Abstract
This study explored the effects of magazine reading on vocabulary at intermediate level. The subjects consisted of 15 students. The entire sample shared a same social and educational back ground. It is a quantitative research in which pre and post tests will be conducted to see the effects of magazine reading on vocabulary learning. The results of pre and post tests refused the null hypothesis that vocabulary does not enhance through semantic field. This study suggests that students will increase their knowledge of vocabulary with the use of lexical semantic items and this will enlarge the interests of students in learning vocabulary.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
- Statement of the problem
- Objectives of the study
- Questions of the study
- Significance of the study
- Procedure of the study
- Instrument
- Limitations of the study
- Delimitations of the study
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
- Type of research
- Population/ Sample
- Instrument development
- Procedure of study
- Data analysis
- Limitation of the study
- Delimitations of the study
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS
CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY, FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
- Summary
- Findings
- Conclusion
- Recommendation
REFERENCES
APPENDIX
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Introduction:
Vocabulary enhances through the teaching in which reading materials are used as a teaching aid. In Pakistani context students have a limited vocabulary knowledge that’s why with the passage of time they lose their interest in studies. Researcher will conduct the experimental research on the sample consists of 15 students. Pre and post tests will be taken by the researcher. This study will help the students to learn vocabulary effectively.
RATIONALE:
Being a researcher I realized that students are facing difficulty in writing as well as speaking because of limited vocabulary.
Because of shortage of vocabulary they lose their interest in subject which as a student is very harmful of their progress in life.
In general, it is seen when students or children enter in a school they have different mindset, interest and motivations and back ground. According to these variables they have different lexical items in their mind.
Statement of problem:
Vocabulary enhances through magazine reading at intermediate level.
Objectives of the study:
Students feel difficulties in learning vocabulary but there are many strategies by which vocabulary will enhance naturally. This study have these goals to achieve.
- It will help the students to achieve good competence of vocabulary through the use of magazine.
- It will help to reduce the dilemma of learning vocabulary for the students as well as for the teaching methods also.
Purposes of study:
The purpose of this study is to check out the enhancing power of vocabulary through reading.
Hypotheses:
Vocabulary will be acquired through the reading in teaching method at intermediate level.
Null Hypothesis:
- No good results will find out by teaching vocabulary through reading.
- There is no significant difference between pre and post test with new method of teaching vocabulary.
Significance of study:
- After the successful completion of the study, we will get the benefits in the following ways:
- It would be stepping for the teachers in understanding the problems of students in enhancing vocabulary.
- The study will make the teachers aware of about the major problem of the students at immediate level.
- The study will help the future researchers to identify the methodology to enhance vocabulary according to the understanding of the students.
- It will also provide guidance to manage the study.
- It will open new avenues of research.
Procedure of the study:
In the light of literature review pre and post tests were developed and acted by experts. Researcher personally visited to collect the information. After collecting data, it was analyzed and on the basis of result of data analysis, conclusions were drawn and recommendations were given.
Instruments:
Pre and Post tests were constructed for measuring the knowledge of vocabulary of students. Pretest is based on synonyms words and post-test is based on the passage from the newspaper or a magazine, students have to re write the passage in their own words according to their understanding. Pre and Post-tests is provided in appendix.
Limitation:
- Researcher has a limited time to put the new teaching methodology in a stream line and take pre and posttest.
- Limited resources are the problem of the teacher to adopt a new teaching method for enhancing the vocabulary of the students.
Delimitation
Following were the delimitation of this study
- The sample was delimited up to 15.
- The sample was delimited to Lahore city.
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
Reading:
Reading can be seen as an “interactive” process between a reader and a text which leads to automaticity or (reading fluency). In this process, the reader interacts dynamically with the text as he/she tries to elicit the meaning and where various kinds of knowledge are being used: linguistic or systemic knowledge (through bottom-up processing) as well as schematic knowledge (through top-down processing). Since reading is a complex process, Grabe argues that “many researchers attempt to understand and explain the fluent reading process by analyzing the process into a set of component skills” (1991, p. 379) in reading; consequently researchers proposed at least six general component skills and knowledge areas:
- Automatic recognition skills
- Vocabulary and structural knowledge
- Formal discourse structure knowledge
- Content/world background knowledge
- Synthesis and evaluation skills/strategies
- Met cognitive knowledge and skills monitoring.
In Pakistan, there is striking contrast in the education systems. Reading in not given any importance. Text books are crammed in order to score good marks in the examination. There is a system in which vocabulary is enhanced through reading. As walker points out:
Reading is an interactive process in which readers shift between sources of information (what they know and what the text says), elaborate meaning and strategies, check their interpretation (revising when appropriate),and use the setting to focus their interpretation.
Walker (1992:4)
Walker (1992: 37) says that reading is an active, problem solving process that involves predicting or guessing what the author says, based on expectations about story events. He claims that reading involves recalling an individual’s life experience and trying to understand what is written. He also states that reading is comprehending and also developing of human learning; in other words, reading is more than just receiving meaning in a literal sense. Papalia (cited in Rivers, 1987: 70) agrees and considers that reading is a problem solving behavior that involves the reader in the process of acquiring meaning.
Learning Vocabulary in Context:
You may usually encounter new words when you read. If there are too many new words for you, then the level is too high then you should read something simpler, but if there are, say, a maximum of five new words per page, you will learn this vocabulary easily, you may not even need to use dictionary because you can guess the meaning from the rest of the text( from the context). Not only do you learn new words, but you see them being used naturally.
Williams (1984: 2) also defines that reading is a process where one understands what has been written in the text. He mentions that the key word is “understands” and reading without understanding does not count as reading. He also claims that this definition of reading does not mean that a foreign learner needs to understand everything in a text, and from that he follows understanding is not an “all or nothing” process, and the reader does not need to look at everything in the text. According to him, the reader is not simply a passive object who is fed with words, but one who is working on the text and trying to understand it without looking at every word.
Researchers (Smith,1985; Duffy and Roehler,1986) follow Williams And says that meaning lies at the core of reading, and the comprehension comes from the meaning that a reader brings to the language. They also emphasize that comprehension is not in print or in speech, but rather it is in the language itself. In other words, it is necessary to “plunge a little deeper into the very nature of language” to explain the paradox between what is in the mind of the learner and what is in the text. They claim that reading starts by seeking meaning and getting contextual framework in the mind of the learner. It consists of constructing an interpretation of the text; therefore, reading is more than simply the sum of component parts or skills.
Reading is further divided into authentic reading and non-authentic reading. The course books are termed as non-authentic material by Harmer (1991). He also points out that A non-authentic text in language teaching terms is one that has been written especially for language students. These non-authentic material is used to make students concentrate on grammatical material. He argues that such material cannot make students a good writer or a speaker, nor it helps in enhancing the range of vocabulary that is used in the daily routine. On the other hand, he says that authentic material includes newspaper and magazines. These can be used to enhance the vocabulary skills of the students. It also contributes to the fact that students become good writers and speaker as well. He further says that authentic material keeps students up to date and motivated. “it keeps students informed about what is happening in the world, so they have an intrinsic educational value.” Articles and magazine contain a wide variety of words that can be used in day to day matters very effectively. they encourage reading for pleasure because they are likely to contain topics of interest to learners. (Karen, 2002.) Another Scholar Williams (1984: 25) claims that there is advantage of using authentic texts as they allow the learners to experience “real” language use outside the classroom. There is a great variety of authentic texts available.
There are my methods of expanding vocabulary, but one of the very best is to simply subscribe to a periodical or magazine whose content is slightly too complex for the level of your vocabulary. This will ensure that you come into contact with a steady stream of words that you would not otherwise usually come into contact with. This is a very important beginning. Another thing that you can do is to join your local library and hunt up books that are similarly slightly too complex for your vocabulary. These periodicals and books are what we call ‘source material’ and we will, in this article, show you how to use this source material effectively to enhance and build up your vocabulary.
Now, when you read through the journal, periodical or magazine, or even book, you’ll find that most of it is easy for you to understand. But you’ll find that now and again you come across a word that you don’t recall having come across before. That’s the time to back up a little and take a good look at it, because it’s an addition to your increasing vocabulary. Read the paragraph again, and the sentence in which you find the word. What does it mean? Try to unlock it’s meaning on your own, before referring to a dictionary. Perhaps you might get it right – often, like as not, you’ll get it wrong. But that’s not important. What’s important is that, in puzzling and thinking over that word, you will thoroughly remember it, and having remembered it, you can, even if you got the meaning wrong the first time, still easily look up the right meaning. The important thing is to remember the new words that you learn, after all.
Now, once you’ve put that word firmly into your memory banks comes the even more important part – learning just how to use it. This is a crucial aspect of expanding vocabulary. Remember, you’ll just sound like a fraud if you try to use a word that should be used one way, in any other way. Also remember that it’s totally unnecessary to speak ‘over’ your audience. What I mean is that it’s the height of bad manners to purposely use big words that you know your audience will not understand. A good vocabulary is for expressing yourself with, not to be a snob with, after all. Use a big word when it is right to use it, and not otherwise. Use complex words when you are among complex people, having complex conversations.
Learning to use a word can be simple indeed. Take the very paragraph in the book or magazine in which you found the new word, and rewrite it. Re write the paragraph, in different words, but making sure that you use the new word (or words) that you’ve learned. A month or two of practicing these simple principles and you’ll find that you have a constantly increasing vocabulary
Purposes of Reading:
According to Richard, Plat and Plat (1999), there are two types of reading:
Silent reading and oral reading. Oral reading is carried out when the reader says the written text aloud. This can be done with or without comprehending the writer’s message in the content. On the other hand, silent reading is carried out without saying the words aloud, with result being reading comprehension.
Types of Reading
General Reading:
There have been incompatible definitions of the term “extensive reading.” (Hedge, 2003, p.
202) Some use it to refer to describe “skimming and scanning activities,” others associate it to quantity of material. Hafiz and Tudor state that the pedagogical value attributed to extensive reading is based on the assumption that exposing learners to large quantities of meaningful and interesting L2 material will, in the long run, produce a beneficial effect on the learners’ command of the L2. (1989, p. 5)
Inspired by Krashen’s Input Hypothesis, researchers have shown renewed interest in extensive reading in recent years. This is seen most clearly in various trends adopted by ELT institutions. Students are urged to read independently by using the resources within their reach (Hedge, 2003, p. 200-201). Besides, there has been a growing interest in researching the value of extensive reading. Hedge believes that extensive reading varies according to students’ motivation and school resources. A well-motivated and trained teacher will be able to choose suitable handouts or activities books for the students. The Reading Teacher journal, for example, publishes a list on every November of over 300 newly published books for children and adolescents that have been reviewed and recommended by teachers.
Hedge briefs the advantages of extensive use in the following lines:
Learners can build their language ability, progress in their reading ability, become more independent in their studies, acquire cultural knowledge, and develop confidence and motivation to carry on learning. (ibid, p. 204-205)
Thorough Reading:
In intensive (or creative) reading, students usually read a page to explore the meaning and to be acquainted with writing mechanisms. Hedge argues that it is “only through more extensive reading that learners can gain substantial practice in operating these strategies more independently on a range of materials.” (ibid, p. 202) These strategies can be either text-related or learner-related: the former includes an awareness of text organization, while the latter includes strategies like linguistic, schematic, and met cognitive strategies. Hafiz and Tudor (1989) differentiate between extensive and intensive reading:
In intensive reading activities learners are in the main exposed to relatively short texts which are used either to exemplify specific aspects of the lexical, syntactic or discourse system of the L2, or to provide the basis for targeted reading strategy practice; the goal of extensive reading, on the other hand, is to ‘flood’ learners with large quantities of L2 input with few or possibly no specific tasks to perform on the material.
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
Methodology is a way through which I conduct the study. The purpose of research is to Enhance Vocabulary through magazine reading at intermediate level. This chapter deals with the type of research, population, sample, instrument development, and procedure of study, introduction of collection data and analysis of data.
The present study is categorized as a quantitative research. Experiment research methodology is chosen to fulfill the research objectives. Pretest will be conducted to see the vocabulary before conducting the experiment, then posttest will be conducted to see the difference in rate of increasing vocabulary. Tests will be conducted in class rooms.
It’s a experimental research in which pre and post-test will be conducted to see the progress in knowledge of students before and after the new method of teaching. To see the vocabulary of students teacher will conduct pretest in which he ask the students to write the synonyms of words. And results will be noted by the teacher.
For vocabulary enhancement teacher will teach the students with new method of teaching by magazine or newspaper reading. Teacher will provide the synonyms of words to enhance the vocabulary. Teacher will give the passage to students and ask them to underline the difficult words and provide them at least two synonyms of these words to increase the knowledge of vocabulary. Then after teaching the students with new method teacher will take post-test to evaluate the learning.
In post-test teacher will give the passage and select some words and ask the students to rewrite it and use synonyms of these selected words in passage. And the results will be noted. After evaluation of these results of pre and post-test teacher will be able to know effectiveness of new teaching method.
Pakistan is a country where at the same time different educational systems with varied curriculum produce an outcome that shows distinct contrast. That’s why students have different knowledge of vocabulary. Students find themselves in great difficulty when they were asked to write a creative writing and explore their vision, ideas, views, thoughts and imagination because of limited mental lexicon.
Therefore with the proceeding of educational career students lose their interest and motivation level. By improving motivational level of students we can enhance the performance regarding vocabulary. According to Hatch and Brown [1] modern technique of teaching vocabulary is the semantic domain.
Type of research:
It’s a quantitative research. It was conducted through pre and post test.
Sample:
15 students are selected for the experiment of intermediate level.
Instrument of the research:
The instruments of the study are the winning vocabulary test prepared by the researcher.
Pre and Post tests were constructed for measuring the knowledge of vocabulary of students. Pretest is based on synonyms words and post-test is based on the passage from the newspaper or a magazine, students have to re write the passage in their own words according to their understanding. Pre and Post-tests is provided in appendix.
Instrument development:
Pretest was constructed by the researcher in English language. It is developed to know the increased vocabulary through magazine reading at intermediate level. The pretest is based on different words of which synonyms will be written by students. In post-test, passage will be given to students and ask them to re write the passage according to their own understanding.
Procedure of the study:
In the light of literature review pre and post tests were developed and acted by experts. Researcher personally visited to collect the information. After collecting data, it was analyzed and on the basis of result of data analysis, conclusions were drawn and recommendations were given.
Pre-test
To see the effect of teaching with magazine reading researcher will design the pretest in which he asks synonyms of words regarding the previous knowledge of vocabulary the student had. Entire sample will give the pretest. Researcher will note down the results of pretest.
Material and Treatment:
New teaching methodology will be provided to the students in which reading material is used to enhance the vocabulary. The researcher use scanning and skimming method to teach the students as a new method of teaching. Pre and post tests are conducted in 45 minutes of class.
Post-test:
After applying the new teaching methodology for learning vocabulary post-test will be conducted to get the idea that how much vocabulary increases through the new method. Students will be given a passage from a magazine or a newspaper to read and re write the passage in their own words.
Limitation:
- Researcher has a limited time to put the new teaching methodology in a stream line and take pre and post-test.
- Limited resources are the problem of the teacher to adopt a new teaching method for enhancing the vocabulary of the students.
Delimitations
Following were the delimitations of this study
- The sample was delimited up to 15.
- The sample was delimited to Lahore city.
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS:
After the data collection the results of pre and post test were tabulated and analyzed the conclusion. At the end, the researcher had given possible recommendations.
Results of pretest:
This is the results of pretest which shows the knowledge of students about vocabulary. This will also show in graphical representation.
Results of pretest in graphs:
Post test
This is the results of post test which shows the rate of enhancing vocabulary through new method of teaching. This will also shows in graphical representation.
Results of post-test in graphs:
Comparison of results of pre and post-tests:
Conclusion
This study explored the effects of magazine reading on vocabulary at intermediate level. The subjects consisted of 15 students. The entire sample shared a same social and educational back ground. It was a quantitative research in which pre and post tests were conducted to see the effects of magazine reading on vocabulary learning. The results of pre and post-tests refused the null hypothesis that vocabulary does not enhance through magazine reading. This study suggests that students will increase their knowledge of vocabulary with the use of lexical semantic items and this will enlarge the interests of students in learning vocabulary. Results of pre and post test showed that through new method of teaching with scanning and skimming the vocabulary increase gradually.
There is a great variety of authentic texts available. There are my methods of expanding vocabulary, but one of the very best is to simply subscribe to a periodical or magazine whose content is slightly too complex for the level of your vocabulary. This will ensure that you come into contact with a steady stream of words that you would not otherwise usually come into contact with.
References:
- https://www.englishclub.com/esl-articles/200003.htm
- https://www.jocrf.org/resources/EffectiveWays.html)
- https://www.vocabulary.co.il/an-excellent-method-of-expanding-vocabulary/)
- https://www.readfaster.com/articles/vital-role-of-vocabulary.asp)
- Hatch, E. & Brown, C. (1995). Vocabulary, Semantics, and Language Education. London: Cambridge University Press.
- Debate, E.V. (2006). Applying current approaches to the teaching of reading. English Teaching Forum, 44(1). Retrieved April 22, 2009 from exchanges.state.gov/englishteaching/forum/archives/docs/06-44-1-c.pdf
- Morgan, M. (2003). Welcome to exemplary practices in vocabulary instruction.Retrieved April 22, 2013 from bridgew.edu/Library/CAGS_Projects/MMORGAN/web%20page/literature%20review.htm.
- White, J.C. (1988). The role of associational patterns and semantic networks in vocabulary development. English Teaching Forum, 26 (4), 9-11. https://www.righttrackreading.com/vocabulary.html
Also Study: Improving Speaking Skills of Students through Audio-Visual Aids
Appendix:
Pretest:
Write synonyms of these words
- Astonished _____________________________
- Spacious _____________________________
- Excited _____________________________
- Gaze _____________________________
- Eager _____________________________
- Interesting _____________________________
- Permission _____________________________
- Lonely _____________________________
- Bouncy _____________________________
- Amazing _____________________________
Post-test:
