A study on the use of visual aids in teaching English vocabulary for 3rd grade schoolers = Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng giáo cụ trực quan trong việc dạy từ vựng tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 3. M.A Thesis Linguistics: 60 14 10

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES
----------------------------

M.A. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

A STUDY ON THE USE OF VISUAL AIDS IN TEACHING
ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR 3rd GRADE STUDENTS
Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng giáo cụ trực quan
trong việc dạy từ vựng tiếng Anh cho học sinh lớp 3

Supervisor: Dr. Ha Cam Tam
Student: Tran Thi Nhung
Code: 14045084
Training code: 60140111
Date of birth: 02/26/1981
Class: K23C
Hanoi, 2018


A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

DECLARATION

I certify that no part of the report has been copied or reproduced by me from
any other person‟s work without acknowledgement and that the report is originally

written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor, Dr. Ha Cam Tam.

Date submitted: 08/2018

Student

Tran Thi Nhung

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A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who have given me great
assistance in the completion of my research work.
In the first place, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my
supervisor Dr. Ha Cam Tam, who has provided me with insightful discussion,
helpful comments, valuable support in the preparation and completion of this thesis.
Without her guidance and help, this work would not have been accomplished.
Secondly, my sincere thanks also go to all lecturers and staff of the
department of Post- Graduate studies for their valuable lessons and precious helps.
Thanks to their lessons as well as needed helps, I could overcome enormous
obstacles when doing the study.
I also wish to acknowledge the cooperation of my colleagues and the

students from two primary schools, helping me doing the research.
Last but not least, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my family for
their encouragement and great support during my time of fulfilling this thesis.

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A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

ABSTRACT
This study was implemented to find the impacts of using visual aids in
teaching English Vocabulary for the third grade students.
The method the researcher used to study is Action Research (AR). Firstly,
the result of the study proved that using visual aids in teaching improved third grade
students‟ vocabulary mastery in listening, understanding, speaking and writing.
However, it was found that in the second intervention the students‟ improvement
was often in Part 1 of the test – Listening and number/choose. Secondly, the
findings revealed that visual aids help students improved their listening and
understanding more than speaking and writing. Thirdly, the students‟ interest in
learning English was improved during the process of using visual aids in teaching
vocabulary.
The result of the study was concluded that using visual aids in teaching
English Vocabulary can improve students‟ vocabulary mastery and their interest in
learning English.

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A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
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Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION ........................................................................................................i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS .........................................................................................iv
PART A: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................1
1. Rationale .................................................................................................................1
2. Objectives of the study ............................................................................................2
3. Scope of the study ...................................................................................................2
4. Research questions ..................................................................................................2
5. Organization of the study ........................................................................................2
PART B: DEVELOPMENT.....................................................................................4
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................4
1. Vocabulary ..............................................................................................................4
1.1. Definitions ............................................................................................................4
1.2. The importance of Vocabulary.............................................................................4
1.3 Teaching Vocabulary for children ........................................................................6
2. Visual Aids ..............................................................................................................8
2.1. Definitions ............................................................................................................8
2.2. Kinds of visual aids ..............................................................................................8
2.3. The advantages of visual aids ..............................................................................9

3. Action Research ....................................................................................................10
4. Characteristics of young students .........................................................................12
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY .........................................................................15
1. Setting of the study................................................................................................15
2. Participants ............................................................................................................16
3. Steps of action research .........................................................................................16
4. Schedule of implementing the action ....................................................................17

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A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
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Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

5. Research instruments ............................................................................................17
5.1. Planning the action .............................................................................................18
5.2. Implementing the actions ...................................................................................19
5.3. Observing the action ..........................................................................................26
CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS ........................................27
1. Data analysis procedure ........................................................................................27
2. Findings .................................................................................................................28
2.1. Tests ...................................................................................................................28
2.2. Observation ........................................................................................................31
PART C: CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................35
1. Summary of the study ...........................................................................................35
2. Some limitations of the study................................................................................36
3. Suggestions for practicing teachers .......................................................................37

