VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES TRAN THI NINH THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VISUAL AIDS TO VOCABULARY LEARNING BY 10TM GRADERS IN LE QUY DON HIGH SCHOOL HAI PHONG của học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Lê Quý Đôn, Hải Phòng) M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Hanoi - 2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST - GRADUATE STUDIES TRAN THI NINH THE EFFECTIVENESS OF VISUAL AIDS TO VOCABULARY LEARNING BY 10”” GRADERS IN LE QUY DON HIGH SCHOOL, HAI PHONG học sinh lớp 10 trường THPT Lê Quý Đôn, Hải Phòng) M. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Nguyễn Bàng, M.A Hanoi - 2010 1V TABLE OF CONTENTS 5 @0. eureue ii ABSTRACT.
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Scope of the sfUdyy. Research que€S(IONS. Design of the sfudyy. ae 3 PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW.
Vocabulary and it roles in language learning. What students need to KNOW 2. Form: pronunciation and spelling.2 Meaning and Use in communICaf1OI.--::cc cv 221201 tt tt HH 7 1. Visual aids in teaching and learning vocabulary.
Definitions of visual ads. Classification of visual aids in term of the different media of visual aids 8 1. Classification of visual aids in term of significant difference of function 14 1n the teaching DFOC€SS. The effectiveness of visual aids in teaching and learning vocabulary.
15 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY. Research ques(IONS. The methods of the Study. 1 he gu egua 2.
Class obserVaf1OI. erae CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION. Situation amal ysis. The setting of the sfudy.
Learners and their background. Materials and facilities. Findings and discussions form survey QUeStIONNAILES. Survey questionnaire for StUAENS.
Survey questionnaire for teachetS. Data from the class obs€rVafiOI.1 xe CHAPTER IV: PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONG.:ccsssssssssnssssnssssnsstsnsstnsetnssisseissstesstestten PART C: CONCLUSION. Limitation of the Study. Suggestions for further sfudy.ccceihhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiriie REFERENCES APPENDICES.
ae PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale In a language, vocabulary plays a significant role. It helps people arrange ideas, prepare speeches to communicate with others etc. That vocabulary is of great importance to language is agreed by many researchers.
Rivers (1981: 462) emphasized : "Language is not dry bones. It is living growing entity, clothed in the flesh of words”. As a result, vocabulary learning is a means of mastering a foreign language. In teaching and learning English, it is the basis for learning other skills.
Despite the importance of vocabulary in helping learners of English improve their language competence, the question of how to teach and learn vocabulary effectively is always raised by both teachers and students. As beginners, the 10" graders at Le Quy Don high school often find it challenging to learn vocabulary, and a lot of questions about how to learn vocabulary in an effective way are raised. What students are wondering is always haunted in the teachers’ mind most of the time, which inspires them to find out suitable solution to vocabulary teaching and learning to satisfy their students’ needs. One of the most effective way to teach vocabulary is through visual aids.
Using visual aids to help students learn vocabulary is not the newly - arisen one. However, their effectiveness to students’ vocabulary learning worth considering by all teachers, because what students can see and touch will be perceived in their mind better than what they can hear only. Learning vocabulary through visual aids brings about good results. When a teacher uses visual aids, the students’ attention is more completely focused since visual aids provide one mechanism to direct and focus attention.
In addition, visual aids make a teacher more persuasive in teaching vocabulary then increase students’ understanding of the topic. The adage “A picture is worth a thousand words” is totally true because visual aids can help establish organization for presentation. In other words, one of the most effectiveness of visual aids is establishing the overall organization for the presentation; therefore, students look for order in everything they have experienced. However, up to now there have not been any studies on the effectiveness of visual aids in learning vocabulary.
All the above reasons are the motivation and the driving force for this study in which the use of visual aids and their effectiveness to 10” graders in Le Quy Don high school, Hai Phong will be investigated. It is hoped that this study will help those wanting to improve their vocabulary teaching find feasible ways to raise students’ interest in learning vocabulary. Aims of the study. The aims of the study are: - The students’ attitude toward visual aids.
- To investigate the effectiveness of visual aids to vocabulary learning by 10" graders in Le Quy don high school, Hai Phong. Significance of the study It is hoped that this study will be significant for both teachers and learners of English in terms of vocabulary teaching and learning. In addition, it would become a good source reference to those who concern vocabulary. Therefore, it is believed that this study will contribute to the development of English teaching and learning throughout the country.
Scope of the study Visual aids are really a large category which may be applied to teach all language skills such as: listening, reading, speaking and writing as well as other language components: vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, etc. However, since both limited time and experience the study could hardly cover all aspects. It, therefore, would focus on the effectiveness of visual aids to vocabulary learning by 10” graders at Le Quy Don high school, Hai Phong. Research questions The study was carried out to investigate the effectiveness of visual aids to vocabulary learning by 10" graders at Le Quy Don high school, Hai Phong, therefore, aimed at answering the following questions: 1.
