Supporting young learners’ vocabulary through pictures an action research approach

In the chosen English center in Hanoi, teaching and learning is paid attention to with a view to improve the students‟ English acquisition and one of the major concern here is vocabulary

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

DƯƠNG THU TRANG

SUPPORTING YOUNG LEARNERS’ VOCABULARY THROUGH

PICTURES: AN ACTION RESEARCH APPROACH

(Hỗ trợ việc học từ vựng của học sinh bằng tranh ảnh)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

HANOI - 2019

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

*********************

DƯƠNG THU TRANG

SUPPORTING YOUNG LEARNERS’ VOCABULARY THROUGH

PICTURES: AN ACTION RESEARCH APPROACH

(Hỗ trợ việc học từ vựng của học sinh bằng tranh ảnh)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 8140231.01

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Lê Văn Canh

HANOI - 2019

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to all people who gave a hand with giving me the chances to complete this thesis

First of all, I would like to show my deep appriciation to my supervisor, Prof

Lê Văn Canh for his worth advice, careful instruction and endless encouragement during my time of conducting this thesis

Secondly, it is my lecturers in the Faculty of Post – graduate Studies, the University of Foreign Languages and International Studies that gave me various beneficial lecturers motivating me to investigate my own teaching situation to reach

a more professional level

Thirdly, I would like to send my thanks to all the teachers and students at the chosen English center in hanoi for being willing to join my research for eight weeks

Finally, my family and friends are the people I would like to show my genuine appriciation Without their support and encouragement, I could not have completed this thesis due to daily life routine

ABSTRACT

Vocabulary is one the most important elements in English acquisition Without words, human cannot express their ideas, feelings or thoughts In the chosen English center in Hanoi, teaching and learning is paid attention to with a view to improve the students‟ English acquisition and one of the major concern here

is vocabulary teaching and learning through images of young learners To explore how images support young learners‟ vocabulary acquisition, the study was carried out among forty 2th grade students for eight weeks with six units in their books They were divided equally into two groups and each one was taught in two different ways of vocabulary teaching: one with traditional method – the translation method while the other by using pictures The classroom observations and tests were instruments to collect the data for the research After the treatment time, the results showed that the experimental group gained higher scores by using pictures to learn vocabulary and the classroom atmosphere was vey comfortable and ludic while the control group obtained not as good results as the experimental one It can be inferred from the results that images make a greater dedication to enhancing not only young learners‟ vocabulary acquisition but also their motivation in English learning than not using them

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF CHARTS vi

LIST OF TABLES vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Method of the study 2

4 Significance of the study 2

6 Structure of the thesis 2

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

2.1 Vocabulary knowledge 4

2.2 Approaches to vocabulary learning and teaching 4

2.3 The role of images in vocabulary learning 6

2.4 Teaching vocabulary to young learners 9

2.4.1 Characteristics of young learners 9

2.4.2 Techniques of teaching vocabulary to young learners 12

2.5 Studies on teaching vocabulary to young learners through pictures 15

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 19

3.1 Action research in language teaching 19

3.1.1 Purposes of action research 19

3.1.2 Features of action research 20

3.1.3 Steps in action research 21

3.2 Why is action research chosen? 21

3.3 The context of the study 22

3.3.1 The current situation of teaching and learning English at the center 22

3.3.2 The teaching program and materials 23

3.4 Research procedures 23

3.4.1 Research question 23

3.4.2 The participants 24

3.4.3 Design of the procedures 24

3.5 Data collection instruments 28

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 30

4.1 Analysis on classroom observations 30

4.1.1 Interest 30

4.1.2 Interaction 33

4.2 Analysis on test results 35

4.2.1 Analysis on immediate tests 35

4.2.2 Analysis on delayed tests 38

4.3 Discussion of the findings 39

CHAPTER 5: RECAPITULATION 42

1 Conclusion 42

2 Implications 43

3 Limitations and recommendations for further studies 43

REFERENCES 45 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 IV APPENDIX 3 VIII APPENDIX 4 IX APPENDIX 5 X APPENDIX 6 XII

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 4.1: Students‟ interest in learning activities 30 Chart 4.2: Classroom interaction 34 Chart 4.3: The students‟ mean score of immediate tests‟ average mark 37

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

English is playing a more and more major role in various sectors in native speaking English countries Therefore, it is not hard to realize that it is now one of the most widely – learned foreign language which is taught in Vietnam As it

non-is noted, Englnon-ish teaching and learning include four skills: speaking, lnon-istening, reading and writing, and of these mentioned skills, Vietnamese students are making

an endeavor to master communicative competence – which is “speaking” Language

is a tool for communication Communication exists where there appears speech Without speech, a language will have an intention to become a mere script According to Chaney, 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) To master speaking is to put words under control, which helps listeners completely understand what speakers mean “If language structures make

up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh.” (Harmer 1993: 153) The acquisition of an adequate vocabulary is necessary for successful second language use because without an extensive vocabulary, it is difficult to apply the structures and functions into comprehensible communication It leads to the fact that vocabulary is regarded as a cornerstone which contributes to the existence of a language Speaking will become senseless if

it has only structures „„When students travel, they don‟t carry grammar books, they carry dictionaries‟‟ (Krashen, as cited in Lewis, 1993, p25) Many researchers argue that vocabulary is one of the most important-if not the most important- components

in learning a foreign language, and foreign language curricula must reflect this Nowadays, there have existed more and more concerns about vocabulary acquisition, even though these two (acquisition of grammar) are independent Vocabulary is like vital organs, and grammar skeleton of a language For this reason, English teachers have to be able to put teaching and learning activities in the right order and use materials with appropriate technique to help learners master the lesson expertly, especially vocabulary in long – term memory

As an English teacher in 2nd grade at an English center using English text book written by Ministry of Education and Training, the author considers teaching vocabulary as a major concern because at the age of seven, students are not able to remember all the words they have learned in class by writing and reading The easiest way I have experimented for them to put new words in mind is visualization, especially pictures Hence, it is urgent for me to understand how much pictures can bring a good result for students in learning vocabulary

2 Aims of the study

The goal of this study is to find out how using pictures in teaching influences young learners‟ learning English vocabulary at an English center

The results of the research will suggest practical tips for English teachers in teaching vocabulary to young learners To get the above aim for the study, the researcher attempts to give answers for the following research question:

How does using pictures in teaching vocabulary support the young learners‟ vocabulary learning?

3 Method of the study

Given the purpose of the study, an action research design was used The research was conducted with forty 2th grade students who were studying English in

my class

4 Significance of the study

The findings of the thesis may serve as useful information for applying suitable ways in teaching vocabulary fruitfully at primary school

5 Scope of the study

The study only focuses on the problem that my students have in absorbing and remembrance of new words in English Also, the participants are the students in

my 2nd grade at an English center in Hanoi

6 Structure of the thesis

Chapter I: Introduction presents the rationale, aims, methodology, significance and

scope of the study

Chapter 2: Literature review– The first part provides some theoretical aspects of

vocabulary teaching and the second part of this chapter is about teaching vocabulary

to young learners through pictures

Chapter 3: Methodology - in this chapter, the introduction of research method

including research questions, data collection instruments are presented

Chapter 4: Data analysis and discussion show the procedure of carrying on the

research and presents the data analysis result from classroom observation and tests will be analyzed and discussed to reveal the answers to the research question

Chapter 5: Conclusion, which is the last chapter, followed by references is the

summary of the whole study The limitations of the study and suggestions for further studies are also recommended

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, relevant literature will be considered in an attempt to create a theoretical framework for the study

The first section of this chapter is aimed at theoretical aspects of vocabulary acquisition and the role of images in vocabulary learning while the second one focuses on teaching vocabulary to young learners through pictures

2.2 Approaches to vocabulary learning and teaching

According to Nation (2007), there are four strands in vocabulary learning The first strand is meaning-focused input In this strand, learners learn vocabulary incidentally through listening and reading (input) The second strand is called meaning-focused output, i.e learning vocabulary through speaking and writing tasks The third strand is form-focused instruction, and the last strand is fluency development In this strand, learners learn vocabulary either by repeating learned words or by usung the known words in a variety of contexts Details of these strands are below

Firstly, meaning – focused input is the way of vocabulary learning through listening and reading and this is the most popular way accounting for first language vocabulary learning Learning will be more effective if learners pay more attention

to unknown words on encountering them in deliberate learning strand (form –

focused instruction) or using dictionaries to look them up or highlighting them in the text Learning incidentally by listening and reading is a cumulative process and requires learners to meet the words many times to retain them

Secondly, meaning – focused output is an essential way to put receptive knowledge into productive knowledge There exist a lot of ways to help learners gain successful vocabulary learning through productive skills such as activities of stimulating to use new vocabulary (through pictures or definitions), speaking in groups or using partly known words to speak and write

Thirdly, form – focused instruction (deliberate vocabulary teaching/learning)

is considered as the most effective way for the EFL learners to study vocabulary while the first strand – meaning – focused input is very popular for a native speaker With this strand, learners are advised to retrieve, not recognize, the words and strengthen the relation between the form and meaning of the word They can also learn by using a group of 15 or 20 cards to recall the words or lexical chunks or avoiding interference (words that have similar spelling or have related meaning) or avoiding serial learning (cards of the words that are shuffled) If conducted properly, this strand will lead ro a quick and long – term expansion of vocabulary size

Fourthly, fluency – focused work with vocabulary means using the already known words to move them into reality in a faster way This strand believe that a number of familiar material will be utilized to concentrate on the message and preformance at a higher level at a faster speed There are two general paths to fluency development: the first one is repetition to set up good conditions to learn the words and the second one aims at developing a well – ordered system of vocabulary which means any words can be accessed in a variety of ways

Each of the above strands contributes to learners‟ various opportunities for studying and establishes favorable environment for vocabulary learning However, form – focused instruction is the widely – used method by leaners and teachers and this is used most in classroom In fact, learners themselves are not interested in looking for chances to set up a firm ground of language proficiency by four basic

skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing) As a result, the level of fluency development might be a sad story because of the lack of practice In general, teachers‟ vocabulary learning program should be based on the four strands to ensure that learners are able to grasp all the aspects of words in an explicit way

2.3 The role of images in vocabulary learning

Vocabulary is very important because it is the basic unit of language Without vocabulary, one is not able to communicate effectively or express what he/she wants, which means a barrier to learners Therefore, to strengthen, retain and expand one‟s vocabulary, there have existed various ways to learn vocabulary like using music for memorization, analyzing word‟s root, using context clues, etc However, one of the most popular way is to use pictures in vocabulary learning According to Andrew Wright (1989: 20), “picture is not just an aspect of method but through its representation of place, object, and people, it is essential part of the overall experience” By seeing pictures, learners are able to see people, things and places from everywhere and at a lot of moments of time, from ancient times to the future‟s perspective The use of pictures can bring much more efficiency because learners are easy to recall and remember words through images

According to Andrew Wright mentioned by John Spead (1988: 12), there are eight types of pictures for vocabulary learning:

- Pictures of single object

- Pictures of person (picture of famous person or people in action)

- Pictures of places

- Pictures from history

- Pictures with information

- Pictures of fantasies

- Pictures of the news

- Pictures of maps and symbols

With the description of types of pictures above, teachers and learners will use them in an effective way to gain large and long – lasting vocabulary Also, from the meaning and types of pictures, it is easy to find out their roles for vocabulary learning:

- Pictures can give learners motivation to pay attention to and participate in lessons They are useful for introducing grammatical and vocabulary items, allowing for meaning practice of vocabulary and structures presented by teachers and revising words form one lesson to another in the long – run Harmer (2001: 134) says that “Teachers have always used pictures or graphics – whether drawn, taken from books, newspapers and magazines, or photographs – to facilitate learning” Both teachers and learners show their attitudes that using pictures can make teaching and learning vocabulary more enjoyable and memorable Pictures help learners not only with concrete words but also with abstract in some cases by associating the words with concrete things that make them easier to remember Harmer (2001:135) notes that “one of the most appropriate use for pictures is for presenting and checking of meaning An easy way of explaining the meaning of the word airplane, for example, is to have a picture of one.” On the other hand, images link learners to the mentioned topic by teachers and thanks to them, learners can identify events, experiences, facts and connect them with their daily life

- Pictures make a dedication to the context where learners use the language They provide a sense of the context of the language and give a specific stimulus for using the language at the reproduction and manipulation phases in speaking, reading and writing According to Allford (2000), pictures supply information about target language society and culture or Nelson and Casatno (1984) stated that the employment of images may be the same function as words – in – context As a result, learners can choose suitable words for the context But in some cases, words and images are different from each other in “specific associative meaning” but they still “share common representation at the conceptual level” (Nelson and Castano, 1984:3) Therefore, the words should be integrated with other information and connected to different contexts using their already knowledge to form connection between the first language and the foreign one in order to construct and express discourse (Allford, 2000; Mayer and Slims, 1994)

- Pictures can be described in an objective way (for example, “This is a car”),

or in an interpreted one (for instance, “This is an Italian car”) or responded to subjectively (“I love going around by car”)

These roles of images in vocabulary learning are likely to match the multimodal perspective, which has been used a lot in language teaching and learning Modality means interactive way between sense – organ and outside environment Multimodality is an interdisciplinary approach, which includes verbal and written language, pictures, space, graphics and other resources constructing meaning This leads to the evolution for establishing the ground for conducting research studies on the language‟s functions and study on vocabulary learning based

on images is one of them Language is a closed system which means language itself can be explained by using other languages or explained with images that must be explained with language (Smith, 2006) During the mid – 20th century, new technologies like photography, audiotape and video have made differences in the way information is conveyed, perceived and understood It has been proved that using various models will help learners make progresses in her/his perception on learning process, which means they are more attentive towards the language Sankey, Birch and Gardiner (2010: 853) stated that “"significant increases in learning can be accomplished through the informed use of visual and verbal multimodal learning" and "students may feel more comfortable and perform better when learning in environments that cater for their predominant learning style" And

so can the vocabulary learning through pictures Mayer (2003:307) declares that

“students learn more deeply from a combination of words and pictures than from words alone; known as the, multimedia effect" In English vocabulary teaching with Multimodal Theory, teachers should focus on language, pictures, images, sounds and the alike when teaching new words If they are brought into use fully, the learners‟ difficulty in learning new words will be lower The words are not only presented with written forms but also with illustrated supplements like images Zarei and Khazaie (2011) studied on how Iranian learners of the English language learn English vocabulary using laptop based delivery of multimodal items All

participants were the ones enrolling in EFL classes and were divided into four different short term memory ability groups, using the Visual and Verbal Short Term Memory Test according to their low or high level of visual and verbal abilities At the end of the experiment, they were assessed on their recognition and recall of vocabulary items In the end, the groups which were given words through pictures

or written annotations had better results on the tests Hall, Bailey, and Tillman (1997) conducted an experiment on three groups: one receiving text with illustrations, another with text alone and the last one with creating their own illustrations After tested, the results turned out that there was no significant difference between the first and the last groups which were provided with illustrations or creation of their own visual They even did better than the one having the text only

In general, learning vocabulary through pictures has brought a lot of good results to learners and it is also a part of the Multimodal Theory in improving the effectiveness and efficiency of learners‟ mastering vocabulary in the trend of modern language teaching and learning

2.4 Teaching vocabulary to young learners

2.4.1 Characteristics of young learners

For a long time, children have been considered as natural language learners

in a good saying They have a lot of differences in absorbing language aspects in comparison with adults because of their language learning without any anxiety, especially when they learn English as a foreign language Therefore, it is very important to fully understand the characteristics of young learners in order to draw out the appropriate methods for teaching them The characteristics of young learners are classified into three aspects, including: physical aspect, social aspect and psychological aspect

At the first glance, physical side emerges as the apparently – seen feature of young learners Young learners usually possess limited motor skills, have few language capabilities and lack language analyses According to Piaget (1970), children are regarded as active learners and thinkers They build their knowledge

basing on the exploration of individual actions and active interaction with the physical environment They can make sense of concrete aspects and topics than abstract ones (Williams and Burden, 1991: 31) As a result, they will understand the meanings of the words which are concrete, not abstract ones, such as cat, flower, chair, etc., and the ways teachers can introduce this kind of words are to use action, cards, body language and some other suitable objects or apply some physical activities like drawing, coloring, touching, etc This helps young learners easily attach the meaning of the words to the things or actions shown to them For abstract terms like words with abstract meanings or grammar, young learners will find it hard to take them in For example, Philips (1993: 74) notes that “This may be because words have tangible, immediate meanings whereas structures aer less obviously useful – after all Pencil often obtains the same result as “Can I have a pencil?” Bloor (1991: 129) states that young learners make more progress when learning in situations or contexts where they have to pay attention to meaning, not

to language itself

The second side of the characteristics of young learners is social side Social development has a significant influence on their language learning Young learners always have a desire to be part of community In Vygotsky‟s opinion (1962), children build their knowledge on being exposed to other people and interaction with adults They can learn better when put into social contexts or in groups Wendy and Yteberg (1990) say young learners will be happier when taking part in activities accompanied by others and can be conscious of having relation with other people They will stand a chance to overcome their self – centered phases if joining games

in order to reinforce their language capabilities Interesting activities will create pleasant atmosphere in class, which encourages learners to express themselves and help others better in group According to Williams (1998:7), “all learners are valued

as individuals; challenges and risks are supported; topics are relevant and interesting; activities are meaningful and purposeful; praise is given where and when it is due; and disciplis is firm, consistent and fair As well as having a positive

effect on the learning environment in the classroom, this approach will also encourage learners to be more tolerant of each other and others they encounter outside the classroom”

The last one is psychological side containing five components First is young learners‟ short attention span and easily getting bored according to Wendy and Yteberg (1990) Lesson‟s activities should be designed interestingly and bountifully

to draw young learners‟ attraction In this field, Stephen Krashen‟s affective filter hypothesis should be recommended He states that a learner‟s result of learning process will depend partly on his/her feeling or emotions A high affective learner may not become an efficient one because of his/her anxiety or inhibitions and vice versa, a low affective one has more chances to gain better results due to their feeling

of relaxation or well – being They should be involved in classroom activities to practice their English, gain better results from experience and absorb more input Consequently, only a favorable environment may lengthen young learners‟ concentration span and interest Secondly, young learners have no prejudice They are very logical as Wendy and Yteberg (1990) argue For instance, if the order is

“Before you go out, turn off the light”, they can understand it in this way: first step

is to turn off the light and the second one is to go out Thirdly, young learners are very forgetful because of their short – term attention Therefore, it is very necessary

to have various activities to help them recall and retrieve their already known words

or language aspects Fourthly, they are very keen on imitation and repetition These kinds of activities help them feel secure about not making mistakes and teachers should set a good example for them With repetitive and imitative activities, young learners can follow the same thing or action whenever they want with little differences For instance, to teach the word “dance”, teachers can perform the action

of dancing and ask learners to do that along with saying the word “dance” It will be very easy for them to remember and recall this word The last one is that young learners are very serious because they always think what they are doing is “real” and when in favorable language learning environment, they will freely express

themselves and may figure out a more creative way of introducing a word or sometimes a language aspect

Or more clearly about the characteristics based on the age of young learners, Slatterly, M., & Willis, J (2001) classify them as Table 2.1:

Very Young Learners (under 7) Young Learners (from 7 to 12)

- Gain knowledge through hearing and

experience of English in the same way

they learn their mother tongue

- Learn things through mostly physical

activities and some little mental ones in

an incidental way

- Enjoy playing with language in the

ways of making sounds, noises,

repetition or imitation

- Unable to read or write in their mother

tongue as well as in the foreign language

so it is essential to recycle language

through talk and play

- Develop grammar in a gradual way due

to their exposal to the contexts in

English

- Are learning to read and write in their mother tongue

- Are developing their critical thinking

- Able to distinguish the difference between reality and imagination

- Able to set up a plan and organize how to manage an activity

- Able to work with and learn from others

- Are responsible for classroom activities

Table 2.1 Characteristics of young learners

These above characteristics play an important role in helping teachers find appropriate methods for teaching their young learners and improving a welcoming environment of learning

2.4.2 Techniques of teaching vocabulary to young learners

According to Nunan (2003: 135 – 141), teachers should notice some principles that can be applied effectively to vocabulary teaching and learning

process These guidelines concentrate on high frequency words in a suitable way across the four strands of a course, which gives learners more motivation to be in charge of their learning results High frequency words are the ones that can be used under any circumstances – listening, speaking, reading, writing and communicating messages, so teachers are advised to give learners opportunities to be exposed to these useful words and help them tell the difference between the high and low frequency vocabulary

Besides, Schmitt (2006: 13 – 14) also figures out several fundamental rules

of vocabulary teaching, including creating a large size of vocabulary, connecting the new words with the already known ones, giving learners various chances of encountering a word, boosting learners‟ awareness of deeper learning, applying new words into reality and guiding them to absorb independent learning strategies

From these above theories, teachers should design good strategies in teaching vocabulary to young learners According to Manandhar (2009: 1), there are various ones suitable for young learners‟ vocabulary teaching as below:

- Using real things (or called relia) or pictures or mime: one of the techniques

in the Direct Method This approach is suitable for teaching beginners or multi language classes where translation is not a good choice to make Moreover, it requires learners‟ comprehensible input For instance, learners are expected to perform the same actions in order to respond to command like: “Touch the green apple” or “Put the orange under the table” In this case, plastic fruit will be ideal

- Using picture: pictures in relation with the things mentioned in the lesson should be shown to young learners to help them build the images of things, people and places in their mind

- Using matchstick: because of children‟ curiosity and interest in lovely things, matchstick figure will draw their attention to what teachers want to demonstrate to them

- Using synonyms and antonyms: the former means the words having the same meaning with them and vice versa, the ones that possess the opposite meanings are called the antonyms

- Using definition: a way of obtaining the meanings of the words from a

dictionary One word may have its literal and figurative meaning Therefore, it is not easy for both teachers and learners to look for words‟ meanings in a dictionary However, dictionaries for learners usually give definitions which bring out reliable model In the case of young learners, some advanced words

- Using demonstration: actions are done by teachers to help learners connect them to words

- Using presenting Lexical Set/ Enumeration: words that have relation with others in the field of meanings or grammar can be taught at the same time

- Using games: games promote the classroom environment of learning They create a more ludic atmosphere for children to make them feel excited and have a desire to be involved in classroom activities

- Using audio/ visual: a lot of words are easily presented to children through tape recording or video instead of using the above ways

Furthermore, Herrel in Henriksen (1999) also sets out some effective techniques for young learners‟ vocabulary teaching such as

- Guessing meaning from contexts includes using definition, restatement, punctuation marks, examples, contrast and back ground knowledge

- Teaching collocations helps them know more about words occurring with high frequency like “strong coffee”, not “powerful coffee”

- Teaching word family will make it easy for young learners to remember and retrieve the words in the same topic, which develops their connection between lexical semantics and mental lexicon For example, topic “Family” may remind them about words of the kinship like “mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter”, etc

- Recycling content: teachers create meaningful contexts requiring young learners to reuse the already known words

- Keeping a vocabulary journal: learners have to take note or record the words they encounter to accumulate a large size of target vocabulary, so it is easier for them to remember and use the words

- Eliciting: learners can recall the words in the form of definition, synonyms

or antonyms, which enables them to know the target vocabulary deeply and use

them in a suitable way

- Contextualization: words will be absorbed through learners‟ join in activities of gap – filling, story - building or role – playing

- Labelling: they will write the names of things on papers and stick them to the mentioned objects

- Personalization: Learners imagine they are doing an activity related to new words like they are doing as if they were going to act out the word “row”

- Learning words through pre – fixes and post – fixes: this technique helps learners study words in a logical way – they can make sense of a lot of words that are built by word parts and connect them with other like “bi” means “2” or “anti” means “against”

- Association: learners are able to integrate new words with already known words to create something meaningful

- Semantic mapping: it promotes the development of young learners‟ reading, writing and thinking because they have to link new information with the previous one For instance, learners have to arrange the given words into a complete sentence

so they must find the words in suitable order of meaning and grammar

- Categorizing words: this kind of activity requires learners to classify words into same aspects For example, categorize words in the field of verbs or nouns Some of techniques that are set up by Herrel in Henriksen (1999) are suitable for young learners but the others are only for advanced young learners because they require a lot of mental activities

Several techniques of teaching vocabulary to young learners have been set out by some researchers and used in a lot of classrooms so that they can achieve their vocabulary acquisition at their best The more vocabulary learners know, the more excited they become to get involved in language activities and promote their motivation of language learning

2.5 Studies on teaching vocabulary to young learners through pictures

Vocabulary plays an important part in language learning because it appears

in every language skill Without words, human is not able to express emotion or thought On the part of adults, with the features of having critical thinking and experiencing surrounding environment, they do not have any difficulty in expressing themselves However, on young learners‟ side, it is a matter for them to find ways to show what they would like because of their own characteristics Consequently, there have existed various researches on teaching vocabulary to young learners by using images to find out how effective this technique is

Firstly, a case – study research named “Teaching vocabulary through pictures to the kindergarten students” was carried out by Leny of English Department Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers Training Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, Jakarta (2006) The researcher desired to find out whether pictures could attract young learners‟ attention to study in an easier way and give them motivation in learning The researcher conducted the study by giving learners two kinds of exercises, whose words related to a house, the first was that children had to draw a picture of a house by doing “dot to dot” and color the pictures and the second was to ask them about parts of the house and tell about it These exercises made children able to have various answers by their imagination After that, to help children remember and recall parts of a house, teacher asked them to listen to a listening tape describing a house with its parts and gave a check mark on their pictures, then they would sing about a part of the house using the song “that is a window” Based on the results of the procedure, several conclusions were drawn Images helped young learners make sense of difficult words easily by looking at them and make them feel enjoyable and excited at vocabulary learning Moreover, looking at pictures related to the words made children able to memorize the words

by singing along with looking at the pictures, which gave them more chances to practice pronunciation and attract their curiosity in learning new vocabulary Also,

it offered a set of advice for having an enjoyable class situation: teachers should choose suitable techniques and materials that met learners‟ needs, instructions should be given in a short and clear way and new words should be presented

through pictures, flashcards, games, etc to draw their attention

Next, a pre – experimental research is “Teaching vocabulary by using pictures to the third grade students” by Yohana Elsy (2013) In this study, the researcher intended to find out the students‟ score of vocabulary learning achievement and whether teaching vocabulary by using pictures will bring any effects To conduct the study, the researcher collected 34 3rd grade students and employed the measurement technique to measure the learners‟ vocabulary acquisition through pictures In the procedure, two tests were taken The first one called pre - test was aimed to gather the data before the experiment was conducted while the second called post - test was to gather the data after the experiment The test contained 30 items and time allowed was 60 minutes In the tests, learners had

to find the words by looking at the pictures and get the clues (letters presented in hyphen) with supported sentences The direct classroom observation technique was utilized to record the observable phenomena towards the object At the end of the experiment, the writer collected the data and analyzed it Based on the date, the study revealed that images gave learners higher interest in vocabulary learning and promoted their ability of gaining the new words faster and memorizing the words in the long run Besides, when the teacher asked learners to touch pictures like the teacher did, they expressed their enthusiasm From this, it is easy to see that they love doing enjoyable and challenging things and being involved in cheerful learning process

Last but not least, a thesis, whose name was “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”, was conducted by Linh, Ha Khuong in 2011 Its goals were to figure out if using pictures in teaching vocabulary had been made use of and the pros and cons of using pictures in teachong vocabulary according to communicative approach

In a nutshell, various researches have been conducted to find out the effect of using pictures in vocabulary learning However, there also exists the limitation of research on second grade students Therefore, in this thesis, the researcher has a

desire to make this matter clearer on 2nd grade students

Summary

In general, chapter 2 is amied to build a theoretical framework for the study The first section of this chapter is related to theoretical aspects of vocabulary acquisition and the role of images in vocabulary learning They both help readers collect the background knowledge about the thesis in order to understand it more properly The second one focuses on teaching vocabulary to young learners through pictures so that readers may have an overview of vocabulary teaching method to young students

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter is aimed at discussing the research methodology of the research

as well as its design This research was carried out in the form of an action research thanks to the model by Kemmis and McTaggart (in Burns, 1999: 32) with four steps The research question is also raised and the participants, along with the four steps, are described in detail

3.1 Action research in language teaching

Action research in language teaching has traditionally been known as one of the tools to investigate or explore a teacher‟s own teaching contexts in order to find out the solutions to them and bring about changes, even better, improvements in practice It is increasingly becoming one of the ways for school reform as its individual focus allows for a new engagement in educational changes According to Borg (1965: 313), “action research emphasizes the involvement of teachers in problems in their own classrooms and has as its primary goal the in-service training and development of the teacher rather than the acquisition of general knowledge in the field of education”

3.1.1 Purposes of action research

Action research can be an individual teacher, a group of colleagues with the same concern or a school faculty However, whether in the form of individual or group, they have to organize research so as to serve these three main purposes:

- Building teachers as researchers: when teachers have a commitment to identifying the problem of their classroom in language teaching and learning on their own, they start a process of fostering growth and development in their profession They are supposed to take an aspect into consideration that they think they can do better, raise questions on it and then develop new ideas and alternatives

So in action research, teachers have a role as researchers, investigators or explorers due to their own teaching contexts

- Making progress on school priorities: when a group of teachers have the same concern, they will achieve excellence with particular focuses if investigating it together Their success will not only dedicate to the achievement of the common goal but also have a significant influence on team building and program development, which means improvements will be made and school will become

“center of excellence” Consequently, all teachers will stand chances to enthusiastically take part in action research to make progress on the schoolwide priorities

- Creating professional cultures: even if not all teachers in a school faculty share same goals, a teacher can explore his/ her own situations in teaching and seek out the solutions to them After that, he/ she can tell their colleagues about they have investigated and how they tackle them and vice versa, their colleagues will do the same to them As a result, the environment of the school will be more conductive for effective teaching and learning

3.1.2 Features of action research

According to Burns (2010:10), there are some main features of an action research:

“First, it involves teachers in evaluating and reflecting on their teaching with the aim of bringing about continuing changes and improvements in practice Second, it

is small – scale, contextualized, and logical in character, as the participants identify and investigate teaching - learning issues within a specific social situation, the school or classroom Third, it is participatory and inclusive, as it gives communities

of participants the opportunity to investigate issues of immediate concern collaborativelywithin their social situation Fourth, it is different from the

“intuitive” thinking that occurs as a normal part of teaching, as changes in practice will be based on collecting and analyzing data systematically Finally, we can say that AR (action research) is based on democratic principles; it invests the ownership for changes in curriculum practice in the teachers and learners who conduct the research and is therefore empowering”

3.1.3 Steps in action research

According to Kemmis and McTaggart (1988), action research includes four stages in a cycle of a research The first cycle may be a continuing of cycles which return until researcher becomes content with his/ her outcome and thinks it is time

to stop However, there are several other models of action research McNiff (1988) views Kemmis and McTaggart‟s model as “prescriptive” She argues that a flexible approach should be used so that action research teacher may be more creative and spontaneous Ebbutt (1985) states that Kemmis and McTaggart‟s model is a “one – way street In Ebbutt‟s opinion, action research cycles should be successive and open to allow for much feedback and interaction between cycles as possible

However, the model by Kemmis and McTaggart is propably the most popular one It is classic and useful because of its short and clear summaries of basic phases of action research process, including four steps as below:

- Planning: in this phase it is necessary to identify the issue and design a plan

of action to make improvements in a particular area of the research context

- Action: this stage involves some deliberate interventions into one‟s teaching situation that one put into action in a scheduled period of time

- Observation: it is a data – collection phase in which on has to observe systematically the effects of the action and recording the context, actions and opinions of the involved

- Reflection: the last one is when one reflects on, evaluates and describes the effects of the action to make sense of what has happened and the issue one has investigated more clearly

3.2 Why is action research chosen?

A lot of teachers have to delay research and the language theories they know in teacher training courses because they find it hard to apply them to their teaching contexts Therefore, action research seems like a time – consuming things to teachers

However, the writer decided to choose action research to investigate the situation for the following reasons:

Firstly, the study was designed as action research because it is more of a problem – solving than a single method to gather and analyze data It can be considered

to gain reflections on teacher‟s experience in teaching so as to become a basis for further professional development Action research encourages teachers who have a desire to be more professional in their career to become an “explorer” or an

“investigator” because it is so immediate to teaching contexts, which leads to positive alternatives and changes as well as shows them personal approaches to teaching

Secondly, action research is a practical research to obtain both action (changes) and research (understanding), so there will be a bridge to cover the gap between research and practice

In this study, the researcher applied Kemmis and McTaggart‟s model to investigate her own teaching situation

3.3 The context of the study

3.3.1 The current situation of teaching and learning English at the center

The mentioned English center in this study is located in the heart of Hanoi with twenty - six classes in total varying from 1st grade to 9th grade Each grade has three classes, except for 2nd grade with two classes, and contains about twenty students

One third of these students have been learning English since they were four

at kindergartens but others have not; half of them stand chances to be exposed to native speakers whereas the rest of them do not Therefore, the fact is that several students will learn better than others because of having a long period of absorbing English At their age, grammar structures are presented in a simple way and the purpose of the center is to covey as many new words as possible, which creates materials for them to build meaningful sentences and express what they desire effectively However, some children say they are shy when speaking a word out loud or feel bored when learning vocabulary, which leads to low efficiency as well

as degrades their motivation in vocabulary learning The main reason for that may

be the traditional way of teaching vocabulary with translation method As a result, techniques to improve their vocabulary learning are paid a lot of attention by the

teachers at the center A wide range of methods to teach new words are used and of these ones, and using pictures is considered being reseached in order to find out whether it supports the students‟ vocabulary learning

3.3.2 The teaching program and materials

In the center, English is the only subject due to the center‟s aim at improving learners‟ English skills The textbooks utilized are the ones in the set of standard books from class 2 to class 12, written by Hoàng Văn Vân, Nguyễn Quốc Tuấn, Nguyễn Thị Lan Anh, Đỗ Thị Ngọc Hiền, Nguyễn Bích Thủy, prescribed by the Ministry of Education and Training and published by Vietnam Education Publishing House Limited Company The English book “Tiếng Anh 2” (one of the above set standard of books) was published in 2017

The book consists of twenty units for two terms They are designed under theme – based approach with twenty different topics in twenty units After three units there will be a delayed test There are seven activities in each unit, including:

- Listen, point and repeat

- Point and say

Along with these activities, flashcards, tapes and games are provided to boost the efficiency of the activities to bring the best results as possible

3.4 Research procedures

3.4.1 Research question

This study was conducted to find out how images have influences in terms of young learners‟ vocabulary learning The research question is:

How does using pictures in teaching vocabulary support the young learners’ vocabulary learning?

3.4.2 The participants

In this study, there were forty students in 2nd grade divided into two groups: the control group and the experimental group They were all studying English at an English center in Hanoi Some teachers in this center gave me a hand with taking photographs of them, testing and marking them in six immediate tests and two delayed tests Most of the students learned English when they were five years old and were provided a lot of chances to practice English, of course only within their reach At the age of seven, they could read and write so it was easier for teachers to convey new words in various ways to them At the beginning of the course, they had been tested on their English ability and divided into class 2A and 2B and both

of them were taught the same book The note was that they only took a test when their parents enrolled the course to make sure that they had common knowledge about English as others did, not for assessing whether they were at beginning, pre – intermediate, intermediate or advanced level Each class included 20 seven – year – old students Their current textbook used in the center was “Tiếng Anh 2” published

by Vietnam Education Publishing House Limited Company They studied one period per week and did the tasks in the workbook at home (the workbook is included in the set of “Tiếng Anh 2” along with the textbook)

3.4.3 Design of the procedures

As illustrated in following table, the study was carried out in four phases in the period of twelve weeks from 21st August to 20th November in a Hanoi – located English center The phases were implemented as Table 3.1:

Time Phases of Action Research Instruments

(06/12 – 20/12/2018)

Reflecting - Six immediate tests and

two delayed test were taken

- Teacher analyzed data to

evaluate the action plan

Table 3.1 Design of the study

3.4.3.1 Planning

In this phase, the students were divided into two groups: class 2A was control group and class 2B was experimental group with twenty students each The writer taught both of these classes with the same book mentioned above and the same content but in two different ways In the field of vocabulary learning, the control group was taught in traditional way, which meant the translation method in language teaching while the other was taught through images Eight lesson plans were designed for eight weeks in the line with six units included in the textbook To make the lessons more interesting and attractive to the students, some other teaching and learning aids were provided such as images, audio tapes and jigsaw Also, there were six immediate tests right after the lessons and two delayed tests after three units in order to check the students‟ vocabulary acquisition All of the tests were designed in a simple way to be suitable for learners‟ ability and knowledge about the already taught vocabulary The details of each type of tests will be described as following

The first test was immediate tests right after each lesson The time allowed for this test was five minutes at the end of the lesson Each one had only one exercise because of the time required for per lesson and was designed in two different ways to check students‟ retention of the words The first way was in the

form of a listen – and – tick exercise, including about two questions depending on the required words of the lesson Students had to pay attention to the recorder and tick the square matching the words with the images The second form for the immediate test was look – and – match or look – and – circle exercises As the first form, this one contained only one exercise and had four questions In this task, the learners were asked to link the words to the given images or circle the images matching the meanings of the given words Both of the forms were aimed at checking learners‟ words‟ meanings

The second test was delayed test taken every three lessons The time for this one was 30 minutes and consisted of four exercises: listen – and – tick, listen – and – tick – or – cross, read – and – tick and answer – the – question task The first task consisting of three inquiries asked the learners to listen and match the words with the given images while the second with four questions provided the images and learners listened to the recorder and decided whether the images were mentioned or not Read – and - tick task with three questions gave the images and a sentence and the learners were supposed to mark the pictures due to the meanings of the sentences And the last one was the teacher showed a picture to them and asked them two queries which related to the words and simple grammar structures they had been taught in each lesson Students‟ long – term memory of vocabulary retention would be checked in this test

3.4.3.2 Acting

In this study, there were two different methods for teaching vocabulary to students The control group received the traditional method – translation method while the experimental group received a using – picture – to – learn – vocabulary way Below is the investigator‟s action plan in teaching and testing the students: