Difficulties in learning English vocabulary faced by the 10th from students at Đông Sơn 1 upper secondary school = Những khó khăn trong việc học từ vựng Tiếng A

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************

LÊ THỊ MINH

DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY
FACED BY THE 10TH FORM STUDENTS AT ĐÔNG SƠN I
UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL
(Những khó khăn trong việc học từ vựng Tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 10 tại
trường THPT Đông Sơn I)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS
Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10

HANOI – 2013


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES
*****************

LÊ THỊ MINH

DIFFICULTIES IN LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY
FACED BY THE 10TH FORM STUDENTS AT ĐÔNG SƠN I

UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL
(Những khó khăn trong việc học từ vựng Tiếng Anh của học sinh lớp 10 tại
trường THPT Đông Sơn I)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10
Supervisor: Lâm Thị Phúc Hân, M.A.

HANOI – 2013


ABBREVIATIONS
L1: mother tongue
L2: second language
DSUSS: Dong Son I upper secondary school
Q: questionnaire item
I: question in interview

iv


LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES
Charts:
Chart 1: Students’ level of English vocabulary
Chart 2: Students’ attitudes towards vocabulary learning in English acquisition
Chart 3: Students’ attitudes towards learning new words
Chart 4: Students’ difficulties in learning new words
Chart 5: Students’ evaluation of their ways of learning new words

Chart 6: Students’ attitudes towards teacher’s role in their English vocabulary
acquisition
Chart 7: Teachers’ ways to present new words
Chart 8: Effective ways of new words presentation to students
Chart 9: Students’ evaluation towards teachers’ teaching method

Tables:
Table 1: Students’ time for learning new words
Table 2: Students’ ways of learning new words
Table 3: Students’ expectation to ways of learning new words
Table 4: Students’ preference towards teachers’ activities in vocabulary lesson
Table 5: Students’ expectation towards teachers’ activities in vocabulary lesson

v


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

DECLARATION …………………………………….…..........................

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……………………………………………..

ii

ABSTRACT ……………………………………………………………..

iii

ABBREVIATIONS …………………………...…………………………

iv

LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLES ……………………………………..

v

PART A: INTRODUCTION ………………….………….…………....

1

1. Rationale for the study ……………………………………….………..

1

2. Aims of the study ……………………………………………………...

2

3. Research questions ……………………………………………………

2

4. Scope of the study ………………………………………………….…

2

5. Methods of the study ………………………………………………….

3

6. Organization of the study ……………………………………………..

3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT …………………………………………...

5

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW ………………………………...

5

1.1. Introduction…………………………………………………….…....

5

1.2. An overview of vocabulary….………………………………………

5

1.2.1. Definitions of vocabulary …………………...………………..

5

1.2.2. The notion of word ……………………………………………

5

1.2.3. Vocabulary item ………………………………………………

6

1.2.4. Roles of vocabulary in foreign language learning ……………

6

1.3. Vocabulary learning .………………………………………………..

7

1.3.1. Aspects of knowing a word …………………………………...

7

1.3.2. Explicit and implicit vocabulary learning …………………….

9

1.3.3. Difficulties in vocabulary learning ...……………….…….......

10

1.4. Summary……………………………………………………………..

12

CHAPTER II: THE STUDY …………………………………………….

13

2.1. Introduction ………………………………………………………....

13

2.2. The context of teaching and learning English at DSUSS ………......

13

vi


2.3. Research methodology ……………………………………………...

15

2.3.1. Restating the research question ……….………………………..

15

2.3.2. Participants ……………………………………………………..

15

2.3.3. Data collection …………………………………………………

15

2.3.3.1. Data collection instruments ……………………………...

15

2.3.3.2. Data collection procedure ………………………………..

16

2.4. Data analysis and discussion ………………………………………..

17

2.4.1. Students’ level of English vocabulary ………………………….

17

2.4.2. Students’ attitudes towards learning English vocabulary ……...

18

2.4.3. Students’ difficulties in learning a new word ………………….

19

2.4.4. Students’ preference and attitudes towards ways of learning
English vocabulary ……………………………....................................
20
2.4.5. Students’ preference, attitudes and expectation towards English
vocabulary teaching method …………………….................................

23
2.5. Summary …………………………………………………………….

