Promoting learner autonomy in learning vocabulary for second year students at hai phong medical university

Aims and objectives of the study Firstly, the study aims at improving the students’ autonomous vocabulary learning by teaching them some helpful strategies, namely dictionary-related st

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN THỊ HÒA

PROMOTING LEARNER AUTONOMY IN LEARNING

VOCABULARY FOR SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT HAI PHONG

MEDICAL UNIVERSITY

(Phát huy tính tự chủ trong việc học từ vựng cho sinh viên năm thứ hai,

Trường Đại học Y Hải Phòng)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

HANOI - 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

TRẦN THỊ HÒA

PROMOTING LEARNER AUTONOMY IN LEARNING

VOCABULARY FOR SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS AT HAI PHONG

MEDICAL UNIVERSITY

(Phát huy tính tự chủ trong việc học từ vựng cho sinh viên năm thứ hai,

Trường Đại học Y Hải Phòng)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60.14.10

Supervisor: Phùng Hà Thanh, M.Ed

HANOI - 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Declaration i

Acknowledgement ii

Abstract iii

List of tables and figures viii

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims and objectives of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 3

4 Methods of the study 3

5 Significance of the study 4

6 Overview of the study 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1 Vocabulary 5

1.1 Definition of vocabulary 5

1.2 Processes of vocabulary acquisition 5

2 Vocabulary learning and teaching 7

2.1 Aspects of learning a word 7

2.2 Explicit approach vs Incidental learning approach 8

3 Learner autonomy 10

3.1 Definition of autonomy 10

3.2 Principles of developing autonomy 12

4 Vocabulary learning strategies 14

4.1 Definition of learning strategies 14

4.2 Classification of vocabulary learning strategies 15

4.3 Frameworks for strategy training 16

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 1 Background of the study 18

1.1 Current learning and teaching of English at Hai Phong Medical University 18

1.2 Identification of the problem 18

2 Participants 19

3 Implementation of the action research 19

4 Instruments of data collection 22

4.1 Description of the pre-treatment questionnaire 22

4.2 Description of the vocabulary – learning records 23

4.3 Description of the vocabulary learning diary 24

4.4 Description of the post – treatment questionnaire 26

5 Data collection procedures 26

6 Data analysis procedures 26

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 1 Phase One - Research question 1: Students’ problems in independent vocabulary learning 28

2 Phase Two 29

2.1 Research question 2: Students’ performance in the use of the taught

strategies 29

2.1.1 Students’ performance in the use of Strategy Set 1 and Set 2 29

2.1.2 Students’ performance in the use of Strategy Set 3 30

2.2 Research question 3: Students’ participation in the use of the taught strategies 31

2.2.1 Students’ participation in the use of Strategy Set 1 and Set 2 31

2.2.2 Students’ participation in the use of Strategy Set 3 32

3 Phase Three 32

3.1 Research question 4: Students’ maintenance of the taught strategies in independent vocabulary learning 33

3.2 Research question 5: Students’ perception of the effectiveness of the strategy training programme 34

3.2.1 Students’ frequency of using the taught strategies before and after the training programme 34

3.2.2 Usefulness of the taught strategies 35

3.2.3 Students’ evaluation of the strategy training programme 36

PART C: CONCLUSION 1 Conclusion 39

2 Pedagogical implications from the findings 40

3 Limitations of the study and suggestions for further study 40

REFERENCES 41

APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Schmitt’s taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies (1997) I Appendix 2: Three lesson plans III Appendix 3: Three word-learning records XXIV Appendix 4: Sample vocabulary-learning diaries XXXIII Appendix 5: Pre-treatment questionnaire survey (English version) LVIII Appendix 6: Pre-treatment questionnaire survey (Vietnamese version) LX Appendix 7: Post-treatment questionnaire survey (English version) LXII Appendix 8: Post-treatment questionnaire survey (Vietnamese version) LXV

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 1: Criteria for evaluating word-learning records 24

Table 2: Holistic rubric for marking the maintenance of the trained strategy sets 25

Table 3: Students’ performance in the use of Dictionary-related strategies and Vocabulary-recording strategies 29

Table 4: Students’ performance in the use of Affix-studying strategies 30

Table 5: Students’ participation in the use of Dictionary-related strategies and Vocabulary-recording strategies 31

Table 6: Students’ participation in the use of Affix - studying strategies 32

FIGURES Figure 1: Students’ problems in independent vocabulary learning 28

Figure 2: Students’ maintenance of the taught strategies in independent vocabulary learning 33

Figure 3: Frequency of vocabulary strategy use before and after training 34

Figure 4: Usefulness of the taught strategies 35

Figure 5: Effectiveness of the strategy training programme 36

Figure 6: Students’ recommendations for vocabulary-learning strategy training 38

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Learner autonomy, a concept promoted by Holec (1981) and others in the context

of European language education, has become a favorite topic for analysis for the last twenty years In many parts of the world, learner autonomy has been put forward as a goal

to achieve (Pemberton et al., 1996; Sinclair et al., 2000; Little et al., 2000; Benson, 2001) Several arguments may be used in favor of developing autonomy in language learners For example, according to Naimen et al (1978), autonomous learning is more effective than other approaches to learning, and Waite (1994) specifies that learners need to take charge

of their own learning in order to make the most of available resources, especially outside the classroom

Despite being widely discussed worldwide, learner autonomy remains a fairly novel concept in Vietnam Whether or to what extent learner autonomy is developed and practiced in Vietnamese schools and universities is still open to question Furthermore, since the idea of learner autonomy originated from Western cultures, it hardly suffices to just transfer the concept to an Asian context (Benson, Chik & Lim, 2003; Smith, 2003) Rather, the implementation of learner autonomy in Asian countries should be tailored so that an appropriate methodology for developing learner autonomy in non-Western contexts can be devised (Smith, 2003) Another argument is that learner autonomy is a universal social phenomenon, which manifests itself differently in different local contexts (Holliday, 2003) Because of all these complex and interesting points, it seems appealing to explore how autonomy can be enhanced in an Asian educational institution like Hai Phong Medical University Moreover, developing learners’ autonomy becomes increasingly important as far as tertiary education is concerned A student at university is required to do a substantial amount of research for his assignments, so he is supposed to know when and how to work independently so that he can achieve a satisfactory result

Specifically, the local context of Hai Phong Medical University calls for the idea of promoting learner autonomy The second-year students, who are at pre-intermediate level,

do not seem to study English as well as in the first year Having taught them for three successive semesters, I immediately take notice of the situation and intend to design a remedy plan to improve it After my open talk with the whole class, several problems came

to light Most of the students feel discouraged by a large number of words they encounter

in each English lesson As many of them confess, learning vocabulary seems to be the most difficult and most important to them However, as English non-majors, the students have only four periods per week for English lessons It means the time spent on vocabulary learning is really limited in class In order to develop the students’ vocabulary, it is crucial that they practice independent vocabulary learning regularly outside class Therefore, it has become increasingly essential to provide them with useful learning strategies so that they can employ in their self-study time In this case, the success of learning vocabulary depends very much on how effectively and autonomously the students practice vocabulary self-study As Waite (1994) says, learners need to take charge of their own learning in order to make the most of available resources, especially outside the classroom

For all the reasons above, I have decided to undertake a study on promoting learner autonomy in learning vocabulary for second-year students at Hai Phong Medical University The focus of the study is a training programme of vocabulary – learning strategies conducted for ten weeks

2 Aims and objectives of the study

Firstly, the study aims at improving the students’ autonomous vocabulary learning

by teaching them some helpful strategies, namely dictionary-related strategies, recording vocabulary and studying affixes Secondly, it is intended to evaluate their employment of these vocabulary-learning strategies in terms of performance, participation and maintenance These aims can be achieved by answering the following research questions:

1 What are the problems that the students encounter in their independent vocabulary learning?

2 How well do the students use the taught strategies in their guided vocabulary practice?

3 How much do the students use the taught strategies in their guided vocabulary practice?

4 To what extent do the students maintain the taught strategies in their independent vocabulary learning?

5 How effective is the strategy training programme in helping the students learn vocabulary, as perceived by the students?

