the effects of using flashcards in teaching vocabulary to young learners in large classes

For young learners’ learning characteristics, it is suitable to apply flashcard-based activities as they successfully help learners learn vocabulary in an effective and supportive way..

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

GRADUATE SCHOOL

THE EFFECTS OF USING FLASHCARDS IN TEACHING VOCABULARY

TO YOUNG LEARNERS IN LARGE CLASSES

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of Master of Arts in TESOL

Submitted by NGUYEN TRONG QUYET Supervisor: Dr NGUYEN NGOC VU

Class: MTESOL016A Student Code: 1681401110018 Major Code: 60140111

Ho Chi Minh City, August 2018

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that the thesis entitled “THE EFFECTS OF USING FLASHCARDS IN

TEACHING VOCABULARY TO YOUNG LEARNERS IN LARGE CLASSES” is my own work

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis does not contain material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma

No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the main text of the thesis

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other tertiary institution

Ho Chi Minh City, August 2018

NGUYEN TRONG QUYET

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my special thanks to the contribution of those who supported and encouraged me during the time I worked on this thesis Without their help, I could hardly complete this research

Firstly, I am particularly grateful for the assistance given by my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Ngoc Vu, for all of his support during the time I have done this thesis As a novice researcher, I

am lucky to have worked with him He has helped me to acquire more knowledge and has encouraged me to overcome the difficulties in conducting this research

Secondly, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to the teachers who have given

fascinating lectures and myriad of learning materials during the MTESOL course I am inspired

to continuously broaden my knowledge in this field thanks to their encouragement and advice

Thirdly, I would like to express my thanks to the staff of the postgraduate school and librarians at Ho Chi Minh City Open University for their contribution to this research

Fourthly, I am deeply indebted to all my colleagues and my students at Nguyen Trai Secondary School Their open-hearted sharings and support gave me the best condition to conduct my study

Lastly, I would like to thank my family for their love, sacrifice and support

NGUYEN TRONG QUYET

ABSTRACT

As an English learning aid, flashcards are widely used They have been used by teachers and learners in various educational activities around the world For young learners’ learning characteristics, it is suitable to apply flashcard-based activities as they successfully help learners learn vocabulary in an effective and supportive way

In learning an L2, teachers can employ flashcards to create useful learning activities (Elgort, 2011; Webb, 2002, 2009a) by adapting this teaching aid suitably to the practical and mental conditions Flashcard-based instructions facilitate students’ vocabulary learning because

it encourages students to learn their language creatively, skillfully and collaboratively

This study aims to investigate the effects of using flashcard-based instructions in learning environment whilst teaching English vocabulary It is a quasi-experimental study including a twelve-week teaching with flashcards The researcher uses statistical tools to calculate the data from pre-test and post-test sessions Then the result is compared and contrasted with knowledge related to the issue of the research for further understanding The research also includes student survey, reflection paper and a teacher interview The participants of the study include 78 students from the eighth grade and five teachers at Nguyen Trai Secondary School in Binh Tan District,

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

From the results of this study, the majority of students consider flashcard-based

instruction a useful and supportive method thanks to its positive effects on providing them with robust vocabulary competence and stress-free language learning lesson Also, on the ground of its own features flashcard-based instruction will effectively facilitate learners’ lexical learning Along with the development of CALL learning and teaching materials, students will increasingly benefit from language lessons integrated with flashcards

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CALL Computer-Assisted Language Learning

CLT Communitive Language Teaching

CPH Critical Period Hypothesis

EFL English as a Foreign Language

EG Experimental Group

ESL English as a Second Language

HCMCOU Ho Chi Minh City Open University

SLA Second Language Acquisition

TESOL Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

LIST OF TABLES x

LIST OF FIGURES xi

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

Background of the study 1

1.1 Aims of the study 4

1.2 Statement of the problem 6

1.3 Research questions of the study 6

1.4 Significance of the study 6

1.5 Statement of the problem 7

1.6 Overview of the study 7

1.7 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 9

2.1 Young learners 9

2.1.1 Introduction 9

2.1.2 Characteristics of young learners 11

2.1.2.1 Intellectual development 12

2.1.2.2 Vocabulary retention 12

2.1.2.3 Attention span 13

2.1.2.4 Sensory input 14

2.2 Vocabulary 15

2.2.1 What is vocabulary? 15

2.2.2 Kinds of vocabulary 15

2.2.3 Fundamental hypotheses related to vocabulary teaching and learning 16

2.2.4 Stages of teaching vocabulary 17

2.2.5 Techniques in teaching vocabulary 18

2.2.6 Vocabulary mastery 20

2.2.7 Vocabulary acquisition for young learners 21

2.2.8 Previous studies on the relationship between flashcards and vocabulary retention 24

2.3 Flashcards 25

2.3.1 What is flashcard? 25

2.3.2 Kinds of flashcards 26

2.3.3 Use of flashcards 26

2.3.4 Flashcards in SLA 29

2.4 Large classes 33

2.4.1 What is large class? 33

2.4.2 Difficulty in teaching large classes 34

2.4.3 Flashcard as a teaching tool in large classes 34

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 36

3.1 Introduction 36

3.2 Research approach 36

3.3 Research site 36

3.4 Participants 37

3.5 Research approach 37

3.6 Research design 39

3.6.1 Pre-test 39

3.6.2 Post-test 40

3.6.3 Questionnaire 40

3.6.4 Reflection paper 42

3.6.5 Teacher’s interview 43

3.7 Study procedure 43

3.8 Analytical framework 44

3.8.1 Experimental data analysis 44

3.8.2 T-Test 45

3.9 Reliability and validity 45

3.9.1 Checking assumptions for t-tests 45

3.9.2 Checking internal consistency of the questionnaires 46

3.10 Chapter summary 46

CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 47

4.1 Introduction 47

4.2 Pre-test and Post-test Result 47

4.2.1 Comparison of mean scores 47

4.2.2 Independent Samples T-test in Pre-test of CG and EG 48

4.2.3 Paired Samples T-test of CG in Pre-test and Post-test 50

4.2.4 Paired Samples T-test of EG in Pre-test and Post-test 51

4.2.5 Independent samples t-test in post-test of CG and EG 52

4.3 Results from questionnaires 54

4.3.1 Reliability Statistics 54

4.3.2 Students' attitudes on the importance of vocabulary 55

4.3.3 Strategy of learning vocabulary 56

4.3.4 Experience of learning with flashcards 58

4.3.5 Students’ attitudes towards vocabulary learning 58

4.3.6 Advantages of learning vocabulary with flashcard-based instruction 60

4.3.7 Disadvantages of learning vocabulary with flashcard-based instruction 61

4.4 Reflection paper 62

4.5 Teachers’ interview and discussion 66

4.5.1 Popularity of flashcards in language lessons 66

4.5.2 Some difficulties in teaching with flashcard-based techniques 67

4.5.3 Evaluation on students’ attitudes toward flashcard-integrated lessons 68

4.5.4 Some advice using flashcards in large classrooms 68

4.6 Chapter Summary 69

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION, RECOMMENDATION, AND LIMITATION 70

5.1 Introduction 70

5.2 Conclusion 70

5.3 Implication 71

5.4 Recommendation 72

5.5 Limitation 73

REFERENCES 74

APPENDICES 86

Appendix 1Pre-test paper form 86

Appendix 2Post-test paper form 90

Appendix 3Answer sheet of pre-test and post-test paper 94

Appendix 4Score table of pre-test and post-test 96

Appendix 5Questionnaire on using flashcards to learn English vocabulary (Vietnamese) 97

Appendix 6Questionnaire on using flashcards to learn English vocabulary (English) 100

Appendix 7Reliability of item-total statistics 103

Appendix 8Questionnaire on using flashcards to learn English vocabulary (Vietnamese) 104

Appendix 9Reflection paper of students (English) 105

Appendix 10Questions for teacher interview 106

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1 Description of the Participants 37

Table 3.2 Structure of Experimental Design 38

Table 3.3 Taxonomy of the Questionnaire 41

Table 4.1 Descriptive Statistics for Pre-test of CG and EG 48

Table 4.2 Results of Independent Samples T-test on Pre-test of CG and EG 48

Table 4.3 Descriptive Statistics for Pre-test and Post-test of CG 50

Table 4.4 Paired Samples T-test of CG in Pre-test and Post-test 50

Table 4.5 Descriptive Statistics for Pre-test and Post-test of EG 51

Table 4.6 Paired Samples T-test of EG in Pre-test and Post-test 51

Table 4.7 Descriptive Statistics on Post-test of CG and EG 52

Table 4.8 Results of Independent Samples T-test on Post-test of CG and EG 52

Table 4.9 Cronbach’s Coefficient Alpha for Questionnaire 55

Table 4.10 Students’ Attitudes Towards Vocabulary Learning 59

Table 4.11 Advantages of Learning Vocabulary with Flashcard-Based Instruction 60

Table 4.12 Disadvantages of Learning Vocabulary with Flashcard-Based Instruction 62

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure3.1 Design of CG and EG 39

Figure 4.1 Histograms of CG and EG in pre-test 49

Figure 4.2 Normal Q-Q plots of CG and EG in pre-test 49

Figure 4.3 Histograms of post-test of CG and EG 53

Figure 4.4 Normal Q-Q plots of post-test of CG and EG 54

Figure 4.5 Students' ideas on the importance of vocabulary 56

Figure 4.6 Students' strategies of vocabulary learning 57

Figure 4.7 Students’ experience of learning with flashcards 58

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Background of the study

1.1

Many researches have shown that vocabulary plays an essential role in English language teaching and learning According to Wilkins (1972), “While without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (pp 110-111) In the 1990s, Lewis (1993) went further to argue that “lexis is the core or heart of language” (p.89) The issue can be simply understood that vocabulary functions as a key to language proficiency (Richard &

Renandya, 2002) In learning a second language, vocabulary is not the only aspect to focus on Learners have their own goals of learning and mastering a good stock of words to help them lay

a firm foundation for other language skills to develop Nation (2001) pointed out the goals of vocabulary in language learning, the use of vocabulary in specific learning skills as well as the strategies for teaching and learning vocabulary It is impossible to acquire the language

competences without enough vocabulary In fact, it is the basic competence that must be

achieved by students to upgrade other skills namely reading, writing, listening, and speaking For instance, without vocabulary, learners do not understand the meanings of words, so they cannot make up good communication, which seems to be the main target of language learning It is teachers who provide their students with the suitable ways to build up their word stock

However, Hedge (2008) and Richards & Renandya (2002) wrote that in language curricula, vocabulary teaching was often given little priority and was often left to look after itself or

received only incidental attention

How words should be learnt attracts a lot of discussion from many influential experts They have suggested different ways to increase a learner’s word stock which is considered as a pivotal aspect of learning a language There are some learning techniques that are proven

effective such as extensive reading, contextualized word study, using games and visual aids, incidental learning of vocabulary and so on Each of these ways has its own advantages and disadvantages One of the techniques is using flashcards in teaching and learning vocabulary which increasingly draws plenty of attention from researchers Among them, Nation, I.S.P and Meara, P (2002) suggested that flashcards should have an important place in language learning With advances in flashcard technology, this learning material has become much more powerful than ever before; that is the reason why teachers can make use of it to bring students success of learning a foreign language

