Nghiên cứu phong cách học loại nhìn nghe vận động trong việc học từ vựng của sinh viên tiếng anh tại trường cao đắng sư phạm bình phước

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY TRAN THI THU AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH STUDENTS’ VISUAL, AUDITORY, KINESTHETIC (VAK) LEARNING STYLE PROFILE IN STUDYING VOCABULARY AT BINH PHUOC JUNIOR COLLEGE OF EDUCATION MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Language HUE, 2019 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY TRAN THI THU AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH STUDENTS’ VISUAL, AUDITORY, KINESTHETIC (VAK) LEARNING STYLE PROFILE IN STUDYING VOCABULARY AT BINH PHUOC JUNIOR COLLEGE OF EDUCATION MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 8140111 SUPERVISOR: TRUONG VIEN, Assoc.Prof.D.Ed HUE, 2019 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ TRẦN THỊ THU NGHIÊN CỨU PHONG CÁCH HỌC LOẠI NHÌN, NGHE, VẬN ĐỘNG TRONG VIỆC HỌC TỪ VỰNG CỦA SINH VIÊN TIẾNG ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG SƯ PHẠM BÌNH PHƯỚC LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 8140111 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: PGS.TS TRƯƠNG VIÊN HUẾ, 2019 Statement of Original Authorship The work contained in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, my thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself Signed: ………………… Tran Thi Thu Date: …./…./2019 i ABSTRACT Identifying learners' style is EFL teachers' essential work in teaching English This paper aimed to investigate EFL students' vocabulary visual, auditory, kinesthetic (VAK) learning style The teaching activities which supported students' vocabulary learning style at Binh Phuoc Junior College of Education were also examined Instruments of the study included two questionnaires and an interview, which aimed to collect both quantitative and qualitative data for the research The questionnaires were used to investigate the EFL students' VAK dominant learning style and the teachers' preferred activities A follow-up interview was conducted to gain in-depth ideas of the instructors to qualify the results found in the questionnaires The participants consisted of 50 EFL students and 30 teachers of English The results revealed that visual vocabulary learning style was the students' predominant style However, there was a lack of using various visual vocabulary teaching activities to support visual learners Results concerning the gender of the participants in learning style and teachers' perception of dealing with learning style in English classroom were also presented Pedagogical implications in teaching and learning English vocabulary were suggested at the end of the paper Key words: VAK learning style, teaching activities, visual, auditory, kinesthetic, dominant ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my deep gratitude to Assoc Prof Dr Truong Vien, my research supervisor, for his patient guidance, enthusiastic encouragement and useful critiques of this research work I wish to express my sincere thanks to Dr Nguyen Thanh Phu, the principal of Binh Phuoc Junior College of Education for his encouragement and providing me with all the necessary facilities I take this opportunity to thank the teachers of English at Binh Phuoc Junior College of Education for their support and their assistance with the collection of my data I am grateful to my family and my friends for their support and encouragement throughout my study I also wish to thank the people who directly or indirectly lent their helping hand in this paper iii TABLES OF CONTENTS Statement of Original Authorship i Abstract ii Acknowledgement iii Tables of Content iv List of Tables v List of Abbreviations vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Review of the theoretical background of VAK Learning Style Profile 2.1.1 Learning Style 2.1.2 The VAK Learning Style Profile 2.1.3 Types of VAK Learning Style Profile 2.1.4 Teaching vocabulary 2.2 Review of Related Studies CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 16 3.1 Research Hypothesis 16 3.2 Research Design 16 3.3 Research Participants 17 3.4 Research Instruments 17 3.5 Data Collecting Procedure 20 3.6 Data Analysis 21 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 23 4.1 Results from Students’ Questionnaires 23 4.2 Results from Teachers’ Questionnaires 31 4.3 The comparison between learning style and teaching activities 37 4.4 Results from the Teachers’ Interviews 40 4.5 Discussion 45 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, LIMITATION AND RECOMMENDATION 49 REFERENCES APPENDICES iv LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: Visual vocabulary learning activities 24 Table 4.2: Auditory vocabulary learning activities 24 Table 4.3: Kinesthetic vocabulary learning activities…………………… 25 Table 4.4: Combination of vocabulary learning vocabulary activities…… 26 Table 4.5: Comparing mean scores of clusters of the VAK vocabulary activities 27 Table 4.6: Vocabulary learning activities 27 Table 4.7: Results from the VAK vocabulary learning style of male and female 29 Table 4.9: Teachers’ perception of dealing with L.S in English classroom 32 Table 4.10: Visual vocabulary teaching activities 32 Table 4.11: Auditory vocabulary teaching activities 33 Table 4.12: Kinesthetic vocabulary teaching activities 34 Table 4.13: The combination of VAK vocabulary teaching activities 34 Table 4.14: Vocabulary teaching activities 35 Table 4.15: Comparison between visual vocabulary L.S and visual vocabulary teaching activities 37 Table 4.16: Comparison between auditory vocabulary L.S and auditory vocabulary teaching activities 38 Table 4.17: Comparison between kinesthetic vocabulary L.S and kinesthetic vocabulary teaching activities 38 Table 4.18: Comparison