3 Scope of the study

The research focuses on one specific way of developing learner autonomy: the explicit teaching of learning strategies A vocabulary-learning strategy training programme

is conducted for ten weeks Within the scope of the study, only three strategy sets, namely dictionary-related strategies, recording vocabulary and studying affixes, are taught The effectiveness of the taught strategies is measured in terms of performance, participation and maintenance Performance refers to the extent of correctness when the students use the taught strategies while participation means how much they use these strategies in their guided vocabulary practice Lastly, maintenance refers to the extent of retaining the taught strategies in their independent vocabulary study

The participants include 27 second-year students of the same English class at Hai Phong Medical University and their teacher In this study, the teacher is in charge of teaching the class and plays the role of the researcher at the same time

4 Methods of the study

The current study is carried out as an action research, which combines qualitative and quantitative approaches The action actually taken is a vocabulary-learning strategy training programme designed for the duration of ten weeks The programme is divided into three phases

In phase one, pre-treatment questionnaires are distributed to seek the answer for research question one regarding the students’ problem in learning vocabulary Then, the students are taught about three strategy sets, namely dictionary-related strategies, vocabulary-recording and affix-studying

In phase two, three word-learning records are provided as guided practice of the taught strategies The data from the word-records aim at answering the research question two and three about the students’ performance and participation in the use of the taught strategies

In phase three, the students keep free-style vocabulary learning diaries, in which they record the vocabulary they want to learn in their self-study time The diaries are used

to answer the research question four about the extent of maintaining the taught strategies in the students’ independent vocabulary learning By the end of phase three, post-treatment questionnaires are distributed to answer the research question five about the learners’ perception of the strategy training programme

The data from the pre-treatment and post-treatment questionnaires, the learning records and vocabulary-learning diaries are calculated with regard to items’ frequency, mean, and percentage

word-5 Significance of the study

First and foremost, the habit of independent vocabulary learning will hopefully be developed for the second-year students at Hai Phong Medical University The students can overcome their difficulties in learning vocabulary by means of monitoring and regulating their self-study with appropriate learning strategies In this way, the researcher hopes that the students’ awareness of learning strategies and learner autonomy can be raised and nurtured

Second, the study offers an example of how learner autonomy can be fostered in an Asian context It is expected that the study will contribute an insightful picture of the practice of Asian learner autonomy to the literature and help to shed light on the concept of

learner autonomy

6 Overview of the study

The research paper consists of the following parts:

Part A Introduction

Part B Development

The development is divided into three chapters:

 Chapter one (Literature review) provides the theoretical background of the study, covering the key terms and review of related studies

 Chapter two (Methodology) justifies and describes the methodology of the study in details

 Chapter three (Results and discussion) presents full analysis of the collected data and discusses the findings

Part C Conclusion

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter offers a review of the literature related to learner autonomy and vocabulary learning and teaching In each section, the definition or explanation of the key terms is presented together with the studies worldwide

1 Vocabulary

1.1 Definitions of vocabulary

There exist several definitions of vocabulary in the literature review, all of which seem to share the idea of what vocabulary is According to Longman dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics (Richard, Platt & Platt, 1992), vocabulary is defined as “a set of lexemes, including single words, compound words and idioms” This way of defining is similar to the one given in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary: “a list or collection of words and phrases usually alphabetically arranged and explained or defined.” It is clear from these two definitions that vocabulary includes not only individual words but also fixed expressions This point is directly identified by Ur (1996: 60),

“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” He highlights that some vocabulary items such as “post office” and “mother-in-law” express a single idea Besides, the meaning of idioms such as “call it a day” can not be deduced from an analysis

of the component words Therefore, Ur (1996: 60) suggests that “A useful convention is to cover all such cases by talking about vocabulary items rather than words” In the same vein, McCarthy (1990) argues that multi-word units including idioms and phrasal verbs should clearly be treated as single lexical items since their meaning are partly identified by their fixedness The central idea of these definitions can be best summed up by Lewis (1993, cited in Nguyen, 2007: 7) who defines vocabulary as “individual words, or full sentences – institutionalized utterances – that convey fixed social or pragmatic meaning within a given community”

1.2 Processes of vocabulary acquisition

According to Nation (2001), in order to remember a word, the learner needs to experience three processes, namely noticing, retrieval and creative (generative) use

Most simply, noticing means giving attention to an item This can happen in a variety of ways, including learners deliberately studying a word or having a word explained to them and the word appearing crucial in the textual input Noticing involves decontextualization, which occurs when “the word is removed from its message context to

be focused on as a language item” (Nation, 2001: 64) The role of decontextualization is

underlined by Nation (2001: 64) “ in order to acquire the language, learners need to consciously see language items as parts of the language system rather than only as messages”

Nation (2001) further distinguishes two kinds of decontextualization: negotiation and definition Although a large number of studies demonstrate that negotiated vocabulary items are more likely to be learned than non-negotiated ones, he points out that it is not the means by which most vocabulary is learned, suggesting the need for other complementary ways of decontextualizing items Especially noteworthy is the discovery that not only the learners actually negotiating but also those observing the negotiation learn the words Regarding definition, an interesting and significant finding is that simple, short definitions are the most effective while more elaborate ones tend to be confusing rather than helpful for vocabulary learning (Ellis, 1995; Chaudron, 1982, cited in Nation, 2001) In addition, Nation himself has shown that many learners find learning faster if the word meaning is conveyed by a first language translation In the classroom, teachers directly influence students’ noticing process by deciding the context to put the wanted vocabulary items, by pre-teaching or consciousness-raising of the items before the activity and by using different attention-drawing techniques

The second process of vocabulary acquisition is retrieval, which reinforces the meaning of the word in the learner’s mind The more frequent the retrieval of a particular item in the learning process, the greater the chances that the item will strike deeper in the learner’s memory It should be noted that a repetition of a word can only be effective if there is some memory of the previous meeting with the word Thus, the span of time between encounters cannot be too long As Nation (2001: 68) states:

It is very useful to try to estimate how much listening and reading a learner would need to be doing per week in order for incidental receptive vocabulary learning to proceed in an effective way ( ) On average learners would need to listen to stories

at least three times a week for about fifteen minutes each time They would need to read about one graded reader every two weeks

The last but major process of vocabulary acquisition is generation, which occurs when “previously met words are subsequently met or used in ways that differ from the previous meeting with the word” (Nation 2001: 68) Those new encounters push learners towards reconceptualization of their knowledge of these words There are also receptive and productive forms of generation Receptive generation occurs when a word is encountered in listening and reading and has slightly different meaning whereas productive generation involves using the word in a new context

The three processes discussed above tend to correspond to the three-point scale for describing depth of processing suggested by Stahl (1985, cited in Nation, 2001) The scale includes three levels, namely association, comprehension and generation

2 Vocabulary learning and teaching

2.1 Aspects of learning a word

The question of what it means for a language learner to “know” a word is a central issue of second language vocabulary acquisition A close examination of the literature has revealed that the nature of lexical knowledge can be depicted as a continuum of several dimensions

On the one hand, several writers have regarded vocabulary learning as the task of mastering its constituents As illustrated by Ur (1996), learners have to know the word form - including pronunciation and spelling, grammar, collocation, aspects of word meaning, and word formation By grammar, he means the information such as irregular past form, irregular plural form, which should be showed to learners, especially when an item has an unpredictable change of form Ur differentiates two levels of meaning aspects The first level includes denotation, connotation and appropriateness of use in a certain context, and the second level covers meaning relationships, namely synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms, co-hyponyms, superordinates Clearly, knowing a word requires more than just its meaning and form Sharing the view with Ur, Harmer (1991: 158) presents a more detailed and systematic summary of “knowing a word” in the following chart:

WORDS

WORD INFORMATION MEANING

Nouns: countable and uncountable, etc

Verb complementation, phrasal verbs, etc

Adjectives and adverbs:

position, etc

In a much more concise manner, as stated by Finegan (2004: 40), using a word requires that the mental lexicon of children and adults alike should store four kinds of information:

 its sounds and their sequencing (phonological information)

 its meaning (semantic information)

 how related words such as the plural and past tense are formed (morphological information)

 its category and how to use it in a sentence (syntactic information)

On the other hand, some researchers have approached the learning of vocabulary from a broader view For example, Chapelle (1994) suggests a three-component construct

of vocabulary ability including (1) the context of vocabulary use, (2) vocabulary knowledge and fundamental processes and (3) metacognitive strategies for vocabulary use

As regards context, it can influence lexical meaning in various ways The second component is further divided into four elements, namely vocabulary size, knowledge of word characteristics, lexicon organization (the way in which lexical items are organized in the mental lexicon) and fundamental vocabulary processes that users apply to access their lexical knowledge Finally, metacognive strategies or strategic competence can be avoidance, paraphrase, guessing meaning, asking teacher or consulting dictionary etc Another direction in the research of lexical competence is to head for links and interrelationships between the different kinds of word knowledge (Schmitt & Meara, 1997)

2.2 Explicit approach vs Incidental learning approach

Vocabulary learning has been emerging in the literature review as a complex, interesting issue that involves different processes The most notable topic is the distinction between explicit and implicit (or incidental) learning

As regards explicit learning, the central idea is that the application of vocabulary learning strategies can greatly facilitate vocabulary acquisition, and learners play an active role in processing information (Ellis, 1995) Unsurprisingly, a large number

of books have focused on numerous activities and exercises for explicit study of vocabulary According to a survey by Sokmen (1997 cited in Schmitt, 2000: 146), explicit vocabulary teaching should adhere to the following principles:

 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 students’ world in some way

 use a variety of techniques

 encourage independent learning strategies

In addition, Schmitt (2000) points out some other important principles First, the problem of cross – association should be prevented This usually happens when similar words, such as “left” and “right”, are initially taught together Students are confused when matching the word form with the right meaning Antonyms, synonyms, and closely related semantic groupings are particularly subject to cross-association As Nation (1990 cited in Schmitt, 2000) suggests, cross association can be avoided by teaching the most frequent word of a pair first and introducing the other only after the first word is well established Second, the underlying meaning concept of a polysemous word is worth teaching For example, to define the verb “run”, it is best to explain it as “go quickly, smoothly, or continuously” This definition keeps the common underlying trait of several meaning senses like “the girl ran”, “the road runs up the hill”, and “run a business” (Nation, 1990 cited in Schmitt, 2000) Accordingly, students can understand the word in a variety of contexts and the effect of teaching is maximized Last, teaching word families should be made a habit to enhance vocabulary learning

Implicit learning, on the other hand, is defined as “accidental learning of information without the intention of remembering that information” (Hustijn et al., 1996) Sternberg (1987) argues that most vocabulary is learned implicitly from context An extreme position, having its roots in Krashen’s Input Hypothesis (Krashen, 1989), even states that meanings of new words are acquired subconsciously as a result of repeated exposures in a range of contexts, where the conscious focus is not on form, but on the message To put it simply, the key to incidental learning approach is to make sure that learners get maximum exposure to the language In second language classrooms, this can

be best achieved through reading

However, much of the literature has showed that incidental learning through reading occurs only to a limited degree This is attributed to several factors Firstly, lexical inferencing is not always successful For example, word meanings are not inferable from context or lead learners to make wrong inferences Alternatively, not all contexts are equally conducive to make informed guesses Secondly, incidental vocabulary acquisition

is unlikely if new words are not noticed or processed deeply Furthermore, the question of how many and what kind of exposures are necessary for acquisition to occur remains unanswered As Hulstijin et al (1996) concludes, incidental learning in second language

only occurs incrementally and in small quantities Besides, according to Schmitt and McCarthy (1997), the prerequisites for successful incidental acquisition include:

 Level of language proficiency

 Learner’s large L2 vocabulary

 Strategic knowledge of inferencing process

 Rich context with sufficient cues

All things considered, it is generally agreed that any vocabulary program needs to include both explicit teaching and activities which promote incidental learning In the words of Schmitt (2000: 146), explicitly teaching all the words is necessary for beginners whereas beyond this level, “incidental learning should be structured into the program in a principled way.” Incidental learning not only helps to consolidate vocabulary but also exposes learners to different contexts in which a word is used, thus expanding the knowledge about the word Moreover, some aspects of word knowledge, especially collocation and register constraints, can only be fully acquired through numerous exposures Another reason is that explicitly presenting all the uses of a word to students is obviously an impossible task More specifically, Ellis (1995) contends that both implicit and explicit learning suit different levels of word meaning In his view, implicit vocabulary learning is suitable for simple pattern recognition of surface form, called “shallow processing” while explicit learning necessarily facilitates the mapping of those surface forms to their corresponding semantic/conceptual presentation Explicit learning, therefore, refers to the recognition of word meaning by means of “deep processing”

3 Learner autonomy

3.1 Definition of autonomy

A close look at the literature has revealed that it is not easy to put forward a proper definition of the concept “autonomy” There exists a range of definitions, each of which explores autonomy from a different perspective and within a certain scope Accordingly, it

is essential to study a variety of interpretations in order to capture the full meaning of the concept

To start with, Holec (1981: 3), the so-called “father” of learner autonomy, provides

a broad definition which considers learner autonomy “the ability to take charge of one’s own learning” This general but concise definition, from the researcher’s view, really touches upon the spirit of autonomy It is obvious from Holec’s definition that an autonomous learner not only possesses a sense of responsibility for his learning but he/she

is also self-conscious of that responsibility

Other writers offer more specific definitions than Holec’s in that they detail what constitutes the ability to take charge of one’s own learning For example, in terms of

behavior, Nunan (2000) describes autonomous learners as the ones who make decision on their own style of learning, actively involve themselves in learning process and independently choose their learning materials Alternatively, Little (1991) tends to focus

on mental processes when he asserts that learner autonomy is “essentially the matter of the learner’s psychological relation to the process and content of learning – a capacity for detachment, critical reflection, decision making, and independent action.”

Turning attention to the aspect of attitudes, Scharle and Szabo (2000) seem to share the same interest with Holec (1981) when they present a persuasive analysis of the interrelationship between autonomy and responsibility According to the authors, autonomy is defined as “the freedom and ability to manage one’s own affairs, which entails the right to make decisions as well” whereas responsibility is understood as “being

in charge of something, but with the implication that one has to deal with the consequences

of one’s own actions.” (Scharle & Szabo, 2000: 4) They argue that autonomy and responsibility are interrelated and both require learners’ active involvement Since successful learning depends considerably on learners having a responsible attitude, students need to develop a sense of responsibility together with autonomy capacity

However, Benson (2001: 47) states that it is preferable to define autonomy as the capacity to take control of one’s own learning, largely because the construct of “control” appears to be more open to investigation than the constructs of “charge” or

“responsibility.” In his definition, he specifies three levels of control that a learner should

take in order to develop his/her learning autonomy: “An adequate description of autonomy

in language learning should at least recognize the importance of three levels at which learner control may be exercised: learning management, cognitive processes and learning content” (Benson, 2001: 50) This definition will be the guideline for the current study

Most interestingly, several writers have approached the concept of autonomy with reference to the combination between independence and interdependence Although independence from a teacher is often seen as an observable sign of autonomy, the value of interdependence, defined as “the ability of learners to work together for mutual benefit, and to take shared responsibility for their learning” (Palfreyman, 2003: 4), can hardly be denied Little and Dam (1998) also argue for the interdependence inside independence:

We are social creatures, and as such we depend on one another in infinity of ways Without the stimulus and comfort of social interaction, for example, child development is disastrously impaired: it is our condition that we learn from one another Thus, the independence that we exercise through our developed capacity for autonomous behavior is always conditioned and constrained by our inescapable

interdependence In contexts of formal learning as elsewhere, we necessarily depend on others even as we exercise our independence

Admittedly, autonomy does not exclude interdependence Learning, like other social communication activities, is more fruitful with the cooperation of people involved

So is autonomous learning Teachers and learners collaborate to contribute to the learning community and to the process of autonomy training Likewise, knowing how and when to seek for help does not mean learners are not independent Therefore, autonomy should be understood as the freedom to choose what action to take, whether to do it oneself or to consult others In fact, according to Palfreyman (2003), collaboration has come to be seen

as an important component of learner autonomy Boud (1981, cited in Palfreyman, 2003) has even gone further to regard interdependence as a more developed stage of autonomy than independence

A more general interpretation of the concept “autonomy” is to put it into the frame

of daily life An autonomous learner is then depicted as being a fulfilled and effective citizen in a society For example, Candlin (1997, cited in Palfreyman, 2003:2) refers to

“autonomy in language, learning, and above all else, in living.” Similarly, in the words of Delores et al (1996, cited in Palfreyman, 2003) “each individual must be equipped to seize learning opportunities throughout life, both to broaden her or his knowledge skills and attitudes and to adapt to a changing, complex and interdependent world.”

All in all, learner autonomy is a stimulating, multifaceted concept which can be interpreted from different viewpoints Learners’ autonomy encompasses not only their attitudes but also their behaviors It is both a process and a goal in language learning, in education and in living as well

3.2 Principles of developing autonomy

Varied as it may be, the literature on principles of developing autonomy seems to have a common feature It is all concerned with explicit teaching and providing opportunities for learner autonomy to express and develop

First and foremost, in order to foster learner autonomy, it is crucial to increase a sense of responsibility A complete analysis of how to build up learner responsibility is presented by Scharle and Szabo (2000) They identify the building blocks of responsibility and autonomy on the part of learners and teachers The building blocks required of learners include motivation and self-confidence, monitoring and evaluation, learning strategies and finally cooperation and group cohesion Particularly noteworthy is their emphasis on monitoring and evaluation According to Scharle and Szabo (2000: 7), “when we encourage students to focus on the process of their learning rather than the outcome, we help them consciously examine their own contribution to their learning.” This is really the

vital step to the development of a responsible attitude Another key point is the teaching of learning strategies, which are regarded as the tools for students to expand their language competence and to undertake their own learning responsibility Students should be shown a variety of available strategies and encouraged to find out which strategies work best for them in certain contexts Meanwhile, certain attitudes are also required of teachers They should be willing to share information with the learners in terms of both short and long term objectives, to take consistent control by clearly establishing expectations towards learners and lastly to delegate tasks and decisions to learners

With a view to reinforcing these skills and attitudes for learners and teachers, Scharle and Szabo (2000) go on to detail the process of developing responsibility that learners and teachers go through This process is divided into three phases: raising awareness, changing attitudes and transferring roles First, the stage of raising awareness includes highly controlled activities which are intended to present new experiences to learners and to make them conscious of the inner processes of their learning Second, the changing – attitude – stage allows repeatable, less controlled activities through which students practise and reinforce their new roles and habits Finally, the stage of transferring roles contains loosely structured activities that give students considerable freedom It is clear that as learners move from one phase to the next, they are facilitated to exercise greater autonomy and more responsibility

More specifically, Vieria (2003) puts principles in a common framework for learner and teacher development This framework should be highly recommended for its thorough presentation of action principles to promote learner autonomy Besides, it nicely compares autonomous learner development side by side with reflective teacher development However, for the scope of the present study, the researcher will only make use of the principles concerning learners According to Vieria (2003: 226), the action principles to develop learner autonomy include:

Reflection: Developing language / learning awareness

 Developing awareness of language (formal and pragmatic properties; sociocultural dimension)

 Developing awareness of learning (sense of agency; attitudes, representations, beliefs, preferences and styles; aims and priorities; strategies: cognitive, metacognitive, strategic, socio-affective tasks: focus, purpose, rationale, demands; instructional / didactic process: objectives, activities, materials, evaluation, roles)

Experimentation: Experiencing learning strategies

 Discovering and trying out learning strategies (in class and outside class)

 Exploring resource materials (pedagogical and non-pedagogical)

Regulation: Regulating learning experience

 Identifying learning problems or needs

 Setting learning goals

 Planning learning strategies

 Monitoring/evaluating attitudes, representations, beliefs, strategic knowledge and ability

 Assessing learning outcomes and progress

 Evaluating the instructional / didactic process

Negotiation: Co-constructing learning experience

 Working in collaboration

 Taking the initiative, choosing and deciding

The four principles presented above indicate “major learner roles that bring the language learner closer to the learning content and process” (Vieria, 2003: 227) As can be seen, each principle paves the way for a particular realization of autonomy Within the scope of this study, the researcher will exploit the first two principles: reflection and experimentation

4 Vocabulary learning strategies

Strategy training can be used to help students achieve learner autonomy and linguistic autonomy (Cohen, 1998) By choosing their own strategies without continued prompting from the language teacher, learners should be able to monitor and evaluate the relative effectiveness of their strategy use, and more fully develop their problem-solving skills In this way, learners are encouraged to become more autonomous, to diagnose some

of their own learning strengths and weaknesses, and to self-direct the process of language development This section offers a literature review concerning the training of vocabulary learning strategies

4.1 Definition of learning strategies

There is no consensus on a definition of learning strategies due to different interpretations of the term strategy in the literature

Several writers seem to pay attention to the utility of learning strategies when defining them For example, Rubin (1975: 43) provides a very broad definition of learning strategies as “the techniques or devices which a learner may use to acquire knowledge.” Similarly, in the view of Willing (1989), learning strategies may be identified as specific study skills or techniques, a general ability to take the initiative or just an enthusiasm for learning while Beckman (2006) considers learning strategies a set of steps to accomplish a particular task such as taking a test, comprehending text and writing a story In a more

specific manner, Oxford (1990: 8) states that “ learning strategies are operations employed by learners to aid the acquisition, storage, retrieval, and use of information.” She further stresses the richness of learning strategies by expanding the definition, “ learning strategies are specific actions taken by learners to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations” (Oxford, 1990:8) It is obvious from these definitions that learning strategies serve as the tool to facilitate learning

Other writers, however, put more focus on the inner process that learners experience when they employ learning strategies In a helpful survey article, Weinstein and Mayer (1986: 315) define learning strategies broadly as "behaviours and thoughts that a learner engages in during learning" which are "intended to influence the learner's encoding process." Later Mayer (1988: 11) more specifically defines learning strategies as

"behaviours of a learner that are intended to influence how the learner processes information." These definitions have the root in cognitive science, with its essential assumption that learning involves information processing In a similar vein, Rubin (1987: 29) views learning as “the process by which information is obtained, stored, retrieved, and used”, so learning strategies can be any set of operations, steps, plans, routines used by the learner which affect this process More specifically, Cohen (1998: 4) portrays learning strategies as “ learning processes which are consciously selected by the learner.” He emphasizes that, “The element of choice is important here because this is what gives a strategy its special character These are also moves which the learner is at least partially aware of, even if full attention is not being given to them” (Cohen, 1998:4) In his view, the element of consciousness is what distinguishes strategies from those processes that are not strategic Although some writers maintain that strategies can be used unconsciously (Barnett, 1988 and Davies, 1995, cited in Yang, 2006: 316), Cohen’s emphasis on consciousness is quite reasonable In the researcher’s view, since learning strategies are operations used by learners to ease the learning process, the strategies can only work best if learners are well aware of what strategies they are using, how and when to use them

4.2 Classification of vocabulary learning strategies

Among several taxonomies of vocabulary learning strategies available in the literature, the one proposed by Schmitt (1997) is highly appreciated because of its advantages over the others; thus, the present study is conducted in the light of Schmitt’s comprehensive taxonomy

The classification in Schmitt’s study was based on the two dimensions developed by Oxford (1990) and Nation (1990) The first dimension was adopted from Oxford’s system of learning strategies which contain six groups: social, memory,

cognitive, metacognitive, affective and compensation Social strategies (SOC) use interaction with other people to improve language learning Memory strategies (MEM) relate new material to existing knowledge Cognitive strategies (COG) exhibit the common function of manipulation or transformation of the target language by the learner Metacognitive (MET) strategies involve a conscious overview of the learning process and making decisions about planning, monitoring, or evaluating the best ways to study Affective strategies exhibit how to manage one’s emotions in language learning Compensation strategies involve different ways of compensating for missing knowledge However, Schmitt (1997) only adopted four strategy groups: Social, Memory, Cognitive, and Metacognitive Besides, he added a new category – Determination Strategies (DET) to account for situations when an individual discovered a new word meaning without resource to another person’s expertise The second dimension is the distinction between initial discovery of word meanings and remembering words that divide strategies into discovery and consolidation groups respectively (Nation, 1990) Taken together, Schmitt’s taxonomy contains 58 individual strategies characterized by the discovery – consolidation division and into five groups, namely social, memory, cognitive, metacognitive and determination Appendix 1 presents Schmitt’s final version of taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies

4.3 Frameworks for strategy training

Before any discussion on setting an appropriate framework for strategy training, it

is important to investigate some central issues in instruction in learning strategies

The first topic concerns whether strategy instruction should be provided as a separate program or as an integrated component in the language or content subject course Those in favor of separate strategy training programs argue that students will learn strategies better if all their attention is focused on strategic processing skills (Jones et al

1987, cited in O’Malley & Chamot, 1990: 152) However, integrated strategy instruction programs tend to have much more advantages First, Wenden (1987) asserts that learning

in contexts outperforms learning separate skills Scharle and Szabo (2000) also regard the regular school curriculum a meaningful context for strategy training Second, it saves time and money to combine strategy training with regular courses In the case of Vietnam, where few separate strategy training courses are offered, it is advisable that teachers integrate strategy instruction into their daily teaching

The second argument is between direct and embedded strategy instruction, which can be named explicit and implicit instruction respectively As defined by O’Malley and Chamot (1990: 153), “ In direct instruction, students are informed of the value and purpose

of strategy training, whereas in embedded instruction, students are presented with activities

and materials structured to elicit the use of the strategies being taught but are not informed

of the reasons why this approach to learning is being practiced.” Again, direct instruction is more advantageous than embedded one Although Jones (1983, cited in O’Malley & Chamot, 1990) points out that embedded strategy training requires little teacher training, other researchers criticize it for not fostering learner autonomy For example, in the words

of Wenden (1987), “ students who are not aware of the strategies they are using do not develop independent learning strategies and have little opportunity of becoming autonomous learners.” In contrast, strategy training which includes a metacognitive component by informing students about the purpose and importance of the strategies can help to maintain strategy use over time and to transfer strategies to new tasks (Brown et al.,

1986, cited in O’Malley & Chamot, 1990: 153) In addition, according to Scharle and Szabo (2000), explicit training may also encourage a collaborative spirit between the teacher and the learner Because of the advantages discussed above, the strategy training component of the present study will be conducted as an integrated part of the language course in the most explicit manner

As regards frameworks for learning strategy instruction, most of them have been designed to raise students’ awareness as to the purpose and rationale of strategy use, to give students opportunities to practice the strategies that they are being taught, and to help them understand how to use the strategies in new learning contexts Cohen (1998) recommends seven steps towards the design of strategy training for learners They are outlined below:

 Determining the learners’ needs and the resources available for training

 Selecting the strategies

 Considering the benefits of integrated strategy training

 Considering motivational issues

 Preparing the materials and activities

 Conducting explicit strategy training

 Evaluating and revising the strategy training

Cohen (1998) emphasizes that an integral part of the strategy training is ongoing evaluation and revision The training program can be evaluated by means of student performance across language tasks and skills, maintenance of the new strategies over time, effective transfer of strategies to other learning tasks and a positive attitude towards the training program (Wenden, 1987; Oxford, 1990) This ongoing assessment is certainly based on feedback from the learners themselves

In the present research, the general guidelines from O’Malley & Chamot (1990) and Cohen (1998) will be followed

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter is devoted to presenting the methodology of the current research, including the research design, the participants, the data collection instruments and procedure, and data analysis

1 Background of the study

1.1 Current learning and teaching of English at Hai Phong Medical University

English, a compulsory subject for all the students at Hai Phong Medical University,

is taught in two separate stages In the first stage, the students learn General English for four successive semesters They are expected to complete the elementary level after the first two semesters and then the pre-intermediate level after the next two semesters In the second stage, they study English for Medicine during the fifth semester Each semester lasts 15 weeks, and the English class meets for a four-period lesson each week Obviously, the time spent on English learning and teaching is rather limited

1.2 Identification of the problem

By the end of 2009, the second-year class that I had been teaching at Hai Phong Medical University seemed to have a declining performance in English They showed a lack of interest in reading and vocabulary lessons and their first-term test results were rather low Having taught them for three successive semesters, I immediately realized that they were having some problems learning English I decided to investigate the situation by having an open talk with the whole class The talk turned out to be a lively discussion in which my students expressed their feelings about learning English Most of them shared the view that learning vocabulary was the most difficult and most important to them More specifically, a considerable number of new words in each English lesson might discourage them To make the matter worse, only four English periods per week meant that the in-class time for vocabulary learning was inadequate In order to help my students overcome their difficulty in learning vocabulary, I intended to further investigate the situation and then design a remedy plan Considering that the time in class was so restricted, the first thought that came to my mind then was how to teach my students to learn vocabulary effectively in their self-study time That idea was then further clarified into two tasks First,

I needed to raise my students’ awareness of learner autonomy in learning vocabulary Second, I wanted to teach them some vocabulary-learning strategies that might help them

to learn vocabulary effectively on their own To fulfill these tasks, I decided to carry out a vocabulary-learning strategy training programme as an action research with my students

in their second – year General English course is Headway – Pre-intermediate The English class meets every week for a lesson of four periods, which last nearly three hours and a half

I have been working at Haiphong Medical University for five years I have been teaching the class since they entered the university In this action research, I was the practitioner and the researcher at the same time I was responsible for the design and implementation of the vocabulary-learning strategy training programme, and later collecting and analyzing the data

3 Implementation of the action research

The research was carried out to answer the following research questions:

1 What are the problems that the students encounter in their independent vocabulary learning?

2 How well do the students use the taught strategies in their guided vocabulary practice?

3 How much do the students use the taught strategies in their guided vocabulary practice?

4 To what extent do the students maintain the taught strategies in their independent vocabulary learning?

5 How effective is the strategy training programme in helping the students learn vocabulary, as perceived by the students?

In order to answer these research questions, a vocabulary-learning strategy training program was conducted as an action research because of several reasons

First, this research was initiated in order to help students learn vocabulary more effectively in their self-study time The problem-focused nature of action-research really suits that purpose As Burns (2000: 293) defines, “Action research is the application of fact finding to practical problem solving in a social situation with a view to improving the quality of action within it, involving the collaboration and cooperation of researchers, practitioners and laymen” Sharing the same view, Carr and Kemmis (1983) states that

“action research is a form of self-reflective inquiry that can be utilized by teachers in order

to improve the rationality and justice of their own practice, their understanding of these practices and the situations in which these practices are carried out”

Second, this study was not intended to make a generalization but to offer an insightful picture of the teacher - researcher’s own teaching practice with a class of 27 students Therefore, action research was chosen because “it is very focused on individual

or small-group professional practice and is not so concerned with making general statements” (Wallace, 1998: 18) In other words, the characteristic of being context-specific is suitable for the current study As Cohen and Manion (1985) point out, action research is first and foremost situational, being concerned with the identification and solution of problems in a specific context

Last but not least, action research was the most suitable research methodology for the current study because it could be carried out concurrently with the teacher-researcher’s teaching The researcher herself is a teacher, so the research must not interfere with or disrupt her teaching job

The action research was conducted during the second term of school year 2009 -

2010 It was divided into three phases as follows:

Phase One (Week 1-4)

This phase was intended to answer research question 1: “What are the problems that the students encounter in their independent vocabulary learning?”

Week 1: The students were explicitly introduced to the vocabulary-learning strategy training programme so that they were well aware of what they were expected to do during the second semester of the school-year As already discussed in the literature review, the direct instruction approach was chosen because of its obvious advantages over implicit training It was also made clear to the students that their participation in the project

was voluntary, and would not be marked for the official assessment of the semester Then, pre-treatment questionnaires were distributed to the students

Week 2 – 4: During the next three weeks, the students were given a strategy teaching lesson each week The strategy training was designed to be integrated into the vocabulary sections of the English lessons so that the students learned the vocabulary and the strategies at the same time In this way, the strategies being trained were connected to the vocabulary of the lessons and did not affect the teaching progress of the syllabus

From the taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies suggested by Schmitt (1997), nine strategies were selected These strategies were then clustered into three sets based on how related they were as below:

Strategy Set Strategy Group Strategy

2 Recording

vocabulary

MEM Group words together to study them

3 Studying

affixes

These three sets of strategies were taught successively for three weeks The reason why the researcher had selected these strategy sets, namely dictionary-related strategies, recording vocabulary, and studying affixes, was that they could be considered the most basic ones to facilitate students in their independent learning

The lesson plans for these three strategy-training lessons can be seen in Appendix

2 The activities of the lessons were designed to present the strategy sets and offer some controlled practice of the strategies

Phase Two (Week 5 – 7)

The aims of this phase were to answer the following research questions:

2 How well do the students use the taught strategies in their guided vocabulary practice?

3 How much do the students use the taught strategies in their guided vocabulary practice?

Phase two, which lasted three weeks, provided the students with guided practice of the strategy sets that had already been taught in Phase One The students were given a word-learning record weekly and were supposed to complete it in their self-study time The word-learning records are described in greater details in the section of Instruments of data collection

Phase Three (Week 8 – 10)

This phase aimed at answering the last two research questions:

4 To what extent do the students maintain the taught strategies in their independent vocabulary learning?

5 How effective is the strategy training programme in helping the students learn vocabulary, as perceived by the students?

During Phase Three, the students were asked to keep a free-style vocabulary learning diary The purpose of the vocabulary diaries was to discover the students’ practice

of independent vocabulary learning after they had been receiving strategy – training The diary details are given in the section of Instrument of data collection

By the end of the second semester, a post-treatment questionnaire survey was conducted to reveal the students’ perception of vocabulary-learning strategy training

4 Instruments of data collection

4.1 Description of the pre-treatment questionnaire

The pre-treatment questionnaire consists of two questions Question 1 aims at discovering the students’ problems in learning vocabulary by asking them to rank five problems of learning vocabulary in the order of degree The five problems can be classified into two categories Items A, B, and C are context-bound whereas items D and E are task-specific Question 2 is about the strategies used by the students in their independent vocabulary learning However, only the three sets of the vocabulary strategy training programme, namely dictionary-related strategies, recording vocabulary and studying

affixes, are included The purpose of question 2 is to investigate the students’ frequency of using these sets of strategies when learning vocabulary For each set of strategies, the students are asked to circle one of the numbers in a Likert scale from 1 to 5 to indicate how often they use the strategies Thus number 1 means “never”, number 2 means “rarely”, number 3 “sometimes” (50% of the time), number 4 “often” and number 5 “always” Closed-ended questions designed as a Likert scale are helpful in that they elicit specific answers about the matter studied Space is also provided so that students can list other strategies that they use in learning vocabulary The pre-treatment questionnaires (English and Vietnamese versions) are presented in Appendices 5 and 6

4.2 Description of the vocabulary – learning records

The three vocabulary – learning records were used to offer the students guided practice of the strategy sets that had already been taught in phase one Each record consists

of a short reading text, followed by two tasks Task 1 is intended to disclose the students’ actual practice of Strategy Set 1 (Dictionary-related strategies) and Set 2 (Recording vocabulary) whereas Task 2 aims at revealing their practice of Strategy Set 3 (Studying affixes) The reason why Set 1 and Set 2 are investigated in the same task is that because of the nature of this specific task, these two sets are quite interrelated and that learners may use multiple strategies at the same time to complete a task Both of the tasks are divided into two parts: Part A and Part B Part A is designed to score the students’ performance (how well) of using the strategy sets studied while Part B serves to score their participation (how much) in using these sets to study vocabulary In the current research, performance refers to the extent of correctness when the students use the taught strategies while participation means how much they use these strategies in their guided vocabulary practice More specifically, Part A and Part B aim at answering research questions 2 and 3 respectively In Part A, the students are given five words taken from the reading text and asked to complete information about them such as part of speech, pronunciation, translation, and example or collocation or extra note for Task 1, and to give the corresponding forms of noun, verb, adjective and adverb for Task 2 In Part B, however, the students are free to choose from any one to five words they wish to study and record them in the same way as in Part A The intended function of Part B is to cast light on their autonomous and self-directed participation in practicing the strategies The three

vocabulary – learning records are given in Appendix 3 A criteria frame designed to mark the records is presented in Table 1

Table 1 Criteria for evaluating word-learning records

A To evaluate the performance of the strategy

The performance is ranked based on the percentage of correct items out of the answered items

Percentage (%) 0 – 19 20 – 39 40 – 60 61 – 80 81 - 100

B To evaluate the participation in the use of the strategy

Total items to fill in: 4 x 5 = 20 items

The participation is ranked based on the percentage of filled-in items out of the total 20

4.3 Description of the vocabulary learning diary

The purpose of the free-style vocabulary diaries was to discover the students’ practice of independent vocabulary learning after they had been receiving strategy – training Consequently, no rigid form of the diary was given The learners were given clear instructions before they started keeping the vocabulary learning diaries For each entry of the diary, the learners were required to describe the context of the recorded vocabulary items and then record the items in any style they like The context includes information concerning the source of the selected vocabulary items, the time and the place of self-studying Since diaries are not “predetermined”, they promise to provide the researcher with real and rich information about how the students learn vocabulary (Rea-Dickins and Germaine, 1992:61) They help to reveal each learner’s style or strategy of learning vocabulary and to offer an insight into the degree to which the three trained strategy sets work for the students In other words, the vocabulary diaries function as the tool to score

the students’ maintenance of the previously trained strategies Some samples of the

students’ vocabulary learning diaries are shown in Appendix 4

In order to score the students’ maintenance of use of the three strategy sets, a

holistic rubric was designed (See Table 2) Holistic scales or rubrics respond to language

performance as a whole Each score on a holistic scale represents an overall impression;

one integrated score is assigned to a performance The emphasis in holistic scoring is on

what a student does well Holistic rubrics commonly have four or six points For the

purpose of this research, the rubric mainly focused on the degree to which the students

maintained using the strategies being studied By means of the rubric, each vocabulary

learning diary was given three marks indicating the maintenance levels of the three

strategy sets under investigation

Table 2 Holistic rubric for marking the maintenance of the trained strategy sets

4

A relatively large number of strategy occurrences or strategy entries; an

adequate number of words for each strategy occurrence; includes full, accurate

elaborations of each word; (items are well – organized; a variety of vocabulary

organizations)

3

A sufficient number of strategy occurrences; an adequate number of words for

each strategy occurrence; includes satisfactory elaborations of each word;

(clear, easy – to – follow organization)

2

A limited number of strategy occurrences; just a few words for each strategy

occurrence; includes only some sketchy details of each word; (little variety of

vocabulary organization)

1 Few or no strategy occurrences; just one or two words for each strategy

occurrence; few details of each word; (no variety of vocabulary organization)

Note: Strategy occurrence is counted according to the number of diary entries in which

the strategy is used

Those in brackets are ONLY supplemented to mark Set 2 - Recording vocabulary

4.4 Description of the post – treatment questionnaire

The rationale for the post – treatment questionnaire is to expose the students’ retention as well as their perception of the three trained strategy sets The questionnaire is made up of four parts Part I requires the students to circle a number in a Likert scale from one to five to indicate how often they use a specific strategy set after they have already attended the strategy training programme Part II also makes use of a five-item Likert scale

to elicit the students’ evaluation of the usefulness of the three trained strategy sets Similarly, in Part III of the questionnaire, the students judge the effectiveness of the strategy training program by means of a Likert scale With a view to discovering the students’ expectations towards the training of vocabulary-learning strategies, Part IV of the post-treatment questionnaire consists of three questions Among them, question 5 and question 6 are designed as open – ended ones so that students can freely express their ideas concerning vocabulary strategy training The post-treatment questionnaires (English and Vietnamese versions) can be seen in Appendix 7 and 8

5 Data collection procedures

As already mentioned this action research was divided into three phases and carried out during the second term of school year 2009 -2010 Therefore, data was collected as each phase went on

During the first week of Phase One, pre-treatment questionnaires were delivered before the strategy training programme started From week 2 to week 4 of Phase One, the students were explicitly taught about the three selected sets of vocabulary learning strategies, namely dictionary-related strategies, recording vocabulary and studying affixes Next, for three weeks of Phase Two, the students handed in a word-learning record weekly That would result in the total of three word-learning records for each student Then came Phase Three with the task of keeping the vocabulary learning diaries for the next three weeks before the students submitted them to the teacher Finally, by the end of the semester, the post-treatment questionnaires were distributed

All the data from the two questionnaires, the word-learning records and the vocabulary-learning diaries were gathered and analyzed

6 Data analysis procedures

The data were calculated by means of Microsoft Excel application The interpretation of the data was based mainly on the calculation of the percentage, the

frequency and the mean To answer the research questions, the data from the word-learning records were used to work out the participation in and the performance of use of the trained strategies whereas the data from the vocabulary learning diaries served to display the maintenance of these strategies

The data from the pre-treatment and post-treatment questionnaires showed other dimensions of the students’ actual practice of using vocabulary learning strategies such as the difficulties encountered and their perception of strategy training The results were illustrated in tables and graphs to facilitate interpretations

CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents an analysis of the data collected from the pre-treatment and post-treatment questionnaires, the word-learning records and the vocabulary-learning diaries

