luận văn thạc sĩ sử dụng truyện tranh điện tử để cải thiện việc ghi nhớ và lưu giữ từ vựng cho học sinh tiểu học tại một trung tâm anh ngữ ninh bình​

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES LÊ THỊ QUYÊN USING ANIMATED E-STORIES TO IMPROVE PRIMARY STUDENTS’ V

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-

GRADUATE STUDIES

LÊ THỊ QUYÊN

USING ANIMATED E-STORIES TO IMPROVE PRIMARY STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY RETENTION AT AN ENGLISH

CENTER IN NINH BINH

(Sử dụng truyện tranh điện tử để cải thiện việc ghi nhớ và lưu giữ từ vựng

cho học sinh tiểu học tại một trung tâm Anh ngữ Ninh Bình)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01

Ha Noi- 2020

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-

GRADUATE STUDIES

LÊ THỊ QUYÊN

USING ANIMATED E-STORIES TO IMPROVE PRIMARY STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY RETENTION AT AN ENGLISH

CENTER IN NINH BINH

(Sử dụng truyện tranh điện tử để cải thiện việc ghi nhớ và lưu giữ từ vựng

cho học sinh tiểu học tại một trung tâm Anh ngữ Ninh Bình)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 8140231.01

Supervisor: Dr Mai Thi Loan

Ha Noi- 2020

I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report

entitled:“Using animated e-stories to improve primary students’ vocabulary retention at an English Center in Ninh Binh”submitted in partial fulfillment of

the requirements for the degree of Master in English Linguistics Except where thereference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without dueacknowledgement in the text of the thesis

First of all, I deeply appreciate my supervisor, Dr Mai Thi Loan due to herenlightening guidance, critical comments, invaluable suggestions and her providingvarious sources of references during the fulfillment of this minor thesis

My sincere thanks go to all the lecturers and the staff of the Faculty of PostGraduate at University of Languages and International Studies for their valuablelectures on which my minor thesis was laid the foundation

Additionally, I would like to offer my thanks to the students in class 3A, 3B

at Toeic Center who have actively participated in the research

Finally yet importantly, I am deeply grateful to my family for their greatsupport and assistance

The research aims at investigating the effectiveness of using animated stories to teach vocabulary to primary students On the basis of experimentalresearch, the two third-classes 3A, 3B who are learning English at Toeic centerparticipated in this research in the role of experimental group and control group.Data were collected throughteaching diaries, questionnaire and tests, then analyzedquantitatively and qualitatively Via results gathered from the questionnaire andteaching diaries, most of the students have positive attitudes towards the application

e-of animated e-stories in vocabulary lesson Learners are interested in participating inthe lessons actively and effectively through a wide range of activities andtechniques in teaching stages.In addition,the results of the tests andquestionnaireindicated that the experimental students achieved considerableprogress in their vocabulary retention after learning vocabulary through usinganimated e-stories.Moreover, from the findings, the researcher gives pedagogicalimplications to utilize the animated e-stories as an useful teaching tool, some ofwhich are selecting suitable animated e-stories, allocating time and frequency forusing animated e-stories, combining animated e-stories with other activities,designing exciting tasks and giving clear instructions

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Aim and objectives of the study 2

1.3 Research questions 2

1.4 Scope of the study 2

1.5 Method of the study 2

1.6 Significance of the study 3

1.7 Design of the study 3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Previous studies 5

2.2 Vocabulary in foreign language teaching 6

2.2.1 Vocabulary definition 6

2.2.2 Vocabulary retention

6 2.2.3 Vocabulary knowledge 7

2.2.4 Methods of teaching vocabulary 11

2.3 Young learners and language teaching 14

2.3.1 Definition of young learners 14

2.3.2 Characteristics of young learners 15

2.3.3 Teaching English to young learners 16

2.4 Animated e - stories as a teaching tool 17

2.4.1 Definition of animated e – stories 17

2.4.2 Criteria for animated e-stories selection 18

2.4.3 The benefits of animated e-stories in vocabulary teaching 18

2.5 Summary 21

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 22

3.1 Experimental Research 22

3.1.1 Definition of experimental research 22

3.1.2 Experimental research process 22

3.1.3 Experimental research designs 23

3.1.4 Rationale of using quasi-experimental method 24

3.2 Context of teaching and learning vocabulary at Toeic center 24

3.2.1 An overview of Toeic English center in Ninh Binh 24

3.2.2 An overview of the text book TIENG ANH 3 25

3.3 Participants 25

3.4 Data collection instruments 26

3.4.1 Teacher’s diaries 26

3.4.2 Questionnaire 27

3.4.3 Tests 28

3.5 Data collection procedure 28

3.6 Data analysis procedure 29

3.7 Summary 30

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 31

4.1 Analysis of the teacher’s diaries 31

4.2 Analysis of the questionnaire 35

4.2.1 Students’ opinions about vocabulary learning through animated e-stories 35

4.2.2 Students’ evaluation of their vocabulary retention after lessons using animated e-stories 36

4.2.3 Students’ reaction to the classroom atmosphere in vocabulary lesson using animated e-stories 37

4.2.4 Students’ opinions about the frequency of using animated e-stories in English lessons 37

4.2.5 Students’ preference of techniques in presenting new words 38

4.2.6 Students’ preference of activities in practicing new words through animated

e-stories 39

4.2.7 Students’ preference of activities in consolidating new words through animated e-stories 39

4.3 Analysis of tests 40

4.3.1.Comparison between pretest scores of experimental group and control group 40

4.3.2 Comparison between posttest scores of experimental and control group 41

4.3.3 Comparison between pretest and posttest scores of experimental group and control group 42

4.4 Summary 43

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 44

5.1 Recapitulation 44

5.2 Concluding remarks 45

5.3 Pedagogical implications 46

5.4 Limitations of the study and suggestion for further research 47

REFERENCES 49

APPENDICES I

APPENDIX 1A: TEACHING DIARIES I

APPENDIX 1B: CRITERIA FOR TEACHING DIARIES XIII

APPENDIX 2A:QUESTIONNAIRE (ENGLISH VERSION) XIV

APPENDIX 2B: QUESTIONNAIRE (VIETNAMESE VERSION) XVI

APPENDIX 3A: PRE-TEST XVIII APPENDIX 3B: POST-TEST XX APPENDIX 4: THE FORMULA OF MEAN, STANDARD DEVIATION AND MEDIAN XXIII APPENDIX 5:SAMPLE LESSON PLAN XXIX

APPENDIX 6A: PHIẾU ĐỒNG THUẬN THAM GIA NGHIÊN CỨU XXXV

APPENDIX 6B: PHIẾU ĐỒNG THUẬN THAM GIA NGHIÊN CỨU .XXXVI

LISTS OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 2.1: What is involved in knowing a word (Nation, 2001) 10Table 2.2: Kinds of vocabulary knowledge and the most effective kinds of learning(Nation, 2001) 11Table 3.1: Kinds of experimental research (Nunan,1992) 23Table 4.1: Students’ opinions about vocabulary learning through animated e-stories.35

Table 4.2: Students’ evaluation of their vocabulary retention after lessons usinganimated e-stories 36Table 4.3:Students’ preference of techniques in presenting new words 38Table 4.4: Students’ preference of activities in practicing new words throughanimated e-stories 39Table 4.5: Students’ preference of activities in consolidating new words throughanimated e-stories 39Table 4.6: Mean and standard deviation (Pre-test) 41Table 4.7: Descriptive statistics for the pretest and posttest scores of experimentalgroup and control group 42Figure 4.1: Students’ reaction to the classroom atmosphere in vocabulary lessonusing animated e-stories 37Figure 4.2: Students’ opinions about the frequency of using animated e-stories inEnglish lessons 38Figure 4.3: Results of the pretest scores of experimental group and control group 40Figure 4.4: Results of the posttest scores of experimental group and control group 41

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale of the study

To primary students,vocabulary is the first step to learn English.If adultlearners are able to cope with abstract ideas, young learners, in contrast, need veryconcrete vocabulary that connects with objects they can handle or see, according toCameron (2001:81) However, not only understanding the word meanings, theresearcher finds out that the 3rd graders at Toeic center get troubles in vocabularyretention Many students encounter difficulty in retaining new words that they havelearnt in previous lessons They find it harder to remember and recall vocabularyeffectively As a result, vocabulary lesson is boring and ineffective for moststudents

Some related studies which conducted in the Vietnamese context, haveprovided various methods of teaching vocabulary at primary schools Vu Thi ThanhTam (2013) investigated the using stories and dramas in teaching English to thethird grade students at Quan Tru primary school The research got the positive resultwhich could enhance students’ speaking and listening skills Vu Thi Xuan (2014)introduced the using of music and animated cartoons to teach English to primarystudents In this thesis, the writer investigated the use of animated cartoons to teachstudents vocabulary with the hope of giving them more pleasure and linkinglearners with learning activities It can be said that there has been no studyconcerned with using animated e-stories in vocabulary teaching and learning so far

Being aware of the key roles of vocabulary, knowing the problems that teachers andstudents encounter, and finding the gaps of previous studies that have not been exploredyet in Viet Nam context, the writer desired to find out solutions and decided to conduct thisresearch entitled “using animated e-stories to improve primary students’ vocabularyretention at an English center in Ninh Binh” Considering animated e-stories as amultimedia teaching tool due to its various pedagogical benefits, young children will

learn more effectively from presentations that include words combined with motionpictures and background sound, music than from words alone, according to Schnotzand Rasch (2005) The writer believed that the study’s results can change thesituation of her own teaching and students’ learning.

1.2 Aim and objectives of the study

This research aims at examining the effectiveness of using animated e-stories to teach vocabulary to the primary studentsat Toeic English center This overall aim can be achieved through the following objectives:

(1) To find out primary students’ attitudes towards learning vocabulary through animated e-stories

(2) To investigate the effectiveness of teaching vocabulary through using

(2) To what extent do animated e-stories affect students’ vocabulary retention?

1.4 Scope of the study

This study was conducted with the participation of fifty two 3rd grade students atToeic center to investigate the effectiveness of the use of animated e-stories onprimary students’ vocabulary retention Therefore, teaching vocabulary to students

in other grades and using other vocabulary strategies would be beyond the scope

1.5 Method of the study

The study was carried out in the experimental research The researchinstruments areteaching diaries, questionnaire and tests

Firstly, the pre-test was delivered to both experimental class (class 3A) and controlclass (class 3B) to check their vocabulary retaining from the previous lessons

Secondly, the experimental class was taught vocabulary through animated stories in five weeks Meanwhile, the control class was taught by using normal

e-textbook only In order to take a closer look into the students’ attitudes towardsanimated e-stories application and how animated e-stories were implemented in thevocabulary lesson, the researcher wrote the teaching diaries after each lesson inexperimental class.

After that, the questionnairewas carried out on the participants in experimentalgroup at the end of the course to get more information about the students’ attitudeand reactions towards learning vocabulary by the application of animated e-stories.The post-testwas administered to both experimental and control class tomeasure students’ vocabulary retention after the course

Finally, the data were collected, sorted and analyzed both quantitatively andqualitatively to obtain realistic results

1.6 Significance of the study

The writer hopes that this study may provide some insightsin both theoreticaland practical significance In term of the theory, the study contributes to the generaltheory of vocabulary and vocabulary retention improvement techniques to helppupils remember and recall vocabulary better and for a longer time Moreover,practically, this study may provide some guidelines to teach and enhance primarystudents’ vocabulary retention at an English center, Ninh Binh province Teacherscan drill and perform the new words to young learners basing on the advantages andpositive effectiveness of animated e-stories

1.7 Design of the study

This study is divided into five chapters:

Chapter 1 is the Introduction, presenting therationale of the study, the aim and

objectives, research questions, scope, method, significance as well as the design ofthe study

Chapter 2 is the Literature Review, giving a critical review of some previous

studies relating to the research problem, presenting theoretical background relating

to vocabulary knowledge and methods of teaching vocabulary, young learners andanimated e-stories in language teaching

Chapter 3 is the Methodology, reporting the context of the study which included

the description of the setting and the participants of the study Data collectioninstruments, data collection procedure and data analysis procedure are alsointroduced

Chapter 4 is the Data Analysis and Findings, describing the analysis of data in

detail, from which, the results of the research are revealed and discussed

Chapter 5 is the Conclusion, providingthe summary of the main issues and some

pedagogical implications The limitations as well as some suggestions for furtherstudy are also included

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Previous studies

There have been numerous researchers and educationalists carrying outstudies on the application of electronic documents Some of the studies will besummarized as below

Broemmel, Moran, and Wooten(2015) reported an experimental research onthe impact of animated electronic books on the vocabulary and languagedevelopment of preschool-aged children in two schools settings The data of thestudy came from a curriculum-based vocabulary measure, audio-taped bookretellings, observation and researcher’s notes The results from the study showedthat animated e-books could play an important role in helping a child developvocabulary and positively affecting the literacy development of young children.This study showed that animated e-books could be an effective way to teachvocabulary and to implement vocabulary instruction in the classroom However, thestudy only took place across three weeks Moreover, due to its brief duration, thesmall sample, findings could not be generalized to other settings

Korat and Shamir (2012) conducted a study that also involved using e-books

to help support children’s vocabulary The study had 288 Israeli children fromtwelve classes, six of which were pre-kindergarten classes and six of which werekindergarten classes Children in the study were randomly assigned to anintervention group and they read the e-books on the computer The children in thestudy only used the “read story with dictionary” mode, which means the story wasorally read to them and had a dictionary portion that provided explainations ofdifficult words for the children The words were pronounced, shown on the screenand supported with pictures The children’s vocabulary was tested before and afterthe reading target words However, the children were only asked the meanings ofsixteen words that came from e-books, without checking the spoken form and theuse of new words The results of the study showed that the children who were in theexperimental group and participated in the e-books advanced more significantly

than the children from the control group who were not exposed to the e-books Thestudy showed that the use of e-books had potential to support a child’s learning ofwords and e-books could be a tool that helped to build a child’s vocabulary.

The above studies presented different ways in which a teacher could teachvocabulary and the resources that could be used to help aid in the teaching ofvocabulary Moreover, the uses of animated e-books and electronic books weremore beneficial than static books for young children learning in second language.Their linguistic improvements increased considerably through multimedia books

Considering the research and studies in the Vietnamese context, there weresome related studies Vu Thi Xuan (2014) conducted an action research toinvestigate the effectiveness and primary students’ attitude towards using music andanimated cartoons to teach English By using questionnaires for 39 students as datacollection instruments, the results of the study showed that using animated cartoonswas a good technique to teach English effectively to young learners Althoughanimated cartoons could increase students’ motivation in learning English, theanimated cartoons could not give students activities that were necessary to practice

in the English lesson Therefore, the animated cartoons could not be separated fromthe textbook

Vu Thi Thanh Tam (2013) investigated the using stories and dramas inteaching English to the third grade students at Quan Tru primary school Her studyprovided primary teachers with techniques of using stories and dramas in teachingEnglish to improve primary students’ English speaking and listening skills Thetools for data gathering included two questionnaires, one for teachers, one forstudents, class observation and teacher journals The results of the study showedthat stories and dramas could be used to motivate students in learning English andenhance students’ speaking and listening skills However, the stories she used toteach the students were not related to the content of the textbook

2.2 Vocabulary in foreign language teaching

2.2.1 Vocabulary definition

Ur (1996: 60) states that a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single

word, a compound of two or three words such as post office, mother-in-law, and

multi-word idioms such as call it a day; like father, like son; or phrasal verbs : face up

to, look up; collocation like hot summer,….etc From his point of view, vocabulary can

be defined as lexical chunk In the same way, Linse and Nunan (2005: 121) definesthat vocabulary is the collection of words that an individual knows

According to Hiebert and Kamil (2005:3), vocabulary is the meaning ofwords for which we must master in using language.The set of words which wespeak or read orally, are called oral vocabulary Meanwhile, those words for which

we write or read silently, are considered as print vocabulary

In addition, Richards and Rennadya (2002: 255) definethat vocabulary isrelated to mastering all of skills in English learning: “Vocabulary is a corecomponent of language proficiency and provides much of the basis for how welllearners speak, listen, read and write”

From the above definitions, we can realize that vocabulary may be a singleword or a set of words which are used to communicate Learning English skills will

be more effective if students master vocabulary

2.2.2 Vocabulary retention

Many researchers have devoted to vocabulary retention In the OxfordAdvanced Learner’s Dictionary (2005: 1297), retention is defined as “an ability toremember things” or “the ability to retain facts and figures in memory”

Furthermore, Aminafshar and Mojavezi (2017) describe vocabulary retention

as the ability to remember and maintain the meaning of things after a period of time

In addition, there are three major processes constituting the retention of vocabulary,namely noticing, retrieving and using vocabulary creatively, according to Kersten(2010)

Of all these phases, vocabulary retention can be clarified as the storage ofvocabulary in the memory

2.2.3 Vocabulary knowledge

According to Miller and Gildea (1987), knowing a word does not simplymean being able to recognize what it looks and sounds like or being able to give theworld’s dictionary definition Knowing its dictionary definition is not the same as

knowing how to use the word correctly and understanding it when it is heard or seen

in various contexts Knowing vocabulary knowledge plays a remarkable role invocabulary teaching.Ur(1996: 60) offers a model for this understanding.There areseveral aspects of vocabulary which need to be taught: form (its pronunciation andspelling); grammar; collocation; aspects of meaning: (1) denotation, connotation,appropriateness (2) meaningrelationships, words formation

In term of form, Ur (1996: 60) writes that teachers should make sure thatboth pronunciation and spelling are accurately presented and learned Pronunciationrefers to what the word sounds like and spelling refers to what the word looks like

To pronounce correctly a word, learners have to know well about pronunciationrules and word stress

In the aspect of grammar, Ur (1996: 60) states: “the grammar of a new itemwill need to be taught if this is not obviously covered by general grammatical rules”.Learners should be provided with several grammar features of a word, includingsingular and plural forms, regularity and irregularity, transitiveness orintransitiveness, etc

Collocation is another piece of information about new item which teachershould teach to children, Ur (1996: 61) That is the combination of words which

should or should not use in given context, for example: “make an invitation” or

“give an order”, we use “make” and “give”, not other verbs.

In order to translate vocabulary into another language, aspects of meaningshould be taken into account: (1) denotation, connotation and appropriateness; (2)meaning relationship When teaching vocabulary, teachers should explain themeaning of words in common, or in relationship meaning.Ur (1996: 61) confirmsthat denotation meaning of a word primarily refers to the real meaning, this is oftenthe sort of definition that is given in the dictionary On the other hand, connotationmeaning of a word is a less obvious component of the meaning, beyond itsdenotative meaning.Connotation meaning is related to the attitudes of the languageusers For example: “a baby”: denotative meaning is [+human],[young],[male/female]; and connoted meaning as [innocent], [noisy] Moreover,

word appropriateness learning is useful for a learner to know how to use the word incommon, or relatively rare, or “taboo” in polite conversation, or tends to be used in

writing but not in speech, in formal or informal discourse, …etc For example, “I

haven’t got a clue” is synonymous in denotation with “I don’t know”, but “I haven’t got a clue” is used in writing whereas “I don’t know” is used in speech Besides,

teaching meaning relationship of words can be also useful to provide learner withknowledge about how the meaning of one item is related to the meaning of others,according toUr (1996: 62) Teachers should give antonyms, synonyms orhyponyms, super-ordinates to deepen students’ understanding of the new items,enhance students’ lexical capacity and long term retention Antonyms are the words

that mean opposite such as cold-hot, tall-short, etc Synonyms are the words that mean same or nearly the same meaning such as nice-beautiful, smart-intelligent,

etc Hyponyms are specific lexical items Super-ordinates are generic lexical items.

For example: Cook(=asuper-ordinates), boil/grill/toast/fry (=hyponyms) However,

teachers should not give the meaning relationship to students if they do not knowthat words before

Ur (1996: 62) emphasizes that “Vocabulary items, whether one word ormulti-word, can often be broken down into their components “bits” Exactly howthese bits are put together is another pieces of useful information” He suggests thatteacher should help learners understand how to make a new vocabulary item bycombining two words (two nouns, or a gerund and a noun; or a noun and a verb, or

adding prefix, suffixes), for examples: unimportant (= un+ important); helpless (=

help+ less); toothbrush (= tooth+brush), etc.

Nation (2001: 27) proposes three basic criteria of knowing a word in bothreceptive and productive dimensions The terms receptive and productive areapplied to vocabulary, the terms cover all the aspects of what is involved inknowing a word which involves form, meaning and use

Accordingly, the form of a word related to pronunciation (spoken form) andspelling (written form) and word parts that is made up of affixes and a stem, can beoccurred in other words, Nation (2001: 42-47) On the other hands, students notonly need to learn the form of a word, Nation (2001: 48) stresses on the word

meaning also and the ability to connect the two: “The strength of the connectionbetween the form and its meaning will determine how readily the learner canretrieve the meaning when seeing or hearing the word form when wishing to expressthe meaning” In the sense of use, Nation (2001: 55) documents that teachers shouldprovide learners with the understanding of grammatical function, collocations andconstraints on use According to his study, students need to know what part ofspeech it is and what grammatical patterns it can fit into so that learners can usewords in the right way He also finds that knowing a word involves knowing whatwords it typically occurs with which called collocation Finally, in the aspect ofconstraints on use, Nation (2001: 57-58) proposes that it may differ across culture orcan come from the way the word is translated into the first language or from thecontext in which the word is used For example: In Vietnam, to say hello to anyone,

they can ask “Where are you going?” or “what are you doing?” However, it is

less acceptable in English communication

Table 2.1: What is involved in knowing a word(Nation, 2001)

Aspect Component Receptive knowledge Productive knowledge

Written What does the word look How is the word written

recognizable in this needed to express the

Meaning Form and What meaning does this What word form can be

meaning?

Concepts What is included in this What items can the concept

associations What other words does What other words could

this make people think people use instead of this

Use Grammatical In what patterns does the In what patterns must

Collocations What words or types of What words of types of

words occur with this words must people use with

Constraint Where, when, and how Where, when, and how

on use often would people often can people use this(register, expect to meet this word? word?

frequency…)Nation (2001: 35) also provides a broad overview of word knowledge andthe most effective kinds of learning

According to Nation’s viewpoint, it is suitable to learn word form throughimplicit learning by giving learners repeated opportunities for this kind of learning

to occur Learning word meaning is presented through visual techniques orelaboration Grammar and collocation are most effective in implicit learningwhereas constraints on use are related to explicit learning, providing learners withthe frequency of the words, when or where certain words should be used

Table 2.2: Kinds of vocabulary knowledge and the most effective kinds of learning

(Nation, 2001)

Kinds of knowledge Kinds of learning Activities

involving noticing repeated reading

Meaning Strong explicit learning Depth of processing through

elaboration, deliberateinferencing

2.2.4 Methods of teaching vocabulary

According to Hatch and Brown (1995), there are numerous types ofapproaches, techniques, exercises and practice that can be used to teach vocabulary.However, teacher should decide what types would be best for their students andtheir circumstances Some major teaching methods are summarized as following

2.2.4.1 The Grammar – Translation Method

In the past, this method focuses on translating grammatical forms,memorizing vocabulary and learning rules It aims at providing the students with awide literacy vocabulary in written exercises Richards and Rodgers (1986: 3)mention that vocabulary selection is based solely on this reading text used, andwords are taught through bilingual word lists, dictionary, study and memorization

In a typical Grammar-Translation text, the grammar rules are illustrated, a list ofvocabulary items are presented with their equivalence, and translation exercises areprescribed Therefore, students taught following this method are generally good atgrammar, reading and translation skills, but they have a few skills oncommunication in the target languages Instead of learner-center focus, the studentsjust sit and learn passively

2.2.4.2 The Direct – Method

Stern (1983) asserts that the Direct Method focuses on communication andinstruction by using target language only, and by avoidance of the first language ortranslation Pronunciation correction and vocabulary are also emphasized throughlistening and speaking Beside the advantages, this method was perceived severaldrawbacks Richards and Rodges (1986: 10) argue that: “It required teachers whowere native speakers or who had native like fluency in the foreign language” Itmainly focused on the teacher skills instead of a textbook, and not all teachers wereproficient enough in the foreign language to meet the method requirement.However, the direct method is proved to be useful and successfulin teaching toyoung learners

2.2.4.3 The Audio – Lingual Method

This method focuses on ability of communication and oral proficiency.Vocabulary is limited and presented in dialogue, expression or basic structures.Students listen to teacher or tape recorder and then repeat Very little grammar isconveyed In the study of Richards and Rodges (1986: 52): “Dialogues are used forrepetition and memorization Correct pronunciation, stress, rhythm and intonationare emphasized” Moreover, learners have chance to listen and imitate to develop

oral skills However, students learn easily and forget fast, they feel embarrassed infacing the real context This shows that learners can copy easily, but they gain littleunderstanding in different contexts.

2.2.4.4 Communicative language teaching method (CLT)

The goal of this method is to develop procedure of teaching language skills(listening, speaking, reading and writing), and the communicative competence Inthe viewpoint of Richards and Renandya(2002:2), communicative languageteaching can be understood as a set of principles about goal of language teaching,how learners learn a language, the kind of classroom activities that best facilitatelearning and the roles of teachers and learners in classroom Communicative

language teaching makes use of real-life situations Harmer (2001: 85) statesthat

“activities in CLT typically involve students in real or realistic communication”withthe goal ofsuccessful achievement of the communicative tasks they are performingand without focusing onthe accuracy of the language Instead of focusing onrepetition and drills as in audio-lingual method, students are likely to encounter real-life and useful situations such as job interview, telephoning, asking information, etc;

or other activities such as role-play, picture strip to story, learning by teaching, etc.Lessons are theme-based, topics with target grammar are hidden in context.Teachers are in the roles of facilitators or monitors Students interact with eachother in pairs or in groups rather than just with teachers However, CLT focuses oncommunication and fluency too much and overlooks grammatical accuracy

2.2.4.5 Total physical Response method(TPR)

TPR is very popular with young learners as it aims at oral proficiency.Theydevelop listening skills, but they do not put pressure on young learners tospeak Teachers use TPR to introduce language in visual or in contextualized waysinvolving activity and movement Accordingly, children are acquired to respondphysically to spoken language Richards and Rodgers (1986: 88) state that most ofthe grammatical structures of target language and hundreds of vocabulary items can

be learnt from the skillful use of the imperative language by instructor As a result,

TPR deals with very beginning stage of learning.

Of the above teaching methods, animated e-stories in vocabulary teaching can beconsidered as the combination of the audio-lingual method and the communicativelanguage teaching method Animated e-storyis a kind of multimedia teaching.Multimodality refers to present the information through more than one modeincluding audio, visual, gestures By the application of animated e-stories invocabulary lessons, learners have opportunities to learn new language in thedifferent contexts

2.3 Young learners and language teaching

2.3.1 Definition of young learners

Teaching a foreign language required the teachers to recognize the languagelearning needs, the language competences and the differences among adult learners,teenagers and young learners By identifying the differences, teachers maycontribute their understanding oftype of instructional methods and materials to theteaching process accordingly

There are a lot of controversies on the exact age of young learners Scott&Ytreberg (2001:1) have their own classification which divided young learners intotwo main groups: The children aged 5-7 years are called level one, whilethose at theage of8-10 belong to level two

Philips (1993: 5) states that young learners mean the first children from thefirst year of formal schooling (five or six years old) to eleven or twelve years of age

It means that young learners consist of 5-12 years old Meanwhile, Cameron (2001:15) declares that young learners include children from seven to fourteen years old

In the viewpoint of Ersöz (2018) from Turkey, he indicates three classes or

groups of young learners: very young learners (age 3-6 years old), young learners(age 7-9 years old) and older/late young learners (age 10-12 years old)

Suyanto (2007: 15) comes into conclusion that young learners are primaryschool students aged 6 to 12 years They can be divided into two groups, the firstone is younger group (aged 6-8 years) and the second group is older group (aged 9-

12 years)

To summarize, it is complex to define precisely the age range for young

learners In this thesis, the researcher strong agrees and follows up the assumption

of children’s age between six and twelve according to Vietnamese primaryschoolingage range

2.3.2 Characteristics of young learners

Scott and Ytreberg (1990: 1-5) state that the age group is based not only ongeneral characteristics but also language development ofyounglearners We find thatalmost all of the typical characteristics of young learners in the study of Slatterlyand Willis (2001:4-5)as following:

 Be learn through seeing, listening, copying and doing

 Be unable to understand an explanation of grammar rules

 Be likely to understand the meaning partly through non-verbal

communication activities

 Love playing and using their own imagination

 Attend in short span, so changes needs

 Enjoy repetition of activities

 Develop independent thinking

 Understand between reality and imagination

 Know to organize the best to implement any activity

 Work with others and learn from others

In that way of thinking, Scott and Ytreberg(1990) also suppose younglearners learn by doing Therefore, they need opportunities for languagedevelopment through doing tasks and activities Children learn fast and forget fast.Hence, they need a lot of recycling for consolidation of recently learnt knowledge

Brewster et al (2002) and Brumfit et al (1991) also emphasize that younglearners need physical movement in the classroom due to their high levels ofenergy.It is important to teach them with methods and activities that leave place forphysical movement in the classroom Halliwell(1992) also supposes thatimagination and stories which involved in an element of fantasy, children can makesense of the real world

Generally, it can be concluded that the most important feature of younglearnersis that they learn and imitate through what they see and hear.Children learnvery easily but they forget very quickly Moreover, young learners are so energetic,and they have a short span of attention As a result, teachers should be aware ofthesecharacteristics of young learners when building their lesson plans and creatingactivities in language classes.

2.3.3 Teaching English to young learners

Teaching English to young learners is not only a process of transferring a newlanguage to children,but it also needs many considerations Cameron (2001)suggests some optimal conditions for helping learners to learn:

 Making learning English enjoyable and fun

 Not worrying about mistakes

 Encouraging and making sure children feel comfortable and not afraid to take part in

 Using a lot of gestures, action, pictures to demonstrate what you mean

 Talking a lot to them using English, especially about things they can see

 Playing games, sing songs, saying rhymes and chanting together

 Telling simple stories in English, using pictures and acting with differentvoices

 Planning lesson with varied activities, some quite, some noisy, some sitting, some standing and moving

On the other hand, young learners are good at exploiting the contextualclues for the comprehension and interpretation of new language To grasp meaning

in L1, children make use of a variety of sources including body language,intonation, facial expression, gesture, action, circumstances and the social contextitself (Brewster et al.2002) Teacher can make use of contextualization by usingmultimodality in teaching, especially, through animated e-stories watching, to drawthese skills of learners

Phillips (1993) states that environment, culture, sex, and experience reallyinfluence children’s maturity.Cameron (2001) offers another concept: “Teaching

language to children needs all the skills of the good primary teacher” They need to

be mastersin managing children and keeping them on the tasks in language teachingand learning Therefore, when teaching language to children, teachers have todeeply understand their children’s characteristics, their learning goals andmotivation

2.4 Animated e - stories as a teaching tool

2.4.1 Definition of animated e – stories

Nowadays, together with the emergence of electronic media, young childrenhave acquired, perceived and transformed knowledge through multimodality.Multimodality refers to present the information through more than one mode such

as visual (images, video, etc.), audio (music, sound, etc.); gestures (movements,facial expressions, etc.) Mode is a different wayto create meaning and finallyunderstand the world Multimodality in teaching application means multimodalteaching or applying multimedia to language teaching,and animated e-story is a kind

of multimedia teaching

Animated e-story is not a new term in the sense of language, however, there

is rare specific definition about it Animated e-story can be understood asastorybook in electronic version Bus and de Jong (2003) have underlined thecrucial definition that “electronic storybooks usually contain a combination offeatures such as animated pictures and background sound and music that dramatizethe text” Most books also include interactive hypermedia elements such asanimations that can be activated by the child with a mouse click or screen touch.These “hotspot” is not only primarily for entertainment but also certain featuressuch as a dictionary function with word definition can also provide useful on-demand help

Zucker et al (2009) have the same viewpoint thatelectronic storybookcontained oral narration or written text, and some forms of multimedia (e.g.,animations and visual effects, background music) and/or hypermedia interactivefeatures such as embedded images or activities

In short, animated e-storiesinclude pictorial information(animated visual

imagines, written text) and auditory information (sound, background music, oral text).

