EFL students' attitudes towards learning English technical vocabulary and their technical vocabulary learning strategies - A Case study

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

DINH TRAN PHUONG THAO

EFL STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS LEARNING

ENGLISH TECHNICAL VOCABULARY AND THEIR

TECHNICAL VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES

A CASE STUDY

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

For the degree of Master of Arts (TESOL)

Ho Chi Minh City, August 2019

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

DINH TRAN PHUONG THAO

EFL STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS LEARNING

ENGLISH TECHNICAL VOCABULARY AND THEIR

TECHNICAL VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES

A CASE STUDY

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)

Code: 60 14 01 11

MASTER OF ARTS IN TESOL

SUPERVISOR:

TRAN QUOC THAO, Ph.D.

Ho Chi Minh City, August 2019

i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that this thesis entitled “EFL students’ attitudes towards learning

English technical vocabulary and their technical vocabulary learning strategies: A

case study” represents my own work.

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis contains

no material published elsewhere or extract in whole or in part from a thesis by

which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma.

No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgment in the

main text of the thesis.

This thesis has not been previously submitted for the award of any degree or

diploma in any other tertiary institution.

Ho Chi Minh City, 2019

Dinh Tran Phuong Thao

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

In order to fulfill this M.A. thesis, I owe profound indebtedness to the dearest

people who were willing to stand by me and contribute their invaluable help during

the conduct of the research.

First and foremost, I would like to express my great appreciation and deep

gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Tran Quoc Thao for his helpful advice, detailed

comments, whole-hearted support, considerable motivation and experienced

guidance, which are the most significant decisive factors leading to the

accomplishment of this thesis.

In addition, I would like to send my sincere thanks to the enthusiastic

students at Ly Tu Trong College for their collaboration and cooperation in

conducting the questionnaires, the interviews and supporting useful information for

my study.

Besides, I also give a big thank to my friends M.A. Pham Tan Tai, M.A.

Phan Thi Minh Thao and M.A. Truong Minh Hoa for their support, assistance,

comments, proofreading, and encouragement throughout the research.

Last but not least, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my parents who

consonantly encouraged me, gave me the most motivation to attempt harder and lent

me their hands, gave me a lot of financial and spiritual support whenever I was in

need during the time I was writing so as to finish my thesis.

I wish the best for all the people I am grateful to.

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ABSTRACT

With the present requirement of English for Specific Purposes development

in the professional and technical areas of study, the use of vocabulary learning

strategies is a crucially important factor that decides the achievement of technical

vocabulary acquisition. Moreover, it is evident to many people that attitudes exert a

huge impact on selecting vocabulary learning strategies to exploit. Therefore, this

study aimed at investigating students’ attitudes and strategies as well as the

correlation between attitudes and strategy use in learning technical vocabulary.

The research was carried out at Ly Tu Trong College of Ho Chi Minh City

with the participation of 270 students (42 female, 228 male). Data collection was

conducted from 4th June to 18th June 2018. Students’ a questionnaire survey and a

semi-structured interview were utilized to collect data and then analyzed with

version 22.0 of the SPSS software. In particular, students were asked to answer

questions concerning attitudes and strategies of learning technical vocabulary where

they had to choose the five options given from “strongly disagree” to “strongly

agree” and “never use” to “always use”, respectively.

The findings of the study uncovered that students had positive attitudes

towards technical vocabulary learning and their application of strategies in learning

technical vocabulary was at sometimes level. What is more, students used the

strategy category of Meta-cognitive strategies at the highest frequency. Besides, the

strategy item which students used most was “grouping technical vocabulary

together into topics” in Memory strategies whereas the least often used strategy

item was “taking advantages of technical vocabulary to interact with foreigners” in

Social (consolidation) strategies. In terms of the correlation, the relationship

between attitude and strategy use was a positive and strong correlation. Based on

the research findings, the study was concluded with some pedagogical implications

and some suggestions for future studies on technical vocabulary learning.

Keywords: attitudes, technical vocabulary, vocabulary learning strategy

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Statement of Authorship ............................................................................. i

Acknowledgments....................................................................................... ii

Abstract ....................................................................................................... iii

Table of contents......................................................................................... iv

List of figure................................................................................................ ix

List of tables................................................................................................ x

List of abbreviations.................................................................................... xii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................... 1

1.1 Background to the study ................................................................... 1

1.2 Statement of problem........................................................................ 4

1.3 Purposes of the study ........................................................................ 4

1.4 Research questions............................................................................ 5

1.5 Significance of the study .................................................................. 5

1.6 Overview of thesis chapter ............................................................... 6

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE........................... 8

2.1 Introduction....................................................................................... 8

2.2 Learners’ attitudes............................................................................. 8

2.2.1 Definitions of attitudes.............................................................. 8

2.2.2 Components of attitudes............................................................ 9

2.2.3 The importance of attititudes..................................................... 10

2.3 Technical vocabulary........................................................................ 11

2.3.1 Definitions of technical vocabulary .......................................... 11

2.3.2 The importance of technical vocabulary ................................... 11

2.4 Vocabulary learning startegies ......................................................... 12

2.4.1 Definitions of vocabulary learning startegies............................ 12

2.4.2 The importance of vocabulary learning startegies ................... 12

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2.4.3 Classifications of vocabulary learning startegies...................... 13

2.5 Previous study................................................................................... 17

2.6 Summary........................................................................................... 22

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ........................................ 23

3.1 Introduction....................................................................................... 23

3.2 Research setting ................................................................................ 23

3.2.1 Research site.............................................................................. 23

3.2.2 Research participants................................................................. 24

3.2.2.1 Students for survey............................................................. 25

3.2.2.2 Students for interview ........................................................ 27

3.3 Research design ................................................................................ 28

3.3.1 Case study.................................................................................. 28

3.3.2 Mixed methods research design ................................................ 28

3.4 Research instruments........................................................................ 29

3.4.1 Questionnaire............................................................................. 29

3.4.2 Semi-structured interview ......................................................... 33

3.5 Procedure of data collection ............................................................. 34

3.5.1 Pilot study.................................................................................. 34

3.5.2 Data collection........................................................................... 36

3.5.2.1 Procedure of collecting questionnaire................................ 36

3.5.2.2 Procedure of collecting semi-structure interview .............. 36

3.6 Procedure of data analysis ................................................................ 38

3.6.1 Procedure of analyzing questionnaire ....................................... 38

3.6.2 Procedure of analyzing semi-structured interview.................... 39

3.7 Reliability and validity ..................................................................... 40

3.7.1 Questionnaires........................................................................... 40

3.7.2 Semi-structured interview ......................................................... 44

3.8 Chapter summary ............................................................................. 45

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION.......................................... 46

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4.1 Introduction....................................................................................... 46

4.2 Data analysis..................................................................................... 46

4.2.1 EFL students’ attitudes towards technical

vocabulary learning........................................................................ 46

4.2.1.1 EFL student’s attitudes in three main components............ 46

4.2.1.2 EFL student’s attitudes in three each components............. 47

4.2.2 EFL students’ use of strategies in technical

vocabulary learning ....................................................................... 52

4.2.2.1 Frequency of use of technical vocabulary

learning strategies in six main categories ...................................... 52

4.2.2.2 Frequency of individual technical vocabulary

learning strategy use for vocabulary learning purposes ................ 54

4.2.2.2.1 Frequency of individual use for discovery of

the meaning of new technical vocabulary...................................... 54

4.2.2.2.2 Frequency of individual use for consolidation of

the meaning of new technical vocabulary...................................... 58

4.2.3 The correlation between EFL students’ attitudes and

strategies in technical vocabulary learning .................................... 68

4.2.3.1 The correlation between the overall attitudes

and strategies.................................................................................. 68

4.2.3.2 The correlation between the overall attitudes

and each strategy............................................................................ 69

4.3 Discussions ....................................................................................... 70

4.3.1 EFL students’ attitudes towards technical

vocabulary learning........................................................................ 70

4.3.2 EFL students’ strategies in technical vocabulary learning........ 71

4.3.3 The correlation between strategies and attitudes in

technical vocabulary learning of EFL students.............................. 73

4.4 Summary........................................................................................... 75

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CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.............. 76

