Nghiên cứu về việc dạy từ vựng tiếng Anh cho học sinh dân tộc thiểu số khối 10 trường phổ thông Vùng Cao Việt Bắc thông qua các hoạt động nhóm

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
*********************


NGUYỄN THỊ HOÀNG YẾN


A STUDY ON TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO THE 10
TH

GRADE ETHNIC MINORITY STUDENTS AT VUNG CAO VIET
BAC HIGH SCHOOL THROUGH GROUP ACTIVITIES

Nghiên cứu việc dạy từ vựng tiếng Anh cho học sinh dân tộc thiểu số khối 10
trường phổ thông Vùng Cao Việt Bắc thông qua các hoạt động nhóm


M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60140111





Hanoi, 2014
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
*********************


NGUYỄN THỊ HOÀNG YẾN


A STUDY ON TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO THE 10
TH

GRADE ETHNIC MINORITY STUDENTS AT VUNG CAO VIET
BAC HIGH SCHOOL THROUGH GROUP ACTIVITIES

Nghiên cứu việc dạy từ vựng tiếng Anh cho học sinh dân tộc thiểu số khối 10
trường phổ thông Vùng Cao Việt Bắc thông qua các hoạt động nhóm


M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY
CODE: 60140111
SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN HUY KỶ, PhD




Hanoi, 2014
i

DECLARATION

This paper is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts. I certify that this thesis is the result of my own research, and that it has not
been submitted for any other degree. It involves no material previously published or
written by any other person, except where due reference is acknowledged in the paper.

Hanoi, August 2014

Nguyễn Thị Hoàng Yến

ii


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my profound gratitude to a number of people for helping
me to make this M.A thesis possible.
Firstly, I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Dr. Nguyễn Huy Kỷ for his
academic guidance, valuable advice, and supervision throughout this research.
Secondly, I want to express my sincere gratitude to all the lecturers of the Faculty
of Post-graduate Studies, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam
National University, Hanoi for their useful lectures and guidance during my course.
Thirdly, I wish to extend my special thanks to the students at classes 10A1, 10A2,
10A3, 10A4 and the teachers of English at Vung Cao Viet Bac high school for their help
and cooperation during my research.
Last but not least, I would like to convey my heartfelt thanks to my loving family
and my friends for their unfailing love and encouragement to help me complete this
research.

iii


ABSTRACT

In Vietnam, English is one of the foreign languages that is compulsory from
primary school level to university level. It can be seen that vocabulary is very important
in English teaching and learning. However, teaching English, especially its vocabulary to
ethnic minority students has a lot of difficulties. This thesis is carried out to investigate
the use of learning group activities in teaching English vocabulary to the 10
th
grade ethnic
minority students at Vung Cao Viet Bac high school, Thai Nguyen city, and find out how
group activities benefit for both teachers and learners of English to help them teaching
and learning English vocabulary better.
Furthermore, it is hoped that this thesis will help other teachers of English be
aware of the advantages of group activities and apply them effectively to teach English
vocabulary.

iv


LIST OF ABBREAVIATIONS

CLT : Communicative Language Teaching
VCVBHS: Vung Cao Viet Bac high school
ESL : English as second language



LIST OF CHARTS
Chart 1: The students’ opinions about English vocabulary in learning English
Chart 2: The students’ attitudes towards learning new words
Chart 3:The students’ interest in learning English vocabulary
Chart 4: The students’ attitudes towards using group activities in teaching and learning
English
Chart 5: The students’ judgements about advantages of group activities in English
vocabulary learning
Chart 6: The students’ desire about choosing their partners in group activities

