Tài liệu Sử dụng sơ đồ tư duy cải thiện khả năng ghi nhớ từ vựng cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất trường cao đẳng y tế thái nguyên

.. THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES VU THI HONG NHUNG USING MIND-MAPPING APPROACH TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY MEMORY FOR THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN MEDICAL COLLEGE (Sử dụng sơ đồ tư duy để cải thiện khả năng ghi nhớ từ vựng cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất Trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên) M.A. THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 THAI NGUYEN – 2018 1 THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES VU THI HONG NHUNG USING MIND-MAPPING APPROACH TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY MEMORY FOR THE FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT THAI NGUYEN MEDICAL COLLEGE (Sử dụng sơ đồ tư duy để cải thiện khả năng ghi nhớ từ vựng cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất Trường Cao đẳng Y tế Thái Nguyên) M.A. THESIS (APPLICATION ORIENTATION) Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 Supervisor 1: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Van Canh Supervisor 2: Dr. Nguyen Thi Minh Loan THAI NGUYEN – 2018 2 DECLARATION I certify that the minor thesis entitled “Using mind-mapping approach to improve students’ vocabulary memory for the first-year students at Thai Nguyen Medical College” is my own study in the fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Foreign Language Faculty, Thai Nguyen University. Signature: Vu Thi Hong Nhung Thai Nguyen, 2018. 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, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Van Canh and Dr. Nguyen Thi Minh Loan for their valuable comments, constant support and encouragement. I want to give my special thanks to teachers and first-year students of Thai Nguyen Medical College for their support in my lessons, attendence in tests and response to my survey questionnaires. Last but not least, I am truly greatful to my family for their wholehearted care and support me during the time I conducted the research and encourage me all the time when I encountered difficulties in completing the thesis. ii ABSTRACT This thesis was an attempt to explore the application of mind-mapping technique in teaching and learning vocabulary for the first-year students at Thai Nguyen Medical College. The thesis began with liturature review on vocabulary teaching and mindmapping approach. Then quasi-experimental design was applied to find out the improvement of students in retaining vocabulary by using mind-maping technique. A questionnaire was employed to 70 first-years students at Thai Nguyen medical College after tests and lessons with and without applying mind-mapping technique to explore the benefits and difficulties of students in learning vocabulary with mind-mapping technique. The findings of the research show that mind-mapping technique has been used in many subjects, and it is also applicable and effective to teach English vocabulary. Therefore, the technique was suggested to be exploited more in the context of teching vocabulary for non-English major students at Thai Nguyen Medical College. iii TABLE OF CONTENT Declaration i Acknowledgement ii Abstract iii Table of content iv List of tables vii List of figures viii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rationale for the study 1 2. Aims of the study 3 3. Scope of the study 4 4. Significance of the study 4 5. Structure of the study 4 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 6 1. Vocabulary and vocabulary learning 6 1.1. Definitions of vocabulary 6 1.2. Kinds of vocabulary 7 1.3. Difficulty of learning vocabulary 9 1.4. Vocabulary retention 10 2. Mind-mapping 11 2.1. Definitions of mind-mapping 11 2.2. The functions of mind-mapping 14 2.3. Classifications of mind-mapping 14 2.4. Advantages of using mind-mapping 17 2.5. Previous studies on using mind-mapping in teaching and learning 19 vocabulary CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 22 1. Research questions 22 2. Methods of research 22 3. Participants 23 iv 4. Data collection 24 4.1. Data collection instruments 24 4.1.1. Vocabulary test 24 4.1.2. Questionnaire 27 4.2. Data collection procedure 28 4.2.1. Pre-test 28 4.2.2. Training 29 4.2.3. Post-test 1 31 4.2.4. Questionnaire 31 5. Data analysis 32 5.1. Test result analysis 32 5.2. Questionnaire analysis 32 CHAPTER IV: FINDING AND DISCUSSION 34 1. Research question 1 34 1.1. The students’ pre-test scores of the experimental and control group 34 1.2. The students’ scores in post – test 1 36 1.3. The students’ scores in post – test 2 39 2. Research question 2 42 3. Discussion 47 CHAPTER V: IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION 51 1. Implications 51 1.1. To the teachers 51 1.2. To the students 51 2. Limitations of the study 52 3. Suggestions for future research 52 4. Conclusion 53 REFERENCE 54 APPENDIXES I Appendix A: Vocabulary pre-test I Appendix B: Vocabulary post-test 1 III v Appendix C: Vocabulary post-test 2 V Appendix D: Questionnaire for students VII Appendix E: Lesson plan for control group IX Appendix F: Lesson plan for experimental group X Appendix G: Mind-mapping of students in experimental group XI Appendix H: The students’ scores and the realibility coefficient of the test XIV items in pre-test Appendix I: The students’ scores and the realibility coefficient of the test XVII items in post-test 1 Appendix K: The students’ scores and the realibility coefficient of the test items in post-test 2 vi XX LISTS OF TABLES Table 3.1: Test description Table 3.2: Questionnaire description Table 3.2: Procedure of training Table 3.4: Conversion of percentage range Table 4.1: Students’ scores of experimental group in pre-test Table 4.2: Students’ scores of control group in pre-test Table 4.3: Students’ scores of experimental group in post-test 1 Table 4.4: Students’ scores of control group in post-test 1 Table 4.5: Students’ scores of experimental group in post-test 2 Table 4.6: Students’ scores of control group in post-test 2 Table 4.7: Mean scores of two groups in vocabulary tests Table 4.8: Students’ opinions about the benefits of applying mind-mapping technique in teaching and learning vocabulary Table 4.9: Students’ opinions about the limitation of applying mind-mapping technique in teaching and learning vocabulary vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1: Mind-mapping example 1 Figure 2.2: Mind-mapping example 2 Figure 2.3: Mind-mapping example 3 Figure 2.4: Mind-mapping example 4 Figure 2.5: Mind-mapping example 5 Figure 3.1: Illustration of Pretest – Posttest designs Figure 3.2: Data collection procedure Figure 4.1: The comparison between scores in post-test 1 of control and experimental group. Figure 4.2: Comparison between pre-test score and post-test 2 score of experimental group Figure 4.3: Example 1 of mind-mapping of students in experimental group in the field “CLOTHES” Figure 4.4: Example 2 of mind-mapping of students in experimental group in the field “CLOTHES” Figure 4.5: Example 3 of mind-mapping of students in experimental group in the field “ANIMALS” Figure 4.6: Example 4 of mind-mapping of students in experimental group in the field “ANIMALS” viii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the writer presents the rationale, objectives, scopes and the structure of this study. 1. Rationale of the study English is an international language so studying English is getting important in the world communication. 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 essential role in the process of studying English. While learning English vocabulary, students have difficulties in mastery and memory, so it is hard for them to understand reading materials, understand other speaking, given responses, listening and writing materials. In the Depth of Processing Hypothesis, Craik and Tulving (1975) stated 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”. Saleh (1997:12) argued, “[…] the success in mastering a language is determined by the size of the vocabulary one has learned”. However, it was not only important how many words learned but also how many words remembered. So knowledge of memory sensory played an important value involving in vocabulary memory. Learning new words related to how we understand them and how long we remember them. There were many factors affecting word retention such as how words were presented and recycled or word frequency. According to Thornbury (2002: 23), “the learner needs not only to learn a lot of words, but also to remember them”. Therefore, memory sensory had important value in learning vocabulary. In the past, teachers often used the traditional ways to teach vocabulary such as providing word explanations and repetitive practices. However, that was not a really effective method. According to Singer, A.J. (2003:39), “teaching is helping learners to acquire new knowledge or skills. Teaching consisted, mainly, of telling, showing, guiding the learner in performance tasks and then measuring the results”. So, many 1 researchers had given out many methods to help students easily to mastery and memorize vocabulary. One of the approaches that might be useful in teaching and learning vocabulary was using mind-mapping. As Buzan (2009:4) stated, “mind-mapping is an easy way to place information to brain and take information out from brain. Mindmapping was a creative and effective way to write and would map your mind by a simple way”. In process of memorizing vocabulary students had to use all the right and the left brain. Right brain was for creativity and visualization. Left brain was for logical and rational. Mind mapping combined both and became whole-brained. The brain was inspired by appealing to both the creative and logical side. According to DePotter and Hernacki as translated into English (2008: 152), “mind mapping uses visuals reminder and sensory into a pattern from the ideas which are related”. Mind mapping permitted the students to illustrate their thoughts by categorizing and grouping into connected ideas. It began with the students’ main topic or the theme as the central idea and allowed the main branches of mind-mapping to constitute the main points of their thought then united by the interesting colours and imaged which would stimulate the brain. Thornbury (2002: 18) stated that “acquiring a vocabulary requires not only labeling but categorizing skills. In Thornbury (2002: 144) it was said that “vocabulary cannot be taught, it can be presented, explained, included in all kind of activities and experienced in all manner of association, but it is ultimately it is learned by the individual”. Therefore, mind-mapping teachnique was believed to be used in teaching and learning vocabulary in order to improve vocabulary retention by classsifying vocabulary in various strategies. There were no concrete instructions for learning vocabulary efficiently; however, teachers might apply mind-mapping approach in teaching vocabulary by using various strategies relating to the main ideas. A mind-mapping was a visual organizer using a sketch organizer for developing vocabulary, in which students had to think about terms or concepts in several ways. A mind-mapping took students on developing a definition, synonyms, antonyms, and a 2 graphics for a given vocabulary word or concept. Enriching students’ vocabulary was important in developing their English skills. Therefore, mind-mapping was expected to stimulate students’ mastery and be useful for students to memorize vocabulary. It was a dominant graphic technique which provided a universal key for the potential of the brain being unlocked. In Thai Nguyen medical college, English was not a major subject, almost all students was not good at studying English. They were only required to reach A2 level (pre-intermediate level) until graduation. Traditional technique – English – Vietnamese translation was a major technique which most of teachers at Thai Nguyen Medical College had used in vocabulary lessons. They also applied power point with pictures in teaching vocabulary, but students only got passive from the teachers. They were not practiced with those words and those words did not make impression on them, therefore vocabulary memory ability of students was not good. If learners had limited vocabulary, they had to face many difficulties in learning foreign language. So it was necessary to apply a new and effective technique to improve students’ vocabulary memory. For all reason above paving the way for the researcher to study on using mindmapping approach to improve students’ vocabulary memory in expect that the study could be contribute to teaching and learning vocabulary for the freshmen. The writer aimed to explore the influence and effectiveness of applying mind-mapping approach in teaching and learning vocabulary in order to improve students’ retention of English vocabulary. Then this research targeted at introducing mind-mapping as a technique to teaching and learning vocabulary for the first-year students at Thai Nguyen medical college. And the writer aspired that this study would give a contribution in the educational side to the development of language teaching and learning about vocabulary by applying mind-mapping technique. 2. Aims of the study 3 This study aimed to explore the influence of mind-mapping technique on students’ retention of English vocabulary. The study targeted at introducing mindmapping as a technique in teaching and learning vocabulary to improve vocabulary retention for the first-year students at Thai Nguyen medical college. There were two research questions based on the aims of the study, they were: 1) To what extent does the use of mind-mapping help students to retain vocabulary? 2) What are the limitations of mind-mapping in vocabulary learning? 3. Scope of the study The study limited itself to the exploration of the influence of mind-mapping techniques on students’ word retention within the context of teaching and learning English as a minor subject at Thai Nguyen Medical College. The study was conducted on the 70 first-year students at Thai Nguyen Medical College. Due to the fixed curriculum and limited time, the study was carried out on the second semester of school year 2017 – 2018. 4. Significance of the study Essentially, the practical consideration of the research was the significance of the expected research. Hence, the result of this study was expected to be useful to the teachers, the students and the researcher in using mind-mapping in teaching and learning vocabulary. The research was expected to explore and prove the effectiveness of applying mind-mapping technique in teaching and learning English vocabulary. Therefore, teachers and students at Thai Nguyen Medical College would conduct the teaching and learning activities more effectively. English teachers at Thai Nguyen Medical College were looked forward to increasing their strategy in teaching vocabulary and the writer aspired that this study would give a contribution in the educational side to the development of language teaching and learning about vocabulary by applying mind-mapping technique. 4 This research was expected to overcome the difficulties of students at Thai Nguyen Medical College in retaining their vocabulary and it could help the students to remember longer and be interested in learning vocabulary. For the researchers, it was anticipated that this study to be one of the references for other researchers to get information about teaching through mind-mapping technique. 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 learning; mindmapping 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. 5 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter gives general knowledge about vocabulary and vocabulary learning; mind-mapping technique and several previous researches about using mindmapping in teaching and learning foreign languages. 1. Vocabulary and vocabulary learning 1.1. Definitions of vocabulary Vocabulary is one of the most important elements, which supports for developing four-language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. As Hirai (2010: 45) stated, “vocabulary is the basic for the development of language”. Furthermore, according to Cambridge Advance Learner’s Dictionary Online, vocabulary is defined as 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 and 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 factor 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. 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 6 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 appropriatness in different situations, its syntatic 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: 145) asserted, “vocabulary development is essential for English learners’ academic success. There is a strong relationship between 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. 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). 1.2. Kinds of vocabulary 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. 7 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, while 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, to know 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 (Richards, 1976 cited in Ghazal, 2007). 8 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 firstyear students, when they have good ability in mastering vocabulary, they will be easier in memorize. 1.3. Difficulty of learning vocabulary Learning vocabulary plays an important role in learning a language. The more words learners know, the more learners will be able to proficient in listening, speaking, reading and writing a language. As known, the vocabulary can be divided into two groups: passive and active vocabulary. Passive vocabulary consists of all the words which you know when you read or listen. As Hiebert and Kamil (2005: 3) divided word into two forms, the first is oral vocabulary, which is the set of words for what learners know the meanings when they speak or read orally. Therefore, learners can know that active vocabulary is all the words they understand, they are words which is familiar and used frequently in writing and speaking. There are many problems in learning vocabulary such as polysemy of the word, the word’s idiomatic usage, cognates and so on, however, they can be solved by using a dicionary. Special problem which the learners face when studying a languge is remembering vocabulary. It’s one of the biggest of learners when learning a language, because tomorow they tend to forget what they learned yesterday. The rate of forgetting stays surprisingly steady if the information the learners learned is not repeated regularly and it do not make me anything impression about it. 9 Vocabulary learning has become one of the biggest challenges that foreign language learners have to deal with when learning a new language. It has been suggested that vocabulary learning should not consist only of teaching isolated words, but also to provide learners the necessary strategies to increase their vocabulary list and the appropriate input. Although, learners may be able to use more than one strategy, from which they are able to select the one they feel more comfortable with. A list of vocabulary learning strategies is proposed, in which it is mentioned memory strategies that requires repetition and mechanical means in order to store and retrieve aspects of the target language. Ghazal (2007) said that the process of learning a new language involves learning language strategies in order to facilitate the comprehension, storage, and retention of the new language. According to Sanaoui (1995), consolidation strategies, conversely, include memory strategies such as repetition of words through writing and speaking, using lists and also cards, and any other action learners use in order to facilitate retention of new words. Given that the process of acquiring a wide vocabulary in the classroom is highly challenging, researchers have been looking for successful techniques in order to achieve that goal. With the traditional techniques of teaching vocabulary, learners are difficult to retain vocabulary if they are just given a list of vocabulary and never using them. 1.4. Vocabulary retention Baddeley (1999) stated that the role of memory in the process of learning a language, either first or second language, has caught the attention of many researchers as the years pass. New words are learned in many different ways and memory capacity plays an important role in this process. However, there are also external factors that can determine the right acquisition of information. Apart from the general context, it has been found that elements such as the learner’s level of proficiency, the text, previous knowledge, the learning context, the L2, and the learner’s features are significant factors to have in mind when learning a second language (Chamot & Rubin, 1994). 10