BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY LE THI TRANG THE EFFECTS OF INTERACTIVE WEB-BASED ASSIGNMENTS ON STUDENTS LEARNING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE AT NGUYEN TRAI HIGH SCHOOL MAJOR: M. IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE MAJOR CODE: 8220201 MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE BINH DUONG PROVINCE, 2022 BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY LE THI TRANG THE EFFECTS OF INTERACTIVE WEB-BASED ASSIGNMENTS ON STUDENTS LEARNING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE AT NGUYEN TRAI HIGH SCHOOL MAJOR: M. IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE MAJOR CODE: 8220201 MASTER THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE SUPERVISED BY NGUYEN HUU THE, Ph. -------------------------------- BINH DUONG PROVINCE, 2022 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my whole-hearted gratitude to those who have supported me to complete my research on time because without their valuable guidance, support, and assistance, this research would not have been able to be completed on time.
First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Nguyen Huu The, my supervisor, for having the patience to reread my thesis drafts repeatedly. He also provided extensive and accurate comments on my entire thesis under his professional guidance. Additionally, he constantly gives me encouraging words to put the most recent studies into practice.
Without his unwavering assistance, I could not manage to complete my thesis on time. Secondly, my special thanks go to the school administrators of Nguyen Trai High School and my colleagues working here. They provided me with helpful guidance and a great deal of support while I worked to complete my thesis. Thirdly, I want to convey my appreciation to the student participants who gave their time to filling out my questionnaires and participating in the interviews.
I was able to complete my thesis because of their engaged participation in my lessons. Last but not least, I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to my husband and my beloved parents, who never fail to show me unconditional love, support, and understanding. Without them, I would have been unable to get over the challenges I faced when finishing my thesis. i STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY I hereby certify that the minor thesis entitled “THE EFFECTS OF INTERACTIVE WEB-BASED ASSIGNMENTS ON STUDENTS LEARNING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE AT NGUYEN TRAI HIGH SCHOOL” is the result of my own work.
This minor thesis has never previously been submitted to or approved for consideration for any degree at any institution. Thu Dau Mot City, October 4th , 2022 Le Thi Trang ii TABLES OF CONTENT Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. i STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY. ii TABLES OF CONTENT.
iii LIST OF TABLES. vi LIST OF FIGURES. viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Background to the study.
Aim(s) of the study. Significance of the study. Scope of the study. Definitions of key terms.
5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Interactions in e-learning. Web-based learning and teaching. Interactive web-based apps.
Benefits of online learning. Challenges of online learning. Vocabulary and strategies. Teaching vocabulary strategies with Google Forms and Kahoot! Application.
Review of previous studies. Conceptual framework of the study. Research questions and Hypotheses. Setting and sample data.
The pre questionaire. The post questionnaire. 36 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. Analysis of data.
Analysis of data from questionnaires. Discussion of results Findings. Research question 1: How do the interactive web-based assignments improve students’ vocabulary ability?. Research question 2: How do the interactive web-based assignments impact on students’ motivation in learning English?.
Pedagogical Implications and suggestions. Limitation of the study. Recommendation for further study. 79 APPENDIX B - INTERVIEW’S QUESTIONS.
95 APPENDIX E – TEST RESULTS. 97 v LIST OF TABLES Table 4. The use of Google Forms and Kahoot! in teaching vocabulary. Students’ perceptions in the control group on vocabulary ability development through the use Google Forms and Kahoot!.
Students’ perceptions in the experimental group on vocabulary ability development through the use Google Forms and Kahoot!. 433 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2. Gender percentage of students. Years of learning English.
Students perceived their vocabulary ability. The frequency of teacher applying technology in class. The frequency of teachers using Google Forms and Kahoot! to give tasks in class or at home. Students’ perceptions in the control group on motivation in learning English through Google Forms and Kahoot!.
Students’ perceptions in the experimental group on motivation in learning English through Google Forms and Kahoot!. Statistics in pretest of Control group and Experimental group. Posttest total result in terms of Mean, Median, and Mode. Comparison of pretest and posttest experimental group’s results.
488 vii ABSTRACT This research was carried out to investigate the effects of interactive web- based assignments on EFL students. The researcher used Google Forms and Kahoot! applications to design vocabulary assignments to detect how these types of assignments influence on students’ vocabulary development and motivation in learning vocabulary at Nguyen Trai high school. The research was conducted in 5 months over 84 students divided into control group and experimental group. Prequestionnaire and postquestionnaire, pretest and posttest, interview were employed to collect the data.
Data results revealed that students were developed their vocabulary ability and motivation in learning English through interactive web-based assignments. Besides, the combination of these apps helped improving their technology skills, which has been one of the key components of the Project 2022 curriculum for English learning and teaching. Some suggestions were proposed to limit major problems occurring while applying theses apps to make use of advantages in teaching English and for further subjects in future. Keywords: Kahhot! gamification, Google forms, web-based assessments, students' vocabulary, motivation.
viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Background to the study The fourth industrial revolution has been advancing the applications of computer and smartphone technology in all fields and education has no exception. According to Sabry & Baldwin (2003), web technology is rapidly being employed for learning engagement in educational institutions. As the potential benefits it brings for education, web-based courses and programs have progressively been focused on developing by many academic institutions, organizations, and companies all over the world.
