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
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
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
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
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
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
It cannot be denied that vocabulary is one of the most important language elements among pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary According to McCarthy (1990:101), “vocabulary is the biggest component of any language If you do not know enough vocabulary you will not be able to express yourself adequately” In addition, “no matter how will the students learn grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of second language are mastered without words to express a wider range of meaning, communication just cannot happen in any meaningful way” (McCarthy, 1990: piii) From this, it can be said that teaching vocabulary plays an important role, too Although traditionally, the teaching of vocabulary above elementary levels was mostly incidental, limited to presenting new items as they appeared in reading or sometimes listening texts This indirect teaching of vocabulary assumes that vocabulary expansion will happen through the practice of other language skills, which has been proved not enough to ensure vocabulary expansion Some authors, led by Lewis (1993) argue that vocabulary should be at the center of language teaching, because “language consists of grammaticalised lexis, not lexicalized grammar” Nowadays it is widely accepted that vocabulary teaching should be part of the syllabus, and taught in a well-planned and regular basis To understand more about vocabulary teaching, it is necessary to describe stages in vocabulary teaching
Basically as proposed by Doff (1988:98), there are four stages in teaching vocabulary namely presentation, practice, production, and review
The first is presentation, one of the most important and complex preliminary stages in teaching vocabulary 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 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
According to Gairns and Redman (1986: 73-75), there are three techniques used in the presentation of new vocabulary items The first one is visual techniques including mime, gestures, and visuals such as flashcards photographs, blackboard drawings, wall charts, and realia The second one is verbal techniques: use of illustrative, situations, use of synonymy and definition, contrasts and opposites, scales, and examples of the type The last one is translation It is considered a quick, easy, and effective way of conveying the meaning of vocabulary Similarly, Thornbury (2002:77) suggests a variety of techniques in introducing vocabulary such as translation, real things, pictures, gestures, definitions, and situations On the other hand, Doff (1988, p 96) groups these techniques into four categories: showing the meaning of words visually, showing the meaning of words in context, using synonyms or antonyms and translation He adds that a combination of the techniques should be implemented when it comes to the effectiveness of presenting meaning of new words
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 Thornbury (2002:93) underlines the popular belief that
“practice makes perfect” In addition, he shares his opinion about the action of moving from short-term memory into permanent memory In order to ensure long- term retention, words or lexical items need to be put into practice In this case, teacher finds a suitable way to help students with some kinds of practical exercises to help students become more familiar with the words they have learned: matching pictures to words, matching parts of words to other parts, using prefixes and suffixes to build new words from given words, classifying items into lists, using given words to complete vocabulary specific task, filling in crosswords, grids or diagrams, filling in gaps in sentences and memory games Besides, Thornbury (2002: 93-94) points out that there is a variety of tasks which can be used in order to help move words into long-term memory They can be divided into five types in order of least cognitively demanding to most demanding: identifying, selecting, matching, sorting, and ranking and sequencing
Developing fluency with known vocabulary is essential to help learners make the best use of what they have already known 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 In this stage, there are two major types that teachers may have used very often: completion and creation Basing on Hunt and Beglar (2002: 261), fluency building activities recycle already known words in familiar grammatical and organizational patterns so that students can focus on recognizing or using words To develop learners‟ production of vocabulary, the following activities are held such as first and second language comparisons and translation carried out chunk for-chunk, rather than word-for-word aimed at raising language awareness; repetition and recycling of activities, for example, summarizing a text orally one day and again a few days later to keep words and expressions that have been learned active, working with language corpuses created by the teacher for use in the classroom Besides, Doff (1988) judges communicative activities such as information exchanging, elicitation of student-talk, games and role plays as the most effective ways to motivate students to be more actively involved in the speaking activities to produce the words they have known
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.
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.
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
LITERATURE REVIEW
Vocabulary teaching
It cannot be denied that vocabulary is one of the most important language elements among pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary According to McCarthy (1990:101), “vocabulary is the biggest component of any language If you do not know enough vocabulary you will not be able to express yourself adequately” In addition, “no matter how will the students learn grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of second language are mastered without words to express a wider range of meaning, communication just cannot happen in any meaningful way” (McCarthy, 1990: piii) From this, it can be said that teaching vocabulary plays an important role, too Although traditionally, the teaching of vocabulary above elementary levels was mostly incidental, limited to presenting new items as they appeared in reading or sometimes listening texts This indirect teaching of vocabulary assumes that vocabulary expansion will happen through the practice of other language skills, which has been proved not enough to ensure vocabulary expansion Some authors, led by Lewis (1993) argue that vocabulary should be at the center of language teaching, because “language consists of grammaticalised lexis, not lexicalized grammar” Nowadays it is widely accepted that vocabulary teaching should be part of the syllabus, and taught in a well-planned and regular basis To understand more about vocabulary teaching, it is necessary to describe stages in vocabulary teaching
Basically as proposed by Doff (1988:98), there are four stages in teaching vocabulary namely presentation, practice, production, and review
The first is presentation, one of the most important and complex preliminary stages in teaching vocabulary 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 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