26

CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND SUGGESTIONS …………………....

27

3.1. Introduction …………………………………………………………

27

3.2. Students’ difficulties in learning English vocabulary ……………....

27

3.2.1. Difficulties related to students themselves ……………………..

27

3.2.1.1. Ineffective ways of learning vocabulary ………………...

27

3.2.1.2. Lack of motivation ………………………………….........

27

3.2.2. Difficulties related to vocabulary itself …………………….......

28

3.2.3. Difficulties related to teachers …………………………………

30

3.2.3.1. Teachers’ attitude to students …………………………....

30

3.2.3.2. Teacher’s teaching method ………………………………

30

3.2.4. Others ………………………………………..............................

31

3.2.4.1. The poor application of teaching aids and reference

31

materials

vii


3.2.4.2. The challenging curriculum ……………………………...

31

3.3. Suggestions ……………………………………………………….....

31

3.3.1. For the teachers ……………………………………………….

31

3.3.1.1. Improving awareness of teachers’ roles …………………

31

3.3.1.2. Improving vocabulary teaching method …………………

32

3.3.1.3. Improving students’ self-study ………………………......

33

3.2.2. For the students ….…………………………………………....

38

3.2.3. For the administrators at DSUSS ....………………………......

39

3.4. Summary …………………………………………………...………..

39

PART C. CONCLUSION ……………………………………………...

40

1. Recapitulation ……………………………………………………........

40

2. Concluding remarks …………………………………………………...

41

3. Limitations of the study ……………………………………………….

41

4. Suggestions for further research ………………………………………

42

REFERENCES ………………………………………………………....

43

APPENDICES ………………………………………………………………….I
APPENDIX 1: SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE

APPENDIX 2: SURVEY INTERVIEW

viii


PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale for the study
As far as we know, English is a common language in international
communication. In Vietnam, with the reformation of the economy and society, as
well as the implementation of the open - door policy, English has been used more
and more widely. English also becomes a compulsory subject in education
curriculum.
It is known that, in learning a foreign language in general, and English in
particular, the knowledge and mastery of vocabulary play an extremely important
role. McCarthy (1990) states that “No matter how well the student learns grammar,
no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to express
a wide range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any
meaningful way.” By having rich vocabulary, students can improve their listening,
speaking, reading and writing abilities; not only in the way they comprehend but
also in the way they produce language.
In reality, in Viet Nam, vocabulary lessons are not paid enough attention in
order to help students learn new words more interestedly and effectively. As a
result, most of them have formed a habit of only learning new words found in their
text books or through teacher’s sources. They normally learn vocabulary by such
methods as listing new words on a notebook and learning them by heart, writing
new words repeatedly down on papers, reading new words out loud several times,
and so forth. These above seem not to be very effective and interesting ways for
vocabulary acquisition. Moreover, students only think of vocabulary learning as
knowing the primary meaning of new words, they ignore all other functions of the
words. Many of them may also recognize a word in a written or spoken form and

think that they already "know the word", but they may not be able to use that word
properly in different contexts or pronounce it correctly. Many students, after
learning English for many years, they can only read and understand short and
simple texts and hardly communicate in English.
1


As a teacher of English, I have dealt with many questions relating to
vocabulary learning which are raised by my students or among my colleagues. For
example, what are the effective ways of learning vocabulary? How to retain a new
word in the mind? Therefore, I conducted a study to find out the main difficulties in
learning vocabulary faced by the 10th form students at Dong Son I upper secondary
school (DSUSS). Then I would like to give some suggestions to help students learn
English vocabulary more effectively.
2. Aims of the study
The study aims to find out the difficulties faced by the 10th form students at
DSUSS when they learn English vocabulary. Then some suggestions will be given
to help students learn English vocabulary more effectively.
3. Research questions
This research was carried out to find out the answers to the following
research questions:
- What are the difficulties in learning English vocabulary faced by the 10th form
students at DSUSS?
- What are the suggestions that help the students learn English vocabulary better?
4. Scope of the study
The study was designed to find out the difficulties in learning English
vocabulary faced by the 10th form students at DSUSS . In the context of teaching
and learning English at DSUSS, English vocabulary mentioned here mean the new
words in the English textbook Tieng Anh 10 that students are taught or learn by
themselves. The target population is the 10th form students. They have experienced

from 4 to 7 years of learning English, but their English knowledge is not very good.
The findings of the study would be much beneficial to both teachers who are
considering whether to improve their students’ vocabulary and students who wants
to overcome the difficulties and boredom in learning vocabulary.

2


5. Methods of the study
In order to achieve the purpose of the study, both qualitative and quantitative
methods were used. A survey questionnaire and an informal interview were
implemented with 120 10th form students who were chosen randomly. The
questionnaire consists of 18 questions grouped into 2 main parts, that is background
information which helps to seek for information concerning students’ background
and the reality of learning English vocabulary which serves for gathering
information of students’ attitudes to vocabulary learning, the ways the students
learn English vocabulary, some difficulties they face when learning English
vocabulary, the ways they are taught English vocabulary and their expectation
towards English vocabulary teaching method. The informal interview with 30
students was conducted basing on the students’ answers in the survey questionnaire.
6. Organization of the study
The thesis is composed of three main parts:
Part A - Introduction.
In this part the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the method,
and the organization of the study are presented.
Part B - Development
This part is divided into three chapters.
Chapter 1: Literature Review
This chapter presents the theoretical background for the study. It focuses on some
concepts in the second language vocabulary learning and some difficulties in second

language vocabulary learning.
Chapter 2: The study
This is the main part of the study. It describes the context of the study, the
participants, the data collection methods and data analysis procedure.
3


Chapter 3: Findings and Suggestions
This chapter presents some main findings in the study, the relevant discussion and
some teaching and learning implications.
Part C - Conclusion
This part summarizes the study, states the concluding remarks, the limitation of the
research and offers suggestions for further research.

4


PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Introduction
This chapter provides a brief review of the theoretical knowledge relevant to
the study including An overview of vocabulary; Vocabulary learning; What can
cause difficulties in vocabulary learning.
1.2. An overview of vocabulary
1.2.1. Definitions of vocabulary
Different linguistics defined vocabulary in different ways. Penny Ur
(1996:60) defined vocabulary as “the words we teach in the foreign language.
However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: a compound
of two or three words or multi-word idioms”. Richards and Platt (1992: 400) also
noted that vocabulary is “a set of lexemes, including words, compound words and

idioms”. These statements indicate that vocabulary is “the total number of words in
a language” (Hornby, 1995:1331).
1.2.2. The notion of “word”
Vocabulary mastery begins with a word. So what is a word? Michael
McCarthy (1990) defined words as “free-standing items of language that have
meaning. For example: the word eating is free-standing in itself, and that within it
has another potentially free-standing element eat, independently meaningful from
the second element -ing.
Pyles and Algeo (1970:96) said “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
in words that sounds and meanings inter-lock to allow us to communicate with one
another, and it is words that we arrange together to make sentences, conversations
and discourse of all kinds”.
5


1.2.3. Vocabulary item
As in Penny Ur’s definition of vocabulary, a new item of vocabulary may be
more than a single word. For example, post office and mother-in-law, which are
made up of two or three words but express a single idea. Another term to call for
vocabulary is “chunks” as stated by Schmitt, N & McCarthy, M (1997): “Some of
the vocabulary people know is originally learned as parts of multi-word chunks,
often as phrases, idioms, or proverbs”. A useful convention is to cover all such
cases by talking about vocabulary “items” rather than “words”.
1.2.4. Roles of vocabulary in second language learning
The prominent role of vocabulary knowledge in second language learning
has been increasingly recognized. According to Bogaards, P. and B. Laufer (2004:
1), “… much has been done in the field of vocabulary in the context of the
acquisition of foreign or second languages… The growth of interest in L.2
vocabulary since the days of “a neglected aspect of language learning” (Meara,

1980) has also been reflected in authored and edited books specifically devoted to
vocabulary”.
Michael West (1930: 514) stressed that “the primary thing in learning a
language is the acquisition of a vocabulary, and practice in using it”.
McCarthy stated that “the biggest component of any language course is
vocabulary” (McCarthy, 1990: viii). “No matter how well the student learns
grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words
to express a wide range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in
any meaningful way.”
A leading linguist researcher Paul Nation notes: “Vocabulary is not an end in
itself. A rich vocabulary makes the skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing
easier to perform”. When learners’ working memory is not loaded with hesitation
about the correct spelling, pronunciation and contextual use of the words, they can
concentrate fully on higher level aspects of language such as using precise sentence

6


structures and appropriate expressions for the type of conversation that is going on.
These all show that the success of a student in becoming proficient in any language
depends in part on the extent and richness of his/ her vocabulary, so vocabulary
teaching should be part of the syllabus, and vocabulary should be taught on a wellplanned and regular basis.
To sum up, vocabulary is considered an important aspect of learning a
foreign language. Second language vocabulary acquisition has become an
increasingly interesting topic of discussion for researchers, teachers, curriculum
designers, theorists, and others involved in second language learning and teaching.
1.3. Vocabulary learning
1.3.1. Aspects of knowing a word
There have been many definitions as to what it is exactly to know a word.
According to Cook (2001:61), “a word is more than its meaning”, knowing a

word may involve four aspects: form of the word (for instance spelling and
pronunciation), grammatical properties (for example, grammatical category of a
word, its possible and impossible structure), lexical properties (for instance, word
combinations and appropriateness), and general meaning and specific meaning.
Nation (1990:30-33) and Taylor (1990:1-4) share the same idea that knowing
a word involves not only knowing its spelling, morphology, pronunciation,
meaning, or the equivalent of the word in the learner’s mother tongue but also its
collocations, register, polysemy, and even its homonym. There is also the issue of
precision with which we use a word, how quickly we understand a word, and how
well we understand and use words in different modes, receptive or productive; and
for different purposes
Yings (2000) describes some types of context clues that may be available to
the readers to guess the meaning of unknown words: the morphology (for instance,
derivation), reference word (such as pronouns), cohesion (for instance, co-

7


occurrence), definitions, antonyms, synonyms, hyponyms (sometimes provided in
the same sentence), alternatives, restatements, examples, summary, comparison and
contrast, and punctuation.
In summary, aspects of knowing a word compose of:
- Word form: pronunciation and spelling
The basic, and by all learners first perceived, characteristics of each lexical
item are what it sounds and looks like. Both these aspects ought to be accurately
presented and learned. There are two parts of the form of a word – written
(spelling) and spoken (pronunciation) form. If learners have encountered only one
of the forms, they “have receptive, but not productive, knowledge of the word”
(Thornbury, 2002: 15).
- Grammar: The form of a word can changes unpredictably in certain grammatical

contexts. Therefore, when learners learn a new word, they should know this
information at the same time they learn the basic form of a word. For example,
when they learn the noun person they should learn its plural form as people.
- Collocation: collocation is the way in which two or more words go together in a
certain context. In many cases a word has more than one meaning only. Then it is
the context and collocations that give essential clues to recognize which meaning is
intended. Therefore, this is another piece of information of a new item, which may
worth paying attention to. For example, we say throw a ball but toss a coin, we
cannot say dense hair instead of thick hair.
- 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 dictionaries such as whale denotes a very large mammal that
lives in the sea or rose denotes a kind of flowers with red color and symbolizes for
love.

8


+ The connotation is association, or positive and negative feelings the word
evokes which may not be indicated in a dictionary definition. Connotation includes
stylistic, affective, evaluation, intensifying value, pragmatic communicative values,
the word acquires by virtue of where, when, how and by whom, for what purpose
and in what context it is or it may be used.
+ Appropriateness is more subtle aspect of meaning which indicates whether a
particular item is appropriate one to use in a certain context or not. Thus, it is useful
for a learner to know whether a certain word is very common, or relatively rare or
taboo in polite conversation, or tends to be used in writing but not in speech, or is
more suitable for a formal than informal discourse or belongs to a certain dialect.
+ Associations or meaning relationships show how the meaning of one item

relates to the meaning of the others. These are various relationships and here are
some of the main ones like synonyms, antonyms, hyponyms, co- hyponyms or coordinates, super ordinates, and translation.
- Word - formation: Words can change their shape and their grammatical value.
Vocabulary items whether one- word or multi- word, can often be broken down into
their components "bits". Learners need to know affixing rules and derivation
principles in word formation and how to use words to fit different grammatical
contexts. For example, if learners know the meaning of affixes sub, un and able,
this will help them guess the meaning of words such as substandard, uncomfortable
and enable.
1.3.2. Explicit and implicit vocabulary learning
1.3.2.1. Explicit (or Direct) vocabulary learning
In explicit vocabulary learning, learners do exercises and activities that focus
their attention on vocabulary (Nation, 1990:2). For example, when students are
doing word-building exercises, guessing the meaning of unknown words in context
learning words in word lists, or playing vocabulary games, they are learning

