USING FLASHCARDS TO TEACH VOCABULARY IN a PRIMARY SCHOOL IN THANH HOA PROVINCE

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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VINH UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN THI BE

USING FLASHCARDS TO TEACH VOCABULARY IN A
PRIMARY SCHOOL IN THANH HOA PROVINCE

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)
Code: 60140111

MASTER ’S THESIS IN EDUCATION.

Supervisor : Assoc. Prof , Ngo Dinh Phuong

Vinh , 2017


STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP
I hereby acknowledge that this study is my own work. The data and
findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission, and have not
been published elsewhere.

Author
Nguyen Thi Be

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
For the accomplishment of this study, I have been fortunate to receive
a great deal of helpful assistance from many people.
First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my
supervisor, Assoc.Prof, Ngo Dinh Phuong for his valuable guidance, excellent
suggestions and critical feedback throughout the research.
In addition, I am greatly indebted to the students of the classes I
taught in order to experiment adaptation and gather information for my
survey questionnaire and interview.
I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to my friends, my
classmates, as well as my colleagues for their invaluable comments and
encouragement.
Last but not least, I am all too aware that despite all the advice and
assistance, I feel that the project is far from perfect; it is, therefore, my sole
responsibility for any inadequacies and shortcomings that the study may be
considered to have.
Vinh , 2017
Author
Nguyen Thi Be

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ABSTRACT
The student’s vocabulary mastery is still low because the student’s are
difficult in determining the meaning of words. Also, the students have
difficulties differentiating the form of speech: noun, verb, adjective and
adverb. Meanwhile, the implementation of flashcard learning technique is
important to help student’s vocabulary mastery. The aims of this classroom
action research are to know the process of learning vocabulary using

flashcards, and to know student’s vocabulary improvement of using
flashcards.
This research was conducted at Ly Tu Trong primary school in Thanh
Hoa city as the subjects of the research. This research consisted of 30
students of class 3B of Ly Tu Trong primary school.
The method used in this study was the experiment with questionnaire
survey and the interview. Vocabulary is central to English teaching and
learning. These days, many English have altered their teaching vocabulary
methods. They are focusing more on communicative approach instead of
grammar or translation one. However, in some areas, especially in the rural,
students have still experienced the old teaching methods which leads to the
act that student feel bored with learning English. For examples, as teaching
and learning vocabulary reading and vocabulary, teacher lists the words on
the blackboard and translates into Vietnamese; students rewrite on paper
and then try to learn by heart. This method causes a situation where
students lack interest in learning vocabulary. Therefore, there is a need to
enhance students’ motivation in learning vocabulary.

Being aware of the

importance vocabulary, the researcher chooses the topic “Using flashcards in
teaching vocabulary in a primary school in Thanh Hoa province . With this
topic, the researcher would like to examine the current situation of teaching

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and learning vocabulary in at a high school and find out the benefits of
flashcards in teaching and learning vocabulary.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

LIST OF TABLES
Page

5


LIST OF FIGURES
Page

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
Vocabulary is generally the total number of words that exist in a particular
language. More specifically, it functions as the foundation without which any
language is impossible to exist in this world. Learning a foreign language,
especially English as a language of international communication throughout the
world, has now become essential to grasp the opportunity to reach information.
Learning English vocabulary at an early age is the fundamental step to learn
English. It stands to reason, as stated by (Edward, 1997) in his book that
vocabulary is one of the important factors in all language teaching and learners
must continually be learning words as they learn structure and as they practice
sound system. Hence, English vocabulary is now introduced to learners from an
early education. Thus without vocabulary communication in a second or
foreign language is not possible in a meaningful way. Using visual techniques
have become effective ways in teaching vocabulary. Flashcards is a common
way that teachers use in vocabulary lessons.
1.1. Rationale of the study

It is obvious that English is one of the most popular languages in the
world. It is clear that English has become more and more dominant around
the world. Nowadays , in some countries English is used as the mother
tongue and other countries , as a second language in school.
Vocabulary represents one of most important skills necessary for
teaching and learning a foreign language. It is the basis for the development
of all the other skills: reading comprehension, listening comprehension,
speaking, writing, spelling and pronunciation. Vocabulary is the main tool for
the students in their attempt to use English effectively. It is true that the
vocabulary is the focus of language. It is in words that sound and meaning
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. Besides, vocabulary really plays an important role because it appears
in every language skill. Obviously, vocabulary is really important in any
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language learning. However, it is not easy to study perfect English
vocabulary. Almost students often face up with some problems in learning
vocabulary at first, especially primary students. In fact, it is difficult to
memorize a new word with its meaning, spelling and pronunciation, many
primary students are often confused with knowing how they can apply
grammar into sentences, sometimes, they can not understand when being
opposed to video and audio. Moreover, techniques to teach English in
primary schools is traditional with similar activities days by days, which
makes students become fed up with learning English. Therefore, interesting
techniques to teach English are necessary to help students learn English
vocabulary better, they also attract students’ interest on English. From the
above reasons, I have the ambition of presenting some effective suggestions
to teach English vocabulary in primary schools with hope that students will

be interested in learning English. Due to my English knowledge limitation
and the frame of this thesis , I would like to choose the research title: “
using flashcards to teach vocabulary in primary school in Thanh Hoa ”.
1.2. Aims of the study
My research is to provide some suggested techniques in teaching
English vocabulary in primary school to make students more interested in
the lesson as well as to master learned knowledge of that lesson in an
effective way.
1. Find out the effectiveness of learning vocabulary using flashcards.
2. Determine the students’ attitude towards the use of flashcards.
3. Determine the teachers’ attitude towards the use of flashcards.
1.3 Scope of the study
In fact, there are lots of various techniques to teach English
vocabulary for primary students. It requires much time and effort.
Furthermore,

English

vocabulary

includes

meaning,

grammar,

pronunciation, and spelling. This research focuses on the effects of using
flashcards on teaching vocabulary. The study is to measure students’ ability
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of remembering word meaning, word spelling and word pronunciation when
using flashcards. Other aspect of vocabulary such as: grammar, collocation ...
were not taken into consideration in the research. The course book which
the researcher used in the experimental course was 3rd

Grade English

Textbook, published by Viet Nam Education Publishing House. The study
was conducted among secondary students who were 8 years old. They were
in grade 3.
1.4 Methods of the study
A lot of methods have been applied to complete this thesis : Collected
references, books and websites related to teaching English and document
were analyzed in details to form the theoretical background of this thesis . A
survey questionnaire and the interview were conducted for primary
students at some schools in Thanh Hoa with a point of view to find out their
recognition, attitudes, evaluation of the matter and the difficulties they
encounter as well as what activities they like doing in one lesson.
1.5 Design of the study
The study is divided into five chapters: Introduction, Theoretical
Background, Methodology , Results and Findings and Conclusion.
Chapter 1, Introduction, includes rationale for the study, the aims, methods,
scope, and design of the study. Chapter 2 comes the second, in which a
theoretical background was presented. Chapter 3, the study comes next with
the responsibility for specifying the factors for the researcher to collect and
process the study data. Chapter 4 consists of findings and discussion, in
which the data is described and discussed. Chapter 5 comes last. A
conclusion of the study, the limitations of the study, and suggestion for
further research are also mentioned in the last chapter.

1.6. Research question
Based on the delimitation the problems above, the researcher formulated
the problems in this research as follow:

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1. How does the use of flashcards affect the students vocabulary

acquisition ?

2. How does using flashcards motivate the primary student ?

CHAPTER 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
2.1 The Nature of Vocabulary
One thing that differentiates human from animals is verbal language or
speaking beside mind to think. Humans can communicate with others
through verbal language, either to apply or to receive the information the
animal can not do. When we observe a child first acquiring speech, we talk of
this progress as a matter of learning new words, we are also likely to feel
that the adult speaker with largest vocabulary has the best command of
English.
2.1.1. What is vocabulary?
There are many definitions about vocabulary. A vocabulary is defined
as "all the words known and used by a particular person" and “all the words
which exist in a particular language or subject” (Cambridge Advanced
Learners Dictionary). However, according to Sebastian Wren, Ph.D , the
words known and used by a particular person do not constituteall the words
a person is exposed to. By definition, a vocabulary includes the last two
categories of this list:

• Never encountered the word.
•Heard the word, but cannot define it.
•Recognize the word due to context or tone of voice
•Able to use the word but cannot clearly explain it.
•Fluent with the word – its use and definition.
Another definition of vocabulary: vocabulary is knowledge of words
and word meanings. However, vocabulary is more complex than this
definition suggests. First, words come in two forms: oral and print. Oral

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vocabulary includes those words that we recognize and use in listening and
speaking . Print vocabulary includes those words that we recognize and use
in reading and writing. Second, word knowledge also comes in two forms,
receptive and productive. Receptive vocabulary includes words that we
recognize when we hear or see them. Productive vocabulary includes words
that we use when we speak or write. Receptive vocabulary is typically larger
than productive vocabulary, and may include many words to which we
assign some meaning, even if we don‟t know their full definitions and
connotations – or ever use them ourselves as we speak and write (Kamil &
Hiebert, in press).
Besides, according to Webster‟s Dictionary (1993 :327) “ Vocabulary is
a list or group of words and phrase, usually in alphabetical order”. In general,
vocabulary is a component of language that maintains all of information
about meaning and using word in language (Harimurti kridalaksana
1993:27).It is one of the important factors in learning English besides sound
system, grammar, and culture. A vocabulary usually grows and evolves with
age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and 18
acquiring knowledge. Therefore, a person's vocabulary is the set of words

they are familiar with in a language.
2.1.2. Types of vocabulary
According to Nation (2001), there are two kinds of vocabulary. They
are perceptive and productive vocabulary. Receptive vocabulary refers to the
words that native speakers and foreign learners recognize and understand
but hardly ever use, it is used passively in either listening or reading.
Productive vocabulary means that the students, which those are familiar,
produce the words well known and used frequently in writing a sentence or
essay and in speaking.
According to Montgomery (2007) vocabulary is divided into four types those
are listening vocabulary, speaking vocabulary, reading vocabulary, and

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writing vocabulary. It defines that vocabulary types from their usage during
teaching. Listening vocabulary is the words students hear and understand,
speaking vocabulary is the words used when they speak, reading vocabulary
is the words students understand when they read texts, through reading
many words can be read and can improve understanding, and writing
vocabulary is the words that
students use when they try to express.
Meanwhile, Grigg (2012) categorize the type of vocabulary into active and
passive vocabulary. Passive vocabulary means, a person knows about the
words when he is listening to others people or understand a reading text
means, while active vocabulary is the ability to a person to produce the
words both in speaking and writing. It is related to the person ability.
In contrast to Montgomery (2007), Wollacott (2013) stated that the four
types of vocabulary (listening vocabulary, speaking vocabulary, reading
vocabulary, and writing vocabulary) are summarized just in active and

passive vocabulary.
In general, vocabulary is divided into four types: reading vocabulary,
listening vocabulary, writing vocabulary and speaking vocabulary.
2.1.2.1 Reading vocabulary
Reading vocabulary is made up of the words in print that we
recognize or can figure out. A person's reading vocabulary is all the words he
or she can recognize when reading. This is the largest type of vocabulary
simply because it includes the other three. The extent of students‟
vocabulary knowledge relates strongly to their reading comprehension and
overall academic success . This relationship seems logical; to get meaning
from what they read, students need both a great many words in their
vocabularies and the ability to use various strategies to establish the
meanings of new words when they encounter them.

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2.1.2.2 Listening vocabulary
Listening vocabulary refers to the words we need to know to
understand what we hear. A person's listening vocabulary is all the words he
or she can recognize when listening to speech. This vocabulary is aided in
size by context and tone of voice.
2.1.2.3 Writing vocabulary
Writing vocabulary consists of the words we use in writing. A person's
writing vocabulary is all the words he or she can employ in writing. Contrary to
the previous two vocabulary types, the writing vocabulary is stimulated by its
user.
2.1.2.4 Speaking vocabulary
Speaking vocabulary consists of the words we use in everyday speech.
A person's speaking vocabulary is all the words he or she can use in speech.

Due to the spontaneous nature of the speaking vocabulary, words are often
misused. This misuse – though slight and unintentional – may be
compensated by facial expressions, tone of voice, or hand gestures. However,
according to Nation (1990:29), vocabulary is divided in the specific
reference, such a word.
2.1.3 Receptive vocabulary
Knowing a word involves being able to recognize it when it is heard
( what is the sound like?) or when it seen ( what does it look like?) and
having an expectation of what grammatical pattern the word will
occurrence. This includes being able to distinguish it from word with similar
form and being able to judge if the word form sound right or look right.
2.1.4 Productive vocabulary
Knowing a word involves being able to pronounce the word. How to
write and spell it, how to use it in grammatical pattern along with the word
in usually collocates with it, it also involves not using the word too often if it
typically a low frequency word and using it in a suitable situation using the