Chart 7: The students’ expectation towards teachers’ activities in English vocabulary
lesson
Chart 8: The students’ preference towards the teachers’ activities in vocabulary lesson
Chart 9: The average mark of pre-tests in English vocabulary of the students of the
experimental group and the control group
Chart 10: The average mark of post-tests in English vocabulary of the students of the
experimental group and the control group






v


LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Teachers’ opinions of English vocabulary in English teaching
Table 2: The methods often used in teaching English vocabulary
Table 3: Teachers’ frequent use of group work in English vocabulary teaching
Table 4: The teachers’ judgement about group activities in English vocabulary teaching
Table 5: The teachers’ implementation of using group activities
in their current teaching
Table 6: The teachers’ tasks in English vocabulary teaching through group activities.
Table 7: The students’ engagement in group activities in English vocabulary lessons

vi


TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii
LIST OF ABBREAVIATIONS iv
LIST OF TABLES v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vi
PART A: INTRODUCTION 1
1. Rationale 1
2. Aims of the study 2
3. Significance of the study 2
4. Research questions 2
5. Scope of the study 2
6. Methods of the study 3
7. Design of the study 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5
1.1. Vocabulary teaching 5
1.1.1. What is vocabulary? 5
1.1.2. The importance of vocabulary in teaching and learning language 6
1.2. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 6
1.2.1. Communicative language teaching methods 6
1.2.2. Teaching and learning English vocabulary through communicative
activities 7
1.3. Group work in vocabulary teaching and learning 8
1.3.1. Definitions of group work 8
1.3.2. Advantages and disadvantages of group activities 9
1.3.2.1. Advantages of group activities in teaching vocabulary 9
vii


1.3.2.2. Disadvantages of group activities in teaching vocabulary 10
1.3.3. The role of the teacher in group work 12

1.4. Summary 12
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 13
2.1. An overview on current situation of teaching and learning English
vocabulary at VCVBHS 13
2.1.1. The students 13
2.1.2. The teachers 13
2.1.3. Teaching materials 14
2.2. Restatement of the research questions 14
2.3. Participants 14
2.3.1. The students 14
2.3.2. The teachers 15
2.4. Data collection instrument 15
2.4.1. Questionnaire 15
2.4.1.1. Questionnaire for the students 15
2.4.1.2. Questionnaire for the teachers 16
2.4.2. Pre-test and post-test 16
2.5. Summary 16
CHAPTER 3: RESULT AND DISCUSSION 17
3.1. Presentation of statistical results 17
3.1.1. Result of questionnaire 17
3.1.1.1. Result of questionnaire for the students 17
3.1.1.2. Result of questionnaire for the teachers 21
3.1.2. The result of pre-tests and post-tests 26
3.1.2.1. The result of pre-tests 26
3.1.2.2. The result of post-tests 27
viii


3.2. Findings and discussions 28
3.2.1. The opinions of the teachers and the 10

th
grade ethnic minority students
at VCVBHS about the use of group activities in teaching and learning English
vocabulary 28
3.2.2. Group activities used in teaching English vocabulary to the 10
th
grade
ethnic minority students at VCVBHS 29
3.2.2.1. Game 29
3.2.2.2. Role playing 30
3.2.2.3. Projects 30
3.2.2.4. Interview 30
3.2.2.5. Problem solving and decision making 30
3.3. A particular example of using group work in teaching English vocabulary
to the 10
th
grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS 31
3.4. Summary 32
PART C: CONCLUSION 33
1. Recapitulation 33
2. Conclusions 34
3. Limitations of the study 35
4. Suggestions for further research 35
REFERENCES 36
APPENDICES I
APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE STUDENTS I
APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR THE TEACHERS III
APPENDIX 3: PRE-TESTS V
APPENDIX 4: POST-TESTS XII
APPENDIX 5: THE RESULTS OF PRE-TESTS AND POST-TESTS XX

1


PART A: INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents rationale, aim, significance, scope, research questions,
research methods and design of the study.
1. Rationale
English is one of the most important and powerful languages in the world. In
Vietnam, it is one of the subjects that is compulsory from primary school level to
university level. Moreover, “better English, better careers” is one of the students’
purposes of learning this language. It cannot be denied that English can help Vietnamese
students prepare better for their career in the future because it does not only equip learners
with a necessary source of information of social and culture knowledge but also gives
them up-to-date information concerning different issues in our society nowadays.
Gezim (2008) states that it is the experience of most language teachers that
vocabulary teaching is the most important area of foreign language competence. No
matter how well the students learn grammar, no matter how successfully the sound of
language is mastered, without words to express, communication in foreign language
cannot happen in any meaningful ways. Thus, teaching and learning vocabulary
successfully is the concern of all teachers and learners of foreign language.
By applying various new approaches, methods, and techniques, English teaching
has changed from the traditional grammar translation approach to the communicative
approach. According to Communicative Language Teaching, the purpose of language
teaching and learning is to develop communicative competence in the target language.
Together with this trend, teaching English at Vung Cao Viet Bac high school
(VCVBHS), Thai Nguyen city is also the strategic duty of all the teachers and the

students. However, because most students at VCVBHS are from different mountainous
areas in the northern of Vietnam, learning English is difficult for them. They feel shy
when speaking English because of lacking words and they do not have a lot of chances to
practice this language in contexts. As a teacher of English at VCVBHS, I would like to
help my students to master the language and have an ability to communicate confidently
in English so I chose the topic A study on teaching English vocabulary to the 10
th
grade
ethnic minority students at Vung Cao Viet Bac high school through group activities to
help my students learn vocabulary better to learn English better.
2


2. Aims of the study
The aims of this thesis are to make a contribution to the improvement and
innovation of teaching and learning English vocabulary and suggest some group activities
to teach vocabulary to the 10
th
grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS.
To achieve the aims mentioned above, the objectives are designed as follows:
+ Investigating the opinions of the teachers and the 10
th
grade ethnic minority students
at VCVBHS about the use of group activities in teaching and learning English
vocabulary.
+ Suggesting some useful group activities to improve English vocabulary teaching of
the teachers and learning of the 10
th
grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS.
3. Significance of the study

This study can help the teachers to realize the advantages and disadvantages of
using group activities in teaching English vocabulary at classrooms. Furthermore, this
study also gives some suggestions to the teachers of English to develop successfully
learning group activities to teach English vocabulary to the 10
th
grade ethnic minority
students. This will help the teachers have more success in vocabulary teaching and create
more chances for the students to use vocabulary in communication with each other in
English naturally.
Hence, this study is helpful to provide knowledge on ways to develop English
vocabulary teaching and learning.
4. Research questions
The above aims of the study are to answer the following two research questions:
1. What are the opinions of the teachers and the 10
th
grade ethnic minority students at
VCVBHS about the use of group activities in teaching and learning English vocabulary?
2. Which group activities should be used in teaching English vocabulary to the 10
th

grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS?
5. Scope of the study
Within the scope of the paper, the study only concentrates on investigation into
the current situation, the advantages and disadvantages of using learning group activities
to teach English vocabulary to the 10
th
grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS and
3

then suggesting some effective group activities to improve English vocabulary teaching
and learning for the teachers and the 10
th
grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS.
6. Methods of the study
In this study, both qualitative and quantitative research methods were utilized.
They are questionnaire, and pre-test/post-test.
In order to find out the answers to the research questions, the researcher has used
questionnaire for all the teachers and the students at the chosen classes, and identified the
result of the learning process through pre-test/post-test.
6.1. Questionnaire
According to Dornyei (2003), a questionnaire will be distributed to students to get
information evaluation and reasons for their successful and unsuccessful according to
teachers’ instructions. By using this instrument, all participants are encoded so that their
names and their opinions can be kept secret, that is the reason they can answer honestly to
facilitate the study. Besides, using questionnaire can arrange time efficiently. Knowing all
the above theory, 2 sets of questionnaire were used to collect the opinions of the teachers
and the students at VCVBHS about using group activities in teaching and learning
English vocabulary.
6.2. Pre-test and post-test
According to Dimiter M. Dimitror and Phillip D. Rumirill. Jr (2003), pre-test and
post-test are measurement of the learning gain during the class as a result of comparing
what students knew before the test (in a pre-test) and after the test (in a post-test) to
quantify the knowledge attained in a class from a group of students with diverse learning
styles and education backgrounds. In addition, the tests can indicate how the students
have been learning in the course. So the data can identify teaching and learning methods
that need changing or developing to help students get better results.
Strongly agree with the above opinion, the researcher used pre-test and post-test in
English vocabulary in both experimental group (classes 10A1, 10A4), and control group
(classes 10A2, 10A3) to collect the data to prove the researcher’s opinion.

7. Design of the study
The thesis has three main parts as follows:
Part A: Introduction
4


This part presents the rationale, the aims, the significance, the research questions, the
scope, the methods, and the design of the study.
Part B: Development
This part consists of three chapters:
Chapter 1: Literature review
Chapter 2: Methodology
Chapter 3: Results and discussions
Part C: Conclusion
This part concludes four parts:
1. Recapitulation
2. Conclusion
3. Limitations of the study
4. Suggestions for further research

5


PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter provides a brief review of the theoretical knowledge relevant to the
research including vocabulary teaching, Communicative Language Teaching, group
activities in vocabulary teaching and learning.
1.1. Vocabulary teaching
1.1.1. What is vocabulary?
Up to now there have been many definitions of vocabulary. Some linguists define
it according to semantic criterion while others refer to it according to the phonological or
potential one.
I strongly agree with Swan and Walter (1984) that “Vocabulary acquisition is the
largest and most important task facing the language learner”.
Michael Lewis (1993) states that vocabulary can be defined as the words of a
language, including single items and phrases or chunks of several words which convey a
particular meaning, the way individual words do. Vocabulary addresses single lexical
items words with specific meaning(s) but it also includes lexical phrases or chunks.
In addition, Stahl, Steven a (1999), states that a person’s vocabulary is the set of
words within a language that are familiar to that person. A vocabulary usually develop
with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring
knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning
a second language.

According to Pyles and Alges (1970: 96), “When most of us think about language,
we think first about words. It is true that the vocabulary is the focus of language. It is
words that sounds and meanings interlock to allow us to communicate with each other,
and it is words that we arrange together to make sentence, conversation and discourse of
all kinds”. This means vocabulary is essential for learning a language.
In short, it is possible to say that it is hard to give a precise definition about what
vocabulary is. However, from these above studies we can see that the noun vocabulary
refers to the words used in a language.

6


1.1.2. The importance of vocabulary in teaching and learning language
"If language structures make up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary
that provides the vital organs and the flesh" ( Harmer, 1991:53). Learning vocabulary is
one of the first steps in learning a second language, but a learner never finishes
vocabulary acquisition. Whether in one's native language or a second language, the
acquisition of new vocabulary is an ongoing process. Vocabulary is central to language
teaching because without sufficient vocabulary, students cannot understand others or
express their own ideas. Wilkins (1972: 111-112) deems that “without vocabulary nothing
can be conveyed”. Lewis (1993: 89) goes further to argue “lexis is the core or heart of
language”. From these above opinions we can see that English vocabulary teaching helps
students understand and communicate with others in English.
In a language, there are many words that are regularly used when speaking or
writing. These words are part of active vocabulary. And then there are many words that
can be understood, but are not used in everyday speech. These words are part of passive
vocabulary. So how to make Vietnamese students’ English vocabulary become active?
It’s not easy for the teachers of English in Vietnam.
Recently, under the highlight of Communicative Approach, which is the result of
the works of anthropological linguistic such as Hymes (1972), and Firthian linguistic such

as Halliday (1973), the importance of communicative competence and the communicative
fluency are highly appreciated. And many methodologists and linguists have increasingly
been paid their attention to vocabulary as well as the ways to teach and learn it. Now, it is
clear that teachers should have the same kind of expertise in the teaching of vocabulary as
they do in the teaching of structure.
In conclusion, vocabulary is very important in language teaching and learning. It
is impossible to communicate with no vocabulary. However, acquiring an extensive
vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning a second language.
1.2. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
1.2.1. Communicative language teaching methods
According to Richards & Rodgers (2001), CLT originated from the changes in the
British Situational Language Teaching approach dating from the late 1960s Stemming
from the socio-cognitive perspective of the socio-linguistic theory, with an emphasis on
meaning and communication, and a goal to develop learners’ “communicative
competence”, CLT approach evolves as a prominent language teaching method and
7


gradually replaced the previous grammar-translation method and audio-lingual method
(Warschauer & Kern, 2000). Since the concept of “communicative competence” was first
introduced by Hymes in the mid-1960s, many researchers have helped develop theories
and practices of CLT approach. Brown (1994: 227) explicates “communicative
competence is the aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and interpret
messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts”. Chomsky
(1965) also indicates that underlying the concrete language performance, there is an
abstract rule system or knowledge and this underlying knowledge of the grammar of the
language by the native speaker is his “linguistic competence”. Therefore, speakers of a
language have to have more than grammatical competence in order to be able to
communicate effectively in a language, they also need to know how language is used by
members of a speech community to accomplish their purposes (Hymes, 1972).

“The aim of communicative language teaching, according to Richards and
Rodgers (2001:165), is the acquisition of communicative competence via student
engagement in meaningful use of language at discourse level. To achieve this, the teacher
facilitates communicative activities by managing the classroom environment, providing
resources and acting as a communicator. Classroom activities are often designed to focus
on completing tasks that are mediated through language or involve negotiation of
information and information sharing”. One of the most frequently discussed methods
within recent years is task-based language teaching, an essential feature of which is
learner-centredness. Language is best learned through meaningful and communicative
interaction between learners engaged in purposeful tasks. Such tasks provide both the
input and output processing, and the motivation, needed for language acquisition”. (Canh
and BarNard, 2009: 21)
In conclusion, there are many researches on CLT. Most of them identified that
CLT is the key of communicative competence which provides both the input and output
processing, and the motivation, needed for language acquisition and I strongly agree
them.
1.2.2. Teaching and learning English vocabulary through communicative activities

Paul Nation (2008) indicates that deliberately teaching vocabulary is one of the
least efficient ways of developing learners’ vocabulary knowledge but nonetheless it is an
important part of a well-balanced vocabulary program. The main problem with
vocabulary teaching is that only a few words and a small part of what is required to know
8


a word can be dealt with at any one time. This limitation also applies to incidental
learning from listening or reading, but it is much easier to arrange for large amounts of
independent listening and reading than it is to arrange for large amounts of teaching.
Teaching can effectively deal with only a small amount of information about a word at a
time. The more complex the information is, the more likely the learners are to

misinterpret.
There are many ways to teach vocabulary. However, from many previous studies,
it is clear that teaching vocabulary through communicative activities is one of the most
effective ways. It can provide learners with opportunities to use language to do things and
in particular, to engage in meaningful interactive oral language production. No longer
being considered as passive, learners are seen as active participants in the negotiation of
meaning. CLT makes use of real life situations that need communication, so it can make
the learners’ vocabulary become active vocabulary.
In brief, CLT has been proved as an ideal approach of the twenty-first century.
There are many different assumptions, beliefs and even myths about implementation of
CLT in practical English classes. However, we cannot deny the fact that communicative
activities perform a very important role in language teaching and, especially in teaching
vocabulary. It does help to improve students’ motivation so it is necessary to understand
the overwhelming advantages of some communicative activities over the others in terms
of motivation and interestingness. (Ngo Phuc Duy, 2011)
1.3. Group work in vocabulary teaching and learning
1.3.1. Definitions of group work
Adrian Doff (1988: 137) defines group work as a process that “the teacher divides
the class into small groups to work together, all the group work at the same time”.
Barkley et al., Cooper et al., (2003,2004), emphasize group work is one pedagogical
strategy that promotes participation and interaction. It fosters a deeper and more active
learning process, and it also provides instructors with valuable demonstrations of the
degree to which students understand particular topics or concepts. In addition to exposing
students to different approaches and ways of thinking, working with other students in
groups can promote a sense of belonging that combats the anonymity and isolation that
many students experience at a large campus. Some students may initially be reluctant to
participate in group work, so sharing the reasons for group work with your students can
help to convince the reluctant ones. It might help them to know that groups frequently
9

devise more and better solutions than the most advanced individual, working together in
groups also gives students the opportunity to learn from and teach each other. Classroom
research has shown that students often learn better from each other than they do from a
teacher.
It can be seen from the above researches that, learning group is a form of
cooperative learning. It aims to gather students’ individual knowledge, and experiences to
develop students’ knowledge, skills such as collaborative skills, communicative skills,
and students’ attitudes.
1.3.2. Advantages and disadvantages of group activities
1.3.2.1. Advantages of group activities in teaching vocabulary
“More hands make for lighter work”, “two heads are better than one”, “the more
the merrier”….These adages speak to the potential groups that have to be more
productive, creative, and motivated than individuals on their own. Group work can help
students develop a host of skills that are increasingly important in the professional world
(Caruso & Woolley, 2008; Mannix & Neale, 2005). Positive group experiences,
moreover, have been shown to contribute to students learning, retention and overall
college success (Astin, 1997; Tinto, 2006).
Tsui (2001) and Lee (1999) determined that “group work provides more
opportunities for learners to initiate and control the interaction, to produce a much
larger variety of speech acts and to engage in the negotiation to meaning” and that “being
responsible for their peers’ learning in a group makes students more active”. In a
language teaching study, Norman (1986: 11) finds that “Most people learn a foreign
language better with others than on their own”. The research also shows that educational
experiences that are active, social, contextual, engaging, and student-owned lead to
deeper learning. The benefits of collaborative learning include:
 Development of higher level thinking, oral communication, self-management, and
leadership skills.
 Promotion of student-faculty interaction.
 Increase in student retention, self-esteem, and responsibility.

 Exposure to and an increase in understanding of diverse perspectives.
 Preparation for real life social and employment situations.
10


Though there are many different ideas of group work, in common we can see that
group work can give the students far more chances to speak English in the classroom. The
students can participate in the lesson much more actively because they are involved in
talking to their friends to exchange opinions, practise new vocabulary that they have
acquired. This is important at VCVBHS where English lessons usually take place three
times a week, the teachers have to practise, develop all the language skills and it happens
that there is no time left for speaking. So dividing the class into groups to give the
learners opportunity to use the language to communicate with each other is really
necessary.
1.3.2.2. Disadvantages of group activities in teaching vocabulary
Besides many advantages, group activities have some disadvantages. According to
Aneta Gorgon-Matera (2008), its main disadvantages are:
* The students can make too much noise
When the whole class is divided into small groups to work at the same time, of
course there is a big noise. However, If the noise is made during working on task such as
discussing things, checking words, or communicating with one another, it is called
positive noise and it does not disturb the students. They concentrate on the task and they
do not hear it. If an activity goes on for too long, students, especially the poor ones, make
noise because they become bored, they want to get the teacher's attention and they may
become disruptive. Such noise may become disruptive for the whole activity and class
behavior because misbehavior is contagious.
To avoid a danger of this fact the teacher should plan their activity very carefully.
Assuming that the learners are familiar with the code of conduct discussed at the
beginning of the school year, the teacher should give them clear instructions about what
to do, when to start and when to stop. The task should be clearly defined and not go for

too long. At first, the students may be confused but once a routine has been set up, they
should know what is expected from them. This should prevent excessive noise and
prevent the class from getting out of control.
* Students tend to use the mother tongue
Another disadvantage of group work is students tend to use the mother tongue.
When students get excited working in groups, they sometimes use their mother tongue to
express something they are not able to express in a foreign language. Such a situation is
11


normal because they want to communicate. It is teacher’s responsibility to plan activities
at the level of the students and to encourage them to use little of the language they know
as well as they can because speaking their own language during an oral activity is a waste
of time. However, the teacher should not be bothered too much if his/her students use
their mother tongue while doing vocabulary exercises because the outcome of their
discussion will be presented in English. It may also be necessary to ask students to
translate instructions into their mother tongue to check if they understand what the
teachers want them to do because giving instructions of a complicated activity may be a
waste of time.
To avoid the use of mother tongue during the lesson, the teachers can discuss this
problem with the students who should understand that during oral activities the use of the
mother tongue is a real problem. During the activity, the teacher should encourage the
students to use English by going round the classroom, helping and prompting those who
do not know how to express some ideas.
* Students will not work properly
It may be a problem to put students into groups. There is the danger that if the
teacher divides the class into mixed ability groups, the best students in the group will
have to do the task while the weakest ones switch off and become disruptive.
To overcome this problem, the teacher may put them into groups according to
their abilities and each group is given a task right for their level of difficulty. Then the

teacher may monitor the whole class, devote more time to the students who need his/her
assistance or even work with individual students.
* Teachers may lose control of the class
In Vietnam, there are often about 50 students in each class and all the groups
work at the same time, so it’s not easy for a teacher to monitor all the groups. When the
teacher is explaining something for a group, he/she cannot know what the others are
doing and some students can be out of control.
However, interactive learning, communicative teaching counter with the
importance of meaning, purposeful language and real communication which in turn must
allow the students to improve creative possibilities. The effective teacher will circulate
among the groups, listen to them, offer suggestions and criticism.
In conclusion, there are many problems with group work, but there are also many
ways to solve them successfully, such as dividing the students into groups in the most
12


convenient way possible, making sure that the students know exactly what they have to
do, keeping activities simple, do not let activities go on too long, controlling the noise
level as necessary, and providing feedback (adapted from Byrnes and Byrnes, 2009).
1.3.3. The role of the teacher in group work
The role of the teacher will depend to a large extent on the function he performs
in different activities. Harmer (1995) examines the roles of a teacher as a controller,
organiser, assessor, prompter, participant, recourse, tutor and investigator. It will be
obvious that the teacher’s behavior for various types of activity will be different. For
communicative output according to him, the role of the teacher should change. Group
work is often used for communicative activities. That is why the role of the teacher very
often changes in group work. Since the teacher as controller is no longer oppressively
present, students can help each other to use and learn language. The teacher will still, of
course, be able to act as an assessor, prompter or resource. With group work, then,
students can practise language use and joint learning.

Watcyn-Jones (2002) stresses that once the group work has actually started, the
students should work independently of the teacher and their own pace. The role of the
teacher while this is going on is to monitor the students’ progress by walking round the
classroom, pausing briefly beside each group, listening to them and noting any language
errors or communication problems which can be taken up later on with the whole class. It
is best not to interrupt them or correct them while they are working as this will impede
fluency, spoil the atmosphere, distract them from what they are doing and, at worst,
destroy their confidence! But if things are obviously going really bad, the teacher should
prepare to offer an advice and encouragement – just sufficient to get them working again.
1.4. Summary
In summary, the previous studies mentioned above considered the use of group
work in language teaching. These studies show that CLT is one of the most useful
methods to teach ESL and group work is one type of CLT. In this study, both of benefit
and implementing of using group work in teaching are concerned. However, the
researcher mainly focuses on group work implementation because she would like to
investigate the group activities that are used in vocabulary teaching in the hope of finding
out the useful ones for both teachers and the 10
th
grade ethnic minority students at
VCVBHS.
13


CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter starts by describing the situation of VCVBHS where the study was
conducted. It also elaborates the methods of the research including questionnaire, and
pre-test/post-test.
2.1. An overview on current situation of teaching and learning English vocabulary at
VCVBHS

2.1.1. The students
VCVBHS is one of the biggest and oldest ethnic boarding high school in Vietnam.
The students at VCVBHS are ethnic minorities from Northern mountainous provinces of
Vietnam. Most of them come from farmer families in the remote villages and Vietnamese
is not the first language, their mother tongues are ethnic minority languages. They only
use Vietnamese at the class or in the public so their Vietnamese competence is still
limited. In addition, the teaching condition, especially for teaching English, in many
mountainous areas in Vietnam is poor, so when they come to VCVBHS, their knowledge,
first and foremost their English is poor. Moreover, they are very shy to speak English.
They always think that they are very bad at English and everyone looks at them to find
out their mistakes to laugh at them.
Coming to VCVBHS to study, they are far from home, so some of them often feel
bored, some even suffer from being homesick because this is the first time they have lived
far from their families. However, the new environment, new teachers and new friends
may be positive factors to make them more interested in learning.
2.1.2. The teachers
Most of the teachers of English at VCVBHS are young and interested in
teaching career. They all graduated from Thai Nguyen University of Education. They are
always aware of the importance of English in the modern life. In addition, the school’s
leaders often take care of English teaching. They let the teachers have chances to have
further studies. Nevertheless, only some of them often use the new trend in language
teaching: learner–centered approach as well as teaching skills, especially communicative
skills to teach the students. These teachers often use learning group activities to give their
students more chances to use English in communication. This makes the students feel less
worried about their poor English and more confident in English. Some teachers still use
the traditional method to teach English (the teacher gives the grammar rules and the
14


