Using a vocabulary website to increase the vocabulary size of IT workers in hanoi

Nonetheless,countless learners who learn English as a second language have always foundlearning vocabulary frequently as a challenging and boring task to do because theyare too busy with

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

GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ LƯƠNG

USING A VOCABULARY WEBSITE TO INCREASE THE VOCABULARY SIZE OF IT WORKERS IN HANOI

(Việc sử dụng trang web từ vựng để gia tăng vốn từ của nhân viên IT tại Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Hanoi, May 2019

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

GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ LƯƠNG

USING A VOCABULARY WEBSITE TO INCREASE THE VOCABULARY SIZE OF IT WORKERS IN HANOI

(Việc sử dụng trang web từ vựng để gia tăng vốn từ của nhân viên IT tại Hà Nội)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Trần Thị Thu Hiền, PhD

Hanoi, May 2019

I hereby declare that the thesis entitled “using a vocabulary website to increase thevocabulary size of IT workers in Hanoi” is my own work and effort and that it hasnot been submitted to any other university or institution wholly or partially

Hanoi, May 2019

Nguyễn Thị Lương

Post-be unable to overcome difficulties during the time my research was carried out.

Besides, I would like to give my whole-hearted thanks to my students in mytutor class for their enthusiastic participation in my research Without their help, Iwould not have been able to complete this paper

Last but not least, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my beloved family whosesupport and encouragement have always been a great deal of motivation that hashelped me to overcome all problems to complete my thesis

Nguyễn Thị Lương

Uniform Resource Locator

Website for education

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iii

LIST OF TABLES vi

ABSTRACT vii

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 3

1.3 Research questions 3

1.4 Scope of the study 3

1.5 Significance of the study 4

1.6 Methods of the study 4

1.7 Organization of the thesis 5

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Vocabulary in Foreign Language Acquisition 6

2.1.1 Definition of vocabulary 6

2.1.2 Principles of vocabulary learning 7

2.1.3 Difficulties in learning vocabulary 10

2.1.4 Approaches to teaching and learning vocabulary 11

2.2 ICT application in vocabulary acquisition 16

2.2.1 Definition if ICT 16

2.2.2 Role of ICT in education 16

2.2.3 Potential use of ICT in vocabulary learning 17

2.3 Vocabulary websites 18

2.3.1 Definition of vocabulary websites 18

2.3.2 Evaluation criteria for vocabulary websites 18

2.4 Previous studies 22

2.4.1 Oversea studies 22

2.4.2 Vietnamese studies 24

2.5 Chapter summary 26

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 27

3.1 Context of the study 27

3.2 Action research 27

3.2.1 Definition 27

3.2.2 Rationale of uing AR 32

3.3 Participants of the study 33

3.4 Data collection instruments and procedure 34

3.4.1 The pre-test and post-test 34

3.4.2 The questionnaire 35

3.5 The research stages 35

3.5.1 Identifying the problem 35

3.5.2 Intervention 36

3.5.3 Post-intervention stage 36

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 38

4.1 The progress in increasing students’ vocabulary by using the vocabulary websites .38

4.1.1 Result of the pre-test 38

4.1.2 Result of the post-test 38

4.1.3 Result of the questionnaire 40

4.2 Discussion 41

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION 43

REFERENCES 47 APPENDICES I

APPENDIX A: PRE-TEST I

APPENDIX B: POST TEST IV

APPENDIX D: Word List VII

LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1 The vocabulary pre-test 38

Table 4.2 The vocabulary post – test result 39

Table 4.3 The results of students’ questionnaire answers 40

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 Types of research methodology 27

Figure 3.2 Ernest Stringer’s AR model (in Mills, G 2003, p.18) 29

Figure 3.3 Detailed AR model 31

Chart 4.1 The overall mean score in pre-test and post-test 39

This study investigated the potential effect of using a vocabulary website onincreasing vocabulary size The research aimed to figure out whether the use ofvocabulary instruction website could help widen IT students’ vocabulary and toidentify students’ attitude towards using the website instead of their traditional way

In order to accomplish these purposes, 15 students who are IT workers in one of mytutor classes in Hanoi were selected to participate in the study All the studentslearned to take TOEIC exam to meet their company requirement which is 700TOEIC and they came from the same linguistic background To achieve this target

in a short period of time, the students focus mainly on increasing the passivevocabulary Three data collection instruments were employed, namely pre-test/post-tests and questionnaire After one month, the post-test and a questionnaire wereadministered The analysis of the data collected revealed that the students madeencouraging progress in boosting vocabulary size by using the vocabulary website;besides, according to the result of the questionnaire these IT workers were moremotivated to learn vocabulary than they usually do

Key words: vocabulary learning, vocabulary increase, information

communication technology (ICT)

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale of the study

Undoubtedly, English has become the global language which is used widelyall over the world, at school and for entertainment and tourism and especially atwork Among many other elements to master before one can have communicativecompetence at English, vocabulary plays one of the most significant roles “Onething that students, teachers, materials writers, and researchers can all agree upon isthat learning vocabulary is an essential part of mastering a second language.However, the best means of achieving good vocabulary learning is still unclear,partly because it depends on a wide variety of factors” (Schmitt, 2008) Wikinsargued (1972) that “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, withoutvocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” Oxford (1990a) pointed out that languagelearners typically have significant difficulty remembering large vocabularies Overthe past recent years, numerous studies have examined English learning, and mostemphasized the importance of vocabulary learning to English learning (DeCarrio,2001) An excellent vocabulary is beneficial to inferring meaning from Englishsentences (Harmon, 1998, 2002; Rupley, Logan & Nichols, 1999) Nonetheless,countless learners who learn English as a second language have always foundlearning vocabulary frequently as a challenging and boring task to do because theyare too busy with their work, social relationships and family; not to mention thatmost of them cannot memorize words as well as young learners, especially withlong or infrequently used words In addition, learning vocabulary is supposed to do

by themselves at home, and then it requires lots of autonomy and self-motivation.Last but not least, forgetting learned vocabulary is another serious problem duringlearning English vocabulary Forgetting is the loss of information over time Peopletypically recall information better just after learning than after a long delay.Ebbinghaus (1985), based on experimental result, proposed the forgetting curve.However, memory strategies help learners to overcome forgetting Memory

strategies enable learners to store and retrieve information when needed Oxford(1990a) subdivided memory strategies into following four types creating mentallinkages; applying images and sounds; reviewing; and, employing actions.However, as a teacher, the researcher often sees the lack of strategies students inlearning vocabulary.

While English has become the most important second language in English speaking countries, developing modern assistive learning forms or tools thatsupport effective English learning has been a crucial issue in language Englisheducation field Besides work books and other written resources, technologyintegrated language teaching provides a lot of materials for language learners aswell Websites might be regarded as online teaching tools which can be veryeffective resources both for learners and teachers While teachers cannot spend asufficient amount of time to teach vocabulary regularly at class, making use of somevocabulary website equipped with lots of organized learning tools can be a wisechoice Using some particular vocabulary sites to learn new words, teachers canrecommend students with appropriate range of words and can keep track ofstudent’s vocabulary size as well as be able design some more relevant activities ortasks at class In other words, these websites can work as an efficient teaching andlearning tool Besides, we are living in a time of high technology that almost everyadult owns at least one smart mobile phone or tablet which is easily accessible tothe Internet, students feel free to learn at their convenience, which is perfect forbusy workers such as IT employees

non-The students that the researcher teaches are IT workers who are learningEnglish for TOEIC exam In a regular TOEIC test, there are two skills being tested,namely listening and reading; besides, this is a multiple-choice test then studentswho learn for the test rather than for a direct communicative purposes

Last but not least, the website chosen for the research on is https//:quizlet.com Its reputation has been stated with over fifty million users active everymonth It is creatively designed for a variety of levels and subjects The website

quizlet.com let the students learn the words they choose by inputting them into thesite and it will create activities, tests and games with those words Whereas,traditionally, students often find it uninteresting to learn vocabulary with flashcards

or repeat the word in writing or speaking, but with these websites they can learn, dotest and play games Words are presented with picture and spoken by native speaker.The website also marks the students on each words they learn and give them moretasks for the words they tend to miss With such varied qualities, students are morelikely to find it interesting to learn vocabulary

For such those reason, the researcher has chosen this matter to conduct the study

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

This research aims at using a vocabulary website to encourage adult studentswho work for an IT company in order to increase their vocabulary size In order toachieve the aim, the researcher points out some main objectives as below:

- Investigating to what extent using the vocabulary website suggested by theresearcher increases the students’ vocabulary size

- Identifying the students’ attitude towards the use of vocabulary websites forimproving their vocabulary size

1.3 Research questions

In a nutshell, the researcher is going to answer two following questions:

1. To what extent does using a vocabulary website improve the IT workers’ vocabulary size?

2. What is the attitude of the IT workers towards the use of vocabulary websites for improving vocabulary size?

1.4 Scope of the study

There are many aspects of learning vocabulary to be investigated; however,this study is narrowed down to identify the effect of using a vocabulary website toincrease the number of words and mainly focus on vocabulary retention in short-term memory in order that adult students of a small-scale class can make use of itfor a specific target (the TOEIC test in this case) Therefore, the use and

improvement of the vocabulary size for other purposes like communication wouldnot be discussed in this study.

1.5 Significance of the study

Needless to say how important the role that vocabulary learning and teachingplays is to language learners, teachers and linguistics; this study might make betaken advantage in the following aspects

In term of theory, the study would make some certain contribution to thefield of vocabulary teaching and learning as well as information technologyapplication into language learning The whole study based on a great number oftheories of knowledge related to vocabulary learning and teaching from renownedlinguistics all over the world and several studies closely related to the field that thisresearch investigates

For practical use, the study, if proved effective, will be a good reference toEnglish learners and teachers in the similar context Learning vocabulary of alanguage has always been considered as one of the hardest parts in learning a newlanguage, as it is rather boring but time-consuming Learners are supposed tomemorize a massive number of words to master the language Therefore, if thiswebsite proves to be an effective way of learning vocabulary, language learners canmake extensive use of Moreover, although the study is conducted in a small scaleclass, once being completed, it may bring advantages to numerous teachers.Optimistically, the teachers will take this research as a helpful consultant forteaching English vocabulary to learners

1.6 Methods of the study

In order to achieve the aims and objectives afore mentioned, the studyemploys a mix-method approach In this research, both qualitative and quantitativemethods are employed

Firstly, the quantitative method is used to analyze the data collected from thepre-tests and post-tests Then, conclusions are drawn from the results usinginferential statistics In the next step of the research, the qualitative method has been

applied so that the data collected from the survey questionnaire can show out thelearners’ attitudes towards the use of the vocabulary website in their vocabularydevelopment.

Importantly, action research plays a crucial role in this thesis as through thestages of the research conducted by the researchers, the learner’s vocabularydevelopment and their attitudes towards the use of the website have been identified

1.7 Organization of the thesis

The minor thesis is composed of following parts and chapters:

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

This part presents rationale of the study, aims and objectives, research questions,the scope, the significance, the research methods and organization of the study

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents the theoretical backgrounds and previous research related

to the topic of the study

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

This chapter involves the information about the setting of the study, theparticipants, instruments for collecting data and data collection and analysisprocedures

CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The findings of the tests, questionnaire and observations are presented in thischapter Issues related to the topic are then discussed to help hightlight theresearch findings

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION

This part summarizes major findings, provides recommendations, showslimitations of the study and suggests topic for further studies

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Vocabulary in Foreign Language Acquisition

2.1.1 Definition of vocabulary

There are several definitions of vocabulary in the literature review Thecentral idea of these definitions may be summed up by Lewis (1993) who identifiedvocabulary as “individual words, or full sentences – institutionalized utterances –that convey fixed social or pragmatic meaning within a given community” So fromsingle words like “play” to multiple word items such as greenhouse and father –in-law can be identified as vocabulary as long as it expresses a single idea Anotherdefinition sharing this idea is “a set of lexemes, including single words, compoundwords and idioms” (Richard, Platt &, 1992) or as defined by Ur (1996 :60):

“vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as the words we teach in the foreign language.However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word” Likewise,McCarthy (1990) argues that multi-word units including idioms and phrasal verbsshould clearly be treated as single lexical items since their meaning are partlyidentified by their fixedness The second idea would be the definition of vocabulary

as its importance in a language Pyles and Algeo (1970) stated when most it of usthink about language we think first about words It is true that the vocabulary is thefocus of language It is in words that sounds and meanings interlock to allow us tocommunicate with one another, and it is words that we arrange together to makesentences, conversation and discourse of all kinds As another researcher supportingthis idea, Wilkins (1972) also emphasized this “without grammar, very little can beconveyed, without vocabulary nothing conveyed” Therefore, vocabulary teachingand learning has long been an area of concern to linguists To what extent a words isconsidered known to learners is another question Nation (2001) once statedknowing a word means knowing at least it forms, its meaning and its basic usage.Besides, there are many factors affecting the learning difficulty of words

Overviews are given by Nation (1990, ch.3), Laufer (1997), and Rodgers (1969).Nowadays, no one might deny the significant role of vocabulary in languageteaching and learning.

Last but not least, what is meant to see the overall task of vocabularylearning is through the distinction between knowing a word and using a word Inother words, the purpose of vocabulary learning should include both rememberingwords and the ability to use them automatically in a wide range of languagecontexts when the need arises (McCarthy, 1984) In fact, evidence suggests that theknowledge aspect (both breadth and depth) requires more conscious and explicitlearning mechanisms whereas the skill aspect involves mostly implicit learning andmemory (Ellis, 1994) Vocabulary learning strategies, therefore, should includestrategies for “using” as well as “knowing” a word Another way to view vocabularylearning is to see it as a process of related sub-tasks When learners first encounter anew word, they might guess its meaning and usage from available clues Somelearners might proceed to look it up in the dictionary Others might take down notesalong the margins, between the lines, or on separate vocabulary notebooks Somelearners will repeat the new word a number of times until they are comfortable with

it Others will go beyond simple rote repetition to commit the word to memory.Some would even try to use the word actively Each of these task stages demandsmetacognitive judgment, choice, and deployment of cognitive strategies forvocabulary learning And each strategy a learner uses will determine to a largeextent how and how well a new word is learned

2.1.2 Principles of vocabulary learning

However, many theories about vocabulary learning process were written, itstill remains the matter of memory Thus, there are several general principles forsuccessful teaching, which are valid for any method According to Wallace (1988),the principles are:

 Aim – what is to be taught, which words, how many

 Need - target vocabulary should respond student’s real needs and interests

 Frequent exposure and repetition

 Meaningful presentation – clear and unambiguous denotation or

Reference should be assured

Estimates of vocabulary size based on an individual’s knowledge of wordssampled from a dictionary or frequency accounts of words found in the running texthave continued to be the main source of information about vocabulary size (Lorgeand Chall, 1963)

Unlike the learning of grammar, which is essentially a rule based system;vocabulary is mainly a question of accumulating individual item The general ruleseems to be the question of memory during the process of learning and teachingvocabulary Thornburry (2002) distinguished memory into three systems namelyshort-term memory, long-term memory and working memory Short-term store isthe brain capacity to hold a limited number of item of information for a short period

of time It is kind of memory that is involved in repeating a word that you have justheard your teacher modeling But successful vocabulary learning involves morethan holding words for such short period of time To integrate words into long-termmemory they need to be subjected to different kinds of operations on them It meansthe information is manipulated via the senses from external sources and/ ordownloaded from the long-term memory Material remains in the working memoryfor about twenty second The existence of articulator loop enables this new materialworking It works a bit like audiotape going round around again It reassures theshort-term store to be refreshed The ability to hold a word in working memory is agood predictor of language learning aptitude The better ability to hold words inworking memory the smoother process of learning foreign languages is Long-termmemory can be seen as permanent content, this kind of memory has an enormouscapacity and its contents are durable over time However, to ensure moving newmaterials into permanent long-term memory requires number of principles to befollowed, described by Thornbury (2002):

• Repetition-repetition of encounters with a word is very important, useful

and effective If the word is met several times over space interval duringreading activities, students have a very good chance to remember it for along time.

• Retrieval: another kind of repetition Activities, which require retrieval,such as using the new items in written tasks, help students to be able to recall

it again in the future

• Spacing it is useful to split memory work over a period of time rather than

to mass it together in a single block

• Pacing-to respect different learning styles and pace, students should be ideally given the opportunity to do memory work individually

• Use-putting words to use, prefer ably in an interesting way, is the best way

of ensuring they are added to long-term memory This is so called “Use it orlose it” principle

• Cognitive depth-the more decisions students make about the word and themore cognitively demanding these decisions are, the better the word isremembered

• Personal-organizing personalization significantly increased the probabilitythat students will remember new items It is achieved mainly throughconversation and role playing activities

• Imaging-easily visualized words are better memorable than those that donot evoke with any pictures Even abstract words can be associated withsome mental image

• Mnemonics – tricks to help retrieve items or rules that are stored in

memory The best kinds of mnemonics are visuals and keyword techniques

• Motivation strong motivation itself does not ensure that words will beremembered Even unmotivated students remember words if they have toface appropriate tasks

• Attention it is not possible to improve vocabulary without a certain degree

of conscious attention

More importantly, it should be noted that 5-16 exposures are needed in order

to learn a word from context (Nation: 1990) Meara (1997) suggested a 0.01hypothesis (1 uptake every 100 exposures) for L2 learners, arguing that theselearners are normally unable to be exposed to large quantities of text A more recentstudy (Horst, Cobb, & Meara, 1998), which featured low intermediate EFL learnersreading a 109- page book over a ten-day period, obtained a 20% pick-up rate Theyalso observed than words that were repeated less Results so far seem to varyconsiderably However, researchers do seem to have come to the conclusion that thenumber of exposures needed for the mastery of a new word hinges on many otherfactors such as the salience of the word in context (Brown, 1993), the richness ofcontextual clues, the learner’s interest and the size and quality of his/her existingrepertoire of vocabulary (Laufer & Hadar, 1997; Nation & Hwang, 1995)

Encouraging findings on this issue can be found in the literature Crothersand Suppes (1967) discovered that almost all of their participants remembered all

108 Russian – English word pairs after 7 repetitions, and about 80% of 216 wordpairs were learned by most participants after 6 repetitions Similarly, Lado, Baldwinand Lobo (1976) presented their intermediate level college students of Spanish with

a list of 100 words, and found that only one exposure sufficed for an average of95% recognition and 65% recall In general, results on this issue show that, ifremembering word pairs is the aim, a surprising amount can be learned within arelatively short time (Thorndike, 1908; Webb, 1962), and not many repetitions areneeded before the L2-L1 word pairs can be remembered

2.1.3 Difficulties in learning vocabulary

Word forms may differ in difficulty for coding and storing depending onthe learner’s prior phonotactic knowledge When a L2 learner embarks on thelearning of an entirely new language, morphonologically and phonetically unrelated

to any language already known to him or her, he or she may experience greatdifficulties in storing isolated as well as clustered sounds or letters Learning thefirst 15 content words of a new L2 language may take the beginning learner several

hours However, three months of daily study later, he or she may easily add anotherhundred new words to his or her medium-sized vocabulary in one hour simplybecause, by that time, letters and sounds are no longer encoded as single units but innow familiar chunks of phonemes, morphemes, syllables and prosodic patterns Thelearner now implicitly knows which sequences and combination of elements arelegal and which ones are not (Ellis & Beaton, 1993) Several studies have shownthat repetition of L2 word forms in the form of avert or silent articulation, brieflyheld in working memory (Baddeley, 1997) promotes their long-term retention Thus,the evidence of all these studies suggests that the codability and hence thememorability of the forms of new words is contingent upon the learner’s priorfamiliarity with various aspects of the linguistic system.

The second subjective, knowledge-dependent factor affecting a word’smemorability is the arbitrariness of the form-meaning link, i.e., arbitrariness interms of existing lexical knowledge If a new word appears to the learner as having

a form unrelated to its meaning it will need more attention and mental elaborationthan if it has a transparent appearance For example, suppose someone was trying tocoin a new word in the English language referring to a door made of opaque glass.Suppose, furthermore, this person considered three alternatives: “fogdoor”, “rog”and “dorricor”, then clearly for people already familiar with the words “fog”, “door”and “corridor”, “fogdoor”, being a non-arbitrary and transparent word form, would

be easy to learn, while “rog” and “dorricor” would be more difficult to learn, “rog”being a fully arbitrary word form, and “dorricor” likely to be confused with

“corridor”: being what Laufer (1988,1991) has called a “synform”, when lexicalforms similar in their phonological, graphic and/or morphological features, prone tocausing lexical confusion in learners of English

2.1.4 Approaches to teaching and learning vocabulary

2.1.4.1 Incidental and intentional vocabulary learning

Incidental learning is not planned by either the instructor or the student butoccurs as a ‘by-product’ of another activity; intentional learning is regarded as

being deliberately intended by the teacher or the students (Nation, 1990) In terms

of learning vocabulary, incidental learning requires learners to acquire vocabularythrough reading, and, although some tasks or exercises might be imposed on them,the tasks or the exercises may not be directly related to learning vocabulary Incontrast, intentional learning requires learners to memorize the meaning of thetarget words via various conscious vocabulary-learning strategies

Much research (Krashen, 1993; Laufer, 2009; Nagy, Herman, & Anderson, 1985)has shown that the successful achievement of incidental vocabulary learning couldmanifest through extensive reading However, some researchers (Nation, 2001; VanZeeland & Schmitt, 2012; Waring & Nation, 2004) have questioned theeffectiveness of extensive reading on incidental vocabulary learning For instance,Waring and Nation (2004) argued that extensive reading could not provide enoughopportunities to learn vocabulary proficiently within a restricted time Instead, theyproposed that explicit vocabulary learning, wherein attention is paid to linguisticforms, is more effective in learning vocabulary Other researchers (Nation, 2001;Van Zeeland & Schmitt, 2012) have also pointed out that successful guessing incontext requires knowing 95% of the words In some research, although incidentalvocabulary learning did occur, the effects were very small and cumulative Forexample, Saragi, Nation and Meister (1978) argued that, for the words to be betterengraved in learners’ mind, at least ten instances of exposure to target words werenecessary Waring and Takaki (2003) proposed that almost one half of thevocabulary learned incidentally through reading was lost after three months, and thelearners needed at least eight instances to achieve a 50% chance of recognizing aword after three months Moreover, Teng (2014a) also proposed that ten instanceswere needed for EFL learners in China to master the form and meaning of targetwords incidentally Hence, the extant research questions the effectiveness ofextensive reading on incidental learning for L2 or EFL learners However, thisresearch shares a common point in that learners could deepen the understanding ofpreviously encountered words, thus making it easier to master the words when they

have more exposure to the words through extensive reading Therefore, according tothe mentioned research, learning from extensive reading Therefore, according tothe mentioned research, learning from extensive reading is worthwhile Indeed, asstated in Nation (2008), extensive reading is, by far, one of the most essentialvocabulary learning strategies and an indispensable part of any vocabulary learningprogram In addition to this, the research on incidental learning sheds light onunderstanding the process of acquiring words.

However, focusing solely on incidental vocabulary learning is not sufficient(Nation, 2001) Consequently some researchers (Pellicer-Sanchez & Schimitt, 2010;Pigada & Schmitt,2006) have recommended a learning method that combinesintentional and incidental learning, arguing that, although extensive reading doescontribute to the incidental learning of vocabulary, a supplementary regime withexplicit vocabulary-enhancing exercises yields more vocabulary gains The currentstudy, with an aim to measure the growth of vocabulary knowledge for EFL learnersthrough extensive reading, employs two different groups: a control group (CG)receiving instruction in extensive reading only, and an experimental group (EG)using a combined method of incidental learning and intentional learning; e.g., theyreceived extensive reading plus pushed-output activities of learning vocabulary

2.1.4.2 Grammar-translation method

Grammar-translation method of foreign language teaching is one of themost traditional methods, dating back to the late nineteenth and early twentiethcentury It was originally used to each “dead” languages (and literatures) such asLatin and Greek (Thuleen, 1996) However, conscious learning of grammar is nolonger the leading strategy in language educating area The principle characteristic

of the grammar-translation method is a focus on learning the grammar rules andtheir application in translating from one language to the other Most of the teaching

is provided in students’first language Vocabulary is presented mainly through directtranslation from the native language and memorization, using bilingual

e.g accountant – kế toán

aiport – sân bay

The basic unit of teaching process is a sentence Students spend most ofthe lesson time completing grammar exercises where the main emphasis is laid onthe accuracy and following given structure The grammar is presentedsystematically in students’ native language and practiced through translation fromone language to the other, e.g

The woman is sitting by the window – Người phụ nữ đang ngồi gần cửa sổ

Bạn có thể đưa tôi ra sân bay được không – Can you take me to the airport?

In regard to language skills, reading and writing are distinctivelypreferred to speaking and listening Little time is spent on oral practice and students

do not have enough opportunities to produce their own sentences

Krashen (1987) analyzed linguistic output of students from grammar translationclass He noticed the fact that many students make errors in rules that are easy todescribe, which means that this technique cannot lead to acquisition He alsoemphasizes the importance in balance between grammatical accuracy andcommunication Though utilizing grammar rules raise student’s correctness, whenspeaking they incline to have a hesitant style that is often difficult to listen to Theyplan their utterance while their conversational partner is talking Their output maybeaccurate, but they all too often do not pay enough attention to what the other person

is saying Students often have difficulties “relating” to the language, because theclassroom experience keeps them from personalizing in or developing their ownstyle Grammar translation method should be tempered with other approaches tocreate a more flexible and conducive methodology Thuleen, in his website articlecriticizes the harmful effect on students’ interest: “The worst effect of this method is

on students’ motivation Because (s)he cannot succeed leads to frustration and lack

of confidence in language usage On the other hand, for students who respond well

to rules, structure and correction, the grammar translation method can provide a

challenging and even appealing classroom environment” stated Thuleen (1996) Thelist of linguistic attitudes to grammar translation method could be finished byBarnhouse (1981): “In English teaching dominated by the grammar translationmethod accuracy is emphasized more than fluency Students in such classroom areextremely particular about linguistic details They never feed satisfied with theirlanguage productions until the correct answers are provided They are keenlyinterested in the exact words, have a low tolerance of ambiguity, and tend to focus

on discrete grammar points and specific syntactic constructions”

The role of translation is emphasized through this method as Harmer(1993) “Translation seems to be a useful tool if used sparingly, but t should be usedwith caution” If teachers rely on the use of translation to excess, students are losingsome of the essential spirit of being in a language learning classroom This oftencauses listening skills decline Furthermore, Harmer points to the difficulties oftranslation, which requires an efficient speaker of both languages to translate well.Additionally, according to Harmer, sometimes it is worth giving the mother tongueequivalent rather than to spending valuable time trying to define or show themeaning

Considering the aim of this method we must admit a great deal of grammartranslation method for generations of people educated in such way, particularly in thestudy The students in the research learn to take TOEIC test which focus on listeningand reading multiple choice questions In addition to this, the students use English atwork mainly reading some instructions in English To conclude, it would not be fair tocondemn it for being old fashioned and worthless On the other side, it would be ofgreat value to the students with such particular purpose in learning as shown in theexperiment later; especially for influencing their motivation and their linguisticcompetence in term of increasing their vocabulary size

2.2 ICT application in vocabulary acquisition

2.2.1 Definition if ICT

Information and communication technology (ICT) is referred to as thevaried collection of technological gear and resources which are made use of tocommunicate They are also made use of to generate, distribute, collect andadminister information ICT has incredibly changed many aspects of the life welive ICT consists of software, hardware, network and media for collecting,processing, storage, transmission and presentation of the information (voice, text,data and images) as well as related services ICT can be divided into twocomponents, information and communication infrastructure which refer to physicaltelecommunication system and networks (cellular, broadcast, cable, satellite, postal)and the services that utilize those (internet, voice, mail, radio, and the television);and information technology that refers to the hardware and software of informationcollection, storage, processing, and presentation

2.2.2 Role of ICT in education

Introducing ICT as a tool to support the education sector has initiatedsubstantial discussions since the late 1990s Over two decades ago the emphasis was

on technical and vocational education and training and training teachers Duringrecent years, an increasing number of international development agencies haveembraced the potential of ICT t support education sector

Integrating ICT in teaching and learning is high on educational reformagenda Often ICT is seen as indispensable tool to fully participate in the knowledgesociety ICT needs to be seen as “an essential aspect of teaching’s cultural toolkit inthe twenty-first century, affording new and transformative models of developmentthat extend the nature and reach of teaching and learning wherever it takes place”(Leach, 2005) For developing countries like Vietnam, ICT can moreover be seen as

a way to merge into a globalizing world It is assumed that ICT brings revolutionarychange in teaching methodologies The innovation lies not per se in the introductionand use of ICT but in its roles as a contributor towards a student-centered form of

teaching and learning.

2.2.3 Potential use of ICT in vocabulary learning

Channell (1998) argued for the need of teaching approaches forvocabulary learning as a separate learning activity since the lexicon that organizesthe mental vocabulary in a speaker’s mind appears to be an independent entity inprocessing A similar view as expressed by Carter (1992) that “the need for muchmore vocabulary t be taught and learned as a separate activity rather than, say, part

of a grammar or reading lesson” However Carter did not suggest separatingvocabulary learning from communication and pointed to the need of both a staticapproach “i.e word semantics) and a dynamic approach (i.e word usage) invocabulary teaching and learning The importance of learning word meanings aswell as words in context has also been stressed (Allen, 1983; DeCarrico, 2001)

As Taylor (1990) pointed out, receptive and productive skills are bothwithin the domain of vocabulary learning However, a learner may be overloaded fshe or he is asked to learn both word meaning and form simultaneously Thuslearners may start off with learning word meaning by stressing receptive skills.After gaining a firm grasp of the word meaning, the learners may then try othermeans, such as choral repetition, to help with understand the word forms This willassist them in using the learnt words correctly in new contexts One of the mosttremendous advantages from educational websites is their visual stimulation.Appropriate use of sensual stimuli is believed to be beneficial to learning, not onlyfor ordinary learners but also for learners with learning difficulties (Schmidt, 2005).Allen (1983) believed that the more coherent sensual stimuli a learner is exposed to

in a learning process, the higher the chance that she or he will learn successfully.Taylor (1990) added that “a combination of stimuli is desirable, with writtenconsolidation for adults, in order to facilitate transfer from short-term to long-termmemory” Heidemann (1995) expressed a similar view in relation to three mainconcern guiding the design of visual materials on learning web pages, namelylearner-oriented principles “e.g maintaining learner motivation).picture figures (e.g

presenting vocabulary items in semantically related groups) and picture functions(e.g pictures are remembered better than words and can therefore act as mediators

of new knowledge) The research community generally agrees that visual elementslike pictures help learners remember and recall the words that have seen

2.3 Vocabulary websites

2.3.1 Definition of vocabulary websites

According Collins dictionary, a website is a set of data and informationabout a particular subject which is available on the internet In addition to this idea,Cambridge dictionary defined a website as a set of related web pages containinginformation of a particular subject, published by a single person or an organization

A website is hosted on at least one web server, assessable via a network such as theinternet or a private local area network through an internet address also called URL

Recent developments in computer have triggered a whole line of interest

in electronic dictionaries, online dictionaries or vocabulary glosses intergrated intolanguage learning software or web pages (Hulstijn, 1993; Laufer & Hill, 2000;Lomika, 1998)

To conclude, vocabulary websites can be defined as a collection ofrelated web pages consisting of images, video, lessons, conversations, exercises,quizzes, tests, games, etc in order to help students memorize a number of newvocabulary in a language

2.3.2 Evaluation criteria for vocabulary websites

There are thousands of websites for learning and teaching Englishavailable on the internet With such many choices, learners definitely feel confused

to pick up one so that it matches their needs the best There are two valuationmodels, namely CARE (Yuen & So, 1999) and WSE (Kim et al., 2001) used toevaluate websites for education

CARE is an acronym for the information quality (IQ) categories incontents, accessibility, representation and education Each IQ category is associatedwith a number of IQ dimensions, such as completeness, uniqueness, motivation and

creativity, to name just a few Other dimensions which may be relevant are notdiscussed in this paper Note that most of the IQ dimensions in the accessibility andrepresentation categories are of technical nature and are not detailed here.

Kim et al (2001) further described in their websites for education (WSE) model that

“a website for education should present explanation about how to utilize it ineducation and about the web page regarding educational courses.” The authenticity

of the information source is stressed A specific dimension that WSE addresseswhich is not covered by CARE is whether an education website can facilitate theformation of a learning community

The CARE model offers several important guiding principles on thetechnical aspect of education website development First, navigation should be userfriendly and it should always offer clear, quick and direct links to the main content

It is preferable that materials can be easily accessed within a few clicks Thelanguage used should be clear, simple and correct to facilitate navigation

Second, with a stress on the quality of expression, the look and feel of theweb site should be consistent The layout and location of different frames should bethe same whichever level the learners go to This gives uniformity and consistency

to the web site Any plug-in software, if required, should be made clear to users,either when users visit the home page of the web site or when the concernedsoftware application is executed

Third, it is important to ensure that the use of multimedia is an enhancement,not a distraction Last, but not least, web site interactivity can be achieved not only

by the presence of games, but also timely feedback A means of communicationbetween the users and the web master would be a desirable bridge for giving andcollecting opinions as to how the web site can be enhanced

As another view on this matter, five guidelines were described by Wood(2001) to help design effective vocabulary learning soft- ware from an educationalperspective:

relating the new to the known;

promoting active, in-depth processing;

providing multiple exposures to new words;

teaching students to be strategic readers;

promoting additional reading

In addition, with regard to the desirable technical features of a vocabulary web site, Wood (2001) suggested the following:

 animations;

 sound components;

 hints or clues related to word meaning;

 multimodal presentation of information;

 online definitions, glossaries or thesauruses

We believe that the above features are also applicable to the design ofeducational games Cowan (1974) listed some other evaluative criteria for assessingvocabulary games

 Relevance The tasks to be achieved in a game should be ‘readily related by the student to the tasks required in the study course’ (Cowan, 1974, p 57)

 Peer interaction The games should be accommodated with sufficientinteraction between various players to increase the group dynamic and promote peerlearning

 Continuous motivation The games should ensure continuous motivation forlearners This can be achieved by providing a sufficient challenge and the scope tomature to players

 Minimum equipment Although the use of some ‘games-like’ equipment,such as joysticks and steering wheels, may increase the excitement of the games,too much may distract the learners’ attention from the learning goals

The chosen website was considered in the criteria suggested above and itshows that the site meet many of them especially the desirable technical featuresenlisted by Wood (2001); namely, animations, sound components, hints or cluesrelated to word meaning, multimodal presentation of information

Besides, the site fulfills other evaluative criteria suggested by Cowan (1974)such as continuous motivation and minimum equipment.

However, the website still has not met some other criteria; namely peer interactions(Cowan, 1974) or more importantly, it misses a few significant points of the fiveguidelines given by Wood (2001) such as promoting additional reading andpromoting active in-dept processing

This website is particularly designed for learning vocabulary which aremostly input by the learners When learners encounter new words, they can putthem on the website and those words will be organized into different tasks andactivities, games so that language learners can memorize them after completingthose activities The illustrations look simple but professional, appalling and moreimportantly customized Especially the instructions are easy enough for evenstudents at low to follow efficiently The point is that the students can learn thewords they find from different materials off the website Not many website allowstudents to learn the new words that way The users can also browse for the pictureillustrating the new words or update their own pictures In term of functionality, it is

a customized site well-accessed with steady and speedy connection so there

2.4 Previous studies

2.4.1 Oversea studies

Regarding the application of technology in vocabulary learning, severalstudies have been conducted, as the Internet getting used so widely One of themwas conducted by Sim Monica from University of Oradea, Romania (2013) toidentify the impact of social media; in this case, Facebook, on vocabulary learning.Social media language learning is an innovative approach in teaching languagesinteractively, linking social channels to language learning When social media hasbeen expanded so massively that there are billions of users, it would be so beneficial

if people can make use of it in learning language The research does emphasize theconvenience of Facebook – the curren most popular social network To specify, it is

a valuable way for the students to communicate, to get news and other kinds ofinformation In this research, 127 college students, after taking a pre-test, weredivided into two groups, experimental group and control group Then they wouldreceive either Facebook instructional program or traditional lecture program Afterone semester, the two groups took a post-test The result of the study did not supportthe assumption that the experimental group outperform the control group as therewere no significant different between the groups’ test result Nevertheless, theoverall differences were slightly in favor of the Facebook instructional strategy Thismeant using Facebook in teaching vocabulary proved a little bit more effective thanthe traditional method, even if not necessarily crucial Another study was carried out

by Florence and Kwan from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology(2006) The two researchers tried to find out whether online vocabulary gamescould be used as a tool for teaching and learning English vocabulary To specify, theresearch was conducted in order to identify the effects of using games and tasks onsome educational websites in Hong Kong on learning vocabulary This studyshowed lots of valuable theories related to the field To specify, the article statedwhat characteristics those are important to learning languages according to

different linguists In the study, visual stimulation is stated as advantageous towardlearning, In addition, an appropriate use of sensual stimuli is believed to bebeneficial to learning, not only for ordinary learners but also for learners withlearning difficulties (Schmidt, 2005) Heidemann (1995) expressed a similar view inrelation to three main concerns guiding the design of the visual materials onlearning web pages, namely learner-oriented principles (e.g maintaining learnermotivation), picture features (e.g presenting vocabulary items in semanticallyrelated groups) and picture functions (e.g pictures are remembered better thanwords and can therefore act as mediators of new knowledge) The research alsoused certain evaluative criteria for educational websites which they use for learningvocabulary Two evaluation models namely CARE (Yuen & So, 1999) and WSE

were combined and adopted in this study for the evaluation of educational websites.

The CARE model offers several important guiding principles on the technical aspect

of education web site development

The research results show, both quantitatively and qualitatively, that learnersplaying online vocabulary games tend to learn better and could retain the learntvocabulary for a longer period and retrieve more words than those who simplyattended face-to-face lessons without accessing the vocabulary games AlthoughKiili (2005) expressed serious doubt about the effectiveness of drill and practicegames to learning, our research indicates that vocabulary learning can besignificantly improved by their use Students expressed a preference for onlinelessons One possible explanation for this finding is that students welcome a higherdegree of autonomy in their learning and they tend to be in control of their ownlearning when learning from vocabulary web sites with games This research hasshed light on various aspects of the use of online games for tertiary Englishvocabulary learning and teaching The key findings are as follows:

 Online games are regarded by both students and teachers as effective

vocabulary learning

 Students tend to favor online games as a learning tool when compared with

face-to-face learning lessons;

 To retain students’ interest and ensure learning effectiveness, moremotivating games that give students a sense of achievement and scope for development are needed;

 Teachers think their role as researcher and facilitator has grown more prominent

as a result of the use of information communication technology tools

In summary, there is no apparent research on the website the researcherwould like to conduct one on-http//:quizlet.com However, the research conducted

by Florence and Kwan from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology(2006) is useful to refer since it mentioned important points of influences of twoeducational media on vocabulary and especially some certain information ofevaluating websites for education While the two studies concentrates on studyingthe online games or social media on learning vocabulary of students at college, thecurrent research studies one website which focus more on learning activities foradult workers Besides, the purposes of learning vocabulary in the learners in thethree studies are different too All in all, despite some similarities of the topic forresearch, the subject and participants among three studies are different, which makefindings disparate

2.4.2 Vietnamese studies

Regarding the topic of learning vocabulary, there are quite a number ofVietnamese studies mentioning the topic of learning vocabulary The two studiesthat have the most similar topic are as below

The first is an action study on the effect of strategy training program on learningvocabulary independently at a medical school in Hai Phong This study adaptedCohen (1998)’s strategy training to help students achieve learner autonomy andlinguistic autonomy Besides, by choosing their own strategies without continuedprompting from the language teacher, learners should be able to monitor andevaluate the relative effectiveness of their strategy use, and more fully develop theirproblem-solving skills In this way, learners are encouraged to become more

autonomous, to diagnose some of their own learning strengths and weaknesses, and

to self-direct the process of language development What is the most important inthe research literature review is to build up the learner autonomy in learning throughthree phases; namely, raising awareness, attitude-changing and role-transferring.What the research did is applying three sets of vocabulary strategies suggested bySchmit (1997) including dictionary-related strategies (use bilingual dictionary, studythe spelling of a word, study the sound of a word, remember part of speech),recording vocabulary (keep a vocabulary notebook, take notes in class, group wordstogether to study them) and studying affixes (analyze affixes and roots, rememberaffixes and roots) The research also found out the most frequent problems that hislearn encountered in independent vocabulary learning, namely, not enough time, notenough material, not interested, not know what to learn, not know how to learn As

a result of adopting the learning strategies, the students showed relative impressiveperformance in learning vocabulary However, only two third of the students usedthe strategies as much as the researcher expected Besides, the students consideredthe dictionary related strategies as the most useful and most frequently used amongthe three sets of strategies

The second research investigated the use of games in learning and teachingvocabulary The research was carried out with 16 teachers and 160 students at theage between 13 and 45 The research was based on the approach of Fraenkel andWallen (1996) for randomly selecting four classes for investigation Apart frominvestigating the using of game in learning and teaching of vocabulary, the researchexplored the way that students currently use for learning vocabulary As expected,they learnt words separately, or in written form, learned by highlighting words inbooks; which is not effective or interesting to them That explained why most of thestudents suggested changing the current method of teaching vocabulary On theother hand, the teachers who were surveyed stated that they found the mostdifficulties to make good use of materials in teaching vocabulary especially theyfound it hard to choose what words to teach and what not Most of the teachers

agreed that many of the vocabulary topics in current materials were not useful fortheir students’ practical use In term of using game, the students and teachersreflected positively on its effect on their classes’ atmosphere and the success oflessons Apparently, the students wanted to use more games in other stages oflessons.

2.5 Chapter summary

In summary, the literature on vocabulary acquisition, ICT and some previousstudies reviewed above provides evidence of the likelihood of some positive impact

of ICT on learners’ language acquisition, particularly the beneficial effects of using

it on increasing students ‘vocabulary size Therefore, applying ICT can beadvantageous to help students improve their English in general and particularlyenrich their vocabulary

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 3.1 Context of the study

The chosen students were taken from a tutor corporate class They are all ITprogrammers working for an IT company The classes are organized with 10-15students at the same intermediate level The class target is to get TOEIC 750 after 6months of learning (not to communicate) Apparently, they are motivated underpressure to urge to learn English in such short time Even though vocabulary plays asignificant role in their learning English; in class, however, there are no officiallessons teaching vocabulary to students Besides, they learn vocabulary slowly bythemselves There are needs of specific strategies in learning vocabulary for theseparticular learners To specify, all the students are undoubtedly familiar withworking with computers or websites because they are IT workers Moreover, theyare equipped with computers and smart phones well- assessed to the internet both athome and at work Therefore, it is more likely for them to enjoy learning viawebsite than with printed books A favorable website that can help them learnvocabulary would be a reasonable choice So after considering a few theories oncriteria of evaluating an education website discussed in the literature review, thewebsite quizlet.com was chosen to be applied in this study

3.2 Action research

3.2.1 Definition

Figure 2.1 Types of research methodology

Action research (AR) in the past decades has become a valued researchmethodology, an innovative approach to encourage active intervention of people inthe issues being researched The ways that researchers defined it can be various.Action research is a wide, polyvalent and a controversial concept (Drummond andThemessl-Huber 2007; Rolfsen and Knutstad 2007) This research, as commonlydefined, combines action and reflection with intent to change practice and theory(Carr and Kemmis 1986) Action research is a unique research strategy (Grant2007) “It involves people working to improve their skills, techniques, andstrategies” (Ferrance 2000: 3) It is simply ‘learning by doing’ what Wadsworth(1997) has described as ‘do-it-yourself social science’- a group of people identify aproblem, do something to resolve it, see how successful their efforts were, and if notsatisfied, try again Action research has been described ‘as a way of generatingknowledge about a social system whole, at the same time, trying to change it’(Elden and Chisholm 1993: 121) It is also known as participatory research,collaborative inquiry, emancipatory-research, action learning and research, but allare variations on a theme While this is the essence of the approach, there are otherkey attributes of action research that differentiate it from common problem-solvingactivities that we all engage in every day According to Reason & Bradbury (2001).

AR seeks to bring together actions and reflections, theory and practice, academicand local knowledge, and participation It is a rigorous qualitative research processwhich aims at modifying the current situation being researched, based on astraightaway implementation of research findings and relying on the participation ofthe various local actors (Greenwood & Levin, 1998)

AR is carried out by a team of ARers and members of an organisation or acommunity They together formulate the problems to be examined and then generatenew knowledge about these problems and take concrete actions to create a bettersituation in which members have an increased capacity to influence their destiny

Reason & Bradbury (2001) define AR as follows: “a participatory,democratic process concerned with developing practical knowledge in the pursuit of

worthwhile human purposes… It seeks to bring together action and reflection,theory and practice, in participation with others, in the pursuit of practical solutions

to issues of pressing concern to people, and more generally the flourishing ofindividual persons and their communities”

Reason & Bradbury (2001) define AR as follows: “a participatory,democratic process concerned with developing practical knowledge in the pursuit ofworthwhile human purposes… It seeks to bring together action and reflection,theory and practice, in participation with others, in the pursuit of practical solutions

to issues of pressing concern to people, and more generally the flourishing ofindividual persons and their communities”

Figure 3.2 Ernest Stringer’s AR model (in Mills, G 2003, p.18)

AR has been one of the most major types of research conducted in appliedlinguistics In 1988, Kemmis and Taggart defined that “an AR is teacher initiatedclassroom research which seeks to increase the teacher understanding of classroomteaching and learning, and therefore, brings about improvement in classroompractices” Wallace (1998) also defined AR as the work done by systematicallycollecting data on teachers’ everyday practice and analyzing them in order to come

to some decision about what teacher’s future practice should be or the process ofsystematic collection and analysis of data in order to make change and improvement

or solve problems Lewin described AR ‘as a way of generating knowledge about a

social system while, at the same time, attempting to change it’ (Lewin 1945, asquoted in Hart and Bond, 1995: 13) Thereby, Lewin established two basic elements

of AR - generating knowledge and changing social systems In order to do so,Lewin proposed a cyclical process that constitutes an essential feature of everymodern approach to AR (Waterman, Tillen, Dickson and Koning 2001) Lewin’sprocess was cyclical, involving a “non-linear pattern of planning, acting, observing,and reflecting on the changes in the social situations” (Noffke and Stevenson 1995:2) Kemmis developed a simple model of the cyclical nature of the typical ARprocess Each cycle has four steps: plan, act, observe, and reflect.This is based onLewin’s work, explicated by Hopkins (1985) and Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) It

is a simple: ‘look, think, act’, helpful model of the continuous and iterative process

It involves research and development, intellectual inquiry and practicalimprovement, reflection and action Besides, Susman (1983) suggested that thereare five distinguished phases of conducting AR, namely diagnosing, actionplanning, taking action, evaluating and specifying learning This is followed by acollective postulation of several possible solutions, from which a single plan ofaction emerges and is implemented Data on the results of the intervention arecollected and analyzed, and the findings are interpreted in light of how successfulthe action has been At this point, the problem is re-assessed and the process beginsanother cycle This process continues until the problem is resolved Therefore, thecyclical approach was identified as one of AR’s key characteristics, applying thecycle in practice is a significant challenge for most researchers and practitioners(Drummond and Themessl-Huber 2007: 433) Meanwhile, Kemmis and Mc Taggart(1988, as cited in Burns, 2000) stated there are only four phases that process asevolving process: planning, action, observation and reflection

an action

Figure 3.3 Detailed AR model

(Source: O’Brien - http://www.web.ca/~robrien/papers/arfinal.html adapted from

Susman (1983))

Four years later, it was stated by Nunan (1992) that AR was “problemfocused”, mainly concerned with a single case in a specific situation, and tried tofind solutions to the problem in focus It not only encouraged teachers to comparemethods and ideas with a critical eye and to adopt these ideas into their teachingenvironment but also engaged them in their teaching in a deeper way

Wallace (1998) also defined “AR” as the work done by systematicallycollecting data on teachers’ everyday practice and analyzing them in order to come

to some decision about what teacher’s future practice should be or the process ofsystematic collection and analysis of data in order to make change and improvement

or solve problems

It was believed by Cohen and Manion (1994, as cited in Burns, 2000) that