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word to stand for the meaning it represents and being able to think of
suitable substitutes for the word if there any.
2.1.5 The importance of vocabulary
It can be said that vocabulary is comprised of four things: listening,
writing, reading, and speaking. All four of these elements are used to make
up a larger structure that is called literacy. While literacy has been important
ever since humans first discovered writing, it has become much more
important in the information age. More than ever before, information has
been allowed to flow freely. While much of this information is not very
valuable, some of it can enhance your career, make you more productive, and

even save your life. Your vocabulary is the element that will determine your
cultural literacy. When many people think of vocabulary, they think of it as a
tedious learning process. However, it is very vital to your success in our
world of today. It is no longer enough to just know what is happening in your
neighborhood, city, or country. It is equally important for you to understand
what is happening on a global scale. Improving your vocabulary from an
early age will allow you to become informed. It will allow you to successfully
convey your ideas to others, and it can also improve your career outlook.
Having said that, it is important for parents to focus on improving the
education of their children from an early age.
In general, vocabulary plays an important role in the development of each
language, its importance is concluded in this list:
• An extensive vocabulary aids expressions and communication
• Vocabulary size has been directly linked to reading comprehension.
• Linguistic vocabulary is synonymous with thinking vocabulary
• A person may be judged by others based on his or her vocabulary
2.2 Psychological features of primary students
The growth of six, seven and eight-year-old-children is slow but
steady. They have gained control of their major muscles. Most children have

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a good sense of balance. They can stand on one foot and walk on a balance
beam. They enjoy performing physical tricks. They enjoy testing muscle
strength and skills. They like to skip, run, tumble, and dance to music. They
can catch small balls. They can manage buttons and zippers. They can learn
to tie their shoelaces. They can print their names. They can copy designs and
shapes including numbers and letters. They use utensils and tools correctly
with supervision. Older School-Age Children are very active with lots of

energy. Their fine motor and large motor skills have become much better.
2.2.1. Social and emotional development
They think of themselves more than others until about a seven or eight.
They play well in groups but may need some time to play alone. Many
children have a best friend and an enemy. They tend to prefer playmates of
the same sex. Children often tell on each other. This is done for two reasons:
to help them understand the rules and to get an adult's attention. They do
not like criticism or failure. It is best to have each child compete against
himself or herself not children. They can be helpful with small chores. They
have a strong need for love and attention from their parents. They are
beginning to care about the feelings and needs of others. They may enjoy
taking care of and playing with younger children. To them, "good" and "bad"
are what parents and teachers approve or disapprove of. They are starting to
develop a moral sense such as understanding honesty. They begin to develop
a sense of humor and may enjoy nonsense rhymes, songs, and riddles. They
become upset when their behavior or school work is criticized or ignored.
When children are nine or ten year old, they have a strong need to feel
accepted and worthwhile. They show their ability to be independent by
being disobedient, using back-talk and being rebellious. They prefer
individual achievements over competition. They like encouragement and
suggestions over competition. They still look to adults for approval. They
begin to take responsibility for their own actions. They like to join organized

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groups. They prefer to be with members of their own sex. They look up to
and imitate older youth. They are beginning to build and understand
friendship. They want to be accepted by the peer group.
2.2.2. Intellectual development

They can tell left from right. Their ability to speak and express
themselves develops rapidly. This is important for success in school. They
talk to each other about themselves and their families. During play, they
practice using the words and language they learn in school. They start to
understand time and days of the week. They like silly rhymes, riddles, and
jokes. Their attention span is longer. They can follow more involved stories.
They are learning letters and words. By six, most can read words or
combinations of words. Like the social and emotional development, there
are some differences in children‟ intellectual development, they need
opportunities to share thoughts and reactions. They see things as either
"black or white." They have interests which change often. They are easily
motivated and eager to try new things. They usually do best when the work
is done in small pieces. They need guidance from adults to stay at a task to
achieve their best. In conclusion, being the 1st grade student is the most
important changes of children. With new environment they must
concentrate in a long time between 30- 35 minutes. They are not curious
children like three-age-boys, moreover, they are enjoy discovering and
understanding interesting things in life. Primary students gradually
dominate their curiosity in order to form the discipline and implement
learning regulations… All these above are children ‟s challenges, the care and
assistance of families, schools and society depending on the understanding
of scientific knowledge will help children overcome these difficulties better.
2.3 The nature of Flashcards
Teaching techniques are the ways which are used by teachers to
present information to be learned. The teaching resources best suited to the

