Dạy từ vựng trong các bài đọc hiểu cho học sinh lớp 10 ở trường thpt thanh hà

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English Foreign Language RC: Reading Comprehension TH - USS: Thanh Ha Upper Secondary School LIST OF TABLES In Appendix 3 Page Table 1: Students' perception

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



NGUYỄN THỊ LAN CHÂU

TEACHING VOCABULARY IN READING COMPREHENSION LESSONS TO THE 10th FORM STUDENTS AT THANH HA UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL: PROBLEMS AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

(Dạy từ vựng trong các bài đọc hiểu cho học sinh lớp 10 ở trường THPT Thanh Hà: Khó khăn và một số giải pháp khả dĩ)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology

Code: 60 14 10

Hanoi, 2010

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES



NGUYỄN THỊ LAN CHÂU

TEACHING VOCABULARY IN READING COMPREHENSION LESSONS TO THE 10th FORM STUDENTS AT THANH HA UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL: PROBLEMS AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

(Dạy từ vựng trong các bài đọc hiểu cho học sinh lớp 10 ở trường THPT Thanh Hà: Khó khăn và một số giải pháp khả dĩ)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

Supervisor: PROF DR HOÀNG VĂN VÂN

Hanoi, 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Candidate’s declaration i

Acknowledgements ii

Abstract iii

Table of contents iv

List of abbreviations and tables vii

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1

I Rationale of the study 1

II Aim and objectives of the study 1

III Research questions 2

IV Scope of the study 2

V Significance of the study 2

VI Methods of the study 3

VII Organization of the study 4

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

1.1 Vocabulary in EFL teaching and learning 5

1.1.1 The notion of vocabulary 5

1.1.2 Classification of vocabulary 6

1.1.2.1 According to meaning 6

1.1.2.2 According to teaching methodology 6

1.1.2.3 According to sequence of use 7

1.1.3 The place of vocabulary in EFL teaching and learning 7

1.1.4 The place of vocabulary in EFL learners' reading comprehension 8

1.2 Principles in teaching and leaning vocabulary 9

1.2.1 Selection of vocabulary items for learners 9

1.2.2 Aspects of vocabulary that should be taught 10

1.2.2.1 Word form: Pronunciation and spelling 11

1.2.2.2 Grammar 11

1.2.2.3 Collocation 11

1.2.2.4 Aspects of meaning 12

1.2.2.5 Word formation 13

1.2.3 What makes words difficult? 14

1.2.4 Current approaches to teaching and learning vocabulary 16

1.3 Summary 17

CHAPTER 2: PROBLEMS FACING THE 10 th FORM STUDENTS AT TH-USS IN LEARNING VOCABULARY IN RC LESSONS 18

2.1 The setting of the study 18

2.1.1 Subjects of the study 18

2.1.1.1 Students' background 19

2.1.1.2 The teaching staff and their teaching situations 19

2.1.2 English language teaching and learning program for the 10th form students at TH-USS 20

2.1.3 The objectives of the 10th form course of English 20

2.2 Data collection instruments and procedure 21

2.2.1 The questionnaire for the students 21

2.2.2 The interview with the teachers of English 22

2.3 Data collection and analysis 22

2.3.1 Results from the questionnaires for the students 22

2.3.1.1 Personal information (Questions 1, 2, 3, 4) 22

2.3.1.2 Students' perception about the importance of vocabulary in RC lessons (Question 5, 6, 7) 23

2.3.1.3 Students' ideas about the reality of teaching vocabulary in RC lessons to the 10th form students at TH-USS (Question 8, 9) 23

2.3.1.4 Students' ideas about the solutions to bettering the current situations of teaching vocabulary in RC lessons to the 10th form students (Question 10, 11) 24

2.3.2 Results from the interviews with the teachers of English 25

2.4 Problems facing the 10th students at TH-USS in learning vocabulary in RC lessons 26

2.4.1 Rigid, insufficient and ineffective ways of teaching vocabulary 26

2.4.2 Unfavorable vocabulary teaching environment 26

2.4.3 Students' poor background knowledge and limited vocabulary size 27

2.4.4 Bad habits and ineffective ways of learning 27

2.4.5 Students' passiveness and shyness in learning 28

2.4.6 Lack of favorable vocabulary learning environment 28

2.5 Summary 28

CHAPTER 3: POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING OF ENGLISH VOCABULARY IN RC LESSONS FOR THE 10 th FORM STUDENTS AT TH-USS 29

3.1 Need for the teachers to change their teaching vocabulary approaches 29

3.1.1 Aspects of vocabulary that should be taught 29

3.1.2 Categories of vocabulary issues 29

3.2 Providing effective strategy training for all students 32

3.3 Stimulating students' interest and motivation in learning vocabulary through various techniques of presenting new word items 33

3.4 Improving students’ English proficiency and reading skills to activate students' vocabulary and enhance their RC 34

3.5 Adapting the textbook 35

3.6 Creating a favorable teaching and learning environment 36

3.7 Summary 36

PART 3: CONCLUSION 37

I Summary of the study 37

II Limitations of the study 38

III Conclusion 38

IV Suggestions for further research 39

REFERENCES 40

APPENDICES I

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English Foreign Language

RC: Reading Comprehension

TH - USS: Thanh Ha Upper Secondary School

LIST OF TABLES (In Appendix 3)

Page Table 1: Students' perceptions about the role of vocabulary in students' RC

Table 4: Students' ideas about the solutions to bettering the current situation of

teaching vocabulary in RC lessons to the 10th form students (Question 10) XII

Table 5: Students' ideas about the solutions to bettering the current situation of

learning vocabulary in RC lessons of the 10th form students (Question 11) XIII

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

I Rationale of the study

In EFL teaching and learning program for high school students, there are no proper periods for teaching vocabulary It means vocabulary is integrated in all other language lessons, especially RC lessons, the first period of any language unit The purpose of reading lessons

is not only to develop students‟ reading skills but also to equip them with important language input for the lessons that follow, such as: listening, speaking and writing And vocabulary seems to be one of the most effective tools to improve students‟ RC

