VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************** NHIẾP THỊ VÂN ANH A STUDY ON VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES OF TALENTED STUDENTS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE SELECTION AT THANH LIEM C HIGH SCHOOL, HA NAM PROVINCE (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CHIẾN LƯỢC HỌC TỪ VỰNG CỦA HỌC SINH ĐỘI TUYỂN HỌC SINH GIỎI MÔN TIẾNG ANH TRƯỜNG THPT C THANH LIÊM, HÀ NAM) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HA NOI - 2016 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NHIẾP THỊ VÂN ANH A STUDY ON VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES OF TALENTED STUDENTS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE SELECTION AT THANH LIEM C HIGH SCHOOL, HA NAM PROVINCE (NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CHIẾN LƯỢC HỌC TỪ VỰNG CỦA HỌC SINH ĐỘI TUYỂN HỌC SINH GIỎI MÔN TIẾNG ANH TRƯỜNG THPT C THANH LIÊM, HÀ NAM) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr. Trần Thị Thu Hiền HA NOI - 2016 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby declare that this dissertation represents my own work and that it has not been previously submitted to this University or any other institute in application for admission to a degree, diploma or other qualifications.
Hanoi, 2016 Nhi p Th V n Anh i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my appreciation, first and foremost, to my supervisor Dr. Tran Thi Thu Hien, who has patiently and constantly guided and supported me to develop my study into a practicable frame in the very beginning and offered valuable suggestions while the work was in progress. My thanks also go to all the teachers that have instructed me at the National University for their inspirational lectures in class, by which I have been motivated to explore some interesting issues concerning English language teaching and learning. A special word of thanks goes to my students, without whom it would never been possible for me to have this thesis accomplished.
Last but not least, I would like to give my immense gratitude to my family, without whose support my dream of pursuing further study would not have been possible. Nhiep Thi Van Anh ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT Although vocabulary forms the biggest part of the meaning of any language, it is also the biggest problem for most learners. A study of vocabulary learning strategies was carried out with talented students in English language selection at Thanh Liem C high school, Ha Nam province to find the strategies they use most and least popularly. This is only the initial research (search strategies) to prepare for a long-term study, in which the useful strategies are applied for other students to improve the quality of English learning throughout the school.
The research involved 25 talented students in English language selection at Thanh Liem C high school, Ha Nam province. Data was collected from a vocabulary learning strategies questionnaire. Results of the study showed that the students favoured strategies focusing on guessing meaning from context, when they encountered new words. Besides, bilingual and monolingual dictionaries is also a useful tool to help students find the meaning of words.
Moreover, many students are interested in studying words through English language media such as television programs, Internet, English songs,… However, students had difficulty implementing a number of social and metacognitive strategies, such as interacting with native speakers and testing oneself with word tests. To conclude, strategy training especially on guessing, dictionary strategies and deep processing strategies is essential. It would be good if teachers could provide different opportunities for students to retrieve the vocabulary learned in different contexts. The results suggested that teachers should make learners aware of their own responsibility in vocabulary learning and expose them to different approaches and strategies in enhancing vocabulary acquisition.
iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1 COG Cognitive strategies 2 DET Determination Strategies 3 EFL English as a Foreign Language 4 MEM Memory Strategies 5 MET Metacognitive strategies 6 L1 Native Language 7 L2 Second Language 8 SOC Social Strategies iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF CONTENTS DECLARATION .iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. iv LIST OF CONTENTS. v LIST OF TABLES. vii CHAPTER ONE : INTRODUCTION .1 Rationale for choosing the topic .3 Aim and objectives of the study .4 Scope of the study.
Significance of the study .6 Structures of the study. 5 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW .2 Vocabulary learning strategies.1 Definitions of vocabulary learning strategies .2 Classifications of vocabulary learning strategies .3 Previous studies on Vocabulary Learning Strategies. 16 CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY .3 Data collection instrument .4 Method in Language Learning Strategy Research.5 Data collection procedure. 21 CHAPTER FOUR : FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION.
23 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. 32 CHAPTER FIVE : CONCLUSION.4 Recommendations for further research. I PART 1: The Student‟s Personal Background. I PART 2: Vocabulary Learning Strategies Questionnaire.
II vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Information of the participants. Determination Strategies used by the talented students. Social strategies used by the talented students. Memory strategies used by the talented students.
Cognitive strategies used by the talented students. Metacognitive strategies used by the talented students. 31 vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER ONE : INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for choosing the topic Vocabulary is the knowledge of words and word meanings. As Steven Stahl (2005) puts it, "Vocabulary knowledge is knowledge; the knowledge of a word not only implies a definition, but also implies how that word fits into the world." Vocabulary knowledge is not something that can ever be fully mastered; it is something that expands and deepens over the course of a lifetime.