According to Gairns and Redman (1986: 73-75), there are three techniques used in the presentation of new vocabulary items The first one is visual techniques including mime, gestures, and visuals such as flashcards photographs, blackboard drawings, wall charts, and realia The second one is verbal techniques: use of illustrative, situations, use of synonymy and definition, contrasts and opposites, scales, and examples of the type The last one is translation It is considered a quick, easy, and effective way of conveying the meaning of vocabulary Similarly, Thornbury (2002:77) suggests a variety of techniques in introducing vocabulary such as translation, real things, pictures, gestures, definitions, and situations On the other hand, Doff (1988, p 96) groups these techniques into four categories: showing the meaning of words visually, showing the meaning of words in context, using synonyms or antonyms and translation He adds that a combination of the techniques should be implemented when it comes to the effectiveness of presenting meaning of new words
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 Thornbury (2002:93) underlines the popular belief that
“practice makes perfect” In addition, he shares his opinion about the action of moving from short-term memory into permanent memory In order to ensure long- term retention, words or lexical items need to be put into practice In this case, teacher finds a suitable way to help students with some kinds of practical exercises to help students become more familiar with the words they have learned: matching pictures to words, matching parts of words to other parts, using prefixes and suffixes to build new words from given words, classifying items into lists, using given words to complete vocabulary specific task, filling in crosswords, grids or diagrams, filling in gaps in sentences and memory games Besides, Thornbury (2002: 93-94) points out that there is a variety of tasks which can be used in order to help move words into long-term memory They can be divided into five types in order of least cognitively demanding to most demanding: identifying, selecting, matching, sorting, and ranking and sequencing
Developing fluency with known vocabulary is essential to help learners make the best use of what they have already known 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 In this stage, there are two major types that teachers may have used very often: completion and creation Basing on Hunt and Beglar (2002: 261), fluency building activities recycle already known words in familiar grammatical and organizational patterns so that students can focus on recognizing or using words To develop learners‟ production of vocabulary, the following activities are held such as first and second language comparisons and translation carried out chunk for-chunk, rather than word-for-word aimed at raising language awareness; repetition and recycling of activities, for example, summarizing a text orally one day and again a few days later to keep words and expressions that have been learned active, working with language corpuses created by the teacher for use in the classroom Besides, Doff (1988) judges communicative activities such as information exchanging, elicitation of student-talk, games and role plays as the most effective ways to motivate students to be more actively involved in the speaking activities to produce the words they have known
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 Revision can be done in both individuals and collaboration Doff (1988: 97) expresses that vocabulary is mainly reviewed through the warm up steps It means that teacher can review new words in the later lesson It aims at refreshing memories or as a preparation for a new presentation
Learners acquire vocabulary in various ways Students are exposed to a lot of new vocabulary during lessons: by the teacher, by texts or other materials they work with A lot of this vocabulary is automatically absorbed (Harmer 1993: 159)
Besides this incidental acquisition there are “pre-planned lesson stages in which learners are taught pre-selected vocabulary items” (Thornbury 2004: 75) 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
Both McCarthy (1992: 110) and Thornbury (2004: 76) suggest two general possibilities of arranging vocabulary presentation The teacher provides the learners with the meaning of the words and then progresses to introduction of their forms or vice versa – the form is introduced first, followed up with illustration of the meaning In the latter, forms are often presented in text or another form of context and students are encouraged to discover meanings and other properties of words themselves This type of activity is called the discovery technique (Harmer 1993:
160) There are many possibilities how to explain or illustrate the meaning of the words In the first place, it is necessary to mention techniques typical for „Direct Method‟ as Thornbury, 2004 specifies them “using real objects or pictures or mime.” (Thornbury 2004: 78)
The same author continues that these means are especially appropriate for teaching elementary levels, where many concrete objects are taught These types of presentation are usually supplemented with the use of total physical response, which is a technique where the teacher gives commands and students perform the actions
In total physical response, “the intention is to replicate the experience of learning one‟s mother tongue” (Thornbury 2004: 79) Techniques for using pictures are furthermore explored as Harmer (1993: 161-162) suggests, sense relations, definition and direct translation of words might function as yet another helpful tool for clarifying the meaning
Thornbury (2004) listed these options as well and furthermore included an idea of clarifying the meaning by examples, such as “providing an example situation” or “giving several example sentences” (Thornbury 2004: 81)
Pictures in teaching vocabulary
Pictures are kinds of visual instruction materials which might be used more effectively to develop and sustain motivation in producing positive attitudes towards English and to teach or reinforce language skills Many definition of picture are shown
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 just an aspect of method but through its representation of place, object, and people, it is essential part of the overall experiences.” In addition, Hornby (2007: 1138), picture is a description that gives you an idea in your mind of what something is like It means that using picture will make the children easier to remember and understand the new vocabulary that they get Besides, Vernon S Gerlach stated different definition of picture: “Pictures area two dimension visual representation of person, places, or things Photograph prints are most common, but sketches, cartoons, murals, cut outs, charts, graphs and maps are widely used….” Through pictures, learner can see people, place and things from areas for outside their own picture can also represent image from ancient times or portray the future
Thus, the most outstanding feature of a picture is its visibility to learners so that teachers can use it for many pedagogical purposes The use of pictures are more efficient and practical than words, they are easier to recall and to remember than words, further more they expose real life situation although it happened a long time ago It is also explained by Vernon, S.Gerlach and Donald that “picture may not only be worth a thousand miles From the meaning of pictures above, it indicates that the pictures has exchanged and represented the real object into a simple device which has displayed a series of places, objects, person or even experience
Pictures can be categorized basing on their size and design Due to teaching purposes, teachers have to consider carefully which types of pictures are needed
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
Additionally, Betty Morgan Bowen (1973: 13-31) has different ways to classify pictures in the book “Look Here! Visual Aids in Language Teaching”
