VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES PHAN DIỄM MY A study of English vocabulary learning strategies of 12th graders at Nguyen Tat Thanh high school in Hanoi, Vietnam (Nghiên cứu về những chiến lược học từ vựng tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 12 trường THPT Nguyễn Tất Thành, Hà Nội) A Master Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi, 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES PHAN DIỄM MY A study of English vocabulary learning strategies of 12th graders at Nguyen Tat Thanh high school in Hanoi, Vietnam (Nghiên cứu về những chiến lược học từ vựng tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 12 trường THPT Nguyễn Tất Thành, Hà Nội) A Master Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Supervisor: Assoc. Nguyễn Văn Trào, PhD Code: 60140111 Hanoi, 2017 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I declare that the thesis submitted for the Master of English degree at University of Languages and International studies is an undertaken work of my own research and has not been previously submitted at any other universities for any degrees. Contributions of other researchers involved is made to indicate this clearly, with due reference to the literature, and acknowledgement of collaborative research and discussion. This work was under the supervision and advice of Assoc.
Nguyen Van Trao, PhD, at University of Languages and International studies. Hanoi, November 2016 Phan Diem My i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of this undertaking is a great thank to the participation and assistance of numerous people whose names may not all be enumerated, but contributions are sincerely appreciated and gratefully acknowledged. First of all, I would like to express my deep appreciation and indebtedness particularly to Assoc. Nguyen Van Trao, PhD, my supervisor, whose expertise, endless support, kind and understanding spirit during my dissertation made it possible for me to work on a topic that was of great interest to me, for finding out time to reply to my emails, for being ever so kind to show interest in my research and for giving his precious advice regarding the topic of my research.
It is my pleasure working with him. I also appreciate the authority of University of the Languages and International Studies in general and Faculty of Postgraduate Studies indeed for giving me their permission and required samples to carry out the research in the university library. I would like to express my gratitude to all my lecturers who put their faith in me and urged me to do better. I am thankful to Nguyen Tat Thanh high school‘s teachers and students for their strong kindness and support during my data collection of the research.
I am highly indebted to my mom, to all my relatives, friends and others who in one way or another shared their support, either morally, financially and physically, and gave me a lot of encouragement for keeping up with this task. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Abstract This study investigated the English vocabulary learning strategy use by 100 students with different levels (50 from talented classes and 50 from other classes) enrolled at Nguyen Tat Thanh High School in Hanoi, directly under Vietnam National University of Education. The study found a curvilinear relationship between strategy use and English proficiency which means the high achievers (subjects with higher proficiency than the others) prefer using more grouping strategy to consolidate new words and have their own management and planning strategies to work well. The remaining gaps between almost subjects‘ strong perception about the usefulness level of several strategies and their factual implementation are due to the common issue from a large number of Vietnamese students called ―verbal passiveness‖ and the ―afraid-of-making- mistakes‖ learning style culture.
Hence, more vocabulary learning strategies should be introduced to learners and strategy training is essential for learning. Choosing their own learning strategies according to their characteristics such as proficiency and learning style may be beneficial for learners. It is high time for both learners and teachers to be mindful of the quality or depth of the learned vocabulary for the sake of achieving basic success in EFL learning, and also reach a general consensus on the learning goal during designing the course or curriculum. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION.
iii TABLE OF CONTENT. iv PART A: INTRODUCTION. RATIONALE OF THE STUDY. AIMS OF THE STUDY.
THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS. SCOPE OF THE STUDY. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY. DESIGN OF THE STUDY.
DEFINITION OF TERMS (OR KEY CONSTRUCTS). Background of vocabulary learning strategies. Taxonomy of language learning strategies. Stern's (1992) Classification of Language Learning Strategies.
Schmitt’s classification of vocabulary learning strategies. Students’ understanding and performance in their English vocabulary learning. High achievers’ opinions on vocabulary learning. Teachers’ performance in their English vocabulary teaching.
Review of the previous studies. According to Decarrico (2001). 12 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Research questions restated.
Setting of the Study. Teaching and learning condition. Participants of the study. Data collection instruments and procedures.
Vocabulary learning strategies questionnaires. Think-aloud vocabulary task. Semi-structured interview. Data analysis procedures.
17 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Students‘ understanding of vocabulary learning. Students‘ practices in their English vocabulary learning. Teachers‘ practices in their English vocabulary teaching.
Students‘ vocabulary learning strategies. The most-used discovery strategies by the twelfth-form students (Table 4. The most-used discovery strategies by the high achievers. The most-used consolidation strategies by the twelfth-form students.
The most-used consolidation strategies by the high achievers. Students‘ perceptions of the usefulness of the strategies. The most useful discovery strategies perceived by the twelfth-form students. The most useful discovery strategies perceived by the high achievers.
The most useful consolidation strategies perceived by the twelfth-form students. The most useful consolidation strategies perceived by the high achievers. 27 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Think-aloud protocols by the high achievers.
Guessing from context. Use of dictionaries. High achievers‘ opinions about vocabulary learning. Importance of vocabulary learning.
What “knowing a word” means to the high achievers. Spelling and pronunciation. Lack of time on vocabulary learning. 33 PART C: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS.
Summary of major findings. Concluding remarks and Recommendations. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further researches.
44 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. RATIONALE OF THE STUDY Some countries use English as the mother tongue and other countries learn it as second language in their schools; hence, undoubtedly, English constitutes the language of communication among people from different cultures. Moreover, English is also used as the language of science, technology and computers that helps to integrate people around the world via Internet technology and emails. Therefore, mastering a foreign language especially English is becoming strongly needed.
In reality, studying a language is inseparable from studying vocabulary because of the fact that the vocabulary as the focus of language is in words that sound and meaning interlock to help us communicate with one another and arrange together to make sentences, conversations, and discourse of all kinds. Obviously, vocabulary is really important in every language skill as well as any language learning. However, to study perfect English vocabulary is not easy. In fact, students have difficulty in memorizing a new word with its meaning, spelling and pronunciation or often being confused with knowing how can apply grammar into sentences.
Moreover, day-by-day traditional teaching methods and similar activities make students become fed up with learning English; therefore, it is necessary to apply interesting techniques to teach English for the sake of fostering students to learn English vocabulary better. The meaning variables are regarded as their biggest problem learners encounter in learning to use new words because each word contains more than one meaning while each of their meaning is included in the membership of an inter-related system; hence, it is highly required to reach the thorough knowledge of words for understanding the meaning of words and how to use them correctly. For instance, if a speaker chooses to use one new word, the need is assigning the right meaning to the right word in the appropriate context but not in the surface positioning of the words nor their wide range of meaning. Besides, sometimes negative interference in foreign language learning process is caused by mother tongue features due to learners accustomed to the rules and the ways of using mother tongue.
Moreover, the high influence of large class size and the lack of foreign language environment also generate many obstacles on the teaching method and learning style. Often, new words in lessons and their related exercises are provided for students as a list of meanings or mostly but on non-context sentences; as a consequence, no idea of the 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com subtle social or cultural information that each new word provided conveys can be successfully transmitted to students. Learning a second language involves the manipulation of four main skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. One crucial factor embedded in all four skills that helps the success of the second language acquisition is the vocabulary enrichment.
Very few empirical research have been carried out exclusively to investigate learning strategies which pupils need employ for dealing with learning foreign language vocabulary. An English Vocabulary Lists for high schools strongly needs to be developed to raise students‘ awareness of how words are formed and related to each other, such as synonyms, antonyms, collocations and idiomatic uses of words; whereas the vocabulary teaching and learning introduction as a discrete topic still remain rare in Nguyen Tat Thanh High School. From the above reasons, investigating students‘ vocabulary learning strategies and also presenting some effective techniques to teach English vocabulary in high schools are my ambition in order that students can improve their English vocabulary learning. Despite my knowledge limitation and the frame of the graduation paper, the research paper entitled ―A study of English vocabulary learning strategies of 12th graders at Nguyen Tat Thanh High School in Hanoi, Vietnam‖ was conducted with my entire best endeavor.
AIMS OF THE STUDY The study investigates the Nguyen Tat Thanh High School pupils‘ perceptions and their actual use of learning English vocabulary strategies in their vocabulary learning. Specifically, this study aims to: - investigate the pupils‘ opinions on learning English vocabulary and their actual vocabulary learning; - identify if there is a significant difference between the use of the strategies by the high achievers and other participants in the study; and - suggest some implications for English vocabulary teaching and learning. THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS The study is conducted to answer the following questions: (1) Which discovery strategies and consolidation strategies do the twelfth form pupils and the high achievers use most frequently? (2) Which discovery strategies and consolidation strategies do the twelfth form pupils and the high achievers perceive as most useful? (3) Is there a significant difference between the use of strategies by high achievers and other participants in the study? 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com (4) How do the high achievers in Nguyen Tat Thanh High School perceive vocabulary learning? 4. SCOPE OF THE STUDY The aim of the study is to investigate Discovery Strategies and Consolidation Strategies most frequently used by the English learners as well as the perceptions of these strategies‘ usefulness.
Furthermore, the features and behaviours of high achievers are examined by means of a think-aloud task and semi-structured interview.