Tài liệu Using mind mapping technique to improve vocabulary retention of first year students an action research project at military technical academy

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ LIÊN USING MIND-MAPPING TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE VOCABULARY RETENTION OF FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT MILITARY TECHNICAL ACADEMY (SỬ DỤNG BẢN ĐỒ TƯ DUY ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN KHẢ NĂNG GHI NHỚ TỪ VỰNG CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI HỌC VIỆN KỸ THUẬT QUÂN SỰ) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi, 2016 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ LIÊN USING MIND-MAPPING TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE VOCABULARY RETENTION OF FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT AT MILITARY TECHNICAL ACADEMY (SỬ DỤNG BẢN ĐỒ TƯ DUY ĐỂ CẢI THIỆN KHẢ NĂNG GHI NHỚ TỪ VỰNG CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM THỨ NHẤT: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG TẠI HỌC VIỆN KỸ THUẬT QUÂN SỰ) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Văn Độ Hanoi, 2016 Declaration I certify that I myself write this thesis entitled “Using mind-mapping technique to improve vocabulary retention of first-year students: An action research project at Military Technical Academy.” It is not a plagiarism or made by others. Anything related to others’ works is written in quotation, the sources of which are listed on the list of references. If then the pronouncement proves wrong, I am ready to accept any academic punishment, including the withdrawal or cancellation of my academic degree. Signature i Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr Nguyễn Văn Độ whose reference materials, support, stimulating suggestions and encouragement helped me in all stages of this research for and writing of this thesis. Without his critical comments and valuable suggestions, this research could not have been completed. I take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to all my teachers in Faculty of Post-Graduate studies, University of Languages and International Studies, National University, Hanoi for their lectures which enable me to gain a lot of theoretical and practical knowledge. Furthermore, I want to thank my colleagues and students at Military Technical Academy who helped me carry out the investigation of the study. Finally, I am really grateful to my family and my husband for their encouragement and support to my process of writing of the thesis. ii Abstract Vocabulary is one of the most significant parts of English, and its learning in an efficient way gets the most attention by language learners. In Vietnam, one of the most difficulties many students face is to learn, memorize and recall word meanings. So, it should be taught in a way that learners will be capable of recalling them easily. The purpose of this study was to bring mind-mapping technique to improve vocabulary retention of Vietnamese learners. This study was based on action research, in which 32 students in the K51 Information class at Military Technical Academy were investigated. Based on the purposes of the study, a pre-test and a post-test were used to investigate the effectiveness of mind-mapping on the student’s vocabulary retention. Also, a survey questionnaire was designed to get the students’ attitudes about this technique in vocabulary learning and memorizing. After the data were elaborately calculated and analyzed, it indicated that students were successful in improving vocabulary retention with the implementation of the treatment and they seemed to highly value this teaching technique. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Declaration ..........................................................................................................i Acknowledgements ........................................................................................... ii Abstract ............................................................................................................ iii Table of contents .............................................................................................. iv Lists of abbreviations ...................................................................................... vii List of tables and figures ................................................................................ viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1. Rationale of the study..................................................................................1 1.2. Aims of the study ........................................................................................2 1.3. Research question........................................................................................2 1.4. Scope of the study .......................................................................................2 1.5. Significance of the study .............................................................................3 1.6. Method of the study ....................................................................................3 1.7. Design of the study......................................................................................3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. Vocabulary and its importance ............................................................5 2.1.1. Vocabulary definition ..............................................................................5 2.1.2. The role of vocabulary in second language learning ...............................6 2.2. Memorizing word meanings .................................................................7 2.2.1. Vocabulary retention ...............................................................................7 2.2.2. Types of memory .....................................................................................7 2.2.3. Strategies of teaching and learning vocabulary .......................................8 2.3. Mind-mapping .....................................................................................10 2.3.1. Definition ...............................................................................................10 2.3.2. Steps to create a mind map ....................................................................11 2.3.3. The significance of mind-mapping in language classroom ...................12 iv 2.4. Related studies .........................................................................................13 2.4.1. Review of related studies worldwide .....................................................13 2.4.2. Review of related studies in Vietnam ....................................................14 2.4.3. Gaps in previous research on mind-mapping.........................................15 2.5. Summary ..................................................................................................15 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1. The context of the study ..........................................................................16 3.1.1. Research setting .....................................................................................16 3.1.2. Teaching material ...................................................................................16 3.1.3. Research participants .............................................................................17 3.2. Research methodology ............................................................................17 3.2.1. Action research definition ......................................................................17 3.2.2. Action research procedure......................................................................18 3.2.3. Data collection instrument .....................................................................19 3.2.3.1. Pre-test and post-test ...........................................................................19 3.2.3.2 Survey questionnaire ............................................................................20 3.2.4. Data collection procedure ......................................................................20 3.2.5. Data analysis ..........................................................................................22 3.3. Summary ..................................................................................................22 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1. Quantitative description of results from the pre-test and post-test ...24 4.1.1. The distribution of the test results ..........................................................24 4.1.2. Descriptive statistics...............................................................................26 4.2. Quantitative description of results from the questionnaire ................26 4.2.1. Students’ attitudes towards mind mapping technique ...........................27 4.2.2. The students’ self-evaluation on the effectiveness of the MM technique .......................................................................................28 v 4.3. Reliability analysis and correlations ..................................................30 4.3.1. Reliability analysis ...............................................................................30 4.3.2. Correlations ...........................................................................................32 4.4. Summary ..............................................................................................32 CHAPTER 5: RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 5.1. Conclusions ...............................................................................................34 5.2. Limitations of the study ............................................................................36 5.3. Suggestions................................................................................................36 REFERENCES ..............................................................................................38 APPENDICES .................................................................................................. I vi LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS MM: Mind-mapping MMs: Mind maps MTA: Military Technical Academy NEFE: New English File Elementary L1: First language L2: Second language vii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Page Figure 1: Action research cycle 18 Table 1: Procedure of the research 21 Table 2: Score interval of the tests 24 Figure 2: Comparison between pre-test and post-test score 25 Table 3 : The descriptive statistics of the two tests scores 26 Table 4: Students’ attitudes towards MM technique 27 Table 5: The students’ self-evaluation on the effectiveness of MM 28 technique Table 6 : Reliability Statistics 30 Table 7: Item-Total Statistics 31 Table 8: Correlations 32 viii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1. Rationale of the study Vocabulary is the basic factor necessary for mastering a language. This is because vocabulary is integral to every language skill, including reading, writing, listening and speaking skill. Individuals cannot easily make conversations or convey their thoughts in both oral and written forms without having a certain level of vocabulary knowledge. David Wilkins (1972) emphasized the importance of vocabulary as “Without grammar, little can be conveyed; without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed”. Therefore, the lack of vocabulary leads to many serious difficulties in foreign language teaching and learning, notably in Vietnam. Unfortunately, Vietnamese students in general and MTA students in particular find it hard to acquire vocabulary. Many reasons for this problem are pointed out such as school facilities, teaching aids, etc. Out of these reasons, the traditional method of teaching deserves to be blamed on most. Most of the lesson is spent on grammar, not vocabulary. When introducing new vocabulary, the teacher just explains the meanings with Vietnamese equivalents and asks the students to take notes. The students are explained the meaning, definition, pronunciation, spelling and grammatical functions of new words. Therefore, the students cannot recall an unfamiliar word and do not have the habits of recording their vocabulary in the same place. This outdated translation technique is not effective at all. Since teaching method plays an important role in learners’ success in learning English, it should be more updated so that every student feels more interested in vocabulary lessons. Teachers should teach in a way that learners will be capable 1 of recalling them easily. In fact, there are many vocabulary learning techniques such as matching, role play, semantic-mapping, dictionary use, learning vocabulary through the context, and many others. The desire to help students to memorize, recall vocabulary more effectively motivated me to conduct the study titled “Using mind-mapping technique to improve vocabulary retention of firstyear students: An action research project at Military Technical Academy”. Hopefully, this study may contribute to bettering the vocabulary teaching and learning. 1.2. Aims of the study The first aim of the study is to investigate whether using MM to teach vocabulary can help students at MTA to improve their vocabulary retention or not. Secondly, the study also evaluates the students’ attitudes towards using MM as a tool to improve their vocabulary retention. 1.3. Research question Based on the above-mentioned aims, the following questions are formulated: 1. Does teaching vocabulary using MM help students at MTA to improve their vocabulary retention? 