VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES


NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG NHUNG

EXTERNAL FACTORS THAT AFFECT VOCABULARY
LEARNING OF GRADE 10 STUDENTS AT A HIGH SCHOOL
IN HANOI

(Những yếu tố bên ngoài ảnh hưởng đến việc học từ vựng
của học sinh lớp 10 tại một trường phổ thông ở Hà Nội)

M.A. MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology

Code: 8140231.01

Hanoi – 2018


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES


NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG NHUNG


On completing this thesis, I would like to express my thanks to all those who
contributed their parts to the work of this research.
First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my respectable
supervisor, Dr. Vũ Thị Thanh Nhã, for her restless and sympathetic encouragement,
constructive advice and patient guidance from the beginning up to the end of the
study. Had it not been for her valuable and timely feedback, I would have never
been able to complete this research paper.
My sincere thanks also go to my dear students at Ngoc Hoi high school for helping
me to collect data for this study and for all their support and encouragement.
Finally, I would also like to give my special thanks to my family and friends who
have been interminably encouraging and facilitating me to fulfill this thesis.

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ABSTRACT
Vocabulary learning is a crucial part of learning a second language. There have
been a number of researchers studying roles of vocabulary learning, approaches to
vocabulary and factors that affect vocabulary teaching and learning. Despite these
valuable sources of reference, there is still a lack of insight into external factors
affecting students‟ vocabulary learning in the context of Ngoc Hoi high school.
Besides, vocabulary learning of grade 10 students at this school is not very effective
in spite of both teachers‟ and students‟ efforts. Therefore, this study was conducted
to find out what external factors have the most and least influences on grade 10
students‟ vocabulary learning, and thus suggest some ways of improving the
effectiveness of vocabulary teaching and learning at this high school. This thesis is
a survey study. Questionnaire was used as the instrument to collect data for this
research. A Likert Scale questionnaire was developed on the basis of items which
refer to external factors affecting students‟ vocabulary learning; and SPSS program
was used to analyze the data collected. The study revealed that “teachers” is the

1.3.
Aspects of knowing a word ..................................................................................................... 8
1.4.
Types of words and vocabulary learning .............................................................................. 10
1.5.
Approaches to vocabulary ..................................................................................................... 11
2.
FACTORS AFFECTING VOCABULARY ACQUISITION ........................................................................ 13
2.1.
Internal factors that affect vocabulary acquisition .............................................................. 13
2.2.
External factors that affect vocabulary acquisition ............................................................. 17
3.
VOCABULARY TEACHING TECHNIQUES .......................................................................................... 23
3.1. Deliberately teaching vocabulary .................................................................................................. 23
3.2. Some vocabulary teaching techniques .......................................................................................... 24
4.
SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................................ 26
1.

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................... 27
1.

OVERVIEW OF THE METHOD USED IN THE STUDY .......................................................................................... 27
1.1. DEFINITION OF SURVEY RESEARCH........................................................................................................... 27
1.2. Rationale for using survey research ................................................................................................ 27
1.3. Strengths and limitations of survey research ................................................................................. 28
2.
SUBJECTS ............................................................................................................................................. 28
3.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ............................................................................. 58

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................. 60
APPENDICES ............................................................................................................................................. 64
APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE WRITTEN IN ENGLISH ................................................................................. 64
APPENDIX 2: QUESTIONNAIRE WRITTEN IN VIETNAMESE .......................................................................... 68

v


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
L2

Second Language

EFL

English as Foreign Language

EFA

Exploratory Factor Analysis

KMO Test

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Test

vi




Number of years of learning English

32

Chart 3

Number of years of learning English

32

Table 4

Score of English subject

33

Chart 4

Score of English subject

33

Table 5

Reliability Statistics – Factor C

34

Table 6


Reliability Statistics – Factor E (1st test)

36

Table 12

Item-Total Statistics – Factor E (1st test)

36

Table 13

Reliability Statistics – Factor E (2nd test)

37

Table 14

Item-Total Statistics – Factor E (2nd test)

37

Table 15

Reliability Statistics – Factor P

37

Table 16


Reliability Statistics – Factor V (1st test)

39

Table 22

Item-Total Statistics – Factor V (1st test)

40

vii


Table 23

Reliability Statistics – Factor V (2nd test)

40

Table 24

Item-Total Statistics – Factor V (2nd test)

40

Table 25

KMO and Bartlett's Test


46

Table 31

Descriptive statistics – Factor C

48

Table 32

Descriptive statistics – Factor T

49

Table 33

Descriptive statistics – Factor E

50

Table 34

Descriptive statistics – Factor P

51

Table 35

Descriptive statistics – Factor N


focus on.
In Vietnam, due to the importance of English, much efforts have been made in
teaching and learning English at schools and outside schools as well. English is one of
the core subjects in the National Curriculum set by the government and followed by
state primary and secondary schools. Moreover, English, together with Maths and
Literature, is compulsory in the national examination taken by grade 12 students at the
end of the school year. Schools, in general and secondary schools, in particular, follow
the national curriculum and syllabus. Thus, learning English at secondary schools is
learning reading, speaking, listening, writing, pronunciation and grammar. The
acquisition of English as the foreign language is significantly affected by students‟
vocabulary, so vocabulary teaching and learning is always an important part of every
1


English lesson no matter what the lesson is reading, speaking, listening or writing.
Facts have shown that students who have larger vocabulary are often better at these
four skills than those with poor vocabulary. However, Vietnamese students usually
feel bored in vocabulary lessons because they find it difficult to remember the spelling,
meaning, and grammatical function of the words.
In the case of the high school where the researcher is working, teachers often
spend five to seven minutes teaching vocabulary in reading, speaking, listening and
writing lessons. The time may be shorter or longer, depending on whether the topic of
the lesson is familiar to students or not. Each teacher has her own way of teaching
vocabulary and checking understanding. Besides some teachers who always try to use
different techniques in vocabulary teaching to attract students‟ interest, the others often
teach vocabulary by expliciting the words and their meanings. However, a lot of
students cannot remember the words and use the words later. As a result, if they have a
written test several days after the lesson, they cannot do well with questions related to
the vocabulary they learn before. In another situation, if teachers say something
containing the vocabulary taught before, students cannot understand or response to

Practically, the findings are believed to be beneficial to vocabulary teaching and
learning of teachers and students especially grade 10 students at the school.
5. Organization of the thesis
This thesis consists of three parts as follows:
PART I, INTRODUCTION, provides general information about the context of
the research including theoretical point and personal need to conduct the study.
PART II, DEVELOPMENT includes the following chapters:
Chapter 1, LITERATURE REVIEW summarises some theories
concerning vocabulary in the second language teaching and learning, and
factors affecting vocabulary acquisition.
Chapter 2, METHODOLOGY, describes the methodology used in the
study including description, data collection instrument, subjects,
procedures, and data analysis.
Chapter 3, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION presents the data analysis
results and then provide the discussion on the results.

3


PART III, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION, presents a brief
summary of major findings, proposes some recommendations arising from the study,
states the limitations of the study and offers some suggestions for future research.
In addition, the study also includes the sections of REFERENCES which displays
the sources of referenced information and APPENDICES which presents the survey
questionnaire.

4


PART II: DEVELOPMENT

a particular meaning. In other words, vocabulary not only addresses single lexical
items – words with specific meaning(s) – but it also includes lexical phrases or chunks.
With the above definitions, many researchers have established an overview of the
notion for vocabulary which is considered to be very important in language
acquisition. Thus, it is becoming increasingly apparent that teachers must enable
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students to learn and acquire a lexical base in order for them to achieve success in
language learning. In summary, vocabulary is the certain number of words that a
speaker needs to convey his/her message.
1.2.

The importance of vocabulary in language teaching and learning
Vocabulary learning is considered a crucial part in second language learning.

Therefore, vocabulary is claimed to be one of the most important components in
learning a foreign language. According to Wilkins (1972), being able to create
sentences with correct grammar is valuable only when one has got adequate
vocabulary to express what he/ she wants to say. Wilkins also adds that speakers can
convey very little without grammar while they can convey nothing without
vocabulary. That means without vocabulary one can neither express his or her own
ideas nor understand others‟ ideas.
Schmitt (2000) also agrees that lexical knowledge is crucial in communication
and in the second language learning. Because of its important role, vocabulary is one
of the areas in L2 acquisition that a lot of researchers have had interest in from the late
1980s (Nation, 1990). There have been some researchers such as Laufer and Nation
(1999), Maximo (2000), Read (2000), who all agree that vocabulary acquisition is one
of the most important factors resulting in successful second language use. Besides,
Rivers and Nunan (1991), also state that if learners want to be successful in second

curriculum designers, theorists, and others involved in second language learning and
teaching.
1.3.

Aspects of knowing a word
Penny Ur (1996) claims that when vocabulary is introduced to learners, what need

to be taught are form-written and spoken; grammar; collocation; aspects of meaning:
denotation, connotation, appropriateness, meaning relationships; and word formation.
According to Nation (1990) and Taylor (1990), knowing a word incorporates a large
amount of information. It involves not only knowing its spelling, morphology,
pronunciation, meaning, or the equivalent of the word in the learner‟s mother tongue
but also knowing its collocations, register, polysemy, and even its homonym.
There are different ways to define the concept of a word, but three significant
aspects which are form, meaning, and use need to be paid attention to.

8


Nation (2001) clarifies that the form of a word involves its pronunciation (spoken
form), spelling (written form), and any word parts that make up this particular item
(such as a prefix, root, and suffix).
Also stated by Nation (2001), meaning involves how form and meaning work
together. In other words, when one thinks of a word, what comes to his/her mind,
including the concept, its reference and associations, is called meaning.
The use of a word, according to Nation (2001), involves the grammatical functions
of the word or phrase, collocations that normally go with it, and finally any constraints
on its use, in terms of frequency, level, and so forth.
Nation (2001, p.27) also declares that there is both a receptive and productive
dimension for form, meaning, and use, which is summarized in the table below:

What word parts are

recognizable in this

needed to express the

word?

meaning?

written

word parts

Meaning

form and meaning What meaning does this

What word form can be

word form signal?

used to express this

concepts and

What is included in this

meaning?



word occur?

people use this word?

collocations

What words or types of

What words or types of

9


words occur with this

words must people use

one?

with this one?

constraints on use

Where, when, and how

Where, when, and how

(register,


Type 4: Phrasal verbs
A phrasal verb consists of a main verb and a particle. Some common verbs that can
form phrasal verbs are put, take, come, call, make, go, and get.
Type 5: Idioms

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Each language has its own idiomatic expressions which are separate vocabulary
items. When a group of words has the meaning which is not formed by the meaning of
separate word in the group, then the group is called an idiom.
1.5.

Approaches to vocabulary
According to Boyle and Scanlon (2009), methods and techniques should be

combined in teaching vocabulary for there is no single method for teaching
vocabulary. Below are some principles belonging to inferring from context, implicit
teaching and explicit teaching, the three methods that are concerned by different
researchers.
Intentional learning of vocabulary
Intentional learning of vocabulary is a traditional and common method in
teaching vocabulary. Ellis (2001) calls it the planned method involving the use of tasks
designed to elicit forms which have been selected ahead by teachers. Although it will
provide the greatest chance of acquisition, it is time consuming and it is too laborious
for learners to learn the language. Moreover, intentional teaching of vocabulary in
classroom is often the teacher-centered class. In general, intentional learning of
vocabulary is the method of learning vocabulary by using tools to bring learners‟
attention into direct contact with the form and meaning of words, such as dictionaries,
vocabulary lists, and direct vocabulary explanation.

Other scholars also give different definitions of incidental learning. One of the
definitions presented by Schmidt (2000) is that, incidental learning is learning without
the intent to learn. Schmidt (2001) also states that incidental learning is definitely
passive in that it may occur when learners pay attention to some relevant features of
input.
Another definition is that, incidental vocabulary learning occurs through
multiple exposures to a word in different contexts (Huckin & Coady, 1999). Similarly,
Nation (2001) agrees that learners should be given multiple exposures to the word that
they are supposed to learn; and new words should be presented in contexts from which
learners can get the meaning.
From the definitions above, it can be seen that incidental vocabulary learning
occurs when the focus is not on vocabulary but elsewhere such as understanding a
written or spoken text.
12


There have been studies conducted to investigate the importance of incidental
vocabulary learning. Zimmerman (1997) states some strengths of incidental
vocabulary learning: (1) It gives learners a good sense of meaning and use of words
because it is contextualized; (2) It is efficient because it can help learners acquire
vocabulary and improve their reading skills at the same time; (3) It is more learnerbased because learners can select the reading materials themselves.
However, incidental vocabulary learning is beneficial if learners‟ vocabulary is
large like Mathew‟s effect: the rich become richer and the poor become poorer.
Therefore, intentional learning is pivotal for learners at the beginning level; and
incidental learning becomes practical if learners are at advanced level. Schmitt (2000)
declares that both explicit and incidental learning are necessary for second language
learners, and these two approaches of vocabulary should be seen as complementary.
Inferring from context
Belonging to the idea of Context Alone, “Inferring from Context”, also named
as context method, or contextual approaches is the method of using context to clarify

older learners can also be successful but they usually have difficulties achieving
native-speaker-equivalent pronunciation and intonation.
Personality
Learners‟ emotional states have a powerful influence on their behavior and
performance in the classroom and other learning situations. There are various theories
that claim that personality factors are important predictors of success in second
language learning. Personality traits such as extroversion, introversion, risk-taking,
independence and empathy have been the basis of discussions and disputes relating to
this topic (Ellis 1986). Theorists such as Guiora, Brannon and Dull (1972) have
considered empathy to be important; and Krashen (1981) argues that an out-going
personality contributes to language learning (Ellis, 1986). Research, such as that done
by Krashen (1981), has found that introverts generally perform better academically
whereas an extrovert appears more likely to take advantage of social opportunities for
second language input (Coleman & Klapper, 2005). Despite these theories, the
available research does not demonstrate a clearly defined effect on second language
learning. Rather, we all have different and unique personalities and each personality
trait can affect our second language learning in different ways (Ellis, 1986).
In summary, extroverted learners are better at acquiring a second language than
introverted or anxious learners. In other words, introverts usually make slower
progress, especially in the improvement of oral skills. That is because they are afraid
of making mistakes, and they tend to avoid opportunities to speak. As a result, the lack
14


of practice will make them less likely to fully acquire the second language vocabulary.
In contrast, extroverted learners are aware that making mistakes is inevitable, so they
are always willing to speak without fear of making mistakes. These learners dare to
take risks, so they have a lot more practice in comparison with the introverted learners.
Motivation (Intrinsic)
The social psychological factor of motivation has been proven to account for