Techniques in doing the question type rearrange the words or phrases to make a complete sentence in ioe for grade 5 students a case study in yen hoa primary school hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

TECHNIQUES IN DOING THE QUESTION TYPE
“REARRANGE THE WORDS OR PHRASES TO
MAKE A COMPLETE SENTENCE” IN IOE FOR
GRADE 5 STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY IN YEN
HOA PRIMARY SCHOOL, HANOI

Supervisor: Cấn Thị Chang Duyên (M.A)
Student: Phạm Ngọc Tuyết
Course: QH2012.F1.E2

Hanoi – 2016


ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHÓA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP

KĨ THUẬT LÀM DẠNG BÀI “SẮP XẾP CÁC TỪ
HOẶC CỤM TỪ THÀNH CÂU HOÀN CHỈNH”
TRONG BÀI THI IOE DÀNH CHO HỌC SINH LỚP
5: NGHIÊN CỨU TÌNH HUỐNG Ở TRƯỜNG TIỂU
HỌC N HỊA, HÀ NỘI

Giáo viên hướng dẫn: ThS Cấn Thị Chang
Duyên
Sinh viên: Phạm Ngọc Tuyết
Khóa: QH2012.F1.E2

HÀ NỘI – 2016


ACCEPTANCE PAGE
I hereby state that I: Phạm Ngọc Tuyết (QH2012.F.1.E2), being a candidate
for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the
College relating to the retention and use of Bachelor‘s Graduation Paper
deposited in the library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in
the library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in
accordance with the normal conditions established by the librarian for the
care, loan or reproduction of the paper.
Signature

Date
April 25, 2016


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost, I must say the deepest thank to Ms. Cấn Thị Chang Duyên
for all of her careful supervision since the beginning until the end of my paper.
But for her devotion, the paper would not be completed.
Also, I would like to send my sincerity to the grade 5 student and his mother
for support me to do the research.
In addition, I would like to say thank to the native teacher who taught the

grade 5 student for letting me observe her class.
Moreover, thanks to the family that the grade 5 student was studying at, I
could observe the English extra class.
Last but not least, I could not say any other bigger thanks to any one than my
family, for their support so that I could finish the research.

i


ABSTRACT
English has been one of the dominant languages all over the world. The
need of studying English at the very young age has been put an emphasis on.
Therefore, the Ministry of Education and Training has made a decision to
organized English competition on the Internet – IOE, which intends to raise the
awareness and interest of teaching and learning English. In this study about
techniques of doing the ―what‘s the order?‖ question type, the researcher would
like to conduct a case study relating to a grade 5 student who earned the forth prize
of this year district round. By the means of observation and interview mainly,
findings about the techniques that the grade 5 student employed, the difficulties he
may have and the surrounding environment affects when he did IOE‘s ―what‘s the
order?‖ question type. Capital letters and punctuation marks are the most often
used as they make a spine of a sentence. Also the repetition of the same questions
makes the student react faster to them. Mostly, the student did not face any big
problem when doing the type of question. Family orientation, self discipline and
classroom competitiveness made up a motivation for the child to do as best as he
can with the ―what‘s the order?‖ part and in IOE in general. It is inevitable that the
research seems biased since it is just a single case, not the majority. Therefore, it
would be better if any other researchers can extend the scale of the study so that it
has the validity.

ii


TABLE OF CONTENT
LIST OF TABLES, ILLUSTRATIONS, and ABBREVIATIONS………....
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION……………………………………………
1. Statement of the problem and rationale of the study…………………….......... 1
2. Aims and research questions……………………………………………... ....... 2
3. Significance of the study…………………………………………………. ....... 2
4. Scope of the study………………………………………………………… ...... 3
5. Design of the study……………………………………………………….. ....... 3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW……………………………………. ...... 4
1. Young learners……………………………………………………………. ...... 4
1.1. Definition of young learners …………………………………………… ...... 4
1.2. Characteristics of young learners………………………………………. ....... 5
2. IOE………………………………………………………………………... ...... 7
2.1. Definition of IOE……………………………………………………….. ...... 7
2.2. Characteristics of IOE for grade 5 students …………………………… ....... 7
3. ―Rearrange the words to make a complete sentence‖ question type……. ......... 8
3.1. Definition of a complete sentence ................................................................... 8
3.2. Definition of ―Rearrange the words to make a complete sentence‖ question
type …………………………………………………………………………. ....... 9
3.3. Different forms of ―Rearrange the words to make a complete sentence‖
question type………………………………………………………………… ...... 9
3.4. Grade 5 IOE‘s ―Rearrange the words to make a complete sentence‖ question
form ...................................................................................................................... 10
4. Related studies……………………………………………………………. .... 13
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY………………………………………… ....... 14
1. Qualitative approach……………………………………………………… .... 14
2. Case study………………………………………………………………….15

3. Description of the case ..................................................................................... 16
4. Data collection method…………………………………………………… .... 16
4.1. Data collection instruments…………………………………………… ....... 16
4.1.1. Observation…………………………………………………………… .... 16
4.1.2. Interview……………………………………………………………… .... 17
4.2. Data collection procedure……………………………………………… ..... 18
5. Data analysis method…………………………………………………… ....... 18
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS, DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATION……………19
CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY, LIMITATION AND SUGGESTION FOR
FURTHER STUDY………………………………………………………… ..... 29
REFERENCES……………………………………………………………… ..... 32
APPENDICES……………………………………………………………… ...... 35
APPENDIX 1: STATE IOE MOCK TEST ......................................................... 35
APPENDIX 2: TRANSCRIPT OF THE INTERVIEW…………………… ...... 49
APPENDIX 3: NOTES TAKEN IN OBSERVATION ....................................... 54
iii


LIST OF TABLES, ILLUSTRATIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Subcategories of young learners……………………………………
Table 2: Definition of a complete sentence………………………………….
Table 3: Features of different forms of RWMCS……………………………
Table 4: Features of different forms of RWMCS……………………………
Table 5: comparison between qualitative and quantitative approach……….
Table 6: strengths and limitation of case study method……………………..
Table 7: Scores and ranks at school of two students in three rounds of IOE...
Table 8: The student‘s mistakes when doing RWMCS questions……………
Table 9: the rule of RWMCS repetition in the State round mock test……….
Table 10: The number of IOE mock tests corrected by the researcher in a tutor

lesson………………………………………………………………………….
Table 11: Notes taken from grade 5 students including the one in the case study
………………………………………………………………………………....
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Illustration 1: ―Teacher‘s coming‖ or ―What‘s the order?‖ question type in a selfpractice round of IOE …………………………………………………………
Illustration 2: ―Teacher‘s coming‖ or ―What‘s the order?‖ question type in a state
mock test package of IOE …………………………………………………….

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
RWMCS

Rearrange the words to make a complete sentence

No.

Number

iv


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
This chapter would initially clarify the rationale of the study, the research
questions, significance and scope of the research as well as the design of the study.
1. Statement of the problem and rationale of the study
English has become one of the most prevalent languages on the global
scale. It is widely used in many places all over the world and in many fields of
life. Understanding the role of English in globalization, Vietnam also follows the
trend. The Prime Minister of Vietnam signed the approval of the 2020 scheme for
teaching and learning English nationwide. Therefore, the Ministry of Education
has decided that teaching and learning English has been emphasized since young