2.4.2 Criteria for animated e-stories selection

Regarding to the readability criteria, Smallwood (1988:66) recommends thatcriteria for the selecting children’s literature for language learners should includesimple language; limited use of metaphor and unfamiliar experiences; use of rhyme;unambiguous plot; realistic but simple dialogue; potential for reading aloud; brevity;and good illustrations.Therefore, the difficulty in the text, the number of new words

or the presentation, illustration affect to the learners in the learning process

Considering the suitability and flexibility, Lazar (1993: 206) states that the textshould be sufficiently challenging without being so difficult as to be demotivating

It should be within the student’s grasp, in term oflinguistic, intellectual, andemotional capacities The stories should be dynamic to use in learning process.Teacher should consider the students’ social knowledge, flexibility in content, rightlinguistic level for the right students Generally, stories selection plays an importantrole in teaching and learning

In addition, Steinbeck (2008) lists out the following criteria of using stories foryoung learners:

 Stories should be action oriented

 Stories should be personal (the use of familiar characters)

 Stories should allow for context extension

 Stories should use comprehensible input (the language that is at theright cognitive and linguistic level) so that the output is more structured

In conclusion, teacher should choose a story short enough to give the students

a feeling of achievement and self-confidence, the length of time is not over threeminutes If stories may provide psychological satisfaction elements, students will beencouraged to be great readers and learners

2.4.3 The benefits of animated e-stories in vocabulary teaching

For the successful using animated e-stories as a teaching tool, above all, it isessential for the teacher to know the benefits of animated e-stories in teaching

A considerable advantage of animated e-stories is maintaining learners’interest Ikhfi Imaniah (2017: 10) emphasizes that all teachers who teach English toyoung children face a big problem that is maintaining learners’ interest through thelessons One interesting and funny way of maintaining learners’ motivation andinterest is the use of stories Verhallen, Bus, anddeJong (2006) suppose that digitalpicture storybooksare also effective for making second language children aware ofgoals, intentions, motivations and feelings of story character Moreover, it obviouslyprovides many learning opportunities which students can explore and discover newrealms of knowledge Teachers should bring advantages of story and animationtogether with technology to build a strong learning foundation and learners’engagement and interest Young children will learn more effectively frompresentations that include words combined with motion pictures and backgroundsoundand music rather than from words alone Schnotz and Rasch (2005); Verhallen

et al (2006) give the ideas that children do not hear language, they see it too, theyhave a chance to be aware of language structure, language in context, and practice

in a lot of activities in other skills As a result, learners will increase interest at thesame time

Furthermore, the second advantage of animated e-stories is facilitatinglearners’ understanding.Teachers mayuse animated e-stories to teach and explaincomplicated concepts to facilitate learners’ understanding of the vocabulary in thecontext I strongly agree with the viewpoint of Schnotz and Rasch (2005) thatanimated e-stories include both animated visual images and auditory information(background sound and nonverbal music) Background sound may enrich nonverbalcoding, concretize scenes and words’ meanings Nonverbal music is used to supportthe content comprehension or illustrate the character’s moods(fear, sadness,happiness) Paivio(1994) also have the same point of view that children are moresuccessful in understanding unfamiliar words and story meaning when the story isprocessed through both the visual and verbal channels Children have a chance to

match verbal information with corresponding images because they are presented atthe same time.

Besides, another benefit of animated e-stories is expanding and retainingvocabulary Hsieh, Wang and Lee (2011: 25-33) note that stories significantlyoutweigh traditional text books when it comes to the amount of vocabulary It ispossible that superior effects of animated e stories on vocabulary growth may beexplained because animated e stories are more effective in attracting children’sattention than static story by listening a story after a few repetitions On the otherhand, Elley (1989: 174) holds that thanks to the repetition feature, children gainvocabulary incidentally This happens when young learners listen or watch the storyand memorize those keywords and apply to daily conversation As a result,children’s vocabulary repertoire can be expanded and grown up Mayer (2012)shares his comment in the study that stronger connections between spoken wordsand phrase with relevant parts of the illustrations and other nonverbal information(music and sound) can result in more effective memory traces Although nonverbalinformation does not “use up” the capacity of storing language in short-termmemory, it enables children to figure out the meaning of unknown words and storethose in long term memory

Last but not least, the obvious advantage of animated e-stories is creatingnatural learning environment for learners Ellis and Brewster (1991) confirm thatstories bring an intimate and memorable atmosphere which assists teachers inreviewing vocabulary for children By learning in natural atmosphere like listening

to native voice and native accentthrough animated e-stories, learners are immersed

in the foreign language environment Thisenhances children’s thinking and buildingtheir own speech naturally.Thenthey will grasp the vocabulary and the right way ofuse in different contexts By that way of learning, children will absorb thelanguagenaturally

In short, using animated e-stories with sense of teaching will createsuccessful teaching method to young learners Learners can keep interest to thelessons and easily extract meanings and deriving unknown words from contexts

Moreover, students learn more words thank to the repetition and the memorableatmostphere from animated e-stories.Due to various pedagogical benefitsofanimated e-story, it needs to be explored as a teaching tool in vocabulary lessons.

2.5 Summary

This chapter reviewed some previous researches and presented the theoreticaland conceptual framework of the study The first part clarified vocabulary in foreignlanguage teaching It included vocabulary definition, vocabulary knowledge andmethods of teaching vocabulary The second part presented definition andcharacteristics of young learners, teaching English to young learners The last partfocused on animated e-stories as a teaching tool It concerned about definition ofanimated e-stories, criteria for animated e-stories selection and the benefits ofanimated e-stories in vocabulary teaching

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Experimental Research

3.1.1 Definition of experimental research

According to Prasanna (2014), an experiment means modifying something in

a situation, then comparing an outcome to what existed without the modification

Nunan (1992:25) states that experiments are useful ways to explore thestrength of relationship between variables The variable doing the influence calledindependent variable Meanwhile a dependent variable is the one being unfluenced

by the independent variable

In the same viewpoint, Tanner (2018) proposes that experimental research is

a study that is undertaken in a controlled environment to trace cause-and-effectrelationships between defined variables

To summarize, experimental research is a useful research methodology forthose studies that aim at addressing to the causal relationship

3.1.2 Experimental research process

It is important to note that strict following processes and procedures canpromote research success Phakiti (2014: 45) mentions key experimental researchprocesses as following:

3.1.3 Experimental research designs

According to Nunan (1992: 41), there are three kinds of experimental

research: true-experiment, quasi-experiment and pre-experiment

Table 3.1: Kinds of experimental research, Nunan (1992: 41)

Assignments of subjects Random Not random Pilot study,

one-shot case study,one group study

True-experimental design: the sample groups must be assigned randomly

Random assignment is a requirement for true-experimental research design because

it enhances the internal validity of the study, according to Nunan (1992: 41)

Quasi-experimental design: This kind of research is classified under

experimental research The term quasi- is Latin for almost Allwright (1991: 41)

strongly confirms that quasi-experimntal method is carried out to test a hypothesis

about a cause and effect relationship Especially, classroom researchers use control

and experiment groups to test their hypothesis about the effects of implementing a

particular methodological treatment in language teaching In contrast to

true-experiment, we can not do random assignment in quasi-experimental study because

of many situations in language learning For example, there are intact classes that

can not be rearranged since the governing instituation may have a policy to put

students doing the same academic major together in one class, etc, according

toPhakiti (2014: 72)

Pre-experimental design: There is no randomization in a pre-experiment andthey do not include a control group Pre-experiment research is conducted in the

existing class Phakiti (2014: 60) states that this design is labeled as experimental

because it is not robust enough to draw conclusions about a causal-like relationship

or treatment effect There are most common pre-experimental designs are: pilot

study, one-shot case study, one group study

In short, the various designs have different strength and weakness The researchershould balance and base on the real situations to choose the best design In this study, theexperimenter chose and carried out the study in quasi-experiment method.

