An experiment on designing the vocabulary learning lessons and practices using Quizlet and Edmodo was done and applied to students to improve the effectiveness of voc[r]
Trang 1BLENDING QUIZLET AND EDMODO FOR DESIGNING
ENGLISH VOCABULARY PRACTICES: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
Tran Minh Thanh1*, Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc2, Nguyen Thuy Linh1
SUMMARY
In ESL learning, successful English vocabulary learning is a vital part of acquiring English However, the current teaching and learning English vocabulary in University of Information and Communication Technology gained little success due to the traditional face-to-face instruction model and some limitations related to large class size, time constraints, students’ demotivation and ability In this experimental study, we presents meticulously the process to design the vocabulary lessons on Quizlet and vocabulary reading practices on Edmodo website, and then experiment these vocabulary learning activities on the experimental group The result collected from pre-test and post-test reveals that there is a significant improvement in vocabulary knowledge in experimental group in comparison with the control one This study is a useful source of reference for those keen on applying ICT for vocabulary teaching and learning in particular and in English education in general
Keyword: Quizlet, Edmodo, vocabulary learning, experimental research, English vocabulary
INTRODUCTION *
Most linguists, language teachers and learners
are aware that vocabulary is the vital
component of learning a new language
Vocabulary is like bricks used to build up a
building One cannot learn a language without
learning vocabulary Therefore, teaching and
learning vocabulary has been the central part
of language education In the University of
Information and Communication Technology
(ICTU), though much effort has been made
by English teachers and students to enhance
the effectiveness of English vocabulary
teaching and learning, the progress is rather
limited According to statistics declared by
Division of Testing and Educational Quality
Assurance, a vast number of students (up to
46%) get mark D or F for the final English
exams [1] This poor learning outcome is due
to a number of reasons which are both
objective and subjective Objectively, the
average number of students in each English
class is 40 students which are really big for an
English class, and the students themselves
possess quite diverse levels of English
proficiency As a result, teachers with the
limited in-class time generally cannot take
care of or assist all students, especially the low-level ones The other subjective cause is that the students’ quality of admission to university is generally less qualified than before, especially the quality of English proficiency This causes difficulties for both teachers and students to achieve good results in English courses The objective reason is that the students themselves contribute to this poor result Specifically, when being asked why they cannot perform well in English tests or exams, most students responded that they cannot understand the texts or listening contents They admitted that they lack vocabulary due to their laziness or demotivation to learn vocabulary Even there are efforts made by students to learn vocabulary, many of them complained they easily forget the new words (both written and spoken forms) they have learned because they
do not have adequate practical practices or environment to master these new words in terms of forms (written and spoken), meaning and use This situation requires a new teaching method to improve the effectiveness of vocabulary teaching and learning for students
Fu argued that ICT is being applied successfully in instruction, learning, and assessment and is considered a powerful tool
Trang 2for educational change and reform [2] Quizlet
is an interactive mobile and web-based study
application that allows students to study
vocabulary via learning tools and games It
trains students via flashcards and various
games and tests It is particularly suitable for
designing vocabulary learning activity
Edmodo is an educational technology
company offering a communication,
collaboration, and coaching platform to
K-12 schools and teachers The Edmodo
network enables teachers to share content,
distribute quizzes, assignments, and manage
communication with students, colleagues, and
parents Edmodo is very teacher-centric in
their design and philosophy: students and
parents can only join Edmodo if invited to do
so by a teacher Teachers and students spend
large amounts of time on the platform, both in
and out of the classroom
Inspired by the solution and realizing that the
above two technological tools can be a
answer to the current problem facing teachers
and students, the ideas to blend the websites
were outlined An experiment on designing
the vocabulary learning lessons and practices
using Quizlet and Edmodo was done and
applied to students to improve the
effectiveness of vocabulary learning in
particular and English education in general
LITERATURE REVIEW
Vocabulary learning has been a great
challenge for both teachers and students
because there hasn’t been enough focus on
vocabulary instruction in ESL class and
many teachers employed a traditional
approach to teach vocabulary However,
with the growing number of interactive
learning tools, there has been a breakthrough
in vocabulary learning process and students
have become active participants of this
process Experience has shown that
integrating these tools into vocabulary
instruction has not only given learners the
greatest opportunity to learn vocabulary
better but also contributed considerably to
their autonomy Quizlet is one of those
interactive tools that is quite feasible to
implement in class and greatly assists students in their journey of vocabulary acquisition
Quizlet (quizlet.com) is a website that allows learners to create and use online flashcards to learn vocabulary Quizlet can be used on both computers and mobile phones Thus, students will be more flexible and active in learning and reviewing new vocabulary Recognizing the relevance and convenience, many scholars and practitioners of language teaching around the world used Quizlet to teach vocabulary to students Sevgi Şahin [3], Gilbert Dizon [4], Christine Bauer-Ramazani [5], and Henry Foster [6] These studies have all pointed out Quizlet is greatly beneficial to students to improve their vocabulary as well as their autonomy in learning
In Vietnam, although Quizlet has been used
by many people to teach language, but the number of users is limited [7] In particular, the research on the effectiveness of using combination of Quizlet and Edmodo applications is not available
At ICTU, An D.T.H [8] has conducted a project to pilot and implement an integrated website for teaching and learning English However, the website is restricted to level A2 and has not yet deeply supported for students
to study vocabulary Moreover, the cost for renting a server is somehow expensive METHODOLOGY
Research questions The study was aimed at improving the quality
of English vocabulary teaching for students in particular, and contributing to enhancement of the learning outcomes of English courses at ICTU So, the specific purpose of this study is
to examine the effectiveness of designing vocabulary learning practices on Quizlet and Edmodo The study is carried out to address the following research question: Is it possible for designing vocabulary lessons on Quizlet and vocabulary practices on Edmodo to enhance the effectiveness of English vocabulary learning?
Trang 3Participants
The subject of the study is two groups of
students in two different classes of 40
students each: control group and experimental
group Each group had 20 selected students
who had completed three prerequisite English
courses (English 1, English 2 and English 3),
and now doing the course in English 4 They
all are between A2 and B1 level of English
language proficiency (CEFR) The researcher
is the instructor of both classes
Data collection instrument
To collect the data, the author used
vocabulary pre-test and post-test which are
adapted from the APTIS Vocabulary and
Grammar Test The adapted test consists of a
total of 20 target words divided into 04
sections following three formats: word usage,
word matching, and word pair or word
combination The words’ levels were checked
on http://www.vocabulary.englishprofile.org
to achieve the validity of the test 6 out of 20
target words are at A2 level, and the rest are
at B1 level The first versions of both pre-test
and post-test were converted to Web format
and piloted on two other small groups of 20
students each at the same level in order to
refine them Based on students’ comment,
changes were made in the wording of several
items Cronbach’s alpha for each a priori
construct in both groups was 76 above,
suggesting that the reliability of the
instrument was satisfactory
The pre-test then was launched to both groups
The followed experiment underwent two
main activities
Activity 1: Designing vocabulary lessons on
Quizlet
This activity has three steps:
+ Step 1: Making target wordlists
To be aligned with the syllabus and achieve
the aim of the study, the author selected five
popular topics in the coursebook English
Unlimited B1 namely Sports and Exercises,
Shopping, Weather, Tourism and Feelings
respectively The author then selected the
target words to make a full list The levels of
the selected words for each topic were checked on vocabulary.englishprofile.org ranging from A2 to B1 according to CEFR before uploading to Quizlet Each complete wordlist was made up of 50 English words + Step 2: Uploading the wordlists to Quizlet After the five wordlists were made, the author uploaded them to Quizlet This consists of several sub-activities including providing Vietnamese meaning and selecting the presenting images or photos the words which can be visualized
+ Step 3: Distributing links of wordlists to students
The final step in this activity was to distribute all five links to students in the experimental group The teacher guided students how to use each vocabulary learning activity on Quizlet, such as using flashcard, writing, spelling, pronouncing and playing games Noticed that these links should be fully distributed to students because some of active students even learned the new vocabulary outside the class before the official in-class lesson took place
Activity 2: Designing vocabulary reading practices on Edmodo
Corresponding to five vocabulary wordlists, the reading practices with linguistic input based on these topics were designed on Edmodo This activity also has three steps + Step 1: Selecting the reading practices and format types of questions
Based on the topics, wide ranges of reading practices with the frequent coverage of listed vocabulary on Quizlet were selected To ensure the levels of the reading practices are appropriate to the students’ English proficiency, the author used the website http://www.roadtogrammar.com/textanalysis / to analyze the level of the reading texts This task is crucially important because if the practices were too difficult or too easy, the students would be demotivated to learn immediately, which would lead to the failure
of the project Thanks to the website, the selected reading texts were not too difficult
Trang 4but still remained challenging to students
The questions designed around the reading
texts follow some types of formats, such as
true – false, gap-filling, matching, multiple
choice, and open-ended questions In total,
30 reading practices with 432 questions had
been completed
Step 2: Uploading the reading practices to
Edmodo
After the reading practices had been
completed, they were uploaded to Edmodo
Technically, in this step the selection of
question types on Edmodo was the same as
the design on the readily-prepared reading
practices
Step 3: Assigning the reading practices for
students
In contrast with the distribution of all
vocabulary links, the assignment of reading
practices was made after the students had
studied the English lessons After every
lesson, the teacher assigned three reading
practices of the same topics for students to do
them at home as the homework The end
result of the reading practices on Edmodo was
calculated as one progress test This
assessment criterion is of importance because
it created the extrinsic motivation for students
to learn seriously
Data collection procedure
The pre-test was launched to both English
classes at the beginning of the semester The
results were collected and analyzed to form
control group and experimental group with
equal scores
After finishing the course and the
experimental period, the post-test was
launched to both control group and
experimental group Finally, the results of the
both tests were analyzed and compared
FINDINGS
The results of the Pre-test
The pre-test was administered to both two
classes of students (40 students in each)
Then, to make samples, students with similar
scores were taken out of to form an
experimental and a control group The
specific pre-test results of both groups after sampling were the following
Table 1 Students’ pre-test scores The percentage (%) of students with
pre-test scores of Scores
Grp
7.0 – 7.5
6.0 – 6.5
5.0 – 5.5
4.0 – 4.5 4.0
It can be seen from Table 1 that the percentages of students with similar scores is quite the same in both groups The pre-test results also shown that the majority of students (up to 88%) did not get high scores below 4 out of 10 in their pre-tests Even only 12% of them got 4.0 or 4.5, and none of them got 5 or above From analysis of the test data, the 12% of students who got 4.0 or 4.5 had correct answers for A2 vocabulary quizzes This result revealed that students’ vocabulary knowledge was not very satisfactory, and this can be an obstacle to their performance in classroom in general
The results of the Post-test
By the end of the semester, the post-test was administered to both groups The data driven from post-test were presented below
Table 2: Students’ post-test scores The percentage (%) of students with
post-test scores of Scores
Grp
≥ 8.0 7.0 – 7.5
6.0 – 6.5
5.0 – 5.5
4.0 – 4.5 4.0
As can be seen from Table 2, there were great improvements in experimental group compared with control group Specifically,
in experimental group, there had no longer been students who got the scores below 4.5 while though there were improvements in control group but this number still counted for 40% The improvement in control group could be explained that they grasped the vocabulary within the curriculum by virtual
Trang 5of traditional in-class instruction Also, the
number of student who got the scores of 6.0
– 6.5 and 7.0 – 7.5 had increased sharply to
44% for the former and 24% for the later
Noticeably, in experimental group there
appeared 20% of students achieving the
scores of 8 or above whereas there were no
ones in control group getting 8.0 points or
above The percentage of students who got
the scores of 6.0 – 6.5 and 7.0 – 7.5 in
control group was 28% and 8%, respectively
In short, the study had clearly shown the
effectiveness of designing the vocabulary
practices using Quizlet and Edmodo in
improving the students’ vocabulary
knowledge
CONCLUSION
Methods to teaching and learning English
vocabulary have been changing over the time
Research have proved the application of ICT
in English vocabulary learning in particular
and in English education in general to be
effective In this study, the application of
Quizlet and Edmodo in teaching and learning
English vocabulary proved to be an effective
and practical model for teachers of English to
apply in their similar setting The study was
limited at assessing the increase in students’
vocabulary knowledge (meaning, usage and
collocation), it could explore the other aspects
of using the websites to the learners’
autonomy, the development of ICT skills,
challenges, and attitudes towards using ICT to
learn vocabulary
In conclusion, the study have presented
meticulously the process to design the
vocabulary lessons on Quizlet and vocabulary
reading practices on Edmodo website, and
then experiment these vocabulary learning
activities on the experimental group This is a
useful source of reference to teachers or
researchers of similar context
Acknowledgements The article is the scientific product of the basis-level project entitled “A study on designing vocabulary lessons on Quizlet and Edmodo” coded T2018-07-07 financially supported by TNU-University of Information and Communication Technology
REFERENCES
1 Division of Testing and Educational Quality Assurance – ICTU (2017), Summary report on academic results of academic year 2016 – 2017,
an internal used document
2 Fu J S (2013), “ICT in Education: A Critical Literature Review and Its Implications” International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT), 9(1), pp 112-125
3 Sevgi Şahin (2017), An innovative technique of teaching vocabulary: Quizlet, Retrieved from: http://www.slovakedu.com/products/an-innovative -technique-of-teaching-vocabulary-quizlet/
4 Gilbert Dizon (2016), “Action Research: Using Quizlet for Mobile Vocabulary Learning and Retention”, Proceedings of TESOL 2015 International Convention and English Language Expo, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, 26 – 28 March 2015
5 Christine Bauer-Ramazani (2015), “Research-Oriented Presentation: Action Research: Using Quizlet for Mobile Vocabulary Learning and Retention”, Recorded Presentation, 49th TESOL Convention and Exhibition, Toronto, Canada, March 26-29
6 Henry Foster (2009), “Building learner-generated vocabulary logs with Quizlet”, The Language Teacher, Vol 33.12, December
7 Tran Thi Phi et al (2016), “Application of quizlet.com to teaching and learning Business English vocabulary at the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh city”, 7th Annual International Conference on TESOL: Innovations
in English Language Teaching and Learning – SEAMEO RETRAC http://www.vnseameo.org/ TESOLConference2016/materials/192.pdf
8 Duong Thi Hong An et al (2016), “Triển khai thí điểm hệ thống phần mềm hỗ trợ giảng dạy, ôn luyện và tự đánh giá tiếng Anh cho sinh viên không chuyên trường Đại học Công nghệ thông tin
& Truyền thông – Đại học Thái Nguyên”, Tạp chí thiết bị giáo dục, Tập 132, tháng 8-2016, tr 57-59
Trang 6TÓM TẮT
NGHIÊN CỨU THIẾT KẾ CÁC BÀI HỌC TỪ VỰNG
DỰA TRÊN ỨNG DỤNG WEB QUIZLET VÀ EDMODO
Trần Minh Thành1*, Nguyễn Thị Bích Ngọc2, Nguyễn Thùy Linh1
Trong việc học tập tiếng Anh như là ngôn ngữ thứ 2, học từ vựng tiếng Anh thành công là một phần thiết yếu để thụ đắc tiếng Anh Tuy nhiên, tại trường Đại học Công nghệ Thông tin và Truyền thông, việc dạy và học từ vựng tiếng Anh hiện tại đạt được ít thành công vì mô hình học tập trực tiếp (face-to-face) truyền thống và một số hạn chế liên quan tới số lượng sinh viên trong lớp học lớn, áp lực hạn chế về thời gian, sự mất hứng học và năng lực của sinh viên Trong nghiên cứu này, chúng tôi hướng dẫn một cách tỷ mỷ quá trình thiết kế các bài học từ vựng và luyện tập
từ vựng trên 02 ứng dụng web là Quizlet và Edmodo, và thực nghiệm những hoạt động học từ vựng này trên nhóm thực nghiệm Kết quả nghiên cứu thu thu thập được từ bài pre-test và post-test chỉ ra rằng sinh viên nhóm thực nghiệm có sự tiến bộ đáng kể hơn trong việc học từ vựng tiếng Anh hơn so với sinh viên không thuộc nhóm thực nghiệm Nghiên cứu này là nguồn tham khảo hữu ích cho những người đam mê giảng dạy và học tập từ vựng tiếng Anh nói riêng và đào tạo tiếng Anh nói chung
Từ khóa: Quizlet, Edmodo, học từ vựng, nghiên cứu thực nghiệm, từ vựng tiếng Anh
Ngày nhận bài: 22/8/2018; Ngày phản biện: 17/9/2018; Ngày duyệt đăng: 28/9/2018