The obstacles encountered by 8th graders of ede ethnicity in studying english at song hinh secondary high school in phu yen province

This research aimed at examining some obstacles encountered by the 8thgraders of Ede ethnicity in learning English vocabulary at Song Hinh secondary high school who usually got poor resu

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HOCHIMINH CITY

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES

FACULTY OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE

OF EDE ETHNICITY IN STUDYING ENGLISH

AT SONG HINH SECONDARY HIGH SCHOOL

IN PHU YEN PROVINCE

Submitted to the Faculty of English Linguistics & Literature

in partial fulfillment of the Master’s degree in TESOL

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my deepest and sincerest appreciation and gratitude to

my supervisor, Dr Le Thi Thanh Her profound knowledge, enthusiastic guidance and in-time encouragement have been of great value for me Without her valuable support and careful review of the draft, I would not have finished my thesis

I wish to express my warm and sincere thanks to the teaching staff of the master program for their instructions and dedication

I am deeply gratitude to the Faculty of Linguistics and Literature, USSH, HCMC for giving me permission to commence this thesis I have furthermore to thank the English Resource Center (ERC) for their support

I would also like to thank my school administrators and authorities of the Department of Education and Training of Song Hinh who gave me best conditions

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:

THE OBSTACLES ENCOUNTERED BY 8 TH GRADERS OF EDE ETHNICITY IN STUDYING ENGLISH AT SONG HINH SECONDARY HIGH SCHOOL IN PHU YEN PROVINCE

in term of Requirements for the 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, July, 2012

PHAN QUANG TRUYEN

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, PHAN QUANG TRUYEN, being the candidate for the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL), accept the requirements of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the library