Researchers have declared that vocabulary knowledge is essential for English (as a

second language or L2) development of all ages of learners This is because any lexical problem can interfere with communication; in other words, communication may be interrupted if people

do not have enough words to convey their ideas (Allen, 1983 & Bowen, 1985) Whether learners are adults or young children, they need to broaden their own vocabulary For young learners who are at the beginning level of language learning, vocabulary will go hand in hand with them in the long journey of their language development Insufficient vocabulary may become a long-term trouble According to Laufer (1997), vocabulary learning is at the main factor of language

learning and language use

In a process of English language teaching and learning, teachers and young learners have covered a large number of words It is not difficult to see that in most English textbooks for children, a lot of new words are introduced first, then there are some other tasks to further

practice such as sentence samples, activities, dialogues, drills and so on The concept of a word can be defined in different ways; however, meaning and use should be paid more attention by teachers and learners in order to make sure that learning words can serve well in their language

use Nation (2001) pointed out that the form of a word involves its pronunciation, spelling, and any word parts that form this particular item such as prefixes, roots, and suffixes In addition to this, children learn vocabulary better than grammar as they may see that rules of grammar are difficult to remember (Demircioglu, 2010) Although young learners are used to learning simple words, it is not easy for teachers to teach them vocabulary with interest and excitement along with helping and help them retain words they have just learned

Firstly, the children are active by nature A child will be patient enough to stay at the same place to learn a list of words Short span of concentration prevent them from learning in this way While text of words loses its advantages in helping children to remember words, words together with pictures and visual aids can facilitate word memorization Paivio A (1971) argued that memory for pictures consistently exceed the ability to remember words Additionally,

according to Cameron (2001), the more active the students are, the easier they may lose their learning attention Young students are not happy with monotonous ways of learning, especially learning vocabulary Therefore, it is really necessary for teachers to give young children interests

in learning vocabulary Students need a stress-free atmosphere whereas young learners can learn their second language effectively and become motivated to attend their classes because children are not born to have a long span attention in general If people do something with passion, they will get success sooner or later

Secondly, helping young learners remember new vocabulary is not a tougher

responsibility for teachers because children have a limited ability to remember words due to their young age In addition, they easily remember words but easily forget if they do not have enough practice Besides, teachers cannot give them much vocabulary homework as students have to learn many other subjects which makes them run out of time to review the previous lessons at

home Actually, in most of classes in the Vietnamese curriculum, students have a heavy

workload with 12 subjects to take care of The best way is to help young learners learn to absorb the language naturally and encouragingly In other words, they should learn with learner-friendly activities and be provided with a lot of consolidation activities, too According to Nation (2003) the role of teachers is to design a lesson which is a combination of good teaching strategies to facilitate young learners’ vocabulary learning By doing so, teachers can help students build up their word stock and memorization The younger the learners are, the more interesting activities they need to stay focused Thus, the teaching activities must be well selected for sake of

students’ progress Noticeably, flashcards are considered as one of the most effective teaching aids which support teachers in teaching young learners vocabulary Making full use of

flashcards can bring success to teachers working with young learners

Aims of the study 1.2

Economic exchanges have spread throughout Vietnam, which requires people to use English as a means of communication to interact with other parts of the world That is the reason why English learning has thriven in nearly 3 decades Anyone can easy find a job description with different requirements of English level when applying for a job to many companies or economic sectors Adults working in companies, students studying at universities, colleges, and high schools have the need of learning English and children at different ages prepare for the future with English lessons In addition, there is a tendency in Vietnam that the age to start learning English is younger and younger Even nursery schools include English lessons in their curriculum

In comparison with adults, young learners around their puberty have many advantages to learn a second language As a result, learning English to them is easier them adults However, Ur

(2012) pointed out that each individual student has different levels of linguistic knowledge and different ability in English They may acquire English at different speeds and in various ways She suggested that adults who have a higher level of language proficiency can know which words they need to pay attention to, whereas young children depend a lot on their teachers That means adults should be taught explicitly while children should be taught implicitly Ur (2012) also emphasized the role of elicitation to teach young learners vocabulary In fact, some teachers have to admit that their vocabulary teaching to young children sometimes is not interesting enough to motivate them Besides, students face difficulty learning vocabulary if their teachers teach language lessons monotonously Classrooms for young learners need better teaching materials, facilities, techniques, approaches and so on to motivate as well as improve their vocabulary retention

Indeed, using visual teaching aids has been encouraged for a long time Flashcards have advantages to function as one of the most common teaching aids in ESL teaching and learning Flashcards have been used in many primary schools, but are only applied in sample teaching lessons only because of different reasons

Firstly, teachers face difficulty preparing their flashcards owing to lack of a useful and available flashcard source they need Secondly, preparing flashcards takes teachers a great deal

of time and money so they have to suffer from more pressure in daily workload Thirdly, they are not familiar with activities compatible with flashcard-based instructions Fourthly, there is a pressure coming large-sized classes with a number of students ranging from 38 to 48 students so teachers have to pay a lot attention to management, students’ homework check and feedback giving It is challenging for them to include activities using flashcards

The researcher attempts to figure out proper teaching steps and implications in utilizing flashcard-based instruction in large-sized classes Flashcards have showed their effectiveness on language teaching and learning so it is a question that whether flashcards are suitable for being employed in the researcher’s site, Nguyen Trai Secondary School, Binh Tan District, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam To have better evidence on using flashcards to teach English vocabulary in large classes, the participants who include 78 students from class 8/1 and 8/14 were chosen to take part in the study

Statement of the problem 1.3

Despite numerous studies conducted to investigate the impacts of flashcards-based

instruction on language, few studies have done to investigate the effect of flashcards used in teaching vocabulary in large-sized classes, especially in Vietnam Flashcards are considered to facilitate learner’s words memory and retention To optimize flashcards as a teaching tool, teachers and students are beneficial from language lessons integrated with flashcards

Research questions of the study 1.4

For the mentioned aims, this study is planned to answer the following questions:

Question 1: How does using flashcards in teaching and learning impact vocabulary

retention of young learners at Nguyen Trai Secondary School?

Question 2: What are the advantages and disadvantages of using flashcards reported by

teachers and students at Nguyen Trai Secondary School?

Significance of the study 1.5

Purposefully, this research is carried out to enhance the effectiveness of flashcards on young learners’ vocabulary learning by increasing their retention The result of this research can encourage teachers at Nguyen Trai to apply flashcards to vocabulary teaching Moreover, this teaching technique can solidify teacher’s pedagogical ability so they can teach classes with

different kinds of learners or levels Practically, innovation in English teaching is attracting a lot

of attention so the study is meaningful to both teachers and learners Once teachers find this technique useful, they are unhesitatingly encouraged to use it more often Also, students can develop themselves good habits of learning language with better techniques Besides, the study introduces teachers teaching high schools multi-activities which can be easy and time-saving to insert into their teaching Apparently, once the young children learn in a happy and comfortable mood, they may get knowledge easier Teachers can be proud of their efforts and inspire students

Overview of the study 1.7

The study consists of five chapters In the first chapter, the background of the study, the statement of the problem, the purpose of the study and the research questions are mentioned Besides, the researcher also makes clear the significance and outline of the study Chapter 2 is about concepts closely related to the study such as characteristics of young learners, intellectual development, vocabulary retention and improvement Clearly speaking, these aspects have influence on the learners’ learning Flashcards are carefully considered because it is the key element of the study To come up with persuasive ideas, the researcher employs a mixed

methodology of research which is clearly explained in chapter 3 This chapter covers research

site, participant, research design, data collection instrument, and data analysis method and research procedure Chapter 4 of the research is mainly about the findings of the research Last but not least, discussion on the results of the research can be seen in chapter 5 and this chapter gives the conclusion and implications of the research suggested for future use Some

recommendations for further research appear in this chapter as well

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

Second language acquisition (SLA) may involve various issues In terms of teaching young learners, it has a long history of constructing theory and practice In more than three decades of learning and teaching English in Vietnam, young learners now attract more and more attention from policy makers, educators and teachers Moreover, the market share of young learners’ learning and teaching has expanded significantly with different kinds of courses for learners and teachers specializing in young learner teaching In the trend of learning English as a foreign language in the country, it is teachers who play numerous roles in the course of teaching

to help facilitate learning (Brown, H D., 2007)

In this chapter the researcher discuses some issues such as young learner’s features, flashcards and large classes in learning and teaching English vocabulary In doing so, a solid foundation for the study is laid for further understandings and implications of the research findings

in subjects aged 12 to 15 years, and the slowest occurred in subjects aged 3 to 5 years To some extent, adolescents are often the most successful language learners; however, there are still some features that should be taken into consideration such as learning goal, language content,

experience, social environment and so on Basically, there is a common assumption that a critical point for SLA occurs around puberty To master a language, learners might have some other characteristics Age is one of those

At different ages, learners may have very different language learning characteristics Harmer (2007) mentioned that linguists have divided English learners into groups such as young children, adolescences and adults He emphasized that learners have different needs in language learning Of course, reasons to attend language classes vary It is positive that students want to learn to communicate in the target language or to cram for their exam Students in Vietnam often take English as a compulsory subject in their exams so language lessons need to be modified to meet their demands There is also another group of students who learn English because they think it is useful for their future because workforce market becomes more and more competitive Adult learners usually have a clearer and greater target of learning languages, for instance, the ability of producing good communication, improvement in reading comprehension or writing skill Adult learners have disadvantages in their age, but they have advantages in life experience For young learners, they have a variety of aims to learn and they have more time to realize their aims Knowing what learners want to learn is necessary for teachers to enhance the teaching efficiency; especially in the times of industrial revolution 4.0 learning and teaching are changing dramatically

It’s most difficult to teach young children languages although it doesn’t require that the teacher has much rather knowledge but experience (Harmer, 2007a) When working with

children, teachers should find out their young learners’ needs, their language learning

characteristics, what they want in their language lessons, what can motivate them and so on Understanding young learners clearly will help teachers define appropriate teaching approaches for boosting the teaching and learning effects (Moon, 2000) A very essential question is raised:

“who can be regarded as young learners?”

Harmer (2007a) gave the definition of young children as “those up to the ages of nine or ten” while in Thornbury’s view (2006) “young learners” tells about children at pre-primary school and primary school age or even sometimes including adolescents He explained that in some countries, young learners learn English to prepare for their secondary school but there is a trend that young learners are taught English sooner and sooner, even at pre-primary school Scrivener (2011) also showed that in many countries, young learners are students at low ages In many parts of the world, including Vietnam, young learners can be students at kindergartens which provide their students with language classes Starting to learn a language early will help children acquire the new language better because they have more years to experience and

develop their language skills Many people think that it is better for children, but the results are hard to prove now However, it is a trend Although many researches appreciate effectiveness of teaching young learners English in the early stage of life, some researchers showed concern of the disadvantages of this phenomenon (Thornbury, 2006)

2.1.2 Characteristics of young learners

Thornbury (2006) provided the three special characteristics of young learners which can distinguish them from adult learners, in terms of cognitive, affective and social dimensions The first characteristic links to children’s limitation of their real life knowledge, developing memory, inability to conduct abstract concepts, or their short span of attention The second characteristic

includes the need of encouragement and support while the rest is their lack of social skills and dependency on their teacher

Brown (1994) suggested five characteristics of young learners, namely, intellectual development, attention span, sensory input, affective factors, and authentic meaningful language

In SLA, both students and teachers will benefit from successful application of these five aspects

2.1.2.1 Intellectual development

The critical period hypothesis (CPH) agreed that the young children can acquire

knowledge “quickly” and “naturally” only at a certain age and this capability may decrease gradually However, that idea may not be true anymore because there is evidence that the older learners sometimes had better language acquisition than the younger ones, which depends on specific learning contexts as well as learners’ abilities (Harmer, 2007a) Moreover, adult learners may get a better word retention than young ones thanks to their mental ability Children can be excellent language students but only being compared to friends at the same age, not being

compared to adult learners

2.1.2.2 Vocabulary retention

Vocabulary retention is the ability to recall the meaning of a new word learnt after a period of time Nation (2001) identified three general processes involved in vocabulary learning These processes are as follows: noticing, retrieval, and generative use He also introduced the two concepts of receptive and productive ability Alemi (2010) realized that one of the most difficult aspects of learning a foreign language, particularly in English as a foreign Language (EFL) context, is vocabulary retention It is more difficult for young learners as they remember new words easily but forget so fast Learners have studied more and more new words, so they may have problems with remembering them Nevertheless, younger learners often do not care

much about the purposes of their language learning because they are “effortless learners”

(Brown, 1994) Consequently, this may decrease their vocabulary retention To achieve learning goals, teachers should have some effective techniques to help learners memorize and recall the words learned in an efficient way

2.1.2.3 Attention span

If adults are aware of the language they are learning, they have very good learning

behaviors so they can make facilitate their learning and set obtainable language goals In

contrast, young learners have lower awareness to language learning They only pay attention to what makes them excited (Moon, 2006), but only for short time spans Harmer (2007a)

mentioned the limited span of attention of young learners, even though they are so excited with the activities, they easily get bored after a very short time and the different ages may have

different attention span Benjamin (2002) wrote “When the lecture begins, most students are paying close attention [and] for most students that attention lasts for about 10 minutes” (p 63) In many other researches, researchers shared similar ideas Typically, the eighth edition of McKeachie’s Teaching Tips (1986) pointed out that the attention of students was about 10 minutes and it decreased after that point For children, they were believed that their attention span used to be very short (Scott & Lisbeth, 1990) It is young learners’ attention span that makes it easy to get bored with the lesson in the classroom because the longer the lessons, the poorer the retention McLeish (1968) discussed findings in Trenaman’s study Trenaman found that students listening to the first 15 minutes of a lecture retained approximately 41% of the material, students listening to a 30-minute lecture retained 25%, and those listening to a 40-minute one retained only 20% of the material The ability to retain lecture content decreased significantly if children had to work with longer lessons McLeish conducted a study himself and

his results were uniform with those of Trenaman Sharing the ideas, teachers must do as much as possible to increase students’ ability to pay attention to lessons as well as try to understand what students are really thinking about during a language class (Wilson & Korn, 2007)

In some situations, children can spend a long period of time on the activities that interest them more, for instance, a child can watch his favorite cartoons on TV for during 2 or 3 hours without complaining tiredness or not agreeing to stop Accordingly, a young learners’ lesson needs to be accompanied by lots of attractive activities due to their short span of attention (Scott

& Lisbeth, 1990)

2.1.2.4 Sensory input

In the book “Teaching by Principles”, Brown (1994) mentioned five senses of interest stimulating young learners in language learning Physical activities give them chances to play with language Projects and hands-on activities get them learning when practicing words and structures Sensory aids, including visual aids such as pictures, videos and so on help students internalize concepts and non-verbal language allows students to imitate actions and remember words better

Among these five elements, he emphasized visual aids play a vital role in young learners’ language teaching Whereas adult learners can mainly understand through instruction and

explanation, young learners may, too However, it is necessary to notice that young learners are crucially interested in seeing, hearing, touching, or interacting with what they hear from teachers (Harmer, 2007b) In addition, young learners often uncomfortable with abstract concepts so they find it more difficult to learn grammar or some abstract vocabularies Ur (2012) also advised teachers to give students tasks which help them learn vocabulary implicitly and avoid unclear explanation

2.2 Vocabulary

2.2.1 What is vocabulary?

There are many definitions of vocabulary in existence In the English Language Teaching (ELT) field, Hornby (1995), an English teacher and writer best known for the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, defined vocabulary as a list of words with their meanings Vocabulary can

be defined as words we need to know how to communicate effectively (Neuman & Dwyer, 2009) Another way of defining vocabulary, Ur (1998) wrote that the words we teach in the foreign language can be considered as vocabulary Actually, vocabulary are not only the words

of a language including single items and phrases but also chunks of several words which express

a concepts meaningfully in the way any individual word could

It is clear that learning vocabulary is important to language learners because they surely need enough words in their target language to communicate efficiently

2.2.2 Kinds of vocabulary

There are two ideas that are widely accepted that vocabulary can be divided into two types: active and passive vocabulary According to Harmer (1991), the first type of vocabulary mentions that the students have been taught and that they are expected to be able to use the language The second one refers to the words which the students will recognize when they come across them, yet they cannot use these fluently

Webb (2009) wrote that it is vocabulary that learners recognize when they see or meet in reading text but do not use it in speaking and writing This kind of vocabulary is receptive

vocabulary It is words that learners recognize and understand when they are used in specific contexts, which they can hardly produce; however, another type of vocabulary is the productive one that the learners understand and can pronounce correctly and use successfully in speaking

and writing It can be addressed as an active process, because the learners can use the words to convey their ideas to others

2.2.3 Fundamental hypotheses related to vocabulary teaching and learning

In SLA, learners take time and effort to fully develop their competence In this process, they go under the impacts of different language factors One of those is language input