Do you students like learning vocabulary through visual aids? 2. How effective are visual aids to students’ vocabulary learning ? 3. How much progress have students made in learning vocabulary with visual aids? 6. Design of the study The study is divided into three parts.
Part A: Introduction This part provides a general introduction of the study with the specific reference to the rationale, the aims, the methods, the significance and the design of the study. Part B: Development The development of the study consists of four chapters, as follows: Chapter one- “Literature Review”: Gives a brief view on motivation, the theoretical background of English vocabulary, the overall view of some visual aids and the effectiveness of visual aids in vocabulary lessons. Chapter two - “Methodology”: Gives an insight into the research methods to find out the answers to the research questions. Also, this chapter gives a brief view on the subjects and the procedures of the study.
Chapter three - “Finding and discussion”: Presents the data collected from the survey questionnaires, class observation and the discussion of these data Chapter four - Pedagogical implications: Suggests some solutions to vocabulary teaching and learning Part C: Conclusion This part presents a conclusion and review of the study ending with limitation of the study and suggestion for further research PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Vocabulary and it roles in language learning. Vocabulary in English is a large aspect. Therefore, it has been paid much attention to by many linguists.
However, there have been different definitions of vocabulary. Each linguist gives his/her own definition of vocabulary depending on the criteria that s/he considers the most important in terms of linguistics, semantics, lexicology, etc. Vocabulary is defined as words used by a particular language book. Ur (1996) defined vocabulary roughly as “the words we teach in the foreign language”.
However, she also accepted, “a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word”. Pyle and Algeo (1970: 96) also stated, “When most of us think about language we think first about words. It is true that the vocabulary is the focus of language. It is words that sounds and meanings interlock to allow us to communicate with one another, and it is word that we arrange together to make sentences, conversation and discourse of all kinds”.
These statements indicate that vocabulary is the total number of words of a language and it is an essential part of language. Therefore, it cannot be denied that vocabulary plays a significant role in language teaching and learning. Davies and Pearse (2000: 59) stated, “In communication, vocabulary is often more important than grammar. It is frustrating for intermediate learners when they discover they cannot communicate effectively because they do not know many of words they need”.
Supporting their points of view, Wilkins (1972: 111) emphasized that “Without grammar, very little can be conveyed. Without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed”. From researchers’ ideas, it shows a fact that non-native speaker needs vocabulary first in order to communicate. If a language was a house vocabulary would be as construction material to build up that house.
Thus, it is needless to say vocabulary is important or not In teaching and learning English, learning vocabulary is worth learners’ great attention. Vocabulary has not been a subject for students to learn lately but has been taught within lessons of reading, writing, speaking and listening. It is true that vocabulary knowledge contributes to reading success in other important ways that are perhaps less obvious. If a learner has a wide range of vocabulary, he/she can understand others easily; on the contrary, if his vocabulary is limited he /she will surely has difficulty in mastering English.
To sum up, knowing vocabulary of a language is a minimum self-requirement for those who want to learn a foreign language. What students need to know? According to Ur (1996) there are many aspects concerning words, which need to be taught. They are form, grammar, collocation, meaning and word formation. Davies and Pearse (2000: 60) also emphasized that: “the aspects of new vocabulary items that you may need to know about and learners may need to learn are similar to those of other new language items such as grammatical patterns or functional expressions.
Essentially, these aspects are meaning, use in communication, pronunciation and spelling, and grammar.” As mentioned above, learning a word means learning at least, its form, its meaning, and its use. Form: Pronunciation and spelling Ur (1996) stated, “The learner has to know what a word sounds like (its pronunciation) and what it looks like (its spelling). These are fairly obvious characteristics, and one or the other will be perceived by learners when encountering the item for the first time. In teaching, we need to make sure that both these aspects are accurately presented and learned”.
It means that in learning vocabulary, “students must learn how item is pronounced, and how it is written” (Davies and Pearse, 2000: 63). Therefore, this can be particularly problematic for learners of English because there is often no clear relation between pronunciation and spelling 1. Meaning and use in communication Another important aspect of vocabulary teaching and learning is the meaning. Ur (1996) indicated that the meaning of a word is primarily what it refers to in the real world, its denotation; this is often the sort of definition that is given in a dictionary.
For example, ‘dog’ denotes a kind of animal; more specifically, a common domestic carnivorous mammal; and both “dank” and ‘moist” mean slightly wet. A less obvious component of the meaning of an item is its connotation: the associations, or positive or negative feelings it evokes. This meaning may or may not be indicated in a dictionary. For instance, the word dog, as understood by most British people, has positive connotations of friendship and loyalty; whereas the equivalent in Arabic, as understood by most of the Arab countries has negative associations of dirty and inferiority.
The connotative meaning of a word is varied from context to another.