Pisamai Supatranont. A Comparison of the effects of the concordance-based and the conventional teaching methods on engineering students' English Vocabulary learning. Doctoral Degree(English as an International Language). Chulalongkorn University. Office of Academic Resources. : Chulalongkorn University, 2005.
A Comparison of the effects of the concordance-based and the conventional teaching methods on engineering students' English Vocabulary learning
Abstract:
The study was aimed at solving the problem of engineering students insufficient vocabulary size for academic reading with the application of the concordance-based method. The objectives of the study were to compare its learning effects with the conventional teaching methods effects on the measures of definitional knowledge, transferable knowledge and vocabulary retention rates, and to explore students learning processes and attitudes in dealing with the concordance-based method. The study was conducted with two intact groups of engineering students in one academic semester. One group was randomly assigned to be the experimental group studying with the concordance-based method whereas the other represented the comparison group studying with the conventional teaching method. The students from both groups were matched in pairs according to their vocabulary proficiency on the pretest. In the preparatory stage, a purpose-built corpus was compiled from academic texts in engineering fields. Then, target words were selected from high frequency words in the corpus and used to design all lessons, materials, activities, tasks and tests. During the study, the experimental group was trained through paper-based and hands-on activities to deal with the concordance information in the corpus whereas the comparison group was taught vocabulary through reading contexts and vocabulary exercises. The instruments for collecting data included the pretest, posttest and delayed test, review tasks, teachers field notes, students logs, questionnaires and interviews. The main findings from the study can be summarized in three areas: learning effects, learning processes and learners attitudes. Regarding learning effects, the results from conducting MANOVA revealed that the students average scores in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the comparison group in all measures of definitional knowledge, transferable knowledge and retention rates with large effect sizes, especially in the measures of transferable knowledge. In terms of learning processes, findings revealed that students concordancing and language skills improved significantly. They could acquire skills in operating the concordancer quickly whereas it took a longer time for them to master the skills in identifying various aspects of words, interpreting concordance texts and deducing word meaning from contexts. At the end of the study, these skills improved noticeably although the students could not fully master them. If the training could be extended, the students thought that they could utilize the concordance-based method for their self-study. Despite some difficulties, students expressed positive attitudes towards the method. They found the method challenging, interesting and useful for studying language.