MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ NGUYEN THANH HOANG AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY STUDENTS IN LEARNING PHRASAL VERBS IN GRAMMAR LESSONS AT KHANH SON HIGH SCHOOL IN KHANH HOA PROVINCE MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING HUE, 2014 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ NGUYEN THANH HOANG AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY STUDENTS IN LEARNING PHRASAL VERBS IN GRAMMAR LESSONS AT KHANH SON HIGH SCHOOL IN KHANH HOA PROVINCE MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60.11 SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN QUANG NGOAN, Ph. HUE, 2014 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ----------- NGUYỄN THANH HOÀNG KHẢO SÁT NHỮNG KHÓ KHĂN KHI HỌC CỤM ĐỘNG TỪ Ở CÁC BÀI HỌC NGỮ PHÁP CỦA HỌC SINH TẠI TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG KHÁNH SƠN, TỈNH KHÁNH HÕA LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.11 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS. NGUYỄN QUANG NGOẠN HUẾ, 2014 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby acknowledge that this study is mine. The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true and have not been published elsewhere.
Author Nguyen Thanh Hoang i ABSTRACT This study investigates difficulties that students at Khanh Son High School in Khanh Hoa Province are facing in learning phrasal verbs in grammar lessons. One more important thing is that from the difficulties, solutions and suggestions are shown with the hope that teachers will have deeper understanding about the reasons leading to students‟ difficulties in learning phrasal verbs and about the ways in which teachers and students will be able to teach and learn phrasal verbs more effectively and communicatively. The research aims to find out the answers to the students‟ perceptions of phrasal verbs, types of phrasal verbs they have difficulties in learning, and causes of the difficulties they encounter at Khanh Son High School. In order to achieve the objectives of the thesis, the researcher made use of not only qualitative but also quantitative approaches to the analysis of the data which were collected from tests on phrasal verbs, questionnaires, and interviews.
The results show that most of the students under investigation got bad marks for the following reasons. First, there are so many categories of phrasal verbs. Second, a phrasal verb has so many meanings depending on different situations and contexts of the sentences. Third, the students in the survey at the Khanh Son High School came from poor families in the remote and mountainous areas and there was a shortage of conditions (both time and money) for them to study.
ii Acknowledgements Above all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Nguyen Quang Ngoan, for his valuable references, insightful ideas, practical advice, serious supervision, and enthusiasm from the start of my work. His guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my M.
A very special thank goes out to my lecturers at the M. course in the Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching in the academic year 2012- 2014 for their devotion to teaching, which inspired all the students in the class to better their teaching profession. I wish to express my gratitude to Assoc. Tran Van Phuoc, Assoc.
Le Pham Hoai Huong, and Dr. Truong Bach Le for their useful comments on the research proposal for the necessary adjustments. I am deeply indebted to the teachers and students at Khanh Son High School, who took part in my study. iii Without their enthusiastic help, it would be difficult for me to complete my research.
Last but not least, I heartily thank my dear family and friends for their constant encouragement and support. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Pages STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. viii LIST OF CHARTS.
ix LIST OF TABLES .x LIST OF APPENDICES. xi CHAPTER ONE.6 Structure of the thesis .1 Review of the previous studies .1 Definition of phrasal verbs .2 Distinction between phrasal verbs and verb phrases .3 Types of phrasal verbs .1 Types of phrasal verbs in literature .2 Types of phrasal verbs in the current high school textbooks in Vietnam .4 What phrasal verbs should be taught? .5 Methods for teaching phrasal verbs in grammar lessons .1 The research approach .2 Participants of the study.1 The tests on phrasal verbs .4 Data collection procedure .2 Empirical data collection. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Results of phrasal verb tests and discussion .1 Students‟ poor results in doing tests of phrasal verbs.
Difficulties in learning phrasal verbs as reported by students at Khanh Son High School. Difficulties in learning phrasal verbs by students at Khanh Son High School as commented by their teachers.2 Findings from the questionnaire data and discussion .1 Teachers and students‟ viewpoints on the necessity of learning phrasal verbs .2 Teachers‟ and students‟ opinions about difficulties in learning phrasal verbs .4 Teachers‟ and students‟ suggestions for improvement in learning phrasal verbs .46 vi CHAPTER FIVE. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS .1 Summary of the key findings .3 Limitations and suggestions for further study .51 REFERENCES APPENDICES vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AP : Adjective phrase EFL : Learning English as a foreign language N : Number NP : Noun phrase PP : Prepositional phrase PVs : Phrasal verbs Q : Qualifier V : Verb % : Percent viii LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.1: Do students like learning phrasal verbs? .2: How difficult/easy are phrasal verbs in the textbooks according to students?.3: How important teachers find teaching phrasal verbs.4: How often do students learn and use phrasal verbs? .5: How often do students use phrasal verbs they have learnt in speaking and writing? .44 ix LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Types of intransitive phrasal verbs in the current high school textbooks .2: Types of separable phrasal verbs in the current high school textbooks .3: Types of inseparable phrasal verbs in the current high school textbooks .4: Types of three-word phrasal verbs in the current high school textbooks .2: The Kinds of Questions .1: Inclass-test / Time allotted: 45 mins / class 10 .2: Inclass-test / Time allotted: 45 mins / class 11 .3: Inclass-test / Time allotted: 45 mins / class 12 .4: The total marks of the inclass-tests 10, 11, and 12 .5: Reasons why students learn phrasal verbs .6: Purposes of teaching phrasal verbs .7: Reasons why teachers find learning phrasal verbs difficult.8: Reasons why students find learning phrasal verbs difficult .9: Teachers‟ perception of students‟ difficulties in learning phrasal verbs40 Table 4.10: Students‟ difficulties in learning phrasal verbs.11: Types of phrasal verbs students choose to learn .12: Sources from which students often learn phrasal verbs .13: What should the teachers do to help the students to overcome the difficulties in learning phrasal verbs? .14: What are suggested by students for effectiveness of learning phrasal verbs?.45 x LIST OF APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE A (for teachers) APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE B (for students) APPENDIX 3: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR TEACHERS APPENDIX 4: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR STUDENTS APPENDIX 5: TEST-PAPER (Class 10) APPENDIX 6: TEST-PAPER (Class 11) APPENDIX 7: TEST-PAPER (Class 12) APPENDIX 8: ANSWER KEYS xi CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION This chapter presents the rationale for the study with a perspective on difficulties faced by students in learning phrasal verbs in grammar lessons. Deep down, research purposes, research questions, research scope, research significance, and structure of the thesis are also given by the researcher.1 Rationale The more our society is developing, the more globalised the world is becoming.
The form of communication of a language is very important, commonly realized four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. English is the most important language which has been spreading in many countries all over the world these days. As we‟ve known, English has not only been an essential means of communication but also been regarded as an international language – “a dominant language”, from the developed and developing countries to other areas. Therefore, English has become an essential requirement for people to communicate with others and get a good job whenever and wherever they live and work.
Nowadays, the economical, political, military and commercial relations among the countries in the world have greatly increased and become more important. In order to carry out the relations, the subject of learning and teaching foreign languages has gained great importance. English is a key to technology. That is why they get more interest in learning English and their children are taken to College of Foreign Languages to study English at an early age.
Learning English is a long and difficult process. Learners have to be successful in the four basic skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. One basic thing helping them succeed in learning English is vocabulary. Another which is more important and difficult than vocabulary is “phrasal verb”.
Phrasal verbs (PVs) are widely used by native speakers and pose Vietnamese students plenty of 1 problems during their process of learning English, especially for students at Upper Secondary School. In other words, there are so many students complaining about the difficulties that they must face upon using PVs. The issue concerning the ways of learning PVs is still quite controversial. At present, there are no ways to help students to learn all the PVs, as well as nouns, adjectives, and idioms since PVs have figurative meanings that can make them confused when they translate texts or carry out phrasal verb tests.
It‟s difficult for learners to use them properly. Therefore, they need encouragement to learn them well. As a teacher of English with six years‟s experience of teaching, I see that students at Khanh Son High School have difficulties in learning and practicing PVs. They fall into confusion in using PVs to translate due to their lack of professional knowledge and the appropriate learning methods.
It is for those reasons that I have decided to carry out a study project entitled“An Investigation into the Difficulties Encountered by Students in Learning Phrasal Verbs in Grammar Lessons at Khanh Son High School in Khanh Hoa Province”. I hope that the study will result in the most effective methods and findings to those who faced difficulties in learning PVs.2 Research purposes The study aims to figure out a basic knowledge on PVs and other matters related to the area. In detail, my graduation paper aims at: - Reflecting on the problems involved in learning PVs. - Suggesting some more effective and appropriate methods for learning PVs.3 Research questions Major question: What are the difficulties faced by students at Khanh Son High School in Khanh Hoa Province in learning phrasal verbs? Sub-questions: Question 1: What are the students‟ perceptions of phrasal verbs at Khanh Son High School? Question 2: What types of Phrasal Verbs do the students at Khanh Son High School in Khanh Hoa Province have difficulties in learning? Question 3: What are the possible causes of the difficulties? 2 1.4 Research scope PVs are believed to be one of the difficult items for learners of English, which would require a great amount of time and effort to do the research.
Furthermore, there is also abundant material resource on PVs. However, because of the narrow scope, this study mainly focuses on learning conditions and effective methods in limiting existing difficulties in learning PVs. Thus, the subjects of study we mainly aim at are students at Khanh Son High School in Khanh Hoa Province where there are 5 English teachers and 450 students.5 Research significance The study investigates problems encountered by students at Khanh Son High School in Khanh Hoa Province in using PVs. It is hoped that the study will give insights to teachers and students in the use of PVs.