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TABLE OF CONTENT

Declaration ………………………………………………………………………
i
Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………
ii
Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………
iii
Table of contents …………………………………………………………………
v
Abbreviation ………………………………………………………………………
viii
List of tables and figure …………………………………………………………
ix
PART A: INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………
1
1. Rationale …………………………………………………………………………
1
2. Purpose the study ………………………………………………………………
2
3. Scope of the study ……………………………………………………………….
2
4. Methodology …………………………………………………………………….
3
5. Organization ……………………………………………………………………
3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT ……………………………………………………
4
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ……………………………

4
1.1. Vocabulary …………………………………………………………………….
4

1.1.1. Definition of Vocabulary ……………………………………………
4

1.1.2. Classification of Vocabulary …………………………………………
5

1.1.3. Principles of Vocabulary teaching …………………………………….
7


1.1.3.1. Purposes for teaching vocabulary
7

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1.1.3.2. What to teach? ………………………………………………
8



1.1.3.2.1. Form ………………………………………………….
8

1.1.3.2.2. Grammar ……………………………………………
8



1.1.3.2.2. Collocation …………………………………………
9



1.1.3.2.3. Meaning ………………………………………………
9



1.1.3.2.4. Usage …………………………………………………
10

1.1.4. Techniques of Vocabulary teaching currently used …………………
12


1.1.4.1. Techniques in presenting vocabulary
12


1.1.4.2. Techniques in practicing vocabulary
13

1.1.4.3. Techniques in consolidating and revising vocabulary
14

1.1.5. Strategies to teach vocabulary ………………………………………
15


1.1.5.1. Presenting new vocabulary …………………………………
15


1.1.5.2. Practicing words …………………………………
16


1.1.5.3. Revising words ………………………………………………
17

1.1.6. Memory and storage system ………………………………………….
18
1.2. Attitudes ……………………………………………………………………….
20

1.2.1. Definition of attitudes …………………………………………………
20

1.2.2. The role of attitudes in language teaching …………………………….
20
1.3. Related studies …………………………………………………………………
21

1.4. Summary ……………………………………………………………………….
22
CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ………………………………
23

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2.1. Context of the study ……………………………………………………………
23
2.2. Research questions …………………………………………………………….
24
2.3. Participants …………………………………………………………………….
25
2.4. Data collection instruments ……………………………………………………
26
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS, DISCUSSION OF MAJOR FINDINGS
AND RECOMMENDATIONS …………………………………
27
3.1. Data analysis and discussion of major findings ……………………………….
27
3.2. Recommendations ……………………………………………………………
39
3.3. Summary ……………………………………………………………………….
45
PART C: CONCLUSION ………………………………………………………
46
1. Conclusion and Implications …………………………………………………….
46
2. Limitations and suggestions for further studies ………………………………….
47
REFERENCES ……………………………………………………………………

48
APPENDIX …………………………………………………………………
50








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ABBREVIATION
BSHS: Bac Ninh Specialized High School

ix
LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES

List of tables
Pages
Table 1:
What is in knowing about a word
11
Table 2:
Teachers’ opinions on the aspects of the checked words
33

Lists of figures

Figure 1:
Teachers’ attitudes towards the need of focusing on vocabulary
during classroom activities
27
Figure 2:
Teachers’ attitudes towards the role of vocabulary teaching in
language teaching
28
Figure 3:
Teachers’ purposes of teaching vocabulary
28
Figure 4:
Teachers’ attitudes towards teaching vocabulary through

communicative activities
29
Figure 5:
Statistics of techniques used on teachers’ vocabulary teaching
30
Figure 6:
Teachers’ ideas about the purposes of checking students’
vocabulary
31
Figure 7:
Teachers’ opinions about the moment to check the words
32
Figure 8:
Teachers’ opinions on how long they spend checking the
presented words
33
Figure 9:
Statistics of the words that the teachers often check
34
Figure 10:
Attitudes towards the activities that the teachers often use to
help the students to use and consolidate the words presented
35





