A study on teaching and learning english vocabulary at thac ba high school

Students' background of English language before entering Thac Ba high school III.1.1.1.2: Students' attitude to learning English vocabulary.. Suggesting activities for teaching English v

HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

LÊ SƠN THỦY

A STUDY ON TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY AT THAC BA HIGH

SCHOOL

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC DẠY VÀ HỌC TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG

ANH CỦA TRƯỜNG THPT THÁC BÀ

M.A MINOR THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH METHODOLOGY

CODE: 601410

SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN HUYỀN MINH, M.A

HANOI- 2010

2.2 Objectives of the study

2.3 Significance of the study

2.4 Methods of the study

2.5 Design of the study

PART B DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I LITERATURE REVIEW

I.1 An overview of the teaching and learning of English vocabulary

I.1.1 The status of vocabulary in the curriculum

I.1.2 word list and frequency counts

I.1.3 Vocabulary and context

I.1.4 vocabulary development and second language acquisition

I.1.5 Semantic networks and features

I.1.6 Memory and vocabulary development

I.2 Current points of view of teaching and learning English vocabulary

I.3 Previous studies related to teaching and learning English vocabulary CHAPTER II THE STUDY

II.1 The English teaching and learning situations at Thac Ba high school

II.1.1 Description of the students at Thac Ba high school

II.1.2 Description of the teachers at Thac Ba high school

II.1.3 Settings of the study

II.2 Research methodology

II.2.1.Subjects

II.2.2 Survey instruments

II.2.2.1 Questionnaire for the students

II.2.2.2 Questionnaire for the teachers

II.2.2.3 Interview

CHAPTER III: DATA COLLECTION AND DISCUSSION

III.1 Presentation of statistical results

III.1.1 Questionnaire

III.1.1.1 Questionnaire for the students

III.1.1.1.1 Students' background of English language before entering Thac Ba

high school III.1.1.1.2: Students' attitude to learning English vocabulary

III.1.1.1.3: Students' difficulties in learning English vocabulary

III.1.1.1 4 Students' activities in a vocabulary lesson

III.1.1.1.5 : Students' suggestions for bettering the learning of English

vocabulary III.1.1.2 Questionnaire for the teachers

III.1.1.2.1: Teachers' ages

III.1.1.2.2: Teachers' teaching experience

III.1.1.2.3: Teachers' opinions on teaching English vocabulary

III.1.1.2.4: Difficulties confronted by teachers in teaching English vocabulary III.1.1.2.5: Activities teachers do when teaching English vocabulary

III.1.1.2.6: Teachers' suggestions for bettering the teaching of English vocabulary

III.2.1 For the students Changing the students' attitude to learning English vocabulary

IV.2.2 For the teachers

IV.2.2.1 Retraining teachers

IV.2.2.2 Suggesting activities for teaching English vocabulary at Thac Ba high school

APPENDIX A: Questionnaire for the students

APPENDIX B: Questionnaire for the teachers

APPENDIX C: Interview

APPENDIX D: Lesson plan

LIST OF TABLE

Table 1: Students' background of English before entering Thac ba high school Table 2: Students' attitude to learning English vocabulary

Table 3: Students' difficulties in learning English vocabulary

Table 4 : Students' activities in a vocabulary lesson

Table 5: Students' suggestions for bettering the learning of English vocabulary Table 6: Teachers' ages

Table 7: Teachers' teaching experience

Table 8: Teachers' opinions on teaching English vocabulary

Table 9: Difficulties confronted by teachers in teaching English vocabulary Table 10: Activities teachers do when teaching English vocabulary

Table 11: Teachers' suggestions for bettering the teaching of English vocabulary

'

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Foreign language teaching at secondary school level in Vietnam has been granted increasing supports from educational authorities, regarding the demand of Vietnam younger population for better means of communication with the world The most important issue in this field, which has presented various complicated problems for generations of foreign language teachers in Vietnam as well as anywhere in the world is the adoptation of

an appropriate language teaching method

Having been aware of this necessity, Thac Ba high school as well as others in Yen Bai province has paid considerable attention to update teaching methodologies and encourage English language learning, which can be seen from the 1990s to date Thac Ba high school has chosen a pilot set of textbooks then In accordance with the new materials, teaching methods should also be changed to meet the need of the learning of learners and to better teaching and learning conditions The most effective approaches which have been theoretically applied at high school are learner- centred instruction, task- based language teaching and communicative language teaching

As for me English language has been structurally taught and learnt Students have been mainly asked to focus on language structures, grammar Vocabulary teaching and learning are not much mentioned or are not seriously put into consideration

There are some sound reasons for me to take the teaching and learning of English vocabulary into consideration, rather than others First of all for some time, the teaching and learning of English vocabulary have been strongly influenced by the traditional methods Emphasis has been placed on the mastery of language structures rather than on how language is used Students are asked to translate or to analyze the text grammatically The teaching of language teachers is seen as a full time- explanation to the passive listeners Language teachers do not care much for the teaching of Vocabulary There are some teachers who have poor knowledge of the language in general, and of the teaching of vocabulary in particular They dot not show their students the importance of adequate vocabulary These are some of the serious reasons that discourage the students in the learning of the language generally and of vocabulary particularly The students are often fed up with boring vocabulary lessons That is perhaps why the students do not feel like learning vocabulary and do not show their interests of learning the language The reasons

here are that the teachers are not qualified enough to teach the language in general and to teach vocabulary in particular The teachers of language are known to be traditionally educated to meet the demand of foreign language teaching, as we all know that there have been many types of English teachers training courses recently

Last, but not the least, the new Tieng Anh 10 textbook has been widely used as the official teaching and learning material It has 16 units with interesting topics Every unit consists of 5 lessons: Reading, speaking, listening, writing and the language focus This book was designed with various learning tasks, the purpose of which is to set up chances for students to practise different language situations It has been said to be a suitable material However, it is the vocabulary that is not clearly presented or not culturally related and so on This makes students and teachers find it difficult to teach and to learn vocabulary

For all the reasons mentioned above, I would like to devote my time and effort to investigating the current vocabulary teaching and learning at Thac Ba high school including teaching methods, difficulties faced by the teachers and the students, their suggestions for better in the situation, then finding out how the teaching and learning of vocabulary are carried out there at my school Especially, the study will recommend some suitable and specific teaching methods for the teachers and the students at my school as references It is to improve the teaching and learning at Thac Ba high school, Yen Bai Province

2 The scope, objectives, significance, method of the study

2.1 The scope of the study

The study focuses on the teaching and learning of vocabulary at Thac Ba high school

2.2 Objectives of the study

To investigate the teaching and learning of vocabulary at Thac Ba high school,

difficulties faced by the teachers and students; activities done by the teachers and the

students; their suggestions for bettering the teaching and learning of English vocabulary To investigate teachers' and students' attitude to the teaching and learning of vocabulary To suggest some effective teaching techniques to help learners in the learning of

vocabulary

2.3 Significance of the study

This study play a crucial role for enhancing vocabulary teaching method to the teachers

and grade 10 students at Thac Ba high school Its implemented recommendations will

make the application of vocabulary teaching and learning at my school more successful and effective

2.4 Methods of the study

The researcher collects information from all the English teachers who teach at Thac ba high school First, questionnaires are delivered to the teachers to investigate their vocabulary teaching and their attitude to vocabulary teaching, their solutions and expectations to better the teaching of Vocabulary Questionnaires are also delivered to the students to find out their attitude to vocabulary learning, their activities, their expectations for better in the learning condition Interviews are carried out to increase the reliability of the obtained information and provide more information relating to the teachers' method of teaching vocabulary The combination of information from questionnaires and interviews for the teachers and the students can help to draw a general picture about the application of new techniques and activities in the teaching and learning of vocabulary at Thac Ba high school

2.5 Design of the study

The thesis consists of three parts

Part A is the introduction, which presents the rationale, the scope, the objectives, the

method, significance and the design of the study

Part B consists of three chapters:

Chapter I deals with an overview of the literature It starts with the various

methods of teaching and learning English vocabulary, activities need using The final is the review of previous studies related to the teaching and learning of English vocabulary

Chapter II presents the methodology performed in the study It provides

information about the participants, the instrumentations and data analysis

Chapter III discusses the data of the study Chapter IV proposes some

recommendations on teaching and learning of vocabulary to teachers and students at Thac

Ba high school

Part C is about the conclusion and suggestions for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

I.1 An overview of the teaching and learning of English vocabulary

I.1.1 The status of vocabulary in the curriculum

According to David Nunan and some other linguists like H Douglas Brown Teaching by

Principles An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy; Ruth Gairns and Stuart

Redman (1986) Working with Words A guide to teaching and learning vocabular;

