NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ENGLISH EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE ON READING COMPREHENSION OF STUDENTS IN THE FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES Hanoi, March 2023 NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS ENGLISH EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE ON READING COMPREHENSION OF STUDENTS IN THE FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES SUPERVISOR: DO THI KIEU LAN, M. Hanoi, March 2023 Nguyễn Thị Dương- 11191268- Business English 61B TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES CHAPTER I. Background of the research. Purposes of the research oo.
Scope of the T€S€ATCH.- -- G1919 TH TH nh 4 1. Structure of the r€S€ATCH. 5 139 1n TT TH HH nh 4 CHAPTER II. Overview of vocabulary and reading comprehenSIOn.
Summary of related res€arCHh. «s11 1111911191119 1111 HH HH HH 8 2. Overview of the internship DÏAC. National Economics nIV€TSIKY.- --- «cv vn nh ng ngư 11 2.
Faculty of Foreign Language, Department of Business English. Framework to evaluate the impact of vocabulary on reading of students in Faculty of Foreign Language 0. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 20 SN. Data collection DFOC€CUT.
DATA ANALYSIS, DISCUSSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS22 4. Data anaÌyS1S.- HH HH Họ HH nh nưkp 22 VNĐ Lái 0((VìaaÝ.ceeececcccccccccccceesssssssssccecessccccecesessessscsceesssssceceessesesesescteeesesecess 32 Nguyễn Thị Dương- 11191268- Business English 61B 4. Recommendations for students to improve lexical resOULCeS. Suggestions for improving teaching approachh.---- eee ese ceeeeeeeseeeeeseees 37 CHAPTER V.
Limitations and suggestions for further res€arCHh.- - -- +s + ksseeseekeeske 42 REFERENCES Nguyễn Thị Dương- 11191268- Business English 61B ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks to the support and encouragement of many people, the research has been finished successfully. First and foremost, I'd want to thank my supervisor, Mrs. Do Thi Kieu Lan, for her enthusiastic support, patience, valuable guidance, and invaluable recommendations throughout the study process. Working and studying under her supervision was a huge privilege and honor for me.
Apart from my supervisor's assistance, I'd like to convey my sincere thanks to Mrs. Le Thi Thu Ha. - the lecturer of the reading class that I attend because of her constructive advice and support during my internship time. The research will not be finished without the responses and sharing opinions of students in the Faculty of Foreign Language to my survey questionnaire.
Additionally, I am grateful to the authors of earlier study and materials that I consulted while performing the research. Next, I would like to thank the Faculty of Foreign Language, National Economics University where teachers and officers are always willing to help me when I have difficulty and provide me with necessary teaching materials during my internship period. Last but not least, I want to thank everyone who has helped and motivated me to finish the research, both directly and indirectly. Nguyễn Thị Dương- 11191268- Business English 61B LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS No Abbreviation Equivalent 1 AFL Arabic as-foreign language learners 2 GPT Generative Pre-training Transformer 3 ect.
Et cetera 4 et al And other 5 e. For example 6 EFL English as a Foreign Language 7 FFL Faculty of Foreign Language 8 NEU National Economics University 9 WF Word form 10 WM Word meaning 11 WU Word usage Nguyễn Thị Dương- 11191268- Business English 61B LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 2. Knowing a word 17 Table 2. Aspects of the word 18 Figure 2.
Proposal framework of word aspects affecting reading comprehension 19 Figure 4. Participants Demographics 22 Figure 4. Time students spend on self-learning English per day 23 Figure 4. Time students spend on self-learning vocabulary per day 23 Figure 4.
The importance of learning vocabulary in learning English 24 Figure 4. The importance of vocabulary in reading comprehension 25 Figure 4. Data analysis about the importance each aspect 26 Figure 4. Data analysis about the challenge of each aspect 27 Figure 4.
Data analysis of word form 27 Figure 4. Data analysis of word meaning 29 Figure 4. Data analysis of word usage 30 Figure 4. The Forgetting Curve 35 Figure 4.
Spaced Repetition Method 35 Figure 4. Illustration of Kahoot Game Code 38 Figure 4. Illustration of Kahoot game 38 Figure 4. Illustration of Kahoot game 39 Figure 4.
Constructive feedback samples 40 Nguyễn Thị Dương- 11191268- Business English 61B CHAPTER I. Background of the research With more than 1.5 billion speakers worldwide, English is the most popular language by the number of speakers. Because of the country's rapid economic integration with the rest of the globe, English is without a doubt the foreign language most commonly used in Vietnam at the moment. A wide range of colleges and institutions in Vietnam have established English result requirements as a major mandatory graduation criterion, including National Economics University (NEU).
Thus, this is both a challenge and opportunity for the NEU students to overcome and dominate. Using this international language fluently is one of the leading linguistic goals for them in the current context of globalization, not only to meet the graduation requirement but also serve for communication and business with people from different parts of the world, which support their personal and professional development. Meanwhile, practicing English is a part of commendatory requirements for students majoring in Faculty of Foreign Language (FFL) who have studied a wide range of different subjects whose materials or textbooks are served by English language on a regular basis. As a result, English reading comprehension is a highly required skill, by which students can enrich their insights into subjects and be well-prepared for each examination.
To learn a language effectively, understanding the components forming a language which consists of three main factors: vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar is of vital importance for learners. Apart from pronunciation and grammar, knowledge of vocabulary plays a key role for boosting language skill. Particularly to reading skill, vocabulary is the crucial input source for reading comprehension of students because it helps them understand the meaning of words and phrases in different contexts. A large number of vocabularies allows students to process and understand text more easily, making them better readers.
When students encounter unfamiliar words while reading, it can cause confusion and hinder reading comprehension. As a result, the level of understanding vocabulary is essential for academic success and particularly has an enormous impact on 1 Nguyễn Thị Dương- 11191268- Business English 61B reading comprehension of students. In fact, reading comprehension is the combination of different factors including background knowledge, reading skills and vocabulary knowledge. Besides the other two elements, I pay high attention to the factor concerning vocabulary knowledge which could often trouble students most.
As a student, I understand how vocabulary is crucial to reading comprehension. This is due to understanding a wide range of vocabulary, students can gain better reading acquisition. In contrast, lack of vocabulary could cause students to have a lot of difficulty to complete reading comprehension. In fact, students have a large number of new words to learn in every unit with a variety of topics, which requires students to put a lot of effort and time as well as a productive learning method to exploit vocabulary in each topic.
However, the proportion of time spent on the class is about seventy-five minutes per lesson, not sufficient enough for them to learn new words as well as at the same time complete reading tasks which often contain a large workload in every unit. On top of that, building vocabulary is a long journey and requires a great deal of effort and time to practice, which not all the students actually pay high attention to and are willing to prioritize in their limited self-learning time. On the other hand, other learners are mindful of the need of learning vocabulary, but they have not discovered effective techniques for dealing with that large number of new words. This can lead to some problems such as students not remembering the words they have learned before or they often cannot recall a word although it seems to be familiar, ect.
Because of these concerns, assessing the effect of vocabulary on reading comprehension has become a strong driver inspiring the author to do the research "Evaluating the impact of vocabulary on reading comprehension of students in the Faculty of Foreign Language" in order to understand the level by which vocabulary have influence on the reading comprehension. Therefore, based on the outcomes, the research is expected to raise the awareness of FFL students in learning vocabulary and recommend the selective learning methods to enrich vocabulary that they can apply to boost their reading comprehension and give teaching suggestions that teachers could consider to construct an effective lesson. Nguyễn Thị Dương- 11191268- Business English 61B 1. Rationale This research is conducted for the following reasons.
Firstly, the researcher desires to bridge the gap in the research field of learning English vocabulary, and evaluates the effective level of vocabulary on students' reading comprehension. Secondly, as a student, vocabulary is also a big trouble for me as well as other students throughout the course of acquiring English and improving reading comprehension. As a result, I hope the findings of this research could gain a certain contribution for raising the awareness of FFL students’ in learning vocabulary and improving English skill of students in my Faculty of Foreign Language. Based on the mentioned reasons, this study “Evaluating the impact of vocabulary on reading comprehension of students in the Faculty of Foreign Language" is conducted.
Purposes of the research The primary goal of this research is to look into the association between vocabulary and reading comprehension among FFL students at National Economics University, specifically how the three aspects of vocabulary including word form, meaning and usage impact on the process of reading comprehension. In addition, FFL students are given some practical advice for expanding their lexical resources. Research questions This research is conducted to answer the following questions: The first research question: What effect does vocabulary knowledge have on students’ reading comprehension at the Faculty of Foreign Language? To answer this question, the researcher identifies the answer of three specific questions below: How does the aspect of word form affect students’ reading comprehension? How does the aspect of word meaning affect students’ reading comprehension? Nguyễn Thị Dương- 11191268- Business English 61B How does word use affect students' reading comprehension? The second research question: What are the suggestions for students to enrich their lexical resources? 1. Scope of the research The research aims to discover the effect of vocabulary on text comprehension of students majoring in the Faculty of Foreign Language, National Economics University.
The survey comprises the engagement of 72 students who have currently been in the second semester of the academic year 2022-2023 at the faculty. Research methods Survey questionnaires are used to acquire primary data from students majoring in the Faculty of Foreign Language at National Economics University. Participants can exhibit their personal thoughts and attitudes to evaluate how vocabulary effects their reading comprehension using an online survey sample consisting of a series of questions pertaining to the issue. As a result of the survey's performance, the researcher can collect data objectively.
The data obtained during the investigation is examined and used strategically in incorporating areas of the study. Secondary data is collected from a variety of published studies through desk research, which is the main source of reference for literature review. As a result, the researcher can gain an overview about the topic and define the main topic of the intended research as well as give understanding of related terminology which has appeared during the process of undertaking the research. Structure of the research This research is divided into five chapters.
The first chapter is an introduction that covers the study's rationale, purpose, research questions, scope, method, and design. The second chapter is a literature study, which deals with the ideas of vocabulary and related terminology, reviewing past studies linked to the topic vocabulary and its impact on student 4 Nguyễn Thị Dương- 11191268- Business English 61B learning English and reading comprehension in Vietnam and overseas.