VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ KIM OANH USING SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS TO DEVELOP VOCABULARY FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT THE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY AND FOREIGN RELATION ECONOMY, HANOI (Sử dụng tài liệu đọc hiểu bổ trợ để phát triển từ vựng cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất tại trường Trung Cấp Công nghệ và Kinh tế đối ngoại, Hà Nội) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 140 111 Hanoi – 2015 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ KIM OANH USING SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS TO DEVELOP VOCABULARY FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT THE COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY AND FOREIGN RELATION ECONOMY, HANOI (Sử dụng tài liệu đọc hiểu bổ trợ để phát triển từ vựng cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất tại trường Trung Cấp Công nghệ và Kinh tế đối ngoại, Hà Nội) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 140 111 Supervisor: Assoc. Kiều Thị Thu Hương Hanoi – 2015 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION I certify that this minor thesis entitled “Using supplementary reading materials to develop vocabulary for first-year students at the College of Technology and Foreign Relation Economy, Hanoi”, which is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts, is the study of my own research and that the substance of this thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted for a degree to any other universities or institutions.
Hanoi, March 2015 Nguyen Thi Kim Oanh i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to express my deepest gratefulness to Assoc. Kiều Thị Thu Hương, my supervisor, who has given me great help with this study. Without her experienced guidance, valuable suggestions and dutiful supervision, my study would be far from finished. Next, my thanks are due to the lecturers and the staff of the Faculty of Post- Graduate Studies at University of Languages and International Studies – Vietnam National University for their useful lectures, careful guidance and enthusiasm, which fostered and nurtured my love of learning and doing research.
I take this opportunity to thank the teachers and students at the College of Technology and Foreign Relation Economy for their support and kind assistance during my study. I am also grateful to Assoc. Lê Văn Canh who has sent me documents and helped me to develop ideas for the study. Great acknowledgement is made to all authors of the books and the articles listed in the references whose ideas have inspired and stimulated my thinking and my writing of this study.
Last but not least, my thanks go to my family members and my best friends whose support and continual encouragement have been indispensable for the fulfillment of this challenging study. Hanoi, March 2015 Nguyen Thi Kim Oanh ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT In order to broaden students’ vocabulary, the researcher has planned to use supplementary reading materials in line with the core material. This study aims at developing vocabulary for first-year students at the College of Technology and Foreign Relation Economy through supplementary reading materials. It is based on a survey research to obtain its objectives.
The subjects of the study are 8 5 fi rs t- y ear students at the elementary level in the academic year of 2014-2015, and three classes have been observed. The data have been collected from two main sources: two sets of questionnaires and class observations. The results of the study show that there have been improvement in students’ vocabulary knowledge after students took part in the program. Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to use the supplementary reading materials besides the core material.
However, they should pay attention to the selection of suitable reading texts plus vocabulary-enhancement exercises and additional vocabulary exercises so as to develop students’ vocabulary. iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS - CTFRE: College of Technology and Foreign Relation Economy - L2: Second Language - EFL: English as a Foreign Language - ESL: English as a Second Language - SRP: Supplementary Reading Program iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF TABLES Table 1: First-year students’ syllabus…………………………………………….16 Table 2: Key points of 8 units taught for first-year students………………………17 Chart 1: Students’ attitudes towards the role of vocabulary in learning English….22 Chart 2: Students’ perceptions of the necessity of vocabulary development…….22 Table 3: The sources from which the students learn new words………………….23 Table 4: Students’ difficulties in learning new words…………………………….23 Chart 3: Students’ interests towards the teachers’ vocabulary teaching………….24 Table 5: Students’ attitudes towards supplementary reading materials……………25 Chart 4: Students’ assessment of the benefits of the supplementary reading materials……………………………………………………………….26 Chart 5: Students’ assessment of the benefits of the supplementary reading texts.27 Chart 6: Students’ assessment of their vocabulary knowledge gained through the SRP…………………………………………………………………….28 Table 6: Students’ perceptions of the effect of the SRP on their vocabulary knowledge………………………………………………………………28 Table 7: Students’ favorite topics in the supplementary reading texts…………….29 Table 8: Students’ suggestions for good supplementary reading texts…………….30 v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. iv LIST OF TABLES.
Rationale for the study. Aims of the study. Scope of the study. Significance of the study.
Design of the study. 4 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW. English vocabulary in EFL/ESL teaching and learning. Definitions of vocabulary.
Role of vocabulary in EFL/ESL teaching and learning. Components of vocabulary taught in class. Approaches to vocabulary learning. Incidental and intentional vocabulary learning.
Implicit and explicit vocabulary learning. Vocabulary development and reading comprehension. 9 vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Relationship between vocabulary and reading.
Supplementary reading materials. Definitions of supplementary materials. Criteria for selecting appropriate supplementary materials. 13 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.
Description of materials. Course book “New Headway Elementary”. First-year students’ syllabus. Supplementary reading materials.
Application of the supplementary reading program. Data collection instruments. Data collection procedures .20 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS, RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS. Students’ attitudes towards current vocabulary learning .Students’ attitudes towards supplementary reading materials.
Data collected from classroom observations. 29 vii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. Discussions of research questions. Students’ attitudes towards current vocabulary learning.
Students’ perceptions of supplementary reading materials. Suggestions for selecting the supplementary reading materials. Suggestions for teaching vocabulary. Limitations of the study.
Suggestions for further studies. I APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE I…………………………………………I APPENDIX 2: BẢNG CÂU HỎI ĐIỀU TRA. II APPENDIX 3: QUESTIONNAIRE II. III APPENDIX 4: BẢNG CÂU HỎI ĐIỀU TRA.
V APPENDIX 5: SUPPLEMENTARY READING MATERIALS. VIII viii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale for the study As Folse (2008:12) states “To improve their second language proficiency, English language learners need a solid knowledge of vocabulary. While a basic level of vocabulary will allow learners to communicate some ideas to a certain degree, better communication – whether in speaking/listening or writing/reading – can be accomplished when learners have acquired more vocabulary”.
Thus, vocabulary is a core component of language proficiency and provides the fundamental basis for learners to speak, listen, read, and write. In fact, for many students, vocabulary is the greatest threat of all. They cannot get their messages across because they do not have adequate vocabulary to make what they want to convey understood. Many students cannot do well in English as they possess a small vocabulary size.
At the College of Technology and Foreign Relation Economy, vocabulary has not been taught separately, but mixed with lessons of reading, speaking, writing or listening. Vocabulary is particularly important because students have to acquire a large amount of English vocabulary to do tests on reading, listening skills and they also need good vocabulary knowledge to express their ideas in writing and speaking. However, first-year students’ English vocabulary knowledge is still limited even though they have been learning English for seven years at secondary and high schools. As a result, they find it difficult to focus on learning English.
Some even say it is boring to learn English because their insufficient vocabulary is one of their biggest frustrations. In Vietnam, there have been few studies on the effectiveness of developing vocabulary through the supplementary reading materials so far. Hence, as a teacher of English at the College of Technology and Foreign Relation Economy, I realize the importance of finding out an effective method to develop students’ vocabulary, so I have decided to conduct the study entitled “Using supplementary reading 1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com materials to develop vocabulary for first-year students of the College of Technology and Foreign Relation Economy”. Aims of the study The study aims at exploring the use of supplementary reading materials to develop vocabulary for first-year students at the College of Technology and Foreign Relation Economy and to give recommendations on how to use supplementary reading materials efficiently.
The aims of the research are as follows: Finding out first-year students attitudes towards developing vocabulary, Examining first-year students’ perceptions of supplementary reading materials for vocabulary development. Research questions The study is carried out to answer the following research questions: 1. What are first-year students’ attitudes towards current vocabulary learning? 2. What are first-year students’ perceptions of supplementary reading materials for vocabulary development? 4.
Scope of the study The research only focuses on developing first-year students’ vocabulary through supplementary reading materials at the College of Technology and Foreign Relation Economy (CTFRE from now on). Given time constraint, the study has been conducted on first-year students in three classes only. Significance of the study This research has been done with the hope that it will help the teaching and learning English vocabulary for first-year students at CTFRE more effective. If this 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com way of teaching and learning vocabulary actually helps to develop students’ vocabulary knowledge, it can be applied to the teaching and learning of English at other colleges and universities.
Research methodology The methods used in the study are both qualitative and quantitative. In order to find out answers to the above research questions, two sets of questionnaire have been designed and delivered to 85 first-year students. The data have been collected, synthesized and analyzed. The questionnaires are about vocabulary activities and the supplementary reading materials to develop vocabulary.
Besides, more information needed for the study have been gathered through class observations at CTFRE. Design of the study This study includes three main parts, which are presented as follows: Part A is the introduction which includes the rationale for the research topic, aims and research questions, research methodology, scope, significance and design of the study. Part B is the development which consists of three chapters: Chapter 1 reviews some theoretical background relevant to the study. It includes general knowledge of English vocabulary in EFL/ESL teaching and learning and an overview of the supplementary reading materials.
Chapter 2 presents the research methodology. This chapter introduces the research context, subjects, materials, data collection instruments and procedures. Chapter 3 goes into details of data analysis, results and discussion. Part C is the conclusion which includes the major findings, recommendations, limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies.
3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter will review some background information relevant to this study. An overview of English vocabulary such as its definitions and components taught in class; role of vocabulary in EFL/ESL teaching and learning; and approaches to vocabulary is presented. Moreover, the relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension, some related studies on vocabulary acquisition through reading and some points on supplementary reading materials are also referred to. English vocabulary in EFL/ESL teaching and learning 1.
Definitions of vocabulary There have been different definitions of vocabulary.