1 Phase One: Research question 1 – Students’ problems in independent vocabulary learning

The data gained from the pre-treatment questionnaires in this phase were to answer

the first research question: What are the problems that the students encounter in their independent vocabulary learning? For this question, the students were asked to rank five

problems in learning vocabulary in the order of degree with number 1 being the most troublesome Therefore, the biggest problem would be the one getting the minimum score Figure 1 shows the degrees of the five problems as perceived by the class It is obvious from the figure that the number one problem is not knowing how to learn vocabulary effectively (mean = 2.0) The second considerable obstacle is insufficient time spent on vocabulary learning (mean = 2.4) Next come the two problems with approximately the same score: not feeling interested in vocabulary self-learning and not knowing what words

to study Finally, the least problem is that the students do not possess adequate materials or facilities for vocabulary learning such as dictionaries, reference books or computers

Not enough materials

Not feel interested

Not know how to learn

Not know what to learn Figure 1 Students' problems in independent vocabulary learning

2 Phase Two

The aims of this phase were to answer the next two research questions:

Research question 2: How well do the students use the taught strategies in their

guided vocabulary practice?

Research question 3: How much do the students use the taught strategies in

their guided vocabulary practice?

To answer research question 2, three word-learning records of each learner were marked in terms of performance score whereas research question 3 was answered by means of participation score In the current research, performance refers to the extent of correctness when the students use the taught strategies while participation means how much they use these strategies in their guided vocabulary practice The criteria presented in Table 1 (Chapter 3) were used to calculate the performance and participation score of each word-learning record

2.1 Research question 2: Students’ performance in the use of the taught strategies

2.1.1 Students’ performance in the use of Strategy Set 1 and Set 2

The students’ performance in the use of Strategy Set 1 (Dictionary-related strategies) and Set 2 (Recording vocabulary) through three word-learning records is illustrated by Table 3

Table 3 Students’ performance in the use of Dictionary-related strategies

and Vocabulary - recording strategies Word record 1 Word record 2 Word record 3

Obviously, almost all the students (26 out of 27) got the satisfactory performance scores, which range from mark 3 to mark 5 and are shaded in pink in the table In other words, 26 out of 27 students used dictionary-related strategies and vocabulary recording strategies quite well Only one student, who got a substandard mark (shaded in blue), failed

to use these two taught strategy sets Most noticeably, a large number of the students got mark 5 – the highest score, and even more noteworthy, the number of mark-five scorers increased through the three records (14, 21 and 25) It shows that more and more students used the two strategy sets with remarkable accuracy throughout the phase of guided vocabulary practice

2.1.2 Students’ performance in the use of Strategy Set 3

Table 4 presents the students’ performance in the use of Strategy Set 3 – Studying affixes As can be seen, nearly all the students (26 out of 27) received the standard mark between mark 3 and mark 5, which is shaded in pink Approximately half of the students (48%) got mark 4 and about the other half got mark 5 for word record 1 and 3 It meant that the majority of the students could use affix-studying strategies accurately and effectively in their guided vocabulary practice Only one student got the substandard mark shaded in blue and was unable to use this strategy set

Table 4 Students’ performance in the use of Affix - studying strategies

Word record 1 Word record 2 Word record 3 Students % Students % Students %

affixes requires not only practice but also sufficient knowledge of word formation such as prefixes, suffixes and compound words, which tends to take a longer time to accumulate and absorb than the skills of using dictionaries and recording vocabulary

To sum up, the majority of the students showed great performance of the three taught strategy sets, namely dictionary-related set, vocabulary-recording set and affix-studying set In other words, the students used the taught strategies quite well in their guided vocabulary practice

2.2 Research question 3: Students’ participation in the use of the taught strategies

2.2.1 Students’ participation in the use of Strategy Set 1 and Set 2

The students’ participation in using Strategy Set 1 (Dictionary-related strategies) and Set 2 (Vocabulary-recording strategies) for their guided vocabulary practice is represented in Table 5 As the figures show, only about two-thirds of the participants (96%, 63%, 78%) got the marks in the standard range from mark 3 to mark 5 (shaded in pink) It implies that only these two-thirds used the dictionary-related strategy set and vocabulary-recording set as much as required, which is rather low The other one-third, who got mark 1 or 2 (shaded in blue), just used these two sets of strategies to a very limited extent in their guided vocabulary practice From a quarter to nearly half of the students used dictionary-related strategies and vocabulary-recording strategies to the fullest extent (48%, 26% and 33% got mark 5 for the three word records respectively) A considerable fluctuation in the percentages of the five mark groups also indicates an uneven participation of the students throughout three word records

Table 5 Students’ participation in the use of Dictionary-related strategies

and Vocabulary - recording strategies Word record 1 Word record 2 Word record 3

2.2.2 Students’ participation in the use of Strategy Set 3

Table 6 depicts the students’ participation in the use of Strategy Set 3 studying strategies) Like the participation scores for dictionary-related strategies and vocabulary-recording strategies, the students getting from mark 3 to mark 5 made up over two-thirds of the participants (70.5%, 66% and 89%) It meant two-thirds of the students used affix-studying strategies as much as expected for their guided vocabulary practice Also similar to dictionary-related and vocabulary recording set, the extent of using affix-studying strategy set was uneven among three word records This is illustrated by the fluctuating proportions of the mark groups throughout three word records For example, the proportion of the mark-five scorers considerably decreased (48%, 22% and 26%)

(Affix-Table 6 Students’ participation in the use of Affix - studying strategies

Word record 1 Word record 2 Word record 3 Students % Students % Students %

Phase Three aims at answering the last two research questions:

Research question 4: To what extent do the students maintain the taught

strategies in their independent vocabulary learning? Research question 5: How effective is the strategy training programme in

helping the students learn vocabulary, as perceived by the students?

Research question 4 is answered by calculating the maintenance scores of the taught strategies by means of the free-style vocabulary-learning diaries Unlike the guided practice of the three word records, the vocabulary learning diaries are the students’ self study, so they have the potential of revealing new aspects of the students’ independent

vocabulary learning Research question 5 is answered by means of the post-treatment questionnaire

3.1 Research question 4: Students’ maintenance of the taught strategies in independent vocabulary learning

Based on the holistic rubric, each vocabulary-learning diary was given three marks indicating the maintenance levels of the three trained strategy sets Figure 2 illustrates the students’ maintenance of the strategies according to percentage and the four-point scale

As can be seen, about half of the students got mark 3 for maintaining dictionary – related strategies and recording vocabulary (55.6% and 44% respectively) It means half of the class continued using dictionary-related strategies and vocabulary-recording strategies to a significant extent for their self-study after they had been taught to use these two strategy sets On the contrary, nearly two-thirds of the learners had a rather low maintenance of affix-studying strategies: 63% got mark 1 It indicates that these two-thirds just used affix-studying strategies to a very limited degree for their independent vocabulary learning

F igure 2 Students' maintenance of the taught strategies in independent

vocabulary learning

7.4

55.6

18.5 15

Affix-studying

A glance at the mark-three group and mark-four group shows that the maintenance level of dictionary-related strategies was the highest, then vocabulary-recording strategies ranked second and finally, the students showed a rather minimal maintenance of affix-