VIETNAMNATIONALUNIVERSITY – HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ A STUDY ON THE EFECTIVENESS OF USING TASK-BASED APPROACH IN TEACHING VOCABULARY IN ESP TO THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT CONSTRUCTION SCHOOL N04 (NGHIÊN CỨU TÍNH TÍCH CỰC CỦA VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƢƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC DỰA TRÊN NHIỆM VỤ VÀO VIỆC DẠY TỪ VỰNG CHUYÊN NGÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI TRƢỜNG TRUNG CẤP XÂY DỰNG SỐ 4) M.A MINOR THESIS Field : English Language Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 HANOI, 2013 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAMNATIONALUNIVERSITY – HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES DEPARTMENT OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ HÀ A STUDY ON THE EFECTIVENESS OF USING TASK-BASED APPROACH IN TEACHING VOCABULARY IN ESP TO THE SECOND YEAR STUDENTS AT CONSTRUCTION SCHOOL N04 (NGHIÊN CỨU TÍNH TÍCH CỰC CỦA VIỆC SỬ DỤNG PHƢƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC DỰA TRÊN NHIỆM VỤ VÀO VIỆC DẠY TỪ VỰNG CHUYÊN NGÀNH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ HAI TRƢỜNG TRUNG CẤP XÂY DỰNG SỐ 4) M.A MINOR THESIS Field : English Language Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111 Supervisor : Dr. Phạm Thị Thanh Thủy HANOI, 2013 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION This paper is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Department of Post Graduate studies – University of Languages and International Studies-Vietnam National University. I certify that this thesis is the result of my own research, and it has not been submitted for any other degrees. Hanoi, November 2013 Student‟s signature Nguyễn Thị Hà i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to all the people who have helped me with this research study.
My thanks to: My supervisor - Dr. Pham Thi Thanh Thuy, whose expert help and guidance has been invaluable to me throughout the writing of this thesis. The teachers of the Postgraduate Department - College of Foreign Languages - Vietnam National University for the knowledge they have provided. The three teachers of English and 50- second-year students at Construction School N04 for their assistance and participation in my experimental research.
Lastly, my thanks go to my family members, friends and other colleagues at Construction School N04 for their love and support to me, which are very significant for me to finish this research study. ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT This thesis is devoted to examining the comparative effectiveness of task-based approach in teaching ESP vocabulary to second year non-major students at Construction School N04. In order to achieve this objective, a theoretical and practical research is carried out. In the Theoretical Background, the background of vocabulary and relevance to teaching vocabulary is summarized.
An overview on task-based approach that has been employing in foreign language teaching, especially in teaching ESP vocabulary is also introduced in this part. After that, a brief background setting to the quasi-experiment relating to teaching and learning ESP vocabulary at Construction School N04 is highlighted. Subsequently, the quasi-experimental study is given to evaluate the effectiveness of task-based approach. And the results we will get based on data analysis are in the third chapter.
Finally, some recommendations for ESP vocabulary teaching/learning effectively are suggested. iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ESP: English for Specific Purpose EGP: English for General English CG: Control group EG: Experimental group iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 1: The results of the post-tests of EGP part Table 2: The results of the post-tests of ESP part Table 3: The results of vocabulary-checking tests v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF CHARTS Chart 1: Below-average Chart 2: Average Chart 3: Good Chart 4: Excellent Chart 5: Below-average Chart 6: Average Chart 7: Good Chart 8: Excellent vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. iv LIST OF TABLES.
v LIST OF CHARTS. vi PART I: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………. Aims of the study…………………………………………………………. Significance of the study………………………………………………….
Scope of the study………………………………………………………. Methods of the study……………………………………………………. Design of the study………………………………………………………. 4 PART II: DEVELOPMENT…………………………………………………….
5 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND………………………. An overview of vocabulary……………………………………………. The importance of vocabulary………………………………. English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and vocabulary in ESP………….
English for Specific Purposes (ESP)…………………………. Vocabulary in ESP. Purposes for teaching vocabulary……………………………. Principles of teaching vocabulary…………………………….
Stages in teaching vocabulary…………………………………. Techniques in teaching vocabulary……………………………. Teaching vocabulary in ESP…………………………………. Task-based language teaching………………………………………….
Task-based language teaching………………………………. 13 vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Task-based language teaching in ESP context………………. 17 CHAPTER 2: THE QUASI-EXPERIMENT…………………………….
Background to the study………………………………………………. The attitudes of teachers and students at Construction School N04 about the importance of ESP vocablary teaching. The real situation of teaching vocabulary in ESP at Construction School N04. The quasi-experiment………………………………………………….
Subjects and process of vocabulary teaching…………………. Main testing instruments: Pre-test and post-tests……………. Supplementary testing instruments……………………………. 22 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS, RESUTLS AND DISCUSSIONS….
Class observation result………………………………………………. Teacher‟s self-assessment result………………………………………. The post-tests result……………………………………………………. Vocabulary-checking test result……………………………………….
29 PART III: CONCLUSION. I viii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Teaching vocabulary especially in ESP courses is becoming a challenge for English Language Teachers. As far as we know, vocabulary is an inseparable part of any teaching syllabus and vocabulary should be taught in a well-planned and regular basis.
It‟s essential to carefully decide what vocabulary will be selected for teaching, and what approach or activities will be used to teach it to the students. Although English teachers in Vietnam are now being trained in using modern methods of English teaching and attend local and international conferences, it is the fact that most teachers at Construction School N04 still use grammar-translation method to teach vocabulary. That is, when the students begin a lesson, the teacher will first have the students say the new words once, and then pay attention to the meaning of the words in their native language. Following this, the students will go through the conversation or reading passage while their teacher points out in the students‟ native language the meaning of the passage as well as grammatical patterns that the students must know.
This type of teaching method is called the grammar-translation method which is not an effective and suitable method in teaching vocabulary nowadays. Meanwhile, task-based approach which has been strongly advocated and promoted by many world-leading linguists (Prabhu 1987, Nunan 1989, Willis 1996, Skehan 1998) since early 1980s is commonly used in language instruction to provide a meaningful learning process for learners. It‟s closed affiliation with Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) method provides a production focus in a more structural framework in language learning process. Using task-based approach, each student can get the same opportunity to experience the learning process by putting him/her in a situation in which she/he can decide alone; mainly, the way of expressing and accepting experience of using the target language.
Hence, in this study the researcher wants to explore whether task-based approach is effective or not in teaching vocabulary in ESP to the second year students at Construction School N04. Aims of the study As such, the study is aimed to: firstly, explore the attitudes of teachers and students at Construction School N04 about the importance of ESP vocabulary teaching; secondly, study the real situation of teaching vocabulary in ESP and thirdly, test 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com whether task-based approach is effective or not in teaching vocabulary in ESP at Construction School N04 and finally give some suggestions for teaching vocabulary in ESP. Significance of the study Because of the importance of vocabulary in ESP, it is necessary to find out effective ways to teach vocabulary to the students. While modern methods has been supported and promoted, a lot of teachers still use tradition ways, which make the lessons boring.
The study, thus, tries to test the effectiveness of task-based approach in teaching vocabulary in ESP and suggest some recommendations for teaching vocabulary in ESP more effectively. With this study, the writer hopes to make a small contribution to teaching/learning vocabulary in ESP effectively, which may help the students retain vocabulary and the teachers find the most appropriate way in teaching ESP. Scope of the study Due to the limit of a minor thesis, the study just lasted 11- week exploration basing on the three units (Unit 1, 2 and 3) of the textbook English for construction – an in-house material used to teach at Construction School N04. The participants in this study are 50 students aging from 18-25 not randomly selected from K40-TXD1 and K40-TXD2 at Construction School N04 in Xuan Hoa town, Phuc Yen district, Vinh Phuc province.
To ensure the relative equality of English knowledge level between two classes, the researcher asked one teacher of English who has taken part in teaching these two classes at school for help to choose students in each class with the following criteria: - 12 students getting good mark in the two latest semesters (from 7.0 mark) in English for General Purposes (EGP) - 13 students getting average mark in the two latest semesters (from 5.9 mark) in EGP These two classes were assigned randomly to two groups, namely a control group (CG) and an experimental group (EG). Another teacher of English also took part in the study with the role of preparing the lesson plan and teaching two groups - experimental and control ones. The researcher herself could not teach the students, because she has to work as an observer in the study. 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.
Research Questions For this study, four research questions are addressed: 1. What are attitudes of teachers and students at Construction School N04 about the importance of ESP vocabulary teaching? 2. What is the real situation of teaching vocabulary in ESP at Construction School N04? 3. How is task-based approach used in teaching vocabulary in ESP at Construction School N04? 4.
What are some suggestions in teaching vocabulary in ESP for students of Construction School N0 4? 6. Methods of the study First of all, the Theoretical Background relating to the research was conducted by collecting materials, internet sources. In the Development, the researcher took a brief look at the reality of teaching vocabulary in ESP at Construction School N04 including the descriptions of the teachers, students, textbook and method of teaching vocabulary as the background setting to the study. With an attempt to find out the effectiveness of task-based approach in teaching vocabulary in ESP to second year students at Construction School N04, a quasi- experiment was carried out.
50 students from K40-TXD1 and K40-TXD2 were not randomly selected. One class was randomly assigned as the experiment group and the other as the control group. Another teacher of English took part in the study with the role of preparing lesson plan and teaching both groups. The quasi-experiment lasted 11 weeks with three first units of the textbook - English for construction.
The pre-test was administered to the students of both classes at the beginning of the experiment in order to check students‟ vocabulary knowledge. After finishing one unit, a post-test, whose content was based on the knowledge of that unit was delivered to students of both classes. However, the content of the last post-test included the knowledge of all three units. Apart from the post-tests, class observation, teacher‟s self-assessment and vocabulary-checking tests were used as supplementary testing instruments to confirm the post-test results.
The data obtained were thoroughly analyzed by statistical descriptions. By these ways, we can test whether task-based approach was really effective in teaching vocabulary in ESP. 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Design of the study The research includes three parts.
The first part is Introduction, in which the rationale, aims, scope, methods, research questions and design are identified. The second one is Development which consists of three chapters.