The importance of vocabulary acquisition and its impact on student’s performance in toeic reading test at industrial university of ho chi minh city

Journal of Science and Technology, Vol.37, 2019

THE IMPORTANCE OF VOCABULARY ACQUISITION AND ITS
IMPACT ON STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN TOEIC READING
TEST AT INDUSTRIAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY
TRUONG TRAN MINH NHAT, NGUYEN XUAN HONG
Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City;
,
Abstract. Nowadays, English has become an international language which is taught at all universities in
Vietnam. More and more students spend time to practice English every day to improve their skills in
order to take international tests such as IELTS, TOEFL, TOEIC for their career opportunities in the
future. One of the most important elements to make them be successful is enriching vocabulary, because
vocabulary is “the most important part of learning a foreign language” Horwitz (1988) [1] and it is very
necessary not only for improving other skills, such as reading, writing, listening and speaking, but also
helping them gain the good grade when taking TOEIC test.
This research aims to investigate the importance of vocabulary in language studying and analyze the
impact of vocabulary acquisition upon students’ performance in the TOEIC reading test at the Industrial
University of Ho Chi Minh city. Moreover, it also proposes some suggestions which should be applied to
improve students based vocabulary to study better.
Keywords: English studying, Vocabulary acquisition, vocabulary learning, vocabulary learning
strategies, TOEIC reading.

1. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, learning languages has no longer been a hobby, an interest or a normal subject for
students at all universities in Vietnam. In fact, being bilingual is a competitive advantage for all people,
especially young people in the modern age because languages have become a useful tool to communicate
in education, in business and in all fields of our life. Therefore, learning and using English at all schools
in Vietnam have been highlighted and paid attention necessarily. In the past few years, English was
supposed as a subject which was occupied with only some credits among all subjects in their 4 yearbachelor program. At present, most of Vietnam universities in general and Industrial University of Ho Chi
Minh City in specific (IUH) have been caring more and more in teaching and learning English by not
only increasing the time for learning and teaching but also improving the quality of English studying.

Hence, learning English as a foreign language is encouraged, or even made compulsory at the school.
Besides that, improving students’ language outcome and requiring English International certificate are
necessary steps and also a motivated power to encourage teaching and learning process to be better.
In parallel with this linguistic trend, since 2014, IUH officially changed the students’ learning
outcome by applying TOEIC international examination system which is approved by ETS. The change is
a significant attempt to encourage English teaching and learning process at the university, and also a new
high requirement for teachers of English to update teaching contents and improve their teaching methods
so that they can help students get the good mark in the TOEIC test. The new learning outcome for
students is also a worrying challenge which students have to try to practice their English skill with the
target of passing the TOEIC Test with 400 or 450 marks to be graduated from university.
In this assignment, we are going to analyze and discuss the importance of vocabulary when learning
any languages including English. From this, we will move on addressing the impact that mastering
English vocabulary has on students’ performance when they take international tests, specifically the
TOEIC reading test. Results from survey on vocabulary building and improvement are analyzed and
evaluated to find out the core problems and opportunities for development. Last but not least, from such
results, I would suggest possible solutions for students to better their vocabulary reservoir as well as ways
to outperform themselves in international examinations.

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2. LITERARTURE REVIEW
2.1. About the TOEIC exam
TOEIC is an abbreviation for Test of English for International Communication. And as its name
suggests, it is designed to test and evaluate the level of understanding and usage of English as foreign
language by English learners, and it is one of the most reputation English certification. The test results

reflect the proficiency degree of learners when communicating in various aspects such as business,
commerce, tourism, etc. The test results are valid for two years and are recognized by many countries
around the globe, including Vietnam. In the past seven years, TOEIC has emerged as a replacement for
level A, B and C certificate and serves as a more common standard to assess English competencies of
students and employees. To get high mark on the TOEIC test, students have to learn and practice to
improve their language knowledge and test-taking skill, because it is scientifically designed and
absolutely guaranteed by The US testing institute.
Every year the number of people who take the TOEIC test has increased more and more, which made
it the most popular English language test today. The TOEIC test is of particular interest to corporate
clients. These businesses rely on the TOEIC score as a benchmark for recruiting staff and deciding to
promote or nominate an employee. Universities and language schools use the TOEIC test to measure the
progress in learning English for their students, placement exams, and provide students with an
internationally valued credit. From that fact, many universities and colleges in Vietnam put TOEIC into
the curriculum and chose the TOEIC test to monitor the progress in learning English for students in each
semester, the school year or used as a standard English output for graduates. Since 2014, the rector of
IUH decided to apply the TOEIC test as a foreign language output standard for students in studying
English at the university and before graduating. For those reasons, learning TOEIC, TOEIC preparation,
and taking the TOEIC test play an important role in preparing students for knowledge with many students
at IUH.
2.2. Previous researches about the relationship between vocabulary and TOEIC reading test
Vocabulary, which is one of the most important knowledge, plays a great role for learners in
acquiring a language (Cameron,2001) [2]. Many language researchers have been focused on the
importance of vocabulary in learning and improving all four skills such as listening, speaking, reading
and writing. Nation (2011) [3], Qian (2002) [4] and Read (2000) [5] have emphasized that vocabulary
knowledge is one of the best predictors of reading ability and the capability to understand new detail from
reading texts. Vocabulary is a key element in discerning the complication of a text. Stahl (2003) [6] made
sure that the relationship between vocabulary and reading comprehension is a “robust” one and learners’
vocabulary has continuously been “foremost predictor of a text’s difficulty” (p.241).
Nowadays, TOEIC test is one of the most popular international tests in Vietnam and all over the
world, which is taught and researched by many language teachers and linguists. Brown (2006) [7] stated

that TOEIC reading skill was a critical influence to TOEIC success, because in total, 75% of the test
items are wholly based on reading, so it is very necessary for students to enrich their lexicons in preparing
for their TOEIC test. In a research with small sample of Japanese students in 2015, Taguchi [8] showed
that students’ vocabulary size and TOEIC scores are correlated, and that the students’ perceived level of
self-efficacy, one of the subscales of the vocabulary learning strategy. From the data collected from
students’ vocabulary size tests and TOEIC scores, Taguchi concluded that students who scored higher on
TOEIC appear to have a larger vocabulary size, and/or those who have a larger vocabulary size earned a
higher TOEIC score. Kanzaki (2010)[9], Sieh (2016)[10], Gungor and Yayli (2016)[11] also found that
performance on reading section of the TOEIC test was significantly correlated with students’ vocabulary
size, and the relationship between reading comprehension and vocabulary size was closely linked.
Obviously, there is a close relationship between students' vocabulary and TOEIC reading test
performance in many countries, such as Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore and so on. In Vietnam, TOEIC
test is adopted as an important test to assess students’ ability in English learning in most of the
universities, but the number of research focusing on TOEIC test still limits. According to Nhan T. (2013)
[12] the remarkable expansion of the TOEIC in Vietnam in general and in Da Nang City in particular
“more or less elicits a deliberate push and support” in teaching and learning English among students at
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universities in Vietnam. Promotion of the TOEIC test in Vietnam is expected to be for the purpose of
upgrading the country’s educational standards and producing an internationally competitive labor force
(Thanh, 2005)[13]. However, the limited qualified human resource together with the lack of necessary
effective teaching ,learning materials and facilities and the time constraint curriculum allocated to the
teaching and learning of English at universities make it unfeasible for students to achieve the required
TOEIC score. For that reason, the research may contribute thoughtful discussion in teaching and

preparing for TOEIC test, especially TOEIC reading test in Vietnam and in IUH.

3. THE IMPORTANCE OF VOCABULARY ACQUISITION IN LEARNING
LANGUAGES
Vocabulary is one of the most important elements and the core of language learning, helping people
to communicate effectively through speaking or documents in our social life. Schmitt (2000) [14] also
surely emphasized that “lexical knowledge is central to communicative competence and to the acquisition
of a second language” (p. 55). This is especially meaningful for learners who want to use the language in
their studying, working and their real life in the future. Many researchers such as Maximo (2000), Read
(2000), Gu (2003), Coady and Huckin (1997) and Nation (2011) [15],[5],[16],[17],[3] and many others
advised that if a learner wants to use English successfully they should pay attention to the vocabulary
acquisition process because it plays an important role in the formation of complete spoken and written
texts. Nation (2011)[3]also expressed that while learning English as a foreign language (EFL) as in
Vietnam, learning vocabulary items plays a vital role in all language skills ( such as listening, speaking,
reading, and writing. Rivers and Nunan (1991)[18], furthermore, argued that the acquisition of an
adequate vocabulary is one of the most important process for successful second language use, which
should be began as soon as English learners can, because without an extensive vocabulary, learners also
will be unable to communicate comprehensibly although they are good at English structures and
functions.
According to Barcroft, Sunderman & Schmitt, (2000)[14] English vocabulary is a collection of
single words, or compound phrases with the main function is to convey a specific meaning. So that,
English vocabulary is an important element in learning the language, because there is not a certain
number of vocabulary, students will be very difficult to understand the transmitted meaning of the other
person, and hard to express what they want to say. David Wilkins (1972) [19] wrote that “There is not
much value in being able to produce grammatical sentences if one has not got the vocabulary that is
needed to convey what one wishes to say … While without grammar very little can be conveyed, without
vocabulary nothing can be conveyed’’ p97). It is clear that vocabulary helps users express their idea, and
the listeners can understand them although they may sometimes have some mistakes in grammar. Without
vocabulary people cannot say anything, and without vocabulary people cannot response what they are
listening. Whenever we have a meaning or a concept that we want to show, we usually think of the

lexicon in our mind that we want to select to express this idea or concept instead of grammar points or
structures. Lewis (1993)[20] realized that “when students travel, they don’t carry grammar books, they
carry dictionaries”. Obviously, vocabulary helps students in studying English and in communication.
Having abundant vocabulary as a base helps students easily improve others skills like reading, writing,
listening and speaking. Besides that, these day students at IUH have approached with some specialized
subjects which are applied new course books written in English language, so if students don’t have good
vocabulary base, they will be very difficult in reading documents, collecting information and getting
knowledge in learning process. Carver (1994)[21], Nagy (1997)[22] and many researchers believe that
vocabulary significantly affects students reading skill and acquiring knowledge, because vocabulary
knowledge is a basic principle in studying. In most of English teaching and learning book series, we
easily comprehend that from the low level, linguists always compile vocabulary lessons for learners, and
day by day from low level to higher level, learners study and practice reading skill, which promote to
enrich their vocabulary through paragraphs, and reading texts.
No doubt anymore, English vocabulary is very important with students who want to improve and use
English effectively in studying, working and modern life, because it includes all the words we must know
to access our basic knowledge, express our ideas and communicate effectively, and learn new knowledge

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in our life, and vocabulary learning has received more and more attention amongst learners and has
moved into a central position from the periphery during the past decades. As no longer being neglected by
the majority, vocabulary is more than just words. It is the essence of learning any language process since
it includes other aspects of the language such as pronunciation, intonation, orthography, conjugation and
context. There are many reasons why mastering vocabulary is a vital part of mastering the language itself.
3.1. Improving vocabulary helps students’ pronunciation

While studying English, teachers at IUH always encourage students enrich their lexicon, especially
survival vocabulary. Besides remembering meaning of a word and part of speech, students always instruct
to practice pronunciation correctly which makes students be confident in using the language in studying
and in communication, because listeners can easily understand the right meaning which students want to
transfer. Also, pronunciation is important in improving listening skill. If they have problems in
pronunciation, they cannot realize the words and understand speakers clearly. Pronunciation is study
about the sound of word or how to pronounce the word. It is very important for students, so teachers of
English should teach pronunciation clearly, and students by themselves should practice day by day.
However, according to Gilbert (2008) [23], many students tend to skip pronunciation learning, stressing
of a word, and intonation, they just focus on meaning of word, that why students cannot understand while
communicating, or confuse with the transferring information. Therefore, both enriching students’
vocabulary and helping them practice pronunciation regularly bring students good opportunities to use
English in communication and encourage them in studying more and more.
3.2. Good lexicons can help students develop other skills
Another reason is that when learners have a proper amount of vocabulary, learners will be able to
develop other related skills. One of the leading linguistic researchers, Paul Nation, has made it clear that a
strong vocabulary reservoir will help listening, reading, writing and speaking skills better (Nation,
1994)[24]. It has a positive and direct impact on people’s ability to establish language proficiency. For
instance, with the abundant vocabulary, students may be confident to communicate in English with their
teachers and classmates inside their class, and also outside class about studying topics and daily
conversations. From that, students not only practice their communication skills, but also have good
chance to use the vocabulary in their mind.
In other words, deeming vocabulary as an important skill while learning English is very necessary,
because English vocabulary deeply affects to other skills development such as listening, speaking, reading
and writing skill. In contrast, all four skills also help students enrich their vocabulary, remember the
words longer and using the words in the right context.(Nation, 2011)[3] ( see figure 1)

