VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES -------------***------------- NGUYỄN HOÀNG THU NGA AN APPLICATION OF THE LEXICAL APPROACH TO TEACHING ENGLISH FOR VOCATIONAL PURPOSES: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT FOOD INDUSTRIAL COLLEGE Áp dụng đường hướng từ vựng để dạy tiếng Anh phục vụ mục đích nghề nghiệp: Một nghiên cứu cải tiến dạy học tại Trường Cao đẳng Công nghiệp Thực phẩm M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01 Hanoi, June 2018 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES -------------***------------- NGUYỄN HOÀNG THU NGA AN APPLICATION OF THE LEXICAL APPROACH TO TEACHING ENGLISH FOR VOCATIONAL PURPOSES: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT FOOD INDUSTRIAL COLLEGE Áp dụng đường hướng từ vựng để dạy tiếng Anh phục vụ mục đích nghề nghiệp: Một nghiên cứu cải tiến dạy học tại Trường Cao đẳng Công nghiệp Thực phẩm M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231. Lê Văn Canh TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com Hanoi, June 2018 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com DECLARATION An application of the Lexical approach to teaching English for vocational purposes: An action research project at Food Industrial College.
-----***----- I certify that no part of the thesis has been copied or reproduced by me from any other person‟s work without acknowledgement and that the thesis is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor. i TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor - Assoc. Le Van Canh for his help, willingness, patience and valuable advice through the whole work on my master thesis. I would also like to thank all the students who were willing to patiently cooperate and participate in my research project.
Nguyen Hoang Thu Nga ii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com ABSTRACT This master thesis examines the application of the Lexical Approach and its implications in teaching English at Food Industrial College (FIC). The aim of the study is to explore the effect of the use of the Lexical Approach (as defined by M. Lewis) on vocational students‟ English proficiency for their future use of English in the workplace. The theoretical part mentioned above is expected to bring a general view for English learners to know more about the Lexical Approach in studying English.
The implications of the Lexical Approach in teaching English plays an important role in linguistic studies in general and in English teaching method in particular. It enriches the knowledge of Vietnamese learners in language as well as the experiences for learning vocabulary. Keywords: activities, Lexical Approach, vocabulary, vocational English. iii TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS EFL English as a Foreign Language ESP English for specific purposes EVP English for vocational purposes FIC Food Industrial College L1 First Language L2 Second Language VE Vocational English VOLL Vocationally-oriented language learning iv TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.
iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS .2 Aims of the study .4 Scope of the study.5 Structure of the thesis. THE THEORETICAL PART .1 English for Vocational Purposes .1 What is English for Vocational Purposes? .2 The Lexical Approach .1 What is the Lexical Approach? .2 Features of the Lexical Approach .3 Research on the benefits of lexical approach to students’ proficiency .4 Implications for Teaching .3 Implementing lexis in the class of FIC .4 Activities and Exercises. THE PRACTICAL PART .1 Characterization of the learners .2 The students as English language learners.2 Testing the progress .4 Evaluation of the sources .33 v TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.2 Output of the learners .3 Pre-test and post-test.45 vi TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.1 Rationale Our society is changing day by day.
Exchange and learning each other languages are important needs of human beings. In order to satisfy this demand we have to study foreign language. There are thousands of different languages for us to choose, but the most popular language nowadays is English. As it appears every corner all over the world from urban to rural; from power countries to poor countries….
English helps to bring together people from many different cultures. Being aware of the importance of English, Food Industrial College (FIC) focuses on teaching English for students. However, many students find it very difficult to study and communicate in English due to insufficient vocabulary. As we know, vocabulary is central to English language teaching because without sufficient vocabulary students cannot understand others or express their own ideas.
In second language acquisition, over the past few years, the Lexical Approach has generated great interest as an alternative to traditional grammar-based teaching methods to teach vocabulary, but has never been used in the teaching of English for vocational purposes. Since then, this study tries to explore how the Lexical Approach could be implemented in the English lessons. The hypothesis is that students who are taught English applying the Lexical Approach are able to acquire lexical items more easily and remember them for a longer time. Therefore, applying the Lexical Approach to teaching English, especially English for vocational purposes is a useful way to help students to enlarge vocabulary, improve their English proficiency for their future use of English at work.2 Aims of the study This study aims at exploring the effect of the use of the Lexical Approach on vocational students‟ English proficiency for their future use of English in the workplace.
1 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.3 Methodology In order to achieve the aim of the study, an action research approach was adopted. This is because action research helps teachers to work on a specific issue in their own classroom. In this study, the research question is: How to improve vocational students’ English proficiency so that they can use English for their future vocational purposes? One hypothetical solution is that students‟ poor English proficiency is due to their lexical deficiency. In order to address this issue, the use of lexical approach may be a solution.4 Scope of the study The study focuses on the effectiveness of piloting the Lexical Approach to improve the English proficiency of 25 second - year students in Food Industrial College.
The plan of this study can be used as an immediate solution to current students' problem in learning their essential vocabularies. This study also gives some strategies with the aim of facilitating long term retention of vocabularies for students.5 Structure of the thesis So as to reach the above aims, the thesis is divided into the following parts: 1. Appendices 2 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail. THE THEORETICAL PART 2.1 English for Vocational Purposes 2.1 What is English for Vocational Purposes? English for vocational purposes (EVP), under the umbrella of English for specific purposes (ESP), has gained its prominence because more and more English language programs are geared for those who would like to learn English, which is relevant to their vocations.
The overarching goal of ESP instruction is to help specialist learners function well in workplaces or vocational higher education settings where English serves as a medium of communication. According to Basturkmen‟s (2010) ESP Branches, the one area of ESP, which remains rarely explored in the ESP literature, is English for Vocational Purposes (EVP) or Vocational English (VE), though some studies have reported vocationally-oriented language learning (hereafter VOLL) or VE programs (see Black & Yasukawa, 2012; Platt, 1996; Vogt &Kantelinen, 2013; Widodo, 2015). In these studies, English language programs are contextualized within the process of learning vocational competencies, and English language skills are viewed as social practices and specific disciplines as dynamic because the actual use of the language happens in authentic environments, in which students engage (Platt, 1996). In other words, the emphasis is on using the language to learn or make sense of vocational content.
In addition, vocational socialization (inducting learners into the culture of their chosen vocations or disciplines) and literacies (language as dynamic social practice) are key components of VOLL.2 The Lexical Approach This chapter introduces the basis of the Lexical Approach and also how this particular approach can be implemented in the English language lessons.1 What is the Lexical Approach? A lexical approach to teaching means the primary focus is on helping students acquire vocabulary. This movement away from a grammar-based syllabus 3 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com largely began in 1993 with the publication of “The Lexical Approach” by Michael Lewis. It was called an approach to differentiate it from a method. In English language teaching, methods are systems for structuring lessons while approaches are less concerned with how the lesson is structured and more concerned with the general focus of instruction.
Teachers should be aware of this as there is some reluctance to adopt a more lexical approach because of the fear that it may mean revamping the way one teaches. In reality, teachers can use any methodology with a lexical approach from grammar translation to task-based learning. What changes is just the linguistic focus of the lesson. While one might think the paradigm shift was away from teaching grammar structures towards teaching individual words, the linguistic focus of the lexical approach is really in between grammar and what we traditionally think of as vocabulary.
What it focuses on are structures made up of words, meaning that the actual paradigm shift was away from individual words to clusters of words, or lexical chunks as they are commonly referred to. This new idea about the structural nature of the language does not exclude grammatical structures but instead recognizes that the language has far more structures than those that occur in the grammatical syllabus. Consider the statement below: The Lexical Approach is based on the idea that language is made up of other structural elements besides what we traditionally think of as grammar. In that statement, there are two distinct structures: “X is based on the idea/belief/premise that + clause” “X is made up of Y”.
Both of these structures occur fairly frequently in the language with different variables. Yet neither one would be found in a grammar book. In his book, Michael Lewis suggested that teachers need to help students become aware of the lexical structures that commonly occur in the language. The idea is that if students become aware of some of the many lexical structures, they will have a lot more information about how to combine individual words to build coherent structures like phrases, expressions and whole sentences, which should ultimately emulate those used by 4 TIEU LUAN MOI download : skknchat@gmail.com native speakers.
Many teachers have noticed that it is no use of grammar which separates higher level students from native speakers – often the student‟s grammar will be better than a native speaker‟s – but the way words are combined into lexical chunks.2 Features of the Lexical Approach idea language is made up of other notion The Lexical is based on structural elements besides premise that Approach the what we traditionally think of assumption as grammar. belief Noun/ Noun phrase + is based on the + abstract noun + that + clause Using the Lexical Approach requires the investigation of spoken and written language in order to notice structures which are often ignored because they do not fall into the categories determined by the traditional understanding of grammar. Outlining the form of these structures (see example above), helps students acquire and use the structures and trains them to recognize other ones. The idea is not so much that students remember the structure of various lexical chunks, for there are far too many to remember, but that they become aware of the structural nature of the language beyond the traditional grammar structures.