2. What are the students’ attitudes towards using MM to improve their vocabulary retention? 1.4. Scope of the study Because of the limitation of time and resources, the researcher only focuses on the use of MM as one technique to improve students’ poor vocabulary retention. The study was conducted on the K51 Information class of 32 first-year students at MTA. Due to the fixed curriculum and limited time, the study was 2 carried out during the second term of school year 2015-2016. 1.5. Significance of the study Essentially, the practical consideration of the research is the significance of the expected research. Hence, the results of this study are expected to be useful to students, teachers and researchers in the field of English language teaching and learning. The research is expected to explore and prove the effectiveness of MM in teaching so that the teachers will conduct the teaching and learning activities more effectively. Students can use MM as a technique to improve vocabulary retention. The future researchers are expected to develop some dimensions which have not been developed in this research such as using different student population, different students’ condition, etc. 1.6. Method of the study The study was based on action research. The subject of the research was the English non-major first-year students of MTA. Because the researcher wanted to investigate whether using MM technique to teach vocabulary can improve the students’ vocabulary retention or not, a pre-test and post- test were carried out. The purpose of pre-test was to know the students’ knowledge before treatment. After treatment, the researcher conducted a post-test to know the effectiveness of treatment after the course of using MM. Also, a survey questionnaire was designed and administered to students at the end of treatment so that they could express their ideas about treatment. 1.7. Design of the study This study is divided as followed: Chapter 1: Introduction - provides the rationale, the aim, the research question, the scope, the significance and the organization of the study. 3 Chapter 2: Literature review–presents the concepts relevant to the topic of the thesis: vocabulary and its importance, memorizing word meanings, some basic knowledge about MM, the previous studies related to the fields and some gaps for present study. Chapter 3: Methodology - presents the context of the research including the research settings, teaching materials, research participants. This chapter also provides information about the action research in general and the instruments, the data collection procedures and data analysis of this study. Chapter 4: Findings and discussion - focuses on the results of the tests and the results from the questionnaire. This chapter also includes the analyses and discussions of the results. Chapter 5: Conclusion - points out some limitations, recommendations and suggestions for further study. 4 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. Vocabulary and its importance 2.1.1. Vocabulary definition English consists of four main skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing. Along with these skills are other sub-skills, namely vocabulary, grammar, collocation, etc. Among these sub-skills, vocabulary plays a crucial part in the language learning process. Having a wide range of vocabulary is strongly related to the degree of language proficiency. Hence, it is necessary to make clarify this term in this study at first. So far there have been a lot of definitions of vocabulary. Specially, Ur (1996) characterized vocabulary as the words we teach in the foreign language. She also stated that a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: a compound of two or three words or multi -word idioms. In addition, Read (2001) viewed words as the basic building blocks of language, the units of meaning from which the larger structures such as sentences, paragraphs and whole texts are formed (p1). Vocabulary can be defined, roughly, according to the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, as following: - All the words known and used by a particular person - All the words which exist in a particular language or subject In short, from the definition above, it can be concluded that vocabulary is a list of words or a set of words in a language or knowledge of words regarding its forms, meanings. In the present study, vocabulary refers to the words, compounds and idioms in a language that have meanings used to convey and 5 receive information in oral and written communication. 2.1.2. The role of vocabulary Even though vocabulary is the sub-skill of a language, it plays a very important role in language. No one can communicate in any meaningful way without vocabulary. A large, rich vocabulary gives them the right words to use at the right time. According to Richards and Renandya in 2002, vocabulary is a core component of language proficiency and provides much of the basis for how well learners speak, listen, read, and write. Similar opinion was also expressed by McCarthy who stated if you do not know enough vocabulary, you will be able to express yourself adequately. For learners, he also claimed that no matter how well the students learn grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to express a wider range of meaning, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way. Having a wide range of vocabulary, one’s listening and reading will improve because he/she will be able to understand more of what is written or spoken. Their writing will become more effective and more powerful. A person with a limited vocabulary will never be able to speak, write, read or understand English effectively. Hence, the lack of vocabulary shortage affects all the other skills. Nation (2001) emphasized the need to constantly expand vocabulary knowledge “acquisition of vocabulary is typically a more conscious and demanding process”. Additionally, he claimed that even at an advanced level, learners are aware of limitations in their knowledge of L2 words. He clarified the importance of vocabulary by bringing evidence that vocabulary knowledge is what the students most need while doing reading activities in order to make sense of what they are reading. Moreover, it’s his claim that those who do not 6 attain enough vocabulary cannot understand enough of what they read. Furthermore, they have more limited contextual information provided by known words to allow them to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words. All in all, from various above points of view, vocabulary can be seen as priority area in language learning and teaching. However, the main obstacle all students face in vocabulary learning is to recall words or memorize words. Therefore, a focus on improving vocabulary retention is essential for learners to raise English proficiency. 