VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ LIÊN USING MIND-MAPPING TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE VOCABULARY RETENTION OF FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT MILITARY TECHNICAL ACADEMY (SỬ DỤNG BẢN ĐỒ TƯ DUY ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN KHẢ NĂNG GHI NHỚ TỪ VỰNG CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI HỌC VIỆN KỸ THUẬT QUÂN SỰ) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi, 2016 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ LIÊN USING MIND-MAPPING TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE VOCABULARY RETENTION OF FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT MILITARY TECHNICAL ACADEMY (SỬ DỤNG BẢN ĐỒ TƯ DUY ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN KHẢ NĂNG GHI NHỚ TỪ VỰNG CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI HỌC VIỆN KỸ THUẬT QUÂN SỰ) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc. Nguyễn Văn Độ Hanoi, 2016 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Declaration I certify that I myself write this thesis entitled “Using mind-mapping technique to improve vocabulary retention of first-year students: An action research project at Military Technical Academy.” It is not a plagiarism or made by others. Anything related to others’ works is written in quotation, the sources of which are listed on the list of references. If then the pronouncement proves wrong, I am ready to accept any academic punishment, including the withdrawal or cancellation of my academic degree.
Signature i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Dr Nguyễn Văn Độ whose reference materials, support, stimulating suggestions and encouragement helped me in all stages of this research for and writing of this thesis. Without his critical comments and valuable suggestions, this research could not have been completed. I take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to all my teachers in Faculty of Post-Graduate studies, University of Languages and International Studies, National University, Hanoi for their lectures which enable me to gain a lot of theoretical and practical knowledge.
Furthermore, I want to thank my colleagues and students at Military Technical Academy who helped me carry out the investigation of the study. Finally, I am really grateful to my family and my husband for their encouragement and support to my process of writing of the thesis. ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Abstract Vocabulary is one of the most significant parts of English, and its learning in an efficient way gets the most attention by language learners. In Vietnam, one of the most difficulties many students face is to learn, memorize and recall word meanings.
So, it should be taught in a way that learners will be capable of recalling them easily. The purpose of this study was to bring mind-mapping technique to improve vocabulary retention of Vietnamese learners. This study was based on action research, in which 32 students in the K51 Information class at Military Technical Academy were investigated. Based on the purposes of the study, a pre-test and a post-test were used to investigate the effectiveness of mind-mapping on the student’s vocabulary retention.
Also, a survey questionnaire was designed to get the students’ attitudes about this technique in vocabulary learning and memorizing. After the data were elaborately calculated and analyzed, it indicated that students were successful in improving vocabulary retention with the implementation of the treatment and they seemed to highly value this teaching technique. iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Declaration. iii Table of contents.
iv Lists of abbreviations. vii List of tables and figures. viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study.
Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Significance of the study. Method of the study.
Design of the study.3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2. Vocabulary and its importance. The role of vocabulary in second language learning. Memorizing word meanings.
Types of memory. Strategies of teaching and learning vocabulary. Steps to create a mind map. The significance of mind-mapping in language classroom .12 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
Review of related studies worldwide. Review of related studies in Vietnam. Gaps in previous research on mind-mapping. The context of the study.
Action research definition. Action research procedure. Data collection instrument. Pre-test and post-test.
Data collection procedure .22 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4. Quantitative description of results from the pre-test and post-test. The distribution of the test results. Quantitative description of results from the questionnaire.
Students’ attitudes towards mind mapping technique. The students’ self-evaluation on the effectiveness of the MM technique .28 v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Reliability analysis and correlations .32 CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 5. Limitations of the study.
I vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS MM: Mind-mapping MMs: Mind maps MTA: Military Technical Academy NEFE: New English File Elementary L1: First language L2: Second language vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Page Figure 1: Action research cycle 18 Table 1: Procedure of the research 21 Table 2: Score interval of the tests 24 Figure 2: Comparison between pre-test and post-test score 25 Table 3 : The descriptive statistics of the two tests scores 26 Table 4: Students’ attitudes towards MM technique 27 Table 5: The students’ self-evaluation on the effectiveness of MM 28 technique Table 6 : Reliability Statistics 30 Table 7: Item-Total Statistics 31 Table 8: Correlations 32 viii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study Vocabulary is the basic factor necessary for mastering a language. This is because vocabulary is integral to every language skill, including reading, writing, listening and speaking skill. Individuals cannot easily make conversations or convey their thoughts in both oral and written forms without having a certain level of vocabulary knowledge.
