Enhancing vocabulary retention by applying memory strategies - A study at Hoa Hoi High School: Master's Thesis

Abstract

Vocabulary is essential in learning English. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that many students do not know how to achieve their vocabulary items and often find daunting or monotonous to cope with complex vocabulary tasks. So as a supervisor, the teacher should adopt few such strategies, which could make the students retain their vocabulary. Memory strategies may be of some help to students in word learning. An investigation into effective teachers’ use of memory strategies to enhance high-school students’ vocabulary retention in Ba Ria- Vung Tau province. The participants of this study were tenth-grade students from Hoa Hoi high school. The quasi-experiment research was the research design for this study. The quantitative data was collected during the exams (pre-test and post-tests). The results reported that the experiment group students significantly achieved higher test scores than the control group students in post-tests. This enhancement was confirmed when pre-test results were compared to post-tests results. Further, the intense concentration that students displayed throughout the system of instruction on memory strategies suggests that the students were interested in memory strategies. Thus, the four sub-memory strategies were effective in teaching vocabulary. Future research may investigate with a larger sample size for the teachers who can study on the participants who are at different levels at the same time to see how different they respond to the strategies provided.