Teaching vocabulary through associations to enhance learners understanding of words m a 60 14 10

They also help learners to avoid common wrong combinations of words that learners usually make by transferring the meaning of each word from the first language into the target language..

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES & HUMANITIES

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS & LITERATURE

TEACHING VOCABULARY THROUGH

Supervised by

TRAN THI MINH PHUONG, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, APRIL 2011

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I certify authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled:

TEACHING VOCABULARY THROUGH ASSOCIATIONS TO ENHANCE LEARNERS’ UNDERSTANDING OF WORDS

in terms of the statement of Requirements for the Theses in Master’s Programmes 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, April 20th, 2011

TRẦN THỊ THANH DIỆP

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, Trần Thị Thanh Diệp, 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, April 20th, 2011

TRẦN THỊ THANH DIỆP

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my deepest and sincerest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Dr Trần Thị Minh Phượng, who has provided helpful guidance, precious comments and strong support in the development and completion of this thesis

I would also like to acknowledge my debt to colleague teachers at University

of Education – Foreign Language Centre – Branch 4 who have helped and shared their valuable comments as well as teaching experience related to the scope of this thesis

I am also grateful to learners at the above-mentioned language centre, especially those who have taken part in the questionnaire and the experiment This thesis would have never been accomplished without their participation and involvement in the experiment

ABSTRACT

This thesis investigates the current situation of teaching and learning vocabulary and the effectiveness of applying word associations in vocabulary instruction at HCMC University of Education-Foreign Language Centre, branch 4

The results indicate that learners’ previous experiences in learning vocabulary formed a habit of knowing only the meaning of word in Vietnamese and this hindered their ability of using vocabulary communicatively Wrong collocations are the biggest problems and using word associations in vocabulary teaching can help solve these problems

Word associations have a lot of benefits They can motivate learners to remember new words They also help learners to avoid common wrong combinations

of words that learners usually make by transferring the meaning of each word from the first language into the target language Suggestions of the findings are also discussed with the emphasis on applying word associations in enhancing the language teaching quality

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certificate of originality i

