the effectiveness of using pictures in teaching vocabulary at smart-kids school in bac ninh province = hiệu quả của việc sử dụng tranh ảnh trong việc dạy từ vựng tại trường smart-kids, tỉnh bắc ninh

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.. Especially in lear

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-   -

NGUYỄN THỊ HOA

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING PICTURES IN TEACHING VOCABULARY AT SMART-KIDS SCHOOL

IN BAC NINH PROVINCE

( Hiệu quả của việc sử dụng tranh ảnh trong việc dạy từ vựng

tại trường Smart-Kids, tỉnh Bắc Ninh)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111

Hanoi, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

-    -

NGUYỄN THỊ HOA

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING PICTURES IN TEACHING VOCABULARY AT SMART-KIDS SCHOOL

IN BAC NINH PROVINCE

(Hiệu quả của việc sử dụng tranh ảnh trong việc dạy từ vựng tại

trường Smart-Kids, tỉnh Bắc Ninh)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field : English Language Teaching Methodology Code : 60140111

Supervisor: Hà Cẩm Tâm (Ph.D)

Hanoi, 2014

ii

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

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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

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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

1.2 Pictures in teaching vocabulary 15

1.2.1 The meaning of pictures 15

1.2.2 The types of pictures 16

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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 32

3.2 Test result 34

3.2.1 The progress tests 34

3.2.2 The final test 35

3.3 Finding and comments 37

PART C CONCLUSION 40

1 Conclusion 40

2 Implications 41

3 Limitations and recommendations for further studies 41

REFERENCES 43 APPENDIX I APPENDIX 1 I

APPENDIX 2 IV APPENDIX 3 VI

APPENDIX 4 VIII

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LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Table 1: The number of students remembers 3

and 4 words

……… 27

Chart 1: The students‟ participation in learning

activities in class

………28

Chart 3: The final test

Chart 4: Means of the tests

………35

………36

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

Part A – Introduction- provides the background to the study and statement of the problem, the aims, the research question, the scope of the study as well as the research methodology It also outlines the organization of the thesis

1 Rationale of the study

English teaching involves four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing One of the main tasks assigned to foreign language teaching at school

is that of training students to be communicatively competent Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998: 13) In any second language teaching and learning, speaking is always believed to be the most vital skill and in teaching speaking, vocabulary is the most important thing “If language structures make up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh.”(Harmer 1993: 153) Cook‟s (2000) conclusion is also consistent with Wilkins in that “Grammar provides the overall patterns, vocabulary the material to put into those patterns” Or some authors, led by Lewis (1993) argue that vocabulary should be at the center of language teaching, because „language consists of grammaticalised lexis, not lexicalised grammar‟ From the statement, it can be seen that vocabulary functions as a cornerstone without which any language could not exist Speaking would be meaningless and perhaps impossible having only structure without vocabulary Therefore, the English teacher has to be able to organize teaching and learning activities; they have to give materials by using a suitable technique and master the lesson effectively Especially in learning vocabulary, teachers must make the students able to memorize such words in English language and group of new words Celce Maria stated that research in first and second language acquisition suggest that initial teaching priorities for language areas should be vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation Therefore, the English teacher has to be able to organize teaching and learning activities and they have to give materials by using a suitable technique and master the lesson effectively

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Especially in learning vocabulary, teachers must make the students able to memorize such words in English language and group of new words The statements above mean, vocabulary is important to teach and teachers must try to find the most effective way to help learners retain new words in long term memory

As a teacher at Smart-kids schools, I realize that teaching vocabulary is major concern because at the age of five, students cannot write or read and the effective way to teach is through pictures Therefore, I choose this topic to understand more about the effectiveness of using picture in teaching vocabulary

2 Aims and significance of the study

This study is aimed at finding out the effectiveness of using picture in teaching vocabulary at Smart-kids school based on the understanding of vocabulary and pictures in linguistic notion and the situation of teaching and learning there Through this, some implications to solve these problems will be suggested

The result of the research will be helpful for many English teachers in many schools especially Smart-kids school in Bac Ninh province From this, the teachers will find an effective ways and apply many activities in class to attract students attention in learning new words Basing on suggestions in this research, teachers can have their own way to teach their students

3 Scope of the study

I cannot go into details of all parts of language theory and practice because

of the limited time, the shortage of reference books, and the students‟ language ability This is also a wide topic so I mainly focus on the effect of using picture in teaching vocabulary in the field of memory, interest and interaction

4 Research methodology

This methodology used in the study is those of an action research Thus, it applied both qualitative and quantitative approaches with two methods of data collection The qualitative data were collected from observation and the quantitative data were collected from tests including two progress tests and one final test

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5 Organization of the study

This minor thesis is composed of three parts as follow:

Part A - Introduction: The first part presents rationale, aims and

significance as well as scope of the study, research methodology and organization

of the study

Part B - Development: The second part consists of three chapters Chapter 1

is for literature review, which provides the theoretical background of the study Chapter 2 is methodology which represents the research question, describes informants and the design of the study Chapter 3 presents the data analysis of classroom observation and test then discussion

Part C – Conclusion: The final part summarizes the major findings of the

experiment, voicing some implications for language teachers in teaching vocabulary

and suggesting some recommendations for further studies

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, relevant literature is reviewed, underlying the necessity and the relevance of the study In other words, background knowledge on vocabulary teaching in general and vocabulary teaching through pictures in particular is looked

at critically to set up the theoretical framework for further investigation

The first section of this chapter is devoted to theoretical aspects of vocabulary teaching and the second section of this chapter is about pictures in

language teaching

1.1 VOCABULARY TEACHING

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

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1.1.1 Stages in vocabulary teaching

Basically as proposed by Doff (1988:98), there are four stages in teaching vocabulary namely presentation, practice, production, and review

1.1.1.1 Presentation

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

1.1.1.2 Practice

When the teacher presents the meaning of new words, they can only become student‟s passive vocabulary, and students may easily forget them and do not know how to use properly Students‟ vocabulary can only be activated effectively if the

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

1.1.1.3 Production

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

1.1.1.4 Review

This process aims at helping students acquire active, productive vocabularies In the reviewing stage, students have more chance to use language and receive feedback It can be seen that games and communicative activities are the best way to help students to review words Besides, visual aids can make vocabulary revision more interesting and effective 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

1.1.2 Techniques in vocabulary teaching

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

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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)

All these techniques are more or less useful for a particular situation, level and vocabulary, the best way would be in many cases to combine them and use several together Besides explaining the meaning in vocabulary presentation, it is also important to focus on forms, since the sound of words is one of the aspects influencing the organization of the mental lexicon (Thornbury 2004: 84; McCarthy, 1992: 110) This is arranged by various drilling activities From experience, songs

1.1.3 Factors affecting vocabulary retention

When considering variety of factors that affect the acquisition of vocabulary, theorists and researchers present slightly different opinions However, various opinions meet at some points, and it is said that the retention of vocabulary may be affected by some factors as follows:

1.1.3.1 Memory

It can be seen that memory is important in learning new words According to

Thornbury, 2002, there are two major types of memory: short term memory, long

term memory

Short term memory is the brain capacity to hold a limited number of items of information for periods of time up to a few seconds It is the kind of memory that is involved in repeating a word that you have just heard the teacher modeling But successful vocabulary learning involves more than holding words for a few seconds

To integrate words into long - term memory they need to be subjected to different kinds of operations

Long-term memory can be seen as kind of filling system This kind of memory has an enormous capacity and its contents are durable over time On the basis of available research results, Thornbury has compiled a list of principles that

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facilitate the transfer of learning material into the long term memory These include multiple encounters with a lexical item preferably at spaced intervals, retrieved and use of lexical items and cognitive depth, affective depth, personalization, imaging, use of mnemonics and conscious attention that is necessary to remember lexical items

+ Repetition - repetition of encounters with a word is very important, useful and effective If the word is met several times over space interval during reading activities, students have a very good chance to remember it for a long time

+ Retrieval - another kind of repetition Activities, which require retrieval, such as using the new items in written tasks, help students to be able to recall it again in the future

+ Spacing - being useful to split memory work over a period of time rather than to mass it together in a single block

+ Use - putting words to use, preferably in an interesting way, is the best way

of ensuring they are added to long-term memory This is so called “use it or lose it” principle

+ Cognitive depth - the more decisions students make about the word and the more cognitively demanding these decisions are, the better the word is remembered

+ Personal organizing - personalization significantly increased the probability that students will remember new items It is achieved mainly through conversation and role-playing activities

+ Imaging – easily visualized words are better memorable than those that do not evoke with any pictures Even abstract words can be associated with some mental image

+ Mnemonics - tricks to help retrieve items or rules that are 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 remember words if they have to face appropriate tasks

is as much a matter of concern for the teacher as it is for the learner; it depends as much on the attitude of the teacher as on the attitudes of the students‟ (Rogers 1996: 66) On the other hand, Williams & Burden suggest that motivation is a „state of cognitive arousal‟ which provokes a „decision to act‟ as a result of which there is

