A vocabulary plays an important role in language learning. Krashen (1985) distinguished two types of vocabulary acquisition: receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary. The former can be considered as words that students recognize and understand easily; while the latter can be defined as the ability of learners to practice what they already know.
This program was emphasized mainly on receptive acquisition because of the time limit of the project. The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of an intensive vocabulary training program on freshmen college students. There were thirty participants who are freshmen of different majors. These students were selected because they had lower English proficiency. The research method included a pre-test, a post-test, and a forty-hour intensive training class, which included the teaching of vocabulary in reading and listening. The results illustrated 33% of the subjects reached more than 100 points, followed by 47% of the subjects who got more around 70 points, and 77% of the subjects did a progress of 50 points. Overall, the results of the research showed 100% of progress, including 20% of qualified students passed the VQC online vocabulary examination. Accordingly, this study showed the students’ increase of vocabularies and a great interest in learning English. Thus, the students’ confidence was successfully demonstrated in this study.
