Improving students’ vocabulary retention through content based instructions

Teaching vocabulary through word lists is also applied at HCACT, but it does not seem to be very effective for the first year students because it is said to be boring, so it cannot help

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

 NGUYỄN THỊ THANH HUYỀN

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY RETENTION THROUGH CONTENT-BASED

INSTRUCTIONS

Cải thiện vốn từ vựng của sinh viên thông qua các hướng dẫn

dựa trên nội dung

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: Engl sh Teaching Methodolo y Code: 6 1 0 11

HANOI – 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

 NGUYỄN THỊ THANH HUYỀN

IMPROVING STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY RETENTION THROUGH CONTENT-BASED

INSTRUCTIONS

Cải thiện vốn từ vựng của sinh viên thông qua các hướng dẫn

dựa trên nội dung

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: Engl sh Teaching Methodolo y Code: 6 1 0 11

Supe visor: Dr Lâm Quang Đông

HANOI - 2014

Signature:

Date:

NGUYỄN THỊ THANH HUYÊN

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am, first of all, particularly indebted to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Lâm Quang Đông for his invaluable assistance, instructions and correction, excellent suggestions and constant encouragement during the research period Without his guidance and help, this work would not have been accomplished

Secondly, I am thankful to all the lecturers and staff of Faculty of Graduate and

National University for their scientific knowledge, guidance and enthusiasm during

my course

My special thanks also go to the leaders and my colleagues at Ha Long College of Arts, Culture and Tourism for their support and encouragement I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the students who have participated in this research

I would like to send my sincere thanks to my friends and classmates for their enthusiasm and advice while the work was in progress

Last but not least, I would like to convey my deepest gratitude to my dear family members, who are always besides me to support and encourage me to fulfill my study

NGUYỄN THỊ THANH HUYÊN

The observation was carried out in 06 weeks of the second semester of the first year and was divided into 12 lessons The subjects were 45 students of a class of the Hotel and Restaurant Department NVDL K13 The class received the treatment involving content-based instructions and observed by the author, who entered every necessary information in her diary Vocabulary tests, including pre-test, progress test and post-test, were administered The data collected from the test scores were analyzed to measure the size of vocabulary that students could retain

The result showed considerable improvement in word memorization of the students

in the class The findings of the study also indicated that content-based instructions should be used for future vocabulary learning Some implications and recommendations for the future studies were also included

TABLE OF CONTENT

CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENT iv

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION 1

1.RATIONALE OF THE STUDY 1

2.STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 2

3.AIM OF THE STUDY 4

4.RESEARCH QUESTION 4

5.SCOPE OF THE STUDY 4

6.METHODS OF THE STUDY 5

7.ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS 5

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT 6

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

1.1.VOCABULARY RETENTION 6

1.1.1 What is vocabulary? 6

1.1.2 What is involved in knowing a word? 6

1.1.3 Traditional vocabulary teaching 8

1.1.4 Current vocabulary teaching 9

1.2.VOCABULARY MEMORIZATION IN LANGUAGE LEARNING 11

1.2.1 Short-term and long-term memory 11

1.2.2 Major factors affecting word memorization 12

1.3.CONTENT-BASED INSTRUCTIONS 13

1.3.1 What is Content-based instruction (CBI)? 13

1.3.2 Benefits of content-based instructions 15

1.3.3 Comparison with other approaches 15

1.3.4 What does a content-based instruction lesson look like? 16

1.4.PREVIOUS STUDIES 17

1.5.SUMMARY 18

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 20

2.1.RESEARCH QUESTION RE-STATED 20

2.2.METHODOLOGY 20

2.2.1 An action research process 20

2.2.2 Participants 21

2.2.3 Treatment 21

2.2.4 The teaching context 22

2.3.SUMMARY 28

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS 29

3.1.STATISTICS AND ANALYSIS OF DATA 29

3.1.1 Information from the observation 29

3.1.2 Result of the continuous monitoring 30

3.1.3 The results of the pre-test, progress-test and post-test 31

3.2.MAJOR FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 33

3.4.SUMMARY 37

PART THREE: CONCLUSION 38

1.CONCLUSION 38

2.LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 38

REFERENCES 41

APPENDIX I

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Among influential factors to learning English, vocabulary is an essential component, central to language, and is of great significance to language learners It provides us with materials to feed into the grammatical structures in order to produce complete utterances It is one element that links the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing all together Without vocabulary, speakers cannot convey meaning and communicate with each other in a particular language

