Nhận thức được tầm quan trọng của việc dạy từ vựng trong việc dạy tiếng anh đặc biệt là dạy tiếng anh cho trẻ 5 tuổi, luận văn này nhằm tìm hiểu tính hiệu quả của việc sử dụng tranh ảnh trong dạy từ vựng. Qua quá trình tìm hiểu và phân tích, luận văn này đã đưa ra kết quả về tính hiệu quả của sử dụng tranh ảnh khi so sánh kết quả của phương pháp quan sát lớp học và 3 bài kiểm tra từ vựng giữa 2 nhóm: nhóm thí nghiệm và nhóm đối chứng. Kết quả là sinh viên trong nhóm thí nghiệm học từ vựng sôi nổi và nhớ từ vựng lâu hơn so với sinh viên nhóm đối chứng. Do vậy, sử dụng tranh ảnh trong việc dạy từ vựng là cách thức hiệu quả để dạy từ vựng trong trường Smartkids.
CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT I hereby certify that this thesis is my own work and effort and that it has not been submitted anywhere for any award. 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to all the people who gave me the possibility to complete this thesis. First of all, I would like to express my sincere and deep gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Hà Cẩm Tâm for her invaluable advice, careful instruction and helpful encouragement during the process of writing this minor thesis. Secondly, I would also like to express my sincere thanks to all of my lecturers in the Faculty of Post- graduate Studies, the University of Foreign Languages and International Studies for useful lectures and suggestion that have inspired and helped me much in the clarifications of my study. My special thanks also go to all teachers and students at Smart-kids school in Bac Ninh province who contribute to the idea budget and spent time completing observation and tests. Finally yet importantly, I would also like to express my genuine appreciation to my friends and my family for their unending support and words of encouragement. If there had not been great help from the above people, the study could not have been fulfilled. 2 ABSTRACT Vocabulary is one of the important elements in teaching English. In acquiring a foreign language, learning vocabulary is considered as one of important tasks. At Smart-kids school, learning and teaching vocabulary is a major concern, too. In an attempt to investigate the effect of pictures in teaching vocabulary the study has been conducted in the form of an action research. The participation of the study comprised 30 kindergarten students. They were randomly assigned into two homogeneous groups each consisting of 15 learners. The experimental group used pictures in teaching vocabulary but the control group didn’t use. The classroom observation and tests were the main instruments employed for the data collection. The result showed that the students in the experimental group outperformed the students in the control group in their vocabulary knowledge. It means that the contribution of pictures in teaching vocabulary to students led to higher level of vocabulary improvement. Therefore, using pictures in teaching vocabulary seems to be more effective than not using. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS vii PART A. INTRODUCTION 1 1. Rationale of the study 1 2. Aims and significant of the study 2 3. Scope of the study 2 4. Research methodology 2 5. Organization of the study 3 PART B. DEVELOPMENT 4 CHAPTER 1. LITERATURE REVIEW 4 1.1. Vocabulary teaching 4 1.1.1. Stages in vocabulary teaching 5 1.1.1.1. Presentation 5 1.1.1.2. Practice 5 1.1.1.3. Production 6 1.1.1.4. Review 7 1.1.2. Techniques in vocabulary teaching 7 1.1.3. Factors affecting vocabulary retention 9 1.1.3.1. Memory 9 1.1.3.2. Motivation 11 1.1.3.3. Person-dependent factors 13 4 1.2. Pictures in teaching vocabulary 15 1.2.1. The meaning of pictures 15 1.2.2. The types of pictures 16 1.2.3. Issues of using pictures in teaching vocabulary 17 1.2.4. Activities using pictures in teaching vocabulary 19 1.2.5. Review of previous studies on using pictures in teaching vocabulary 20 CHAPTER 2. METHODOLOGY 22 2.1. Research question 22 2.2. Informants 22 2.3. Planning 23 2.4. Acting 24 2.5. Observing 25 2.6. Reflecting 25 CHAPTER 3. DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 26 3.1. Classroom observation 26 3.1.1. Memory 26 3.1.2. Interest 28 3.1.3. Classroom interaction 31 3.2. Test result 33 3.2.1. The progress tests 33 3.2.2. The final test 34 3.3. Finding and comments 36 PART C. CONCLUSION 39 1. Conclusion 39 2. Implications 40 3. Limitations and recommendations for further studies 40 REFERENCES 42 APPENDIX I APPENDIX 1 I 5 APPENDIX 2 IV APPENDIX 3 VI APPENDIX 4 VIII LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS Table 1: The number of students remembers 3 and 4 words ………………………………. 27 Table 2: The progress tests …………………………………33 Chart 1: The students’ participation in learning activities in class …………………………………28 Chart 2: Classroom interaction …………………………………32 PART A: INTRODUCTION 6 Part A – Introduction- provides the background to the study and statement of the problem, the aims, the research question, the scope of the study as well as the research methodology. It also outlines the organization of the thesis. 1. Rationale of the study English teaching involves four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. One of the main tasks assigned to foreign language teaching at school is that of training students to be communicatively competent. Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998: 13). In any second language teaching and learning, speaking is always believed to be the most vital skill and in teaching speaking, vocabulary is the most important thing. “If language structures make up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh.”(Harmer 1993: 153). Cook’s (2000) conclusion is also consistent with Wilkins in that “Grammar provides the overall patterns, vocabulary the material to put into those patterns”. Or some authors, led by Lewis (1993) argue that vocabulary should be at the center of language teaching, because ‘language consists of grammaticalised lexis, not lexicalised grammar’. From the statement, it can be seen that vocabulary functions as a cornerstone without which any language could not exist. Speaking would be meaningless and perhaps impossible having only structure without vocabulary. Therefore, the English teacher has to be able to organize teaching and learning activities; they have to give materials by using a suitable technique and master the lesson effectively. Especially in learning vocabulary, teachers must make the students able to memorize such words in English language and group of new words. Celce Maria stated that research in first and second language acquisition suggest that initial teaching priorities for language areas should be vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Therefore, the English teacher has to be able to organize teaching and learning activities and they have to give materials by using a suitable technique and master the lesson effectively. Especially in learning vocabulary, teachers must make the students able to 7 memorize such words in English language and group of new words. The statements above mean, vocabulary is important to teach and teachers must try to find the most effective way to help learners retain new words in long term memory. As a teacher at Smart-kids schools, I realize that teaching vocabulary is major concern because at the age of five, students cannot write or read and the effective way to teach is through pictures. Therefore, I choose this topic to understand more about the effectiveness of using picture in teaching vocabulary. 2. Aims and significance of the study This study is aimed at finding out the effectiveness of using picture in teaching vocabulary at Smart-kids school based on the understanding of vocabulary and pictures in linguistic notion and the situation of teaching and learning there. Through this, some implications to solve these problems will be suggested. The result of the research will be helpful for many English teachers in many schools especially Smart-kids school in Bac Ninh province. From this, the teachers will find an effective ways and apply many activities in class to attract students attention in learning new words. Basing on suggestions in this research, teachers can have their own way to teach their students. 3. Scope of the study I cannot go into details of all parts of language theory and practice because of the limited time, the shortage of reference books, and the students’ language ability. This is also a wide topic so I mainly focus on the effect of using picture in teaching vocabulary in the field of memory, interest and interaction. 4. Research methodology This methodology used in the study is those of an action research. Thus, it applied both qualitative and quantitative approaches with two methods of data collection. The qualitative data were collected from observation and the quantitative data were collected from tests including two progress tests and one final test. 5. Organization of the study 8 This minor thesis is composed of three parts as follow: Part A - Introduction: The first part presents rationale, aims and significance as well as scope of the study, research methodology and organization of the study. Part B - Development: The second part consists of three chapters. Chapter 1 is for literature review, which provides the theoretical background of the study. Chapter 2 is methodology which represents the research question, describes informants and the design of the study. Chapter 3 presents the data analysis of classroom observation and test then discussion. Part C – Conclusion: The final part summarizes the major findings of the experiment, voicing some implications for language teachers in teaching vocabulary and suggesting some recommendations for further studies. PART B: DEVELOPMENT 9 CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, relevant literature is reviewed, underlying the necessity and the relevance of the study. In other words, background knowledge on vocabulary teaching in general and vocabulary teaching through pictures in particular is looked at critically to set up the theoretical framework for further investigation. The first section of this chapter is devoted to theoretical aspects of vocabulary teaching and the second section of this chapter is about pictures in language teaching. 1.1. VOCABULARY TEACHING 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. 1.1.1. Stages in vocabulary teaching 10 [...]... visuals hand keyword techniques + Motivation - strong motivation itself does not ensure that words will be remembered Even unmotivated students remember words if they have to face appropriate tasks 16 + Attention - impossible to improve vocabulary without a certain degree of conscious attention 1.1.3.2 Motivation As it has been said one of the factors that have a strong impact on success or failure in learning... in teaching vocabulary more effective than not using pictures? 2.2 Informants In the study, 30 kindergarten students dividing into 2 groups: the control group and the experimental group at Smart- kids school in Bac ninh province were employed as the participants of the research Some teachers in this school also helped me to take photos and testing students in 2 progress tests and one final test This... ways including logic, abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication, learning, having emotional knowledge, retaining, planning, and problem solving The studies on intelligence show a strong relationship between intelligence and acquisition of a foreign language but only as far as academic skills are concerned Learners with high intelligence quotient achieve better results on language... 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 33 atmosphere, the competitiveness . of my study. My special thanks also go to all teachers and students at Smart-kids school in Bac Ninh province who contribute to the idea budget and spent time completing observation and tests. Finally. 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. stored in memory. The best kinds of mnemonics hare visuals hand keyword techniques. + Motivation - strong motivation itself does not ensure that words will be remembered. Even unmotivated students