Obviously, knowing vocabulary of a language is a minimum self-requirement of those who want to learn a foreign language such as English The reason is that „vocabulary is central

to language and of critical importance to the typical language learner‟ (Zimmerman 1997:5) Lack of vocabulary knowledge will result in lack of meaningful communication Thus, a language learner who has no vocabulary of a language could not use that language for reading comprehension, listening, speaking and writing And in fact, the main difficulties of understanding English, not only written and spoken, but also listened and read English for people studying English is the limit of vocabulary they process Yet, a great many words are learnt from reading, mostly extensive reading program Therefore, improving students‟ vocabulary size is essential in any language classes, especially in the author‟s own teaching context at TH-USS, where many students, mostly students in 10th

form class, the new comers to a high school with very low vocabulary size, always prove worried, passive in RC lessons and teachers‟ routine ways of teaching vocabulary have demotivated students to acquire new language items The factual state has urged the author

to take into account an investigation into the reality of teaching vocabulary in RC lessons

to the 10th form students at her school with the hope to find out feasible solutions to problems facing the students, and lastly to light up their vocabulary size then enhance their comprehension

II Aim and objectives of the study

The study aims at solving the problems facing the 10th form students at TH-USS when learning English vocabulary in RC lessons To achieve this aim, the following objectives are set for exploration:

1 Investigating the current state of teaching vocabulary in RC lessons to the 10th form students at TH-USS Obviously, it is impossible to capture a real classroom experience on paper, the goal is to get a sense of the life of the classroom and of the problems facing the

10th form students in learning vocabulary in RC lessons

2 Proposing a number of feasible solutions to promoting the teaching of English vocabulary, and lastly to enhance the effectiveness of learning English to the 10th form students at the author‟s school

With these above aims, the study is carried out in an attempt to provide a beneficial reference to the researcher herself, to the teachers of English at her school and to anyone who is interested in vocabulary teaching in RC lessons

III Research questions

In order to achieve the aim and the objectives above, the following research questions are raised for exploration:

1 What are the problems facing the 10th form students at TH-USS in learning vocabulary

in RC lessons?

2 What are the feasible solutions to the problems facing the 10th form students at TH-USS when dealing with vocabulary in RC lessons?

IV Scope of the study

This minor thesis does not cover all the broad matter of four language skills, it only focuses on giving an insight into the teaching of vocabulary in RC lessons to the 10th form students at TH-USS It deals with background knowledge of vocabulary teaching, provides investigated and analyzed data of the current state of teaching vocabulary in RC lessons to the 10th form students at the author‟s school, and proposes possible solutions to promote the quality of the teaching and learning of vocabulary

Within the scope of the study, the samples of the study were restricted to 100 students at

10th form, the grade is undertaking the currents English 10 textbook and six teachers of the English teaching staff This number of participants is sufficient to provide valid and reliable information, the contributions of which are vital to the success of this modest research

V Significance of the study

The present research would serve as the initial study on vocabulary teaching in RC lessons

to the 10th form students at TH-USS Once feasible solutions to the problems facing the

10th form students when dealing with vocabulary in RC lessons are found, the study might contribute to building up and enriching the 10th form students‟ vocabulary, improving their communicative competence to fulfill the general objectives of the textbook

It is also hoped that the study would bring theoretical as well as practical benefits to the researcher herself, the teachers of English at her school and for anyone who is interested in vocabulary teaching in RC process

VI Method of the study

The study utilizes both qualitative and quantitative methods These methods have played

an important role in TESOL for a long time Qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or to interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them (Denzin 2000) It involves an interpretive, naturalistic approach to its subject matter and gives priority to what the data contribute to important research questions or existing information Whereas, quantitative research is the systematic

scientific investigation of quantitative properties and phenomena and their relationships

Quantitative methods explain the data collected and their statistical treatment as well as all relevant results in relation to your research questions (Nunan 1992: 5)

In carrying out these research methods, two instruments are used The first instrument is questionnaire and the second instrument is the semi-structure interview

* Survey questionnaire for the 10 th students:

According to Brown (2001: 6), questionnaires are any written instruments that present respondents with a series of questions or statements to which they are to react either by writing out their answers or selecting from among existing answers In this study, survey questions were designed and distributed to the students to get information on actual situation of teaching and learning vocabulary in RC lessons in ten language classes of grade 10 Questionnaire focused on the problems facing the students in learning vocabulary in RC lessons and suggested solutions to better the current state

* Interviewing the teachers of English teaching staff:

Interview is one kind of questionnaire but it is the vocal questionnaire Interviews have been used widely by second language acquisition researchers seeking data on stages and processes of acquisition (Johnston 1985), and also by language testers, who use the oral

interview as means of assessing proficiency (Ingram 1984)

According to Wisker (2001: 167-168), there are three main kinds of interviews such as highly structured interview, semi-structured interview and unstructured interview among which semi-structured interview is chosen as the second research instrument of this study This kind of interview addresses both the need for comparable responses, that is, there are the same questions being asked of each interviewee and the need for the interview to be developed by the conversation between interviewer and interviewee which is often very rich and rewarding By interviewing, the researcher could observe the responses of the

subject and questions may be clarified if they are misunderstood Interviews help the

interviewer pursue the in-depth information around the topic and ensure the reliability of the written survey questionnaires

* Particularly, during the process of carrying out the study, searching reference books is inevitable and the consultation with the researcher‟ supervisor is of great contribution to

the fulfillment of this dissertation

VII Organization of the study

The study consists of three main parts: the introduction, the development and the conclusion

The „Introduction‟ presents the general background of the study, the reason for choosing the thesis, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the significance, the methods and the organization of the study

The „Development‟, the focus of the study is sub-divided into three chapters

Chapter 1 presents „theoretical background‟ It is concerned with general knowledge about

vocabulary and vocabulary teaching and learning

Chapter 2 provides research design and methodology of the study which consists of the

setting of the study, the procedures of the data collection and the data analysis From these bases, the major problems facing the 10th form students at TH-USS in learning vocabulary

in RC lessons are drawn out

Chapter 3 is concerned with the solutions to solving the identified problems then

improving the quality of teaching and learning English vocabulary for the 10th form students at TH-USS

