VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ OANH

IMPROVING ENGLISH VOCABULARY LEARNING FOR
STUDENTS OF MEDICAL ENGLISH AT A MEDICAL COLLEGE IN
HA NOI THROUGH GAMES: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT
NÂNG CAO VIỆC HỌC TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH Y CHO
HỌC SINH TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG TRUNG CẤP Y Ở HÀ NỘI THÔNG QUA
TRÒ CHƠI NGÔN NGỮ: NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG

MINOR THESIS

Major : Methodology of teaching English (1)
Code : 8140231.01

HÀ NỘI- 2019


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ OANH

IMPROVING ENGLISH VOCABULARY LEARNING FOR
STUDENTS OF MEDICAL ENGLISH AT A MEDICAL COLLEGE IN
HA NOI THROUGH GAMES: AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT
NÂNG CAO VIỆC HỌC TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG ANH CHUYÊN NGÀNH Y CHO



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
During the course of fulfilling my thesis I have owed my debt to
many people.
First and foremost I would like to express my sincere and deep
gratitude to, Ms Pham Lan Anh, my supervisor for her wholehearted
guidance, valuable suggestion and useful materials during the time of writing
this thesis.
Second, I would like to send my thanks to the colleagues at a Medical
College in Ha Noi who have provided me with the insightful knowledge being
most significant in paving the way for me to carry out the research.
I should be grateful to the librarians, for their constant help thanks to
which I was able to access to all materials needed to accomplish the thesis.
Finally but importantly, my heart-felt gratitude goes to my beloved
family whose support and encouragement has always been the great source of
inspiration for me to complete this thesis.

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ABSTRACT
One of the most challenging tasks facing any language teachers is to
capture students’ interest, and therefore, keep them in high learning spirit.
Meanwhile, vocabulary learning is a hard task which can sometimes be
frustrating especially for teenagers. To realize this situation, the teachers are
supposed to find out teaching approaches corresponsive to students’ needs
and wants. The study, in that light, lays a focus on students’ improvement in
learning medical English vocabulary through language games. The study is
conducted in the form of an action research with the research tools being

2.1.2. Techniques in teaching vocabulary of medical English ..................................7
2.2. Teaching vocabulary of medical English using games ........................................8
2.2.1. Definition ..........................................................................................................8
2.2.2. Kinds of games in language teaching and learning .........................................9
2.2.3. Role of games in vocabulary retention of medical English ..........................10
2.2.4. Review of previous studies .............................................................................12
CHAPTER SUMMARY ......................................................................................... 15
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ............................................... 16
3.1. Research design ..................................................................................................16
3.2. Settings ...............................................................................................................18
3.3. Participants of the study ....................................................................................18
3.4. Research instruments .........................................................................................18

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3.4.1. Teacher’s diary ...............................................................................................19
3.4.2. Pre-test and post-test.......................................................................................19
3.4.3. Questionnaire ..................................................................................................20
3.5. Research procedure ............................................................................................20
3.5.1. Identifying problems........................................................................................20
3.5.2. Planning the action .........................................................................................21
3.5.3. Implementing the action ..................................................................................22
3.5.4. Observing the action .......................................................................................23
3.5.5. Reflecting .........................................................................................................24
3.6. Data collection Procedure ..................................................................................25
3.6.1. Teacher’s diary ...............................................................................................25
3.6.2. Pretest and Post test .......................................................................................25
3.6.3. Questionnaire ..................................................................................................26
3.7. Data analysis procedure .....................................................................................26

Table 4.1: Students’participation and students’retention ..........................................29
Table 4.2. The student’s attitudes towards studying medical English ......................34
Table 4.3: Role of medical English for students’ jobs in future ...............................34
Table 4.4: Attitudes of students when learning medical English ..............................35
Table 4.5: Troubles students find the most challenging with medical English
vocabulary? ...............................................................................................................35
Table 4.6: Students’attitudes when the teacher use games in teaching vocabulary of
medical English .........................................................................................................36
Table 4.7: Students’attitudes towards necessity and importance of using games in
teaching vocabulary of medical English ...................................................................36
Table 4.8: Students’attitudes towards games the teacher used in teaching vocabulary
of medical English .....................................................................................................38
Table 4.9: Students’activeness while playing games ................................................39
Table 4.10: Feeling of students after taking part in the game when learning
vocabulary of medical English ..................................................................................39
Table 4.11: Benefits of the games in teaching learning medical English vocabulary ..... 40