5.1 Introduction....................................................................................... 76

5.2 Conclusions....................................................................................... 76

5.3 Pedagogical implications and Recommendations for the

teaching and learning of technical vocabulary .............................. 77

5.4 Contributions of the study ................................................................ 79

5.5 Limitations and suggestions for further studies................................ 81

5.6 Summary of chapter 5....................................................................... 82

REFERENCES............................................................................................ 83

APPENDICES............................................................................................. 94

APPENDIX A.1: PILOTED QUESTIONNAIRE

(ENGLISH VERSION)......................................................................... 94

APPENDIX A.2: PILOTED QUESTIONNAIRE

(VIETNAMESE VERSION)................................................................. 98

APPENDIX A.3: QUESTIONNAIRE

(ENGLISH VERSION) .......................................................................... 103

APPENDIX A.4: QUESTIONNAIRE

(VIETNAMESE VERSION)................................................................. 107

APPENDIX B.1: A SAMPLE OF INTERVIEW PROTOCOL

(ENGLISH VERSION) .......................................................................... 112

APPENDIX B.2: A SAMPLE OF INTERVIEW PROTOCOL

(VIETNAMESE VERSION).................................................................. 114

APPENDIX C.1: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS FOR

MECHANICAL TECHNOLOGY (ENGLISH VERSION).................. 115

APPENDIX C.1: INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS FOR

MECHANICAL TECHNOLOGY (VIETNAMESE VERSION).......... 118

APPENDIX D.1: PILOTED CRONBACH’S ALPHA.......................... 121

APPENDIX D.2: CRONBACH’S ALPHA ........................................... 123

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APPENDIX E: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS FROM

THE STUDENTS’ INTERVIEWS ........................................................ 125

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LIST OF FIGURES

Page

Figure 2.1: A model of attitude formation .................................................. 9

Figure 2.2 Interconnections between direct and indirect

strategies among the six strategy groups .................................................... 14

Figure 3.1: Framework of data collection process...................................... 37

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LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 3.1 Research participants’ general information ................................ 26

Table 3.2 Interviews’ general information.................................................. 27

Table 3.3 Description of questionnaire for students................................... 30

Table 3.4 Description of EFL students’ technical

vocabulary learning attitudes ...................................................................... 31

Table 3.5 Description of EFL students’ technical

vocabulary learning strategies..................................................................... 32

Table 3.6 Description of the content of semi-structured interview ............ 34

Table 3.7 Methods of data analysis in relation to the

research questions and instruments............................................................. 40

Table 3.8 Reliability of EFL students’ attitudes towards

technical vocabulary learning ..................................................................... 41

Table 3.9 Reliability of EFL students’ strategies towards

technical vocabulary learning ..................................................................... 42

Table 3.10 Reliability of EFL students’ determination strategies

towards technical vocabulary learning........................................................ 44

Table 4.1 EFL students’ attitudes in 3 main components........................... 47

Table 4.2 Descriptive statistics of the students’ cognitive attitudes........... 47

Table 4.3 Descriptive statistics of the students’ affective attitudes............ 49

Table 4.4 Descriptive statistics of the students’ behavioral attitudes......... 51

Table 4.5 Frequency of use of technical vocabulary learning

strategies in the six categories..................................................................... 53

Table 4.6 Determination strategies ............................................................. 54

Table 4.7 Social (discovery) strategies ....................................................... 56

Table 4.8 Social (consolidation) strategies ................................................. 58

Table 4.9 Memory strategies....................................................................... 59

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Table 4.10 Cognitive strategies................................................................... 61

Table 4.11 Metacognitive strategies ........................................................... 63

Table 4.12 Top five most often used strategies in technical

vocabulary learning..................................................................................... 65

Table 4.13 Top five least often used strategies in

technical vocabulary learning ..................................................................... 66

Table 4.14 The correlation between the overall of

attitudes and strategies ................................................................................ 68

Table 4.15 The correlation between the overall attitudes

and each category of strategy...................................................................... 69

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

A: Automotive Technology

AA: Affective attitude

AEC: ASEAN Economic Community

ASEAN: Association of Southeast Asian Nations

BA: Behavioral attitude

BTEC: Business Technology Education Council

CA: Cognitive attitude

COG: Cognitive strategy

DET: Determination strategy

E: Electrical and Electronics Technology

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ESP: English for Specific Purposes

F: Female

G: Garment Technology

GE: General English

I: Information Technology

LTT: Ly Tu Trong

M.A. Master of Arts

M: Male

M: Mechanical Technology

MEM: Memory strategy

MET: Metacognitive strategy

R-Q.: Research question

SOC_C: Social strategy (consolidation)

SOC_D: Social strategy (discovery)

T: Thermal Technology

TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages