VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES -----O0O----- QUẢN THỊ MINH NGUYỆT DEVELOPING SUPPLEMENTARY VOCABULARY ACTIVITIES TO ENHANCE VOCABULARY RETENTION FOR TENTH GRADE STUDENTS AT A HIGH SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCE. Phát triển các hoạt động bổ trợ học từ vựng để cải thiện vốn từ vựng của học sinh lớp 10 tại một trường THPT Bắc Ninh M. MINOR PROGRAM THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231. Vu Thi Thanh Nha Hanoi 2019 i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com DECLARATION I hereby certify the thesis entitled “Developing supplementary vocabulary activities to enhance vocabulary retention for tenth grade students at a high school in Bac Ninh province.” as my own work in the fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
Bac Ninh, 2019 Student‟s signature Quan Thi Minh Nguyet ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For the very beginning part, I wish to give a bunch of thank to a number of people for their contribution to my paper. First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr. Vu Thi Thanh Nha, my research supervisor, for her patient guidance, and enthusiastic encouragement for this research work. Thanks for her comprehensive instruction, I could broaden my knowledge about the research field.
Had not been for her helps, I could not have finished my study properly. Secondly, my grateful thanks are also extended to Ms. Le Thi Lien – my supervisor in my training at Thuan Thanh 3 high school for her assistance in keeping my progress on schedule and supporting me in collecting data for my paper. Finally, I wish to thank my family for their support and encouragement throughout my study.
iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com ABSTRACT It can be understood that vocabulary is a key point in learning English. As a teacher of English for high school students, I am highly aware of vocabulary acquisition function for my students. They are from rural district with quite low level of English. In addition, they have obstacles with words when they are learning English because of lacking vocabulary.
Therefore, they could face with a number of difficulties learning vocabulary effectively. As a teacher, I want to find out a solution to this problem in my class. It results a need for more supplementary activities to enhance students‟ vocabulary retention. Aiming to achieve my goals, I prefer action research with helps me in finding out the effectiveness of supplementary activities on my students, and their attitudes towards those activities.
That using digital flashcards and paper flashcards is expected to support students‟ vocabulary retention. Observation and questionnaire are research tools which help me to carry out my study. Due to the limitattion of the study, the participants includes 45 students in the practitioner‟s class, quite a small number. After an eight-week study, the practitioner gets some positive feedback of the students, and the students‟ output is a little better; their desire to the adjustment is an encouragement.
By applying some supplementary activities to enhance students‟ vocabulary retention, she hopes to help and suggest some effective vocabulary learning and teaching activities. Therefore, she does expect that her findings would be the hints for further investigation in vocabulary retention as well. Although the study time is not quite long, she would carefully review and think of later study. iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.
iv TABLE OF CONTENTS. v LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES. viii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION .1 Rationale of the study. Aims of the study .3 Scope of the study .5 Organization of the thesis.
3 CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE .1 Concepts of vocabulary.1 Definition of vocabulary .2 Classification of vocabulary.1 Vocabulary classification according to frequency of use. Vocabulary classification according to meaning .3 Aspect of vocabulary to be taught in class. Pronunciation and spelling .2 The role of vocabulary in language teaching and learning .3 Currently techniques in vocabulary teaching .4 The use of dictionary. 15 v LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.4 Quizlet and flashcard as new vocabulary teaching and learning tools .2 Types of memories.
19 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY. Reason to choose action research .2 Phases of action research. Participants of the study .3 Data collection instruments. Procedures of the research study .1 Plan: Planning the action .2 Act: Putting the plan into action .3 Observe: Observing the results of the plan .4 Reflect: Reflecting and planning for further action.
33 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. Current difficulties that students might face in their vocabulary retention .1 Difficulties that students might face .2 Aspects of vocabulary to be taught .3 The most frequently used techniques to teach vocabulary. 37 vi LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.2 Supplementary activities to enhance students’ vocabulary retention and their attitude .1 Supplementary activities to enhance students‟ vocabulary retention .1 The first cycle: applying paper flashcards .2 The second cycle: applying digital flashcards .2 Students‟ attitude toward supplementary activities .1 Frequency of using supplementary activities prior to the study .2 Opinion of students on the effect of using DFs and PFs to teach vocabulary .3 Benefits of using supplementary activities in teaching vocabulary perceived by students .4 Difficulties of using supplementary activities to teach vocabulary perceived by students .5 The desire for using supplementary activities in vocabulary acquisition. Summary of the findings .2 Some suggestions for using flashcards and Quizlet to teach vocabulary .1 For the teachers.
For the students. Limitation of the study. Suggestions for further research. I APPENDIX 1: LESSON PLAN.