Edward Finegan (2004) Language Its structure and use the principal focus of language

teaching has been on the grammar of the language Grammar translation approaches to the teaching language provided a balanced diet of grammar and vocabulary, audio-lingualists suggested that the emphasis should be strongly on the acquisition of the basic grammatical patterns of the language It was believed that if learners were able to internalize these basic patterns, then building a large vocabulary would come later This emphasis on grammar and, to a certain extent, pronunciation, at the expense of vocabulary reflected a traditional going back to the nineteenth century when the International Phonetic Association

published its six principles of language teaching These principles, which were later

reflected in audio-lingualism, advocated the inductive teaching of grammar, a focus on the spoken language of everyday life and an emphasis on the direct teaching of the target language rather than translation Some of the most influential structural linguists of the day went so far as to argue that vocabulary was the easiest aspect of a second language to learn and that it hardly formal attention in the classroom However, the status of vocabulary has been considerably enhanced This has come about partly as a result of the development of communicative approaches to language teaching, and through the stimulus of

comprehension-based methods such as the Natural Approach ( Krashen and Terrel 1983) Proponents of these methods point out that in the early stages of learning and using

a second language one is better served by vocabulary than grammar, and that one can, in effect, "bypass" grammar in going for meaning if one has a reasonable vocabulary base Rivers( 1983:125) has also argued that the acquisition of an adequate vocabulary is

essential for successful second language use because, without an extensive vocabulary, we will be unable to use the structures and functions we may have learned for comprehensible communication Also, in contrast with the development of the aspects of a second

language, particularly pronunciation, vocabulary acquisition does not seem to be slowed down by age Rivers argued that vocabulary augmentation seems to become easier as one matures, probably because one has a richer knowledge of the world on which to draw The more one's vocabulary develops, the easier it is to add new words The first ten words are

probably the most difficult to learn All is to say that the development of a rich vocabulary

is an important element in the acquisition of a second language

When teaching and learning vocabulary, teachers and students should always see the importance of an adequate vocabulary and must follow some certain rules that are clearly presented (David Nunan ,1991)

I.1.2 Word list and frequency

Considerable attention has been paid to the issue of the minimum adequate vocabulary

of which aim was to scientifically select and compile some thousand words most commonly used in English West(1960) published a list of 1200 words based on a frequency count of the 2000 most frequent words in English which he argued provided learners with a minimum adequate speech vocabulary According to him, these words would enable learners to express practically any idea they wanted to Fox (1979) argues that minimum adequate vocabularies might be adequate for productive purposes, but that they leave learners seriously unequipped to deal with authentic language Fox( 1979) says that reader who possesses West's 2000 words will find the text practically incomprehensible If they want to comprehend such material, they should need to have a much more extensive receptive vocabulary Receptive words are those which readers understand but which they do not necessarily use This is perhaps a serious matter for linguists to argue because when teaching and learning a second language, one need to know not only necessary vocabulary but also other words that are contextually related On the whole, frequency counts has been still argued by linguists

I.1.3 Vocabulary and context

As it has been actually seen that language reflects the contexts in which it is used and purposes to which it is put If language is assumed to be best encountered and learned in context, then this has particular implication for practice The focus in class will be on encouraging learners to develop strategies for inferring the meaning of new words from the context in which they occur, and teaching them to use a range of cues both verbal and nonverbal to determine meaning Teaching and learning vocabulary in its context have been considered to be successful and effective Here we mention the importance of contexts in teaching and learning vocabulary The teaching and learning will be more and more practical and effective if we can put them into certain contexts to reflect or recycle

the new words we wish to deal with

I.1.4 Vocabulary development and second language acquisition

Research into second language acquisition has confined itself to the areas of morphology and syntax, and, to a certain extent, phonology The acquisition of pragmatic, strategic and lexical competence have been generally overlooked It is important for teachers to experiment the linguists' suggestions, in an informed way, with their own learners in their own teaching situations It may be that some of the suggestions do lead to more effective learning outcomes A major investigation by Johnston (1985) into the acquisition of syntax and morphology of adult immigrants generated a great deal of data

In her discussion of second language acquisition, Channell (1988) makes passing reference

to Krashen's acquisition/ learning distinction (1983) suggesting that learning is the process and acquisition the end result of vocabulary development She suggests that a new vocabulary item is acquired when a learner can identify its meaning in and out of context and it can be used naturally and appropriately In other words, we can only talk about acquisition when learners both have productive as well as receptive control of new item It

is that learners who try their best to step by step develop their vocabulary will obviously and easily acquire the second language

I.1.5 Semantic networks and features

The principle of avoiding items that are semantically related in some ways runs counter

to the notion of using semantic networks on the field in teaching vocabulary A semantic network consists of words which share certain semantic features or components A componential analysis can show what relates and differentiates members of a particular semantic network Tasks such as (spot the odd one out) are designed to develop learners' sensitivity to semantic network Such tasks can be carried out collaboratively They are often extremely revealing of learners' lexical knowledge Even a small group of student is engaged in spotting the odd word out in each group They are supposed to be working in a teacherless group

Example: Spot the odd word out

Tourist Visitor Traveller Student

Discuss the following words Put a circle around the odd word out and say why it is the odd word

Radio Computer Video Television

Investigate Determine Explore Enquire

Although this is intended basically as a collaborative small group task, the teacher plays an important role in pushing the students to articulate the underlying semantic relationships between the words which belong together Such relationships can be extremely subtle, and

it is not always easy, even for native speakers, to spell them out From the task, we can see how much more useful are collaborative discussions based on semantic networks in sorting out relationships between words, than say, individualised, dictionary-based memorisation tasks

I.1.6 Memory and vocabulary development

A great deal has been written about the role of memory in the development of a second

language lexicon and techniques for memorisation and receive relatively generous treatment compared with its use in other aspects of second language development such as the acquisition of syntax and morphology Stevick (1976) summerises some of the classic research into memory which has been carried out by cognitive psychologists and relates this to language teaching This has demonstrated that in order for new items to enter long-term memory, some form of active involvement on the part of learner is desirable In the other words, a learner who has activated this knowledge through use will be more likely to retain it than a learner who has simply heard or read the item and seen a translation This also shows that regular revision is very important and that revision which is distributed over a period of time is more effective than massed practice In the learning of a list of vocabulary items, for example, six-10 minute sessions over the course of a week will result

in more effective learning than a single 60-minute session Now we can see the importance

of memory in the development of vocabulary Memory can be effectively built up through the frequent use of the target language by learners with the help and instructions from teachers

For a number of years, the teaching and learning of vocabulary were neglected in language classrooms, despite the importance that learners attach to the task of building and maintaining an adequate vocabulary It could be argue that in a second, as opposed to foreign language context, the initial stages of language learning should be devoted almost entirely to vocabulary work Then we should more communicative value for effort in focusing on developing a survival vocabulary to the comparative neglect of other aspects

of the target language

The development of communicative approaches to language teaching has done much more to enhance the status of vocabulary, and some interesting empirical and practical

work is currently being undertaken in the area Theoretical and empirical issues being investigated include work on word lists and frequency counts, the importance of context to vocabulary acquisition, lexicography and the role of the dictionary, semantic networks and features, and cognitive processes, particularly lexical research processes and memorization

On a practical level, an indication of the enhanced status of vocabulary is the recent publication of a major coursebook based on lexical syllabus All what needs mentioning here is that vocabulary teaching and learning regain important places in the language classroom

I.2 Current points of views on teaching and learning vocabulary

As I have been teaching English language for over ten years now, and I have also been

presented with some current techniques and methods of teaching and learning vocabulary through workshops, seminars or language teaching methodology books donated by educational administrators, there have come some new points of views on teaching and learning English vocabulary which are useful and effective to our teaching and into which

we have put remarkable consideration Here in the study, I would like to talk about an English language teaching methodology book which was written and compiled by some college professors The book's aim was to help teachers throughout the country to better their teaching methods Many techniques and methods of teaching language skills and the other aspects that are related to teaching the target language such as teaching grammar, teaching vocabulary, are clearly presented

When teaching and learning vocabulary, what needs to be taught and learnt can be as follows:

* Form: Pronunciation and spelling

We should need to teach and learn the form, pronunciation and spelling of the word we deal with The learners and teachers have to know what a word sounds like (its pronunciation) and what it looks like (its spelling) These are fairly obvious characteristics, and one or the other will be perceived by the learners when they encounter the item for the first time In teaching, teachers should make sure that both these aspects are accurately presented and learned

*Grammar:

