ASSIGNMENT ON IMPROVING VOCABULARY RETENTION

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
IMPROVING VOCABULARY RETENTION FOR EIGHTH- GRADE
STUDENTS OF A SECONDARY SCHOOL THROUGHONLINE
MEANING– FOCUSED ACTIVITIES
THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
IMPROVING VOCABULARY RETENTION FOR EIGHTH- GRADE
STUDENTS OF A SECONDARY SCHOOL THROUGHONLINE
MEANING– FOCUSED ACTIVITIES

TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………
3
TABLE OF CONTENTS….………….………….………………………...………….4
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION…………….….……………………...…………….7
1.1 Rationale of the study…….….……………………….….….……………….……7
1.2 Statement of the problem……….….……………………..….………………..…8
1.3 Aim and objectives of the study…….….……………….…….….
……………….9
1.4 Research questions.….………………………………….……..………………….9
1.5 Scope of the study.………..………………………………………………………
10
1.6 Significance of the study.……………………………………….……………….11
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW ….……………………………………... 12
2.1 Theoretical background……………………………………………………….. 12
2.2 Literature review……….…………………………………………….…………..12
2.2.1 Vocabulary retention…….…………………………………………………..…
13
2

2.2.1.1 Definitions of vocabulary retention……………………………………..
…..13
2.2.1.2 The importance of vocabulary retention in learning foreign languages..
…...14
2.2.1.3 Difficulties facing with vocabulary retention performance……………..….15
2.2.1.4 Used techniques of vocabulary retention improvement………………….…
15
2.2.2 Definitions of online meaning-focused activities………...…….………………
16
2.2.3 Previous research…………….……………………………………………...
….17
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY………………….…….…………20
3.1 Research questions…………………………………………..…….….…………20
3.2 Research design…………………………………………………………..………20
3.3 Research context……………………………………………………….….……..20
3.3.1 Institution…………………………………………………..……….….….….20
3.3.2 Participants……………………………………………………….…………...21
3.3.3 The researcher…………………………………………………………….…..21
3.4 Advantages and disadvantage……………………………………………………
21
3.5Data collection instruments……………………………………………….……..22
3

3.5.1 .Vocabulary Test……………………………………………………...………22
3.5.2 Questionnaire………………………………………………...……………….22
3.5.3 Interview…………………………………………………...……….………..22
3.5.4 Journal………………………………………………………………………...22
3.6 Data collection procedures………………………………………………………23
3.7 Data analysis……………………………………………..……………………….24
3.7.1 Quantitative analysis method……………………………………………………24
3.7.2 Qualitative analysis
method……………………………………………………...25
3.8 Analytical
framework…………………………………………………………….26
3.9 Structure of the thesis………………………………………………..…..
……….26
TIMELINE OF THE
STUDY......................................................................................27
REFERENCE...............................................................................................................29
Certification of Advisor.................................................................................................36
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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Rationale
In the history of EFL teaching, it has been statistically proven that vocabulary is an
essential core of English language education (ELE). Wilkins (1972) wrote that “. . .
while without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be
conveyed”. Obviously, if speakers do not acquire enough lexical resource, they cannot
get their meaning across and keep speeches going. Evidently, in a study on the topic
“Teaching Speaking Through Public Speaking Course”, a great number of Bangladeshi
students agreed that they were confused when delivering speeches due to poor
vocabulary (Iftakhar, 2013). In another study on the factors discouraging Thai students
in Asia-Pacific International University from speaking English outside the class, a
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descriptive quantitative method and a self-administered questionnaire were used to
collect the data in their study. The study revealed that inadequate vocabulary to speak
effectively was perceived as factors hindering students from conducting public
speaking performances successfully (Lansri, & Katenga, 2019).
With the importance of lexical resource, vocabulary retention has been a subject of
debate among educational researchers. Vocabulary retention has been delineated as the
capacity to recollect or remember information after an interlude of time has passed
(Richards & Schmidt, 2002, p. 457). However, EFL students and/or educators have
been experiencing rough time dealing with recalling a word which has been recently
used or learned, or a word which has been in student’s vocabulary for a prolonged time
but fails to come to mind when it is desirable. Actually, memorizing a range of
vocabulary is an arduous mental process for EFL learners since they are required to
simultaneouslylearn spelling, pronunciation, definition, and function.
