Importance of acquiring cultural vocabulary in improving reading skill

This research aims at investigating how students at Hanoi National University of Education (HNUE) raise their reading scores after the lecturer of English assists them to study and memorize new cultural vocabulary from textbooks for 15 weeks. The following methods are implemented during carrying the research, that is, in-depth interviews for students, class observation and statistics of students’ reading scores after the research is done in class. Reliable findings are discussed profoundly and implications for teaching and learning English are recommended.
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Importance of acquiring cultural vocabulary in improving reading skillHNUE JOURNAL OF SCIENCESocial Sciences, 2020, Volume 64, Issue 4D, pp. 68-77This paper is available online at http://stdb.hnue.edu.vn IMPORTANCE OF ACQUIRING CULTURAL VOCABULARY IN IMPROVING READING SKILL Pham Thi Thanh Thuy and Bui Thi Anh Van Faculty of English, Hanoi National University of Education Abstract. Reading is one of the four skills to master when learning a foreign language. It seems to be a burden to overcome if learners do not regularly practice. Among problems they encounter are a lack of effective strategies to read and insufficient new cultural words of all fields. Obviously, equipping themselves with a wide range of these words is one key to success in obtaining best results for language learners’ reading tasks. This research aims at investigating how students at Hanoi National University of Education (HNUE) raise their reading scores after the lecturer of English assists them to study and memorize new cultural vocabulary from textbooks for 15 weeks. The following methods are implemented during carrying the research, that is, in-depth interviews for students, class observation and statistics of students’ reading scores after the research is done in class. Reliable findings are discussed profoundly and implications for teaching and learning English are recommended. Keywords: cultural vocabulary, reading skill, Hanoi National University of Education, textbooks.1. Introduction It seems to be that a wide range of vocabulary is one key factor to conquer reading tasksfor any language learner. Al-Khasawneh, F. (2019) [1] confirmed that, “vocabulary knowledgecontributes to mastering language skills (reading, listening, writing, and speaking).” Studentsat Hanoi National University are among these learners. It was seen obviously that a largenumber of students encountered hardships in getting high reading scores because of inadequatecultural vocabulary. A limited percentage of them found it quite easy to comprehend readingtexts and questions accompanied with a variety of cultural vocabulary of all fields. Thesewords can be taken from ELT textbooks that they were using while learning English in class.As mentioned in Al-Khasawneh, F. (2019) [1], vocabulary knowledge is an importantpredictor for comprehending written texts. Another well-known author called Nation, P. (2000)[2] asserted that, good vocabulary knowledge supported good comprehension. The research paper aims at investigating in what ways students at Hanoi NationalUniversity of Education raise their reading scores after the lecturer of English assisted them tostudy and memorize new cultural vocabulary from textbooks for 15 weeks. Hence, hereinafterare research questions for this piece of writing: i) What difficulties do students at HNUE encounter to get high scores for reading tasks? ii) What methods are students at HNUE applying to acquire new cultural words? These two research questions are responded thoroughly in details in this succinct piece of writing.Received April 11, 2020. Revised April 24, 2020. Accepted May 15, 2020.Contact Pham Thi Thanh Thuy, e-mail address: phamthanhthuy09@gmail.com 68 Importance of Acquiring Cultural Vocabulary in Improving Reading Skill2. Content2. 1. Literature Review2.1.1. Cultural Vocabulary There are a large number of authors who have done research on cultural vocabulary inVietnam and in other nations. Among them, a renowned researcher said that, there was a veryclose link between the life of a society and the lexicon of the language spoken by it; Theexistence of language-specific names for special kinds of things (visible and tangible, such asfood) was something that even ordinary, monolingual people were usually aware of; Theexistence of different customs and social institutions which had specific names in one languagebut not in others was also widely known (Wierzbicka, 1997:1-2) [3]. Vocabulary is stronglylinked to culture since words are different in each language not only in their form but in theirmeaning since they are affected significantly by the feelings, ideas and experiences that areshared by the community in which they occur (William, 1976 [4]; Wierzbicka, 1997 [3];Bennett, Grossberg and Morris, 2005 [5]). Additionally, the lexicon is a linguistic form wherethe influence of culture could be more noticeable and words can encode “culturally contextconceptual system” (Liddicoat and Scarino, 2013:28) [6]. There is another idea related to cultural vocabulary. In general, all material and moralelements that are into the culture of a nation are reflected in their languages. In this respect, thereare some words that show each elements of the culture and provide information about this culture.This also means that culture has influence upon the language and language is the main elementswhich reflect cultural elements (Adem Balaban & Bünyamin Çaølayan, 2014:262-263) [7]. Another researcher asserted that, “through all its verbal and non-verbal aspects, languageembodies cultural reality.” “Language is a system of signs that is seen as having itself a culturalvalue. Speakers identify themselves and others through their use of language; the view theirlanguage as a symbol of their social identity. The prohibition of its use is often perceived by itsspeakers as a rejection of their social group and their culture. Thus we can say that languagesymbolizes cultural reality” (Kramsch, 2003:3) [8]. In Vietnam, one linguist who studied cultural words, Nguyen Van Chien (2004) [9]revealed that, ...