The „Conclusion‟ summarizes the main issues touched upon so far in the study, presents the limitations of the study and makes suggestions for further research

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter provides a brief review of the literature relevant to the study It is subdivided into three sections Section one clarifies the term vocabulary, its classification and its role

in EFL teaching and learning Section two presents the principles in teaching and learning vocabulary Section three summarizes the whole part content

1.1 Vocabulary in EFL teaching and learning

1.1.1 The notion of vocabulary

The teaching and learning of vocabulary in EFL has been investigated from numerous perspectives - by linguists, psychologists, educators and second language researchers, but

an exact definition of „What is vocabulary?‟ is still in need of discussion Different scholars define the term in a different way, depending on the criteria they consider the most important in terms of methodology, linguistics, semantics etc

In terms of semantics, Richard, Platt (1992: 40), considered vocabulary as “a set of lexemes, including single words, compound words and idioms.” Besides, Pyles and Algeo (1970) say, “It is true that vocabulary is the focus of language with its sound and meaning, which interlock to allow us to communicate with one another” (quoted in Nguyen Bang and Nguyen Ba Ngoc 2002: 35) In contrast, Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary (2000: 1447) provided its own definition, vocabulary here is simply understood as the total number of words in a language that “a person knows or uses”

From the point of view of teaching Ur (1996: 60) defines vocabulary as the words we teach

in the foreign language However, vocabulary is more complex than this definition

suggests Ur pointed out that a new item of vocabulary might be “more than a single

word” such as “post office’ and “mother-in-law”, which are made up of two or more than

three words but express a single idea There are also multi-word idioms such as “call it a

day”, where the meaning of the phrase cannot be deduced from an analysis of the

component words

Lewis and Hill (1985: 98) shared Ur‟s view that a vocabulary item contains more than one word In addition, they detected a temptation to think that a foreign language was nothing more than using new words for old things In fact, it was much more complicated than that

For instance, a phrase of words such as “How do you do” is a complete phrase with a

single meaning Linguists would call it a lexical item The meaning of this group of words cannot be deduced from the meaning of the individual words used in the phrase

In short, it can be drawn from the above definitions that, vocabulary is all the words in a language, including a single word, two or three word items and multi-word idioms which meaning cannot be deduced from the analysis of the component words but in sentences or

Semantically, vocabulary is divided into notional words and functional words (Nguyen

Bang & Nguyen Ba Ngoc 2002: 35)

Notional words are words with clear lexical meaning They are indefinitely extendable, open classes - new items can be added to them The main notional words are nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs Members of these four classes are often connected by derivational relations (strength – strengthen)

Functional words, in contrast, are closed systems, including a limited number of members They cannot be extended by creating new items Prepositions, conjunctions, and articles, as well as auxiliaries and words classified as „particles‟ are function words The distinctive features of functional words are very general and weak lexical meaning, obligatory combinability These meanings are usually abstract, and they are often much more difficult

to absorb than the meanings of notional words (Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, Svartvik 1985: 16539)

1.1.2.2 According to language teaching methodology

Methodologically, a foreign language learner‟s vocabulary is divided into active

vocabulary and passive vocabulary

Active vocabulary is the words which language learners can understand and use effectively

in speaking and writing, whereas passive vocabulary is the words which the learner can recognize and understand when they occur in a context, but which he cannot remember or use in their own speaking and writing (Nguyen Bang & Nguyen Ba Ngoc 2002: 36) However, the active and passive vocabulary of language learners changes constantly They start using words, try new meanings, forget words, abandon words that have no use, revise

words, etc Lewis and Hill (1985: 100) suggested that it was helpful to guide students towards the words which it would help them to add to their active vocabulary

Besides, according to some methodologists of the Communicative Language Teaching

Approach, word knowledge also comes in two forms, receptive and productive Receptive

vocabulary includes words that we recognize when we hear or see them Productive vocabulary includes words that we use when we speak or write Receptive vocabulary is

typically larger than productive vocabulary, and may include many words to which we assign some meaning, even if we do not know their full definitions and connotations – or ever use them ourselves as we speak and write (Hiebert & Kamil, 2005)

1.1.2.3 According to sequence of use

It is worth distinguishing two kinds of vocabulary: high-frequency words and

low-frequency words

High-frequency words are the words that appear most often in oral communication and

printed materials of different fields of life Nation (2001: 9) pointed out that there is a small group of high-frequency words which are very important because these words cover

a very large proportion of the running words in spoken and written text and occur in all kinds of uses of the language Learning to recognize high-frequency words by sight is critical to developing fluency in reading Considerable researchers been done to generate lists of the 1,000, 2,000 or 3,000 most frequently-used words in English Recognizing these words gives students a basic context for figuring out other words

Low-frequency words are of a very large group of words that occur very infrequently and

cover only a small proportion of any text The younger the learner, the fewer words they are likely to have in their low-frequency bank However, as Nation (2001: 19) pointed out,

it is important to understand that the frequency of words can vary because it is relative to the context and the learners

For a language teacher, it is important to distinguish between high- and low-frequency vocabulary in order to decide which words to teach and how much class time should be spent on them

1.1.3 The place of vocabulary in EFL teaching and learning

Vocabulary is an important aspect of EFL teaching and learning, the one that has called for

a great attention from researchers, teachers and learners Traditionally, second language instruction has focused on teaching adult language learners grammatical knowledge:

sentence construction, verb conjugations, singular and plural forms, noun-adjective agreements, verb tenses, etc British linguist David Wilkins (1972: 111) stated the role of vocabulary by arguing, “without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”

The status of vocabulary in the EFL curriculum, after Nunan (1991: 117) has been considerably enhanced, partly as the result of the development of communicative approaches to language teaching, and partly through the stimulus of comprehension-based methods such as the Natural Approach These methods point out that in the early stages of learning and using a second language, one is better served by vocabulary than grammar

It is widely accepted that vocabulary learning is central to language acquisition, no matter the language is first, second, or foreign As McCarthy (1990: viii) noted in his introduction,

“no matter how well the students learn grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to express a wide range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way.” This is also echoed by Laufer who stated,

“solid vocabulary is necessary in every stage of language learning, as is now being openly stated by some second language acquisition researchers” (1997: 147) Vocabulary learning

is, therefore, one of the specific goals in a language classroom

In conclusion, vocabulary plays a key role in any EFL course, for any language learner Without an extensive vocabulary, most language learners will not be able to use the structures and functions they may have learnt for comprehensible communication The bigger vocabulary size language learners get, the better they understand and being understood Therefore, the acquisition of an adequate vocabulary is essential for successful second language use

1.1.4 The place of vocabulary in EFL learners’ reading comprehension

It has been found that vocabulary knowledge plays a very important role in EFL learners‟

RC Actually, the major problem for EFL learners in RC is due to the presence of unfamiliar vocabulary Yet, vocabulary knowledge can be seen as the key for getting meaning from a text Specifically, understand the basis of grammatical structures enables students to understand the relationship among words, but it does not provide access to the meaning of the sentence Knowing the meaning of the content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs) does Therefore, “vocabulary knowledge is central to reading texts” as Aebersold & Field (1997: 154) proposed The larger vocabulary size students get,

the better they understand Thus, language learners need to be provided strategies that can reduce their frustration when encountering unfamiliar words in order to motivate them to read more Otherwise, they do not understand therefore they read slowly, and they would not enjoy reading, as a result, they do not read much because of lack of comprehension

1.2 Principles in teaching and learning vocabulary

1.2.1 Selection of vocabulary items for students

Actually, language learners‟ ability of RC is determined by their knowledge of words This word knowledge allows them to comprehend text Therefore, word knowledge should be taught to improve comprehension Teachers who teach English as a foreign language need

to help students build up a large vocabulary of useful words during the course Before setting the criteria for deciding which vocabulary items should be chosen, it is useful to look into relevant research and find out how many and what words learners need to know

to enable them to have reasonable comprehension and “begin” to adequately engage in everyday communication Nevertheless, determining how many and which words to be taught is actually the hardest part of vocabulary instruction

It is widely accepted across a range of literacy sources that the words which teachers choose to teach should be based on the usefulness and frequency of word Nation (1994: 3) suggested that we regard the high frequency vocabulary as consisting of about 2,000 word families These words make up about 87% of the running words in formal written texts and more than 95% of the words in informal spoken texts In Meara's (1995) points of view, students should learn very large vocabularies when they first start to acquire a language In fact, the base of 2,000 words now seems to be the most commonly cited initial goal for second language learners (Cited in Vocabulary Learning and Teaching - Teaching English

as a Second or Foreign Language, Third Edition, Marian Celce Murcia, Editor 2001: 287) Sharing the above ideas, Carter (1998: 207), proposed, “It is claimed that knowing these words gives access to about 80% of the words in any written text and thus stimulates motivation since the words acquired can be seen by learners to have a demonstrably quick return” In addition, knowing the first 2,000 words should increase comprehensible language input, as students would be able to understand more of the speech they are exposed to and also more of the written texts that they read

However, according to some researchers, such a base of two thousand words will not be adequate for certain groups of students The 2,000 level is only a beginning Nation

(1994:4) suggested, “When the high frequency words are well known, then teachers may wish to spend time on low-frequency words.” It is advisable for language teachers to provide learners with strategies that allow them to cope with and learn this vocabulary independent of a teacher

Another important point when selecting vocabulary to teach is that language teachers should begin by teaching new items in context Nunan (1991: 122) emphasized, “even with

a functional vocabulary of the three thousand most frequently occurring items in English, learners will still not know around 20 per cent of the items they will encounter in an unsimplified text.”

As for teachers of EFL at high school, we should take into consideration the number of items to teach in a period of 45 minutes The number of vocabulary items to be taught may depend on several factors like the target language of the lesson and students‟ level According to Cross (1991), students are able to internalize circa six new words within a 40-minute lesson, and Schmitt (2000) claims that students can learn ten words in a one hour lesson Thus, in a period of 45 minute teaching, we should teach around six or seven new items

In short, teachers of English as a foreign language can use these above suggestions as a guide, but should adapt the number of vocabulary items taught during a lesson as they believe appropriate and should take account of factors such as the objective of each lesson and the ability of the students

1.2.2 Aspects of vocabulary that should be taught

One of the greatest concerns of a language teacher is selecting what aspects of vocabulary

to be taught in a language classroom In general, when we teach a new English word, we should, by all means, provide our learners with its meaning, form and use simultaneously However, with hundreds of thousands of words in the English language, teaching vocabulary can seem like a very daunting prospect Moreover, our students will not need to produce every word they learn, some they will just need to recognize Selecting what to teach, based on frequency and usefulness to the needs of the particular students is therefore essential

Ur (1996: 60-62) suggested the aspects of vocabulary as word form, grammar, collocation, aspects of meaning and word formation need to be taught when teaching vocabulary

1.2.2.1 Word form: Pronunciation and spelling

Word‟s pronunciation and its spelling are considered two obvious characteristics that a language learner should be introduced when encountering the item for the first time Actually, the complex relationship between sound and spelling in English often causes trouble for language learners Therefore, teachers need to make sure that both these aspects are accurately presented and learned According to Davies (2000: 61), it is usually best to present new items orally first and in written form later, especially at lower level The main advantage to this procedure when dealing with new vocabulary is that you can avoid learners getting into the habit of using “spelling pronunciation”

1.2.2.2 Grammar

Language teachers need to introduce the grammar of a new item if this is not obviously covered by general grammatical rules Specifically, it is important to provide learners the information in case the item has an unpredictable change of form in certain grammatical contexts or may have some unusual ways of connecting with other words in sentences For instance, when teaching a noun, we may wish to present its plural form if irregular (goose, geese), or draw learners‟ attention to the fact that it has no plural at all (passion, knowledge)

1.2.2.3 Collocation

Within the area of corpus linguistics, collocation is defined as “a combination of words in a language that happen very often and more frequently than would happen by chance.” (Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary 2000: 233-234) Items may co-occur simply because the combination reflects a common real world state of affairs For instance, “pass” and “salt” collocate because people often want other people to pass them the salt Besides, many collocations have an added element of linguistic convention and English speakers have chosen to say This is another piece of information about a new item which it may be

worth teaching An example of this is the collocation “strong tea” While the same meaning could be conveyed through the roughly equivalent “powerful tea”, the fact is that

English prefers to speak of tea in terms of being strong rather than in terms of being

powerful A similar observation holds for “powerful computers” which is preferred over

“strong computers”

Since there are no rules of collocation, it is difficult to group items by their collocational properties, so teachers and learners are generally more successful when they deal with common collocational problems in isolation or as they arise Gairns & Redman (1986: 39)

1.2.2.4 Aspects of meaning

It is essential to mention about denotation, connotation, appropriateness and meaning

relationship when concerning with aspects of word meaning The teacher has to decide

which aspect of meaning that needs to be taught to students in certain language classrooms

 Denotation and connotation

When we analyze word meaning, we should distinguish two separate concepts called

„denotational and connotational meaning‟ The denotational meaning gives us the basic meaning of a word on conceptual level (this is a dictionary definition) For example,

“ball” denotes a round object used for throwing, hitting or kicking in games and sports

The connotational meaning can be created thanks to different factors and they turn out to

be more problematic Connotation includes stylistic, affective, evaluative, intensifying values, pragmatic communicative values, the word acquires by virtue of where, when, how, and by whom, for what purpose and in what context it is or may be used The words

“house” and “home” have the same denotational meaning However, they have different connotational meanings “House” refers to a material thing whereas “home” denotes a

spiritual sense Connotations vary considerably according to culture, historical period, and personal experience

Understanding the difference between denotation and connotation is important to understanding definitions and how concepts are used

 Appropriateness

According to Ur (1996: 61), appropriateness is another essential aspect of word meaning that needs to be taught Learners should know whether a particular item could be used in a certain context or not The knowledge as whether a certain word is very common, or relatively rare or taboo in a polite conversation, or tends to be used in writing but not in speech, or is more suitable for a formal than informal discourse or belongs to a certain dialect is very useful for language learners

 Meaning relationship

Obviously, how the meaning of one item relates to the meaning of others is important in teaching There are various relationships Some of the main ones are synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms, co-hyponyms and superordinates

* Synonyms: Synonyms are actually words of the same parts of speech that have similar or identical denotation, but differ in shades of meaning, connotation or combinability with other words For example, “dude - fellow - bloke - chap – guy” may serve as synonyms of man but they are different in connotation

* Antonyms: Words of the same part of speech that are opposite in meanings are called antonyms Usually adjectives denoting quality, verbs denoting actions or states and abstract nouns have antonyms For example, “ugly – pretty, mean – generous, give – take, joy – sorrow”

* Hyponyms: A hyponym is a word or phrase whose semantic field is included within that

of another word Hyponyms are decided based on the viewpoint of intension and

extension For example, “flower” (superordinate) - and “rose” (hyponym) A “rose” is a

flower, but not every flower is a rose The meaning of “flower” is included in the meaning

of “rose”

* Co-hyponyms or co-ordinates: other items that are the „same kind of thing‟ for example,

“red, blue, green, and brown” are co-ordinates

* Superordinates: General concepts that „cover‟ specific items, for example, “animal” is the superiordinate of “dog, lion, mouse”

In language teaching and learning, sense relations are of paramount importance As a means of presentation and testing, these relationships are extremely valuable and can provide a useful framework for the leaner to see where meaning overlaps and learn the limits of use of an item

1.2.2.5 Word formation

According to Bauer (1983: 1), word formation is of central interest to theoretical linguists

of all persuasions because of the light it throws on other aspects of language We may consider word formation the creation of a new word Ur (1996: 62), drew out “Vocabulary items, whether one word or multi-word, can often be broken down into components „bits‟ Exactly how these bits are out together is another piece of useful information – perhaps mainly for more advanced learners.”

When talking about word formation, affixation is the first sector that is mentioned about Affixation is, thus, the linguistic process speakers use to form new words (neologisms) by adding morphemes (affixes) at the beginning (prefixation), the middle (infixation) or the end (suffixation) of words, for example, replay, kindness, sinambung(in Indonesian) New combinations using affixes are usual and the reader or hearer would be expected to gather their meaning from an understanding of their components

Besides, there are various other ways of forming new words such as compounding (home +

work → homework), conversion (permit → an entry permit), clipping (hamburger → burger), blends (motor + hotel → motel), etc

In all, words can be formed in different ways Language learners should know well about word formation and the way to use words in appropriate grammatical contexts

1.2.3 What makes words difficult?

Not all words are difficult, and many are difficult only in some contexts or for some readers However, as Nuttall (1996: 66) suggested, we can identify some kinds of lexical items, and some ways in which words are used, that are frequently cause difficulty to foreign language learners

* Idioms

Idioms are common phrases or terms whose meanings are not literal, but are figurative and only known through their common uses We cannot deduce meanings of an idioms form individual words Some idioms are only used by some groups of people or at certain times

The idiom shape up or ship out, which is like saying improve your behavior or leave if you

don't, might be said by an employer or supervisor to an employee, but not to other people

Because idioms can mean something different from what the words mean, it is difficult for language students to use them properly They may fail to recognize the problem in sentences likes:

He was beside himself (be in a state of very great, uncontrolled emotion)

I can‟t go through with it (finish doing)

They solved it once and for all (once and finally)

* Words with several meanings

Nutall drew out, “any word with more than one meaning is potential troublesome” for language learners especially those at low level Some of the most dangerous misunderstandings, in Nutall‟s point of view, arise when everyday words are used in

specialized fields, for instance, operation used in medical sector, receiver in telephone branch or book (hire in advance) in a travel agent

problems Like idioms, they do not mean what at first glance they seem to mean.” „He is a

tiger when he’s angry.‟ is an example of a metaphor The trouble is language learner may

wonder if they are reading zoology or botany We can see that metaphor always involves

an implicit comparison between A and B, so one ways of handling it is to analyze what A and B have in common that is relevant to the context

a form of humor Thus, language learners may misunderstand the apparent meaning and

the writer‟s underlying intention For example, it would be ironical for you to say, „He is

as smart as a soap dish‟ If language learners did not know what a soap dish was, or how

smart it was (not), they might interpret the statement as a compliment, whereas the underlying meaning you intended to convey is an insult

* Other kinds of difficulty

Nutall also suggested us two other categories such as text-structuring words and pin-down words These kinds of words are involved in textual cohesion Text-structuring words are signals telling the readers to fill out their meaning, usually from information elsewhere in

the text For example, „Various explanations of these phenomena can be offered.‟ While

phenomena relates back to something just described, explanations signals what will

probably follow Filling out the meaning of such words is a crucial skill for interpretation

of text Beside text-structuring words, pin-down words with abstract meaning often cause difficulties that are lexical in nature

In short, teachers of English should take into account features that make words difficult and find out the most effective ways to present them to students in certain language classes

1.2.4 Current approaches to teaching and learning vocabulary

According to Hunt & Beglar (1998-09:01), there are three approaches in teaching

vocabulary “incidental learning, explicit instruction and independent strategy

development”

Incidental learning concentrates on acquiring vocabulary “through extensive reading and

listening” (Hunt & Beglar 1998) This approach emphasizes the possibility of enriching vocabulary by reading simplified readers or sustained silent reading which will be an aid for students to read not only in the classroom‟s condition

Another approach, explicit instruction, concerns learning vocabulary intentionally This

seems to be suitable to the beginners who have limited vocabulary Hunt and Beglar suggesed some techniques that might be appropriate following explicit instruction approach One of them is word-pairs translation, others relate to the repetition of the word, association, etc The authors also mentioned some more activities such as sorting list of words, semantic maps, generating derivatives, inflection, synonyms and antonyms of a

word, tree words, crossword puzzle, etc

The last approach so called „student-centred learning’ lays tress on language learners‟

autonomy As Gairns and Redman (1986: 77-79) suggested, students could enrich their vocabulary by “asking others” They can ask their teacher or other students to explain the meaning of an item which they have just encountered The teacher should decide to have a final feedback session with the class to ensure that the activity has been effective in supplying accurate information Otherwise, students can use a dictionary to check the new word they meet This act may increase laziness on the part of the student who is unwilling

to use his own resources and guess the meaning for himself However, we cannot deny certain advantages in the use of dictionaries A dictionary can be seen as a valuable support to contextual guesswork Moreover, making good use of a dictionary will give students considerable autonomy about the decisions they make about their own learning Then, for more advances learners, learning vocabulary through guessing from context is suggested as an independent strategy

Besides the above approaches, traditional ways of learning and teaching vocabulary,

“visual techniques, verbal techniques and translation” (Gairns & Redman 1986:73-75) are also valuable in teaching and learning of vocabulary

1.3 Summary

This chapter has provided a brief description of the theoretical knowledge about vocabulary and its important role in EFL teaching and learning Firstly, the study was concerned with different definitions of vocabulary by different scholars Secondly, it mentioned about the place of vocabulary in EFL teaching and learning, particularly its role

in EFL learners' reading comprehension The chapter also included principles in teaching and learning English vocabulary, which comprised the selection of vocabulary items for students, aspects of vocabulary that should be taught, factors that make words difficult and current approaches to teaching and learning vocabulary That knowledge served as an important basis for the present study

CHAPTER 2: PROBLEMS FACING THE 10 th FORM STUDENTS AT TH - USS IN

LEARNING VOCABULARY IN RC LESSONS

In this chapter, an attempt is made to answer the first research question raised in Part one, section III, page 2: "What are the problems facing the 10th form students at TH-USS in learning vocabulary in RC lessons?" To answer this question, a small-scale research is conducted at TH-USS As a way of start, I will first provide a short description of the setting of the study, the subjects, (which include both the teachers of English and the 10thstudents at TH-USS), the teaching syllabus and the objectives of the 10th course Then I will present the research in the form of a questionnaire for the students and a semi-structured interview with the teachers This will be followed by a section in which I will discuss in some depth the problems facing the 10th form students at TH-USS in learning vocabulary in RC lessons

2.1 The setting of the study

The study is conducted at TH-USS in Hai Duong province during the second term in the school year of 2009-2010 TH-USS is an unspecialized school which has thirty three classes with seven teachers of English, including the teacher researcher and one thousand and five hundred students English has been taught here as a compulsory subject like other high schools in Vietnam and the English basis material is applied in all classes

The study is mainly concerned with the 10th form students who have just had at least four

or five years learning English at lower secondary schools However, they enter high school with very low English proficiency and encounter many problems in comprehension causing by their limited vocabulary size

2.1.1 Subject of the study

The central purpose of the study is to investigate the reality of teaching vocabulary in RC lessons to the 10th form students at the author‟s school to suggest possible solutions to the problems facing the students The final goal is to enhance the 10th form students‟ RC and uplift their communicative skills Thus, the informants are 100 students who were randomly selected from 10 classes at grade 10 at TH-USS in Hai Duong The 10th form students are the major subjects of the study Besides, six teachers of the English teaching staff, aged from 27 to 52 are involved in the study They have been teaching English at this school for at least 5 years Half of them graduated from the Hanoi University of Foreign

Language and International Studies, VNU The rest had in-service EFL training programmes

2.1.1.1 Students in 10 th form class and their background

Students who have studied in the 10th form class at TH-USS all come from rural areas They are both male and female aged sixteen or seventeen and many of them were born in poor families Their parents mainly work as farmers, gardeners or hired workers at

surrounding areas, so their living conditions are low

Most of the 10th form students began grade 10 with very low English proficiency due to the poor learning condition, the backward methods they have been taught and the inefficient ways they have learnt which mainly focus on grammar It is difficult for them to speak out

or write down anything They often become overwhelmed since they are assigned to read the text beyond their language proficiency level There always exists a mental block in

their mind since they encounter any new vocabulary item Actually, most hard-working

students turn to their mini English – Vietnamese dictionary or “Để học tốt tiếng Anh 10” Nearly no student has any kind of English reference at home, except “Để học tốt tiếng Anh 10” which gives the translation of the new word items and the answers to any exercise in

the textbook The lazy ones do nothing just copy their friends‟ paper and write down in the

textbook In case of the topic of the text is not irrelevant to their experience and knowledge, they stop reading because they cannot understand the meaning of the text enough to satisfy their expectations, needs or interests It is a challenge for the teachers to select appropriate teaching ways to improve students‟ motivation in reading

2.1.1.2 The teaching staff and their teaching situations

The teachers of English at TH-USS in Hai Duong have been trained in Vietnam and none

of them has had a chance to study abroad They nearly have no chance to work or contact with native speakers, specialists and experts for consultation The only advantage of the school is that the teachers teach English with enthusiasm and they always desire their students to learn English with passion and gain advance in learning it However, their hope and their ability are not relevant Most teachers are not qualified enough to stage and conduct communicative activities effectively in an English lesson Teachers‟ talking time and activities seem to dominate the English lessons Furthermore, the textbook is the main and only source of training which teachers and students closely depend on In RC lessons, the first lesson of any unit, the teachers consider that finishing all reading tasks in the

textbook is the central duty of the lesson There are almost no other creative activities or pre-teaching support Otherwise, they waste time giving explanations to a number of unknown vocabulary items that the students meet This increases students‟ passiveness, especially the 10th form students‟, the new comers to high school

Besides that, the teachers have to work under a very poor teaching condition Classrooms are small and are too crowded with at least 50 students Radios are often out of work The computers are very old and in bad quality Projectors seem to be luxurious for both teachers and students in a rural school The teachers of English often come to class without any teaching aids Then students have no chance to contact the native voice

In short, students' passive learning, the uneven teachers' capacities, the large size of the classes and the poorly equipped classrooms lead to bad effect on the quality of teaching and learning of English at the school

2.1.2 English teaching program for the 10 th form students at Thanh Ha Upper Secondary School

The English program for the 10th form students at TH-USS is the same as at other high schools nationwide The program is used for the students who have learned English for 4 years at lower secondary schools The new textbooks have come through a period of reformation, designed by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) At TH-USS, there is no English major class, the English standard textbook compiled by a group of textbook writers at VNU (Hoang Van Van – chief editor, Hoang Thi Xuan Hoa, Do Tuan Minh, Nguyen Thu Phuong and Nguyen Quoc Tuan) is applied in all classes

„Tiếng Anh 10‟ for general students first introduced in 2006 was designed following the communicative approaches It consists of 16 units in terms of 16 topics There are five parts in each unit arranging as follows: reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus In addition, there exists a “test yourself” after every three units to examine how well students have achieved in the previous lessons

The purpose of the new material is to narrow the gaps between classroom English and real English That means after schools, students can use English in real life situations For those purposes, the course book focuses on four skills and language knowledge

2.1.3 The objectives of the 10 th form course

According to the contents of the course book, after studying 16 units students are expected

to have the following abilities:

Reading: Comprehend the main ideas of reading texts of approximately 190 - 230

words about the topics they have learnt (accompanied with meaning deducing and dictionary skills)

Speaking: Conduct interactive presentations at a simple level about the topics related

to the themes of the training program

Listening: Listen and comprehend the gist and specific information of a small

monologue or a dialogue of 120 - 150 words about the topics of the training program Acquire listening comprehension skills at a simple level

Writing: Write according to suggested models and/or with suggestions paragraphs of

approximately 100 - 120 words about the topics students have learnt

(MOET 2006: 40-41)

2.2 Data collection instruments and procedures

The questionnaire for the students is carried out in combination with the semi-structured interviews with the teachers of English to ensure the reliability of the collected information

2.2.1 The questionnaires for the students

The questionnaire has become the world of experience for both researchers and professionals However, the construction of it is very difficult In this study, questionnaire

is chosen as the first research instrument because this technique is available for investigating the reality of a teaching state with a large number of subjects and describing the nature of existing conditions Subjects feel a greater sense of anonymity Furthermore, this approach is less expensive in terms of time and money Then the format is standard for

all subjects

To achieve the preceded aims of the study, a set of questionnaires for the 10th form students at TH-USS were designed and provided The questionnaire for the students consists of eleven questions and is divided into three parts (Appendix 1) The first part aims at clarifying the students' personal information The second part (question: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) is made to find out the students beliefs about the place of vocabulary in RC lessons and the reality of teaching and learning vocabulary in RC lessons to the 10th form students at TH-USS The third part (questions 10, 11) is about the students‟ views on the solutions to improve the present English vocabulary teaching and learning

Before asking students to cooperate with the researcher by giving their own answers to the questions in the questionnaire, the author explains the purpose of the questionnaire and clarify every provided question, then lets students complete the questionnaire at home Particularly, the questionnaire is written in Vietnamese to ensure that respondents did not have any language problems By doing so, the students would not feel embarrassed and the researchers would get the amount of information needed easily

2.2.2 The interview with the teachers of English

In this study, the semi-structured interview with the teachers of English is used with the aim to clarify the problems facing the 10th form students at TH-USS when learning vocabulary in RC lessons The interview is conducted in form of friendly discussions with the teachers of English during the break time about the matters related to the teaching of vocabulary in RC lessons to the 10th form students at TH-USS It consists of three questions Question one mentions about the major challenges facing the teachers in presenting vocabulary items in RC lessons Question two deals with activities the teachers often use when introducing new words items in RC lessons The last one considers the teachers views on the solutions to improve the current state of teaching vocabulary in reading comprehension lessons to the 10th form students at TH-USS

The data from the questionnaires and interviews were first collected Then they were analyzed, synthesized in details

2.3 Data collection and analysis

In this part, the data collected from the questionnaires for the students of English at USS were synthesized and categorized concurrently The results were tabulated and converted to percentages for the convenience of the analysis (Appendix 3) Besides, information from interviews (Appendix 4) with the teachers was added to assist interpretation Discussions were also needed to find out the answers to the research questions

TH-2.3.1 Results from the questionnaires for the students

To identify the participants' major problems in learning vocabulary in RC lessons, a questionnaire was created and delivered to the 10th form students at TH-USS

2.3.1.1 Personal information (questions 1, 2, 3, 4)

Participants were first asked to provide their personal information, which is considered the essential background for the investigation Aged from sixteen to seventeen, 57% of the

student who took part in the survey are schoolgirls The facility for learning English at their class is very poor Over half of them have only the textbook "Tiếng Anh 10" and a radio of bad quality 32% take along "Để học tốt tiếng Anh 10" with them to school For the rest (10%)', "Tiếng Anh 10" is all things The situation seems worse when students come home after school Most of them do not have any exercise books or radio Only one student has a radio to learn English 88% do not spend money on exercise books but on

"Để học tốt tiếng Anh 10"

2.3.1.2 Students' perception about the importance of vocabulary in RC lessons (questions 5, 6, 7)

Participants were then asked to show their belief about the importance of vocabulary in RC

lessons Table 1 (Appendix 3) shows the results Students highly admitted the importance

of vocabulary in their RC 67% of them said that they need to know every new word in the reading text to understand the text This point is really their problems Besides, 85% of them confirmed the fact that the number of new vocabulary items in RC lessons is much bigger than their vocabulary size Thus, from Table 1 we can see two arising problems One is students' perception about the number of vocabulary they need to know when dealing with reading texts Another is the students' limited vocabulary size

2.3.1.3 Students' idea about the reality of teaching vocabulary in RC lessons to the 10th form students at TH-USS (questions 8, 9)

Next are the participants' talking about the reality of their own learning state Table 2 (Appendix 3) shows the details The highly chosen items indicated that the students in this study have many problems when dealing with new word items in RC lessons One of the problems lays on the students' poor background knowledge Another is due to the large class size and then students' shyness In addition, frustration may arise from the word itself, especially English collocations and multi-word verbs Others belong to students' routine ways of learning vocabulary Moreover, a small proportion of students always add

Vietnamese pronunciation beside English words such as undersea (ăn đờ xi) or animal (en

ni mồ) Then it is not surprising at all when many students avoided mentioning about their habit of copying from their friends' preparation and the answer keys in "Để học tốt tiếng Anh 10", their teachers strongly drew out this point Therefore, interviews with the teachers are needed to ensure the truths of the selected data

The questionnaire proceeded to ask the participants to talk about the current state of teaching new vocabulary items in RC lessons of the teachers of English at TH-USS We can see this concerning section in Table 3 (Appendix 3) Students who took part in the survey strongly showed their agreement on the suggested items The findings draw our attention to the fact that the teaching conditions of the teachers are very poor and their teaching ways seem not effective Particularly, the students' selection revealed the mechanical and passive ways of teaching of their teachers as following exactly the textbook's procedure and preparing everything for students, writing the correct answers on the board after checking or translating the requirement of the reading tasks for students

2.3.1.4 Students' ideas about the solutions to bettering the current situations of teaching and learning vocabulary in RC lessons for the 10th form students (questions

10, 11)

Question 10 asked the students to select some suggested solutions which their teachers should do to improve vocabulary teaching in RC lessons The summary in Table 4 (Appendix 3) shows that participants strongly agreed with the researcher's suggested solutions In students' point of views, most of the suggested solutions are reasonable However, they placed more emphasis on the belief that teachers should use suitable teaching aids which help facilitate vocabulary teaching, then introduce the subject and general ideas of the reading lessons before teaching vocabulary items and supply students with word spelling, word formation and word usage to reasonable extents Besides, 38% of the students preferred teachers to present every new word item to them Then 66% of the informants hoped their teachers should translate the reading texts to facilitate students' comprehension This is due to the students' low language level and their limited vocabulary size

The last question in the questionnaire focused on what the students should do to resolve the problems facing them and better their vocabulary learning in RC lessons Table 5 (Appendix 3) shows a list of suggested solutions that the students selected

The strongest agreement of the participants laid on items a, c, n, i, b Over half of them

thought that students should make use of their background knowledge to understand the reading text, ignoring new word items of the text In addition, most of the informants thought students should try to speak English in class, stimulating the word items which they have learnt, share ideas with their friends or consult the teacher about the unknown

word items, do exercises to consolidate and expand the word items they have learnt recently and concern with word spelling, word formation and word usage to reasonable extents Actually, the students highly approved all the other suggested solutions of the

researchers, except item f with only 37% Particularly, over 50% of the participants

selected the suggested ideas that students should read word by word to understand the text, check meaning of every new word item or interrupt reading process to check new word items That reveals the weakness in their perception and learning vocabulary in RC lessons

2.3.2 Results from the interviews with the teachers of English

The interviews with the six teachers of English were transcribed, analyzed then summarized to clarify the information of the questionnaires (Appendix 4) The interviews first asked the teachers to talk about the major challenges facing them when teaching vocabulary in RC lessons to the 10th form students Through the interviews, we can see that most of the teachers have to work with students whose language level is very limited, the teaching and learning facility at the school is very poor Besides, students' passive learning really causes problems for the teachers In addition, frustration may arise from the word itself, especially English collocations and multi-word verbs Others belong to students' routine ways of learning vocabulary It is also a challenge for the teachers when a small proportion of students always add Vietnamese pronunciation beside English words The interviewees were next asked to talk about the techniques they often use when introducing new word items in RC lessons to the 10th form students The findings draw our attention to the fact that teaching ways seem not effective Particularly, few teachers approved their mechanical and passive ways of teaching as following exactly the textbook's procedure and preparing everything for students, writing the correct answers on the board after checking Besides, only one teacher said that he/she often translates the requirement of the reading tasks for students Meanwhile, students mostly drew out these points The responses revealed problems when the teachers abused translating ways to present new word items to their students

The last question of the interview focused on the teachers' solutions to improve vocabulary teaching and learning The participants strongly agreed with the researcher's suggested solutions One of the interviewees said teachers should vary the ways of presenting new word items, another hoped that the school should give considerable investment in English