Figure 1: The influence of vocabulary to students’ 4 skills
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3.3. More vocabulary, more comprehension
Getting along with the integration trend, many universities in Vietnam and IUH have been updating
their advanced training program with many course books written from many famous universities in the
world using English language, so being good at English and expanding their vocabulary to read
documents and research are obligatory requirements with students. Some researchers like Laufer and
Nation (1990)[25], Maximo (2000)[15], Read (2000) [5], and Marion (2008)[17] affirmed that having
good vocabulary is a golden key to improve reading skill and perceive more and more specialized
knowledge which are useful for their working in the future. In a research, Folse (2004)[26] indicated that
students who have a good base vocabulary will be easy to learn more and more vocabulary in similar
contexts in which the words appear.
Having more vocabulary is a trigger for students to learn more. As illustrated in the diagram
number 2, once students have a significant amount of vocabulary, they will learn new words from the
contexts that they appear in. Understanding and using students’ known words is a way to learn even more
and remember them longer in mind. Nonetheless, for learners with limited vocabulary, this process is
quite challenging since vocabulary is acquired through conscious and focused study, or from contextual
learning by listening and reading. But do not be intimidated by this, continuous vocabulary building will
pay off and help boost students ability to learn even more.

Figure 2: The influence of vocabulary to students’ comprehensive knowledge
Obviously, vocabulary plays an important role in learning English. The main purpose of this study is
to examine whether vocabulary affects students’ TOEIC reading test performance. Another purpose is to
understand useful enriching vocabulary activities affecting students’ TOEIC reading scores. To
accomplish the two main purposes of the study, students’ TOEIC reading scores before and after the
experiment in two English-2 classes were analyzed using. By investigating the importance of enriching

vocabulary, the study will contribute to the review of TOEIC methods at the local university, which may
provide local language teachers with insights to improve the quality of TOEIC classes and help their
students better prepare for the TOEIC test. This will ultimately contribute to students' successful language
performance in their TOEIC reading test. The study addressed the following questions:

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What are students’ perceptions on the importance of vocabulary with English studying and
TOEIC reading test?
2. How does vocabulary acquisition affect students’ TOEIC reading test performance?
1.

4. THE RESEARCH DESIGN
4.1. Research methods and participants:
To implement for the research, two kinds of research methods are applied, a survey for 10 teachers
and 100 students was used to figure out their idea about English skills, importance of vocabulary and
vocabulary studying methods. Besides that, an experiment was also conducted to compare the
improvement of students in TOEIC reading test between two groups of students. Group A: students have
opportunity to enrich vocabulary before taking TOEIC reading test under instructions of their teacher.
Some interesting activities to learn vocabulary were organized inside class to help students improve their
ability in taking TOEIC reading test. While students in group B just read books, or review grammar
points which meet their demand.
4.2. Research analysis
A survey was carried to better understand students’ view towards English vocabulary acquisition and
the importance of English international examinations. Likewise, most of them are the 2 nd and 3rd year in

the university and have diverse majors. 65% of them rate their English at Average level, whereas only
35% rate theirs at Good and Fluent levels respectively. All of the respondents agree that English is very
important to their future career, only 11% technical students think English doesn’t affect their future job.
Though recognizing the importance of this international language, only a modest proportion of them
(38%) have taken part in TOEIC classes outside school or by themselves study at home.
Concerning various aspects when studying English as a foreign language, a large proportion of the
respondents claim to invest more efforts in grammar, vocabulary, writing and reading Skills. On the other
hand, 80% of them focus on Listening skill while 75% stress the importance of speaking skill. Almost
86% of all the respondents agree that acquiring vocabulary plays a vital role in advancing one’s language
skills, whilst the rest remain indifferent to this topic, so only 30% respondents usually acquire new words
and 25% practice their pronunciation.(see diagram 3)
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

