Word Cards: bridging the gap between student attitudes and behaviors, an action research proposal

8/2/2019 Word Cards: bridging the gap between student attitudes and behaviors, an action research proposal

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Vocabulary Word Cards: bridging the gap between student attitudes and behaviors,

an action research proposal

Introduction:

The International Course is one of the three courses available to students attending the

Osaka Campus of Clark Memorial High School. Students select their course at the end of

their first high school year and attend specialized course classes during their second and

third years. In the 2011 school year, the International Course ran a total of 11 hours of

specialized English classes per grade level per week. This roughly doubled the 5 hours of

English classes students had in their first year of high school and resulted in a high rate of

burn-out, 6 out of the 21 International Course students expressing a desire to change

courses just prior to the summer vacation, four months after classes had begun. The

actual number of students who decided to switch courses at the end of the year had

dropped to 2, but the fact still remains that a large percentage of International Course

students feel overwhelmed by the course content during their first semester within the

program. In addition, students enrolled in the International Course at Clark Memorial

International High School, are a unique population of language learners. Fully 80% of the

students have had periods of extended absenteeism during their junior high school

careers.

To determine what could be done to limit the stress students feel during their first

semester, I conducted a survey (Appendix A) of students entering the International Course

from April. The survey showed that:

- students spent on average less than two hours a week studying English outside of class

- copied sections of a text-book into their notebook as their main study method

- rarely tried to use new English grammar structures or vocabulary when interacting with

other Clark students.

- rarely studied materials outside of those specifically designated by the teacher

- less than half of the students used dictionaries when studying English and of those who

did use dictionaries, only very few identified as using them often.

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On the other hand, of the students interviewed:

- all believed that English would be important and useful in their future.

- a vast majority thought that the English they were studying now was already useful

- a majority liked English and felt that studying English was fun.

In view of the disconnect between attitudes and behaviors and the limited range of

learning/study skills of Clark students, the purpose of this action research cycle is todetermine if training students in the making of vocabulary word cards coupled with usage

of the General Service List leads to increased motivation as measured by students:

- out of class study time

- variety of learning strategies used

- time spent studying materials not directly assigned by the teacher

Rational:

In a well-balanced English program, 50% of class hours should be spent on meaning

based input and output (Nation, 2007). The IC program for the 2012 school year will

increase the number of English class hours from 11 to 14 per week. Of those 14 hours, 8

hours will be meaning based input/output classes which focus on short text work. The

texts have been chosen in part because 98% of the words fall within the Paul Nation

modified General Service list used with the Internet program VocabProfile. It is our

intention to try and provide texts in which 98% of the vocabulary will be recognized by

students, as suggested by Hu & Nation (2000). But because the text will be level

appropriate and understandable, does not mean that students should not spend time

focusing on form.

While research has shown that incidental learning of vocabulary can happen (Cho, K. &

Krashen, S. 1994), focus on form or activities which direct students' attention to a words

meaning, usage and other salient factors can also play a pivotal role in the language

acquisition process (Hulstijin 1992; Laufer 2006). In a meaning focused language class,

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this focus on form has to be, to a large extent, determined by the student. A lack of basic

study skills and adequate learning strategies coupled with a classroom structure in which

those skills are most in need, could be one of the major factors leading to high rates of

frustration during students' first semester in the International Course. In addition, lacking

a clear path towards improvement or even a clear means for autonomous studying, it

would be difficult for students to reap the benefits of resultant motivation, or the

motivation that arises from success, one of the types of motivation which can shape a

students language learning habits (Ellis, 1997, p. 75). A language learning tool which

would help students learn not only what aspect of content to focus on in a meaning based

class, but which would also provide a clear measure of progress and hence lead to higher

levels of resultant motivation would be an especially valuable resource for studentsentering the International Course.

The hypothesis is that by teaching students to use the General Service List to identify and

focus on high frequency words along with how to make and study detailed word cards

will lead to higher levels of resultant motivation and hence behaviors more aligned with

students self-reported attitudes towards English and English learning.

Literature Review:

The importance of vocabulary and the role of word cards

Beginning learners of English need anywhere between 2000 and 3000 words in order to be able

to learn vocabulary from context (Thornbury, 2002, p. 21; Nation & Waring, 1997). In addition,

for comprehension of any given text to take place, learners need to understand 98% of the

running words within said text (Hu & Nation 2000). With these numbers in mind, it becomes

clear that helping students rapidly acquire a core vocabulary is necessary in order for them to

get to the point where they have learned enough high frequency words that lower frequency

words can be learned through learning strategies such as inference (Nation and Waring). The

best way to help facilitate this process is to keep students focused on the most frequently used

words, specifically the first and second most used groups of 1000 words in English (Nation,

2003, p. 136).

The fact that students need to know vocabulary to understand meaning based input only leads to

another question, namely, what constitutes knowing a word. Ur (1996, pp. 60-62) identifies

six aspects of vocabulary which a learner should know, including form, grammar, collocations,

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word formation and various aspects of meaning. Thornbury (2002, pp. 15-16) states that, At

the most basic level, knowing a word involves knowing its form and its meaning, before going

on to point out that form and meaning include the written and spoken form, the grammatical

behavior, derivations, register of use and other a host of other aspects as well. In a similar vein,

Garnes and Redman (1986, p. 13) point out that learners must be able to recognize a words

boundaries, the line which separates its use from the use of similar words. Obviously, the sheer

amount of information which seems to be required to know a word would overwhelm most

beginning students of English. Fortunately, the process of knowing a word is incremental.

Multiple exposures to the word deepen a learners understanding of the word and further

develops the level of a learners knowing. For beginning learners especially, this process of

knowing may work best if aided by explicit learning techniques such as memorization,translation and glossing (Carter, 2001, p. 45).

While a number of learning strategies have been identified which relate to vocabulary

acquisition, one of the most frequently cited is word lists and vocabulary cards (Waring and

Nation; Moir and Nation, 2002, 2003; Schmitt & Schmitt, 1995). Vocabulary cards, while a

leaning strategy in and of themselves can also be seen as a tool for the use of a wide range of

other learning strategies and, the best teaching plan may be to introduce students to a variety of

learning strategies and techniques and let them decide for themselves which ones they prefer

(Schmitt & Schmitt, p. 137). Vocabulary cards can be used at further spaced intervals, allowing

for greater memory retention and the use of distributed practicing or spacing (Thornbury, p. 24)

They can be reviewed before engaging in conversation in order to actively use recently used

words, active use of new vocabulary being another learning strategy of effective vocabulary

learners (Moir and Nation, Schmitt & Schmitt). In short, well-designed vocabulary cards which

allow students the chance to implement a wide array of learning strategies could be an integral

component of meaning based International Course classes.

Proposed Methodology:

Students within the International Course will be taking 8 hours of a meaning-based input/output

classes per week. During the first semester, students will be introduced to the General Service

List and a word card making strategy. The General Service List will be provided to the students

in paper form and in alphabetical as opposed to frequency order. When students encounter a

word which they do not recognize during text work, they will be required to look the word up

on the GSL. If the word does not appear on the GSL, they are free to look it up in their

dictionary. If the word does appear in the GSL, they will be directed to make a word card based

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on the format below:

Sample word card: Front

1. Word card number (to keep track of how many cards a student has made)

2. Word, written in partial information form to aid memory, including stress markers and

phonetic script

3. Word category: students try to identify categories into which the word can be placed, from a

simple + or -, to color, use, or even part of speech

4. Sentence as transcribed from text using read/think/write technique

5. Sentence converted into a yes/no question

6. W-question using word.

7. Original sentence using word.

These 7 steps to making the front of a word card will be introduced over the course of the first

four weeks of classes. Students will not be required to complete all the steps of the card. They

will also not be required to do the steps in any particular order. As recommended by Schimtt

and Schmitt, students will be allowed to explore for themselves which learning strategies work

best for them. They will be allowed to build on the word card as often as they like, both inside

and outside of class. At the end of each class, students will be given time to collect stickers

from the teacher and place them on the appropriate areas of their word cards. The back of the

word card will simply consist of the word's meaning in Japanese. If students wish, they might

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(1)14

(2) c _ f f _ e Y

(4) My mother always drinks coffee in the morning. B

(5) Does your mother drink coffee in the morning? G

(6) Why dont you like coffee? R

(7) I have never drank Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee. O

(7)8

(3) positive / thing / drink / hot / black BL


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also add an image or a picture pasted to the card as well to assist in memorizing the word.

Sticker System

Y = yellow sticker

BL = black sticker

B = blue sticker

G = Green sticker

R = red sticker

O = orange sticker

The sticker system is used to keep track of what kinds of information students have added to

each card. It will serve as both a data collection point and as a means for students to come to a

better understanding of which learning strategies help them to best learn a word. The sticker

system is used in tandem with the Weekly Word Sheet.

Weekly Word Sheet

At the end of the week, students complete the weekly word sheet, write any memorized words

on their master word sheet in their notebooks, and turn in the weekly word sheet to the teacher.

Card # Vocabulary word Y BL B G R O Times Studied Out of Class

14 Coffee X X X 8

15 Announce X X X X

16 Island X X X 6

Totals 3 3 2 3 1 1 14

The teacher collects the weekly word sheet and memorized cards from students. Memorized

cards go into the class word box to be used in fluency practice exercises. The Weekly Word

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Sheet is checked by teacher to keep track of student progress and returned on the following

Monday for students to glue into their notebooks.

Data Collection:

I. Weekly Word Sheets: Over the course of the 12 week semester, Weekly Word Sheets will be

collected each Friday. Weekly Word Sheet data will be entered into a spreadsheet format each

week. Each student will have their own spreadsheet to keep track of number of vocabulary

words learned, number of times the word was practiced out of class, and the learning techniques

used to remember each word.

II. Closed Multiple Choice Student Questionnaire (to be given three times, at the

beginning of the semester, after 6 weeks, and at the end of the semester): Used to collect

information about students' vocabulary study habits and attitudes towards vocabulary learning.

(Appendix A)

III. Vocabulary Cards: The cards themselves will provide crucial qualitative data. The density

of the sentences, vocabulary used, grammatical structures, variety of categories, will all provide

important information regarding students' level of engagement in the word card making process.

In addition, while vocabulary cards will only be required for words found within the texts used

within the meaning based input/output classes, students will be asked to turn in all word cards

made and memorized over the course of the week. Word cards of vocabulary not contained

within the meaning based class texts will serve as an important measure of students motivation

level.

IV. GSL Use Check sheet: The teacher will use a simple tally sheet to track the number of

times each student references the GSL during class. The difficulty level of the materials over

the course of the first semester are designed to remain constant. This being the case, as students

increase their vocabulary, the number of times they need to refer to the GSL should arguably

decrease over the course of the semester. If making the word cards leads to a higher level of

motivation, than we might actually expect to see the inverse of this and a net increase in GSL

use as the semester prorgresses.

Data Analysis:

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Using statistical software, we will look for a correlation between students use of GSL, variety of

leaning strategies employed, and timebased on number of practice sessionsspent studying

vocabulary out of class and how these factors influence and are influenced by student attitudes.

In addition, special attention will be paid to changes of attitudes in regards to English. Data

collection will be completed with the last student survey completed during the last class period

of the semester on July 27, 2012. Data input and analysis will be completed by August 13,

2012.

Presentation Format:

Currently, the International Course in a 14 class hour per week format will be implemented inthree schools throughout Japan. In addition to the Osaka Campus, the program will be run in

two schools in the Tokyo area. After the Data has been analyzed, it will be written up in formal

academic style and presented at the Clark International Course In-Service to be held at the end

of August, 2012 for all teachers involved in the International Course.

References

Nation, I.S.P. (2007) The four strands.Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching1,

1: 1-12.

Hu, M. & Nation, P. (2000) Unknown Vocabulary Density and Reading Comprehension.

Reading in a Foreign Language, 13 (1), 403-430.

Cho, K.-S. & Krashen, S. (1994) Acquisition of vocabulary from the Sweet Valley Kids

Series: adult ESL acquisition.Journal of Reading37, 662-667

Moir, J. & Nation, I.S.P. (2002) Learners use of strategies for effective vocabulary

learning. Prospect, 17 (1), 15-35.

Nation, I.S.P. (2003) Vocabulary. In D. Nunan (ed)Practical English Language Teaching.

New York: McGraw Hill. 129-153.

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http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/staff/Publications/paul-nation/2007-Four-strands.pdfhttp://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/staff/Publications/paul-nation/2007-Four-strands.pdf


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Schmitt, N. & Schmitt, D. (1995) Vocabulary notebooks: theoretical underpinnings and

practical suggestions. ELT Journal, 49 (2), 133-143.

Nation, I.S.P & Waring, P. (1997) Vocabulary size, text coverage and word lists. In N.

Schmitt & M. McCathy (eds) Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition,and Pedagogy.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hulstijn, J.H. (1992) Retention of Inferred and Given Word Meanings: Experiments in

Incidental Vocabulary Learning. In P.J.L Arnaud & H. Bejoint (eds) Vocabulary and

Applied Linguistics. London: Macmillan, 1992. 113-125

Ur, P. (1996)A course in language teaching: practice and theory. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.

Gairns, R. & Redman, S. (1986) Working with words: a guide to teaching and learning

vocabulary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Thornbury, S. (2002)How to Teach Vocabulary. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.

Ellis, R. (1997) Second Language Acquisition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Carter, R. (2001) Vocabulary. In R. Carter and D. Nunan (Eds) The Cambridge Guide to

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University

Press.

Laufer, B. (2006) Comparing Focus on Form and Focus on FormS in Second-Language

Vocabulary Learning. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 63 (1), 149-166.

(Appendix A)

1. When you find an unknown word in a text, do you mark it so you can study

it again later?

Almost Never Rarely Sometimes Usually Almost Always

2. When you find an unknown word in a text, do try and infer the meaning by

the other words in the sentence?

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3. When you find an unknown word in a text, do you look up the meaning in

your dictionary?


4. Do you ever check new vocabulary words against the General Service List


5. When you find an unknown word in a text, do you make a vocabulary card?


6. Do you ever check the pronunciation of the word against the phonetic

spelling?


7. Do you actively try and use new vocabulary words in conversation?


8. Do you ever quiz other students on vocabulary words?


9. Do you feel that your studying of vocabulary is useful to your English

language skills development?


10. Do you feel that your studying of vocabulary is useful to your English

language skills development?


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Word Cards: bridging the gap between student attitudes and behaviors, an action research proposal