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background of the study
Vocabulary is an essential part in learning a foreign language. One of the
most important issues in second language teaching and learning is vocabulary
learning. And, perhaps, one of the most difficult aspects of learning a second
language is the retention of learning vocabulary (Holden, 1999).
Vocabulary seems to be the foundation of language. It encourages students
to learn the four macro skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking.
Vocabulary is a very crucial element because without vocabulary

they are exposed to.
According to Freeman (1986), learners enjoy language games as well
as they enjoy communicative involvement in the classroom. He believes that
games can provide a healthy and constructive competition. Games can
encourage learners to discover and involve in the learning process. Games can
also establish a better bonding between teachers and learners. Finally, a good
designed language game can create a real communication context in the
classroom which can help learners to improve their vocabulary.
With the purpose of motivating the students to learn medical English
vocabulary by using language games in lesson, this study was implemented
with the participation of all the students in the class K7C. The methodology
used in the research is action research with a number of tools such as
teacher’s diary, a pre-test, a post-test and questionnaire.
The purpose of using games is making the medical lessons become
more interesting and helping the students remember the lessons easier.
1.3. Research objectives and research questions
The research sets objectives of finding out how vocabulary games help
improve students’ vocabulary retention. Besides, it explores students’
attitudes towards the teacher’s use of vocabulary games. In order to achieve
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these goals, there is a need to answer the following questions:
1. How do vocabulary games help improve students’ vocabulary retention?
2. What are the students’ attitudes towards the teacher’s use of vocabulary games?
1.4. Scope of the study
When vocabulary is chosen to study, some researchers focus on
vocabulary retention, some others increase vocabulary size and some
researchers improve vocabulary usage. In this research, the researcher
designed the study to improve the students’ vocabulary retention and

studies and the gap for the study are also stated.
Chapter 3 demonstrates the research methods applied in the study with
details on how and why these methods were implemented in the research.
Besides, this chapter presents the data collected and analyzed from teacher’s
diary, questionnaire as well as from the pre-tests and post-tests.
Chapter 4 demonstrates the results and discussion of the study, which answer
the three research questions.
Chapter 5 summarizes the main issues covered in the paper. It presents the
summary of majors findings, the implications, limitations as well as
suggestions for further research.
References and Appendices are presented in the last part of the thesis.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter aims at providing vocabulary in general, vocabulary of
medical English, techniques in teaching medical English vocabulary, kinds
and roles of games in teaching medical English vocabulary. Then, there
comes a minute account of the previous studies.
2.1. Vocabulary
2.1.1. Definition

In this part the definition of vocabulary is discussed. Actually, learning
vocabulary plays an important role in learning foreign language like Schmitt
(1997, p.40) argues that vocabulary is a basis of the language; it is very
important to be mastered first. People cannot speak well and understand
written materials if people do not master it. He adds that no matter how
successfully the sound of the foreign language is mastered, without words to
express the wider range of meanings, communication is a foreign language

important role in learning medical English, the definition of Ur (1998) is
considered to be used in this study.
2.1.1. Vocabulary of medical English
Medical English can be defined in terms of the distinction from other
language variants and general language, as in Lankamp (1989). The
vocabulary of medical English clearly belongs to a specialized professional
area. This means that non-professionals might not have knowledge of medical
vocabulary or at least of the specialized senses of vocabulary items relevant in
a medical professional environment. On the other hand, there is a certain
degree of overlap with general vocabulary. This raises crucial questions about
specialized vocabulary and its relationship to words and terms. It is very
difficult for students to remember how to pronounce and how to use Medical
English so using games to teach medical English is very necessary and
important.

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2.1.2. Techniques in teaching vocabulary of medical English
Teaching medical English vocabulary is like to teach general English
vocabulary. It is necessary to master some important techniques.
From what are mentioned by Lewis and Hill (1992: 102- 103), the
researcher summerizes ten vocabulary teaching techniques.
The first technique is Contrast. For example, a teacher can present the
meaning of the word “sick” by contrasting it with the word “healthy” students
can learn two words instead of one.
The second technique is Synonym. Sometimes it is helpful to provide a
quick synonym explanation. It is helpful if a teacher says “it is similar in
meaning to build up in the students’ mind the idea that language consists of
choices and that words do not mean the same as each other.

