MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY ------------------------ TRAN THI THU AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH STUDENTS’ VISUAL, AUDITORY, KINESTHETIC (VAK) LEARNING STYLE PROFILE IN STUDYING VOCABULARY AT BINH PHUOC JUNIOR COLLEGE OF EDUCATION MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Language HUE, 2019 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY ------------------------ TRAN THI THU AN INVESTIGATION INTO ENGLISH STUDENTS’ VISUAL, AUDITORY, KINESTHETIC (VAK) LEARNING STYLE PROFILE IN STUDYING VOCABULARY AT BINH PHUOC JUNIOR COLLEGE OF EDUCATION MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 8140111 SUPERVISOR: TRUONG VIEN, Assoc.Ed HUE, 2019 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ ------------------------ TRẦN THỊ THU NGHIÊN CỨU PHONG CÁCH HỌC LOẠI NHÌN, NGHE, VẬN ĐỘNG TRONG VIỆC HỌC TỪ VỰNG CỦA SINH VIÊN TIẾNG ANH TẠI TRƯỜNG CAO ĐẲNG SƯ PHẠM BÌNH PHƯỚC LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 8140111 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: PGS. TRƯƠNG VIÊN HUẾ, 2019 Statement of Original Authorship The work contained in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, my thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. Tran Thi Thu Date: …./2019 i ABSTRACT Identifying learners' style is EFL teachers' essential work in teaching English.
This paper aimed to investigate EFL students' vocabulary visual, auditory, kinesthetic (VAK) learning style. The teaching activities which supported students' vocabulary learning style at Binh Phuoc Junior College of Education were also examined. Instruments of the study included two questionnaires and an interview, which aimed to collect both quantitative and qualitative data for the research. The questionnaires were used to investigate the EFL students' VAK dominant learning style and the teachers' preferred activities.
A follow-up interview was conducted to gain in-depth ideas of the instructors to qualify the results found in the questionnaires. The participants consisted of 50 EFL students and 30 teachers of English. The results revealed that visual vocabulary learning style was the students' predominant style. However, there was a lack of using various visual vocabulary teaching activities to support visual learners.
Results concerning the gender of the participants in learning style and teachers' perception of dealing with learning style in English classroom were also presented. Pedagogical implications in teaching and learning English vocabulary were suggested at the end of the paper. Key words: VAK learning style, teaching activities, visual, auditory, kinesthetic, dominant. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to express my deep gratitude to Assoc.
Truong Vien, my research supervisor, for his patient guidance, enthusiastic encouragement and useful critiques of this research work. I wish to express my sincere thanks to Dr. Nguyen Thanh Phu, the principal of Binh Phuoc Junior College of Education for his encouragement and providing me with all the necessary facilities. I take this opportunity to thank the teachers of English at Binh Phuoc Junior College of Education for their support and their assistance with the collection of my data.
I am grateful to my family and my friends for their support and encouragement throughout my study. I also wish to thank the people who directly or indirectly lent their helping hand in this paper. iii TABLES OF CONTENTS Statement of Original Authorship. iii Tables of Content.
iv List of Tables. v List of Abbreviations. vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. 1 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.
Review of the theoretical background of VAK Learning Style Profile. The VAK Learning Style Profile. Types of VAK Learning Style Profile. Review of Related Studies.
9 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. Data Collecting Procedure. 21 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. Results from Students’ Questionnaires.
Results from Teachers’ Questionnaires. The comparison between learning style and teaching activities. Results from the Teachers’ Interviews. 45 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, LIMITATION AND RECOMMENDATION.
49 REFERENCES APPENDICES iv LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1: Visual vocabulary learning activities .2: Auditory vocabulary learning activities .3: Kinesthetic vocabulary learning activities…………………….4: Combination of vocabulary learning vocabulary activities…… .5: Comparing mean scores of clusters of the VAK vocabulary activities .6: Vocabulary learning activities .7: Results from the VAK vocabulary learning style of male and female.9: Teachers’ perception of dealing with L.S in English classroom .10: Visual vocabulary teaching activities .11: Auditory vocabulary teaching activities .12: Kinesthetic vocabulary teaching activities .13: The combination of VAK vocabulary teaching activities .14: Vocabulary teaching activities .15: Comparison between visual vocabulary L.S and visual vocabulary teaching activities .16: Comparison between auditory vocabulary L.S and auditory vocabulary teaching activities .17: Comparison between kinesthetic vocabulary L.S and kinesthetic vocabulary teaching activities .18: Comparison between the combination of VAK vocabulary L.S and the combination of VAK vocabulary teaching activities. 39 v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1. VAK: visual, auditory, kinesthetic 2. EFL: English as a Foreign Language 3.S: Learning style vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The teaching and learning of English have been continuously developed by policymakers, researchers, and educators as well as learners in ESL and EFL contexts.
There have been many methodologies implemented to satisfy the needs of learners and society in different periods. In other words, the success of the implementation of teaching methods is decided by learners. It is measured by the learners’ academic achievements and interest in their studies. As educators, we tend to concentrate on facilitating learners with compelling learning experiences perpetually.
Additionally, the diversities of students and teachers create dissimilarities of their learning styles and teaching styles. The learning style preferences indicate the approach which students like to get and handle the information in the learning process, whereas the teaching styles indicate the teachers’ view and chosen educational strategies (Ph’ng et al. Wooldridge (1995) featured that the diversity of students’ learning styles should not be neglected. The instructors must grasp students’ learning style preferences.
As a result, once students’ learning preferences are accommodated by the teachers; there will be positive feedback and better learning achievement (Naimie et al. Anderson (1995) reminded instructors of the need for mastering the students’ learning style preferences to foster teaching and learning process effectively. As explained by Song, Hannafin and Hill (2007), the teachers have enough ability and experience to identify and resolve students’ problem as well as design activities to promote students’ learning. Therefore, the teachers need to guarantee to bring to students opportunities and benefits from the teaching and learning process.
Understanding how an individual learns helps instructors know the whole students’ learning preferences; therefore, promote students’ learning (Zin et al. Like other subjects, students use different ways to learn English in general and English vocabulary in particular. Some students are visual learners; they like learning English vocabulary through pictures, graphs, maps or diagrams. Some other students are auditory learners; they learn vocabulary best by listening to the lectures or audios.
The kinesthetic learners enjoy doing while learning English vocabulary, for example: playing games, dancing or drawing. Therefore, different students have different styles of learning or each student may prefer 1 one, two or three styles according to their characteristics. To attain the desired goal of teaching, teachers need to master their students’ learning styles. It helps them implement appropriate methods according to learners’ style.
Consequently, students find learning vocabulary more exciting and motivating in the way they would like to learn. Teachers should also have the right combination of different methods as well as design stimulating activities to foster the students’ vocabulary. Using various teaching methods helps students have equal opportunities to reach knowledge and pursue their ultimate goals in their learning. Besides, the curriculum activities should be simultaneously incorporated into the students’ learning styles appropriately.
Therefore, the studying of English vocabulary becomes lively and absorbing. Objectives This study firstly aims to identify the learning styles of English students at Binh Phuoc Junior College of Education in studying English vocabulary based on the VAK learning style profile. Secondly, it is conducted to investigate the teachers’ vocabulary teaching activities to support students’ learning style at Binh Phuoc Junior College of Education. These results could be useful for the teachers at Binh Phuoc Junior College of Education to identify their students’ VAK learning style in studying vocabulary.
In addition, teachers could check whether their activities were appropriate for supporting the learners’ needs. Research Questions Based on the above objectives, this study was implemented to answer the following questions: What are the VAK learning styles of English students in studying English vocabulary at Binh Phuoc Junior College of Education? What are the EFL teachers’ vocabulary teaching activities to support students’ VAK learning style? 1. Scope of Research The research is conducted with the participant of the 50 EFL students and 7 EFL teachers at Binh Phuoc Junior College of Education in Dong Xoai city, Binh Phuoc province. In addition, 23 EFL teachers who have taught English at Binh Phuoc Junior College of Education are requested to fill in the questionnaire of vocabulary teaching activities.
Regarding its scope, the research emphasizes 2 identifying English students’ VAK learning style in studying English vocabulary and whether the vocabulary teaching activities support students’ learning style at Binh Phuoc Junior College of Education. Structure of the study The study comprises five chapters: Chapter 1- Introduction - has provided some background that leads to the research. The objectives, research questions and scope of research are also included in this chapter. Chapter 2 - Literature Review - will present theoretical background of the study and other related studies.
Chapter 3 - Research Methodology - will described the research methods employed in this study. Chapter 4 - Findings and Discussions - will present the data and discuss the results of the study. Chapter 5 - Conclusions and Implications – will summarize the findings and offer some pedagogical implications for both EFL teachers and students. In addition, the limitations of the study and recommendations for further research will be presented in this chapter.
3 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2. Review of the theoretical background of VAK Learning Style Profile 2. Learning Style To provide students with a comfortable and stimulating environment to study English, teachers are not only required to have good language competence but also care about their students’ desire. As students have various preferences for studying, addressing the dissimilarity of students’ learning styles is a crucial mission of EFL teachers.
Various definitions of an individual’s learning style have been conducted by many authors so far. Claxton and Ralston (1978), for instance, focused on sensory perception in which students use a steady way to stimulate the process of handling and responding to information. According to Della-Dora and Blanchard (1979, p22), learning style refers to an individual predominant way of managing data and experiences in various studying contexts. It can be seen that a particular preference for using means of learning was emphasized by many researchers.
Also, the process of dealing with information was highlighted in the personal learning style. Kolb (1984) defined learning style as a consequence of hereditary preparation, past experience integrating into the requests of the present condition to form personal directions. That gives differential accentuation to the four essential learning modes proposed in experiential learning theory. It can be seen from the above definition that the individual learning style is established through many factors.
First of all, the approach of language learning is likely influenced by the old teaching methodologies which they have experienced in the past. Secondly, learners need to adjust and select the most appropriate way of learning according to present conditions. Their requirement cannot go beyond the current status of the learning environment. Therefore, the proper orientation is developed basing on the experience, and it can be out of provided learning surroundings.