between the combination of VAK vocabulary L.S and the combination of VAK vocabulary teaching activities 39 v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS VAK: visual, auditory, kinesthetic EFL: English as a Foreign Language L.S: Learning style vi CHAPTER INTRODUCTION The teaching and learning of English have been continuously developed by policymakers, researchers, and educators as well as learners in ESL and EFL contexts There have been many methodologies implemented to satisfy the needs of learners and society in different periods In other words, the success of the implementation of teaching methods is decided by learners It is measured by the learners’ academic achievements and interest in their studies As educators, we tend to concentrate on facilitating learners with compelling learning experiences perpetually Additionally, the diversities of students and teachers create dissimilarities of their learning styles and teaching styles The learning style preferences indicate the approach which students like to get and handle the information in the learning process, whereas the teaching styles indicate the teachers’ view and chosen educational strategies (Ph’ng et al., 2015) Wooldridge (1995) featured that the diversity of students’ learning styles should not be neglected The instructors must grasp students’ learning style preferences As a result, once students’ learning preferences are accommodated by the teachers; there will be positive feedback and better learning achievement (Naimie et al., 2010) Anderson (1995) reminded instructors of the need for mastering the students’ learning style preferences to foster teaching and learning process effectively As explained by Song, Hannafin and Hill (2007), the teachers have enough ability and experience to identify and resolve students’ problem as well as design activities to promote students’ learning Therefore, the teachers need to guarantee to bring to students opportunities and benefits from the teaching and learning process Understanding how an individual learns helps instructors know the whole students’ learning preferences; therefore, promote students’ learning (Zin et al., 2002) Like other subjects, students use different ways to learn English in general and English vocabulary in particular Some students are visual learners; they like learning English vocabulary through pictures, graphs, maps or diagrams Some other students are auditory learners; they learn vocabulary best by listening to the lectures or audios The kinesthetic learners enjoy doing while learning English vocabulary, for example: playing games, dancing or drawing Therefore, different students have different styles of learning or each student may prefer Code: APPENDIX A.2 A QUESTIONNAIRE ON ENGLISH VOCABULARY TEACHING ACTIVITIES I am conducting a research paper for the fulfillment of a Master’s degree Therefore, this questionnaire is used to collect data, not for any other purposes I would be very thankful to you for finishing all the following questions Please answer the questions by circling each number for each question Part I Your information Name (optional): ……………………… ………… Age: 20-30  Sex: Male 31-40  41-50  51-60  61-65  Female Teaching experience (year): under 10  11-20  21-30  31-40  Part II: Questions From question 6, responding to questions by using the following scale: 1= never always 2= sometimes 3= often 4= usually 5= Teachers’ perception of dealing with learning style in English classroom strongly disagree disagree neutral agree strongly agree Learners are important factor in designing teaching activities Learners’ learning style affects teaching activities Teaching style should match learners’ learning style Learning style affects learning result 5 Identifying learners’ style is one of the essential teaching strategies of teachers When teaching vocabulary to students, you ….? never sometimes often usually always distinguish the root of word on the board, e.g: the root of teacher is teach, the root of happiness is happy use the word tree related to target word, e.g: rainy, sunny, windy, wet never sometimes often usually always o  weather use flashcards to teach the meaning of words draw pictures, map illustrating meaning of words on the board the 10 show the collocation of words on the board, e.g: make a bed, go on holiday 11 ask sts to read the texts before moving to next steps 12 ask sts to look up words in dictionary 13 ask sts to watch English videos `4 14 use spider diagram to teach vocabulary, e.g: the original word is property, teacher draw spider diagram and ask sts to give related word: money, house, diamond, stocks and shares, gold,… When teaching vocabulary to students, you ….? never sometimes often usually always 15 ask sts to listen to tape in their textbook 16 ask sts to listen to English songs 17 ask sts to listen to English radio programs 18 ask sts to join in a game in which sts listen to other classmates’ short presentation then guess hidden phrase in it 19 ask sts to retell the story after listening to it 20 asks sts to listen to the tape then tasks what follow 21 asks sts to pronounce the new words 22 orally explain new words’ meaning to sts 23 asks sts to chain game, e.g: 1st student says “flood”; 2nd student says “flood, drought”; 3rd student says “ flood, drought, hurricane” When teaching vocabulary to students, you ….? never sometimes often usually always 24 ask sts to act by using gestures while listening to a song 25 divide sts into groups and asks sts to crosswords or word squares on the board never sometimes often usually always 26 ask sts to work in groups or pairs and match words & pictures on the board 27 ask sts to go around and find someone who… 28 ask sts to run and clap the words on the board 29 ask sts to use their body language to express word’s meaning, 30 ask sts to play “Simon says” (Sts as instructions if they hear “Simon says” and vice versa) 31 ask sts to play “Running dictation” (one student reads a sentence or short paragraph then runs forward to tell second member who will speak out loud or write sentence/ paragraph on the board) 32 ask sts to go around and gap information activities 33 ask sts to puppet show using given words 34 ask sts to role-play activities When teaching vocabulary to students, you ….? never sometimes often usually always 35 ask sts to look at a series of picture in 20 seconds then sts runs forward the board and write down the words as many as possible 36 divide sts into groups, a member in each group goes to the board to draw picture while listening to other member’s instruction 37 ask sts to listen to a text and then act it out 38 ask sts to read a text and survey 39 ask sts to listen to a text and then doing an exercise by summarizing ideas through a graph, a table, a chart, or a picture 40 ask sts to a survey in the class then a(n) oral/written report APPENDIX A.3 The Interview Date: …………………………… Time: ………………………… Interviewee: ……………………… Question 1: In your opinion, what factors affect teachers’ favorite teaching activities? ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… Question 2: In your opinion, why have visual teaching activities been preferred by teachers in teaching vocabulary? ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… Question 3: In your opinion, why have auditory teaching activities been preferred by teachers in teaching vocabulary? ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… Question 4: In your opinion, why teachers not like using the combination of VAK vocabulary teaching activities? ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… Question 5: What vocabulary teaching activities you often use to support visual learners? ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… Question 6: What vocabulary teaching activities you often use to support auditory learners? ……………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… APPENDIX B.1 Cronbach’s Alpha of students’ questionnaire Case Processing Summary N Valid Cases Excludeda Total % 50 100.0 0 50 100.0 Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha N of Items 871 35 Cronbach’s Alpha of teachers’ questionnaire Case Processing Summary N Valid Cases a Excluded Total % 29 96.7 3.3 30 100.0 Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha 889 N of Items 40 APPENDIX B.2 One-Sample Statistics N Mean of Cluster Mean 50 Std Deviation 3.1200 Std Error Mean 57356 08111 One-Sample Test Test Value = t df Sig (2-tailed) Mean Difference 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Mean of Cluster 1.479 49 145 12000 -.0430 APPENDIX B.3 One-Sample Statistics N Mean of Cluster Mean 50 Std Deviation 3.0333 Std Error Mean 62784 08879 One-Sample Test Test Value = t df Sig (2-tailed) Mean Difference 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Mean of Cluster 375 49 709 03333 -.1451 APPENDIX B.4 One-Sample Statistics N Mean of Cluster Mean 50 Std Deviation 2.6309 Std Error Mean 75624 10695 One-Sample Test Test Value = t df Sig (2-tailed) Mean Difference 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Mean of Cluster -3.451 49 001 -.36909 -.5840 APPENDIX B.5 One-Sample Statistics N Mean of Cluster Mean 50 Std Deviation 2.4067 Std Error Mean 77895 11016 One-Sample Test Test Value = t df Sig (2-tailed) Mean Difference 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Mean of Cluster -5.386 49 000 -.59333 -.8147 APPENDIX B.6 Independent Samples Test Levene's Test for Equality of Variances F Mean of Cluster Mean of Cluster Mean of Cluster Mean of Cluster Equal variances assumed 007 Sig .936 Equal variances not assumed Equal variances assumed 1.616 210 Equal variances not assumed Equal variances assumed 649 425 Equal variances not assumed Equal variances assumed Equal variances not assumed 001 973 t-test for Equality of Means t df Sig (2- Mean Std tailed) Differe Error nce Differe nce 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Upper 269 48 789 06349 23601 -.41104 53802 231 7.348 823 06349 27466 -.57979 70677 1.076 48 287 27501 25547 -.23866 78867 798 6.875 452 27501 34480 -.54334 1.09336 951 48 347 29326 30853 -.32707 824 7.384 436 29326 35580 -.53928 1.12581 512 48 611 16390 31989 -.47929 80708 488 7.808 639 16390 33601 -.61427 94207 91360 APPENDIX B.7 One-Sample Statistics N Mean of Cluster Mean 30 Std Deviation 4.2733 Std Error Mean 46826 08549 One-Sample Test Test Value = t df Sig (2-tailed) Mean Difference 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Mean of Cluster 14.894 29 000 1.27333 1.0985 APPENDIX B.8 One-Sample Statistics N Mean of Cluster Mean 30 Std Deviation 2.8963 Std Error Mean 51037 09318 One-Sample Test Test Value = t df Sig (2-tailed) Mean Difference 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Mean of Cluster -1.113 29 275 -.10370 -.2943 APPENDIX B.9 One-Sample Statistics N Mean of Cluster Mean 30 Std Deviation 2.8963 Std Error Mean 49941 09118 One-Sample Test Test Value = t df Sig (2-tailed) Mean Difference 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Mean of Cluster -1.137 29 265 -.10370 -.2902 APPENDIX B.10 One-Sample Statistics N Mean of Cluster Mean 30 Std Deviation 2.7121 Std Error Mean 53601 09786 One-Sample Test Test Value = t df Sig (2-tailed) Mean Difference 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Mean of Cluster -2.942 29 006 -.28788 -.4880 APPENDIX B.11 One-Sample Statistics N Mean of Cluster Mean 30 Std Deviation 2.4978 Std Error Mean 62832 11471 One-Sample Test Test Value = t df Sig (2-tailed) Mean Difference 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference Lower Mean of Cluster -4.378 29 000 -.50222 -.7368