MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITYOF FOREIGN LANGUAGES LE BAO LONG AN INVESTIGATION INTO RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES AND VOCABULARY SIZE AND READING COMPREHENSION AT HUE UNIVERSITY 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 LE BAO LONG AN INVESTIGATION INTO RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES AND VOCABULARY SIZE AND READING COMPREHENSION AT HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60. TON NU NHU HUONG HUE, 2016 i BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ LÊ BẢO LONG NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ MỐI QUAN HỆ GIỮA CHIẾN LƢỢC HỌC TỪ VỰNG, KÍCH THƢỚC TỪ VỰNG VÀ ĐỌC HIỂU TẠI TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ HUẾ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƢƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.11 NGƢỜI HƢỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS. TÔN NỮ NHƢ HƢƠNG HUẾ, 2016 ii STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP The work contained in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, my thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.
Signed: Le Bao Long Date: 19/12/2016 iii ABSTRACT Students‟ knowledge of words meaning of the language plays an important role in order to communicate in English. Vocabulary is an essential constituent of second language acquisition and is of great significance to language learners. Second language learners use their own learning strategies to acquire vocabulary so as to know meaning of a word in a new language. Vocabulary knowledge is basic to reading comprehension.
Learners cannot understand the text without knowing what most of the meaning of the words in the text. Therefore, vocabulary knowledge is inevitable for reading, which is a very important skill for reading achievement of university students. However, there is no research focusing on relationship between vocabulary learning strategies and vocabulary size and reading comprehension in Vietnam context. Therefore, this study proposed to investigate the relationships between students‟ vocabulary learning strategies and vocabulary size and their reading ability.
The study is conducted at Hue University of Foreign Languages with the second year English major students. Questionnaires and tests were used as the main methods for data collection. The findings of the research project show that most of the students are aware of the importance of some effective strategies in learning vocabulary. With regard to the vocabulary learning strategies, if the students often used them frequently and effectively, their vocabulary size would be improved considerably, thus it will enhance their own reading comprehension ability.
The findings could be a significant contribution to English teaching and learning in EFL classrooms. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This research could not have been completed without the help and support from a number of people who all deserve my sincere gratitude. Firstly, I would like to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor Dr. Ton Nu Nhu Huong, from Hue University of Foreign Languages, for her valuable instructions and comments, for her close guidance, criticism, and her generous help in the process of completing my thesis.
Secondly, my special thanks also go to the second year English major students at Hue University of Foreign Languages. I greatly appreciate their spirit with their time and efforts in filling questionnaires and with willing participation in doing tests. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for their special care and support. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Pages SUB COVER PAGE.i STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP.
ii TABLE OF CONTENTS .vi LIST OF TABLES. viii LIST OF CHARTS.ix LIST OF ABBREVIATION. Aims of the research. The scope of the research.
The significance of the research. Structure of the thesis. Definitions of key terms. Vocabulary learning strategies.
Reading comprehension and Vocabulary size. Previous research in the field. Vietnamese students of English at tertiary level. The vocabulary learning strategies questionnaire.
The vocabulary size test. The reading comprehension test. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. Vocabulary learning strategies.
The importance of vocabulary in reading comprehension. Frequency of students‟ using strategies in learning vocabulary. Vocabulary learning strategies frequently used by the students. The relationships between Vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) and Vocabulary size (VS) and Reading comprehension (RC).
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS. Summary of findings and Conclusions. Limitations of the study. Suggestions for further study.
65 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Schmitt‟s taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies .2: The taxonomy of vocabulary learning according to both the Oxford (1990) system and Discovery/ Consolidation distinction of the Schmitt (1997) system.3: Vocabulary sizes needed to get 98% coverage (including proper nouns) of various kinds of texts (Nation, 2006) .4: Vocabulary size and text coverage in the Brown corpus .1: Vocabulary size score and learning procedures- Nation & Beglar (2007).1: Vocabulary Learning Strategies in the Questionnaire.2: Students‟ using of Determination strategies in vocabulary learning .3: Students‟ using of Social strategies in vocabulary learning .4: Students‟ using Memory strategies in vocabulary learning .5: Students‟ using Cognitive strategies in vocabulary learning .6: Students‟ using MET strategies in vocabulary learning.7: The vocabulary size test .8 The relationships between Vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) and Vocabulary size (VS) and Reading comprehension (RC). 54 viii LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.1: The importance of vocabulary in reading comprehension .2: Frequency of students‟ using strategies in learning vocabulary. 38 ix LIST OF ABBREVIATION EFL : English as a Foreign Language e., : Exempli gratia (for example) HUFL : Hue University of Foreign Languages L1 : The First Language or The Mother Tongue L2 : The Second Language N : Number Ss : Students x CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1. The rationale Students‟ knowledge of words meaning of the language plays an important role in order to communicate in English.
Krashen and Terrel (1983) claim, using language for communication, second language learners have to know vocabulary as a basic instrument to convey meaning. Vocabulary is an essential constituent of second language acquisition and is of great significance to language learners.5) confirmed that, “Vocabulary is central to language and of critical importance to the typical language learner”. From this point of view, it can be said that vocabulary play an important role of a language, as Read (2000, p.1), “ Words are the basic blocks of language, the units of meaning from which larger structures such as sentences, paragraphs and the whole texts are formed”. In other words, learning vocabulary is the most important basis to gain all other skills.
Whereas, vocabulary deficiency leads to, poor listening comprehension, poor writing performance, poor conversational competence and poor grammar knowledge, especially poor reading comprehension. Thus, learning vocabulary is very essential for second language students. Language learners know the importance of words in a language, but they may or may not be aware of the fact that vocabulary learning strategies can help them to learn vocabulary successfully. Also, scholars have attempted to link these strategies with language learning skills believing that each strategy enhances learning of vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.
For Nation (1990), the most important way to learn vocabulary is to use learners‟ independent strategies. As a result, vocabulary learning strategies are one of the methods that can help students improve their own vocabulary effectively. In fact, second language learners use their own learning strategies to acquire vocabulary so as to know the meaning of a word in a new language. Vocabulary 1 learning strategy is claimed as an instrument that learners use to acquire vocabulary which is one of important elements of learning English as a second language.
Learners can use different learning strategies that they believe to be effective learning strategies. Successful learners use more effective learning strategies than unsuccessful learners do. Moreover, Ellis (1997) also claims that the right and dynamic strategies the learners employ influence their satisfactory academic performance. According to Adam (1996), at university students learn mostly from a variety of reading sources, reading textbooks and other academic sources for getting information.
Vocabulary size is basic to reading comprehension. Learners cannot understand the text without knowing what most of the meaning of the words in the text. According to Nagy (1988), vocabulary knowledge is a serious problem for second language learners. Therefore, vocabulary knowledge is inevitable for reading, which is a very important skill for reading achievement of university students.
A number of studies in both L1 and L2 have demonstrated that vocabulary size is one of the best predictors of reading ability and the ability to acquire new information from text (Anderson, 2000; Nation, 2001; Qian, 2002; Read, 2000). Similarly, Grabe and Stroller (2001) emphasize the role of large vocabulary knowledge in reading comprehension. Furthermore, Stahl (2003) says that the relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension is a “robust” one and vocabulary knowledge has consistently been the “foremost predicator of a text‟s difficulty (p. Consequently, it can be seen clearly the close relationship between vocabulary learning strategies, vocabulary size and reading comprehension.
Some researchers (Wimolkasem, 1992; Suthiwartnarueput, 2004; Siriwan, 2007; Mongkol, 2008) have mostly concentrated on exploring a pair-relationship between learners‟ vocabulary learning strategies and their vocabulary knowledge in second language vocabulary acquisition in the Thai context. Gu and Johnson (1996) aim to establish the vocabulary learning strategies used by Chinese university learners of English and the relationship between their strategies and outcomes in learning English. The results show that Chinese university learners use a variety of 2 metacognitive vocabulary strategies. Wen and Johnson (1997) investigates the vocabulary learning strategies in their study of the relationship between learner variables and English vocabulary learning strategies achievement by means of interview and diary.
They find out that students are using psycholinguistic strategies (memory and cognitive) and metacognitive strategies very often. Wu and Wang's (1998) study is remarkably comprehensive in investigating vocabulary learning strategies used by non-English learners. They find that Chinese learners are active strategy users employing a large variety of vocabulary learning strategies on both metacognitive and psycholinguistic strategy, which partially confirms Gu and Johnson's (1996) findings. Zhang (2001) attempts to find out the characteristics of vocabulary learning strategies used by the non-English major graduate students and the difference between the stage of "general academic English learning" and" professional English learning".
Zhang finds that in the stage of "general academic English learning", the graduates use more psycholinguistic and metacognitive strategies and use them more frequently than those in the stage of “professional English learning”. However, there is no research focusing on the relationship between vocabulary learning strategies and vocabulary size and reading comprehension in Vietnam context. Therefore, this study proposed to investigate the relationships between students‟ vocabulary learning strategies and vocabulary size and their reading ability. On the other hand, as students who major in English realize the important effect of vocabulary language strategies on learning English as a foreign language.
For Nation (1990), the most important way to learn vocabulary is to use learners‟ independent strategies. In Nation‟s recent publication, vocabulary strategy training is suggested to be part of a vocabulary development program. Thus, students‟ knowledge of words meaning of the language is very important According to Schmitt and Schmitt (1995), the best vocabulary teaching plan may be to introduce a variety of vocabulary learning strategies to students so that they can decide for themselves on the ones they prefer. 3 As vocabulary learning strategies play an essential part in reading comprehension, it is necessary to do a research on this matter to reflect the relationships between vocabulary learning strategies, vocabulary size and reading comprehension.
This is the researcher‟s interest that results in his carrying out the study titled “An Investigation into Relationships between Vocabulary Learning Strategies and Vocabulary Size and Reading Comprehension at Hue University of Foreign Languages”.