The nineth technique is Eliciting. Once a context is established, the
teacher can ask students what words they would expect to find or what they
would expect someone to say or do in a particular situation.
The tenth technique is Descriptions or definition. The teacher can
describe and define real objects to teach medical vocabulary or teachers can
give definitions of the words which they teach.
In conclusion, there are several ways of teaching medical vocabulary
and these techniques can be developed into word games, which can attract
students to take part in the activities in the lesson as well as motivate students
to learn medical English.
2.2. Teaching vocabulary of medical English using games
2.2.1. Definition
Gibbs (1981) defines games as an activity carried out by cooperating or
competing with decision-makers who want to achieve their objectives
following a set of rules. Games are activities that have a beginning and an end
with a winner who defines the end of the game (Rixon, 1981). When playing
games, learners need to have cooperation and competition against another
team or players. While playing, learners need to use the language and repeat
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patterns which help in developing and improving their skills. Players can
communicate with words, use body movements and gestures in order to
guarantee fun and unpredictability (Rixon, 1981).
2.2.2. Kinds of games in language teaching and learning
Different writers have different classification of games. Lee (2000, p.
65) classifies games into ten kinds: structure games, vocabulary games,
spelling games, pronunciation games, number games, listen-and-do games,
read-and-do games, games and writing, miming and role-play, and discussion
game. However, Mc Callum (1980, p.74) categorizes games for language

and

relaxation

but

also

with

the

purpose

of

checking

students’understanding about the words they have learnt.
2.2.3. Role of games in vocabulary retention of medical English
Medical English leads to the exploration of medical English as a variety
of English for special purpose – in other words, to theoritical research in
medical discourse focusing on such issues as lexical, linguistic, and textual
investigations into medical text-types and genres, medical translation,
historical and diachronic studies of medical discourse, and so on.
In order to learn and retain new medical words, learners should
participate in different activities in their classroom and such activities also
include vocabulary games which especially focus on helping learners develop
and use words in different contexts by making the lessons enjoyable.
Therefore, it is necessary to explore whether students learn medical

1998, p. 18). It is fast and easy for students to remember things in an easy,
relaxing atmosphere (Uberman, 1998, p. 18). Similarly, games bring in
relaxation and fun for students, thus help them learn and retain new medical
words more easily (Nguyen and Khuat, 2003, p. 11). They also add that
games usually involve friendly competition and they keep learners interested
so these create the motivation for learners of English to get involved and
participate actively in the learning activities (p. 11). Games also help learners

11


recall material in a pleasant, entertaining way (Uberman, 1998, p. 20). Using
games helps students relax and it also helps them remember things faster and
better. Furthermore, games can lower anxiety, thus making the acquisition of
input more likely (Richard-Amato, 1988, p. 147). As Nguyen and Khuat
(2003, p. 11) put it, students tend to learn and retain new vocabulary better
when it is applied in a relaxing environment such as playing vocabulary
games. Especially, labeling and displaying pictures depicting new vocabulary
is helpful for beginners. Matching words to pictures is a useful review
exercise (Bunch, 2009).
Third, games can provide students with intensive and meaningful practice
of language (Wright, Betteridge, and Buckby, 2005, p. 11). In fact, most
vocabulary games make learners use the language instead of thinking about
learning the correct forms (Lee, 1995, p. 78). Hadfield (1984, p. 127) shares the
same view that games can provide an opportunity for real communication and
bridge the game between the classroom and the real world. Language games thus
allow the use of meaningful and useful language which is used in real contexts
(Ersoz, 2000, p. 85). Language games are able to provide a chance for students
to use the language that they have learnt as well.
2.2.4. Review of previous studies

In conclusion, chapter 2 has described the foundation of the present
study. Firstly, medical vocabulary in language learning was discussed. Next,
there was a review of using games in teaching medical English vocabulary.
Finally, previous studies conducted on using games in English learning were
addressed. The review has indicated that language games provides teachers a
substantial flexibility and provides students more motivating activities.
Language game is advantageous to the students because the role of learners is
emphasized in the process of learning. Language games can be seen as the
key to success in acquiring a language. Regarding language games, numerous
researchers advocated the effects of games in their research papers and
pointed out that language games helped develop learner’s ability in learning
language in general and in vocabulary in particular.

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CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter is concerned with the research design, the settings, and the
subjects of the study. Besides, research instruments , research procedure, data
collection procedure and data analysis procedure are also focused on.
3.1. Research design
To improve students’vocabulary of medical English, the researcher
uses classroom action research. With the purpose of classroom action
research, quantative and qualitive methods are used in the study.
Nunan (1992, p.229) states that action research is a form of self-reflective
inquiry carried out by practitioners. Action research aims at solving problems,
improving practice, or enhancing understanding. He also suggests an action
research procedure which includes 7 steps: Initiation, Preliminary
investigation, Hypotheses, Intervention, Evaluation, Dissemination and
Follow-up.