students learn by heart). Because of lacking skills of using CLT in teaching, sometimes

they do not spend enough time preparing or do not pay enough attention to group
activities, so their lessons are not successful.
2.1.3. Teaching materials
VCVBHS is a big school, however, its equipments for teaching foreign language
are not good. There are not any language laboratory rooms, there are not many English
books, CDs or cassette tapes in the school library. The teachers teach English with their
own laptops or speakers. Besides, the class is large (45-50 students each class) so it is
difficult for the teacher to give all the students the chance to communication in one period
(45 minutes). Therefore, group work becomes one of the best ways to give the students
opportunities to use English to communicate at the same time and to develop their
communicative skills in English.
2.2. Restatement of the research questions
As stated in part A, the aims of the study are to find out the points of view of the
teachers of English and the 10
th
form students at VCVBHS on using learning group
activities in teaching and learning vocabulary. From the result of the survey, the
researcher suggests some types of group activities for teaching vocabulary to the 10
th

grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS. For these aims, the two research questions
are set up as follows:
1. What are the opinions of the teachers and the 10
th
grade ethnic minority
students at VCVBHS about the use of group activities in teaching and learning English
vocabulary?
2. Which group activities should be used in teaching English vocabulary to the
10
th

grade ethnic minority students at VCVBHS?
2.3. Participants
2.3.1. The students
A total of 181 students of 10
th
form (classes 10A1, 10A2, 10A3, 10A4) at
VCVBHS participated in this study. 93 of them are female and 88 of them are male. All
the participants are ethnic minority students (Dao, H’Mông, La Hủ, Lự, Mường, Ráy,
Thái….) coming from Vietnam’s mountainous areas (from Nghệ An to Điện Biên). All of
them are at the age of 16 and they have been studying English from 6
th
grade at their local
schools. Among them, the students at classes 10A1 and 10A4 (the experimental group)
were taught English vocabulary through group activities and the students at classes 10A2
15


and 10A3 (the control group) learnt English vocabulary through traditional method
(teachers gave the list of English vocabulary and students learnt it by themselves). As a
result, their standard in English is not the same, some are good, many are not good and
some even bad at English so their opinions about using group activities in vocabulary
learning is quite objective. However, how to organize learning group activities that are
suitable for all the students is not easy.
All the participants took part in pre-test/post-test in English vocabulary, but only
91 students at the experimental group participated in answering the questionnaire.
2.3.2. The teachers
All of 14 teachers of English at VCVBHS took part in answering the research
questionnaire. All of them are female. They graduated from Thai Nguyen University and
got BA. degree. Their ages range from 24 to 40 with at least 3 years of teaching English.
They often say that they love their jobs.

2.4. Data collection instrument
2.4.1. Questionnaire
In order to collect data for this study, 2 sets of questionnaire were used to get
information about using group activities in teaching and learning English vocabulary. Set
1 is for the students at classes 10A1 and 10A4, set 2 is for 14 teachers of English at
VCVBHS. The questions for the teachers are written in English but the questions for the
students are written in Vietnamese to make sure that all of them can understand and
express all their ideas.
2.4.1.1. Questionnaire for the students
Set 1 for all 91 students at the experimental group (47 of them are female and 44
of them are male) included 11 questions. The aims of the questions are:
 To identify the students’ personally experience in learning English (question 1,2, 3)
 To explore the students’ opinions about English vocabulary in learning English
(question 4)
 To identify the students’ attitudes towards learning new words (question 5, 6)
 To find out the students’ attitudes towards using group activities in teaching and
learning English (question 7, 8, 9)
 To identify the students’ opinions about organising group activities (10, 11)
 To explore group activities liked more by the students (question 12)