According to Krashen (1985), language input refers to any material that can be reached by learners in the target language Relationship between language input and language learning can

be internalized by learners thanks to various forms of information He mentioned that input hypothesis is a concept that includes different forms of language such as written, oral and sign ones Teachers can choose the kinds of language input that best fits their learners He also

classifies it into two categories: Compulsory input which is carefully chosen material for learners

to learn and comprehensible input which is the material that has an aim to enlarge learners’ development

Another influential author in applied linguistic field, Norbert Schmitt (2000), noted that vocabulary learning should be combined explicit teaching with incidental learning For

beginners, they need enough words to understand their lessons Gradually, incidental learning should be made use of at a suitable level Explicit and incidental approaches, however, are both necessary in learning vocabulary To the idea of Seal (1991), he classified vocabulary teaching strategies as planned and unplanned activities in classrooms As the terms show, the unplanned strategies refer to occasions when words may be learned incidentally and accidentally in class when students request particular meanings of the word, or when the teacher becomes aware of any relevant words to which attention needs to be drawn Unplanned vocabulary teaching

strategies may differ from teacher to teacher, from lesson to lesson, or even from class to class

and unplanned vocabulary activities should occupy less time than planned vocabulary teaching strategies (Hatch and Brown, 1995)

To analyze vocabulary teaching methods in more detail, Oxford and Crookall (1990) classified common techniques into four categories: (1) de-contextualizing: word lists, flashcards, and dictionary use; (2) semi-contextualizing: word grouping, association, visual imagery, aural imaginary, keyword, physical response, physical sensation, and semantic mapping; (3) fully

contextualizing: reading, listening, speaking, and writing; (4) adaptable: structured reviewing

2.2.4 Stages of teaching vocabulary

Learners acquire vocabulary in various ways Students are exposed to a lot of new

vocabulary during lessons by the teacher, by texts or other materials they work with A lot of this vocabulary is automatically absorbed (Harmer, 1993) Various techniques and activities are aimed directly at learning vocabulary, which is usually put into sets of somehow related words, often by topics or meaning

The first stage of teaching vocabulary is presentation Pre-teaching activities often

activate students' attention and desire to explore a particular topics or subjects in detail within the lessons

The second stage of teaching vocabulary is comprehension Both McCarthy (1992) and Thornbury (2004) stated that there are two general possibilities of engaging vocabulary

presentation In this stage, the form is introduced first, followed by illustration to make the word’s meaning clear to learners It is important that forms are often presented with the text or other forms of contexts and students are encouraged to explore meanings and other aspects of words themselves Moreover, there are many possibilities how to explain or give the meaning of the words To make words easy to understand for the learners requires teacher’s skills and hard

work It is necessary to mention that there are various techniques, but the teacher plays a

significant role to make their lessons successful

The third stage is practice Learners should be provided with plenty opportunities to practice the newly-learnt language content because it is crucial for successful remembering This

is done by various forms of practice activities Mechanical practice is usually applied in the forms of oral repetition (Thornbury, 2004) Furthermore, he emphasized that it is necessary to link new word items into learners’ existing knowledge This step is done by types of activities, where students make judgments about words, such as matching, comparing, filling in the blank and so on

The last stage is revision After the teachers have finished introducing new word items, they should ask students to review the previous language content The aim of this activity is to know whether the students really understand language content that they have been learned previously or not

Following these strategies is important to teach an L2 vocabulary both to adults and young learners However, the procedure is not fixed and not the only choice, the teacher can modify these stages for smarter learning activities in their own situations

2.2.5 Techniques in teaching vocabulary

Commonly, there are many techniques concerning the teaching of vocabulary There are

a few aspects necessary to remember if English teachers want to present a new vocabulary or lexical items to their students successfully

2.2.5.1 Visual techniques

In these techniques, Gairns and Redman(1986) mentioned some visual forms such as relia (real objects), picture, and mime or gesture Relia means using a variety of real objects so

that the students can remember the written materials related to the lessons The objects can be shown in connection with specific words found in the lessons Mime or gesture is useful if it emphasizes the importance of gestures and facial expression on communication (Klippel, 1994) Learners can remember their learning material with the help of visual aids (Zebrowska, 1975); however, it is not easy to use this technique if the words have an abstract meaning, for example, happiness

2.2.5.2 Verbal techniques

This technique can be divided into four categories, namely, definitions and illustrative sentences, synonyms and antonyms, explanation, translation (Mendez and Rodriguez,1999)

- Definition and illustration sentences: with this technique the English teachers are

expected to introduce a word in English through the use of other simple words in the same language

- Synonyms and antonyms: they are especially important in building new vocabulary

because learners are able to know some lexical items based on their own meaning features Synonyms are words that have the same meaning as the unknown in a given context There may

be written-related signals that identify the presence of synonyms for the readers They could be commas, dashes, and colons Meanwhile, antonyms are words that have the opposite meaning of the unknown word in a given context Signals such as instead, although, but, yet, and however can help leaners make sense of the unknown words

- Explanation: This technique explains the meaning and the use of a foreign word in the

foreign language itself In this case, the language used should be as meaningful simple as

possible

- Translation: L2 is overwhelmingly used to express L1 in every language activity

Learners tend to compare L1 and L2 in different aspects Contrastive linguistics stated that this technique is not a good way to learn an L2 communicatively because it has many drawbacks

2.2.5.3 Use of dictionary

In addition to the previous two techniques, the use of dictionary is another technique in finding out the meaning of unfamiliar words as well as expressions In this respect, the students can make use of a variety of dictionaries, such as bilingual, monolingual, pictorial, and

thesauruses Gerald and Laura (1989) stated that dictionaries are more easily used to look up word meanings In the students-centered learning activities, using dictionary encourages students

to learn independently (Allen, 1983) Actually, dictionary look-up leads to vocabulary learning

in an SLA environment (Bruton, 2007; Hulstijn, Hollander & Greidanus, 1997; Knight, 1994; Laufer & Hill, 2000; Peters, 2007) For beginner learners, they should make use of bilingual dictionaries While a higher learner can have enough vocabulary to understand the definitions so they can use monolingual dictionaries In short, the use of dictionary is an effective way for the students to find out the meaning of words that are being learnt

a language, which is an acquired based on their own interests, needs and motivation Vocabulary

mastery plays an important role in the four language skills and it has to be considered that

vocabulary mastery is one of the needed components of language

2.2.7 Vocabulary acquisition for young learners

2.2.7.1 Explicit and implicit process

Researches into vocabulary learning have particularly discussed the vocabulary

acquisition Carter (2001) investigated the natural process of how a word can be learned, which would help teachers to have flexible methods to teach vocabulary He pointed out the vocabulary learning acquisition explicitly and implicitly Explicit or direct process means that teachers present vocabulary to students by means of translating new words into their mother tongue, by teaching techniques and materials which help to express the meanings of words Implicit or indirect process means that students learn new words through context Students may learn the new words through some tasks of the reading text, then they can apply these new words

Explicit instruction is the process that teachers will determine the vocabulary targets for learners depending upon their own language proficiency For instance, high school students will have aim to know much higher amount of vocabulary than primary students These vocabularies will be presented directly to learners by using technique as translation

Incidental learning is the process of learning vocabulary through another activity of language learning For example, a student reads through a short text and he does not know some new words which would result in him not understanding the text; then, he checks the meanings

of these words in dictionary or with his teacher to understand more about what he has just read

It means that he has already learned some new lexical items through the extensive reading

activity and he may use these words later Research supported the benefits of extensive reading

in enriching learner’s productive and receptive vocabulary; however there are still a lot of gaps and evidence for better understanding of this issue

Although extensive reading benefits learners in vocabulary learning, it is considered a difficult strategy According to Hunt & Beglar (2005), it is more effective to apply extensive reading techniques to learners who have high vocabulary proficiency rather than the low ones Laufer (1989) and Liu & Nation (1985) have shown that unless there is at least 95% or higher coverage rate (the percentage of the vocabulary that is known by the reader) of the running words in a text, the probability of successful guessing of unknown words will be severely

reduced Hu & Nation (2000) suggest it should be from 95% to 98%

A strategy using contexts to learn new words is called independent strategy development

In this strategy, the procedure for guessing a words’ meanings from contexts begins with

deciding which words are important in the text, and applying a five-step procedure (Brown and Payne, 1994) Those are (1) having sources of new words, (2) getting a clear image, either visual

or auditory or both, of the forms of the new words, (3) learning the meanings of the words, (4) making a strong memory connection between the forms and the meanings of the words, and (5) using the words Fan (2003) advised in learning vocabulary learners should go through these five steps

2.2.7.3 Children’ and adults’ vocabulary learning

Ur (2012) showed the difference between children’ and adults’ vocabulary learning acquisition She argued that adults learn vocabulary effectively through explicit process; in contrast, children learn best through implicit process Children tend to be fond of “imitating, memorizing, acquiring intuitively” through repeated actions and production with enjoyable or interesting activities Ur (2012), however, pointed out that this learning process takes a long time

to be effective so adult learners do not like that process She said that the vocabulary learning strategies of students become more explicit when they get older Harmer (2007a) also shared the idea that young learners have an implicit learning process In other words, young learners learn

in an indirect way rather than a direct one They learn through what is around them Knowing this, teachers should definitely choose appropriate vocabulary teaching techniques

Ur (2012) also mentioned some common factors in teaching vocabulary She showed that meanings, forms and pronunciation share the same importance In fact, it is unlikely that a student knows how to pronounce a word exactly but he does not know what its meaning is Hence, she cannot practically use that word On the other hand, a person gets the meaning of a word, but she is not able to pronounce it correctly, so how the others can understand what word she is saying, unless it is written down Thus, the three aspects of words share the same vital roles Adult learners are used to focusing on forms of a word first, then on its pronunciation and finally on its meanings, while young learners are in contrast They often pay their first attention

to the meanings of the new word; finally its form and pronunciation Additionally, adult learners usually learn more other aspects of a word like its roots, prefixes, suffixes, or other parts of speech It is a simple task for young children because they approach only a word, but not its other aspects It would be useful for teachers to depend on their learners’ aims of language

learning to decide the ways as well as what aspects of words they should instruct to their students during the teaching process

2.2.8 Previous studies on the relationship between flashcards and vocabulary retention

Flashcards are excellent English teaching tools when teachers are introducing new

vocabulary words and drill practice Research suggests that using paper flashcards is one of the most efficient means of deliberate vocabulary study techniques available (Elgort, 2010) Paired-associate vocabulary learning has long been considered a valuable method to quickly learn large amounts of second language meaning-form relationships The finding is in line with Altiner (2011) which also found the positive effect of using flashcard-based instruction on vocabulary learning Actually, lexical items learned with word cards, a type of intentional decontextualized study, are accessed in a similar manner as items already acquired This suggests that deliberate decontextualized vocabulary learning is, psychologically, an effective learning method Another study that was in line with this finding was Lin-Fang's (2013) which found using flashcard-based instruction as one of the most important factors of affecting vocabulary learning The last study which had the same result was Sinaei and Asadi (2014), in that study the positive effect of using flashcard-based instruction on vocabulary learning among elementary and intermediate learners

of English has been proved

In addition, Komachali and Khodareza (2012) investigated the effects of using based flashcards on Iranian EFL pre-university students’ vocabulary knowledge The results indicated that the use of flashcards significantly helped the students’ vocabulary growth,

paper-compared to traditional vocabulary instruction without such aids In the time if technology

development, Quizlet, an online flashcard app, was found to be more effective than using paper flashcards at improving vocabulary test scores (Imrie, 2014)

