VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THỊ MAI LIÊN A STUDY ON THE ROLE OF USING VIETNAMESE IN TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO THE 10TH FORM ETHNIC MINORITY STUDENTS AT VUNG CAO VIET BAC HIGH SCHOOL Nghiên cứu về vai trò của việc sử dụng tiếng Việt trong dạy từ vựng tiếng Anh cho học sinh dân tộc thiểu số lớp 10 tại trường PT Vùng Cao Việt Bắc M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ********************* NGUYỄN THỊ MAI LIÊN A STUDY ON THE ROLE OF USING VIETNAMESE IN TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO THE 10TH FORM ETHNIC MINORITY STUDENTS AT VUNG CAO VIET BAC HIGH SCHOOL Nghiên cứu về vai trò của việc sử dụng tiếng Việt trong dạy từ vựng tiếng Anh cho học sinh dân tộc thiểu số lớp 10 tại trường PT Vùng Cao Việt Bắc M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY CODE: 60140111 SUPERVISOR: DƯƠNG ĐỨC MINH, PhD. Hanoi, 2014 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I, Nguyễn Thị Mai Liên, certify that the work presented in this study " A study on the role of using Vietnamese in teaching English vocabulary to the 10th form ethnic minority students at Vung Cao Viet Bac High School" is the result of my own research and the material has not been submitted either in whole or in part for any degree to any other university or institution. Hanoi, August, 2014 Student‟s signature Nguyễn Thị Mai Liên In my capacity as supervisor of the candidate's thesis, I certify that the above statements are true to the best of my knowledge. Supervisor Duong Duc Minh, Ph.
i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS On the completion of this thesis, I greatfully express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Duong Duc Minh who gave me his precious comments, expert advice and most of his kind encouragement during my doing research. Also, I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to all of the lecturers and the staff of the Department of Post-Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for their valuable lectures and supports. I am greatly indebted to my colleagues and students at Vung Cao Viet Bac high school for their enthusiasm, helpfulness, care and patience towards my interviews which grant great contributions for my thesis.
Finally, I would like to express my special thanks to my parents, my husband and other members in my family for their love, care, support and encouragement so that I could accomplish my study. ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT The use of the first language in foreign language teaching and learning has long been a controversial issue. However, as a common phenomenon in English language learning, the influence of the first language can not be ignored especially with low proficiency learners. This paper aims at providing the evidence to the role of using the first language (Vietnamese) in vocabulary teaching and learning process.
For these purposes, nearly 200 students of four classes of grade 10th and 6 teachers of English Department at Vung Cao Viet Bac high school were participants of the research. Three research tools were used to gather the data: questionnaire, interview and observation. The findings of the research were totally true to the research hypotheses. First, Vietnamese is still widely used to teach and learn vocabulary by teachers and students of Vung Cao Viet Bac high school.
Frequent using of Vietnamese for words‟ explanation, habit of using bilingual dictionary to look up new words and doing translation exercises to practice new words are the evidences for the findings. Most of participants found using Vietnamese effective to their teaching and learning vocabulary, therefore they often apply it to improve vocabulary acquisition. iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS L1 : First language L2 : Second language ESL: English as a second language iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1. 26 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.
iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES .v TABLE OF CONTENTS. vi PART A: INTRODUCTION. Rationale of the Study.
The Aims of the Study. The Scope of the Study. The Methods of the Study. Design of the Study .4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .1 What is Vocabulary? .2 The roles of Vocabulary in Second Language Acquisison .3 Approaches to Vocabulary Teaching .4 Explicit and Incidental Vocabulary Learning.2 L1 and Translation in Second Vocabulary Language Teaching .1 Translation Method in Language Teaching .2 The Roles of First Language on the Second Language .3 The Use of Translation to Facilitate Vocabulary Teaching .4 Empirical Studies of Translation Method in Vocabulary Teaching and Learning.
Participants and Setting of the Study .15 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Data Collection Instruments .2 Data Collection Procedures .3 Data Analysis Procedure .18 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .1 Findings and Discussion of Survey Questionnaires .1 Analysis of Teacher Questionnaires‟ Results: .2 Analysis of Student Questionnaires‟ Results: .2 Findings and Discussion of Class Observations .3 Findings and Discussion of Interviews.1 Summary of Teachers‟ Interviews. Limitations of the Study. Suggestions for Further Study.I vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1.
Rationale of the Study Vocabulary forms the biggest part of the meaning of any language, and it is the biggest problem for most learners, as described by Mc Carthy (“Interview”, 2001:2, cited in Fan, 2003:222). Mc Carthy firmly believes that language is lexis-driven, and therefore, vocabulary learning is the real key to second language learning. He claims that learners will be more successful if they can develop their own techniques and disciplines for vocabulary learning. Therefore, an effective approach to vocabulary is always one of the great concerns of every language teacher.
