The effectiveness of extensive reading on elementary student's vocabulary development at North - America international school in VietNam

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH

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ĐẶNG HOÀNG BÍCH TRÂM

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF EXTENSIVE READING ON ELEMENTARY

STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT AT NORTH - AMERICA

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL IN VIET NAM

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ GIẢNG DẠY TIẾNG ANH

BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO

TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ THÀNH PHỐ HỒ CHÍ MINH

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THE EFFECTIVENESS OF EXTENSIVE READING ON ELEMENTARY

STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT AT NORTH - AMERICA

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL IN VIET NAM

Chuyên ngành : Lý luận và giảng dạy tiếng Anh

Mã số chuyên ngành : 60140111

LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ GIÀNG DẠY BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH

Người hướng dẫn khoa học

Dr. Huỳnh Công Minh Hùng

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that this thesis entitled “The effectiveness of Extensive Reading on elementary

students’ vocabulary development at North - America International School in Viet Nam” is

my own work.

I hereby declare that I am the sole author is this work, except for the reference is made in the

texts of the thesis, this thesis contains materials published elsewhere or extracted in whole or

in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree.

No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of the

thesis.

I further declare that I have not submitted this thesis at any other institution for the award of

any degree or diploma.

Ho Chi Minh, 2019

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ACKNOLEDGEMENT

Firstly, I would like to show my gratitude toward Dr. Huynh Cong Minh Hung, my thesis

advisor, for the great advice and valuable guidance he offered in the process of completing

this thesis.

Secondly, I want to thank the manager of North America International School at Tan Phu

Branch - for the support and assistance during the preparation of this study. The second person

I really want to appreciate is Mr. Waring Rob for his advices and support.

Thirdly, from the bottom of my heart I would like to appreciate my students for their

enthusiastic cooperation in the study.

Finally, I owe special thanks to my parents, my younger brother who are always by my side

to encourage and take care of me. Without their support, I could have never finished the

biggest challenge in my life – the thesis.

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ABSTRACT

How to develop English learners’ vocabulary has always held educators and teachers’

attention. Still, vocabulary teaching is deployed in a traditional way – explicit teaching, many

teachers in Viet Nam are taken into account other approaches to help the students acquire the

vocabulary implicitly. On the other hand, reading is described as a receptive skill which means

vocabulary learning is likely to be happened if students read intensively in class and

extensively at home; thus, this insight leads to the idea of employing Extensive Reading in

teaching and discover its benefits on students’ vocabulary development. This study is a quasi

– experimental study which was conducted to find out the effectiveness of Extensive reading

on students’ vocabulary development. The participants were 60 teenage students at North

America International School who were divided into 2 groups. One was the experimental

group (n = 30) and the other was the control group (n = 30). The study was carried out by

experimenting the population with reading extensively graded readers within 3 months. A pre

- test, while and post - test were designed so as to evaluate the vocabulary development of the

students. The findings reveal that the experimental group (EG) outperformed the control

group in the vocabulary test results. Besides, the experimental group’s vocabulary size was

found to be increased more than the control group (CG). The results also give the teachers at

North - America International School a new insight in teaching English, especially in

Vocabulary.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP ..........................................................................................3

ACKNOLEDGEMENT............................................................................................................4

ABSTRACT..............................................................................................................................5

TABLE OF CONTENTS..........................................................................................................6

LIST OF TABLES..................................................................................................................10

LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................13

LIST OF CHARTS .................................................................................................................14

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.................................................................................................15

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................16

1.1. Background of the study............................................................................................16

1.2. Statement of purposes ...............................................................................................16

1.3. Research Question.....................................................................................................17

1.4. Significance of the study ...........................................................................................17

1.5. Research gaps............................................................................................................18

1.6. Rationale for the study ..............................................................................................18

1.7. Scope of the study and organization..........................................................................19

1.8. Organization of the study ..........................................................................................20

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW...................................................................................21

2.1. Reading......................................................................................................................21

2.1.1. The roles of reading in L2 learning ....................................................................22

2.2. Extensive Reading.....................................................................................................22

2.2.1. Principle of Extensive Reading ..........................................................................24

2.2.2. Extensive Reading Benefits and its benefits into Vocabulary............................26

2.2.3. Intensive reading versus Extensive reading........................................................27

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2.2.4. What is Vocabulary ............................................................................................29

2.2.5. How the Vocabulary is acquired ........................................................................30

2.2.6. What is vocabulary development?......................................................................32

2.2.7. What vocabulary need to be learnt .....................................................................33

2.3. Theoretical Framework .............................................................................................34

2.3.1. Comprehensible Input Hypothesis......................................................................34

2.4. Graded Readers .........................................................................................................39

2.5. Previous Studies ........................................................................................................40

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................47

3.1. Research site..............................................................................................................47

3.1.1. Teaching programs and textbooks......................................................................48

3.1.2. The library ..........................................................................................................50

3.2. Research design.........................................................................................................50

3.2.1. Settings ...............................................................................................................51

3.3. Pilot study..................................................................................................................56

3.3.1. Pilot study findings.............................................................................................56

3.4. 14th 1000 words Vocabulary Level Test ..................................................................57