Figure 3: Time Percentages for language acquisition

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When asked about their English learning tips, over 60% of the respondents say that they use
dictionaries to look up new words, very few enriches vocabulary by reading newspapers and magazines,
watching movies and listening to English songs to build their vocabulary; the others read English poems,
novels or short stories, write whatever they like in English and learn new words in class. Approximately
80% of them think that having a good vocabulary will help them earn higher scores in English exams, and
when being asked about which is more important between Vocabulary and Grammar, 57% of them
choose the former, 28% the latter and 15% of the students remain uncertain. They have suggested some
methods to improve their vocabulary reservoir ranging from learning by heart, face-to-face
communication with foreigners, learning with pictures, watching cartoons or movies in English to
watching speeches with subtitles and searching new words in Cambridge dictionary.
Considering the reasons of why students should continuously improve their vocabulary mentioned
above, having a large and diverse vocabulary will entitle students to a better performance on the TOEIC
test. To strongly affirm for the idea, 10 teachers who are teaching TOEIC classes at the school were
surveyed , 100% teachers agree with the above idea. Vocabulary not only plays an important role in
TOEIC reading test but also greatly influences the results of the listening test. 95 surveyed students (90
%) said that before each listening and reading activities, if their teachers spent time providing and
explaining new words, then students are able to listen and understand the reading articles better than
without providing new words. In the 40 questions on the part 5 of the TOEIC reading test, usually there
will be between 10 and 15 questions which are used to assess students’ vocabulary (accounting for 37%
of the TOEIC reading test). Moreover, the TOEIC reading test has 48 reading comprehension questions
(accounting for 48 % of the test), which assesses students’ reading competency with many kinds of
reading texts. Students may have good reading skills and reading strategies, but without vocabulary they
cannot understand the content well and do the test on time. Therefore, for students, in order to gain as
high scores as possible, students are required to work hard on their vocabulary building through
intelligent and effective methods.
Besides that, two groups of English 2- students are chosen among some groups of the same subject
they are learning in the semester to do pre-test and post-test ( the reading tests are selected from Part 7,

Economy TOEIC reading). Only one group was suggested taking part in vocabulary activities before
taking the post-test to assess their improvement in TOEIC reading test. To ensure the objectivity of the
study, the author chooses two groups with relatively equal reading capacity (with the average number of
correct reading comprehension skill questions in the TOEIC reading pre-test respectively 23.5 and 24).
Before doing the experimental reading test, group B is required to read any kind of interested English
sources by themselves, group A is participated in some vocabulary enriching activities. The activities are
used to upgrade them with some key words which appear in some reading texts in the test, and also help
students feel confident and comfortable before conducting the post reading test.
Once again, the result of the experiment helps the author strongly assert that improving vocabulary is
a very important activity for students and vocabulary learning activities have a great influence on the
process of studying and taking the TOEIC reading test of IUH students. The vocabulary learning
activities such as mind-map learning, brainstorming, playing game… help students improve their marks
on reading test (from 23.5 /48 to 31.5 /48 in post - test 1, and 36/48 in post -test 3) and also have good
comfortable psychology in doing the test. (seetable 1). Most students in group A affirmed that more
vocabulary helps them can read the TOEIC texts faster, understand the main idea and find out detail
information effectively than before.
From the experiment, students are very interested in vocabulary learning activities which are applied
to help students improve their lexicons related to the reading articles. Most of the students in group A like
to make vocabulary mind-map, play vocabulary games, and use flash cards to enrich their vocabulary.
(see appendix 1: students’ vocabulary mind maps).

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Table 1: The result of TOEIC reading test before and after experiment

Group

The average number

Take part in

The average

of correct reading

Vocabulary learning number of correct

number of

test questions (Pre-

activities

reading test

correct reading

questions (Post-

test questions

test 1)

(Post-test 2)

test)

The average

A

23.5 /48

YES

33.5 /48

36 / 48

B

24 /48

NO

26.5 /48

28/ 48

5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
One prominent similarity of all the students is that they come from many parts of Vietnam with
different idea about studying English, and they all have been learning English for a quite long time;
nonetheless, a few of them have good English basic knowledge. Many students haven’t spent time to well
prepare for the TOEIC test, don’t practice in the right way or don’t pay attention to vocabulary learning
for the TOEIC test. As a result, many students face with difficulties in studying English language,