Nam & Smith-Jackson (2007) stated that web-based learning teaching approach provides a new and broad range of teaching-learning experiences for teachers and students, including accessing information at any time and place, online presentation of information, interactive task-based activities, effective dissemination of information, and long-distance education, which may be difficult to achieve in traditional classrooms. Thanks to the tremendous advancements in communication and information technology over the last decade, education has undergone several significant changes. As a result, the transition from traditional educational methods to new ones based on e-learning programs was accompanied by a true transformation of the traditional form of education (i., teacher, student, and educational institution), transforming it into a more modernized process. Teachers should employ communication and information technology to manage a variety of educational activities that engage students in a variety of themes.
The primary goal of implementing this technology is to enhance the productivity of teachers and students in the learning and teaching process (Law & Lee, 2010). Hung, et al. (2012) conducted that boosting learners' desire to learn is critical in learning and teaching new knowledge and skills since it influences how they interact with the courses they are taking. Furthermore, high learning motivations may inspire students to continue studying even after they have completed their schooling.
Because of its enormous advancement, many software tools and systems exist that help teachers and students have better teaching experiences in the classroom. 1 On the other hand, in 21st-century classrooms, teaching and learning is more student-centered than teacher-centered. In the twenty-first century, students can learn at any time and from any location (Yáez-Aldecoa, Okada, & Palau, 2015). To adapt with the 4Cs (known as four critical learning and innovation capabilities for the twenty-first century), which are the critical thinking and problem solving, creativity, collaboration, and communication (Partnership for 21st Century Learning, 2019), Jennifer (2019) claimed that educators and administrators are actively exploring for innovative ways to educate children for the future along with the changing of technology at a quicker rate than ever before.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has been widespread around the globe affecting every sector, significantly education at all levels. According to UNESCO (2020), there have been nearly 1.6 billion students affected: 91.3% of the world’s student population as a result of the implemented nationwide closures of schools 188 countries. The sudden closures of schools, colleges and universities have disrupted the flow of learning and teaching activities, which makes online learning be considered as one of the best alternative selections to traditional learning. With the surpass in the variety of aspects, the global eLearning market is expected to reach $240 billion by 2022 (Erin Duffin, 2020).
According to Erin Duffin in Statista eLearning data, the global eLearning market is predicted to increase to approximately $240 billion by 2022. These figures are hardly surprising, given the explosive expansion of eLearning in recent years. Based on research trends, the digital education and eLearning industries had a total value of $46 billion in 2016 and are predicted to expand to $243 billion by 2022. It can be seen that web-based activities have been surpassed during online classes, which makes teachers and leaners have a brighter overview on applying web-based interactive activities in teaching and learning.
With the world approaching the post-pandemic age, the new period with optimism and renewed hope must be looked forward to. Thanks to vaccine, “the new normal state” was set up in Vietnam. However, is it possible to return to pre-pandemic normalcy state? According to some experts, the old normal was not normal because it 2 placed too much emphasis on one style of training or learning even when traditional classrooms taken again later, especially in assignments. Besides, according to the Vietnamese’s National foreign languages project 2020 by Ministry of Education and Training Vietnam, applying technology in teaching English is crucial.
The project 2020 is presently in its second phase, with the goal of having all high school graduates exit with a minimal CEFR level B1 in their selected foreign language(s) by 2020. A working committee of six Vietnamese educational professionals has been formed to examine the project's success to date and to guide it through the second phase, which currently runs until 2025. This project has already completed tasks such as building a new National Foreign Language Assessment Centre, developing a national six-level competency framework mapped to the Common European Framework (CEFR), implementing a new National Curriculum for English, and introducing English as a foreign language in schools three years sooner than before (starting in Grade 3 instead of Grade 6). With the aim at a vast segment of the Vietnamese community and try to handle the challenging problem of boosting language competency levels, the plans for Project 2020 (2017-2025) are large-scale and ambitious.
Access to online language learning resources is one of the following stages in the initiative for the National Foreign Language Resource Centre. Vocabulary is one of the essential linguistic competences, which is thought to be crucial for successful second- or foreign-language learning (Schmitt, N, 2000). However, during teaching English in EFL classes at Nguyen Trai high school, the researcher found that many students have had obstacles in remembering vocabulary, which has influenced them on other skills of English because vocabulary determines how well individuals communicate, listen, comprehend, and write (Richard, 2002). The researcher concurs with Khany and Khosravian (2014) that students who lack adequate vocabulary or word-learning skills suffer throughout their academic careers, which creates a vicious cycle of dissatisfaction and repeated failure.
The researcher has tried to help students in improving vocabulary ability and detected that using computers can give students 3 opportunity to increase their vocabulary (Schmidt, 2004; Yanguas, 2009; Zarei, & Mahmoodzadeh, 2014).