THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES –––––––––––––––––––––––––– NGUYEN THI LAN HUONG A STUDY ON USING VISUAL AIDS IN ENGLISH CLASSROOMS AT SOME HIGH SCHOOLS IN THAI NGUYEN (Một nghiên cứu về sử dụng giáo cụ trực quan trong lớp học Tiếng Anh tại một số trường THPT ở Thái Nguyên) M.A THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 Thai Nguyen, 2019 Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc.vn c THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ––––––––––––––––––––––– NGUYEN THI LAN HUONG A STUDY ON USING VISUAL AIDS IN ENGLISH CLASSROOMS AT SOME HIGH SCHOOLS IN THAI NGUYEN (Một nghiên cứu về sử dụng giáo cụ trực quan trong lớp học Tiếng Anh tại một số trường THPT ở Thái Nguyên) M.A THESIS (Application Orientation) Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201 Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Minh Loan, PhD. Thai Nguyen, 2019 Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc.vn c DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis represents my own work for the Degree of Master in English Linguistics at the Thai Nguyen University, and that it has not been previously submitted to this university or any other institution in application for admission to a degree, diploma or other qualifications. Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc.vn c ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to acknowledge the debt of gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Minh Loan for her helpful suggestions, invaluable critical feedback and encouragement in the writing of this study.
Without her guidance and help, this work would not have been completed. My sincere thanks go to all the staff at the School of Foreign Languages for giving me assistance and the lecturers who conducted the Master's course for providing me with valuable knowledge. I would also like to express my deep sense of gratitude to my colleagues and their students, whose participation in and dedication to the research remain invaluable. Without their precious support, the thesis would not have been shaped.
Finally, I would also like to express my thanks to my parents and my husband for their wholehearted encouragement and support during the time I focused on my thesis. Thai Nguyen, July 10th 2019 Nguyen Thi Lan Huong Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc.vn c ABSTRACT The study was carried out with an attempt to investigate the application of visual aids in English classrooms and teachers and students’ attitudes towards the use of this type of teaching aids. The subjects participating in the research were 18 English teachers and 240 EFL students at six high schools in Thai Nguyen province. Survey questionnaires and observation were the major data collection instruments.
The results of the study showed that teachers frequently used different kinds of visual aids in their lessons. Besides, both teachers and students had positive opinions towards the application of visual aids in the language classrooms. The study also summarized the problems that teachers encountered while using visual aids in their teaching practice and recommended on how to make effective use of the aids in language teaching. Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc.vn c TABLES OF CONTENTS DECLARATION.
iii TABLES OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF TABLES. vi LIST OF FIGURES. vii CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION.
Aims of the study. Scope and participants of the study. Significance of the study. Organization of the thesis.
2 CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW. Visual aids definitions. Classification of visual aids. Visual aids in language acquisition.
Usage of visual aids in approaches of language teaching. 11 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY. Subjects of the study. Data collection instruments.
Procedures of data collection. 15 Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc. Data analysis procedure. 17 CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS.
Findings from the observations. Findings from the questionnaire for teachers. Findings from the questionnaire for students. Research question 1: To what extent do teachers use visual aids in teaching English?.
Research question 2: What are teachers’ attitudes towards using visual aids in teaching English?. Research question 3: What are students’ attitudes towards using visual aids in teaching English?. 35 CHAPTER V: IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION. For school administrators.
Recommendations for further research. 50 Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc.vn c LIST OF TABLES Table 3. List of school, class and skill. Kinds of visual aids teachers used.
Types of visual aids used. Level of students’ interaction with visual aids. The circumstances when teachers made use of visual aids. The sources of visual aids used by teachers.
Teachers’ opinions on the frequency of each visual aid used. Students’ opinions on the frequency of each visual aid used. Students’ opinions on the benefits of visual aids. 31 Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc.vn c LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4.
Frequency of visual aid use by teachers. Teachers' opinions on the frequency of visual aids used. Teachers’ opinions on hindrances to the use of visual aids. Teachers’ opinions on the benefits from the use of visual aids.
Students' opinions on the frequency of visual aids used by teachers. Students’ preference regarding of types of visual aids used. 30 Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc.vn c CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION This chapter mentions the background and rationale to conduct the study, states the aims, scope, and organization of the graduation thesis. Rationale Visual aids are powerful tools that can be used to help teachers in the foreign language teaching process (Pateşan, M.
