VINH UNIVERSITY

FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT

AN APPLICATION OF TASK BASE LANGUAGE

TEACHING TO IMPROVE HIGH SCHOOL
STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY RANGE

Student’s name: ĐẬU THÙY DUNG

Supervisor: NGUYỄN THỊ VÂN LAM

Nghe An – 2021
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION....................................................................................1

1. Rationale.................................................................................................1

2. Objectives of the study..........................................................................2

3. Research Questions................................................................................2

4. Research Methods..................................................................................3

5. Scope of the study..................................................................................3

6. Structure of the Study...........................................................................4

II. A Brief Introduction of the thesis paper’s contents..............................5

1. Review of related definition and Previous Studies.............................5

1.1. Definition of Vocabulary.................................................................5

1.2. Definition of Task-based learning method....................................6

1.3. Summary of the studies working on teaching Vocabulary..........6

2. Chapter of Methodology.......................................................................6

2.1. Research Question...........................................................................7

2.2. Subject of the Research...................................................................7

2.3. Research Procedure.........................................................................7

2.4. Research Instrument.......................................................................7

3. Chapter of Findings and Discussions...................................................8

3.1. Data and Results of the Pre-test.....................................................8

3.2. Data and Results of the Post-test....................................................8

3.3. Data and Analysis from the Questionnaires..................................8

3.4. Data and Analysis from the Interviews.........................................8

 4. Chapter of Conclusion...........................................................................9

4.1. Recapitulation....................................................................................9

4.2. Concluding Remarks.........................................................................9

4.3. Implications........................................................................................9

4.4. Limitations and Suggestions for Further Studies...........................9

III. Expected timeline for the thesis paper.................................................10

IV. References...............................................................................................11
I. INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
In today’s global world, the importance of English cannot be
denied and ignored. It has been playing a major role in many sectors
including medicine, engineering, education, aviation, etc. It is the
language of science and technology and the official language in a large
number of countries. English language, therefore, is believed to be used
to access to every field of life. It is English that is used to communicate
internationally.
In acquiring a foreign language, vocabulary plays a crucial part. It
is one element that links the four skills (speaking, listening, reading and
writing) all together. Talking about the importance of vocabulary, the
linguist David Wilkins. D. A. (1972) argued that: "without grammar
little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed".
Indeed, people need to use words in order to express themselves in any
language. In order to communicate well in a foreign language, anyone
should acquire an adequate number of words and should know how to
use them accurately.
Before 1970, little attention was paid to vocabulary teaching and
learning. It means that teaching vocabulary was just considered an
addition to teaching grammar or simply a by-product of language
teaching and communicative functions. Those four traditional skills
don’t take into account the other skills necessary for language
development. However, some scholars of language acquisition no
longer talk about the four language skills, but nine skills. These other
five skills are vocabulary, spelling, grammar, pronunciation and study
skills. Therefore, the role of vocabulary knowledge has been
recognized by theorists and researchers since 1990.

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 Besides, in my experience as a teacher of English, I noticed that
my students usually find it difficult to speak English fluently. They
usually consider speaking and writing activities (productive skills)
exhausting because they keep on using the same words and
expressions, so very soon their conversation is abruptly interrupted due
to missing words. For the same reason, their receptive skills: listening
and reading are not good either. The main reason for such problems is
the lack of vocabulary. Other students are faced with the problem of
forgetting the words right after the teacher has elicited their meaning or
after having looked them in the dictionary. This is also a cause of the
lack of vocabulary.
In the context of our contemporary society that are being affected
considerably by the COVID-19 Pandemic, the demand for both
teachers and students to have a novel and efficient method of teaching
and learning is more necessary than ever. Both students and teachers
need a learning method which is applicable and easy to implement due
to the geographical and economic situation of students in the local area
where the researcher carry out the research. As a matter of fact, task-
based language teaching method will be chosen for this thesis paper.
Recognizing the importance of vocabulary, I myself understand
that the teacher has an essential role in helping students to improve
their vocabulary. To the best of my knowledge, there have not been any
studies concerning task-based method in vocabulary teaching carried
out before. Therefore, the author of the present study, being a teacher of
English, has decided to conduct a study named “An application of
Task-based Language teaching to improve High school students’
vocabulary range”. The findings of the study, if done well, would be
original.
2. Objectives of the study
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 The objectives of the study are to research the effectiveness of the
task-based learning method into improving students’ vocabulary and
also find out their opinions in learning vocabulary and the relationship
between the use of vocabulary learning strategies and the application of
task-based learning method.
In order to establish a theoretical framework for the investigation
in this thesis, the literature on language task-based learning method
strategies, vocabulary learning and related issues is reviewed.
3. Research Questions
The objectives of the study can be elaborated into the research
questions as follows:
 What are the 10th graders’ perceptions of activities to help improve
their english vocabulary?
 To what extend can Task-based Language Teaching help these students
improve their vocabulary?
4. Research Methods
The purpose of this research is to find out whether the task-based
learning method technique has any positive effects on the 10th graders’
improvement and retention of vocabulary and explore the students’
attitude toward this technique. Besides, I myself - the researcher -
would like to improve my students' learning skill and my professional
performance. Therefore, the classroom action research design is used in
this study since it is the problem of my own students. It is hoped to be a
practical action research because its purpose is to research a specific
school situation with a view toward improving practice, to focus
narrowly on a specific problem and to be undertaken by an individual
teacher within a high school.

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 To achieve the objectives and address the two research questions,
both qualitative and quantitative methods will be exploited in this
action research. Particularly, fifty students from two different classes
will be given a pre-test of vocabulary to examine their vocabulary
range and their English competence. After that, the test’s results will be
used to be an evidence to divide students into 2 groups of twenty-five,
which are called English in a classroom setting Control Group (Group
1) and Experimental Group (Group 2). The students in the Control
Group will still continue to study as normal with the course book while
Group 2 will be supplemented with task-based learning method
procedures. After a three-week course; all of the students in both
groups will take part in a post-test of vocabulary to evaluate their
outcome; as well as an interview to find out their attitudes towards
task-based learning method.
5. Scope of the study
The study will be designed to investigate the students’ attitude
towards task-based learning method and how it will improve their
vocabulary range which are employed by the students of Quy Hop 3
High School. It also finds out the differences in the use of task-based
learning method among groups of students in comparison with those
who do not participate in this method. The findings obtained from this
study will be to help enhance teaching and learning English in general
and teaching and learning English vocabulary in particular at Quy Hop
3 High School.
6. Structure of the Study
In addition to the references and appendices, the thesis is
composed of five chapters:
 CHAPTER 1: Introduction

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 CHAPTER 2: Literature Review
 CHAPTER 3: Methodology
 CHAPTER 4: Findings and Discussions
 CHAPTER 5: Conclusion

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II. A Brief Introduction of the thesis paper’s contents
1. Review of related Definition and Previous Studies
Vocabulary is an essential building block of language because it is
the element that links the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and
writing all together. In order to overcome the challenges of specialized
usage of vocabulary, learners need to be taught and learn about the
definition and different types of vocabulary, their usage, and specific
methods that will help them acquire vocabulary.
1.1. Definition of Vocabulary
It can be understood that vocabulary is words are useful in all skill
in English, even in productive and receptive forms. It shows that
vocabulary is the key to achieve all skills and it the basic unit in a
language.
Harmer (1991, p.153) indicated that “If language structures make
up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital
organs and the flesh”. Understanding a word means being able to do
thing with it: to recognize it in connected speech or in print, to access
its meaning, to pronounce it and to be able to do these things within
fraction of a second (Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986).
Other researchers have another viewpoint of vocabulary. Young
(2009) defines vocabulary in four ways: the meaning of words, how the
words are used, root words, prefixes, suffixes and analogies. While
Hornby (1974:959) defines vocabulary in three ways: total number of
words (with rules for combining them) which make up a language,
range of words known to a person and containing a list of words with
definition or translation.
To summarize, vocabulary is the total number of all the words that
a language possesses including single words, two or three words items
expressing single idea and multi-word idioms of which meaning cannot
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 be deduced from the analysis of the component words but only
understood in the sentences; or in contexts, etc.
1.2. Definition of Task-based learning method
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic; students have to stay at
home and study online, the concept of task-based learning method has
been mentioned more regular than ever. However, it was around the
beginning of the 21st century that some people started to do some
research and application on task-based learning method. Graham
(2006) defined Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is “The
application of genuine language to accomplish meaningful tasks in the
target language.” Such tasks can include visiting a friend, carrying out
an interview, or asking customer service for support. Evaluation of the
utterance is primarily based on task outcome (the suitability completion
of real-world tasks) rather than on precision of prescribed language
forms.
In our contemporary society, the use of the term task-based
learning method can be understand that it is the involvement of a
combination between Internet and digital media with established
classroom forms that require the physical co-presence of teacher and
learners. (Friesen, 2012).
1.3. Summary of the studies working on teaching Vocabulary
Undeniably, Task-based learning is a popular but new teaching
technique not just only in Vietnam but also all over the word.
Accordingly, there are several studies chose Task-based learning
techniques as the topic for their research, not only in Vocabulary skills
but also in other skills. In a more boarded perspective, it can be found
that the study “The Use of Task-based learning to Develop Writing
Skills in UAE Schools” by Naqbi showed the fact that Task-based
learning can be able to have an effect on students’ abilities not only into
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 organize and arrange their arguments for writing tasks. Moreover,
applying the method of Task-based learning in teaching can assist the
improvement of the cognition skills of students and help the process of
information recovery of learners in a situation of evaluation.
2. Chapter of Methodology
This chapter will provide details about the setting of the study as
well as the methodology which the author implement to carry out the
research. Particularly; the author will present the research questions;
the subjects that the study are aiming at; the procedure and the
instrument of the research that will be carried out in the study.
In order to fully present all the parts in this Chapter; the author
will mention and analyze them follow the following order:
2.1. Research Question
2.2. Subject of the Research
2.3. Research Procedure
2.4. Research Instrument
2.4.1. Pre-test
2.4.2. Post-test
2.4.3. Questionnaire
2.4.4. Interview

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3. Chapter of Findings and Discussions
The chapter of Findings and Discussions is all regarded as the
most important one in the thesis paper due to the fact that it presents all
analysis and results of the research that the author spend time and effort
to find out. The results of the research will be used as a foundation so
that the research questions will be fully answered persuasively and
logically.
The Chapter of Findings and Discussions will be presented with
these following parts:
3.1. Data and Results of the Pre-test
3.2. Data and Results of the Post-test
3.3. Data and Analysis from the Questionnaires
3.4. Data and Analysis from the Interviews

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4. Chapter of Conclusion
The final part of the thesis paper is often called the Conclusion
Chapter, because after all findings and discussions, the Conclusion
Chapter is the one which provide recapitulation of all theoretical basis
that the author mentioned previously and the summary of all data
analysis. Moreover, the Chapter of Conclusion also mentions
outstanding features and implications made from the thesis and
research’s result; which is necessary for the answer of the research
questions. The author of the thesis paper also mentions limitations and
suggestions for further studies.
From above-mentioned words, it can be seen that there will be at
least four parts that will be included in the Conclusion chapter,
including:
4.1. Recapitulation
4.2. Concluding Remarks
4.3. Implications
4.4. Limitations and Suggestions for Further Studies

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III. Expected timeline for the thesis paper

Expected
No. Contents Note
finished time

1 Design and finish Research Proposal 10/2021

3 Research Proposal Defense 11/2021

4 Theoretical Basis Research 12/2021

5 Literature Review 1/2022

6 Data Collection 1/2022 – 3/2022

7 Writing First Draft 3-2022

8 Writing Final Draft 5/2022

9 Thesis Defense 7/2022

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IV. References
 Friesen, N. (2012) Report: Defining Blended, [Online],
Available:http://learningspaces.org/papers/Defining_Blended_Learning
_NF.pdf [22 Sep 2014]
 Graham, C. R. (2006) Task-based learning method systems: definition,
current trends, and future directions, C. J. Bonk and C. R. Graham,
The handbook of task-based learning method: Global perspectives, San
Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer Publishing.
 Harmer, J. (1991). The practice of English language teaching. London:
Longman.
 Hornby, AS. (1974). Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of
Current English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
 Stahl, S. A., & Fairbanks, M. M. (1986). The effects of vocabulary
instruction: A model-based meta-analysis. Review of Educational
Research, 56, 72–110.
 Young, R. (2009). Discursive Practice in Language Learning and
Teaching. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell

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