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THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING PICTURES IN TEACHING VOCABULARY AT SMART-KIDS SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCETHE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING PICTURES IN TEACHING VOCABULARY AT SMART-KIDS SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCETHE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING PICTURES IN TEACHING VOCABULARY AT SMART-KIDS SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCETHE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING PICTURES IN TEACHING VOCABULARY AT SMART-KIDS SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCETHE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING PICTURES IN TEACHING VOCABULARY AT SMART-KIDS SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCETHE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING PICTURES IN TEACHING VOCABULARY AT SMART-KIDS SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCE
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ϑ NGUYỄN THỊ HOA THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING PICTURES IN TEACHING VOCABULARY AT SMART-KIDS SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCE (Hiệu quả của việc sử dụng tranh ảnh trong việc dạy từ vựng tại trường Smart-Kids, tỉnh Bắc Ninh) M.A. MINOR THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI - 2014 1 2 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ϑ NGUYỄN THỊ HOA THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING PICTURES IN TEACHING VOCABULARY AT SMART-KIDS SCHOOL IN BAC NINH PROVINCE (Hiệu quả của việc sử dụng tranh ảnh trong việc dạy từ vựng tại trường Smart-Kids, tỉnh Bắc Ninh) M.A. MINOR THESIS Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 HANOI - 2014 ABSTRACT Vocabulary is one of the important elements in teaching English. In acquiring a foreign language, learning vocabulary is considered as one of important tasks. At Smart-kids school, learning and teaching vocabulary is a major concern, too. In an attempt to investigate the effect of pictures in teaching vocabulary the study has been conducted in the form of an action research. The participation of the study comprised 30 kindergarten students. They were randomly assigned into two homogeneous groups each consisting of 15 learners. The experimental group used pictures in teaching vocabulary but the control group didn’t use. The classroom observation and tests were the main instruments employed for the data collection. The result showed that the students in the experimental group outperformed the students in the control group in their vocabulary knowledge. It means that the contribution of pictures in teaching vocabulary to students led to higher level of vocabulary improvement. Therefore, using pictures in teaching vocabulary seems to be more effective than not using. 3 PART A: INTRODUCTION Part A – Introduction- provides the background to the study and statement of the problem, the aims, the research question, the scope of the study as well as the research methodology. It also outlines the organization of the thesis. 1. Rationale of the study English teaching involves four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. One of the main tasks assigned to foreign language teaching at school is that of training students to be communicatively competent. Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998: 13). In any second language teaching and learning, speaking is always believed to be the most vital skill and in teaching speaking, vocabulary is the most important thing. “If language structures make up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh.”(Harmer 1993: 153). Cook’s (2000) conclusion is also consistent with Wilkins in that “Grammar provides the overall patterns, vocabulary the material to put into those patterns”. Or some authors, led by Lewis (1993) argue that vocabulary should be at the center of language teaching, because ‘language consists of grammaticalised lexis, not lexicalised grammar’. From the statement, it can be seen that vocabulary functions as a cornerstone without which any language could not exist. Speaking would be meaningless and perhaps impossible having only structure without vocabulary. Therefore, the English teacher has to be able to organize teaching and learning activities; they have to give materials by using a suitable technique and master the lesson effectively. Especially in learning vocabulary, teachers must make the students able to memorize such words in English language and group of new words. Celce Maria stated that research in first and second language acquisition suggest that initial teaching priorities for language areas should be vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Therefore, the English teacher has to be able to organize teaching and learning activities and they have to give materials by using a suitable technique and master the lesson effectively. 4 Especially in learning vocabulary, teachers must make the students able to memorize such words in English language and group of new words. The statements above mean, vocabulary is important to teach and teachers must try to find the most effective way to help learners retain new words in long term memory. As a teacher at Smart-kids schools, I realize that teaching vocabulary is major concern because at the age of five, students cannot write or read and the effective way to teach is through pictures. Therefore, I choose this topic to understand more about the effectiveness of using picture in teaching vocabulary. 2. Aims and significance of the study This study is aimed at finding out the effectiveness of using picture in teaching vocabulary at Smart-kids school based on the understanding of vocabulary and pictures in linguistic notion and the situation of teaching and learning there. Through this, some implications to solve these problems will be suggested. The result of the research will be helpful for many English teachers in many schools especially Smart-kids school in Bac Ninh province. From this, the teachers will find an effective ways and apply many activities in class to attract students attention in learning new words. Basing on suggestions in this research, teachers can have their own way to teach their students. 3. Scope of the study I cannot go into details of all parts of language theory and practice because of the limited time, the shortage of reference books, and the students’ language ability. This is also a wide topic so I mainly focus on the effect of using picture in teaching vocabulary in the field of memory, interest and interaction. 4. Research methodology This methodology used in the study is those of an action research. Thus, it applied both qualitative and quantitative approaches with two methods of data collection. The qualitative data were collected from observation and the quantitative data were collected from tests including two progress tests and one final test. 5 5. Organization of the study This minor thesis is composed of three parts as follow: Part A - Introduction: The first part presents rationale, aims and significance as well as scope of the study, research methodology and organization of the study. Part B - Development: The second part consists of three chapters. Chapter 1 is for literature review, which provides the theoretical background of the study. Chapter 2 is methodology which represents the research question, describes informants and the design of the study. Chapter 3 presents the data analysis of classroom observation and test then discussion. Part C – Conclusion: The final part summarizes the major findings of the experiment, voicing some implications for language teachers in teaching vocabulary and suggesting some recommendations for further studies. PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, relevant literature is reviewed, underlying the necessity and the relevance of the study. In other words, background knowledge on vocabulary teaching in general and vocabulary teaching through pictures in particular is looked at critically to set up the theoretical framework for further investigation. The first section of this chapter is devoted to theoretical aspects of vocabulary teaching and the second section of this chapter is about pictures in language teaching. 1.1. VOCABULARY TEACHING 1.1.1. Stages in vocabulary teaching 1.1.1.1. Presentation The title of this stage indicates clearly its function is introducing new lexical items to learners. As suggested by Thornbury (2002: 75-76) learners need to learn both the meaning and the form of a new word. He also emphasizes some major 6 factors subject to the number of word to be presented such as: the learner’s level (beginner, intermediate or advanced), learner’s likely familiarity with the words. 1.1.1.2. Practice When the teacher presents the meaning of new words, they can only become student’s passive vocabulary, and students may easily forget them and do not know how to use properly. Students’ vocabulary can only be activated effectively if the teacher gives the learners opportunities to practise them through vocabulary exercises or activities. 1.1.1.3. Production In this stage, students are advised to complete high-level tasks namely production tasks (Thornbury, 2002: 100). He recommends that learners should produce something as a product of their own. In this way, learners will turn words from receptive to productive and put them into long-term memory. 1.1.1.4. Review This process aims at helping students acquire active, productive vocabularies. In the reviewing stage, students have more chance to use language and receive feedback. It can be seen that games and communicative activities are the best way to help students to review words. Besides, visual aids can make vocabulary revision more interesting and effective. 1.1.2. Techniques in vocabulary teaching Various techniques and activities are aimed directly at learning vocabulary, which is usually put into sets of somehow related words, often by topic or meaning. As McCarthy (1992) suggests, before presenting new language, pre-teaching activities might be beneficial “to activate existing knowledge to make the encounter with new words more meaningful” (McCarthy 1992: 108). Pre-teaching activities often arouse students’ attention and desire to explore a particular topic or subject in greater detail. 