Luận văn thạc sĩ VNU ULIS an action research project on the effects of explicit english vocabulary teaching on grade 9 students’ vocabulary retention at lam thao lower secondary school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES


N U

NT

P

N

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AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT ON THE EFFECTS OF
EXPLICIT ENGLISH VOCABULARY TEACHING ON
GRADE-9 STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY RETENTION AT
LAM THAO LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL
(Nghiên cứu hành động về hiệu quả của dạy từ vựng tiếng Anh hiển
ngôn đối với sự nhớ từ vựng của học sinh lớp 9 tại Trường Trung
Học Cơ Sở Lâm Thao)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code : 60140111

HANOI – 2016

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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES


N U

NT

P

N

N

AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT ON THE EFFECTS OF
EXPLICIT ENGLISH VOCABULARY TEACHING ON
GRADE-9 STUDENTS’ VOCABULAR RETENTION AT
LAM THAO LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL
(Nghiên cứu hành động về hiệu quả của dạy từ vựng tiếng Anh hiển
ngôn đối với sự nhớ từ vựng của học sinh lớp 9 tại Trường Trung
Học Cơ Sở Lâm Thao)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code : 60140111
Supervi or Prof Dr

oàng V n V n

HANOI – 2016

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DECLARATION
I hereby certify that the thesis entitled
“An action re earch project on the effect of explicit Engli h vocabulary
teaching on grade-9 tudent ’ vocabulary retention at Lam Thao Lower
Secondary School”
is the result of my own research for Degree of Master of English Pedagogy at
College of Foreign Languages, Hanoi National University, I confirm that this thesis
has not been submitted for any other degrees.

Hanoi, 2016

Nguyễn Thị Phương nh

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Prof. Dr. Hoang Van Van. The
door to the office of Prof. Dr. Hoang Van Van was always open whenever I ran into

a trouble spot or had a question about my research or writing. I am extremely
grateful to him for his invaluable guidance, comments, and his kind encouragement
during the process of implementing the research and writing the thesis.
Secondly, I would like give my sincere thanks all my lectures in Post-graduate
Department for their valuable lectures and suggestions during the time I have
studied at university. My gratitude also goes to the leaders and staff at Faculty of
Post-graduate Studies of ULIS, for their support in providing me the materials and
convenience in the process of learning and conducting my thesis.
Besides, I am also grateful to all my dear students at Lam Thao Lower
Secondary School for their sympathetic participation in my research.
Last but not least, my sincere thanks are desired to send to my family
members, who always stand by me even at the harshest moment.

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ABSTRACT
Teaching vocabulary is one of the most important tasks in the English
language teaching process. To enhance my students‟ vocabulary retention the
researcher applied explicit vocabulary teaching due to its suitable characteristics for
her students. However, a research to find out the effects of this method was
recognized to be a compulsory task to take advantages of the strength of this
method and limit its weakness because every method bears its own weak points.
The research was carried out with the participation of grade-9 students from Lam
Thao Lower Secondary School.
This research was conducted to find out the answers to the two questions
below: firstly, “How does explicit English vocabulary teaching influence the
students‟ vocabulary retention?”, secondly, “What are the good and bad effects of

explicit English vocabulary teaching on the students‟ vocabulary retention? An
action research was implemented based on its useful features. In the research
process, the questionnaires and the tests were used to collect quantitative data, and
the interviews and the observation were applied to collect qualitative information.
The results of the research revealed that explicit vocabulary teaching method is
relatively effective the learners‟ vocabulary retention, especially short term
retention; however, the effects turn out unstable and different among different kinds
of students. The researcher discovers the emerging problem related to the solution
improving the students‟ attitude to English learning generally and vocabulary
learning particularly.
The findings of this research contributed further information to the theoretical
background related to effects of explicit vocabulary teaching to the students‟
vocabulary retention, especially teenager students. It is believed to be useful for the
teachers and the researchers who share the similar interest about this topic.

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TABLE OF CONTENT
DECLARATION………………………………………………………………… i
ACKNOWLEDFEMENT………………………………………………………. ii
ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………... iii
TABLE OF CONTENT………………………………………………………… iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS……………………………………………………..v
LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………………… vi
PART 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1
1. Rationale........................................................................................................... 1
2. The aims of the study ........................................................................................ 2

3. Research question ............................................................................................. 2
4. Research methodology ...................................................................................... 2
5. Scope of the study ............................................................................................. 2
6. Significance of the study ................................................................................... 2
PART B: DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................. 4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................. 4
1. 1. Definition of special terms ........................................................................... 4
1.1. 1. Explicit vocabulary teaching .................................................................. 4
1.1.2. Vocabulary retention ............................................................................... 6
1.1.3. Effect ...................................................................................................... 6
1.1.4. Long-term and short-term memory .......................................................... 6
1.2. How has vocabulary been taught? ................................................................. 7
1.2.1. Empirical background of explicit English vocabulary teaching through
the previous studies ........................................................................................... 7
1.2.2. What are students taught in terms of vocabulary? .................................... 9
1.2.3. The influential factors on the students‟ foreign language learning
performance ...................................................................................................... 9
2.1. Rationale for the use of action research ....................................................... 11
2.2. Background of the study .............................................................................. 11

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2.2.1. Participants ........................................................................................... 11
2.2.2. Data collection instruments ................................................................... 12
2.3. Data collection procedure ............................................................................ 16
CHAPTER 3: FINDING ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ............................... 19
3.1. The results of the tests ................................................................................. 19

3.1.1. The results of the progress tests ............................................................. 19
3.1.2. The results of the posttest and delay test ................................................ 20
3.2. The results of the observation ...................................................................... 22
3.3. The results of the questionnaires .................................................................. 26
3.4. The results of focus group interview ............................................................ 32
3.5. Discussion and conclusion........................................................................... 36
3.5.1. The obstacles of the students to learn vocabulary well ........................... 36
3.5.2. How does EVT method improve the students‟ vocabulary retention? ................ 43
PART C: CONCLUSION ................................................................................... 45
1. Effects of EVT to students‟ vocabulary retention ............................................ 45
2. Limitations...................................................................................................... 45
3. Implications .................................................................................................... 46
3.1.

Attitude and the suitable age of starting learning English ......................... 46

3.2.

The importance of learning English vocabulary frequently ....................... 47

REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 51
APPENDICES ........................................................................................................I
Appendix 1: Teaching content……………………………………………………… I
Appendix 2: The observation analysis…………………………………………….. II
Appendix 3: The results of the questionnaires in English …………………….......XI
Appendix 4: The results of the questionnaires in Vietnamese………………….XIX
Appendix 5: The results of the interviews…………………………………….XXVII
Appendix 6: Sample of the progress test 1……………………………...……XXXIX
Appendix 7: The results of the progress tests……………………………………..XL
Appendix 8: The results of the posttest and the delay test- Part A………………XLI

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Appendix: Ap.
Appendices: Aps
explicit vocabulary teaching: EVT
international phonetic alphabet: IPA
page: p.
vocabulary teaching: VT

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: The results of the progress tests
Table 2: The results of part A in the posttest and the delay test
Table 3: The results of part B in the posttest and the delay test

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PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale
The important role of teaching vocabulary for foreign language learners in
general and for English learners in particular is transparent and undeniable. A
learner cannot succeed in learning a foreign language without prolific vocabulary.
Nevertheless, to teach vocabulary successfully is always a challenge to all English
teachers. The question “How to teach vocabulary effectively?” is really one of my
big obstacles in the teaching process.
The students who participated in this research attended an English course at
my private English class. All of them learned at Lam Thao Lower Secondary
School; however, they came from different classes. Two months after the course
started, it was realized that the students‟ performance showed their poor vocabulary.
Especially, the students never learned vocabulary before attending my class.
However, they were required to retain a large amount of vocabulary to pass the high
school entrance exam, which led their need of learning vocabulary. This inquiry
was a challenge to them because the amount of time for teaching vocabulary at class
was limited while their ability of learning vocabulary independently at home was
ineffective. Consequently, explicit vocabulary teaching (EVT) was chosen to apply
for the students because it is believed to be able to help students not only understand
vocabulary clearly and quickly but also resume many lexicons simultaneously
(Burn & Joyce, 2008). Nevertheless, there has been no best method to teach a
foreign language in general and vocabulary in particular. EVT may not bring
unpredictable disadvantages to learners. Hence, the requirement of evaluating the
effects of this method of teaching vocabulary on students‟ vocabulary retention was
given.
Another research reason is related to the lack of information in the theoretical
framework in terms of the effects of using EVT to students‟ vocabulary retention.
The previous studies which shared the same topic and similar research background
had not been implemented in Vietnam. This resulted in the impossible application
of the implications provided by these studies.

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Due to the urgent demand of strengthening the students‟ vocabulary retention,
a research was required to be carried out. The research named “An action research
project on the effects of explicit English vocabulary teaching on grade-9 students’
vocabulary retention at Lam Thao Lower Secondary School”.
2. The aims of the study
The aim of this research is to study the effects of explicit English vocabulary
teaching (VT) to grade-9 students‟ vocabulary retention at Lam Thao Lower
Secondary School.
3. Research question
To fulfill the aim as set above, the following research questions are raised for
exploration.
1. How does explicit English vocabulary teaching (VT) influence the students‟
vocabulary retention in this research?
2. How does explicit English VT improve the students‟ vocabulary retention in
this research?
4. Research methodology
This research is an action research. The research data which included both
quantitative and qualitative information was collected by various means. This
research method was believed to help the researcher improve the efficiency of
teaching vocabulary to her students and find out the emergent problems which
should be solved in the next cycle. The rationale of using action research will be
given in some detail in the following parts of the thesis.
5.

Scope of the study

The research focused on the grade-9 students‟ vocabulary retention at Lam

Thao Lower Secondary School. The results of this research are expected to be
helpful for the researcher to teach vocabulary for grade-9 students in particular and
for other teachers to work in the similar conditions.
6.

Significance of the study
It is hoped that the results of this research will be helpful for the researcher to

improve her students‟ vocabulary retention, especially unmotivated students. They
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will help the researcher realize the cause of the current conflict aspects in her
teaching process to enhance the efficiency of the students‟ vocabulary learning.
Besides, the research also makes a contribution to enriching the related
theoretical theory, which helps teachers working the similar conditions to improve
their work.

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

Gass (1999) states that learning second language means learning its
vocabulary. Besides, Wilkins (1967 cited in Thornbury, 2002) contents that one can
convey very little without grammar and nothing without vocabulary. The
participants of this research were believed to have poor vocabulary, which required
this research to be implemented. Explicit English VT was chosen to apply in the
research process. To have firm background knowledge of this teaching strategy,
viewpoints of scholars in this field will be represented in the following writing.
1. 1. Definition of special terms
1.1. 1. Explicit vocabulary teaching
a. Vocabulary:
According to Cambridge Advanced Learners‟ Dictionary (4th e-edition),
vocabulary is defined as “all words that exist in a particular language or subject”.
Besides, vocabulary can be defined as being “all the words that someone knows or
uses”, “all the words in a particular language”, “the words that are typically used
when talking about a particular subject” and “a list of words with explanations of
their meanings, especially in a book for learning foreign languages” (The Longman
Dictionary of Contemporary English, 2003).
Especially, the definition of vocabulary became more specific in the
definition given by Hiebert & Kamil (2005, as cited in Abolghasem, 2015) in
relation to VT. It was pointed out that vocabulary can be defined as the knowledge
of words and words meanings. More specifically, we use vocabulary to refer to the
kind of words that students must know to read increasingly during the test with
comprehension.
In this study, to the researcher„s view point, the term vocabulary is the
knowledge of any word or combination of words (such as collocations, phrasal
verbs and idioms) in any form and their meanings that were taught explicitly within
the realm of the curriculum for English for grade-9 students in the Vietnamese

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school system as well as new words or word phrases emerging in the exercises for
the students.
b. Explicit vocabulary teaching
The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (2003) defines the term
“explicit” as being “expressed in a way that is very clear and direct”. Furthermore,
the Cambridge Advanced Learners‟ Dictionary (4th e-edition) defines “explicit” in a
slightly different way as “clear and exact or very detailed”. Especially, the National
Reading Panel ((NRP, 2000, as cited in Abolghasem, 2015) identified five main
methods for teaching vocabulary including explicit instruction: Explicit instruction
is the teaching strategy in which the researcher gave students definitions or other
attributes of words to be learned.
The definition of explicit teaching was defined more detailed by Burns &
Joyce (2008)

as the teaching strategy where teachers tell learners clearly and

directly about what they have to learn, why they have to learn, how they have to
learn. This idea is highly appreciated by the researcher. Consequently, in this paper,
this definition of explicit English VT was understood to be teaching English
vocabulary in this way.
c. Implicit vocabulary teaching
It is important to include some background on what is meant by implicit VT
and acquisition because the learning of new words can and does occur this way.
“Implicit” is defined in Cambridge Advanced Learners‟ Dictionary as
“suggested but not communicated directly”. Noticeably, implicit instruction is
identified by The National Reading Panel (2000) as the strategy where the
researcher exposes students to words or given opportunities to do a great deal of

reading. Ellis (2004) provides definitions of implicit learning as below: “Implicit
learning is acquisition of knowledge about the underlying structure of a complex
stimulus environment by a process which takes place naturally, simply and without
conscious operations.”

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In the writer‟s opinion, “implicit teaching” is understood to be a strategy of
English teaching in which students are not explained about what they have to learn
or how they should learn, but are given many opportunities to gain new knowledge
by themselves thanks to participating in many activities in a particular context.
1.1.2. Vocabulary retention
Retention is defined in Cambridge Advanced Learners‟ Dictionary (4th eedition) as “the continued use, existence or possession of something or someone”.
Besides, Oxford Dictionary Advanced Learners‟ Dictionary defines this term as
“the continued possession, use, or control of the fact of keeping something in one‟s
memory.”
Based on the definition of retention given above, vocabulary retention in this
paper is defined as the continued use, existence or possession of vocabulary in the
English learners‟ memory.
1.1.3. Effect
According to Cambridge Advanced Learners‟ Dictionary (4th e-edition),
“effect” is defined as “the result of a particular influence”. Furthermore, Oxford
Advanced Learners‟ Dictionary also defines this term as “a change which is a result
or a consequence of an action or other cause”.
In this researcher, “effect” is understood to be the result or consequence of
explicit English VT for grade-9 students of Lam Thao Lower Secondary School.
1.1.4. Long-term and short-term memory

Long-term memory has the ability to store information away indefinitely.
According to Gairns and Reman (1986) it is the ability of assuming an unlimited
amount of new information in an automatic processing and realize them without any
effort.
In contrast, short-term memory holds information in mind over a brief period
of time. Short-term memory is a controlled processing procedure at which the
learners can retrieve their new knowledge with effort. It is believed to be limited in
capacity according to Gairns and Reman (1986).

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The definitions of short-term and long-term memory given above do not
mention how long a period of short-term memory lasts. Besides, the unlimited
capacity of information retention mentioned by Gairns and Reman seems incredible
and fabulous. Most of the learners do not have this ability. Consequently, shortterm memory in this research is identified as the ability of remembering the
vocabulary right after learning at the class. Besides, the long-term memory is
identified as the ability of remembering the taught vocabulary within at least twelve
weeks after being taught. This period of time is equivalent to the average time of a
semester, and the students often take a semester test after this specific period.
1.2. How has vocabulary been taught?
1.2.1. Empirical background of explicit English vocabulary teaching through
the previous studies
Many researchers have done studies about the effects of explicit English
teaching. Each scholar brought new ideas and findings about the effects of explicit
English teaching in general and explicit English VT in particular.
Firstly, it is given by the side of the scholars who underestimate the effects of
this strategy. It is believed that students learn languages most effectively by way of

expressing ourselves and trying to understand and communicate, not by studying
separate building blocks in the language (Skolverket, 2011). Navy (1997, cited in
Shakouria et al. (2014)) sharing the similar idea with Skolverket argued that the
amount of vocabulary is too much; hence, EVT is “time-wasting” and “only
accounts for a very small proportion of native speakers‟ vocabulary growth”.
Remarkably, although Nation (2001 cited in Shakouria et al. (2014)) did not
absolutely appreciate EVT, he concluded that it is only suitable to teach “high
frequency words, a very small group of words, which deserve time and attention”.
In contrast to the opposing idea given above, many other scholars highly
appreciate EVT. Hanson and Padua (2011) suggested that using EVT with English
teaching as the second language to give multiple encounters with words may
provide deep word knowledge.

Beck et al. (1982) concluded that participants

processed word meanings more accurately and more rapidly due to this instruction
method.
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Researchers agree that implicit word learning is important, but it is equally
important to have a balanced approach to word learning. Moreover, explicit learning
has been shown more frequently to be of higher effectiveness in improving
acquisition (Bardovi –Harlig Hatford, 1998; Beaton, Cruneberg and Ellis, 1996;
Hulstjin, Hollander and Greidanus, 1996; Knight, 1994).
It is summarized that EVT can be given through providing word definitions,
synonym pairs, word lists, word associations, the keyword method, semantic
mapping and semantic feature analysis (Duin and Graves (1987, cited in Shakouria

et al. (2014)). Harmer (1991) states that the introduction of new vocabulary can be
carried out through the use of realia, pictures, mimicry, contrast, enumeration,
explanation and translation. All these vocabulary teaching techniques involve direct
teaching. Hence, EVT and directing teaching have the same characteristics.
Burns & Joyce (2008) clarified the traits of teaching explicitly as below:
telling learners how new activities link to previous activities in earlier lessons or
earlier segments of the same lesson, explaining the learning goals of activities and
how they link to learning in previous activities, giving students the terms, allowing
sufficient time for activities to ensure successful completion by all learners,
providing learners with clear course introduction that frames and structures learning
goals and material. These traits given by Burns & Joyce are considered the clues for
the researcher to plan and implement curriculum to meet instructional goals and
standards in this paper.
However, it is realized that the results of the previous studies mentioned above
are not useful and sufficient to apply for the participants of this research. Although
explicit vocabulary teaching is pointed out to be suitable for the learners with their
poor vocabulary, how this method improves the learners‟ vocabulary retention in a
particular period has not been shown clearly. It is difficult for the researcher to
make her vocabulary teaching plan, especially vocabulary revision activities, to
enhance her vocabulary retention in long-term memory. Besides, the participants in
the previous studies had more chances to communicate in English than the
participants of this research as well as most of the learners the researcher usually

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works with. Because of the difference in the learning environment, the results of the
previous studies may not work well with the learners taught by the researcher.

In conclusion, results of the previous studies in relation with EVT assert EVT
is worth applying at first for the situation of this research although it still bares its
weak points. Besides, the findings of this research are hoped to fill the knowledge
gap of the previous studies.
1.2.2. What are students taught in terms of vocabulary?
Nu (2004) gave the different criteria of classifying vocabulary such as
morpheme, meaning, function, frequency of use, etc. Below are the most common
ways of classifying vocabulary.
In terms of morpheme, words can be divided into three kinds: simple words,
derived words and compound words. Simple words are ones that consist of a root
morpheme like like, car. Derived words are those that consist of a root and one or
more derivational morphemes such as interested, actor.
In terms of meaning, vocabulary is classified as lexical meaning and
grammatical meaning. Therefore, vocabulary can be divided into notional and
functional words.
In terms of function, with different functions of words in a sentence,
vocabulary can be divided into different terms as parts of speech such as nouns,
verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and pronouns. Each part has to comply with
grammatical rules and relates to one another. This kind of vocabulary can be called
“word family”.
In terms of the form the vocabulary is expressed, it can be classified in spoken
and written forms. Spoken form of vocabulary is expressed through pronunciation.
To conclude, learners should be taught about grammatical meaning, lexical
meaning and pronunciation in process of learning vocabulary.
1 2 3 The influential factor on the tudent ’ foreign language learning
performance
The factors which are frequently mentioned include the age of learning, the
learning environment, the learner motivation, the learner attitude and the learner
strategies.
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Firstly, many scholars believed that learning foreign language at early age is
easy for learners to achieve better results than adults. Lenneberg (1976) explains
that the flexibility of learning language decreases over time in the process of
puberty. Hence, post-adolescent language acquisition becomes more difficult. The
participants of this thesis were teenagers. Adolescents are at a stage in life when
they increasingly want to start taking responsibility for their own lives, including
forming views about their own education, and the manner in which it is conducted
(Ur, 1996). Hence, it is suggested giving learners more chances to learn by
themselves rather than instruction, and avoiding scolding them.
Moreover, it is believed that the learners can get better results if they are well
facilitated by the environmental factors. Asgari et al. (2011) concluded that when
home environment supports the learners, they will be strongly pushed to learn. It is
suggested that encouragement is more useful to make learners learn with fun.
Asgari et al. (2011) also emphasizes the teacher role. It is believed that teachers
have an important role of providing their students with different strategies and
training them to practice these strategies with useful tasks and assignments. As
Oxford (1990) remarked, the students having suitable learning strategies have more
advantages and make the progress by themselves. But they often have lack of
knowledge and experience related to learning strategies.
Noticeably, the learner motivation is highly appreciated. It is believed that
motivation is a key factor to bring the progress to the foreign language learners
(Reece & Walker, 1997; Shulman, 1986). Crookes and Schmidt (1991) define the
motivation in terms of choice, engagement and persistence, as determined by
interest, relevance, expectancy and outcome. Especially, it is remarked that the
students should be aware of learning by themselves because their attitude is just the
key to everything (Asgari et al. (2011)). The learning strategies can be successfully

implemented only when learners are aware of doing it actively.
In summary, the influential factors mentioned above should be considered to
avoid their bad impacts on the results of this research. Hence, the information
related to the learning environment, the learner attitude and motivation as well as
the learner age was collected to provide the research background for designing the
teaching content.

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1. Rationale for the use of action research
Mills (2003) defines action research as "any systematic inquiry conducted by
teacher researchers to gather information about the ways that their particular school
operates how they teach and how their students learn. The information is gathered
with the goal of gaining insight, developing reflective practice, effecting positive
changes in the school environment and on educational practices in generals, and
improving student outcomes."
This research method is believed to bring benefits to the teaching and learning
process, which promote both personal and professional growth of a teacher and help
him solve his problem on his own or in collaboration with other teachers if he is
trained to conduct action research (Johnson, 1995; Burns, 2010).
In summary, action research has a lot of advantages in comparisons with other
types of research, and it is highly practical (Burns, 2010).
2.2. Background of the study
2.2.1. Participants
Fourteen participants in this study were the students in the researcher„s
private class. They attended this class once a week. However, the information of

twelve participants were analysed in this research because two of the fourteen
participants did not attend all lessons during the research. The participants were the
students from Lam Thao Lower Secondary School, which the researcher did not
teach for. Consequently, the researcher had no impact on their grade formally. This
was the case where the students only learned when they needed and really wanted.
It was impossible to force them to learn anything they did not want to. Some of
them were rather naughty or had strong ego, which sometimes made the instruction
of the researcher and their parents useless. Most of the participants in this study
showed that they did not like learning English. And they learned it because it was a
compulsory subject.

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All of participants learned at Lam Thao Lower Secondary School, but they
came from different classes. None of them majored in English. Hence, they did not
focus on learning English in general and learning English vocabulary in particular.
Especially, four of the participants often majored in other subjects such as
chemistry, geography and biology; hence, they had less time to learn English than
the others. All of the participants started to learn English at the age of eight.
Besides, none of them had ever learned any other foreign language. Consequently,
there was no influence of previous foreign language learning experience on their
process of learning English.
Especially, the learning environment was not favourable to the participants.
They did not have opportunities to communicate in English outside their English
class. And they did not have many chances to communicate even at their English
class because their teacher had too many students to take care of. In addition, the
participants did not have the frequent useful support outside the class or learn with

technological supports. Although they had good financial background and were
provided with these appliances, they were seldom allowed to use them because their
parents wanted to prevent them from entertaining with these tools. Noticeably, the
participants did not like learning English. They felt tired of learning English,
especially vocabulary.
In brief, the participants in this study did not spend an appropriate amount of
time learning vocabulary and have a good attitude to learn vocabulary although they
had a limited amount of English vocabulary. Besides, their learning environment
was not good enough for them to improve their English, especially their vocabulary.
2.2.2. Data collection instruments
2.2.2.1. Tests
Tests are often used to check students' vocabulary ability and knowledge in
language acquisition study. The instruments used in this study twelve progress tests
which were designed following the text of each lesson and given to the learners
once a week (See Ap. 7, p. XL, for more information). It is expected to test how the
students remember the new vocabulary of the lesson on place. From week 1 to week

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4, oral tests were applied with word cards; however, paper-tests were used from
week 5 to week 13. Each progress test included twenty tested items.
A posttest and a delay test were used to measure how students changed over
time under the effects of EVT. The posttest was conducted in the fourteenth week.
The delay test was conducted after the posttest twelve weeks to test the learners‟
vocabulary retention following the target retention after an interval. The posttest
and delay test were vocabulary tests prepared carefully by the researcher. The
posttest and the delay test had the same model. Because both posttest and delay test

were long, the students were allowed to complete their part A in sixty minutes, have
a ten- minute break, and then continue completing part B in sixty minutes. The
allowed time of the tests were measured based on the average time that two grade-9
students from Van Lang Lower Secondary School spent doing these tests in a pilot
study. One of the two students often got bad marks while the other often got good
marks. Their ability was also believed to be relatively equal to that of the
participants. They were not informed to take both the tests previously to have the
reliable results related their vocabulary retention. These two lessons were ten
minutes longer than usual.
The tests had two parts. In part A, the learners were required to write the
Vietnamese meaning and the word family of the given words which were all the
new words or phrases noted in their lessons. This was expected to ensure the
transparence of their understanding and bore the characteristic of EVT. Besides,
they were supplied with the text where the words or phrases appeared in case they
encountered the ambiguity and the bad influence of homonym. In part B, the
learners were required to answer multiple choices with four options (A, B, C, or D).
The learners were required to answer twelve phonetic questions, twenty four word
formation questions and sixty vocabulary questions.
After the tests were graded, they were analysed with mean and standard
deviation.

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2.2.2.2. Questionnaires
Four questionnaires were used in this research (See Ap.3, p. XI, for details).
Questionnaire 1 was based on the suggestion of designing questionnaires given by
Burns (2010). It was conducted to investigate the learning and teaching

environment of the participants, their foreign language learning experience and
attitude of learning English before this research was carried out. Questionnaire 2
was conducted in week 5 to discover how the learners evaluated the effects of
teaching vocabulary with word cards and how they reviewed vocabulary after class.
Quesitonnaire 3 was given to the learners after the posttest to find how the learners
evaluated the effects of EVT, especially the comparison among the used teaching
techniques. Questionnaire 4 was conducted after the delay test to find the answer to
how the learners reviewed the taught vocabulary after the posttest and what the
researcher should improve in the next cylce of the research. In these questionnaires,
the questions related to the learners‟ learning and teaching vocabulary environment
were repeated to reinforce the reliability of the information and avoid the bias prone
to occur due to the environment changes.
The questionnaires were designed mainly to get quantiative data. The
qualitative data was mainly taken via interviews which will be mentioned in details
below.
2.2.2.3. Focus group interview
It was realized that the information collected in the questionnaires was
insufficient. This resulted in the interview conduction on the purpose of collecting
insightful data.
Three students were invited to participate in the interviews. They were the
representatives of three students groups classified following their average marks.
One had the average mark of 4; one had the average mark of 6; one had the average
mark of 8. The interviewees were separated to answer the questions which are listed
in Ap. 5 (p. XXVII). This made sure that the students were affected by the opinion
of the others. Questions and answers were given in Vietnamese to avoid the

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misunderstanding due to the students‟ limited English using ability. All interviews
were recorded and transcribed for translation.
After five weeks of training, the first interview was conducted to obtain more
in-depth data to find the answers in terms of how students assessed their progress
when applying the techniques of teaching with cards and why the students had not
been learning vocabulary before class. The full translated transcript of the first
interview is given in the Aps.
Ten weeks after the first interview, the second interview was carried out to
find out how they evaluated the effects of EVT techniques. Especially, this
interview was expected to explain why the students continued not to learn
vocabulary before class. The full translated transcript of the second interview is
given in Ap. 5 (p. XXVII).
Thirteen weeks after the second interview, the final interview was conducted
to explain the conflict points between their results of learning vocabulary and their
evaluation related to the effects of EVT.
2.2.2.4. Observation
Observation is very important to carry out in an action research. It can help
researchers to find the problem based on the unusual performance (McKay, 2006,
cited in Richards, 2003). Consequently, observation was used to collect both the
qualitative and quantitative information in this research.
Burns (2010) suggested some techniques of observation known as using
audio or video-recordings of classroom interactions, transcripts of classroom
interactions between teacher and students or students and students, photographs of
the physical context, brief notes or recorded comments, etc. The participants in this
research showed their shyness and anxiety in front of the camera, which had been
revealed in the previously conducted research. They disagreed to work with the
appearance of camera strongly. Hence, the only observation technique in this
research was using teaching diary with careful and systematic notes. The aim was
collecting the information in terms of vocabulary teaching activities in the class,

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especially the informal chats between the researcher and the students, the students
and students.
A peer observation had been conducted before this study started. Hence, it
was realized that observation required a careful plan and conduction. The researcher
in the peer observation tended to forget to take notes. She focused on making her
presentation and explaining the students‟ questions. Hence, important information
was not noted. Based on the experience, taking notes about teaching history was
carried out each fifteen minutes in every lesson. Especially, V-space observation
was used to watch the interaction of many students at the same time. This
observation technique was suggested by the researcher‟s Kungfu master. A person
tended to focus his look on a specific object, which makes the object notice him and
start to behave less naturally. However, a person does not focus on a specific object
but weep a V-space in front of him while using V-space observation technique. By
this way the observer can watch more objectives simultaneously without attracting
any object‟s attention. The students might not tell the researcher the truth in the
interviews because of their anxiety caused by the social status. But they tended to
confess with their classmates. Hence, the observation played an important role of
finding the truth. Besides, the students might cheat in their test. Observation helped
the researcher stop the rule breaking timely.
Besides, the researcher strongly agreed with Burns (2010) that analysing the
observation data should be focused to answer the questions in terms of what the
data supplies for us, what the main messages are, and what gaps of knowledge we
need.
In conclusion, the information withdrawn from the observation gives the

noticeable contribution to the reliability of the research result.
2.3. Data collection procedure
According to Nunan (1992), there are seven steps of action research. This
study was implemented based on these steps as below.
Step 1: Initiation (Identify the problem)

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