A recent study by Ramachandran and Rahim (2004) investigated the effectiveness of using the L1 translation in recalling the meaning and retention of the words with elementary level ESL. Their results indicated that the translation method through using the first language was more effective than the non-translation method in enhancing ESL learners‟ vocabulary learning ability, and it could improve elementary ESL learner‟s ability to recall the meaning of the word learnt. Auer Bach (1993) claims that the use of the learner‟s L1 in the L2 classroom will have a positive effect on learners‟ second language learning, especially in the area of vocabulary. Personally, the researcher is interested in the findings of many researchers including Nation (2001) and Kroll and Curley (1988) that new second language words are stored more effectively in the brain when they are linked to their first language equivalents.
At Vung cao Viet Bac High school, with more than 2,000 ethnic minority students coming from different minority groups, each ethnic group has its own language, but Vietnamese is nominated the national language. As far as I can observe, these learners are much in favour of using Vietnamese when learning English vocabulary. This has motivated me to carry out this study, which aims at finding the answer for the question about the real situation of using Vietnamese and its role in vocabulary teaching and learning. Hopefully, findings will reaffirm the use of L1 as a strategic teaching method within the field of vocabulary acquisition.
Furthermore, it is to partially help English foreign language teachers have a reflection on their teaching practice. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The Aims of the Study The research is aimed to investigate the role of using Vietnamese in teaching vocabulary to the 10th form students at Vung cao Viet Bac High School. The objectives of the study are: - to investigate how frequently Vietnamese is used in vocabulary teaching and learning of teachers and students.
- to explore the teachers and students‟ perceptions of the effectiveness of using Vietnamese in teaching and learning vocabulary 3. How is Vietnamese used in vocabulary teaching to 10th form students at Vung Cao Viet Bac High School? 2. How effective do teachers and students find the use of Vietnamese to their vocabulary teaching and learning? 4. The Scope of the Study The study limits itself to the role of using Vietnamese in teaching English Vocabulary.
The effectiveness of this technique would be explored from the perception of the students and teachers. The study was carried out only with tenth form students and the teachers who are in charge of English teaching to those students at Vung cao Viet Bac High school in Thai Nguyen 5. The Methods of the Study Both qualitative and quantitative research methods are used in this study, including Questionnaire, classroom observations and interviews. Questionnaires Both open-ended and close-ended questions were administered to 200 students and 6 English teachers to find out their perceived effectiveness of Vietnamese use on vocabulary teaching and learning.
Classroom Observations Five periods (of about 45 minutes in length) taught by different teachers were observed to find out how was Vietnamese used to teach vocabulary in the class. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Interviews Teacher interviews were conducted to obtain a better understanding of the teachers‟ perceptions towards the effectiveness of using Vietnamese in teaching English vocabulary. The interviews were transcribed fully and analyzed qualitatively. Design of the Study The author chose survey research to do this study because of many reasons.
First of all, the author could gather a great number of opinions from participants. As the aim of this study was to investigate the application of using Vietnamese in teaching English vocabulary, the researcher needed a big number of participants to get the most reliable result. The author could save a lot of time by getting the answers from delivering questionnaires in class and then interviewing some participants in person. The research adopted a mixed methodology – both qualitative and quantitative approaches in data collection and data analysis.
The study consisted of 5 chapters which covered the introduction of the research, the literature review, the methodology, findings and discussion and the conclusion chapter. There are three instruments which were used in this study, namely questionnaire, interview and observation. Therefore the author could have very reliable findings at the end. The questionnaires were delivered to all participants with both close questions and open questions so that they can specify their opinions.
The researcher did the observation on her own with the checklist at class. The interviews consisted of semi-structured interviews and free interviews. The researcher interviewed three teachers who had just taught the observed periods. Summary In this the first part, the author introduced the thesis with the aims that inspired her to conduct the study as well as the research questions.
The author also presented the scope of the study that the thesis‟s focus was the role of Vietnamese use in vocabulary teaching and learning so she did not pay attention equally to all lessons of the participants. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT Part B consists of three chapters: literature review; methodology and findings and discussion. CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter focuses on providing an overview of the theoretical knowledge relevant to the study including vocabulary and its roles in second language acquisition, recent research about teaching and learning second language vocabulary, L1 and translation in second vocabulary language teaching and the summaries of previous researches on closely –related topics.1 What is Vocabulary? Vocabulary is a matter which many linguists and language teachers have been concerned for a long time. Vocabulary is defined differently by different scholars.
Below some definitions of vocabulary that are relevant to the present study are introduced.