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students, such as the latest technology, may not be available to teachers,

teachers must find the best techniques to teach the students using the
resources available to them.
2.3.1 The understanding of Flashcards
According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, flashcard is a card
with a word and sometimes it has some colorful pictures inside. flashcards
are a simple, versatile and underexploited resource for teaching young
learners, states Admit (2009) Its versatility allows the teacher to use their
creativity to adapt different topics in images to teach vocabulary at low cost
and with recyclable value. Flashcards cards are a suitable media that
motivate children to learn vocabulary and later improve their English skills
Yogyakarta (2014) since flashcard uses colorful images that catch learners’
attention better than abstract concepts.
Flashcards are very helpful tools in presenting and drilling forms of
new words, since they draw learners‟ attention and make these often boring
activities more enjoyable. And that is exactly what teachers need when
presenting new language to catch their learners ‟ full attention, to raise their
interest in the presented subject and hence also their motivation. The
picture is used in a more meaningful and real-life communicative ‟ way than
being just displayed for pupils to say what they can actually see. This will
probably have a greater impact on the retention of a piece of vocabulary
again and also subsequently on the ability to use it in communication. The
teacher works with two antonymous pictures, or similarly, compares two
things very alike in their meaning, such as “hill” and “mountain”. Yet another
possibility is to employ the sense of a collective idea or to present the word
as a part of a larger thing. As for the first case, the verb “to work” can be
accompanied by pictures of different people working in various jobs; in the
second case, the word „leaf‟ can be put into context as a part of “a tree”
(Wright 1990: 139-144; Wright and Haleem 1991: 51-52) .

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2.3.2 Kinds of Flashcards
In Longman Dictionary (1985:107), in language teaching, flashcards is
a card with words, sentence, or pictures. It is used as an aid or cue in a
language lesson. It can be concluded from these definitions that flashcards
are cards with a word or words, or a sentence, or a picture on it used to learn
and memorize vocabulary. Flashcards are divided into two types: picture
flashcards and word flashcards.
2.3.2.1 Picture flashcards
According to Wright & Haleem (1991:50), picture flashcards are cards
with pictures printed or drawn on having 15×20 cm. They should be small
enough for the users to easily handle and big enough for the whole class to
see clearly. The teachers can prepare them in free time at home. Advantages
of picture flashcards are the attractiveness and colorfulness with details
which blackboard pictures do not have. Picture flashcards are useful for
presenting, practicing and revising vocabulary of lessons.
Figure 1 Flashcards of colors

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2.3.2.2 Word flashcards
In Bowen (1982), word flashcards which are cards with words printed
on can be held up rapidly or “flash” by the teacher before the class. A word
flashcard is about 8cm high and 10cm wide; and its length depends on the
size of class. They are useful for representing words or structure.
Figure 2 Word flashcards

2.3.3 Advantages of using Flashcards

Wright (1976: 80) claimed that students will get clear understanding
about the vocabulary material delivered by the teacher when they cover
pronunciation, usage and illustration by picture of a word and they will not
feel bored when they are taught using flashcards thanks to the colorfulness
of pictures.
According to Inayah. S (2010) flashcards are easy for the teacher to
deliver; therefore, it is more convenient for them not to carry heavy books.
According to Haycraft (1978: 102) and Cross (1991: 120) there are some
advantages of using flashcards in teaching language: Firstly, flashcards can
be used for consolidating vocabulary and taken almost everywhere and
every when. Secondly, flashcards are eye-catching and effective for any level

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students. Lastly, it is flashcard that provides learners with the link between
L1 and the target language.
2.3.4 Disadvantages of Flashcards
There are at least some disadvantages of flashcard offered by Wright
(1976: 82). Firstly, it is sometimes difficult for the teacher to find a suitable
card for each topic that is suitable with syllabus. Secondly, flashcards are not
big enough for the students sitting in behind to see clearly. Moreover, Inayah.
S (2010) stated other disadvantages of flashcards: Firstly, flashcards are too
expensive, and it takes teachers much time to make flashcards by
themselves. Secondly, it is likely that some students misunderstand about
teachers’ explanation when they see flashcards, so the goal cannot be
achieved.
In conclusion, flashcard is not only useful for representing vocabulary
but also attract students because of colorful pictures; however, the expensive
prices, limited size, off –topic cards are drawbacks of this teaching aid.

Hence, it is advisable for the teacher take consideration in the topic of lesson
and the size of class to decide how to use flashcard properly.
2.3.5 Overview of using flashcard in teaching vocabulary
In Vocabulary learning: A critical analysis of techniques, Oxford and
Crokall claimed that using flashcards self-test vocabulary knowledge is a
popular with students in L2 learning strategies. It is a fact that learners
can take advantage of the availability of this learning technique in both
traditionally taught languages such as France, Spanish and ESL and less
common ones like Russian. They said “With creativity and thought on the
part of the learner, flashcards can indeed be employed to provide greater
context”. For example, firstly, students can divide flashcards into different
groups of words such as part of speech; words that are already learned vs.
words still needing to be learned; past tense forms vs. present tense
forms. Secondly, learners might be provided visual contexts by taping to

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flashcards to pictures of particular objects signified by the words on the
cards. Furthermore, learners can create a kind of semantic map by
arranging flashcards on the floor with related words closer together and
unrelated words further apart. Finally, flashcards give students
opportunities to add context by writing the new word sin complete,
meaningful sentences on the cards.
In Improving Students’ Vocabulary Mastery Using Flashcards
(Yosephus Setyo Nugroho*, Joko Nurkamto, Hefy Sulistyowati), flashcards
make students more familiar with certain words and memorize them more
easily because they can see, read and touch the object and raise their
motivation and interest in teaching learning process. They also gave some
suggestions for teachers and students about using flashcards. Firstly, the

teacher needs to identify the students’ behavior first before presenting the
lesson; use interesting technique and media, such as flashcards as well as
develop a good atmosphere in the class. Secondly, the students should
encourage themselves to learn more, to ask more, and to know more.
The Effect of Using Vocabulary Flash Card on Iranian Pre -University
Students’ Vocabulary Knowledge. (Mohammadreza Khodareza Ph.D. in TEFL,
Islamic Azad University-Tonekabon Branch, Iran) gives conclusion of effects
of using flashcards to teach vocabulary. It was concluded that students’
vocabulary knowledge led to a higher level of vocabulary improvement by
using flashcards in teaching vocabulary. Using flashcards facilitates their
involvement in the class work by sharing answers, trying to participate,
paying attention, giving the examples, encouraging to take part in the
lessons, participating as volunteers. Therefore, consequently, the researcher
can claim that vocabulary flashcard is a useful way of enhancing vocabulary
learning and can play an important role in teaching and learning vocabulary
to Iranian pre-university students. In addition, the result of this study
indicated that there was significant difference in the efficiency of flashcard

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compared to traditional method. The researcher gave four reasons to
confirm that learning vocabulary through flash card would lead to better
learning than traditional method. Firstly, students can review difficult words
more frequently than easy ones by separating cards into several categories
base on their difficulty level. Secondly, learners are presented with a second
language word and its definition on the other side of card; therefore, they
can easily practice new words and recall their meanings in as much as the
words appear on two different sides of the cards. Thirdly, learning words
through traditional method causes rote learning. Finally, in traditional

method, some words may receive less attention than others because of their
particular positions in the class. Nevertheless, there is not such a problem
with the application of flashcard because they tend to be more flexible.
In Teaching Vocabulary, using Flashcards And Wordlist (A QuasiExperimental Study of Fifth Graders at One Public Elementary School in
Binjai Universitas, Pendidikan Indonesia, (2013) and Elsa Yusrika Sitompul
showed that students’ vocabulary mastery improved after they were taught
by flashcards and wordlist. The students in experimental group admitted
that they could memorize the words easily, be more motivated to learning
English and understand vocabulary easily. Moreover, it is recommended to
use flashcards as a strategy to teach vocabulary to primary students.
2.4 How to teach vocabulary to primary students
Teaching English to primary school students is not an easy task for
teachers since they should introduce English as a new lesson for students.
The students are expected to have the skills of language in simple English. So
the mastery of vocabulary is very important since it is essential in
conducting communication. There are several principles in teaching
vocabulary in order to make the teaching learning process more interesting.
They are as follows: It interests the learners It makes the learners give
attention to the spelling, pronunciation, meaning or use of word. It gives a

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chance for repetition According to some authors the fundamental reasons
for teaching English at elementary schools are longer study results in greater
fluency and better pronunciation. “One of the most important factors
influencing the development of the language proficiency is the amount of
time spent in working with the language. When language learning begins
earlier, can go on longer and provide more practice and experience, leading
ultimately to greater fluency and effectiveness”. ( Helena Anderson,1993-3).