The grammar of a new item will need to be taught if this is not obviously covered by

general grammatical rules An item may have a predictable change of form in certain grammatical contexts or may have some idiosyncratic way of connecting with other words

in sentences; it is important to provide learners with this information as the same time we teach the base form When teaching a new verb, for example, we might also give its past form, if this is irregular, and we might note if it is transitive or intransitive When teaching

a noun, we may wish to present its plural form, if irregular, or draw learners' attention to the fact that it has no plural at all We may present other grammatical rules in various ways

so that learners can remember the rules

* Collocation

The collocations typical of particular items are another factor that makes a particular combination sound in a given context This is another piece of information about a new item which it may be worth teaching Collocations are often noted in dictionaries, either by providing the whole collocation under one of the head-words, or by a note in parenthesis

*Aspects of meaning (1): Denotation, Connotation, Appropriateness /

Formality

The meaning of a word is primarily what it refers to in the real world, its denotation; this is often the sort of definition that is given in a dictionary A less obvious component of the meaning of an item is its connotation: the associations, or positive or negative meaning

it evokes, which may or may not be indicated in a dictionary definition A more subtle aspect of meaning that often need s to be taught is whether a particular item is the appropriate one to use in a certain context or not Thus it is useful for a learner to know that a certain word is very common, or relatively rare

* Aspects of meaning (2): Meaning relationships

How the meaning of one item relates to the meaning of others It is also useful to teach and

to learn There are various such relationships Here are some of the main ones

Synonyms: Items that mean the same, or nearly the same

Antonyms: Items that mean the opposite

Hyponyms: Items that serve as specific examples of a general concept

Co-hyponyms or co-ordinates: Other items that are same kind of thing

Superordinates: General concepts that cover specific items

Translation: Words or expressions in the learners' mother tongue that is more or less equivalent in the meaning to the item being taught

Besides these, there are other, perhaps looser, ways of associating meaning that are useful

in teaching All these can be exploited in teaching to clarify the meaning of a new item, or for practice or test materials

* Word formation

Vocabulary items, whether one-word or multi-word, can often be broken down into their components “bits" Exactly how these bits are put together is another piece of useful information We may wish to know the common prefixes or suffixes If one who knows these will be able to guess the meaning of new formed words Students should, however,

be warned that in many common words the affixes no longer have any obvious connection with the root meaning New combination using prefixes are not unusual, and the reader or hearer would be expected to gather their meaning from an understanding of their component Another way vocabulary items are built is by combining two words to make one item: a single compound word, or two separate, sometimes hyphenated words

When teaching new vocabulary to the students, there are some techniques for eliciting the new vocabulary Teachers should use some of the techniques presented as follows:

* Visual: use visual aids to present the word

* Mine: Teachers use miming to present the word

* Realia: Teachers use real things to explain the word

* Situation/ Explaination: Teachers can use real situations or explain the new

vocabulary in a certain context

* Synonym/ Antonym: Teachers use synonyms or antonyms to present the words

* Translation: This is sometimes a good way to translate the new vocabulary by

translating into mother tongue

To help make better teaching and learning vocabulary, one should use certain techniques that he thinks could be suitable and could bring effectiveness and success to the teaching and learning

Here in the study, there are some techniques activities for checking vocabulary that are designed to help teachers to enhance their vocabulary teaching, and to help learners to best recycle, use and memorise the vocabulary they have been presented with The activities are designed in form of easy games that may help make comfortable learning atmosphere and bring the learners with encouragement and excitement when learning new vocabulary

* Noughts and crosses

* Ordering

* Rub out and remember

* Slap the board

* What and where

* Wordsquare

* Wordstorm

All of the games are used to help teachers and students to check the vocabulary they are to deal with Here the rules and activities done in the very games are not mentioned because they have all been demonstrated to be useful activities to the teaching and learning the target language If someone who cares for more details to deal with the tasks, there are good references from the book I have mentioned before

I would also like to mention the author from China named Ming Wei( 2005) An

Examination of Vocabulary Learning of College-level Learners of English in China

Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, who now works at Beijing Foreign Studies University Vocabulary teaching and learning now have been drawing growing attention from ESL researchers Vocabulary is now a focus in ESL pedagogy and research Vocabulary has been increasingly recognized as very necessary to language use Her study

is based on the perspective that vocabulary learning is a complex construct It is the construct of knowing a word Context is considered to be central to current research on vocabulary learning which allows us to see that word learning is not simply a matter of memorization chore The complexity of knowing a second language word involves not just the ability to recognize its form or knowing its dictionary meaning, it also entails knowledge of its specific grammatical properties, and collocations and functions, and the ability to use the word appropriately for actual interaction Oxford and Scarcella( 1994) categorize vocabulary learning activities into three types: Decontextualized, partially contextualized, and fully contextualized, which provides amore systematic and research-based approach to vocabulary instruction Context is perceived by Beheydt(1987) to be of utmost importance to vocabulary learning From the perspective that learning words is a process of " Semantization" If we could take a careful look at the teaching and learning of vocabulary at some high schools, we would easily see the fact that the teaching and learning of vocabulary are mainly that the teachers explain the words' forms, grammar, not

much for other aspects, students just write and repeat the words, not much for practice or recycling All these lead to the frightening current vocabulary teaching and learning