4. Conclusion .............................................................................................................37
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................38
APPENDIX 1: LESSON PLANS
APPENDIX 2: TESTS
APPENDIX 3: FLASHCARDS
APPENDIX 4: OBSERVATION SHEETS

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A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
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Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
Nowadays, English has become the most popular foreign language not only
in Vietnam but also all over the world. In many countries such as Canada, Germany,
The Philippines, India, Pakistan … English has been the second language. In
Vietnam, English is not used in daily communication but it plays an important role
in Vietnam because many English-speaking foreigners from across Asia, Australia,
America and Europe have come to invest in Vietnam. This has motivated the people
of Vietnam to learn English to facilitate efficient and effective communication
among their counterparts. The importance of English was immediately
acknowledged by the Vietnamese government, which has resulted in the outlook of
the Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) for teaching and learning
English, which are much concerned by people from all walks of life in society;
primary schools, parents, educational strategy planning managers…Therefore, the

number of people learning and using English has been increased dramatically.
English is being introduced to ever more and younger children. In which, there are
children at kindergarten. And, English is now one of the compulsory subjects in
primary education in many countries around the world.
The researcher has opportunities to work with students from some primary
schools. Most of them are in third grade level; learn English from first grade level.
It means they have learnt two English books: one in first grade level and the other in
second grade level. However, when working with them, the author found some
problems: the students don‟t remember much the vocabulary which they have learnt
before; they can hardly write any English words, most of them pronounce the
vocabulary incorrectly,

they seem boring when talking about English.

Acknowledging the importance of learning English vocabulary and the students‟
problems in learning English, the researcher would like to find an effective and
appropriate strategy to improve students‟ vocabulary retention and their interest in
learning English. The researcher has looked over the list of the major themes in
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A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

education in the book, published in 2009 and entitled „English Language Teaching
(Major Themes in Education)‟, edited by Patricia Hedge, University of Warwick,
UK, Nick Andon and Martin Dewey, all at Kings College, University of London,

UK. At the same time, the researcher has looked over the list of previous minor MA
thesis topics in VNU – ULIS (from 1993 to 2012) but there is also no topic relating
to the use of visual aids in teaching English vocabulary for third grade students.
Based on the reasons above, the researcher is interested in conducting a
research entitled “A study on the use of visual aids in teaching English vocabulary
for third grade students”.
2. Objectives of the study
This study was conducted with the aim to find the impacts of using visual
aids in teaching English Vocabulary for the third grade students.
3. Scope of the study
The study is limited into English vocabulary for the students in the third
grade. The scope of this study is using visual aids in teaching to improve the
students‟ vocabulary mastery and their interest in learning English.
4. Research questions
With the objectives stated above, the following question was proposed for
the study:
 To what extent does the use of visual aids in teaching improve the third
grade students’ English vocabulary mastery and their interest in
learning English?
5. Organization of the study
The study is entitled with “A study on the use of visual aids in teaching
English vocabulary for the third grade students” and designed with three main
parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusion.
The first part - Introduction is a brief overview of the study with more details
of the rationale, the objectives, the research question, the scope, and the design of
the study.
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in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

The second part - Development consisted of three chapters:
- Chapter 1 is literature review which discussed the theoretical background of the
thesis, relating to the key terms: vocabulary, visual aids, action research, and
characteristics of young students.
- Chapter 2 is methodology, which discussed the setting of the study, participants,
steps of action research, schedule of implementing the action, and research
instruments used in the study.
- Chapter 3 deals with data analysis and the findings
The last part - Conclusion is devoted to the summary and some limitations of
the study. This chapter also provides some suggestions for further study. The
conclusion will put an end to this part.
References will be in the end.

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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Vocabulary

1.1.

Definitions

According to Webster Dictionary (1935:1073), vocabulary is “A list or
collection of words usually alphabetically arranged and explained or lexicon, stock
of words use in language or by class, individual, etc.”
Brown and Hatch (1995:1), vocabulary is “a list or set of words for a
particular language or a list or set word that individual speakers of language might
use”.
According to Oxford Leaner‟s Pocket Dictionary (2003:482), vocabulary is
all the words that a person knows or uses; all the words in language; and all the
words with their meanings, especial in a book for learning a foreign language.
Hornby (2004:1447) stated that vocabulary is a total number of words in a language
that is used by a person. It means vocabulary is all the words that people use in a
language. Word and language are set of symbols connected each other. Therefore,
learning a language also means researching a word. While McMillan English
Dictionary in Lucie Kristenova (2006) states that the word “vocabulary” means all
the words in a particular language.
From the definitions above, it can be concluded that vocabulary is the total
number of words which are needed to communicate ideas and express the speakers‟
means.
1.2.

The importance of Vocabulary

Can we live in a frame of a house? Can we build a house without bricks,
cement, sand and stone? Can we communicate without mastering any vocabulary of
the language we use? These are the same with Harmer‟s statement (1991: 153) of
the importance of vocabulary by saying, "If language structure makes up the

skeleton of the language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the
flesh." Harmer further states that grammatical structure is important but vocabulary
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A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
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Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

is much more important. It means we cannot master any language without
vocabulary mastery. Zimmerman in Coady and Huckin states (1998:5) vocabulary
is central to language and of critical importance to the typical language learning.
Without a sufficient vocabulary, one cannot communicate effectively or express his
ideas in both oral and written form (Fauziyati, 2005: 155). It means that vocabulary
is very important in every aspect as a basic component of language. Students who
master more vocabulary will certainly have a greater chance to improve their
writing, reading, speaking and listening skill. That is why, mastering vocabulary is
very important to help us learning language.
Many scholars also pointed out the importance of vocabulary in
communicating. For instance, “No matter how well the students learn grammar no
matter how successfully the sounds of L2 are mastered, without words to express a
wide range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any
meaningful way”, said McCarthy (1990: viii). It means having good knowledge of
vocabulary of a language is the key to understand or convey message in
communication. Vocabulary is one of the most important factors that help students
to be successful in mastering any language. The more vocabulary they know the
better they will be at mastering English. Actually, vocabulary is one of the vital
elements in constructing meaningful communication. Without the words needed to

convey their ideas and feeling, the learners cannot speak and write well. A student
who masters a good structure seems to lose its function whenever it is not supported
by the abundance of words. In other words, it can be said that no matter how well
students learn grammar and sounds of words, without words to express wide range
of meanings, communication will become meaningless.
Last but not least, when students have enough knowledge of vocabulary, they
feel more self-confident, enjoy their classes and have fewer difficulties in learning
English. For example, when they read a certain text, they will easily get the
information from it since they can understand every word in the text. So vocabulary
is seriously important.
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A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
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Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

1.3 Teaching Vocabulary for children
Having acknowledged the stated above importance, teachers of English have
recently focused more on teaching vocabulary. Bromley, K. (Bromley 2007) states
that “teaching vocabulary well is a key aspect of developing engaged and successful
readers”. In fact, there are many books, workshops, journals of research, relating to
vocabulary teaching method. For example, in the book named “the language
teacher”, (Batia Laufer, Vocabulary et al. July, 2005), three authors Batia Laufer,
Paul Meara, and Paul Nation share their Ten Best Ideas for Teaching Vocabulary;
the NRP‟s synthesis of vocabulary research identified eight findings that provide a
scientifically based foundation for the design of rich, multifaceted vocabulary
instruction and June Preszler (June Preszler and Nancy Hall) provides Strategies to

build Student's Vocabulary, focusing on developing word awareness and love of
words through word play; developing explicit, rich instruction to build vocabulary;
building strategies for independence; engage students actively with a wide range of
books. In addition, there are so many other ways of enhancing word memorization;
multiple exposure to words (Baker,Simmons&Kameenui www); activating words
through use (Stevick in Nunan 1998:133); comparing new with known words
(Brewster,Ellis&Girard 1991:90); suggestions to support retention and recall.
This study focuses on teaching the young learners, the third grade students.
Thus, the methodology of teaching vocabulary is far different from that of the adult
ones and the teacher should firstly acknowledge the fact that the ability to master
vocabulary of students in the third grade is still in the level of receptive use. They
are able to identify the words when they meet them but they are not able to produce
or use the words speaking or writing. Lado (1979: 121-126) gives some steps in
vocabulary learning, namely: (1) listening the words, (2) pronouncing the words, (3)
understanding the meaning, (4) making illustration in the form of sentence, (5)
doing practice in expressing the meaning, (6) pronouncing the words in loud voice,
and (7) spelling the words. Based on this theory, the third grade students are able to

