Niềm tin của giáo viên trong việc dạy từ vựng và thực tiễn áp dụng trong lớp học Nghiên cứu định tính tại trường trung học phổ thông Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai

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

TRẦN THI ̣ KIM OANH

TEACHERS’ BELIEFS AND PRACTICES REGARDING
VOCABULARY TEACHING: A QUALITATIVE STUDY AT
NGUYEN THI MINH KHAI HIGH SCHOOL

(Niềm tin của giáo viên trong việc dạy từ vựng và thực tiễn
áp dụng trong lớp học : Nghiên cứu định tính tại trường trung
học phổ thơng Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai)

M.A. Minor programme thesis
Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 601410

Hanoi - 2012


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

TRẦN THI ̣ KIM OANH

TEACHERS’ BELIEFS AND PRACTICES REGARDING

VOCABULARY TEACHING: A QUALITATIVE STUDY AT
NGUYEN THI MINH KHAI HIGH SCHOOL

(Niềm tin của giáo viên trong việc dạy từ vựng và thực tiễn
áp dụng trong lớp học : Nghiên cứu định tính tại trường trung
học phổ thơng Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai)
M.A. Minor programme thesis

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 601410
Supervisor: Dr. LE VAN CANH

Hanoi - 2012


TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 1
1.1 Rationale for the study ....................................................................................... 1
1.2 Aims of the study............................................................................................... 1
1.3 Research questions ............................................................................................ 2
1.4 Significance of the study.................................................................................... 2
1.5 Organization of the thesis .................................................................................. 2
PART II: DEVELOPMENT ................................................................................ 4
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................. 5
1.1 Role of vocabulary in second language teaching ............................................... 5
1.2 Approaches to vocabulary.................................................................................. 6
1.3 The teachers‟ belief .......................................................................................... 8
1.4 Teachers‟ beliefs about second language teaching ......................................... 11
1.5 Convergence and divergence .......................................................................... 13

1.6 Teachers‟ beliefs about vocabulary ................................................................. 14
1.7 Previous studies ............................................................................................. 15
CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY .................................................................... 17
2.1 Data collection instruments ............................................................................. 17
2.1.1 The interview ............................................................................................... 17
2.1.2 The observation ........................................................................................... 18
2.2 Participants of the study.................................................................................. 18
2.3 Data collection procedures .............................................................................. 19
2.4 Technique of data analysis .............................................................................. 20
iv


CHAPTER III: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION .............................................. 22
3.1 Preliminary results ...................................................................................... 22
3.1.1 Teachers‟ beliefs about the importance of vocabulary .................................. 22
3.1.2 Teachers‟ beliefs about approaches to vocabulary presentation .................... 23
3.1.3 Relationship between beliefs and practices .................................................. 26
3.1.3.1 Time given for vocabulary teaching .......................................................... 27
3.1.3.2 Approaches to vocabulary teaching .......................................................... 29
3.1.4 Convergences and divergences between beliefs and practices ...................... 34
3.1.4.1Convergences ............................................................................................ 34
3.1.4.2 Divergences .............................................................................................. 34
3.2 Discussion ...................................................................................................... 35
PART III: CONCLUSION ................................................................................ 38
1 Summary of the major findings ......................................................................... 38
2 Implications ...................................................................................................... 38
2.1 Improving the teaching/learning environment ................................................. 38
2.2 Solutions for changing students‟ learning attitudes ......................................... 39
2.3 Teachers‟ training ........................................................................................... 40
3. Limitations of the study .................................................................................... 41

4. Recommendations for further research ............................................................. 41
REFERENCES ................................................................................................... 42
APPENDICES .................................................................................................... I
APPENDIX 1: Interview Questions ...................................................................... I
APPENDIX 2: Classroom observation sheet ........................................................ II
APPENDIX 3: Observation data........................................................................... IV
v


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CLT Communicative Language Teaching
CA

Communicative Approach

L1

First language

L2

Second language

ELT English Language Teaching
ESL English as a Second Language
EFL English as a Foreign Language
T

Teacher

Ss

Students

vi


LIST OF TABLES
Table

Page

Table 1

Participants profiles

18

Table 2

Amount of time devoted to vocabulary with reference to

26

language skills and grammar (% of total class time)
Table 3

Practical approaches of teaching vocabulary (teacher A)

Appendix

Table 4

Practical approaches of teaching vocabulary (teacher B)

Appendix

Table 5

Practical approaches of teaching vocabulary (teacher C)

Appendix

Table 6

Practical approaches of teaching vocabulary (teacher D)

Appendix

Table 7

Practical approaches of teaching vocabulary (teacher E)

Appendix

Table 8

Practical approaches of teaching vocabulary (teacher F)

Appendix

Table 9

Practical approaches of teaching vocabulary (teacher G)

Appendix

Table 10

Practical approaches of teaching vocabulary (teacher H)

Appendix

vii


PART I: INTRODUCTION
This part introduces the study, which starts with the reasons for carrying out the
research. This is followed by the aims, the research questions, the significance of
the study and, finally, the structure of the thesis.

1.1 . Rationale for the study
Since the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) was adopted at Nguyen Thi
Minh Khai High School, English teaching practice has also changed gradually.
However, students‟ ability to use English for communication was quite limited.
There are many reasons for this problem, but teachers believe that one of the
reasons is students‟ vocabulary deficiency. Although there have been some studies
on vocabulary techniques, very little has been researched about teachers‟ beliefs and
practices regarding vocabulary. If teaching is shaped by teachers‟ beliefs (Borg,
2003) it is necessary to research their beliefs and the relationship between their

beliefs and practices. Therefore, this study is aimed to explore this issue in one high
school in Vietnam.

1.2. Aims of the study
The study is aimed at investigating the beliefs and practices of a group of high
school teachers in second language vocabulary and vocabulary teaching. This aim is
specified by the following objectives:
1. to explore teachers’ beliefs about the role of vocabulary in learning English as a
foreign language;
2 to examine their practices concerning vocabulary teaching; and
3. to identify the relationship between their beliefs and practices regarding
vocabulary teaching.

1


1.3. Research questions
In order to achieve the above stated aim and objectives, the study is designed to find
answers to the following research questions:
1. What are teachers’ beliefs about vocabulary?
2. To what extent are those beliefs translated into their vocabulary teaching?

1.4. Significance of the study
The study will mainly focus on analyzing eight English teacher‟s beliefs, examining
whether or not these beliefs are aligned with teachers‟ actual instructional practices
and identifying the factors that influence teachers‟ beliefs and practices. The
teachers‟ beliefs concerned regard to vocabulary teaching only and the actual
instructional practices refer to principles, techniques and time given for teaching
vocabulary, which were conveyed through class observations and the answers for
the interviews of eight English teachers of Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school.

1.5. Organization of the thesis
This thesis is divided into three parts as follows:

Part I, „Introduction‟ presents the reasons for carrying out this study and states the
aims of the study. The research questions, the significance and the outline of the
study are also discussed in this part.

Part II, „Development‟ includes the following chapters:
Chapter 1, „Literature review‟ summaries the view of related literature –
including the role of vocabulary in second language teaching, approaches to
vocabulary, teachers‟ beliefs and those relating to vocabulary teaching.

2


Chapter 2, „Methodology‟ describes the methodology applied to this study
and the procedures for carrying out the research such as instruments for data
collection, subjects, procedures, and methods of data analysis.
Chapter 3, „Results and discussion‟ conveys survey results and discussion
on the possible reasons for the divergences between teachers‟ beliefs and
actual classroom practice.

Part III, „Conclusion‟ states a brief summary of major findings, proposes some
recommendations arising from the study findings, reveals the limitation of the study
and offers some suggestions for further researches.

3

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

4


CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter reviews the literature on second language vocabulary as well as
teachers‟ beliefs and practices regarding vocabulary teaching. The chapter begins
with a brief review of the role of vocabulary in second language learning. Then
approaches to vocabulary will be reviewed. This is followed by a review of studies
on teachers‟ beliefs and practices, particularly with reference to vocabulary
teaching.

1.1. Role of vocabulary in second language teaching
Conventionally, educationists have undervalued the role of vocabulary in second
language teaching and learning for quite a long time. This was the reason why in
linguistic course, curriculum and programs, little attention was paid to vocabulary
teaching (Richards & Renandya, 2002, p.255). Fortunately, things have been
changed since the mid-1980s. Second language vocabulary acquisition has grown
into an increasingly interesting topic of discussion for many researchers and
educationists working in the field of second language teaching (Coady & Huckin,
1997, p.ix).
From then on, the role of vocabulary in second language teaching has been
reconsidered. According to Richards and Renandya (2002), the first step to learn
how to communicate in the second language was learning lexical phrases and
routines. They explained vocabulary as the foundation of students‟ language
proficiency. Learners, who did not neither have a wide range of vocabulary nor
know how to learn new words, failed to utilize all learning opportunities offered to
them. For instance, they could not listen to the radio, listen to native speakers, and
watch television in the language they learnt. That led to the results that they were

discouraged and could not learn as much as possible (p.255). In addition, Nation
(1990) confirmed that there were restrictions of “incidental learning” of second
language learners due to their limited vocabulary. Thus, a second language program
5


should involve vocabulary teaching (cited in Richards & Renandya, 2002, p.256).
In conclusion, developing vocabulary not only encourages but also facilitates
second language learners to achieve as much as their potential allows. Therefore, it
is recommended that teachers should consider the important role of vocabulary for
effective teaching as well as learning.

1.2. Approaches to vocabulary
Boyle and Scanlon (2009) claimed that “there is no single method for teaching
vocabulary; instead, teachers should combine methods and techniques” (p.142).
Below are some principles belonging to inferring from context, implicit teaching
and explicit teaching, the three methods that were concerned by many researchers
such as Nagy (1988), Graves (2006), Meunier and Granger (2008), Baumann and
Kameenui (2004), Ma (2009), Sokmen (1997), Schmitt (2000), and so on.
Inferring from context
Belonging to the idea of Context Alone, “Inferring from Context”, also named as
context method, or contextual approaches is the method of using context to clarify
the meanings of the words that students need to learn. For instance, when students
are asked to guess the meaning of the words through one or some given sentences,
they are learning vocabulary by inferring the meaning of words from the context
(Nagy, 1988, p.7). Graves (2006:35) suggested several principles of teaching
vocabulary in context method: Students should learn the words in meaningful
contexts; Students should see words in variety of contexts; Depth of meaning
should be fostered; Learners should be able to access the texts‟ meaning in the
target language and learning a word involves pronuncication, spelling, morphology

and syntax.

6


Implicit teaching
In implicit teaching, students are given oppotunities to do a great deal of reading.
Meunier and Granger (2008:226) claimed that implicit teaching was an indirect
method of teaching vocabulary. For example, implicit learning happens when
students read some texts and encounters a new word; they stop and ask for its
meaning themselves. Thus, this approach can be called extensive reading. Same to
its name, the most important principle of this approach is having students read
extensively (Baumann & Kameenui, 2004, p.108). It was explained that the more
students read, the more vocabulary terms they acquire. Additionally, Ma stated that
through implicit teaching, new vocabulary can be acquired incidentally by letting
the students encounter with the word several times in different contexts (2009,
p.108). On the other words, teachers dealing with implicit teaching always try to
minimize the use of the students‟ mother tongue by asking the students not to define
every word with their first language. The students can infer the meaning of words
through their reading and from the contextual clues. Consequently, some signals
that prove teachers applying implicit teaching can be the use of various contexts or
monolingual dictionaries.
Explicit teaching
Explicit teaching is considered as the traditional approach to vocabulary teaching
(Schmitt, 2000, p.146). Sokmen (1997) discovered some principles which teachers
teaching vocabulary in explicit approach had to follow as such: “Build a large sight
vocabulary; Integrate new words with old; Provide a number of encounters with a
word; Promote a deep level of processing; Facilitate imaging; Make new words
“real” by connecting them to the student‟s world in some way; Use a variety of
techniques; Encourage independent learning strategies” (cited in Schmitt, 2000,

p.147). However, in addition to these principles, other points are worth noting.
Firstly, the second principle, integrating new words with the known ones, required
teaching some groups of similar words. Teacher should be careful on doing so
7


because it might be more difficult for learners to remember two or more similar
words together. Secondly, because of polysemy in language, there was another
principle that demanded teachers to teach the underlying meaning of a word
(Schmitt, 2000, p.147). On doing so, teachers could maximize effectiveness of the
teaching when they enabled their students to understand the word in a much wider
range of contexts. Moreover, teachers could also maximize vocabulary learning
support by teaching word families instead of individual word forms. Explicit
teaching and activities includes translation, definitions, putting words in context,
picture/drawings, real objects and actions/gestures.

1.3. The teachers' belief
The definitions
Belief
There were many authors studying different subjects such as philosophers,
sociologists, psychologists, and so on tried to define the term “belief”. In order to
clarify what “belief” is, there might be a need to refer to some. Weaver and Farrell
(1997), for example, explored belief as “what people think is true, what is their
reality” (p.12). More specifically, based on American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth
Edition, 2000, Raths, and McAninch (2003), belief is defined as the “mental
acceptance and conviction in the truth, actuality or validity of something, or
something believed or accepted as true, especially a particular tenet or a body of
tenets accepted by a group of persons”. Summarily, a belief is what people accept to
be true, which defines people as the person they are and likewise, their attitude.
Belief system

Pajares (1992:325) stated that understanding belief foundations must involve their
connections to each other and to other beliefs in system (cited in Loughran, 2006,
p.115). That means when examining people‟s belief, researchers have to examine
8


their belief system. According to Thompson (1992:130), belief system is “a
metaphor for examining and describing how an individual‟s beliefs are organized”
(cited in Lester, 2007, p.260). Teachers‟ belief systems were believed to influence
teachers‟ classroom practice (Cameron, 2001, p.41).
Teachers’ belief
In the field of education in general and second language teaching in particular,
beliefs are ideas that teachers accept to be true, which define teachers‟ attitude. As a
result, all that teachers believe and understand will be brought into their teaching
and influence their teaching practice. Pajares (1992) believed that teachers‟ beliefs
affected their judgment and classroom practice (cited in Smith, Skarbek & Hurst,
2005, p.214). In addition, Grant (2003) also contributed another point that beliefs
could regard to any aspect of teachers‟ professional development. In accordance
with Borg (2003) explanations, “teachers are active, thinking decision-makers who
make instructional choices by drawing on complex practically-oriented,
personalized, and context-sensitive networks of knowledge, thoughts, and beliefs”
(p. 81). Studying about impacts of teachers‟ beliefs and interaction, Rohs (2007)
claimed three forms of beliefs in terms of pedagogical beliefs, expectancy beliefs
and teaching efficacy beliefs. He explained teachers teaching in different levels
could have different beliefs that formed pedagogical beliefs. Teachers who held
expectancy beliefs considered more about the importance of students‟ habits then
made different decisions on learning environment. Teaching efficacy beliefs were
the beliefs found in case teachers could affect students‟ behaviors (p.23).
The source of teachers’ beliefs
Richards and Lockhart (1996) pointed out teachers‟ belief systems were formed

little by little through the time and derived from various sources (p.30). These
sources could be: (1) “teachers‟ own experience as language learners”; (2)
“experience of what works best” (3) “established practice”, for example, different
9


teaching style belonging to different school; (4) personality factors; (5)
educationally based or research-based principles; (6) principles derived from an
approach or method.
Why study teacher's belief
The interest in belief about second language teaching has emerged in mid 1980s.
Thus, like other fields such as sociology, psychology, education, etc. beliefs about
second language teaching have become a topic of research but increased lately
(Kalaja, 2003, p.7). Researchers and educationists worked in this field for many
reasons. As formerly mentioned, beliefs may involve any aspect of teachers‟
professional development. Beliefs may guide teachers‟ decision about subject
matter,

teaching method,

learning environment,

students‟ behavior,

etc.

Consequently, understanding the belief structures of teachers could help to improve
their professional development and teaching practice (Ashton, 1990, cited in
Gonzalez, 2006, p.58). Moreover, Grant (2003) assumed that “as a lens on teachers‟
thinking and practice, beliefs represent a powerful influence”. Similarly, Loughran

(2006) found that “beliefs play a critical role in defining behavior and organizing
knowledge and information” (p.115). Obviously, studying teachers‟ beliefs that
investigates the way beliefs are shaped and formed may help researchers to clarify
the way teachers think, what goes on in teachers‟ minds to propose changes to
improve their teaching. In addition, Pajares (1992: 329) showed that there were a
need of focusing on teachers‟ beliefs in education research.
“When [beliefs] are clearly conceptualized, when their key assumptions are examined,
when precise meanings are consistently understood and adhered to, and when specific
belief constructs are properly assessed and investigated, belief can be… the single most
important construct in educational research” (cited in Smith, Skarbek & Hurst,

2005, p.214)
In conclusion, beliefs were considered as the most important conception in
educational research. However, beliefs cannot be observed or measured. It can only
10


be inferred from what teachers say, intend and do. Thus, there is a need to
understand how teachers‟ beliefs are constructed and how their beliefs affect their
decision making. Consequently, studying and discovering teachers‟ beliefs and
attitudes are necessary for educators to design subsequent professional development
and experiences to address the issue in language teaching (Kaptain, 2008, p.22).
Understanding teachers‟ beliefs will give insights into their classroom behaviors.

1.4. Teachers' beliefs about second language teaching
Teachers' beliefs about second language teaching
As having been discussed, there are three forms of teachers‟ beliefs in terms of
pedagogical beliefs, expectancy beliefs and teaching efficacy beliefs. Nonetheless,
in the fields of second language teaching, only two main forms of beliefs were
concerned by language teachers.

First, in second language learning and teaching, researchers did not focus too much
on examining teachers‟ beliefs. However, some studies were conducted and led to
the result that teachers‟ actual practices were formed from their own experiences as
learners (Sheorey, 2006, p.52). Somehow, it can be said that teachers‟ beliefs about
language learning guide the way they teach. Likewise, Gass and Selinker (1994)
proved that when training and developing language teaching methods, teachers had
to have a steady foundation for their methods in language learning. Gass and
Selinker gave an example in which some language teaching methods were based on
rule memorization and translation exercises. On doing many studies and
recognizing communication needs of students when learning a language, language
teachers and educators were aware of new conceptualization and made changes to
teaching methods that emphasized communication in language teaching rather than
just rule memorization. Consequently, the process of learning has resulted in
teaching methods and influences teachers‟ pedagogical beliefs as well as teachers‟
pedagogical decision-making (p.3).
11


Second, another main form of belief was expectancy beliefs. Teachers who held
expectancy beliefs considered more about the importance of students‟ habits then
made different decisions about learning environment. Gass and Selinker claimed
some situations in which teachers‟ expectations could be impacted. For example,
after learning process, regardless to the proper applicability of students, teachers
might not be satisfied. In this case, teachers‟ expectations belong to how they
assessed the success or failure of their teaching (p.3). Gass and Selinker also
demonstrated that when people communicated in a second language, they had
certain expectations (p.4). Similarly, Sheorey (2006) realized some studies proving
that students and teachers belonging to different cultures had different expectations
about learning a second language (p.54). In addition, it was undeniable that
expectancy beliefs could affect students‟ learning. Bamburg (1994) represented 3

types of teachers‟ expectations that might lead to different learning results of their
students: (1) Teachers‟ attitude towards teaching process was affected by their first
impression about students. Then bright students might receive more positive
attitude than slow students. (2) When teaching the students who are expected to be
bright, they used more difficult materials than those for the ones considered as slow.
As a result, gradually, teachers' expectations about students would become actual
students‟ achievement. (3) Normally, teachers having this type of expectations used
a test which they believed to be suitable to assess students‟ ability. That resulted in
over or under-estimating of teachers for their students‟ level (p.1). Thus, examining
expectancy beliefs is essential in the field of second language teaching.
In addition, Richards and Rodgers (2001) claimed some noteworthy summaries
about teachers‟ belief about second language teaching as follow:
-

“The most resilient or “core” teachers‟ beliefs are formed on the basic of teachers‟ own
schooling as young students while observing teachers who taught them. Subsequent teacher
education appears not to disturb these early beliefs, not least, perhaps, it rarely addresses them.

12


-

If teachers actually try out a particular innovation that does not initially conform to their prior
beliefs or principles and the innovation proves helpful or successful then accommodation of
alternative belief or principle is more plausible than in other circumstance.

-

For the novice teacher, classroom experience and day-to-day interaction with colleagues has

the potential to influence particular relationship among beliefs and principles, and, over time,
consolidate the individual‟s permutation of them. Nevertheless, it seems that greater experience
does not lead to greater adaptability in our beliefs, and thereby, the abandonment of strongly
held pedagogical principles. Quite the contrary, in fact. The more experience we have, the
more reliant on own core principles we have become and the less conscious we are of doing so.

-

Professional development that engages teachers in a direct explanation of their beliefs and
principles may provide the opportunities for the greater self-awareness through reflection and
critical questioning as starting points of later adaptation.

-

The teacher‟s conceptualizations of, for example, language, learning, and teaching are situated
within that person‟s wider belief system concerning such issues as human nature, culture,
society, education and so on.” (p.252)

1.5. Convergence and divergence
When studying teachers‟ beliefs, the researcher intended to examine what are their
beliefs regarding to vocabulary in language teaching and the extent to which
teachers‟ beliefs were translated into actual practice. Therefore, the analysis of the
convergence and divergence of teachers‟ beliefs and actual practices is presented
and discussed. Unfortunately, it was witnessed that teachers‟ beliefs did not always
converge with their practices and that many divergences, also called as “tensions”
were identified (Phipps & Borg, 2009, p.380). Hence, they recommended “that it is
not enough for language teacher cognition research to identify differences, or
tensions, between teachers‟ beliefs and practices; rather attempts need to be made to
explore, acknowledge and understand the underlying reasons behind such tensions”
(Phipps & Borg, 2009, p.388).

There are two main reasons that led to the divergences including research
instruments and contextual factors. For example, the first reason lies in the methods
used to explore teachers‟ beliefs. Barnard (2011) claimed that research instruments
13


such as collecting data by means of survey or interview procedures were self report
procedures that “need to be augmented by other data collection instruments in order
to ascertain not only what the teachers believe about specific aspects of teaching
and learning, but the extent to which their actual teaching practices converge or
diverge from those beliefs”. Hence, he suggested that a multiple method approach
to study teachers‟ beliefs should be adopted. In other words, divergences could be
found in studying because of individual report research instruments. Secondly, the
divergences are influenced by contextual factors such as curriculum, learners‟
language proficiency, time constraints, and examinations (Borg, 2003, p.81).

1.6. Teachers' belief about vocabulary
“If an English teacher believes that the best way to improve one‟s proficiency in
English is by increasing one‟s vocabulary, he is likely to emphasize the study of
words as an important part of his teaching” (Sheorey, 2006, p.51). Otherwise, as
mentioned above, teachers‟ knowledge of learning has some impacts on their belief
then influences their ways of teaching. Similarly, L2 teachers‟ understanding of
how to learn vocabulary also affects their ways of teaching vocabulary. Thus, when
concentrating on vocabulary teaching, it is essential to study teachers‟ beliefs about
vocabulary. Examining teachers‟ belief about vocabulary by conducting
questionnaire, Ma (2009) got several important results that revealed some teachers‟
beliefs about vocabulary. They can be summarized as follows: students acquire
vocabulary mostly through extensive reading; a large amount of teachers believed
that vocabulary should be taught explicitly in class; doing exercises can help to
learn vocabulary; vocabulary should be learn through communicative activities;

vocabulary should be introduced in different contexts (p.279).

14


1.7. Previous studies
In the recent years, teaching has been considered as a cognitive activity and
teachers‟ beliefs can have many important effects on teacher‟s instructional
decisions (Borg, 2003, p.81). Thus, the studies on the connections between
teachers‟ beliefs and their actual practices have attracted more and more attentions
in the academic circles. Many researches have been carried out on the relationship
between teachers‟ beliefs and their actual classroom practices because of its
importance and prominence in teachers‟ professional development. Therefore, a lot
of great works came into being during the study of teachers‟ beliefs and their
practices, which lays a foundation for further research. The following are several
representative researches.
Firstly, one representative study to get extra information is: “Commonalities and
Discrepancies in L2 Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices about Vocabulary Pedagogy:
A Small Culture Perspective”. This study worked out some related aspects to
teachers‟ beliefs and practices about vocabulary teaching in China. The problem
arising was the fact that teachers‟ beliefs and practices about vocabulary instruction
did not always parallel. Niu and Andrews (2012) reported that “the institutional
culture might have mediated the teachers‟ pedagogical practices and hence their
beliefs about vocabulary instruction, creating the consistencies between them”
including the importance of vocabulary teaching in language teaching, teaching
vocabulary in communication, and the use of L1 (p.149). On the other hand, some
inconsistencies were illustrated. They were different ideas about using dictionaries
in class, teachers‟ beliefs about word meaning guessing and word self-study were
not observed. All in all, Niu and Andrews concluded that “teachers‟ beliefs guide
their practices with the mediation of small cultures, resulting in both consistencies

and inconsistencies between their beliefs and practices; on the other hand, teachers‟
practices, under the influence of small cultures, contribute to the formulation of
both shared and discrepant beliefs” (p.150).
15


Furthermore, it is a lack not to mention the study namely “Investigating
Connections between Teacher Beliefs and Instructional Practices with Struggling
Readers” of Powers, Zippay and Butler (2006) which including different
summaries about the relationship between teachers‟ beliefs and their actual
practices. The first statement was that teachers‟ beliefs and practices were
influenced by many different factors including “practical realities of the classroom”,
„areas‟ educational policies and the variety in teachers‟ views about their role and
teaching methods. Some factors might lead to the divergences between teachers‟
beliefs and practices in terms of teacher training originated from the behaviorist
tradition, the limitations imposed by educational policies, lack of professional
development and administrative support, issues of classroom control and limited
resources. Moreover, a teacher might give instructions in the way that fit with her
beliefs. More time might be spent on instructional practices and classroom activities
that teachers believed were more important or more valid (p.122).
Farrell and Lim (2005) come up with the study: “Conceptions of Grammar
Teaching: A case study of Teachers’ Beliefs and Classroom Practices” in which the
authors investigated and compared the beliefs and actual classroom practices of two
experienced English language teachers in Singapore. In this study, Farrell and Lim
pointed out Singapore teachers shared the similar situation in which there were
convergences and divergences between teachers‟ beliefs and practices. The existing
divergences were said to be resulted from the “time factors” and influences of the
traditional approach.

16

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
This chapter consists of four main sections. Section 2.1 presents the data collection
instruments used to collect information for the study. Section 2.2 describes the
subjects taking part in the study. The procedures are presented in the next section,
2.3. The way of analyzing the data is presented in the last one, 2.4

2.1. Data collection instruments
Using different methods of data collection in study can “provide a more holistic and
improved understanding of phenomenon” (Streubert & Carpenter, 2011, p.356).
Thus, the researcher decided to use both interview and class observation as the
instruments to collect data in this survey. All of those works aim to explore the
teachers‟ beliefs about vocabulary teaching as well as to investigate whether those
beliefs were taken into their practice or not.

2.1.1The interview
Using in-person interview is helpful in gaining the data. In Schutt‟s words, “inperson interviews have several advantages over other types of survey: they allow
longer and more complex interview schedules, monitoring the conditions when the
questions are answered, probing for the respondent‟s understanding of the question,
and high response rate”. Schutt also point out one-to-one interviews is the strongest
survey design (2006, p.281). Moreover, another advantage of using interview is that
the researcher can explain directly for the respondents about the information they do
not understand (Wood & Kerr, 2011, p.183). From these points of view, the
interview data helped to gain deeper insights regarding the teachers‟ beliefs about
vocabulary teaching at Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school. Furthermore, the
interview data complemented and expanded on the observation data as it enabled
the researcher to get follow-up information in the case of analyzing the gaps
between teachers‟ beliefs and their practice.
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2.1.2 The observation
As being claimed in a book named “Classroom Observation: The Basic”,
“Classroom observation is a quantitative method of measuring classroom behaviors
of both teachers and students” (Holdaway, Henderson & Cameron 2009, p.4). Also,
when doing interview, the object may not answer as truly as they thought
(Karunaratne, 2009, p.88). Hence, a class observation would provide more valid and
reliable information about what teachers and students actually do in their English
class. The observation was conducted to investigate two main aspects. They are:
 Time given to vocabulary
 Techniques of teaching vocabulary that the teachers used
All of the eight teachers joined the observations. Each of the teachers was observed
in two consecutive lessons with their own class. Each class has about 50 students.
A lesson observation sheet (Appendix) was developed and used during the class
observation. With the aims of the observation mentioned above, the observational
notes were mainly about principles and techniques of teaching vocabulary used in
observed class. As the results, these class observations were to reveal the practical
vocabulary teaching of the observed teachers.

2.2 Participants of the Study
The participants for this study were eight teachers of English at Nguyen Thi Minh
Khai high school (0 males and 8 females). They are at the age of 28 – 52. Out of 8
teachers, 7 teachers have BA degrees in English, 1 teacher has Master degree. All of
them have from 5 to 24 years of experience in teaching English for Vietnamese
students in different contexts. These eight teachers were asked to participate in an
interview, which is described in details in the above section. Then, they were
chosen as the subjects for a classroom observation. This table below would clarify
the participants of this survey.
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Table 1: Participants profiles
Participant
1

Sex
Female

Age
28

Teaching experience
5

2

Female

29

5

3

Female

35

9

4
5
6

Female
Female
Female

36
36
42

7
13
14

7

Female

48

9

8

Female

52

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2.3 Data collection procedures
Firstly, the eight survey participants were chosen randomly for the interviews. The
interviews were audio-recorded. As Powney and Watts (1987) pointed out,
interviews could supply accurate information for the study (p.vii). Thus the result
from this interview was used to combine with the observation for a reliable data.
Secondly, the class observations were carried out in eight classes, named 10A2,
10A3, 10A4, 11A1, 11A3, 11A7, 12A2 and 12A4 for four weeks, lasting from
March 3rd, 2012 to March 31st, 2012. The researcher attended each target class twice
as per its timetable. During the class time the researcher: made field notes on
classroom layout, class profile, teachers and students‟ actions and reactions; audiorecorded the lesson and activities of particular groups within the classroom;
collected samples of materials used during the lesson; photographed classrooms.
The purpose of classroom observation has been presented earlier in 2.1.2. The result
from these observations was used to compare with the result of interviews and
presented in the section of Results and Discussion.

Finally, the data collected were analyzed thoroughly so that problems can be clearly
identified and recommendations can be developed on a steady basis.
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