ages.
As a result, IOE examination has been launched out for students from grade
3 to grade 12. Although this examination is a great source of practice for young
students to boost up their English from the early age, this IOE examination has
only appeared for a few recent years, appropriate techniques needed for fulfill the
examination tasks are still rarely recognized, especially by primary students.
In the examination, one of the most frequently-met question types is
―rearrange the words to make a complete sentence‖, which usually prevents
primary students from finishing the examination fast and effectively.
With the experience of tutoring, the researcher has seen some grade 5
students in Hanoi whose will is to get a prize of IOE district round but when they
face this type of question in IOE, it usually gets them slow and confused. Most of
the time, the kids only use their arbitrariness to do the arrangement. When the
researcher is asking why they arrange words in a certain way, they cannot give any
answers specifically.
Also, the researcher is curious about if any other researchers have done any
research on techniques used by grade 5 students to fulfill the IOE task but the
researcher hardly finds any. Most of them were about the definition of
conventional type of the task whereas the type of IOE task that the researcher aims
1


at is mostly of discrepancy. Basing on the researcher‘s personal effort of seeking
but no precious study has found, accordingly, the researcher is inspired to conduct
this study.
2. Aims and research questions
The study is aimed at finding out what techniques a grade 5 student in
Hanoi use without awareness when he faces the question type arranging the words
in the right order to complete a sentence in IOE examination, therefore, coming up
with some recommendations to make use of the techniques to get better scores in

taking IOE. The study will answer these following research questions:
-

How does he show his gradually progress in IOE generally and in the

type of task specifically?
-

What techniques has the grade 5 student employed when facing

―rearrange the words to make a complete sentence‖?
-

What difficulties does he face when he applies these techniques in

-

What are the external factors may lead to his dramatic progress and

IOE?

success?

3. Significance of the study
As mentioned above, practicing English from the very early age is crucial,
especially to young learners in Vietnam. IOE examination or fair competition is
one of the great sources which provide lots of fun and interesting environment for
them to get exposed to English. If techniques to do this certain English question
type are successfully researched, it will assist many students who have interest in
learning English to practice English more efficiently. Furthermore, focused on a

grade 5 student who need IOE high test score to get extra point to enter a good
secondary school, the study is hoped to make them aware of using techniques
purposefully to get closure to success.
2


4. Scope of the study
The researcher focus on this type of questions as it is structured to test the
integrated knowledge and skills. To do the type of this test, the students has a
specific amount of knowledge about grammar rules such as how to make a
sentence, the identification of subject and verb in a sentence, the capital letter, the
punctuation, the use of verbs and use of tenses, fixed phrases and expressions, etc.
Also, students need to have a wide range of vocabulary, how to identify part of
speech of a word or phrase given and the meaning of it. Furthermore, because the
test is quite long, up to 200 or more in only 30 minutes, doing the test quickly,
managing time well and using keyboard and mouse and reading fast are the skills
needed.
The researcher conducts this research with the belief that it would work as a
contribution to the wider and the more thorough studies in the long run since there
have been few studies related found. This study is carried out during several
months with the focus on one case of the grade 5 student has made terrific
progress in English in general and in IOE test score in particular. The researcher
would like to investigate whether there are any differences between the theoretical
background about young learners and the specific case in the context of IOE
practicing and English learning. Hence, the researcher seeks for no generalization
to any other cases but would like it to be a source of reference for both parents and
teachers across Vietnam if their children and their students would gain success.
5. Design of the study
The study is composed of five main chapters.
Chapter 1: Introduction - introduces briefly about the study including

Chapter 2: Literature review - reviews the literature about some key
concepts
Chapter 3: Methodology - includes participants, data collection instruments,
data collection procedure and data analysis method

3


Chapter 4: Results, Discussion and Implications - presents findings, results,
and further discussion and some pedagogical implications
Chapter 5: Conclusion - summarizes, gives out the limitations of the study
and suggest for further study.

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter would deliver the background of the research consisting of the
key concepts of young learners, their characteristics, and their learning a second
language. The IOE and the forms of the RWMCS would be covered as well.
1. Young learners
1.1. Definition of young learners
When mentioning young learners, different scholars have different
viewpoints about how to define them. Phillips (1993) describes young learners as
―children from the first year of formal schooling (five of six years old) to eleven or
twelve years of age‖ (p.5). To add up, Thorbury (2006) asserts that young learners
are not only ―children of pre-primary and primary school age‖ but sometimes also
―include adolescents as well‖ (p.250). Whereas other scholars only gives one brief
definition, Rixon (2012, p. 3) provides two definitions of young learners in his
book named How young learners learn languages and how to test them, which are
children from ―[a]ges 6 to 12 [app] (covers primary school in many contexts)‖ or
children from ―[a]ges 6 to 16 [app] (covers compulsory schooling in many
contexts)‖. Overall, every definition is making sense to specific cases it refers to;

however, the researcher prefers definition of Ersoz (2007) when he divides it into
three smaller subcategories, such as (see Table 1):

Very

young

Young learners

learners
Age: 3-6 years old

Older/

late

young learners
Age: 7-9 years old

4

Age: 10-12 years


old
Grade: 1st - 3rd

Grade: Pre-school
Education

grade

Grade: 4th - 6th
grade

Table 1: Subcategories of young learners

As this research is a case study of a fifth grade student in Hanoi, Vietnam,
young learners will be better referred as children 10 to 12 years old in the
subcategory ―older young learners‖ above of Ersoz (2007). To this specific group,
accordingly, there are several typical characteristics of them as second language
learners.
1.2. Characteristics of young learners
Since this study is researched on a case which is a child at fifth grade,
therefore the researcher finds Ersoz‘s ideas about characteristics of young learners
most suitable and worth mentioning to the study. According to Ersoz (2007), one
age different makes the characteristics of three groups of young learners distinct
from those of each other, as stated in the previous part. There are several
characteristics of young learners; specifically ―older young learners‖ will be
reviewed with the aim of the study as followed.
Firstly, this group has longer attention span than the other two groups but
they are still children. Seemingly as opposed to, Thornbury (2006) convinced that
children have short attention spans. In other words, Thorbury makes sense when
asserted that children get distracted easily after a short time and it will take them
too much time to direct their focus on other things surrounding. However, ―young
learners‖ term, in general is a big group, which should be seen as a whole and
smaller subgroups at the same time. This point is supported by Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (2015): children in this age group have an increased
attention span. Hence, in the researcher‘s opinion, Ersoz‘s idea is preferable to that
of Thornbury.

5


The second point that Ersoz (2007) made about the characteristics of the
group of learners is that they start taking learning seriously. The children at this
stage are about to take important jump to be adolescents. Extensively, most of
these children should experience the change from primary schooling system to
secondary one, so they tend to be more conscious of or to be kept aware of
learning to get better scores, to get in better schools.
Thirdly, Ersoz (2007) indicates that children at this age group get exposed
more to world knowledge. Cameron (2001) also has the same opinion when
pointing out that world knowledge should be introduced to children as a strategy
of learning. It is significant to make a link between what the children will learn
and what really happen in the world outside. Exposure to the world knowledge
may boost up the children‘s curiosity to explore more.
Furthermore, at this stage, the children will develop social, motor and
intellectual skills (Ersoz, 2007). To put it simply, children around 9 to 11 years old
develop their muscles, as well as their nerves of controlling muscles for body
movement. At the same time, the children‘s nerves for thinking logically critically
will also develop intensively at this stage, which subjects related to physical and
science such as sports and information and technology or computer skills may
assist.
Lastly, learning strategies are used and developed by this group of young
learners (Ersoz, 2007). This either results in or from the aforementioned
characteristics. Because the children increase start taking learning more seriously
and getting more exposure to the world knowledge, along with that they develop
wholly they obviously get to know how to learn well by applying rules and habits
of learning which they think may be appropriate for their study.
In general, all of these characteristics mentioned show that the development

of children at around the age of 9 to 11 is all-sided. And it benefits the children if
they want to make hard effort to achieve more in language contests.

6


2. IOE
2.1. Definition of IOE
IOE is in short of Internet-based Olympiad of English (Olympic Tieng Anh,
n.d.). As its name says all, IOE is an English competition on the Internet. It is held
annually for students from grade 3 to grade 12 from 2010 up to now.
The aims of this Internet competition are to provide a user-friendly
interesting English practice environment for students in the national public
educational system. There are three main round levels: self-practice round (vòng
tự luyện), school round (vòng thi cấp trường) and district round (vòng thi cấp
quận) for all grades from 3 to 12. The rounds which are free for every student who
wants to practice English are called self-practice rounds. All of the three rounds
mentioned have the total of 200 questions; each correct anwer will get 10 points.
The latter two kinds of rounds, which may have 50 more questions compared to
the formers, are for students who:
 have passed the 15th self-practice round
 are into English or among the best at English in class: they will have
the chance to take part in the school round
 are among the ones having the highest scores in school round: they
will be accepted to try their best in the district round
(Nhung thay doi trong the le cuoc thi IOE tieng Anh tren mang, n.d.).
Every student only need an account to start practice English on IOE official
website and they definitely can use their accounts to take part in
IOE competition round if they are the chosen ones from school round (IOE cuoc
thi Olympic Tieng Anh online, n.d.). Students can have more than one account for

each grade. However, each account is for each specific grade and cannot be used
for different grades.
2.2. Characteristics of IOE for grade 5
Basically, IOE‘s round level for every grade is the same, however, when it
comes to IOE for grade 5 students, there is a slight difference. Apart from all
7


rounds mentioned, there are two more rounds for the grade 5 students who
excellently get through the district round with third prizes, second prizes and first
prizes. These are civic round (vòng thi cấp tỉnh/ thành phố) and state round (vòng
thi cấp quận) (IOE cuoc thi Olympic Tieng Anh, n.d.). Therefore, IOE for grade 5
students is more challenging since it is organized in a bigger scale than that for
other student‘s levels.
3. “Rearrange the words to make a complete sentence” question type
3.1. Definition of a complete sentence
There are many different ways to define what a complete sentence is.
A complete sentence is not merely a group of words with a capital letter at
the beginning and a period or question mark at the end. A complete
sentence has three components:
1. A subject (the actor in the sentence)
2. A predicate (the verb or action), and
3. A complete thought (it can stand alone and make sense—it‘s
independent).
(Fragments and runs on, n.d.)
In A Definition of a Complete Sentence (n.d.), it is also agreed that a
complete sentence must have a subject, a verb, but the verb needs to be ―finite‖,
which means the verb has to show a particular tense.
Sometimes, it is easily recognized that a sentence does not have a subject,
for example, an exclamation sentence: Hurry up!

Therefore, the most personal preferable definition is that a complete
sentence begins with a capital letter, a full stop (or a exclamation or a question
mark), always contains a finite verb and express a complete thought or make sense
when standing alone (What is a complete sentence, n.d.) (See Table 2)
A complete sentence – a complete thought
Capital letter

Finite verb

Punctuation

Table 2: Definition of a complete sentence

8


3.2. Definition of “Rearrange the words to make a complete sentence”
question type
It is common sense that English learners have ever met this type of
question. It is understood as jumbled words can create a full sentence which makes
sense. The words or phrases are not in the logical right order so students who take
the test have to ―rearrange‖ those messy (Rearranging jumbled words, n.d).
To be able to do this kind of question, students have to be good at both
vocabulary and grammar. Without knowing the meaning of a word in the messy
sequence, no matter how good they are at grammar, the sentence they make is
unlikely to be sensible, and vice versa, if the students do not know grammar rules
so it would be hard for them to put the right order of a modal verb and a infinitive
verb, for example (Rearranging jumbled words, n.d).
3.3. Different forms of “Rearrange the words to make a complete
sentence” question type

It is certainly sure that there are a number of different forms of this
arrangement question type. According to ―Rearranging jumbled words to make
sentences‖ (n.d.), this question type has words not in order (this form is numbered
No.1 in Table 3) is but there will be one extra word or phrase playing as a
distracter. Students have to be aware of that extra and opt it out along with
sequencing others correctly. Mostly this form is designed for the upperintermediate to advanced students. This is a clear example:
―writing system am to I about banking your and complain
_______________________________________________________
Extra word______________‖
(Rearranging jumbled words to make sentences, n.d.)
As can be seen, this form does not provide the students any clue or hint to
arrange the words. Henceforward, students have to use their own logical thinking
to fulfill the task.

9


Another much more simple form of this question type compared to the
above are separated words messed up and the students, no extra words need to be
found (this form is numbered No.2 in the Table 3). However, no hint or clue is
provided as well. Get a closer look at an example:
―borrow / I / may / that book / you / from
____________________________________‖
(Unscramble these sentences, n.d)
Obviously, this form is much easier for the lower level students to practice
their flow of thinking. Since it is a bunch of separated words with slashes, the
students do not have to think about what function of the words in the sentence are,
whether a word is a separated or it makes a phrase to the others standing next to it.
Overall, there are a variety of others forms of this type of question unable
to be listed here which second language learners may encounter throughout their

language learning.
3.4. Grade 5 IOE’s “Rearrange the words to make a complete
sentence” question form
As commonly called by almost all students who has ever experienced IOE,
this type of question is known as ―Teacher‘s coming‖ or ―What‘s the order‖. The
reasons for the names of the type originate from the appearance of them in the
self-practice rounds right before the screens show the questions up. Different from
all those forms of words arrangement, IOE‘s has clues for the students to work on
finding the correct order (Huong dan thi IOE Olympic tieng Anh, n.d.). Below are
the two examples of the format of the words arrangment questions (See
Illustration 1 and Illustration 2):

10


Illustration 1: “Teacher’s coming” or “What’s the order?” question type in a
self-practice round of IOE (source: ioe.go.vn)

Illustration 2: “Teacher’s coming” or “What’s the order?” question type in a
state mock test package of IOE (source: ioe.go.vn)

11


The first clue is the capitalized letter of a part in a sentence. The IOE
designers and editors do capitalize the first letter of the word which is supposed to
begin the sentence. Base on this clue, the students would know which part among
the mess is the first word to start arranging with.
The second clue is the punctuation of the sentence. There may be a full
stop, an exclamation or a question mark at the end of the word of which function

is to end the sentence. In this IOE form of question, a punctuation mark usually
accompanied by a word, would signal the students for putting the word at the end
of the complete sentence. Therefore, leaning on the two signals capitalized letter
and the punctuation, the students would grasp the backbone of the sentence.
Furthermore, this question type of IOE for grade 5 has a limited numbers of
scrambled parts. In particular, there will be 4 to 5 scramble parts of a needcompleting sentence and each scrambled part is on a piece of look-alike note on
the IOE screen (Illustration 1 and Illustration 2). Purposely, this design does not
distract the students with an extra word or phrase as the former form and it is not
small units of sentence separated as the latter form both mentioned above but
rather, scrambled in a connective way. Study two questions of this form in IOE
state round mock test taken from official website of IOE (ioe.go.vn):
―to the next bus stop / can I get / How / railway station? / to Hanoi
Answer: _____________________________________________‖
(See the Appendix 1: IOE state round mock test, question No.85)
―want to go / with me? / shopping / Do you
Answer: _____________________________________________‖
(See the Appendix 1: IOE state round mock test, question No.86)
The question number 85 in the state round mock test is composed of 5
parts, which is the maximum number, whereas the question number 86 consists of
4 scramble parts. One has the capitalized letter ―H‖ in the word ―How‖ and one
has ―D‖ capitalized in ―Do you‖. The two questions have the same punctuations,
which are question marks.
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To sum up, the researcher differentiates the three forms of the question type
RWMCS in the following (See Table 3):

Features

Form No.1

Form No. 2

Form in IOE

Capitalized letter

No

No

Yes

Punctuation

No

No

Yes

Separation signal

No

Slashes

Pieces of notes

Unlimited

Limited (4-5)

Scrambled

part Unlimited

number
Table 3: Features of different forms of RWMCS

4. Related studies
As brought up above, the RWMCS question type is called ―What‘s the
order?‖ in IOE. There have been few studies on the problem, nonetheless; the
researcher has found a study worth-noting. It is named Mot so kinh nghiem huong
dan hoc sinh thi IOE co hieu qua by Dinh (n.d.). In her studies, she mentioned all
types of questions in IOE, a number of needed techniques to do IOE and an
amount of required knowledge.
Her study provides a full understanding of basic grammar needed and clear
and enough information about structure of a IOE test. However, it is aimed at IOE
for secondary students so the researcher found out that the selective participant –
the grade 5 student has not been targeted to.
According to Dinh, to do the question type ―What‘s the order?‖ effectively,
there are two signals to remember is capitalized letter and punctuation. She also
states that English knowledge needed in this part is about several basic tenses in
English and about the structure of positive, negative and questioning sentences.
Whereas, the researcher believes that there is more to discuss speaking of the
RWMCS question type including more grammar rules, the learning of vocabulary
and so on.
13

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
This chapter justifies the rationality in the researcher‘s using qualitative
approach, case study as the research method and the description of the case.
Furthermore, how the data are collected and analyzed would be stated in this
chapter.
1. Qualitative approach
Qualitative
Conceptual

Quantitative

Concerned with understanding Concerned discovering facts
human

behavior

from

the about social phenomena.

informant‘s perspective.
Assumes

a

dynamic

negotiated reality.

Methodological Data

are

participant

and Assumes

a

fixed

and

measurable reality.

collected

through Data are collected through

observation

and measuring things.

interviews.
Data analyzed by themes from Data
descriptions by informants

analyzed

through

numerical comparisons and
statistical inferences.

Data

are

reported

in

language of the informant

the Data are reported through
statistical analyses

Table 5: comparison between qualitative and quantitative approach
(Source: Minichiello, 1990)

Mcleod (2008) agrees with Minichiello (1990) that qualitative research will
help gather data in a descriptive way despite it being harder to analyze than
quantitative one. Mcleod also claims that if a study is about a typical individual or
a group of distinct, it would be superficial to follow quantitative approach.
Qualitative research is used to ―gain an understanding of underlying reasons,
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opinions, and motivations‖ and to ―uncover trends in thought and opinion, and

dive deeper into the problem‖ (Difference between Qualitative Research vs
Quantitative Research, n.d.).With the aim of having thorough understanding of the
techniques usage of a grade 5 student in IOE examination, the researcher intends
to analyze data basing on a student from grade 5 in Yen Hoa primary school.
Henceforth, using qualitative methods is believed to be appropriate to the research.
2. Case study
The name ―case study‖ makes itself hard to be defined. According to
Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2009), a case study is ―[a]n intensive analysis of an
individual unit (as a person or community) stressing developmental factors in
relation to environment.‖ As be understood in other words, a case can be a person
of a group of people and the analysis will be thorough in depth and breadth the
information amount of the specific case. Case study research method has both
strengths and limitations (See Table 6)
Strengths

Limitations

 Provide detail (rich qualitative)
information
 Provide

wider population

insight

for

further

otherwise

 Researcher‘s bias
 Difficult to replicate

research
 Permitting

 Can‘t generalize the result to the

investigation
impractical

of

 Time consuming

(or

unethical) situations.
Table 6: strengths and limitation of case study method (McLedod,
2008)
Despite being aware of the pros and cons of employing case study, the
researcher believed that the single case that is aimed fits the method. Basing on the
definition and the awareness above, the researcher applies this research design to
the research as it is believed to match the objectives of the research, to find out the
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techniques used and how they are used by a specific fifth grade student. The needs
of detail information and thoughtful description about the research problem lead to

the employment of case study.
3. Description of the case
The study is conducted to have an insight of techniques to apply in IOE‘s
―rearrange the words to make a complete sentence‖ question type employed by a
grade 5 student. In order to achieve the aim of the study, a student from class 5A fast-track program in Yen Hoa primary school was purposively chosen to be the
dealt-with subject.
The reasons to choose the case are listed below:
First, he is a student in the talented class, who is quite good at English so he
has an amount of English needed to take IOE.
Second, this student is in grade 5, hence being in need of at least IOE
district prize for extra grades to enter the fast-track English class in a good public
secondary school - Cau Giay. He is without doubt, of great determination and is
clear of what he wants to achieve this year, which leads to his needs of being
provided and of using techniques for specific types of questions in IOE.
Last but not least, he was one of the students who did take IOE and made it
in the district round when he was in grade 4 but he did not receive any prizes. His
score last year in the school round is only 1000/2000. This year, with the score in
the school round is 1620/2000; he is one of the Yen Hoa primary school‘s students
who will be sent to participate in the district round for grade 5. It seems that over
the last year, the child has marked a quantum leap forward. Therefore, this
interests the researcher to find out what contributes to his remarkable progress.
4. Data collection methods
Therefore, two of the qualitative methods-observation and interview are the
suitable instruments to collect data.
4.1. Data collection instruments
4.1.1. Observation
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When it comes to qualitative case study method, it is advisable to use

qualitative data collection such as diary, unstructured observation and unstructured
interviews (Mcleod, 2008). To have a real insight of the case, observation will be
conducted. Observing the students‘ IOE practice round, school round, district
round, civic round and state round‘s mock tests that the student takes is of
importance. Observation of his doing practice at home was conducted to help the
researcher find out the answer to research questions relating to techniques used.
All outstanding features and notes when the researcher observed was taken down
to support the data analysis.
The researcher also observed the student‘s English class taught by his
English-speaking native teacher at his extra class. By doing so, the researcher will
get an overview of how he learns and how he is taught English.
Additionally, according to McLeod (2008), video recording and note
taking would help if be used as a means. When the observations take place, the
researcher may miss some crucial information and description. To decrease the
chance of missing, which is likely to result in subjectivity in interpreting the data
and analyze the data, if necessary, video and notes during the observation will
assist.
4.1.2. Interview
In addition, interview will be used as a useful tool to increase the reliability
of the study. Interview is usually seen as effectively deep dig into the superficial
response (Section 5: Data collection methods, n.d.). As he made it to the school
team taking part in the district round, his mother, also as a teacher at school was
ready to direct him. Therefore, the researcher interviewed the student‘s mother,
who also a teacher at Yen Hoa primary school, who understands about IOE and
the English teaching scheme and at the same time who allegedly directly
encouraged him to practice IOE. Several questions related to techniques to do
word rearrangement were asked so that data could be collected and analyzed in
detail.
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The mother may know about strategies or techniques needed to do the
questions relating to the research. Also, the researcher will record the interview as
the recording of the interviews will work in the researcher‘s transcribing and
analyzing the data gathered.
4.2. Data collection procedure
Under a scheduled timeline, data collection procedure consists of these two
following phases:
Phases 1: checking the proper time when the observations and interview
should be conducted, preparing for observation and interview questions. Basing on
the characteristics and aims of the study, interview questions will mainly focus on
several types such as experience, behavior and sensory questions.
Phase 2: conducting the observation and the interview. It will last about 30
minutes (the maximum amount of time for one IOE mock test) for each
observation and there may be more than one observation if needed. The interview
lasted approximately 15 minutes for the interviewee. Both observation and
interview were recorded to serve the purpose of the study.
5. Data analysis method
The researcher will apply content analysis method to analyze the data. All
notes and videos from the observation, interview recordings transcript will be
collected for data analysis. As followed, they are phases of analysis:
Phase 1: data will be categorized into items relating to research questions
and research aims
-

How does the surrounding environment affect his progress in the

IOE and the question type?
-

What techniques do the grade 5 student employed when facing

―rearrange the words to make a complete sentence‖?
-

What difficulties does he face when they apply these techniques in

IOE?

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