CONSOLIDATING AND IMPROVING VOCABULARY THROUGH COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING TASKS FOR THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING, PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
-------------------

NGHIÊM THỊ HẰNG

CONSOLIDATING AND IMPROVING VOCABULARY THROUGH
COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING TASKS FOR THE FIRST-YEAR
STUDENTS AT THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE AND
ACCOUNTING, PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY
(CỦNG CỐ VÀ PHÁT TRIỂN TỪ VỰNG THÔNG QUA NHIỆM VỤ NĨI
MANG TÍNH GIAO TIẾP CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT KHOA
TÀI CHÍNH – KẾ TỐN, TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC PHƢƠNG ĐÔNG)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
-------------------

NGHIÊM THỊ HẰNG

CONSOLIDATING AND IMPROVING VOCABULARY THROUGH
COMMUNICATIVE SPEAKING TASKS FOR THE FIRST-YEAR
STUDENTS AT THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE AND
ACCOUNTING, PHUONG DONG UNIVERSITY
(CỦNG CỐ VÀ PHÁT TRIỂN TỪ VỰNG THÔNG QUA NHIỆM VỤ NĨI
MANG TÍNH GIAO TIẾP CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT KHOA
TÀI CHÍNH – KẾ TỐN, TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC PHƢƠNG ĐÔNG)

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111
Supervisor: Dr. Phạm Đăng Bình

Hanoi, 2014


DECLARATION
I hereby, certify the thesis entitled “Consolidating and Improving Vocabulary
through Communicative Speaking Tasks for the First-Year Students at the
Department of Finance and Accounting, Phuong Dong University” is the result of
my own research for the Minor Degree of Master of Arts at University of
Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. The
thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions.
I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library can be accessible for the
purposes of study and research.
Hanoi, 2014

Nghiêm Thị Hằng

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, I would like to express my great gratitude and
indebtedness to my supervisor Dr. Pham Dang Binh for his careful instructions,
valuable advice and inspiration during the process of this research.
My sincere thanks also go to all the English lecturers at the Faculty of PostGraduate Studies for providing me useful lectures and suggestions that have helped
me much in my study.
I would like to extend my deep appreciation to my colleagues and students at
Phuong Dong University for their cooperation and support so that I could complete
my necessary data collection for the research.
Finally, I wish to thank my family and friends, who have always been by my
side to encourage and support me throughout my study. Without their help and
encouragement, I could not have completed this thesis.

ii


ABSTRACT

T

his thesis is to investigate consolidating and improving vocabulary through

communicative speaking tasks for the first-year students at the Department of
Finance and Accounting, Phuong Dong University. In more details, it makes clear
the current application of communicative speaking tasks in vocabulary lesson,
advantages and disadvantages, and suggestions for more effective use of this

technique. To achieve these objectives, the researcher uses survey questionnaires
and semi-structured group interviews for both the English teachers and the first-year
students at the Department of Finance and Accounting. The results show that many
types of communicative speaking tasks were used to review and develop students’
vocabulary. Despite some remaining difficulties, the majority of the participants
assumed a great number of strong points of these tasks and desired to apply them in
consolidating

and

improving

vocabulary.

Additionally,

their

pedagogical

suggestions for the effective application of communicative speaking tasks in
reviewing and developing vocabulary are presented.

iii


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, FIGURES AND TABLES
ABBREVIATIONS:
PDU

Phuong Dong University

%

Percentage

FIGURES AND TABLES:
Figure 1: The application of communicative speaking tasks in consolidating and
improving the students’ vocabulary
Figure 2: Types of communicative speaking tasks
Figure 3: Difficulties in applying communicative speaking tasks to consolidate and
improve students’ vocabulary perceived by teachers
Figure 4: Difficulties in applying communicative speaking tasks to consolidate and
improve students’ vocabulary perceived by students
Figure 5: The teachers and the students’ attitude towards the necessity of applying
communicative speaking tasks to consolidate and improve students’ vocabulary
Table 1: The participants’ interest in the types of communicative speaking tasks (%)
Table 2: Advantages of applying communicative speaking tasks to consolidate and
improve students’ vocabulary as perceived by the teachers
Table 3: Advantages of applying communicative speaking tasks to consolidate and
improve students’ vocabulary as perceived by the students

iv


TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION ......................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, FIGURES AND TABLES ....................................... iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................ v
PART I: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1
1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study ...................................... 1
2. Aims of the study .............................................................................................. 2
3. Objectives of the study...................................................................................... 2
4. Research questions ............................................................................................. 2
5. Scope of the study ............................................................................................. 3
6. Significance of the study ................................................................................... 3
7. Methodology ..................................................................................................... 3
8

An overview of the rest of the study ................................................................. 4

PART II: DEVELOPMENT ....................................................................................... 6
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................... 6
1.1 Vocabulary ........................................................................................................... 6
1.1.1 Definition of vocabulary.................................................................................... 6
1.1.2 The importance of vocabulary..................................................................... 6
1.1.3 Aspects of vocabulary knowledge ............................................................... 7
1.1.4 Stages in teaching vocabulary ..................................................................... 8
1.2 Communicative speaking tasks in vocabulary learning .................................... 9
1.2.1 Communicative speaking tasks ................................................................... 9
1.2.2 Communicative speaking tasks in vocabulary learning ........................... 10
1.2.3 Types of communicative speaking tasks to increase vocabulary
knowledge........................................................................................................... 11
1.3 Previous studies ............................................................................................... 13
v


1.3.1 Foreign researches ..................................................................................... 13

1.3.2 Vietnamese researches .............................................................................. 14
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................ 17
2.1 Participants....................................................................................................... 17
2.2 Instruments....................................................................................................... 18
2.3 Data collection procedures .............................................................................. 20
2.4 Data analysis procedures ................................................................................. 21
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ................................ 23
3.1 Research Question 1 ........................................................................................ 23
3.2 Research question 2 ......................................................................................... 29
3.3 Research question 3........................................................................................33
3.4 Research question 4 ......................................................................................... 36
PART III: CONCLUSION ........................................................................................ 39
1. Recapitulation ................................................................................................. 39
2. Limitations of the study .................................................................................. 42
3. Suggestions for further research ..................................................................... 43
REFERENCES .......................................................................................................... 44

vi


PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Statement of the problem and rationale for the study
Nowadays, English is widely spoken all over the world and it has become a
second language in many countries. In the context of Vietnam, the teaching and
learning of English have been paid a lot of attention because of its significance in
promoting mutual understanding and cooperation between Vietnam and other
countries. English has recently been taught as a compulsory subject from the third
grade. However, after several years of learning English, most students still find it
hard to communicate with foreigners. Even at colleges and universities like
Phuong Dong University, teachers have to teach non-major students English from

the beginning. Many students may be good at English grammar, but they cannot
express their ideas in English effectively. When asked for the reason, most of them
said that it was due to their vocabulary limitation. They may know very well the
meaning of words when doing exercises, but they can hardly use them in real
situations.
According to many linguists, in communication, vocabulary is more
important than grammar. David Wilkin (1972) pointed out “Without grammar very
little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (as cited in
Thornbury, 2002:47). Therefore, vocabulary, one of the major components of
language, ought to be taken into consideration in both English language teaching
and learning. However, only focusing on teaching new vocabulary is not the most
effective way of handling vocabulary. It is more effective if teachers spend time
consolidating words the students have learnt before helping them learn more new
ones. Moreover, students ought to be given more speaking opportunities so that
they can be familiar with real life communication. To improve students’
vocabulary as well as their speaking ability in real communication, one of the
suggested ways is to implement communicative speaking tasks in consolidating
and improving the active vocabulary for the students.

1


All the aforementioned factors have inspired the researcher to conduct a
study named “Consolidating and Improving Vocabulary through Communicative
Speaking Tasks for the First-Year Students at the Department of Finance and
Accounting, Phuong Dong University.”
2. Aims of the study
The research aims at finding out whether applying communicative speaking
tasks has a positive influence on consolidating and improving vocabulary for the
first-year students at the Department of Finance and Accounting, PDU. From that,

some recommendations for better employments of communicative speaking tasks
in reviewing and developing students’ vocabulary are suggested.
3. Objectives of the study
The specific objectives of the research were as follows:
-

Investigate how communicative speaking tasks have been applied in
consolidating and improving vocabulary for the first-year students at the
Department of Finance and Accounting, PDU.

-

Find out the fundamental advantages of using communicative speaking
tasks in consolidating and improving the vocabulary in the teaching and
learning process of both the teachers and the students.

-

Clarify the main difficulties in using communicative speaking tasks in the
same context.

-

Figure out several pedagogical implications for better employments of
communicative speaking tasks in the context of consolidating and
improving vocabulary for the first year students at PDU.

4. Research questions
1. How have communicative speaking tasks been applied by the teachers in
consolidating and improving English vocabulary for the first-year students at

the Department of Finance and Accounting, PDU?
2. What are the advantages of communicative speaking tasks in consolidating
and improving vocabulary as perceived by the teachers and the students?

2


3. What are the main difficulties in using communicative speaking tasks in
consolidating and improving vocabulary as perceived by the teachers and the
students?
4. What are their suggestions for more effective application of communicative
speaking tasks in consolidating and improving vocabulary?
5. Scope of the study
Due to the limit of a minor thesis, the study focuses on investigating the uses
of communicative speaking tasks in consolidating and improving vocabulary. The
samples of the study are also restricted to the English teachers and the first-year
students at the Department of Finance and Accounting, PDU.
6. Significance of the study
Theoretically, the study is hoped to provide the teachers with useful
information of teaching and learning vocabulary in general, and consolidating and
improving vocabulary through communicative speaking tasks for the freshmen in
particular. More importantly, they would have more ideas of the students’
perceptions and desires of this technique. In addition, the study could be a
reference for other researchers to conduct the study related to this topic.
Practically, since the study delves into consolidating and improving
vocabulary through communicative speaking tasks, its finding hopefully would
contribute to the first-year students’ better use of English as a tool of
communication. As for the teachers, they could apply these above theories into
consolidating and improving the students’ vocabulary. Moreover, the study also
provides the teachers with some helpful suggestions so that they could take their

own initiatives to use communicative speaking tasks effectively in their classroom
situations.

7. Methodology
7.1 Approach
Survey research was chosen as the primary research method as it meets the aim
and objectives of the study. Sincero, S. M. (2012) points out six main advantages

3


of survey research namely high representativeness, low costs, convenient data
gathering, good statistical significance, little or no observer subjectivity and
precise results.
7.2 Data collection methods
To find out the answers to the research questions, the researcher employed
both survey questionnaires and interviews. In detail, two sets of questionnaires
were used for 4 teachers and 100 students respectively so that the data about the
application of communicative speaking tasks to consolidate and improve
vocabulary could be gathered from different viewpoints. Moreover, semistructured group interview questions were applied to get further information from
2 teachers and 4 students of English classes.
7.3 Data analysis methods
Firstly, the collected data would be classified according to four research
questions. The needed combination of gathered responses from both the teachers
and the students were to analyze four research questions. For each research
question, responses were calculated and transferred into numerical forms. The data
were then clearly presented in the forms of tables and charts to facilitate the
synthesis, comparison and generalization of the data. The participants’ answers to
open-ended questions in questionnaires and interviews would be summarized and
presented in the form of quotation and cited if necessary.

8. An overview of the rest of the study
This study includes three main parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion.
PART A: INTRODUCTION presents the rationale, the aims, the scope, the
significance, the methods and design of the study.
PART B: DEVELOPMENT consists of three chapters:
Chapter 1 (Literature Review) provides the background of the study, including
definitions and aspects of key concepts, as well as the review of previous research.
Chapter 2 (Methodology) describes the participants and instruments of the study,
and the procedures employed in the research.
4


Chapter 3 (Results and Discussions) presents, analyses and discusses the collected
data from the questionnaires and interviews.
PART C: CONCLUSION summarizes the main issues discussed in the thesis,
the findings that the researcher has found basing on the data collected from the
four research questions, the limitations of the research, several pedagogical
recommendations concerning the research topic as well as some suggestions for
further studies.

5


PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1

Vocabulary

1.1.1 Definition of vocabulary

There have existed various ways of defining vocabulary in language teaching
and learning. According to Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary Seventh
Edition (2005), vocabulary is “all the words a person knows or uses or all the
words in a particular language”. Nunan (1999) also shared the same view on
vocabulary. He stated that vocabulary was a list of target language words.
In terms of methodology, Ur (1996:60) said “Vocabulary can be defined
roughly as the words we teach in the foreign language. However, a new item of
vocabulary may be more than a single word and also multi-word idioms.” In this
way, vocabulary covers a huge aspect of language and it is the medium to express
ideas or opinions.
According to Lewis (1993), vocabulary “…may be individual words, or full
sentences – institutionalized utterances – that convey fixed or pragmatic meaning
within a given community.”
In short, it can be drawn from the above definitions of different views:
vocabulary is all the words including a single word or multi-word terms that a
language possesses.
1.1.2 The importance of vocabulary
In communicative language teaching, vocabulary plays an important role
beside grammar, because “lack of grammar knowledge can limit conversation;
lack of vocabulary knowledge can stop conversation” (Folse, 2004:3). With poor
grammar, learners can still express their ideas; however, with poor vocabulary,
communication is constrained considerably. In other words, you can get by
without grammar but you cannot get by without vocabulary.
Harmer (1991) mentioned: “If language structures make up the skeleton of
language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh to make

6


up its perfect body”. Therefore, to most of language learners, the acquisition of

vocabulary is an important component in the course of language learning. Students
mastering a variety of vocabulary perform better in the communicative language
activities.
Regarding to this matter, Wallace (1982) said “Failure to find the words one
needs to express himself is the most frustrating experience in speaking another
language”. It can be seen that vocabulary is the leading factor for learners to gain
their target language.
As its significance in the foreign language teaching, vocabulary teaching has
the goal to help students not only improve but also extend their vocabulary as well.
The more words one knows well, the more successful he/she is in daily
communication and the more information he can get from different sources such
as books, newspapers, etc. Therefore, vocabulary deserves an important position in
foreign language teaching and learning.
1.1.3 Aspects of vocabulary knowledge
The concept of a word can be defined in various ways, but three significant
aspects teachers need to be aware of and focus on are form, meaning, and use
(Nation, 2001:27). The form of a word involves its pronunciation (spoken form),
spelling (written form), and any word parts that make up this particular item (such
as a prefix, root, and suffix). The meaning encompasses the way that form and
meaning work together, in other words, the concept and what items it refers to, and
the associations that come to mind when people think about a specific word or
expression. The use involves the grammatical functions of the word or phrase,
collocations that normally go with it, and finally any constraints on its use, in
terms of frequency, level, and so forth.
Ur (1999:60-62) and Harmer (1991:156-157) agreed on listing the
fundamental features, which need to be included within vocabulary teaching.
Beside knowing the form of word, learners also need to be familiar with its

7

grammar. Other aspects in teaching vocabulary are word formation, denotation
and connotation.
In order to master vocabulary, learners not only need to learn the components
of language, such as grammar, spelling, or pronunciation, but they must also pay
attention to multiple aspects of vocabulary knowledge, including polysemy,
connotation and usage, part of speech, frequency, and collocation (Folse, 2008).
To sum up, all these above aspects of vocabulary should be taught to
language learners. The more aspects of word knowledge one knows about a word,
the more likely he/she will be able to use it in right contexts in an appropriate
manner.
1.1.4 Stages in teaching vocabulary
Basically as proposed by Gower (2005) and Thornbury (2002), there are
three stages in teaching vocabulary namely Presenting, Practicing and Revising.
Presenting vocabulary refers to pre-planned lesson stages in which learners
are taught pre-selected vocabulary items (Thornbury, 2002). To present new items,
it is important to show the meaning of the words as well as the form in which it is
used. There are several ways to present new items, such as using translation,
which is the most direct route to a word’s meaning, illustrating the meaning by
using pictures, mime or realia, etc to teach beginners; contextualizing, defining,
giving synonyms, antonyms or giving detailed descriptions which are suitable for
advanced learners.
After presenting the words, practicing of these words is necessary. To do
that, many different kinds of tasks could be implemented in order to move the
words into long term memory, the one a learner has to activate to retrieve the
words when necessary (Thornbury, 2002). Among these classroom activities,
teachers can use some decision making ones like identifying, selecting, matching,
sorting, ranking and sequencing. And also production tasks, for instance,
completion of sentences and texts and creation of sentences and texts.

8


The last stage is related to the production stage with the aim of helping
students incorporate the new items into the lexicon. This can be done by using
communicative activities in which the learners have to retrieve the vocabulary
already learnt and practiced.
1.2 Communicative speaking tasks in vocabulary learning
1.2.1 Communicative speaking tasks
According to Willis (1996:36), a communicative task is a “goal oriented
communicative activity with a specific outcome, where the emphasis is on
exchanging meanings not producing specific language forms”.
Estaire & Zanon (1994:13-20) indicated that a communicative task was a
piece of classroom work which, as far as possible, resembled activities which our
students or other people carried out in everyday life, thus reproducing processes of
everyday communication. A piece of classroom work which involved learners in
comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language
while their attention was principally focused on meaning rather than form. The
task should also have a sense of completeness, being able to stand alone as a
communicative act in its own right. Furthermore, Lambert (2004:18-27) defined
communication tasks as pedagogic tasks which operated through a planned
diversion in the information held by learners, and which usually approximated to
some degree to a real world task which learners had to complete outside class.
Communicative speaking tasks are considered communicative activities,
real-world tasks or real-world connection given with the aim of providing students
chance to express their own ideas orally about the topic of the lesson. These ideas
are based on the analysis of meaning derived from a communicative activity.
Communicative speaking tasks normally refer to pair work or group work in
which each member has exclusive access to information about the result of a
problem-solving activity.

In summary, communicative speaking tasks empower students by allowing
them to take charge of their own learning and to communicate their knowledge to
others in authentic ways.
9


1.2.2 Communicative speaking tasks in vocabulary learning
Communication tasks have a well-established place within many language
learning programs. Although the range of types of such tasks is large, all provide
learners with opportunities to use language to do things and, in particular, to
engage in meaningful interactive oral language production. Research carried out in
recent years indicates that there may also be a role for vocabulary learning either
as an incidental goal or as one of the primary goals of a communication activity.
Hall (1992) found that the vocabulary learning of students working on these
interactive tasks was greater than that of students working within a teacher-fronted
arrangement with a reading focus. Hall suggested that the requirement for spoken
output in these tasks and the generative use of new vocabulary items were the key
factors leading to acquisition of these items.
Simcock (1993) also suggested a role for incidental vocabulary learning
when the learners’ focus was primarily on meaningful performance of a
communicative speaking task.
The researches provided evidence for improved vocabulary recognition and
use both indirectly, as a result of exposure to new vocabulary in a meaningful
communicative context, and directly as a result of communicative work on
targeted vocabulary.
In conclusion, there are some reasons for using communicative speaking
tasks for consolidating and improving learners’ vocabulary knowledge. Firstly, the
face-to-face nature of communication in group activities can help speakers to set
their speech to a suitable level for the particular listeners and to adjust it when
listeners indicate a lack of understanding. Secondly, communicative speaking

tasks generally provide a meaningful context within which to encounter new
vocabulary. Thirdly, there is a good chance learners will also be exposed to
repeated use of the new items during the course of the task. Lastly, having
encountered the new items, learners are likely to be required to use them
productively in the communicative speaking tasks. If this requires learners to use

10


vocabulary in ways that are not rote repetition of the way the vocabulary appeared
in the input task, learning will be much greater (Hall, 1992).
1.2.3 Types of communicative speaking tasks to increase vocabulary
knowledge
Several classifications of communicative speaking tasks have been proposed.
Nation (2001:129-138) mentioned some activities that helped learners gain control
of knowledge and also encouraged them to produce vocabulary, namely semantic
mapping, making decisions, information transfer activities, split information tasks,
ranking, retelling and role play.
Schmitt

&

McCarthy

(1997:254-255)

suggested

some

types

of

communicative speaking tasks such as role-play, information gap, discussion and
interview. Although dialogues have the advantage of putting words directly into
productive vocabulary (Nation, 2001), role-play which is a similar but less
structured technique is an option for spontaneous oral practice of vocabulary. In
addition, having students discuss or retell a selection is another common technique
which quite naturally results in students’ repeating vocabulary and chunking
words (Allen and Allen, 1985). Finally, variations on the oral interview provide a
range of communicative practice with target vocabulary. Students can share oneon-one how a word relates to personal experience, rotate to new partners, or
snowball to increasingly larger groups.
Furthermore, Harmer (1983, as cited in Bygate, 1987:71) identified six types
of oral communication tasks as follows:
-

Reaching a consensus: Consensus is defined as "an opinion or position reached by
a group as a whole" by the American Heritage Dictionary (4th edition). Consensus
decision making is the process used to generate widespread agreement within a
group. Examples of this kind of activity include selecting ten objects for a journey;
arguing about moral dilemmas; discussing reading comprehension.

11


-

Relaying instructions: One group learns a dance, or build a model (with Lego, for
instance), and then the group’s members instruct others, without using the original

instructions.
-

Problem solving: Groups are given a problem situation, for example, they

have to imagine that they have survived a plane crash in a desert; with some tools
and limited survival rations, they must decide what to do.
-

Interpersonal exchange: In pairs or small groups, students find out about

some aspects of each other’s experience or interests.
-

Story construction: Each student is given a different picture, and groups are

to compose a story together. The pictures may be from different stories or sources.
-

Simulation and role play: gives students opportunities to communicate in

different social contexts and in different social roles. The students in the class are
divided into pairs or groups and given contexts and roles to act out. The roles can
be shopkeeper, policeman, interviewer, etc who can be in different moods such as
bold or frightened, irritated or amused, etc. Situations are usually true to life, so
the speech is close to authentic discourse. The role play nature of the tasks
encourages generative use of the vocabulary in which learners need to read about
the background to the problem, the problem, the constraints on the solution and
their roles to act well. Examples include individual role cards for a travel agent
and a customer; for five students arranging to meet for a meal; for two

interviewers and four candidates for a job; a policeman and four witnesses of a
monster in Loch Ness; and art gallery officials and several members of the public
choosing a new picture for the gallery.
In conclusion, different scholars classified communicative speaking tasks
using different terms. All of these tasks may be used to expose students to new
vocabulary as well as to reactivate vocabulary in the iterative process words need
to go through in order for long-term retention to take place. Among these above
categories, Harmer classified the types of communicative speaking tasks clearly

12


and also covered all of their aspects. Therefore, this study adopted Harmer’s
classification of oral communication tasks.
1.3 Previous studies
With the orientation of achieving both vocabulary accuracy and
communication fluency, teaching vocabulary through communicative speaking
tasks catches much attention from researchers. Hence, many studies have been
conducted on this issue. Some typical researches involving my research will be
reviewed and discussed in this section.
1.3.1 Foreign researches
Vygotsky (1978:123) stated that language developed mainly from social
interaction and a supportive interactive environment could promote learners to a
higher level of knowledge and performance. However, for most second language
learners, they did not have so many opportunities to communicate with others in
target language and their most time to learn second language is in classroom.
Therefore, focusing on the interaction in classroom was important and necessary.
For the purpose of English vocabulary learning, students learnt it to communicate,
such as listening to others, talking with others, negotiating meanings in context.
Through interaction, students could enlarge the vocabulary size.

Jue (2010) implemented a study which aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of
Communicative Language Teaching in English vocabulary teaching and learning
in a comprehensive class in southern Sweden. From the findings, it could be
concluded that Communicative Language Teaching was effective in English
vocabulary teaching and learning in many aspects. Particularly, it helped develop
learners’ communicative proficiency, made them acquire vocabulary knowledge
naturally, motivated them to learn and increased cooperation among group
members, etc. Nevertheless, it required the professional skills and competence of
teachers. Thus, teachers should enhance their standard in order to improve the
effects in practical teaching.
Newton (1995) conducted a research named “task-based interaction and
incidental vocabulary learning”. This case study examined the vocabulary gains
13


made by an adult learner of English as a second language as a result of performing
four communication tasks. Gains were measured on comparisons of pre- and posttests of vocabulary from the worksheets from the four tasks. These gains were
discussed in relation to the interactional processes involving unfamiliar
vocabulary. While this result might, to some extent, be an artifact of test design, it
was also true that when the group actively used vocabulary which was unfamiliar
to the subject of this study, the embedding of this vocabulary in the context of the
task and its interactive use were likely to have provided not only important
information about word meaning but also the conditions whereby that meaning
could be acquired. The placement of a word on task worksheets and the nature of a
task, whether a split information task or a shared information task, both had a
strong effect on use and acquisition of new vocabulary.
In Wu’s research of incidental English vocabulary studying in L2 learning,
he found that teachers tended to teach English vocabulary by organizing role play
and discussion (2009). In addition, Nation gave the scope of incidental activities in
classroom, such as retelling, ranking and so on (2001:135). He also did some

studies on learning vocabulary through speaking (2001:125). Boyd Zimmerman
(1997a:121-140) conducted a study on the impact of interactive vocabulary
teaching in vocabulary knowledge, and from the research, they confirmed that the
recasts and repetition were the better ones. Groot (2000:60-81) expressed that
many learners could not master a large amount of English vocabulary due to lack
of exposure to new words with sufficient time. Therefore, this would hinder the
creation of sufficient number of associations and linked with other words for solid
storage and efficient retrieval.
1.3.2 Vietnamese researches
Hoang (2012) conducted a study entitled “The effectiveness of presenting
and practicing new vocabulary in minimal context for second-year non English
major students at Vietnam University of Commerce” to investigate the efficiency
of teaching vocabulary in minimal context, in terms of the second-year non

14


English major students’ vocabulary knowledge improvement and motivation in
acquiring vocabulary; as well as find out several advantages of minimal context
brought about the vocabulary learning and teaching, then propose some
pedagogical implications for the teachers at the research site. An action research
was implemented in the author’s class of 40 second-year non English major
students at VUC during two weeks (5 periods) and data were collected and
generated by pre-test and post-test, questionnaires and observations. The findings
highlighted students’ improvement in vocabulary knowledge and high motivation
in the vocabulary lesson using minimal context to present and involve students in
practicing new vocabulary. In addition, the study indicated a range of benefits to
students’ language study, pedagogy and strategy in vocabulary instruction and
learning. Thus, to motivate and improve students’ vocabulary knowledge, teacher
should adapt the vocabulary teaching technique by using minimal context and

following the suggested vocabulary practice activities to assist students to enrich
their vocabulary knowledge.
Vu (2013) chose dialogues as a technique to teach vocabulary for secondyear non-English major students at Hanoi University of Industry. The aim of this
research was to investigate the effect of this technique to students’ vocabulary
acquisition. To reach this aim, the writer conducted an action research with 30
students from the class, H3 during four weeks in the second semester of the year
2011-2012. Pre-test, post-test and group interview were used as the data collection
instrument. The result of this research from tests and interview could be concluded
that this teaching technique was highly appreciated by these experimental students
because this new technique was of great help to them in acquiring vocabulary. In
the light of those findings, the researcher suggested several recommendations that
were hoped to help syllabus designers, supervisors and English language teachers
in developing teaching vocabulary.
Nguyen (2013) examined the comparative effectiveness of task-based
approach in teaching ESP vocabulary to second year non-major students at

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Construction School No4. In order to achieve this objective, a quasi-experiment
was carried out. The research results proved that tasks used during the process of
teaching ESP vocabulary were effective in motivating students to learn ESP
vocabulary. In addition, applying this method could reduce students’ anxiety and
improve their self-confidence. However, one of the noteworthy findings in this
study was how to train students who objected to this instruction or lack of
individual or group responsibility so that these students could get familiar and
interested in it, which would bring them better results in learning ESP vocabulary
like other students. Moreover, more related materials to this subject also
contributed to success of implementing this instruction.
Additionally, many other researches were conducted for purposes such as

finding out problems faced by first-year students in developing vocabulary for
speaking in different subject areas (Nguyen, 2011), examining the comparative
effectiveness of some CLT approach classroom activities in teaching vocabulary
(Nguyen, 2008), searching the ways to improve the teaching of vocabulary (Tran,
2007), etc. However, in the thesis limit, only studies involving my study purpose
are focused, and they have been really good reference for my research.
In short, the results from the above studies indicate that the techniques play
an important role in learners’ vocabulary acquisition, and make it easier and more
effective for learners to increase their vocabulary knowledge. However, studying
new vocabulary can only be perfect when it is combined with the practice and is
connected to the students’ real world in some way.
SUMMARY
In this chapter, the researcher has elaborately discussed the theoretical basis
of the study by defining and clarifying the various aspects in the hope of providing
an important background for the discussion of the collected data later. The
following chapter will display the methodology and findings of the research under
the light of the above-mentioned theories.

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
The previous chapter has provided a necessary theoretical background for the
present study. This chapter presents the methodology used for the data collection
and analysis in the study. It starts with the description of the participants. It then
describes data collection instruments and analysis procedures of the study.
2.1 Participants
The target population of the study consists of the first-year students and the
teachers being in charge of teaching English to the first-year students at PDU.
2.1.1 Students

As for the students, there are 10 classes of the first-year students at the
Department of Finance and Accounting, and each class has approximately 25
students. The sample size was 100 first-year students chosen randomly from 4
classes despite their gender and English ability. These students belong to the
classes of 4 English teachers who were invited to take part in this research.
The first-year students are the subject of the study for some reasons. Firstly,
the semesters in the first year are very important to students because of its
significant role in building basic knowledge for their next semesters. In addition,
the first-year students are considered newcomers in university. They come from
different provinces, so their English levels are various. Although they have learnt
English for several years before, only a small percentage of students can use
English to communicate well. The other students can understand teachers’
instructions, but they find it hard to speak out. In fact, they do not know how to
express their ideas in English. Therefore, it is really necessary to narrow the gap
between high-level students and low-level ones and reach a standard of English for
all students before graduation. The training quality of these students is always of
great concern to teachers at PDU. The findings of the study would provide
essential information for teachers to improve PDU students' vocabulary and
speaking proficiency as well, and hence contribute to enhancing the overall
training quality of these students.

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