MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ CAO NGUYEN TRA MY AN INVESTIGATION INTO STRATEGIES TO DEAL WITH UNKNOWN ACADEMIC WORDS IN CLASSROOM LEARNING BY EFL STUDENTS AT HUE COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Languages HUE, 2016 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ CAO NGUYEN TRA MY AN INVESTIGATION INTO STRATEGIES TO DEAL WITH UNKNOWN ACADEMIC WORDS IN CLASSROOM LEARNING BY EFL STUDENTS AT HUE COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60. Dr, LE PHAM HOAI HUONG HUE, 2016 i BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ------------------ NGHIÊN CỨU CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐỐI PHÓ VỚI CÁC TỪ VỰNG HỌC THUẬT CHƯA BIẾT TRONG LỚP HỌC CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.11 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC PGS. LÊ PHẠM HOÀI HƯƠNG HUE, 2016 ii STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.
Date: 25 / 6 / 2016 Signature Full name Cao Nguyen Tra My iii ABSTRACT This research paper investigated strategies used to deal with unknown academic words by EFL students at Hue University College of Foreign Languages. It also addressed EFL students‟ perceptions toward academic words. Besides, the study examined the difficulties that students faced when coming across unknown academic words in classroom learning. The subjects of this study were 101 English major EFL students at HUCFL.
The data were collected through questionnaires, interviews and self-reflection notes. Then the data collected from questionnaires were processed with SPSS program and presented in tables and figures. Meanwhile, information from the interviews and self-reflection notes was quoted and analyzed. The findings of the study revealed that EFL students had strong awareness of learning academic words at university.
The data obtained showed that EFL students tend to use a rich variety of strategies to deal with unknown academic words such as using dictionary, guessing based on the context clues, examining word parts, ignoring unknown academic words, asking other classmates or teachers. Among them, it can be said that using dictionaries was considered the most useful strategy although it was not employed very often. Based on the findings of the study, suggestions were made with the hope of helping EFL students as well as teachers apply strategies to overcome unknown academic words with flying colors in classroom learning. iv Acknowledgements I would like to express my cordial thanks, first and foremost, to my supervisor, Assoc.
Le Pham Hoai Huong for her enthusiasm, patience and profound knowledge. In spite of coming up against difficulties during my research time, her whole-hearted and excellent guidance made me do my utmost to complete the dissertation as well as possible. To be honest, I feel very fortunate to have such a brilliant advisor and mentor for my study. But for her help, this research would not have been possible to fulfill.
My thanks also go to all of the informants and participants for the questionnaires, interviews and self- reflection notes as well, without whose assistance my MA study here can hardly achieve as planned. Besides my advisor, I owe a debt of heartfelt thanks to an English friend, Mr. Neil Coker, who was always willing to help and offer me valuable suggestions over the past few months when the work was in the making. I am much obliged to my close friends.
But for their countenance, I would not have accomplished my MA study on schedule. Last but not least, I would like to give my deepest gratitude to my family: my parents and my younger brother for supporting me spiritually as well as always standing by me throughout carrying out this research. Without their precious encouragement when bad times come, I do not know whether I have enough determination to make the best of things or not. Thanks again for giving me motivation to follow out this study.
v v vi TABLE OF CONTENTS SUB COVER PAGE. i STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY. v TABLE OF CONTENTS .vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. xi LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS .List of tables.
List of charts. xi CHAPTER I-INTRODUCTION. Aims of the study. Scope of the study.
Significance of the study. Structure of the study. 4 CHAPTER II-LITERATURE REVIEW. An overview of academic vocabulary.
What is a word?. What is vocabulary?. What is academic vocabulary?. General Academic Vocabulary.
Domain-Specific Academic Vocabulary. Review of previous studies. The importance of academic vocabulary to EFL students. Review of strategies for dealing with unknown academic vocabulary.
Using context clues to unlock the meanings of unknown academic vocabulary. Using the dictionaryand related reference tools. What is a dictionary?. Types of dictionaries.
Dictionary- use strategy. Using word components. Definitions of prefixes, suffixes and root/ base words. Applying word parts in coping with unknown academic words.
Ignoring unknown academic words. Asking other classmates or teacher for help. Difficulties in dealing with unknown academic words. To using context clues.
To using dictionaries. To using word components. To ignoring unknown academic words. To asking for help of other classmates and teachers.
29 CHAPTER III-METHODOLOGY. Students‟ self-reflection note. Data Collection Procedure. 37 CHAPTER IV-FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
Findings from questionnaire, interview and students‟ self-reflection notes. EFL students‟ perception of the importance of academic words in classroom learning. Strategies used to deal with unknown academic words in classroom learning by EFL students.1 EFL students‟ strategies to deal with unknown academic words in classroom learning .2 Frequency of EFL students‟ use of strategies for dealing with unknown academic words in classroom learning. The usefulness of the strategies for dealing with unknown academic vocabulary in classroom learning.
