VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** SẦM THỊ LOAN A study on improving first-year students’ vocabulary through extensive reading at Hanoi University of Business and Technology Nghiên cứu về cải thiện từ vựng cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất thông qua việc đọc mở rộng tại trường Đại học Kinh doanh và Công nghệ Hà Nội M. MINOR 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 & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES ***************** SẦM THỊ LOAN A study on improving first-year students’ vocabulary through extensive reading at Hanoi University of Business and Technology Nghiên cứu về cải thiện từ vựng cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất thông qua việc đọc mở rộng tại trường Đại học Kinh doanh và Công nghệ Hà Nội M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr. Trần Hoài Phương HANOI – 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I certify that the thesis entitled “A study on improving first-year students’ vocabulary through extensive reading at Hanoi University of Business and Technology” is my own research requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at the Faculty of Post Graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
Signature Sam Thi Loan i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr. Tran Hoai Phuong, my supervisor for her encouragement and inspirational review during this process of writing the thesis. Without her precious support and invaluable guidance, this thesis would never have been completed. Besides, I would like to thank the authority of Hanoi University of Business and Technology for allowing me to carry out this study and thank my colleagues and all the students in class KT 19-05 for their participation in the study process.
Finally, an honorable mention goes to my families and friends for their assistance and support for me in completing this thesis. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Vocabulary plays an important role in second language learning process. However, for most of Vietnamese students in general and learners at Hanoi University of Business and Technology (HUBT) in particular, vocabulary seems to be one of the most difficult problems in learning English. As a result, the researcher planned to conduct an extensive reading program as a mean of vocabulary improvement for first-year students at HUBT.
The study was carried out in the form of an action research study on 30 students of class KT 19-05. Before the implementation, a questionnaire was used to collect information from the students to identify the problem and the causes of the problem. The collected data were analyzed to confirm the assumption that the lack of vocabulary really existed, and the cause of this problem was due to students‟ limited reading in class as well as at home. Inspired by positive results in studies about extensive reading, the researcher created a plan of action in which graded readers were used for extensive reading.
The action plan was implemented in 10 weeks‟ time. Then, the data were collected from various sources, including questionnaires, a pre-test, a post-test and book reports from students. The findings from the study showed that extensive reading had a positive effect on learners‟ vocabulary acquisition and that there was a significant change in the students‟ attitude towards extensive reading. Based on the findings of the study, some discussion and limitations were presented along with some important pedagogy of implications.
Despite the limitations, it is hoped that the study can be used as a reference as well as a source of useful information for other teachers who wish to utilize extensive reading in their class concrete context. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF TABLE AND FIGURES .vii PART I: INTRODUCTION.
Rationale of the study. Aim of the study and research questions. Scope and significance of the Study. Method of the Study.
Design of the Study. 4 PART II: DEVELOPMENT. 6 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW. The Notions of Vocabulary.
The place of vocabulary in foreign language teaching and learning. Approaches to Vocabulary Acquisition. Extensive reading and intensive reading. Definitions of extensive reading.
The basic principles of extensive reading .4 The relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension. What are graded readers?. 16 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY. Description of Participants.
Rationale for using action research. Data collection instrument. Process of action research in this study. Data analysis method.
24 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. The students‟ vocabulary levels. Results from learners‟ survey questionnaire. Results of the pre-test.
Results of the post-test. Data collected from the Vocabulary Knowledge Scale. Students‟ attitude towards extensive reading. Data collected from the book report.
The students‟ overall attitude toward reading materials. The students‟ opinions on the level of difficulty of reading material. Students‟ strategies to deal with new words. Data collected from attitude questionnaire.
Discussion of research questions. Learners‟ vocabulary levels. The reasons for their performance on the vocabulary test. Positive effects of extensive reading on learners‟ vocabulary acquisition.
Learners‟ attitude towards extensive reading. Other findings from the project. 44 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART III: CONCLUSION. 48 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE.
I Appendix 2: PHIẾU ĐIỀU TRA KHẢO SÁT. III Appendix 3: THE ATTITUDE QUESTIONAIRE. V Appendix 4: THE ATTITUDE QUESTIONAIRE .VI Appendix 5 : THE VOCABULARY PRE-TEST. VII Appendix 6 : THE VOCABULARY POST-TEST.
VIII Appendix 7: THE POST-TEST (second measure). X Appendix 8: BOOK REPORT .XIX Appendix 9: The list of graded reading stories & articles students read in the project. XXI Appendix 10: The list of words marked YES, NS or NO in the pretest. XXII Appendix 11: The list of words marked YES, NS or NO in the posttest.
XXIII Appendix 12: A sample of a lesson plan………………………………………. XXV vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLE AND FIGURES Table 1.1: Number of word families at each graded reader level .1: The students‟ self-assessment of their vocabulary knowledge .2: Activities through which students learn English vocabulary most .3: Learners‟ solutions when meeting a new word .4: Students‟ opinions on the time for reading in class .5: Students‟ opinion on the number of readings in their course book in class .6: Students‟ habits of reading materials in English outside classroom.7: Reading topics chosen by the students .8: Students‟ attitude about being asked to read stories outside class.9: The result of YES-marked words in the pre-test .10: The results of YES-marked words the post-test in terms of 20 additional words .11: Sample item requiring demonstration of word knowledge .12: An overview of descriptive statistics obtained from the questionnaire responses .1: Action Research Cycle (McBride & Sckostak, 1989) .1: The students‟ overall attitude towards the reading materials .2: Students‟ opinion on the level of difficulty of the reading materials. 36 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study Founded in 1996 with the original name of Hanoi Private University of Management and Business, Hanoi University of Business and Technology (HUBT) has grown considerably in recent years and is becoming one of the most prestigious private universities in Vietnam.
At present, the university offers courses in three educational levels: College, Bachelor and Master with 15 different academic areas including Business Management, Trading Business, Tourism Business, Finance, Banking, Accounting, Information Technology, and Architecture and so on. The university continues to pursue the goal of providing its undergraduate and graduate students with a practice-oriented education. Every graduate with an HUBT degree is expected to master their professional knowledge, be proficient in using computer and especially be able to communicate in English in daily life situations as well as in business environment. In order to meet the above demand, the university management board has put much emphasis on the teaching and learning of English, which is one of the crucial factors contributing to the success of both students and the university.
Consequently, HUBT spends a large volume of time teaching English for students from the first year to the third year. The first-year students are expected to gain A2 level based on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) after finishing the second term, before learning ESP (English for Specific Purposes) and TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication). For this reason, the first year students are required to learn at least 240 compulsory periods of English in the first and second terms at the university. Every week, the students have eight periods of English lessons; each is 45 minutes long.
The major course book used for students is Market leader (Elementary– 3rd edition by David Cotton, David Falvey and Simon Kent, the 2013 edition). Each unit of the book includes a wide range of activities: Vocabulary, Reading, Listening, Language review (Grammar) and Skills, and Case study (Speaking). 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Among these activities, the researcher paid much attention to the Reading section because in a recent conference of the English Department discussing the course book Market leader Elementary, most of the English teachers teaching this material agreed that the book is the most authentic and updated Business English materials and it may meet the needs of teaching and learning English at HUBT to some extent. However, only one or two short reading texts, which are about 100 – 300 words long with 10 – 15 new words are too few for students to read each week, so the amount of vocabulary the students read is not sufficient for them to become good readers.
Therefore, it is necessary to provide students with more reading materials to read, which helps the students not only develop reading habit but also enhance their English vocabulary. Based on the observation and experience from teaching English at HUBT, the researcher found that many students have difficulties in expressing their own ideas because of the English vocabulary deficiency even though they had learnt English for at least three years at high schools prior to going to the university. Besides, after discussions with other colleagues as well as learners, it seems that the students‟ shortage of vocabulary was due to the two following reasons: firstly, most of the learners at HUBT usually have a habit of acquiring new vocabulary from short passages in textbooks or from their teachers during classroom lessons. However, these sources provide learners with only a small amount of vocabulary, which is not enough for them to read well in English.
Secondly, students‟ vocabulary learning method is not very efficient. Learners only think of vocabulary learning as knowing the primary meaning of new words, and they are not aware of all other functions of the words. They only learn the Vietnamese translation of unfamiliar English lexical items in isolation by writing on paper, trying to learn them by heart whereas the vocabulary is difficult since most of them are business English. If they do not develop a habit of learning vocabulary in contexts they may not to know how to use vocabulary appropriately.
2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com In the process of trying different vocabulary teaching strategies and techniques, the researcher found that reading is a suitable way for students to enhance their vocabulary.