CAN THO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION ENGLISH DEPARTMENT COMMUNICATIVE APPROACHTEACHING VOCABULARY COMMUNICATIVELY FOR STUDENTS AT GRADE 10 IN CANTHO CITY B.A Thesis Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu Field of study: ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Anh Tho Student: Tran Thi Thu Student code: 7032466 Class: NN0352 A3 Can tho, June 2007 Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively CONTENTS Contents List of tables Acknowledgements Abstract Introduction Problem and Rationale Thesis organization Literature Review An overview about Communicative Approach Techniques in teaching vocabulary 14 Research Methodology: 20 Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu Research design and procedure 20 Sample 20 Research instruments .21 Research instruments 21 Documenting the teachers’ techniques of introducing vocabulary 25 Collecting teachers’ beliefs and their barriers about teaching vocabulary communicatively 26 Research results 28 Teachers’ beliefs about communicative approach and teaching vocabulary communicatively 28 Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively To those who not teach vocabulary communicatively 32 To those who teach vocabulary communicatively 33 Teachers’ problems when using visual and verbal techniques in teaching vocabulary 40 Techniques of teaching vocabulary .41 Discussions and recommendations for further research 43 Discussions 43 Limitations of the study 44 Recommendations for further research 45 References 46 Appendices 49 Appendix 1- Observation 49 Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu Appendix 2- Observation 51 Appendix 3- Observation 53 Appendix 4- Observation 54 Appendix 5- Observation 57 Appendix 6- Observation 60 Appendix 7- Questionnaire 62 Appendix 8- One chapter cited in New English Textbook 10 .66 Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively LISTS OF THE TABLES Table 1- Participants’ age………………………………………………… .………… 29 Table 2- Participants’ years of teaching……………………………… .29 Chart 1- The percentage of teachers acquiring the communicative approach from different sources……………………………………………………………………………………………31 Chart 2-The time when teachers are acquainted with the communicative approach…………….32 Chart 3- The time when teachers apply the communicative approach………………………… 34 Chart 4- The reasons for applying the C.A in teaching vocabulary…………………………… 35 Chart 5- Students’ progress in using vocabulary……………………………………………… 36 Chart 6- The focus on lesson(s)………………………… …………………………………… 37 Chart 7- The extent and the frequency of using techniques in one vocabulary lesson………….38 Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu Chart 8- Tests for evaluating students’ vocabulary progress…………………………………….39 Chart 9-Problems encountered when using visual and verbal techniques …………………… 40 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms Nguyen Thi Anh Tho for her guidance, consideration and encouragement during the process of carrying out the study I would like to acknowledge all the teachers of the English department They have organized classes on research methodology which has orientated me on the research implementation Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively I am grateful to my beloved members in my family for their supporting me to carry out the research I am particularly indebted to the Learning Resource Center, the School of Education Library and the English Department Library, which all have provided me with valuable sources of material I would like to express my deep gratitude to the teachers and students at the nine high schools in Cantho city, who were willing to accept my presence for classroom observations and administer the questionnaires Finally, my special thanks are sincerely sent to all my friends and my roommates who supported me while I was conducting this study Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu ABSTRACT The communicatively composed English textbook 10 has been used in high schools for nearly months under the requirement of the Ministry of Education and Training On the basis of communication, the English textbook 10 is expected to be taught communicatively in association with its content The project, therefore, attempts to present the high school teachers’ beliefs about the communicative approach and their ways of teaching vocabulary communicatively for the students at grade 10 in high schools in order to find the answer to the query: to what extent teachers in high schools apply communicative approach to teach vocabulary supplied in the English textbook 10 for their grade 10 students The procedure for this descriptive research consists of five stages such as to decide on the research questions, to select the sample, to determine the methods of data collection, to collect the data and to organize Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively and analyze the data The data for the descriptive study are collected through 35 questionnaires and observations conducted at the nine high schools in Cantho city ( Phan Van Tri, Nhon Ai, Nguyen Viet Hong, Li Tu Trong, Phan Ngoc Hien, Nguyen Viet Dung, An Binh, Chau Van Liem and Bui Huu Nghia high schools) The data analysis shows that all the participants know about communicative approach because of its particular characteristics as well as its effectiveness in teaching vocabulary but only 88.57% teachers has presently applied the new techniques like posters, cards, blackboard drawings, realia, mime and gestures, synonym, antonyms, examples, definition In addition, the frequency and the extent they use these techniques are various from 20% to 90%, which helps