MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI LAN HUONG TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT NGHE AN TRADING AND TOURISM VOCATIONAL COLLEGE MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Nghệ An, 2014 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI LAN HUONG TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT NGHE AN TRADING AND TOURISM VOCATIONAL COLLEGE Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Code: 60140111 MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN GIA VIET, Ph.D. Nghệ An, 2014 STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that the thesis entitled “Teaching English vocabulary to the first-year students at Nghe An Trading and Tourism Vocational College” is the result of my own work, and that the thesis or my any parts of the same has not been submitted to any university or institution. Vinh, August 2014 Author’s signature Nguyen Thi Lan Huong i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Nguyen Gia Viet, for his kind help, careful guidance, valuable advice and encouragement from shaping the first draft till the completed thesis. I am also grateful to the head of Foreign Language Department of Nghe An Tourism-Trading Vocational College, Mrs. Le Thi Mai Hong, my colleagues and students of K18D1 and 18D2 who helped me much to finish the methodology of the research. I wish to thank my parents and my loved family who love, care and support and encourage me a lot in the production of this study. Finally, I am too aware that despite all the advice and assistance, I fell that the thesis is far from perfect, it is, therefore, my sole responsibilities for any inadequacies that it may be considered to have. ii ABSTRACT Students at Nghe An Trading and Tourism College have many difficulties in learning English Vocabulary. “How to help students to learn vocabulary better?” is always a question for teachers at Nghe An Trading and Tourism Vocational College. To improve vocabulary learning and teaching, two questionnaires are designed and directed to 70 students and 10 teachers. The findings discuss the difficulties in teaching and learning vocabulary of both teacher and students and the methods they use to teach and learn vocabulary. Simultaneously, some techniques of teaching and learning vocabulary better are recommended based on the findings of this survey. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABERIVIATION…………………………………………………………… … 4 LISTS OF TABLES…………………………………………………………… … 5 LISTS OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………… 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Chapter 2 10 LITERATURE REVIEW 10 2.1.4. What vocabulary to teach: criteria for selection 14 Learnability 17 2.1.5. Vocabulary in learning English as foreign language 17 2.2.1. Teachers’ beliefs 23 Because investigating teachers’ perceptions about teaching vocabulary is set under the umbrella of the area of teacher’s beliefs. It is thus important to understand this area in order to build a vivid theoretical framework into researching teachers’ mental lives. This section will present definitions of teachers’ beliefs generally and in the area of language teaching in particular to ultimately establish an operational definition on teachers’ beliefs relevant to this study 23 2.2.4. Teachers’ perception of vocabulary teaching 29 Chapter 5 54 CONCLUSION 54 1 ABERIVIATION ESL: English as a Second Language EFL: English as a Foreign Language CLT: Communicative Language Teaching ELLs: English language learners TPLD: Teachers’ perceptions of learner difficulty SLA: Second language acquisition. %: Percent 2 LISTS OF TABLES Table 4.1. Perceived contents of vocabulary learning ……………… …… 45 Table 4.2. Students’ knowledge of vocabulary is helpful for their vocabulary learning………………………………………………………… 47 Table 4.3. Perceived contents of vocabulary learning 48 Table 4.4. Teachers’ knowledge of vocabulary is helpful for their vocabulary teaching 50 Table 4.5: The methods students usually use in learning vocabulary ……… 50 Table 4.6: The methods teachers usually use in teaching vocabulary 52 3 LISTS OF FIGURES Figure 4.1. The position of vocabulary in English learning ……………… 44 Figure 4.2. The difficulty in vocabulary learning ………………………… 46 Figure 4.3: The position of vocabulary in language teaching …………… 47 Figure 4.4. The difficulty in vocabulary teaching ………………………… 49 Figure 4.5: Students’ interest in learning English vocabulary ………………51 Figure 4.6: Students’ efficiency evaluation in vocabulary learning ……… 52 Figure 4.7: Teacher’s interest in teaching English vocabulary …………… 53 Figure 4.8: Teacher’s efficiency evaluation in vocabulary teaching …… 54 4 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION This chapter is written with the purpose of giving the rationale, objectives of the study, the research questions, the significance of the study, the scope of the study, an overview of research methodology and finally introduces the outline of the thesis. 