TO INVESTIGATE THE EFFECTIVE OF USING NARRATIVE TEXT SUCH AS STORIES AND ARTICLES IN ENHANCING VOCABULARY ACQUISITION AMONG ENGLISH SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN CLASSROOM OF FORM __ STUDENTS AT SEKOLAH MENENGAH KEBANGSAAN _________ : AN ESL STUDY
BY
WAN MOHAMAD FIRDAUS BIN WAN SAUFI
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SCIENCES MANAGEMENT AND SCIENCE UNIVERSITY
2017
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY
This research is to investigate effective ways in enhancing vocabulary acquisition among ESL students in classroom. ESL learners with low vocabulary skills tend to have difficulties to understand a story or text as a whole. It is because vocabulary is considered as a basis in reading skills. Learners need to be exposed to vocabulary materials and be able to understand it. Vocabulary can be defined as knowledge of word and word meanings. The definition of vocabulary is much more complex. Word has two forms which are oral (listening and speaking) and prints (reading and writing). Experiences teachers of English as a Second Language know very well how important vocabulary is. They know students must learn thousands of words that speakers and writers of English use. Fortunately, the need for vocabulary is one point on which teachers and students agree (Allen, 1983). But for many years, teachers did not pay much attention on vocabulary learning strategies, which means students received less help from teachers of learning vocabulary. As grammar and pronunciation were emphasized in many journal articles, teachers were also told that they should teach vocabulary until learners could flexible use the grammar and pronunciation. Cook (2008) stated his idea that 'when you want to say something in a second language, it is the words that you feel you struggle for rather than the grammar or pronunciation'. As for this research, it encourages learner to learn vocabulary subconsciously by exposing them to the appropriate and suitable materials. In conducting this research, I will conduct this by giving a pre-test to check the learner’s vocabulary proficiency. It is to check upon learner’s level of acquisition on vocabulary before conducting further steps. In between approximately 6 weeks, I will give lot of drills and exercises regarding to vocabulary enhancements such as stories, text, and other reading materials and make sure the learner develops and follows as planned. The materials should be appropriate and suitable according to the learner’s ability in learning. It is important to make sure the learners are adapting to the whole process of development and to get the desired outcomes. As such, I will conduct a posttest by the end of the whole learning process to differ the learner’s vocabulary acquisition at the beginning stage.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
This study was concerned about ESL learners tend to find it hard to fully understand a text or passage because of the lacking of vocabulary proficiency in reading. Thus, teacher or language educator must find ways to make sure learners are exposed and comprehend vocabulary in depth. Therefore, this research is to investigate the effectiveness of using narrative texts such as stories or articles in enhancing vocabulary acquisition among ESL learners in classroom. While English teachers may have good assessment information about learners’ other skills, they rarely have reliable information about vocabulary knowledge. Hence, second language learners’ vocabulary knowledge deficiencies may go unnoticed. As a result, for many students, poor vocabulary knowledge may hinder their progress in other areas. For instance, vocabulary knowledge contributes significantly to achievement in the subjects of the school curriculum, as well as in formal and informal speaking, writing, listening, and reading. This is due to the fact that there is a common sense relationship between vocabulary and comprehension where messages are composed of ideas, and ideas are expressed in words (Liberman & Liberman, 1990). Without a sufficient understanding of words students cannot understand others or express their own ideas. Vocabulary is important across the curriculum from language arts and social studies to mathematics and science. It is intimately connected to both effective reading and writing skills, and these skills in turn are necessary for doing well in school. In English, like in any other foreign language, some words are easier to learn than others. Easiest of all are the words more or less identical to the students' native language, like, for instance, the word "vocabulary." However, students might be trapped in their confidence with which they memorize such identical words, since English has a list of some problematic words, called "false friends". These false friends are words identical in form to certain Romanian words, but completely different in meaning. An example of this would be "sensible." While many students might confidently translate this word simply "sensibil," they will be astonished to find out that, the Romanian equivalent for "sensible" is in fact "rational," while the English equivalent for "sensibil" is "sensitive." This demonstrates the crucial importance of allotting a special lesson for these false friends and of encouraging students to practise them as often as possible. Another aspect that makes English vocabulary difficult is the pronunciation of certain words. Research shows that words that are difficult to pronounce are more difficult to learn. Many learners find that words with clusters of consonants such as "health" or "crisps" are problematic. Length or complexity of
the words is another characteristic of the difficulty of English vocabulary. A long word will be more difficult to memorize than a short one. Also, variable stress of words such as "necessary" and "necessity" can add to their difficulty. The meaning of the words is another controversial feature of the English vocabulary. When two words overlap in meaning, students are likely to confuse them.
1.3 PURPOSES OF THE STUDY
The research study could provide information and guidance for future use or references by teachers and language educators. Further, this study would also be a review for learners to enhance their skills in learning English as a second language. This research will provide ways and guidance on how a teacher can develop their teaching skills and how a learner can develop their learning skills. Besides that, it has been a major problem for ESL learner to acquire great comprehension skills when it comes to understanding reading texts in depth. Furthermore, this research would be beneficial for the future researchers as it can provide baseline information of future research.
1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1.4.1
To investigate whether narrative text affects student vocabulary acquisition.
1.4.2
To evaluate students development of vocabulary acquisition through stories affects students reading comprehension.
1.4.3
To measure the extent of vocabulary acquisition in improving student’s language learning in ESL classroom.
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.5.1
Does narrative text such as stories improve student’s vocabulary acquisition?
1.5.2
To what extent can vocabulary acquisition improve student’s English language learning?
1.5.3
Does the students’ reading comprehension develop by vocabulary acquisition through reading narrative text such as stories?
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
Scope of the study is to provide information on the items that been carried throughout the research period. It will provide the chronological order of how the research conducted and the The research only considers students (secondary school) as end-users and the study will be conducted within a specified time-period, just in one semester. The study is provided specifically for ESL learners, teachers/language educators and future researcher. For the methodology, this research will be using tests and assessments. It will attempt to test hypotheses or statements with a view to generalizing from the specific data that you collect. It is called quantitative approach; this approach typically concentrates on measuring or counting and involves collecting and analyzing numerical data and applying statistical tests. At the beginning, I will conduct a diagnostic test or pre-test to check upon student’s vocabulary proficiency that suitable according to their level. The test will be such as essays, comprehensive questions and MCQ. The main purpose is to know the student’s level of vocabulary. Once the data has been collected, throughout the whole process I will give assessments and drills that appropriate to satisfy the needs of vocabulary development for ESL learners. Throughout the whole process, formative evaluation will be conducted as it is very important to monitor student’s development and making sure the research runs smoothly as planned. Quantitative approach is conducted precisely to note down student’s result at the end of the research. Thus, appropriate and suitable input vocabulary knowledge must be done precisely to get the desired and most accurate outcome. At the end of the research, to measure the outcome, post-test must be conducted to check the student’s result and also to determine whether the objective is achieved or not. All the data will be inserted in the findings once the research has been fully conducted from the beginning until the end of the research.
1.7 LIMITATIONS AND DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
Gathering data on vocabulary learning strategies using the vocabulary learning questionnaire is a form of exploratory study among the students only and it will not provide a general outcome for all the students from the same age. Other than that, students nowadays rarely drilled with vocabulary enhancing activity by their teacher and for most of them learning vocabulary is not a familiar focus during English language learning because school teachers usually emphasize on grammar and pronunciation during learning session.. Vocabulary acquisition through reading stories limitation was the students didn’t even have the motivation to read the stories because of their complexity of word knowledge. Knowing a word involves much more than knowing its dictionary definition, and simply memorizing a dictionary definition does not guarantee the ability to use a word in reading or writing. Adding to the complexity is the fact that different kinds of words place different demands on learners. The vocabulary of written English, particularly the "literate" English that students encounter in textbooks and stories, differs greatly from that of spoken, especially conversational English. Students-both English language learners and those for whom English is the first language-may have limited exposure to literate English outside of school. The delimitation of this study is students find it interesting to learn new perspective of English because teaching vocabulary will greatly increase students’ knowledge of English and they will apply the knowledge through their conversation. Furthermore the student’s error during the research is inevitable but the process has shown progress from the pre test to post test on their vocabulary word bank.
1.8 THE EXPECTED RESEARCH OUTCOMES
The expected research each person’s response here will vary because vocabulary knowledge is very personal in order to reach students development in vocabulary acquisition teachers must use the correct materials in order to achieve the target. Vocabulary is central to English language teaching because without sufficient vocabulary students cannot understand others or express their own ideas. Wilkins (1972) wrote that “. . . while without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (pp. 111– 112). When teachers teach vocabulary to build students’ knowledge of words and phrases, helping them learn any and all of these different components assists them in enhancing their English vocabulary knowledge and use. When teaching students to develop adequate word decoding and comprehension skills, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that as a educators, we know what works to increase students' levels of vocabulary knowledge that will help support their reading comprehension ability, which will in turn improve their learning and academic achievement outcomes, For instance, research indicates that students' vocabulary knowledge determines how well they understand texts.
1.9 CONCLUSIONS
The students outcomes in vocabulary is the main target for this study as it is the main research agenda, during this research the improvement for other skills of English language will visible for the students as they focus on reading stories and articles such as speaking and writing, but the progress will not be recorded throughout this research. Improvement of other skills such as writing and speaking is expected because the improvement of the vocabulary acquisition will give them more confident and motivated in engaging communication in English language as the students will want to apply from what have th ey learnt throughout the research process.
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTON
There are some past researches that have the similar topic regarding to this research. Though it has been done before, there were still lacking in some point and a bit different to this apposed research. In making this research more solid and valid, there are some studies regarding to this scope that could support and enhance reader’s understanding towards main objective of this research. Thus, some of the previous researches that are related to this study are concluded in this section.
2.2 DEFINITION OF THE KEY TERMS
2.2.1 Strategic processing of text In this research, the main idea of it is to investigate common reading comprehension problems focused on difficulties of decoding text. Swanson and Hoskyn (1998) found that some students have mastered the mechanics of reading but still have comprehension problems. This type of problem may not be evident until the higher grades when comprehension challenges increase. With the research I conducted through vocabulary acquisition learners can overcome the comprehension issue as with vocabulary based drills students will be aware of words that they will find during reading stories or articles. 2.2.2 Vocabulary teaching in English language teaching In this research, it is apposed that human being’s language is based on the vocabulary which consist of 3 basic language units which are pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. Every language has different pattern that formed as written language. Teaching vocabulary is very important as it forms the comprehension development to the reader as once a famous English linguist said, “out grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (Wilkins, 1987). Thus, it is proved that every language learning as a second language in terms of speaking, listening, reading and writing are all influenced and empowered by the vocabulary acquisition itself.
2.2.3
Improving student’s vocabulary mastery through story completion techniques in speaking activity
Learning means to know the meaning. In learning vocabulary, it is important to know what vocabulary is. According to Hatch and Brown (1995), vocabulary means a set of words that individual speakers of language might use. The frequency of words an individual use depend on the proficiency and mastery towards the vocabulary. In my point of view, vocabulary is a baseline of a speaker to use a language. The more concrete your vocabulary base, the more mastery of you to use the language.
