MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ---------- LUONG THI XUAN HONG A STUDY OF THE USE OF DIGITAL RESOURCES IN TEACHING VOCABULARY AT SOME PRIMARY SCHOOLS - HUE CITY 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 Languages HUE, 2018 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HUE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ------------ LUONG THI XUAN HONG A STUDY OF THE USE OF DIGITAL RESOURCES IN TEACHING VOCABULARY AT SOME PRIMARY SCHOOLS - HUE CITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 60. TRAN VAN PHUOC HUE, 2018 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƢỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ -------- LƢƠNG THỊ XUÂN HỒNG NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG NGUỒN TÀI LIỆU KĨ THUẬT SỐ ĐỂ DẠY TỪ VỰNG TẠI MỘT SỐ TRƢỜNG TIỂU HỌC Ở HUẾ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƢƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 60.11 NGƢỜI HƢỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: PGS. Trần Văn Phƣớc HUẾ, 2018 STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.
Signature Lƣơng Thị Xuân Hồng ABSTRACT On these days, the education of Vietnam focuses on the application of technology in teaching English, especially teaching English for young learners. Young learners are subjects that can acquire language naturally. When they have exposure to a language, they have the ability to imitate and repeat exactly. This research has been conducted to explore the issues on using digital resources in teaching English vocabulary at some primary schools in Hue city.
It investigates three major issues including: the teachers‘ perceptions toward the role of digital resources in learning vocabulary, the reality of using digital resources in teaching vocabulary for young learners and the limitations and suggestions of using digital resources in teaching vocabulary for young learners at some primary schools in Hue city. Based on both quantitative and qualitative approaches data collection by means of questionnaires, interview and classroom observation was conducted among eighteen teachers at primary schools in Hue participating. The research has shown that most teachers are fully aware of the definition of digital resources. All of them have agreed that using digital resources in teaching vocabulary for young learners brings many meaningful benefits.
However, they have met a few difficulties in using digital resources to teach. Despite the limited number of participants and schools in our study, which is regarded as an obstacle to expand this research in both scale and quality, the some solutions were suggested to deal with difficulties in using digital resources to teach vocabulary for young learners and the implications on using digital resources to teach vocabulary for primary schools in Hue city. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the ministry of education and training, Hue University of Foreign Languages that created the most favorable conditions for me to finish my training course. Moreover, I‘d like to say thanks to all of the teachers at the primary schools in Hue who provided me with the necessary knowledge to apply it in reality.
The largest measure of my thanks and appreciation must go to my supervisor, Assoc. Tran Van Phuoc, who always tries his best to help me fulfill my MA course successfully as well as not hesitate to spend much of his valuable time on instructing me devotedly during the last time. I want to say thanks to all members of my family who are always stay beside me and are willing to give me a helping hand when I‘m in need and encourage me during the course. It is the motivation that takes an important role in making my training course successful and memorable.
Luong Thi Xuan Hong TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS. iv LIST OF TABLES. vii LIST OF FIGURES .viii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION.
Rationale of the study. Purposes of the research …. Significance of the study. Scope of the research ….
Structure of the research. 4 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW. The young learners……. Definition of young learners.
The characteristics of young learners. Young learners‘ foreign language learning. The importance of learning vocabulary. Learning vocabulary of young learners.
Methods to teach vocabulary for young learners. Types of digital resources. Methods to teach vocabulary for young learners by using digital resources. The importance of digital resources in teaching and learning foreign languages.
The advantages of using digital resources. The disadvantages of using digital resources. 25 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY. Piloting the instruments.
Reliability and validity…. 31 CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. The teachers‘ perception toward the role of digital resources in learning vocabulary. The reality of using digital resource in teaching vocabulary for young learners at some primary schools.
The limitations and suggestions of using digital resources in teaching vocabulary for young learners at some primary schools. The advantages in using digital resources to teach vocabulary for young learners at some primary schools. Teachers‘ difficulties in using digital resources to teach vocabulary. Suggestions to use digital resources effectively in teaching English vocabulary.
Teachers‘ responses to using digital resources to teach vocabulary. 53 CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS. Implications for teachers. Implications for young learners.
Implications for administrators .3 Limitations of the study .4 Suggestions for further research. 65 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. The teachers‘ perception toward the role of digital resources in learning vocabulary ……………………………………………………………. The types of digital resources are used to teach at some primary schools in Hue city….
The language skills that digital resources are used to teach. The teacher‘s perception of purposes of using digital resource. The stage when visual aids are used to teach vocabulary. The percentage of vocabulary memorization of young learners when teachers use digital resources….