David Wilkins (1972) emphasized the importance of vocabulary as “Without grammar, little can be conveyed; without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed”. Therefore, the lack of vocabulary leads to many serious difficulties in foreign language teaching and learning, notably in Vietnam. Unfortunately, Vietnamese students in general and MTA students in particular find it hard to acquire vocabulary. Many reasons for this problem are pointed out such as school facilities, teaching aids, etc.
Out of these reasons, the traditional method of teaching deserves to be blamed on most. Most of the lesson is spent on grammar, not vocabulary. When introducing new vocabulary, the teacher just explains the meanings with Vietnamese equivalents and asks the students to take notes. The students are explained the meaning, definition, pronunciation, spelling and grammatical functions of new words.
Therefore, the students cannot recall an unfamiliar word and do not have the habits of recording their vocabulary in the same place. This outdated translation technique is not effective at all. Since teaching method plays an important role in learners’ success in learning English, it should be more updated so that every student feels more interested in vocabulary lessons. Teachers should teach in a way that learners will be capable 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com of recalling them easily.
In fact, there are many vocabulary learning techniques such as matching, role play, semantic-mapping, dictionary use, learning vocabulary through the context, and many others. The desire to help students to memorize, recall vocabulary more effectively motivated me to conduct the study titled “Using mind-mapping technique to improve vocabulary retention of first- year students: An action research project at Military Technical Academy”. Hopefully, this study may contribute to bettering the vocabulary teaching and learning. Aims of the study The first aim of the study is to investigate whether using MM to teach vocabulary can help students at MTA to improve their vocabulary retention or not.
Secondly, the study also evaluates the students’ attitudes towards using MM as a tool to improve their vocabulary retention. Research question Based on the above-mentioned aims, the following questions are formulated: 1. Does teaching vocabulary using MM help students at MTA to improve their vocabulary retention? 2. What are the students’ attitudes towards using MM to improve their vocabulary retention? 1.
Scope of the study Because of the limitation of time and resources, the researcher only focuses on the use of MM as one technique to improve students’ poor vocabulary retention. The study was conducted on the K51 Information class of 32 first-year students at MTA. Due to the fixed curriculum and limited time, the study was 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com carried out during the second term of school year 2015-2016. Significance of the study Essentially, the practical consideration of the research is the significance of the expected research.
Hence, the results of this study are expected to be useful to students, teachers and researchers in the field of English language teaching and learning. The research is expected to explore and prove the effectiveness of MM in teaching so that the teachers will conduct the teaching and learning activities more effectively. Students can use MM as a technique to improve vocabulary retention. The future researchers are expected to develop some dimensions which have not been developed in this research such as using different student population, different students’ condition, etc.
Method of the study The study was based on action research. The subject of the research was the English non-major first-year students of MTA. Because the researcher wanted to investigate whether using MM technique to teach vocabulary can improve the students’ vocabulary retention or not, a pre-test and post- test were carried out. The purpose of pre-test was to know the students’ knowledge before treatment.
After treatment, the researcher conducted a post-test to know the effectiveness of treatment after the course of using MM. Also, a survey questionnaire was designed and administered to students at the end of treatment so that they could express their ideas about treatment. Design of the study This study is divided as followed: Chapter 1: Introduction - provides the rationale, the aim, the research question, the scope, the significance and the organization of the study. 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Chapter 2: Literature review–presents the concepts relevant to the topic of the thesis: vocabulary and its importance, memorizing word meanings, some basic knowledge about MM, the previous studies related to the fields and some gaps for present study.
Chapter 3: Methodology - presents the context of the research including the research settings, teaching materials, research participants. This chapter also provides information about the action research in general and the instruments, the data collection procedures and data analysis of this study. Chapter 4: Findings and discussion - focuses on the results of the tests and the results from the questionnaire. This chapter also includes the analyses and discussions of the results.
Chapter 5: Conclusion - points out some limitations, recommendations and suggestions for further study. 4 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2. Vocabulary and its importance 2. Vocabulary definition English consists of four main skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing.
Along with these skills are other sub-skills, namely vocabulary, grammar, collocation, etc. Among these sub-skills, vocabulary plays a crucial part in the language learning process. Having a wide range of vocabulary is strongly related to the degree of language proficiency. Hence, it is necessary to make clarify this term in this study at first.
So far there have been a lot of definitions of vocabulary. Specially, Ur (1996) characterized vocabulary as the words we teach in the foreign language. She also stated that a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: a compound of two or three words or multi -word idioms.