Retention and use of the thesis ii

Acknowledgement iii

Abstract iv

Table of contents v

List of appendices viii

List of tables and figures ix

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Background to the study 1

1.2 Scope of the thesis 6

1.3 Research questions 7

1.4 Aims and significance of the research 7

1.5 Overview of the thesis 8

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 9

2.1 Vocabulary acquisition 9

2.1.1 Definition and the role of vocabulary in language learning 9

2.1.1.1 Definition of vocabulary 9

2.1.1.2 The role of vocabulary in language teaching 11

2.1.2 Theory of vocabulary acquisition 13

2.1.2.1 Characteristics of vocabulary acquisition 13

2.1.2.2 Incidental and explicit learning of vocabulary 14

2.1.2.3 Acquisition of word meaning and morphological knowledge 15

2.1.2.4 The role of memory in vocabulary acquisition 15

2.1.3 Factors influencing vocabulary acquisition 16

2.1.3.1 Learners’ motivation 17

2.1.3.2 Learning strategies 18

2.1.3.3 The role of comprehensible input/output 20

2.1.3.4 The influence of learners’ mother tongue 20

2.2 Perspectives on vocabulary teaching and learning 21

2.2.1 Teaching vocabulary 21

2.2.1.1 Explicit teaching and incidental learning 22

2.2.1.2 Ways of dealing with words 23

2.2.1.3 Ways of presenting word’s meaning 25

2.2.2 Learning vocabulary 27

2.2.2.1 Stages of vocabulary growth 27

2.2.2.2 Aspects of knowing a word 29

2.2.2.3 Vocabulary learning strategies 31

2.2.3 Testing vocabulary 33

2.2.3.1 The importance of tests 33

2.2.3.2 Purposes of tests 34

2.2.3.3 Typical vocabulary test types 34

2.3 Teaching vocabulary through associations 36

2.2.1 Definitions of associations 36

2.2.2 Related literature in teaching vocabulary through associations 37

2.2.3 The effectiveness of using associations in vocabulary instruction 38

2.2.3.1 Motivating learners to learn vocabulary 38

2.2.3.2 Raising learners’ awareness of vocabulary 38

2.2.3.3 Enhancing vocabulary size 39

2.2.3.4 Providing effective activities in recycling the language 39

2.4 Summary 40

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 41

3.1 Research questions 41

3.2 Research methodology 41

3.3 Research design 42

3.3.1 The questionnaire for learners 42

3.3.1.1 Time and setting 42

3.3.1.2 Sample population 42

3.3.1.3 Instrument 43

3.3.2 The questionnaire for teachers 45

3.3.2.1 Time and setting 45

3.3.2.2 Sample population 45

3.3.2.3 Instrument 45

3.3.3 The experiment 46

3.3.3.1 Time and setting 46

3.3.3.2 Sample population 47

3.3.3.3 Experiment instrument 47

3.4 Data collection procedures 48

3.5 Summary 48

CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 49

4.1 Responses to the survey questionnaires 49

4.1.1 Responses from learners’ questionnaire 49

4.1.1.1 Learners’ awareness on the importance of vocabulary 49

4.1.1.2 Learners’ current situation in learning vocabulary 51

4.1.1.3 Learners’ attitudes towards learning vocabulary through word associations 55

4.1.2 Responses from teachers’ questionnaire 58

4.1.2.1 Teachers’ opinions on their students’ vocabulary learning strategies 58

4.1.2.2 Teachers’ techniques in teaching vocabulary 62

4.1.2.3 Teachers’ judgements on applying associations to teach vocabulary 65

4.2 Analysis using tests 68

4.2.1 Results from pretest 68

4.2.2 Results from post-test 68

4.2.3 Comparison of the pre-test and post-test scores of two groups 69

4.3 Findings 71

4.4 Summary 73

CHAPTER 5 RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION 74

5.1 Summary of main points 74

5.2 Recommendations 74

5.2.1 To teachers 75

5.2.2 To learners 76

5.2.3 Suggested activities of associations to teach vocabulary 77

5.3 Limitations and recommendations for further research 81

5.3.1 Limitations 81

5.3.2 Recommendations for further research 82

5.4 Conclusion 82

REFERENCES 84

APPENDICES

Appendix 1 Questionnaire for learners (English version) 88

Appendix 2 Questionnaire for learners (Vietnamese version) 93

Appendix 3 Questionnaire for teachers (English version) 98

Appendix 4 Questionnaire for teachers (Vietnamese version) 104

Appendix 5 Pre-test format 110

Appendix 6 Post-test format 114

Appendix 7 Pre-test and Post-test results of controlled group 118

Appendix 8 Pre-test and Post-test results of experimental group 120

Appendix 9 Sample lesson plan 122

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Chapter 1

Table 1.1: List of language contents of the course book used

in the experiment 4

Chapter 2 Figure 2.1: Brown and Payne’s five essential steps to learning new words27 Table 2.1: What is involved in knowing a word 29

Table 2.2: Kinds of vocabulary knowledge and the most effective kind of learning 31

Table 2.3: Vocabulary learning strategies 32

Chapter 3 Table 3.1: Summary of learners’ sample characteristics 43

Table 3.2: Summary of teachers’ sample characteristics 45

Chapter 4 Table 4.1: Learners’ perceptions of the importance of vocabulary in language learning 49

Table 4.2: Learners’ self-evaluation of their vocabulary ability 50

Table 4.3: Learners’ opinions of the influence of vocabulary on language skills 50

Table 4.4: Learners’ frequency of actual vocabulary learning 51

Table 4.5: Learners’ strategies in learning vocabulary 53

Table 4.6: Learners’ concerns in a new word 54 Table 4.7: Learners’ attitudes towards learning vocabulary

through associations 55

Table 4.8: Teachers’ opinions of learners’ vocabulary learning strategies 59 Table 4.9: Teachers’ opinions of when learners can remember words 61

Table 4.10: Teachers’ perceptions of the most effective way for learners to enhance their vocabulary size 62

Table 4.11: Teachers’ evaluation of the importance of different aspects of a word 63

Table 4.12: Teachers’ reality in vocabulary teaching 64

Table 4.13: Teachers’ judgements on the benefits of teaching vocabulary through associations 65

Table 4.14: Teachers’ judgements on the difficulties of teaching vocabulary through associations 67

Table 4.15: Comparison of the pre/post tests scores of two groups 69

Figure 4.1: Learners’ difficulties in learning vocabulary 52

Figure 4.2: Learners’ opinions of effective ways to enrich vocabulary 57

Figure 4.3: Learners’ difficulties in learning vocabulary from teachers’ viewpoints 59

Figure 4.4: Controlled group’s test score distribution 70

Figure 4.5: Experimental group’s test score distribution 70

Chapter 5 Figure 5.1: Suggested activity – word groups 77

Figure 5.2: Suggested activity – word maps 78

Figure 5.3: Suggested activity – word pairs 79

Figure 5.4: Suggested activity – opposites 80

Figure 5.5: Suggested activity – rebus puzzles 81

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

1.1.1 The problem

Although vocabulary learning is only one sub-goal of a range of goals that are important in language learning, it does help learners listen, speak, read or write more effectively (Nation, 2001) Different strategies in learning English vocabulary also affect learners’ vocabulary development It is possible to learn a word by simply memorising it as well as it is also possible to learn a word by examining its roots or families However, the writer of this research agrees with Nation (2001) that words are not isolated units of language but they fit into many interlocking systems and levels Therefore, knowing a range of associations for a word helps understand its full meaning and helps recall the word form or its meaning in appropriate contexts

Because of this, over the past few years, the teaching of collocation as one of those word associations in vocabulary development has gained its popularity from teachers and theorists in many countries and it is also considered one of the best ways

to improve English skills (Hill & Lewis, 1997) The Oxford Collocations dictionary (2002) emphasizes the importance of collocations in vocabulary development for the reason that most single words in English, especially the more common words, embrace a whole range of meanings, some of which are quite distinct, and some shade into each other by degrees Therefore, the precise meaning in any context is determined by the words that surround and combine with the core word, in other words by collocation

With the knowledge of word associations, learners will be able to use appropriate word patterns rather than simply put individual words together according

to the English syntactic rules (Wei, 1999) Learners who choose the right associations for a word will express themselves much more clearly and more naturally

However, many Vietnamese learners, even at a higher level, still face a lot of difficulties when they need to express themselves in English Their difficulties mostly result from inadequate vocabulary One of the major reasons for these problems is their shortage of vocabulary stock They also depend a lot on their teachers’ explanations when learning vocabulary because they do not know the strategies which can help them learn vocabulary effectively both in and outside the classroom Unfortunately, the lack of suitable vocabulary learning strategies leads to the fact that learners make wrong combinations of words based on the Vietnamese translation

Hence there is no doubt that vocabulary knowledge can directly influence the success of language learning in which it helps learners to enhance the four language skills It is the expectation of effectively employing associations for vocabulary instruction that generated ideas for this study to be conducted

1.1.2 The need to employ word associations in the teaching and learning

EFL at the Foreign Language Centre of University of Education (FLC-UE)

Most Vietnamese learners of English at the Foreign Language Centre of University of Education (FLC-UE) in HCM City have a tendency to learn vocabulary

in isolation without knowing that some words can only combine with some other particular words They often believe that they could master English just by learning a

great number of words along with the meanings of these words in Vietnamese As a result, they often have problems in choosing the right combination of words

One typical example of wrong combination that learners often make comes form the adverb of degree “very” Elementary learners all know the meaning of

“very” and they can make numerous phrases like “very small, very well, very good.” Assuming that this rule would apply to all words, they produce a sentence like “I very like football.” Apparently, this sentence is neither correct nor natural English

Another example of how learners usually associate individual English words with their equivalent meanings in Vietnamese is also a common mistake among learners at elementary level They know the English word “drink” has the same meaning with “uống” in Vietnamese Therefore, they make a word pair of “uống thuốc” as “drink medicine” by just matching the words according to the Vietnamese equivalents Instead, we should say “take medicine” although “take” does not share the same meaning with “uống” in Vietnamese This is just one among countless examples to show that vocabulary learning is not simply a matter of matching up words in the first and the target language

Such problems of wrong combinations can be avoided when learners approach vocabulary through its associations This study aims to investigate the benefits of using word associations in the teaching and learning of vocabulary at FLC-UE and make some recommendations from the findings of the research

1.1.3 Overview of the syllabus

English programmes at FLC-UE (branch 4) offer open courses for learners at different ages and different English levels who want to improve their English ability for a variety of purposes There are programmes for young learners and adult learners

as well The adult English programmes also consist of different levels from beginner

to upper-intermediate ones which aim to develop learners’ proficiency in communication, especially in the business context In order to complete elementary level, learners need to take four courses of eight-weeks’ length each

1.1.3.1 Description of the course books

At the FLC-UE, adult learners who take part in the general English courses

will use the course book International Express (by Liz Taylor, 2006, OUP) Four

versions of this course book are used corresponding to learners’ levels, which are elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate and upper-intermediate At each level, there is also the workbook component which provides extra practice of the language items presented in the student’s book

The section of the course book which is used in the experiment teaching contains four units with a review unit for every two units Each unit is composed of eight pages dividing into four parts Part one is the ‘Language Focus 1’ with focuses

on a particular grammar point and exercises Part two is called the ‘Language Focus 2’ which deals with other language items and practices Part three which is the

‘Wordpower’ presents vocabulary in different topics Finally, part four is the ‘Focus

on Communication’ which aims to teach functions by presenting expressions needed for specific communication situations

The following table shows the list of language contents in each unit

Table 1.1: List of language contents on the course book used in the experiment

communication Unit 9  Modal verbs:  Hotel file  Invitations

Destination

with a

difference

should/shouldn’t, may, can/can’t

 Confusing verbs

 Answerphone messages

 Emails and mobile phones

Unit 11 Reach

for the sky

 Past Simple Passive  Wordbuilding  Opinions

 Agreeing and disagreeing

 Social exchanges

 Focus on communication review

1.1.3.2 Teaching methodology

The adult English courses at FLC-UE provide an integrated approach so that learners can equip themselves with all essential skills necessary for English communication Learners do not study the four skills separately but they study all four skills integratedly One Vietnamese and one foreign teacher will be in charge of one class

1.1.3.3 Learners’ characteristics

Learners at FLC-UE have very different backgrounds and thus they have different English levels Learners who enroll in the adult courses can be high school students, university students or working people Some have studied English before, some have not, while a few older people need remedial work of the language so they

do not usually have the same vocabulary range However, they all have one common purpose, which is to be able to communicate in English effectively And in order to reach that goal, they need to have suitable learning strategies, especially vocabulary learning strategies because vocabulary is one element that links four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing all together, according to McCarthy (1990)

1.2 Scope of the thesis

1.2.2 Subjects

This study is carried out at branch 4 of the FLC-UE in HCMC The participants of the study are 60 learners and 10 teachers at elementary level The students are studying in two classes and they all study English as a foreign language

1.3 Research questions

The study is designed to examine the reality of teaching and learning of vocabulary through associations at FLC-UE The research questions posed in this study are the following:

1 What is the current situation of teaching and learning vocabulary at UE?

FLC-2 In what ways does the technique of teaching vocabulary through associations benefit learners?

1.4 Aims and significance of the research

1.4.1 Aims of the research

First of all, this thesis aims at analyzing the current situation of teaching and learning vocabulary at elementary level at FLC-UE in order to find out the problems that learners usually encounter in learning vocabulary as well as the solutions to these problems

Second, the research paper also wants to identify the benefits of using word associations to teach and learn English vocabulary in elementary classes at FLC-UE,

so that learners can apply this strategy to improve their knowledge of English vocabulary

Third, the writer of the research would like to make suggestions about how vocabulary should be taught through associations in a way that it would help learners improve their vocabulary competence in order to achieve effectiveness in communication

1.4.2 Significance of the research

This research paper will help the students of English at FLC-UE be aware of the importance of word associations in learning vocabulary in order to improve their spoken and written English

At the same time, the results of the study will practically contribute to the teaching and learning vocabulary through associations with communicative approach

at FLC-UE It also makes recommendations for building the students the base for instruction when they can be independent of their teachers

self-1.5 Overview of the thesis

This research is divided into five chapters

Chapter 1 is the introduction of study, which reveals the reasons why this research is

carried out as well as the purposes that the research aims to and the construction in which the research follows

Chapter 2 – Literature Review This chapter lists related literature and linguistic

knowledge concerning vocabulary teaching and learning

Chapter 3 – Methodology This chapter deals with the methodology and design of

the research: how data were collected, the instruments used to collect the data and

how they were analyzed

Chapter 4 – Data analysis and findings This chapter presents the findings in

details and analysis and discussions of the research findings

Chapter 5 – Implications and recommendations This chapter concludes the study

with summary of all the main points presented in the study and some teaching implications drawn out from the outcome

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

In the previous chapter, the rationale of the study in conjunction with background to the study showed a need to carry out the study This chapter is a review

of issues relevant to vocabulary teaching and learning: (1) Definition and the importance of vocabulary in teaching and learning as well as theories of vocabulary acquisition; (2) perspectives on vocabulary teaching, learning and testing; (3) the effectiveness of using word associations in vocabulary teaching and learning The review provides a theoretical foundation to discuss the teaching techniques and learning strategies of teachers and learners at FLC-UE and to give feasible suggestions in order to improve vocabulary teaching and learning

of vocabulary or word provided by linguists and researchers

Schmitt (2000) argues that the term word is too general to cover the various

forms that vocabulary takes He suggests that to speak of vocabulary in more precise

terms when necessary, especially when handling multiword units, the term lexeme should be used instead According to him, lexeme is “an item that functions as a single

meaning unit, regardless of the number of words it contains.” (Schmitt, 2000: 2)

Nation (2001) also sees the problems in deciding what is counted as a word

He recommends four ways of counting words which include tokens, types, lemmas and word families Using tokens allows us to count each occurrence of the same word

form when it occurs more than once in a spoken or written text On the other hand,

types do not count the same word twice if it occurs more than once in the text When using lemmas to count words, we usually count a headword and some of its inflected and reduced forms Similar to lemmas, a word family also consists of a headword, its

inflected forms plus its closely related derived forms (Nation, 2001:6-8)

Another attempt to define what a word is comes from Moon (as cited in Schmitt and McCarthy, 2000) She states that when looking at vocabulary, it is natural

to focus on the word as the primary unit Therefore, she defines word as “a string of

characters, or a sequence of one or more morphemes, which is bounded at either end

by a space or by punctuation.” (Moon, as cited in Schmitt and McCarthy, 2000: 40)

Another definition of word and vocabulary from a dictionary is also worth

being taken into consideration: a word is “a single unit of language which means something and can be spoken or written” and vocabulary as “all the words in a

particular language.” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 2005: 1758&107)

Knowing what is counted as a word would enable us to further explore the concepts of how vocabulary is acquired by learners when they learn a foreign language It would also help to identify the factors influencing the process of vocabulary acquisition, and hence to find out suitable strategies to enhance vocabulary size

2.1.1.2 The role of vocabulary in language learning

In the past decades, the role of vocabulary in language teaching has been treated differently At times, vocabulary has been given pride of place in teaching methodologies, and at other times neglected Schmitt (2000: 22) has summarized the views on vocabulary through numerous methodologies as follows:

“…Grammar-Translation (with explicit grammar teaching and translation as language practice), the Direct Method (emphasizing oral skills), the Reading Method (emphasizing reading and vocabulary control), Audiolingualism (building good language habits through skills), and Communicative Language Teaching (with focus on fluency over accuracy).”

Through Schmitt’s summary, it is clear to point out that except the Reading Method which pays attention to vocabulary control, the other methodologies did not address vocabulary in any principled way

Allen (1983) identifies three reasons for the general neglect of vocabulary in language classrooms in the past First, grammar received more attention than vocabulary because many pedagogical experts felt that vocabulary was already being given too much time in language classrooms Second, specialists in methodology feared students would make mistakes in sentence construction if too many words were learnt before the basic grammar had been mastered Consequently, teachers were led

to believe it was best not to teach much vocabulary The third reason comes from a belief that word meanings can be learnt only through experience, and cannot be adequately taught in a classroom As a result, little attention was directed to techniques for vocabulary teaching Each of those beliefs about vocabulary is true to a certain extent

Recently, a lot of researchers have emphasized the importance of vocabulary in the foreign language classroom partly because of the fact that in many EFL classes, even where teachers have devoted much time to vocabulary teaching, the results have been disappointing One of these researchers, Nation (1990) thinks that vocabulary is extremely important for both researchers and learners and inadequate receptive/productive vocabulary is an obstacle in using a foreign language effectively McCarthy (1990) shares the same opinion with Nation by stating that without words

to express a wider range of meanings, communication in a foreign language cannot happen meaningfully

To assert the importance of vocabulary, Vermeer (1992: 47, as cited in Schmitt and McCarthy, 2000) emphasizes that “knowing words is a key to understand and being understood” Therefore, the lack of vocabulary is considered as students’ primary problems in foreign language learning (Carter, 2000)

To summarize the role of vocabulary in language learning, it is helpful to recall Wilkin’s most famous quote: "without grammar very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed." (Wilkins, 1972:111), which many language teachers around the world including the writer of the thesis herself, have used to remind their learners of how important vocabulary is

Vocabulary plays important role in language learning because it is words that carry the content of what we want to say Grammar joins groups of words together but most of the meaning is in the words The more words you know the more you will be able to communicate You can say a lot with words but there is not much you can say with grammar alone

2.1.2 Theory of vocabulary acquisition

2.1.2.1 Characteristics of vocabulary acquisition

According to Maley (as cited in Morgan and Rinvolucri, 1986), the acquisition

of vocabulary involves a number of characteristics described as follows:

First of all, vocabulary acquisition is not a linear but a branching process By mentioning branching process, Maley means that words are not learnt mechanically as little packets of meaning, but they are learnt associatively instead

Second, he emphasizes that the acquisition of vocabulary is a process which is intensely personal, not impersonal as a lot of people misunderstood Therefore, the associations and vibrations that a word sets up depend on our own past and present felt experience

The third feature of vocabulary acquisition is that this acquisition is also not a solitary but a social process for the reason that we expand our apprehension of word meanings by interchanging and sharing them with others

Fourth, Maley claims that vocabulary acquisition is considered as not a purely intellectual, effortful process but an experiential, ‘hands on’ process too An over-intellectual approach causes the language to be seen as object, rather than to be incorporated within the subject, who is the learner

The most important characteristic of vocabulary acquisition, however, according to Schmitt (2000), lies in its incremental nature He explains that words are learnt incrementally, which means they are learnt over a period of time from numerous exposures before they are acquired When learners first encounter a new word, they are likely to pick up some sense of word form and meaning This can be the pronunciation of the whole word, or the first few letters of the word As they gain

a few more exposures, other features will be consolidated, and perhaps some other meaning senses will be grasped

In short, lexical knowledge is made up of different kinds of word knowledge and not all can be learnt simultaneously The above-mentioned characteristics indicate that vocabulary learning is a complicated but gradual process and so repetition needs

to be built into vocabulary learning

2.1.2.2 Incidental and explicit learning of vocabulary

Schmitt (2000) argues that words can be learnt from explicit teaching, or they can be learnt incidentally while students’ attention is on the meaning of the discourse Explicit learning focuses attention directly on the information to be learnt, which gives the greatest chance for its acquisition However, he assumes that explicit learning is also time-consuming, and for most students, it would be too laborious to learn an adequately sized lexicon

Incidental learning, on the other hand, can occur when students are using the language for communicative purposes For this reason, it gives a double benefit for time expended But it is slower and more gradual, and lacking the focused attention of explicit learning Students may have to read a great deal of texts or conversations for quite some time to come across any particular word, especially if the word is relatively infrequently used

For second or foreign language learners, both explicit and incidental learning are necessary to improve vocabulary size Certain important words make excellent targets for explicit attention, for example, the most frequently used words in a language and technical vocabulary Nation (2001) thinks that the value of learning

such words well worth the time required to teach them explicitly On the other hand, infrequent words in general English are probably best left to incidental learning

2.1.2.3 Acquisition of word meaning and morphological knowledge

Ellis (as cited in Schmitt and McCarthy, 2000) suggests that there are different aspects of vocabulary acquisition which relate to two separable types of learning mechanism: (1) the implicit acquisition of a word’s form, and (2) the explicit acquisition of a word’ s semantic meaning

He explains that the implicit acquisition of L2 structure involves sequencing the phonological properties of the language which include the categorical units, the syllable structure and the phonotactic sequences On the other hand, the explicit acquisition of L2 words usually involves a mapping of the new word form into pre-existing conceptual meanings or into L1 translation equivalents Therefore, to the extent that vocabulary acquisition is about meaning, it is an explicit learning process Ellis also remarks that learners have difficulty acquiring vocabulary because they fail

to use appropriate strategies for learning label-meaning associations

2.1.2.4 The role of memory in vocabulary acquisition

Memory is a key factor influencing language learning All teachers recognize that learners forget vocabulary quite often This forgetting is a natural fact of learning

as a result of how our brain works

According to Schmitt (2000), memory comes in two basic types: short-term memory and long-term memory Long-term memory retains information for use in the future Long-term memory has an almost unlimited storage capacity but it is relatively slow In contrast to long-term memory, short-term memory is used to store or hold

information while it is being processed and it normally can hold information for only

a matter of seconds Short-term memory is fast and adaptive but has a small storage capacity The object of vocabulary learning is to transfer the lexical information from the short-term memory, where it resides during the process of manipulating language,

to the more permanent long-term memory

Schmitt also notices that forgetting is a part of the process of storing and trying

to retrieve items from your memory He finds it interesting enough to know that most

of the forgetting occurred with words that are only known receptively; productive words are much less prone to forgetting Therefore, learners have to return to a new language many times, processing it in different ways to avoid boredom, in order to remember it for long enough to use it

2.1.3 Factors influencing vocabulary acquisition

There exist a number of factors influencing the vocabulary learning process of students According to Ellis (1997), individual differences play important part in L2acquisition That is to say, whether an individual learner can perform well or badly in their learning is strongly affected by their language aptitude, motivation and learning strategies Nation (2001) emphasizes three affective factors in vocabulary learning which include learners’ mother tongue, the way in which a word is taught or learnt, and the intrinsic difficulty of the word Krashen (1987) suggests input-output theory and its role in language acquisition To identify the affective factors in the acquisition

of vocabulary, four main factors will be focused in this section: (1) learners’ motivation, (2) learning strategies, (3) the role of comprehensible input/output, and (4) the influence of learners’ mother tongue

2.1.3.1 Learners’ motivation

According to Krashen (1987), motivation is considered to be the primary affective factor to do with success in language acquisition Various studies have found that motivation is very strongly related to achievement in language learning To increase students’ motivation in learning a foreign language, language teachers must

be aware of different kinds of motivation and find the effective way to enhance them

on understanding that each will contribute to the other

Ellis (1997) identifies five kinds of motivation, which are instrumental, integrative, resultative, intrinsic and extrinsic

Instrumental motivation orients language learners to make efforts to learn L2

for some functional reasons, which can be to pass an examination, to get a better job

or to get a place at university In some learning contexts, an instrumental motivation seems to be the major force determining success in L2 learning For example, there are learners motivated to learn an L2 because it opens up educational and economic opportunities for them

Integrative motivation occurs when some learners choose to learn a particular

L2 because they are interested in the people and culture represented by the language group Appreciating the culture and people can be a strong motivating force

target-to learn a foreign language

Ellis thinks that motivation is not only the cause of L2 achievement, but it is

also possibly the result of learning In that case, resultative motivation is applied That

is, learners who experience success in learning may become more, or in some contexts, less motivated to learn In other words, when students are motivated to achieve, in one case the motivation is a help while in other cases it is an obstacle

Harmer (2007) agrees with Ellis on the last two kinds of motivation which are

intrinsic and extrinsic motivation Extrinsic motivation refers to “the motivation that

students bring into the classroom from outside.” (Harmer, 2007: 20) With this concept, extrinsic motivation can be influenced by a number of external factors such

as the attitude of society, family and peers On the contrary, intrinsic motivation is the kind of motivation that is generated by what happens inside the classroom This could

be the teacher’s methods, the activities that students take part in, or their perception of their success of failure (Ellis, 1997 and Harmer, 2007) According to this view, intrinsic motivation involves the arousal of curiosity that may lead to learners’ particular interests and personal participation in learning activities

Motivation is clearly a highly complex phenomenon These five types of motivation should be seen as complementary rather than as distinct and oppositional Learners can be both integratively and instrumentally motivated at the same time Motivation can result from learning as well as cause it Furthermore, motivation is dynamic in nature: it is not something that a learner has or does not have but rather something that varies from one moment to the next depending on learning context or task

2.1.3.2 Learning strategies

Learning strategies are the particular approaches or techniques that learners employ to try to learn an L2 According to Ellis (1997), learning strategies are typically problem-oriented which means learners employ learning strategies when they are faced with some problem, such as how to remember a new word Learners are generally aware of the strategies they use and they can explain what they did and try to learn something when they are asked

Schmitt (2000) classifies learning strategies into five groupings which reflect the different processes necessary for working out a new word’s meaning and usage, and for consolidating it in memory for future use The five classifications of learning

strategies are determination, social, memory, cognitive and metacognitive strategies

Learners use determination strategies to find out a new word’s meaning by

guessing from contexts, guessing from an L1 cognate or using dictionaries

Social strategies concern the ways in which learners choose to interact with

other speakers When learners ask their teachers or classmates for information about a new word, they use social strategies

Memory strategies involves relating the word to be retained with some

previously learnt knowledge using imagery or grouping

Cognitive strategies are those that are involved in the analysis, synthesis, or

transformation of learning materials They include repetition and using mechanical means to study vocabulary, including the keeping of vocabulary notebooks

Metacognitive strategies are those involved in planning, monitoring and

evaluating the best ways to study This includes improving access to input, deciding

on the most efficient methods of study/review, and testing oneself for improvement

Schmitt also remarks that there have been various studies that show successful learners use more strategies than unsuccessful ones Those successful learners also show awareness of the learning process and their own personal learning styles They are also flexible and appropriate in their use of learning strategies and are better at using metacognitive strategies (Schmitt, 2000)

2.1.3.3 The role of comprehensible input/output

The comprehensible input and output theory of language acquisition asserts that a foreign language is learnt and acquired by understanding messages that the learner is interested in understanding The input hypothesis is Krashen’s attempt to explain how second language acquisition takes place According to this hypothesis, learners improve and progress along the natural order when they receive second language input that is one step beyond their current stage of linguistic competence Since not all learners can be at the same level of linguistic competence at the same time, Krashen suggests that natural communicative input is the key to designing a syllabus, ensuring in this way that each learner will receive some input that is appropriate for his/her current stage of linguistic competence

Similarly, the comprehensible output also plays a part in L2 acquisition Krashen (as cited in Ellis, 1997) assumes that output can serve a consciousness-raising function by helping learners to notice gaps in their interlanguages That is, by trying to speak or write in the L2, learners realize that they lack the grammatical knowledge of some feature that is important for what they want to say He also thinks that output helps learners to test hypotheses in the way that they can try out a rule and see whether it leads to successful communication or whether it elicits negative feedback Taken together, the comprehensible input and output do affect the way how vocabulary is acquired

2.1.3.4 The influence of learners’ mother tongue

Swan (as cited in Schmitt and McCarthy, 2000) thinks that the mother tongue can influence the way second-language vocabulary is learnt, the way it is recalled for use, and the way learners compensate for lack of knowledge by attempting to construct complex lexical items

Ellis (1997) shares the same idea with Swan on the influence of L1 on L2learning This influence is apparent in a number of ways When the learner’s L1 is one

of the sources of error in L2 learning, this influence is referred to as negative transfer However in some cases, the learner’s L1 can facilitate L2 acquisition This type of effect is known as positive transfer

Another linguist Nation (2001) also agrees that if many features of a word are predictable because learners already know some English because of the similarity in their mother tongue, the word will be easier to learn He suggests that teachers can reduce the learning burden by showing learners where English usage parallels mother tongue usage This use of analogy is considered as a way of drawing attention and the basic for several useful teaching techniques Appropriate teaching can help learners to develop realistic equivalence hypotheses, appropriate compensatory strategies and to avoid errors

2.2 PERSPECTIVES ON VOCABULARY TEACHING AND LEARNING

2.2.1 Teaching vocabulary

2.2.1.1 Explicit teaching and incidental learning

According to Schmitt (2000), explicit and implicit approaches are both necessary in the course of learning vocabulary, each with its own strengths and weaknesses With beginners, it is probably necessary to explicitly teach all words until students have enough vocabulary to start making use of the unknown words they meet in context For students at higher levels, implicit learning of vocabulary can be encouraged through contexts What explicit and implicit methods imply is clarified below

2.2.1.1.1 Explicit teaching

Sokmen (as cited in Schmitt and McCarthy, 2000) surveys explicit vocabulary teaching and highlights a number of key principles as follows: build a large sight vocabulary; integrate new words with old; provide a number of encounters with a word; promote a deep level of processing; facilitate imaging; make new words real by connecting them to the student’s world in some way; use a variety of techniques; and encourage independent learning strategies

Schmitt (2000) adds two more principles to the explicit teaching which are teaching the underlying meaning concept of a word and teaching word families instead of individual words He argues that by defining the underlying meaning concept of a word which is usually applied to polysemous words, teachers can maximize the effect of teaching by enabling students to understand the word in a much wider variety of contexts The principle of teaching word families instead of individual word forms will let learners maximize vocabulary learning He suggests teachers should make it a habit when introducing a new word to mention the other members of its family

However, explicit vocabulary teaching has a number of limitations First, much

of the lexical and semantic information cannot be or is not described and taught as explicit knowledge Second, there is too much information involved in vocabulary that it is just impossible to teach it all Third, what is taught does not necessarily lead

to lexical competence on the learner's part Therefore, much lexical competence has to

be developed through natural communication which involves incidental learning

2.2.1.1.2 Incidental learning approach

In contrast to explicit approaches to vocabulary teaching and learning, the key

to an incidental learning approach, according to Schmitt (2000), is to make sure that learners get maximum exposure to language Learners can expose to the language through extensive reading, through communicative interactions or through natural input such as movies, radio or TV Schmitt (2000) concludes that using a language can be a potent way to learn it, even without explicit focus on linguistic forms

Incidental vocabulary acquisition also has a number of advantages First, it is contextualized, which provides learners a richer sense of a word's use and meaning than explicit learning Another advantage is that it is more individualized and learner-based because the vocabulary being acquired is dependent on the learner's own selection of input materials

There exist a few disadvantages of incidental learning The biggest limitation results from the fact that incidental vocabulary acquisition does not work for learning the basic core vocabulary Moreover, when learners get exposed to language, there is

no control over what they are going to learn and in some contexts, incorrect guessing may lead to incorrect understanding of vocabulary

2.2.1.2 Ways of dealing with words

Nation (2001) advises teachers to deal with vocabulary in systematic and principled ways to make sure that the learners get the most benefit from the time spent There are a range of ways for dealing with words presented as follows: (1) preteaching; (2) replacing the unknown word in the text before teaching; (3) putting the unknown words in a glossary; (4) arranging the unknown words in exercises after the text; (5) explaining the meaning quickly; (6) doing nothing about the new word;

(7) helping learners to guess the word from context; and (8) looking at the range of meaning and collocation of the new word Each way will be applied differently depending on the vocabulary item or the context which it appears

(1) Pre-teach

Teachers could pre-teach a few words, probably five or six at the most because if too many words are focused on, they are likely to be forgotten or become confused with each other Because pre-teaching takes quite a lot of time, it is advised by Nation (2001) to use with high frequency words and words that are important for the message

of the text

(2) Replace the unknown word in the text before giving the text to the learners

Some texts which contain a lot of difficult words need to be simplified before they are presented to learners Nation (2001) suggests teachers should replace low frequency words that are not central to the meaning of the text Replacing or omitting words means that the teacher does not spend class time dealing with items that at present are of little value to the learners

(3) Put the unknown words in a glossary

Nation (2001) thinks that with words that the teacher can not afford to spend time on, particularly high-frequency words, they are better to be put in a glossary Glossing could be a useful way of bringing words to learners’ attention because they get repeated attention to the word if they look up the words one more time

(4) Put the unknown word in an exercise after the text

When there are high frequency words or words that have useful word parts, teachers could put them in the exercise after the text Because exercises that come after a text take time to make and the learners spend time doing them, the words treated this way need to be useful for the learners to justify this effort

(5) Quickly give the meaning

In some cases, teachers can quickly give a L1 translation, a L2 synonym or brief definition They could also quickly draw a picture, point to an object or even make a gesture Nation (2001) argues that this way of dealing with a word has the goal of avoiding spending time and moving on to more important items, and so it is best suited to low frequency words that are important for the message of the text but which are unlikely to be needed again

(6) Do nothing about the word

When dealing with low frequency words that are not important for the meaning of the text, teachers can ignore the words to avoid drawing attention to items that because of their low frequency do not deserve class time

(7) Help learners use context to guess, use a dictionary, or break the words into parts

These ways of dealing with words are suited to high frequency words because time is spent on them while using the strategies, but they are also suitable for low frequency words that are easy to guess, have several meanings or contain useful parts The time spent is justified by the increase in skill in these very important strategies

(8) Spend time looking at the range of meaning and collocations of the word

Nation (2001) suggests that this is a rich instruction approach and because of the time

it takes, needs to be directed towards high frequency words and other useful words

2.2.1.3 Ways of presenting word’s meaning

Nation (2001) and Maley (1983) share the same opinion about how vocabulary’s meaning is explained in language classroom To explain meaning of a word, teachers usually use (1) actions, objects, pictures or diagrams; (2) translate into the first language equivalents; and (3) define the term in the target language

(1) Using actions, objects, pictures or diagrams

Real objects, pictures, etc are often seen as the most valid way of communicating the meaning of a word One advantage of it is that learners see an instance of the meaning and this is likely to be remembered However, the objects or pictures are likely to be misunderstood and may not convey the exact underlying concept of the word Because objects and pictures often contain a lot of details, it may be necessary to present several examples so that learners can determine the essential features of the concept or accompany the object or picture with focusing information A picture is not necessarily worth a thousand words, but one which clearly represents the underlying concept of the word undoubtedly is By doing so, the meaning of words is stored both linguistically and visually

(3) Definition in the second language

This occurs very often in academic lectures and textbooks Learners can benefit from practice in recognizing and interpreting these definitions Definition has a wide variety of forms and learners may have difficulty in recognizing some of them Defining English words by means of simpler English words is not easy Skill in the use of the technique generally requires considerable experience in teaching English to speakers of other languages Through repeated contacts with learners at various levels, teacher discovers which words students may be expected to know

2.2.2 Learning vocabulary

2.2.2.1 Stages of vocabulary growth

Teachers have always been interested in how learners perform in learning vocabulary If we know more about learners’ strategies and what works and does not work well, we can help learners acquire more profitable strategies Brown and Payne (as cited in Hatch and Brown, 1995: 374) classify five essential steps in vocabulary learning based on research into learners’ strategies which are (1) having sources for encountering new words, (2) getting a clear image, either visual or auditory or both, for the forms of the new words, (3) learning the meaning of the words, (4) making a strong memory connection between the forms and meanings of the words, and (5) using the words These five steps are presented in the figure below:

Figure 2.1: Brown and Payne’s five essential steps to learning new words

These two authors suggest that each step represents something learners must

do, at least at some minimal level, in order to come to a full knowledge of words They also describe the strategies for each step

For the first step, encountering new words, that is, having a source for words,

the student strategies could include reading books, listening to TV programmes and radio, or reading newspapers and magazines

The second step, getting the word form, includes strategies such as associating

new words with words that sound similar in their L1, writing the sounds of words using sound symbols from L1, or seeing a word that looks like another word learners already know

The third step, getting the word meaning, is the step which is most often associated with the idea of vocabulary learning Learners could employ strategies as

asking native English speakers what words mean, asking people who speak the same

L1 the meaning of new words, making pictures of word meaning in their mind, and explaining what they mean and asking someone to tell the English words

The fourth necessary step revealed by Brown and Payne’s analysis requires the

consolidation of form and meaning in memory To consolidate the form-meaning

connection, there are many kinds of vocabulary learning drills that students can employ such as using flash cards, matching exercises or crossword puzzles

The final step in learning words is using the word Brown and Payne argue that

word use is essential to help learners move along the continuum of word knowledge

as far as they can Moreover, using the word guarantees that words and meanings will not fade from memory once they are learnt