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PART A: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale
In Vietnam, since the 1990s, teaching and learning English has become a topical issue
appealing for concerns of both practitioners and researchers. It is common knowledge that
learning a foreign language mainly involves learning the sound system, grammar, and
vocabulary of that language among which vocabulary learning plays a very crucial role.
Vocabulary as a major component of language learning has been the object of numerous
studies, each of which has its own contribution to the field. Vocabulary learning is at the
heart of language learning and language use. Without vocabulary speakers can not convey
meaning and communicate with each other in a particular language. A large vocabulary is
also claimed to solve the other problems. Considering the crucial role attributed to
vocabulary learning in second or foreign language learning, one can implicitly understand
the importance of vocabulary teaching as well.
Recently methodologists and linguists have emphasized and recommended teaching
vocabulary because of its importance in language teaching. Vocabulary is not a syllabus,
i.e., a list of words that teachers prepare for their learners to memorize and learn by heart.
Language students need to learn vocabulary of the target language in another way. If we
are really to teach students what words mean and how they are used, we need to show them
being used together in context. Words do not just exist on their own; they live together and
they depend upon each other. Therefore, teaching vocabulary correctly is a very important
element in language learning. Teaching vocabulary is not just conveying the meaning to
the students and asking them to learn those words by heart. If teachers believe that the
words are worth explaining and learning, then it is important that they should do this
efficiently. Teachers should use different techniques and activities in teaching English
vocabulary to motivate the learners, enrich their vocabulary and enable them to speak
English properly.
There are many ways to teach vocabulary. According to Celce-Murcia, C‟s
approach which consists of conveying meaning, checking understanding and consolidation
is very useful for every teacher. Teachers can use many different ways to present the
vocabulary. After that, teachers also apply many interesting ways to check learners‟

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memory. However, how often do teachers check learners‟ vocabulary, which techniques
are used to check and how effective does this step help learners retain these words are a big
problem which needs solving. That is the reason why I would like to carry out a study to
find the attitudes of teachers towards vocabulary checking technique after conveying the
vocabulary in a foreign language lesson at a high school.
2. Purpose of the study
The aim of the study is to explore what activities are commonly used by teachers to check
their students‟ vocabularies, the attitudes of teachers of English at Bac Ninh Specialized
High School (BSHS) towards the current checking vocabulary technique and some
activities that teachers of English should do to help their students retain the words that they
have learned.
The main purpose of the study is to find out the attitudes of teachers of English at BSHS
towards the current checking vocabulary technique. Within this purpose, three main
objectives are:
(i) To explore what activities are commonly used by teachers to check their students’
vocabulary.
(ii) To investigate the attitudes of English teachers at BSHS towards the current checking
vocabulary technique.
(iii) To suggest some activities that teachers of English should do to help their students
retain the words that they have learned.
3. Scope of the study
The study is conducted at BSHS in order to investigate the attitudes of teachers of English
towards the current checking vocabulary techniques. To go ahead, the study also offers
some suggestions to better the current context.
4. Methodology

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To find answers to the research questions stated in Chapter 2, the study uses a combination
of qualitative and quantitative research approaches, which include document analysis and

survey questionnaires, interviews and class observation.
In order to gain the most successful results, data will be collected through questionnaires,
interviews and observations. Collected data, then, will be processed and analyzed. Besides,
the writer‟s own experience in checking students‟ vocabulary and the analysis of current
textbook and vocabulary teaching methods applied to teach English for students at BSHS
will contribute much to the completion of the study.
5. Organization
The thesis consists of three main parts as follow:
Part A: Introduction
Part B: Development
Part B is composed of three chapters, each of which focuses on a particular issue:
Chapter 1 deals with theoretical background concerning vocabulary teaching and attitude.
Chapter 2 describes the methods employed in the study and introduces the situation of
teaching and learning vocabulary at BSHS.
Chapter 3 is the detail description of analysis and summary of the findings.
Part C: Conclusion
This part presents conclusion, implications, limitations and suggestions for further studies
The appendixes are the last part of the study following the reference.

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

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This part is concerned with some of the important issues in the theories of teaching
vocabulary. It consists of the definition of vocabulary, classification of vocabulary,
principles of vocabulary teaching, techniques of vocabulary teaching currently used,
strategies to teach vocabulary, memory and storage system and attitude as well as the role
of attitudes in language teaching.
1.1. Vocabulary
1.1.1. Definition of Vocabulary

