method – is stated.Secondly, the subjects of the study are clarified Next, the data collection procedurewill be illustrated Besides, how the questionnaire was designed is also included in thischapter Finally, details of how the data collected from the questionnaire was analyzedwill be presented

1 Overview of the method used in the study

1.1 Definition of survey research

The research is designed as a survey study with quantitative approach.According to Creswell (2012), survey research is used to determine individualopinions Besides, survey research can be used to find out answers to raised questions,work out solutions to problems detected by researchers, analyze needs and establishgoals (Isaac & Michael, 1997) In other words, survey research is used to explain whatexists, what the context is, and what the amount is

Surveys are designed to process large quantities of data statistically whenneeded to be researched Therefore, this study mainly depends on quantitative datacollection methods

1.2 Rationale for using survey research

According to Kraemer (1991), survey research is used to quantitatively describespecific aspects of a given population These aspects often involve examining therelationships among variables Moreover, survey research uses a selected portion ofthe population from which the findings can later be generalized back to the population

This study is to examine the relationship between dependent variable(vocabulary learning) and independent variables (external factors that affectvocabulary learning)

1.3 Strengths and limitations of survey research

Strengths: Surveys are capable of obtaining information from large samples of

the population Moreover, they are also well suited to gathering demographic data thatdescribe the composition of the sample (McIntyre, 1999) Surveys are inclusive in thetypes and number of variables that can be studied, require minimal investment todevelop and administer, and are relatively easy for making generalizations (Bell,1996) Surveys can also elicit information about attitudes that are otherwise difficult tomeasure using observational techniques (McIntyre, 1999)

Limitations: Pinsonneault and Kraemer (1993) notes that surveys are generally

unsuitable where an understanding of the historical context of phenomena is required.Bell (1996) observes that biases may occur, either in the lack of response fromintended participants or in the nature and accuracy of the responses that are received.Other sources of error include intentional misreporting of behaviors by respondents toconfound the survey results or to hide inappropriate behavior Finally, respondentsmay have difficulty assessing their own behavior or have poor recall of thecircumstances surrounding their behavior

2 Subjects

The subjects of this study were 318 grade 10 students who studied at a highschool in Hanoi in the academic year 2017 – 2018 Therefore, they were at the age of

15 or 16 These students were in mixed ability classes

3 Data collection instruments

Questionnaire was used as the instrument to collect data in this survey Theparticipants‟ opinions regarding external factors that affect their vocabulary learningwere assessed through a questionnaire The questionnaire was designed specifically forthe purpose of this study

3.1 Preparation

In preparation for designing the questionnaire for this survey study, theresearcher reviewed the content of vocabulary learning, factors that affect vocabularyacquisition, and ways to design a questionnaire The sources of information used are

books, journals, and studies from different researchers Besides, the researcher alsoreviewed several questionnaires used in different EFL studies concerning vocabularylearning Accordingly, A Likert Scale questionnaire was developed on the basis ofitems which refer to external factors affecting students‟ vocabulary learning.

The questionnaire was written in Vietnamese to make sure that the participantscould fully understand the questions before giving their answers

Details of the questionnaire

The questionnaire consists of two main parts as follow:

Part I: The respondents‟ general information

This part was designed to collect information regarding students‟ generalinformation Data collected from this section include details about students‟ gender,how long they had been studying English, and their average grade in English subject.The questions in this part were in the form of check list items

Part II: The questions about external factors that have impacts on students‟vocabulary learning The following scales were employed to indicate the degree ofstudents‟ agreement or disagreement with the given statements in the questionnaire

instructions, made any explanation to questions if needed so that students could giveappropriate answers.

The respondents were encouraged to read each question thoroughly and answerfrankly and truly Then they were given as much time as they needed to complete thequestionnaire

The answered questionnaires were collected right after the students finishedanswering them

3.3 Techniques of data analysis

The purpose of the survey is to find out the factors that have the most and leastinfluences on vocabulary learning of grade 10 students SPSS program was used toanalyze the data collected from Part II of the questionnaires To be more specific, thedata was analyzed by using frequency, percentages, and means

Part I: the descriptive statistics were used to find frequencies, percentage, andmean

Part II: questionnaires of the six categories of external factors (independentfactors): English curriculum – factor C, Teachers – factor T, Exposures to the newwords – factor E, Peers – factor P, Access to native speakers – factor N, and Lexicalfactors – factor L; and Vocabulary acquisition – factor V (dependent factor)

The mean and percentage were used to compute the data Besides, factoranalysis was also employed

The results of the data collection are presented in the next chapter