THE TECHNIQUES BY TEACHERS IN PRESENTING THE MEANING OF NEW VOCABULARY AND THEIR EFFECTIVENESS AS PERCEIVED BY STUDENTS OF THE STRATEGIC MISSION PROGRAM IN VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY.

Abstract

Strategic Mission is a short name for the project of building and developing 16 branches, 23 specialties of basic science, high technology, economy-society with international standard at Vietnam National University. Students who have not been qualified enough in English to take courses of their major will take a supplement course on language for one year. Due to its young age, it is unavoidable for the project as well as the English course which is applied to encounter numbers of problem and difficulties that need to be studied and adjusted. This study was carried out in order to investigate the techniques of presenting the meaning of new vocabularies by teachers and their effectiveness as perceived by students of the Strategic Mission Project in VNU. Quantitative methods with questionnaire and individual interview were applied to find out the usage of techniques as perceived by both teachers and students, and measure their effectiveness according to the opinion of students from three classes. It was revealed from the study that there is not much difference between the frequency of using each technique for presenting vocabulary from the perception of teacher and of students. Both two sides agreed on the highest frequency of “showing words in context” and “combining several techniques” and the lowest one of “showing the meaning of words visually”. Regarding the effectiveness of techniques for presenting the meaning of vocabulary, most students confirmed that combining different techniques is the most efficient method, and the least useful one is the visual technique of using realia. In terms of suggestions to improve the effectiveness of presenting vocabulary, teachers and students agreed with each other to enhance the five techniques by Penny Ur, and raise some of their own ideas such as using games, dictionaries or peer-explanations.