3.1.4 Rationale of using quasi-experimental method

Despite the advantage of the experimental method in the study which sets out

to investigate the correlation between the intervention and its outcome, Nunan(1992) points out that it is not always feasible to carry out a true-experiment This isbecause of the impossibility of randomly assigning subjects to experimental and thecontrol groups in many educational contexts Therefore, an experimental study isconducted in the intact classes, it is classified as quasi-experimental As this studywas conducted on the students in two classes which were assigned by the head-office of the center where the researcher was working, a quasi-experimental methodwas chosen and carried out

The quasi-experimental design was used in the study to explore the effect relationship between animated e-stories and the primary students’ vocabularyretention Therefore, the study was designed to investigate the relationship betweenthe independent variable (animated e-stories) and the dependent variable (thestudents’ vocabulary retention)

cause-The pretest and posttest were employed as a valid and reliable means for thestudy before and after the intervention The vocabulary test scores of both controland experimental groups were carefully analyzed and compared

3.2 Context of teaching and learning vocabulary at Toeic center

3.2.1 An overview of Toeic English center in Ninh Binh

The study is conducted at Toeic center which is located in Ninh Binh city,Ninh Binh province It is quite small with 12 classrooms, and 13 teachers (10Vietnamese teachers and 3 foreigner teachers) There are three main courses forlearners namely foundation course, communicative course, and IELTS/TOEICcourse The researcher is responsible for foundation course which is to equipstudents with general knowledge of four skills (listening, speaking, reading,writing), a system vocabulary and grammar followingthe Ministry of Education

Training program Most of the students register for this course in order to get thebetter marks at their class They are not usually good at grammar, vocabulary andtask skills Therefore, students are taught step by step in creative ways to strengthentheir abilities and help them overcome all English lessons in the textbook as well asthe term-tests, or period tests in their own classes.

In school year 2019-2020, there are 2 third-grade classes, followed by thefoundation course There are26 students in each class, the number of femalestudents is bigger than male students Most of them are not good at English subject,

so they usually get bad marks at school They have poor facilities at school Theyare seldom learnt with the support of technology These things seem to be a bigdisadvantage for learners and teachers as well Being aware of the problems andthese disadvantages, the researcher asked for permission of the principle from thecenter’s head-office, and the writer received the agreement to carry out theexperimental research in her own classes

3.2.2 An overview of the text book TIENG ANH 3

In Vietnam, from 2010, English has been an optional subject for primarystudents The initial textbook is TIENG ANH 3 which was published in 2010 by theMinistry of Education and Training (MOET)

The textbook TIENG ANH 3 is designed with the theme-based approach.There are four main themes: Me and My friends, Me and My school, Me and Myfamily , Me and the world around Each theme is divided into some topics or units.The aim of the textbook is communication ability To make content in the textbookmore effective and more interesting, the writer would like to employ the application

of animated e-stories together with technology in vocabulary lessonswith the hopethat learners’ vocabulary retention will be improved

3.3 Participants

The participants involved in this thesis study were 52 students from class 3Aand 3B Of 26 students in class 3A, there were 12 boys and 14 girls In class 3B,there were 15 girls and 11 boys These students have been studied English from

grade 1 All these participants were the students who had studied in grade 3 at Toeiccenter for three months The reason for choosing the 3rd grade students asparticipants of the study is that the writer directly taught them in class Moreover,new words in 3rd grade programme seem to be matched and suitable withvocabulary repertoire in the writer’s animated e-stories collections.

All the participants are divided into two groups, one is the experimentalgroup (class 3A) and the other is the control group (class 3B) Both groups receivedthe same classroom instruction, were taught vocabulary in the same textbook anddid the same tests For learning activities carried in the study, the experimentalgroup (class 3A) was taught vocabulary through the use of animated e-stories asspecial treatment In contrast, students in control group (class 3B) were taughtwithout treatment

3.4 Data collection instruments

3.4.1 Teacher’s diaries

In order to be more reliable in answering the research questions, the authorused teaching diaries as a reflective instrument for the research and personalprofessional development Elliott (1991) statesthat teaching diaries include

“observations, feelings, reactions, interpretations, reflections, hunches,explanations” of the students and the teachers Evidently, teaching diaries is aprocess of self-observation and self-evaluation.In this study, the researcher is theteacher of the course simultaneously By writing teaching diaries, the researchercould take a closer look by herselfinto what happened in the vocabulary lesson, howanimated e-stories were applied and how they affected the learner’s vocabularyretention and the way students reacted in these lessons Accordingly, the researchercould adjust teaching methods to effectively apply animated e-stories in thevocabulary lessons

In this present study, the researcher wrote diaries based on criteria whichadapted from British Council (2004): (1) Lesson objectives; (2) Teachingprocedure; (3)Teaching materials and activities; (4) Students’ participation; (5)Remarks (see APPENDIX 1A,1B) Totally, five teaching diaries were written after

five vocabulary lessons with the use of animated e-stories for the experimentalgroup Firstly, if the lesson objectives were achieved, the animated e-stories wereapplied effectively in English class Secondly, making a quick note about teachingprocedure, teaching material and activities, the researcher could take a look intohow animated e-stories were applied and combined with other techniques andactivities in the lesson Then the researcher had chance to analyze the learningprocess and identify learners’ attitude and participation Finally, remarks provideddata which lead to the pedagogical implications for teaching to utilize animated e-stories as the useful teaching tool.