1.1. Rationale Recently, English has become an international language which is taught in many countries all over the world. English is the most commonly used language among foreign language speakers. By mastering English, people can visit and communicate with foreign people easily. It is the reason why learning English well is becoming more and more important. English in Vietnam is considered as an important language. Children are now required to learn it from third grade of primary school, and English becomes a subject which is rather difficult to learn because it is a second language with its different culture, grammar, pronunciation, etc. Teaching English as a foreign language is not easy. It is the teacher’s duty to make the students enjoy learning English because if the students enjoy the learning process, they will easily grasp what the teacher taught. In teaching and learning English, vocabulary is the most important factor in developing the four language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking). Therefore, the students are expected to acquire vocabulary in order to express their ideas, feelings and opinions in speaking and writing. Language elements such as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and spelling that are taught to support the development of the four skills including vocabulary are important in the teaching learning process. Richard (1987, p.45) states that vocabulary and grammar are essential components of all use of language. It is clear that vocabulary is the main component in learning English. Myers (1993, p.150) says that the reasons of 5 [...]... in their teaching affectively The researcher will give the chance for the teachers in Nghe An Trading and Tourism Vocational College to find out the best methods for teaching English vocabulary to the first- year students 1.5 Scope of the study The study focuses on teaching and learning English vocabulary for the students at Nghe An Trading and Tourism Vocational College, mainly focus on the first year. .. year students who are learning basic English Then, the difficulties found out will be analyzed and the solutions will be made to help to improve the teaching and learning English at Nghe An Trading and Tourism Vocational College 7 The study pays its contributions to both theoretical and practical aspects Theoretically, by exploring difficulties in teaching and learning vocabulary, the study adds to the. .. Vocational College 6 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study The aims of this study are to find out the difficulties in teaching and learning English vocabulary, as well as to find the solutions in teaching English vocabulary, and to find out more techniques in teaching English vocabulary to students at Nghe An Trading and Tourism Vocational College The scope of this research is limited only by focusing on teaching. .. explore their ideas In this case, I have the ambition of presenting some effective techniques to teach English vocabulary with hope that students will be interesting in learning English Due to my English knowledge limitation and the frame of the graduation paper, I would like to choose the research paper entitle Teaching English vocabulary to the first- year students at Nghe An Trading and Tourism Vocational. .. attract students interest on English There were some problems that made the students difficult to know the vocabulary meaning in Nghe An Trading and Tourism Vocational College such as, some students less knowledge about vocabulary, students lack of vocabulary, students never try to find the new words from a text To overcome the problems, the teacher could try some ways to develop their vocabulary and. .. at Nghe An Trading and Tourism Vocational College? 2 What are strategies used by teachers and students to overcome difficulties in teaching and learning English vocabulary? 1.4 Significance of the study The researcher was conducted with the aim of finding out students attitude towards using some new techniques in teaching English vocabulary From that, teachers will know the ways to apply the techniques... in English, students resistance to new ways of learning, and heavy workloads were mentioned to account for the discrepancy The researchers then conclude that: Such factors discourage experimentation and innovation, and encourage a ‘safe’ strategy of sticking close to prescribed materials and familiar teaching approaches Without any relief from these factors and without any reward for innovating in the. .. in appropriate situation This productive skill employs vocabulary, words that students understand, can pronounce correctly, and use them in speaking and writing As for recognition which also called comprehension or reception is the skill to understand store that words that students recognize and understand when to occur in a context Vocabulary is an indispensable element of language that language learners... study The implication of the study and the recommendation for further research will be presented 9 Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter reviews the literature on teaching vocabulary and teachers’ perception in teaching vocabulary First, main issues related to teaching vocabulary as a foreign language are presented, such as the definition, the types and the roles of vocabulary, etc In addition, the. .. collocation and understand the connotation meaning of the words This type is often used in speaking and writing skill Passive vocabulary Passive vocabulary refers to a language items that can be recognizes and understood in the context of reading or listening and also called as receptive vocabulary Passive vocabulary or comprehension consists of the words comprehended by the people, when they read and . that the thesis entitled Teaching English vocabulary to the first- year students at Nghe An Trading and Tourism Vocational College is the result of my own work, and that the thesis or my any parts. facing the students and teachers in the process of teaching and learning English vocabulary at Nghe An Trading and Tourism Vocational College? 2. What are strategies used by teachers and students to. EDUCATION AND TRAINING VINH UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI LAN HUONG TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO THE FIRST- YEAR STUDENTS AT NGHE AN TRADING AND TOURISM VOCATIONAL COLLEGE MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Nghệ