The effectiveness of interactive whiteboards on young learners’ vocabulary learning at rise english center

These questions bring the researchers to the idea of the research under the title of “The effectiveness of interactive whiteboards on young learners’ vocabulary learning at Rise English

University of Social Sciences & Humanities Vietnamese Studies and Language Department

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Group 1: Nguyễn Ngọc Châu

Nguyễn Mỹ Khánh Phạm Phúc Khánh Minh Nguyễn Trần Hoài Phương

Võ Thị Thanh Thư

Đỗ Thị Bạch Vân

10/2014

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

For years, Vietnamese style of learning English has mostly been following one direction: information is transferred from teachers to learners This is where teachers are the focus of the classroom and teachers’ instructions and directions are automatically followed In such context, past technologies such as chalkboards, textbooks, notebooks, etc have had a significant impact

on the way teachers deliver the information to learners

However, the learning process, especially English language learning, needs more than that One

of the most important criteria to assess the whole process of English language learning is the learners’ outcome or, in other words, their ability to use English Therefore, learners’ information, reactions, opinions, ideas, etc have to be taken into account Lessons need designing in a way that both teachers and learners are the participants and there is interaction as much as possible between them

Nowadays, the development of information technology contributes a great deal to the English language teaching and learning process For example, multimedia slideshows, projectors, etc are getting more and more familiar to teachers and learners as they are applied to a large number of schools However, once again, the information still flows in one direction from teachers to learners and the focus is still put on teachers since the majority of teachers cannot get out of the slideshows To solve this problem, new educational equipment which is called “Interactive White Board” (IWB) has been introduced This equipment is considered a breakthrough in education and in English language learning because it is believed to promote the interaction between teachers and learners and facilitate the learning process through its advanced applications

This new technology, with its advantages, is applied to vocabulary learning, one of the most important aspects in English language learning Harmer (1991) stated that, “If language structures make up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh” Therefore, English vocabulary is “an important area worthy of effort and investigation” (Igbaria, 2005) Learning English vocabulary is not just about writing down the new words and memorizing them Teaching English vocabulary is not just about presenting and

introducing new words to learners What teachers need to do is to make learners understand the word meaning in context, how words are used and how to produce words in a correct way with the correct pronunciation This requires teachers to use effective teaching techniques and be equipped with effective teaching aids Using the IWB is one of the choices However, researchers are still trying to find out whether IWB, beside its special strength of promoting interaction in classrooms, can also have a positive contribution to teaching and learning vocabulary There are many discussions and studies on this issue and some pointed out that the IWB can do nothing more with vocabulary teaching and learning than just create the environment Findings also vary among different researchers in different situations

This research is conducted on the primary learners at Rise Language Center, where IWBs are used, thus it focuses on the specific context of the center Does the IWB actually have a positive impact on vocabulary learning at the center? How can it promote and facilitate this process? Is it more than a toy? These questions bring the researchers to the idea of the research under the title

of “The effectiveness of interactive whiteboards on young learners’ vocabulary learning at Rise English Center”

1.2 Aims of the study

The aim of this study is to find out whether or not it is significantly effective to use interactive whiteboards on young learners’ English vocabulary learning at Rise English Center

1.3 Research questions

The two main questions of this research are “Does the use of interactive whiteboards have any positive effects on young learners’ vocabulary learning at Rise English Center? Is there a significant difference between those learners who are taught by the use of IWBs and those who are not?

H1: IWB enhances young learners’ vocabulary learning

1.5 Significance of the study

There is considerable significance of this study in young learners’ vocabulary learning through IWB at Rise English Center

1) This study will help the teachers of English decide whether to use the IWB in teaching vocabulary and in which way they can effectively exploit the IWB in teaching vocabulary

2) By reading this study, teachers of English are expected to widely adopt IWB to involve their students in learning with technology The researchers hope this study will give a contribution to vocabulary teaching and learning with the use of the IWB

3) It is expected that this study be one of the references for other researchers in the same field to get information about teaching vocabulary using IWB

4) The researchers will indirectly enlarge their knowledge and get experience by conducting this research

1.6 Scope of the study

IWB is being used extensively in primary schools and English centers in Vietnam The objective

of this study is to find out whether or not it is significantly effective to teach lexical items using IWB to primary students of Rise English Center

Hence, the study is carried out in Rise English Center in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Due to the lack of time and the limited framework, the study only focuses on the use of IWB in learning vocabulary and the other related aspects will not be revealed during the research Hopefully, the findings of the study will reflect the actual situation and help the researchers find out the effective recommendations for the teaching of vocabulary using IWB

1.7 Organization of the study

The study is divided into five chapters:

Chapter one is the introduction to the entire study, which covers the background, aims, research

questions, hypotheses, significance and scope of the study

Chapter two reviews the literature, which is concerned with all the technical terms of the study Chapter three introduces the methodology which the researchers follow for the whole study Chapter four is the results and discussion which focuses much on the analysis of the data

collected from Rise Language Center, the discussion of the results and the findings of the study

Chapter five is the final words to conclude the whole work with the researchers’ suggestions and recommendations to help improve the situation

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

Nowadays, technology has been developing in a great deal and influenced many aspects of life, including education Using new and contemporary technology is considered as a practical method to teach English as a second language Specifically, IWB has been applied in teaching English in many developing countries, including Vietnam This approach is somehow foreign to teachers in general, but it proves some effectiveness on teaching and learning activities, especially teaching and learning vocabulary

“IWB is a large interactive display that connects to a computer A projector projects the computer's desktop onto the board's surface where users control the computer using a pen, finger,

stylus, or other device The board is typically mounted to a wall or floor stand,” (Wikipedia) The

IWB is a giant sensitive board that is connected to a computer and digital projector, which reflects the computer’s image onto a big touchable computer screen controlled electronic pen or finger (Vetter, 2009) Besides, Tataroglu and Erduran (2010) noted that we can access any software program or Internet projected onto the whiteboard

According to Oxford dictionary, vocabulary is “the body of words used in a particular language.”

Furthermore, Meriam-webster dictionary also has a similar definition to one from Oxford,

“vocabulary means the words that make up a language.” However, Macmillan dictionary

suggests another definition for this term, which relates to “all the words a person knows.” For these reasons, teachers of English should keep in mind that there is no absolute definition for the term What is more important is the methods of teaching words to learners, and how the teachers apply useful and appropriate methods effectively

In 2003, the 5th World Conference on Educational Sciences introduced a research of Haruethai

Katwibun from Chiangmai University, Thailand The research called Using an interactive whiteboard in vocabulary teaching was conducted in a public school in Thailand, examining the

lesson plans of the teachers using IWBs, the students’ participation and the teachers’ teaching notes After doing surveys, observing the students’ participation, and decoding video recordings, the researcher assessed the results on a 4 rating scales of response At the end, the researcher concluded that after using the IWB, the students’ vocabulary knowledge, engagement

post-and attitude were at a very good level, showing a clear effectiveness in teaching English vocabulary by using IWB at school

In 2004, Gary Beauchamp from University of Wales Swansea, United Kingdom published a

research called Teacher Use of the Interactive Whiteboard in Primary Schools: towards an effective transition framework The study was taken place in recently built primary schools in

which IWBs are used in every classroom throughout the curriculum The school teachers and the staff also received training for applying the IWBs into teaching activities After that, the researcher observed the lessons using IWBs by teachers from different classes of the school In the conclusion, the researcher suggested that using IWBs is possible to develop a framework and model in teaching English to young learners Furthermore, the study emphasized that long term training for teachers is also significant in order to enhance their confidence and help them be used to using IWBs in teaching activities more As a result, the teachers will find themselves more comfortable when working with children and IWBs, which will certainly improve the effectiveness of teaching activities

In 2005, the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency conducted a study

named How can the use of an interactive whiteboard enhance the nature of teaching and learning in secondary mathematics and modern foreign languages? In this study, the research

team The research team, led by Dave Miller, comprises Doug Averis, Victoria Door and Professor Derek Glover, who are all full-time lecturers in the Department of Education at Keele University The research suggested that IWBs can provide positive effects on teaching and learning (Becta, 2003) They have shown that, if teachers are aware of the ways in which IWBs can be used to support various learning styles, their use promotes the students’ interests, encourages more sustained concentration, and leads to more effective learning In the scope of this research, the researchers also have discussion about pedagogy, engagement, socio-cultural aspects, and technology Moreover, the team raised some suggestions and recommendations relating to this topic, concerning the situations, the ability of schools and teachers, equipment maintenance, and training for teachers in the future

Discussing both theoretical and practical aspects relating to using IWB in teaching English in

2012, Štěpánka Březinová from Czech Republic, University of Pardubice, Faculty of Arts and

Philosophy, conducted a research named Using the Interactive Whiteboards in Teaching

Vocabulary in ELT For the theoretical part of the study, the research considered the students in

terms of age, development and learning styles Another factor that the researcher discussed was elaboration of technology in teaching, particularly IWB, considering its advantages and disadvantages At the end of this part, the author focused on teaching vocabulary, considering its importance and ways of learning it The researcher concluded that IWBs have made the vocabulary teaching and learning activities more exciting and interesting to both teachers and students with different learning styles

Focusing on the practical aspect of this study, the researchers introduced the environment that was used to conduct the study, the school, the students involved In this part, lesson plans using IWB were analyzed, considering such factors as the class size, how well the lesson plans were prepared, and students’ reactions when using IWB in class To sum up, the researcher pointed out that IWB has a good effect on learning activities in class; however, it depends on the teachers’ ability to keep their students’ interests and motivation from fading away In conclusion, the researcher suggested that IWB brings up more enthusiasm and interest of students into learning

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research questions

The aim of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of using IWB to improve the vocabulary competence of young students at Rise English Center Thus, the researchers focused on the relationship between the use of IWB and young student’s vocabulary acquisition in order to find out the beneficial ways to apply IWB in teaching vocabulary for young learners

The research design in this study is to answer two questions:

1 Does the use of interactive whiteboards have any positive effects on young learners’ vocabulary learning at Rise English Center?

2 Is there a significant difference between those learners who are taught by the use of IWBs and those who are not?

Based on the research questions, the null hypothesis was formulated:

Ho: IWB does not enhance young learners’ vocabulary learning

3.2 Research methods

In doing this study, the researchers used the experimental method based on pre-test and post-test design The researchers randomly selected the students whose ages range from 6 to 8 of Rise English Center as the subject of the study A pretest was given to each group to match the groups After that, they were randomly assigned into two groups One group would receive the experimental treatment while the other would not After the treatment, the post-test scores of two groups are compared to see the effectiveness of the treatment in the experiment group There are two kinds of variables; they are independent variable and dependent variable The independent variable in this study is the use of IWB in teaching vocabulary and the dependent variable of this study is the students’ scores in the vocabulary test

3.3 Research context

Rise English Center has challenged to develop new a new curriculum in which the content of the lesson has been integrated and linked to teaching methodologies and interactive learning technologies The goal of this new curriculum is to help children learn English and become more fluent and confident English speakers In addition, at Rise, children are trained and nurtured to become independent learners equipped with the skills and abilities required for the challenges of the 21st century workplace Students are challenged to use technology to learn vocabulary as well

as other subjects Linking technology especially IWB to learning vocabulary offers a profound method to trigger and develop students’ interest in learning English at the early age of schooling The new as well as modern development of teaching method based on using IWB not only motivates but also encourages students’ curiosity in exploring new knowledge particularly the new language besides their first language

3.4 Participants and procedures

At Rise Language Center, the students are divided into three levels: Pre-Kindergarten (Pre-K) at the age of 3-5, Kindergarten (KI) at the age of 4 -6 and Secondary 1 (S1) at the age of 6 – 8 For the population of this study, the researchers chose the students at S1 level of Rise English Center

in the year of 2014 In this case, there would be four classes whose class code respectively is S1 – 0114 with 10 students, S1 – 0214 with14 students, S1 – 0414 with 13 students and S1 – 0714 with 13 students randomly chosen After selecting the classes, the researchers gave a pretest to the students from the four classes and then matched based on their similar scores From this step,

11 pairs of students were chosen Then, the researchers assigned the students into a control group and an experimental group

In this study, the experimental and control groups attended English classes four hours per week, and received one month of instruction During the course, the students received two different types of instructions One was provided with traditional methods of teaching vocabulary while the other was provided with the use of IWB

3.5 Research Tools

Questionnaire is the central tool of this quantitative research The researchers gave the test to measure the students’ vocabulary in using the IWB in comparison with the traditional white board The participants were asked to do the test twice before the treatment (pre-test) and after

the treatment (post-test) The test items in the pre-test and post-test were exactly the same in the content, but different in the format

The test is a short examination of memory consisting of 20 focused questions The participants answered them by choosing suitable pictures or words that match the questions In other words,

it was in the form of the multiple choice test with 20 items and the students had 20 minutes to do the test The score was based on a 0-10 scale

3.6 Data Collection Procedure

The researchers randomly selected students from Rise English Center In order to match the groups, the researchers gave a pretest to each group The scores of each individual in the group were collected for the first time Given the results of the pretest, the researchers matched based

on their similar scores

After taking the pretest, one group would receive the experimental treatment (experimental group) while the other would not receive it (control group) The experimental group was taught vocabulary on the IWB; the control group was taught on the traditional white board After one month of learning new lessons, the two groups then took their second test The researchers used the test to know the students’ ability in learning vocabulary The result obtained from the post-test was collected, calculated and analyzed

During the testing time, rooms for the two groups were exactly the same in terms of size and facilities In addition, the participants of each group were taught new lessons by the same teacher

3.7 Data analysis procedure

To make a comparison of two means for two groups after the treatment, the researchers used paired t-test In order to obtain the t value (t), the researchers calculated the Standard Deviation (SD) and the standard deviation of the differences (SD)

The formula of standard deviation, standard deviation of the differences and the paired t-test are

as follows:

SD =

 

1n

Dn

D : the difference between the scores on each pair (D = X1– X2)

n : the number of the pairs

D

S =

n

SD

Then, the data will be categorized into:

(1) the students’ pretest mean score in the experimental and control groups (X),

(2) the students’ post-test scores in the experimental group (X1),

(3) the students’ post-test scores in the control group (X2)

CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

4.1 Analysis of data

Following the collection of data of the post-test in the experimental group and control group, the researchers started to analyze them by using the paired t-test The researchers calculated the paired t-test to find out whether or not it was effective to use IWB in teaching vocabulary to young learners of Rise English Center

The table below presents the specific calculation in more detail

THE RESULT OF CALCULATION

D2(X1-X2)2

Experimental group (X1) Control Group (X2)

The results of the calculation included:

(1) the students’ pretest mean score in the experimental and control groups (X= 5.86);

(2) the students’ post-test scores in the experimental group (X1= 8.41);

(3) the students’ post-test scores in the control group (X2 =7.36);

Before finding the result of paired t-test, the researchers calculated the standard deviation first The data were fitted into the standard deviation formula as follows: