USING MOVIES AND VIDEOS TO TEACH

ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO THE 10TH FORM

STUDENTS.

ACKNOWLEDGEMEN

This study is the result of the researcher‟s experiences in English

language learning and teaching as well as the great support and

encouragement from teachers, friends and family. I would like to express my

sincere thanks to many people who help me to complete my graduation

paper.

First and foremost, I owe a debt of gratitude towards my supervisor,

Mrs. Tran Hien Lan for her invaluable help and useful corrections. She gives

me helpful advice and guidance, without which this study would not have

been possibly completed.

I am very grateful to all teachers from 3 high schools in Hanoi and 100

grade 10 students at Thang Long high school for their enthusiastic

participations. Without them, the methodology of this study could not be

completed.

I also would like to give my thanks to all the teachers in Faculty of

English Teacher Education for giving me opportunity to carry out this

research.

My special thanks also go to my friends as well as my roommates for

their encouragement, their supportive help and advice for the whole time of

conducting the study.

Last but not least, I would like to show my gratitude to my family for

their spiritual and material supports and endless encouragements, which are

really important in giving me confidence and optimism to fulfill this

research.

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ABSTRACT

It is undeniable that vocabulary has been considered the crucial

component of learning a foreign language. Techniques for teaching and

learning vocabulary are, therefore, the matter of concern in many studies.

However, current teachers‟ methods of teaching vocabulary seem not to be

so effective that the quality is far from being satisfactory.

Although the application of movies and videos is considered one of the

effective ways to teach vocabulary, they have not been popularly and

appropriately used at Hanoi high schools. It is, therefore, essential to get

teachers and students familiarized with this relaxing but useful technique.

This research intends to examine the use of movies and videos to teach

vocabulary to the 10th form students. More specifically, the researcher

strived to investigate the current situation of teaching and learning

vocabulary at Hanoi high schools, the specific use of movies and videos and

propose some recommendations for wider exploitation of this method.

Based on the theoretical framework, a survey was conducted with the

participants of 100 grade 10 students and 10 teachers at Hanoi high schools.

Questionnaire and oral interview were employed as useful instruments for

data collection.

The result of this study indicated that the quality of teaching and

learning vocabulary was not really good. Besides, teachers have not made

use of movies and videos in teaching though they are supposed to help retain

students‟ motivation, lengthen students‟ memory and better their

pronunciation. Furthermore, each technique still has some limitations so this

study also provides some suggestions for teachers to partly deal with them.

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CONTENTSTABLE OF CONTENT PAGE

Acknowledgements 2

Abstract 3

List of figures and tables 4

CHAPTER1: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Statement of the problem and the rationale for the study 7

1.2. Aims and objective of the study 9

1.3. Significance of the study 9

1.4. Scope of the study 10

1.5. Organization 10

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

I. Introduction 12

II. Content 12

2.1. An overview of vocabulary 12

2.1.1. Definition of vocabulary 12

2.1.2. Roles of vocabulary 14

2.1.3. Classification of vocabulary 17

2.2. Overview of movies and videos 18

2.2.1. Defining term 18

2.2.2. Advantages of using movies and videos in 18

teaching vocabulary

4

2.3. Related Studies 21

2.4. Summary 23

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1. Participants 24

3.1.1 Teachers of English 24

3.1.2 Grade 10 Students 25

3.2. Data collection 26

3.2.1 Questionnaire 26

3.2.2 Semi-structured Interview 27

3.3. Procedure of data instrument collection 28

3.4. Procedure of data analysis 29

3.4.1 Data Analysis Method 29

3.4.2 Data Analysis Procedures 30

3.5. Summary 30

5

List of table and Figures:

Table 1 A summary of the geographical locations

of 3 Hanoi high schools

6

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

I, Statement of the problem and rationale for the study.

Vocabulary is an important element in second language acquisition. By

having rich vocabulary, students can improve their listening, speaking,

reading and writing abilities; not only in the way they comprehend but also

in the way they produce language. Nassaji (2004) found that ESL (English

as a Second Language) learners who have wider vocabulary knowledge

could make more effective use of certain types of lexical inferencing

strategies than their weaker counterparts. August, Carlo, Dressler & Snow

(2005) also pointed out that English language learners who experienced slow

vocabulary development were less able to comprehend texts at the grade

level than their peers were.

