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In order to find out the contextualization difficulties that IT students at HUI encounter in their learning IT jargon, the study listed some elements of context, aspects of word knowledg

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE

CONTEXTUALIZATION PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED

BY INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STUDENTS

AT THE HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF

INDUSTRY IN THEIR LEARNING

TECHNICAL JARGON

Submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature

in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL

By NGUYEN THI BICH

Supervised by

LE HOANG DUNG, PHD

HO CHI MINH CITY, OCTOBER 2011

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Le Hoang Dung, Ph.D., who spent a lot of time and great patience correcting my thesis and gave me helpful guidance, valuable comments for my thesis I owe my thesis supervisor a debt of gratitude forever and I never forget his deserts

My great thanks go to my previous instructors, Nguyen Thanh Tung, Ph.D., and Peter Leonard, M., who helped me a lot when I started my thesis Especially,

Mr Nguyen Thanh Tung suggested the topic of the thesis - vocabulary contextualization

Many thanks also go to lovely IT students who participate in this research They were not only the subject of the thesis, but also a source of inspiration for

my research

I would like to express my deep gratitude to all my teachers and my family members who always support me during the time of conducting this thesis

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STUDENTS AT THE HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY IN THEIR LEARNING TECHNICAL JARGON

in terms of the statement of Requirement for Theses in Master’s Programs issued

by the Higher Degree Committee This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institution

Ho Chi Minh City, October 11, 2011

NGUYEN THI BICH

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that, I- Nguyen Thi Bich, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the library

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses

Ho Chi Minh City, October 11, 2011

NGUYEN THI BICH

TABLE OF CONTENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY II RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS III TABLE OF CONTENT V ABSTRACT……….IX

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background to the study 1

1.1.1 The importance of learning English in Vietnam today 1

1.1.2 Learning English at Hochiminh City University of Industry…… 1

1.1.3 The importance of contextualization in learning IT jargon 2

1.1.4 IT English in Vietnam and at HUI 4

1.2 Purpose of the Study and the research question 4

1.3 Delimitation and limitation 5

1.4 Significance of the study 5

1.5 Organization of the thesis 6

CHAPTER 2- REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 8

2.1 What is context……… 8

2.1.1 What does context refer to in language use……… 8

2.1.2 Elements of Context……… 9

2.1.2.1 The Linguistic Context 11

2.1.2.2 The Situational Context 12

2.1.3 Context and communicative competence 14

2.1.4 Context in retaining vocabulary 16

2.2 Vocabulary knowledge 18

2.2.1 The meaning(s) of the word 19

2.2.2 The written forms 20

2.2.3 The spoken form 21

2.2.4 The grammatical behavior of the word 22

2.2.5 Register 24

2.2.6 Frequency and Collocation 24

2.2.7 Word associations 25

2.2.8 Conclusion of word knowledge 26

2.3 Vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) 26

2.3.1 Determination strategies 27

2.3.2 Social strategies (SOC 29

2.3.3 Memory strategies (MEM) 30

2.3.4 Cognitive strategies (COG) 31

2.3.5 Metacognitive strategies (MET) 31

2.3.6 The conclusion of VLS 32

2.4 Conceptual Framework of the Study 32

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 38

3.1 Research site 38

3.2 Research respondents 38

3.3 Research instrument 38

3.4 Collection of data 41

3.5 Treatment of data 42

CHAPTER 4- DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS 43

4.1 Analysis of data 43

4.1.1 Part I -Vocabulary learning strategies 44

4.1.1.1 - Group 1: Students’ activities 44

a The students’ activities to acquire word knowledge aspects 44

b The students’ activities to use context’s elements in learning vocabulary 52

c The activities the students perform most 55

d Summary of group 1 – Students’ activities 58

4.1.1.2 - Group 2: Students’ awareness 58

a Students’ awareness of word knowledge aspects 59

b Students’ awareness of context elements 63

c Summary of Group 2: Students’ awareness 66

4.1.1.3Conclusion of part I 68

4.1.2 Part II : Students’ guessing strategies 68

4.1.2.1 Finding the definitions of new words 69

4.1.2.2 Finding synonyms and antonyms of the new words 72

4.1.2.3 Finding examples illustrating the meanings of new words 75

4.1.2.4 Using logic to get word meaning from context 79

4.1.2.5 Summary of Students’ guessing strategies 81

4.1.3 Conclusion 84

4.2 Discussion of the results 85

4.2.1 Problems of using situational context 85

4.2.2 Problems of using linguistic context 87

4.2.3 Word knowledge problems 88

4.2.4 Summary 91

CHAPTER 5 – CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS 92

5.1 Summary of the major findings 92

5.1.1 Word knowledge problems 92

5.1.2 Linguistic contexts problems 93

5.1.3 Situational context problems 93

5.1.4 Summary 94

5.2 Suggestions 94

5.2.1 Suggestions of using word knowledge 94

5.2.2 Suggestions of using context (contextualization 95

5.3 Conclusion 95

REFERENCES 98

Appendix 1-Survey questionnaire to it students 99

Phụ lục tiếng Việt – Bảng bút vấn dành cho sinh viên 106

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1a Summary of Contextualization Strategies 35

Table 1b Summary of strategies of guessing word meaning in context 36

Table 2a Summary of the part A of questionnaire 40

Table 2b Summary of the part B of questionnaire 41

Table 3a Students’ activities of using word knowledge 44

Table 3b Students’s activities to use context’s elements 52

Table 3c The activities students perform most 56

Table 4a Students’ awareness of word knowledge 59

Table 4b Students’ awareness of context elements 63

Table 5a Strategies to guess word meanings in context 81

Table 5b Contextual signs students use to guess word meanings 82

Table 5c The answers of exercises 83

LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 The map of Situational context 13

Figure 2 Context Elements 33

Figure 3a Student’s activities to acquire word knowledge 51

Figure 3b Activities of using context’s elements 55

Figure 3c Item 3: The activities students do most 57

Figure 4a Students’ awareness of word knowledge aspects 63

Figure 4b Students’ awareness of context’s elements 66

Figure 4 Students’ awareness 67

Figure 5a Finding definition of new words 70

Figure 5b Item 12 -Using definition structures 70

Figure 5c Item 14 - Using ‘that is’ 71

Figure 5d Item 16 - Using phrase ‘in other words’ 71

Figure 5e The right answers to exercises of finding definitions 72

Figure 6a Finding synonyms of new words 73

Figure 6b Finding antonyms of new words 73

Figure 6c Item 11 - Using dashes 74

Figure 6d Item 8 - Using comma 74

Figure 6e The right answers to exercise of synonyms and antonyms 75

Figure 7a Finding examples 76

Figure 7b Using parentheses 76

Figure 7c Using quotes 77

Figure 7d Using phrase ‘such as’ 77

Figure 7e Using ‘for example’ 78

Figure 7f The right answers to exercises about finding examples 78

Figure 8a Finding logic of new words and the whole paragraph 80

Figure 8b Finding logic of new words and the whole sentence 80

Figure 8c Using literal meaning 80

Figure 8d The right responses to exercises about logic 81

ABSTRACT

This study aims to find out the contextualization problems encountered by IT students at Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry (hereinafter called HUI) in

their learning information technology jargon

Context is a useful factor for students in their learning vocabulary It helps students guess words’ meanings and some other aspects of word knowledge However, contextualization is their difficult process In order to find out the contextualization difficulties that IT students at HUI encounter in their learning IT jargon, the study listed some elements of context, aspects of word knowledge, vocabulary learning strategies, and some strategies of guessing word meaning in context in the Questionnaire The findings showed the strength and the weakness

of students in learning IT jargon, especially in guessing word meaning in context The results also expressed students’ contextualization problems in their learning IT jargon

The survey was carried out among 45 IT students at HUI The students were asked 6 questions of part I and 38 questions of part II regarding how much they used vocabulary learning strategies and strategies of guessing word meaning in context, word knowledge aspects, and context’s elements in their learning vocabulary

The study found that not many students use contextualization in their learning vocabulary Some of the major reasons include (1) their lack of vocabulary that caused difficulties in understanding and reading texts; (2) and their lack of awareness of some aspects of word knowledge which inhibited them in using vocabulary and using linguistic contexts; (3) It also found that students’ weakness

of using linguistic context certainly leads to the weakness of employing or guessing words in situational contexts

The thesis suggests that IT students at HUI should pay more attention to different aspects of word knowledge and word usage in order to achieve their own skills of using words in contexts and produce utterances that can communicate their ideas in the technical context

CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION

In order to give readers orientation in reading this thesis, the introduction chapter of this study consists of (1) background to the study, (2) purpose of the study and the research question, (3) Delimitation and limitation, (4) Significance of the study, and (5) organization of the thesis

1.1- Background to the study

1.1.1- The importance of learning English in Vietnam today

Learning English attracts great attention of Vietnamese people nowadays Vietnam is a developing country, so to gain the achievements in technology and science is the only way for Vietnam to step up English is not only the language of developed countries like the USA, the UK, Australia but it already become the most popular language in the world As Broughton, Et All (1980: 6) stated “A good command of English in second language situation is considered as a passport

to social and economic advancement.” (cited in Tran Thanh Du, 2010: 1) This leads to the explosion of learning English in Vietnam Everyone tries to equip themselves with the most effective communicative medium- English Trench wrote

in his report on UNDP project VIE/80/53 in Vietnam: “There is enormous enthusiasm for learning English in Vietnam on the part of learners and the government attaches great important English language teaching.” (Trench, J., 1983: 8, cited in Tran Kim Hang, 2004) This is also confirmed by the situation of learning English in Vietnam English is a compulsory subject taught at secondary schools, universities Besides, there are more English centers, schools in Vietnam

as well as different kinds of books for learning English

The importance of English in Viet Nam leads to so many studies of teaching English in order to better English teaching and learning processes English is not less essential at Hochiminh City University of Industry than in any other places This is the reason for conducting a research at the University

1.1.2- Learning English at Hochiminh City University of Industry

Being aware of the importance of learning English for students, the leaders

of Hochiminh City University of Industry (hereafter it is abbreviated to HUI) have issued regulations ( Students manual, 2006: 331) that all the students at HUI have

to earn appropriate certificates in English before sitting for university graduation exams For example, college students have to earn certificates of intermediate level in English, and university students have to earn those of advance level According to HUI’s Scientific Management’s statistics, HUI currently enroll more than 60,000 students, all of whom have to learn English as a compulsory subject It

is a difficult task to make them good at English and be able to communicate in English

The English curriculum at HUI consists of “American Headway 2” – an EGP component which uses as the textbook, a grammar course that uses the textbook “Grammar in Use”, and a course on Technical English Those courses supply students with English Grammar and four skills – listening, speaking, reading, and writing as well as technical jargons that prepare for their future jobs

To ease this burden, The University invites about 40 visiting teachers from different universities and colleges besides 44 full time faculties from the English Department and 20 from others

The situation of English at Hochiminh City University of Industry urges English teachers to have better methods in their teaching job

1.1.3- The importance of contextualization in learning IT jargon

Teachers are always ready to improve their teaching methods which aim at students’ learning results So much research over the years has been done in the world The research focused on the linguistic properties (psycholinguistic or sociolinguistic), pragmatic aspects, social factors that influence second language acquisition Rod Ellis in his book “The Study of Second Language Acquisition” has shown the scene of linguistic research: ‘The developments in SLA research over the years have been of several kinds One development concerns the scope of the field of enquiry Whereas much of earlier work focused on the linguistic – and,

in particular, the grammatical- properties of learner language and was psycholinguistic in orientation, later work has also attended to the pragmatic aspects of learner language and, increasingly, has adopted a sociolinguistic perspective Thus, whereas many researchers continue to focus their attention on how L2 learners develop the ability to perform speech acts such as requests or

apologies appropriately’ (1994:1) Celce-Murcia and Olshtain (2000: 74) also give

an emphasis to productive use of vocabulary because they feel ‘this area has been neglected’ Meanwhile, one of decisive factors for this field of research is context and its influence on the producing utteraces Thus, the matter that cannot be avoided is the need to study contextualization and the problems students meet when they are using it

As the researchers all over the world work on very large scopes of linguistics, there are also a lot of studies of USSH (University of Social Sciences and Humanities) that focus on teaching or learning different linguistic aspects, or

on the ways of students’ learning to improve their communicative competence Among linguistic elements, ‘vocabulary will still be the largest single elements in teaching a new language for the learner’ (McCarthy, 1991: 64)

Due to the role of vocabulary in learning and teaching a language, it has been studied by many researchers not only in the world, but also in Viet Nam There are two benefits from vocabulary First, having enough vocabulary enables learners to talk, to watch TV, or to read newspapers and other kinds of books Second, vocabulary in use under the effects of context and repetition becomes easier to memorize These benefits are confirmed by John Morgan and Mario Rinvolucri as follows: ‘Encountering and ‘understanding’ a word are seldom enough: as with meeting people, there need to be depth and interaction for the encounter to be memorable’ (1986:4) It can be said that contextualization is the most effective means of both learning vocabulary and using it

The effects of context above show that context is very important in learning

a language in general, vocabulary in particular The role of context is also expressed in the receptive and productive processes ‘Some of the later research has operated within a different framework- one that acknowledges the role of context On the one hand researchers have recognized that we need to examine not only the language produced by the learner but also the language addressed to her That is why the properties of the input may be reflected in the properties of the output in various ways On the other hand researchers have recognized that the situational context in which learner is attempting to communicate will influence

her output’ (Ellis, 1987: 3) The research affirms that situational context covers overall communication – both output and input processes

Therefore, teaching and learning vocabulary in context have found the acceptance of a lot of the researchers, linguists, language teachers and learners

‘Most are already in agreement that vocabulary should, wherever possible, be taught in context’ (McCarthy, 1991: 64) This is the reason to learn vocabulary in context

1.1.4- IT English in Vietnam and at HUI

Information Technology’s necessity in this world can’t be denied It is widely used all over the world The essential role of IT is shown in the Information Technology Act passed by National Assembly of Vietnam on July 12th 2006 This Act regulates all the activities concerning Information Technology Some circulars and decisions issued by Vietnam’s Government have given teacher’s criteria at colleges and Universities in Vietnam, such as the decision No 58/2010/QÑ-Ttg dated September 22nd 2010 and the circular No 30/2010/TT-BLDTBXH dated September 29th 2010 These legal documents show that teachers must have appropriate levels of foreign languages and information technology in order to meet the requirements of their jobs Appropriate levels of foreign languages and Information Technology are also required at Vietnamese Universities and HUI is not an exception

It is clear that internet is the most powerful means of communication to day Meanwhile, English is mainly used on the internet and IT books, and IT devices This reason makes English become the essential factor to achieve success in IT learning and business

The above information shows the importance of Enrglish in learning Information Technology in Vietnam in general, at HUI in particular as well as the needs for this study

1.2- Purpose of the Study and the research question

At Hochiminh City University of Industry students use different methods to learn English vocabulary Some students are able to contextualize vocabulary to

make utterances, to understand the ideas of the utterances that they receive Synchronously, they consolidate their vocabulary and put it in their long-term memory The matter is the factors that help them and prevent them from vocabulary contextualization to communicate their ideas

In that context, this purpose of the study is to find out the problems that the HUI’s students meet in learning vocabulary in context, including guessing word meanings in context The study supplies students with strategies of using context in their learning vocabulary as well as helps students know their weakness and strength The results help students to better the vocabulary learning in general, IT jargon’s learning in particular

The study aims to answer the guiding research question :

What contextualization problems do IT students at HUI encounter in their

learning IT jargon?

1.3-Delimitation and limitation

Research on contextualization is an enormous matter that exceeds the ability

of this thesis’ writer Therefore, the study concentrates on the strategies students use to guess word meanings in context - besides, the study tries to provide readers with some general information about contextualization in vocabulary learning From the information about vocabulary learning strategies the study finds out how much the IT students use context in their learning, especially in guessing word meanings in context

Furthermore, the constant changing of information technology leads to changing of IT jargon causing difficulties for students in learning vocabulary Because the subject of this study is only IT students at HUI, the results of the study would reflect the vocabulary learning situation of a quite small group of students

1.4- Significance of the study

Over the years there have been a lot of scholarly research studies of vocabulary learning and teaching strategies that confirm the role of context in learning a language in general, in learning vocabulary in particular Those studies focus on what strategies students use and should use in learning vocabulary, but the difficulties students encounter in vocabulary contextualization

Finding the contextualization problems encountered by IT students at HUI is very useful and necessary for students and teachers to improve the vocabulary learning for communicative purpose First, the study points out the meaning of context as well as the vocabulary aspects covered by context Second, the thesis emphasizes the vital role of word knowledge in contextualization in learning vocabulary in general, in guessing word meanings in context in particular Third, findings from the survey questionnaire show some contextualization problems IT students encounter while learning IT vocabulary Finally, the thesis provides students with some suggestions of vocabulary learning strategies for the communicative purpose

1.5- Organization of the thesis

As mentioning at the start, the introduction chapter establishes a framework for the research It is necessary to present the organization of the thesis in order that readers can acquire the overview of the research study The organization of this thesis consists of 5 chapters: (1) introduction, (2) review of related literature, (3) methodology, (4) data analysis and discussion of results, and (5) conclusion and suggestions

The first chapter – introduction- informs readers about background to the study, its population, significance, aims, the research question and an overview of the study Through the first chapter, readers would receive the controlling ideas of the thesis as well as the process of research study

The next chapter – review of related literature- accomplishes several purposes of the literature review presented by John W Creswell: ‘It shares with the readers the results of other studies that are closely related to the study being reported It provides a framework for establishing the importance of the study as well as a benchmark for comparing the results of a study with other findings’ (2003: 29&30) Based on the above theory, the review of related literature of this thesis consists of some research on (a) context with its elements, its role in vocabulary retention and its relationship with communicative competence; (b) word knowledge through which the study shows the relationship between context elements and word knowledge aspects; and (c) contextualization vocabulary

learning strategies which are basis for description of students vocabulary learning process There are also two tables which summarize contextualization strategies and strategies of guessing word meaning in context The findings of the research are analyzed according to these tables

Following chapter 2 (review of related literature), chapter 3- methodology- describes research site, research respondents, research instrument, collection of data, and treatment of data This part gives the readers an overview of research process Chapter 4 analyses the data and discusses the results This chapter helps the researcher answer the research question and give some suggestions and conclusion in chapter 5

CHAPTER 2- REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter – Review of Related Literature- presents a review of some of researchers’ scholarly opinions related to vocabulary, vocabulary learning, and contextualization This review is a theoretical basis for the study and construction

of its research questionnaire

2.1 What is context?

One of the most important factors to be studied in the thesis is context Why

is it so important? Does context cover language use? The answer to these questions

is that ‘If the context is taken away, so hearers have nothing to guide them in their guesses, the result is often quite bizarre’ (Aitchison, 1987:178) Furthermore, ‘a

language is what the members of a particular society speak’(Wardhaugh, 1986: 1)

The definition above confirms the idea that language is a social phenomenon and language use cannot happen without context The matter to be solved in this part is understanding of context’s concept

The followings are some previous research on context that provides more understandings of context and context’s role in learning vocabulary which helps the study to design its questionnaire

2.1.1- What does context refer to in language use?

Rod Ellis in his book “Second Language Acquisition in Context” writes :

‘The term context often defined with reference to the actual situation in which a communicative event takes place As Lyons (1977:572) puts it, context is : a theoretical construct in the postulation of which the linguist abstracts from the actual situation and establishes as contextual all the factors which, by virtue of their influence upon the participants in a language event, systematically determine the form, the appropriacy and the meaning of utterances’ (1987:6) Context is here mentioned as a structure on which utterances are created However, this definition has not referred to context’s elements, so its structure cannot be imagined There is

a clearer definition of Context :‘The term Context in discourse analysis refers to all the factors and elements that are nonlinguistic and nontextual but which affect

spoken or written communicative interaction Halliday (1991:5) describes context

as “the events that are going on around when people speak or write”’ (Marianna & Elite, 2000 :11) To some extent, this definition is not sufficient for this study for

it is not specific So Marianna and Elite give a more comprehensive definition of context According to this, context is:

1 all the factors and elements that are nonlinguistic and nontextual, but which affect spoken and written communicative interaction

2 the social, psychological, physical setting in which language use takes place The context often helps in understanding the particular meaning of the word, phrase, and so forth

3 discourse context (co-text) – prior and subsequent textual forms and information that may have a bearing on interpreting some items in or portion of the text.’(2000:236)

The definition above describes context as all the things happen around the word, phrase, or sentences, and so forth which enhances and complements the meaning of the utterances Ann M Johns also explains the meaning of word

‘context’ quite clearly: “Context refers not merely to a physical place, such as a

classroom, or a particular publication, such as a journal, but to all of the nonlinguistic and nontextual elements that contribute to the situation in which reading and writing are accomplished Thus, context refers to “the events that are going on around when people speak [and write]” (1997:27)

On the upshot, context is not only simulative factor that helps people understand the ideas expressed, but also the place where the utterance and L2 learning take place

2.1.2- Elements of Context

If the above definitions are chosen as the base on which the context elements are defined, context includes the (1) nonlinguistic and nontextual factors affecting utterances, the social, psychological, physical settings in which utterances take place, and prior and subsequent information interpreting some item

or portion of the utterances The above definitions show that context consists of two factors : linguistic and extra linguistic elements

Context elements are also determined in the book ‘Second Language

Acquisition in Context’ edited by Rod Ellis (1987) as follows : ‘the term context,

considering both the extra linguistic and linguistic factors that influence language choice’ (1987: 5) In addition to the definition of context, Ellis presents some definitions of linguistic and situational contexts: ‘Linguistic elements are generally

referred to as the linguistic context and the extralinguistic elements as the

situational context,’(1987: 7) Also, linguistic elements in the context’s definitions

by Marianna and Elite refer to the co-text (discourse context)- the information explaining the utterances and extra -linguistic context is seen as the settings where the utterances happen, and factors affecting the utterances The linguistic context and the extra linguistic context are also confirmed in the book “Discourse and Context in Language Teaching” written by Marianne Celce-Murcia and Elite Olshtain:

‘Duranti and Goodwin (1992) propose four types of context:

a setting (physical and interactive)

b behavioral environment (nonverbal and kinetic)

c language (co-text and reflexive use of language)

d extra situational (social, political, cultural, and the like)’

(2000 : 12)

In language learning in general, vocabulary learning process in particular, the “setting” and “language” are considered more important than the others ‘For specific purposes, two of these types of context are particularly important, corresponding roughly to Duranti and Goodwin’s (a) and (c) respectively: (1) the situational context – i.e., the purpose, the participants, and the physical and temporal setting where communication is taking place (i.e., analyzed as pragmatics) and (2) the discourse context (co-text)- the stream of prior and subsequent language in which a language segment or an exchange occurs (i.e., analyzed as discourse) For example, if someone encounters a friend and says

“Hello,” the person expects some sort of oral response Or, if one hears as utterance such as “who else was there?” one looks to prior discourse about the people present at some event in order to interpret the utterance ’ (Marianna &

Elite, 2000 : 12) The study will go further to discourse context called linguistic context (language) and situational context (settings) which strongly affect the vocabulary learning process

2.1.2.1-The Linguistic Context

As it is said above, discourse (or linguistic) context is the stream of prior and subsequent language in which a language segment or an exchange occurs Meanwhile, discourse is defined as a combination of two perspectives: internal relationships of form and meaning and external communicative functions or purposes Marianna and Elite in their book “Discourse and Context in Language Teaching” say that ‘the most satisfying definition of discourse is one that combines these two perspectives: a piece of discourse is an instance of spoken or written language that has describable internal relationships of form and meaning (e.g., words, structures and cohesion) that relate coherently to an external communicative function or purpose and a given audience/interlocutor Furthermore, the external function or purpose can only be properly determined if one takes into account the context and participants (i.e., all the relevant situational, social, and cultural factors) in which the piece of discourse occurs.’ (2000:4)

From the ideas presented, linguistic context consists of two perspectives – internal relationships of form and meaning and external communicative functions and purposes – that precedes or follows language segments and exchanges

However, Ellis claims that ‘the contract of ‘linguistic context’ should not

be limited to the preceding and following elements in isolated utterances It can be extended to include the verbal environment of whatever category the linguist chooses to examine.’ (1987:7) It is said that linguistic context which is consists of relationships of forms and meanings and communicative functions and purposes, is not only precedes and follows utterances, but also it covers the entire verbal environment

In short, linguistic context with its elements expresses its indispensability in choosing vocabulary as well as in understanding the utterances The knowledge of linguistic context is really helpful for this research to find out the contextualization problems of the participants of the study

2.1.2.2- The Situational Context

One more factor is not less important than linguistic context in vocabulary choosing and understanding the utterances is situational context This is the second type of context which happens synchronously with the discourse context ‘The situational context can be defined at the macro or the micro level At the macro level we can distinguish prototypical contexts or, as they are sometimes called

domains A domain is a grouping together of recurring situation types Examples

often cited in the literature are the school, the family, the church, government administration, etc Each domain is associated with the use of either a separate language or a particular variety of a single language Thus, different choices arise

in the domain of the school from the domain of the family.’ (Ellis, 1987: 7) Domain itself affects language user’s choice of vocabulary that is appropriate to specific situation

At micro level, Ellis (1987) listed some variables of situational context which are used in the study, by virtue of their plain and detailed definitions According to Ellis (1987), situational context consists of scene (setting and purpose), participants (idividual’s traits and the participants’ interrelation) These variables are described by Ellis (1987) as follows: ‘We need to examine how individual situational variables affect language choice There are a number of descriptions of these variables available to choose from One of the best known is that of Hymes (1974) The one we will briefly outline here is Brown and Fraser’s (1979) They begin by classifying ‘situation’ into ‘scene’ and ‘participants’ Scene’ is in turn divided into ‘setting’ and ‘purpose’ The former involves such factors as who the bystanders (i.e non-active participants in the language event) are, and what the location or time is Purpose is described in term of activity type (e.g buying, lecturing, or playing a game) The participants’ category of Brown and Fraser’s framework is also further subdivided There are various factors to do with the participants as ‘individuals’ (e.g personality , interests, moods, social class, ethnic background) and other factors to do with how the participants interrelate (e.g their shared knowledge, social status and social power) The general framework is shown in Figure 1:

Situation Scene

Participants Individuals

Individual qua individual (e.g

personality , attitudes)

Individual

as member

of social category (e.g class, ethnicity)

Relationship between individuals (e.g shared knowledge, social power)

Figure 1 : The map of Situational context (Ellis, 1987: 8)

Those elements were mentioned a long time ago Writing about context, J.R.First (regarded by many as the founder of modern British linguistics) said that

‘A context of situation for linguistic work brings into relation the following categories:

A The relevant features of participants: persons, personalities

(i) The verbal action of the participants

(ii) The non-verbal action of the participants

B The relevant objects

C The effects of the verbal action’

Category (A) has the same meaning as the variable ‘individual’ raised by Ellis (1987) However, the category (A) is subdivided into the verbal action and non-verbal action There are some special things that verbal action and the effects

of verbal action mentioned by Brown & Yule (1983) and linguistic context raised

by Ellis have similar features Meanwhile, the non-verbal action of the participants and the relevant objects mentioned by Brown & Yule are the same as the situational context raised by Ellis (1987)

From the presentation above, we can see the factors of context in language use In fact, context with its elements decides how people use a language When producing and utterance, we must know :

- the setting where the utterance happens; the place (locale) and the time

- the purpose of the utterance

- the participants, the listeners, their knowledge, their social background

- language choice, how to produce it

The factors mentioned above are the basis for examining what factors the study’s participants consider in learning vocabulary and what problems they meet when using these factors

2.1.3- Context and communicative competence

When people communicate ideas, they always take account of relevant objects, relevant features of participants, and even effects of the verbal action In other words, the elements of situational context have a decisive influence on language choice to communicate ideas Therefore, there is an integrated relationship between context and communicative competence Furthermore, as described above, context itself consists of the elements that relate to communicative competence

This relationship can be seen in some definitions of communicative competence First of all, the study presents the definition of communicative competence by Ellis as follows : ‘Communicative competence consists of the knowledge that users of a language have internalized to enable them to understand and produce messages in the language Various models of communicative competence have been proposed, but most of them recognize that it entails both linguistic competence (for example, knowledge of grammatical rules) and pragmatic competence (for example, knowledge of what constitutes appropriate linguistic behaviour in a particular situation)’ (1994: 696) Two components of communicative competence are mentioned in this definition: the linguistic competence and pragmatic competence Douglas Brown (2000: 247) also presents components of communicative competence, but 4 subcategories They are (1)grammatical competence, (2) discourse competence, (3) sociolinguistic competence, and (4) strategic competence Two components presented in Ellis’s definition of communication competence are equivalent to the four subcategories

raised in Brown’s definition because ‘the first two subcategories reflect the use of the linguistic system itself; the last two define the functional aspects of communication’ (Brown 2000: 246&247) The two definitions mentioned above show the relationship between context’s elements and communication aspects This kind of relationship is also expressed in detail by some scholarly research

According to Brown (2000), ‘Grammatical competence is that aspect of communicative competence than encompasses “knowledge of lexical items and of rules of morphology, syntax, sentence-grammar semantics, and phonology” (Canale & Swain 1980:29) It is the competence that we associate with mastering the linguistic code of a language, “linguistic” competence’ (2000: 247) It is clear that linguistic code with its aspects is a bridge between linguistic context and linguistic competence (or grammatical competence) Similarly, linguistic context is also connected with discourse competence by discourse Because discourse competence is ‘the ability we have to connect sentences in stretches of discourse and to form a meaningful whole out of a series of utterances Discourse means everything from simple spoken conversation to lengthy written texts (articles, books, and the like)’ (Brown 2000: 247) Furthermore, Marianne Celce-Murcia and Elite Olshtain (2000: 236) mentioned discourse context as a type of context in their book ‘Discourse and Context in Language Teaching’ This confirms the relationship between linguistic context and linguistic competence

The relationship between sociolinguistic competence and situational context is formed by the factors like participants, function of the interaction, and the like Because situational context consists of setting, purpose, individual, and relationship between individual (or scene and participants) while sociolinguistic competence ‘requires understanding of the social context in which a language is used: the roles of the participants, the information they share, and the function of the interaction’ (Brown 2000:247) Some more factors express the relationship between strategic competence and situational context is individual and the relationship between individuals which are expressed by some traits of individuals like fatigue, distraction, and inattention These traits are expressed in the definition

of strategic competence as follows: ‘Canale and Swain (1980: 30) described

strategic competence as “the verbal and nonverbal communication strategies that may be called into action to compensate for breakdowns in communication due to performance variables or due to insufficient competence.” Savignon (1983:40) paraphrases this as “the strategies that one uses to compensate for imperfect knowledge of rules – or limiting factors in their application such as fatigue, distraction, and inattention” ’ (Brown 2000: 247) A significant idea which can be drawn here is that communication needs the speaker and the listener’s understanding of situational context

On the upshot, linguistic aspects create a connection between linguistic competence and linguistic context while situational factors (like participants traits) are the bridge between functional aspects of communication and situational context All the information presented above is to confirm the relationship between context and communicative competence that is necessary for all the language learners In order to achieve the communicative competence, learning a language

in general, learning vocabulary in particular should be carried out in context The role of context in learning vocabulary is also analyzed one more time in the next part (2.1.4)

2.1.4- Context in retaining vocabulary

In order to make sentences, learners have to create situations, or contexts first Conversely speaking, in an actual situation communicators have to use appropriate words with their grammatical features – the words’ orders; tenses,

voices - to complete their communicative purposes This is expressed by Ellis:

‘Context affects very strongly on the learners’ output When an utterance is created, it needs suitable words and structures to express the ideas to be appropriate to the context where the utterance happens In order to be able to communicate, the speaker must have knowledge to understand the situational context that his/her collocutor creates as well as enough linguistic codes to convey his/her ideas.’ (Ellis, 1987: 5) Context itself helps learners choose vocabulary to make speech As the base for choosing suitable words, context has an important role in learning vocabulary This is confirmed in so many studies, ‘Language use

involves choice Just as getting dressed involved deciding which clothes to wear,

so communicating involves decisions about which words to use Each time we construct an utterance we have to select from our available resources in such a way

as to convey what we want to say Furthermore, because each utterance is also an action (i.e it performs some function) we must select those exponents that most appropriately realize the action Language is organized in such a way that there is always choice;’(Ellis,1987: 5) This proves that utterance is produced based on the situations, the settings from which it chooses words

Context is the base from which the learners choose suitable vocabulary to create utterances and to communicate This is confirmed also by Ellis in another book: ‘both types of context influence the choice of language forms, and therefore have an effect on output’ (1994:698) When using a language to produce utterances, people try to convey their thought to other participants, to elicit responses from the listeners It means that they also use their utterances to form situations ‘Context is created by the interaction itself As such it consists of the particular beliefs and presuppositions that the interactants bring to the encounter It

is also mutually constructed by them, turn by turn In other words, there is a dynamic element to context Each utterance creates its own context within which the next speaker will respond.’ (Ellis,1987: 19&20) It can be said that context is not only the setting where the utterance takes place, but also the result of the utterance itself Context is really a flexible element in learning vocabulary and interacting between communicators For language learning is addressed not only to the learner but also to the situation in which the utterance arises ‘Researchers have recognized that the situational context in which the learner is attempting to communicate will influence his/her output, and furthermore, that this influence will occur in systematic ways Whom the learner is speaking to, where and when she is speaking, why she is speaking and what she is speaking about are all seen as potential variables affecting the choice of language (Ellis,1987: 3)

The research on context shows that learning vocabulary in context is a complicated process which has to combine a lot of factors – words, structures, cohesion, social knowledge, time, frequency, personal attitudes But it is an

effective and important way of acquiring new words It can be said that context covers all the vocabulary acquiring process If we lack any factor of it, this would lead us to miscommunication Context is not only helpful for learners in output process, but also in input For this reason, when reading or listening, learners use context to guess meanings of new words This will be made clearer in the part 2.2- Vocabulary Knowledge In other words, learners should learn language in general, vocabulary in particular in context in order to understand language fully as well as

to have communicative competence

In sum, context is the place where the utterance takes place and the decisive factor for choosing words and guessing new words in utterances Moreover, context is created by utterance itself and covers the utterances Consequently,

vocabulary cannot be learnt without context

2.2- Vocabulary knowledge

In order to know why learners should contextualize words in learning, the study must go further into vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary learning strategies It also serves for building the study’s questionnaire to find out their difficulties in vocabulary contextualization

There are some linguists presenting word knowledge that helps learner not only to know word meanings but also its relationship with other words in utterances Words’ relationships happen naturally because they are integral parts of word that come from contexts of utterances and create contexts at the same time

David Singleton (2000), Norbert Schmitt (2000), Michael McCarthy (1992), Jean Aitchison (1987:34), and Ruth Gairns and Stuart Redman(1986) see word from its different aspects (or facets) Norbert Schmitt (2000) gives a list of types of word knowledge as follows:

 the meaning(s) of the word

 the written form of the word

 the spoken form of the word

 the grammatical behavior of the word

 the collocation of the word

 the register of the word

 the associations of the word

 the frequency of the word”

(Schmitt,2000:5)

When defining word in terms of some approaches such as orthographic, phonetic, phonological, semantic, grammatical, Singleton says that “there is not just one way of looking at words We can see them as types or tokens, we can see them as lexemes or word-form; we can see them as orthographic units, phonological units, grammatical units or semantic units”(2000: 9, 10) The ways

of looking at words of Singleton (2000) and Schmitt (2000) show that word knowledge has to be studied if learners really want to know a word

2.2.1- The meaning(s) of the word

Schmitt (2000:27) uses the terms core meaning and encyclopedic

knowledge to show two types of word meaning Core meaning is “the common

meaning shared by members of a society” (Schmitt, 2000:27), and encyclopedic knowledge "is idiosyncratic to each individual person, depending on that person’s

experience and personal beliefs” (Schmitt, 2000:27) While some “core meaning information is not dependent on context” (Schmitt, 2000:27), encyclopedic

knowledge depends on the participants that is an element of the situational

context

Similarly, Ruth Gairns and Stuart Redman(1986) also show two types of word meaning: conceptual and affective meanings Conceptual meaning requires language users to know “ not only what the word refers to, but also where the boundaries are that separate it from words of related meaning” (Gains & Redman, 1986: 13) While the conceptual meaning shows the word reference and its boundaries (the cases of polysemy, homonymy, synonymy), the affective meaning refers to “the attitudinal and emotional factors which can be expressed in an item

of vocabulary” (Gains & Redman, 1991: 18)

In short, core meaning or conceptual meaning is quite independent of context but encyclopedic knowledge or affective meaning is not So that words in use

cannot be independent of individuals who use them, so that words in use must have affective meaning Furthermore, there are a lot of words whose conceptual meanings like the cases of polysemy, homonymy, or synonymy can be identified

in context It is clear that studying word meanings learners have to concentrate on context of utterances in order that they are able to get right meanings of words in learning vocabulary as well as in communication

2.2.2- The written forms

When “many people would consider meaning the most important aspect of learning a word”, the written form of word used to be considered a secondary element of word or ““lower level” type of word” (Schmitt, 2000: 45) This awareness of written form of word has changed It is “a key component to both vocabulary knowledge and language processing in general” (Schmitt, 2000: 45) The written forms of words have contributed to communication in wrting and to learning vocabulary effectively

The written form of word is very important because it defines the boundary

of a word that helps learners to have particular images of words in their minds

‘In the orthographic approach the word is defined as a sequence of letters bounded

on either side by a blank space’(Singleton, 2000: 6) However, the learners must concentrate on the written form of word because of its difficulties in reading There are some words’ images very like that make learners misunderstand For this problem learners cannot make right guesses from contexts “ The most common cause of unsuccessful guessing from context in one study was mistaking unknown

words (e.g optimal) for known words that were similar orthographically (e.g

optional)” and “word-shaped familiarity can often override contextual

information”(Smith, 2000: 46) Besides this difficulty, learners meet one more problems of the change of written form of a word by adding affixes This change

is discussed in the grammatical aspect of words However, the matter here is that the change of written form of word leads to the change of its sound McCarthy

(1990” 4) gives some examples of these changes as follows :“’reduce’ changes it vowel sound to ‘reduction’” and “the /k/ sound in ‘electric’ becomes /s/ in

‘electricity’” Singleton confirms that “there is often a relationship between what a word means and how is spelt” (2000: 98) It is clear that the written form of a word changes in order to be appropriate to its grammatical features, its positions in the sentences, the meanings or the ideas of the utterances Different contexts create more chances for learners to encounter the words and their written form as well as help learners have these words in their long-term memory Furthermore, the written forms of words also help readers understand meaning of utterances and they also create contexts where the utterances happen

In conclusion, the written form of word is very important for learners because not only the written form of word is an aspect of word, and it has a tight relationship with other word aspects In fact, almost students tent to remember words’ written forms Context is here also very useful for learners because it helps learners recognize the mistakes made by word familiarity and have more chances

to remember the written form of word

2.2.3- The spoken form

Listening and speaking are difficult for learners while they are learning English Therefore, spoken form of word attracts students’ attention in learning vocabulary Spoken form of word refers to word pronunciation that helps listeners and speakers understand each other through speeches Schmitt claims that

“Adequate phonological (spoken form) knowledge of a word involves being able

to separate out and understand its acoustic representation from a continuous flow

of speech, as well as being able to pronounce the word clearly enough in connected speech for other people to do the same when we speak”(2000:53) For this reason, having phonological knowledge of a word is knowing the sounds of individual phonemes, and the number of the word’s syllables and its stress

One of the major difficulties for learners in learning word sound is stress Schmitt (2000: 53), Gairns & Redman (1991: 51) and Singleton (2000: 87) mention that the stress distribution leads to the change of sound of individual

phoneme of a word, the class of word, and its meaning In the case of distinction of words that have similar letters, and letters’ order but different positions of stresses, spoken form of words seems to have the advantage over written form

One more phonological difficulty for learners is the relationship between word spellings and word sounds The learners must know the sound of individual phoneme of a word because of not only the different distribution of stress, but also

“the complex relationship between sound and spelling in English”(Gairns & Redman 1991: 50) Gairns & Redman (1991: 50) and Smith (2000: 55) give a list

of examples of the complexity of this relationship – there are some cases of words

of (1)similar sounds, similar written forms, but different word classes; (2)different spelling- similar sounds; (3) similar spelling- different sounds; and (4) silent letters

in pronunciation In the cases of (3) and (4) the spoken forms of words are very useful to distinguish However, in the case of (2) the written form of word and utterances’ context are important to distinguish For the case of (1), context is the only factor in speech can distinguish the words Because “context is used to discard candidate words that are inappropriate” (Smith, 2000:55), it can help listeners to narrow down and to define or choose the right words’ classes as well

as the right meanings

On the upshot, context help learners’ overcome the difficulties of words’ spoken forms based on learners’ knowledge of lexis and grammar This information is significant for this study in looking for the solution for problems in learning vocabulary

2.2.4- The grammatical behavior of the word

Smith (2000) presents the concept of lexicogrammar to explain grammatical knowledge of word because “lexical knowledge and grammatical knowledge are inextricably interrelated in a kind of lexicogrammar” (Smith, 2000: 58) and “two

of the most obvious aspects of lexis/grammar are word class and morphology” (Smith, 2000: 59) Consequently, word class and morphology need to be under careful consideration

Word class is so significant that Aitchison regards words as “coins, with meaning and word class together on one side and the sound on the other”

(1990:100) Word classes (parts of speech) “are conventionally given labels such

as noun, adjective, verb, and so on, each of which has its own special role to play

in the sentence” (Aitchison, 1990: 98) The definition of word class of Aitchison (1990) shows that the use of a word to produce utterances needs knowledge of its part of speech in order to put it in its right place in a sentence, or in order to help readers guess word’s class and meaning in speech or in context Smith also has the idea that “word parts might best be used as a confirmatory strategy to verify guesses made from context” (2000: 65) In other words, word class and context are really helpful factors for understanding and learning vocabulary because both of them help communicators or learners to verify their guesses of words’ meanings

The second aspect of lexis/grammar is morphology “Morphology deals with affixes and how they attached to the base forms of words” (Smith, 2000: 61) Singleton (2000:34) in his study refers to 2 kinds of word morphemes : free morphemes which can stand alone and bound morphemes which can only be meaningful or functional as parts of words “Bound morphemes very often

manifest themselves as prefixes- elements attached at the beginnings of words (e.g

dis- as in disobey)- or as suffixes – elements attached at the ends of words (e.g – ize as in idolize) Prefixes and suffixes are known collectively as affixes.”

(Singleton, 2000:34) Affixes attached to the base forms of words involve in word formation and in fitting words to their grammatical environment Singleton (2000:36, 37) gives some examples where derivational affixes attached to the base forms of words change words’ meanings or parts of speech and inflectional suffixes never change the actual grammatical category of the free morpheme, but fit words to their grammatical environment Because derivation affixes change words’ meanings or word class, they are actually the signs for communicators or learners to guess words’ meanings and to put words in right places of utterances

The relationship between word class, morphemes with the speech environment or grammatical environment confirms the role of context in learning grammatical aspect of words In other words, context helps learners to identify

what word classes and what affixes to be added to the words in a particular utterance’

2.2.5- Register

The term register “ describes the stylistic variations that make each word more or less appropriate for certain language situations or language purposes” (Schmitt, 2000: 31) Micheal McCarthy also says that “it is this relationship between the content of a message, its sender and receiver, its situation and

purpose, and how it is communicated, which is often called register” (1992:61)

According to Micheal McCarthy, register is the information affected by the content

of a message, message sender, receiver, its situation, purpose , which are context elements This idea is also expressed by Smith that “register is a complex set of information that is affected by a number of different factors, among them what subject field is being discussed, who one’s interlocutors are and what their social relationship is to the speaker or writer, whether the discourse is spoken or written and what purpose the speaker or writer has in mind” (2000: 35) The above scholarly research shows that register is the bridge between context’s elements and words’ meanings Especially, this bridge confirms the relationship as well as the interaction between words’ meanings and context’s elements

In short, the register information attached to words allows language users

to select the best word for context This knowledge is very complicated because of the complexity of its aspects Learners should acquire this word knowledge to use word more successfully to communicate

2.2.6 - Frequency and Collocation

Word frequency is so important in studying vocabulary because it provides

“useful insights into the way the vocabulary of English works” (Schmitt, 2000: 71) Counting the occurrences of words helps learners know what word has high frequency and what word has low frequency Very frequent words must be learned, otherwise learners cannot guess accurately the remaining less frequent words High frequent words “ make up the majority of tokens in discourse, so if they are not known, language users will be unable to make accurate guesses about

the meanings of the remaining less frequent words, many of which are likely to be unknown.” (Schmitt, 2000: 73) Micheal McCarthy also says that “the most frequent words in any language, and therefore the best to start off with, in order to give the learner a basis set of tools for communication” (1990:66) Consequently, frequency is very important for learners in using words to communicate In other words, the words that happen more frequently help learners easy to remember, to guess new words from context

The next aspect of word knowledge is collocation “Collocation refers to the tendency of two or more words to co-occur in discourse.” (Schmitt, 2000: 76) Micheal McCarthy compares this relationship to “a marriage contract between words” (1990:12) Gains and Redman (1991:37) gives some examples of this

combination, such as subject noun + verb, verb + object noun, adjective + noun,

adverb + past participle, and confirms that collocational grids are a useful way of

clarifying the limits of items Students should pay more attention to collocation of words in order to use them correctly in appropriate situations

2.2.7 -Word associations

When meeting a word, learners simultaneously think of its related items

“For the stimulus word needle, typical responses would be thread, pin, sharp, and

sew” (Schmitt, 2000: 37) The next kind of word knowledge is word associations

that are not raised in some other studies of words because it is very difficult for the second language learners Learners should understand what word association refers

to “Associations can be analyzed to what category they belong to Three of the most important categories are clang associations, syntagmatic associations, and paradigmatic association” (Schmitt, 2000: 39) Learners can get contiguous words

in mind only when they have enough amount of vocabulary, grammatical

knowledge Because “ In clang association, the response is similar in form to the

stimulus word, but is not related semantically” and “the other two categories take into account the associations’ word class” (Schmitt, 2000: 39) So that it is very difficult for learners to good at this kind of word knowledge Because “the students’ average association score was nowhere near that of the native norms It

seems that nativelike association behavior, and by implication nativelike lexical organization, is something that is not easy to acquire.” (Schmitt, 2000: 42)

Association is a kind of word knowledge, which is quite difficult for L2 learners However, association responses of learners can be use “in measuring lexical organization and how well words are known” Furthermore, “the fact that both syntagmatic and paradigmatic responses are common indicates that collocation is an important organizing feature in addition to meaning”(Schmitt, 2000: 42) It is said that learners have to use words in situations or contexts to be good at association of words

2.2.8- Conclusion of word knowledge

All kinds of word knowledge presented above are related to each other and create a quite complete vocabulary unit that is affected by context- the settings where the utterances happen, the participants who make the utterances and who receive them Simultaneously, combinations of words create linguistic environments that can be changed by changing word class, or word position in sentences, or word affixes Studying word knowledge shows that context plays a significant role in learning words because context with its elements not only happen around the word, but also activate through all kinds of word knowledge

2.3- Vocabulary learning strategies (VLS)

Contextualization is also expressed in Vocabulary learning strategies To know how to contextualize the words, this study goes further into VLS “There are numerous different VLS, with one list containing fifty-eight different strategies” (Schmitt, 2000:133) There are two major classes of VLS: “(1) strategies that are useful for the initial discovery of a word’s meaning, and (2) those useful for remembering that word once it has been introduced meaning and usage, and for consolidating it in memory for future use.” (Schmitt, 2000:135) The following list VLS strategies:

2.3.1- Determination strategies

The first group is Determination strategies (DET) This group belongs to

the (1) strategies that are useful for the initial discovery of a word’s meaning

“This can be done through guessing from one’s structural knowledge of a language, guessing from an L1 cognate, guessing from context, or using reference materials” (Schmitt, 2000:135) This group includes :

“Analyze part of speech

Analyze affixes and roots

Check for L1 cognate

Guess meaning from textual context

Analyze any available pictures or gestures

Use a dictionary (bilingual or monolingual)” (Schmitt, 2000:134)

McCarthy (1990:125) also mentions some similar vocabulary learning

strategies such as guessing and dictionary Among these strategies, Guessing

meaning from textual context is the strategy where learners meet the word and

consider the context around it That is why Gairns and Redman (1986:117) name

this strategy Contextual Guesswork

Context used to guess word meaning is textual context or linguistic context Elaine & Pamela ( 2002:3) suggest some strategies of getting meaning word from context – (1) a definition of a new vocabulary item or information about it; (2) a clue to the meaning of a new vocabulary item in another sentence or sentence part; (3) simple logic for guessing a new word meaning

According to Elaine & Pamela, the information or definition of a new word may be in parentheses (), after a dash (-), or after a comma (,) Students can guess meaning by using contextual signs like parentheses, dashes, or commas These contextual signs are also use to express the examples of new words – clues to the meanings of a new word

Elaine & Pamela (2002: 23) also give some kinds of clues to the meanings

of new vocabulary – synonyms, antonyms, examples, and definitions or explanations Students can find some words that have opposite or similar meaning

to a new vocabulary item Examples explaining a new vocabulary item can be

recognized by some contextual signs like: for example, for instance, such as, and

among them Elaine & Pamela (2002: 23) also say that “sometimes examples

appear without these words, in parentheses, or between dashes” Giving examples

is the way of explanation One more way of explanation of a new word is that it

follows the connecting words that is or in other words

Logical knowledge is also used to get word meaning from context Learners make “guesses and inferences about new words Inferring involves creating a schema for the unknown word(s), based on world knowledge and previous experience, both of the world and texts” (McCarthy,1990:125) The important thing for learners is how to be good at word inference in order to “retain the first encounter contextual meaning of the target words better” (McCarthy: 1990:126) One more thing to be mentioned in this study is that this strategy is used only by learners who have enough words to recall and other knowledge to understand the contexts Because “Xialong concludes that there is a link between recalling words and the contexts in which they were learnt” (McCarthy: 1990:125)

Guessing words from contexts is clearly connected with contexts, but the other strategies in this group - analyze part of speech, analyze affixes and roots, check for L1 cognate- are also based on contexts As said in the Grammatical behavior of words, parts of speech and affixes are used correctly thanks to contexts

The last strategy of the first group is using dictionary is useful not only in the case of not being able to guess new words from contexts, but also for word pronunciation Ruth Gairns and Stuart Redman (1986: 81) give some occasions where learners cannot guess words from context and have to use dictionary and show that dictionary provides a valuable learning tool to know the use of phonemic transcription and stress marking

In short, the first group of VLS includes strategies learners can use without the help of other people They use their language knowledge as well as their knowledge of other fields of life to guess words from contexts, to analyze word part of speech and affixes using contexts The difficulty here is that this group asks

learners to have enough language knowledge as well as knowledge of other areas

of life So that it cannot be used in the beginning of English learning process

2.3.2- Social strategies (SOC)

The second is Social strategies (SOC) which “use interaction with other

people to improve language learning One can ask teachers or classmate for information about a new word and they can answer in a number of ways (synonyms, translations, etc.)” (Schmitt, 2000:135) SOC happen when learners

“Ask teachers for a synonym, paraphrase, or L1 translation of new word Ask classmates for meaning

Study and practice meaning in a group

Interact with native speakers” (Schmitt, 2000:134)

McCarthy (1990: 125) also gives one more strategy that belongs to SOC strategies – Ask for a sentence showing word usage This strategy helps learners to use words correctly

SOC give learners more motivation to use context in learning vocabulary than DET There learners can practise words in a group or interact with native speakers Asking others like the peers or teachers is time-saving, but it depends so much on the answers from others It is very good when learners receive full and correct answers with all types of the words’ knowledge Certainly, when giving a full answer, teachers or peers have to use contexts to describe the new words However, this case happens rarely so learners still have to use other strategies to know the new words

In order to consolidate the new words’ knowledge and to put them into their

memories, learners should study and practice meaning in a group or interact with

native speakers When using these strategies, learners surely use context : when

they contact with others they must consider the settings, the purposes, and the language to use, of course, their positions in the society or in the group

This group of strategies helps learners to understand more about the words with their types of knowledge because language use happening in groups of people is under the influence of all the elements of context and similar to real life conversations

2.3.3- Memory strategies (MEM)

The third group of VLS is memory strategies “Memory strategies (MEM)

(traditionally known as mnemonics) involve relating the word to be retained with some previously learned knowledge, using some form of imagery, or grouping.” (Schmitt, 2000:135) In order to retain the previous knowledge of words, learners use the following strategies:

“Connect word to a previous personal experience

Associate the word with its coordinates

Connect the word to its synonyms and antonyms

Use semantic maps

Image word form

Use Keyword Method

Group words together to study them

Study the spelling of a word

Say new word aloud when studying

Use physical action when learning a word.” (Schmitt, 2000:134)

These strategies can be used without context in the cases of saying new word aloud, studying the spelling, connecting the word with its synonyms or antonyms However, these strategies should be used in context to get better results because the nature of word is affected by context Especially, some

strategies like connect word to a previous personal experience, associate the word

with its coordinates, connect the word to its synonyms and antonyms, and Group words together to study them had better be integrated with context because

according Ruth Gairns and Stuart Redman (1986:69) words similar in meaning are easily confused So that “the items need to be contextualized properly, and it is vital to highlight to students the differences between items as clearly as possible” (Gairns & Redman,1986:69) Learners at the start of encountering words need some of MEM strategies without context, but they should use context to discover word knowledge