1.1.3. Factors affecting vocabulary retention 1.1.3.1. Memory 7 It can be seen that memory is important in learning new words. According to Thornbury, 2002, there are two major types of memory: short term memory, long term memory. Short term memory is the brain capacity to hold a limited number of items of information for periods of time up to a few seconds. Long-term memory can be seen as kind of filling system. This kind of memory has an enormous capacity and its contents are durable over time. 1.1.3.2. Motivation Theory on motivation can be seen from Littlewood’s perspective (1998: 53) that “in second language learning as in every other field of human learning, motivation is the crucial force which determines whether a learner embarks on a task at all, how much energy he devotes to it, and how long he perseveres. It is a complex phenomenon and includes many components: the individual’s drive, need for achievement and success, curiosity, desire for stimulation and new experience, and so on”. Keller (1984) (quoted in Ellis, 1994) sees 'interest' as one of the major components of motivation, defining it as “a positive response to a stimuli based on existing cognitive structures in such a way that learners’ curiosity is aroused and sustained”. 1.1.3.3. Person-dependent factors According to Lightbown and Spada (1999), person-dependent factors include age, language aptitude, intelligence, attitude and personality. Rubin and Thomson (1994) also consider the factors including age, aptitude, attitude, personality, learning style and past experiences. In this thesis, these factors are considered in a logical way to understand how they affect vocabulary acquisition in second language acquisition. 1.2. PICTURES IN TEACHING VOCABULARY 1.2.1. The meaning of pictures According to Cobuild (1987: 1320), a picture can be defined as “a visual representation of image painted, drawn, photographed or otherwise rendered on a flat surface.” Meanwhile, according to Andrew Wright (1989: 29), “Picture is not 8 just an aspect of method but through its representation of place, object, and people, it is essential part of the overall experiences.” 1.2.2. The types of pictures According to Brazyna Szyke (1981), pictures are divided into two main types. The first type is that pictures of individual persons or thing may be used mainly at the elementary level to introduce or test vocabulary items. For example, a house, a dog, a man, a girl. The second type is that pictures of situations in which person and object are “in action” between objects and people can be perfect teaching aid for introducing or reviewing grammatical or structures. For example: football, meeting, market. 1.2.3. Issues of using pictures in teaching vocabulary In this part, many advantages and disadvantages of using pictures in teaching vocabulary are considered. The use of pictures gives teachers a number of benefits. It can be said that pictures are one of these valuable aids. They bring “images of reality into the unnatural world of the language classroom” (Hill, 1990:1). Pictures bring not only images of reality, but can also function as a fun element in the class. However, using pictures in teaching language has their own limitation. That is, in teaching vocabulary, pictures are not suitable or sufficient for demonstrating the meaning of all words (Thornbury, 2004: 81). 1.2.4. Activities using pictures in teaching vocabulary The benefit of using games in language teaching is absolutely clear. There are many ways applying pictures in teaching vocabulary in classroom so it requires careful considerations from language researchers and teachers. Also teachers need to look deep into their class situations as well as their students’ background knowledge and what items will be taught, too. 1.2.5. Review of previous studies on using pictures in teaching vocabulary There are many studies which have been conducted on teaching vocabulary through pictures. Firstly, a M.A minor thesis named “using pictures in teaching vocabulary of English to the second year students of Mechanical department at Hai 9 Phong Industrial Vocational College” by Nguyen Thi Thu Hoa in 2010. Secondly, the thesis by Khuong Ha Linh, in 2011 named “the exploitation of pictures in teaching vocabulary according to communicative approach for first year students at Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Economics and Business”. CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY This chapter discusses in detail the research methodology of the research as well as the design of the research. This research was conducted in the form of an action research basing on the following model by Kemmis and Mc Taggart (in Burns, 1999: 32) with four steps. In this chapter, the research question is raised and then informants are shown in detail. After that, the design of the study is shown with four steps of action research including planning, acting, observing and reflecting. 2.1. Research question This study attempts to examine the effectiveness of using pictures in terms of students’ English learning. The research question is: Is using pictures in teaching vocabulary more effective than not using pictures? 2.2. Informants In the study, 30 kindergarten students dividing into 2 groups: the control group and the experimental group at Smart-kids school in Bac ninh province were employed as the participants of the research. The research time is two months in 8 periods. The researcher taught two classes the same content but in two different ways for the vocabulary teaching. With the experimental group, the researcher taught vocabulary using pictures but the control group received traditional treatment. In each period, the researcher had to observe children and after 8 periods, children took a test to check vocabulary they had learnt. 2.3. Planning In this thesis, basing on Kemmis’s model, two classes were assigned to an experimental group and a control group. The researcher taught the two classes the same content but in two different ways for the vocabulary teaching. In addition, 8 10 [...]... interest and interaction Firstly, from the observation process, using pictures in teaching vocabulary enhanced memory of students in the experimental group than that in the control group Secondly, using pictures in teaching vocabulary promoted students in the treatment group to be interested in participating in the learning activities more than those on the control group so the classroom situation became... up the findings, limitations as well as putting forward several suggestions for further studies 1 Conclusion As mentioned previously, this thesis aimed at exploring the effectiveness of pictures in teaching vocabulary to kindergarten students The result of the study shows that using pictures in teaching vocabulary was more effective in helping students in acquiring new words particular in memory, interest... basing on the topic and the demanded new words in the textbook: Super Kids 1 2.4 Acting In this study, pictures were used in teaching vocabulary Below is my detail action on each week with the name of the unit, kind of pictures, games and teaching activities: pair work, group work in 8 weeks: 2.5 Observing As being suggested, the effects of using pictures in teaching vocabulary were observed in the. .. school Thus, based on the results, it can be concluded that using pictures in teaching vocabulary seems to be more effective than not using picture 2 Implications 15 On the basis of the findings of the study, the author would like to give some recommendations on English vocabulary teaching and learning for high school learners Firstly, using pictures in teaching vocabulary to kindergarten students is... the study The findings revealed that participants in the experimental group, who had received the treatments on using pictures in teaching vocabulary, significantly enhanced better performance in a vocabulary test In term of techniques, it can be said that using pictures especially flash card is a useful way of enhancing vocabulary learning especially the kindergarten students at Smart-kids school Thus,... Obviously, the presence of visuals played a significant role in this activity Its importance lied in the fact that all students tended to watch them for the whole time, even if it was not their turn – they were usually interested if a member of their team touched the correct picture In addition, many 12 pictures of students in joining learning activities were taken to show the learning atmosphere in the treatment... strategy which they could try to achieve better vocabulary learning Thus, this kind of new teaching method seemed to help them to learn better new words The vocabulary instruction through pictures empowered Smartkids students in learning the relevant vocabulary In the observation process, students’ enthusiastic and motivation increased in joining learning activities in both groups However, unlike the. .. the treatment group and teaching and learning process in the control group each week 2.6 Reflecting In carrying out the final step, the result of how the teaching learning process runs was reflected It means that the observation notes were collected each week then they were classified and evaluated throughout the research CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION In this chapter, all collected data from... students, the students in the experimental group were free to interact with each other Students in the experimental group seemed to benefit from this kind of learning, as they enlarged their vocabulary knowledge at the end of the study Results showed that students learned better the relevant words PART C: CONCLUSION 14 In this part, the author intends to present the outcome of the whole thesis by summing... other teaching method did help students remember the word meaning in a short time Moreover, the gap between students’ scores in both groups is quite, so we can say using pictures seem to be better for students to remember new words 13 3.2.2 The final test In the following chart, the result of the final test in both groups was shown as follows: Chart 3: The final test In conclusion, it seems that using . finding out the effectiveness of using picture in teaching vocabulary at Smart-kids school based on the understanding of vocabulary and pictures in linguistic notion and the situation of teaching. meeting, market. 1.2.3. Issues of using pictures in teaching vocabulary In this part, many advantages and disadvantages of using pictures in teaching vocabulary are considered. The use of pictures. words. 13 3.2.2. The final test In the following chart, the result of the final test in both groups was shown as follows: Chart 3: The final test In conclusion, it seems that using pictures in teaching vocabulary