In Vietnamese context, visual aids are becoming more and more popular among teachers in schools, especially high schools where students are under the pressure of studying a variety number of subjects and often ignore the importance of studying English in the modern life. Visual aids offer many advantages (Vale & Freunteun, 1995; Meredith, 1947). Up to now, there are many studies conducted to examine the effectiveness of visual aids; nevertheless, these studies focused mainly on the outcomes of the application as well as the impacts of visual aid use in the teaching of on individual skill and paid little attention to the level of visual aids application and the attitudes of both teachers and learners towards visual aids. In some high schools in Thai Nguyen, teachers especially English teachers have recognized the significance of visual aids; as a result, English teachers started to seek the ways to apply visual aids in their lessons in order to provide students with better learning condition.
However, it is noticable that how to apply visual aids effectively in teaching is not an easy question for every English teacher. It is worth noting that the instruction of applying visual aids has been provided in a limited way; therefore, different teachers have their own way of using visual aids. This fact revealed one of the certain problems in teaching and studying English at school. With the purpose of evaluating the application of visual aids in teaching English, the study examined the usage of visual aids at 6 different high schools in Thai Nguyen province.
From the outcome, the study analysed the application of visual aids and made some suggestions to improve the usage of visual aids in English teaching. Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc. Aims of the study The objective of this study was to examine the use of visual aids in English classrooms at six high schools in two different regions of Thai Nguyen province including the city center end the district areas. The study sought to answer the following questions: - To what extent do teachers use visual aids in teaching English? - What are the teachers’ attitudes towards using visual materials in teaching English? - What are students’ attitudes towards using visual aids in teaching English? 1.
Scope and participants of the study The study was conducted in 6 high schools in Thai Nguyen with 18 English teachers and 240 students who were all aged 17-18 and were in grade 11 at the time of the study. All the teachers applied visual aids in teaching English at classes in which the same curriculum designed by Ministry of Education was applied. The students learned with visual aids. Significance of the study The study drew a real picture on how and to what extent visual aids were applied by teachers in high schools in Thai Nguyen as well as gave an insight into how teachers and students’ perceived about their application.
This gave the school administrators some information about the problems their teachers faced and suggested the kind of support they should provide in order to motivate their teachers to use visual aids more frequently and appropriately to improve the teaching quality. The findings of the study also raised awareness of people related about the benefits and importance of visual aids in language teaching, helped teachers have some ideas on the feedback from students and understand their expectations to be able to choose more suitable visual aids to use in their classes. Organization of the thesis The graduation thesis consists of five chapters, organized as follows: Chapter I- Introduction. This chapter mentions the background and rationale to conduct the study, states the aims, scope, and organization of the graduation thesis.
Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc.vn c Chapter II- Literature Review. This chapter represents theoretical background knowledge related to the use of visual aids and a brief review of the previous studies on the field of knowledge investigated. Chapter III- Methodology. This chapter states the subjects of the study, research instruments, and data collection procedures employed.
Chapter IV- Findings and Discussions. This chapter analyzes and discusses the results collected from the classroom observation and survey questionnaires. Chapter V- Implications and Conclusion. This chapter summarizes the main points discussed in the previous parts, presents the limitations of the thesis and provides some suggestions for further research.
Số hóa bởi Trung tâm Học liệu và Công nghệ thông tin – ĐHTN http://lrc.vn c CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter represents theoretical background knowledge related to the use of visual aids and a brief review of the previous studies on the field of knowledge investigated. Visual aids definitions From the beginning of teaching and learning, visual aids acted as an assistance to help students in the studying process. There are various concepts and descriptions of visual aid introduced by different authors throughout the time. (1949) presented the definition of visual aids as any kinds of “drawing, illustration, model, motion picture, film strip” that are prepared or any device that will assist the learning process through the vision cognition.
In his point of view, Yi-Hsun Lai (2011) stated that visual aids played the role in both “stimulate students” and being tools of interaction with students in both past experience and everyday life experience. This statement paved the way for the understanding that visual aids would effectively help in the teaching and learning process and motivate students to participate in their experience. Babalola (2013) introduced one concept that is accepted immensely at the present time which defines visual aids as any types of educational media or aids carrying information used to encourage the effective teaching and learning process, therefore it can be understood as a means to support the teaching process to help students achieve higher performance. It is worth noticing that each scholar at their time had their own definition of visual aids.