A study on difficulties in learning english vocabulary of grade 5 students at dong chieu english cente

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP Student full name: Ho Thi Thu Hien Student ID: 1722202010094 Title paper: A study on difficulties in learning English vocabulary of grade 5 students at Dong Ch

THU DAU MOT UNVIERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

*************

GRADUATE PAPER

TITLE:

A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH

VOCABULARY OF GRADE 5 STUDENTS AT DONG CHIEU ENGLISH

CENTER

Student name: Ho Thi Thu Hien Student code: 1722202010094 Class: D17AVGD01

Course: 2017-2021 Major: English Language Lecturer: Mrs Nguyen Ngoc Thao

Binh Duong, October, 2020.

THU DAU MOT UNVIERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

*************

GRADUATE PAPER

TITLE:

A STUDY ON DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH

VOCABULARY OF GRADE 5 STUDENTS AT DONG CHIEU ENGLISH

CENTER

Student name: Ho Thi Thu Hien Student code: 1722202010094 Class: D17AVGD01

Course: 2017-2021 Major: English Language Lecturer: Mrs Nguyen Ngoc Thao

Binh Duong, October, 2020

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

Student full name: Ho Thi Thu Hien

Student ID: 1722202010094

Title paper: A study on difficulties in learning English vocabulary of grade 5

students at Dong Chieu English center

I hereby confirm that I am the sole author of the paper presented Where the work of others has been consulted, this is duly acknowledged in the paper’s bibliography I have also not consulted any other unnamed online sources All verbatim or referential use of the sources named in the bibliography has been specifically indicated in the text

Binh Duong, October 2020

HO THI THU HIEN

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I would like to thank the administrators and lecturers of Thu Dau Mot University for creating conditions for me to practice pedagogy at the center to expand my knowledge, accumulate more experience to help me complete my graduate report

Next, I would like to express my deep thanks to Mrs Nguyen Ngoc Thao, who enthusiastically guided me in choosing the research topic, the approach and helping me to correct the shortcomings in the research process

Thank you Mr Cao Vi Thien - Director of the Center for creating the best conditions for my teaching internship so that I can learn, experience and collect the data on difficulties in learning English vocabulary of grade 5 students at Dong Chieu English center Besides, it is impossible not to mention the contributions of dear grade students They helped me complete the survey as well as answer interview questions

The most important thing is I want to thank my parents and friends, they always stand by me, give me a hand when I need it They always encouraged me

to overcome difficulties so that I can successfully complete this graduation report

Once again, I would like to thank all those who helped me during my internship I wish you are healthy, lucky and successful in your life and job Sincerely,

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, communication is very important in this era of globalization For good communication, proper language expression is essential Vocabulary is

an important factor in language acquisition because words play an important role

in expressing our feelings, emotions, and ideas to others during communication However, learning vocabulary is really a big challenge for students in learning a foreign language There are a lot of activities that have been done to help students overcome difficulties, but still limited The aims of this study is to find out difficulties in learning English vocabulary of grade 5 students at Dong Chieu English Center The study more over aims at exploring the causes of such difficulties To achieve these goals, research survey was conducted with 30 students from different classes at the center using questionnaires and interviews with 5 students of the center to clarify information from the students Such questionnaires and interview will be suggested to each student to investigate difficulties in learning English vocabulary and the causes of those difficulties The results show that there are some difficulties in learning student's vocabulary and difficulties caused by both internal and external factors Internal factors such

as lack of motivation and ineffective vocabulary learning and age External factors are the English learning conditions, the number of students in class and the lack of time to learn English This report is an attempt to find all the difficulties that hinder students and the factors that make it difficult to learn English vocabulary

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE i

STATEMENT OF ATHORSHIP ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iii

ABSTRACT iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF FIGURES ix

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 RATIONALE FOR STUDY 1

1.2 AIMS OF STUDY 2

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 2

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 2

1.5 METHOD OF THE STUDY 2

1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY 2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 DEFINITION OF VOCABULARY 4

2.2 TYPES OF VOCABULARY 4

2.3 THE IMPORTANT OF LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY 5

2.4 FACTORS AFFECTING VOCABULARY 6

2.4.1 Internal factors 6

2.4.2 External factors 7

2.5 RELATED STUDY 8

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 10

3.1 RESEARCH METHOD 10

3.2 PARTICIPANTS 10

3.3 DATA COLLECT 10

3.4 DATA ANALYSIS 10

3.4.1 Identification 10

3.4.2 Classification 10

3.4.3 Description 10

3.4.4 Explanation 11

CHAPTER 4: RESULT AND DISCUSSION 12

4.1 DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED IN LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY 12

4.2 FACTORS AFFECTING LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY 17

4.2.1 Internal factors 17

4.2.2 External factors 19

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 23

5.1 SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS 23

5.2 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 23

5.3 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 24

REFERENCES 25

APPENDIX x

Appendix 1: Questionnaire x

Appendix 2: Interview xiv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

L2: Second language

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Students’ time for learning new words Table 2: Ways of learning new words

LIST OF FIGURES

Chart 1: Students’ level of English vocabulary

Chart 2: Students’ attitudes towards the importance of vocabulary learning Chart 3: Students’ attitudes towards learning new words

Chart 4: Students’ difficulties in learning new words

Chart 5: Internal factors affecting learning English vocabulary

Chart 7: The conditions that students lack in learning English vocabulary

Chart 8: The problem of lack of student's time

Chart 9: The student’s thinking about the number of students affects their ability

to learn English vocabulary

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 RATIONAL FOR THE STUDY

English is currently the most popular communication tool in the world, a means to connect between different cultures, economies and societies In addition, English has gradually become a great demand for study and job opportunities Because of such a huge role, learning English is the best way to help us in the future

In learning foreign languages in general and English in particular, vocabulary plays an important role Vocabulary is the foundation of communication, without it, communication will be very limited A rich vocabulary enables students to improve their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, not only in how they understand but also in how they create language Wilkin (1972: 11) emphasizes this in his saying, “without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” Therefore, students need to have a sufficient number of words and know how to use them correctly However, acquiring vocabulary is really a challenge for every student, especially elementary school students

In the context of DONG CHIEU ENGLISH CENTER, vocabulary lessons have not been given adequate attention to help students learn new words more effectively Therefore, most of them have formed a habit of only learning new words from textbooks or through teachers' sources They often learn vocabulary using methods such as listing new words on a notebook and memorizing, reading new words aloud many times, etc The ways above do not seem like the most effective and enjoyable vocabulary learning ways Moreover, students only think

of learning vocabulary as knowing the main meaning of a new word, they ignore all other functions of the word and do not use that word properly in different contexts or pronounce it without exactly

When I practiced teaching English at the center, I came across a lot of questions related to vocabulary learning from my students For example, "why is

it so difficult to remember new words?" or "What is an effective way to learn

vocabulary?", etc So I did a research to find out the cause of their difficulty Then, the factors most influencing their English vocabulary learning

1.2 AIMS OF THE STUDY

The study aims to find out difficulties and factors that cause difficulties in learning English vocabulary for grade 5 students at Dong Chieu English center 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

To achieve the aims mentioned above, the research questions designed are: Research question 1: What are the difficulties in learning English vocabulary for grade 5 students at Dong Chieu English Center?

Research question 2: What are the factors causing difficulties for grade 5

students at Dong Chieu English Center?

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study was designed to find out the difficulties and factors that cause difficulties in learning English vocabulary of grade 5 students at Dong Chieu English Center In the content of learning English at center, the English vocabulary mentioned here means new words in Family and Friends 5 books that students are taught or learned by themselves The target population is grade 5 students

1.5 METHODS OF THE STUDY

The study combined qualitative and quantitative approaches Data were collected survey questionnaires, interview:

-A survey questionnaire for 30 grade 5 students from different classes was used

to clarify the difficulties in learning English vocabulary of grade 5 students at Dong Chieu English Center

-An informal interview answered for 5 grade 5 students at Dong Chieu English Center

1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

The thesis is organized into five main chapters:

Chapter I: Introduction

In this chapter the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the

method, and the organization of the study are presented

Chapter II: Literature Review

This chapter presents the theoretical basis for this study It focuses on some concepts in learning a second language vocabulary, types of vocabulary, the important of learning English vocabulary and some factors that affect learning a second language vocabulary It also provides a brief review of previous research

on the same topic

Chapter III: Methodology

This chapter presents a detailed description of the research methodology, participants, data collect, data analysis

Chapter IV: Result and discussion

This chapter describes difficulties encountered, factors affecting learning English vocabulary

Chapter V: Conclusion

This chapter summarizes the study, limitations of the study and suggestions for further research

of all kind" Richards and Platt (1992: 400) also noted that vocabulary is “a set of lexemes, including words, compound words and idioms” These statements indicate that vocabulary is “the total number of words in a language” (Hornby, 1995:1331)

In this thesis, the vocabulary is defined as the total number of words consisting of a single word, two or three items expressing a single idea, and multi-word idioms that cannot be derived from the analysis of component words but understood only in sentences, or in context

2.2 TYPES OF VOCABULARY

Nation (2001) claims that there are two types of vocabulary They are receptive and productive vocabulary Receptive vocabulary is words that native speakers and foreign learners recognize and understand but almost never use, and are used passively in listening or reading Productive vocabulary is actively used both in speaking or writing A person's listening and speaking vocabulary is usually larger than his spoken vocabulary while his reading vocabulary is relatively larger than written vocabulary Therefore, it can be concluded that vocabulary can be represented in four units including reading vocabulary, listening vocabulary, speaking vocabulary, and writing vocabulary

Listening vocabulary refers to the words we hear and comprehend When

we reach adulthood, most of us will recognize and understand close to 50,000 words (Stahl, 1999; Tompkins, 2005) Children who are completely deaf are not exposed to audible vocabulary Instead, if they have signed patterns at home or school, they will be exposed to a “visual” listening vocabulary

Reading vocabulary refers to the words we recognize when reading any text, we need to know the vocabularies to get the main idea of it We read and understand many words, but we do not use them in speaking vocabulary If a person is a reader, this will be the second largest vocabulary Without a doubt, vocabulary grows with reading

Speaking Vocabulary refers to the words we use in our lives and in everyday conversations When we talk to others, we need to choose the right language to convey the message However, our spoken vocabulary is often limited Most adults use close to 5,000 to 10,000 words for communication (for chatting and giving instructions) The number of vocabularies used in this case is much less than that of the text, most likely due to its ease of use

The last written vocabulary includes the words people use to write essays, reports, letters, and more Explaining using facial expressions and making speech modifications is pretty easy, but using the same word to convey the same concept or thinking through text is not easy Our written vocabulary is greatly influenced by the words we can spell

2.3 THE IMPORTANT OF LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY

Learning vocabulary is very important for learners of English as a foreign and second language Vocabulary knowledge is often considered an important tool for learners as limited vocabulary in the second language hinders successful communication Wilkin (1972:11) emphasizes this in his saying, “without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” According to Paul Nation notes: “Vocabulary is not an end in itself

A rich vocabulary makes the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing easier to perform” McCarthy (1990: viii) also stated that “the biggest component of any language course is vocabulary, no matter how well the student learns grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to express a wide range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way.” These statements are enough to conclude that vocabulary is the decisive factor in language communication This

is true in learning a foreign language If a learner has a rich vocabulary, they can help him understand others easily On the contrary, if their vocabulary is limited, they will surely have difficulty learning English All of this shows that a student's success in mastering any language depends in abundance of their vocabulary

2.4 FACTORS AFFECTING VOCABULARY LEARNING

2.4.1 Internal factors

Internal factors related to a student's internal characteristics can play an important role in learning English vocabulary There are many characteristics such as age, motivation, behavior, etc According to Lingtbown and Spada (1999:49 68), “those factors that affect the learner in language learning also have

an effect in his vocabulary learning”

Reece & Walker (1997) states that motivation is key in second language learning Motivation is one of the most important aspects of second language acquisition Therefore, it is very difficult to learn a second language in a learning environment if the learner has no desire to learn a foreign language They also emphasize that an incompetent but highly motivated student can achieve greater success

According to Collier (1988), successful language acquisition depends on the learner’s age The learning style of young children will be different from adults

Young children tend to pay less attention while adults tend to pay longer attention to lessons

In vocabulary learning, vocabulary learning strategies are considered important and receive a lot of attention in the field of second language learning

Gu and Johnson (1996) show that learners using strategy selectively know which words are important and essential to them In addition, they can deal with new or unfamiliar vocabulary items without difficulty as vocabulary learning strategies simplify the process of learning new vocabulary for them

2.4.2 External Factors

There are many external factors affect learning English vocabulary such as time, language learning environment, vocabulary learning task, the number of students in class, etc

According to Felix (1977, as cited in Leontiev & James, 1981, p 150) stated that, “Time is the key word in determining what level students can achieve.” If time is available, the learning process must be productive because it

is more important than language exposure or interaction If it was a short period

of time but with the right goals, the results would be better than studying in the long run with the wrong goal

Teaching method, document quality, reward system, classroom atmosphere and homework, teacher-student relationship, are considered learning environments and it can affect a learner's choice of vocabulary learning strategy (Kaylani, 1996)

Felix (1977) as cited in Leontiev & James (1981: 190) also add that, “The number of students in the classroom will play a significant role.” Research has shown that a class with a small student population is better than a class with a large student population Teachers can recognize students easily and material can

be effectively taught to a small number of students in the classroom

Besides motivation, foreign language learning environment is considered as the factor affecting learners' vocabulary learning Nakamura (2000) performed a mixed method study using questionnaires, observations and oral interviews to understand the impact of learner variables and externally variable learning environments on people The subjects of this study are Japanese studying high school English in Japan and in the UK The study's findings show that the external variables of the learning environment are the most important factor affecting all aspects of vocabulary learning

In Vietnam, a number of studies on "difficulty in learning English vocabulary" have been conducted by students Nguyen Thi Bich Hanh (2010) also conducted a study on "the challenges in learning English vocabulary of ethnic minority students in grade 10 of Muong Bi High School" Research is conducted using questionnaires and classroom observations In this study, she found that learners often have difficulty learning vocabulary due to too many new words in each lesson; the student's English proficiency is low; the teacher does not apply many methods and communication activities in the classroom, etc To overcome these problems, she offers a number of solutions such as motivating students to learn, adjusting textbooks, practicing vocabulary and improving learning and teaching conditions

According to the document review above, very little research has been done

to examine the vocabulary learning difficulties of primary school students in

Vietnam More importantly, no studies have been done to specifically examine the difficulties in learning vocabulary of students at Dong Chieu English center Therefore, this study aims to investigate the difficulties in learning vocabulary of 5th graders at the Center

The research data were collected from questionnaire and interview: “the opinions on how the students have ever learnt English vocabulary in classroom?”

in order to get the result

3.4 DATA ANALYSIS

3.4.1 Identification

The researcher identified the difficulties students encountered when learning English vocabulary and factors that caused students' difficulty in learning vocabulary by using questionnaires and interview The students had different answers, so the data in this step can vary