With these points mentioned above, it is undeniable that vocabulary

plays a very important role in the language acquisition. It requires students

to spend much time choosing or searching for the effective techniques of

learning. Although most teachers and students acknowledge the importance

of vocabulary acquisition, several teachers do not often mention or discuss

the importance of vocabulary learning in class. In addition, English language

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teaching at Vietnamese schools, especially at high schools, favors a teacher-

centered and grammar- translation method, which do not motivate students

enough to learn it. Moreover, the goal of language teaching is fors t ude nts‟

communicative competence, so the quality of teaching and learning

vocabulary is far from being satisfaction.

After learning English for many years, students can only read and

understand short and simple texts and they find it difficult and feel unconfident to

reproduce their vocabulary to communicate with foreigners.

There are various ways to teach and learn English vocabulary, in which

using visual aids, especially movies or videos, is considered one of the most

useful and effective way to teach and to learn English vocabulary. Using

videos makes students draw attention to the lesson, arouse their interest in it

and create the good learning atmosphere during the lesson. Moreover,

through movies or videos with sound and picture, learners can enjoy

themselves, release stress and have an open mind to learn and perceive

words. Besides, learners can benefit a lot from widening communication

expressions and phrases. However, several teachers, even the experienced

ones, do not take full advantages of them when teaching vocabulary. Some

of them often complain that it would take much time to find the relevant

movies or videos for the lessons. Besides, in the videos and movies, there

may be some redundant new words, so they have to spend much time

explaining them.

In consideration of all the difficulties met by teachers and students,

this study” Using movies and videos to teach English vocabulary to the

10th form students” is conducted.

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II, Aim and objectives of the study

This study aims at raising teachers and students‟ awareness of the

importance of vocabulary in English teaching and learning and the need of

using videos to teach English vocabulary. In addition, the purpose of this

study is also to investigate the current vocabulary-teaching situation to the

10th form students in Hanoi. Moreover, this paper also provides some

recommendations for effective application.

Research questions:

1. What is the current situation of teaching and learning vocabulary at

Vietnam high schools?

2. What are the benefits of using movies and videos in teaching

vocabulary at Vietnam high schools?

3. What are the difficulties of using movies and videos in teaching

English vocabulary at Vietnam high schools?

III, Significance of the study

The master of all English skills, especially the ability to communicate

in English, is significant for the successes in one‟s life. However, after

learning English for many years, students still have difficulties in enriching

their vocabularies and communicating in the real life. Working as a teacher

9

requires a good command of vocabulary, the effective ways of teaching it

including using videos. Therefore, after this study has been completed its

findings will help to improve students‟ vocabulary. Besides, this paper is

hoped to be a beneficial reference for not only teachers and students but also

for those who have the same problem with teaching vocabulary.

IV, Scope of the study

There is a variety of ways of teaching English vocabulary but using

videos is one of the most effective and interesting ones. Within the

limitation of a graduation paper, this study focuses only on investigating the

recent situation of teaching vocabulary to Grade 10 students in Hanoi, whose

levels of English proficiency ranges from elementary to intermediate ones. In

addition, some pedagogical implications are recommended with the

expectation to be served as beneficial reference for teachers.

V, Organization

The study consists of five main parts: the introduction, chapter I:

Literature review, chapter II: Methodology, chapter III: results and

discussion, and the conclusion.

The introduction mentions all the academic routines required for

graduation paper, namely Rationale, Aims, Significance, Scope and the

organization of the study.

Chapter 2, named “Literature Review”, explores some basic

knowledge of English vocabulary and the advantages of using video and

movies in teaching it.

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Chapter 3 entitled“ Methodo lo gy” mentions the investigation the

current situation use of using movies and video in teaching vocabulary to the

10th form students. Besides, the background information of the subjects of

the research, the instruments used to collect data and procedures of data

collection as well as data analysis are made clear.

Chapter 4,“Result and discussion” presents, analyzes and discusses

the findings that the researcher found out from the data collected according

to the three research questions.

The last part, “Conclusion”, summarizes what have been mentioned in

the previous parts, introduces some limitations of the research, pedagogical

implications of using movies and video to teach vocabulary and

providessuggestions for further studies as well

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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

I, Introduction

One of the most important things to help learners to communicate

successfully is knowledge of vocabulary. The richer vocabulary we have, the

better we can communicate. Hence, in order not to fail on the way of

teaching and learning vocabulary, teachers and students must try their best to

find out an appropriate method for themselves. Using visual aids, especially

movies and video, is a good way to teach vocabulary and really important,

necessary for the new method of teaching and learning. This chapter aims at

providing some theoretical background of the study with two sections. The

first one is some basic knowledge of vocabulary and the second discusses

the matter of using movies and video.

II,Content

2.1. An overview of vocabulary

2.1.1. Definition of vocabulary

As among the three dimensions of language, vocabulary, grammar and

phonology, vocabulary stands out as the primacy forming the ground for the

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development of other skills. Vocabulary seems to be a simple and familiar

concept to understand clearly, however it is really hard to give its exact

definition. Broadly defined, vocabulary is knowledge of words and words

meaning.

This definition offer vocabulary‟s meaning on the whole, however,

vocabulary is more complex than this definition suggests. In the popular and

more precise way, Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary Online has

applied a meaning of vocabulary as follow:

1. All the words that a person knows or uses

2. All the words in a particular language

3. The words that people use when they are talking about a particular

subject

4. A list of words with their meanings especially in a book or learning a

foreign language.

As far as we concerned, the definition of vocabulary should be the one

that comprises all these features. Yet up till now, there has been no

definition that describes fully the characteristics of vocabulary. Each linguist

and scholar, in his special field, has tried to find out their suitable way to

answer the question: “what is vocabulary?”.

According to Pyle and Alges ( 1970, p 96) “ vocabulary is the focus

language with its sound and meaning interlock to allow us to communicate

with one another and it is words that we arrange together to make sentences,

conversation, discourses of all kinds. ”.

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Besides, in terms of methodology concepts of vocabulary:“ a word is

a basic unit of a language denoting concept, things and phenomena in

society” (GHP, 1998, p 58).

Also in terms of methodology, Penny Ur offer more clear and specific

definition of vocabulary by saying that: “Vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as the

words we teach in the foreign language. However, a new item of vocabulary

may be more than a single word: for example, post office and mother-in law,

which are made up of two or three words but express a single idea. There

are also multi-word idioms such as call it a day, where the meaning of the

phrase cannot be deduced from an analysis of the component words. A

useful convention is to cover all such cased by talking ‘items’ rather than

‘words’ (1996, p, 60). By this way , he difines that vocabulary is bigger than

just the meaning of words. It covers a huge aspect of language and is the

medium to express idea.

To sum up, there are various ways to define the concept “vocabulary”.

Nevertheless, it is in favor that vocabulary is a total number of words existed

in language, including single words to express idea as well as multi- word

idioms which can be understood in the contexts.

2.1.2. Roles of vocabulary

It is undeniable that vocabulary, like grammar and phonetics, plays an

important role in mastering a foreign language. According to Wilkins

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(1972): without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary,

nothing can be conveyed. Besides, Harmer (1992) shared the same idea that:

“If language structures make up the skeleton of language, then it is

vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh. An ability to

manipulate grammatical structures does not have any potential for

expressing meaning unless words are used”. Concerning about the

significance of vocabulary, Mc Carthy stated, “Without words to express a

wide range of meanings, communication in the second language can not

happen in any meaningful way”. By these statements, it can be concluded

that vocabulary is the decisive component of all uses of language. Therefore,

if the learners have a wide range of vocabulary, they will have more

confidence to communicate with others and vice versa. They can meet many

difficulties to express themselves and communicate with others.

Additionally, vocabulary as a means of communication, without words or

vocabulary, how we can think and communicate with others. Vocabulary

makes much effect on other English skills: writing, speaking, listening and

reading. John Langan supported that: “A good command of many words will

make you a better writer, speaker, listener and reader. Studies have shown

that students with a strong vocabulary and students who work to improve

limited vocabulary are more successful in school. In addition, one research

school study found that a good vocabulary, more than any other factors, was

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common to people enjoying successful careers. To make it short, vocabulary

is considered a vital part of effective communication; therefore, teaching

vocabulary is necessary. I. S. P. Nation offered that:“ Giving attention to

vocabulary is unavoidable. Even the most formal or communication-

directed approaches to language teaching must deal with needed vocabulary

in one way or another.”