I.3 Previous studies related to teaching and learning English vocabulary

Many research works and studies on the teaching and learning of vocabulary have been

known and applied into language teaching and learning such as An Examination of

Vocabulary Learning of College-level Learners of English in China by Ming Wei from Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA, Vocabulary Learning Strategies in

an ESP Context: The Case of Para/medical English in Iran by Zahra Akbari and M.H Tahririan

The research has mainly been about the teaching and learning of vocabulary There in their studies they show the readers the current teaching and learning vocabulary, teachers' and students' attitude to the teaching and learning of vocabulary, their suggestions for bettering the teaching and learning of vocabulary

Basing on their studies I can have precious knowledge of the teaching and learning of vocabulary for references of my study My research intends to investigate the current teaching and learning vocabulary, teachers' and students' attitude to the teaching and learning of vocabulary, their suggestions for bettering the teaching and learning of vocabulary at Thac Ba high school I do hope with my study, I would help improve the teaching and learning of vocabulary at my school

CHAPTER II THE STUDY

II.1 The English teaching and learning situations at Thac Ba high school

II.1.1 Description of the 10th grade students

The 10th grade students at my school are all the local students who come from the 8 villages in the district Some of them are the Kinh, some are the ethnic There are now about 387 10th grade students in the school All of the 387 students had learnt English language before they entered the school None of them had not known anything about English language before they took the entrance exams to start this school As asked and to run my thesis successfully, I teach the three classes of grade 10( 10A1, 10D1, 10D2) There are 112 students in the three classes They are mostly from the most remote areas of the district

II.1.2 Description of the English teachers at the school

This is a remote school where all the English teachers are the local teachers, and all

of them graduated from universities in the North of Vietnam Some were regularly trained Some were in-service trained There were 10 English teachers, but now one of them is not allowed to teach English language any more as she is clearly known to be an underqualified teacher She is now a librarian of the school

II.1.3 Settings of the study

Settings refer to classroom arrangements specified or implied in the task of the lesson, and

it also requires consideration of whether the task is to be carried out wholely or partly outside the classroom

At Thac Ba high school, instructions; teaching and learning activities are mostly carried out in the classrooms It is really hard for English teachers to apply new ideas to language teaching

- Class size: There are 35 to 45 students in each class The numbers of students in the three classes I teach is lower than in the other classes

- The school has some projectors, no language rooms There are only 4 cassette recorders which were bought some 4 years ago

- Materials available: There are some English books which are donated by the education department All of the books are about topics that were written on daily activities There are 2 dictionaries and some newly published books for references in the library

- All of the classrooms were designed and built nearly 10 years ago Each class is about 50 square metres There are 40 students in averege in one classroom

II.2 Research methodology

+ The questionnaires for the 9 teachers of English aim at collecting information about

their age, their teaching experience, their opinions on teaching vocabulary, their difficulties

in teaching vocabulary, and their suggestion for bettering the teaching of vocabulary

+ The questionnaires designed for the students from the three classes are to know the

students' background of English their attitude to learning the learning of English

vocabulary, their activities in a vocabulary lesson, and their expectations for better

vocabulary learning The difference here is that the questionnaires are written in

Vietnamese for ease of understanding and answering

II.2.2 Research instruments

II.2.2.1 Questionnaire for the students

The Questionnaire for the students includes 5 questions written in Vietnamese It took

two weeks to deliver and collect all of the copies of the questionnaire from the students

The questionnaires are about:

- Students' background of English language before entering Thac Ba high school

- Students' attitude to learning English vocabulary

- Students' difficulties in learning English vocabulary

- Students' activities in a vocabulary lesson

- Student' suggestions for bettering the learning of English vocabulary

II.2.2.2 Questionnaires for the teachers

- Teachers' ages

- Teachers' teaching experience

- Teachers' opinions on teaching English vocabulary

- Difficulties confronted by teachers in teaching English vocabulary

- Activities teachers do when teaching English vocabulary

- Teachers' suggestions for bettering the teaching of English vocabulary

All the copies of the questionnaires delivered to the teachers have been responded within

two weeks

II.2.2.3 The interview

A long with the survey questionnaires, the interview is a supplementary instrument which

is used to increase the reliability of the obtained information and provide more information

relating to teachers' methods of teaching English vocabulary in particular and teaching the English language in general