9


vocabulary explicitly. Such activities usually take place in class with a lot of help
and instruction from teachers. To make successful instruction for explicit
vocabulary learning, teachers often consider the following to teach high-frequency
words, to maximize vocabulary learning by teaching word families instead of
individual words, and to consider meaning associations attached to the word.
Thanks to such careful explanations and guidance of teachers, students at low and
intermediate levels may acquire vocabulary explicitly before they begin implicit
learning mainly by themselves.
1.3.2.2. Implicit (or Incidental) vocabulary learning
Implicit vocabulary learning has been explained by researchers as incidental
vocabulary learning. It is the learning of new words as a by-product of a meaningfocused communicative activity, such as reading, listening, and interaction. It

occurs through “multiple exposures to a word in different contexts” (Huckin and
Coady, 1999).
Krashen (1981) believes that there are some certain conditions for such
learning to occur. Firstly, the learners must be interested in understanding the
message. From the point of view of vocabulary learning, this interest creates a need
to understand the unknown words in the message. Secondly, the message should
contain some items that are just outside the learners' present level of achievement.
These items, however, should be understandable from the context in which they
occur. This includes both language and non-language contexts. Thirdly, the learners
should not feel worried or threatened by their contact with the foreign language.
1.3.3. Difficulties in vocabulary learning
Vocabulary can never be mastered fully, the expansion and elaboration of it
extends across a lifetime since words represent complex and often multiple
meanings (Kamil & Hiebert 2005:2). For example, the Collins Cobuild English
Dictionary for Advanced Learners (2001) contains over 110 000 words, phrases
and definitions. Moreover, individuals have different sets of vocabulary and they

10


use them for different purposes. For example, oral and printed languages often use
different vocabulary and a failure in distinguishing the proper vocabulary for the
occasion can lead to misunderstandings (Kamil & Hiebert 2005:3).
There are several features which have an effect on vocabulary learning and
can make learning a word difficult. Carter and McCarthy (1988:13) point out that
learning vocabulary effectively is closely bound up with a

teacher’s

understanding and learner’s perception of the difficulties of words and therefore

the role of the teacher must be taken into account also in vocabulary
learning. Carter and McCarthy (1988:13) continue that the difficulty of a word
may result from several reasons and due to the vast number of possible reasons and
the complexity of the learning process these reasons have been hard to classify
appropriately.
Nation (1990:33-50) mentions three different factors which have influence
on making a word difficult to learn. The first is the learner’s previous experience of
English and their mother tongue since one’s first language affects the second
language vocabulary acquisition and usually borrowing and interference between
first and second language vocabulary occurs. For example, learning the function
and meaning of a word can be difficult since words rarely correspond exactly to a
word of another language.
The second factor which causes difficulties in learning the words of a
second language is the way a word is learned or taught. In fact, bad organization in
the learning situation can cause problems in learning a word. According to Nation
(1990:43) this “unteaching” is rather common. Consequently, teaching can have
three effects; positive, neutral and negative. When the effect is positive, the
learners move closer to mastering the language. When the effect is neutral, nothing
is learned. When the effect is negative, learning occurs but the learning will
have a negative impact on what has been taught before or on what will be taught
in the future. (Nation 1990:49)
Nation (1990:45) continues that the relationship with other words can also

11


cause problems in the learning of a new word. Nation (1990:47) summarizes that
the more similar items are, the more likely they are to be closely associated with
each other. For example, words which in some sense are close to each other,
such as long and short, which are both adjectives and are antonyms, having the

opposite meaning, can easily become hard to learn if they are presented together
for the first time. This can cause problems since learner may mix the meanings of
these two words due to the fact that they are closely related.
The third aspect is the intrinsic difficulty of the word which basically means
that some words are harder to learn than others. According to Nation (1990:48),
nouns and adjectives are usually easier to learn than verbs and adverbs. In addition,
it is easier to learn to recognize a word for and recall its meaning than to produce
the word at suitable time. A teacher cannot have a great impact on reducing the
intrinsic difficulty but he or she can be aware of it and try to recognize it when it
occurs (Nation 1990:49).
Laufer (1997:154) has also studied the intralexical factors affecting
vocabulary learning and she mentions several factors which can make learning a
word difficult. For example, phonological factors, length, semantic features,
abstractness and multiple meaning may have an impact on how easily the word can
be learned.
1.4. Summary
In this chapter, some information about history of research on vocabulary
learning has been introduced such as definition of vocabulary, aspects of knowing a
word, explicit and implicit vocabulary learning, difficulties in vocabulary learning.
This will serve as a base for the study to get its aim: finding out some difficulties in
learning English vocabulary faced by the 10th form students at Dong Son I upper
secondary school.

12


CHAPTER II: THE STUDY
2.1. Introduction
This chapter is devoted to the presentation and discussion of the study, which
refers to the situation of teaching and learning English, especially, English

vocabulary at DSUSS, research methodology, data analysis and discussion. In the
first part, information about the teachers and their teaching methods at DSUSS the
students there, and the available resources for teaching and learning in DSUSS is
presented. In the second part the research questions, the participants and the data
collection are discussed. The final part, which is the most important one, refers to
the analysis and discussion of the data collected from survey questionnaire and
informal interview.
2.2. The context of teaching and learning English at DSUSS
DSUSS is a state - run school located in the country of Thanh Hoa province. It
was established in 1965. It is one of the three 3 upper secondary schools in Dong
Son district. All subjects including English are taught with new course books and
new methods according to the renovation program put forth by the Ministry of
Education and Training.
2.2.1. The teachers and their teaching methods
In DSUSS there are 8 English teachers whose teaching experience varies from
4 to 30 years. All of them are female and have BA degrees in English language
teaching from different tertiary institutions in Vietnam. Though some of them used
to teach Russian before teaching English, most of them have twice participated in
textbook training workshops run by key teachers. They are also very enthusiastic
teachers with great responsibility for the students, and at the moment they are in
charge of teaching English in 28 classes.
It is obvious that most of the English teachers at DSUSS are deeply influenced
by grammar-translation method. For most of the teachers, the common method of
13


teaching is the traditional teacher - centered. In classes, explanation, translation,
asking and answering questions are the main class activities. Therefore, when
teaching vocabulary the teachers often spends a lot of teaching - hours explaining
new words, new structures and even translating the reading texts into Vietnamese.

The major interaction patterns in the classroom are:
- Teacher - whole class (most of the time)
- Teacher - student interaction (sometimes)
- Students initiating interaction: pair work, group work, questions and comments
(occasionally).
2.2.2. The students
With regard to students, there are around 43 students of mixed ability in each
class. There are 28 classes, among which the 10th form students take up 8 classes.
Most of the students come from the countryside, so they have less or no exposure to
authentic English. In addition, most of them do not have the habit of learning
English independently and tend to depend on the textbooks and the teachers for
knowledge. The majority of them learn English because it is a compulsory school
subject and they learn it just to pass the national examinations. They do not have an
obvious communicative need in the target language. Most of the students say that
they can hardly express their ideas in speaking and writing lessons and it is difficult
for them to get the gist of information from the conversation or texts in listening and
reading lessons. All they need is the knowledge of grammar and vocabulary of the
target language enough to pass the national grammar - based examinations.
2.2.3. The available resources
All the classrooms are well-equipped with furniture, light, board. There are 2
computer rooms equipped with LCD projectors, computers and speakers and board.
So it is possible for teachers to take the advantages of information technology into
language teaching. However, the English teachers at DSUSS rarely exploit these
resources because they have difficulties in designing lessons using power-point

14


program. There is also a library in DSUSS but with few English books or
magazines.

2.3. Research methodology
2.3.1. Restating the research questions
The aims of the study, as stated in part A, are to find out:
- What are the difficulties in learning English vocabulary faced by the 10th form
students at DSUSS ?
- What are the suggestions that help the students learn English vocabulary better?
2.3.2. Participants
A total of 120 10th form students at DSUSS participated in the study. These
participants were randomly selected from 6 different classes. 70 of them were
female and 50 were male. All of the participants are at the age of 16 and have been
studying English for at least 4 years at secondary schools. Most of them come from
the countryside in Thanh Hoa province. The researcher chose the 10th form students
because they have begun their first year in upper secondary education and they may
have difficulties in learning English in general and in English vocabulary
acquisition specifically.
2.3.3. Data collection
2.3.3.1. Data collection instruments
To collect necessary data and information for the study, the researcher used
two kinds of research instruments, that is questionnaire and interview.
 Survey questionnaire:
The survey questionnaire was chosen as the main instrument for data
collection. Survey questionnaire is a simple and familiar instrument of collecting
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information from the students, it is easy to administer and less time-consuming than
other instruments.
The questionnaires were constructed based on the literature on vocabulary
learning and the discussion between the supervisor and the writer. They were
written in Vietnamese to make sure that the participants could fully understand the

questions before giving their answers. The question items were multiple- choice and
divided into two sections:
-

The first section helps to collect background information about the
participants

-

The second section helps to collect the information about the reality of the
participants’ learning English vocabulary: their attitude towards learning
English vocabulary, how they learn, how they are taught, and the difficulties
they face when learning English vocabulary.
The sample of the questionnaire is presented in appendix 1.

 Informal interview:
Besides survey questionnaire, informal interview was also used to collect more
data about the participants. Basing on the participants’ answers to the survey
questionnaire, the writer interviewed the participants to clarify their thought and
attitude, so the data for the study would be more sufficient and valid.
The sample of the informal interview is presented in appendix 2.
2.3.3.2. Data collection procedure
Firstly, a pilot survey was conducted with 10 participants to help the writer
get a clearer idea about the data for the study. Then the writer edited the questions
in the questionnaire with the supervisor’s help. After that the questionnaires were
delivered to 120 10th form students. The survey questionnaire required 10 minutes
to complete and was administered in the students’ English class. Before doing the

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questionnaire, students were told that their participation was voluntary and their
responses would remain confidential; they were also asked to give their opinions as
honestly as possible, which was crucial to the success of this study. After the
respondents were given the questionnaire, they were encouraged to read it
thoroughly and answer frankly and truly.
Four days after the survey the writer conducted an informal interview with 30
participants basing on the data collected from questionnaire.
2.4. Data analysis and discussion
This section deals with the treatment of all the data gathered from the survey
questionnaires and informal interviews. The results are statistically presented in the
forms of tables and charts, categories into five groups: students’ level of English
vocabulary, students’ attitudes towards learning English vocabulary, students’
difficulties in learning a new word, students’ preference and attitudes towards ways
of learning English vocabulary and students’ preference, attitudes and expectation
towards English vocabulary teaching method.
2.4.1. Students’ level of English vocabulary (Q1)

2%
15%
25%

Good
Rather good
Medium
Bad
58%

Chart 1: Students’ level of English vocabulary
As can be seen from chart 1, a large number of students thought that their

level of English vocabulary was medium. This number presents 58%. 15% of them
thought their English vocabulary was rather good. 25 % of them supposed their
vocabulary was bad. Only 2% of the students found that their vocabulary was good.
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These figures indicate that a majority of students have English vocabulary at
medium or undermedium level. This can be one of the problems in students’
vocabulary learning process.
2.4.2. Students’ attitudes towards learning English vocabulary (Q2, Q3, Q4)

0%

Very important
43%

57%

Important
Not important

Chart 2: Students’ attitudes towards vocabulary learning in English acquisition
As shown in chart 2, all of these students are well aware of the importance of
vocabulary learning in their English acquisition. 57% of the students considered
vocabulary learning a very important element in English acquisition. The rest, that
was 43% of them thought vocabulary was important. It is their good attitudes
towards the importance of vocabulary learning that motivates them in their learning
process.

7%

10%

Very difficult
Difficult
83%

Not difficult

Chart 3: Students’ attitudes towards learning new words
Considering chart 3, we can see that most of the students found learning
vocabulary difficult. 10% of them found it very difficult, 83 % found it difficult
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