A study of using games in efl primary school students vocabulary learning at a foreign language center

Trang 1 PHAM THI THANH HUYEN A STUDY OF USING GAMES IN EFL PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY LEARNING AT A FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTER MASTER OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING Trang 2 PHAM T

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY PHAM THI THANH HUYEN A STUDY OF USING GAMES IN EFL PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY LEARNING AT A FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTER MASTER OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING Binh Dinh – 2023 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING QUY NHON UNIVERSITY PHAM THI THANH HUYEN A STUDY OF USING GAMES IN EFL PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY LEARNING AT A FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTER Field: Theory and Methodology of English Language Teaching Code: 8140111 Supervisor: Bui Thi Dao, Ph.D BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC QUY NHƠN PHẠM THỊ THANH HUYỀN NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TRÒ CHƠI TRONG VIỆC HỌC TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG ANH TẠI MỘT TRUNG TÂM ANH NGỮ Ngành: Lý luận và phương pháp dạy học bộ môn tiếng Anh Mã số: 8140111 Người hướng dẫn: TS Bùi Thị Đào i STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP I hereby certify that the thesis titled “A study of using games in EFL primary school students’ vocabulary learning at a foreign language center”, is entirely my own original work except where otherwise indicated I have not used any sources other than those listed and identified as references I further declare that I have not submitted this thesis at any other institution in order to obtain a degree Quy Nhơn, December 2023 Phạm Thị Thanh Huyền ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would not have been able to complete my thesis without the help of my supervisor, committee members, and friends, as well as the love and support of my family Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Bui Thi Dao, Ph.D., for the enthusiastic and continuous support of my thesis, for her patience, encouragement, and immense knowledge Her guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my research I would send my special thanks to all lecturers and staff of the Department of Foreign Languages and the Department of Pedagogy, Quy Nhon University for their profound knowledge and guidance during my two years of studying I am also thankful to all the English teachers and students at Cherry center for their enthusiastic participation in my research Without their help, I would not have been able to complete this paper Last but not least, I own a great debt of gratitude to my beloved family whose support and encouragement have always been a great deal of motivation that has helped me to overcome all problems to complete my thesis iii ABSTRACT This study was carried out in the form of an action research which investigates students’ reactions to the use of games in vocabulary learning and then figures out whether games in vocabulary teaching could help improve students’ vocabulary retention In order to accomplish these purposes, five teachers and forty five young learners at Cherry Center in Tuy Hoa were selected to participate in the study Data collection instruments were employed, namely students’ and teachers’ questionnaires and interview, class observation in order to have data to achieve most reliable findings for the research Results from the students’ questionnaire and interviews reflected a completely positive attitude of the students towards the use of games, claiming that game-based activities helped learning procedure more effectively The study involved the active participation of both teachers and students, shedding light on the positive impact of games in vocabulary learning and providing valuable insights for teachers' instructional practices Findings from observation revealed that students had experienced an improvement in their vocabulary memorization throughout the eight weeks of study and the reason for the vocabulary retention progress was mainly attributed to the use of games in language classrooms Benefits of using games can be listed as the deeper impression of vocabulary on students’ memory and a more frequent exposure to vocabulary use On this basis, some implications for teachers’ preparation, classroom practices and future research were proposed Keywords: games, vocabulary learning, students’ reaction, young learners iv TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vii LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF FIGURES .ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Rationale 1 1.2 Research aims and objectives 2 1.3 Research questions 3 1.4 Scope of the study 3 1.5 Significance of the study 4 1.6 Design of the study 5 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6 2.1 Introduction to games 6 2.2 Types of games used for learning vocabulary 8 2.3 Overview of primary school students 11 2.4 Characteristics of primary school students in using games for vocabulary learning 13 2.5 Concepts of vocabulary and the importance of vocabulary 15 2.6 Previous related studies 18 2.7 Summary 22 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 23 3.1 Research design 23 3.2 Research context 25 v 3.2.1 Participants 25 3.2.2 Textbook 26 3.3 Data collection 26 3.3.1 Questionnaires 27 3.3.2 Interview 29 3.3.3 Observation 31 3.4 Data collection procedure 32 3.5 Research reliability and validity 35 3.6 Summary 36 CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 37 4.1 The most frequently used types of games for primary school students' vocabulary learning 37 4.1.1 Through questionnaire 37 4.1.2 Through interview 39 4.1.3 Through observation 41 4.2 The effective utilization of games in the classroom 42 4.2.1 Through questionnaire 42 4.2.2 Through interview 44 4.2.3 Through observation 46 4.3 Students’ reactions to games in their lessons 48 4.3.1 Through questionnaire 48 4.3.2 Through interview 50 4.3.3 Through observation 54 4.4 Discussion 56 4.4.1 The most frequently used types of games for primary school students' vocabulary learning 56 4.4.2 The effective utilization of games in the classroom for enhanced learning experiences 58 vi 4.4.3 EFL students’ responses to the use of games to learn English vocabulary 59 CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 63 5.1 Conclusions 63 5.2 Limitations of the study 65 5.3 Suggestions for further research 66 REFERENCES 69 APPENDICES vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as a Foreign Language SLA: Second language acquisition ESL: English as a Second Language