Such above- mentioned studies support the importance of teaching

vocabulary, however, some scholars have opposite opinions. Harris and

Snow (2004) suggest that attempting to teach vocabulary is ineffective and

the time spent on vocabulary teaching and learning is often “time… wasted”

( Harris and Snow, 2004, 58). This idea is so badly misleading for both

teacher and learners. In face, vocabulary teaching must be directly

contradicted and should be regarded as an essential part of progress in a

foreign language.

In conclusion, vocabulary is the backbone of any language. It not only

enables students to decode message while listening or reading but also helps

them improve their speaking and writing.

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2.1.3. Classification of vocabulary

There are various ways to classify the kinds of vocabulary. In the first

place, in terms of semantics (meaning of the words), it is classified into

Notional words and Functional words. The former, whose meanings are

lexical, has certain terminal meaning and server as members of the sentence

such as subjects, attributes, adverbials. Notional words are nouns, pronouns,

adjectives, numerals, verbs, adverbs; they name objects, actions, quality and

so on. Whereas, functional words have grammatical meaning, they only have

meanings in relation to other words. They play structural roles and show the

relationship between words or between other parts of the sentences, or help

to build various tenses, voices and moods, etc. Functional words are articles,

prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, and so forth. Moreover, according

to Doff (1988), vocabulary can be classified into active vocabulary and

passive vocabulary in terms of methodology. The active vocabulary

mentions words, which learners can understand, pronounce correctly without

context and use effectively in speaking and writing. On the other hand, the

passive vocabulary is the words that are encountered or understood in

context such as in reading or listening but they are not used in speaking or

writing. Another category to classify vocabulary is in terms of

communicative language teaching. Learner‟s vocabulary is divided into

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receptive and productive vocabulary (Nguyen Bang and Nguyen Ba Ngoc,

2002, p. 36). The receptive vocabulary refers to learner‟s understanding of

vocabulary when he hears or reads it. In other words, it is words learners

achieve while hearing, listening or reading. Productive vocabulary denotes

the understanding of words or phrases in verbal or written scenarios (Belisle,

2007). It means that productive vocabulary is what learners can use

effectively in communication to express their idea.

2.2. Overview of movies and videos.

2.2.1.Defining term

There are different ways of defining the term “Video” in language

teaching. In the most popular way, Longman dictionary of Contemporary

English has applied the meaning of the term “video” as “a copy of a film or

television program, or a series of events recorded on videotape” or “a

process of recording or showing television programs, films, real events etc

on videotape”. In other way, movies and videos are briefly known as one

kind of visual aids. They are visible with both sound and pictures. In fact,

video is a useful means of communication as well as a powerful vehicle of

information and effective aid in language teaching and learning.

“Movies” is defined as a film shown in a cinema or on television.

There are several kinds of movies such as silent movies, movies with

subtitle, and movies without subtitle. In this thesis, movies with subtitle are

preferred.

2.2.2 Advantages of using movies and videos in teaching vocabulary.

As mentioned above, video and movies provide not only sound but

also vision therefore, learners have chance to listen and see the moving

pictures at the same time. Learners would find it more interesting so video

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and movies help to draw the attention and capture the interest of learners.

The benefit of using them in teaching and learning is undeniable. Followings

are some advantages of using videos and movies to teach vocabulary.

In the first place, video and movies are motivators. They help to

motivate learners and maintain their interest, attention during the lesson. In

classroom where the teacher keeps talking all the times and has nothing to

attract learners‟ attention, learners will get bored and tired. By using video

and movies, teacher will not have to talk much and encourage students to

talk more, which results in more learners‟ participation. Besides, video is a

combination of sound, colorful pictures and human- video interactions,

which is quite different from traditional classes with text- books, cassettes in

bad quality and non- native speakers. Video and movies are more effective

than traditional printed textbooks. What students can see from the textbooks

are only dead words and sentences. Students would become more excited to

experience this new way of teaching and learning. They would be more

eager to try to understand the new language and remember them for long

time. Learning with videos with chance to be acquainted with the native

voice, which makes students not feel so isolated from the real world and they

absorb the new language without being aware of this. When watching

videos, students would not aware that they are learning so they feel free from

pressure and stressful situation in traditional language classes. They learn the

language incidentally and as a result, they gain success. There are a series of

studies by Guildea, Miller and Wurtenberg (1990) which provide support for

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video use. According to them, the learners who saw video pictures were able

to produce a higher percentage of acceptable sentences using the most

difficult target words than were the learner who read only the narratives or

those who read both the narratives and definitions. In the words of the

researchers, “Pictures (video) improve sentence production for many words”

( Gildea, 1990).

In addition, as educators, our goal of course is to get students engaged

in learning. Video can help us do this work effectively. According to Lori

Grinffin, curriculum Director, Library Video Company, “video is clearly an

instructional medium that generates excitement. Using sight and sound,

video is the perfect medium for students.”, learners would feel really excited

in learning by watching videos. Since there are lots of videos which are

designed for foreign language purposes, they can combine learning with

entertainment such as watching films, cartoon. Besides, students have a lot

of fun; they would find English learning far more interesting.

In the next place, videos and movies help to create the good language

environment. By watching videos or movies, students have chance to listen

to the native speakers with standard pronunciation, accent, intonation and

stress. At the same time, students will achieve new words as well as their

correct use. Learners still feel shy to ask teachers because they can be

blamed on not paying attention to the lesson. By watching them, students

can understand clearly the reason why in this situation we use this word not

others. Furthermore, the ability to stop, start and rewind video can be

invaluable. Whenever students feel the words difficult, teacher can stop and

rewind it until they are clear. Therefore, learners will find it far easier to

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understand difficult and new structures or expressions as well as know the

way to pronounce words at the same time. Teachers can give more

explanation if necessary.

Some research shows the fact that five minutes of a short sequence

taken from a video is equal to forty- five minutes learning with traditional

books. Video is considered as a powerful medium because of the wide sense

of the term such as it presents the language in the full context, which helps

students know how to use language correctly. Students would find it easier

to remember the new vocabulary as well as the use of them as they are put in

specific context. Moreover, they know how to pronounce the words more

precisely. In addition, learners would find studying more interesting because

they do not have to listen to one voice all the time; instead, they could watch

and listen at the same time. Among many kinds of visual aids, video and

movies are recognized as the two most effective methods of teaching and

learning. In comparison with other visual aids such as pictures and

flashcards, which only provide the image or audiocassettes that present new

vocabulary through sound, video is absolutely better. Videos and movies

provide both sound and moving pictures, which both interests and motivates

learners. Video can be compared with radio or television, it is certainly more

preferable. It is clear that in the video learners can achieve advantages in

learning through both radio and television. By watching videos and movies,

the learners do not just hear the language but see the context in which it is

used. Besides, with TV sometimes we can not select the program that is

appropriate to learners‟ level as well as the content of the lesson but we can

do this with video. Further more, the source of video and movies is not

limited, almost any video can be used to teach English, especially

vocabulary such as commercial films, TV program and so on.

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In short, video and movies are effective aids, which help to facilitate

teaching and learning process. It is a very flexible medium. Especially, video

has been used in language teaching in many countries. According to a recent

teacher survey, 94% of classroom teachers had effectively used video during

the course of an academic year (Lori Griffin).

2.3. Related Studies:

There are a variety of techniques for teachers to teach vocabulary to

students such as visual aids, English explanations, listening to English songs,

games or movies and videos in English. It has been proved that movies and

videos in English offer learners the potential benefit of images linked to the

language being used and learned. According to Paivio (1971, 1986, cited in

Milton, 2008) dual- coding, “which is where the coding of memories is in

both iconic and propositional form,” is an aid to retention and recall. It helps

to explain why watching movies and videos facilitates the vocabulary

learning process.

In terms of research concerning about the benefit of using movies and

videos for learning languages, Cees M. Koolstra and Jonannes. W.J.

Beentjes (1999) argue that movies or subtitle programs provides a rich

context for foreign language acquisition. In another research ( unpublished

one cited in Milton, 2008), a DVD of Xena Warrior Princess with English

audio and Greek subtitles was taken as an example to check single learners” vocabulary

uptake from a movies with sub- titles . At first, the learners were pre- tested

to identify the number of known and unknown words. Then they watched

the film and were tested once a week for 4 weeks. Surprisingly, the findings

is the known words increased from 0 to 41 out of the total number of 100

22

words being tested. Moreover, not only children but also adults find movies

and videos enjoyable. Those, who have bad vocabulary, can learn some

more new vocabulary unconsciously, for those who happen to have large

vocabulary can still benefit from watching movies and videos.

Vocabulary learning is an essential element of learning of a foreign

language. Long and Richard (2007) regard it as“ the core component of all

the language skills” and failure to gain an adequate vocabulary can have

catastrophic consequences for communication, far more than with other

elements of the foreign language such as its grammar. Despite its

importance, there is still little agreement on how best to teach vocabulary in

general and on how to use movies and videos in teaching and learning

vocabulary in particular. The researcher have realized the large benefit of

watching movies and videos and would like to take step on investigating the

current application of this technique in teaching vocabulary to the 10th form

students at high school.

2.4. Summary

This chapter has dealt with the theoretical background of the study with

the basic but necessary knowledge of English vocabulary and using movies

and videos for teaching vocabulary. In order to find out the current situation

of teaching vocabulary as well as the application of movies and videos for

teaching vocabulary at high schools in Hanoi, a survey was conducted;

which would be reported in the chapter 3.

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CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

The literature on the research topic was briefly reviewed for the

theoretical basis of the study. To continue, this chapter presents the practical

side of this study, the author‟s research on how movies and videos are used

and how useful they are for English vocabulary teaching at some high

school. The participants, the instrument as well as the procedure of data

collection and analysis are discussed in detail in this chapter.

3.1. Participants.

In order to undertake this study, the author conducted the survey to both

teachers of English and grade 10 students at high school in Hanoi.

3.1.1. Teachers of English

The teachers the researchers got here have vital role in designing and

facilitating the activities in their language classrooms. Therefore, ten

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grade10 teachers at Thang Long, Nguyen Gia Thieu and Lomonxop high

schools involved in the data collection process to report the factual situations

of English teaching and learning at their school as well as to share their

valuable experience related to the topic. The choice of schools was made to

ensure that they should come from across the city rather than the same

district. This diversity is illustrated in table 1 below

High schools Number of Location (district in

teachers Hanoi)

Thang Long 5 Hai Ba Trug

Lomonoxop 2 Tu Liem

Nguyen Gia Thieu 3 Long Bien

Table1: A summary of the geographical locations of 3 Hanoi high

schools

Most of the teachers in the survey were female aged from 30 to 48. Their

teaching experience widely ranged from 8 to 24 years. Each teacher taught at

least 3 to 4 classes, i.e. 12 to 15 periods of English per week. Furthermore,

the main teaching material is the three- year course book. Moreover, the

Communicative Language Teaching method is used by majority of the

teachers here.

3.1.2. Grade 10 students.

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The second subject of this survey was the limited number of 100 students

in the 10th form at Thang Long high school in Hanoi, where the researcher

did practicum. They were both male and female at the age of sixteen years

old. They are in 3 groups 10A12, 10A8 and 10A5 from the mainstream.

Some of them have been learning for 4 to 10 years, and some for 8 or 9

years. It is notable that among 100 students, 47 students preferred English as

the main subject when they get the entrance exam to the university whereas

53 students only considered English as a high school subject. Their main

purpose of learning was not only to get the good results in written tests but

also to have good competence of spoken language. During their English

lessons, they had chance to work in pairs, groups and to take part in

activities such as discussion or games. In addition, the learning facilities

such as reference books, tapes, cassettes or overhead projector were

available there. However, the classes were so large, often from 40 to 50

students.

3.2. Data collection instrument

To obtain a sufficient collection of reliable and valid data, two method

instruments were fully employed, including questionnaire and interview.

3.2.1. Questionnaire.

Using questionnaires is the main use for collecting data. Questions were

short and focused; it is an effective and quick way to obtain a huge amount

of information especially to a large number of respondents in a short time.

Moreover, if the questionnaire is well conducted, the data can be easily

collected and analyzed. Two questionnaires were used, one for the teachers

and another for grade 10 students. Questionnaires for teachers were written

in English and the other for students were written in Vietnamese to make it

26

easy for them to answer and to avoid possible misunderstandings as well as

the inaccuracy of the outcomes.

