Đề tài Suggestions on techniques to learn vocabulary for students in Quang trung secondary in Haiphong

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DÂN LẬP HẢI PHÒNG ------------------------------- ISO 9001 : 2008 KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP NGÀNH: NGOẠI NGỮ HẢI PHÒNG - 2010 HAIPHONG PRIVATE UNIVESITY FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT ----------------------------------- GRADUATION PAPER SUGGESTIONS ON TECHNIQUES TO LEARN VOCABULARY FOR STUDENTS IN QUANG TRUNG SECONDARY IN HAIPHONG By: DƯƠNG THU THỦY Class: NA1004 Supervisor: NGUYỄN THỊ HUYỀN, M.A HAI PHONG - 2010 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DÂN LẬP HẢI PHÒNG -------------------------------------- Nhiệm vụ đề tài tốt nghiệp Sinh viên: ............................................................Mã số: ............................ Lớp: .............................Ngành:.................................................................... Tên đề tài: ................................................................................................. .................................................................................................. ................................................................................................. .................................................................................................. Nhiệm vụ đề tài 1. Nội dung và các yêu cầu cần giải quyết trong nhiệm vụ đề tài tốt nghiệp ( về lý luận, thực tiễn, các số liệu cần tính toán và các bản vẽ). .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 2. Các số liệu cần thiết để thiết kế, tính toán. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3. Địa điểm thực tập tốt nghiệp. .. .. .. CÁN BỘ HƯỚNG DẪN ĐỀ TÀI Người hướng dẫn thứ nhất: Họ và tên: ............................................................................................. Học hàm, học vị: ................................................................................... Cơ quan công tác:................................................................................. Nội dung hướng dẫn:............................................................................ Người hướng dẫn thứ hai: Họ và tên:............................................................................................. Học hàm, học vị:................................................................................... Cơ quan công tác:................................................................................. Nội dung hướng dẫn:............................................................................ Đề tài tốt nghiệp được giao ngày 12 tháng 04 năm 2010 Yêu cầu phải hoàn thành xong trước ngày 10 tháng 07 năm 2010 Đã nhận nhiệm vụ ĐTTN Đã giao nhiệm vụ ĐTTN Sinh viên Người hướng dẫn Hải Phòng, ngày tháng năm 2010 HIỆU TRƯỞNG GS.TS.NGƯT Trần Hữu Nghị PHẦN NHẬN XÉT TÓM TẮT CỦA CÁN BỘ HƯỚNG DẪN 1. Tinh thần thái độ của sinh viên trong quá trình làm đề tài tốt nghiệp: .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 2. Đánh giá chất lượng của khóa luận (so với nội dung yêu cầu đã đề ra trong nhiệm vụ Đ.T. T.N trên các mặt lý luận, thực tiễn, tính toán số liệu): .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 3. Cho điểm của cán bộ hướng dẫn (ghi bằng cả số và chữ): .. .. .. Hải Phòng, ngày .. tháng .. năm 2010 Cán bộ hướng dẫn (họ tên và chữ ký) NHẬN XÉT ĐÁNH GIÁ CỦA NGƯỜI CHẤM PHẢN BIỆN ĐỀ TÀI TỐT NGHIỆP 1. Đánh giá chất lượng đề tài tốt nghiệp về các mặt thu thập và phân tích tài liệu, số liệu ban đầu, giá trị lí luận và thực tiễn của đề tài. 2. Cho điểm của người chấm phản biện : (Điểm ghi bằng số và chữ) Ngày.......... tháng......... năm 2010 Người chấm phản biện TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale 2. Aims of the study 3. Scope of the study 4. Method of the study 5. Design of the study PART II: DEVELOPMENT Chapter I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I. Vocabulary 1. Definitions 2. Classification of vocabulary 2.1. Reading vocabulary 2.2. Listening vocabulary 2.3. Writing vocabulary 2.4. Speaking vocabulary 3. Vocabulary importance II. Vocabulary study 1. What need to be studied 1.1 Meaning 1.2 Form a. Spelling b. Pronunciation a. Orthography word formation b. Some equivalent concept c. Ways of word formation 1.4 Grammar 2. Vocabulary study 2.1 Studying from textbook 2.2 Study from dictionary 2.3 Studying from English songs 2.4 Study from idioms and phrases 2.5 Studying from mass media 2.6 Studying from listening and speaking 2.7 Studying from reading and writing 2.8 Studying from integrated skills containing reading, writing, speaking and listening skills 2.9 Studying from pair work and group work 3. Vocabulary learning tips Chapter II: A STUDY ON THE STUDENTS’S LEARNING VOCABULARY IN QUANG TRUNG SECONDARY SCHOOL I. The reality of learning English at high school 1. Teaching staff 2. Students 3. English teaching and learning condition II. Survey questionnaire 1. Objective of the survey 2. Design of the survey 3. Data and analysis 3.1 Students’ opinions on what they have obtained after learning vocabulary lessons 3.2 Problems often faced by students when learning vocabulary. 3.3 Students’ normally used techniques to study vocabulary. 3.4 Students’ points of view on the effectiveness of their learning vocabulary. 3.5 Students’ expectation toward learning English vocabulary. III. Findings and discussion of findings Chapter III: SOME SUGGESTED TECHNIQUES TO STUDY ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR THE STUDENTS IN QUANG TRUNG SECONDARY SCHOOL 1. Introduction 2. Studying English vocabulary from picture 2.1. Words accompanied with pictures 2.2. Matching 3. Studying English vocabulary through the funny games 3.1. Jumble words 3.2. Word search game 3.3.” Crossword” game 3.4. Matching game 4. Studying English vocabulary through mass media 4.1. Using books, magazines, newspapers 4.2 Watching films with English subtitles 5. Studying English vocabulary from Internet 6. Studying English vocabulary from Synonyms and Antonyms 7. Studying English vocabulary via books PART III: CONCLUSION APPENDIX LIST OF REFERENCES ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks to Mrs, Nguyen Thi Huyen, M.A – my supervisor. A person of varied skills and experience in English teaching, she has eased my research through valuable suggestion, careful and detailed comments. Without her help this paper will never be completed. I wish also to express my great thanks to Dr. Tran Thi Ngoc Lien – the Dean of foreign language department of Hai Phong Private University, and other kind hearted teachers of English, for their concern and support during the time I am studying here. My gratitude also goes to the class NA 1004, for their continuing support and sharing their ideas with me both as classmate and friends and for the wonderful time we had in Hai Phong Private University. I also would like to express my deepest thanks to English teachers and all students at Quang Trung secondary school in Hai Phong for their help that I would completed my research. Last but not least, I thank my mother and my father who have no knowledge of English but their help, support and encouragement to my English study is uncountable, through my life, they have been and still are ever ready to assist and stay beside me. For which I am truly grateful. Hai Phong, June, 2010 Duong Thi Thu Thuy PART I: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Each nation has their own language, custom and culture. To have a common voice, all nations in the world need have a common language and English is such a language. Nowadays, English is very important because it has become an effective medium and is used widen in many fields of life such as science, technology, foreign trade, tourism business, education and so on... In Vietnam, since the implementation of the open door – policy, it is now a great demand to learn English for the process of integrating into regional and international economic and diplomatic development. Studying English, students have chances to know many interesting things around the world. However, it is not easy work because English is very variety and complex. English learners, especially the secondary students have to face up with many difficulties such as vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar in which vocabulary is the most difficult problem. Almost students have difficulties in studying vocabulary at first. In fact, studying vocabulary well is one of the keys, which help learners step by step discover this interesting language. To the beginners, vocabulary is the most important factor, plays an important role in integrating four basic skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. In order to use English as an effective tool in communication, students have to equip an adequate number of words and should know how to apply them accurately in each real situation. The more vocabulary we have, the more confident we are. However, students can not avoid forgetting vocabulary in the process of studying English. It is really one of the biggest in learning English. Moreover, students have to face up with its form, pronunciation and meaning because of its variety and complication. In fact, a word may have more than one meaning and more than one part of speech. For example, “study” may be a noun and a verb also. Some words with different spelling and meaning have the same pronunciation, such as “sun” and “son”. Due to my English knowledge limitation and the frame of graduation paper, I make a sketchy presentation on some effective methods of studying vocabulary with the hope that this can help the students in Quang Trung secondary school. In the future time, they will study English for specific purpose which reqires lots of vocabulary. From the above reasons, I would like to choose the research title “Suggestions on techniques to learn vocabulary for students in Quang Trung secondary school” to help the mentioned students as well as others enrich their English vocabulary. 2. Aims of the study With the hope of helping the students in Quang Trung secondary school make progress in studying vocabulary. My graduation is about to help the students improve their own vocabulary and to prepare for them to the basic knowledge of vocabulary with higher requirement for the next grades. To summarize the above, my study is aimed at: Cover background knowledge of vocabulary. Find out reality of teaching and learning English at Quang Trung secondary school. Find out appropriate techniques for learning vocabulary which students’ attention. The students will feel interested, enjoyable and funny when they learn English vocabulary. Hopefully, students will be interested in learning English, especially English vocabulary and get better results. 3. Scope of the study In fact, there are various techniques to study English vocabulary. However, due to my limitation of knowledge and time, I have no ambition to study all techniques. In my graduation paper, I mainly focus on studying some effective techniques in learning English vocabulary for the students in Quang Trung secondary school (in HP) 4. Methods of the study To complete this graduation paper, a series of methods have been applied: Collected references, books and websites related to vocabulary and techniques to study English were analyzed in details to form the theoretical background of this paper. A survey questionnaire is conducted for students and teachers at Quang Trung secondary school in Hai Phong, the information from which has provided invaluably. 5. Design of the study The study is divided into 3 main parts: PART I is INTRODUCTION in which rationale, aims, scopes, methods and design of the study are presented. PART II named DEVELOPMENT which consists of three chapters: Chapter I: “Theoretical Background”, presents the background knowledge of English vocabulary and tips to study English vocabulary. Chapter II: “A study on the students’ learning vocabulary in Quang Trung secondary school” deals with the reality of learning, survey, findings and discussion. Chapter III refers to “Some suggested techniques to study English vocabulary for students in Quang Trung secondary school” that can help students make progress in studying English vocabulary. PART III is CONCLUSION which summaries the whole study mentioned in the previous parts. Briefly, this study consists of three main parts the first is Introduction, the second is Development and the last part is Conclusion, of which the second is the very important part. PART II: THE STUDY CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND I. Vocabulary 1. Definitions Vocabulary has been defined variously. Here are some main definitions of vocabulary: According to Richard, Platt (1992), vocabulary is “a set of lexemes, including single words, compound words and idioms.”(p. 40). Whereas, the Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (1995:1331) offered its own definition. Vocabulary here is simply understood as “the total number of words in a language.” Another definition was given by Penny Ur (1996) in which vocabulary could be understood as all the words taught in the foreign language. Furthermore, from his point of view, vocabulary “may be more than a single word” such as post-office or mother-in-law. Meanwhile, another definition found in the website: www.en.wikipedia.org that “A vocabulary is a set of words known to a person or other entity, or that are part of a specific language”. Lewis and Hill (1985) also shared Ur’s idea in that he considered a vocabulary item more than one word. They also mentioned a temptation to think that the core of learning a foreign language was to use words for old things. However, in fact, it was more complicated than that. Nguyen Bang and Nguyen Ba Hoc (2002) considered their following definition of vocabulary as “logical”. According to them, when the term “vocabulary” of a language was mentioned, it should be mentioned as consisting of all the words, compounds and idioms used to transmit information on both “oral and written communication”. In conclusion, it is easy to see that there are many ways to define vocabulary. The way that linguists choose to define vocabulary depends on the way he assesses the importance of the components of each language. Of all the above definitions, the one that Richard and Platt (1992) proposes in the Dictionary of language teaching and applied linguistics is perhaps one of the most widely-accepted definitions since it given us the whole scope of vocabulary. 2. Classification of vocabulary Vocabulary is knowledge of words and word meanings. However, vocabulary is more complex than this definition suggests. Words come in two forms: oral and print. Oral vocabulary includes those words that we recognize and use in listening and speaking. Print vocabulary includes those words that we recognize and use in reading and writing (Kamil & Hiebert, in press). 2.1 Reading vocabulary A person's reading vocabulary is all the words he or she can recognize when reading. This is the largest type of vocabulary simply because it includes the other three. Reading vocabulary is made of the words in print that we recognize or can figure out. If you are reading the book that deals with a scientific subject, the definition of various terms should be noted in that book. If you are reading a fiction book, and uncommon term is used, a definition of that term should be listed. Placing the words within the text increases the chances that the word will be retained. 2.2 Listening vocabulary A person's listening vocabulary is all the words he or she can recognize when listening to speech. This vocabulary is aided in size by context and tone of voice. Listening vocabulary refers to the words we need to know to understand what we hear. 2.3 Writing vocabulary A person's writing vocabulary is all the words he or she can employ in writing. Contrary to the previous two vocabulary types, the writing vocabulary is stimulated by its user. We expect that this writing should also enable students to use the vocabulary they have studied in a realistic context, and that they could be motivated to learn even more vocabulary they need to accomplish the task. 2.4 Speaking vocabulary A person's speaking vocabulary is all the words he or she can use in speech. Due to the spontaneous nature of the speaking vocabulary, words are often misused. This misuse – though slight and unintentional – may be compensated by facial expressions, tone of voice, or hand gestures. 3. Vocabulary importance Of many components of one language, vocabulary has been commonly accepted to be the most important language one. Commenting on the role of vocabulary, Wilkins (1982), a famous British linguist said: “without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed”. (Cited in A course in TEFL – Theory and Practice II by Nguyen Bang and Nguyen Ba Hoc (2002:35)). People consider vocabulary as the key to master English knowledge. With the lack of vocabulary, it is difficult to communicate with other people confidently. Moreover, it is hard to express idea and explain something necessary. Therefore, on a personal level, a good vocabulary is important in sharpening one’s perception thought and perception, to become fully conscious, must be formulated in words. A good vocabulary is important not only for more precision in thought but also in one’s daily affairs, the action one must perform both on and off the job in ordinary living. Vocabulary plays an important role in combining four basis English skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. When having a multiform vocabulary, it is extremely advantageous to develop four above skills. If we lack of necessary vocabulary, it will be difficult to express any ideas to others. Therefore, our speaking skill can not make any progress. Moreover, sometimes it makes confusion among people and leads to many inconvenient situations. Additionally, if it is supposed that you have a poor vocabulary, how can you write a lively and excellent essay or normal paragraphs? Truly, it requires a great number of vocabulary. Normally, we also can get information from reading books. If books are Vietnamese certainly these are not any problems. However, these books are written in English and denoted in English style. If you do not have a good dictionary, it will take you lots of time to understand. We have to understand what we have learned to use vocabulary in each situation effectively. Frequently reading comprehensions, and thus retention, are faulty because of a learner’s less than adequate vocabulary. With the lack of vocabulary, it is difficult to communicate with other people confidently. Moreover, it is easy to have misunderstanding in the process of exchanging information. It is hard to express ideas and explain something necessary. Only when having a great number of vocabulary can we make a progress in developing 4 above skills. In communication, it is a decisive factor to make us talk with others actively and understanding each other quickly. With a poor vocabulary, the free flow of ideas and pen is blocked and dribbles out; with a good vocabulary, it will be helped to flow, unimpeded. II. Vocabulary study 1. What need to be studied It requires you to spend a lot of time on studying vocabulary. Because studying vocabulary is a long process with the practice of many aspects such as mastering the meaning, form and word formation and grammar. Only when we spend muc