VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST–GRADUATE STUDIES
***************** BÙI THỊ KIM CÚC
TEACHING VOCABULARY EXPLICITLY TO FIRST-
YEAR STUDENTS AT YEN BAI MEDICAL COLLEGE
(Dạy từ vựng cho sinh viên năm thứ nhất bằng cách cho nghĩa trực tiếp
tại trường Cao đẳng Y tế Yên Bái) M.A. Minor Thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10
Hanoi, 2012


Page
CANDIDATE'S DECLARATION…………………………………………
i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………
ii
ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………
iii
TRANSCRIPT CONVENTION……………………………………………
iv
LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TABLES……………………………
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………….
vi
PART A: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale of the study……………………………………………………
1
2. Aims and objectives of the study………………………………………
2
3. Research questions ………………………………………………………
2
4. Scope of the study …………………………………………………………
3
5. Method of the study ……………………………………………………….
3
6. Design of the study ………………………………………………………
3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT


17
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY………………………………………….
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2.1. The current situation of English teaching and learning at YBMC….
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2.2. Participants ……………………………………………………………
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2.3. Data collection instruments…………………………………………….
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2.3.1. The interview……………………………………………………
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2.3.2. Class observation and Lesson analysis …………………………
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2. 4. Data collection and data analysis procedures………………………
22
2.4.1. Data collection procedures………………………………………
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2.4.2. Data analysis procedures………………………………………
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CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS…………………………
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3.1. Research question 1: Teachers' perceptions of explicit vocabulary
teaching at YBMC

24
3.2. Research question 2: Teachers' selection of vocabulary to teach and
aspects of word knowledge to be taught……………………………………

26
3.3. Research question 3: The explicit vocabulary teaching techniques
vii
TRANSCRIPT CONVENTION
T: teacher
S: student
Ss students
Italics translation of original speech in vernacular


conveyed” (cited in Thornbury, 2002: 47). Without vocabulary, it's not easy for
learners to express their ideas, emotion, as well as fulfillment of communication
targets. Therefore, one of the greatest concerns of all language teachers is to look
for an effective vocabulary teaching approach which is suitable with their own
teaching contexts. Vocabulary teaching task is neither easy nor simple as it is
thought. Each language teacher is responsible for making their students know word
spelling, word meaning and realize how to use it accurately and properly in real
situations.
In the context of Yen Bai Medical College (YBMC), English is being taught
as one of the compulsory subjects along with other vocational ones. The level of
students at YBMC is quite low in general. Some of them have learnt English for
several years in secondary schools and some others have not learnt English for a
few years. Moreover, there has been little attention paid to vocabulary teaching and
learning. At many schools or colleges in general and at YBMC in particular, for
most teachers of English, their common way of teaching vocabulary is to give
explanations, definitions or translation of the word-list. Then learners usually learn
vocabulary passively through their teachers’ explanation. Writing new words on the
notebooks with equivalence in Vietnamese and trying to learn new words by heart
are their major ways of vocabulary learning. Consequently, they hardly remember
the meaning of the words and use them oral activities. In other words, by the time
the new words are presented in the new lesson most of the words taught in the
previous lesson will have gone out of their mind. 2
As a teacher of English for nearly 12 years, I have realized that the reason
why learners have failed in using English is their lack of vocabulary. Therefore, it is
essential for every teacher in any language classes in Viet Nam educational system
to help his/her own students to widen their vocabulary size. Explicit vocabulary
teaching is particularly useful for beginning learners who have a limited reading

of vocabulary to teach, the aspects of vocabulary addressed as well as the explicit
vocabulary teaching techniques used in the context of one mountainous college and
the relevance of these techniques in this context. Then this study will suggest some
pedagogical implications to make explicit vocabulary teaching in the researched
college more attentive and more effective.
5. Method of the study
To achieve its objectives, this study employed qualitative methods of data
collection which include interview, classroom observation and lesson analysis.
First, interviews with the teachers were conducted to investigate the teachers'
ideas of English explicit vocabulary teaching at YBMC as well as the way they
teach words explicitly, which includes their choice of vocabulary to teach, the
aspects of vocabulary focused on and their explicit vocabulary teaching techniques.
Then, classroom observations were conducted to supplement teachers'
interviews to test how English vocabulary is taught explicitly and the relevance of
explicit vocabulary teaching techniques can be evaluated through lessons analyses.
6. Design of the study
There are three main parts in my thesis as follows:
Part A is the Introduction presenting the rationale, aims, objectives, research
questions, scope, methods and design of the study.
Part B, the Development, includes three chapters:
Chapter 1 is the Literature Review. In this chapter, a basic theoretical
background for the study is created by reviewing the relevant issues related to
English vocabulary, vocabulary teaching and learning focusing on explicit and
implicit approaches. 4
Chapter 2 entitled Methodology is composed of some smaller parts: a
description of the current situation of English teaching and learning at YBMC, the
participants, the instruments and the procedures of data collection as well as data

role in language teaching and learning. Section two mentions the principles in
teaching and learning vocabulary which include the selection of vocabulary items,
aspects of vocabulary knowledge, current approaches to L2 vocabulary teaching and
learning as well as explicit and implicit approaches. Section three refers to
principles for explicit approach to vocabulary teaching. Section four presents
challenges in vocabulary teaching and learning. The last one summarizes the
content of this chapter.
1.1. An overview of vocabulary
1.1.1. Definition of vocabulary
As among the three dimensions of language: vocabulary, grammar and
phonology, vocabulary stands out as the primacy forming the ground for the
development of other skills. It has been paid great attention by researchers,
linguists, teachers and learners. However it is really hard to give an exact definition
about vocabulary. Hornby (2010) defined vocabulary as follow:
1. All the words that a person knows or uses
2. All the words in a particular language
3. The words that people use when they are talking about a particular subject
4. A list of words with their meanings especially in a book or learning a foreign
language.
According to Pyles and Algeo (1993), vocabulary is regarded as the focus of
language with its sound and meaning interlock to allow us to communicate with one
another. Ur (1996: 60) offered a clear and specific definition of vocabulary by
saying that: "Vocabulary can be defined roughly as the words we teach in the
foreign language. However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single
word and also multi-word idioms." By this way, he defines that vocabulary is bigger 6
than just the meaning of words. It covers a huge aspect of language and it is the
medium to express ideas or opinions.

vocabulary is such an important aspect of learning a foreign language that each
learner wishes to achieve an adequate vocabulary size. The more words one knows
well, the more successful he/she is in daily communication and the more
information he can get from different sources such as books, newspapers, etc.
Therefore, vocabulary deserves an important position in foreign language teaching
and learning.
1.2. Principles in teaching and learning vocabulary
1.2.1. Selection of vocabulary items for students
It is not impossible for us to deny that vocabulary is the most essential
element in learning a foreign language. Therefore, teachers who teach English as a
foreign language need to help their students build up a large size of useful words
during the course. However, the teacher should make a proper decision on selecting
the right vocabulary items to teach at the learners’ different level and they need to
judge whether a particular word deserves attention or not.
According to McCarthy (1990: 79), the most frequent words in the language
must be presented in the early state of language teaching. Nation (1994) suggested
we regard the high frequency vocabulary as consisting of about 2,000 word
families. Nation (1995) also emphasized that "the most frequent 2,000 words are
essential for any real language use, and so are worth the effort required to teach and
learn them explicitly" (cited in Schmitt, 2000: 143). In Meara's point of view, these
first 2.000 words of language are so important that teachers should focus on
teaching them right at the beginning of a language course (Meara, 1995 cited in
Schmitt, 2000). Knowing the first 2,000 words, students would be able to
understand more of the speech they are exposed to and also more of the written
texts that they read in their text book or from the other sources.
Schmitt (2000: 144) stated that: "The 2,000 level is only a beginning, and
teaching words explicitly beyond this level can still supply sufficient benefits that
warrant the time expended." and "it makes sense to concentrate on the lower-
frequency vocabulary". In addition, Nation (1994: 4) suggested "When the high

9
In conclusion, all these above aspects should be taught to language learners
in vocabulary lessons. In other words, true mastery of a word involves knowing a
variety of word knowledge aspects. The more aspects of word knowledge we know
about a word, the more likely we will be able to use it in right contexts in an
appropriate manner. Teachers should note that vocabulary should always be revised
because learners will easily forget words if they do not have a chance to put them
into use or practice them in learning other skills.
1.2.3. Current approaches to L2 vocabulary teaching and learning
There are many different approaches, techniques as well as strategies to
vocabulary teaching and learning. These approaches involves both direct and
indirect teaching and learning such as: the Grammar-translation method, the Direct
method, the Reading method/ Situational language teaching, the Audio-lingual
method, the Silent way and Communicative language teaching etc…In addition,
Gairns and Redman (1986: 73-75) listed traditional ways of learning and teaching
vocabulary including visual techniques, verbal techniques and translation. Many
researchers have had great concern about promoting the learners' vocabulary
learning by using a variety of vocabulary learning strategies. Among them, Schmitt
and McCathy (1997) divided these strategies into five categories namely social,
memory, cognitive, metacognitive and determination strategies.
Hunt and Beglar (1998) considered three approaches to vocabulary teaching:
1) Incidental learning 2) Explicit or intentional instruction and 3) Independent
strategy development.
Incidental learning focuses on acquiring vocabulary through extensive
reading and listening. Accordingly, motivating learners to read and listen
extensively can provide them with great opportunities to learn new vocabularies.
Hunt and Beglar (1998) pointed out the incidental vocabulary learning can be a
useful approach for acquiring vocabularies for learners at all levels especially for

1.2.4. Explicit and implicit approaches to vocabulary teaching
As Schmitt (2000) asserted, there is no “right” or “best” way to teach
vocabulary. The best practice in any situation will depend on the type of student
being taught, the words targeted, the school system and curriculum, and many 11
other factors. He also pointed out, it is advisable to use a proper mix of explicit
teaching and activities from which incidental learning can occur in any well-
structured vocabulary programs. Graves (2006) shared the same idea that in
addition to learning vocabulary indirectly through various reading and writing
activities, students benefit from direct and explicit teaching of individual words. In
other words, students can learn incidentally/implicitly/indirectly through wide
reading and other language-rich activities. They also learn directly when teachers
target individual words explicitly and promote word-learning strategies.
1.2.4.1. Explicit approach
According to a survey by Sökmen (1997 cited in Schmitt, 2000: 146),
explicit vocabulary teaching should be attached to the following principles:
• 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.
• Encourage independent learning strategies.
In addition to these principles, Schmitt (2000) considered a few other points
which are also worth remembering. Firstly, the problem of cross – association is a
genuine one for learners. When two or more similar words, such as “left” and
“right”, are initially taught together in the same class, learning them might be more
difficult. Students are often confused in choosing which word form to go with

approaches to vocabulary can only provide some elements of lexical knowledge. In
order to master some kinds of word knowledge, such as collocation, register
constraints and frequency, learners have to base on numerous exposures to the word
in various contexts. In general, with true beginners like students in the context of
my research, it is probably necessary to explicitly teach all words until students
have enough vocabulary to start making use of unknown words they meet in
context. Then implicit or incidental learning should be encouraged in second
language classroom. 13
1.2.4.2. Implicit approach
In contrast to explicit approaches to vocabulary, implicit vocabulary learning
is known as incidental learning focuses on the importance of using the context
because words usually have different meanings in different contexts. In implicit
vocabulary learning, learners can acquire new vocabularies through extensive
reading, through communicative interactions, through exposure to natural input
such as movies, TV. Many linguists share the agreement that L2 learners have to
learn vocabulary implicitly from context. The context enables learners to know
different syntactic meanings and functions, to create appropriate word schemas, to
infer the meaning of an unfamiliar word and to promote the guessing meaning
strategies.
Learners can achieve benefits from implicit vocabulary approach because of
its contextualization, its pedagogical efficiency and its individualization (learner-
based feature). It means that incidental learning gives the learners a rich sense of
word use and meaning, encourages learners' vocabulary acquisition as well as
reading and enhance their own selection of reading materials. However, incidental
learning through reading might occur only to a limited degree as Schmitt (2000:
150) stated that "Unfortunately, this desirable approach is not widely available to
students around the world." For successful incidental acquisition of vocabulary,

explaining the meaning and the use of the new item as well as consolidating the
word taught in class. Nation (2005) proposed different techniques that are useful for
anyone who are interested in teaching English vocabulary.
In the first place, teachers quickly give the meaning of the word by (a) using
an L1 translation, (b) using a known L2 synonym or a simple definition in the L2,
(c) showing an object or picture, (d) giving quick demonstration, (e) drawing a
simple picture or diagram, (f) breaking the word into parts and giving the meaning
of the parts and the whole word (g) giving several example sentences with the word
in context, (h) commenting on the underlying word meaning and other referents.
Next, teachers can direct learners' attention to the form of the word by (a)
showing how the spelling of the word is like the spelling of known words, (b)
giving the stress pattern of the word and its pronunciation, (c) showing the prefix, 15
stem and suffix that make up the word, (d) getting the learners to repeat the word
pronunciation, (e) writing the word on the board, (f) pointing out any spelling
irregularity in the word.
Lastly, teachers can explain the use of the word by (a) quickly showing the
grammatical pattern the word fits into (countable/uncountable,
transitive/intransitive, etc), (b) giving a few similar collocates, (c) mentioning any
restrictions on the use of the word (formal, colloquial, impolite, only used in the
United States, only used with children, old fashioned, technical, infrequent), (d)
giving a well known opposite, or a well known word describing the group or lexical
set it fits into.
In addition, Nation also listed some main principles in vocabulary teaching
process. The teachers should 1) keep the teaching simple and clear and not give
complicated explanations, 2) relate the present teaching to past knowledge by
showing a pattern or analogies, 3) use both oral and written presentation - write it
on the blackboard as well as explain it, 4) give most attention to words that are

Aganes (2008) found that many problems often appear during the teaching
and learning process. The problems faced by the teacher usually are on
characteristics of the students themselves and the method or teaching technique
approach. Students' problems in learning vocabulary are also regarded challenges in
language classes. Firstly, the students get difficulties in pronouncing words
correctly. Secondly, it is difficult for the students to memorize the meaning of the
words. In addition, they are not interested in studying in English because they feel
bored with the teaching technique. Usually the teacher taught vocabulary by
translating at the beginning of the lesson or translating of the material containing
new words or glossaries at the end. The teacher never uses self- defining context,
definition in the target language, opposites, picture, dramatization, and reality to put
across the meaning of a word to a class. In the literature, it seems that the problems
in the teaching and learning vocabulary tend to come from teachers. These factors
are listed followings:
(1) The teacher is not creative to use media as aids of teaching. 17
(2) The teacher only gives a little time to practice in pronouncing the words
correctly, whereas a little time to practice cannot create accurate pronunciation,
especially for the beginners or low-proficiency students.
(3) The technique of the teaching vocabulary that the teacher uses seems ineffective
for the students. It does not give the students great motivation to learn. In other
words, students are passive in learning vocabulary.
1.4. Summary
So far the theoretical issues related to the topic of the research have been
reviewed in this chapter. The next chapter will describe the methods employed in
the study and present procedure of data collection and data analysis.
participants, data collection instruments as well as the procedures of data collection
and analysis.
2.1. The current situation of English teaching and learning at YBMC
Situational factors:
YBMC has been re-founded for nearly one year. The college is responsible
for training future nurses midwifes and nursing staffs for the needs on health care
for people in Yen Bai province. Beside specialized knowledge for the future jobs,
English is also considered a compulsory subject in the training syllabus of this
college. However, there has not been much attention paid to this subject. Most of
language learning and teaching activities are carried out in the classroom. A
chalkboard and a textbook are the equipments used frequently in the classroom. In
each class, there are more than 50 students, which causes a lot of obstacles in the
language teaching and learning process. The teachers find it difficult to apply new
methods in English periods, especially in teaching vocabulary, an essential
component of language. The college has one cassette-player, one overhead projector
and one computer for 4 teachers. In reality, teachers hardly use these teaching aids
because of three following reasons: first, there is not enough equipment for many
classes to use in the same time; second, they often ignore the listening skill for its
unnecessary role in the final semester test of these non-English major students;