The factors affecting the use of strategies for dealing unknown academic words in classroom learning. Difficulties in dealing with unknown academic words in classroom learning. EFL students‟ attitudes toward the influential level of unknown academic words to their English comprehension in classroom learning. Difficulties faced by EFL students when dealing with unknown academic words in classroom learning.
53 CHAPTER V-CONCLUSION, IMPLICATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY. Summary of the findings. EFL students‟ perception of the importance of academic words in classroom learning. Strategies used to deal with unknown academic words in classroom learning by EFL students.
Difficulties in dealing with unknown academic words in classroom learning. Implications of the study. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for future research.
60 APPENDIX A-QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS. 69 APPENDIX B-QUESTIONS FOR STUDENT INTERVIEWS. 75 APPENDIX C- SELF-REFLECTION NOTE. 77 APPENDIX D- INTERVIEW OF EFL STUDENTS.
87 x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AWL Academic Word List BBC British Broadcasting Corporation CEFR Common European Framework of Reference for Languages CCSS Common Core State Standards EFL English as a Foreign Language ELL English language Learner HUCFL Hue University College of Foreign Languages IQ Intelligence Quotient LDOCD Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English PREL Pacific Resources for Education and Learning SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences TALA Texas Adolescent Literacy Academies VLSs Vocabulary Learning Strategies xi LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS A.List of tables Table 3. Participants of the study. Summary of the clusters .Summary of data analysis. Aims of learning academic words in university.
Frequency of EFL students‟ learning academic words. Strategies for dealing with unknown academic words in classroom learning. Types of dictionary. Frequency of difficulties faced by EFL students when dealing with.
50 unknown academic words. Difficulties faced by EFL students in dealing with unknown academic words. List of charts Figure 4. The importance of academic vocabulary.
EFL students‟ response to the amount of academic vocabulary used in the course books. Frequency of EFL students‟ use of strategies for dealing with unknown academic words in classroom learning. The usefulness of the strategies for dealing with unknown academic vocabulary in classroom learning. Some factors affecting the use of strategies to deal with unknown academic words.
EFL students‟ response toward the influential level of unknown academic words to their English comprehension in classroom learning. The degree of difficulty in dealing with unknown academic words in classroom learning. 49 xii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale No one can deny the importance of learning vocabulary in the process of language acquisition, especially English - one of the languages having a vast and diversified array of words.
Learning vocabulary is considered to be the first basic step and also is a very important foundation to master a language. According to Saengpakdeejit (2014), lexical competence plays an important role as “the heart of language learning” because students cannot understand others or express their own ideas if they lack of adequate vocabulary. “If language structures make up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh” (Harmer, 1991, p.111)also states,“…without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”. In other words, if your words are limited, you are certainly a restricted thinker.
Unlike general vocabulary, academic vocabulary has a solemn shade and frequently presents in academic texts (from books, newspapers, magazines, scientific researches…) of many various fields such as economics, science, technology, politics and so on (Coxhead, 2000). According to Stahl and Nagy (2006), academic vocabulary is one of the most powerful indicators of how well students are about to learn the content area of the subjects when they are at school. In addition, they also claim that this kind of word is significant to bettering both reading comprehension and verbal IQ. There is one obvious thing that readings in TOEIC, TOEFL, IELTS, SAT or GRE examinations are all in academic domains.
That is why most of the materials at Hue College of Foreign Languages (HUCFL) are designed somehow based on Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) to help EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students not only cultivate the foundation of English knowledge and skills but also get many 1 opportunities to interact and approach academic vocabulary in classroom learning. Marzano and Pickering (2005) also show that academic vocabulary gets students ready for academic achievements by helping them preview, build basic knowledge, learn and exercise vocabulary in subject area content. Thus, if EFL students do not own a large number ofacademic words, they will get into difficulties in entirely comprehending the content of an academic text in classroom learning. The more they know academic words, the easier they understand information conveyed when learning about the topics in classrooms.
According to Sedita (2005, p.1), “students‟ word knowledge is strongly linked to academic success because students who have large vocabularies can understand new ideas and concepts more quickly than students with limited vocabularies”. Last but not least, despite the fact that academic vocabulary appears less oftentimes than general vocabulary, accounting for nearly 10% of academic texts (Nation, 2001), the meanings of these words highly rely on the context where they occur more often than not. As a result, the ability to learn these words by reading alone is extremely difficult (Worthington & Nation, 1996). Accordingly, the strategies of dealing with unknown academic words become paramount.
This research hopes to find out strategies that EFL students have been using to deal with unknown academic words in classroom learning at Hue College of Foreign Languages.