CHAPTER III: DATA PRESENTATION & DISCUSSION

III.1 Presentation of statistical results

III.1.1 Questionnaire

III.1.1.1 Questionnaire for the students

The 100 copies of the questionnaires delivered to the students have been responded The data are analyzed in this part of the study in the following tables which show the sequences

of the responses for the questions available in the questionnaires

III.1.1.1.1 The students' background of English language before entering Thac Ba high school

Table 1: The students' background of English language before entering Thac Ba

high school

Question 1 relates to The students' background of English language before entering Thac

Ba high school The results are presented as follows:

As can be seen in the above table, all of the students had learnt English before they entered Thac Ba high school accounting for 100% of them had learnt English Normally when students are in grade 10, they have been studying English for 7 years Therefore 27%

of the students have been studying English for 7 years, 73% for 4 years None of the students had ever learnt another language before

III.1.1.1.2 Students' attitude to learning English vocabulary

The questionnaires deal with Students' attitude to learning English vocabulary The

following table shows the results

Students' attitude to learning English vocabulary %

Learning English vocabulary is very important 22%

Learning English vocabulary is very difficult 85.5%

Table 2: Students' attitude to learning English vocabulary

According to the statistics of table 2, 22% of the students say that learning English

vocabulary is very important to their language study 35% of them think learning English vocabulary is quite important to them 42% of the students say that learning English vocabulary is not important at all As can be clearly seen from the table, Learning English vocabulary is not difficult for only 2.5% of the students 14% of the students think that learning English vocabulary is quite difficult to them Most of the students say that learning English vocabulary is very difficult to them The percentage is 85.5% Although learning English vocabulary is difficult to most of the students, some 27% of the students think that Learning English vocabulary is necessary for their learning Only 4% of them say that it is not necessary to learn English vocabulary 69% of the students consider

Learning English vocabulary to be quite necessary when learning a second language

III.1.1.1.3 Students' difficulties in learning English vocabulary

The questionnaires present us with the difficulties students face in learning English vocabulary Here are the results presented in details

Students' difficulties in learning English vocabulary %

Teachers' explanation of new words is not clear enough 67% There are not many activities that help you learn vocabulary 73% Teachers' explanation of new words is only in English 9% Teachers' explanation of new words is only in Vietnamese 91% There is not much feedback or recycling for the new words 88%

other difficulties

Table 3: Students' difficulties in learning English vocabulary

The data in table 3 show that there are many serious difficulties faced by the students in learning English vocabulary These are perhaps the traditional difficulties they have in learning a second language 89% of the students say that there are too many new words in

a lesson The unclear explanation of teachers over the new words makes 67% of the students find it difficult to learn vocabulary 73% of the students think that there are not many activities that help them learn vocabulary effectively Teachers' explanation of new words in English is difficult for 9% of the students, whereas the teachers' explanation of new words in Vietnamese makes difficulties to the rest of about 91% of them The very important aspects of learning vocabulary that seem to be neglected are the feedback and cycling of the vocabulary 88% of the students confirm this An objective difficulty faced

by nearly 96% of the student is lack of time for dealing with the vocabulary they are to learn in any lessons

III.1.1.1.4 Students' activities when learning vocabulary

All of the games are supposed to be the activities done by students in class The results are shown in the table below

Students' activities when learning vocabulary %

Others

Table 4: Students' activities when learning vocabulary

The data in table 4 show us more information about activities done by students when they are asked to deal with in learning vocabulary There are only the Matching and the Wordstorm made up over 40% Matching makes up 65%, Wordstorm 47% The other

activities suggested by the teachers such as Bingo, Ordering, Slap the board, does not have much interest from the students These make up fewer than 10% only 24% of the students are interested in Networks though it is a rather complicated activity

III.1.1.1.5 Students' suggestions for better vocabulary learning

Follows are the students' suggestions for improving the learning of vocabulary The results are presented below

Students' suggestions for better vocabulary learning %

Teachers explanation about new words is clearer 62%

Teachers use more activities to teach new words 100% Teachers use more techniques to elicit new words 87%

New words are recycled and used frequently 94%

Other suggestions

Table 5: Students' suggestions for better vocabulary learning

Based on the statistics presented in the table, students give some suggestions for enhancing the learning of vocabulary at the school 98% of the students say that there should be fewer new word in a lesson 62% of them think that the explanation of the teachers about new word should be clearer for ease of understanding The use of more activities in a lesson is totally agreed It made up to 100% 87% of the students want the teachers to use more techniques for eliciting vocabulary One thing that student suggest is that the vocabulary should be recycled and used for practice frequently Only 6% of all the students think that their teachers must be well-qualified as it is a serious problem to the teaching and learning

III.1.1.2 Questionnaire for the teachers

II.3.1.2.1 Teachers' teaching experience

The question focuses on teachers' ages, their teaching experience The results are shown in the following table

31- 35 55% 9- 12 44%

Table 6: The teachers' ages Table 7: Teachers' teaching experience

It can be seen in table 6 that the teachers at Thac Ba high school are not much of different ages Teachers aged from 25 to 30 make up 22% Teachers aged from 31 to 36 are 55% 23% of the teachers asked are aged from 36 to 40 None of them is over 40 The data show that the teachers at the school are still young with not much living experience as well as teaching experience

According to the data collected in table 7, 44% of the teachers have from 5 to 8 years of teaching experience Other 44% of them have experience of teaching from 9 to 12 years 12% of the teachers have from 13 to 20 years of teaching experience

III.1.1.2.2 Teachers' opinions on teaching English vocabulary

This question aims at discovering teachers' opinions on teaching English vocabulary

Teachers' opinions on teaching English vocabulary %

Teaching vocabulary is necessary 100%

Teaching vocabulary is more necessary than grammar 44% Teaching vocabulary is less necessary than grammar 56% Teaching vocabulary is to teach its dictionary meaning 100% Teaching vocabulary is to teach its pronunciation 100%

Teaching vocabulary is to teach its aspects of meaning 11%

Teaching vocabulary is to teach it in certain contexts 22% Others

Table 8: Teachers' opinions on teaching English vocabulary

The data in the above table show us that all the teachers there in the school consider teaching vocabulary to be rather important to their study 28% of them say it is very important to teach vocabulary 78% of the teachers think that teaching vocabulary is quite important However, 100% of them say that this work is difficult to them as the number has shown us 89% of them think it is very difficult to teach vocabulary, 11% say that teaching vocabulary is quite difficult One thing that we are interested in is that they all say

it is necessary to teach vocabulary The number makes up 100% From the table, the teachers are said to follow the traditional methods.44% of them think that teaching vocabulary is more necessary than grammar Meanwhile, 56% say that teaching vocabulary is less necessary than grammar 100% of the teachers say that teaching vocabulary is to teach its dictionary meaning, and teaching vocabulary is to teach its pronunciation Other aspects of the methods of teaching vocabulary seem to be neglected 67% of them think that teaching vocabulary is to teach its grammar.11% of the teachers consider teaching vocabulary as to teach its aspects of meaning The same number says that Teaching vocabulary is to teach its formation 22% of them assure that Teaching vocabulary is to teach it in certain contexts

III.1 1.2.3 Difficulties confronted by the teachers

This question is made to find out the teachers' difficulties in teaching vocabulary Below are the table and data analysis of the information collected

Difficulties confronted by the teachers %

Too many new words in a lesson 100%

Students' uneven participation in class activities 56%

Students' negative attitude to learning vocabulary 56%

Others

Table 9: Difficulties confronted by the teachers

According to the data presented in the table, the teachers there confront many difficulties

in their work of teaching vocabulary 100% of them say that there are too many new words

in a lesson 78% of the teachers find out that they do not have much time for recycling new words They also say that new words are not culturally related ( 89%) Some of the teachers blame that the students' uneven participation and that they do not like learning vocabulary are also serious problems ( 56% and 67%) As there are often too many new words in a lesson, the teachers say that they often have lack of time for any lessons (89%) The last thing but the most important is that they must confess that they still have poor knowledge of the target language 56% of the teachers say that their students show their negative attitude to learning vocabulary Learners' low English proficiency makes up 78%, and 22% of the teachers say that there is lack of modern visual teaching aids for their work

III.1.1.2.4 Activities done by teachers in a vocabulary lesson

The question is to investigate which games the teachers apply into their vocabulary lesson

Activities done by teachers in a vocabulary lesson %