Teachers‟ questionnaire consisted of eleven questions, which was

started with a brief introduction and concise explanation of the research. So

was the students‟ questionnaire, which consisted of 15 questions. On the

following pages of two questionnaires, there was a combination of both

open-ended and close-ended questions to facilitate the data collation and

analysis, as well as the comprehensive collection of information (Nunan,

1989, cited in Hoang & Nguyen, 2006, p.21).

These questions helped to give the answers to the 3 research questions

mentioned above. The first part including two questions (question1 and 2)

shows teachers‟ and students‟ attitudes towards vocabulary. The second part focuses

on the current situation of teaching vocabulary and problems in teaching it.

The last part of the survey questionnaires show the information about their

experiences and opinions about using movies and videos as well as their

thoughts in applying this technique in teaching vocabulary to the 10th form

students.

3.2.2. Semi-structured interview

Interview proved to be more practical and helpful, therefore, the

researcher also used a semi- structured interview to get fresh ideas and ways

of approaching this technique. Some 10-15 minute interviews focusing on

the questionnaires were conducted with the teacher with permission and five

students, who had already watched movies and videos for entertainment and

for learning vocabulary. These interviews aimed at checking the validity and

27

reliability of the information collected from questionnaire and exploring

personal attitudes around the topic.

3.3. Procedure of data collection.

The process of data collection could be put into three major phases as

follows.

Phase1:

The first phase was the preparation for the data collection including the

designing of two questionnaires. All personal information of the participants

was ensured to be kept confidential. Besides, thanks to the invaluable

supervision from my supervisor and friends, the survey questionnaires were

much improved and carefully designed.

Phase 2:

The second phase was conducted with high school teachers. As

suggested by Oppenheim (1992, cited in Hoang & Nguyen, 2006,

p.33),„authority figures‟ can have a major impacts on the respondents‟

willingness to respond, several important contacts were asked by the

researcher for a good reference. Therefore, an advance notice was made to

28

each teacher via telephone or directly to explain the purpose of the research

and to invite participation.

After having the permission, the researcher made an appointment with

the teachers. The researcher explained why the information was being

collected and how it would be used. Then, the teachers were asked to spend

more time reading the questionnaires and filling in the questionnaire. Next,

following the questionnaire was the small talks between the researcher and

the interviewees to get an insight view into their attitudes.

Phase 3:

The next phase was conducted with the 10th form students in

classrooms. With the permission of the teachers of English and the former

teachers, the survey questionnaires were given to these students at break

time. Before completing the questionnaires, students were briefly explained

about the research topic and the reason why the information was being

collected. In the process of fulfilling the questionnaire, their further

questions were answered to clarify their misunderstanding and minimize

their confusion.

Then, some semi- interviews with 5 students who had previously used

movies and videos to learning vocabulary were conducted after their class.

3.4. Procedure of data analysis

3.4.1. Data analysis methods.

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General speaking, the data analysis in this study was implemented

according to the concept- based analysis, there has a framework (which is

the set aims and research question), counting on which were the tasks of

categorization, classification and final analysis.

The data received from the close- ended questions in the questionnaires

was quantified, calculated and transferred into numerical form. In order to

see the over all evaluation, the participants‟ choices and rating were

synthesized and analyzed to gain a composite score.

Data collected mainly from open- ended questions and interviews

allowed the researcher to gain insight into the participants‟ perceptions,

attitude, motivations and suggestions. All the same ideas would be grouped

together to be compared.

3.4.2. Data analysis procedures.

As mentioned from the beginning, the survey questionnaire and interviews were

conducted on the purpose of finding answers to the research questions. After all the

data was gathered, it was transformed and classified according to the three

research questions. From the data analysis, a large amount of statistics

obtained form the questionnaire was transformed into tables and charts,

which reassured the clear-cut format and facilitate the analytical task as well

as help readers understand comparison and synthesis.

3.5. Summary

This chapter has presented the methodology applied in this research.

The two groups of participants involved in the process of data collection

were the teachers from three high schools in Hanoi and the grade 10 students

30

at Thang Long high school. Next, the two instruments, the three phases of

data collection and data analysis were also justified in this chapter.

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