The advantages in using digital resources to teach vocabulary. Suggestions to use digital resources effectively in teaching English vocabulary… .50 LIST OF FIGURES Figure1. Digital resources can be used as a tool to teach foreign languages. The language aspects that digital resources can be used to teach.
Teachers‘ opinion about digital resources that are suitable for young learners in teaching. The frequency of using digital resources for teaching vocabulary. The effectiveness of using digital resources in teaching for young learners. The students‘ attitudes when teachers use digital resources.
Teachers‘ difficulties in using digital resources to teach vocabulary…. Teachers' perspectives on whether supporting the textbook or wholly replacing textbook through digital resources. 52 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study When people have thought about English, we have immediately taken into consideration to it as a global language, it is the official language of more than 53 countries and territories and English is the official language of the EU and the third language which is spoken by many people.
It is only after Chinese and Spanish. Especially, we know that English is used as the language of communication in nearly international events, global organizations or conferences, etc. In addition, Crystal (2003) says that English is spoken by more than 400 million people worldwide, with over one billion people using English as their second language. The nations have had the highest income, they use English fluently.
Besides, English is used as a subject in the schools. In Vietnam, a country is expanding the door of globalization and people have clearly seen the importance of learning English. Especially, young people who are the future generations of the country. Therefore, teaching and learning English are becoming more and more necessary.
The Vietnamese education system has given English in the circumstances as a compulsory subject at primary schools. At the elementary level, young learners begins to learn English. As a result it is very important for teachers to find effective ways to teach English effectively. Learning and teaching vocabulary (learning vocabulary means learning pronunciation) is one of the key elements that young learners need to be learnt and that teachers need to teach.54) said that ―vocabulary learning is at the heart of language learning and language use.
In fact, it is what makes the essence of a language. Without vocabularies, speakers cannot convey the meaning and communicate with each other in a particular language‖. Vocabulary is an important aspect in teaching language, as stated by Edward (1997, p.149), ―Vocabulary is one of the important factors in all language teaching; 1 students must continually learn words as they learn structure and as they practice sound system‖. This requires the teachers not only to have language ability but also know the effective teaching methods to engage the young learners in the lesson.
According to Elaine (2010), a psychologist who studies child language in the United States, says young learners should be exposed to English as soon as possible. In Elaine‘s opinion, the brain of young learners can absorb information around them quickly and acutely. In addition, the structure of the hearing and pronouncing organs of the young learners at this stage also makes young learners to imitate easily the different pronunciation. Furthermore, all of us understand that the young learners are at the young age.
Therefore, teaching English to the young learners is completely different from teaching English to the adults. The young learners have a tendency to change their feeling every minute and have difficulty in concentrating on the lesson for a long time. On the other hand, if the teacher promotes and selects a wide variety of interesting activities. The young learners are motivated appropriately and effectively, they will perform energetically in the lesson.
The teachers require to give a fascinating teaching method to draw their attention. Thus, it is important that from choosing the effective teaching method, the teachers can create attractive and active lessons in order that the young learners can perform their learning vocabulary pleasantly and positively. Nowadays, English teaching methods combined with digital resources, are being popularly applied. There are some researchers found out that applying technological resources in teaching can improve specifically vocabulary knowledge Mays (2008); Cohen & Cowen (2010).
This finding is consistent with the finding of Druin (2005:24) who found that children needed appropriate digital tools that afforded them access to the information they were seeking. Furthermore, Kouklatzidou and Gkountouma (2014) conducted the study about digital storytelling and videogames. What happened in a Greek classroom?, the findings of the study indicated that students had the motivation and enthusiasm to engage in active and pleasure learning through narrating their own story to create videogames. 2 Besides, students had the opportunity to participate and learn in an environment that used and applied technology.
Because of the above mentioned reason, the researcher has conducted “A study of the use of digital resources in teaching vocabulary at some primary schools - Hue city”. The study‘s purposes are to explore the teachers‘ perception toward the concept of digital resources in learning vocabulary, the advantages and disadvantages of using digital resources to teach vocabulary for young learners. In addition, the study can explore teachers‘ suggestions for improving the use of digital resources to teach vocabulary for young learners. Purposes of the research The main aim of this research is to investigate the teachers‘ perception toward the concept of digital resources in learning vocabulary.
Also, in order to investigate the reality of using digital resources in teaching vocabulary for young learners as well as the limitations and suggestions of using digital resources in teaching vocabulary for young learners at some primary schools in Hue city. Research questions The research tries to answer the following questions: 1.