The first type of pictures is wall charts and wall pictures Most wall charts consist of combination of visual and verbal material They aim at giving information on topic A wall picture, on other hand, is simply a large illustration of a scene or event, or a set of scenes or events (Bowen, 1973) Good wall pictures are relevant, easy to recognize, suitable size and easy to understand The best of storing wall pictures and wall charts is to display on the classroom wall The difference between wall charts and wall pictures is the way they are used Wall pictures are often used for the whole class but wall charts are most part unsuitable for whole class teaching because they are usually complex, with printing too small to be seen by the learners
The second type is sequence pictures They are series of pictures on a single subject They “reveal their story or theme like a strip cartoon, in a connected set of illustrations” for good selection and display the teacher needs make the titles and captions large enough to read, or omit them all together and do the describing orally In addition, the teacher may know how to link pictures to form a set, thus forming the continuity of characterization, setting and subjects from picture to picture As learners look through the sequence, each picture helps to clarify the meaning of the others
The third type is flash cards Flash cards are word flash cards and picture flash cards Picture flash cards are teacher‟s accompanying guide They are useful for the representation of a single concept, such as an object or in action On the other hand, word flash cards are on which words have been printed can be held up rapidly by the teacher before class They include visual as well as text magazine pictures drawing maps and diagrams The cards are easy to store and to carry to the classroom They are easy for the teacher and the students to handle and use at the appropriate moment
Finally, drawing on the board can easily caught learners‟ attention, change the pace of lesson and encourage naturals of response The teacher can organize different activities through drawing on the board He/she can teach vocabulary spelling, pronunciation, drills and so on (Bowen, 1973) Before drawing, the teacher should think carefully to make a visual aid and consider the purpose, the specific learning points of the lesson, the characteristics of learners especially young learners
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
Firstly, 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 Sometimes, it is surprising, how pictures may change a lesson, even if only employed in additional exercises or just to create the atmosphere As Bowen said that the use of pictures in speaking lesson is likely to result in less teaching talking time and more student participation Pictures meet with a wide range of use not only in acquiring vocabulary, but also in many other aspects of foreign language teaching Wright (1990: 4-6) demonstrated this fact on an example, where he used one compiled picture and illustrated the possibility of use in five different language areas His example shows employing pictures in teaching structure, vocabulary, functions, situations and all four skills Furthermore he pointed out that “potential of pictures is so great that only a taste of their full potential can be given” in his book (Wright 1990: 6) To be more specific, beside lessons where pictures are in the main focus, they might be used just as a “stimulus for writing and discussion, as an illustration of something being read or talked about, as background to a topic and so on” (Hill, 1990: 2) There are many reasons of using pictures As Wright (1990: 2) pointed out, they are motivating and drawing learners‟ attention, providing a sense of the context of the language and giving a specific reference point or stimulus
Additionally, Hill (1990:1) listed several advantages of pictures, such as availability, cheap, flexibility - easily kept, useful for various types of activities
However, using pictures in teaching language has their own limitation The first is that in teaching vocabulary, pictures are not suitable or sufficient for demonstrating the meaning of all words (Thornbury, 2004: 81) It is very difficult to illustrate the meaning of some words, especially the abstract ones such as „opinion‟ or “impact” The second is that it cost much time in finding the right pictures for a specific type of activity for a beginning teacher who lacks his or her own collection
Therefore, how we can use pictures effectively is a major concern It demands teachers using general methodological knowledge in a flexible way It is important to find a balance and not to use pictures or visuals only but to combine them with other techniques and different types of stimuli such as movement, verbal stimuli and sound Moreover, pictures used for demonstration of the meaning should be repeatedly connected with the spoken and subsequently also written form of the word of language
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 When I carry this research, many activities which use pictures in teaching vocabulary are really helpful In this thesis,
I only name some of them
Total physical response game The teacher says the word and the students express the corresponding action and vice versa
Exchange picture game Each group had 5 students with 5 picture cards
The cards are shuffled and distributed equally among all members of the group The first player asks any player in the group for a card he or she needs If the asked player has the card, he or she must give it to the first player and gets one card back in exchange The first player then asks another player for another card If the asked player does not have the required card, there is no exchange and it is the other players (the asked ones) turn to ask somebody else for a card The game can continue until everybody gets their sets of cards
Bingo picture game In this game, every student gets a slightly different grid with small pictures of action The teacher calls out the words and students cross the corresponding pictures if they have it on the grid Whoever crosses all his and her pictures first, shouts “Bingo” and becomes the winner
Flashcards at Dawn It motivates your students to speak English with this flashcard game It works very well with younger learners Before you play, prepare some flashcards of the target vocabulary The teacher divides the class into two teams One student from each team stands back to back in the middle of the classroom Each student should hold one flashcard in front of them with the picture side facing away from them Both students then take three steps away from each other before quickly turning around This is similar to the pistols at dawn scenario
METHODOLOGY
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?
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 Some teachers in this school also helped me to take photos and testing students in 2 progress tests and one final test
This is a private kindergarten school so most of them come from comparatively rich family Beside learning English at school, parents often teach their child at home In this school, students are taught English from the age of four At the age of five, they cannot write so teachers at school found many ways to explain the meaning of new words At the beginning of the English course, thirty students are tested and chosen to two English classes: “monkey” and “panda” with the same level Each class consisted of 15 five- year- old kindergarten students The two classes studied the same textbook “Super Kids 1- student book”- Longman publication with one period a week and doing exercises in work book with their parents‟ guidance In the textbook, 9 units are arranged with interesting topics and many revising parts to check their own knowledge In each unit, children can practise listening, speaking, reading and new words
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.
Planning
In this step, as Kemmis (1999) suggests, the researcher needs to develop a plan of critically informed action to improve what is already happening within the organization that is being studied It means that everything should be prepared such as resources and materials for the research You need to make decisions about what resources, whether you will consult the literature, who you are likely to involve
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 lesson plans were prepared for 8 weeks basing on the topic and the demanded new words in the textbook: Super Kids 1 Besides, other materials for teaching aid were used such as flashcard, board, wall pictures, and jigsaw On the other hand, 3 tests were also prepared including 2 progress tests and one final test Designed in a very simple way, each of the tests contained a number of multiple-choice items which primarily aimed at checking students‟ knowledge of word meaning Below is the detailed description of the tests The progress test included 4 multiple-choice vocabulary questions The time allowed for finishing this test was 30 minutes It was divided into 2 sections In the section 1, students had to listen to new words and tick on the right picture In the section 2, they had to answer teacher‟s questions to check vocabulary mastery after 3 weeks Two progress tests were carried out during the treatment, more particularly; each of them was administered to the students right after the periods in which students revised the word meaning The final test was conducted one week after the treatment had finished In this test, it included 7 multiple-choice vocabulary questions which were taken from the vocabulary items recycled during the experiment It also took students 45 minutes to finish the test
The test included 4 sections in different form of testing such as listening and ticking and asking and answering questions to check vocabulary mastery The aim of the final test was to measure the differences between the achievements of the two groups with respect to the type of vocabulary teaching/learning technique employed in each group The test, of course, was administered to check students‟ long-term memory on the aspect of retaining vocabulary meaning only.
Acting
For the second step, as Kemmis (1999), the researcher base on the plan formulated, the plan is put into action, act upon and implement it
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:
Week 1: unit 3 - On a picnic (rice, chicken, cake, candy) flashcards, game: pointing pictures teaching activities: pair work, group work
Week 2: unit 3 - On a picnic- continued (water, juice, milk, tea), flashcards, game: hiding pictures, who is lying
Week 3 : unit 4 - Having fun (swim, skate, skateboard, kite), pictures of drawing on the board, game: TPR game, pointing pictures
Week 4: unit 4 - Having fun – continued (draw, ride, juggle and sing), flashcards, game: picture Bingo Then progress test 1 was taken
Week 5 : unit 5 - Pet day (dog, cat, rabbit, hamster), wall pictures, flashcards, game: exchange pictures, TPR, whisper game
Week 6: unit 5 - Pet day- continued (turtle, bird, fish, and snake), flashcards, wall pictures, game: pointing pictures, jigsaw Then progress test 2 was taken
Week 7: unit 6 - In the classroom (clock, board, door, desk), flashcards, game: pointing pictures, flashcard at dawn
Week 8: unit 6 - In the classroom- continued (CD player, computer, chair and trash can), flashcards, and game: whisper, who is lying?
Observing
For the third step, Kemmis (1999) suggests that it is time to observe the effect of the critically informed action in the context in which it occurs
As being suggested, the effects of using pictures in teaching vocabulary were observed in the treatment group and teaching and learning process in the control group each week In the research, I myself taught the experimental and control group during 8 weeks Observation process was prepared basing on 3 criteria: memory, interest and interaction During learning period, a teacher‟s assistant helped me to take photos of teachers and students in vocabulary teaching After lesson, I take note on the observation sheet each period and kept them during treatment.
Reflecting
For the final step, Kemmis (1999) says that you need to reflect and plan for further action In this step, the researcher reflects how the teaching and learning process runs The function of reflecting is to know the weaknesses and the strengths of the action.
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 In addition, the result of 3 tests are also collected and evaluated The function of reflecting step is to evaluate the effect of using pictures in teaching vocabulary, to access which type of picture is the most effective and to know the weaknesses and the strengths of the action Meanwhile, other plan would be prepared if the result was not improved.
DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Classroom observation
In teaching vocabulary for kindergarten students, 4 new words were taught in each week basing on the words on the textbook with different interesting topic As a teacher, I have my own way to check amount of words each students remembered after one lesson It means that many kinds of memory tests were applied under variety of conditions The first way was that new words were introduced and students repeated them and then they were asked to check whether they remembered or not The second way was that the pictures describing new words were placed one by one in front of students and they were asked to recall these words The third way was that students were shown the cards by the same procedure as the visual one, but then I asked the students to point to a named item while the cards were face down Besides, the amount of words that students remembered can be checked through playing games and watching videos related to the topic of the lesson
During treatment time, number of words that students remembered after each unit was really important indicator to find out the effectiveness of using pictures in teaching vocabulary in the experimental group compared with the control group
Therefore, number of new words that students in both groups remembered right after words were taught are collected In teaching vocabulary, the topic of unit can affect number of words that students remembered so in each week, these numbers changed In addition, many words have been already known before they were taught by teacher Numbers of students remembered from 1 word to 4 words were recorded but to see clearly the differences, number of students with the percentage of them remembered three and four words were shown in table below:
The control group The experimental group
Number of students remember 3 and 4 words
% Number of students remember 3 and 4 words
Table 1: The number of students remembers 3 and 4 words
It can be easily seen from the table that from week 6 to week 8, the number of students was 14/15 students It was really an impressive numbers that most of students in the experimental group remembered new words It means that using pictures really helps students in remembering new words However, in the control group, only 50% of students could remember 3 and 4 words In the control group, the teacher introduced what she was going to teach today Students seemed to keep silent and paid attention to the teacher The main teaching method was also translation She explained new words in Vietnamese and asked them repeat Many students forgot new words although they were repeated again and again In week 3, number of students in the experimental group was not much higher than those in the control group In this week, the topic of unit is “having fun” with 4 words: swim, skateboard, kite and skate It can be seen that at the age of five, most of students do not know the real image of skate and skateboard In addition, students in both groups often make confuse between “skate” and “skateboard”
