VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS A SURVEY OF BELIEFS AND VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THIRD- YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE KHẢO SÁT VỀ NIỀM TIN VÀ CHIẾN LƯỢC HỌC TỪ VỰNG CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM BA NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TẠI HỌC VIỆN NÔNG NGHIỆP VIỆT NAM Student : BUI THI THANH HUYEN Student code : 621266 Major : ENGLISH Supervisor : NGUYEN THI HOAI, M.A Hanoi – 2021 VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES BA THESIS A SURVEY OF BELIEFS AND VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES ADOPTED BY THIRD- YEAR ENGLISH MAJORS AT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE KHẢO SÁT VỀ NIỀM TIN VÀ CHIẾN LƯỢC HỌC TỪ VỰNG CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM BA NGÀNH NGÔN NGỮ ANH TẠI HỌC VIỆN NÔNG NGHIỆP VIỆT NAM Student : BUI THI THANH HUYEN Student code : 621266 Major : ENGLISH Supervisor : NGUYEN THI HOAI, M.A Hanoi – 2021 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study Project report entitled ― A survey of beliefs and vocabulary learning strategies adadopted by third-year English majors at Vietnam national university of Agriculture‖ submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor in English Language. Except where the reference is indicated, no other person‘swork has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis. Hanoi, 2021 BÙI THỊ THANH HUYỀN Approved by SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name) Date:…………………… i TABLE OF CONTENTS CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i TABLE OF CONTENTS ii ABSTRACT iv LIST OF ABRRIVIATION vi LIST OF TABLES vii PART 1 .RATIONALE OF THE STUDY 1 2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 4 3.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY 4 5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 4 6.DESIGN OF THE STUDY 5 PART 2: DEVELOPMENT 6 Chapter 1. HOW VOCABULARY SHOULD BE LEARNED 6 1. DEFINITION AND CLASSIFICATION OF VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES 7 1.
STUDIES ON BELIEFS AND VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES 9 1.SUMMARY 14 Chapter 2: RESEARCH METHODS 15 2. CONTEXT OF THE STUDY 15 2.1 Data collection instrument 15 2.2 Data collection procedures 17 ii 2. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 18 3.1 RESEARCH QUESTION 1: WHAT ARE THE LEARNERS‘ BELIEFS ABOUT VOCABULARY LEARNING 18 3.2 RESEARCH QUESTION 2: WHAT ARE THE MOST AND LEAST COMMON STRATEGIES FOR LEARNING VOCABULARY UTILIZED BY ENGLISH MAJORS AT VNUA 20 3. Limitation of the study 32 4.
Recommendations/Suggestions for further study 32 REFERENCE 33 APPENDIX 37 iii ABSTRACT This study explored ―Vocabulary Learning Beliefs and Vocabulary Learning Strategies‖ of third-year English majors students at Vietnam national university of Agriculture. The purpose of the research is to find out (1) students' beliefs about vocabulary learning; (2) the least and most strategies adopted by learners. The questionnaire was adopted from Hadi and Guo (2020), see Appendix, including four components: beliefs about vocabulary learning, metacognitive regulation of vocabulary learning, cognitive strategies of vocabulary learning, and affective strategies of vocabulary learning — designed for 105 third-year students at VNUA. Data was analyzed using excel.
The results of the study show that learners: (1) prefer to learn words through memory rather than learning by using; (2) have the ability to select, understand, apply what they need to learn; (3) mostly relied on inferencing, using dictionary, rehearsal, note-taking in vocabulary learning and (4) have the ability to manage and control their emotions, positive and negative emotions in learning vocabulary. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENT First of all,I would like to acknowledge my deep gratitude to my supervisor,Mrs Nguyen Thi Hoai, MA for her valuable guidance,helpful suggestions and eritical comments throughout research , without which my research could not been completed。 I would like to send my sincere thanks to the lecturers in the Faculty of Education and Foreign Languages at VNUA for their useful advice on this study。 Finally,I wish to send my sincere thanks to all third -year English major students at VNUA for their participation and assistance,without which this study could not have been successful. v LIST OF ABRRIVIATION VNUA : Vietnam National University of Agriculture L2 : Second Language VLS :Vocabulary learning strategies ELLS : English Language Learners EFL : English Foreign Language vi LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Participants of the study .2 Description of the categories of VLS.1: Beliefs about vocabulary learning .2: Vocabulary learning strategies: Metacognitive strategies .3: Vocabulary learning strategies: Inferencing, Using Dictionaries, Rehearsal, Note-taking, Encoding, Activation.4: : Vocabulary learning strategies: Affective Strategies .RATIONALE OF THE STUDY Nowadays, English has been included in the compulsory curriculum of students from a very early age. The lack of vocabulary, even a lot of vocabulary, can be one of the reasons why students do not improve their English.
To help learn vocabulary effectively, the application of vocabulary learning strategies greatly contributes to English learning for students. ―L2 learning of vocabulary is not just learning a word once and for all, but learning the range of information that goes with it. Also, to learn vocabulary, especially in English, we should learn the definitions attached to it, not only help them understand that vocabulary, but we also apply it in practice, put into the wallets. For example, moreover, we will learn new words through attached definitions as well as synonyms of those new words.
When it comes to learning a foreign language like English, many students spend hours working with textbooks, doing grammar exercises and maybe even watching entertainment in their target language. However, many people do not realize that learning vocabulary is just as important, if not more important when it comes to success in language learning. Vocabulary knowledge is perhaps the most important factor when it comes to reading comprehension, for both native and non-native speakers. For example, if you sit down to read a book and you don't know which vocabulary is used, you will have difficulty understanding the meaning of the text.
As Paul Nation (2015) noted in his paper on vocabulary learning: ―Vocabulary is not an end in itself. A rich vocabulary makes the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing easier to perform. ‖ Truthly, when you have a broader vocabulary in your target language, you will benefit from developing the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. 1 We see similar evidence when it comes to language students' listening skills.
Obviously, if you have never seen or heard a specific vocabulary in the second language, it will be difficult to recognize and decode sounds and thus draw meaning. If you are a language learner, you may be able to understand a word through context or by relating it to other words in the same word family or by its pronunciation. ― Is vocabulary important in language learning?,Text Inspector,2020‘‘ Rie Koizumi affirms ". of the five factors (i.
pronunciation, comprehension, fluency, grammar and vocabulary), vocabulary is the only one that affects the proficiency difference between beginner and intermediate learners. For intermediate learners and above, all five factors affect proficiency differences, but vocabulary often appears as the distinguishing factor. " Vocabulary learning strategies are one part of language learning strategies which in turn are part of general learning strategies (Nation, 2001).In the world, there are a lot of research on effective vocabulary learning strategies such as using context, encoding, using dictionary, note-taking and they motivate students to help them memorize or other strategies relate about cognitive and understanding abilities. Learners can choose from different vocabulary learning strategies that are suitable for them.
Instead of learning a bunch of vocabulary, learners can get creative using the Mind Map (mind map). Mind Map is a map with lines, shapes, words and pictures, which are presented logically, very convenient for acquiring and memorizing vocabulary. At Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA), vocabulary learning strategies of students in general and students at English majors in particular is still quite limited and seems to be ineffective. Specifically, there are big differences between students; Levels are not equal and different from vocabulary learning strategies.
In the learning process, students are afraid of 2 learning new words and basically cannot keep up with the vocabulary of the program, which will cause many difficulties. Before , many researchers have studied how students and English learners learn vocabulary, how they use strategies to learn vocabulary, as well as their beliefs about learning vocabulary. Talking about the belief, Borg (2001: 186) shows the relationship between belief and behavior; conscious versus unconscious beliefs; beliefs as value commitments) and summarized these as: ―A belief is a proposition which may be consciously or unconsciously held, is evaluative in that it is accepted as true by the individual, and is therefore imbued with emotive commitment; further, it serves as a guide to thought and behaviour.‘‘ And Asbjornson |1999:1| also explains Gaies‘ (1998) proposition as follows: ―First, beliefs are subjective, therefore, they do not necessarily reflect external reality. Beliefs reflect ―truths‖ held by individuals and, therefore, are potentially facilitative for language learning (e., everyone can learn a language) or debilitative (e., boys are not good language learners).
Second, beliefs about language learning should be stable over time, which indicates that beliefs are formed and maintained by a complex social and cultural system. Finally, Gaies asserts that belief systems are unique to individuals.‘‘ Although the definitions of beliefs are not clear are still theoretically ambiguous, what is involved in studying beliefs about language learning and greatly influence vocabulary learning strategies, shows the importance of studying beliefs of learners have been well defined. At Vietnam National University of Agriculture (VNUA), there has been no research carried out to investigate vocabulary learning strategies that students adopt. Therefore, we have decided to conduct a study on beliefs and vocabulary learning strategies adopted by third-year English majors at VNUA.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY Research aims to examine vocabulary learning strategies applied by third- year English majors students at VNUA. Specifically, the study examines the beliefs of third-year English majors students about vocabulary learning and the most and the least common strategies for learning vocabulary utilized by third- year English majors at VNUA. RESEARCH QUESTIONS This study was intended to answer the following two research questions: Research question 1: What are the learners‘ beliefs about vocabulary learning? Research question 2: What are the most and least common strategies for learning vocabulary utilized by English majors at VNUA? 4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY The study investigated 105 third-year students majoring in English at VNUA.
The study completes during 5 months (from February to June, 2021). SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The study aims at finding out third-year English majors‘ belief and use of vocabulary learning strategies. As for English lecturers, the findings of the study will help lecturers of English at VNUA gain an insight into how their students believe about vocabulary learning, on the basis of which, lecturers could have better instructions on how their students should change their understanding of vocabulary learning, on the basic of which they will have wiser choices in terms of vocabulary learning strategies for themselves, which in turn help improve their vocabulary learning in particular and boost their English learning in general. As for students, providing a description of the vocabulary learning strategies, the study helps raise awareness of the use of different vocabulary 4 learning strategies and encourage them to use a variety of strategies for their effective vocabulary learning.
Successful learners should not use one vocabulary learning strategies. Therefore, knowing many other strategies and trying new strategies would give them better chance to become more advanced learners of English in their study.DESIGN OF THE STUDY Apart from : Abstracts, references & appendices, the study consists of three main. The rest of the study comprises three parts as follows: In part one: Introduction present rationale of study, Aim and objectives of study, Research questions, Scope of study, Significance and Design of study. In part two: Development: consist of 3 chapters as follows: Chapter 1: (Literature review), the researcher investigates prior literature to clarify some major terms in the study.