Chapter 2 Methodology and Data analysis
2.6.1. How does the teaching and learning of lexical chunks change the students‘speaking fluency?
The teaching and learning of lexical chunks did change your students‘ speaking fluency at varying degrees (see Table 2.2 below)
34
Table 2.2: Number of pauses in a speaking post-test among the tested 20 students Number of pauses in each
sample
Number of students
Less than 30 pauses 2
Less than 20 pauses 5
Less than 10 pauses 11
Less than 5 pauses 2
By comparing the results of the speaking pre- and post-test, I showed that the number of pauses decreased considerably. In particular, while in the speaking pre- test the number of students with less than 30 and 20 pauses were 38 which accounted for 84.3% of all students, in the speaking post-test the number were 7 which represented just 35% of 20 randomly tested students. Likewise, in the pre- test, the number of students who only had less than 10 and 5 pauses were 7 which equaled to 15.5% of the whole class while in the post-test, the figure increased to 15 which was roughly 75% of 20 randomly tested students. As a rule, speaking speed and fluency improved considerably as the experiment moved on.
35
2.6.2. How do the students perceive of the benefits of the learning of lexical chunks to their speaking ability?
The students‘ reflection of 45 students were analyzed by themes quantitatively.
Below are the results:
Students‘ perceived benefits No. of mentions 1. I find it easier to use English in my
speaking
13
2. I feel more confident in speaking English.
17
3. I am not afraid of errors while speaking any more.
04
4 I can use English to communicate in a simple way.
06
5. It changes very little my ability to speak English
03
6 I do not see any change in my ability to speak English
02
2.7. Discussion of the relationship between L2 learners‟ use of lexical chunks and language production
The comparisons indicate that learners with a higher level of language production are better at using lexical chunks, and correspondingly, learners who are able to use lexical chunks have a higher level of language production and vice versa. The conclusion further strengthens the relationship between the two competences, that is, employment of lexical chunks is positively correlated with language production.
36
Fluency, accuracy, creativeness and cohesion are indispensable parts of language production.Previous studies show that lexical chunks can promote language
fluency, enhance language accurateness, facilitate creative language production and guide language production.
37
PART C: CONCLUSION 1. Conclusion
This study attempts to find empirical evidence of the relationship between L2 learners‘ use of lexical chunks and their language production. Through the multiple- choice chunk test, speaking pre- and post-test and an interview, the statistical analysis shows that students with a higher level of lexical chunks are prone to achieve higher scores the multiple-choice chunk test, speaking test and an interview and vice versa. It turns out that lexical chunks have a positive effect on L2 learners‘
language production.
Lexical chunks are fixed or semi-fixed frequently used lexical phrases with functional meanings, which are stored and produced automatically as whole units in the process of language acquisition. Therefore, chunks provide an easily retrievable frame for language production and decrease L2 learners‘ pressure to decode individual words. Previous studies show that lexical chunks can promote language fluency, enhance language accuracy, facilitate creative language production and guide language production. Further more, lexical chunks can increase L2 learners‘
motivation, for chunks would allow learners to produce expressions that they are not yet able to construct from their linguistic system.
Moreover, by means of the three tests, we can see that low level English learners‘
knowledge of lexical chunks and language production is far from satisfactory. In the multiple-choice chunk and speaking pre-test, it is found that students are prone to prefer some grammatically correct, but not appropriate or idiomatic lexical chunks.
Through analyzing the students‘ answers to the interview, we find that Vietnamese English teachers still focus more on grammatical rules and individual words, and pay less or even no attention to the instruction of lexical chunks. In the speaking post-test, it can be seen that students attain an enhancement in their speaking production after studying lessons designed with a focus on lexical chunks. It is believed that to a large extent, the low proficiency of language production can be
38
attributed to the lack of adequate input of lexical chunks. Therefore, in order to improve learners‘ English proficiency, adopting the effective lexical chunks instruction is quite necessary.
This study not only indicates the importance of lexical chunks to language production, but also brings forward some pedagogical suggestions to English instruction. On the basis of changing Vietnamese learners‘concept of language acquisition, with adequate teaching methods and effective activities, teachers should be able to make a great effort to help learners with their lexical chunks learning.
All in all, lexical chunks seem to play an important role in L2 learners‘ language acquisition. They serve as the key to the fluency, idiomaticity, creativeness and orientation of language production, which should be given adequate attention and absolute priority in L2 learners‘ English instruction.
2. Reflection
2.1. Changes in the teacher‟s awareness of teaching vocabulary and speaking:
From teachers‘ perspective, the action research enables them to evaluate their teaching objectively and carry out research on the topics which are closely related to their routine teaching. From my view, action research can maximize the teaching effects by applying learning theories to practice. In the whole process, the focus shifted from teacher‘s demonstration and guidance to cultivation of learners
―atomicity of using lexical chunks in speaking process, with an emphasis on learners‘ major role in learning to speaking more fluently‖(He,2011).
The case study serves as an initiative step to study the impact of application of lexical chunk theory to teach EFL speaking. The findings of the study reveal, to some extent,the increased awareness of lexical chunks contributes to the improved speaking fluency. However, as the scale of this study is done on a single student, a further empirical study is expected to verify the results obtained from this case study.
39
The increased awareness of lexical chunks in EFL speaking has a positive impact on reading fluency. Explicit instruction can facilitate the acquisition of lexical chunks (Ellis, 1997). Besides, this experiment study also proves the findings made by Walzoyk (1999),who asserts that speaking fluency has a lot to do with language competence. When a student can spot out and use quantities of lexical chunks automatically in the process of speaking, there is much likelihood that speaking fluency will be improved.Therefore, in the speaking class, explicit teaching methods aiming to improve students‘ awareness and application of lexical chunks are beneficial to improvement in students‘ speaking performance.Meanwhile, resorting to action research, EFL teachers find a gateway to explore their teaching practice and engage in research that is dear to them (Cheng, 2010;Gao, 2003; Ren, 2006;
Liu, 2009).
2.2. Advantages from the process of conducting the action research:
2.2.1. Form of teacher professional development:
Research and reflection allow teachers to grow and gain confidence in their work.
Action research projects influence thinking skills, sense of efficacy, willingness to share and communicate, and attitudes toward the process of change. Through action research, teachers learn about themselves, their students, their colleagues, and can determine ways to continually improve.
2.2.2. Potential to impact school change:
As teachers get into action research, they are more able to look at questions that address school and district concerns rather than questions that affect the individual teacher.This process creates new patterns of collegiality communication, and sharing. Contributions to the body of knowledge about teaching and learning may also result.Development of priorities for school-wide planning and assessment efforts arise from inquiry with potential to motivate change for improvement‘s sake.
40 2.2.3. Reflect on own practice:
Opportunities for teachers to evaluate themselves in schools are often few, and usually happen only in an informal manner. Action research can serve as a chance to really take a look at one‘s own teaching in a structured manner. While the focus of action research is usually the students, educators can also investigate what effect their teaching is having on their students, how they could work better with other teachers, or ways of changing the whole school for the better. Conversations can take on a different focus from attempting to ―fix‖ to arrive at understanding.
2.2.4. Focus on school issue, problem, or area of collective interest:
Research done with the teacher‘s students, in a setting with which the teacher is familiar helps to confer relevance and validity to a disciplined study. Often, academic research is seen as disconnected from the daily lives of educators.While this might not always be true, it can be very helpful for teachers to pick up threads suggested in academic circles, and weave them in to their own classroom. It is also comforting for parents, or education administrators outside of the school, to know that a teacher is not just blindly following what the latest study seems to suggest,but is transforming the knowledge into something meaningful.
2.3. Possible limitations in the action research:
Enhancing learners‘ lexical chunks in speaking helps to relieve the burden on working memory, leaving more space for other cognitive and meta cognitive activities, thus contributing to improved speaking fluency. However, as for higher level speaking abilities, raising awareness of lexical chunks does not necessary bring about desirable results. Another action research will be carried out, centering on how to brush up higher level of speaking abilities.
3. Plan for the next cycle:
From the result of the study, we can see the importance of the lexical chunks approach in the better performance of the experimental class. Lexical chunks
41
approach is helpful for both students and teachers in EFL speaking learning and teaching. The present findings have some implications for both students and teachers. Due to the limited time and the number of the subjects, there exist some defects in this study, and some suggestions can be made based on its limitations.
Firstly, the experimental research is of a small scale. The sample chosen for the experiment is not large enough. This study was conducted in a continuing education centre in Hanoi and there are only 45 participants who only came from the non- English majors in one school, this might make the study a little unreliable.
Therefore, the results can not be causally generalized or employed from one context to another. It is hoped that the future research will be based on more grades and majors, more schools with different English proficiency.
Secondly, due to the time limitation, the experiment only lasted for almost one school year. If it had lasted a much longer period, four or five terms, the experiment results would be more persuasive and convincing. Therefore, future efforts should be made to plan a long study.
Lastly, the research focuses on the English speaking. It is suggested that the future study should focus on the other aspects of English skills-reading, listening and vocabulary,which can be examined more objectively. It calls for teachers and researchers make more efforts and focus more attention on further research to find out an appropriate lexical chunks teaching approach so as to improve the students‘foreign language acquisition. The author is eager to see more and more research on the lexical chunks teaching approach employed to the learning and teaching of English. Thus, more and more researchers on lexical chunks can foresee a greater future and have more far-reaching influence on foreign language acquisition.
I
LESSON PLAN UNIT 13: HOBBIES LESSON B: SPEAKING A. Objectives:
By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
- Know more about some kinds of hobbies.
- Apply lexical chunks to talk about their hobbies.
B. Teaching Method: Communicative approach.
C. Teaching Aids: Textbook, computer, speaker, handouts.
D. Procedure Time
Stage
Teacher‘s activities Student‘s
activities
5mins
Brainstorming
COLLECT
stamps
coins
books - What do people usually collect?
seashells
(group work)
*Lead-in: UNIT 13: HOBBIES – SPEAKING.
Listen+
Writes on their note book
II 8mins
TASK 1 (Pair work)
Say which of the following you like/ not like doing and why.
- swimming - fishing
- collecting stamps - climbing mountains - playing computer games - reading books
- watching TV
- chatting with a friend on the phone
? Which activity would you like to do and why?
? I would like to fish because it is interesting.
- …because it is relaxing/ funny/ useful/ boring/ tiring/
dangerous
- …because it makes me relaxed / stronger / happy / bored / tired
- Write down on their
notebooks.
- talking . - Repeat.
TASK 2 (Pair work): Practise reading the dialogue
Huong: What is your hobby, Lan ? Lan: Well, I like collecting books.
Huong: Could you tell me how you collect your books?
Lan: Well, this must be done regularly. Whenever I find a good book which is interesting I buy it immediately.
Huong: Where do you buy your books?
Lan: I buy from the bookshop near my house and some others from second-hand book stalls. Sometimes my friends,
- Read the dialogue.
- Work in pair.
III 28mins
my mum and dad give me some.
Huong: How do you organize your collection?
Lan: I classify them into categories and put each category in one corner of my bookshelf with a name tag on it .
Huong: What do you plan to do next, Lan?
Lan: I think I‘ll continue to make my collection richer and richer.
Now practise talking to us about your hobby.
New words 1.regularly / „regjulәli / (adv)
2.classify / „klổsifai / (v) 3.category / „kổtәgәri /(n)
Eg. – I classify my books into different categories.
4. second - hand (a) = old Eg. – a second-hand book stall
Hand out: Fill in the dialogue with a partner.
Huong: What is……….,Lan?
Lan: Well, I like ………...
Huong: Could you tell me ………..?
Lan: Well, this must be done regularly. Whenever I find a good
book ………I buy it immediately.
Huong: ………..do you buy your books?
Lan: I buy from the bookshop near my house and some others from ….………. Sometimes my friends, my mum and dad give me some.
Huong: ………organize your collection?
- Go to the answer about collecting stamps.
- Choose the hobbies to talk
IV
Lan: I classify them into categories and put each category in one corner of my bookshelf with………
Huong: ………to do next,Lan?
Lan: I think I‘ll continue to………
How to collect
Where to keep in album buy, exchange, ask sb to give, make pen friends
broaden knowledge, know more about … How to organize
Why
Plan collect more stamps
Classify into categories
Collecting stamps
3. Task 3: Make a similar dialogue
A: What / hobby?
B: I / like / collect stamps.
A: How / collect stamps?
B:I/ buy from post office, ask / members of my family, friends, postmen make pen friends with people overseas / exchange stamps with others.
A: How / organize / stamps?
B:I/classify stamps into categories: animals, plants, birds,landscape
about.
- Work in groups and give
feedback for each other.
- Read the handouts quickly.
V B: album
A: Why / like / collecting stamps?
B: I/ broaden my knowledge: know more about landscape, people, animals
A: What / plan for the future?
B: I/ collect more stamps.
4mins
Quiz
Question 1:
- Bettina Dorfmann has the largest Barbie doll collection.
She is from …………
A. the USA
B. Germany
C. France
Question 2:
- He‟s very famous for his collection of stamps with the map of Vietnam. His name is …………
A. Tran Huu Hue
B. Tran Phu Son
- Read and give the answer quickly.
VI C. Vu Van Ty
Homework:
Talking about your hobby
* SELF EVALUATION
………..………
………..……..………
………
……….……….………
………..……….…...
………
………
………
………
………
………
------
- Go around ask their friends.
- Present their results to the whole class.
VII
REFERENCES
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Boers, F. (2006). Formulaic sequences and perceived oral proficiency: Putting a lexical approach to the test. Language Teaching Research. SAGE Journals.
Cameron, D. (2001). Working with spoken discourse. SAGE Publications.
Coady, J. & Huckin, T. (1997). Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition: A Rationale for Pedagogy. Cambridge University Press.
Conklin, K. & Schmitt, N. (2008). Formulaic Sequences: Are They Processed More Quickly than Nonformulaic Language by Native and Nonnative Speakers?
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Crystal, D. (1997). English as a Global Language. Cambridge University Press.
Crystal, D. (2005). The Stories of English. The Overlook Press, Peter Mayer Publishers, Inc.
Dweik, B.S. & Shakra, MM Abu. (2011). Problems in Translating Collocations in Religious Texts from Arabic into English. Linguistics Journal.
Evert, S. (2004). Identifying Morphosyntactic Preferences in Collocations.
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Foster, C. (2001). Environmental perceptions and walking in English adults.
Journal of Epidemiol Community Health.
Gu, P.Y. (2003). Fine Brush and Freehand: The Vocabulary‐Learning Art of Two Successful Chinese EFL Learners. TESOL Quarterly. Wiley Online Library.
VIII
Halliday, M.A.K. (1966). Some notes on 'deep' grammar. Journal of Linguistics.
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Linse, C. (2005). An analysis of predictable picture books: some beginning insights.
Books and Young Learners of English. Young Learner Special Interest Group Conference.
McCarthy, M. & Carter, R. (2002). Native‐speaker norms and International English: a classroom view. ELT Journal. Oxford University Press.
McCarthy, M. & Carter, R. (2006). Ten criteria for a spoken grammar.
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Meara, P. (1980). Vocabulary acquisition: A neglected aspect of language learning.
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X
APPENDIX A Multiple-choice chunk test (20 minutes)
Direction: There are 20 incomplete sentences in this part. For each sentence there are four
choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the ONE answer that best completes the sentence.
1. We should use cloth bags ________________ of plastic bags.
A. instead B. besides C. apart D. without 2. Students should be eager ________________ in social activities.
A. participate B. to participate C. to participating D. participated 3. It‘s dangerous ________________ in this river.
A. swim B. to swim C. swimming D. swam 4. We are looking forward ________________ you in June.
A. to seeing B. see C. saw D. be seen
5. Try to ________________ the amount of fat in your diet.
A. reuse B. refill C. reduce D. recycle
6. This table is made ________________ wood.
A. in B. on C. of D. from
7. The champagne is made ________________ grapes.
A. in B. on C. of D. from
8. The government ought to do something to prevent people ___________ throwing trash into the river.
A. for B. in C. from D. at
9. Solar energy can be changed ______ electricity.
A. in B. to C. into D. for
10.The amount of solar energy that reaches the earth depends ____ the atmosphere.