Vocabulary as the major part of language learning has been the subject of numerous studies which have made significant contributions to the field The prominent theorists and researchers in the field have long recognized the role of vocabulary knowledge in second or foreign language learning Accordingly, new approaches, techniques, exercises and practice have been introduced into the field to teach vocabulary (Hatch & Brown, 1995) It has been suggested that teaching vocabulary should not only consist of teaching specific words but also aim at equipping learners with strategies necessary to expand their vocabulary knowledge (Hulstjin, 1997)

At Ha Long College of Arts, Culture and Tourism (HCACT), which is known as a good education provider to students of Arts, Culture and Tourism, English has been considered a compulsory subject and has attracted considerable attention from the Management Board Teaching and learning English in general and vocabulary in particular is the concern of both the teaching staff and the students

The most frequently-used method of teaching vocabulary in a class of English is giving the explanations and Vietnamese equivalents of words, and then having students do written practice exercises Several teachers have also tried to apply one

or two new ways of teaching vocabulary in their classes; however, the effect has not been significant enough Students just sit in silence, and then copy the corrected

answers that are given by their teachers They seem to get bored with this way of learning every day, then they forget and cannot speak or make sentences with the words they have learned Perhaps, there can be various reasons for this, including large classes, psychological or cultural differences, teaching methods, teacher‟s knowledge, student‟s lack of ideas or language devices, etc More importantly, words cannot be memorized if introduced out of context in which they are used In other words, if teachers wish that their students could retain new words better in their memory, new words must be put into, or associated with, meaningful content This is exactly the belief which drove me to conduct this action research entitled

“Improving students’ vocabulary retention through content-based instructions”

2 Statement of the problem

In language learning, students need to have tools to learn new words as well as to prevent them from forgetting new words (Pimsleur, 1967, cited in Nation, 2001) This is true with students of Tourism at HCACT, who have to learn English as a compulsory subject at the college Nguyễn Thị Linh Lam (2004) and Đào Thị Thanh Mai (2004) suggest that Vietnamese students need to be taught how to apply appropriate vocabulary learning strategies to acquire vocabulary in a more effective way

HCACT students of Tourism specializing in restaurant and hotel services are trained

to be waiters /waitresses or receptionists who are required to use English very often

in their jobs Therefore, a large proportion of the college‟s training curriculum is allocated for the English subject In the first year, they have 10 forty-five minute periods of English a week or 150 periods during the two terms of the year Moreover, the majority of the students learnt English for 3 years and some for 7 years before entering this college Despite this large amount of English learning time, their vocabulary is still poor Many of them complain that they spend most of the time learning vocabulary, but the results are disappointing They cannot remember the words they learn Consequently, their lack of good vocabulary has

badly affected their writing, reading, listening and speaking proficiency They seem

to be not eager enough to learn vocabulary lessons in particular and the English subject in general

The real situation leads to our assumption that the students may have problems in their vocabulary learning techniques With years of teaching experience, the author realizes that the teaching of vocabulary for the first year students of Tourism at HCACT encounters a lot of trouble because they have to cope with a large number

of words specializing in restaurant and hotel services Although several techniques

in teaching vocabulary are presented, the effectiveness is not considerable

Teaching vocabulary through games is often recommended and also shows some advantages For example, it can help students acquire English words quickly and create rather relaxing learning atmosphere for students However, it makes the class very noisy and some games do not require students to speak any language during the games

Teaching vocabulary through word lists is also applied at HCACT, but it does not seem to be very effective for the first year students because it is said to be boring, so

it cannot help them to memorize words as effectively as they expect

The English teachers at HCACT are now faced with the challenge of finding ways how to help their students memorize vocabulary effectively and how to motivate them in the vocabulary lessons Following is a description how vocabulary of the

textbooks “May I help you” or “English for cooking” is taught There are many

ESP words presented in each unit of the book, but there is a lack of visual illustrations for students to imagine the things that they have never seen before Pictures or photos, for instance, are hardly ever used in the vocabulary lessons It can be said that the teachers want to make changes neither to the course book nor to their current teaching techniques They just present vocabulary by supplying the words‟ meaning and phonemic transcription Their students repeat the words and

simply copy them into their notebooks This outdated way of teaching makes the lessons boring and fails to stimulate the learner‟s imagination and memorization That is why it cannot motivate students to learn vocabulary and they consequently forget the words that they have just learnt

In brief, the problems of teaching and learning vocabulary for the first year students

of Tourism are regarded as serious by both the teaching staff and students Therefore, there is an urgent need for an alternative to the conservative way of teaching vocabulary at HCACT

3 Aim of the study

The current situation has urged the author to apply the method of content-based instructions in teaching vocabulary for the first year students of Tourism at HCACT

in order to help her students learn new words more effectively and remember them longer With the hope to help these students improve their vocabulary retention, the study was conducted to evaluate how content-based instructions could help students

to be better at retaining the meaning of the words Ultimately, this will help improve English learning and teaching at the institution

4 Research question

The study was conducted based on the hypothesis that the use of content-based instructions in teaching vocabulary helps students memorize vocabulary and word meanings better and more logically It aims at answering the following question:

How do content-based instructions help students at HCACT improve the effectiveness of their vocabulary retention?

5 Scope of the study

There are various language activities that help students to retain vocabulary However, within the limit of a minor thesis, this study focuses on the impact of content-based instructions on students‟ vocabulary retention

This study was implemented with first year students of Hotel and Restaurant Department at HCACT whose English is at the elementary level and who are

working with the course book “May I help you” written by Yates (1997)

6 Methods of the study

To obtain the aims of the study, qualitative methods are used The data serving the research analysis and discussion were collected by means of classroom observation, diaries and results of 03 vocabulary tests

The observation lasted 06 weeks along the presentation and practice of a series of vocabulary activities, exercises, and 03 vocabulary tests were given to measure students‟ retention of vocabulary Students‟ memorization of vocabulary was also continuously monitored when content-based instructions were being in progress so

as to gather further evidence of the intervention‟s impacts

7 Organization of the thesis

This minor thesis is divided into three main parts

Part one, INTRODUCTION, presents the rationale, statement of the problem, aims, scope, methods and organization of the thesis The single research question is also

clearly stated here

Part two, DEVELOPMENT, consists of three chapters, namely Chapter one: Literature Review, Chapter two: Methodology, and Chapter three: Findings and Implications Part three is the CONCLUSIONS

PART TWO: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Vocabulary retention

1.1.1 What is vocabulary?

Vocabulary – the total number of words of a language – has long been proved to play an important role in language Researchers and linguists say that nothing can

be conveyed in language if there is no involvement of vocabulary “When most of

us think about language, we first think about words” (Pyles & Algeo, 1990) Thus,

it cannot be denied that vocabulary is an essential component of language

There are different definitions of vocabulary Each linguist gives his/her own definition of vocabulary depending on the criteria that s/he considers the most important in terms of linguistics, semantics and lexicology Ur (1996, p.60) defines vocabulary as “ a new item of vocabulary may be a single word or may be more

than a single word, a compound of two or three words such as post office, in-law; and multi-word idioms such as call it a day, like father, like son Tạ Quang

mother-Hưng & Nguyễn Văn Độ (1994, p.23) focus on word meanings when they define words as “small pieces of language which carry bits of meaning” They state that

“knowing many words does not guarantee a person will be able to speak a language, but not knowing enough words can prevent a person from effectively speaking or understanding a language” It is agreeably logical to say that the vocabulary of a language is all its words, compounds and idioms used to convey and receive information in oral and written communication

1.1.2 What is involved in knowing a word?

Words are not isolated units of language, but fit into many interlocking systems and levels Because of this, there are many things one needs to know about any particular word and there are many degrees of knowing (Nation, 2001)

There have been many definitions as to what it is exactly to “know” a word Establishing exactly what it means to know a word is no easy task “Knowing” a word does not simply mean being able to recognize what it looks and sounds like

or being able to give the word‟s dictionary definition Knowing a word by sight and sound and knowing its dictionary definition are not the same as knowing how to use the word correctly and understanding it when it is heard or seen in various contexts (Miller & Gildea, 1987)

