A study on the use of mobile applications to improve vocabulary learning and teaching in an english centre in hanoi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ KIM NHUNG A STUDY ON THE USE OF MOBILE APPLICATIONS TO IMPROVE VOCABULARY LEARNING AND TEACHING IN AN ENGLISH CENTRE IN HANOI (Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng ứng dụng điện thoại thông minh để cải thiện việc dạy học từ vựng trung tâm tiếng Anh Hà Nội) M.A APPLIED PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 HANOI – 2020 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ KIM NHUNG A STUDY ON THE USE OF MOBILE APPLICATIONS TO IMPROVE VOCABULARY LEARNING AND TEACHING IN AN ENGLISH CENTRE IN HANOI (Nghiên cứu việc sử dụng ứng dụng điện thoại thông minh để cải thiện việc dạy học từ vựng trung tâm tiếng Anh Hà Nội) M.A APPLIED PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01 Supervisor: Dr Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Quỳnh HANOI – 2020 DECLARATION By submitting this thesis, I declare that the entire work is my own original work, which has not been submitted to any other university or institution Other sources of information used in this paper have been clearly identified and acknowledged Hanoi, October 2020 Lê Thị Kim Nhung Xác nhận Xác nhận Chủ tịch Hội đồng Cán hướng dẫn Huỳnh Anh Tuấn Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Quỳnh i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my thesis advisor, Dr Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Quỳnh for her particularly valuable guidance, contributions and support throughout the study I would also like to express my genuine thanks to all of the members in Post-graduate Department of University of Languages and International Studies (Hanoi) for designing such a great syllabus of the Master program Finally, I am also grateful to my family members who have always been supportive, encouraging, and above all inspiring all through my study time Hanoi, October 2020 Lê Thị Kim Nhung ii ABSTRACT Language teaching and learning has undergone significant changes as a result of rapid development of technology This research is a mixed methods research with the participation of ten students from different high schools in Hanoi The purpose of this study was to figure out whether the chosen mobile application named Quizlet effectively facilitated learners in their vocabulary recall An online Quizlet class was created and students were expected to use this mobile application to self-study SAT test essential vocabulary in ten weeks The instruments included a pre-test at the first week, a post-test at the tenth week, and a face-to-face interview Findings of the study show that the use of mobile application Quizlet is meaningful to learners‟ vocabulary recall In addition, the attitude of the students toward the application was rather favourable although there were some challenges during the learning process Keywords: mobile-assisted language learning, mobile application, vocabulary recall iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CALL : computer-assisted language learning MALL : mobile-assisted language learning SAT : Scholastic Aptitude Test SPSS : Statistical Package for the Social Sciences iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1: Challenges that students may encounter when using mobile application in vocabulary learning and teaching 37 Figure 1: The convergent design diagram 24 Figure 2: Paired Samples Statistics 32 Figure 3: Paired Samples Test 32 Figure 4: The effect of mobile applications on facilitating students‟ vocabulary recall 35 v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES v CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale for the study Aims of the study Research questions Scope of the study Significance of the study The structure of the thesis CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 2.1 Overview of mobile assisted language learning (MALL) 2.1.1 Definition of MALL 2.1.2 Mobile devices and mobile applications that assist English vocabulary learning 2.1.3 Benefits of MALL 2.2 Vocabulary teaching and learning 10 2.2.1 Definition of vocabulary 10 2.2.2 Vocabulary teaching 13 2.2.3 Vocabulary learning 13 2.3 The use of mobile application called Quizlet in English learning and teaching15 2.3.1 Brief introduction of the mobile application Quizlet 15 2.3.2 The use of Quizlet in English learning and teaching 18 2.4 Summary 18 vi CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 20 3.1 Restatement of the purpose of the study and the research questions 20 3.2 Research design 20 3.3 The setting and participants of the study 25 3.3.1 The setting 25 3.3.2 Participants 25 3.4 Data collection tool 27 3.4.1 Pre-test and post-test 28 3.4.2 Face-to-face interview 28 3.5 Data collection procedures 29 3.6 Data analysis methods 30 3.7 Chapter summary 31 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 32 4.1 Pre-test and Post-test results 32 4.2 Students‟ attitudes towards the use of mobile applications in vocabulary learning 33 4.3 Challenges that students may face when using mobile applications in learning and teaching 37 4.4 Chapter summary 39 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 41 5.1 Recapitulation 41 5.2 Implications 41 5.3 Conclusion 42 5.4 Limitation of the study 43 5.5 Suggestions for further study 44 REFERENCES 45 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1: PRE-TEST AND POST-TEST I APPENDIX 2: TEST SCORES V vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Rationale for the study Technology has changed the way that English is taught and learned in the classroom Nowadays, several terms such as „computer-assisted language learning‟ (CALL), „mobile-assisted language learning‟ (MALL) and „blended learning‟ are becoming increasingly familiar to teachers In recent years, the application of technology in educational purposes has been of great concern for researchers in the field In many developed countries in the world, it is unnecessary for teachers to struggle with a CD player or a blackboard and a piece of chalk anymore They have new technologies such as overhead projectors, interactive whiteboards, computer labs equipped with wireless internet, so that they could make use of PowerPoint to present grammar, play podcasts or videos to give instruction on listening skills, or even provide students with access to a wide range of web-based tools (online course in Canvas or Moodle) that allow them to study at home and publish their work and engage with peer review and self-assessment In many classrooms, students are equipped with tablets when they enter the class for learning purposes It is no doubt that technology plays an important role not only in boosting students‟ learning autonomy but also in facilitating teachers in their teaching When teaching English vocabulary to a group of high school students planning to take the SAT test, the researcher realized that (1) students find paperwork uninteresting; therefore, their learning autonomy and engagement in classroom activities seem rather low, which hinders their improvement of lexical range, (2) students are not willing to study vocabulary both inside and consuming Seven out of ten participants (70%) experienced the mentioned above challenges, half of the students had problems with the application itself (sudden application crash) and there was only a sole learner having problems with insufficient phone storage, which made her unable to install the application These technical problems could be easily solved in a small class, but it may become a huge challenge with class with more than twenty students Regarding the user-friendliness of the mobile application Quizlet, all of the participants agreed that the selected mobile application was particularly easy to use „I could use it immediately after installing and creating a free account Just by following the guidelines, I myself could explore almost all functions of this mobile application‟ said a student Regarding the personal information privacy, it was recorded that none of the participants (0%) had worry about their private emails being used by the third parties In short, among several challenges presented in the table above, the major challenge that had influence on the studying progress was distraction caused by other mobile applications including games and social network applications 4.4 Chapter summary This chapter includes the analysis of pre-test and post-test results and participants‟ responses to the face-to-face interview First of all, it is obvious that the use of mobile applications in vocabulary learning more or less has a positive effect on students‟ lexical item recall There is a significant improvement in the result of post-test compared with the pre-test Secondly, according to the data gathered from the face-to-face interview, almost all participants are interested in the use of mobile applications in their learning The most likable function of Quizlet is Quizlet Live, which allows 39 participants to work with their teammates and compete against other teams on vocabulary quiz The mobile application created such a new, enjoyable and motivating learning environment, boosted learning autonomy and also generated and developed students‟ engagement in class and persistence in learning vocabulary Quizlet was very effective to improve students‟ mastery in English vocabulary Last but not least, several challenges that mobile application users may face are presented, including both objective and subjective ones Some of them experienced technical problems such as unstable Internet connection, sudden application crash, and insufficient storage But the issue that should be taken into consideration is the distraction from other mobile applications‟ notification 40 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 5.1 Recapitulation The study was conducted in order to help students make improvement in vocabulary recall, so that they could perform successfully in their real SAT test Taking advantage of mobile applications, the researcher attempted to find the answers to the primary research question whether selected mobile application called Quizlet effectively facilitates learners‟ recall of SAT test lexical items Firstly, a literature review related to mobile assisted language learning (MALL) and vocabulary learning was presented Next, vocabulary pre-test and post-test were delivered in order to check if the selected mobile application improved the participants‟ vocabulary recall test results After ten weeks of using mobile applications in this class, a face-to-face interview was conducted to collect data on ten students‟ attitudes towards the use of smart phone applications in improving lexical range as well as some challenges that they experienced during the use of mobile applications The data were then analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively, leading to the conclusion which would be presented below 5.2 Implications The current study suggests additional insights and practical implications in order to increase the use of mobile applications in vocabulary learning and retention to be used for EFL teachers and learners The features of Quizlet and the findings of this research implies that Quizlet can be considered a good candidate for both teachers and students for vocabulary instruction and learning One of the most notable results in the current study was that the selected mobile application named Quizlet group was more or less meaningful 41 to the students‟ vocabulary recall when it comes to comparison with the traditional, paper-based flashcards or vocabulary notebooks since Quizlet creates an interesting and motivating learning and instructing environment The mobile application is believed to increase learners‟ autonomy, motivation and engagement in classroom activities Therefore, the teachers should consider using mobile applications in guiding students to study vocabulary The findings of the current research would inform not only teachers, instructors and students, but also software and application developers of the potential pedagogical application of the mobile technology in the future The educational application developers would find ways to add more interesting learning modes and functions to the application All in all, the evidence from this study suggests the potential application of mobile phones in vocabulary learning and teaching as well as the development of designing educational applications and software 5.3 Conclusion Vocabulary plays such an important role in the SAT tests With the aim at facilitating SAT test takers in their learning vocabulary for their real SAT test, the research aims at identifying whether the selected mobile application called Quizlet effectively supports students to make improvement in lexical range In addition, the study focuses on the attitudes of users when experiencing the use of mobile applications in their studying Last but not least, several challenges of mobile assisted language learning are presented, followed by some suggestions and solutions to overcome these challenges From the data gathered and analyzed, it could be concluded that the selected mobile application called Quizlet more or less has a positive effect on the participants‟ vocabulary recall The findings indicate that students found learning through the selected mobile application named Quizlet rather 42 interesting and educationally useful In terms of the attitudes of learners towards the use of the mobile applications in learning, they all agreed that they were interested in this convenient way of learning from a portable device The most favorable function of the mobile application was Quizlet Live because it helped learners not only recall lexical items, but also develop collaborative and communicative skills Apart from it they also find it an enjoyable learning experience and helpful in increasing their social interactivity with peers and teachers The mobile application Quizlet created such a new, interesting and motivating learning environment, boosted learning autonomy, developed students‟ engagement in classroom activities, and increase learners‟ persistence in learning vocabulary In other words, the selected application Quizlet has the potential to be a powerful vocabularylearning tool if used properly Last but not least, students and teachers may face several challenges when using mobile applications in learning and teaching, including technical problems such as unstable Internet connection, sudden application crash and insufficient storage However, the challenge that is necessary to be taken into deeper consideration is the students‟ distraction resulted from notifications of other mobile applications including social network sites or mobile games To conclude, the effectiveness of educational mobile applications depends on numerous factors, in which learner autonomy plays such an important role 5.4 Limitation of the study Although the study has reached its aims, there are still several notable limitations, though these were mostly unavoidable in the research context First of all, this study used an intact class of small sample size for convenience and all the learners in this research took the TOEFL IBT test 43 with rather acceptable scores before taking this SAT preparation course The scale of this study is quite small with only ten participants, which could limit the reliability of the research because of the restricted samples Secondly, the time of the intervention is short, which was only in ten weeks in total It is the fact that short-term experience may affect the objectivity of the learners‟ attitude The students‟ positive responses to the new way of enlarging their lexical range might be partly because of the novelty of their experiences The results would be much more reliable if the study was conducted in a longer time In conclusion, small scale and short-term experience are the major limitations of the study, which provides directions for further study presented in the next part of the research 5.5 Suggestions for further study It is suggested that further studies would investigate the use of mobile application in vocabulary teaching and learning in a larger sample size in different context Also, the students‟ long-term response to the use of mobile application in studying needs further investigations In addition, future studies would focus on how to boost learner autonomy when using mobile applications in their study in order to avoid the distraction caused by other applications Moreover, other studies may be conducted to find out the difficulties that instructors or institutions may encounter when using mobileassisted language learning to teach and learn English Last but not least, research on other educational applications should be conducted, so that MALL would become more and more applicable and practical in Vietnam 44 REFERENCES Ashcroft, R J., & Imrie, A C (2014) Learning vocabulary with digital flashcards In N Sonda & A Krause (Eds.), JALT2013 Conference Proceedings Tokyo: The Japan Association for Language Teaching Attewell, Jill (2005) 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Before they could reach an agreement, both sides had to make certain _ → indignation A TRUE B FALSE TRUE or FALSE? understood but not stated → implicit A TRUE B FALSE 10 Those clouds are _; they suggest a severe storm is on the way A rigorous B cumbersome C ominous D implicit II POST-TEST Choose the word which has the closest meaning to: behavior; bearing A parasite B grandeur C demeanor D indignation Choose the word which has the closest meaning to: split into opposite extremes or camps A thwart B scavenge C polarize D encompass They feared the plague and regarded it as a deadly A equanimity B scourge C indignation D foreboding TRUE or FALSE? heavy; hard to manage → cumbersome A TRUE B FALSE TRUE or FALSE? an act of yielding → concession A TRUE B FALSE III TRUE or FALSE? premonition of evil → foreboding A TRUE B FALSE TRUE or FALSE? calmness of temperament; composure → foreboding A TRUE B FALSE TRUE or FALSE? The tapeworm is an example of the kind of that may infest the human body → equanimity A TRUE B FALSE TRUE or FALSE? He felt that everyone was trying to _ his plans and prevent his success → polarize A TRUE B FALSE 10 TRUE or FALSE? hunt through discarded materials for usable items; search, especially for food → polarize A TRUE B FALSE IV APPENDIX 2: TEST SCORES Student no PRE-TEST POST-TEST 10 10 6 6 8 10 10 10 V ... review of mobile assisted language learning, vocabulary teaching and learning, and the use of the mobile application called Quizlet in facilitating teaching and learning English 2.1 Overview of mobile. .. vocabulary learning and teaching activities; and (3) determining challenges and difficulties that teachers and students may face when using mobile applications in teaching and learning Research... students and teachers face when using the mobile application? Scope of the study The study focuses on the application of the mobile application named Quizlet to teaching and learning vocabulary in a