MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY -------- ∞0∞-------- LY DUY NGUYEN THE APPLICATION OF THE FOUR STRANDS IN LEARNING VOCABULARY AT BINH PHU HIGH SCHOOL MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL HO CHI MINH CITY, 2022 Tai Lieu Chat Luong MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY -------- ∞0∞-------- LY DUY NGUYEN THE APPLICATION OF THE FOUR STRANDS IN LEARNING VOCABULARY AT BINH PHU HIGH SCHOOL Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Major code: 8 14 01 11 MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL Supervisor: NGUYEN THUY NGA, Ph. HO CHI MINH CITY, 2022 TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ CỘNG HÒA XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH Độc lập – Tự do – Hạnh phúc KHOA ĐÀO TẠO SAU ĐẠI HỌC GIẤY XÁC NHẬN Tôi tên là:……………LÝ DUY NGUYỄN …………………………………… Ngày sinh:……02/05/1993……………… Nơi sinh:…Tiền Giang………… Chuyên ngành: ……MTESOL………… Mã học viên: … 1781401110023. Tôi đồng ý cung cấp toàn văn thông tin luận án/ luận văn tốt nghiệp hợp lệ về bản quyền cho Thư viện trường đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh. Thư viện trường đại học Mở Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh sẽ kết nối toàn văn thông tin luận án/ luận văn tốt nghiệp vào hệ thống thông tin khoa học của Sở Khoa học và Công nghệ Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh.
Ký tên (Ghi rõ họ và tên) Lý Duy Nguyễn i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that the thesis entitles “The application of The Four Strands in learning Vocabulary at Binh Phu High School” is my original work. All resources used in the thesis have been documented. The work has not been submitted to Open University or elsewhere. Ho Chi Minh, February 28th, 2022 Ly Duy Nguyen ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest appreciation to those who helped me struggle with this thesis, without which I could not finish the thesis whenever I got stuck.
I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to Dr. Nguyen Thuy Nga, who finally agreed to become my instructor when I had no one else to ask for help. I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Nguyen Thuy Nga for her guiding me to figure out a more comprehensive picture of the literature review section and the appropriate steps to conduct a thesis.
I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Nguyen Thuy Nga for her calm and pleasant attitude whenever I got stuck, which saved me from any unnecessary pressure and worries. I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to the controlled group and experimental group at Binh Phu High school, who played an important part to help me complete my thesis for graduation. I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to my dedicated grandmother, who harboured the dream that I would finish my post-graduated education although now she has departed this life.
I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation my to mom, who supports me all the time and forgives me, encourages me, especially whenever I got stuck with the thesis. I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to my friend, Nguyen Thai Bao, who guided the way I went in my proposal. I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to my counterparts at Open University MTESOL017 course for their support and contribution, especially Nguyen Tan Loi, who has graduated, for his untiring support and motivation. I would like to express my love and appreciation to my dear friends, Hoang Phuong Tieu Anh, Dao Thi Ngoc Ly, Do Le Nha Truc, Vo Thi Phuong Anh for our mutual motivation and encouragement.
iii I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to the knowledge and ways of teaching my teachers have encouraged me during my Master degree course, from which I can open my eye, and have a more peaceful and positive outlook towards life. I wish all peace and happiness in our journey. iv ABSTRACT Conventionally, learning vocabulary often occurs through accessing new lexical items through input (reading and listening skills). However, Nation (2007) said that vocabulary can also be learned through output (speaking and writing skills) and the course applied the four strands can not only facilitate learners to learn vocabulary through both input and output but also help them develop grammatical features of a word and practice fluency in speaking.
The current study entitled “The application of the four strands in learning vocabulary at Binh Phu High School” was conducted with the participation of 88 10th graders at Binh Phu high school (school year 2020-2021). The aim of the research was to explore the potential of the four strands to see to what extent it helped improve learners’ vocabulary test scores of Binh Phu High School and how were their attitudes towards this application. In the research, both quantitative research instruments (pretest- posttest, questionnaire) and qualitative research instrument (interview) were employed. Analysis from the independent T-test of pretest and posttest and paired sample T-test showed improvement in EG’s scores after the treatment.
The results collected from the questionnaire were analyzed and interpreted to see attitudes of 44 EG’s participants. The interview was conducted with the participation of 10 participants from EG. From the research, there were two conclusion that could be drawn. First, the application helped improve participants scores.
Second, participants generally had positive attitudes towards the application. The research implied that teachers can apply the four strands in their teaching and think of ways to motivate learners to actively engage during each class period. The research also implied that learners should change their mindset of learning vocabulary, not only through reading and listening but also through speaking, writing and other communicative activities. Therefore, they should be enthusiastically engaged and push themselves up.
Key words: The four strands, vocabulary test scores, attitudes v ABBREVIATIONS A: Agree ALM: Audio- Lingual Method CALL: Computer- assisted language Learning CLT: Communicative Language Teaching CG: Controlled group D: Disagree DM: Direct Method EG: Experimental group GTM: Gramma- Translation Method L1: mother language L2: target language M: Mean N: Number/ Neutral P: Participant S: student SA: Strongly disagree SD: Strongly disagree SPSS: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences S. Standard Deviation vi LIST OF TABLES Table 2. Three components of vocabulary and their clarifications. Activities in each strand suggested by Paul Nation.