According to Nation (2001), knowing a word incorporates a large amount of information It involves not only knowing its spelling, morphology, pronunciation, meaning, or the equivalent of the word in the learner‟s mother tongue but also knowing its collocations, part of speech, frequency, whether it is a lexical or functional word, its connotation, register, and even its homonym There is also the issue of the precision that we use a word, how quickly we understand a word, and how well we understand and use words in different modes (e.g receptive, productive) and for different purposes (e.g formal vs informal occasions) (Beck &

Mc Keown, 1991; Nagy & Scott, 2000) In addition, it is important to consider how well the students need to know a particular word in relation to their needs and current level

Nagy and Scott (2000) identify several dimensions that describe the complexity of what it means to know a word First, word knowledge is incremental, which means that readers need to have many exposures to words in different contexts before they

“know” it Second, word knowledge is multidimensional This is because many words have multiple meanings (e.g a wise person; an herb) and serve different functions in different sentences, texts, and even conversations Third, word knowledge is interrelated in that knowledge of one word (e.g urban) connects to knowledge of other words (e.g suburban, urbanite, urbane)

With such a great amount of information attached to each word, it is impossible to supply the student with all the available information at once A more gradual

process would be preferable Discussing the process of acquiring word knowledge, Herman (2003) states that understanding of word meanings is a long-term process, one that involves many encounters with both spoken and written words in varying contexts For example, the first encounter with a new word, a student stores in memory some information about how the word fits into what he is reading This information is reinforced each time he sees or hears the word With each new encounter, the student picks up more information about the word from its use in various contexts As a result, the student gradually acquires the knowledge of the word

1.1.3 Traditional vocabulary teaching

Traditionally, vocabulary has not been a particular subject for students to learn, but has been taught within lessons of speaking, listening, reading or writing During the lesson, students use their own vocabulary or are introduced new words by translations, transcriptions, or looking up in bilingual dictionaries to find meanings

or definitions when they encounter new words For many learners of English, whenever they think of vocabulary, they think of learning a list of words with meanings in their native language without any practice in real contexts They may even write down lines of new words without any ideas of how these words are actually used

Take translation technique as an example Learners tend to find the equivalent words in their own language through dictionaries or asking for teacher for the meaning of the new words In terms of vocabulary teaching, the focus of this technique differs from modern approaches in many ways For example, verb declensions are set out in tables, vocabulary lists are to be learnt, leading to translation from mother tongue into target language and vice-versa Unfortunately,

it is sometimes difficult to find the equivalent one for L2 words as not every word has direct translation In addition, when learners recall word meaning, they often think of the L1 meaning first rather than the L2 words At the same time, it is

assumed that language consists of written words and words that exist in isolation, as though they were individual bricks that could be translated one by one into the foreign language Thus, this method gives learners the thought that language is just

a collection of words that are isolated and independent and there must be a corresponding word in the native tongue for each foreign word they learn Working this way, after a short period, many learners may find out that learning vocabulary

in lists or through translation does not satisfy themselves, and they think the cause for it is just their bad memory

Traditional instruction in dictionary use focuses on having students to look up words and use information from the definition they find to write sentences This kind of instruction appears to produce only a superficial understanding and rapid forgetting of words Students may have difficulty in interpreting the information in definitions and in choosing the appropriate meanings from a dictionary entry for unknown words

In sum, with such viewpoints, traditional methods are not good for vocabulary teaching as it exerts bad impacts on students‟ motivation Actually, working all day long with nothing more than lists of words may lead to frustration, boredom and indiscipline This way of teaching does not give students fun or bring joys and prides in achievement but turned students to be bookworms and made them tired The students seem passive to receive word meanings Therefore, they have difficulties in remembering and recalling the words

1.1.4 Current vocabulary teaching

Since memorizing vocabulary plays a significant role in learning a foreign language, teachers as well as researchers experiment different techniques to get students more involved in greater depth of processing which would result in better vocabulary learning There are now theories of L2 vocabulary acquisition, a wide and growing range of teaching techniques available, and a greatly increased

awareness on the part of most teachers and learners of the importance of vocabulary development Sokmen (1997) states “vocabulary knowledge in English is the most important aspect of oral English proficiency for academic achievement”