I APPENDIX 2: LESSON PLAN. V PHIẾU CÂU HỎI KHẢO SÁT. XIII vii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Action Research Spiral .24 Figure 2: Detailed Action Research Model .25 Figure 3: Students' difficulties in learning vocabulary .35 Figure 4: Aspects of vocabulary to be taught in a lesson.36 Figure 5: Teachers‟ major current vocabulary teaching methods .37 Figure 6: Frequency of using supplementary activities to teach vocabulary .42 Figure 7: Opinion of students on the effect of using supplementary activities to teach vocabulary.43 Figure 8: Benefits of using supplementary activities in teaching vocabulary perceived by students .44 Figure 9: Difficulties of using supplementary activities to teach vocabulary perceived by students .46 Figure 10: The desire for using supplementary activities in teaching vocabulary .48 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Benefits of using supplementary activities to enhance students‟ vocabulary as students‟ perception .44 Table 2: Difficulties of using supplementary activities to enhance students‟ vocabulary as students‟ perception .46 viii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of the study Mastering vocabulary plays an important role in learning a foreign language. It is because vocabulary carries content which constitutes a language itself.
Each word has its own notion, so having good vocabulary helps the learners understand well what they read and heard. The larger amount of vocabulary the learners acquire, the easier it takes to master language. When we have command of a language, it meant that we are able to manage vocabulary. It might be difficult for high school students, when they are at a beginning level, they might face difficulties with vocabulary learning.
It is obvious that if they have good vocabulary, they will use language more proficiently. In addition, their test requires definite range of vocabulary to pass. It is easy to understand that vocabulary needed for high school student is not very much, but there is a number of learners who can not find the way to master. It is obvious that vocabulary plays a very important role for learners of any language not English only, but learning vocabulary has not been paid attention enough yet.
Without vocabulary, language users can still communicate by other nonverbal means, but in tests they can not. In writing, vocabulary is a must for users. That is the reason learners should master vocabulary well. Some students learn by heart words when they are being marked on the following lesson, in other way, they still have not found out the importance of vocabulary in language learning.
When we do not have any course for vocabulary separately, mastering vocabulary depends on individual‟s perception. There are some students event do not understand basic words leading to be almost illiteracy. Joining English test, they choose the answer randomly without any responsibilities for their answer. In addition, there is no extra activity for vocabulary mastering.
With the aim to enhance vocabulary retention for students in some extension, a new study on which integrates some activities after class will be conducted. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. Aims of the study This study research aimed to enhance the students‟ vocabulary retention through supplementary activities. To achieve the objectives, the study answered the following research questions: 1) What challenges did the students have in learning vocabulary? 2) To what extent can supplementary vocabulary activities enhance the students’ vocabulary retention? 3) What are the students’ opinion towards those activities? 1.3 Scope of the study Due to the limited time as well as the limited scope of a graduation thesis, this research is only paying attention to the use of supplementary activities in teaching English vocabulary but not various kinds of teaching activities.
Also, the research was conducted on limited subjects of the grade 10th students at a high school in Bac Ninh province. As teaching for few weeks, the researcher found out the problems in vocabulary retention of students, she thought of any solutions to this problem. As soon as she figured out some supplementary activities which she thought they could help improve her students‟ vocabulary retention, she decided to choose action research method. It was helpful in this case because she could try the activities on her familiar participants.
She designed two cycles referring to two activities to improve students‟ vocabulary retention. After each cycle, she had review on the result, which might favorable in students‟ learning output.4 Methodology Aiming to deal with the current problem with students‟ vocabulary retention, the practitioner selected action research because she could make a test to apply other activities to affect the current class situation. In addition, she is the researcher who understands the problem and the participants the most. 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com The participants of the study are students at class she is currently teaching, which is quite familiar with the researcher, since she clearly knows their characteristics of vocabulary acquisition.
In order to achieve the targets of the study, she preferred questionnaire and observation as a tool. The data from survey as well as her observation are expected to answer for her research question.5 Organization of the thesis The graduation thesis minor consists of five chapters, organized as follows: Chapter I- Introduction: mentions the background to the study and rationale to conduct it, states the aims, scope, organization of the graduation thesis. Chapter II- Literature Review: represents theoretical background knowledge of vocabulary, current teaching vocabulary method and some new teaching method, and reviews some related researches. Chapter III- Methodology: states the subjects of the study, research instruments, as well as data collection procedures employed to carry out this research.
Chapter IV- Findings and discussions: analyzes and discusses the results collected from the classroom observation, survey questionnaire. Besides, the limitations of the study are introduced. Chapter V- Conclusion: summarizes what have been discussed in the previous parts, limitations of the thesis as well as provides some suggestions for further research. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE Vocabulary is known to play an important role in English learners to have a fluent use.