Hiệu quả của chiến lược đoán từ dựa vào ngữ cảnh để nâng cao vốn từ vựng cho học sinh khối 10 ở trường THPT Hoành Bồ

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

TRAN THI HAI NHU

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CONTEXT CLUES STRATEGY TO

ENHANCE VOCABULARY AMONG GRADE 10 STUDENTS

AT HOANH BO HIGH SHOOL

HIỆU QUẢ CỦA CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐOÁN TỪ DỰA VÀO NGỮ

CẢNH ĐỂ NÂNG CAO VỐN TỪ VỰNG CHO HỌC SINH KHỐI

10 Ở TRƯỜNG THPT HOÀNH BỒ

M.A THESIS

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 8220201

THAI NGUYEN – 2019

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

TRAN THI HAI NHU

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CONTEXT CLUES STRATEGY TO

ENHANCE VOCABULARY AMONG GRADE 10 STUDENTS

AT HOANH BO HIGH SHOOL

HIỆU QUẢ CỦA CHIẾN LƯỢC ĐOÁN TỪ DỰA VÀO NGỮ CẢNH

ĐỂ NÂNG CAO VỐN TỪ VỰNG CHO HỌC SINH KHỐI 10

Ở TRƯỜNG THPT HOÀNH BỒ

M.A THESIS

(APPLICATION ORIENTATION)

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 8220201

Supervisor 1: Dr. Nguyen Thi Mai Huong

Supervisor 2: Dr. Nguyen Thi Que

THAI NGUYEN – 2019

i

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I hereby declare that all work in this thesis entitled “The effectiveness of

context clue strategy to enhance students’ vocabulary among grade 10that Hoanh

Bo High School” is my own work. To the best of my knowledge, it contains no

materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial of material

which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at SFL or any

other educational institutions. The thesis has not been submitted to any other

examining body and has not been published. Any contribution made to research by

others is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis.

Thai Nguyen, July 2019

Tran Thi Hai Nhu

Approved by SUPERVISORS

Supervisor 1: Dr. Nguyen Thi Mai Huong

Supervisor 2: Dr. Nguyen Thi Que

Date: July, 2019

ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The researcher has succeeded in finishing this study, which has been greatly

improved by comments, corrections, guidance and ideas of many people. It is hard to

even begin to acknowledge personally all those who have had an impact on her life

and study during that making of this study. In this occasion, the researcher would like

to express her sincerest thanks to the following persons:

To Dr. Nguyen Thi Mai Huong and Dr. Nguyen Thi Que, advisers, for their

invaluable assistance and guidance in implementing this research, and for their

constructive comments and suggestions in perfecting this thesis;

All the teachers at the School of Foreign Languages, Thai Nguyen University

for their invaluable lessons, suggestions, moral support and prayers for the

completion of this study;

Mrs. Dang Thi Hien, the Headmaster of Hoanh Bo High School for her

permission to conduct the study.

All the teachers of English at Hoanh Bo High School for their suggestions and

validation of the test items and questionnaires.

All the students in 10A1 class at Hoanh Bo High School, the respondents of

the study, for their willingness in joining the experimental learning period and

answering follow-up questionnaires.

iii

ABSTRACT

The goal of this study attempted to test for the effectiveness of Context Clues

Strategy in teaching vocabulary and investigated the students’ attitude towards the

strategy experimented. The respondents of the study were 30 grade 10 students at

Hoanh Bo High School in Quang Ninh province during their second semester of the

school year 2018-2019.

The study compared the performance of the group before and after the

experimental teaching period which lasted for 8 weeks. An achievement test

composed of 40 items testing different lexical resources of units 12, 13 and 14 in the

course-book for grade 10 served as the pre-test and the post-test was administered to

the respondents to determine if there was a significant difference in their

performance. Upon the accomplishment of the pilot teaching, a questionnaire was

delivered to the respondents to investigate their attitudes towards the strategy used.

The data gathered from the pre-test and the post-test then were tabulated, analyzed

and interpreted to answer the following questions:

1. To what extent does the use of Context Clues enhance students’ vocabulary?

2. What are the students’ attitudes towards the strategy used?

The experiment was conducted during the beginning periods for eight weeks.

The t-test for dependent samples was applied to determine the significance of the

differences between the mean scores of the group prior to and after the experiment.

The following are the major findings of the study:

1. The mean score of students in the post-test using Context Clues Games is

significantly higher than that of those in the pre-test. The result proved that Context

Clues Strategy is effective in enhancing students’ performance in vocabulary

learning.

2. Students’ perceived Context Clues Strategy as beneficial to their vocabulary

learning. A majority of the participants claimed that context clues were very much

beneficial in helping them enhance their vocabulary learning while the rest of the

respondents agreed that the use of context clues was useful in improving their lexical

resources.

iv

3. Students agreed that using context clues is effective in enriching their lexical

resources.

4. Students strongly agreed that teacher’s implementation of context clues was

appropriate and effective throughout the treatment period.

Based on the findings, the following conclusions were drawn:

1. There is a significant difference in the pre-test and post-test mean scores of the

respondents after being exposed to Context Clues Strategy is supported in this

study.

2. Students’ attitudes towards the use of Context Clues Strategy and the teachers’

teaching methodology are positive.

v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preliminaries PAGE

TITLE PAGE ………………………………………………………………

Certificate of originality …………………………………………………… i

ACKNOWLEDGMENT ………………………………………………… ii

ABSTRACT. ……………………………………………………………….. iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS. ………………………………………………… v

LIST OF TABLES. ……………………………………………………….. Vii

LIST OF FIGURES. ………………………………………………………. Vii

APPENDICES. ……………………………………………………………. viii

I INTRODUCTION 1

1.1. Introduction and rationale 1

1.2. Statement of the Problem ……...……..………………………… 2

1.3. Significance of the Study ……………………………………….. 3

1.4. Scope of the Study ………………………........................................ 3

1.5. Definition of terms …………………………………………….… 4

II REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND STUDIES 5

2.1. Review of Literature …………..……….…………………… 5

2.1.1. Role of vocabulary in teaching and learning language 5

2.1.2. Strategy for vocabulary enrichment …………………………… 7

2.1.3. Types of context clues…………………………….……............... 12

2.2. Review of related ……………..…………………………… 16

III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 18

3.1. Locale of the study ………………………………. …… 18

3.2. Research Design..…...………………………………………. ……… 18

3.3 Participants……………………................... 18

vi

3.4 Research Instrumentation…………………………………… 19

3.5. Reseach Procedure………………………………………………….. 20

IV PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA 23

4.1. The effectiveness of Context Clues on students’ vocabulary. 23

4.1.1. Results of the pre-test scores 23

4.1.2. Results of the post-test scores 26

4.1.3. The difference between pre-test and post-test scores 28

4.2. Students’ attitudes towards the Context Clues Strategy. 30

4.2.1. Students’ preferences on Types of Context Clues Strategy used by

teachers

31

4.2.2. Students’ attitudes on how context clues help figure out meanings

of complicated/ unfamiliar words

32

4.2.3. Students’ attitudes on benefits of CCG on vocabulary learning 34

4.2.4. Students’ evaluation on the learning period being exposed to the

use of context clue games?

35

4.2.5. Students’ attitudes towards teacher’s method of context clue games 36

4.2.6. Students’ suggestions on the use of context clue games 37

V SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND

RECOMMENDATIONS 39

5.1 Summary …………….….……………………………............. 39

5.2. Finding ………………………………………………………... 40

5.3. Conclusions………………………………………………….... 40

5.4. Recommendations...…………………………...…………....... 40

REFERENCES………………………………………………………… 42

vii

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE PAGE

1. The result of pre-test score of students 24

2 The results of the post-test 26

3 The result of pre - test and post - test score of students 28

4. T-test Results on the Pre-test and Post-test Scores 30

5. Preferences on Types of Context Clues Strategy used 31

6. Students’ attitudes on how context clues help figure out meanings of

complicated/ unfamiliar words

33

7. Students’ attitudes on benefits of CCG on vocabulary learning 34

8. The effects of context clues in your vocabulary learning. 36

9. Your teacher’s teaching method using context clue games. 37

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURES PAGE

1. Distribution of the pre - test and post - test scores of the Experimental

group

29

2. Distribution of Preferences on Types of Context Clues Strategies used 32

3. Distribution of how context clues help figure out the meaning of

unfamiliar words.

33

4. Distribution of Students’ attitudes s on benefits of CCG on vocabulary

learning

335

viii

LIST OF APPENDICES

Appendix A. A Letter asking permission.…… I

Appendix B. A Letter to the Respondents II

Appendix C. Pre-Test and Post - Test III

Appendix D. Answer key to achievement test VII

Appendix E. pre - test and post - test scores IX

Appendix F: Statistical treatment of pre-test and post-test scores X

Appendix G. Students’ questionnaire XII

Appendix H. The result of students’ questionnaire XIV

Appendix I. Lesson plan XVII