Tài liệu Applying total physical response (tpr) in teaching english vocabulary to grade 5 students at tran quoc toan primary school, bac ninh province

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES NGUYEN THI HUYEN APPLYING TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE (TPR) IN TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO GRADE 5 STUDENTS AT TRAN QUOC TOAN PRIMARY SCHOOL, BAC NINH PROVINCE M.A. THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 THAI NGUYEN – 2020 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES NGUYEN THI HUYEN APPLYING TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE (TPR) IN TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO GRADE 5 STUDENTS AT TRAN QUOC TOAN PRIMARY SCHOOL, BAC NINH PROVINCE M.A. THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 THAI NGUYEN – 2020 ĐẠI HỌC THÁI NGUYÊN TRƯỜNG NGOẠI NGỮ NGUYỄN THỊ HUYỀN ÁP DỤNG PHƯƠNG PHÁP PHẢN XẠ TOÀN THÂN TRONG VIỆC DẠY TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG ANH CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 5 TẠI TRƯỜNG TIỂU HỌC TRẦN QUỐC TOẢN, TỈNH BẮC NINH LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ Ngành: Ngôn ngữ Anh Mã số: 8220201 THAI NGUYEN – 2020 DECLARATION I certify that the minor thesis entitled “Applying Total Physical Response (TPR) in teaching English vocabulary to grade 5 students at Tran Quoc Toan Primary School, Bac Ninh province” is my own study in the fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Foreign Language Faculty, Thai Nguyen University. Thai Nguyen, 2020. Approved by Supervisor Student Dang Thi Thu Huong, PhD Nguyen Thi Huyen i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to the support of many people, this research has been completed. I would like to start by expressing my great gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Dang Thi Thu Huong for her valuable comments, constant support and encouragement. I also want to give my special thanks to teachers and grade 5 students of Tran Quoc Toan Primary School for their supports in my experiment and response to my survey questionnaires. Finally, I am truly grateful to my family for their wholehearted care and supporting me during the time I conducted the research and encouraging me all the time when I encountered difficulties in completing the thesis. ii ABSTRACT This study was conducted to explore the application of Total Physical Response (TPR) method in teaching English vocabulary for grade 5 students at Tran Quoc Toan Primary School, Bac Ninh province. The thesis began with literature review on vocabulary teaching and TRP approach. Then quasi-experimental design was applied to find out the improvement of students in retaining vocabulary by using TPR method. A questionnaire was employed to 50 grade 5 students at Tran Quoc Toan Primary School after tests and lessons with and without applying TPR method to explore the benefits and difficulties of students in learning vocabulary with TPR. The findings of the research show that TPR method has been used in many subjects, and it is also applicable and effective to teach English vocabulary. Therefore, the method was suggested to be exploited more in the context of teaching vocabulary for grade 5 students at Tran Quoc Toan Primary School, Bac Ninh province. iii TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION ........................................................................................................ i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... ii ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. iii TABLE OF CONTENT ............................................................................................ iv LISTS OF TABLES ................................................................................................. vii LIST OF FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS...................................................... viii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................1 1.1. Rationale of the study .......................................................................................1 1.2. Aims of the study ..............................................................................................3 1.3. Scope of the study .............................................................................................3 1.4. Significance of the study ..................................................................................3 1.5 Structure of the study .........................................................................................4 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................................................5 2.1. Vocabulary and vocabulary learning and teaching ...........................................5 2.1.1. Definitions of vocabulary ...........................................................................5 2.1.2. Learning vocabulary ...................................................................................8 2.1.3. Teaching vocabulary ..................................................................................9 2.1.4. Difficulty of teaching and learning vocabulary........................................10 2.1.5. Vocabulary retention ................................................................................11 2.2. Total Physical Response (TPR) ......................................................................12 2.2.1. Definitions of TPR ...................................................................................12 2.2.2. The characteristics of TPR .......................................................................14 2.2.3. The procedure of vocabulary teaching using TPR ...................................15 2.2.4. The Design of TPR ...................................................................................17 2.2.5 Techniques of TPR ....................................................................................19 2.2.6. Variations of TPR .....................................................................................21 2. 2.7. The Advantages of TPR ..........................................................................23 iv 2.2.8. The Disadvantages of TPR .......................................................................23 2.3 Overview of previous studies ..........................................................................24 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ..........................................................................25 3.1. Research questions ..........................................................................................25 3.2. Research Methods ...........................................................................................25 3.3. Participants......................................................................................................26 3.4. Data collection ................................................................................................27 3.4.1. Data collection instruments ......................................................................27 3.4.2. Data collection procedure ............................................................................31 3.5. Data analysis ...................................................................................................34 3.5.1. Test result analysis ...................................................................................34 3.5.2. Questionnaire analysis ..............................................................................35 CHAPTER IV: FINDING AND DISCUSSION ......................................................36 4.1. Test analysis ....................................................................................................36 4.1.1. The students’ pre-test scores of the experimental and control group. .........36 4.1.2. The students’ scores in post – test 1 ............................................................38 4.1.3. The students’ scores in post – test 2 ............................................................40 4.2 Questionnaire result analysis ...........................................................................43 4.3. Discussion .......................................................................................................45 CHAPTER V: IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION ..........................................47 5.1. Conclusion ......................................................................................................48 5.2. Implications ....................................................................................................49 5.3. Limitations of the study ..................................................................................49 REFERENCES ..........................................................................................................50 APPENDIXES ........................................................................................................... II APPENDIX B: VOCABULARY TEST 2 (POSTTEST 1) ..................................... IV APPENDIX C: VOCABULARY TEST 3 (POSTTEST 2) ....................................... V APPENDIX D ......................................................................................................... VII v APPENDIX E........................................................................................................... IX LESSON PLAN FOR THEME 2:............................................................................ XI LESSON PLAN FOR THEME 3:.......................................................................... XIII APPENDIX F .......................................................................................................... XV APPENDIX G ..................................................................................................... XVIII APPENDIX H ....................................................................................................... XXI vi LISTS OF TABLES Table 3.1: Test description ....................................................................................... 28 Table 3.2: Questionnaire description ....................................................................... 30 Table 3.3: Procedure of training............................................................................... 33 Table 3.4: Conversion of percentage range ............................................................. 35 Table 4.1: Students’ scores of control group in pre-test .......................................... 36 Table 4.2: Students’ scores of experimental group in pre-test................................. 37 Table 4.3: Students’ scores of experimental group in post-test 1 ............................ 39 Table 4.4: Students’ scores of control group in post-test 1 ...................................... 40 Table 4.5: Students’ scores of experimental group in post-test 2 ............................ 42 Table 4.6: Students’ scores of control group in post-test 2 ...................................... 43 Table 4.7: Mean scores of two groups in vocabulary tests ...................................... 43 Table 4.8: Question 1 – Students’ opinions about TPR English lessons ................. 45 Table 4.9: Question 2 – Students’ opinions about TPR activities ........................... 46 Table 4.10: Question 3 – Interest in learning English vocabulary through TPR activities ................................................................................................................... 47 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: TPR example 1 ...................................................................................... 13 Figure 2.2: TPR example 2 ...................................................................................... 14 Figure 2.3: Procedure for TPR ................................................................................. 17 Figure 2.4: Variations of TPR .................................................................................. 22 Figure 3.1: Illustration of Pretest – Posttest designs ................................................ 26 Figure 3.2: Data collection procedure ...................................................................... 31 Figure 4.1: The comparison between scores in post-test 1 of control and experimental group. .................................................................................................. 41 Figure 4.2: Comparison between pre-test score and post-test 2 score of experimental group......................................................................................................................... 44 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS %: Percent TPR: Total Physical Response CG: Control Group EG: Experimental Group viii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the writer presents the rationale, objectives, scopes and the structure of this study. 1.1. Rationale of the study Currently, English has been widely used in Vietnam. This is a compulsory subject in almost all school levels. Teaching English at primary schools is one of the important goals concerned by the Government. In the article “The best age for kids to learn a second language”, Laura Clark said that children aged from 6 to 13 is the right time to learn another language along with their mother tongue because children have a good memory to achieve new things during that period. In particular, the 5th grade is the last class of primary education where students are taught more vocabulary to improve communication. In addition, there is no language without vocabulary and English is not an exception. That is the reason why vocabulary is becoming one of the most important elements of language. Vocabulary plays an important role in the process of learning English. Students normally have difficulties in memorizing and mastering English vocabulary, so it is difficult for them to comprehend both in spoken and written forms. In the Depth of Processing Hypothesis, Craik and Tulving (1975) showed that “the more cognitive energy a person exerts when manipulating and thinking about a word, the more likely it is that they will be able to recall and use it later”. In other hand, Saleh (1997:12) believed that, “[…] the success in mastering a language is determined by the size of the vocabulary one has learned”. Learning new words relates to how we understand them and how long we remember them. There were many factors affecting word retention, for example, how diversification and frequently words were used. According to Thornburg (2002: 23), “the learner needs not only to learn a lot of words, but also to remember them”. Therefore, sensory memory has important values in learning vocabulary. In the past, teachers often used traditional methods to teach vocabulary such as providing word explanations and requiring practices, however, that was not a really effective method. According to Singer, A.J. (2003:39), “teaching is helping 1 learners to acquire new knowledge or skills. Teaching consisted, mainly, of telling, showing, guiding the learner in performance tasks and then measuring the results”. In some cases, some teachers do not have suitable methods to inspire their students for learning English effectively, which makes students not excited to learn vocabulary. It is easy to show that it is hard and challenging, and time-consuming. Apart from grammar, vocabulary plays an essential role in learning languages, English particularly. The close relationship between vocabulary and understandability must be expressed in the form of words. Finite vocabulary will make learners find hard in communication, which loses their confidence and gradually interests in studying English. Some reasons for those limitations may be affected by teaching method, learning environment and motivation. Within the scope of this study, teaching method will be focused on. In primary education, vocabulary is considered one of the foundational concerns in English teaching and learning. Thus, teachers should find effective teaching methods to enhance students’ vocabulary so as to raise their interests and language competency in learning English. So far, many researchers have provided various methods to help students to easily study and memorize vocabulary. Of them, TPR is regarded one of the most useful methods in teaching and learning vocabulary. In Tran Quoc Toan Primary School, English is a major subject. In teaching vocabulary, the traditional technique – English-Vietnamese translation is mainly used. The teachers also apply the Power Point Presentation with pictures in teaching vocabulary, so the students only got passive from the teachers. They do not have opportunities to practice vocabulary, therefore, their vocabulary memory is poor and short-termed. So, it is necessary to apply an effective technique to improve students’ vocabulary memory. All the above-mentioned reason paved the way for the researcher to conduct a study on using TPR approach to improve students’ vocabulary memory with an expectation that will contribute to teaching and learning vocabulary for the teachers at Tran Quoc Toan Primary School. The research aims to explore the influence and 2 effectiveness of applying TPR approach in teaching and learning vocabulary in order to improve students’ retention of English vocabulary. Then, this research targeted at introducing TPR as a technique to teach and learn vocabulary for grade 5 students at Tran Quoc Toan Primary School. The researcher also hopes that this study would make a contribution to the development of language teaching and learning vocabulary via TPR. 1.2. Aims of the study The study aims at finding the effectiveness of using TPR method in enhancing students’ English vocabulary at Tran Quoc Toan Primary School, Bac Ninh province. Accordingly, the study found answers to the question: - What is effectiveness of TPR method in enhancing grade 5 students’ English vocabulary? 1.3. Scope of the study The study focuses on applying TPR in teaching English vocabulary for 50 students at grade 5, Tran Quoc Toan Primary School, Bac Ninh province. Due to the fixed curriculum and limited time, the study will be carried out in the second semester of school year 2019-2020. 1.4. Significance of the study Essentially, the practical consideration of the research is the significance of the expected research. Hence, the result of this study is expected to be useful to the teachers, the students and the researcher in using TPR in teaching and learning vocabulary. The research is expected to explore and prove the effectiveness of applying TPR method in teaching and learning English vocabulary. Therefore, teachers and students at Tran Quoc Toan Primary School would conduct the teaching and learning activities more effectively. The researcher aspired that this study would give a contribution to the development of language teaching and learning by applying TPR method for English teachers at Tran Quoc Toan Primary School 3 This research was expected to eliminate the difficulties of students at Tran Quoc Toan Primary School in retaining their vocabulary and it could help them to improve their long-term memory and more interested in learning English, specifically vocabulary. For researchers, it is anticipated that this study would be one of the references for other researchers to get information about teaching through TPR method. 1.5 Structure of the study This study is divided into five chapters. They are: Chapter I: “Introduction” – covers academic works required for research paper, consists of rationale for the study, aims of the study, research questions, scope of the study and organization of the study. Chapter II: “Literature review” – provides the theoretical background of the study, namely basic knowledge about English vocabulary and vocabulary teaching; TPR in generally and in teaching and learning vocabulary. Chapter III: “Methodology” – describes the methods used for this study, data collection instruments, data collection procedures and data analysis procedure. Chapter IV: “Finding and discussion” – presents, analyzes and discusses the results collected. In this chapter, the answers for two research questions are found. Chapter V: “Conclusion” – summarizes the main issues of this paper, giving the limitations, pedagogical implications of the study and suggestions for further studies. 4 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter gives an overview of vocabulary, vocabulary teaching and learning, TPR method and using TPR in English teaching and learning. Nowadays, there are many kinds of methods that can be used in teaching English. The applied method needs not only to be interesting but also effective in teaching languages. According to Harmer (2007), some students easily forget the material because they are not active in learning process or deeply taking part in learning process; if students and teacher don’t interact or response to each other, learning in the class will be boring, no good atmosphere and environment to learn. During the studying process, if the leaner only sit and listen to the teacher’s explanation without involving their self or without any opportunities to take part in learning process, it will make the students easily get bored. After finding out the problems to be discussed, the researcher gives the literature review of vocabulary, vocabulary learning and teaching, and Total Physical Response method. 2.1. Vocabulary and vocabulary learning and teaching 2.1.1. Definitions of vocabulary According to Meriam Webster, vocabulary is a list or collection of words or phrase, usually alphabetically arranged and explained or defined. Oxford (2018) defined vocabulary is a list of difficult or unfamiliar words with an explanation of their meanings, accompanying a piece of specialist or foreign language text. Vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person’s language. It usually developed with age and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Vocabulary is one of the most important elements, which supports for developing four-language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. “Vocabulary is the basic for the development of language”, As Hirai (2010: 50). Furthermore, according to Cambridge Advance Learner’s Dictionary Online, vocabulary is defined as 5 a) all the new words that a person knows or uses, b) all the words that in a particular language, c) the words that people use when they are talking about a particular subject d) a lists of words with their meanings, especially in a book for learning a foreign language. The other definition of vocabulary states from Hatch and Brown (1995: 1), they stated that vocabulary refers to a list or set of words for a particular language or a list or set of words that individual speakers of language might use. Hatch and Brown (1995:1) also state that vocabulary is the only system involved of alphabetical order. According to Kim and Kim (2012: 4), “vocabulary is the base of communication in that language. Therefore, it is critical to try out various and different teaching style that cheers students to acquire vocabulary easily without negative emotion about it”. It is a element in forming sentences in order that interactions among others can be happen fluently and the communication can easily to understand. It is hard to communication without vocabulary, because the words are used to express ideas, emotions and desires to each other. Shortly, vocabulary is a tool for effective communication. Based on those above statements, there are many definitions of vocabulary. It can be assumed that vocabulary is a list of words as a basic component of language proficiency which has own form or expression and consists of aspects, they are meaning, use of word, form (pronunciation and spelling). Hiebert and Kamil (2005: 3) divided word into two forms, the first is oral vocabulary, which is the set of words for that the learners know the meanings when they speak or read orally. The second is print vocabulary, which consists of those words for which the meaning is known when learners write or read silently. They also define knowledge of words also comes in at least two forms as follows: a. Productive vocabulary: Productive vocabulary is the set of words that an individual can use when writing or speaking. They are words that are renowned, familiar, and used habitually. 6 b. Receptive or recognition vocabulary: Receptive or recognition vocabulary is that set of words for which an individual can use for listening or reading. These are words that are not as famous to students and routine in use as productive vocabulary. Individuals may be able allocate some sort of meaning to them, even though they may not know the full subtleties of the distinction. Typically, these are also words that individuals do not use impromptu. However, when individuals experience these words, they recognize them, even if imperfectly, Besides, Thornbury (2002: 3-10) said that there are six kinds of vocabulary, they are: 1) Word classes: Word classes or parts of speech. They are divided into eight classes, such as: noun, pronouns, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition and determiner. 2) Word families: It discusses about affixation of a word, such as: prefixes (in-, de-) and suffixes (-tion, -ness). 3) Word formation: such as compounding, clipping, blending and so on. Affixation is also a kind of word formation. 4) Multi-word units: about phrasal verbs and idioms 5) Collocations: Collocation is word partners. The typical collocation of specific items is another factor that makes a particular mixture. Example: this week, once more, once again, as well. 6) Homonyms: Kinds of vocabulary will be useful for students and teachers in different situations in learning and teaching a language. Furthermore, according to Richards (1976 cited in Ghazal, 2007) a word requires knowing: 1) a great deal about its general frequency of use, syntactic and situation limitation on its use 2) its underlying form and forms that can be derived from it 3) the network of its semantic features 4) the various meanings associated with the item. 7 Following Ur (1996) adapted in ELT Methodology II Course Book and Recommended Readings (p.81-87), the main aspects of vocabulary are divided into: a) form, b) grammar, c) aspects of meaning and d) word building So, knowing a word is not just ordinarily know its equivalent in one’s mother tongue but there are a lot of aspects to cover. It makes difficult for teachers and students in teaching and learning vocabulary. Vocabulary becomes a major problem in learning English especially to the first-year students, when they have good ability in mastering vocabulary, they will be easier in memorize. 2.1.2. Learning vocabulary Vocabulary learning plays an important part for people who learn English both as foreign language and as second language. Ur (1994: 60) pointed out vocabulary as the words we teach in the foreign language. In addition, Brown (2001: 377) stated vocabulary items as a boring list of words that must be defined and memorized by the students, lexical forms are seen in their central role in contextualized, meaningful language. Richard in Schmitt (1997: 241) also stated that knowing a word meaning knowing how often it occurs, the company it keeps, its appropriateness in different situations, its syntactic behavior, its underlying form and derivations, its word associations, and its semantic features. Tozcu and Coady (2004: 473) viewed learning vocabulary is an important aspect of language two and foreign language acquisition and academic achievement and is vital to reading comprehension and proficiency, to which it is closely linked. Moreover, it is asserted that vocabulary learning is based on the establishment of specific habits. Since this involves the association of symbols and their meaning, it is clear that an enrichment of the meaning of the word is as important as its frequent repetition. Dunlap and Weisman (2007: 150) asserted, “vocabulary development is essential for English learners’ academic success. There is a strong relationship between 8 vocabulary knowledge and academic achievement”. That is the reason why vocabulary plays the main key in developing four language skills, it is very important in teaching and learning language. 2.1.3. Teaching vocabulary Teaching vocabulary is an important aspect of learning a language because languages are based on words (Alqahtani, 2015). It is impossible to learn a language without words; even communication between human beings is based on words. Recent research indicates that teaching vocabulary may be problematic because many teachers lack confident about the best practice in vocabulary teaching and sometimes do not know where to start to focus on word learning (Berne & Blachowicz, 2008). Either teachers or students agree that acquisition of the vocabulary is a central factor in teaching a language (Walters, 2004). Teaching vocabulary is considered as one of the most discussed parts of teaching English as a foreign language. When the teaching and learning process takes place, problems would appear to the teachers. They have problems of how to teach students in order to obtain satisfying results. The teachers should be concerned that teaching vocabulary is something new and different from student’s native language. They also have to take into account that teaching English for young learners is different from adults. The teacher should prepare and find out the appropriate techniques, which will be implemented to the students. According to McKeown and Beck (1988), direct vocabulary teaching is far more effective than indirect ones. Mazano (2003) shows that the three most important elements in a successful vocabulary teaching: motivating students to read extensively the texts of the study field or other text of their choice. Direct teaching of words or phrases related to student’s subjects; providing access for students to get to know new words; and motivate students to more understand of the new words by using real images, symbols, etc. 9