HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ENGLISH

GRADUATION THESIS
B.A DEGREE IN ENGLISH STUDY

LEARNING AND TEACHING ENGLSIH VOCABULARY
FOR 7th STUDENTS – OBSTACLES AND SOLUTIONS

Supervisor: Pham To Hoa, M.A.
Name of student: Pham Phuong Mai
Date of birth: 25/06/1993
Class: K18A1 (2011-2015)

HaNoi – 2015


HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF ENGLISH
CODE: 25

GRADUATION THESIS
B.A DEGREE IN ENGLISH STUDY

LEARNING AND TEACHING ENGLSIH VOCABULARY
FOR 7th STUDENTS – OBSTACLES AND SOLUTIONS

Supervisor: Pham To Hoa, M.A.
Name of student: Pham Phuong Mai
Date of birth: 25/06/1993
Class: K18A1 (2011-2015)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my deepest gratefulness to my supervisor, Mrs.
Pham To Hoa, who has provided the researcher with help, advices and
comments to complete this graduation thesis.
I am extremely grateful to the teachers at Faculty of English who
producing me with knowledge and basic skills to finish this thesis.
I take this opportunity to thank the teachers and students at Khuong
Thuong secondary school for their support and kind assistance during my
studying time.
I also would like to send my thanks to all my friends who have helped
me to develop ideas for the study.
Finally, my thanks must go to my family members whose continual
encouragement has been indispensable for the fulfillment of this challenging
work.
Hanoi, 2nd May, 2015
Student

Pham Phuong Mai

Pham Phuong Mai – K18A1 – (2011-2015) 
 

 


Graduation Paper

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION

1.2.4. According to the frequency of use ................................................. 8
1.3. What need to be taught in vocabulary teaching ................................ 9
1.3.1. Word form ...................................................................................... 9
1.3.2. Grammar ......................................................................................... 9
1.3.3. Collocation ..................................................................................... 10
1.3.4. Aspects of meaning ....................................................................... 11
1.3.4.1. Detonation ................................................................................ 11
1.3.4.2. Connotation .............................................................................. 11
1.3.4.3. Appropriateness ........................................................................ 11
1.3.4.4. Meaning relationships .............................................................. 12
1.3.5. Word formation ............................................................................ 13
1.4. Traditional teaching methods ............................................................ 14
1.4.1. Translation .................................................................................... 14
1.4.2. Visual technique ............................................................................ 14
1.4.3. Verbal technique ........................................................................... 15
1.5. Overview of vocabulary learning strategies. .................................... 16
CHAPTER II – THE STUDY ...................................................................... 17
2.1. Methodology ........................................................................................ 17
2.2. Objects of the study............................................................................. 17
2.2.1. 7th grade students and their background.................................... 17
2.2.2. Teachers and their teaching situation ......................................... 18
2.3. Data collection ..................................................................................... 18
2.3.1. The survey questionnaire ............................................................. 18
2.3.1.1. Purposes ................................................................................... 18
2.3.1.2. Description of survey questionnaire ......................................... 19
2.3.1.3. Data collection and analysis. ................................................... 20
Pham Phuong Mai – K18A1 – (2011-2015) 
 

 

Pham Phuong Mai – K18A1 – (2011-2015) 
 

 


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REFERENCES .............................................................................................. 47
APPENDIX
LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Importance of learning English vocabulary ................................ 20
Table 2: Interest of students in learning English vocabulary ................... 20
Table 3: Difficulties in learning English vocabulary ................................. 21
Table 4: Source(s) students use to learn vocabulary.................................. 21
Table 5: Things students do when learning English vocabulary .............. 22
Table 6: Ways of consolidating students are interested in ........................ 23
Table 7: Ways teachers often use to present new word............................. 23
Table 8: Frequency of using modern equipment in teaching English
vocabulary ...................................................................................................... 24
Table 9: Ways teachers use to consolidate knowledge for students ......... 25
Table 10: Ostacles in teaching English vocabulary ................................... 25

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2. Aims of the study
The study aims at:
_ Giving the theory on vocabulary and its relevance in teaching and
learning English.
_ Finding out the obstacles that teacher and 7th grade students at
Khuong Thuong secondary school are facing in teaching and learning English
vocabulary.
_ Finding out cause of difficulties in teaching and learning vocabulary
at Khuong Thuong secondary school.
_ Suggesting some solutions to teach and learn vocabulary effectively.
3. Scope of the study
The study limits itself to the investigation of obstacles in learning and
teaching vocabulary to 7th grade students at Khuong Thuong secondary school
and their cause. The solutions are also provided to help to improve teaching
and learning English in general teaching and learning English vocabulary of
7th grade students in particular at Khuong Thuong secondary school.
4. Research questions
In order to achieve the aim of this study, the researcher sets up the
following research questions:
_ What are the obstacles in learning English vocabulary of 7th grade
students?
_ What are the teachers’ difficulties in teaching English vocabulary?
_ What are the causes of these difficulties?
_ How to teach and learn English vocabulary to 7th grade students
effectively?

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
-----***----1.1. Theories on vocabulary
1.1.1. The definitions of vocabulary
The term “vocabulary” appears to be a very simple concept but in fact,
it is extremely difficult to give an exact definition of vocabulary. Based on
different criteria, linguistics defines vocabulary in different ways.
According to Ur (1996), 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: a compound of two or three words or multiword idioms”. “It is in words that sound and meanings inter-lock to allow us
to communicate with one another and it is in words that we range together to
make sentences conversations and discourses of all kinds”. (5, p.32).
According to Wood (1981), vocabulary or lexicon refers to information stored
in memory concerning the pronunciation and meanings of words. Vocabulary
is also defined based on phonological criterion. It is said that words were
listed in dictionaries that they separated in writing by spaces and that they
may be separated in speech by pauses according to Nation (1994).
In general, vocabulary is the total number of all the words that a
language possesses, including a single word, two or three word items
expressing a single idea and multi-word idioms whose meaning cannot be
deduced from the analysis of the component words. Vocabulary can be
defined as the words we teach in the foreign language and a useful convention
is to cover all such cases by talking about vocabulary “items” rather than

A word can possess two kinds of meaning: lexical meaning and
grammatical meaning. Therefore, vocabulary can be divided into notional and
functional words.

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1.2.1.1. Notional words (Lexical words)
Notional words are words with clear lexical meaning. They are objects,
action, qualities, etc and they have meaning in themselves. Notional words
form a great number of each speaker’s vocabulary. Example: a book, a house
to give, a pen, a bottle, etc. In short, a notional word “is the realization of
concept or emotion”.
1.2.1.2. Functional words (Grammatical words)
Functional words are those whose meaning is grammatical and they have
meaning in relation to the other words with which they are used. Functional
words are particles, articles, prepositions, auxiliaries, conjunctions…for
example: at, on, and, because.
Although the lexical words are different from grammatical words, there
is no clear – cut dividing line between the two types of word. In teaching
vocabulary, “the teacher should not spend too much time teaching functional
words but simply tell the learners how to use the words grammatically. It is
important that lexical and grammatical meanings do not exits separately but
always go together to make up the meaning of a word. The teacher, therefore,
bears in mind these characteristic of words when they teach vocabulary. It
means that the teachers should teach learners the use of functional words
within the framework of a sentence pattern”. (18, p.29)

stress on the first element, for example: ‘greenhouse’, ‘whitewash’. In other
hand, free word groups have even stresses on both two elements or on the
second element, for instance: ‘dancing’ girl, ‘high’ chair, etc.
Thus, when teaching compounds to students, teachers should give clear
examples with accurate stress to help them understand deeply.
1.2.3. According to the function
In sentence, word has many different functions. English words can be
classified basing on functions as different parts of speech such as noun, verb,
adjective, adverb, and preposition. Each part of speech has to follow
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particular grammar rules so that when learning English words we have to be
aware of the importance of the parts of speech of that word in sentence.
For example: _Noun: a pen, a stream, a lion …
_Verb: to watch, to give, to take …
_Adjective: beautiful, big, small …
Apart from the meaning, pronunciation and spelling of new words,
learners need to know these words how function in sentence. A word can have
many functions in the sentence. For example, with the word ‘foreigner’ some
learners may make sentence like this:
“she’s a foreigner student”
In that case, teacher would need to clarify that “foreigner” is a noun, and
the adjective of it is “foreign”. Also, teacher needs to point out that a word
can have more than one grammatical function.
1.2.4. According to the frequency of use
The number of words in the English language is: 1,013,913. This is the

example: encourage and engineer.
In addition, the number of homophones in English likes soles and soul,
weight and wait also causes difficulties for students.
Because of the complex relationship, the teachers should find out the
effective ways to teach vocabulary. It is very difficult for learners if the
teachers do not write the new words on the board and pronounce it correctly.
The teachers need to make sure that the learners know all the spelling,
pronunciation and regularization of word they are learning.
1.3.2. Grammar
Grammar is a set of rules that define how words (or parts of words) are
combined to form acceptable unit of meaning within a language.
English has general grammatical rules. However, not all words are
obviously covered by them. Therefore, when learning vocabulary, the learners
need to be taught the grammar of a new word. They need to know the
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grammatical function, the unpredictable change of form in certain
grammatical contexts, regularity and irregularity, the singular and plural form
of the new word so that they can use it correctly. It is important to provide the
learners with the information at the same time as the teachers teach the base
form. “When teaching a new verb, for example, the teacher might give also its
past form, if this is irregular (think, thought), and they might note if it is
transitive or intransitive. Similarity, when presenting a noun, the teachers may
wish to teach its plural form, if irregular (mouse, mice), or draw learner’s
attention to the fact that is has no plural at all (advice, information). The
teachers may present verbs such as want and enjoy together with the verb

need to supply to the students their collocations.
1.3.4. Aspects of meaning
1.3.4.1. Detonation
According to To Thu Huong, Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa, Nguyen Thi Thuy
Minh, Luong Quynh Trang (2008), denotation meaning of words refers to or
identifies all things or objects that are correctly covered it. For instance, if you
look up the word snake in a dictionary, you will discover that one of its
denotation meanings is any of numerous sallies, legless, sometimes venomous
reptiles and having a long body and found in most tropical and temperate
region.
1.3.4.2. Connotation
“Connotation of word is less obvious than its denotation. Connotation
refers to the associations that are connected to a certain word or the emotional
suggestion social overtones, cultural implications related to that word”. (14,
p.86). For example, the name Hollywood connotes such things as glitz,
glamour, celebrity and gream of stardom.
1.3.4.3. Appropriateness
“Appropriateness indicates whether a word is appropriately used in a
certain context or not. Some words in English can be used correctly in this
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context but wrongly in that context. Thus, it is useful for learners to know that
a certain word is very common, or relatively rare, or tend to be used in writing
but not in speech, or is more suitable for formal than informal discourse, or
belong to a certain dialect”. (14, p.86). For instance, you may know that kid is
synonymous in denotation with child, but it is more informal and used in

“There are three main forms of word formation in English, graded
according to their productive degree: affixation, compounding, and
conversation”. (14, p.86). Besides, there are shortening, back derivation (back
formation), sound imitation, sound and stress interchange.
Affixation consists of prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes are added to the
root (the stem). Prefixes rarely form new parts of speech. They are divided
into negative prefixes, prefixes of time and space, prefixes of reversal and
repetition, for example: unlucky, replay, and supermarket. In the other hand,
suffixes modify the lexical meaning of stem and transfer words to different
parts of speech. Suffixes include three groups:
• Noun suffixes: teacher, kindness, friendship, etc.
• Adjective suffixes: windy, childless and useful, and so on.
• Verb suffixes: shorten, signify, etc.
• Adverb suffixes: carefully, nicely, etc.
Compound is defined as stems consisting of more than one root. For
instance: beside, black market, waste paper basket. According to word class
and syntactic relationship between the roots, we can classify compound into:
• Compound noun: any root + noun. For example: black-bird, air-chair
text-book.
• Compound verb: any root + verb. For instance: house-keep, dryclean, over-do.
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• Compound adjective: any root (except verb) + adjective. For
example: blue-green, south-west, earth-bound.
• Compound adverb: adverb + adverb. For example: through-out.
Conversion is the formation of a new word in a different part of speech

to teach the meaning of words to student. According to Nation (1994), the use
of various types of visual materials in teaching vocabulary increases the
intrinsic motivation of the learners. As to psychologists, visual materials
contribute to the efficiency, depth, and variety of learning by stimulating
learners’ imagination. They arouse interests of the learners by appealing to
several senses. This is because of they have the power to make learning more
permanent, and their aesthetic character makes the teaching – learning process
pleasant and enjoyable.
However, not all vocabulary can be presented in this way. According
to Thornbury (2002) vocabulary should only be presented visually if it can be
done quickly, easily and clearly.
1.4.3. Verbal technique
In the sound and the meaning – phase the teacher says the new word
two, three or more times, pronouncing it clearly. He/she also indicates the
meaning of the word at the same times, in the ostensive way (showing or
pointing out objects) or just verbal (telling learners the meaning of the word).
Then there is the repetition step. In this phase, the teacher gets the class
to repeat the new word several times and checks the pronunciation carefully.
If the teacher is using a visual technique, he should keep it in front of the
learners to ensure that they associate the sound and the meaning.
In the written form phase the teacher writes the new word on the
blackboard and asks the class to read it aloud. First, teacher chooses two or
three individuals to say it, and then gets choral repetition so that everyone in
the class has the opportunity to associate the written form with the
pronunciation.
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strategies,

cognitive

strategies,

communicative – experiential strategies, interpersonal strategies, and affective
strategies. In general, vocabulary learning strategy is a process that never
ends. Language learners have to be prepared for constant vocabulary learning
experience and have effective strategies.

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CHAPTER II – THE STUDY
-----***----2.1. Methodology
In this chapter, the researcher introduces about teacher and teaching
situation, students and their background, the text book English 7 to find out
unsolved problems in teaching and learning English at Khuong Thuong
secondary school. In order to have a deep understanding of this issue, the
researcher also provides methodology used in the study such as: survey
questionnaire and class observation to investigate the current difficulties in
learning and teaching at Khuong Thuong secondary school. Beside, the
researcher gives reasons for choosing the methods and describes about the
methodology being used in this research.
2.2. Objects of the study
2.2.1. 7th grade students and their background.