Table 1 shows clearly the difference in the students‟ understanding of the lessons in the control group and the experimental group during 8 weeks It could be seen from the table that number of students remembered 3 and 4 words in the experimental group was much higher than that in the control group
It was also clear that the students of experimental group outperformed control group both in remembering new words which was the sign of better retrieval In short, the students in the experimental group could remember more words than that in the control group In addition, using pictures in teaching vocabulary seemed to enhance memory better than not using pictures
Motivation is the key to successfully learning English and interest in learning English is one of the most important factors in how well students learn a foreign language Therefore, in this thesis, when I observed students at Smart-kids school, interest was considered a crucial criteria in evaluate the effectiveness of using pictures in teaching vocabulary Most of students in general liked the relaxed atmosphere, the competitiveness and the interest that learning activities which were brought to the classroom This is because students have a chance to "use their imagination and creativity" during activities like games in the classroom; therefore they are interested in learning
During 8 weeks of teaching, student‟s participation in learning activities was taken notes in chart below:
Chart 1: The students’ participation in class
From the chart, it could be seen that there was a rising trend in the number of students participated in learning activities in both groups It means that students in both groups were more attracted to the lesson However, the number of students contribute to the lessons during 8 weeks was different in the control group and the experimental group
Chart 1 showed that, in every week, students in the experimental group joined learning activities more than that in the control group In the first two weeks, the topic of unit 3 is “on a picnic” In the control group, few students raised their hands to join learning activities so the learning atmosphere seemed to be boring On the other hand, in the experimental group, pointing pictures game and hiding game created a more active environment Many colorful flashcards of new words were prepared carefully so students paid attention carefully and listened to the rule of games The learning atmosphere was really exciting and noisy About 50% students (7/15) in class raised hands and participated in pointing pictures and hiding pictures game They ran and ran around if they found the wrong word, they shouted and found again It can be said that team work activities was a good learning method to learn new words In the next weeks, more and more students in the experimental group contributed to the lesson In the experimental group, other kinds of pictures were used I drew on the board the meaning of the words Students felt so excited that they shouted and laughed together and some of them even came to the board to help the teacher After finishing drawing, the whole class learnt new words in a happy learning atmosphere It can be seen that this activity demonstrated the usefulness of drawing as a tool in practicing not only vocabulary but also other aspects of the language, such as listening, speaking or structure With the simple words to draw, students can draw them in their own way so it was further reinforced by the longer time the students spend with drawing as a longer period brings more opportunities to use and remember the desired words On the other hand, on the control group, vocabulary was explained again and again but learning atmosphere seemed to be less noisy From the chart, it can be seen that in week 7 and week 8, every members in the experimental group participate in the learning activities but only 60% of that in the control group raised their hand As it was observed, the children had very positive attitudes and reactions when the teachers used pictures in teaching new words 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 When the corresponding word was called out by the teacher, the link between the word and its picture was being formed for a longer time This was being reinforced by concentration and excitement from the game
In addition, many pictures of students in joining learning activities were taken to show the learning atmosphere in the treatment group
Students in pointing picture game Students‟ participant in learning activities
Exchanging picture game Pictures on the wall
Learning vocabulary in pairs Students‟ participation in whisper game
Students‟ emotion when participating game Group work activities
During treatment time, classroom interaction was an important criterion in observation process It was subdivided into teacher-learner interaction in drills, games, whole class discussion and learner-learner interaction in pair work and group work The classroom interaction in the control group was much different from that in the experimental group The difference could be shown clearly in the following chart:
To collect data, in the field of teacher-learner interaction, drills, game and whole class discussion were recorded On the other hand, learner - learner interaction were recorded through pair work and group work It can be seen from the chart that, the frequency of teacher-learner interaction and learner-learner interaction in both group was much different Students in the experimental group interacted with the teacher and students together much more students in the control group
In the control group, drill activities and whole class discussion were used again and again to practise new words so students only had to repeat what the teacher said In addition, students answered questions whenever the teacher ordered
One special thing was that, game was not a useful tool in teaching vocabulary
Therefore, in class, pair work and group work were not use frequently In addition, many students often had private talk or some of them only sat and passive in class
As a result, the learning atmosphere was not active and boring and the interaction between teacher and student as well as student and student was not much However, in the experimental group, the learning atmosphere changed in a positive way Drill activities and whole class discussion were still used but games were used frequently so teacher-learner interaction and learner-learner interaction was well structured and managed Moreover, students in this group used to have a chance to answer teacher‟s question or imitate simple conversation using new words From the observation process, it can be seen that most students would not engage in any form of interaction unless the teacher start first especially at the age of five In the experimental group many kinds of games in team work, in pairs were applied such as pointing picture game, whisper game, flashcard at dawn so students felt relax, excited and comfortable Sometimes, I used to give comments and encourage students to talk more with partner in pairs and in group These activities enhanced strong interaction and communication skills Therefore, it could be an important factor of cognitive development, education achievement of students and emerging social competencies It could also develop the learners‟ capacities through collaborative works So learners will establish social relationship through this kind of interaction, where the sense of learning community was promoted and insolation was reduced in the classroom.
