VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST–GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** BÙI THỊ KIM CÚC TEACHING VOCABULARY EXPLICITLY TO FIRST- YEAR STUDENTS AT YEN BAI MEDICAL COLLEGE (Dạy từ vựng cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất bằng cách cho nghĩa trực tiếp tại trường Cao đẳng Y tế Yên Bái) M. Minor Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Hanoi, 2012 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST–GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** BÙI THỊ KIM CÚC TEACHING VOCABULARY EXPLICITLY TO FIRST- YEAR STUDENTS AT YEN BAI MEDICAL COLLEGE (Dạy từ vựng cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất bằng cách cho nghĩa trực tiếp tại trường Cao đẳng Y tế Yên Bái) M. Minor Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Vũ Mai Trang, M.A Hanoi, 2012 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABLE OF CONTENTS Page CANDIDATE'S DECLARATION…………………………………………. iii TRANSCRIPT CONVENTION…………………………………………….
iv LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TABLES……………………………. v TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………. vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study…………………………………………………….
Aims and objectives of the study………………………………………. Scope of the study ………………………………………………………… 3 5. Method of the study ………………………………………………………. Design of the study ……………………………………………………….
3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ………………………………… 5 1. An overview of vocabulary …………………………………………….1 Definition of vocabulary………………………………………. The role of vocabulary in language teaching and learning……. Principles in teaching and learning vocabulary …………………….
Selection of vocabulary items for students……………………. Aspects of word knowledge included in vocabulary teaching … 8 iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Current approaches to L2 vocabulary teaching and learning…. Explicit and implicit approaches to vocabulary teaching……… 10 1.
Principles for explicit approach to vocabulary teaching ……………. Challenges in vocabulary teaching …………………………………… 16 1. The current situation of English teaching and learning at YBMC…. Data collection instruments…………………………………………….
Class observation and Lesson analysis ………………………… 21 2. Data collection and data analysis procedures………………………. Data collection procedures……………………………………… 22 2. Data analysis procedures……………………………………….
23 CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS…………………………. Research question 1: Teachers' perceptions of explicit vocabulary teaching at YBMC. Research question 2: Teachers' selection of vocabulary to teach and aspects of word knowledge to be taught…………………………………… 26 3. Research question 3: The explicit vocabulary teaching techniques most frequently used in the classroom and their relevance……………… 29 v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Vocabulary presentation techniques ……………………………….
31 Vocabulary consolidation activities ………………………………… 35 PART C: CONCLUSION 1. Summary of the study ……………………………………………………. Limitations of the study …………………………………………………. Suggestions for further studies …………………………………………….
42 APPENDICES vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TRANSCRIPT CONVENTION T: teacher S: student Ss students Italics translation of original speech in vernacular vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL English as a foreign language L1 First language L2 Second language YBMC Yen Bai Medical College LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Vocabulary designed in the textbook Lifelines - Elementary Table 2.2: Background of participants viii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study We all know that vocabulary plays a prominent role in foreign language learning. It is an element that links the four skills of language like listening, speaking, reading and writing all together. Without vocabulary, it's not easy for learners to express their ideas, emotion, as well as fulfillment of communication targets.
Therefore, one of the greatest concerns of all language teachers is to look for an effective vocabulary teaching approach which is suitable with their own teaching contexts. Vocabulary teaching task is neither easy nor simple as it is thought. Each language teacher is responsible for making their students know word spelling, word meaning and realize how to use it accurately and properly in real situations. In the context of Yen Bai Medical College (YBMC), English is being taught as one of the compulsory subjects along with other vocational ones.
The level of students at YBMC is quite low in general. Some of them have learnt English for several years in secondary schools and some others have not learnt English for a few years. Moreover, there has been little attention paid to vocabulary teaching and learning. At many schools or colleges in general and at YBMC in particular, for most teachers of English, their common way of teaching vocabulary is to give explanations, definitions or translation of the word-list.
Then learners usually learn vocabulary passively through their teachers’ explanation. Writing new words on the notebooks with equivalence in Vietnamese and trying to learn new words by heart are their major ways of vocabulary learning. Consequently, they hardly remember the meaning of the words and use them oral activities. In other words, by the time the new words are presented in the new lesson most of the words taught in the previous lesson will have gone out of their mind.
1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com As a teacher of English for nearly 12 years, I have realized that the reason why learners have failed in using English is their lack of vocabulary. Therefore, it is essential for every teacher in any language classes in Viet Nam educational system to help his/her own students to widen their vocabulary size. Explicit vocabulary teaching is particularly useful for beginning learners who have a limited reading vocabulary and little exposure to incidental vocabulary learning through extensive reading and listening like students at YBMC. This encourages the researcher to conduct a study on explicit vocabulary teaching in an attempt to better vocabulary teaching and learning at YBMC, a newly re-founded college in Yen Bai province.