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A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

master vocabulary in listening the words, pronouncing the words and spelling the
words.
Along with the knowledge of the ability to master vocabulary of students in the

third grade, the teacher should depend on the following criteria to choose the
vocabulary to teach the young students:
-

The vocabulary is familiar to the students: The teacher should teach the

words that young learners are familiar with or they can stick to so that they can
easily understand and can keep in mind for long. Such words are often about people
and things surrounding them and taught according to themes and topics. Nowadays
all the course books, especially for young learners are organized into themes and
they provide vocabulary according to the themes. If there is a theme “Animals”,
then we can expect words like naming animals, also where they live, what they eat
etc.
-

The vocabulary is needed in the students‟ daily life: It is essential for the

teacher to focus on the vocabulary the students need in their daily life. The teacher
must be able to predict what words the students need, especially the words the
students need to know of talking about daily life because “When such words are
learnt, the new language can immediately be put to use”. (Allen 1983: 108)
-

The frequency of using the vocabulary: “The words which are most

commonly used are the ones we should teach first.” (Hammer 1993: 82). It means
the teacher should consider which words to teach on the basis of frequency, how
often the words are used by the speaker of the language. The term of frequency,
especially the frequency in which the particular item is used in common language.
These criteria can be the consideration for every English teacher to set vocabulary

items to be taught for young learners.
Last but not least, teaching vocabulary for grade-schoolers will be more
effective with meaningful activities to practice vocabulary, which help learners
memorize words much better than practice orally or listen to them purely. To meet

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A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
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Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

the needs, the meaningful activities should involve as many senses as possible
including hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and feeling.
2. Visual Aids
2.1.

Definitions

The aids which use the sense of vision are called visual aids. In the context
of teaching, visual-aids are items that are designed (most by teachers) to support
written or spoken information so that it can be understood more easily. Visual aids
include teacher‟s gestures, facial features, and movements, real objects, models,
pictures, posters, postcards, flashcards, word calendars, chart, picture books, text
books, e-books, slides, graphs, images, black/white-board, maps, etc. They are all
the means by which teachers bring life into the theoretical texts by bringing
environment inside the classroom indirectly with the purpose of relating teaching
with the environment that students live and communicate with. Those kinds of

visual aids help facilitating the processes of teaching and learning a foreign
language because they help students acquire the language and might be used
effectively to develop and sustain motivation, to produce students‟ positive attitudes
toward English learning, and to reinforce language-learning skills.
2.2.

Kinds of visual aids

There are a range of types of visual learning aids which use different media
Pictures are perhaps the simplest and commonly used. Yet pictures are also very
effective. In the language learning of young children pictures are often used as to
provide associations for the learning of new words. It goes without saying that we
cannot use pictures for every unknown word as some words are abstract and cannot
be illustrated easily. The more concrete a word is, the easier it is to find and uses a
picture for its illustration (Anderson & Shifrin, 1980) There has been much research
on pictures in learning generally, and a little also in the area of second language
learning For example, Underwood (1989), as cited in Chun and Plass (1996), has
concluded that -en ordinary principle and opinions for human learning is visual
memory Likewise., Koren (1999) points out that learning foreign words with
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A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

associated of words alone can be easier than words without these associations.
Indeed many teachers of young children in the English language classrooms use