2.2. Memorizing word meanings 2.2.1. Vocabulary retention Vocabulary retention has been defined as “the ability to recall or remember things after an interval of time. In language teaching, retention of what has been taught (e.g. grammar rules and vocabulary) may depend on the quality of teaching, the interest of the learners, or the meaningfulness of the materials” (Richards & Schmidt, 2002, p. 457). Vocabulary retention is of the essence in learning English as a foreign language. It can be understood that as well as the learned vocabulary knowledge is retained in the memory, the learner can get benefit from it when the time of recalling it comes. Vocabulary retention is one crucial factor affecting the success of vocabulary acquisition since it is the ability to recall words that have been learnt for use when needed. 2.2.2. Types of memory Memory has been categorized into different sub-types according to duration of memory retention and capacity of recalling information after original input. According to Plotrick, R and Kouyoumdjian, H. in 2013, there are three kinds of memory. 7 Sensory memory is an initial process that receives and holds environment information for a brief period of time, from an instant to several second. In contrast, short-term memory can hold only a limited amount of information for a short period of time, two to thirty seconds. Actually, if sensory memory is a little or un-controlled processing then short-term memory is a controlled processing procedure at which the learner can retrieve their newly knowledge with effort. Finally, there is long-term memory, which can store an almost unlimited amount of information over long periods of time. This is an automatic processing procedure that ensure retrieved without effort. Learning new items involves storing them first in our short-term memory, and afterwards in long-term memory. However, when learning vocabulary, learners have problems with memorizing words for a long time. They usually fail to put the words into long-term memory. Thus, the goal of learning vocabulary is to transfer the lexical information from short-term memory to long-term memory during the process of learning. This can be done by various techniques teachers apply. The more interested in what students have learnt, the better they can remember. Therefore, teachers should apply vocabulary teaching strategies effectively so that the students could feel interested in what they learnt. 2.2.3. Strategies of teaching and learning vocabulary Vocabulary has a crucial role in foreign teaching and learning. However, from the researcher’s English teaching experience, vocabulary teaching in class is less focused on than teaching English grammar. Most teachers still emphasize English grammatical rules in class and neglect vocabulary teaching strategies. As a result, the learners have difficulties in memorizing large numbers of new words throughout the entire course. In vocabulary lessons, the main method of word repetition, saying the L2 word form aloud with the L1 translation is likely to be used as an aid to remember the words. Hence, both teachers and learners have 8 little interest or enjoyment when teaching and learning vocabulary. The question is how to teach and learn vocabulary effectively. Up till now, the learners need training in vocabulary learning strategies so that they are able to remember as much as possible for what they learnt. O’Malley and Chamot in 1990 defined learning strategies as special thoughts or behaviors that individuals use to help them comprehend, learn, or retain new information. Vocabulary learning strategies are one part of language learning strategies, which in turn part of general learning strategies (Nation, 2001). In classifying learning strategies, scholars have different ways of classifying language learning strategies. According to Wenden and Rubin in 1987, learning strategies consists of cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies, gaining the most attention compared to other strategies. Cognitive strategies include the tools that help a learner store, combine, and recall the information. These strategies include repetition, review and development of the concept and the organization of the material. In other words, cognitive strategies involve interacting with the material to be learned, manipulating the material mentally or physically or by applying a specific technique to a learning task (O`Malley and Chamot, 1990). Meta-cognitive strategies include the tools for guidance and supervision of cognitive approaches, such as determination of learning goals, posing questions and evaluation of what has been read. These strategies include supervision, monitoring, organization and planning. In other words, according to O`Malley and Chamot (1990), meta-cognitive strategies are higher order executive skills that may entail planning for, monitoring, or evaluating the success of a learning activity; meta-cognitive strategies operate directly on informing information, manipulating it in ways that enhance learning. 9 MMs could be classified as cognitive learning strategies since they fulfill the main function of cognitive strategies by helping the learners to relate the new items to the already existing one and recall the information. Therefore, the researcher elaborates on the term MMs in the following section. 2.3. Mind-mapping 2.3.1. Definition The mind-mapping or mind map concept was developed in the early 1970s by Tony Buzan as a method for students to take notes as briefly as possible. Buzan in 1993 defined MMs as “a powerful graphic technique which provides a universal key to unlock the potential of the brain”. This opinion was supported by Al-Jarf (2011) who argued that a MM is a graphic organizer in which the major categories radiate from a central idea and sub-categories are represented as branches of larger branches. In other words, MM is a visual tool that can be used to generate ideas, take notes, organize thinking, and develop concepts. There are no limits to the number of connected ideas and links. MM thus promotes creative thinking and is “a creative note-taking method, which eases us to remember much information” (De Porter, Reardon, and Nourie, 1999). The best MM is enhanced and enriched with color, picture, symbol and dimension that will not just help the students to recall information but also make them feel good in mastering vocabulary knowledge. By now, it is clear for us to understand that MM is a technique using diagram for visual presentation of ideas. The diagram is focused on a main concept which is placed in the center and therefore certain ideas, words or even phrases related to main concept can be connected. Each idea, word or phrase is written down and then linked by lines, arrows, branches, or some ways of showing connections to its major or minor item. This is specifically beneficial 10