In term 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, July, 2012

PHAN QUANG TRUYEN

THE TABLE OF CONTENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY ii

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS iii

THE TABLE OF CONTENT iv

THE LIST OF TABLES ix

ABSTRACT x

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background of the study 1

1.2 Statement of the problem ……….1

1.3 Purpose of the study 3

1.4 Research questions and research propositions 4

1.4.1 Research questions 4

1.4.2 Research propositions 4

1.5 Significance of the study 4

1.6 An overview of the current situation of teaching English in grade 8 at 5

1.6.1 A description of SHSHS 5

1.6.2 A description of the current situation of teaching English for the 8th grade at SHSHS 5

1.7 Assumptions 6

1.8 Delimitations 7

1.9 Organization of the study 7

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 8

2.1 Definitions of terms 8

2.1.1 Obstacle 9

2.1.2 Weak score 9

2.2 Some aspects of the theory in teaching and learning vocabulary 9

2.2.1 Definition of vocabulary 9

2.2.2 Classification of vocabulary 9

2.2.3 The roles of vocabulary in language learning, communicating, and testing 10

2.2.4 On knowing a word 11

2.2.5 Techniques for teaching vocabulary 12

2.2.6 Factors affecting EFL students’ learning vocabulary 13

2.2.7 The obstacles in learning vocabulary in the study 15

2.3 Motivation and learning achievement 16

2.3.1 The nature of motivation 16

2.3.1.1 Definition 16

2.3.1.2 Operational definition 17

2.3.2 Relationship between learning motivation and learning achievement 19

2.3.3 Students’ learning motivation in ET 20

2.3.3.1 Four theoretical views of student motivation 20

2.3.3.1.1 The behavioral view 20

2.3.3.1.2 The cognitive view 20

2.3.3.1.3 The Humanistic view 20

2.3.3.1.4 Achievement motivation view 21

2.3.3.2 Factors affecting motivation 21

2.3.3.3 Principles of learning and motivation 22

2.3.3.4 Teaching techniques and educative ways for learning motivation 23

2.3.3.5 Fluctuations in learner interest 24

2.4 Learning background 24

2.4.1 Definition 24

2.4.2 Vocabulary resource 26

2.4.3 Learning materials 26

2.4.4 The relationship between learning background and learning achievement 26

2.4.4.1 The Input Hypothesis 27

2.4.4.2 Ausubel’s meaningful learning theory 27

2.4.4.3 Developmental principle 27

2.4.5 Students’ learning background in the ET 28

2.4.5.1 Real situation 28

2.4.5.2 Solutions to the real situation 28

2.4.5.3 Educative ways teaching techniques for improving learning background 29

2.5 Learning strategies 31

2.5.1 Definition 31

2.5.2 Kinds of learning strategies 33

2.5.3 The relationship between learning strategies and learning achievement 33

2.5.4 Learning-strategy techniques in ET 33

2.5.5 Ways and strategies for learning vocabulary 35

2.5.5.1 The vocabulary acquisition 35

2.5.5.2 Ways and strategies for learning vocabulary 35

CHAPTER 3 – METHODOLOGY 39

3.1 Research questions 39

3.2 The research setting 39

3.2.1 The research place 39

3.2.2 Time for the study 40

3.2.3 The participants 40

3.2.3.1 The Ede in Song Hinh Commune 40

3.2.3.2 The subjects 41

3.3 Research design 42

3.3.1 Research method 42

3.3.2 Instruments 44

3.3.3 Research procedure 44

3.3.4 Procedures of data collection and treatment 46

3.3.4.1 The description of research variables 46

3.3.4.2 The order of data collection 47

3.3.4.3 The methods of data collection 47

3.3.4.3.1 Interviews 47

3.3.4.3.2 Observations pre- and while-experimental teaching 48

3.3.4.3.3 Testing 49

3.3.4.4 Data treatment 50

3.3.5 The method of data analysis 51

3.3.6 The interpretation of analysis results 53

3.4 Experimental teaching (ET) 53

3.4.1 The teaching in the mainstream class 54

3.4.2 The teaching in the enrichment course for weak students 54

3.4.3 Tests 55

3.4.3.1 Designing and administrating tests 55

3.4.3.2 Tests in the mainstream class 55

CHAPTER 4 – RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 57

4.1 Data analysis and findings 57

4.1.1 Document and records 57

4.1.1.1 The number of absent days 57

4.1.1.2 The learning results in grade 7 58

4.1.1.3 The English results in grade 7 59

4.1.2 The subjects’ responses to interviews before ET 60

4.1.2.1 The subjects’ purposes for learning 60

4.1.2.2 The subjects’ learning abilities and learning resources 63

4.1.2.3 The subjects’ current vocabulary learning strategies 64

4.1.3.1 The subjects’ enhancement of learning motivation 68

4.1.3.2 The subjects’ improvement of learning background 68

4.1.3.3 The subjects’ enrichment of learning strategies 69

4.1.4 Observation results before ET 71

4.1.4.1 The subjects’ learning attitudes and behaviors 71

4.1.4.2 The subjects’ learning abilities and learning resources 73

4.1.4.3 Social strategies in learning new words 75

4.1.5 Observation results after ET 76

4.1.5.1 The subjects’ learning motivation by the end of ET 76

4.1.5.2 The subjects’ learning abilities and resources by the end of ET 77

4.1.5.3 The subject’s enrichment of social learning strategies by the end of ET 79

4.1.6 The subjects’ scores for tests 80

4.1.6.1 The subjects’ scores of the diagnostic vocabulary test 2 80

4.1.6.2 The subjects’ scores of the achievement vocabulary test 81

4.1.6.3 The subjects’ scores of tests in mainstream class for the final results 81

4.2 Discussion of the results 82

4.2.1 The subjects’ low learning motivation and techniques for enhancing it 83

4.2.2 Their limited learning background and techniques for improving it 84

4.2.3 The subjects’ lack of learning strategies and techniques for enriching it 85

4.3 Summary of major findings 86

4.3.1 The subjects’ motivation in learning vocabulary 86

4.3.2 The subjects’ learning background in learning vocabulary 87

4.3.3 The subjects’ learning strategies in learning vocabulary 88

4.3.4 Teacher’s techniques and educative ways for lessening the subjects’ obstacles 89

CHAPTER 5 – CONCLUSIONS 90

5.1 Conclusions 90

5.2 Limitation of the study 92

5.3 Recommendations 93

5.3.1 Research application 93

5.3.2 Further research 94

APPENDICES 100

THE LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

1 L1: First language or mother tongue

10 ELT: English language teaching

11 EFL: English as a Foreign Language

12 ESL: English as a Second Language

13 ICS: Investigation of Culture Standard

14 SLA: Second Language Acquisition

15 AMFT: Average mark of the first term

16 AMST: Average mark of the second term

17 SHSHS: Song Hinh Secondary High School

18 ET: Experimental teaching

THE LIST OF TABLES

Table 1.1: The description of the number of students in SHSHS 5

Table 2.1: Educative ways and teaching techniques for enhancing learning motivation 23

Table 2.2: Educative ways and teaching techniques for enhancing learning background 30

Table 2.3: The conceptual framework of the study 37

Table 3.1: The population of different peoples in Song Hinh Commune 40

Table 3.2: A general description of Ede people in population and levels of education in Song Hinh Commune 40

Table 3.3: The Cases' profile ……… 41

Table 3.4: Case study dataset with four cases ……… 43

Table 3.5: The description of the research procedure 45

Table 3.6: The summary of the data collection by interviews 48

Table 3.7: The summary of the data collection by observations 49

Table 3.8: The summary of the data collection by tests 50

Table 3.9: The analysis framework 52

Table 4.1: The subjects’ number of absent days in grade 7 58

Table 4.2: The subjects’ learning results in grade 7 58

Table 4.3: The subjects’ English results in grade 7 59

Table 4.4: The subjects’ scores of the new school-year entrance test 59

Table 4.5: The subjects’ observation results for their learning motivation 72

Table 4.6: The subjects’ results for learning background signals 74

Table 4.7: The subjects’ results for learning strategy signals 75

Table 4.8: The subjects’ learning motivation after ET 77

Table 4.9: The subjects’ learning abilities and resources by the end of ET 78

Table 4.10: The subjects’ enrichment of social learning strategies 79

Table 4.11: The subjects’ diagnostic vocabulary test’s result 80

Table 4.12: The subjects’ final results at English 82

Table 4.13: Summary of the subjects’ signals for learning motivation 87

Table 4.14: Summary of the subjects’ signals for learning background 88

Table 4.15: Summary of the subjects’ signals for learning strategies 88

This research aimed at examining some obstacles encountered by the 8thgraders of Ede ethnicity in learning English vocabulary at Song Hinh secondary high school who usually got poor results at English It also aimed at finding suitable teaching techniques that could improve their learning vocabulary

The combination of exploratory and analytical types of research was employed

to address the research questions The study was on a relatively complex

phenomenon with the presence of only four Ede students; therefore, the “Case

Studies” was employed to collect data for the research Unstructured interviews

and observations were employed for data analysis

The results of the study indicated that low learning motivation, limited learning background, and lack of learning strategies were the three real obstacles encountered by the subjects With English teachers’ suitable teaching techniques and educative ways, he could help the students lessen their obstacles so that they could improve their vocabulary and their learning results to some extent Based on the findings, suggestions for better practice were made so that they will be selectively applied to enhance students’ learning vocabulary in similar schools

Key words: vocabulary, obstacles, learning motivation, learning background, and

learning strategies

CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

Vocabulary has commonly been recognized as one of the most important

aspects of language learning by second or foreign language researchers (Candlin, 1988; Krashen, 1989; Nation, 1990; Laufer, 1997; Yang, 2002…) Vocabulary is essential when learning a language, but learning it is not an easy task Most language learners view vocabulary-learning as their difficulty (Candlin, 1988) and feel that their lack of vocabulary causes serious problems and results in a big obstacle (Krashen, 1989; Nation, 1990) Students’ lack of an adequate vocabulary

is the major obstacle that obstructs them from successfully comprehending English reading texts which results in low achievement of tests (Yang, 2002) McCarthy (1990) asserts “No matter how well the students learn grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to express a wider range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way.”

1.2 Statement of the problem

The researcher of study is a secondary-high-school teacher of English and has been teaching English for nine years at Song Hinh Secondary High School (SHSHS) He recognizes a rather common phenomenon that when Ede students get grade 8, they meet a lot of difficulties in understanding new words They are always under the pressure of lacking vocabulary and feel frustrated in it The final evidences for this are their low scores of all kinds of tests: the oral tests and written tests This leads them to give up learning because of facing many challenges This

is a problem of education in mountainous regions, high rate of students’ quitting school There has been a considerable reduction in the number of Ede students in SHSHS recently

Ede students have their own language – Ede They use their native language to daily communicate within their community They begin to learn Vietnamese at primary school as a second language (L2) Vietnamese is used as an official language (OL) for learning other subjects at school Thus, their learning is usually

not easy in general During 5 years of primary school, they can communicate with their classmates and teachers in Vietnamese because they can reach their accuracy and fluency gradually However, they cannot perform so well Moreover, they have to learn English as a foreign language (FL) or a third language (L3) as a compulsory subject when they are in grade 6 The instructional language for English is Vietnamese, so there are certain difficulties in their learning the new language through an L2 When they are in grade 8, they seem to face too many obstacles in learning English, somewhat due to their poor vocabulary Limited source of vocabulary is one of the main reasons for students’ poor test-scores Lacking words, students cannot understand lessons and perform well both

receptive and productive skills in tests, for any kinds of tasks

The correlation between limited source of vocabulary and the students’ poor test scores in this case was demonstrated by two diagnostic tests The first was the new school-year entrance test and the second, the vocabulary test 1

The first test was designed under a standard matrix whose language contents

were mainly in “Tiếng Anh 7” In SHSHS, it is annually conducted to all the students in class 8A after a week of the new-school year, accompanied with Math, Literature, physics, and Biology, to review the students’ level Because this test was used as a regular test, all the students in class 8A did it with great effort in the location time For the Ede students (the subjects), it was also used as a diagnostic test The subjects’ scores were 2.5; 3.5; 3.75; and 3.0, on the scale of 10, respectively (See App 2.)