According to Harmer (2001), what a word means is often defined by its relationship

to other words It means that when studying a word, learners should not study it in isolation Deccarico (2001) also shares the view with Harmer when suggesting that new words should not be presented in isolation and should not be learned by simple memorization It is important that new vocabulary items be presented in contexts rich enough to provide clues to meaning and convenient for learners to study

In addition, another new discovery that plays an important part in making changes

in vocabulary teaching methods is the students‟ interaction with words Experiments

on vocabulary seem to suggest that students remember best when they have actually done something with the words they are learning (Gairns & Redman, 1986) Teachers should have students do things with words so that they become acquainted with them Instead of teaching them new words, teachers can show them examples

of words in actions or in pictures and ask them to use their prior knowledge to work out what words can be used In other words, if teachers provide the right kind of exposure of words to the students and if we provide opportunities for them to practice these words, then there is a good chance that students will learn and remember some or all of them

The current techniques in teaching vocabulary require efforts of both teachers and their students in fulfilling vocabulary activities The role of the teachers has been changed They are not only the information provider but also the guider and controller They have to prepare lessons carefully and think how to present the new items and how to integrate the vocabulary instruction into language skills For students, they have many opportunities to analyze words, practice with words and use words in different contexts They may be more motivated in learning vocabulary

In addition to such findings, researchers as well as teachers try to investigate and search for new techniques and tools to improve vocabulary teaching in language classes Among these, there are studies on the application of multimedia, pictures, videos, games or other tools done by teachers and researchers all over the world and bringing about lots of good results For example, a comparative study on the effect

of multimedia annotation on L2 vocabulary acquisition done by Akbari (2008) has yielded the conclusion that a video clip is more effective in teaching unknown words than the traditional way Needless to say, recent studies have offered a great variety of vocabulary teaching techniques and tools, which are the bases for the assertion that methodology in vocabulary teaching has been changing; the roles of teachers and students in language classes are no longer the same and teachers have been trying to make students more active in learning vocabulary

1.2 Vocabulary memorization in language learning

In fact, understanding how the memory works might help language teachers create more effective ways to teach vocabulary (Moras, 2001) There are two types of memory These will be discussed as follows:

1.2.1 Short-term and long-term memory

At the most simple level, learning vocabulary is all about memory-processing and remembering new combinations of meaningful sounds and symbols to communicate with a new speech community (Tracy, 1996)

Cognitive psychologists divide memory into short-term memory and long-term memory according to duration of memory retention and capacity of recalling information after the original input According to Grains &Redman (1986, p.86), the short-term memory corresponds approximately to the initial moment that an item is perceived It is characterized by the duration of memory retention from seconds to minutes and generally characterized as of strictly limited capacity and duration Stored information can also be retrieved in a period of time, which ranges

from days to years; that is called long-term memory Unlike short-term memory, which is limited in capacity, long-term memory is seemingly inexhaustible and can accommodate any amount of new information

When learning L2, learners often have problems trying to retain words for a long time They fail to put the words into long-term memory So, what could be done to enhance long-term retention? According to Jeffrey and Henry (2006), repeated retrieval is considered “the key to enhancing later retention” Linda (2006) also shares the same view when she points out that “the most powerful and simple technique to improve retention is repetition” Decay theory has long constituted that information will lose if it is not regularly activated, just as new words are forgotten if they are not recycled in some way and made into long-term memory

In short, it is the memory process to receive, store and retrieve the new information For language teachers, the main concern is to ensure that what is taught will be permanently retained in long-term memory Therefore, classroom activities should take these memory theories and facts into account in developing and facilitating efficient retrieval systems

1.2.2 Major factors affecting word memorization

The findings of the cognitive research of Sharifian (2000) can provide teachers with insights about the nature of memory and memory enhancement Sharifian states that learners are more likely to remember the items that they have generated in one-way

or another, either totally or partially, that the items they have just read or memorized The retention for an item is also improved in memory when it is placed among set of items that are semantically homogenous with each other but odds with the new item Research has shown differences in comprehension and general memory for a text at different times of a day, too In that point, immediate recall and recognition of sentences and texts involved more maintenance of superficial linguistic forms in the morning and elaborative and integrative process in the

afternoon This means that in the morning the surface linguistics forms, which are usually retained in short-term memory for a limited period, are remembered better, while in the afternoon the semantic features, which are mainly retained in long-term memory