Instruction in vocabulary involves far more than looking up words in a dictionary and using the words in a sentence. Vocabulary is acquired incidentally through indirect exposure to words and intentionally through explicit instruction in specific words and word-learning strategies.Limited vocabularies prevent students from comprehending a text. Therefore, an effective approach to vocabulary is always one of the great concerns of every language teacher.The reason is that learning vocabulary is really challennging requiring many cognitive processes, and teachers have to make sure that the students understand the word and its meaning as well as how to use the word accurately and appropriately. At upper- secondary schools in Vietnam, with a short duration of 3 periods per week for all language skills and language focus, vocabulary instruction has paid less attention than it should have been.
Students have to learn so many new words every week, and by the time they learn the new words in the new lessons they have forgoten most of the words they have learned in previous lessons. Moreover, most of the students, in fact, are not interested in vocabulary lessons. They feel bored with the common methods used by teachers since most of the teachers of English at the researcher‟ school are still applying the traditional ways of teaching. “Teacher talks – students 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.
These traditional approaches encourage students to recite facts and figures, not stimulate their thinking and their analytical skills. Consequently, the students are not able to apply what they‟ve learned, not able to make connections of what they‟ve just learned and what they had learned in the past.These traditional methods do not promote active engagement and participants. As a result, students become passive.They don‟t have opportunity to participate in learning vocabulary ativities.They consider the teachers‟explanation for meaning, definition, pronunciation, spelling and grammatical functions boring.This leads to the problem that language learners have nothing to do in vocabulary learning section but to listen to their teacher. It is known that vocabulary is not available knowlegde, it should be a long-term cumulative study.
The teaching and learning of English vocabulary becomes more difficult for rural students experiencing problems due to learning conditions, teachers, etc. Besides, with applying the innovation in the current exams, many students do not focus on learning English because it is simply for them to avoid the worst score when doing multiple choice English tests , therefore, they pass the graduation exam easily. The researcher is now in charge of teaching English for grade 10 and 12. During teaching,the researcher found that vocabulary plays an important role in the students‟language learning.
It is one element that links the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing all together. In order to communicate well in a foreign language, students should have a number of words and should know how to use them accurately. In fact, the students at Thanh Liem C high school have encountered a lot of difficulties in remembering as well as using vocabulary.The ability to apply vocabulary learning strategies is still limited, for example, whenever 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com students think of vocabulary, they think of a list of new words with meaning in their native language without any real context practice. They look up the words in bilingual dictionary to find their meaning of new words.
Working by this way, after a short period of time, many students may find out that learning vocabulary doesn‟t satisfy them. Students often learn to deal with the checking vocabularies of the teacher, then there are no circumstances and skills to apply those words, so learning new words becomes useless. Meanwhile, the talented students in the English language selection proved that they had capability of learning new words when they achieved good results in the vocabulary tests. The writer would like to do a survey to know what English learning strategies talented students in the English language selection are using popularly and how often they learn these strategies.
From the results of this initial study, a more long-term study will be conducted in the mass student to find out, compare and apply for student‟s learning in order to improve learning English of all students at the writer‟ school. So the writer has decided to examine the question:“A study on vocabulary learning strategies of talented students in English language selection at Thanh Liem C high school, Ha Nam province” 1.2 Research question The primary aim of the present study is to investigate actual vocabulary learning strategies that talented students in English language selection at Thanh Liem C high school have used in English learning, therefore, this research attempts to answer the following research question: “What vocabulary learning strategies are most and least popularly used by the talented students in English language selection at Thanh Liem C high school ?” 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.3 Aim and objectives of the study The aim of the study is to investigate vocabulary learning strategies talented students in English language selection at Thanh Liem C high school have used in English learning. To realize this aim, the paper will : 1. Find the information about vocabulary learning strategies that talented students in English language selection used when they study words.
Draw the most and least popular vocabulary learning strategies used by talented students in English language selection.4 Scope of the study The study focuses on exploring vocabulary learning strategies used by 25 talented students who were considered “good learners” at Thanh Liem C high school. They participated in the exam for talented students annually with age average between 15-17 years during the first semester of 2015. Schmitt‟s Taxonomy will be applied to analyse these students‟ use of vocabulary learning strategies. Significance of the study 1.The study can reveal the most and least popularly used vocabulary learning strategies implemented by the talented students in English language selection.