Test result
There were two progress tests which were administered to the students in both groups in week 3 and week 6 This test was arranged for the students in both groups accidentally without any reminding After marking, the means of the tests were calculated and presented as follow:
It can be seen from the table that the means of the progress test No 2 was higher with 6.6 for the control group and 7.8 for the experimental group, a significant different in both groups In addition, the mean of the progress tests is higher for both groups For example, the mean that control group got in the progress test No1 is 6.13 and the mean of experimental one is 6.5
From the table, there is an increasing trend in the means of the progress tests for both groups Like the control group, the mean of the experimental group‟s progress test No 2 score is higher than the mean of the test No 1 Therefore, from these numbers, it can be concluded that the way of teaching has caused the improvement of the students‟ scores in both relevant groups However, the result is not the same For the control group, the result is improved This could be the sign of teaching and learning progress with combination of gestures and translation methodology In the second progress test in the experimental one got higher scores
It got the means of 7.8 This shows that using pictures in teaching new words seems to be more effective
As table 2 shows, it can be realized that the means of the progress test No 1 in both groups are not much higher but in the second test, the means of the experimental group are much higher From these numbers, it can be concluded that pictures or 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
However, to check whether using pictures or not is effective, we need to analysis the result of final test after 8 weeks because one vocabulary teaching method is really effective if the result in long term memory is good
After giving treatment to the experimental group and the control group, the final test were carried one week later to check whether the students could remember the word meaning without practicing It aimed at checking long term memory of students throughout the research The final test was designed to test vocabulary acquisition, listening skill and speaking skill Besides these words which had already learnt from unit 3 to unit 6, many previous words were chosen because the teacher used to remind them in the teaching process Because children cannot write, so in doing the test, the teacher helped them to read aloud the questions, took note their answers and marked them The final test could be considered an important criterion to show the improvement in the student‟s vocabulary mastery
In the following chart, the result of the final test in both groups was shown as follows:
Firstly the performances of the two groups compared and secondly, the performances of the two groups in the progress tests and the final test compared to investigate their progress and the influence of using pictures and traditional treatment Chart 3 shows the results The final test results show that there is a significant difference between the control and the experimental group regarding their vocabulary knowledge It could be seen that there was 47% of students got the mark from 9 to 10 in the experimental group but no one in the control got mark 9 or
10 This was so impressive number that the difference between 2 groups was shown clearly In addition, no one in the experimental group got mark under 5 In addition, it can be seen from the table that, the score frequency distribution is different between the two groups as well It means that the stability in learning progress in the experimental group is maintained better than in the control one In other words, the difference between the performance of the experimental group and the control on the final test was statistically significant That is, the experimental group showed greater growth overall on vocabulary knowledge than the control one In conclusion, it seems that using pictures in teaching vocabulary has a positive effect on students‟ learning progress.
Finding and comments
As mentioned above, the research attempted to find out whether using pictures in helping learning new words or not To access the results of a teaching and learning process, I used both observation and test and test was a reliable source and a great help in my research Thus, during the treatment, three tests including two progress tests and one final test were done in both groups to record and reflect the students‟ progress and the effects of each type of activities in learning new words In addition, the comparison between the observation process and the results of the tests were considered in many sides to answer the research question
The improvement of students‟ vocabulary mastery could be seen from the mean scores of three tests: the progress test 1, the progress test 2 and the final test
Chart 4: Mean of the tests
From the chart 1, it can be seen the rising trend in the result of tests in both groups That is, although the control group gets higher mark in the progress test 1, the experimental group has significantly better vocabulary gain scores than the control group students in the second test and at the end of the study The results of the study indicated that though both methods enhanced vocabulary development of the learners from the progress test to the final test, the experimental group seemed to be better than the control group This can imply that the progress of the experimental group is more stable than that of the control one
From the discussion above, some major findings can be drawn out as two main points as follow: the improvement of students‟ vocabulary mastery and the improvement of students‟ participation in class
During the eight-week study, both groups followed the same course book (Superkids) which provided the students with a number of the new vocabularies
While the control group students learned vocabulary only through traditional method, the experimental group students learned vocabulary only through pictures as a new method The experimental group students in the present study were shown explicitly the vocabulary picture strategy which they could try to achieve better vocabulary learning The students discussed this strategy was more effective than other strategies, and received help and feedback from the teacher When they failed to only memorize a new word, they tried to use vocabulary flash card strategy, as they were aware of the existence of another strategy which they could fall back on
Thus, this kind of new teaching method seemed to help them to learn better new words The vocabulary instruction through pictures empowered Smart-kids students in learning the relevant vocabulary During the instruction period, students themselves found that they benefited from this strategy It seemed that after a certain amount of practice and use, they knew how and when to use this strategy for remembering new words and for retrieving it when needed
In the observation process, students‟ enthusiastic and motivation increased in joining learning activities in both groups Most of the learning activities which teachers used were interesting for them However, unlike the control group students, the students in the experimental group were free to interact with each other This dynamic interaction among the students seemed to contribute positively to the classroom atmosphere The experimental group teacher related that the instruction period functioned like a relaxation period compared with relative formality of the regular instruction When I collected data for this research, I realized that in the experimental group, students seemed to be more interested in learning lesson than that in the control one In addition, the teachers, on the other hand, reported that it was generally difficult to keep the interest of the control group students 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
Nevertheless, when I carried out this research, many unanticipated problems were my major concern
Firstly, when teaching one topic, teacher needs to design suitable pictures with the meaning and the age of students However, many words are really difficult to find the suitable picture so students often confused at looking at
Secondly, the mastery of students‟ words-spelling was still low Although the teacher asks them to pronounce new words again and again, many of them still make mistake However, understanding the children‟s characteristics, I and other teachers don‟t mark them down They can correct these mistakes later on
Finally, using pictures sometimes fails because of lack of cooperation among members of the groups Few students were not active when they did tasks in group but it is not many Therefore, teachers need to make relevant distribution of group member responsibility that makes them more active in class
In conclusion, using pictures in teaching vocabulary to kindergarten students led to a high level of vocabulary improvement It means that using pictures in teaching vocabulary is more effective than not using picture From the finding of the research, it is suggested that various kinds of pictures should be applied in teaching and learning new words However, the teachers have to pay attention to the anticipated problem to get better result
In this part, the author intends to present the outcome of the whole thesis by summing up the findings, limitations as well as putting forward several suggestions for further studies.
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 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 active and interactive because they enjoyed and they were motivated in learning new words
Besides, the students in the experimental group had stronger classroom interaction and more communicative skills than those in the control group
From the result of the test, it can be seen that the experimental group students had significantly better vocabulary gain scores than the control group students at the end of 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, based on the results, it can be concluded that using pictures in teaching vocabulary seems to be more effective than not using picture.