us to conclude that most teachers in Cantho high schools have taught vocabulary communicatively for their grade 10 students communicatively Some participants not teach vocabulary because of some problems Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively INTRODUCTION Problem and Rationale Economic open-door policy purposed by the Government of Vietnam, a Decree issued by the Prime Minister in 1995 together with the important event that Vietnam has recently joined the World Trade Organization have totally increased the demands for English learners who are expected to be able to communicate verbally with the outside world and to access technology Canh (1999) says that English now is a very important subject that should be compulsory in language teaching and getting the Secondary School Education Certificate in Vietnam To meet the demands of "doi moi" policy, Vietnamese educational system has been appropriately changed time to time so far, especially in the past 15 years According to Brogan and Ha, Vietnamese teachers and policy makers seem to agree that a good curriculum or syllabus plays an important role in increasing the success of an English language program Consequently, the Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu Ministry of Education and Training, English Departments in universities as well as English language course organizers have made efforts to develop effective curricula This results in many different curricula for English course Said Brogan & Ha (n.d.) Recently, which is more specified in years, the English textbooks have been adjusted to English learners' communicative needs by course designers and teachers The content and the organization of these textbooks, which cover grades 6, 7, 8, and 10, have been appropriated As a result of this change, students of educational departments in universities are currently taught and trained new teaching methods They have quite mastered the ways to present and carry out the effective approaches they have learnt in their training courses; Moreover, Canh (1999) says that new teacher training programs including pre-service and in-service are designed and served with a focus on training teaching methodologies Vietnamese teachers are interested in new Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively methodologies, especially in teaching toward the communicative approach Communicative approach is discussed here with reference to Canale & Swain’s(1980) (as cited in Canh, 1999) construct of communicative competence which comprises of grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence This approach mainly focuses on shifting from teacher-centered view to learner-centered one by taking communicative activities (Grain & Redman, 1986; Lee, 1986) Such a method as communicative approach which is based on the needs of English learners is expected to be more appropriately applied in teaching English in high schools as the most effective way ever Unfortunately, Canh (1999) indicates not much teaching methods has been improved in English classes During the training courses, Vietnamese teachers show interest in new methodologies, but after finishing those courses, they continue teaching in their own way, using traditional methods In contrast to what Canh said, some recently informal Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu interviews conducted from my colleagues together with my teaching observation periods this year show an evidence for this fact : many teachers in high schools use the communicative approach to present the lesson issues although some potential problems stated by Canh (1999) such as the needs of the learners, the preferences of experienced teachers, and the constraints of the school or educational setting Such a setting of teaching method in high schools hopes to cover all the aspects of English language system and skills, including reading, language focus, writing, listening and speaking My expectation in this research is about word study or vocabulary acquisition in the field of reading lesson As stated in the preface at the beginning of the textbook, English textbook 10 is composed under the program of secondary English standard of The Ministry of Education and Training that Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively continuously follows up the English 6, 7, and The sixteen theme- based topics included in the textbook are very close and meaningful to students’ daily life After every two or three units, there will be a lesson named Test Yourself in order to help students look back and review what they have learnt so far Each unit is related to one specific topic and covers these following lessons: A READING includes one or more sections varying from 180 words to 220 words in length Such a relatively long passage is to help the students be acquainted with the topic, totally providing them with variety of information and practice language competence covered in the whole unit and to develop students’ language skills, especially to reading skill B SPEAKING: Many activities are set in appropriate and meaningful contexts in accordance with the topic so that the students can be able to practice their speaking Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu skill and communication through working individually or in pairs, in groups C LISTENING: Every passage or dialogue is related to the topic of the unit Its main purpose is to help students to listen and take notes Moreover, Listening also helps students to consolidate and to correct their pronunciation and language structures D WRITING covers many kinds of exercises such as letter composing, data description, event reports, etc to improve students’ writing skill E LANGUAGE FOCUS is divided into two parts: Pronunciation and Grammar Pronunciation is to have students review how to utter consonants as well as vowels contained in simple words or in the whole sentence Grammar and Vocabulary mainly focuses on integral structures and necessary vocabulary These grammar points are Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively practiced through drills or activities so that the students can easily master and use them (Translated from Tieng Anh 10, NXB GD- Bo GD & DT) As we can see from the appendix 8, the topic of the unit 13 is about films and cinema The unit focuses on five lessons including tasks and activities All items provided in these five lessons are in accordance with the goals introduced at the beginning of the new English textbook That means, reaching the target of teaching communicatively requires not only the teachers’ ability to be able to instruct these activities and tasks but also students’ contribution to the lesson The reading lesson, for instance, is divided into to three stages such as pre- reading, while reading and post reading It can be seen in the first stage, some warm up questions are given to help them have an overall view about the lesson they are going to learn On the basis of “student- centered”, most activities and tasks in this lesson are to be carried out by students’ pair Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu work and group work- a feature of communicative approach Teachers’ techniques of teaching vocabulary in the second stage is very important for the students to understand the text and then to be able to the three tasks That the final stage expect students’ skill to restate the text helps students review the text and improve their speaking skill In fact, without vocabulary focused, students cannot understand and perform the tasks in this unit effectively It is more persuasive to conclude that vocabulary is very important to the acquisition of learners in foreign language Carthy (1990) expresses that students cannot communicate in any meaningful way if they not have words to express a wide range of meaning According to Krashen (1982), acquisition accounts for learners know how and understand their vocabulary through their performance That means learners can use their vocabulary to express or describe the practical situations happening in daily life It is also true that learners will make mistakes if they learn the meaning of many Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively 39 To Those Who Teach Vocabulary Communicatively More than 45.16% of the teachers have applied the communicative approach in their teaching from to years The percentage of 32.26 explains the period from to years These two numbers (45.16% and 32.26%) somehow fit the result in question (see chart 2) that they recently know and then apply the communicative approach in their ways of teaching We can consider the following: in comparison with the question which 25.71% and 11.43% are corresponding to the two terms “7- years” and “more than 10”, the percentage of 22.58% and 0% revealed in question shows the fact that although they have learned about communicative Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu approach, they even slowly apply it in their teaching As Canh(1999) said, during the training courses, Vietnamese teachers show interest in new methodologies, but after finishing those courses, they continue teaching in their own way, using traditional methods This claim somehow supports the result above that participants are under the influence of traditional methods Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively 40 Some reasons for choosing the communicative approach as their main approach to convey the vocabulary are presented in the following chart Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu As we can see from the chart, 67.74% of teachers believe that they use this method because of requirements of educational management system This somehow reveal the fact that teachers seriously consider the assignments of higher authorities Only 9.68% of the participants presents for choice of “preference” This number presents reasons why some teachers still stay their own ways of teaching The communicative approach, according to 61.29% of the teachers, is still better and more effective than approaches they used to apply (questions and 16) The participants have found their students’ progress during the months of teaching vocabulary Therefore, the percentage of 35.48 exists as an explanation for why they choose the communicative approach Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively 41 All participants show their strong agreement on effectiveness of using visual technique (posters, cards, blackboard drawings, realia, mime and gestures) and verbal technique (synonym, antonyms, examples, definition) in teaching vocabulary When being asked about their consideration to students’ using vocabulary, all the participants recognize their students’ improvement of using vocabulary meaningfully and communicatively Chart 5-Students' progress in using vocabulary a little(0%) none( 0%) very much (38.71%)) much (61.29%) Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu It can be seen from the chart above, none of the participants denies their students’ progress during the time they use the visual and verbal techniques in teaching vocabulary None better than one, the teachers can exactly evaluate the students’ improvement of using vocabulary thanks to frequently language contact with their students in class Obviously, the percentage of 61.29 and 38.71 express the truth that the teachers