VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES


TRÂ
̀
N THI
̣
KIM OANH TEACHERS’ BELIEFS AND PRACTICES REGARDING
VOCABULARY TEACHING: A QUALITATIVE STUDY AT
NGUYEN THI MINH KHAI HIGH SCHOOL
(Niềm tin của giáo viên trong việc dạy từ vựng và thực tiễn
áp dụng trong lớp học : Nghiên cứu định tính tại trường trung
học phổ thông Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai) M.A. Minor programme thesis
Field: English Teaching Methodology


Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 601410
Supervisor: Dr. LE VAN CANH
Hanoi - 2012
iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Rationale for the study 1
1.2 Aims of the study 1
1.3 Research questions 2
1.4 Significance of the study 2
1.5 Organization of the thesis 2
PART II: DEVELOPMENT 4
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 5
1.1 Role of vocabulary in second language teaching 5
1.2 Approaches to vocabulary 6
1.3 The teachers‟ belief 8
1.4 Teachers‟ beliefs about second language teaching 11
1.5 Convergence and divergence 13
1.6 Teachers‟ beliefs about vocabulary 14
1.7 Previous studies 15
CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 17
2.1 Data collection instruments 17

APPENDIX 3: Observation data IV
vi

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CLT Communicative Language Teaching
CA Communicative Approach
L1 First language
L2 Second language
ELT English Language Teaching
ESL English as a Second Language
EFL English as a Foreign Language
T Teacher
Ss Students

vii

LIST OF TABLES
Table

Page

Appendix
1

PART I: INTRODUCTION
This part introduces the study, which starts with the reasons for carrying out the
research. This is followed by the aims, the research questions, the significance of
the study and, finally, the structure of the thesis.
1.1 . Rationale for the study
Since the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) was adopted at Nguyen Thi
Minh Khai High School, English teaching practice has also changed gradually.
However, students‟ ability to use English for communication was quite limited.
There are many reasons for this problem, but teachers believe that one of the
reasons is students‟ vocabulary deficiency. Although there have been some studies
on vocabulary techniques, very little has been researched about teachers‟ beliefs and
practices regarding vocabulary. If teaching is shaped by teachers‟ beliefs (Borg,
2003) it is necessary to research their beliefs and the relationship between their
beliefs and practices. Therefore, this study is aimed to explore this issue in one high
school in Vietnam.
1.2. Aims of the study
The study is aimed at investigating the beliefs and practices of a group of high
school teachers in second language vocabulary and vocabulary teaching. This aim is
specified by the following objectives:

1. to explore teachers’ beliefs about the role of vocabulary in learning English as a

Chapter 1, „Literature review‟ summaries the view of related literature –
including the role of vocabulary in second language teaching, approaches to
vocabulary, teachers‟ beliefs and those relating to vocabulary teaching.
3

Chapter 2, „Methodology‟ describes the methodology applied to this study
and the procedures for carrying out the research such as instruments for data
collection, subjects, procedures, and methods of data analysis.
Chapter 3, „Results and discussion‟ conveys survey results and discussion
on the possible reasons for the divergences between teachers‟ beliefs and
actual classroom practice.
Part III, „Conclusion‟ states a brief summary of major findings, proposes some
recommendations arising from the study findings, reveals the limitation of the study
and offers some suggestions for further researches. 4


1.1. Role of vocabulary in second language teaching
Conventionally, educationists have undervalued the role of vocabulary in second
language teaching and learning for quite a long time. This was the reason why in
linguistic course, curriculum and programs, little attention was paid to vocabulary
teaching (Richards & Renandya, 2002, p.255). Fortunately, things have been
changed since the mid-1980s. Second language vocabulary acquisition has grown
into an increasingly interesting topic of discussion for many researchers and
educationists working in the field of second language teaching (Coady & Huckin,
1997, p.ix).
From then on, the role of vocabulary in second language teaching has been
reconsidered. According to Richards and Renandya (2002), the first step to learn
how to communicate in the second language was learning lexical phrases and
routines. They explained vocabulary as the foundation of students‟ language
proficiency. Learners, who did not neither have a wide range of vocabulary nor
know how to learn new words, failed to utilize all learning opportunities offered to
them. For instance, they could not listen to the radio, listen to native speakers, and
watch television in the language they learnt. That led to the results that they were
discouraged and could not learn as much as possible (p.255). In addition, Nation
(1990) confirmed that there were restrictions of “incidental learning” of second
language learners due to their limited vocabulary. Thus, a second language program
6

should involve vocabulary teaching (cited in Richards & Renandya, 2002, p.256).
In conclusion, developing vocabulary not only encourages but also facilitates
second language learners to achieve as much as their potential allows. Therefore, it
is recommended that teachers should consider the important role of vocabulary for
effective teaching as well as learning.
1.2. Approaches to vocabulary
Boyle and Scanlon (2009) claimed that “there is no single method for teaching
vocabulary; instead, teachers should combine methods and techniques” (p.142).

the students encounter with the word several times in different contexts (2009,
p.108). On the other words, teachers dealing with implicit teaching always try to
minimize the use of the students‟ mother tongue by asking the students not to define
every word with their first language. The students can infer the meaning of words
through their reading and from the contextual clues. Consequently, some signals
that prove teachers applying implicit teaching can be the use of various contexts or
monolingual dictionaries.
Explicit teaching
Explicit teaching is considered as the traditional approach to vocabulary teaching
(Schmitt, 2000, p.146). Sokmen (1997) discovered some principles which teachers
teaching vocabulary in explicit approach had to follow as such: “Build a large sight
vocabulary; Integrate new words with old; Provide a number of encounters with a
word; Promote a deep level of processing; Facilitate imaging; Make new words
“real” by connecting them to the student‟s world in some way; Use a variety of
techniques; Encourage independent learning strategies” (cited in Schmitt, 2000,
p.147). However, in addition to these principles, other points are worth noting.
Firstly, the second principle, integrating new words with the known ones, required
teaching some groups of similar words. Teacher should be careful on doing so
8

because it might be more difficult for learners to remember two or more similar
words together. Secondly, because of polysemy in language, there was another
principle that demanded teachers to teach the underlying meaning of a word
(Schmitt, 2000, p.147). On doing so, teachers could maximize effectiveness of the
teaching when they enabled their students to understand the word in a much wider
range of contexts. Moreover, teachers could also maximize vocabulary learning
support by teaching word families instead of individual word forms. Explicit
teaching and activities includes translation, definitions, putting words in context,
picture/drawings, real objects and actions/gestures.
1.3. The teachers' belief

with Borg (2003) explanations, “teachers are active, thinking decision-makers who
make instructional choices by drawing on complex practically-oriented,
personalized, and context-sensitive networks of knowledge, thoughts, and beliefs”
(p. 81). Studying about impacts of teachers‟ beliefs and interaction, Rohs (2007)
claimed three forms of beliefs in terms of pedagogical beliefs, expectancy beliefs
and teaching efficacy beliefs. He explained teachers teaching in different levels
could have different beliefs that formed pedagogical beliefs. Teachers who held
expectancy beliefs considered more about the importance of students‟ habits then
made different decisions on learning environment. Teaching efficacy beliefs were
the beliefs found in case teachers could affect students‟ behaviors (p.23).
The source of teachers’ beliefs
Richards and Lockhart (1996) pointed out teachers‟ belief systems were formed
little by little through the time and derived from various sources (p.30). These
sources could be: (1) “teachers‟ own experience as language learners”; (2)
“experience of what works best” (3) “established practice”, for example, different
10

teaching style belonging to different school; (4) personality factors; (5)
educationally based or research-based principles; (6) principles derived from an
approach or method.
Why study teacher's belief
The interest in belief about second language teaching has emerged in mid 1980s.
Thus, like other fields such as sociology, psychology, education, etc. beliefs about
second language teaching have become a topic of research but increased lately
(Kalaja, 2003, p.7). Researchers and educationists worked in this field for many
reasons. As formerly mentioned, beliefs may involve any aspect of teachers‟
professional development. Beliefs may guide teachers‟ decision about subject
matter, teaching method, learning environment, students‟ behavior, etc.
Consequently, understanding the belief structures of teachers could help to improve
their professional development and teaching practice (Ashton, 1990, cited in

on examining teachers‟ beliefs. However, some studies were conducted and led to
the result that teachers‟ actual practices were formed from their own experiences as
learners (Sheorey, 2006, p.52). Somehow, it can be said that teachers‟ beliefs about
language learning guide the way they teach. Likewise, Gass and Selinker (1994)
proved that when training and developing language teaching methods, teachers had
to have a steady foundation for their methods in language learning. Gass and
Selinker gave an example in which some language teaching methods were based on
rule memorization and translation exercises. On doing many studies and
recognizing communication needs of students when learning a language, language
teachers and educators were aware of new conceptualization and made changes to
teaching methods that emphasized communication in language teaching rather than
just rule memorization. Consequently, the process of learning has resulted in
teaching methods and influences teachers‟ pedagogical beliefs as well as teachers‟
pedagogical decision-making (p.3).
12

Second, another main form of belief was expectancy beliefs. Teachers who held
expectancy beliefs considered more about the importance of students‟ habits then
made different decisions about learning environment. Gass and Selinker claimed
some situations in which teachers‟ expectations could be impacted. For example,
after learning process, regardless to the proper applicability of students, teachers
might not be satisfied. In this case, teachers‟ expectations belong to how they
assessed the success or failure of their teaching (p.3). Gass and Selinker also
demonstrated that when people communicated in a second language, they had
certain expectations (p.4). Similarly, Sheorey (2006) realized some studies proving
that students and teachers belonging to different cultures had different expectations
about learning a second language (p.54). In addition, it was undeniable that
expectancy beliefs could affect students‟ learning. Bamburg (1994) represented 3
types of teachers‟ expectations that might lead to different learning results of their
students: (1) Teachers‟ attitude towards teaching process was affected by their first


1.5. Convergence and divergence
When studying teachers‟ beliefs, the researcher intended to examine what are their
beliefs regarding to vocabulary in language teaching and the extent to which
teachers‟ beliefs were translated into actual practice. Therefore, the analysis of the
convergence and divergence of teachers‟ beliefs and actual practices is presented
and discussed. Unfortunately, it was witnessed that teachers‟ beliefs did not always
converge with their practices and that many divergences, also called as “tensions”
were identified (Phipps & Borg, 2009, p.380). Hence, they recommended “that it is
not enough for language teacher cognition research to identify differences, or
tensions, between teachers‟ beliefs and practices; rather attempts need to be made to
explore, acknowledge and understand the underlying reasons behind such tensions”
(Phipps & Borg, 2009, p.388).
There are two main reasons that led to the divergences including research
instruments and contextual factors. For example, the first reason lies in the methods
used to explore teachers‟ beliefs. Barnard (2011) claimed that research instruments
14

such as collecting data by means of survey or interview procedures were self report
procedures that “need to be augmented by other data collection instruments in order
to ascertain not only what the teachers believe about specific aspects of teaching
and learning, but the extent to which their actual teaching practices converge or
diverge from those beliefs”. Hence, he suggested that a multiple method approach
to study teachers‟ beliefs should be adopted. In other words, divergences could be
found in studying because of individual report research instruments. Secondly, the
divergences are influenced by contextual factors such as curriculum, learners‟
language proficiency, time constraints, and examinations (Borg, 2003, p.81).
1.6. Teachers' belief about vocabulary
“If an English teacher believes that the best way to improve one‟s proficiency in
English is by increasing one‟s vocabulary, he is likely to emphasize the study of

A Small Culture Perspective”. This study worked out some related aspects to
teachers‟ beliefs and practices about vocabulary teaching in China. The problem
arising was the fact that teachers‟ beliefs and practices about vocabulary instruction
did not always parallel. Niu and Andrews (2012) reported that “the institutional
culture might have mediated the teachers‟ pedagogical practices and hence their
beliefs about vocabulary instruction, creating the consistencies between them”
including the importance of vocabulary teaching in language teaching, teaching
vocabulary in communication, and the use of L1 (p.149). On the other hand, some
inconsistencies were illustrated. They were different ideas about using dictionaries
in class, teachers‟ beliefs about word meaning guessing and word self-study were
not observed. All in all, Niu and Andrews concluded that “teachers‟ beliefs guide
their practices with the mediation of small cultures, resulting in both consistencies
and inconsistencies between their beliefs and practices; on the other hand, teachers‟
practices, under the influence of small cultures, contribute to the formulation of
both shared and discrepant beliefs” (p.150).
16

Furthermore, it is a lack not to mention the study namely “Investigating
Connections between Teacher Beliefs and Instructional Practices with Struggling
Readers” of Powers, Zippay and Butler (2006) which including different
summaries about the relationship between teachers‟ beliefs and their actual
practices. The first statement was that teachers‟ beliefs and practices were
influenced by many different factors including “practical realities of the classroom”,
„areas‟ educational policies and the variety in teachers‟ views about their role and
teaching methods. Some factors might lead to the divergences between teachers‟
beliefs and practices in terms of teacher training originated from the behaviorist
tradition, the limitations imposed by educational policies, lack of professional
development and administrative support, issues of classroom control and limited
resources. Moreover, a teacher might give instructions in the way that fit with her
beliefs. More time might be spent on instructional practices and classroom activities

longer and more complex interview schedules, monitoring the conditions when the
questions are answered, probing for the respondent‟s understanding of the question,
and high response rate”. Schutt also point out one-to-one interviews is the strongest
survey design (2006, p.281). Moreover, another advantage of using interview is that
the researcher can explain directly for the respondents about the information they do
not understand (Wood & Kerr, 2011, p.183). From these points of view, the
interview data helped to gain deeper insights regarding the teachers‟ beliefs about
vocabulary teaching at Nguyen Thi Minh Khai high school. Furthermore, the
interview data complemented and expanded on the observation data as it enabled
the researcher to get follow-up information in the case of analyzing the gaps
between teachers‟ beliefs and their practice.
18

2.1.2 The observation
As being claimed in a book named “Classroom Observation: The Basic”,
“Classroom observation is a quantitative method of measuring classroom behaviors
of both teachers and students” (Holdaway, Henderson & Cameron 2009, p.4). Also,
when doing interview, the object may not answer as truly as they thought
(Karunaratne, 2009, p.88). Hence, a class observation would provide more valid and
reliable information about what teachers and students actually do in their English
class. The observation was conducted to investigate two main aspects. They are:
 Time given to vocabulary
 Techniques of teaching vocabulary that the teachers used

All of the eight teachers joined the observations. Each of the teachers was observed
in two consecutive lessons with their own class. Each class has about 50 students.
A lesson observation sheet (Appendix) was developed and used during the class
observation. With the aims of the observation mentioned above, the observational
notes were mainly about principles and techniques of teaching vocabulary used in
observed class. As the results, these class observations were to reveal the practical

7
5
Female
36
13
6
Female
42
14
7
Female
48
9
8
Female
52
24
2.3 Data collection procedures

Firstly, the eight survey participants were chosen randomly for the interviews. The
interviews were audio-recorded. As Powney and Watts (1987) pointed out,
interviews could supply accurate information for the study (p.vii). Thus the result
from this interview was used to combine with the observation for a reliable data.
Secondly, the class observations were carried out in eight classes, named 10A2,
10A3, 10A4, 11A1, 11A3, 11A7, 12A2 and 12A4 for four weeks, lasting from
March 3
rd
, 2012 to March 31
st
, 2012. The researcher attended each target class twice