photo dictionaries to increase the vocabulary and speaking skills of learners.
Charts, maps and diagrams are other common visual tools used for learning
purposes. Kleinman and Dwyer (1999) examined the effects of specific visual skills
in facilitating learning. Their findings indicate that the use of color graphics in
instructional modules as opposed to black and white graphics promotes better
achievement in the learning of concepts. An earlier study by Myatt and Carter (as
cited in Heinich et al, 1999) suggests that most learners prefer color visuals to black
and white visuals, but that no significant difference in the amount of learning occurs
except when color is related to the content to be learned.
Due to the frame work of the study and the limitation of time, the researcher
would like to apply some kinds of visual aids in the process of implementing the
action research including flashcards, photo, audio, computer slides...
Calder (1966), cited in Girma (1983), states that psychologists have found
that 84% of what we learn we get from seeing; 13% of what we learn we get from
hearing; and only 3% we learn in other ways. This implies that most of what we
learn we get through visual medium. In the context of teaching English, especially
teaching vocabulary for grade-schoolers, who are too young and their vocabulary in
still in the level receptive use, visual aids can be good resources for teaching
vocabulary. It is always helpful to show the objects to the students with the words
so that they can have a better understanding of the objects and their meanings. It
helps them to recall the words easily. If the learners only hear a new word meaning
orally, it may not be remembered for long time. However, if the vocabularies are
presented with the pictures, it becomes more effective. Moreover, visual aids help
the teacher to give emphasis on what is being taught and presented. Clear visual
aids multiply the learners‟ ability of comprehension.
According to Allen, Kate & Marquez (2011), “Visual aids impact and add
interest to a presentation. They can create excitement. Visual aids enable students to
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A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

use more than one sense at the same time. One picture can elicit unlimited words”
(p.5). Visual aids can make the class lively for both students and teachers; increase
the effectiveness of classroom teaching-learning process including attitude,
motivation, and interest of the learners which are the factors of crucial importance
in determining their achievement. Actually, visual aids are multifunctional tools
when the teacher uses visual aids in teaching, students will access the language by
hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and feeling. Visual aids are not only the
foundation for students to understand deeply the knowledge but the effective
medium to shape the concepts in their mind as well because the images are kept in
long term memory through the sense of vision. Visual aids assist teachers for many
necessary classroom activities like drills, exercises, instructions and explanation.
Visual aids actually economize time; insure more effective learning of vocabulary
and permanent retention than verbal instruction. Visual aids hold the attention of the
learners on meaning, and help them to make the language used in the class more
real and alive. Visual aids evoke an immediate response from learners in a class
which is the vital seed of all meaningful language-learning in general and
vocabulary in particular (Hill 1990).
Visual aids are interesting for the student‟s learning because they will give
specific and lifelike illustrations, making the lessons so lively, interesting and
attractive that students can absorb the knowledge easily and quickly and develop
their visible ability, imaginary, thought and language.

They give necessary

variation and provide the classroom change-of-pace, which is essential to maintain
students‟ high level of interest. They go beyond the limitation of the school and
home environment of the students and allow discussion of a wide variety of
situations and circumstances. Visual aids help teachers present clearly and
smoothly, without complications so that their students can understand and
remember concepts more easily.
3. Action Research

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A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

Action Research is a formative study of progress commonly practiced by
teachers in schools. Basically an action research is a spiral process that includes
problem investigation, taking action & fact-finding about the result of action. It
enables a teacher to adopt/craft most appropriate strategy within its own teaching
environment. Action research is a popular research method in the current
development of society. Many well-known scholars have a number of different
ideas regarding the action research.
According to Nunan, D. (1992, p.18), action research is “a descriptive case
study of a particular classroom, groups of learners or even a single learner counts as
action research if it is initiated by a question, is supported by data and
interpretation, and is carried out by a practitioner investigating aspects of his or her
own context and situations”. This definition shows that in order to carry out an
action research, the teacher must be a practitioner who must identify the problem

that her/his class encounter, and then carry out a plan to solve the problem.
Another definition given by Kemmis & McTaggart (1982): “action research
can be defined as a combination of „action‟ and „research‟. Action research puts
ideas into practice for self-improvement and increasing knowledge about
curriculum, teaching and learning. The ultimate result is improvement in what
happens in the classroom and school”. In other words, the research or the teacher
must do the research – find out what the problem of the class and then take an
action to overcome such difficulties.
“Action research is a strategy for teacher to make changes and develop
professionally by reflecting on their own everyday teaching” - (Wallace, 1998: 16).
Wallace believed that via action research conducted by teachers, they will become
expert gradually in their teaching area. Although each expert has their own
definition about action research, it can be concluded that action research is carried
out with the aim of solving the practical problems in a classroom which will be
suitable for this study.

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“Within the action research process, educators study students‟ learning
related to their own teaching. It is a process that allows educators to learn about
their own instructional practices and to continue to monitor improved student
learning” (Rawlinson & Little, 2004).
“The idea of action research is that educational problems and issues are best

identified and investigated where the action is: at the classroom and school level.
By integrating research into these settings and engaging those who work at this
level in research activities, findings can be applied immediately and problems
solved more quickly” (Guskey, 2000).
The researcher has chosen this method to conduct her study because it is a
formative study of progress commonly practiced by teachers who want to improve
their teaching as well as their students‟ learning outcomes. Also, the researcher
finds this model suitable for her individual action research because it involves
working independently on a project, as a primary school teacher, conducting her
own in-class research project with her students.
The researcher has followed the model of Action Research of Kemmis and
Mc Taggart (1988) which is composed of four phases:
-

Planning: a problem or issue is identified and a plan of action is developed in
order to bring about improvements in specific areas of the research context.

-

Action: the plan is to put into action over an agree period of time.

-

Observation: the effects of the action are observed and data are collected.

-

Reflection: the effects of the action are evaluated become the basis for
further cycles of research.

4. Characteristics of young students
Being a teacher, we should grasp students‟ characteristics and ability. The
more characteristics teacher knows about his/her students, the better methodology
he/she can find to apply to his/her students. This is not always easy for any teachers
because not only the children at different age are different in characteristic but
different children at the same are ages are different as well. The work deals with the
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Code: 14045084

third grade students. Thus, the researcher will focus deeply on the young learners (7
to 9 years old). Young learners mean children from the first year of formal
schooling (6 years old to eleven or twelve year age). Young learners have own
special characteristics that differentiate them from adult learners. There should be
known and understood by the teachers to give contribution to improve their quality
of teaching and learning process.
According to Lenneberg, a linguist and neurologist who pioneered ideas on
language acquisition and cognitive psychology, particularly in terms of the concept
of innateness, children are better at learning foreign language than adult. This is
because of innate gene in language acquisition. It means a child was born with
available innateness of mother tongue language acquisition. However, this innate
capability does not exist forever in his/her life. It only exists in the period, which is
so called “critical period”. For human beings, this period will end after puberty (1213 years old). (Lenneberg's 1964 paper "The Capacity of Language Acquisition,"
originally published in 1960, sets forth seminal arguments about the human-specific
biological capacity for language,)

Young learner‟s sensory perception is holistic; they don‟t often go into
details. They also have a holistic approach to language, which means that they
understand meaningful messages but cannot analyze language. It is preferable to
help young learners to memorize single words or whole chunks rather than go into
detailed descriptions of structures. Teaching chunks of language in context may be a
great idea. Children are already very good in interpreting meaning without
necessarily understanding the individual word. They have limited reading and
writing skills even in their first language. It is useless to teach them grammar since
they still struggle with grammar in their mother tongue. Teacher should focus on
fluency rather on accuracy. Their sense is in association with feeling, seeing,
touching, hearing, interacting and other practical activities. They need concrete
experiences in order to understand. Their sense and assessment of time and space
are still limited. Their sense does not develop by itself, it need teacher‟s instruction.
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A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

Young learner‟s thought is concrete, formulaic concerned with real objects,
visual things and situation, peripheral rather than focal attention whose reference is
observable in immediate environment. They cannot comprehend abstract ideas, so
go for concrete examples, practical instances of language in use to be able to
understand them and reproduce them. Children need physical movements and real
activities to stimulate their thinking. Their problem solving skills are
underdeveloped, simple, and not deep. They have difficulties in observing
regularities and causal relations. Young learners‟ imagination is patchy, simple,

changeable and unorganized. It is improving step by step through learning process.
Young learners‟ attention is involuntary, unsustain. They have short attention
and concentration span. They cannot control what they are taught; the younger they
are, the patchier their storage and recall are. They need a lot of recycling and
repetition and much exposure to language. Children get bored easily so class
activities need to be as fun, interesting and exciting as possible Children will be
enthusiastic if they are taught using fun activities or being involved in activities.
Children love to play, and learn best when they are enjoying themselves. Children
like to work together.
Young learners‟ intuitively phenomenal memory is more developed than
logically linguistic memory. They don‟t know how to organize their meaningful
memory. They are likely to memorize mechanically, they learn by heart. Pictures or
posters should be colorful, clear and professionally drawn. Photographs or the
children‟s own drawings can be useful too. For children, the dominant sense is the
visual channel. If young learners are not given something to look at that is relevant
to the learning task, they will get distracted by something else that is of more
interesting to them. A teacher should have a selection of activities can be changed
every 5 to 15 minutes depending on the age group of the children. Children have a
great need to be motivated in order to learn effectively. Children love prizes and
rewards even if the prize is a key ring or box of Smartest. They need support and
encouragement while learning.
14


A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

Young learners‟ teachers need to understand the above characteristics of
children because it will influence many aspects in teaching English for young
learners in order to have effective teaching such as teaching style, methods, learning
materials, lesson plan, and the way of getting along with them. One of the common
principles is the funny, interesting and natural learning environment because young
learners‟ world is associated with games, visual phenomenon, having fun. From this
principle a language teacher may develop his or her own techniques with suitable
activities to make their learning funny and natural.

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
The study was conducted as an action research depending on the model of
Kemmis and Mc Taggart (1988) which is composed of four phases:
-

Planning: a problem or issue is identified and a plan of action is developed in
order to bring about improvements in specific areas of the research context.

-

Action: the plan is to put into action over 2 month period of time.

-

Observation: the effects of the action are observed and data are collected.

-

Reflection: the effects of the action are evaluated become the basis for
further cycles of research.
This chapter discussed the setting of the study, participants, steps of action

research, schedule of implementing the action, and research instruments used in the
study.
1. Setting of the study
This study was conducted at the researcher‟s home class on the fourth floor,
at No 81D, lane 59, Duong Khue street, Mai Dich ward, Cau Giay district. The
action research was conducted within 2 months from September 6th, 2017 until
November 1st, 2018. The researcher conducted two interventions on an entity - a
group of 9 students. The first intervention was planned to teach vocabulary without
visual aids and the second intervention was planned to teach vocabulary with some
kinds of visual aids such as flashcards, photo, audio, computer slides... Each
15


A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

intervention lasted four weeks with three sessions, each 40 minute session per week
with three topics including animals, shapes and colors. After each session, there
was a mini test and in the fourth week, there was a post-test. After the two
interventions, there were 8 tests in total including 6 mini tests and 2 post-tests. The
mini tests were conducted right after the session to assess the students‟ short term
memory of vocabulary and the 2 post-tests were conducted one week after each
intervention to assess their long term memory of vocabulary.
2. Participants
The participants are 9 third grade students from two primary schools. This is
an early stage of students‟ learning English. Although they all have been taught

English in grade 1 and 2, it is not a compulsory subject and it is based on the spirit
of their parents‟ voluntary agreement. The textbooks of the two primary schools are
the same. Their titles are “UK English Program”: book 1 for the first grade and
book 2 for the second grade. Because English is not a compulsory subject for them
at their primary schools, it is not taken care of as Math and Vietnamese. Both
teachers and parents considered it the period for them to get familiar with a new
language. All the knowledge they need to get familiar with are listening and
speaking simple words relating to things around such as colors, food, drinks. The
researcher chooses them as the subjects of the study because they remember little
vocabulary or even hardly remember any vocabulary.
3. Steps of action research
The researcher based on the four phrase model of Kemmis and Mc Taggart
(1988) including (1) Planning the action, (2) Implementing the action, (3)
Observing the action, (4) Reflecting the action. The detail of each step is as
following:
Steps

Objectives

of the Study

2 Interventions

Planning

Intervention 1: no visual aids in teaching vocabulary for students
Implementation

Intervention 2: Using visual aids in teaching vocabulary for students

16


A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Observation

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

- to observer all students‟ activities in two actions
- To find the the answer for the hypothesis “using visual aids in teaching vocabulary
can improve the third grade students‟ vocabulary mastery and interest in learning

Reflecting

English.