find the effectiveness of using the visual and verbal techniques to teach vocabulary for their students As we know, the new English textbook 10 is quite different from the old one Each unit is divided into five lessons that among reading lesson includes many new words Vocabulary, according to participants, is important in foreign language acquisition Therefore, the teachers have to consider and organize the time seriously so that the reading lesson can be completely effective It doesn’t mean teachers should not pay their attention to teaching vocabulary in other Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively 42 lessons such as writing, listening and speaking When being asked which lesson(s) vocabulary is focused most, most the teachers state their opinions as shown in the chart below As shown in the chart, the focus on vocabulary in the reading lesson takes more than 77 % Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu among four offered lessons while no attention to vocabulary are paid to the listening lesson It is suggested that vocabulary is very important and necessary for those who want to improve their listening skill, but the percentage of zero in the chart shows an evidence for not focusing teaching vocabulary on listening lesson As we can see from the unit 13 (appendix 8), the listening lesson is following up the reading and speaking lessons Teaching many new words in reading lesson together with practicing speaking help students to acquire new items Therefore, vocabulary is not much involved in listening lesson They must have to be able to use vocabulary obtained from the reading and speaking periods to support listening Although the listening, writing and speaking lessons (0%, 25.01% and 19.35% respectively) are not concentrated as much as the reading lesson , again we can assume that vocabulary is very important to all the lessons that the teachers must pay much attention to Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively 43 As stated by Carthy (1990), the biggest component of any language course is vocabulary Indeed, to express or describe the practical situations happening in daily life, students need to be taught communicatively by using the visual and verbal techniques 100 % of the teachers use varied techniques to introduce new words to their students However, the frequency of using these techniques in one reading lesson is various The chart below presents for this consideration Chart 7- The extent and the frequency of using techniques in every vocabulary lesson rarely (0 %) always (0%) occasionally (9.685%) usually (22.58%) sometimes (38.71%) often (29.03%) Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu The chart shows that none of the teachers doesn’t teach vocabulary without using these techniques 22.58 % of the teachers usually use these techniques in their vocabulary lesson The frequency of using these techniques improve the students’ ability to easily understand, remember and use the words taught effectively From the chart, it can be seen that 29.03% of the teachers often introduce the new items by using the above techniques Only 9.68% of the teachers occasionally spends their time on taking techniques for each vocabulary lesson Nearly 40% of the participants sometimes apply these techniques for every vocabulary lesson The figures shown in chart reveal the extent the communicative approach is applied in teaching vocabulary supplied in the new textbook Most participants apply these techniques, however, the rate of apply is not high enough to respond to the required goals Whether the low level at which Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively 44 communicative is applied belongs to teachers’ responsibility, the management of high school authorities or educational managers This reminds us to consider all factors mentioned above The ways of testing vocabulary is also stated in this part Actually, most teachers recognize the effectiveness of teaching vocabulary communicatively by using the visual and verbal techniques through conducting some tests such as vocabulary tests, reading tests, writing tests and combined tests (grammar, listening, writing and reading) The chart below conveys a signal that not much the teachers design a reading test (19.35% ) or a vocabulary test (22.58 % ) to evaluate their students’ vocabulary progress In comparison with reading tests and writing tests, a commonly used combination of all skills such as listening, reading, vocabulary and grammar is taken as followed Chart 8- tests for evaluating students' vocabulary progress Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu 38.71 40 32.26 35 30 25 22.58 20 19.35 15 10 vocabulary tests reading tests writing tests combined tests Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively 45 Teachers’ problems in using the visual and verbal techniques in teaching vocabulary All participants strongly agree that the problems cannot be avoided when using visual and verbal techniques to teach vocabulary communicatively Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu The problems teachers have faced when applying visual and verbal techniques in teaching the new words are similar to reasons mentioned by those who don’t use these techniques The exact number of 58.06% stands for those who consider time- consuming for preparation is the most difficult problem In fact, visual techniques have their own negative aspects The teachers have to themselves search for the materials from many sources and then make preparation at home It really takes them much time to be well- prepared for the coming lesson in the class Moreover, the new English textbook 10 completely changes in comparison with the old one Most teachers complain about the time reserved for each lesson Actually, they used to familiar Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively 46 with working with the old English textbook 10 that they could control the time for teaching vocabulary and other items in one reading lesson The new one includes lessons that must be finished in periods This way, if they focus much time on teaching the new words by visual and verbal techniques, they must be very flexible and skillful or they can’t finish the lesson Last but not least, class size and management also causes difficulties for their teaching process That a class more than 50 students at high schools in Cantho city such as Nguyen Viet Dung, Phan Ngoc Hien, Nhon Ai is hard to organize an activity like group work or pair work In addition, with numerous students in a class, the teachers can’t manage their activities in class effectively In short, the data collected from the 35 teachers help to conclude that although facing to some problems during the time of teaching vocabulary, the teachers at the nine high schools still follow communicatively vocabulary teaching Techniques of Teaching Vocabulary Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu Thanks to the classroom observations, it is apparent that today most of the participants no longer produce a list of more than ten new words to teach In fact, the number of vocabulary items is taught in a reading lesson varies from six to nine It is possible that they have all known the necessity of introducing frequently used words for students As a result, classroom observations show that they have an appropriate number of new words in each of their lessons (from six to nine words See appendices Observation 1.2.3.4.5.6) This claim is strongly supported by Edge (1993:88), who says that we can predict learners’ vocabulary need by considering the words that students have to know to talk about people, things and events in the place where they study and live, to respond to routine directions and commands, and to meet the requirements of certain classroom experiences, and of students’ particular academic interests Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively 47 It is no doubt from the classroom observations that most of the teachers use many different techniques to introduce the new items in every their lesson although it takes them much time to prepare and teach The following is the analysis of three observation in reading classes, helps us to make a comparison and conclusion about teaching vocabulary The three lessons are about a topic very familiar with students – Films and Cinema The vocabulary supplied in the reading lesson is very useful and practical for students’ daily life What the teachers stated in the questionnaires is quite in accordance with what I observed in the class It can be seen from the appendix 2, at the stage of introducing vocabulary, the teacher used many techniques such as antonyms, pictures, translations, gestures, explanations, and examples… Students showed their interest in pictures and had chances to contribute to the lesson Also, the studying atmosphere was very exciting and interesting With more careful and detailedtâm techniques teaching vocabulary in comparison liệu with those observation 2, the teacher Trung Họcof liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài họcin tập nghiên cứu in observation combined much more pictures and examples in her lesson Also, the words chosen were different Consequently, students know how words are used in meaningful contexts In the observation 5, only six words are introduced to students by five techniques such as translations, examples, pictures, synonyms and explanations During the process of teaching, teachers in observation involved the class and let them all have opportunities to take part in the lesson The visual teaching aids helped the whole class find out the answers easily However, the frequency of using these techniques are various from three observation sheets This supports what teachers stated in the questionnaires that the extent in using vocabulary communicatively and meaningful is different as shown in chart Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively 48 In short, from the three typical observations sheets, I can conclude that all the teachers use varied techniques in every their lesson This helps to affirm the accuracy and reliability of data collected from the questionnaires Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively 49 DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS In this chapter, we will discuss the reasons that lead to the results mentioned above, the limitations of the study, conclude the whole research and suggest the directions for future research Discussions The aim of the research is to find out whether the communicative approach is applied in teaching vocabulary for students at grade 10 in Cantho city, and if yes, to what extent There are many ways (techniques) of introducing new words for students mentioned However, in this case, the research mainly focused on the two techniques such as visual and verbal techniques applying in reading lessons The answers to the research questions were searched for by collecting questionnaires together with the observations At the beginning, it is supposed that when the new English textbook 10 has been in use since 2006, some English teachers in nine high schools in Cantho city wouldn’t teach vocabulary for their grade 10 students under the Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu communicative approach Thanks to the data analysis from questionnaires and