To analyze the teaching diaries qualitatively, the researcher read carefullyand re-read for a number of times to identify common themes and the particularemerging from data Then the data was analyzed according to themes/categories

3.4.2 Questionnaire

The questionnaire was only administered to the students in the experimentalgroup at the end of the course in order to investigate the learners’ attitude towardsusing animated e-stories in vocabulary lessons, and to find out the extent ofeffectiveness of the new approach

Wisker (2007: 187) confirms that questionnaires are often used to gatherinformation about attitudes, behaviors, activities and responses to events Therefore,

in this study, questionnaire is used as one of the main means of data collection.Thepurpose of the questionnaireis to identify the students’ attitude towards the activitiesheld in the class in five weeks through animated e-stories.The results ofquestionnaire also can support the researcher in finding out the extent ofeffectiveness of the new approach After pilot-testing of questionnaire,mostly, thewriter hasused close-ended questions or multiple choice questions, due to thelimitation of young learners’ competence It is easier for young learners to give theirattitude and opinions rather than scaled-questions or open-ended questions.Students’ level of literacy must also be considered to design questions It needs to

be unambiguous and easy to answer Moreover, the writer uses Vietnamese version

to avoid misunderstanding from learners

The questionnairecontained nine questions The first six questions in thequestionnaire concerned about students’ opinions and reactions toward learningvocabulary through animated e-stories The rest three questions were to find out thestudents’ preference of the techniques and activities which were carried out in thevocabulary lessons (See appendix 2A, 2B).

3.4.3 Tests

In the study, the researcher uses tests as an objective instrument Thestudents’ scores on posttest will be compared with the students’ scores on pretestwith the same level in order to investigate the effectiveness of using animated e-stories in vocabulary teaching

To find out whether all the participants were at the similar level ofvocabulary repertoire before treatment in order to obtain the reliability for theresearch, a pretest was conducted in both experimental and control group After fiveweeks of treatment, the posttest was employed to assess their progression invocabulary retention Both tests had the same format and level of difficulty andwere taken equivalently from test bank about vocabulary at Toeic English center.Most of the vocabulary items in the tests were selected from the new lexical items inthe textbook and related to the contents of the topic that students learned in theclass.The pretest and posttest include three tasks Designing of the tests to evaluatetheir vocabulary retention based on Nation’s model about vocabulary knowledge:meaning, form, and use There are fifteen items in total each test The first task(0.75 point/1 item) is about checking the students’ vocabulary retention by looking

at the pictures and rewriting the new words The second task (0.75 point/1 item)requires students to look at the pictures, read and fill in the blank one suitable word.The third task (0.5 point/1 item) requires students to listen and tick the word orsentence pattern they hear The total mark in three tasks is ten points and allowancetime is fifteen minutes (See appendix 3A, 3B) The two groups were mixed inposttest, their ordinary numbers were mentioned instead of their names Their scoreswere marked by other teachers to assure the reliability of the research

3.5 Data collection procedure

The researcher carried out the following steps to collect the data from tests,

teaching diaries and questionnaire.

Firstly, to find out the participants’ levels of vocabulary repertoire beforetreatment in order to obtain the reliability for the research, a pretest was conducted

in both experimental group and control group in week 1

Secondly, from week 2-6, the researcher implemented the treatment Duringthe treatment, the experimental group (class 3A) was taught vocabulary through theuse of animated e-stories The researcher chose the animated e-stories from the

software: Monkeystories and from the website: Englishsingsing In contrast,

students in control group (class 3B) were taught without treatment During fiveweeks, the researcher used diaries to take note of the learning process and herstudents’ involvement and participation in each lesson Each diary strictly followed

up the criteria which were mentioned in the appendix 3A of the study

After that, the posttest was delivered to both experimental and control group.Basing on the test scores, their progression in vocabulary retention could beassessed after treatment

Finally, the students in the experimental group were asked to fill in thequestionnaire at week 8 to get their opinions of teaching vocabulary through the use

of animated e-stories Students were carefully introduced the aim of questionnaire inVietnamese Detailed instruction was given to the students so that they couldunderstand and choose suitable answers The students were allowed to do the tasks

on their own in order that they could give their own opinions which were notinfluenced by the other factors

The collected data was sorted, analyzed to draw out conclusion andimplications for further study

3.6 Data analysis procedure

The data was collected from the instruments: pre-test, teaching test and questionnaire

diaries,post-The data from teaching diaries were analyzed qualitatively according to thethemes/ categories in order to investigate the students’ opinions towards usinganimated e-stories in vocabulary lesson and how effectively animated e-stories were

applied in the experimental class.

The students’ responses from questionnaire were analyzed quantitatively bymeans of descriptive statistics focusing on the percentages The results ofquestionnaire were used to get the opinitions and attitude of the experimentalstudents about teaching vocabulary by using animated e-stories, and to find out theextent of effectiveness of the new approach

The participants’ test scores were analyzed by Microsoft Excel, mainlyfocusing on the mean, median, minimum, maximum and standard deviation to workout whether students in control class and experimental class could improve theirvocabulary retention after experimental period (See appendix 4 for the formula ofmean, median and standard deviation)

3.7 Summary

To sum up, in this chapter, the writer presented very briefly the description ofmethodology of the study, the context of teaching and learning at Toeic center.Besides,the research design including participants, data collection instruments(teaching diaries,questionnaire andtests), datacollection procedure and data analysisprocedure are also included

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

This chapter presented the data analysis and findings of the study The

collected results from teacher’s diaries and questionnaire are provided and discussedfirst Then the statistical results from pretest and posttest are presented one by one

4.1 Analysis of the teacher’s diaries

The teacher’s diaries provided more precise insights into how animated stories were implemented in the vocabulary lesson, helped the teacher to take acloser look at the students’ reflection in classroom In combination with the resultfrom the questionnaire, the researcher could find out the real result about students’attitude towards the application of animated e-stories in vocabulary teaching Theanalysis of teaching diaries indicated some dominant issues that were analyzedaccording to themes: (1) Lesson objectives; (2) Teaching procedure; (3) Teachingmaterials and activities; (4) students’ participation; (5)Remarks

e-Lesson objectives

As reported in the first teaching diary, the objective was set, the methodologywas selected However, the students failed in learning vocabulary due to lack of

activating activities: “learners found animated e-stories very interesting, but later,

they enjoyed without focusing on learning I should activate their prior knowledge such as brainstorming, chatting As the result, they appeared to be rather confused

in practicing activities I failed to get the objectives of this lesson” From the second

lesson, they got familiar with the application of animated e-stories in vocabulary

teaching Therefore, most of them worked better and lesson goals were achieved

Teaching procedure

Considering the lesson procedure, the researcher strictly followed 3 stagesofteaching model: presenting stage, practicing stage, revising stage The animated e-story was applied in some different stages of the lesson Because new words weretaught through other skills, the teacher spent about fifteen to twenty minutes onvocabulary teaching in each lesson All the vocabulary activities are considered asthe supplemental support to achieve the lesson aim and objectives