Aims and Objectives of the study The aim of this study is to investigate the perceptions of explicit vocabulary teaching held by the teachers working at YBMC and how they teach vocabulary explicitly. The objectives of the study are: - To understand teachers' ideas of explicit vocabulary teaching at YBMC - To examine how teachers choose vocabulary items to teach and what aspects of vocabulary they focus on in teaching vocabulary - To find out the explicit vocabulary teaching techniques teachers frequently use - To draw some conclusions on issues related to teaching vocabulary explicitly at this college. Research questions In order to achieve the above-mentioned aims and objectives, the research was carried out to seek answers to the following research questions: 1. What are teachers' perceptions of explicit vocabulary teaching at YBMC? 2.
How do they choose vocabulary items to teach at YBMC and what aspects of word knowledge they focus on in teaching the selected words? 3. What are the explicit vocabulary teaching techniques most frequently used in the classroom and their relevance? 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Scope of the study This minor thesis does not cover all the four language skills; it only focuses on teaching vocabulary explicitly to first-year students at YBMC. It is confined to the investigation of the teachers' ideas of explicit vocabulary teaching, their choice of vocabulary to teach, the aspects of vocabulary addressed as well as the explicit vocabulary teaching techniques used in the context of one mountainous college and the relevance of these techniques in this context.
Then this study will suggest some pedagogical implications to make explicit vocabulary teaching in the researched college more attentive and more effective. Method of the study To achieve its objectives, this study employed qualitative methods of data collection which include interview, classroom observation and lesson analysis. First, interviews with the teachers were conducted to investigate the teachers' ideas of English explicit vocabulary teaching at YBMC as well as the way they teach words explicitly, which includes their choice of vocabulary to teach, the aspects of vocabulary focused on and their explicit vocabulary teaching techniques. Then, classroom observations were conducted to supplement teachers' interviews to test how English vocabulary is taught explicitly and the relevance of explicit vocabulary teaching techniques can be evaluated through lessons analyses.
Design of the study There are three main parts in my thesis as follows: Part A is the Introduction presenting the rationale, aims, objectives, research questions, scope, methods and design of the study. Part B, the Development, includes three chapters: Chapter 1 is the Literature Review. In this chapter, a basic theoretical background for the study is created by reviewing the relevant issues related to English vocabulary, vocabulary teaching and learning focusing on explicit and implicit approaches. 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Chapter 2 entitled Methodology is composed of some smaller parts: a description of the current situation of English teaching and learning at YBMC, the participants, the instruments and the procedures of data collection as well as data analysis employed to reach the aims of the research.
Chapter 3 is the Results and Discussions which presents, analyzes and discusses the findings that the researcher found out from the data collected by means of interviews, class observations and lessons analyses. Part C, the Conclusion gives the summary of the study, states some limitations of the study, draws pedagogical implications of explicit vocabulary teaching and offers suggestions for further studies as well. 4 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter provides a brief review of the literature relevant to the study. It consists of five sub-sections.
Section one clarifies the definition of vocabulary, its role in language teaching and learning. Section two mentions the principles in teaching and learning vocabulary which include the selection of vocabulary items, aspects of vocabulary knowledge, current approaches to L2 vocabulary teaching and learning as well as explicit and implicit approaches. Section three refers to principles for explicit approach to vocabulary teaching. Section four presents challenges in vocabulary teaching and learning.
The last one summarizes the content of this chapter. An overview of vocabulary 1. Definition of vocabulary As among the three dimensions of language: vocabulary, grammar and phonology, vocabulary stands out as the primacy forming the ground for the development of other skills. It has been paid great attention by researchers, linguists, teachers and learners.
However it is really hard to give an exact definition about vocabulary. Hornby (2010) defined vocabulary as follow: 1. All the words that a person knows or uses 2. All the words in a particular language 3.
The words that people use when they are talking about a particular subject 4. A list of words with their meanings especially in a book or learning a foreign language. According to Pyles and Algeo (1993), vocabulary is regarded as the focus of language with its sound and meaning interlock to allow us to communicate with one another. Ur (1996: 60) offered a clear and specific definition of vocabulary by saying that: "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 and also multi-word idioms." By this way, he defines that vocabulary is bigger 5 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com than just the meaning of words. It covers a huge aspect of language and it is the medium to express ideas or opinions. In summary, among all various ways to define the concept "vocabulary", the idea given by Ur (1996) that vocabulary is all the words existing in a language, including single words to express ideas as well as multi-word idioms understood in sentences or contexts is the most favorable. The role of vocabulary in language teaching and learning As said above, vocabulary, like grammar and phonetics, plays an important role in mastering a foreign language.
In order to emphasize the special importance of vocabulary in teaching and learning a language, Folse (2004: 3) asserted that: "Lack of grammar knowledge can limit conversation; lack of vocabulary knowledge can stop conversation." In fact, learners can express themselves with poor grammar. However, with poor vocabulary, communication is constrained considerably. In other words, you can get by without grammar but you cannot get by without vocabulary. Shafaei and Nejati (2009: 32) also stated that “vocabulary is one of the most important objectives in teaching foreign languages.