Based on the results of the data analysis of tests and the observation reported in the previous section 3.1, this section provides a summary of the major findings and discussion about the using content-based instructions in teaching vocabulary.
Firstly, from the results, it can be assured that the use of content-based instruction has positive effects on students‟ vocabulary memorization. Most of the students in the class found this method useful to memorize and retrieve word meanings. The use of content-based instructions brought them a new trial learning vocabulary. The traditional way of teaching vocabulary not only made them boring and tired as discussed before, but also hardly made a progress in students‟ vocabulary learning.
They were not eager in vocabulary teaching and learning. Even some of them felt
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sleepy during the lesson. In contrast, the new technique used in this study attracted attentions of both teacher and her students on vocabulary learning. For the teacher, she could prepare exciting and useful and suitable content and vocabulary and presented words logically on interesting and real context or semantic maps. For students, they were provided a new strategy to learn vocabulary.
Secondly, the technique helped students to enlarge their vocabulary knowledge.
Students themselves worked together to find out the relations of words, to create a network and connections of words. Learning vocabulary has been considered a boring subject for a long time and the traditional way of learning vocabulary by mere copying and remembering has shown to be less than effective in Vietnam.
Thanks to the instructions of words and pictures, maps they can know and remember other words that related to the topic they learnt. This way of teaching and learning is very useful especially for the ESP students.
Thirdly, students felt motivated and relaxed when working with semantic map, real context and words. In comparison with working with words through the traditional way such as translation, definition, or transcription, the students were always in the passive way. They looked like machines that followed the teacher‟s presentation and the teacher was always busy with their teaching, but the effectiveness of this way was not remarkable. Working with context or content-based instructions and semantic mapping opened more chances for students to work and to participate with words they learnt. Moreover, sometimes with the support of pictures that helps them to lose stress. Pictures are also a good visual aid to contribute the memorization of word meanings. Students would be more relaxed with vocabulary lessons and they were encouraged to discuss with their classmates to find out word meanings and the relations of words. This can be inferred that vocabulary learning was not as passive as it had been.
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Finally, the using of content-based instructions, as a new technique of vocabulary teaching has shown a quite effective ones. Thanks to the strength they posses, it can help students in the class of observation remember and recall word meaning in a better way, thus remembering longer. The effects of this technique could be seen from the students‟ test results. The post-test results of were higher than those of the pre-test. The post-test results indicated that the students could memorize vocabulary in the textbook better than no treatment before. From these results, it can be referred that, most of the students in this class show positive effects towards this technique.
Concerning the results of the study, it can be seen that learning will be facilitated if students become more aware of the using of content-based instructions. It may be regarded as word noticing and useful for teaching and learning at Ha Long College of Art, Culture and Tourism.
3.3. Implications
The findings of this study support that the use of content-based instructions has positive effects on students‟ vocabulary memorization.
Assuming that traditional way of teaching vocabulary does not help students‟
vocabulary memorization, instructors need to find effective ways for this method The findings of this study prove that the using of content-based instructions is a good tool to acquire learner‟s vocabulary retention. Therefore, this technique should be continued to be utilized in vocabulary lessons. In selecting language teaching, it is necessary to select the ones suitable for the target concepts or topics. Besides, it is worth deciding which words need to put in the language context, and at this point, learners‟ background knowledge of the field must be taken into consideration. The instructors should also supply suitable words that can be easy for connecting in a context. Words and content instructions must be presented together, i.e. they should be presented simultaneously rather than separately, so that the representations are in memory at the same time, and “construction of referential connections” can “be done immediately” (Mayer, 1994, p.391).
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In addition, to make the use of content-based instructions effective to hotel and restaurant students in particular and students of tourism field in general, the role of teachers or instructors in vocabulary learning process is very essential. The ultimate goal of vocabulary instruction is to help students to discover, remember, or retain learnt words effectively. They should motivate students in their vocabulary with context or sometimes with semantic maps. Students are not only provided vocabulary knowledge but also the strategies to access, to memorize the words. To be most effective, vocabulary instruction should be dynamic and involved with a variety of techniques. For example, teachers should prepare their own materials for strategy instruction that match the students‟ preferred learning styles, strategy repertoire such as using real context to teach the meanings of new words, or to provide meaningful information about the words, using a multimedia projector helps present pictures of origin color. Therefore, a teacher is not only an information provider, an initiator, a motivator, a guider but also a controller.
Lastly, although this technique is useful to improve students‟ vocabulary retention, it does not ensure that the learner‟s ability of remembering the words overtime.
Therefore, the teacher should encourage learners to revise the new words in a systematic way. Ideally, learners should be promoted to work with conversations that help their memory recall the words effectively. Besides, the teacher can help students refine their understanding of the words by asking them to group related words together to create a semantic map. This combination gives students chance to recycle the words. One says that “practice makes perfect”, so the more frequently the learners revise the words, the more likely they retain the words in the long runs.
To sum up, in order to make vocabulary teaching and learning interesting and effective, these implications raised from the findings of the study should be considered.
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