2. OVERVIEW
•General Approach to Action Research
•Action Research on Vocabulary Self-
Collection Techniques
•Challenges & Concluding Remarks
3. GENERAL APPROACH TO ACTION RESEARCH
•Rationale
– Action research (AR) is empowering for graduate teaching-assistants’
PD (McDonough, 2006)
– AR helps explore puzzling classroom issues and dilemmas (Burns,
2010)
•AR Models
– Kemmis and McTaggart’s AR model (1988 as cited in Burns, 2009)
• Plan, Action, Observe, and Reflect
• Criticized for being rigid and fixed (Burns, 2009)
– Grabe & Stoller’s (2011) 12-step AR model is more cyclical and flexible
3
4. 4
GENERAL APPROACH TO ACTION RESEARCH
Grabe & Stoller’s Action Research Cycle
12: share insights 1: Establish
2: Pose a
with colleagues a purpose
specific
and select
11: experiment question
topic
and monitor
solutions 3:Anticipate
outcomes
10: generate
practical
solutions 4:Specify the
types of data to
9: reflect on collect
results
8: examine and 5: Determine
analyze data ethical ways to
6: Consider
7: collect data collect data
issues related
systematically
to time
Adapted from Grabe & Stoller, 2011, p. 167
4
5. SELF-COLLECTION TECHNIQUES AR
Step1: Establish a purpose and select topic
– EAP readers need a lot of vocabulary!
• EAP reading students need 8,000-9,000 word families for
98% text coverage (Nation, 2006)
• Both vocabulary depth and size are important for reading
advanced texts (Schmitt, Jiang, & Grabe, 2011)
5
6. SELF-COLLECTION TECHNIQUES AR
Step1: Establish a purpose and select topic
– How can I help give my L2 reading students the vocabulary
the need?
• According to Grabe (2009), L2 readers need a combination of:
– direct vocabulary instruction
– vocabulary-learning strategies
– extensive reading and word learning from context
– heightened student awareness of new words
– motivation to use and collect words
6
7. SELF-COLLECTION TECHNIQUES AR
Step2: Pose a specific question(s)
– If students are introduced to different word
collection techniques, which ones do they prefer
the most?
– What aspects of word knowledge will students
find most beneficial for independent vocabulary
learning while using different word collection
devices?
7
8. SELF-COLLECTION TECHNIQUES AR
• Step 3: Anticipated Outcomes
– Discovering students responses to different
techniques
– Informing vocabulary instruction in course and
program-wide curriculum
– Finding out self-collection techniques already
used by students
8
9. SELF-COLLECTION TECHNIQUES AR
Step 4&5: Collecting Data Ethically
– Qualitative
• Semi-structured interviews
• Teaching log
– Quantitative
• Questionnaire
• Ranking form
– IRB approval
9
10. SELF-COLLECTION TECHNIQUES AR
Steps 6&7: Collect data systematically and
Timeline for Data Collection
– Semester 1-Fall 2012
• 2 weeks using vocabulary lists
• 2 weeks using vocabulary flashcards
– Semi-structured interview
• 2 weeks using vocabulary notebooks
– Semi-structured interview
– Ranking form
– Self-collection technique questionnaire
– Semester 2-Spring 2012
• 3 weeks using Quizlet
– Complications=no data could be collected
• returned to using flashcards
10
11. SELF-COLLECTION TECHNIQUES AR
Steps 6: Collect data systematically
Participants:
• 1 semester: 18 students in advanced level reading and
vocabulary course in a university intensive English
program
• 2nd semester: 13 students in an intermediate level
reading and writing course in an intensive English
program
• Arabic and Chinese are dominant demographic
background of students (18-25 years old)
11
13. SELF-COLLECTION TECHNIQUES AR
Step 7: Collect data systematically: Vocabulary
Flashcard/Wordcard (Nation, 2001; Schmitt &
Schmitt, 2011)
13
14. SELF-COLLECTION TECHNIQUES AR
Step 8: Examine and analyze data
Interviews
Q: Collection technique used outside of class assignments?
Sam: “Uh I didn’t use [vocabulary flashcards] for my own, only for
homework. But that is problem for me because uh I forget a lot of
words sometimes…but I didn’t use it in my home because I have a
lot of things to do.”
14
15. SELF-COLLECTION TECHNIQUES AR
Step 8: Examine and analyze data
Interviews
Q: Any other collection techniques before the class?
Jill: “My teacher told me one way. Everyday, every time you
spend..every time five minutes. In these five minutes you look at two
hundred words. And every day you look at these 200 words
several times. Maybe seven, seven times once is five minutes. So
you can remember it half. Maybe everyday you can look seven to
ten times. Then you can remember it.”
Michael: “When I was in the last school there was a way like to.. uh
notebook. Especially for the new words. But they didn’t tell us to use
synonym, just definition in our native language and the word.
And if you want you can provide an example.”
15
16. SELF-COLLECTION TECHNIQUES AR
Step 8: Examine and analyze data
Interviews
Q: Use of techniques in the future?
Michael: “If I am studying civil engineering and I have words … I
think I will probably use [flashcards], but it is hard to remember all
the synonyms or to match between the synonyms and the word. I
think it is difficult.”
Dora: “Maybe I will not write all of the words to make
flashcards…just uh make some very difficult words, hard to
pronounce, hard to remember…”
16
17. SELF-COLLECTION TECHNIQUES AR
Step 8: Examine and analyze data:
Interviews
Q: What parts (aspects of word knowledge) of the
flashcard/notebooks were most/least helpful?
Melody: “I think it is depend. Some words I think I must use my
native language and uh some…and another I think examples, I
think.”
Jill: English definition... Because some words they translate to
Chinese hey a little difficult, a little different like the hurt. The
Chinese translation is a species, a kind of animal…this word is
different so I think the English definition…Collocations, even though
the word in here, I don’t use it many times.
17
21. SELF-COLLECTION TECHNIQUES AR
Step 9:Reflect on results
Setbacks:
• The use of Quizlet as a CALL tool for word-collection was
abandoned because of complications
• The 7-pt likert scale produced unreliable results
• Students did not apply the self-collection techniques beyond
classroom assignments
• Many students found collocations to be unhelpful, which reflected
the lack of effective collocation tasks used in the classroom
• Similar vocabulary self-collection tasks in other classes made the
collection techniques seem redundant
21
22. SELF-COLLECTION TECHNIQUES AR
Step 9:Reflect on results
Successes:
• Students reported:
– choosing new collection techniques over old ones
• mostly because of convenience
– discovering new aspects of word knowledge
– possibly using word collection techniques for test preparation
and disciplinary specific vocabulary words
22
23. SELF-COLLECTION TECHNIQUES AR
Step 10: Generate practical solutions
•Coordinate with teachers on a program-wide scale to adapt a more
comprehensive approach to word collection techniques (both CALL
and non-CALL materials)
– Some courses may have more of a place in the curriculum for
deliberate vocabulary learning than others
•Integrate training in using online dictionaries and/or corpus sites to
include frequency information and word lists (AWL and GSL)
– Help students become “word detectives” for words they encounter
(Nation, 2008)
•Create an activity bank for different types of vocabulary exercises
that integrate the word collection techniques students are using
•Better design scaffolded activities to build autonomy in word
collection technique use
23