The earlier a child stars to learn a foreign language, the easier it will be for
him/her to acquire better pronunciation. It is proved by Krashen as quoted
by Helena Anderson: “Older learners have an advantage over children in
almost every area tested with a small advantage for children in the area of
native like pronunciation at least in most classroom settings ’’ (Krashen ,
1982 )
In teaching vocabulary to children, teachers have to select suitable
words to be taught in the first stage. The choice of words should be based on
the following consideration: Commonest words: “They are the words which
are commonly used or the words that the students need”. It is important to
teacher to make the words list before the lesson starts. Its purpose is to
know what the most common words are used by the students. Students‟
need: “ The words that are needed be the students are usually worth to be
taught to the students”. Students‟ need is a major consideration for teacher
to teach the primary students. Sometimes they are interested in knowing the
things around them . It makes them motivated to learn . When thinking
about vocabulary lesson in the first stage, the teacher of English in the
primary school should have the awareness of five facts as stated by Allen:
Foreign words for familiar objects and persons are important to teach, but
we can not expect most members of the class to learn them easily. Teaching
such words will require special skill because students often feel their native
language words for familiar objects and persons are all they really need.

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Students are very likely to feel that foreign words for familiar objects are not
really needed when the foreign language is not used for communication out
side the language class. When a student feels no real need to learn
something, a feeling of need must be created by the teacher. To creative in

students‟ minds a sense of personal need for a foreign word, it is not enough
to say “ Here is the word to learn”, “Here is what the word means”, “ The
word will be very useful to you someday” Allen, (1983-3) .
From the quotation above, it is concluded that in order to create a personal
sense of need for a foreign word, teachers have to put the students in a
situation which forces them to use the English words.
2.5 Related studies
2.5.1 Improving students’ vocabulary mastery using flashcards
Improving students` vocabulary mastery using flashcards is important
for our project because vocabulary is a crucial element in teaching a foreign
language. The study is about a research conducted in Nigeria with fourth
grade students of SD Negeri II Watuagung academic in 2011. This project
was developed to solve the academic problems from Watuagung students of
mastering vocabulary. A preliminary investigation was done to have a
database to compare. The problems were seen from two indicators: first,
their vocabulary score was low. Second, the students did not have motivation
during teaching and learning process.
The main aim of this research was to improve students’ vocabulary
mastery and students’ motivation when using flashcards. To overcome the
problems, classroom action research was used. It implemented flashcards as
a media tool. There were two cycles of action. In each cycle, the procedure of
the research consisted of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. In
collecting the data, the researcher used qualitative and quantitative
methods. The technique of qualitative data was interview, observation,
document analysis, and test. For the quantitative

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data, the data was analyzed by finding and comparing the main scores

in pre-test and post-test descriptive statistics.
The method used in this study was classroom action research. Kemmis
(1983) in Hopkins (1993) stated that action research is a form of selfreflective inquiry undertaken by participants in social including educational
situation to improve the rationality and justice of their own social or
educational practices; their understanding to these practices, and; the
situations in which the practices are carried out (p.44). Also, the model of
classroom action research in this study is modelled by Kemmis and
McTaggart in Burns, (1999, p. 32) who stated that the model of action
research consists of four steps: planning, acting, observing and reflecting.
Planning: Here the researcher prepares everything that is needed in
doing the action; for instance, she prepares a lesson plan, the material that
will be used in the action, and she also prepares the evaluation material after
conducting the action to give information whether or not the speaking
improves.
Acting: After preparing the lesson plan, the material and the
evaluation, the researcher implemented the plan. In this study, the
researcher implemented flashcards games in teaching vocabulary; the
flashcards games were done in the group. She also administered pretest, the
material, at end of the study, she did the posttest.
Observing: The researcher observes the effects of the critically
informed action in the context in which it occurs. Besides that, the
researcher also makes the observation sheet about the process in teaching
learning process.
Reflecting: After doing the observation, the researcher continued to
the next step namely reflection. In this step the researcher reflects how the
teaching learning process runs.

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