VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ------------------- NGUYỄN THỊ HUYỀN TRANG A STUDY ON ENGLISH VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES EXPLOITED BY THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS OF DIFFERENT LEARNING STYLE PREFERENCES AT SCHOOL OF LAW, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY (Nghiên cứu các phƣơng pháp học từ vựng tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm hai thuộc các nhóm phong cách học khác nhau ở Khoa Luật, ĐHQGHN) M. COMBINED PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI - 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ------------------- NGUYỄN THỊ HUYỀN TRANG A STUDY ON ENGLISH VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES EXPLOITED BY THE SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS OF DIFFERENT LEARNING STYLE PREFERENCES AT SCHOOL OF LAW, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY (Nghiên cứu các phƣơng pháp học từ vựng tiếng Anh của sinh viên năm hai thuộc các nhóm phong cách học khác nhau ở Khoa Luật, ĐHQGHN) M. COMBINED PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc. Nguyễn Văn Độ HANOI - 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby, certify the thesis entitled “A study on vocabulary learning strategies exploited by second-year students of different learning styles at School of Law, Vietnam National University” is a presentation of my original research work.
Wherever contributions of others are involved, every effort is made to indicate this clearly, with due reference to the literature, and acknowledgement of collaborative research and discussions. The work was done under the guidance of Assoc. The research was approved by the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. Hanoi, 2015 Nguyễn Thị Huyền Trang i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In order to complete this M.
thesis, I owe profound indebtedness to many people for their invaluable help during the conduct of the research. First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Assoc. Nguyen Van Do, PhD. and my lecturer Assoc.
Le Van Canh, PhD. for their whole-hearted support, helpful guidance and considerable encouragement, which are the most decisive factors leading to the completion of this paper. Besides, I would like to send my sincere thanks to the teachers and second- year students at SOL, VNU who do me a great deal of favor for their participations in the conduct of my survey questionnaire and interviews. Without their precious help, this study would not have been completed.
I also owe a great debt of gratitude to my grandmother, my parents, my parents-in-law and my baby-sitter who constantly encouraged me and helped me take care of my little daughter during the time I conducted this study. Last but not least, never enough thanks are sent to my husband – Nguyen Ba Tuong, who always stood by my side, suffered from my moody feelings and lent me his hands whenever I was in need during the implementation of this study. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This study aims at exploring vocabulary learning strategies employed by the second-year students of different learning styles at School of Law, VNU. In addition, the research paper suggested several possible ways to help students better their vocabulary learning strategies which are more likely to fit their learning styles.
The data collection tools used in this study included survey questionnaires and interviews. Then the findings were coded and analyzed by both quantitative and qualitative methods. The major findings of the study showed that most second-year students at SOL, VNU preferred visual learning style; ranking second was auditory learning style; and the fewest number of students was found to prefer kinesthetic learning style. Besides, the study also denoted the most common VLS exploited by each learning style.
For instance, visual learners and auditory learners shared the similar preference for using memory strategies to learn English vocabulary while metacognitive strategies were most in favor by kinesthetic learners. Based on the findings of the study, some pedagogical implications for both teachers and students were withdrawn along with recommended suggestions for further research. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Declaration……………………………….…iii List of charts, tables & abbreviations.vi PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Aims and research questions…………….
Structure of the study…………………………………….6 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Learning style preferences (LSP)……………………………. Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences…………………. Advantages of understanding individual LSP.
Vocabulary learning strategies (VLS)……. Advantages of using appropriate VLS………………. The distinction between LSP and VLS………………………………21 2. An overview of related studies………………….22 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 1.
Design of the study…………………………………………………………26 2. Setting of the study………………………….26 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Participants and participant selection method………………………………27 4. Data collection instruments…………………………………………………28 4.
Perceptual learning style preference questionnaire. Strategy inventory for vocabulary learning………………………. Semi-structured interview…………………………. Data collection procedure…………………………….
Data analysis methods……………………………………………….……34 CHAPTER III: FINDINGS & DISCUSSION 1. Answer of research question 1…………. Answer of research question 2………………. Answer of research question 3………………………………………….
Contributions of the study…………………………………………………. Limitations of the study…………………………. Suggestions for further studies…………………………………….64 REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………65 APPENDICES………………………………………………………………………I v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF CHARTS, TABLES & ABBREVIATIONS List of charts Chart 1: Preferred learning styles of second-year students at SOL, VNU Chart 2: Percentage of overall strategies used by visual learners Chart 3: Percentage of overall strategies used by auditory learners Chart 4: Percentage of overall strategies used by kinesthetic learners List of tables Table i: Definitions of language learning strategies Table ii: Structured and unstructured approach to vocabulary learning by Sanaoui (1995) Table iii: Gu & Johnson’s classification of VLS (1996) Table iv: Schmitt’s taxonomy of VLS (1997) Table 1: Descriptive statistics of strategies used by visual learners in determination Table 2: Descriptive statistics of strategies used by visual learners in social (discovery) Table 3: Descriptive statistics of strategies used by visual learners in social (consolidation) Table 4: Descriptive statistics of strategies used by visual learners in memory Table 5: Descriptive statistics of strategies used by visual learners in cognitive Table 6: Descriptive statistics of strategies used by visual learners in metacognitive Table 7: Descriptive statistics of strategies used by auditory learners in determination Table 8: Descriptive statistics of strategies used by auditory learners in social (discovery) Table 9: Descriptive statistics of strategies used by auditory learners in social (consolidation) Table 10: Descriptive statistics of strategies used by auditory learners in memory vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Table 11: Descriptive statistics of strategies used by auditory learners in cognitive Table 12: Descriptive statistics of strategies used by auditory learners in metacognitive Table 13: Descriptive statistics of strategies used by kinesthetic learners in determination Table 14: Descriptive statistics of strategies used by kinesthetic learners in social (discovery) Table 15: Descriptive statistics of strategies used by kinesthetic learners in social (consolidation) Table 16: Descriptive statistics of strategies used by kinesthetic learners in memory Table 17: Descriptive statistics of strategies used by kinesthetic learners in cognitive Table 18: Descriptive statistics of strategies used by kinesthetic learners in metacognitive Table 19: Vocabulary learning strategies recommended by teachers List of abbreviations SOL, VNU: School of Law, Vietnam National University LSP: Learning style preferences VLS: Vocabulary learning strategies VAK: Visual – Auditory – Kinesthetic (Model) ELT: English Language Teaching L2 Second language SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences n: Number of students F: Frequency X: Mean (average score) vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION This first part states the problem and the rationale of the study, together with the general aims, objectives and the scope of the study as a whole. Most importantly, it is in this chapter that the research questions are identified to work as clear guidelines for the whole research.
Rationale As a matter of fact, English has recently become one of the most popular languages in the world. According to the statistics of Graddol (1997) in the publication named “The future of English”, there is a remarkable rise in the number of English users and this number is likely to reach two billion in the next decade. Vietnam, in the process of integrating into the world, also identifies the importance of learning and teaching English in order to educate the adequate number of English users for this integration process. However, in the last twenty years, effective and innovative English teaching methods at Vietnamese schools were mostly taken for granted and teachers were seen to focus on teaching test- oriented skills.
In addition, these English tests generally put the emphasis on English grammar only. There is hardly any doubt that the most popular teaching method then was grammar-translation. On the contrary, nowadays, communication has become the main purpose of English learning with another approach – Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in which four skills of English: speaking, listening, reading and writing are paid as much attention to as grammar. In this context, all member universities of Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU) have applied CLT into teaching English; and four skills are thoroughly taught.
To be more highlighted, at this university, excluding English-major students at Hanoi University of Languages and International Studies, all other students, such as students at University of Engineering and Technology, University of Economics and Business or School of Law, are required to have the Certificate of English Level 3, which correspondents to B1 level in CEFR -fully-known as the Common European Framework of Reference, at the time of their graduation (Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training, 2014). 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com In fact, it is considered relatively challenging for most students whose majors are not English language skills to get the Certificate of English Level 3. Moreover, this certificate is the prerequisite which might put these students under great pressure if they want to graduate from their university. As a lecturer of English who is teaching English for students at School of Law, VNU, the researcher has found out that the majority of students there have been confronting with a number of difficulties in mastering their English language proficiency at Level 3.
Among those hardships, inadequacy in lexical knowledge may hinder their proficiency development (Fan, 2003). Apparently, in fact, vocabulary plays a definitely crucial role in a language because they are “the building-blocks” of a language (Thornbury, 2002). Vocabulary learning, consequently, should be taken more care of. According to Laufer (1997), in English vocabulary learning process, there are a number of factors influencing the effectiveness of students’ learning including objective and subjective factors.
“Learning style preferences” is mentioned as one of those. In the history of researching in Vietnam, “learning style preferences” is seemingly a novel research area as it can be seen that there have been very few research studies in VNU investigating the relationship between learners’ learning style preferences and their English vocabulary learning strategies. Furthermore, Vietnamese students in general and VNU students in particular are still unaware of their own learning styles; thus, they tend to exploit language learning methods intuitively and somehow ineffectively, which has pressed on the demand for more studies on this field so as to get students more aware of their own learning styles and then find out suitable language learning strategies. For those above-mentioned reasons, the researcher has decided to conduct a study for her M.
thesis on the topic: “A study on English vocabulary learning strategies exploited by the second year students of different learning style preferences at School of Law, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.” 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Aims and research questions The general aim of this research paper is to explore what English vocabulary learning strategies of second year students of different learning styles at School of Law, VNU are. Specifically, the first objective of the research paper is to classify different learning styles of second-year students at School of Law, VNU in their process of learning English vocabulary.