BANKING ACADEMY OF VIETNAM FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES GRADUATION THESIS SOLUTION TO LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY OF NON- ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT BANKING ACADEMY Full name : LE THI DUYEN Class : K20ATCC Course : 2017 - 2021 Student ID : 20A7510039 Supervisor : DR. CAN THUY LIEN HANOI – May 2021 17014128952601000000 DECLARATION The graduation thesis “Solution to learning English vocabulary of non-English major students at Banking Academy” is the presentation of my research work. Wherever contributions are made by others, every effort is made to point this out explicitly, with due reference to the literature, and to document studies. The work was carried out under the guidance of Dr.
Can Thuy Lien, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Vietnam Banking Academy. Author of graduation thesis (Signature and Full name) Le Thi Duyen i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to teacher Dr. Can Thuy Lien, Faculty of Foreign Languages, Vietnam Banking Academy for guiding, criticizing and constantly encouraging me during my completion into research. I would like to sincerely thank all K20 Faculty of Law for their enthusiastic cooperation and valuable comments to complete the survey.
I would also like to thank all the teachers at Banking Academy, especially the teachers of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, who gave valuable lectures during my time studying here. Without them, my graduation thesis would not have been completed. I would also like to thank my parents and family for always believing in us, loving and supporting me throughout my life. Without them, it would be difficult for me to complete this thesis.
Finally, a huge thank you to those who read and commented on my research paper. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. i LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .2 Background of the study .3 Objectives of the study .4 Significance of the Study .5 Scope limitation of the study.6 Definition of terms .5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .2 Theoretical and Conceptual framework .1 The locale of the study .3 Data gathering procedure .4 Population, Sample and Sampling technique .7 Reliability and validity .18 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
Introduction of the English curriculum at the Banking Academy. The results on the status quo .1 The status of students' study time .2 The reality of student learning methods .3 Vocabulary learning methods used by students .3 Introducing method of learning vocabulary with Flashcard .1 A general introduction to flashcards .2 Classification of flashcard .3 How to use flashcards effectively. Advantages of flashcards .4 The experimental method .1 Experimental test results .2 Students’ perceptions of flashcards.47 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION. Summary of finding .1 For Banking Academy .58 APPENDIX 1: Survey about vocabulary learning solutions for non-English students at Banking Academy.61 APPENDIX 2: Pre- Experimental test: .66 APPENDIX 3: Experimental test:.
iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS BA Banking Academy ESL English Second Language v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.1: Vocabulary affects students’ B1 test results 21 Figure 4.2: Students’ vocabulary learning time 22 Figure 4.3: The number of new words learned in each student's English study 23 Figure 4.4: The percentage of students who remember words after a week 24 Figure 4.5: Students experimental test results 44 Figure 4.6: Students opinions on flashcards’ excitement 47 Figure 4.7: Students opinions on flashcards’ effectiveness 48 Figure 4.8: Students opinions on flashcards’ ability to encourage a responsible learning attitude 49 Figure 4.9: Students opinions on flashcards’ presence at the academy 49 LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: Percentage of students using vocabulary learning methods 25 Table 4. Responses for the “Look up the dictionary” method 28 Table 4. Responses for the method “Ignore the word and continue to read 29 Table 4. Responses for the method “Stop reading” 30 Table 4.
Responses for the method “Ask friends and teachers” 30 Table 4. Responses for the method “Guess the meanings of the words based on the context” 31 Table 4. Responses for the method “Make use of prefixes and suffixes to guess the meaning” 32 Table 4.8: Average score of experimental test 45 Table 4.9: Statistics of the experiment 46 vi ABSTRACT The title of the thesis: Solution to learning English vocabulary of non-English major students at Banking Academy Author: Le Thi Duyen, student of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Banking Academy of Vietnam. Can Thuy Lien, the Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Banking Academy of Vietnam.
Key words: Solution, vocabulary, English, learning method Abstract: This study was conducted to find out the reality of vocabulary learning of non-English majors at Banking Academy and offer effective vocabulary learning solutions. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were used in the research and data were collected through a survey method of 135 final year law students. Data analysis shows that students learn vocabulary through different techniques and spend different amount of time and effort studying English. Additionally, students have heard of flashcards before and perceive the positive side of them.
Recommendations for non-English majors were made by the researcher. Hopefully, students can apply the method that is highly effective in learning English in general and vocabulary in particular. vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction English is considered an important tool for communication in the 21st century when the world becomes globalized in business and communication, finance, entertainment, maritime, aviation,.It also is the language that plays an important role in the foreign policy of the government, science, medicine, and other professions. Currently, English is the official language of more than 53 countries and territories, the second language of nearly 100 countries, and the common language of more than 400 million people around the world.
It is also important to have knowledge of the English language to enhance education through improved communication. It encourages people in different countries to chat and do business with each other. One of the greatest advantages of a country in the global labor market is the proficiency of the English language by its skilled workers. In the field of education, fluency in the English language also improves student learning outcomes.
English language acquisition has been identified as a prerequisite in a globalized economy, countries with large numbers of populations able to communicate in English often gain an economic advantage. In Asian countries, this trend has been carried out by governments and individuals and thus spurred widespread interest in English language learning in the past 10 years. Vietnam is not an exception to this trend as Vietnam is not one of the countries that do not use English as a native language. In a 2011 study by EF Education First Ltd., Vietnam was shown to have an English proficiency Index (EF EPI) of 44.
This index is an index that compares English proficiency with non-English speaking countries from 2,368,730 candidates across 42 countries and two territories, compiled from 2007 to 2009. In the following year, Vietnam Nam showed an English proficiency index of 52.14, which has improved compared to the previous year. Vietnam issued Decision 1400 of the Government in 2008 with the goal of radically improving the tasks of teaching and learning foreign languages in the national education system and through the national foreign language project of the Ministry 1 of Education and Training aims to embark on an ambitious education reform where all levels of education will be required to reach a minimum level of English by 2020. Under this program, Vietnam does not only want students to be able to effectively use foregin languages to communicate and work (especially English), but also requires college, high school and elementary teachers to reach a certain level of English, which in this case, is C2, C1 and B2 respectively.
According to Dr. Diana, a senior member of the Ministry of Education's foreign language improvement project, students who have studied English for 7 years starting from grade 6 are often unable to use English outside of the classroom. Simple greetings and questions like "hello", "goodbye" and "What's your name?". This problem becomes more serious when they enter university, as freshmen, they clearly have difficulty dealing with more difficult tasks when learning not only English but also other subjects such as science and mathematics in which English is the medium of instruction.
In particular, vocabulary knowledge is often considered an important tool for second language learners because limited vocabulary in the second language hinders successful communication. Emphasizing the importance of vocabulary acquisition, Schmitt (2000) emphasizes that vocabulary knowledge is at the heart of communicative competence and for acquiring a second language. Nation (2001) further describes the relationship between lexical knowledge and language usage as complementary: lexical knowledge allows the use of language and vice versa, the use of language leads to increased vocabulary knowledge. The importance of vocabulary is shown every day in and out of school.
Researchers such as Laufer and Nation (1999), Maximo (2000), Read (2000), Gu (2003), Marion (2008) and Nation (2011), and others have found that vocabulary acquisition is necessary for successful use of the second language and plays a key role in the formation of complete spoken and written texts. In English as a second language and English as foreign language linguistics (EFL) plays an important role in all language skills (e. listening, speaking, reading, and writing Nation, 2011). Furthermore, it is argued that having adequate vocabulary is essential for the successful use of a second language.
Because, if the learner does not have a broad vocabulary, we will 2 not be able to use their structures and functions. In particular, the problem of lack of vocabulary is considered to be the biggest obstacle for learners (Huckin, 1995). Therefore, we decided to choose the topic "Solution to learn English vocabulary of non-English major students at Banking Academy" as the research topic. The topic will find out the current situation of students' vocabulary learning, then we will analyze it to propose a method of proposing students to overcome the barriers to learning vocabulary.2 Background of the study Learning and improving English proficiency is essential for students because this subject is included in all study programs and is a compulsory condition for students at colleges and universities.
B1 is applied at Banking Academy and students must study and pass all B1 modules required for their level of study, or they must provide an equivalent certificate of English proficiency to respond and meet the output English standards. However, with the current situation of teaching and learning English at the school, many non-English students who studied the B1program, cannot perform 4 basic skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing. In fact, in the B1 test in May 2019, the number of students who did not pass and need to repeat English is very high: 481 students registered for the exam, 201 students passed the exam, accounting for 41%, 280 students did not pass the exam, accounting for 59%. Although the majority of students have completed the 7-year English program in high school and compulsory English courses at the university.
Lack of vocabulary is said to be one of the reasons students do not pass the test. Stemming from that situation, this topic wants to delve deeply into the current situation of students of the Faculty of Law and propose effective vocabulary learning methods for students.3 Objectives of the study Recognizing the importance of vocabulary in learning English from non-English majors, the topic aims to find vocabulary learning methods to improve the results of learning English in general and learning vocabulary in particular. 3 The study aims to address four main objectives. The first objective is to introduce the standard English curriculum for the B1 level that the Banking Academy offers.
Next, the topic is designed to assess the current vocabulary learning situation of non-English students through the questionnaire and B1 test results.