4. Schedule of implementing the action
This research was conducted from September 6th, 2017 until November 1st,
2018. Below is the schedule of implementing the action research:
No

Date

Activity

Notes

1

September 6th, 2017

Lesson 1

Mini test 1

2

September 13th, 2017

Lesson 2

Mini test 2

3

September 20th, 2017

Lesson 3

Mini test 3

4

September 27th, 2017

Final Test 1

5

October 4th, 2017

Lesson 4

Mini test 4

6

October 11th, 2017

Lesson 5

Mini test 5

7

October 18th, 2017

Lesson 6

Mini test 6

8

October 25th, 2017

Final Test 2

5. Research instruments
To collect the data, 2 following instruments were applied (1) testing and (2)
observation.
(1) Testing: There are 3 mini-tests and 1 post-test in each intervention: The aim
of the mini-tests is to assess students‟ short term memory. Thus, each mini-test is
conducted right after the lesson; the content of mini-test is included in the content of
the lesson only. And the aim of the post-test is to assess their long term memory.
Thus, each post-test is conducted one week after the intervention ended; the content
of post-test is included in the content of whole intervention.
(2) Observation: There are 6 observation sheets for 6 sessions, three sheets for
intervention 1 and three sheets for intervention 2. In each observation sheets, there

17


A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

are 11 criteria relating to students‟ interest in learning English. The aim of the
observation sheets is to assess their interest in learning English.
5.1. Planning the action
Two interventions were planned to teach vocabulary for the third grade
students. The first intervention was planned to teach vocabulary without visual aids
in three weeks with three topics including animals, shapes and drinks. After each
session, there was a mini-test and at the end of the intervention, there was a posttest. It was planned as following:
INTERVENTION 1: NO VISUAL AIDS
No

Topic

1

Animals

Content
Vocabulary:
Sentences:

monkey, duck, chicken, mouse, rabbit, bird,
What is it?

=> It is …

Vocabulary: Circle, square, rectangle, triangle, oval, diamond.
2

Shapes

=> It is ….

Sentences: What is it?
What shape is it?

=>It‟s …

Vocabulary: Water, beer, coffee, soda, milk, wine
3

Drinks

Sentences: What drink is it?

=>It‟s …

What drink do you like?

=> I like …

The second intervention was planned to teach vocabulary with visual aids in
three weeks with three topics including fruits, school facility and family. After each
session, there was a mini-test and at the end of the intervention, there was a posttest. It was planned as following:

INTERVENTION 2: WITH VISUAL AIDS
No

Topic

Content

Visual aids

Vocabulary: Apple, banana, carrot, cucumber, grapes, lemon.
1

Fruits

Sentences: What fruit do you like?

Do you like …?

=> I like …

=> Yes, I do/ No, I don‟t

18

Flashcards/
Real objects


A Study on the Use of Visual Aids
in Teaching English Vocabulary for the Third Grade Students

2

School
facility

Student: Tran Thi Nhung-K23C
Code: 14045084

Vocabulary: gym, library, computer room, class room,
playground, school

Map drawing

Vocabulary: Mother, father, brother, sister, grandmother,
3

Family

Computer slides/

grand father

Photos/
flashcards

Sentences: Who is this? => He/ She is my …

5.2. Implementing the actions
The plan of the two interventions was put into practice. In the first
intervention, the researcher did not use visual aids in teaching students vocabulary.
All of the three sessions of the first intervention took place in the same steps as
following:
Steps

Skills

Opening
(5ms)
Main
activity

Listening

Teacher’s Activities

Students’ Activities

- Writing the content of the
session in English and
Vietnamese

- Looking at the board

- Saying the vocabulary

- Listening to the teacher

19