„sustained intellectual and/or physical effort‟ so that the person can achieve some previously set goal‟ (Williams and Burden 1997: 120) Besides, another theory on

motivation can be seen from Littlewood‟s perspective (1998: 53) that “in second

language learning as in every other field of human learning, motivation is the crucial force which determines whether a learner embarks on a task at all, how much energy he devotes to it, and how long he perseveres It is a complex phenomenon and includes many components: the individual’s drive, need for achievement and success, curiosity, desire for stimulation and new experience, and

so on” Keller (1984) (quoted in Ellis, 1994) sees 'interest' as one of the major

components of motivation, defining it as “a positive response to a stimuli based on

existing cognitive structures in such a way that learners’ curiosity is aroused and sustained”

Students must be motivated by some basic kinds of motivation, which include intrinsic and extrinsic motivation According to Harmer, intrinsic motivation is commonly defined as an internal drive This is something that students want to do themselves because they are personally interested in it (e.g acquiring the knowledge of language) A typical example of intrinsic motivation is an interest or a

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hobby, i.e an activity carried out for its own sake On the contrary, extrinsic motivation is influenced from outside Students carry out activities because they are expected or forced to do them It may be the compulsory subjects in school curriculum, a need to satisfy parents‟ expectations, longing to be praised or an idea

of a better career The ordinary motives are tangible rewards On the other hand, intrinsic motivation is concerned with the factors taking place inside the classroom while extrinsic motivation is concerned with factors outside the classroom Harmer points out that intrinsic motivation is very important in students‟ success or failure What happens in the classroom is very important in establishing students´ attitude to

a language In his opinion, extrinsic motivation includes situations in which students believe that managing of the target language will be a means for getting a better job, position or it will help them to integrate into a particular culture environment This stresses the fact that students‟ attitude to learning can be predominantly affected by members of a community But other factors participating in the learning process can also essentially affect it They are physical conditions, teaching methods, success or failure and especially a teacher All of them have an important impact on learning a foreign language

To young learners or children, motivation in teaching and learning is somehow different Children do many things simply because they want to do them Selecting a toy or a shirt to wear is the result of "intrinsic motivation." The child makes her own choice and achieves satisfaction from both the act of choosing and from the opportunity to play with the toy or wear the shirt Since the activity is generating the motivation, it is mostly self-sustaining for as long as the child wants

to continue the activity Children also engage in some activities because adults tell them to, or in an effort to please another party These activities are "extrinsically motivated." When a child is extrinsically motivated, the reward comes from outside the child-it has to be provided by someone else, and has to be continually given for the child to remain motivated enough to continue the activity It is more difficult for a child to sustain extrinsically motivated activity because of this reliance upon

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some outside force Since intrinsically motivated activity is more rewarding in and

of itself, children learn more from this sort of activity, and they retain that learning better Intrinsically motivated children are more involved in their own learning and development In other words, a child is more likely to learn and retain information when he is intrinsically motivated - when he believes he is pleasing himself Parents can build on this sense of confidence by guiding their child's play and activities while still giving the child a range of options This unstructured play is an essential element of the child's motivation, learning, and development

1.1.3.3 Person-dependent factors

According to Lightbown and Spada (1999), person-dependent factors include age, language aptitude, intelligence, attitude and personality Rubin and Thomson (1994) also consider the factors including age, aptitude, attitude, personality, learning style and past experiences In this thesis, these factors are considered in a logical way to understand how they affect vocabulary acquisition in second language acquisition

Age is one of the factors that influence second language learning It is widely believed that children learn second languages quickly, without effort and that the younger they are, the more skilled in acquiring a second language they will become Brown (2000) adds that there are differences between child and adult language learning that require explanation based on neurological, psychomotor, linguistic, cognitive and affective considerations in order to avoid some misunderstandings arising from erroneous analogies drawn between first language and second acquisition On the other hand, according to Ellis (1985) the route of second language acquisition is not influenced by the starting age, but there is a relationship between the rate of learning and the age of the learners Adolescents learn faster than adults and children as far as grammar and vocabulary are concerned Although young learners do not learn as fast as older ones, they are prompt to gain a higher overall success because of a longer exposure to the language He also provides some explanations of the research results The studies do not support the critical

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period hypothesis, which states that children can acquire a language naturally and with no effort to some ages The starting age is important only as far as pronunciation is concerned It can be said that each age brings some advantages and disadvantages to the learning process and the decision when to start learning a foreign language depends on the situation of the individual learner Students are taught in all age groups and teachers‟ task is to use appropriate methods to suit the

demands of a given age group

Intelligence has been defined in many different 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 tests It is proved that intelligence can predict the rate and success of second language acquisition in the formal language classroom “The ability to perform well in standard intelligence tests correlates highly with school related second language learning, but is unrelated

to the learning of a second language for informal and social functions” (Spolsky, 1989: 103)

Attitude takes a very important role in language acquisition Gardner and Lambert have investigated a number of different attitudes, which were classified by Stern (1983:376-377) into three types:

+ Attitudes towards the community and people who speak second language + Attitudes towards learning and language concerned

+ Attitudes towards languages and language learning in general

Certain personality characteristics and general interest in foreign languages

of learners can influence them in a positive or negative way It is also important how they feel about learning a particular language in a particular course and from a particular teacher It is obvious that learners who have positive attitudes learn more, but also learners who learn well acquire positive attitudes So, it cannot be denied

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that understanding factors affecting vocabulary retention might help teachers create more effective ways to teach vocabulary

1.2 PICTURES IN TEACHING VOCABULARY

1.2.1 The meaning of pictures

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

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simple device which has displayed a series of places, objects, person or even experience

1.2.2 The types of pictures

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

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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

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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

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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

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The two students then have to shout out what's on the other student's flashcard The first student to shout out the word wins a point for their team Alternatively, the teacher can ask the students to draw pictures instead of using flashcards You could also use numbers instead of pictures

Whisper This game is great for reviewing vocabulary Put two sets of

flashcards at the front of the class next to the board Then draw a line on the board

to separate the two teams Have the two teams sat on the floor or in chairs in separate rows facing the board The first student should be near to the board and last student in the row should be near the back of the class The teacher goes to the back

of the two rows and whispers three or four of the flashcards into the back two student‟s ears The students at the back of each row must whisper these cards to the student in front of them and so on, until the words have travelled all the way to the front of the row The student at the front of the row must grab the mentioned flashcards and stick them to the board in the order they heard The first team to put

up the flashcards in the correct order wins a point

Who is lying? Divide students in groups of three and have them sit in their

groups in a way that two sit next to each other while one in front of them The idea

is that students sitting next to each other are teammates and should describe two different pictures (provided by the teacher) to the third student However, one of them should lie and give wrong information The third student should find out who

is lying by asking questions about the details and catch the liar! Then they change places and game goes on

1.2.5 Review of previous studies on using pictures in teaching vocabulary

There are many studies which have been conducted on teaching vocabulary through pictures Firstly, a M.A minor thesis named “using pictures in teaching vocabulary of English to the second year students of Mechanical department at Hai Phong Industrial Vocational College” by Nguyen Thi Thu Hoa in 2010 The thesis aimed at finding the teachers‟ attitudes and students‟ attitudes toward using pictures

in teaching vocabulary In addition, it aimed at determining the effectiveness of

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using pictures in teaching vocabulary of English to the second year students in her college She collected data from observation and questionnaires to gain valuable and reliable information for the study As a result, both of the teachers and students

at her college had positive attitudes toward using pictures in teaching and learning vocabulary The use of pictures in vocabulary teaching and learning was highly appreciated because using pictures made lessons more enjoyable and memorable In addition, the teachers just made use of the available pictures in the textbook and they only use pictures in presentation stage of teaching vocabulary Secondly, the thesis by Khuong Ha Linh, in 2011 named “the exploitation of pictures in teaching vocabulary according to communicative approach for first year students at Vietnam National University, Hanoi University of Economics and Business” The research aimed at finding out whether pictures had been exploited and classifying the fundamental advantages and disadvantages of using pictures in teaching vocabulary according to communicative approach She used questionnaire and interviews to answer research questions Significant findings were revealed as the pictures had been widely exploited in teaching vocabulary in the light of communicative language teaching approach Besides, using pictures had advantages as making vocabulary more enjoyable, draw students attention especially bring images of the real life into classroom but using pictures was really time consuming for teachers Finally, a research of “using pictures in teaching vocabulary in Grades 5 and 6 classrooms” by Ibraheem Saeed shared the result That was both teachers and pupils who took part in this study had positive attitudes towards using pictures for teaching and learning vocabulary Both teachers used different kinds of pictures in their lesson and in all cases the pupils responded with enthusiasm to the pictures that were used In short, it can be said that research of using pictures for kindergarten students is limited so in this thesis, I carried out a research to find out the effectiveness of using pictures in teaching vocabulary to younger age

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CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses in detail the research methodology of the research as well as the design of the research This research was conducted in the form of an action research basing on the following model by Kemmis and Mc Taggart (in Burns, 1999: 32) with four steps In this chapter, the research question is raised and then informants are shown in detail After that, the design of the study is shown with four steps of action research including planning, acting, observing and reflecting

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

2.3 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

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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

 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