The vocabulary test 1 was adapted from Nation’s (1990) and Yang’s (2002)

checklist tests It consisted of 55 items The chosen items were key words relevant

to the new school-year entrance test’s answers The test was added with two new requirements to make the scores reliable It was used to investigate the correlation between vocabulary and the test score Because this test was informed as a regular test, the subjects also did it with great effort in the location time Their scores were 10/55; 15/55; 17/55; and, 12/55, respectively, and equivalently to 1.8; 2.7; 3.1; and 2.2 on the scale of 10 (See App 3.) This test’s scores show that the subjects lack many key words to do the new school-year entrance test

Take a comparison between the second test’s scores and the first test’s scores They are 1.8 vs 2.5; 2.7 vs 3.5; 3.1 vs 3.75; and 2.2 vs 3.0, respectively Here the gaps between the vocabulary test scores and the new school-year entrance test scores within each subject are relatively stable (from 0.65 to 0.8), or the deviation between them is only 0.15 point It is logical that the new school-year entrance test’s scores are all higher than the vocabulary test’s scores Thus, a meaningful conclusion may be drawn that the subjects’ lack of key words caused their low test scores The result meets those of Nation (1990), Laufer (1997), Yang (2002), etc

It is implied that the key obstacles encountered by the subjects in their learning vocabulary must be identified

The situation motivated the researcher’s study on the obstacles encountered by the 8th graders of Ede ethnicity in learning English vocabulary at SHSHS He strongly believed that when the students’ key obstacles were recognized, the teacher of these students would have appropriate solutions to help them overcome the problems to some extent so that they could improve their learning

achievement

1.3 Purpose of the study

One of the most essential tasks a teacher does at the beginning of a teaching course is to set up possible objectives for the course and find out solutions to reach them One of the most important objectives is to minimize the number of weak students The real situation where there is a high frequency of Ede students in SHSHS who are weak at English in grade 8 makes the researcher take into consideration Thus, the study aims at looking for the reasons why the English result of the 8th graders of Ede ethnicity in SHSHS is usually poor from the aspect

of their learning vocabulary, and finding effective ways to help these students learn vocabulary better In order to reach these aims, the research process aims at: (1) Identifying the obstacles encountered by the 8th graders of Ede ethnicity in learning vocabulary at SHSHS; and

(2) Recommending some solutions that English teachers in case apply to help students overcome such the obstacles in teaching process

1.4 Research questions and research propositions

1.4.1 Research questions

The study aims at looking for the reasons why the English result of the 8thgraders of Ede ethnicity in SHSHS is usually poor from the aspect of their learning vocabulary, and recommending some solutions to help students learn vocabulary better in teaching-learning process In order to reach these aims, the research process is guided by the two following questions:

1 What are the obstacles encountered by the 8th graders of Ede ethnicity in SHSHS in learning vocabulary?

2 What should English teachers do to lessen the students’ obstacles?

1.4.2 Research propositions

To address the first research question, three research propositions were attached

in the analysis process The propositions were chosen in light of the analysis at 2.2.6

1 The subjects do not have high motivation in learning vocabulary;

2 Their learning background obstructs their learning vocabulary; and

3 They lack necessary learning strategies

1.5 Significance of the study

It is hoped that teachers of English can benefit from the study and have more effective ways to help students learn English vocabulary better As for students, it

is hoped that they will be equipped with more vocabulary learning strategies to confidently cope with vocabulary and reinforce their vocabulary learning

Theoretically, understanding students’ problems is one of the most important jobs to improve learning quality Discovery of real obstacles in learning English vocabulary encountered by the Ede students is a pedagogical task Moreover, teaching techniques for particular situations which were experimented in real classes over a long time and showed certain effectiveness will be applied for similar situations not only for Ede but also for other ethnicities

Practically, the study represents two significances of making good the state of many Ede students with weak scores and lessening their state of dropping out of

school Firstly, Ede students take more than a half of weak students in SHSHS every year There is a coincidence that all these weak students have weak results at English Secondly, there has been a very common phenomenon that many Ede students stop learning because of their weak results, one of which is English As a result, the total number of students in the school decreases considerably Therefore, the improvement of the English scores for Ede students may contribute

to resolve the practical matter

1.6 An overview of the current situation of teaching English in grade 8 at SHSHS in Phu Yen Province

1.6.1 A description of SHSHS

SHSHS is located in Song Hinh Commune, one of the communes with the

poorest living conditions It was officially founded in 2005 It is a small school

The school facilities have initially not been equipped adequately There is not a real school-library In the school year of 2010-2011, there were only six classes with the total number of 176 students, divided into 4 grades Ethnic minorities are more than a half (93/176) in which Ede students occupy 38, as the table 1.1 below

Table 1.1: The description of the number of students in SHSHS

students

Total ethnicity students

Ede students

Source: the school report of student number in the school year of 2010-2011

1.6.2 A description of the current situation of teaching English for the 8 th grade at SHSHS

The English program for each grade at secondary high school is currently instructed within 37 weeks a school year nationwide It is divided into two

semesters The first one takes 19 weeks and the second, 18 weeks In a week students in grade 8 have three periods of English and each period lasts 45 minutes “Tiếng Anh 8” (Nguyen, V.L et al., 2010 (6th ed)) is designed in theme-based direction including 16 units like those of “Tiếng Anh 6” and “Tiếng Anh 7” The noticeable difference is that it begins to focus on communicative skills in isolation

in each unit, covering 7 parts of (1) getting started, (2) listen and read, (3) speak, (4) listen, (5) read, (6) write, and (7) language focus (See App.1) Each unit is taught and learned in two weeks The content of each unit is rather long and it has many difficult words that the students feel hard to acquire According to the book’s introduction, it is edited in light of inheritance of “Tiếng Anh 6” and “Tiếng Anh 7” from vocabulary to grammar

1.7 Assumptions

For the validity and credibility of the research, assumptions about data quality and real situations are mentioned The collected data must include seven following characteristics First, the subjects could not realize that they were observed and monitored Second, their attitudes, behaviors and activities were stable Third, the interviewees answered the interview questions accurately Fourth, the document and records were accurate and objective Fifth, tests were designed or adapted for normal students They were based on the same matrix model and format and used

to evaluate the whole class The students did the tests independently, without any cheat Sixth, the students’ test answers and answers for oral tests were evaluated accurately and objectively And seventh, the final result of English was counted as the instructions No 54 from the Ministry of Education and Training

There are two real situations First, there are a lot of obstacles encountered by the 8th graders of Ede ethnicity in SHSHS, and English teachers cannot control all

of them And second, the four subjects would have worse results if the teacher did not have suitable remedy for the situation, as a Chinese maxim, “Learning is like

an upriver boat If it has no progress, then it is regress.”

1.8 Delimitations

In the scope of the study, three obstacles that seemed to be the most important

were taken into investigation to find whether they caused difficulties to the students’ vocabulary learning They were (1) learning motivation, (2) learning

background, and (3) learning strategies Analysis of key obstacles encountered by

the 8th graders of Ede ethnicity in learning English vocabulary helped English teachers had suitable solutions for successful teaching tasks Reducing the key obstacles for students surely helps them improve their poor results to some extent

1.9 Organization of the study

This study is divided into six basic parts Chapter One is the introduction of the study, which states the study’s background, statement and purpose of the study,

significance, research questions, research propositions, an overview of the current situation of teaching English in grade 8 at SHSHS, assumptions, delimitation, and

the organization of the study Chapter Two provides the review of literature, i.e summaries of related researches that make the framework for the study, for example, theories of teaching and learning vocabulary, motivation and learning, learning background and cognition, and learning strategies Chapter Three presents the methodology in which this study has been done Chapter Four presents the results of data analysis and the study’s findings Chapter Five gives the study’s conclusions and recommendations for further research And lastly, there are a collection of appendices, most of which are the instruments of the investigation

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter the theoretical framework of the obstacles of learning English encountered by Ede students will be discussed Some aspects of the theory in teaching and learning vocabulary on the basis of SLA will be summarized Research on teaching English for ethnic minorities has been limited and research on teaching English for Ede students, especially at secondary high school has been really scarce in Vietnam

Recently, Krong Ai Huong Lan (2011) has conducted a study at No Trang Long Ethnic High School – Daklak province It concentrated on the problems in teaching and learning speaking skills for the 11th graders of Ede ethnicity She concluded students’ knowledge of vocabulary was one of the factors that affect their speaking skills (Krong, A H L 2011, P 94)

In the international scale, the most related research was conducted by Yang, J (2005) named English as a third language among China’s ethnic minorities which was available online from June, 2008 The research aims many problems, one of which is “Chinese-minority language bilingual education in learning English with Chinese only instruction” which indicates obstacles in slowly developing English language teaching The similarity is that ethnic-minority learners begin to study L2 (Chinese/ Vietnamese) as an official language before studying English as the third language (L3) under L2 instruction He lists four factors that negatively impact on ELT in ethnic minority regions: lack of resources, lack of motivation, the interference of existing bilingual policies, and difficulty in learning a third language

2.1 Definitions of terms

For the study’s validity, six terms are lexically and operationally defined Lexically, definitions for the terms are given, based on definitions of compatible entries from Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (1995) Operationally,

examples or evidence are used to illustrate Two terms of obstacle and weak score are defined in this section Four others which are vocabulary and the three

research variables are defined during the review Operationally, there are a set of

signals which can be relatively exactly observable and countable

2.1.1 Obstacle

Obstacle is lexically a thing that blocks one’s way or makes movement, progress, etc difficult Obstacles are operationally problems or difficulties

affecting students’ learning such as low motivation, limited learning background,

lack of learning strategies, etc

2.1.2 Weak score

Weak score is lexically a score which is not good or adequate, especially in

contrast with what is usual or expected Operationally, a Weak score is the one

counted from 3.5 to 4.9 on the scale 10.0, according to the evaluating guide of students’ learning result from the Ministry of Education and Training

2.2 Some aspects of the theory in teaching and learning vocabulary

2.2.1 Definition of vocabulary

According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the entry of vocabulary is

understood with three meanings: (1) it is the total number of words in a language; (2) it is all the words known to a person or used in a particular book, subject, etc

e.g a wide/ limited vocabulary or active vocabulary or passive vocabulary; and

(3) it is a list of words with their meanings, esp ones that accompanies a textbook

in a foreign language The second meaning is the most appropriate in this study

According to Ur (1996, p 60), vocabulary is one of the four components of the

“what” in teaching and learning a foreign language which are (1) pronunciation, (2) vocabulary, (3) grammar, and (4) topics, situations, notions, and functions He wrote, “Vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as the words we teach in the foreign language However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: for

example, post office and mother-in-law …”

2.2.2 Classification of vocabulary

As communicative skills go, vocabulary is divided into receptive and productive vocabulary The receptive/ productive distinction depends on its resemblance to the distinction between the “receptive” skills of listening and reading and the

“productive” skills of speaking and writing Receptive carries the idea that we

receive language input from other people through listening and reading and try to

comprehend it Productive refers to the idea that we produce language forms by

speaking and writing to convey message to other people (Nation, 2001, p 24)

2.2.3 The roles of vocabulary in language learning, communicating, and testing

Nation (1990) states that the lack of vocabulary is a serious obstacle strongly

related to their language learning frustration Vocabulary is the main materials to make sentences or utterances Lacking necessary words, learners cannot receive or produce language as expected Coady (1997) concludes that the central issue in language teaching is helping learners learn vocabulary well

Vocabulary plays a crucial role in not only speaking but also other communicative skills Lacking productive vocabulary, learners cannot express their speech or writing completely On the other hand, lacking receptive vocabulary, they hardly understand the texts or utterances McCarthy (1990) asserts “without words to express a wider range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way.” Therefore, learners always feel

difficult to communicate confidently when their source of vocabulary is limited

According to the instructions to test and evaluate students from the Ministry of

Education and Training, a common test in school is used to test and evaluate students with three levels of knowledge: (1) recognition, (2) understanding, and (3) application These levels must be shown in the test matrix with a fixed ratio of 50% of recognition, from 15% to 20% of application due to students’ ability For English, the matrix for a test must include four parts: (1) listening skills (20%), (2) reading comprehension skills (30%), (3) writing skills with particular writing tasks (25%), and (4) grammar structures and vocabulary with ten multiple-choice questions (25%) (See App 2.) It is recognizable that whatever types of questions and whatever parts the test includes, the tests consist of many words; therefore, students will not do the tests well if they lack necessary sources of vocabulary, such as vocabulary of the topics for listening, reading and writing questions They

may not understand requirements or clues of the test, so that they cannot give it many correct answers Laufer (1997) asserts that no comprehension would be possible without understanding the vocabulary

2.2.4 On knowing a word

What is involved in knowing a word? Usually, learners think that knowing a word means knowing what the word sounds like or looks like and its meanings Actually, knowing a word requires much more It involves all the receptive and productive aspects (Nation, 2001)

According to Nation (2001, p 23), “Words are not isolated units of language, but fit into many interlocking systems and levels.” There are three main aspects of

a word that teachers should mention in the lesson: (1) form, including spoken form, written form, and part of speech; (2) meaning, including form and meaning, concept and referents, association, and (3) usage, including grammatical functions,

collocations, and constraints on use (frequency)

As Tran, V D (2008, pp 29-34) summarized various researches, on knowing a word, learners should know seven pieces of information relating to that word First, they should remember its written form, i.e what does the word look like? Second, they can manage its spoken form, i.e what does it sound like? And how is

it pronounced? Third, they have to know its meanings, i.e they know not only its semantic features but its reference or its connotations Fourth, they have to know its meaning in context Fifth, they have to know its parts of speech and grammatical functions to use it in sentences correctly Sixth, they can control other words collocated with to make a sequence of words or a phrase And lastly, they have to build their ability to use it effectively in various communication situations

Ur (1996, pp 60-62) included these aspects but focused the area of word meanings more carefully On knowing word meaning, learners should control denotation, connotation, appropriateness and meaning relationships

McCarten (2007, pp 3-14) suggested using the Corpus to teach vocabulary There are six noticing points of a new word: (1) frequency (How often is it used in communication?); (2) differences in speaking and writing (What style is it used in

communication?); (3) contexts of use (What situation is it used?); (4) collocation (Which words are used with it?); (5) grammatical patterns (What patterns is it used?); and (6) strategic use of vocabulary (Is the word used to organize and manage discourse?) McCarten (2007, p.18) summarized Richard (1976) and Nation (2001) teachers must have a list of nine aspects to apply in their teaching new words in order that students can master the word The list includes: (1) the meaning(s) of the word, (2) its spoken and written forms, (3) its “word parts” (e.g., prefix, suffix, and “root” form), (4) its grammatical behavior (e.g., its word class, typical grammatical patterns), (5) its collocation, (6) its register, (7) what associations it has (e.g., words that are similar or opposite in meaning), (8) what connotations it has, and (9) its frequency

2.2.5 Techniques for teaching vocabulary

In light of the Communicative Aproach and Nation (2001, p 23), these nine

components by McCarten (2007, p.18) above are understood as the three common

terms in presenting a new word: (1) form (spoken and written forms, parts of speech, and its register); (2) meaning (its meanings, connotations and meaning associations); and (3) usage (its grammatical behavior, collocation, and

frequency) In practice, teachers usually spend much time helping students realize and remember the word meanings before they can use it correctly In addition, students usually ask “what does it mean?” when they meet a new word, before

“How is it pronounced or used?” Therefore, teachers usually pay much attention to teaching the word’s meanings by using different techniques Each one will strongly suitable for a kind of words To avoid the monosome, teachers usually alternate techniques that can work effectively The most common techniques used

to present word meanings are collected from the works of Doff, A (1988) and Ur,

P (1996), etc as following

1 Showing meaning visually: According to Doff, A (1988, pp 13-14), this

technique includes subtechniques such as using pictures, flashcards, charts, realia, acting, mime or gestures, drawing, etc It is very suitable with concrete nouns or verbs of actions Each subtechnique has its own advantages and disadvantages

For example, drawing is interesting but time-consuming; or realia help students know meanings quickly and exactly, but they may be trouble in transporting or in

money

2 Giving examples: According to Doff, A (1988, pp 14-15), the meaning can

be shown by simple sentences A good example should clearly show the meaning

of the word to someone who does not know it already It is good for showing the

meaning of abstract words

3 Meaning relationships: According to Ur, P (1996, pp 63-64), the two most

common subtechniques are synonyms and antonyms They help student realize the meanings of the new word easily in case that students have known its synonym or antonyms

4 Elicitation: According to Doff, A (1988, pp 159-160), elicitation involves

the class by focusing students’ attention and making them think It encourages students to draw on what they already know or partly know Because of this, it is a useful technique for mixed ability classes or classes of students from different

learning backgrounds, where different students know different things

5 Translation: According to Ur (1996, pp 63-64) and Doff (1988, p 12), the

meanings of the new word are translated into those of the students’ language so that they can understand the meanings quickly However, students easily get the

words passively and don’t know how to use the words

6 Association: According to Ur, P (1996, pp 63-64), this technique is based on

the idea of hyponymous relationship The meaning of the new word is drawn by students after they generalize the words given; for example, the teacher says: fish,

birds and cats are different animal, so what is animal?

7 Combining different techniques: According to Doff, A (1988, pp 15-16),

some complicated words need the combination of two or three techniques to

present their meanings For example, the word smile is both verb and noun, so for

the meaning of the verb, we can use drawing or facial expression to illustrate its meaning, but that of the noun can be illustrated by translation

2.2.6 Factors affecting EFL students’ learning vocabulary

Brown (2000, pp 272-273), in building a theory of SLA, mentioned as many

as eleven factors affecting learners’ learning process They are age, general

intelligence, language aptitude, learning strategies, transfer, input, learning environment, socio-cultural factors, egocentric factors (autonomy), motivation, and educational background

Gu, P Y (2003, pp 2-3) summarized various factors affecting learners’ vocabulary learning strategies They are of two major kinds: person-dependent and context-dependent factors For the first kind, he listed the most widely reported factors including age, sex, language aptitude, intelligence, prior knowledge, motivation, self-concept/image, personality, and cognitive and learning style For the other kind, the learning context can include the teachers, the peers, the classroom climate or ethos, the family support, the social, cultural tradition of learning, the curriculum, and the availability of input and output

opportunities

The matching of Brown’s and Gu’s is relative By neglecting stable factors such

as age, aptitude, the peers, the family support, and classroom climate, there are as many as eight following factors that affect EFL students’ learning vocabulary The

first five factors that are closely related to the students themselves are: (1) learning

motivation, (2) learning background, (3) learning strategies, (4) intelligence, and (5) autonomy The last three factors that are likely beyond their control are: (6)

teachers, (7) input, and (8) language transfer The factors of (1), (2), and (3) will be

discussed in detail as the key variables in this study in the next parts The five others are temporarily set aside because of the following reasons

About intelligence, nobody can negate the role of intelligence in learning In

learning a language, Ausubel in efficient learning model argued that high

intelligence would no doubt imply a very efficient process of storing items Brown (2000, P.101) summarizing Howard Gardner (1983), Robert Sternberg (1985, 1988) and (Goleman 1995), discerned a relationship between traditional intelligence and FL learning Nevertheless, if students do not have a right attitude

or high motivation in learning, how can intelligence work? So the intelligence

factor, if it works, lies in learning background (as Ausubel’s view above) and

learning strategies because an intelligent learner will have suitable learning

strategies so as to achieve the best result

About learning autonomy, it is one of the most important factors that affect

students’ learning vocabulary, because if they learn words by themselves, they become independent learners Moreover, the time for learning vocabulary in class

is not much for a huge number of words they need to master, so autonomy may

raise their source of words (learning background) However, autonomy depends

on learning motivation; for example, a low motivation learner will not spend much time learning after school and vice versa Autonomy also depends on learning

strategies This may be argued that if learners have suitable learning strategies

after school to learn words, then their autonomy will show its effectiveness, and

vice versa Therefore, autonomy lies in the factors of learning background,

learning motivation and learning strategies

About the factors of teachers, input, and language transfer; all affect learning vocabulary to some extent Teachers can have considerable affects on students’ learning vocabulary They can affect students’ learning motivation with their own teaching methods and personality They also teach students many learning

strategies Therefore, the factor of teachers is indirectly investigated in the variables of learning motivation and learning strategies Various inputs can help

students study themselves If they are equipped adequate reference books and dictionaries, they can look up strange or new words in texts and go on their work instead of stopping because of impasse Or learners will benefit from the input where there is a high frequency of English words that are used in daily communication, in advertisement, etc can raise students’ input or help review the

words they learned This is regarded as a part of learning background And lastly,

language transfer lie in the factor of learning strategies

2.2.7 The obstacles in learning vocabulary in the study

From the analysis and abridgement above of the factors that affect learners’

learning vocabulary, the factors of learning motivation and attitude, learning

background, and learning strategies are taken into investigation in priority as the

obstacles encountered by the Ede students They will be the names of the appropriate variables in data analysis

2.3 Motivation and learning achievement

Many of the current theories of FL motivation come from the early work of

Gardner and Lambert (1959) They are the first to make a distinction between integrative motivation and instrumental motivation and this has a tremendous influence on virtually all FL related research in this area

2.3.1 The nature of motivation

It is cited from Brown (2000) that “Motivation is probably the most frequently

used catch-all term for explaining the success or failure of virtually any complex task It is easy to assume that success in any task is due simply to the fact that someone is ‘motivated.’ Countless studies…have shown that motivation is a key to learning But…what motivation is and what the subcomponents of motivation are; what does it mean to say that someone is motivated? How do you create, foster, and maintain motivation?” Many researchers on SLA and psychology gave a lot of credible evidence to answer these questions

2.3.1.1 Definition

As Ur, P (1996, p 274), motivation is an abstract term and is rather difficult to

define, so it is easier and more useful to think in terms of the ‘motivated’ learner: one who is willing or even eager to invest effort in learning activities and to progress Motivation is some kind of internal drive that encourages somebody to pursue a course of action (Harmer, 1991, p 3) Some psychologists define moti-vation in terms of certain needs Ausubel (1968, pp 368-379), for example, identified six needs undergirding the construct of motivation: (1) the need for

exploration, for seeing “the other side of the mountain”; (2) the need for manipulation, for operating on the environment and causing change; (3) the need

for activity, for movement and exercise in both physical and mental; (4) the need for stimulation, by other people or by ideas, thought and feelings; (5) the need for

knowledge, the need to process and internalize the results of exploration,

manipulation, activity, and stimulation, to resolve contradiction, to search for solutions to problems and for self-consistent systems of knowledge; and (6) the

need for ego enhancement, for the self to be known, accepted and approved of by

others

Constructivists placed motivation even further emphasis on social context as well as individual choices Each person is motivated differently, and will act on his

or her environment in ways that are unique (Burden, 1997, p 120) Whatever various definitions they offered, motivation is commonly thought of as “the process of arousing, directing, and maintaining behavior” (Burden, 1994, p 261)

2.3.1.2 Operational definition

Naiman et al., (1978) came to the conclusion that the most successful learners

are not necessarily those to whom a language came very easily; they are those who display certain typical characteristics, most of them clearly associated with

motivation Characteristics of motivated learners are:

1 Positive task orientation The learner is willing to tackle tasks and

challenges, and has confidence in his or her success

2 Ego-involvement The learner finds it important to succeed in learning

in order to maintain and promote his or her own (positive) self-image

3 Need for achievement The learner has a need to achieve, to overcome

difficulties and succeed in what he or she sets out to do

4 High aspirations The learner is ambitious, goes for demanding

challenges, high proficiency, top grades

5 Goal orientation The learner is very aware of the goals of learning, or

of specific learning activities, and directs efforts towards achieving them

6 Perseverance The learner consistently invests a high level of effort in

learning, and is not discouraged by setbacks or apparent lack of progress

7 Tolerance of ambiguity The learner is not frustrated by situations

involving a temporary lack of understanding or confusion; he or she can live

with these patiently, in the confidence that understanding will come later

From the seven characteristics above, accompanied with the definition, the eight observable or measurable signals of a motivated learner below are interpreted

by the researcher to compare and decide the students’ state of learning motivation

in this study:

1 Having purposes for learning vocabulary (of characteristic 5) Purposes for

learning vocabulary are various such as to enrich their knowledge, to get good marks, or to win games, etc This is one of the most important signals because if

students know why to learn vocabulary, they will spend great effort learning words On the contrary, without any purposes, they cannot spend their great effort

to learn;

2 Copying lessons carefully (of characteristics 1 and 4) The act of copying

lessons carefully is understood that students have to copy all lesson contents in their notebook with clear handwriting so that they can review the lessons easily later If students copy lessons carefully, it means they have a real need in learning

by always paying attention to the lessons and spending great efforts to learning, and vice versa Every lesson includes learned words and new words If they copy lessons carefully, they have chances to review learned words which is essential in learning words and to practice writing new words to control their spelling

3 Usually taking part in learning activities in class (of characteristics 1 and 2)

Learning activities in class include answering comprehensive questions of the lessons, working in individuals, pairs or groups, and taking role-plays, etc Taking part in learning activities in class is evidence for serious learning need and attitude

4 Usually paying attention to the lessons (of characteristics 1 and 3) The act of

usually paying attention to the lessons includes students’ various states and actions such as body position, eye direction, ear state (ready to listen), etc This act also shows their learning need

5 Usually preparing new lessons at home (of characteristics 1 and 3) Preparing

new lessons in advance at home is one of students’ tasks, but not all students do in practice It includes reading texts, searching new words or ways of answers, finding anything new, etc This also shows students’ active learning need and attitude because they want to understand new lessons in class thoroughly When preparing lessons at home, students will meet new or strange words They can find them by their own ways to get available information If there are some words that are completely new for them, they will pay more attention to them in the next class

or ask the teacher to discover On the contrary, the students will face a lot of new words and they may feel difficult to digest them during lessons;

6 Usually doing homework (of characteristics 1 and 3) Doing homework is also

one of students’ regular tasks, but many students feel bored with it Because

students have various kinds of homework, it will take them time and energy to deal with it Thus, usually doing homework proves that they spend time and energy on their learning or they lead a real learning motivation By doing homework they will review learned words as well as meet other new words Moreover, their work will be rewarded with good marks to encourage them to continue their task;

7 Attending classes (of characteristic 6) Attending adequate classes proves that

students are interested in learning and afraid of missing lessons due to their absence This is shown by their number of days-off with English On the contrary, quitting classes is one of the highest responses of the boresome with learning;

8 Taking part in tutoring classes regularly (of characteristic 7) Tutoring

classes are places where weak students have good chances to learn what they have not understood before, including word usages, the ways to learn words effectively, etc Taking part in tutoring classes regularly proves their patience to learn

These signals are going to be focused on under observations and interviews to investigate the subjects’ motivation extent Operationally, learning motivation in

vocabulary-learning is considered due to different scales (See 3.3.6.)

2.3.2 Relationship between learning motivation and learning achievement

According to Ur, P (1996, pp 274-275), learner motivation makes teaching and learning immeasurably easier and more pleasant as well as more productive Remarking the importance of motivation to learning, he wrote “Various studies have found that motivation is very strongly related to achievement in language learning (e.g Gardner and Lambert, 1972; Gardner, 1980) The significant message of research in this area for teachers is the sheer importance of the factor

of learner’s motivation in successful language learning.” According to Lepper (1998, p 2) motivation and learning is the study of how to harness learners’

“intrinsic interest” to help them learn Anyone who has taught knows the importance of student motivation

Kam (2007, p 8) demonstrated a high relationship between motivation and

achievement High motivation is an antecedent necessary condition for students to learn an L2 and produce high achievement He confirmed that the integrative

motivational attitudes are highly influential on their motivation Students need to have respect attitudes before they take action and spend effort in their learning

2.3.3 Students’ learning motivation in ET

The problem is that how teachers can enhance the students’ motivation They basically hold aspects of student interests Snowman (1990) presented four theoretical views of students’ motivation that attempt to explain aspects of learning motivation Factors affecting learning motivation must be found and principles of learning and motivation must be drawn Besides, English teachers must keep in

mind that motivation can fluctuate

2.3.3.1 Four theoretical views of student motivation

2.3.3.1.1 The behavioral view

 The Effect of the Reinforcement

Behavioral theorists, typically Skinner (1953), stress that individuals are motivated when their behavior is reinforced That is, students are motivated to complete a task by the rewards they receive for completing the task

 The Power of Persuasive Models

Albert Bandura (1963) pays attention to the importance of observation, imitation, and vicarious reinforcement A student who identifies and admires a teacher of a particular subject may work hard to please the teacher

2.3.3.1.2 The cognitive view

Cognitive theorists stress that individuals are motivated when they experience a cognitive disequilibrium in which they desire to find a solution to a problem This

is an intrinsic form of motivation in which students are motivated by curiosity, an urge to explore, or simply an impulse to try something fun (White, 1959, p 75)

2.3.3.1.3 The Humanistic view

The best known theory of motivation is Maslow’s (1954) hierarchy of five needs ranged from deficiency needs to growth needs They are physiological need, safety need, social need, esteem need, and self-actualization need The first four needs are often referred to as deficiency needs because they motivate people to act only when they are unmet to some degree Self-actualization, by contrast, is often called

a growth need because people constantly strive to satisfy it He argued, “When individuals have satisfied their deficiency needs, they will then feel motivated to satisfy higher growth needs.” Therefore, teachers should do everything to help students meet deficiency needs because students may make bad choices when deficiency needs are not satisfied

2.3.3.1.4 Achievement motivation view

According to Snowman (1990), people want to succeed at the highest possible level while at the same time they tend to avoid the possibility of failure In learning, when students are successful, they tend to set realistic goals for themselves and successful experiences strengthen a need for achievement … Students who have a high need for achievement like more challenging tasks, while students with a low need for achievement often choose easy tasks Therefore, in the enhancement of learning motivation, teachers need to pay attention to the students’ attitude in learning

In conclusion, all the four views above indicate their own insights Each can be properly applied in specific teaching context For example, teachers, with their certain authority, can reinforce their students to do a task The student will do without any self-awareness, so this is not a long-term solution Or if the students are passive, the cognitive view seems unsuitable The teaching context with the four subjects in the study seems mostly appropriate with the humanistic view because teachers can flexibly apply teaching techniques to enhance individual case’s motivation according to their real state However, the view of achievement motivation theory must be applied in complement

2.3.3.2 Factors affecting motivation

In order to enhance students’ motivation, the factors affecting motivation must

be controlled by the teachers They are: people living around students such as parents, siblings, peers and teachers; teaching methods and learning environment

People living around students can affect them too much Harmer (1991, p 4)

emphasized the impact of parents upon the student’s attitude as the most important factor in the extrinsic motivation; besides, the belief teachers themselves have about teaching and learning and the expectations they hold for students also exerts

a powerful influence (Raffini, 1994, p 26) Stipek, D (1988, p 47) noted, “To a very large degree, students expect to learn if their teachers expect them to learn.”

Ur (1996, p 276) argued that school children learning a foreign language may only learn well if their teacher finds a way to activate and encourage their desire to invest effort in the learning activities The student’s peers will also be a powerful position to affect his or her attitude

The teaching method plays a vital role in motivation enhancement It is clear that good method will attract students in their learning If they find it deadly boring, they will probably become de-motivated, whereas if they have confidence

in the method they will find it motivating

Finally, classroom climate is also an important factor affecting intrinsic motivation If students experience the classroom as a caring, supportive place where there is a sense of belonging and everyone is valued and respected, they will tend to participate more fully in the process of learning Oldfather (1991, p 10) indicated “Students perform best when they feel respected and valued.”

2.3.3.3 Principles of learning and motivation

Misterduncan (2009) introduced three general rules for learning English as a

foreign language in the area of psychology First, language learners don’t have to

worry about making mistakes Second, they should not look at English as just another subject And third, the two most important words to remember when

learning English are practice and confidence

Lepper (1998) stated that it is not easy to motivate students He suggested a list

of the most important principles to enhance learning motivation in his article

1 Context: One of the most important principles is that students learn better and are more motivated when abstract material is presented in real-world context

2 Challenge: Students learn best when their learning materials are at the

moderate level of difficulty: not so hard to get discouraged, and not so easy to

become bored

3 Competition: Students are individually scored or graded based on how their

performance is compared with that of their peers If the individuals with conflicting goals are working on the same task and their performance has direct

effect on their opponents, the activities can be very enjoyable

4 Constructive feedback: In many educational activities, students need

feedback Research has shown that feedback that includes additional information about the answer is not only more enjoyable to receive, but leads to better performance on future problems

2.3.3.4 Teaching techniques and educative ways for learning motivation

The essential techniques and educative ways were selected to serve the teaching They were used in different kinds of lessons In light of Lepper (1998), four principles of learning and motivation were applied And in light of Snowman (1994), Misterduncan (2009) and Ur (1996) ten educative ways were followed Each principle or educative way consists of one or several teaching techniques All the techniques are summarized in the table 2.1 below

Table 2.1: Educative ways and teaching techniques for enhancing learning motivation

Authors Educative ways Teaching techniques

Challenge in learning Ten words for a topic Competition in learning Games, puzzles Giving feedback Feedback with addition Skinner (1953) and

Stimulating curiosity Puzzles, elicitations, questions

Oldfather (1991) Taking care of attitudes Observations of behaviors

Ur (1996) Building pairs of friends Testing, games

Misterduncan (2009) Building confidence Compliment, error correction

Misterduncan (2009) Practicing daily Check up

Ur (1996) Varying types of tests Many types of tests with

2.3.3.5 Fluctuations in learner interest

Some temporary lowering in learner interest can be caused by factors beyond English teachers’ control – the learner’s need to take a short break, for example, or external distractions – but there are also certain teacher behaviors which can quickly catch or lose learner interest, and it is important to be sensitive to their effects Teacher-associated fluctuations in interest are more obvious in classes of younger or less autonomous learners (Ur, 1996, p 282) That the teachers control

the fluctuations means they can maintain students’ learning motivation

2.4 Learning background

2.4.1 Definition

Background as Oxford (1995) (4a) is a person’s social class, family status, level

of education, etc Learning background in the area of vocabulary is the number of words that students can remember and use in communication and their learning instruments serving their learning such as reference books or dictionaries

Operationally, learning background consists of specific states and abilities At

the area of vocabulary, the following eight measurable and observable signals are the bases of learning background for an 8th grader before learning English 8 The first five ones are specific states, and the last three ones, specific abilities These conventions are based on logical inference

1 His or her current vocabulary is at least 500 words As counted at the next

part, 2.4.2, students can remember about 540 words in grade 6 and 470 words in grade 7 (totally 1010 words) So the average number after two years' learning for a

normal student must be reached at 500 words This is the strongest requirement

2 His or her learning result in grade 7 is at least average A student who has an

average learning result in general is regarded as the one with a normal cognitive ability If he or she is weak in general, their weakness in cognition or in learning vocabulary process will not be unusual

3 His or her result at English in grade 7 is at least 5.0 The final result of each

subject at school is based on various tests As mentioned at 2.2.3 in this chapter,

vocabulary plays a very important role in doing English tests; therefore, the final result reflects the vocabulary resource to some extent

4 His or her result of the new school-year entrance test is at least 5.0 This test

result reflects the students’ current learning background effectively because if students handle their learned vocabulary, they can perform their test well

5 He or she is well equipped with learning tools and materials As mentioned

at 2.2.6., learning equipment affects students’ autonomy and motivation which in turn affect their learning words; thus, learning tools and materials are regarded as a signal to measure the students’ learning background

6 He or she can guess the meanings of new words in contexts According to

Schmitt, N and McCarthy, M (1997, p 79), guessing the meanings of new words using contexts is one of the effective strategies in learning vocabulary However, the technique works under certain conditions They argued that to infer the meaning of any particular word encountered in context, it is helpful to know the meaning of the words around it They cited Sheffelbine’s (1990) and Garcia’s (1991) study of the process of inferring word meaning from context: “One of the main obstacles facing learners trying to infer the meaning of a word was lack of knowledge of other words in the context.” When students are able to guess the meaning of new words in context, they show their source of vocabulary Thus, this

is a necessary signal for us to decide their learning background

7 He or she often understands the lessons right in class This is shown by their

ability to answer lesson questions It is easy to see that when students have necessary vocabulary for the lesson, e.g., words of a certain topic, they can easily communicate within that topic or learn more from that basis through reading right

in class The idea is argued in Krashen’s (1981) Input Hypothesis

8 He or she can read texts fluently Obviously when students know most words

in a text, they can read it quite fluently, and vice versa

The signals are used to decide the subjects’ learning background They are

going to be focused on under record reviews, diagnostic tests, observations and

interviews to investigate the subjects’ learning background extent Operationally, it

is considered on five different scales (See 3.3.6.)

2.4.2 Vocabulary resource

Referred to the textbooks of “Tiếng Anh 6” and “Tiếng Anh 7”, the amount of necessary words acquired to students during two grades: 6 and 7, is counted relatively as following By the end of grade 6, as the glossary in the textbook, students can acquire about 407 lexical words Besides, they can also learn over 133 function words as well as high-frequency words Both make up a reasonable number of 540 words for the first year (See App 1C) In the grade-7 program, students both consolidate the lexical words learned in grade 6 and update about

302 lexical ones, about 103 function words as well as high frequency words and 65 irregular verbs (See App 1C) Thus, by the end of grade 7 students can accumulate

an amount of vocabulary of over 1000 words A real average student may remember at least a half, about 500 words of various types At the beginning of grade 8, any students that remember less than this number may be judged as limited learning background The less word they remember, the more serious their limited learning background is The number of words students remember is estimated by the diagnostic vocabulary test It is described clearly at 3.3.4.3.4

2.4.3 Learning materials

As the program requirement, students need to equip themselves learning materials such as textbooks, workbooks, disks or cassette tapes, and should have dictionaries and reference books Brown (2000) depicted in the ecology of language acquisition (Figure 10.3, p 295) that textbooks and learning materials are like two of the rain clouds of input stimulating seeds of predisposition (2000, p 294) A student who possesses relatively enough learning materials is clearly convenient in learning activities both in classes and especially at home because of various input channels, and vice versa

2.4.4 The relationship between learning background and learning achievement

In the learning process, the relationship between learning background and

learning achievement is the reciprocal and inheritable one in which the former is virtually seen as the cause, and the latter, the result However, at the next stage of the process, the latter becomes the cause, and the former, the result As the former

dominant goes, there have been a lot of researches and teaching principles being available The most salient ones which were reiterated in Brown (2000) are Krashen’s (1981) Input Hypothesis, Ausubel’s (1965) meaningful learning theory

and the developmental principle below

2.4.4.1 The Input Hypothesis

As Brown (2000) cited, the Input Hypothesis claims that an important

“condition for language acquisition to occur is that the acquirer understands (via hearing or reading) input language that contains structure ‘a bit beyond’ his or her current level of competence… If an acquirer is at stage or level i, the input he or she understands should contain i + 1” (Krashen, 1981, p 100) In other words, the language that learners are exposed to should be just far enough beyond their current competence that they can understand most of it, but still be challenged to make progress (Brown, 2000, p 278)

2.4.4.2 Ausubel’s meaningful learning theory

Brown (2000) reported that David Ausubel contended that learning takes place

in the human organism through a meaningful process of relating new events or items to already existing cognitive concepts or propositions – hanging new items

on existing cognitive pegs Meaning is not an implicit response, but a “clearly articulated and precisely differentiated conscious experience that emerges when potentially meaningful signs, symbols, concepts, or propositions are related to and incorporated within a given individual’s cognitive structure on a non-arbitrary and substantive basic” (Anderson and Ausubel 1965, p 8) It is this relatability that, according to Ausubel, accounts for a number of phenomena: the acquisition of new meanings retention, the psychological organization of knowledge as a hierarchical structure, and the eventual occurrence of forgetting (Brown, 2000, p 83)

2.4.4.3 Developmental principle

The knowledge and skills in the upper grade must be inherited and developed

on the base of the lower grades’ knowledge and skills, but they are at a more complex and deeper level Logically, English is an inheritable subject like Math or Literature The content is interrelated; therefore, if the students don’t grasp some pieces of basic knowledge, they will face many problems to understand the new

ones For example, if the learner does not know how to form or recognize a plural noun, he or she will not use the correct verb-form in the present simple when the very noun is used as the subject of the sentence Likewise, if he or she can’t know whether a certain verb is regular or not, he won’t use it correctly in the past form

In summary, learning background plays a very important role for students to

learn new higher knowledge and skills If the students are in the state of limited learning background, they will meet a lot of difficulties in learning, and this is considered a key obstacle encountered by the students in learning English in general and English words in particular By no means, the students who want to improve their learning results have to enrich their learning background first

2.4.5 Students’ learning background in the ET

Improvement of students’ limited learning background in ET is a vital task for

teachers Frankly speaking, this is not a simple task The teacher has to control the real situation and learn about each student’s characters so that he can give proper solutions for the problem

2.4.5.1 Real situation

Students have to learn many subjects at school, and they also do homework

and prepare new lessons at home Some students have to help their parents do the chores Therefore, their source of time for learning English is limited Moreover, a lot of students who are in limited learning background are not much patient to sit learning vocabulary and do homework because they feel overloaded with too many

new words Furthermore, students who are of low motivation are not willing to

improve their knowledge themselves Their learning strategies may not be various Lastly, their learning instruments are not available to serve their revision

2.4.5.2 Solutions to the real situation

The real situation above requires that teachers have great patience and right

solutions to reach their aims They keep in mind that this is a long-term task for both teachers and students, and they also have to set up feasible tasks for themselves and for their students On one hand they have to enhance students’ motivation by principles On the other hand, they give enrichment courses weekly and design exercises or tasks suitable with students’ ability For example, students

have to review fourteen words in a week It means that students review only two words a day averagely Little by little students can review about 500 words more

in a year Such a supplement surely improves their learning background! Teachers can suggest students for different learning ways It is important for teachers to check up regularly and give remarks to encourage students to maintain their job Misterduncan (2009) introduced three other general rules for learning English

as an FL in the area of building learning background Firstly, language learners must view English as a part of their body Daily practice is very important Secondly, learning English takes time and patience It cannot be rushed, so they should try to relax and take it easy And lastly, the most important thing they need

at the beginning is a good vocabulary They must start with a strong foundation

and slowly build on it day by day!

2.4.5.3 Educative ways teaching techniques for improving learning background

Seven teaching-vocabulary principles by McCarten (2007) were followed Four learning principles were also introduced: learning every day, being patient, being confident, and reviewing words regularly Three educative ways were also applied such as enhancing students’ learning motivation, enriching students’ learning strategies, and giving students an enrichment course All the techniques are summarized in the table 2.2 below