HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF ENGLISH
 

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH PAPER

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DICTATION METHOD TO IMPROVE
ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT THE
FACULTY OF ENGLISH, HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

(TÍNH HIỆU QUẢ CỦA PHƯƠNG PHÁP DICTATION NÂNG CAO

TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG ANH CHO SINH VIÊN NĂM NHẤT TẠI KHOA
TIẾNG ANH, TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC MỞ HÀ NỘI)

                   

 
 
                          Full name: Đào Thu Phương
Date of birth: 11/07/2003
                          Field: English Language
                          Supervisor:   …………...
 
                 

Hanoi – 2022

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 DECLARATION
Title: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF DICTATION METHOD TO IMPROVE
ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT THE
FACULTY OF ENGLISH, HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY

I certify that no part of the above report has been copied or reproduced by me since
the report was originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor.

Student Supervisor

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis would not have been completed without the help, encouragement and
support of a number of people who all deserve my sincerest gratitude and
apprehension.
First, I would like to devote my deepest thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Nguyen Van A,
who not only put up with my calls for help, but also read and commented on various
portions of the manuscript.
My special thanks also go to all the teachers of the Faculty of English, Hanoi Open
University, who have given me much help during my study at the University.
Finally, thanks are dedicated to my family who are always willing to help me
overcome every trouble I have got during the time I am fulfilling the study.

 
 

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 1. Introduction
1.1.Rationale
With the tendency of globalization and the frequent exchanges of culture and politics
among countries, English, as a worldwide accepted language, becomes more and more
important. The fact that more foreigners are coming into and more Chinese are going abroad
to study, to a large extent, enhances people’s enthusiasm and eagerness to improve their
English language abilities.

As we know vocabulary is of primary concern in any second language setting, so as the

English. English study involves the study of speech sounds, grammar and vocabulary.
Vocabulary has proved particularly important and certainly the most important. Engels once
said that vocabulary was basement of language. Linguist Stalin also pointed out that
vocabulary is the building material of language and the basis of many communication
abilities, such as reading, listening, writing and spoken language. One individual can only
express little meaning with grammar. However, nothing can be expressed without
vocabulary. The requirements of College English states that the purpose of college English
is to develop students’ comprehensive ability to use English, especially their listening and
speaking abilities, so as to enable them to effectively carry out oral or written
communications in their future work and social interaction, and meanwhile enhance their
ability of independent learning and students’ comprehensive cultural accomplishment.
Therefore, this purpose will never be realized unless the students can memorize certain
vocabulary. According to the new requirements, students should master 5,500 words and
1200 phrases, which indicate that vocabulary learning has been the key to learn English.
However, most first-year students in our English faculty, Ha Noi Open University, have not
laid a solid basis for English learning and the biggest obstacle for them is the poor
vocabulary, which has encumbered the improvement of interpersonal skills and their
listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities. In other words, it has been a bottleneck for
the students’ English learning. With respect to words memory, although they have spent lots
of time on it, little success has been made. What’s worse, few students have found an
effective way to memorize English words. Therefore, how to memorize the English words,
the most boring but also the most basic and important things in English learning, and enrich
vocabulary in a short time has been a difficult problem.
There are several common problems in present English vocabulary learning, such as (1) the
students are unable to understand so many grammar knowledge and use them in English
listening, speaking, reading and writing; (2) the repetition frequencies of the same words are
so low that students cannot memorize the words they have learned; (3) vocabulary does not
distinguish common words from uncommon words, which makes students bear more burden
to memorize the vocabulary; (4) present vocabulary learning lacks logics and does not
reveal the regularity of English words. Therefore, with the aim of solving the problems in
vocabulary learning and helping the students find an effective way to enrich their
vocabulary. As a means to test vocabulary, dictation method is demonstrated to be effective.
And a comparison experiment about dictation method was made between two classes, grade
2008, majoring in gemology and telecom respectively since March, 2009, so as to enrich
students’ vocabulary through the dictation method.
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study
The study is executed with the aim to improve English vocabulary for the first-year
students at the FOE, HOU.

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 The research objectives of the study are:
- To find out the causes of difficulties affecting first-year students' skills at the FOE,
HOU.
- Provide the theories that support the dictation method and the effective strategies for
applying it.

1.3. Scope of the study

This research focuses on

finding out the primary
factors that affect the
condition and the performance
of car engines. Recent studies
and researches will
be used as reference in finding
out what affects the condition
and performance of
different kinds of car engines.
The study will focus on the
car engines as a whole
and not on its individual parts.
5
This research will not extend
to the advanced factors that
affect engine
condition and performance,
such as, the complex parts
of the engine and the
special features car
manufacturers put in their
engine design. However, the
basic
structure of the design of the
engine will be covered. It will
also show the relation
of the factors with one
another.

6
 This research focuses on
finding out the primary
factors that affect the
condition and the performance
of car engines. Recent studies
and researches will
be used as reference in finding
out what affects the condition
and performance of
different kinds of car engines.
The study will focus on the
car engines as a whole
and not on its individual parts
 
 This study focuses on the effects of dictation method in first-year students. The data
collection will be conducted to 10% of the total population in the first-year students at the
faculty of English, Hanoi Open University who will represent the population. The other
students which do not fall as part of first-year students are not within the scope of this
research. The study would be done through the utilization of questionnaire to the students as
a survey and reference. By their strategy the researchers will be able to know the
effectiveness of dictation method for the first-year students.

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1.4. Questions of the study
The study will provide answers to the following questions:
1. Why English vocabulary is very important?
2. What are the problems of acquiring new vocabulary facing the first-year students at FOE,
HOU?
3. What methods help students to overcome difficulties in learning vocabulary?

1.5. Methods of the study

In order to achieve the objective of the study, the researcher will use a test to collect the
data. The study adopted descriptive and analytic method to analyze the data obtained. The
population of the study was first- year students at FOE, HOU.

1.6. Design of the study

In order to evaluate the students’ progress, this experiment plans two tests which use the
same test paper. The test paper contains 100 words and requires the students to choose the
right meanings from the options for the given words (one point per word). The students
should finish the test paper in 15 minutes. And the experiment will take the average score as
data analysis. In addition, the first test should be done one week before the beginning of the
experiment so as to define the overall difference between these two classes. Two months
after the end of the experiment, the students take the second test, with the aim of
determining the effect of this mode.

- This research focuses on finding out the primary factors that affect
the
- condition and the performance of car engines. Recent studies and
researches will
- be used as reference in finding out what affects the condition and
performance of
- different kinds of car engines. The study will focus on the car engines as
a whole
- and not on its individual parts.
- This research will not extend to the advanced factors that affect
engine
- condition and performance, such as, the complex parts of the
engine and the
- special features car manufacturers put in their engine design. However,
the basic
- structure of the design of the engine will be covered. It will also show
the relation
- of the factors with one another.
2. Literature review
2.1. An overview of previous studies
In the early days of the Grammar Translation Method (the beginning of the nineteenth
century), the primary aim of foreign language study was to learn a language in order to read
its literature or to benefit from its mental discipline and intellectual development. Grammar

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was taught deductively and then practiced through translation studies. There was, however,
no systematic way of choosing and teaching vocabulary items. They were taught through
bilingual word lists, dictionary study, memorization, and their translation equivalents. Little
attention was paid to the context in which they were used and the examples and sentences
chosen to practice them bore no relation to the language of real communication. Having 7
learned a new grammatical rule, the learner was expected to practice it through translation
exercises from the native language into the foreign language or vice versa, using, when
necessary, word lists or dictionaries. The main emphasis was on the recognition of written
words and the production of written translations. The learners were mostly unable to speak
or understand natural speech in the foreign language even after studying for five or six
years. Later on, the same shortcoming was also ascribed to the Reading Method developed
by West in the late 1920s after the publication of Coleman report. The objective of this
method, as the name suggests, was to develop reading abilities and a distinction was made
between intensive and extensive reading skills in the foreign language. Systematic building
of vocabulary was considered central and frequency count was used to develop basic word
lists. Students were encouraged to infer the words from the context or from the cognates in
their own language. They, however, developed passive vocabulary Chastain, (1976); Rivers,
(1981); Stern, (1983); Larsen-Freeman, (2003); Richards and Rodgers, (2003). Oppositions
towards Grammar Translation Method complemented with increased opportunities for
communication laid the foundation for the development of new ways of language teaching
Richards and Rodgers, (2003). During the first quarter of the century and in the late 1950s,
respectively, two distinct methods, namely Direct Method and Audiolingual Method, to
foreign-language teaching gradually developed to provide a remedy for the state of affairs
where foreign-language learners were unable to produce and comprehend foreign-language
speech. The Direct Method was based on inductive rather than deductive learning,
advocating learning a new language through direct association of words and phrases with
objects and actions and development of the ability to think 8 in the language. The use of the
native language was not tolerated in the classroom, and translation as a teaching technique
was strictly forbidden. Concrete vocabulary was taught through mime, demonstrations, and
pictures. Abstract vocabulary, on the other hand, was taught by association of ideas. Only
every day vocabulary was taught. It had its own problems. It needed proficient teachers and
mimicked L1 learning, but did not consider the differences between L1 and L2 acquisition

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Rivers, (1981); Schmitt, (2002) ; Richards and Rodgers, (2003, p. 89-94). American
structuralism gave vocabulary its lowest status in the literature of language teaching.
Systematic attention was paid to the teaching of pronunciation and sentence patterns
through intensive oral drills. Vocabulary; however, was kept to its minimum to make the
drills possible Celce-Murcia, 2001; Richards and Rodgers, (2003, p. 93). The Audiolingual
Method, on the other hand, originated from the Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP)
initiated during World War II in the United States, and possessed elements traceable both to
American structuralism and to behaviorist psychology Newton, 1979; Chastain, 1976. As
indicated in its name, this approach, like the Direct Method, concentrated largely on
listening and speaking skills. The techniques used to produce correct language habits in the
learners were, above all, oral imitation, memorization, and drills. Vocabulary teaching,
however, was kept to a useful minimum so that the students may concentrate on establishing
a firm control of structures. It was assumed that exposure to language itself would lead to
vocabulary learning, so no clear method of vocabulary teaching was spelled out Rivers,
1981; Schmitt, 2002b; LarsenFreeman, 2003; Richards and Rodgers, (2003).In 1950s
Chomsky attacked the underlying theories of both behavioral psychology and American
structuralism and brought about a revolutionary change in linguistic theory. 9 His
transformational generative approach recognized language as a rule governed system Stern,
(1983, 98). Learning a language, accordingly, involved internalizing the rules Saporta,
(1966: 86). Vocabulary, however, was afforded more importance, but the focus was on rule
acquisition and vocabulary was still held secondary Celce-Murcia, (2001, p. 3-10). The
cognitive approach to foreign-language teaching, which developed in the late 1960s, had,
broadly speaking, the same teaching aims as the Audio-lingual Method. Introduced by
Carroll (1966), who was the first to describe a cognitive theory of language teaching, it
combined elements from the Grammar Translation Method and an updated Direct Method
with those of contemporary cognitive psychology. In the words of Chastain, who makes use
of the competence/performance distinction introduced by Chomsky in 1965, the learner is
seen as consciously acquiring competence in a meaningful manner as a necessary
prerequisite in the acquisition of the “performance skills” Chastain (1976: p.146, p.89-94).
The “necessary prerequisite,” in Chastain’s terms, equaled a firm knowledge of the
grammatical rules of the foreign language. After that, however, new sounds, structures, and
vocabulary were given equal importance. Here was, in fact, a renewed interest in

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vocabulary, especially as far as the expansion of vocabulary knowledge for reading
purposes was concerned. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the introduction and elaboration of
the concept of communicative competence first referred to by Hymes, (1971, p. 148-168) as
opposed to Chomsky’s “linguistic competence”, had a widespread influence on the
development of foreign-language teaching. Hymes rejected Chomsky's linguistic
competence as being very restricted and introduced his own notion of communicative
competence which he believed was much broader and incorporated sociolinguistic and
contextual competence as well as grammatical competence Hadley,(2003). 10 Once again
vocabulary was given secondary position and was introduced to support functional use of
language Schmitt,(2000). Such communicative approaches to foreign-language teaching
were often learner-centered in nature, and stressed the importance of learning through the
use of the foreign language. They generally aimed at providing learners with opportunities
to interact with one another and the teacher in as “natural” situations as possible"
Widdowson, 1978; Brumfit and Johnson, (1979, 56). Examples of such “new thought” in
language pedagogy are Curran’s Community Language Learnin Liu, Jun, (2002, 51-70)g,
Gattegno’s The Silent Way(1972), and Lozanov’s Suggest opedia Doggett, Gina , (1989 :
87). Very promising results for vocabulary learning have been reported with Suggest opedia
in particular, which combines the conscious and the unconscious in learning by making
maximum use of the capacity of the brain (Larsen-Freeman, 2003; Richards and Rodgers,
2003).By the late 1980s and early 1990s ,however, vocabulary gained its status in language
teaching and learning due to computer- aided research which provided scholars with the
opportunity to analyze lexical items in different corpora, and psycholinguistics studies
which gave them insights concerning mental processes involved in vocabulary learning
Celce-Murcia, (2001: 286). "Evidence from large corpora(language databases) shows that
there is more lexical patterning than ever imagined, and that much of what was previously
considered grammar is actually constrained by lexical choices" Schmitt, (2002b:14).

2.2 Theoretical framework

Vocabulary can be defined as '' words we must know to communicate effectively; words in
speaking (expressive vocabulary) and words in listening (receptive vocabulary)''. Hornby (1995)
defines vocabulary as ''the total number of International Journal of Teaching and Education Vol. III,
No. 3 / 2015 24 words in a language; vocabulary is a list of words with their meanings”. However, a
new item of vocabulary may be more than just a single word: for example, post office, and mother-

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in-law, which are made up of two or three words but express a single idea. A useful convention is to
cover all such cases by talking about vocabulary "items “rather than "words. Furthermore, Diamond
and Gutlohn Eliah, K., and K. Suma Kiran, (2006, p. 9) in www.readingrockets.org/article state that
vocabulary is the knowledge of words and word meanings.” From the definitions above, it can be
concluded that vocabulary is the total number of words that are needed to communicate ideas and
express the speakers' meaning. That is the reason why it is important to learn vocabulary. Kinds of
Vocabulary Some experts divide vocabulary into two types: active and passive vocabulary. Harmer
Hernawati, M., (1991, p.201-215) distinguishes between these two types of vocabulary. The first
type of vocabulary refers to the one that the students have been taught and that they are expected to
be able to use. Meanwhile, the second one refers to the words, which the 6 students will recognize
when they meet them, but which they will probably not be able to pronounce. Haycraft, quoted by
Hatch and Brown ANI, MOFAREH ALQAH, (1995, p. 21-34), indicate two kinds of vocabulary,
namely receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary. a. Receptive Vocabulary Receptive
vocabulary is words that learners recognize and understand when they are used in context, but
which they cannot produce. It is vocabulary that learners recognize when they see or meet in
reading text but do not use it in speaking and writing Stuart Webb, (2009). b. Productive
Vocabulary Productive vocabulary is the words that the learners understand and can pronounce
correctly and use constructively in speaking and writing. It involves what is needed for receptive
vocabulary plus the ability to speak or write at the appropriate time. Therefore, productive
vocabulary can be addressed as an active process, because the learners can produce the words to
express their thoughts to others Stuart Webb, (2005, p. 91-120). International Journal of Teaching
and Education Vol. III, No. 3 / 2015 253.

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