observations, the research questions are generated The results quite match with the research hypothesis In fact, there are still some teachers who stay their traditional ways of teaching vocabulary in Cantho city It is neither because of their preference for traditional methods such as Grammar Translation, Direct Method, and Audio- lingual…nor ineffectiveness of using visual and verbal techniques, but the time for preparation at home and teaching in class The rest have adapted their techniques of teaching English vocabulary in accordance with the requirements Thus, we can conclude that communicative approach is applied in teaching vocabulary for students at grade 10 in Cantho city However, because of the limitation of time, the class size and the shortage of materials,…the extent the communicative approach is not entirely applied in high shools in Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively 50 Cantho city Its level is still low in comparison with desired goals Briefly, the participants have encountered some problems when apply the communicative approach in teaching vocabulary by using the visual and verbal techniques Therefore applying these techniques is not really completed This proves our educational system still encounters some limitations and problems in adjusting the communicative approach in language teaching program The result also expresses that teachers concentrate on vocabulary in reading lesson than others Anyway, a wide range of communicative approach in teaching English in high schools in Cantho city proves its strong points emphasized many researchers (Brumfit & Johnson (1979), Richards & Rodgers ((1986),Morrow (1981)…) Also, it helps to confirm timely appropriate transformation of the Ministry of Education and Training on the field of education The limitations of the research The limitations of the research cannot be avoided As the research is only carried out in a small Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu area in comparison with the whole country, the participants in this research are just English teachers who are in charge of teaching grades 10 The result, therefore, might not be generalized for other high schools in Vietnam The time to conduct the research is the other limitation I could not concern with students at grades in order to implement a thorough investigation on their opinions about the communicative approach and their progress and so that I could confirm the effectiveness of using visual and verbal techniques in teaching vocabulary It is supposed that besides questionnaires and observations, if the data were collected through interviews, it would become more explanatory and reliable Some teachers were reluctant to cooperate with my questionnaire I could not implement more than classroom observations because of several teachers’ refusal In addition, the observations just cover several units in the English textbook 10 Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively 51 Therefore, I was regrettably unable to find out whether all they stated in the questionnaires were true in comparison with their real techniques in classroom Recommendations for further research As I have mentioned above, because some classroom observations and questionnaires are just implemented in a short time of my teaching practice period, I myself not feel completely satisfied with the research results The further project is suggested to investigate on students’ opinions about the communicative approach and on how effectively the students’ understanding and using vocabulary communicatively are improved thanks to their teachers’ techniques of teaching vocabulary Moreover, the further research is put forward by conducting the research questions on the regulations and management of school authorities to see whether how they have evaluated the Trung tâm Học the liệucommunicative ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài học tập nghiên cứu teachers’ applying approach inliệu instructing newvà textbook or any awards, complements are given to pursuade and motivate teachers in applying the new teaching method Further research may go in depth problems teachers have faced during the time applying the communicative approach in teaching the new English textbook and reasons why some teachers don’t apply the communicative approach in teaching as an reference to the Ministry of Education and Training and educational administrators so that they can find out appropriate solutions, adapting situations and conditions in order to restrict the problems Also, the further research is motivated to conduct the research on the research question whether the percentage of 88.57 ( communicative is applied) is corresponding to other high schools in Mekong Delta Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively 52 REFERENCES Allen, V.F (1983) Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary Oxford: Oxford University Press Bang, N., & Chi, B.L., & Dung, T.V., & Hau, H.T.M., & Hoa, N., & Kham, B., & Ngoc, P.T.B., & Oanh, D.T.P., & Thanh, V.L.T.T, & Vien, T (2003) English Language Teaching Methodology Teacher’s Workbook Ha Noi Brumfit, C.H., & Hohnson, K (1979) The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching Oxford University Press Canh, L.V (1999) Language and Vietnamese Pedagogical Contexts The Fourth International Conference on Language and Development Retrieved December 12, 2006 from http: www.languages.ait.ac.th/hanoi proceedings/canh.htm Doff, A (1988) Teach English Cambridge University Press Edge, J (1993) Essentials of English Language Teaching London: Longman Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu Gain, R & Redman, S (1986) Working with words A Guide to Teaching and Learning Vocabulary Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Harmer, J (1991) The Practice of English Language Teaching London: Longman Haycratf, J (1986) An Introduction to English Language Teaching London: Longman Hill, D.A.(1990) Visual Impact Longman: Pilgrims Huong, N.T (1999) The Communicative Approach in the Mekong Delta The Fourth International Conference on Language and Development Retrieved November 26, 2006 from http: www.languages.ait.ac.th/hanoi proceedings/huong.htm Krashen, S.D (1982) Principals and Practice in Second Language Acquisition Oxford: Pergamon Kumar, R (19960 Research Methodology London: Longman Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively 53 Lado, R (1964) Language Teaching New York: Mc Graw Hill Lee, W.R (1986) Language Teaching Games and Context New York: University Press Lewis, M (1992) Practical Techniques for Language Teaching New York: Oxford University Press Mccarthy, M (1990) Language Teaching Vocabulary Oxford: Oxford University Press Richards, J.C., & Rodgers, T.S (1986) Approach and Method in Language Teaching River, W (1968) Teaching Foreign Language Skills Cambridge University Press Thornbury, S (2002) How to Teach Vocabulary Longman: Pearson Education Limited Uberman, A (1998) The use of Games: for Vocabulary Presentation and Revision English Teaching Forum, 26, 1: 20 Retrieved December 2, 2006 from http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol36/nol/p20.htm Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập nghiên cứu [...]... English teachers in Cantho high schools The results will help to find the specific answers for the following research questions: 1 Is communicative approach applied in teaching vocabulary for students at grade 10 in Cantho city? 2 If yes, to what extent? Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively 25 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The description of the research design, participants and instruments... for the following questions: is communicative approach applied in teaching vocabulary for students at grade 10 in Cantho city? If yes, to what extent? The answers for these questions have a great significance for my confirmation on the possibility of applying the communicative method to introduce vocabulary to high school students The confirmation will generally state insight Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần... that this is the first year the new English textbook 10 is generally applied in teaching for students in our country The nine high schools in Cantho city are also in charge of applying this new textbook communicatively The main purposes of my research are about whether a new approach (Communicative Approach) is applied in teaching new English textbook 10 in Cantho high schools, and if yes, to what... its meaning, however, to save time, we should use translation to make it clear Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively 22 In addition, Harmer (1991) defines a further technique in presenting vocabulary, which is explanation Intermediate students can use explanation, and the explanation of word meanings must include introducing any facts of word use For example, if we are giving an... and main method supplied in new English textbook and about the importance of vocabulary in foreign language acquisition Section 2 comprises of 2 parts PART A: To those who do not teach vocabulary communicatively This part just includes 3 questions investigating the reasons teachers do not teach vocabulary communicatively and the methods they are applying in teaching vocabulary for their grade 10 students. .. Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively 26 Research instruments Research instruments According to Kumar (1996), there are two major approaches to gathering information about a situation, person, problem or phenomenon Data collected from these two approaches are categorized as secondary data and primary data Information gathered using available resources such as articles, journals, magazines,... Audio- lingual Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively 19 Totally different from Communicative approach, Grammar Translation has its own techniques According to Rivers (1968), in this approach the teacher gives long and elaborate explanation and demonstration of grammatical rules in the native language Usually, students practices by translating prose passages from the native language... major feature of interview is that it can be very flexible, when the interviewer has the freedom to formulate questions as they come to mind around the issue being investigated Interviews are classified according to the degree of flexibility as unstructured and structured Within unstructured interviews, the interviewer formulates question Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively. .. strategic competence Luckily, those four dimensions are the same with what Canh (1999) has said in the Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively 14 introduction above Grammatical competence refers to what Chomsky calls linguistic competence and what Hymes intends by what is "formally possible" It is the domain of grammatical and lexical capacity Richards & Kodgers (1986) state that... third, the constraints in teaching English communicatively The research assumes that some teachers in high schools still haven’t followed the communicative approach to teach vocabulary for their grade 10 students Because, as stated by Canh (1999), pedagogical contexts in Vietnam do not always support communicative teaching practices We may take a long time to consider whether a communicative approach really