VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ VIỆT HÀ AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECT OF MATCHING EXERCISES ON THE 10TH FORM STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY IMPROVEMENTS AT DINH TIEN HOANG HIGH SCHOOL IN NINH BINH CITY Nghiên cứu về Hiệu quả của các dạng bài tập nối đối với sự cải thiện từ vựng của học sinh lớp 10, trường THPT Đinh Tiên Hoàng, Tp. 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 AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ VIỆT HÀ AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECT OF MATCHING EXERCISES ON THE 10TH FORM STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY IMPROVEMENTS AT DINH TIEN HOANG HIGH SCHOOL IN NINH BINH CITY Nghiên cứu về Hiệu quả của các dạng bài tập nối đối với sự cải thiện từ vựng của học sinh lớp 10, trường THPT Đinh Tiên Hoàng, Tp. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr. Dương Thi Nu ̣ ̣ HANOI - 2015 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION Title: An Investigation into the Effect of Matching Exercises on the 10th form students’ Vocabulary Improvements at Dinh Tien Hoang High School in Ninh Binh City I certify that the thesis is the result of my own research for the Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, and that this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or tertiary institution.
Date submitted: Hanoi, 30 / 10 / 2015 Student Lê Thị Việt Hà i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research has been accomplished with the help and encouragement of many people to whom I would like hereafter to express my deep appreciation. First and foremost, I would like to express my great attitude to my supervisor, Dr. Dương Thị Nụ for her invaluable inspiration, assistance and guidance during the time I tried to complete this paper. I am thankful to all lecturers and staff of the Post-Graduate Department of University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University for their scientific knowledge, guidance and enthusiasm during my course.
My sincere thanks go to my teachers and grade 10 students at Dinh Tien Hoang high school, Ninh Binh City for their support and participation in my research. And my heartfelt thanks are due to my dear family members who are always beside me to support and encourage me to fulfill my study. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT This research was conducted to investigate the effect of matching exercises on grade 10 students’ vocabulary improvements. Two grade 10th classes majoring in natural sciences were selected and divided into control and experimental groups.
This is a quasi-experimental study which aimed at establishing the positive impacts of matching exercises on students’ vocabulary improvements in comparison with the conventional teaching and learning of vocabulary at most high schools in Ninh Binh at present. In this experimental study, 43 grade 10 students applied matching exercises for a period of 4 months in school year 2014-2015 while 43 other students belonging to the control group followed the conventional teaching and learning. The subjects’ vocabulary gains were measured by a vocabulary test on lexical aspects such as word meaning, vocabulary recognition and production in different contexts. Both pretest and posttest were administered in chronologic order, before and after the experimental program.
T-test which was employed to make a comparison between pretest and posttest scores gained by two groups demonstrated that the experimental group had made more improvements in the English vocabulary than the control group. Moreover, the participants’ responses to the questionnaire also showed that most students who used matching exercises regularly found them very effective. This result supported the empirical findings mentioned above and reemphasized the outstanding benefits of matching exercises to the learning and teaching L2 vocabulary at high schools in the future. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Declaration i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Tables of contents iv Lists of Abbreviations vii Lists of Tables, Figures viii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.
Aims and Objectives of the Study 2 3. Scope of the Study 2 5. Method of the Study 3 6. Significance of the Study 3 7.
Design of the Study 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1 : LITERATURE REVIEW 1. What is vocabulary? 5 1. The role of vocabulary in second language learning 5 1. The vocabulary techniques 7 1.
Vocabulary activities and exercises 9 1. Criteria of a good vocabulary exercise 10 1. Matching exercises and the improvements of vocabulary 11 1. Summary 16 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 2.
Data collection 17 iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Pretest and posttest 17 2. Subject of the Study 19 2. Rationale for using a Quasi-experimental method 19 2.
Designing and applying matching exercises 20 2. Summary 23 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 3. The Effect of matching exercises on students’ English vocabulary 23 improvements 3. Students’ attitudes towards matching exercises 24 3.
Vocabulary gains as resulted from the application of matching 28 exercises 28 3. Students’ opinions on matching exercises 28 3. Summary 30 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR STUDENTS’ ENGLISH VOCABULARY IMPROVEMENTS 4. Suggestions to improve students’ English vocabulary learning 31 4.
Present new vocabulary for the first time 31 4. Establish previously learned vocabulary 31 4. Enrich previously learned vocabulary 31 4. Develop strategies of learning vocabulary 32 4.
Develop fluency with known vocabulary 32 4. Guide students’ home revision 33 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Recommendations for the application of matching exercises 33 4. Summary 35 PART C: CONCLUSION 1.
Summary of main findings 37 2. Limitations of the study 38 3. Suggestions for further study 38 REFERENCES APPENDICES Appendix I: Test Scores Appendix II: Vocabulary pretest & key Appendix III: Vocabulary posttest &key Appendix IV: The Questionnaire vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS df Degree of Freedom DTH Dinh Tien Hoang EFL English as Foreign Language ESL English as Second Language L1 First Language L2 Second Language M Means N Number of Cases or Subjects of the study p Probability of chance (indicator of significance) SD Standard Deviation SPSS Statistic Package for Social Science t Obtained Value tcrit Critic Value vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 3.1 Descriptive statistics for the pretest and posttest of experimental and control groups.2 Means gains of the experimental group and control groups after the experiment.1 The differences between the means scores on the paired pretest and the paired posttests.2 Differences in gain values obtained by both groups after the experiment viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Rationale Vocabulary knowledge has an important role in almost all areas of language learning.
According to Nation (2001), “vocabulary learning is not a goal in itself; it is done to help learners listen, speak, read, or write more effectively” (p. Therefore, learning a language depends on learning its vocabulary. Stoller and Grabe (1993) stated that development of vocabulary knowledge is highly necessary for both native and nonnative speakers. Hulstijn et al.
(2005) believed that “If one does not know the meaning of the words occurring in a text, understanding is severely hampered” (p. Hence, learners should pay attention to the words as a part of a message and individual words as well (Nation, 2001). Reality shows that many students have fairly good knowledge of grammar but are hardly able to express themselves properly because of their vocabulary deficiency. Vocabulary learning, therefore, becomes the central to language acquisition and interest in its role in second language learning has grown rapidly in recent years.
Scholars and teachers now emphasize the need of systematic and principled approach to vocabulary by both the teacher and the learner (Decarrico, 2001; Nation, 1990). One of the concerns in vocabulary is how to help students acquire their English vocabulary. However, at senior secondary schools, the teaching and learning of English language in general, English vocabulary in particular are still far from satisfaction as students’ final results in most English examinations remain unchanged at low levels. In fact, most secondary school students have not paid enough attention to vocabulary learning as they mainly receive basic lessons of grammar together with four skills from their teachers and textbooks.
Many grade 10 students’ English vocabulary is still limited even though they have learned English for four years at the lower secondary school. It is their limited vocabulary that explains their poor performance in using English and in their test performance. It is common knowledge that there are various techniques of learning vocabulary, mastering and using it in different contexts and one of the effective 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com techniques to help students to reinforce vocabulary is giving them appropriate vocabulary exercises, namely, matching exercises. This type of vocabulary exercises typically consists of two sets of items to be matched with each other for a specified attribute.
With the hope of helping the 10th form students to learn vocabulary better, since then develop their English competence, I have decided to conduct this quasi-experimental research on the topic given, namely “An Investigation into the Effect of Matching Exercises on the 10th form students’ Vocabulary Improvements at Dinh Tien Hoang High School in Ninh Binh City. Aims and Objectives of the Study The main aim of this study is to experiment matching exercises in helping grade 10 students acquire their English vocabulary. The main objectives of the study are set as follows: To conduct a research on matching exercises’ effects on grade 10 students’ English vocabulary improvements. To investigate the students’ attitudes towards matching exercises, i.
how effective they think doing matching exercises is towards their English vocabulary learning. To propose some suggestions to help the 10th form students learn English vocabulary better. Research Questions In order to achieve the aims and objectives, the study addressed the two following research questions: (1) What effect do matching exercises have on students’ English vocabulary improvements? (2) What are the students’ attitudes towards matching exercises after the research period? 4. Scope of the Study The experiment was conducted to examine the impact of one type of vocabulary exercises, i., matching exercises on students’ vocabulary improvements.
The sample was a small group of grade 10 students who were non- 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com randomly assigned to a control class and an experimental class. Method of the Study Because the purpose of the study is to test out the impact of matching exercises on students’ vocabulary improvements, a quasi-experiment with a pre-test and post-test design was selected in this study. In addition, a post-experiment questionnaire was also used as the supplementary instrument to elicit the students’ evaluative attitudes towards matching exercises after the research period. Significance of the Study Despite these limitations, the researcher strongly believes that the research is successful to some extent.
Though this is just a small-scaled study on the issue, it may provide some helpful suggestions for high school teachers of English in teaching English vocabulary in general and in helping students acquire English vocabulary in particular. If learning English is in comparison with building a house, vocabulary is considered as good bricks. Hence, we ourselves have to pick up new words and structures everyday to perform smoothly and confidently. Similarly, source of language is like a pocket.
Therefore, we are needed to pick up assiduously vocabulary to put into our pocket until we feel that it is full enough. However, for further studies, maybe there should be some research in a longer period of time and on a larger scale. Besides, matching exercises can be used to teach grammatical structures and other language skills.