Implications
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 really effective because it is suitable with their age In addition, kindergarten students tend to like visual thing and be attracted by colorful and well-designed learning aids
Secondly, word games should be used more frequently as an effective way to help students learn new words general as well as recall words after a period of time in particular Teaching vocabulary through pictures needs to change in different ways to attract more students Holding small activities using pictures is able to develop a good atmosphere in the class, so that the students learn at a comfortable situation Besides the textbook need having more game and teacher can design many suitable games to teach students
Last but not least, to make highest use of pictures, it is necessary for the teachers to use other interesting techniques and media such as pictures, so students can be encouraged themselves to learn more, ask more and to know more
The students‟ participation in learning
From the chart, it could be seen that there was a rising trend in the number of students participated in learning activities in both groups It means that students in both groups were more attracted to the lesson However, the number of students contribute to the lessons during 8 weeks was different in the control group and the experimental group
Chart 1 showed that, in every week, students in the experimental group joined learning activities more than that in the control group In the first two weeks, the topic of unit 3 is “on a picnic” In the control group, few students raised their hands to join learning activities so the learning atmosphere seemed to be boring On the other hand, in the experimental group, pointing pictures game and hiding game created a more active environment Many colorful flashcards of new words were prepared carefully so students paid attention carefully and listened to the rule of games The learning atmosphere was really exciting and noisy About 50% students (7/15) in class raised hands and participated in pointing pictures and hiding pictures game They ran and ran around if they found the wrong word, they shouted and found again It can be said that team work activities was a good learning method to learn new words In the next weeks, more and more students in the experimental group contributed to the lesson In the experimental group, other kinds of pictures were used I drew on the board the meaning of the words Students felt so excited that they shouted and laughed together and some of them even came to the board to help the teacher After finishing drawing, the whole class learnt new words in a happy learning atmosphere It can be seen that this activity demonstrated the usefulness of drawing as a tool in practicing not only vocabulary but also other aspects of the language, such as listening, speaking or structure With the simple words to draw, students can draw them in their own way so it was further reinforced by the longer time the students spend with drawing as a longer period brings more opportunities to use and remember the desired words On the other hand, on the control group, vocabulary was explained again and again but learning atmosphere seemed to be less noisy From the chart, it can be seen that in week 7 and week 8, every members in the experimental group participate in the learning activities but only 60% of that in the control group raised their hand As it was observed, the children had very positive attitudes and reactions when the teachers used pictures in teaching new words 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 When the corresponding word was called out by the teacher, the link between the word and its picture was being formed for a longer time This was being reinforced by concentration and excitement from the game
In addition, many pictures of students in joining learning activities were taken to show the learning atmosphere in the treatment group
Students in pointing picture game Students‟ participant in learning activities
Exchanging picture game Pictures on the wall
Learning vocabulary in pairs Students‟ participation in whisper game
Students‟ emotion when participating game Group work activities
During treatment time, classroom interaction was an important criterion in observation process It was subdivided into teacher-learner interaction in drills, games, whole class discussion and learner-learner interaction in pair work and group work The classroom interaction in the control group was much different from that in the experimental group The difference could be shown clearly in the following chart:
Classroom interaction
To collect data, in the field of teacher-learner interaction, drills, game and whole class discussion were recorded On the other hand, learner - learner interaction were recorded through pair work and group work It can be seen from the chart that, the frequency of teacher-learner interaction and learner-learner interaction in both group was much different Students in the experimental group interacted with the teacher and students together much more students in the control group
In the control group, drill activities and whole class discussion were used again and again to practise new words so students only had to repeat what the teacher said In addition, students answered questions whenever the teacher ordered
One special thing was that, game was not a useful tool in teaching vocabulary
Therefore, in class, pair work and group work were not use frequently In addition, many students often had private talk or some of them only sat and passive in class
As a result, the learning atmosphere was not active and boring and the interaction between teacher and student as well as student and student was not much However, in the experimental group, the learning atmosphere changed in a positive way Drill activities and whole class discussion were still used but games were used frequently so teacher-learner interaction and learner-learner interaction was well structured and managed Moreover, students in this group used to have a chance to answer teacher‟s question or imitate simple conversation using new words From the observation process, it can be seen that most students would not engage in any form of interaction unless the teacher start first especially at the age of five In the experimental group many kinds of games in team work, in pairs were applied such as pointing picture game, whisper game, flashcard at dawn so students felt relax, excited and comfortable Sometimes, I used to give comments and encourage students to talk more with partner in pairs and in group These activities enhanced strong interaction and communication skills Therefore, it could be an important factor of cognitive development, education achievement of students and emerging social competencies It could also develop the learners‟ capacities through collaborative works So learners will establish social relationship through this kind of interaction, where the sense of learning community was promoted and insolation was reduced in the classroom
3.2 Test result 3.2.1 The progress tests
There were two progress tests which were administered to the students in both groups in week 3 and week 6 This test was arranged for the students in both groups accidentally without any reminding After marking, the means of the tests were calculated and presented as follow:
It can be seen from the table that the means of the progress test No 2 was higher with 6.6 for the control group and 7.8 for the experimental group, a significant different in both groups In addition, the mean of the progress tests is higher for both groups For example, the mean that control group got in the progress test No1 is 6.13 and the mean of experimental one is 6.5
From the table, there is an increasing trend in the means of the progress tests for both groups Like the control group, the mean of the experimental group‟s progress test No 2 score is higher than the mean of the test No 1 Therefore, from these numbers, it can be concluded that the way of teaching has caused the improvement of the students‟ scores in both relevant groups However, the result is not the same For the control group, the result is improved This could be the sign of teaching and learning progress with combination of gestures and translation methodology In the second progress test in the experimental one got higher scores
It got the means of 7.8 This shows that using pictures in teaching new words seems to be more effective
