Difficulties encourtered by the 9th form students in learning English vocabulary at Chu Văn An secondary school

MINOR THESIS

Difficulties encourtered by the 9 th form
students in learning English vocabulary at Chu
Văn An secondary school
By: Lê Thị Mai
Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Course: K21
Supervisor: Dương Thị Nụ, Ph


Design
Part 1

Part 3

Introduction

Part 2

Conclusion

Development

Chapter 1
Literature review

Chapter 2
Methodology

Chapter 3

Data analysis and
discussion

Chapter 4
Findings and
solutions


PART A: INTRODUCTION
RATIONALE
- Vocabulary plays a very important role in learning and
teaching English.
- Vocabulary, however, is really a big challenge to every
student, especially students at Chu Văn An secondary
school.


AIMS OF THE STUDY

- Finding out the factors that cause difficulties for the
9th form students in learning English vocabulary at
Chu Văn An secondary school.
- Giving some suggestions to reduce students’
difficulties to help them study vocabulary more
effectively.


RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. What are the factors causing difficulties for the 9 th
form students’ learning of English vocabulary at Chu

Văn An secondary school?
2. What solutions should be suggested to help the
students learn English vocabulary better?


SCOPE OF THE STUDY
- The study was carried out with the 9 th form
students at Chu Văn An secondary school, Thanh
Hóa.
- The findings and suggested solutions are also
provide to improve the students’ English
vocabulary learning at Chu Văn An secondary
school.


PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
- An overview of vocabulary

- Vocabulary learning
- Factors affecting vocabulary learning

- Previous work review


CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
- Methods of the study: Qualitative and
quantitative.
- Data collection instruments: Survey
questionnaire, informal interview and classroomobservation.

- Subjects of the study: The 9th form students at
Chu Văn An secondary school.


CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS DISCUSSION

Students’ level of English vocabulary


Students’ attitudes towards learning new words


Students’ difficulties in learning new words


Options

Number of Percentage
students

Every day

6

4,6%

Three times a week

9

6,9%

Twice a week

13

10%

Once a week

9

6,9%

When you feel like to learn

93

71,5%

Students’ time for learning new words


Options

Number of Percentage
students

Writing words in English many times

94

72,3%

Reading words many times

11

8,5%

Learning words through textual context

4

3,1%

Learning words through listening

5

3,8%

Learning words through word formation

8

6,2%

Learning words through communication

0

0%

Making a word list

3

2,3%

Other ways

5

3,8%

Ways of learning new words


Teachers’ ways to present new words


CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND SOLUTIONS

FINDINGS

Other factors

Internal factors
External factors

INTERNAL FACTORS
- Lack of motivation

- Ineffective ways of learning vocabulary

- Age of the learners


EXTERNAL FACTORS

- The English learning environment
- Vocabulary learning task
- Lack of time


OTHER FACTORS

- Lack of teaching aids and reference
materials
- Intralexical factors


SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS

- Encouraging students’ self- study
- Providing students with different vocabulary
learning strategies
- Improving various techniques in teaching

vocabulary


Encouraging students’ self- study
- Helping students realize that success in learning
depends much on their own efforts.
- Helping students understand the nature of
vocabulary learning process
- Playing an important role as a source of help to
give them homework and feedback.


Providing students with
different vocabulary learning strategies
- Learning vocabulary through communication
- Learning vocabulary through listening
- Learning vocabulary by guessing from context
- Learning vocabulary through word formation
- Learning vocabulary by using bilingual dictionary


Improving various
techniques in teaching vocabulary
- Basing on characteristic of different groups of students to
use and change appropriate teaching techniques.
- Using effectively visual aids, gestures, facial expressions…,
especially word games to motivate students’ English learning.
- Creating more exercises with different forms and levels of
difficulty.

PART C: CONCLUSION

- Recapitulation of the study
- Conclusions
- Limitations of the study
- Suggestions for further research