Up to now, there has not been only one but a wide variety of definitions of vocabulary. In
order to find the best and most easy-to-understand definition is such an unfeasible task.
Each linguist or scholar, in his specialized field, with his own set of criteria has found out
for his own way to define vocabulary. However, in the most popular way, Cambridge
Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary Online has applied a meaning for ocabulary as all the
words which exist in a particular language or subject. 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 meaning interlock to allow us to communicate with another,
and it is words that we arrange together to make sentences, conversation and discourse of
all kinds. It indicates that vocabulary is essential for learning a language.
Grave (2000) defines vocabulary as the entire stock of words belonging to a branch of
knowledge or known by an individual. He also states that the lexicon of a language is its
vocabulary, which includes words and expression.
From the view of Ur (1996), vocabulary is defined as the words we teach in foreign
language. A new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: a couple of two or
three words or multi words idioms. Therefore, a useful convention is to cover all such
cases by talking about vocabulary items rather than words. Some writers define vocabulary
as separate words while others consider vocabulary as lexical chunks. We need to be aware
of the fact that new vocabulary does not mean that only one new word is being introduced
to the students because often multi-word idioms or single ideas which consist of more than
one word are introduced.
Obviously, it is not easy to define exactly what a word is. Like so many other things that
are basic and elemental in our lives, we take them for granted and we apt to be surprised to

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find how hard it is to say exactly what a word is. In general, it is impossible to give a
precise definition of word. Therefore, we can come to the conclusion that Ur‟s way of
defining vocabulary is the best one. It also suggests that vocabulary is bigger than just the
meaning of words. It covers a huge aspect of language and is the medium to express ideas.
In conclusion, vocabulary is an important part of a language as well as the basis of

linguistic abilities. It may be worth teaching students an easier formulation of Wilkin‟s
(1972) view that without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing
can be conveyed. Vocabulary is the total number of all the words that a language
possesses, ranging from a single word, two or three words items expressing an idea to
multi-word idioms.
1.1.2. Classification of Vocabulary
There have been different ways of vocabulary classification according to different criteria,
features or functions. The following ways are the most common ones to classify
vocabulary.
1.1.2.1. According to the concept of morpheme
Words are divided into three kinds: simple word, derived word and compound word.
Simple word: is the one that consists of a root morpheme. (Ex: big, small, dog, table, etc.)
Derived word: is the one that consists of a root and one or more derivational morphemes
(Ex: teacher, exciting, ect.)
Compound word: is the one that consists of at least two roots with or without derivational
morphemes. (Ex: black-smith, black-bird, greeting cards, ect.)
1.1.2.2. According to the sequence of use
This criterion refers to the frequency of occurrence of words. There are three groups of
words, which appear in different frequencies: high frequency word, low frequency word
and specialized word. It is important for the teacher to show his students which group the
words belong to because it is unnecessary for the students to know all the words but only
the more commonly used words.

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1.1.2.3. According to the meaning
There are two main kinds of meanings in a word, lexical meaning and grammatical
meaning. Therefore, vocabulary can be divided into notional words and functional words.
Notional words are the ones with clear lexical meaning. These words form great number of
each speaker‟s vocabualry. Functional words are the ones whose meaning is grammatical.
They only have meaning in relation to other words with which they are combined.

Functional words are particles, prepositions, articles or conjunctions.
1.1.2.4. According to the function of vocabulary items in a sentence.
With different functions of vocabulary in a sentence, English vocabulary can be divided
into different items as parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, adverbs, and pronouns. Each
part of speech has its own position complying with certain grammatical rules and relating
to one another. Thus, the learners during the course should be aware of different functions
vocabulary items.
1.1.2.5. Other Classifications of Vocabulary
Vocabulary can be classified basing on teaching conditions, context of situations,
communicative purposes or content and aims of the lesson. In language teaching, words
can be divided into active words and passive words (positive/negative words) in which
active (positive) words tend to be concentrated on more. Melka (2004) discusses in detail
the two notions of receptive and productive vocabulary. These notions are based on reality;
we all have experienced words which we can understand perfectly well in a conversation
or in a text, but we are totally unable to remember when we want to use them productively.
However, language teachers should bear in mind that vocabulary acquisition is an
incremental process.
1.1.3. Principles of Vocabulary teaching
1.1.3.1. Purposes for teaching vocabulary
It can not be denied that vocbulary is necessary in learning and teaching a foreign
language. One reason teachers are concerned about teaching vocabulary is to facilitate the
comprehension of a text that students will be assigned to read. If students do not know the

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meaning of many of the words that they will encounter in a text, their comprehension of
that section is likely to be compromised. When the purpose of vocabulary instruction is to
facilitate the comprehension of selection, it is obvious that this instruction must take place
as an introduction before reading the selection.
As a rule, new words in narrative selections are not as critical to the overall understanding
of the selection as new words in informational selections. Before guiding students‟ reading

of a particular narrative, teachers should determine if there are any new words that
represent concepts which are critical to understanding the selection in context. New words
that are critical to an understanding of the major topic or theme should be introduced and
discussed prior to reading because the exploration of these prerequisite terms and concepts
will establish a strong foundation for subsequent learning.
A second major reason or teaching the meaning of words is to increase the number of
words that students know and can use in a variety of educational, social, and eventually
work-related areas. Vocabulary enables language use; language use enables the increase of
vocabulary knowledge and language use and so on. To increase the number of words the
students learn, it is often helpful to teach these words in morphological or semantic
clusters.
Therefore, teaching and learning vocabulary is very crucial aspect in foreign language
methodology. It is the most important for understanding and knowing names for things,
actions and concepts.
1.1.3.2. What to teach?
According to Richard (1976), selecting what to teach, based on frequency and usefulness
to the needs of your particular students is essential because the students will not need to
produce every words they learn. In fact, knowing a word is far more than just
understanding its meaning and students are not expected to learn every word in the
textbooks. So selecting what to teach is teacher‟s job and it has to base on word frequency
and usefulness. Nation (2001) states that knowing a word means knowing at least its forms,
its meaning and its basic usage.
1.1.3.2.1. Form

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It is obvious that vocabulary can not be taught or learnt in complete isolation from the rest
of linguistics components namely grammar, phonetics and phonology. Teachers have to
introduce what a words sounds like and what it looks like. It is very important to use the
phonemic script so the students have clear writen record of the pronunciation.
1.1.3.2.2. Grammar

Grammar of sentence can be covered by general grammatical rules but grammar of word
can not easily be put in general rules. If the new item is not obviously covered by general
grammatical rules, its grammar will need to be taught. Considering the relationship
between lexis and grammar, Raeveska (1971) states that grammar refers to the general
facts of language and lexicology with special facts. Teachers need to make sure that these
aspects are accurately presented.
1.1.3.2.3. Collocation
Collocation is the way in which words are used together regularly in a specific language. It
refers to the restrictions on how words can be used together in right contexts. Therefore,
this is another piece of information about new item, which may be word teaching. For
example, when introducing words like “to do” and “to make”, the teachers may note that
both of them have the meaning “to perform” but can be distinguished by the words they
collocate with. In general, teachers need to be ready to teach the types of collocations,
especially the ones which students have the greatest difficulties.
1.1.3.2.4. Meaning
Another important aspect of vocabulary that needs teaching is the meaning of the word.
Word meanings include denotation, connotation, appropriateness and meaning
relationship.
The denotation refers to things or concepts. This is often the sort of definition given in
dictionary. “Fish”, for instance, denotes the animal lives in the water and can swim. “Rose”
denotes a kind of flowers and symbolizes for love.
Connotation of a word is less obvious component of its meaning. Connotative meaning is
the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it refers to, over and above

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its purely conceptual content. Connotative meaning can embrace the putative properties of
the referent, due to the viewpoint adopted by an individual, or a group of people or a
whole society. Connotations are unstable, they vary considerably, according to culture,
historical period, and the experience of the individual.
There are various relationships as followed:

· Boundaries between conceptual meanings: knowing not only what lexis refers to, but
also where the boundaries are that separate it from words of related meaning (e.g. cup,
mug, and bowl).
· Polysemy: distinguishing between the various meaning of a single word form with
several but closely related meanings (head: of a person, of a pin, of an organisation).
· Homonymy: distinguishing between the various meaning of a single word form which
has several meanings which are NOT closely related ( e.g. a file: used to put papers in or a
tool).
· Homophyny: understanding words that have the same pronunciation but different
spellings and meanings (e.g. flour, flower).
· Synonymy: distinguishing between the different shades of meaning that synonymous
words have (e.g. extend, increase, expand).
In short, the words have various types of meaning. It is required that the teacher has to
make a careful choice of and decision on which meaning of a word to teach and how many
meanings and words to teach in the given class time.
1.1.3.2.5. Usage
It is clear that we often use word only in certain social and topical context. What we say is
governed by the style and register we are in. Words are not only restricted geographically
and socially, they are often restricted as to styles of speaking and writing. Therefore,
vocabulary knowledge involves considerably more than that knowing the meaning f a
given word in isolation, it also involves knowing the words that tend to co-occur with it. It
is obvious that the goal of vocabulary teaching is more than simply covering a certain

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number of words on a word list, and learners have to be given opportunities to use the item
effectively.
It should be notified that learning any particular words as being a cumulative process
where knowledge is built up over a series of varied meetings with the word.
In conclusion, different aspects of word knowledge are by far summarized by Cameron
(2001: 77) in the table below.

Type of knowledge
What is involved
Example
Receptive knowledge:
aural/decoding
To understand it when it is
spoken/written

Memory
To recall it when needed

Conceptual knowledge
To use it with the correct
meaning
Not confusing protractor
with compasses
Knowledge of the spoken
form: phonological
knowledge
To hear the word and to
pronounce it acceptably, on
its own, and in phrases and
sentences.
To hear and produce the
endings of verb forms, such
the /n/ sound at the end of
undertaken
Grammatical knowledge

To use it in a grammatically
accurate way; to know
grammatical connections
with other words.
She sang very well not She
sang very good.
Collocational knowledge
To know which other words
can be used with it
A beautiful view not a good-
looking view.
Orthographic knowledge
To spell it correctly
Protractor not protracter
Pragmatic knowledge,
knowledge of style and
register
To use it in the right
situation
“Would you like a drink?” is
more appropriate in a formal
or semi-formal situation
than “What can I get for
you?”

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Connotational
To know its positive and
negative associations, to
know its associations with

related words
To know that slim has
positive connotation, when
used about a person,
whereas skinny is negative
Metalinguistic knowledge
To know explicitly about the
word, e.g. its grammatical
properties.
To know that protractor is a
noun, and to know that pro
is a prefix
Table 1: What is in knowing about a word
1.1.4. Techniques of Vocabulary teaching currently used
1.1.4.1. Techniques in presenting vocabulary
Proposed by Doff (1988), Thornbury (2002) and Nation (1994), a variety of techniques can
be used or combined to introduce vocabulary. Thornbury listed a set of choices related to
presenting the meaning through translation, real things, pictures, actions or gestures,
definitions and situations with a choice whether to present the word in its spoken forms or
written form. In the other hand, as cited by To (2009), those techniques are grouped into
some categories as followed:
* Showing the meaning of words visually. This was the most common way in the stages to
present meaning of a new word. According to Gairns and Redman (1986), these techniques
can include flashcards, photographs, blackboard drawings, wall charts, realia, gestures and
mime. They are extensively used for conveying meaning and are particularly useful for
teaching concrete items of vocabulary.
This technique attracts the students, gives them the comfort to study and helps students
associate presented material in a meaningful way and incorporate it into their system of
language values. However, it is only useful to teach the concrete words that refer to cheap
and small objects. On the other hand, it is impossible for teachers to find all of the needed

pictures or photographs. Drawing sometimes is not a good way to present a word because
not all teachers can draw well. Gestures and mime is a useful and effective way of
introducing words since it can promote students‟ understanding and meaningful retention
of new items.

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* Showing the meaning of words verbally. This is one of the most important techniques to
present new words. This technique is commonly used to help students understand more
about the abstract words. It consists of the use of definition, antonym/synonym and
translation.
It may be not easy for the students to understand the definition because it may contain
words that students do not know. However, teachers can use definition and illustrative
sentences to show how the new words are used. Teachers can also use synonyms or
antonyms to help students build the new words. Besides, translation will be another useful
way to present the new words. There are some arguments for and against the techniques of
translation. It can require no preparation and can be done quickly, but teachers should not
rely too heavily on the use of translation and deliver most explanations in the mother
tongue in order to make sure that the students do not lose the atmosphere and the essential
spirit of a language-learning classroom.
* Showing the meaning of words in contexts. Context building is another technique to
introduce the new items. This is probably very useful technique because students can work
out the meaning of the words for themselves. The context plays an important role in
helping students to learn new vocabulary and in establishing how words are actually used
in speech and writing. Teachers should think of a clear context when words are used.
Teachers can also describe the context to the students or give them the example sentences
to clarify the meaning. Meaningful tasks provide the best answer to the problems of
vocabulary, as they rely on students‟ experiences and reality to facilitate learning. The best
way to remember words is meeting and using them in many different contexts.
* Translation. This is sometimes considered to be a traditional way but turns out to be an
effective use in classroom context. Showing the meaning of a new word by using

translation can be quicker and easier for teachers so that time for other activities can be
saved ultimately.
Normally, as also suggested by Doff, a combination of the techniques mentioned above
should be implemented when it comes to the effectiveness of presenting meaning of the
new words. This is because of the reason that each technique when combined will
reinforce and support the others; thus, making the presentation of new words clearer and
more efficient.

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1.1.4.2. Techniques in practicing vocabulary
For practicing vocabulary stage, as mentioned in How to teach vocabulary by Thornbury
(2002: 93), there can be a variety of tasks which can be used in order to help move words
into long-term memory. Those tasks, clarified by him, require learners to make decisions
about words and they can be divided into five types in order of least cognitively
demanding to most demanding: Identifying, Selecting, Matching, Sorting, Ranking and
sequencing.
Identifying tasks involving tasks of finding words in texts. “Listen then tick the words you
hear” can be obvious example of this type. Identification is the first step in recognizing
words and requires learners do easy task as counting, ticking or a bit difficult is to
unscramble words as in anagram.
Selecting tasks, as clearly stated by the linguist is “cognitively more complex than
identification tasks”. For selecting tasks, learners will have to do recognizing words and
making choices among them at the same time. Finding and odd out is a common task that
teachers may often use in class for checking comprehension.
Apart from recognizing and making choice among words, learners are also requested to do
matching tasks. In this kind of task, learners may need to pair a set of given words to a
visual representation or to a translation, a synonym/antonym, a definition or a collocation.
By grouping words into different categories, learners are being asked to do sorting task. It
should be noted that the categories can be given in advance or learners have to guess what
the categories are.

The most cognitively complex and demanding tasks in this stage are ranking and
sequencing activities. Different form sorting when learners merely putting words into
categories, in ranking task, they may have to put words into unfixed order, often created
learners‟ preferences themselves.
1.1.4.3. Techniques in consolidating and revising vocabulary
There are no fixed techniques proposed by group writers of lecturers at English
Department, ULIS-VNU (2009), specific tasks were listed instead. They are as follow:

14
ordering, rub out and remember, networks, bingo, word storm, slap the board, guess the
picture, matching, noughts and crosses, what & where, word square, jumbled words.
As for Thornbury, those listed activities above are some common games which assist
teachers in implementing a productive vocabulary lesson with learners. The final stage, as
further recommended by him, highly involves production tasks in which learners, after
having made decisions will actually produce something as a product of their own. In this
way, learners will turn words from receptive to productive and put them into long-term
memory. For production task, there are two major types that teachers may have used them
very often namely: completion and creation.
Sentence and text completion tasks are generally known as gap-fills. In gap-fills, the
distinction between open and close gap-fills is necessarily noticeable. In close gap-fill,
words are provided in advance whilst in open gap-fill; learners have to fill in basing on the
amount of lexical items. Multiple choices, as suggested by Thornbury also fit in well with
this completion task category. For completion tasks, there varies a number of instruction
such as: complete the text by writing an appropriate word in each space; choose the best
word from the list to complete each sentence.
If text and sentence are often provides in completion tasks, they are often created by
learners in creation tasks. The tasks sound difficult; however, this isa typical feature of
those tasks. Besides, learners may not have to produce all on their own, they are sometimes
provided with a set of words from which they would choose to use in their sentences or
texts. For creation tasks, such typical instructions are used: choose some words from the

list and write a sentence using each one, or write a short narrative which includes at least
five words from the list, etc.
1.1.5. Strategies to teach vocabulary
According to Gower (2005) and Thornbury (2002) there are three stages in teaching
vocabulary namely Presenting, Practicing and Revising.
1.1.5.1. Presenting new vocabulary
This title of this very first stage has indicated clearly its function in introducing new lexical
items to learners. As suggested by Thornbury, at the very least learners need to learn both

15
the meaning and the form of a new word. Therefore, as he claimed, it‟s worth pointing out
that both these aspects of a word should be presented in close conjunction in order to
ensure a tight meaning-and-form fit. He also stressed some major factors, subject to which
the number of words should be presented. They could be as following:
 The learners‟ level (beginner, intermediate, or advanced)
 Learners‟ likely familiarity with the words (learners may have met the words before
even though they are not part of their active vocabulary)
 The difficulties of the items (whether, for example,they express abstract rather than
concrete meaning, whether they are difficult to pronounce.)
 Their “teachability”, which means whether they can be easily explained or
demonstrated within the context of classroom.
 Whether items are being learned for production (in speaking and writing) or for
recognition only (as in listening and reading). Since more time will be needed for
the former, the number of items is likely to be fewer than if the aim is only
recognition.
Thornbury also notified a principle in introducing new vocabulary items, which was
learners‟ capacity. When the learners‟ capacity to remember new words,the number of new
words presented should be carefully considered and should not be overstretched.
1.1.5.2. Practicing words
Suggested by Gower and his co-writers (2005), students often need a little time for the new

lexical items to “sink in”. They pointed out that learners may recognize new items but
often delay putting it into active use. In this case, the use of planned acitivities for
recycling and reactivate the new vocabulary is of necessity. This kind of practice
underlines the popular belief that “practice makes perfect”. The author also emphasized the
action of moving words from short term memory into permanent memory. He indicated
that new knowledge needs to be intergrated into existing knowledge. This means in order
to ensure the long-term retention and recall, words or lexical items need to be put to work,
or into practice as it is often understood in many other contexts.


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1.1.5.3. Revising words
Revising vocabulary strategies are used to check the understanding of words that were
learned within the context of the passage, and to review, or teach in depth, important words
and concepts from the text. Words that are interesting or useful to know in other contexts,
but are not central to the understanding of the passage, should also be taught after the
initial reading is completed.
The best presentation technique is not enough in itself to help to internalize the language.
In order to shift the lexicon from passive to active, students need a lot of practice and
recycling of the vocabulary taught. Many sources referred to in this article emphasise the
importance of vocabulary revision. This process aims at helping students acquire active,
productive vocabularies. Students need to practise regularly what they have learnt;
otherwise, the material will fade away.
Teachers can resort to many techniques for vocabulary consolidation and revision. To
begin with, a choice of graphs and grids can be used. Students may give a definition of a
given item to be found by other students. Multiple choice and gap filling exercises will
activate the vocabulary while students select the appropriate response. Teachers can use
lists of synonyms or antonyms to be matched, sentences to be paraphrased, or just some
words or expressions in context to be substituted by synonymous expressions. Doing cloze
tests will show students' understanding of a passage, its organisation, and determine the

choice of lexical items. Visual aids can be of great help with revision. Pictures,
photographs, or drawings can facilitate the consolidation of both individual words as well
as idioms, phrases and structures. There is also a large variety of word games that are
"useful for practising and revising vocabulary after it has been introduced" (Haycraft
1978:50). Numerous puzzles, word squares, crosswords, etc., are useful especially for pair
or group work. Strategies include conceptual mapping, where the vocabulary words are
part of a larger generation of categories and ideas related to the topic and what was learned
from the passage; word mapping, where one word is explored in depth through its
definition, properties or characteristics, and examples; and feature analyses, where several
related words are compared and contrasted based on defining characteristics.
Students with large vocabularies are able to think more precisely about any topic and
express themselves with greater clarity and depth. By choosing a short, but essential, list of

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vocabulary words, and strategically teaching them either before or after reading, teachers
can also greatly improve reading comprehension and fluency in their students.
1.1.6. Memory and storage system
Understanding how our memory works might help us create more effective ways to teach
vocabulary. Research in the area, as cited by Gairns (1986) offers us some insights into this
process.
It seems that learning new items involve storing them first in our short-term memory, and
afterwards in long-term memory. We do not control this process consciously but there
seems to be some important clues to consider. First, retention in short-term memory is not
effective if the number of chunks of information exceeds seven. Therefore, this suggests
that in a given class we should not aim at teaching more than this number. However, our
long-term memory can hold any amount of information.
Research also suggests that our „mental lexicon‟ is highly organised and efficient, and that
semantic related items are stored together. Word frequency is another factor that affects
storage, as the most frequently used items are easier to retrieve. We can use this
information to attempt to facilitate the learning process, by grouping items of vocabulary in

semantic fields, such as topics (e.g. types of fruit).
Oxford (1990) suggests memory strategies to aid learning, and these can be divided into:
· creating mental linkages: grouping, associating, placing new words into a context;
· applying images and sounds: using imagery, semantic mapping, using keywords and
representing sounds in memory;
· reviewing well, in a structured way;
· employing action: physical response or sensation, using mechanical techniques.
The techniques just mentioned can be used to greater advantage if we can diagnose
learning style preferences (visual, aural, kinaesthetic, tactile) and make students aware of
different memory strategies.

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Meaningful tasks however seem to offer the best answer to vocabulary learning, as they
rely on students‟ experiences and reality to facilitate learning. More meaningful tasks also
require learners to analyse and process language more deeply, which should help them
retain information in long-term memory.
Forgetting seems to be an inevitable process, unless learners regularly use items they have
learnt. Therefore, recycling is vital, and ideally it should happen one or two days after the
initial input. After that, weekly or monthly tests can check on previously taught items.
The way students store the items learned can also contribute to their success or failure in
retrieving them when needed. Most learners simply list the items learnt in chronological
order, indicating meaning with translation. This system is far from helpful, as items are de-
contextualised, encouraging students to over generalise usage of them. It does not allow for
additions and refinements nor indicates pronunciation.
Teachers can encourage learners to use other methods, using topics and categories to
organise a notebook, binder or index cards. Meaning should be stored using English as
much as possible, and also giving indication for pronunciation. Diagrams and word trees
can also be used within this topic/categories organisation. The class as a whole can keep a
vocabulary box with cards, which can be used for revision/recycling regularly.
Organising this kind of storage system is time-consuming and might not appeal to every

learner. Therefore adapting their chronological lists to include headings for topics and a
more complete definition of meaning would already be a step forward.



1.2. Attitudes
1.2.1. Definition of attitudes

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In order to define attitude, there are many different views. According to Gibb‟s opinion
(1988), attitude is generally defined as a state of mind, which is influenced by feelings,
experiences of the world and belief.
Fazio (1986) states that attitude comprises of three components: an effective component
involving feelings about and evaluation of the object, a cognitive componentinvolving
belief about the object and a behavioral intentions component.
According to Hallorah (1967), attitude represents an individual‟s like or dislike for an item.
Attitudes are positive, negative or neutral views of an “attitude object” i.e. a teaching style,
person, situation or event. People can also be “ambivalent” towards a target, meaning that
they simultaneously possesses a positive and a negative bias towards the attitude in
question.
All above definitions show people‟s attitude towardscertain referent object, a behavioral
intentions component and a cognitive component involving belief about the object. In
language learning, we can see students‟ attitudes in their feelings and belief about the way
of acting towardsthe lessons, learning style, teachers and the course books.
1.2.2. The role of attitudes in language teaching
Attitudes and teaching go hand in hand. Gardner (1997) all agree that success in mastering
a foreign language would depend not only on intellectual capacity and language attitudes,
but on one‟s attitudes towards representatives of that language as well.
In fact, attitudes play an important role in teachers‟ teaching. If they maintain a positive
attitude, they will carry out their teaching to the best of their ability and vice versa.

Teachers‟ attitudes have an effect on their classroom behaviour, teaching style and
teaching results. Gardner emphansizes that favourable attitudes would be expected to result
in better performance than negative attitudes.
Agreeing with the role of attitudes, Brown (1994) says that language teachers and learners
benefit from positive attitudes while negative attitudes may lead to unsuccessful attainment
of proficiency. It can be said that without positive attitudes and perceptions or holding
negative attitudes towards the teaching and learning, we have little chance of learning
proficiently.

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In conclusion, it is clear that attitudes play an important role in teaching so teachers will
see themselves achieving greater and greater result in teaching in general and in
vocabulary teaching in particular whereas negative attitudes will hinder their teaching.
I.3. Related studies
It is common knowledge that the more words a learner knows, the larger the learner‟s
vocabulary knowledge is. “If a language could be considered as a house, then its grammar
could be considered as cement and its vocabulary could be figuratively compared to bricks.
To build a complete house, not only cement but also bricks are needed. Without bricks, no
house can be built, even when plenty of high quality cement is available.” (Huyen, 2004:1)
This means that to be a competent English communicator, one must acquire a good
knowledge of English grammar and have a rich amount of English vocabulary as well.
Vocabulary is an essential element of language.
For a long time in the past, methodologists have continuously kept seeking effective ways
to teach English vocabulary. It has been witnessed that there has been a prominent shift in
the field of vocabulary teaching. Many books on vocabulary teaching have been introduced
by such experts as Allen (1983), Nation (1994), Nation (2008), Taylor (1990), Thornbury
(2002) and so on. A lot of researchers have spent so much effort to study on teaching
English vocabulary, such as Joseph (2011), Solange (2001), Tahririan (2009), etc. Nation
(2000) whose specialist interest are language teaching methodology and vocabulary, for
example, claimed that the major problem with vocabulary teaching was that only a few

words and a small part of what was required to know a word could be dealt with at any one
time. He put a considerable stress on the issue of complexity which he pointed out the
more complex the information is, the more likely the learners are to misinterpret it.
In Vietnam, there has so far been some research on vocabulary. Nguyen & Khuat (2003)
asserted using games in teaching vocabulary to Vietnamese students. Their researched
subject was a group of 17 – 20 students at Distance Learning Centre. By implementing and
observing such games as: hangman, snakes and ladders, selling and buying things and so
on. The co-researchers successfully created an active and expectedly fun learning
environment for students involved. However, research on vocabulary checking and the
attitudes towards this matter at BSHS has not been done yet.