As table 2 shows, it can be realized that the means of the progress test No 1 in both groups are not much higher but in the second test, the means of the experimental group are much higher From these numbers, it can be concluded that pictures or 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
However, to check whether using pictures or not is effective, we need to analysis the result of final test after 8 weeks because one vocabulary teaching method is really effective if the result in long term memory is good
After giving treatment to the experimental group and the control group, the final test were carried one week later to check whether the students could remember the word meaning without practicing It aimed at checking long term memory of students throughout the research The final test was designed to test vocabulary acquisition, listening skill and speaking skill Besides these words which had already learnt from unit 3 to unit 6, many previous words were chosen because the teacher used to remind them in the teaching process Because children cannot write, so in doing the test, the teacher helped them to read aloud the questions, took note their answers and marked them The final test could be considered an important criterion to show the improvement in the student‟s vocabulary mastery
In the following chart, the result of the final test in both groups was shown as follows:
The final test
Firstly the performances of the two groups compared and secondly, the performances of the two groups in the progress tests and the final test compared to investigate their progress and the influence of using pictures and traditional treatment Chart 3 shows the results The final test results show that there is a significant difference between the control and the experimental group regarding their vocabulary knowledge It could be seen that there was 47% of students got the mark from 9 to 10 in the experimental group but no one in the control got mark 9 or
10 This was so impressive number that the difference between 2 groups was shown clearly In addition, no one in the experimental group got mark under 5 In addition, it can be seen from the table that, the score frequency distribution is different between the two groups as well It means that the stability in learning progress in the experimental group is maintained better than in the control one In other words, the difference between the performance of the experimental group and the control on the final test was statistically significant That is, the experimental group showed greater growth overall on vocabulary knowledge than the control one In conclusion, it seems that using pictures in teaching vocabulary has a positive effect on students‟ learning progress
As mentioned above, the research attempted to find out whether using pictures in helping learning new words or not To access the results of a teaching and learning process, I used both observation and test and test was a reliable source and a great help in my research Thus, during the treatment, three tests including two progress tests and one final test were done in both groups to record and reflect the students‟ progress and the effects of each type of activities in learning new words In addition, the comparison between the observation process and the results of the tests were considered in many sides to answer the research question
The improvement of students‟ vocabulary mastery could be seen from the mean scores of three tests: the progress test 1, the progress test 2 and the final test
Chart 4: Mean of the tests
From the chart 1, it can be seen the rising trend in the result of tests in both groups That is, although the control group gets higher mark in the progress test 1, the experimental group has significantly better vocabulary gain scores than the control group students in the second test and at the end of the study The results of the study indicated that though both methods enhanced vocabulary development of the learners from the progress test to the final test, the experimental group seemed to be better than the control group This can imply that the progress of the experimental group is more stable than that of the control one
From the discussion above, some major findings can be drawn out as two main points as follow: the improvement of students‟ vocabulary mastery and the improvement of students‟ participation in class
During the eight-week study, both groups followed the same course book (Superkids) which provided the students with a number of the new vocabularies
While the control group students learned vocabulary only through traditional method, the experimental group students learned vocabulary only through pictures as a new method The experimental group students in the present study were shown explicitly the vocabulary picture strategy which they could try to achieve better vocabulary learning The students discussed this strategy was more effective than other strategies, and received help and feedback from the teacher When they failed to only memorize a new word, they tried to use vocabulary flash card strategy, as they were aware of the existence of another strategy which they could fall back on
Thus, this kind of new teaching method seemed to help them to learn better new words The vocabulary instruction through pictures empowered Smart-kids students in learning the relevant vocabulary During the instruction period, students themselves found that they benefited from this strategy It seemed that after a certain amount of practice and use, they knew how and when to use this strategy for remembering new words and for retrieving it when needed
In the observation process, students‟ enthusiastic and motivation increased in joining learning activities in both groups Most of the learning activities which teachers used were interesting for them However, unlike the control group students, the students in the experimental group were free to interact with each other This dynamic interaction among the students seemed to contribute positively to the classroom atmosphere The experimental group teacher related that the instruction period functioned like a relaxation period compared with relative formality of the regular instruction When I collected data for this research, I realized that in the experimental group, students seemed to be more interested in learning lesson than that in the control one In addition, the teachers, on the other hand, reported that it was generally difficult to keep the interest of the control group students 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
Nevertheless, when I carried out this research, many unanticipated problems were my major concern
Firstly, when teaching one topic, teacher needs to design suitable pictures with the meaning and the age of students However, many words are really difficult to find the suitable picture so students often confused at looking at
Secondly, the mastery of students‟ words-spelling was still low Although the teacher asks them to pronounce new words again and again, many of them still make mistake However, understanding the children‟s characteristics, I and other teachers don‟t mark them down They can correct these mistakes later on
Finally, using pictures sometimes fails because of lack of cooperation among members of the groups Few students were not active when they did tasks in group but it is not many Therefore, teachers need to make relevant distribution of group member responsibility that makes them more active in class
In conclusion, using pictures in teaching vocabulary to kindergarten students led to a high level of vocabulary improvement It means that using pictures in teaching vocabulary is more effective than not using picture From the finding of the research, it is suggested that various kinds of pictures should be applied in teaching and learning new words However, the teachers have to pay attention to the anticipated problem to get better result
In this part, the author intends to present the outcome of the whole thesis by summing up the findings, limitations as well as putting forward several suggestions for further studies
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 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 active and interactive because they enjoyed and they were motivated in learning new words
Besides, the students in the experimental group had stronger classroom interaction and more communicative skills than those in the control group