Therefore, there have been extensive findings towards efficient methods for
vocabulary retention strategies. However, the educational environment has changed
drastically. This has resulted in a number of modifications in a range of employed
teaching-learning approaches. Moreover, the severe Covid-19 pandemic has currently
had a major negative impact on education which urges educators, researchers, material
developers and syllabus designers to deploy online learning environments more
importantly than ever. Specifically, online meaning – focused activities are considered
as an ideal waywhich students could employ to enhance their vocabulary
retentionMeaning – focused activities have been determined to generate substantial
profit on English such as“gaining content matter knowledge, skill improvement and
enjoyment” (Nation, 2001), building vocabulary (Krashen, 1989).
Accordingly, this research is important since it has deepened thorough
understanding about the beneficial effects of online meaning – focused activities on
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vocabulary retention. As a consequence, intensively exploring this research topic is a
crucial duty of foreign language educators, researchers who are intimately related to
the language learning and teaching process.
1.2 Statement of the problem
All EFL learners worldwide in general and Vietnamese EFL learners in English
schools and English centers in particular are required to develop four skills including
speaking, writing, listening, and reading for complete communication. To acquire this
set of skills, the acquisition of vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary retention
methods occupies a decisive and vital role. According to the Ministry of Education and
Training,Vietnamese twelfth-grade students need to acquire around 2,500 English
words by the end of their final high school semester (MOET, 2018). Moreover, in the
investigation into A Corpus-Based Lexial Analysis Of Vietnam’s High-Stakes English
Exam, Vu (2019) shows that from 2015 to 2018, in order to assimilate 95% of the
Vietnamese national high school graduation exam papers, students are required to
obtain 6,000 word families. One academic question needs addressing is how to
enhance students’ vocabulary retention ability. There has been considerable
undertaken research into this challenge, but they just concentrate particularly upon
high school students (Nam & Trinh, 2012), preschool learners (Thuy, 2018). To the
best of my knowledge, no studies have investigated vocabulary retention methods on
lower secondary school students. More importantly, lower secondary school education
is obviously crucial since it is a fundamental educational level. This stage provides a
basic range of educational knowledge and skills considered essential to adult life
(Nancy et al, 2011). Therefore,the present study aims to investigate eighth-grade EFL
learners at a secondary school in Bac Ninh about the capacity of vocabulary retention
improvement by employing online meaning – focused activities and identify their
attitude about this learning strategy.
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1.3 Aims and Objectives
This study aims at improving vocabulary retention byonline meaning-focused
activities in the context of eighth-grade classes of a secondary school in Bac Ninh.
1.4 Research questions
To obtain the research aim, the study addresses the following research questions:
1. How do online meaning-focused activitiescontribute to development in
vocabulary retention?
2. What are the Bac Ninh eighth-grade EFL students’ attitudes toward online
meaning-focused activities?
3. What difficulties do the teacher and students face when applying online
meaning-focused activities?
1.5 Scope of the study
Firstly,this study was conducted at a lower secondary school in Thuan Thanh
District, Bac Ninh Province.The subjects of the study included 43 male and female
eighth-grade students and a home-room teacher. In order to gain the results, the mixed-
method: quantitative and qualitative are applied.
The present study analyzes the role of online meaning – focused activities on the
vocabulary retention of the students. To this end, the study will also involve an analysis
of attitude of students toward the usage of online meaning – focused activitiesin
educational filed. The empirical study in this research is restricted to one eighth-grade
class at lower secondary school in Thuan Thanh District, Bac Ninh Province, wherein
the opinions of 43 students and a home room teacher were studied. The students were
all at the age of thirteen and had compulsorily learnt English for five years at school.
They were supposed to be equal in English proficiency of beginner level. Moreover,
the scope of the study is also restricted to select the range of vocabulary knowledge
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discussed in this research. All vocabularies employed in this thesis are from the grade-
eight English textbook. It is prepared by Vietnam Publishing House according to the
pilot English curriculum at the lower secondary level issued by the Ministry of
Education and Training under Decision No. 01/QD-BGDĐT dated January 3, 2012.
The book is compiled in a communicative way to help students develop their English
communication ability through the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and
writing. The scope of the study is restricted to select Zalo as an instant messaging
platform.One group chat is created for the class. Students are required to daily chat or
send a phrase or a sentence related to learned topics which contains already-learned
vocabularies. The study also covers the difficulties encountered during the experiment.
Therefore, the scope of this study is limited to technical obstacles, and more
specifically to those using Zalo app.
1.6 Significance of the study
This study aims to investigate the impact of online meaning – focused activities on
eighth-grade EFL students' vocabulary retention ability, teacher-student interaction and
student-to-student interaction; the attitude of the students towards online meaning-
focused activitiesin their vocabulary retention process. The researcher believes that
online meaning – focused activities positively affect the vocabulary retention
performance of English learners in general and eighth-grade students in particular.
Additionally, finding out a new vocabulary retention method could extensively
motivate learners in their educational procedure. The results of this study are likely to
support lecturers and curriculum developers in understanding why Vietnamese EFL
learners find it difficult to memorize or recall new words; and consequently, their plans
for change and improvement of the students’ vocabulary retention skills can produce
more effective results when the findings are discovered. Moreover, the study will
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suggest learners to a new retention method when they are on the journey of gaining
vast knowledge.
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Theoretical background
Although various theories support vocabulary retention, this research draws on
three intertwined studies: Mustapha, SeddiQ, Farhad, Hosain’s study (2018) that
accounts for the role of web-based language teaching on vocabulary retention, Emily,
Gayle, Ken’s study about lasting effects of learning communities (2019), and Marie’s
study (2008) that explains the retention improvement through learning communities.
Firstly, web-based language education is a platform which consists of all types of Web
resources, instruments or applications. The researchers emphasized that learners who
attempt to make use of web-based instruction to build strong connections between
words and learners can efficiently process them in long-term memory. Khazaei and
Dastjerdi (2011) came to a strong conclusion that online activities are preferred by
vocabulary learners rather than paper materials since online methods are able to
stimulate learners intellectually. Secondly, through a coding process, Emily, Gayle,
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Ken emphasized that four learning marked effects: harmonious relationships with
instructors, elaborate preparation for higher education, high-impact practices, and
intimate friendships. Among these results, the third one is theoretically most worth
applying to this research. In her conclusion, High-Impact Practices (HIPS) are practical
educational methods enhancing students’ abilities of retention and engagement.
Thirdly, Marie’s research (2008) guaranteed that learning communities could not only
create opportunities for peer coaching and learning material access but only enforce
retention since students have chances to interact with others, receive feedback, and
discuss the lessons. The more those activities are involved in their learning procedure,
the more opportunities students can improve their retention.
2.2 Literature review
In recent years, there has been a number of research studies that draw attention to the
practical importance of vocabulary retention and shed light on how to assist young
students to remember new words through online-learning platforms. In this paper,
precise definitions of vocabulary retention will be offered. Moreover, the importance of
vocabulary retention and effectiveness of online meaning-focused activities will be
explored through an in-depth analysis of qualitative and quantitative studies. These
paper findings will afford the researcher overall contexts and statistical analysis to
substantially contribute to this research success.
2.2.1 Vocabulary retention
2.2.1.1 Definitions of vocabulary retention
In order to unequivocally identify the meaning of vocabulary retention, the
researcher is going to provide a credible and comprehensive explanation of how
vocabulary and retention are defined.
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Firstly, vocabulary has been defined by experts in numerous ways. Horby (2004)
gave the explanation of vocabulary as all types of words that a person experiences and
adopts, or a list of words with its definitions in foreign language textbooks. .
Moreover, according to Hatch and Brown (1995) lexical resource is a range of words
used in both source language and target language or a range of words that every
individual exploits. They also indicated that “vocabulary is the only system involved of
alphabetical order”. Vocabulary is also described as the language proficiency in
mastering meanings of vocabulary (Hebert & Kamil, 2005). Furthermore, in the
analysis of Richards and Renandya in 2002 about Methodology in Language Teaching,
they stated that vocabulary is a principal element in language acquisition and enables
students to acquire reading, listening, reading, and writing skills. More specifically, in
production, when we have a message that we wish to deliver, we need to have an
inexhaustible store of word knowledge from which we can freely choose to convey our
individual expression. In contrast, a limited vocabulary reduces the ability to speak out,
because words, even words in thought, are the way that people generate their thoughts.
Without a large vocabulary, a person is unable to give their thoughts a voice. It is
important to be able to communicate with our own thoughts, as well as with others,
through vocabulary.
Secondly, in 2012 the authors analyzed the definition of retention as hoarding
information in long-term memory which could be freely retrieved (Bennett & Rebello,
2012). In addition, according to Daria, retention, which is explained as a complex
procedure for transferring collected information from one's short-term memory to his
long-term memory and then easily retrieving when in need, is not a novel term (2020).
Moreover, retention has been delineated as the capacity to recollect or remember
information after an interlude of time (Richards & Schmidt, 2002, p. 457). Further, it
could be described as the action of storing information continuously in mind (Heibert
& Kamil, 2005).
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Therefore, vocabulary retention is adequately explained as a capacity to retrieve
vocabulary in one’s memory (Maryam & Ahmad, 2017), or give words’ definitions
after a given period of time (Ramezanali, 2017). Xingxing in 2019 also defined this
term as a number of target words that a student could retain after one month studying.
2.2.1.2 The importance of vocabulary retention in learning foreign languages
In order to explore the importance of vocabulary retention in learning foreign
language, the paramountcy of vocabulary need realizing. Vocabulary acquisition is
absolutely imperative in profitably learning foreign languages generally and achieving
complete spoken-written text formation particularly (Laufer and Nation, 1999;
Maximo, 2000; Read, 2000; Gu, 2003; Marion, 2008; and Nation &Webb, 2011).
Rivers and Nunan (1991), moreover, demonstrated that people will not be able to apply
all the knowledge ofgrammatical structures or functions used for effective
communication without adequate vocabulary. Krashen demonstrated: ‘‘When students
travel, they don’t carry grammar books, they carry dictionaries’’(1993). Furthermore,
communication cannot facilitate in any meaningful way if there are no lexical
resources used to convey meanings (McCarthy, 1990).
2.2.1.3 Difficulties facing with vocabulary retention performance
Anugerah (2019) analyzed which difficulties in remembering vocabulary are
encountered by the seventh grade students. The study which followed a descriptive
qualitative approach investigated 30 students including 17 girls and 13 males boys and
10 women at State Junior High School 12 Mataram in Indonesia during the academic
year 2017-2018. Based on the results, up to 66.67% of the research subjects admitted
that the major obstacle in the path of remembering and recalling vocab is homophone
pronunciation. Moreover, the findings also indicated that short-term memory in
remembering English vocabulary’ spelling and definition also hinders students from
successfully achieving what they want. Moreover, anomic aphasia could be a
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convincing reason that prevents people from word retrieval (“Understanding Anomic
Aphasia: Symptoms, Treatment, & Recovery”, 2020). More specifically, people with
anomic aphasia find it hard to find the right words for oral or written communication.
2.2.1.4 Used techniques of vocabulary retention improvement
In a study on The Impact of WhatsApp on EFL students' Vocabulary Learning, 21
Arab EFL learners were required to join in the experimental group, and 19 participants
were assigned to the control group. The experimental group's participants all had a
smartphone with WhatsApp. They were well-versed in the software because they
utilized it on a regular basis.They had to construct sentences utilizing the target words
and submit them to be corrected through WhatsApp. The study revealed that the
employment of WhatsApp has statistically significant impact not only on learners’
vocabulary retention performance but also retention reinforcement Elias, 2018). This
study had shed light on the employment of digital platform which assists the researcher
to come up with ideas for this research.
A research named Intentional vocabulary learning via WhatsApp: Does the type of
input matter? Used pretests and posttests as main instruments (Kojgan, 2020). The
participants were 50 students in Khorramabd, Iran who were from at the age of 16 and
17. The teachers employ WhatsApp and wrote down the vocabulary items and
highlighted to make them stand out. They also gave synonyms and antonyms for the
terms. When students had questions, they may talk to their professors or peers.The
results demonstrated that after the first and the second postteststhe participants had not
forgotten the terms, demonstrating the effectiveness of this purposeful vocabulary
learning method.
2.2.2 Definitions of online meaning – focused activities
The research has made a great effort to define Online Meaning – Focused Activities
from its’two basic components:
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Online
The situation when an electronic device or equipment is on and linked to other devices
is considered as online. The term "online" has lately evolved to signify "connected to
the Internet". Therefore, if a person is online, it means that they are using the Internet.
Moreover, it is also an adjective which expresses all activities undertaken on the
Internet (“Online”, 2019) .
Meaning-focused activities
Numerous researchers have provided various different definitions of this term. This
research is going to name two of them. Firstly, meaning-focus activities are defined as
a method in which instead of studying or practicing a language, it heavily focus on
exchanging information(“What is Meaning-Focused Activities”, 2018). Secondly,
according toCelce-Murcia, Dornyei&Thurrell (1997), instead of frequentlyexplicitly
taught the language-learning strategies, students who involve in meaning-focused
activities are expected to figure them out on their own through extended task
involvement.
2.2.3 Previous research
In order to discover and implement the novel educational approaches or methods in
vocabulary retention improvement, many researchers have recently put more attention
on meaning-focus activities as an effective way to assist students become more
successful in improving their retention ability.
Atefeh, Hossein, Azizeh (2020) has recently conducted a study at Qazvin
University of Medical sciences and Andisheh Nou Foreign Language Institute in
Qazvin, Iran, with 280 students in order to investigate the effectiveness of audio
podcast plus still pictures and audio podcasts plus animated pictures to the retention
ability of students in a process-oriented approach in an E-learning context. With the
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employment of the quasi-experimental design, the results of the study showed that the
students who received vocabulary podcasting tasks were in favour of this method and
admitted the effectiveness of audio plus animated pictures in reaching their higher
levels of vocabulary retention.
In a research by Jafar and Mehdi (2014), the researchers aimed at determining the
linguistic influence of electronic learning (E-learning) on vocabulary learning by
Iranian EFL Learners. 61 participants including 29 males and 32 females were
involved in this study. The results of the study revealed that students’ attitudes towards
E-learning were positive. Moreover, it emphasized that E-learning had a substantial
impact on Iranian intermediate EFL students' vocabulary acquisition and retention.
In a study on the use of Kahoot – a Digital Game-Based Learning (DGBL) on
vocabulary acquisition and improvement, 60 Thai primary students at Anuban Pabon
school in Phatthalung province were divided into two groups: the experimental
groupand the control group. The study revealed that digital games directly stimulate
learning that can draw learner’s attention and attract their interest, strengthen their
motivation, and generate positive feelings leading to the success in vocabulary
retention (Tanaporn, 2019).
In another study on the Role of WhatsApp in Teaching Vocabulary to Iranian EFL
Learners at Junior High School, a mixed-method was used to collect the data in their
study. 30 male and 30 female students participated in the study. The study revealed that
the use of WhatsApp application– an E-learning method was perceived as a method
improving student’s vocabulary retention successfully (Lansri, & Katenga, 2019). They
also suggested that social network in general and mobile messaging applications such
as WhatsApp in particularly should be highly employed by instructors to promote
learning communities in order to increase their vocabulary retention performance and
communicative competence (Sanaz & Azizeh, 2016).
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In Vietnamese cozntext, Nguyen ThiHuyen Trang and Le Van Canh(2015)
conducted an action research at Phuong Dong Universityto discover the benefits of
memory tactics such as systematic reviewing, mechanical procedures, imagery, and
putting new words in contextto students' vocabulary retention. 28 first - year
studentswere chosen to do the research instruments, which were a Vocabulary
Knowledge Scale test, a interview, learners’ diaries, and a questionnaire. The findings
of the study showed that students expressed positive attitudes toward above strategies
as well as the possibility to improve their foreign learning. Another study by Nguyen
Thi Lien (2016) aimed at discovering the links between mind-mapping technique and
vocabulary retention. This study was conducted in Military Technical Academy in
Vietnam with participants of first-year students. The pre-test and post-testare the
study’s main instrument. The findings of the study revealed that students who use this
technique are reported to perceive higher performance in their vocabulary retention.
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research questions
As stated above, three research questions are formulated in the research in order to
address the issues under investigation:
1. How do online meaning-focused activitiescontribute to development in
vocabulary retention?
2. What are the Bac Ninh eighth-grade EFL students’ attitudes toward online
meaning-focused activities?
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3. What difficulties do the teacher and students face when applying online
meaning-focused activities?
3.2 Research design
In order to discover the impact of online meaning-focused activities affecting to
eight- grade student’s vocabulary retention, the research will use action research design
to conduct.
