The use of first language in teaching English vocabulary to elementary level learners - A study at Vietnamese American English center

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

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THE USE OF FIRST LANGUAGE IN TEACHING ENGLISH

VOCABULARY TO ELEMENTARY LEVEL LEARNERS: A

STUDY AT VIETNAMESE AMERICAN ENGLISH CENTER

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts (TESOL)

Submitted by ĐẶNG VĂN KHƯƠNG

Supervisor

Dr. PHẠM NGUYỄN HUY HOÀNG

Ho Chi Minh City, September 2016

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled “The Use of First

Language in Teaching English Vocabulary to Elementary Level Learners: A Study at

Vietnamese American English Center” as the statement of requirements for thesis in

Master’s Programs at Ho Chi Minh City Open University, issued by the Higher

Degree Committee.

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis does not contain

material published elsewhere or extracted 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 acknowledgement in the main text

of the thesis.

This thesis has not been submitted for any degree in any other tertiary institution.

Ho Chi Minh City, 2016

ĐẶNG VĂN KHƯƠNG

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RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

I hereby state that I, Dang Van Khuong, being the candidate for the degree of Master

of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use

of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library.

In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the

Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with

the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of

theses.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am grateful to many people who have helped me achieve this final product. This

thesis has been completed with the help and counsel of many people whom I now

wish to acknowledge with very deep appreciation and gratitude.

First and foremost, I would like to express special thanks to my supervisor Dr.

Pham Nguyen Huy Hoang for revising my thesis, for his valuable advice, kind and

helpful assistance that he provided me throughout the thesis. He has been a

tremendous mentor to me while I was writing up my master thesis.

My special thanks also go to all the teachers who have instructed me at Ho Chi

Minh City Open University (HCMCOU) for their precious lectures in class, by which

I have been motivated to explore a lot of interesting issues concerning English

language teaching and learning.

I would like to extend my special thanks to Mr. Phan Tang - the headmaster of

VAE Center, and my special thanks to the administrators of VAE Center for assisting

me in obtaining the data for the study analysis. I would like to express my sincere

gratitude to all the teachers and the learners who took part in my study and made it

possible for me to analyze their attitudes on the use of Vietnamese in teaching English

vocabulary.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my close friends Nguyen Van

Khanh, Nham Chi Buu, Chau Tuan Nam, and Doan Quynh Nhu for their contribution

on the first draft of this study, and for their sharing with me a lot of reading materials

which were very useful for me to conduct my study.

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ABSTRACT

There has been a long-standing debate over the issue of including or excluding the

learner’s mother tongue (L1) in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom.

There are two opinions in this regard: monolingual approach and bilingual approach.

While advocates of monolingual approach suggest that learning is determined by the

exposure to the target language, those advocating the bilingual approach think that L1

makes a valuable contribution to the learning process. Although the widespread use

English-only in EFL classes, the use of first language is still a perennial topic. So this

study attempts to examine the use of Vietnamese language in English classes at a

foreign language center in Go Vap District, Ho Chi Minh City. The main objective

was to find out whether L1 plays a positive role or negative role in teaching English

vocabulary to the elementary learners in Vietnamese context nowadays. The approach

employed to conduct this study was mixed one: quantitative and qualitative approach.

The tools which were used to collect data were classroom observation, questionnaire,

and interview. The participants were ten teachers and 153 elementary level learners at

Vietnamese American English Foreign Language Center. The results indicated that all

the teacher participants overused Vietnamese in teaching English vocabulary to

elementary learners. The main reasons were to help the learners understand the

meaning of difficult words, and to help the teachers save time. The learners’ attitudes

towards the way their teachers used Vietnamese in vocabulary teaching were

supportive.

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CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP..................................................................................................... I

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS......................................................................................II

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................................. III

ABSTRACT.........................................................................................................................................IV

CONTENTS..........................................................................................................................................V

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND CHARTS ...............................................................................IX

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ..........................................................................................................XII

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

1.1. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY .................................................................................................1

1.2. PROBLEM STATEMENTS...........................................................................................................4

1.3. AIM OF THE STUDY..................................................................................................................6

1.4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................................................7

1.5. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY..................................................................................................7

1.6. ASSUMPTION OF THE STUDY ...................................................................................................8

1.7. STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY .....................................................................................................8

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................................10

2.1. DEFINITION OF TERMS...........................................................................................................10

2.1.1. Vocabulary teaching .....................................................................................................10

2.1.2. L1 and L2 ......................................................................................................................10

2.1.3. Elementary level learners .............................................................................................11

2.2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE STUDY........................................................................12

2.2.1. The role of L1 in teaching methodology .......................................................................12

2.2.2. Positive roles of L1 in FL classrooms...........................................................................14

2.2.3. Negative roles of L1 in FL classrooms .........................................................................19

2.3. VOCABULARY TEACHING......................................................................................................24

2.3.1. How many words are there in English and how many do teachers need to teach?......24

2.3.2. What do teachers need to teach about vocabulary? .....................................................25

2.3.3. Techniques for vocabulary teaching .............................................................................26

2.3.4. The use of L1 in L2 vocabulary teaching......................................................................30

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2.4. PREVIOUS STUDIES SUPPORTING THE POSITIVE ROLES OF L1 IN L2 VOCABULARY TEACHING

33

2.5. LEARNERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS L1 USE IN L2 VOCABULARY TEACHING..........................42

2.6. CHAPTER SUMMARY .............................................................................................................45

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................................46

3.1. RESEARCH DESIGN ................................................................................................................46

3.2. SAMPLING .............................................................................................................................47

3.2.1. Population.....................................................................................................................47

3.2.2. Sample...........................................................................................................................48

3.3. INSTRUMENTS .......................................................................................................................49

3.3.1. Observation...................................................................................................................49

3.3.2. Questionnaire................................................................................................................52

3.3.3. Interview .......................................................................................................................56

3.3.4. Data collection process.................................................................................................57

3.3.5. Validity and reliability of instruments...........................................................................58

3.3.6. Means............................................................................................................................59

3.4. DATA ANALYSIS ....................................................................................................................59

3.4.1. Research question 1: To what extent is L1 used in teaching English vocabulary to

elementary learners? ....................................................................................................................60

3.4.2. Research question 2: What are the rationales for the teachers’ use of L1 in teaching

English vocabulary to elementary learners? ................................................................................61

3.4.3. Research question 3: What are the learners’ attitudes towards the way they learn

English vocabulary with L1? ........................................................................................................61

3.5. PILOT STUDY .........................................................................................................................62

3.5.1. Vocabulary items explained in the pilot study ..............................................................64

3.5.2. Vocabulary items taught without using Vietnamese .....................................................65

3.5.3. Using Vietnamese in teaching English vocabulary.......................................................66

3.5.4. Refinements of the observation sheet ............................................................................66

3.5.5. Refinements of the learner questionnaire .....................................................................67

3.5.6. Refinements of the interview questions for both teachers and learners........................68

3.5.7. Answering the three research questions .......................................................................68

3.6. CHAPTER SUMMARY .............................................................................................................70

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS OF THE FINDINGS..........................................71

4.1. RESEARCH QUESTION 1: TO WHAT EXTENT IS L1 USED IN TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY

TO ELEMENTARY LEARNERS?............................................................................................................71

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4.1.1. Quantitative data collected from classroom observation .............................................72

4.1.2. Quantitative data collected from the teacher questionnaire.........................................77

4.1.3. Qualitative data collected from teacher interview........................................................80

4.2. RESEARCH QUESTION 2: WHAT ARE THE RATIONALES FOR THE TEACHERS’ USE OF L1 IN

TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO ELEMENTARY LEARNERS?....................................................82

4.2.1. Quantitative data collected from teacher questionnaire...............................................82

4.2.2. Qualitative data collected from teacher interview........................................................86

4.3. RESEARCH QUESTION 3: WHAT ARE THE LEARNERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE WAY THEY

LEARN ENGLISH VOCABULARY WITH L1?.........................................................................................94

4.3.1. Quantitative data collected from learner questionnaire ...............................................95

4.3.2. Qualitative data collected from the learner questionnaire .........................................100

4.3.3. Qualitative data collected from the learner interview ................................................106

4.4. CHAPTER SUMMARY ...........................................................................................................117

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND LIMITATIONS...................119

5.1. CONCLUSIONS .....................................................................................................................119

5.2. RECOMMENDATIONS...........................................................................................................122

5.3. LIMITATIONS .......................................................................................................................123

REFERENCES..................................................................................................................................125

APPENDICES...................................................................................................................................131

APPENDIX 1.....................................................................................................................................131

APPENDIX 2.....................................................................................................................................132

APPENDIX 3.....................................................................................................................................134

APPENDIX 4.....................................................................................................................................135

APPENDIX 5.....................................................................................................................................136

APPENDIX 6.....................................................................................................................................140

APPENDIX 7.....................................................................................................................................144

APPENDIX 8.....................................................................................................................................163

APPENDIX 9.....................................................................................................................................165

APPENDIX 10...................................................................................................................................167

APPENDIX 11...................................................................................................................................171

APPENDIX 12...................................................................................................................................175

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APPENDIX 13...................................................................................................................................179

APPENDIX 14...................................................................................................................................183

APPENDIX 15...................................................................................................................................187

APPENDIX 16...................................................................................................................................189

APPENDIX 17...................................................................................................................................191

APPENDIX 18...................................................................................................................................198

APPENDIX 19...................................................................................................................................200

APPENDIX 20...................................................................................................................................202

APPENDIX 21...................................................................................................................................209

APPENDIX 22...................................................................................................................................218

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LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND CHARTS

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 2.2.2: POSITIVE ROLES OF L1 IN FL CLASSROOMS. ....................................................18

TABLE 2.2.3: NEGATIVE ROLES OF L1 IN FL CLASSROOMS...................................................23

TABLE 2.4A: REASONS WHY TEACHERS USED L1 IN L2 VOCABULARY TEACHING.......40

TABLE 2.4B: OTHER REASONS WHY TEACHERS USED L1 IN THE CLASSROOMS............41

TABLE 2.5: SYNOPSIS OF DATA OF LEARNERS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS THE USE OF L1

IN TEACHING L2 VOCABULARY...................................................................................................43

TABLE 3.5: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION SCHEDULE OF THE PILOT STUDY.....................63

TABLE 3.5.1: NUMBER OF VOCABULARY ITEMS TAUGHT IN THE PILOT STUDY............64

TABLE 4.1.1A: NUMBER OF VOCABULARY ITEMS TAUGHT THROUGH THIRTY

OBSERVATIONS. ...............................................................................................................................72

TABLE 4.1.1B: WAYS OF USING VIETNAMESE IN VOCABULARY TEACHING. ..................74

TABLE 4.1.2: FREQUENCY OF THE WAYS TEACHERS TAUGHT VOCABULARY WITH

USING VIETNAMESE........................................................................................................................78

TABLE 4.1.3: SITUATIONS TEACHERS USED VIETNAMESE TO TEACH ENGLISH

VOCABULARY...................................................................................................................................80

TABLE 4.2.1: FREQUENCY OF THE REASONS WHY TEACHERS USED VIETNAMESE IN

VOCABULARY TEACHING. ............................................................................................................83

TABLE 4.2.2A: REASONS WHY TEACHERS USED VIETNAMESE IN ENGLISH

VOCABULARY TEACHING. ............................................................................................................86

TABLE 4.2.2B: USING OR NOT USING VIETNAMESE, WHICH WAS BETTER? .....................89

TABLE 4.2.2C: STRONG POINTS OF USING VIETNAMESE IN VOCABULARY TEACHING.90

TABLE 4.2.2D: DISADVANTAGES OF USING VIETNAMESE IN ENGLISH VOCABULARY

TEACHING. .........................................................................................................................................91

TABLE 4.2.2E: WHEN TEACHERS SHOULD USE VIETNAMESE IN VOCABULARY

TEACHING. .........................................................................................................................................92

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TABLE 4.2.2F: WHEN TEACHERS SHOULD NOT USE VIETNAMESE IN VOCABULARY

TEACHING. .........................................................................................................................................93

TABLE 4.3.1A: FREQUENCY TEACHERS USED L1 COMPARED WITH FREQUENCY

LEARNERS THOUGHT L1 SHOULD BE USED. ............................................................................96

TABLE 4.3.1B: REASONS WHY LEARNERS LIKED THEIR TEACHERS TO USE

VIETNAMESE IN VOCABULARY TEACHING..............................................................................98

TABLE 4.3.2A: REASONS WHY LEARNERS LIKED THEIR TEACHERS TO USE

VIETNAMESE IN VOCABULARY TEACHING............................................................................100

TABLE 4.3.2B: REASONS WHY LEARNERS DID NOT LIKE THEIR TEACHERS TO USE

VIETNAMESE IN VOCABULARY TEACHING............................................................................102

TABLE 4.3.2C: WHEN L1 SHOULD BE USED IN TEACHING VOCABULARY.......................104

TABLE 4.3.2D: WHEN L1 SHOULD NOT BE USED IN TEACHING VOCABULARY. ............105

TABLE 4.3.3A: HOW YOUR TEACHERS USED VIETNAMESE IN VOCABULARY

TEACHING. .......................................................................................................................................107

TABLE 4.3.3B: SITUATIONS TEACHERS USED VIETNAMESE IN VOCABULARY

TEACHING. .......................................................................................................................................108

TABLE 4.3.3C: SITUATIONS LEARNERS LIKED THEIR TEACHERS TO USE VIETNAMESE

IN VOCABULARY TEACHING. .....................................................................................................109

TABLE 4.3.3D: REASONS WHY THE LEARNERS LIKED THEIR TEACHER TO USE

VIETNAMESE IN VOCABULARY TEACHING............................................................................110

TABLE 4.3.3E: USING VIETNAMESE WAS BETTER IN ENGLISH VOCABULARY

TEACHING. .......................................................................................................................................112

TABLE 4.3.3F: NOT USING VIETNAMESE WAS BETTER IN ENGLISH VOCABULARY

TEACHING. .......................................................................................................................................112

TABLE 4.3.3G: DISADVANTAGES OF USING VIETNAMESE TO TEACH VOCABULARY. 113

TABLE 4.3.3H: WHEN L1 SHOULD BE USED IN TEACHING VOCABULARY. .....................115

TABLE 4.3.3I: WHEN L1 SHOULD NOT BE USED IN TEACHING VOCABULARY...............115

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LIST OF CHARTS

CHART 4.1.1: TIME SPENT ON TEACHING VOCABULARY IN THE MAIN STUDY. .............73

CHART 4.3.1: PERCENTAGE OF LEARNERS LIKED AND DISLIKED THEIR TEACHERS

USED L1 IN VOCABULARY TEACHING. ......................................................................................95

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ALM Audio-Lingual Method

CLT Communicative Language Teaching

DM Direct Method

EFL English as a Foreign Language

ELT English Language Teaching

ESL English as a Second Language

FL Foreign Language

GTM Grammar Translation Method

HCMCOU Ho Chi Minh City Open University

L1 First Language

L2 Second Language

SPSS Statistical Package for Social Science

TESOL Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages

TPR Total Physical Response

VAE Center Vietnamese American English Foreign Language Center

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the researcher will present the background information of the

study. It is the use of L1 in FL teaching in general. Then there will be the aim of the

study that leads to three research questions that guides the study. The significance of

the study, the assumption of the study, and the structure of the study will also be

introduced.

1.1. Background to the study

In foreign language (FL) teaching, there have always been contradicting views

about whether to use the learners’ mother tongue (L1) in English classrooms or not.

Supporters of the monolingual approach have argued that people who learn foreign

language should follow the basic route as a baby acquires its mother language, so the

use of L1 in classrooms should be minimized or neglected. However, supporters of the

bilingual approach have become aware of the positive role of L1 in English

classrooms because they believe that it could make a valuable contribution to the

learning process, and therefore L1 could be used in facilitating the process of teaching

and learning. The issue of including or excluding the learners’ mother tongue in the

FL classrooms will be always a subject of ongoing discussion and controversy. This

study is going to examine in detail whether or not the use of learners’ L1 in the

classroom may hinder or facilitate the process of learning new vocabulary in a second

language.

About the positive role of learners’ mother tongue, Weschler (1997), in the

introduction of his study, gave an interesting example to indicate the role of L1

(Japanese) in the English classroom:

The teacher stares down at the wide eyes of his new students, “Class. We are here to

learn English. As of today, you are not to use any Japanese in this room. This is an

‘English-only’ class.” And it is from that moment, I would argue, that the class is lost. (p.

87)

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Weschler (1997) definitely emphasized what was called the “timely use of the

students’ first language.” It was not that L1 can be used all the time, but it was used

appropriately. When students learn a foreign language, it is the target language which

they aim at, and there are certainly many means for them to reach this goal. Weschler

(1997) indicated that the use of learners’ L1 was one of those means. The matter is

how and when the teachers should use this means to exploit the advantages of mother

tongue to the full. Depending on each particular circumstance, teachers can apply L1

appropriately. Damra & Qudah (2012) also said that when L1 was used appropriately,

it would be very helpful for students to learn a foreign language. But the prerequisite

is that teachers and learners must share the same L1. So Damra & Qudah (2012)

assumed that teachers who know their students’ mother tongue have more advantages

than the ones who do not know.

The use of learners’ L1 in the classrooms contrasts the pedagogy of teaching

English through English. In English-only class, teachers often ask students to “think in

English”. But we do not know how they really think when they learn the target

language, and whether translation silently happens in their mind. As Weschler (1997)

said that they constantly ask themselves, “What does it mean?” And then they answer

themselves by using their L1, no matter how the teacher asks them to think during the

learning session. Therefore, whether the teacher likes it or not, L1 still interferes in the

process of learning English. Weschler (1997) asserted that it is not if but to what

degree students think in their L1 when they try to understand L2 (second language).

Besides, Kavaliauskienë & Kaminskienë (2007) also said that no matter how good the

students are, the majority of them “keep mentally translating from L2 into L1 and vice

versa.” This fact makes teachers of English aware of the importance L1 in EFL

classrooms. Harmer (2007) called the process of translating what the students are

learning in their heads is a “natural part of any language learner’s behavior,” because

the learners always try to make sense a new language through a language which they

already know.

The use of L1 in English classrooms is mainly the use of translation from L1 into

L2 and from L2 into L1. Translation has an important role in language teaching