communication and taking the test because of lacking of vocabulary, so we can conclude that English
vocabulary plays a significantly important role in improving English skills and helps students to be
successful with the TOEIC test, especially TOEIC reading test.
From the survey, we can easily realize that a rather high proportion of the respondents accept the
importance of vocabulary in learning English, but there is still little emphasis on vocabulary building
amongst them. Indeed, they have not invested sufficient efforts into building and acquiring new words
yet. For that reason, it is expected that English language teachers to emphasize the importance of
vocabulary for learning this language, and encourage students to practice and enrich their vocabulary
regularly. Gu (1996)[16] thought that just only a few useful strategies which are often applied and
practice will gain good result for learners. According to Drucker (2003)[27] vocabulary acquisition
should be a “long process” in which the teachers are not only a guide but also a supervisor through
attractive activities like reading short texts, playing games, using flash cards and so on. Especially, to
make learning activities inside class easier for students, English teachers should help students list or
brainstorm the words which related to the topics they are going to study. After class, it is necessary for
students to review the words and practice them regularly to remember in their mind.
I believe that everybody has already more or less followed their own way of studying English;
however, it is well-advised to figure out their learning style. Some people are visual learners, which
makes them learn better with pictures or videos. Some are auditory learners, i.e they learn the best
through listening to conversations or podcasts, so they can improve their new words by listening and
making conversations with others. And others are tactile learners in that they have to use the language in
practical ways, for example speaking the new words in sentences or speaking them out loud.
Understanding one’s own learning style will help a lot in his/her learning process, not only learning
English but other languages as well.
Some useful methods to remember vocabulary which have been recently developed and spread
widely are using flashcards and making vocabulary mind map. Research has shown that adding some
context to newly-learnt words will help them stay longer in students’ memory (Geikhman, 2017)[28].
Some students like making their own vocabulary lists or vocabulary mind-maps to learn as many words
as they can about particular topics they like. However, it is important to help students with good chance to
practice and use new words in the right context. For example, before taking a reading activity, English
teachers may help students list some words which appear in the articles they are going to read. The

method helps students easily understand the meaning and context. One of the reasons why learners
usually forget vocabulary is because they cannot reuse the word on a regular basis, so re-reading the

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word, writing it down or reusing them are effective ways to understand and remember longer. Providing
reading materials at a suitable level or just a little bit difficult with students' capacity is also a method of
improving reading skills and at the same time enriching vocabulary effectively for students.
As mentioned above, students can gain a whole lot through reading texts by themselves because the
effects of extensive reading are priceless. For example, when they pick up an English book or simply a
piece of newspaper, they will bump into new vocabulary along the way, understand how to use them in
sentences, the collocations and contexts attached to the words. Once learners reach a certain level, they
will not need a dictionary to help them understand new words thanks to contextual clues. If they want a
funnier and more interesting piece for reading, pick up a comic book and students are ensured to
experience enjoyable learning moments. Whenever reading becomes one of their hobbies and daily
activities, then their vocabulary for reading and learning will be better day by day because language
achievement depended quite deeply on the individual learner’s endeavours (Schmitt, 1997)[29].
Furthermore, there are a bunch of technological tools that students can take advantage of to improve
language skill, for example: useful online vocabulary learning websites and programs on computer
namely FluentU, Meet-Up, Tandom, etc. These applications are designed to help students learn in a more
practical way. There is one that provides them with videos of their favorite celebrities giving speeches or
interviews with subtitles; there is another that gives students a chance to interact with language learners
around the world, exchange knowledge and advance their language skills in a more practical way.
Last but not least, if students have quite much time to invest in learning English, try keeping a facebook, a fan-page or a diary written in English. They can write whatever they want in this language;

thereby both improving their writing skill and enriching their vocabulary are very essential. They may not
be aware but this method will help they learn new words fastest and most effectively. Whenever they
cannot think of a word, they can simply look it up in a dictionary and continue writing. As a result,
students know how to use the word in an accurate context while remember the word longer, and next time
if they encounter the same context, that word will automatically ring a bell.
In a nutshell, it is almost impossible to deny the vital importance of vocabulary acquisition in their
language learning process (Geikhman, 2017)[30]. Without proper grammatical structures, people can still
understand what they want to communicate with some key words, but without sufficient and accurate
vocabulary, people can hardly understand speakers. That is why acquiring vocabulary will help students
master a language faster, and English is no exception. To achieve the highest scores possible in any
English international exams or to acquire a good command of the language, building one’s vocabulary is
indispensable. There is no perfect way to extend English vocabulary, but everyone can always find the
most suitable way for them to better their vocabulary reservoir.

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Received on February 1st, 2019
Accepted on March 25th, 2019

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APPENDIX 1: Students’ Vocabulary Mind-map

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