Activities used in lesson plans using the four strands in this research. Procedure and timeline of the course for both controlled group and experimental group. Descriptive statistics of pretest scores. Independent Sample T-Test of pretest results.
Descriptive statistics of posttests scores. Independent Sample T-Test of posttest results. Paired Samples Statistics. Pair samples correlations.
Participants’ general impression of the Four Strands. Participants’ evaluation of vocabulary learning strategies in the Four- Strand Course. Participants’ perception of enjoyment in participating in The Four-stand activities. Participants’ perception of motivation in The Four Strands.
Detailed explanation of participants’ general impression of the Four Strands. Detailed explanation of Participants’ attitude towards skills that they can learn from The Four Strands. Detailed explanation of participants’ perception of enjoyment in participating in The Four-strand activities. Detailed explanation of participants’ perception of motivation in The Four Strands.
Summarize question 1 in the interview. Summarize question 2 in the interview. Summarize question 3 in the interview .81 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2. four strands in the Four Strands of Paul Nation.
The importance of extensive reading and extensive listening .The importance of learning through output .How learners experience the noticing/ trigger function. How learners experience hypothesis testing function. How learners experience metalinguistic (reflective) function. Explanation to the strand of meaning-focused output.
Description of attitudes towards learning vocabulary. The conceptual framework for the application of the Four Strands. Normal Q-Q plots for the pretest result. Normal Q-Q plots for the posttest result.
Comparison of means of pretest and posttest score. Participants’ general impression of the Four Strands. Participants’ attitude towards skills that they can learn from The Four Strands. Participants’ perception of enjoyment in participating in The Four- strand activities.
Participants’ perception of motivation in The Four Strands .77 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP. v LIST OF TABLES. vi LIST OF FIGURES. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS.
viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Statement of the problem. Definitions of terms. The four strands.
Delimitations and Limitations of the Study. 7 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Vocabulary definitions and its classification. Three aspects of vocabulary.
The importance of vocabulary. Vocabulary teaching methods. The Four Strands of Paul Nation. The strand of meaning- focused input.
The strand of meaning – focused output. The noticing/ trigger function. The hypothesis testing function. The strand of language- focused learning.
The strand of fluency development. Applying the Four Strands to vocabulary learning. Attitudes towards learning vocabulary. In term of students’ attitudes towards learning vocabulary in general.
In term of the application of The Four Strands. Quantitative Research Instruments. Two tests: Pretest – Posttest. Qualitative Research Instrument.
Validity and Reliability. Procedure and timeline of the course. Pretest and posttest analysis. 53 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION.
Research question 1: To what extend does The Four Strands affect vocabulary learning of the participant students? .1 Independent Sample T-Test of pretest result.2 Independent Sample T-Test of posttest result. Paired Samples Statistics of Pretest and Posttest. Research question 2: What are the students’ attitudes towards the application of The Four Strands in learning vocabulary during the course?. Result from the questionnaire .1 The Cronbach’s Alpha .2 Detailed explanations of each theme from the questionnaire.
Results from the interviews. Participants’ general impression of the Four Strands. Skills that participants could develop for themselves during the course. Difficulties the participants encounter during the course.
Participants’ suggestions for the course improvement .1 Research question 1: To what extend does The Four Strands affect vocabulary learning of the participant students?. Research question 2: What are the students’ attitudes towards the application of The Four Strands in learning vocabulary during the course?. The results from questionaire. The results from the interview.
83 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. Implementations for teachers. Implementations for students. Recommendations to students.
Recommendations to teachers. 87 APPENDIX A – LISTENING/ READING JOURNAL TEMPLATES. 91 APPENDIX B – PRETEST/ POSTTEST FORM. 96 APPENDIX D – INTERVIEW QUESTIONS LIST.
102 APPENDIX E – LESSON PLAN SAMPLES. 103 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter presents statement of the problem, purpose statement, research questions, hypotheses, definition of terms and finally delimitations and limitations of the study. Statement of the problem Vocabulary plays an important role in learners’ process of acquiring both receptive skills and productive skills. Wilkins (1972) used to say that without proper grammar knowledge, one can also convey his or her thoughts, but, it’s impossible to make him or her understood if he or she doesn’t know how to express their ideas in words.
However, vocabulary learning and teaching in High school doesn’t receive proper attention from both learners and teachers. From the result of a research conducted by Rohmantillah (2021), there are many difficulties that learners encounter when they study vocabulary: the exceedingly long vocabulary list; a certain word containing different meanings which makes learners not know which meaning fits the context where the word appears, and difficulties in pronouncing the word from using transcription. In the context of Binh Phu High School, through observation and informal interviews, the writer of this thesis found that students fail to see the importance of learning vocabulary, namely their misconception and their demotivation.