Grains and Redman (1986) show that learning new items involved storing them first

in the short-term memory and then in the long-term memory, and the long-term memory can hold any amount of information They also suggest that “our mental lexicon” is highly organized and efficient, and that semantic related items are stored together Word frequency is another factor that affects storage, as the most frequently used items are easier to retrieve We can use this information in order to attempt and facilitate the learning process by grouping items of vocabulary in semantic fields such as topics” (p.37)

Research shows that if there is elaboration on the meaning, for example encountering the item in different contexts, subsequent retrieval is enhanced Shallower processing is more sensory than semantic, remembering by seeing or hearing the item only This means the learner meets the item in only one context that is much more forgettable in the long term

1.3 Content-based instructions

1.3.1 What is Content-based instruction (CBI)?

The term content-based instruction is commonly used to describe approaches to

integrating language and content instruction, but it is not always used in the same way For example, Crandall and Tucker (1990) define it as “ an approach to language instruction that integrates the presentation of topics or tasks from subject matter classes (e.g., math, social studies) within the context of teaching a second or foreign language” (p 187) Curtain and Pesola (1994) use the term in a more restricted way, limiting it to only those “ curriculum concepts being taught through the foreign language appropriate to the grade level of the students ”

In addition, Brinton, Snow, & Wesche (1989) claimed that content-based instruction (CBI) is a significant approach in language education It is designed to provide second-language learners instruction in content and language Historically, the word

content has changed its meaning in language teaching Content used to refer to the

methods of grammar-translation, audio-lingual methodology and vocabulary or sound patterns in dialog form Recently, content is interpreted as the use of subject matter as a vehicle for second or foreign language teaching/learning

According to Brinton (2006) discipline-based language instruction, and the broader

"content-based" approach to which it belongs, are part of a trend at all educational levels aiming at the development of use-oriented second and foreign language skills Content-based language teaching is distinguished first of all by the concurrent learning of a specific content and related language use skills in a

"content driven" curriculum, i.e., with the selection and sequence of language elements determined by the content

Content-based instruction (CBI) is a teaching method that emphasizes learning

about something rather than learning about language In recent years,

content-based instruction has become increasingly popular as a means of developing linguistic ability Although CBI is not new, there has been an increased interest in it over the last ten years, and it has proven very effective in ESL immersion programs This interest has now spread to EFL classrooms around the world where teachers are discovering that their students like CBI and are excited to learn English this way

Content-based instruction focuses not on the language itself, but rather on what is being taught through the language; that is, the language becomes the medium through which something new is learned In the CBI approach the student learns the target language by using it to learn other new content The language being learned and used is taught within the context of the content The theory behind CBI is that when students are engaged with more content, it will promote intrinsic motivation

Students will be able to use more advanced thinking skills when learning new information and will focus less on the structure of the language This approach is very student-centered as it depends entirely on the students‟ ability to use the language

1.3.2 Benefits of content-based instructions

Learners are exposed to a considerable amount of language through stimulating content They explore interesting content & are engaged in appropriate language-dependant activities As a result, learning language becomes automatic CBI also supports contextualized learning; learners are taught useful language that is embedded within relevant discourse contexts rather than as isolated language fragments Hence students make greater connections with the language & what they already know In content-based instructions, complex information is delivered through real life context for the students to grasp well & leads to intrinsic motivation Moreover, CBI information is reiterated by strategically delivering information at right time & situation compelling the students to learn out of passion Besides, greater flexibility and adaptability in the curriculum can be deployed as per the student‟s interest

1.3.3 Comparison with other approaches

The CBI approach is comparable to English for Specific Purposes (ESP), which usually is for vocational or occupational needs or English for Academic Purposes (EAP) The goal of CBI is to prepare students to acquire the language while using the context of any subject matter so that students learn the language by using it within the specific context Rather than learning a language out of context, it is learned within the context of a specific academic subject

As educators realized that in order to successfully complete an academic task, second language (L2) learners have to master both English as a language form (grammar, vocabulary, etc.) and how English is used in core content classes, they

started to implement various approaches such as sheltered instruction and learning

to learn in CBI classes Sheltered instruction is more of a teacher-driven approach that puts the responsibility on the teachers' shoulders This is the case by stressing several pedagogical needs to help learners achieve their goals, such as teachers having knowledge of the subject matter, knowledge of instructional strategies to comprehensible and accessible content, knowledge of L2 learning processes and the ability to assess cognitive, linguistic and social strategies that students use to assure content comprehension while promoting English academic development Learning

to learn is more of a student-centered approach that stresses the importance of having the learners share this responsibility with their teachers Learning to learn emphasizes the significant role that learning strategies play in the process of learning In content-based instruction, motivation and interest are crucial in supporting student success with challenging, informative activities that support success and which help the student learn complex skills (Grabe & Stoller, 1997) When students are motivated and interested in the material they are learning, they make greater connections between topics, elaborations with learning material and can recall information better (Alexander, Kulikowich, & Jetton, 1994: Krapp, Hidi,

& Renninger, 1992) In short, when a student is intrinsically motivated, s/he achieves more This in turn leads to a perception of success, of gaining positive attributes which will continue a circular learning pattern of success and interest Krapp, Hidi and Renninger (1992) state, "situational interest, triggered by environmental factors, may evoke or contribute to the development of long-lasting individual interests" (p 18) Because CBI is student-centered, one of its goals is to keep students interested and motivation high by generating stimulating content instruction and materials

1.3.4 What does a content-based instruction lesson look like?

There are many ways to approach creating a CBI lesson This is one possible way

* Preparation

- Choose a subject of interest to students

- Find three or four suitable sources that deal with different aspects of the subject These could be websites, reference books, audio or video of lectures or even real people

* During the lesson

- Divide the class into small groups and assign each group a small research task and a source of information to use to help them fulfill the task

- Then once they have done their research, they form new groups with students that used other information sources and share and compare their information

- Next, there should be some product as the end result of this sharing of information which could take the form of a group report or presentation of some kind

1.4 Previous studies

A number of studies on vocabulary retention have been conducted Jahangard (2007) suggests that there is no statistically significant difference between the students‟ ability to memorize the technical and the general vocabulary In fact, memory efficiency for both types of vocabulary was found to be equal It seems that the pace of forgetting for both types of vocabulary is almost the same

The experiment conducted by Đỗ Thị Thu Hà (2007) aimed to investigate the impact of language games on students‟ retention of ESP vocabulary at Nam Định College of Construction The quasi-experiment was conducted in 10 weeks with

100 students in the two randomly assigned groups Three tests were administered and the results of the tests were analyzed by using Paired Samples T-test and Independent t-test The findings of the study indicated that language games made contribution to students‟ ESP vocabulary retention Also, there was a distinction

between the strong students and the weak ones in the experimental group: the strong became better whereas the weak remained the same without any changes Moreover, each language game had different effects on participants Finally, the ignorance of the phonetic transcriptions and word stress resulted in unsuccessful retention of words Thus, teachers should take this information into account when presenting new words in class

Sharing the same idea, Akbari (2008) investigated the effectiveness of teaching vocabulary items through contextualization and pictures to elementary Iranian EFL students The experiment was divided into three almost homogeneous groups and received different treatments Vocabulary items were presented through pictures one group and in the other group they were used in contexts and model sentences

In the control group, the new words were presented through definitions and synonyms The pretest was administered to determine if there were any significant differences between the three groups The results showed that both picture and context enhanced vocabulary development of the learners better than definitions and synonyms did

These outcomes of previous studies can be regarded as valuable source of academic references for language teachers They prove that pictures enhance the learners‟ memorization in vocabulary learning However, there have not many studies to measure the effectiveness of using content-based instructions In fact at HCACT, the use of the above techniques in teaching and learning vocabulary has never been taken seriously Therefore, this study is expected to be to find out how the application of CBI can improve vocabulary retention of students at HCACT

1.5 Summary

This chapter is an overview of literature related to the study The first section of the chapter reviews the concepts of vocabulary memorization The second part

discusses vocabulary memorization in language learning such as short-term and long-term memory, major factors affecting word memorization

This chapter also briefly presents the definitions of content-based instructions, its benefits and a comparison with other approaches While CBI can be both challenging and demanding for the teacher and the students, it can also be very stimulating and rewarding The degree to which this approach is adopted may well depend on the willingness of the students, the institution where the teacher works and the availability of resources there

This chapter also presents a quick sketch of some previous related studies The methodology and outcomes of previous studies concerning the use of pictorial illustration and language games in enhancing learners‟ vocabulary retention and are reviewed However, there have not many researches on the effectiveness of using content-based instructions in teaching vocabulary Therefore, in this study, the author tries to do that work to add more information and result to confirm the effectiveness of this method

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter is concerned with the methodology employed in the study, and describes the subjects and the data collection instruments

2.1 Research question re-stated

As stated in “Introduction”, the purpose of the study is to find out whether teaching vocabulary through content-based instructions helps the second year students memorize vocabulary better The study aims to address the following question:

How do content-based instructions help students at HCACT improve the effectiveness of their vocabulary retention?

2.2 Methodology

2.2.1 An action research process

According to Parsons and Brown (2002), an action research is a form of investigation designed for use by teachers to attempt to solve problems and improve professional practices in their own classrooms It involves systematic observations and data collection which can be then used by the practitioner-researcher in reflection, decision-making and the development of more effective classroom strategies In Miller‟s point of view (2007), she claims that an action research is a natural part of teaching Teachers are continually observing students, collecting data and changing practices to improve student learning and the classroom and school environment Action research provides a framework that guides the energies of teachers toward a better understanding of why, when, and how students become

In generally, there are fives phases in an action research; First of all the researcher has to select an area of focus or identify an area of interest The issue must be important to him/her, the program, his/her students The issue will be a problem that needs to be solved In the thesis, the author found that her students‟ vocabulary retention was always a problem, she thought deeply and wanted to take an action to

make the situation improving Next the researcher himself/ herself gives an action plan which shows what strategies he/ she will implement and when he/she will do them To the problem here the author observed the class and wrote a diary then she had three vocabulary tests to check students‟ vocabulary size after the treatment in

06 weeks Collecting the data is the next phase Good data are directly related to the question, use more than one strategy or source of information for each question The data should be collected and monitored regularly When you are no longer learning anything new about your questions, it‟s time to stop collecting and start analyzing and interpreting data While doing this phase, the researcher has to analyze and interpret these materials for understanding and action then determine the most promising actions The last stage of the research process is to share your findings that the researcher has found while doing the research Here the author shared four findings about the using content-based instructions in teaching vocabulary

In short, the author seeing that the design of an action research is the most practical and feasible for her to conduct the present study

2.2.2 Participants

Participants in the study are 45 first-year students aged between 19 and 22 from the class of NVDL K13, who major in Hotel and Restaurant studies at HCACT They had completed the General English course and were learning ESP The textbook

used for this course was “May I help you”, a pre-intermediate course book, which

was written by Yates (1997)

2.2.3 Treatment

Words were presented to the classes for 6 weeks (60 periods in total) by means of content-based instructions The presentation paid more attention to their content than the meaning, grammar, transcription and pronunciation of the vocabulary from the context For example, the author could give the class a text about herbs and spices, then divide the class into 4 groups and assign each group a small research

task to understand the 4 paragraphs of the text When finishing the task, students formed new group to share and compare their information After each lesson, the students had time to do activities and exercises guided by the teacher to check their word memorization Three tests of vocabulary after every 2 weeks were administered in order to measure the improving students‟ vocabulary retention

2.2.4 The teaching context

2.2.4.1 The teaching material

The teaching material is “May I help you”, a pre-intermediate course book, which was written by Yates (1997) In this book, speaking, listening skills and vocabulary are designed to be taught in an integrated manner in each lesson Vocabulary section comprises approximately twenty percent of the whole lesson The teachers often spend from 25 to 35 minutes teaching vocabulary

The course book consists of 12 units In the second semester of the first year, students are scheduled to complete six units in 60 forty-five-minute periods Each unit is organized and named after a particular topic such as jobs, food and drinks, kitchen utensils, etc

As stated above, the intervention involved vocabulary teaching to 45 students from class of TCNVDL K13 The vocabulary teaching plan was set up on the basis of the textbook in use There were 12 vocabulary lessons which were scheduled as follows:

WEEK LESSON VOCABULARY TEACHING TIME

1 1 Jobs in the restaurant and hotel 25-30 minutes

2 Facilities in the restaurant 25-30 minutes

2 3 Drinks in the bar 20-25 minutes

4 Food (vegetables, fruits…) 30-35 minutes