3.3 Research contexts
3.3.1 Institution
English is learnt as compulsory subject across Vietnamese educational system
from grade three to grade twelve. As a subject, English is learnt by non-English major
students for over five hours weekly. Nonetheless, it raises concerns about policy
implementation inadequacies such as a lack of learning facilities and supplies, a
scarcity of qualified instructors, outdated evaluation techniques. This research is
conducted in a secondary school in Bac Ninh whereas English is not a strength of the
students. The Board of Administration of the school is trying their best to enhance
student’s English ability with some outside activities. However, in recent years, due to
the impact of Covid 19, the school had to close for a period of time. Thus, some
activities to improve student’s English ability are limited. Therefore, for this research,
the school Administrationis willingto allow the researcher to conduct the research.
3.3.2 Participants
The subjects of the study include 43 male and female EFL learners and a home-room
teacher at lower secondary school in Thuan Thanh district, Bac Ninh province,
Vietnam. They are all at the age of thirteen and had compulsorily learnt English for
five years at school. They are living and studying in a rural area which has adverse
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economic conditions. Therefore, they have not been invested in accessing and
developing foreign language capabilities.
3.3.3 The researcher
In this study, the researcher takes the role of the one who finds the problem in the
student's vocabulary learning process. The researcher found that students had difficulty
in vocabulary retention, which led to their loss of motivation when learning
vocabulary. In addition, the researcher also acts as a companion of the students and
works closely with the homeroom teacher during the experiment to better understand
the participants’ thoughts as well as their attitudes.
1.4 Advantages and disadvantages
One main disadvantage of conducting theaction research is that the participants are
new and not close enough to the researcher to be open to sharing their thoughts
openly.Therefore, during this procedure, the researcher has to ask for a great help from
the home-room teacher to motivate students to use the online meaning-focused
activities and to help them comfortably answer the interview questions.
3.5 Data collection instruments
3.5.1 Vocabulary Tests
A series of vocabulary testsare constructed to estimate students’ knowledge. Each test
will be carried on every two weeks. It includes35 multiple-choice questions and 14 fill-
in-the blanks questions. The fifty-five vocabularies are chosen from the Vietnamese
grade-eight English textbook that students are being required to memorize throughout
the semester.Experienced EFL instructors review the exam questions as well as the
difficulty level and then give advises of some adjustments to the original test design.
The tests will be conducted by 43 students.
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3.5.2 Questionnaire
Questionnaire will be used to gather information from participants. It is seen as
one of the most important qualitative data collection methods. Since questionnaire
needs the participation of 100% of respondents to get the overall information, in order
to get maximum effectiveness of the survey questionnaire. The participants will be
asked to complete a six-item questionnaire. All the close-ended questions will follow
the five-point Likert scale from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” (1 = Strongly
disagree; 2 = Disagree; 3 = Neutral; 4 = Agree; 5 = Strongly agree).The purpose of the
questionnaire was to find out how students felt about using an online meaning-focused
activities to acquire vocabulary retention. The questionnaire is based on one of The
Impact of WhatsApp on EFL students' Vocabulary Learning which was conducted by
Elias Bensalem (2018).
3.5.3 Interview
Interview is used to acquire data on a variety of issues from a small number of
participants. In this research, the structured interview will be chosen in order to get the
information from respondents. In the interviews, the researcher and the informant talk
to acquire the experiences and perceptions of the informant in their own language.
They include discussions. The researcher prefers participants to be interviewed
individually because according to the researcher’s experience and observation, the
participants tend to be likely to be affected by their peers. Therefore, in order to avoid
this problem, individual sequential interview is the best choice. They would answer
questions about their attitude toward online meaning-focused activities and difficulties
they had to face during the experiment. The number of students interviewed will be 13
(nearly one-third% of the total participants). The interviews will be the instrument to
seek answers to both research questions 2 and 3.
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3.5.4 Journal
To answer the question no. 3, what are difficulties faced by the teacher, a teacher
journal is importantly necessary. The researcher would carefully write down all things
they could observe and figure out during the experiment. The researcher thoroughly
take note all difficulties shehas to deal with when sheare together with their students
take part in the research.
3.6 Data collection procedures
The data collection will be conducted at the beginning of December until the next
February in the academic school year 2021-2022. Firstly, the group is going to
experience the online meaning-focused activities. The researcher will keep in touch
with the home-room teacher on a daily basis and asked them for a favor to ensure that
all the participants joined in the activities. Detailed instructions are supplied to the
students to make sure that all participants are aware of what to do in the experiment. In
the next two months, two post-tests were administered to determine the impact of
online meaning-focused activities on vocabulary retention (the former is in January, the
latter is in February). In the second week of February, the researcher would spend the
first three days to collect all the data, make a brief analysis, and create detailed
questionnaires based on the score data. Then the questionnairesare delivered for
students in order to collect qualitative value. Before completing the questionnaire,
students were explained if necessary. Based on analyzing survey questionnaire data,
about 13 students will be interviewed. The teacher journal will be implement during
the research.
3.7 Data analysis
The study is aiming at improving student’s vocabulary retention though an online
learning. Based on the purpose of the study, the researcher will find the information
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underlying students’ tests, questionnaire, interview and journal. Data analysis will be
conducted in 2 ways namely qualitative and quantitative.
3.7.1 Quantitative analysis method
The data from the pretests and posttests is subjected to a t-test. To begin, a t-test was
performed to see if the differences in pretest means prior to the students was
statistically insignificant compared to the means of the posttest scores. In all statistical
studies, the p-value significance threshold was fixed at.05. The results from the post-
study questionnaire on students attitude of joining online meaning-focused activities to
acquire vocabulary retention was analyzed using descriptive statistics which are means
and standard deviations. A positive attitude is indicated by a mean score of 3.51 to 5,
whereas a neutral attitude is indicated by a mean score of 2.51 to 3.5. A negative
attitude is indicated by a score of 0 to 2.5.
The data will be analyzed by SPSS version 21.0 software packagein terms of
(mean, standard deviation and frequency) to find out the value. As mentioned above,
there are two types of data: quantitative and qualitative. The former meaning of the
mean scores were interpreted as follows:
 1-1.80: strongly disagree
 1.81-2.60:disagree
 2.61-3.40: neutral
 3.41- 4.20: agree
 4.21 – 5.00: strongly agree
In terms of the latter, the meaning of the mean scores was interpreted as follows:
 1-1.80: never
 1.81-2.60: seldom
 2.61-3.40: sometimes
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 3.41- 4.20: usually
 4.21 – 5.00: always
3.7.2 Qualitative analysis method
In qualitative method, the data is collected though open-ended questionnaire, interview,
and journal. To analyze qualitative data, the thematic analysis method would be
applied to catch the main points of the answers. Follow this analysis method, the
researcher has to tag collected data with appropriate codes, then find the main pattern
of the data before reviewing the data and conclude the findings.
3.8 Analytical framework
In order to visualize the steps that will be taken in the data analysis phase, the
researcher has drawn an analytical framework to help the reader to have a better view
of this procedure.
23

Figure 1. Analytical framework
3.9 Structure of the thesis
The research will be divided into five chapters:
Chapter 1 introduces the rationale of the study, the aims and objectives, the
research questions, the scope of the study, research questions, the definitions of the key
terms, and the significance of the study.
Chapter 2 is the literature review, presenting theoretical background, and literature
review related to vocabulary retention and online meaning-focused activities. In terms
of vocabulary retention, definitions of vocabulary, retention, vocabulary retention; the
importance of vocabulary retention in learning foreign languages; difficulties facing
with vocabulary retention performance as well as used techniques of vocabulary
retention improvement are discussed. Regarding online meaning-focused activities,
definitions of online, meaning-focused activities are adequately described. In previous
study, many studies by foreign as well as Vietnamese researchers are summarized and
discussed in brief.
Chapter 3 describes the methodology of the study including the research design,
the research participants,the data collection instruments, the data collection procedures,
the data analysis as well as the organisation of the study.
Chapter 4 supplies the presentation of results of the study by analyzing the data
collected from scores of the pretest and posttests, questionnaire and semi-structured
interview.
Chapter 5 presents the summary of the main findings of the thesis, implications of
the research, limitation of the research and recommendations for further research.
24

A series of tests
Lànsaođểnhữngyếutốkháckhôngảnhhưởngvàlàmsaohọcsinhchịuthựchiệnbàinày
STRAGTEGIES RECYLCING, TẠO CƠ HỘI ĐỂ SINH VIÊN SỬ DỤNG
VOCAB Ở NHIỀU DIFERRENT CONTEXTS
THIẾT KẾ HOATJ ĐỘNG NÀO ĐỂ GIÚP
TIMELINE OF THE STUDY
Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Research name
registration
Research
proposal
submission
Research
proposal defense
Thesis
implementation
decision
25

Qualitative
study
Main study
Data analysis
Research report
preparation
Master thesis
preparation
Thesis
submission
Thesis defense
registration
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