3.4.1. How to interpret the 14th words vocabulary level test result.............................58

3.4.2. Validating the 14th words vocabulary level test ................................................59

3.4.3. The reliability of the tests...................................................................................60

3.5. Procedures .................................................................................................................60

3.6. Data collection...........................................................................................................63

3.6.1. Instruments to collect data..................................................................................63

3.6.2. Data Analysis......................................................................................................64

Chapter 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ......................................................................65

4.1. Findings.....................................................................................................................65

4.1.1. Reading diary......................................................................................................65

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4.1.2. Book report .........................................................................................................68

4.1.3. Pre – test and Post – test analysis of NIS test.....................................................69

4.1.4. Comparing the test results of the EG on the 14th words vocabulary level test..74

4.1.5. Comparing the test results of the CG on the 14th words vocabulary test ..........78

4.1.6. Comparison between the post-test of the first, second and third 1000 words

vocabulary level test of the EG and CG...........................................................................81

4.2. Discussion of findings...............................................................................................82

4.3. Interpretation of the findings.....................................................................................82

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION..............................................................85

5.1. Conclusion.................................................................................................................85

5.2. Limitations.................................................................................................................86

5.3. Delimitations .............................................................................................................86

5.4. Implications...............................................................................................................87

5.5. Recommendations .....................................................................................................87

References...............................................................................................................................88

APPENDICES ........................................................................................................................92

Appendix 1: Reading diary...............................................................................................92

Appendix 2: Book report ..................................................................................................93

Appendix 3: The course syllabus......................................................................................94

Appendix 4: Contents of the units of the course outline ................................................101

Appendix 5: Test of the previous course at NIS test of the EG......................................104

Appendix 6: The final test of the school on the EG .......................................................105

Appendix 7: The GRs titles ............................................................................................107

Appendix 8: The 14th 1000 words level test..................................................................109

Appendix 9: The school final test...................................................................................134

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Appendix 10: Sample of reading diary and book reports ...............................................141

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Characteristics of Extensive Reading and Intensive Reading ..................................28

Table 2. Vocabulary size and text coverage in the Brown corpus..........................................34

Table 3. The previous study on the benefits of ER.................................................................40

Table 4. NIS class timetable ...................................................................................................48

Table 5. The gender of participants in the EG and the CG.....................................................51

Table 6. The age of the participants........................................................................................52

Table 7. Years of learning English .........................................................................................52

Table 8. The number of words at each level of Macmillan Readers ......................................54

Table 9. Reliability Statistics..................................................................................................60

Table 10. The core elements of the study ...............................................................................62

Table 11. The reading hours (RH) within 12 weeks...............................................................67

Table 12. The number of words the EG write in their book report of the first and the final week

.................................................................................................................................................69

Table 13. The pre-test of CG and EG on NIS test ..................................................................69

Table 14. The pre and post vocabulary mean score of NIS test of the EG.............................70

Table 15. The pre and post-vocabulary score of NIS test of the EG ......................................70

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Table 16. Comparing the mean score of Post-test of the CG and EG ....................................71

Table 17. Comparison the mean scores of the pre – test and post – test of the CG and EG on

NIS final test ...........................................................................................................................71

Table 18. Pre and Post-test of the EG and CG on the final test of the school ........................73

Table 19. The comparison on the mean score of the post-test of the EG and the CG on the final

test of the school .....................................................................................................................74

Table 20. Results of t- test for pre and post – test of the first 1000 words vocabulary ..........74

Table 21. The mean score of the pre and post – test of the first 1000 words vocabulary of the

EG ...........................................................................................................................................75

Table 22. Results of t- test for pre and post-test of the second 1000 words vocabulary of the

EG ...........................................................................................................................................75

Table 23. Pre and Post-test of the second 1000 words vocabulary level test of the EG.........76

Table 24. Results of t- test for pre and post-test of the third 1000 words vocabulary of the EG

.................................................................................................................................................77

Table 25. Pre and post-test of the third 1000 words vocabulary level test of the EG ............77

Table 26. Pre and post-test of the first 1000 words vocabulary level test of the CG .............78

Table 27. Pre and post-test of the first 1000 words vocabulary level test of the CG .............78

Table 28. The comparison between the pre and post-test of the second 1000 words vocabulary

level test of the CG..................................................................................................................79

Table 29. Pre and post-test of the second 1000 words vocabulary level test of the CG.........79

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Table 30. The comparison between the pre and post-test of the second 1000 words vocabulary

level test of the CG..................................................................................................................80

Table 31. Pre and Post-test of the third 1000 words vocabulary level test of the CG............80

Table 32. The descriptive data of the post-test of the first, second and third 1000 words

vocabulary level test of the EG and CG..................................................................................81

Table 33. The GR titles of the experiment............................................................................107

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Input and output opportunities provided in the ER (Renandya, Rajan, & Jacobs,

2009) .......................................................................................................................................36

Figure 2. A Framework for Developing EFL Reading Vocabulary by Renandya, Rajan, and

Jacobs (2009) ..........................................................................................................................38

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LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 1. The reading hours of the EG within 12 weeks..........................................................66