2.3 Flashcards

2.3.1 What is flashcard?

A flashcard is made of a little piece of heavy paper with typical size of 3x5 inches All flashcards bear language content related to the learning lessons On one side, a new word in a target language needs remembering; the other side, the content may include L1 translations, examples, drawings, L2 synonyms or any content helping learners remember the words in the target side Flashcards may have different colors Colors may make flashcards more interesting

to learn with, so color pens and papers should be used for more interesting flashcards To avoid learning monotonously, teachers and students can use various shapes of flashcards Flashcards become a learning aid to help students learn vocabulary visually and actively so try to make them beautiful

These flashcards should be made by both teachers and learners In classroom, teachers can use flashcards to introduce new lexical items and develop different activities to help students remember those words To make sure that everyone can see the letters on the card, teacher’s flashcards are made large enough so teachers can interact with students at different seats in large classes For students, they can make themselves sets of flashcards to learn and revise their words with Students should follow teacher’s advice on size (it can be smaller than teacher’s flashcard

so students can bring them along easily), number of flashcard in a set, how to use flashcards to learn and revise their words or spaced repetition

2.3.2 Kinds of flashcards

Basically, there are two kinds of flashcards First, traditional flashcards, which are written

on paper, have been around for many years because this learning tool facilitates learner’s

learning They have been studied and proven to be extremely beneficial Second, with the

development of computer-based learning materials, anyone can also find software, tools or applications that make it more efficient and available to teach and learn vocabulary with

flashcards One of the advantages of flashcard used to learn vocabulary is that this technique can

be applicable to various kinds of students at different levels Learners and teachers can adapt them to make their vocabulary lessons more enjoyable They can make themselves traditional or electronic flashcards Each has its own advantages and disadvantages

Learning and teaching keeps on changing thanks to the development of technology Nowadays, flashcards can be made easily and quickly with the help of computers New style flashcards can be made by using software, tools or applications available on the internet A myriad of computer-based tools are now available to produce flashcards such as Study Blue, Quizlet or Flashcards+ Using computer-based tools to learn is a trend used now and then

Students use different electronic devices for their academic activities which is now common as anyone can see around the world Traditional or computerized flashcards have their own

advantages and disadvantages Flashcards used in language learning activities are more and more common According to Golding, et al (2012), availability of mobile technology, the almost universal could lead to an increase in use of computerised flashcards

2.3.3 Use of flashcards

Flashcards are slowly shown in the stage of introduction of new lexical items, but in memory-checking stages, flashcards should be swapped at the speed of one flashcard per second,

from back to front Students can use flashcards to learn their words in classroom or learn with their friends informally Working creatively is better for the brain In other words, teachers should help students keep their right and left brains balanced by asking them to prepare

themselves sets of flashcards Blank flashcards should be available just in case an unknown word appears and it deserves learning Once flashcards are at hand, learners have more opportunities to upgrade their word stock with their readily-made flashcards

To enhance vocabulary memory with flashcards in practice stage, students should look at the new word on the first side and quickly try to relate the words in definition, first language equivalents, examples, synonyms and so on Any word should be learned in meaningful ways After that step, turn the card over and see whether words are memorized correctly Words

identified correctly are put in a new stack and unidentified words are put back in the old stack to learn again until all words in the learning session are memorized As once all words are

identified correctly, the flashcards with all identified words are put into a set for future use The number of words used per lesson should be around 7 (Miller, 1955), so students can work well over a long period of time Let’s keep learning interest for the next time Over time, go through this set of flashcards again because long term memory needs time and revision to remember new things Teacher should make students know that revisitinging the flashcards constantly is an important point

In many researches, flashcard-based learning may facilitate mastering new lexical sets and should go hand in hand with meaning-focused activities Researchers also agreed that it should have a place in L2 vocabulary instruction (Nation & Webb, 2011; Schmitt, 2007, 2008) Given the effectiveness and popularity of flashcard-based learning and teaching, it is necessary

to examine the reasons flashcard-integrated activities can optimize effects of vocabulary

retention

Firstly, learning with flashcards is a type of paired-associate learning technique and it has also been used in teaching English as second language (Hart, 1982) L2 vocabulary should be taught and learnt in meaningful contexts Researches showed that paired-associate learning techniques may be as effective as or more effective than vocabulary learning from context (Griffin, 1992; Laufer & Shmueli, 1997; Pickering, 1982; Prince, 1996; Rodriguez & Sadoski, 2000; Webb, 2007a) because in a paired-associate learning tasks, large numbers of words can be learnt in a quite short time (Fitzpatrick et al., 2008; Nation, 1980; Thorndike, 1998; Webb, 1962) There is the second reason that wordlists are quite popular in language curricula

Unfortunately, some researchers indicate that working with flash cards help learners in acquiring vocabulary more effectively than word lists (Mondria & Mondria-de Vries, 1994; Schmitt & Schmitt, 1995) Even though learning wordlists deliberately is better than learning vocabulary incidentally Learners often spend a lot of time trying to remember an available wordlist which they write in their notebooks In the SLA setting of Vietnam, it is not difficult to meet wordlist in language lessons as L2 teachers and learners believe that wordlists can increase vocabulary quickly (Nation, 1982) Oxford and Crookall (1990) pointed out that word lists, especially with mother-tongue equivalents, are not very useful because learners might not be able to use the new words in any communicative way without further assistance To overcome the shortcoming, teachers should be encouraged to make full use of flashcards for their language lessons because recent studies have also suggested that flashcard-based learning help transfer to normal language use and is a useful learning activity (Elgort, 2011; Webb, 2002, 2009a)