Luận văn Thạc sĩ Supporting young learners’ vocabulary through pictures An action research approach

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
*********************

DƯƠNG THU TRANG

SUPPORTING YOUNG LEARNERS’ VOCABULARY THROUGH
PICTURES: AN ACTION RESEARCH APPROACH
(Hỗ trợ việc học từ vựng của học sinh bằng tranh ảnh)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 8140231.01

HANOI - 2019


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
*********************

DƯƠNG THU TRANG

SUPPORTING YOUNG LEARNERS’ VOCABULARY THROUGH
PICTURES: AN ACTION RESEARCH APPROACH
(Hỗ trợ việc học từ vựng của học sinh bằng tranh ảnh)

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 8140231.01
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Lê Văn Canh

HANOI - 2019


DECLARATION

I hereby make an oath that this thesis is my own work and it has not been
submitted anywhere for any award.

Hanoi, July 2019

Dương Thu Trang

i


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my gratitude to all people who gave a hand with
giving me the chances to complete this thesis.
First of all, I would like to show my deep appriciation to my supervisor, Prof.
Lê Văn Canh for his worth advice, careful instruction and endless encouragement
during my time of conducting this thesis.
Secondly, it is my lecturers in the Faculty of Post – graduate Studies, the
University of Foreign Languages and International Studies that gave me various
beneficial lecturers motivating me to investigate my own teaching situation to reach

a more professional level.
Thirdly, I would like to send my thanks to all the teachers and students at the
chosen English center in hanoi for being willing to join my research for eight
weeks.
Finally, my family and friends are the people I would like to show my
genuine appriciation. Without their support and encouragement, I could not have
completed this thesis due to daily life routine.

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ABSTRACT

Vocabulary is one the most important elements in English acquisition.
Without words, human cannot express their ideas, feelings or thoughts. In the
chosen English center in Hanoi, teaching and learning is paid attention to with a
view to improve the students‟ English acquisition and one of the major concern here
is vocabulary teaching and learning through images of young learners. To explore
how images support young learners‟ vocabulary acquisition, the study was carried
out among forty 2th grade students for eight weeks with six units in their books.
They were divided equally into two groups and each one was taught in two different
ways of vocabulary teaching: one with traditional method – the translation method
while the other by using pictures. The classroom observations and tests were
instruments to collect the data for the research. After the treatment time, the results
showed that the experimental group gained higher scores by using pictures to learn
vocabulary and the classroom atmosphere was vey comfortable and ludic while the
control group obtained not as good results as the experimental one. It can be
inferred from the results that images make a greater dedication to enhancing not
only young learners‟ vocabulary acquisition but also their motivation in English
learning than not using them.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION ....................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. iii
LIST OF CHARTS ................................................................................................. vi
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................. vii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................1
1. Rationale of the study .............................................................................................1
2. Aims of the study ....................................................................................................2
3. Method of the study ................................................................................................2
4. Significance of the study.........................................................................................2
6. Structure of the thesis .............................................................................................2
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................4
2.1. Vocabulary knowledge.........................................................................................4
2.2. Approaches to vocabulary learning and teaching ................................................4
2.3. The role of images in vocabulary learning...........................................................6
2.4. Teaching vocabulary to young learners ...............................................................9
2.4.1. Characteristics of young learners ......................................................................9
2.4.2. Techniques of teaching vocabulary to young learners ....................................12
2.5. Studies on teaching vocabulary to young learners through pictures..................15
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .........................................................................19
3.1. Action research in language teaching ................................................................19
3.1.1. Purposes of action research .............................................................................19
3.1.2. Features of action research ..............................................................................20
3.1.3. Steps in action research ...................................................................................21
3.2. Why is action research chosen? .........................................................................21

3.3. The context of the study .....................................................................................22
3.3.1. The current situation of teaching and learning English at the center ..............22
3.3.2. The teaching program and materials ...............................................................23
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3.4. Research procedures...........................................................................................23
3.4.1. Research question............................................................................................23
3.4.2. The participants ...............................................................................................24
3.4.3. Design of the procedures .................................................................................24
3.5. Data collection instruments ................................................................................28
CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ......................................30
4.1. Analysis on classroom observations ..................................................................30
4.1.1. Interest .............................................................................................................30
4.1.2. Interaction .......................................................................................................33
4.2. Analysis on test results .......................................................................................35
4.2.1. Analysis on immediate tests ............................................................................35
4.2.2. Analysis on delayed tests ................................................................................38
4.3. Discussion of the findings ..................................................................................39
CHAPTER 5: RECAPITULATION .....................................................................42
1. Conclusion ............................................................................................................42
2. Implications ..........................................................................................................43
3. Limitations and recommendations for further studies ..........................................43
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................45
APPENDICES ........................................................................................................... I
APPENDIX 1 ............................................................................................................. I
APPENDIX 2 .......................................................................................................... IV
APPENDIX 3 ........................................................................................................ VIII
APPENDIX 4 .......................................................................................................... IX
APPENDIX 5 ............................................................................................................ X

APPENDIX 6 ......................................................................................................... XII

v


LIST OF CHARTS
Chart 4.1: Students‟ interest in learning activities ....................................................30
Chart 4.2: Classroom interaction..............................................................................34
Chart 4.3: The students‟ mean score of immediate tests‟ average mark ..................37

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1. Characteristics of young learners……………………………………… 12
Table 3.1. Design of the study……………………………………………………. 33
Table 4.1: The two groups‟ results of six immediate tests...... Error! Bookmark not
defined.
Table 4.2:The two groups‟ results of two delayed tests ............................................38

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale of the study
English is playing a more and more major role in various sectors in nonnative speaking English countries. Therefore, it is not hard to realize that it is now
one of the most widely – learned foreign language which is taught in Vietnam. As it
is noted, English teaching and learning include four skills: speaking, listening,

reading and writing, and of these mentioned skills, Vietnamese students are making
an endeavor to master communicative competence – which is “speaking”. Language
is a tool for communication. Communication exists where there appears speech.
Without speech, a language will have an intention to become a mere script.
According to Chaney, speaking is “"the process of building and sharing meaning
through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts"
(Chaney, 1998: 13). To master speaking is to put words under control, which helps
listeners completely understand what speakers mean. “If language structures make
up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and
the flesh.” (Harmer 1993: 153). The acquisition of an adequate vocabulary is
necessary for successful second language use because without an extensive
vocabulary, it is difficult to apply the structures and functions into comprehensible
communication. It leads to the fact that vocabulary is regarded as a cornerstone
which contributes to the existence of a language. Speaking will become senseless if
it has only structures. „„When students travel, they don‟t carry grammar books, they
carry dictionaries‟‟ (Krashen, as cited in Lewis, 1993, p25) Many researchers argue
that vocabulary is one of the most important-if not the most important- components
in learning a foreign language, and foreign language curricula must reflect this.
Nowadays, there have existed more and more concerns about vocabulary
acquisition, even though these two (acquisition of grammar) are independent.
Vocabulary is like vital organs, and grammar skeleton of a language. For this
reason, English teachers have to be able to put teaching and learning activities in the
right order and use materials with appropriate technique to help learners master the
lesson expertly, especially vocabulary in long – term memory.

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As an English teacher in 2nd grade at an English center using English text
book written by Ministry of Education and Training, the author considers teaching

vocabulary as a major concern because at the age of seven, students are not able to
remember all the words they have learned in class by writing and reading. The
easiest way I have experimented for them to put new words in mind is visualization,
especially pictures. Hence, it is urgent for me to understand how much pictures can
bring a good result for students in learning vocabulary.
2. Aims of the study
The goal of this study is to find out how using pictures in teaching influences
young learners‟ learning English vocabulary at an English center.
The results of the research will suggest practical tips for English teachers in
teaching vocabulary to young learners. To get the above aim for the study, the
researcher attempts to give answers for the following research question:
How does using pictures in teaching vocabulary support the young learners‟
vocabulary learning?
3. Method of the study
Given the purpose of the study, an action research design was used. The
research was conducted with forty 2th grade students who were studying English in
my class.
4. Significance of the study
The findings of the thesis may serve as useful information for applying
suitable ways in teaching vocabulary fruitfully at primary school.
5. Scope of the study
The study only focuses on the problem that my students have in absorbing
and remembrance of new words in English. Also, the participants are the students in
my 2nd grade at an English center in Hanoi.
6. Structure of the thesis
Chapter I: Introduction presents the rationale, aims, methodology, significance and
scope of the study.

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Chapter 2: Literature review– The first part provides some theoretical aspects of
vocabulary teaching and the second part of this chapter is about teaching vocabulary
to young learners through pictures.
Chapter 3: Methodology - in this chapter, the introduction of research method
including research questions, data collection instruments are presented.
Chapter 4: Data analysis and discussion show the procedure of carrying on the
research and presents the data analysis result from classroom observation and tests
will be analyzed and discussed to reveal the answers to the research question
Chapter 5: Conclusion, which is the last chapter, followed by references is the
summary of the whole study. The limitations of the study and suggestions for
further studies are also recommended.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, relevant literature will be considered in an attempt to create a
theoretical framework for the study.
The first section of this chapter is aimed at theoretical aspects of vocabulary
acquisition and the role of images in vocabulary learning while the second one
focuses on teaching vocabulary to young learners through pictures.
2.1. Vocabulary knowledge
Knowing a word means knowing its form, meaning and use. The form is
composed of the spelling, the pronunciation, and the grammtical features or parts
of speech (i.e., whether the word is a verb or a noun) of the word. Law (2017)
explains that that learning vocabulary is a sequence that moves from learning to
recognise and produce the sound of a word, to learning the meaning of the word,
and then how to develop the representation of the word and generalise the word

correctly. This is true to young learners‟ learning English vocabulary in an EFL
context like Vietnam.
2.2. Approaches to vocabulary learning and teaching
According to Nation (2007), there are four strands in vocabulary learning.
The first strand is meaning-focused input. In this strand, learners learn vocabulary
incidentally through listening and reading (input). The second strand is called
meaning-focused output, i.e. learning vocabulary through speaking and writing
tasks. The third strand is form-focused instruction, and the last strand is fluency
development. In this strand, learners learn vocabulary either by repeating learned
words or by usung the known words in a variety of contexts. Details of these strands
are below.
Firstly, meaning – focused input is the way of vocabulary learning through
listening and reading and this is the most popular way accounting for first language
vocabulary learning. Learning will be more effective if learners pay more attention
to unknown words on encountering them in deliberate learning strand (form –

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focused instruction) or using dictionaries to look them up or highlighting them in
the text. Learning incidentally by listening and reading is a cumulative process and
requires learners to meet the words many times to retain them.
Secondly, meaning – focused output is an essential way to put receptive
knowledge into productive knowledge. There exist a lot of ways to help learners
gain successful vocabulary learning through productive skills such as activities of
stimulating to use new vocabulary (through pictures or definitions), speaking in
groups or using partly known words to speak and write.
Thirdly, form – focused instruction (deliberate vocabulary teaching/learning)
is considered as the most effective way for the EFL learners to study vocabulary while
the first strand – meaning – focused input is very popular for a native speaker. With

this strand, learners are advised to retrieve, not recognize, the words and strengthen the
relation between the form and meaning of the word. They can also learn by using a
group of 15 or 20 cards to recall the words or lexical chunks or avoiding interference
(words that have similar spelling or have related meaning) or avoiding serial learning
(cards of the words that are shuffled). If conducted properly, this strand will lead ro a
quick and long – term expansion of vocabulary size.
Fourthly, fluency – focused work with vocabulary means using the already
known words to move them into reality in a faster way. This strand believe that a
number of familiar material will be utilized to concentrate on the message and
preformance at a higher level at a faster speed. There are two general paths to
fluency development: the first one is repetition to set up good conditions to learn the
words and the second one aims at developing a well – ordered system of vocabulary
which means any words can be accessed in a variety of ways.
Each of the above strands contributes to learners‟ various opportunities for
studying and establishes favorable environment for vocabulary learning. However,
form – focused instruction is the widely – used method by leaners and teachers and
this is used most in classroom. In fact, learners themselves are not interested in
looking for chances to set up a firm ground of language proficiency by four basic

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skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing). As a result, the level of fluency
development might be a sad story because of the lack of practice. In general,
teachers‟ vocabulary learning program should be based on the four strands to ensure
that learners are able to grasp all the aspects of words in an explicit way.
2.3. The role of images in vocabulary learning
Vocabulary is very important because it is the basic unit of language.
Without vocabulary, one is not able to communicate effectively or express what
he/she wants, which means a barrier to learners. Therefore, to strengthen, retain and

expand one‟s vocabulary, there have existed various ways to learn vocabulary like
using music for memorization, analyzing word‟s root, using context clues, etc.
However, one of the most popular way is to use pictures in vocabulary learning.
According to Andrew Wright (1989: 20), “picture is not just an aspect of method
but through its representation of place, object, and people, it is essential part of the
overall experience”. By seeing pictures, learners are able to see people, things and
places from everywhere and at a lot of moments of time, from ancient times to the
future‟s perspective. The use of pictures can bring much more efficiency because
learners are easy to recall and remember words through images.
According to Andrew Wright mentioned by John Spead (1988: 12), there are
eight types of pictures for vocabulary learning:
- Pictures of single object
- Pictures of person (picture of famous person or people in action)
- Pictures of places
- Pictures from history
- Pictures with information
- Pictures of fantasies
- Pictures of the news
- Pictures of maps and symbols
With the description of types of pictures above, teachers and learners will use
them in an effective way to gain large and long – lasting vocabulary. Also, from the
meaning and types of pictures, it is easy to find out their roles for vocabulary
learning:

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- Pictures can give learners motivation to pay attention to and participate in
lessons. They are useful for introducing grammatical and vocabulary items,
allowing for meaning practice of vocabulary and structures presented by teachers

and revising words form one lesson to another in the long – run. Harmer (2001:
134) says that “Teachers have always used pictures or graphics – whether drawn,
taken from books, newspapers and magazines, or photographs – to facilitate
learning”. Both teachers and learners show their attitudes that using pictures can
make teaching and learning vocabulary more enjoyable and memorable. Pictures
help learners not only with concrete words but also with abstract in some cases by
associating the words with concrete things that make them easier to remember.
Harmer (2001:135) notes that “one of the most appropriate use for pictures is for
presenting and checking of meaning. An easy way of explaining the meaning of the
word airplane, for example, is to have a picture of one.” On the other hand, images
link learners to the mentioned topic by teachers and thanks to them, learners can
identify events, experiences, facts and connect them with their daily life.
- Pictures make a dedication to the context where learners use the language.
They provide a sense of the context of the language and give a specific stimulus for
using the language at the reproduction and manipulation phases in speaking, reading
and writing. According to Allford (2000), pictures supply information about target
language society and culture or Nelson and Casatno (1984) stated that the
employment of images may be the same function as words – in – context. As a
result, learners can choose suitable words for the context. But in some cases, words
and images are different from each other in “specific associative meaning” but they
still “share common representation at the conceptual level” (Nelson and Castano,
1984:3). Therefore, the words should be integrated with other information and
connected to different contexts using their already knowledge to form connection
between the first language and the foreign one in order to construct and express
discourse (Allford, 2000; Mayer and Slims, 1994)

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- Pictures can be described in an objective way (for example, “This is a car”),

or in an interpreted one (for instance, “This is an Italian car”) or responded to
subjectively (“I love going around by car”)
These roles of images in vocabulary learning are likely to match the
multimodal perspective, which has been used a lot in language teaching and
learning. Modality means interactive way between sense – organ and outside
environment. Multimodality is an interdisciplinary approach, which includes verbal
and written language, pictures, space, graphics and other resources constructing
meaning. This leads to the evolution for establishing the ground for conducting
research studies on the language‟s functions and study on vocabulary learning based
on images is one of them. Language is a closed system which means language itself
can be explained by using other languages or explained with images that must be
explained with language (Smith, 2006). During the mid – 20th century, new
technologies like photography, audiotape and video have made differences in the
way information is conveyed, perceived and understood. It has been proved that
using various models will help learners make progresses in her/his perception on
learning process, which means they are more attentive towards the language.
Sankey, Birch and Gardiner (2010: 853) stated that “"significant increases in
learning can be accomplished through the informed use of visual and verbal
multimodal learning" and "students may feel more comfortable and perform better
when learning in environments that cater for their predominant learning style". And
so can the vocabulary learning through pictures. Mayer (2003:307) declares that
“students learn more deeply from a combination of words and pictures than from
words alone; known as the, multimedia effect". In English vocabulary teaching with
Multimodal Theory, teachers should focus on language, pictures, images, sounds
and the alike when teaching new words. If they are brought into use fully, the
learners‟ difficulty in learning new words will be lower. The words are not only
presented with written forms but also with illustrated supplements like images.
Zarei and Khazaie (2011) studied on how Iranian learners of the English language
learn English vocabulary using laptop based delivery of multimodal items. All
8

participants were the ones enrolling in EFL classes and were divided into four
different short term memory ability groups, using the Visual and Verbal Short Term
Memory Test according to their low or high level of visual and verbal abilities. At
the end of the experiment, they were assessed on their recognition and recall of
vocabulary items. In the end, the groups which were given words through pictures
or written annotations had better results on the tests. Hall, Bailey, and Tillman
(1997) conducted an experiment on three groups: one receiving text with
illustrations, another with text alone and the last one with creating their own
illustrations. After tested, the results turned out that there was no significant
difference between the first and the last groups which were provided with
illustrations or creation of their own visual. They even did better than the one
having the text only.
In general, learning vocabulary through pictures has brought a lot of good
results to learners and it is also a part of the Multimodal Theory in improving the
effectiveness and efficiency of learners‟ mastering vocabulary in the trend of
modern language teaching and learning.
2.4. Teaching vocabulary to young learners
2.4.1. Characteristics of young learners
For a long time, children have been considered as natural language learners
in a good saying. They have a lot of differences in absorbing language aspects in
comparison with adults because of their language learning without any anxiety,
especially when they learn English as a foreign language. Therefore, it is very
important to fully understand the characteristics of young learners in order to draw
out the appropriate methods for teaching them. The characteristics of young learners
are classified into three aspects, including: physical aspect, social aspect and
psychological aspect.
At the first glance, physical side emerges as the apparently – seen feature of
young learners. Young learners usually possess limited motor skills, have few

language capabilities and lack language analyses. According to Piaget (1970),
children are regarded as active learners and thinkers. They build their knowledge
9


basing on the exploration of individual actions and active interaction with the
physical environment. They can make sense of concrete aspects and topics than
abstract ones (Williams and Burden, 1991: 31). As a result, they will understand the
meanings of the words which are concrete, not abstract ones, such as cat, flower,
chair, etc., and the ways teachers can introduce this kind of words are to use action,
cards, body language and some other suitable objects or apply some physical
activities like drawing, coloring, touching, etc. This helps young learners easily
attach the meaning of the words to the things or actions shown to them. For abstract
terms like words with abstract meanings or grammar, young learners will find it
hard to take them in. For example, Philips (1993: 74) notes that “This may be
because words have tangible, immediate meanings whereas structures aer less
obviously useful – after all Pencil often obtains the same result as “Can I have a
pencil?”. Bloor (1991: 129) states that young learners make more progress when
learning in situations or contexts where they have to pay attention to meaning, not
to language itself.
The second side of the characteristics of young learners is social side. Social
development has a significant influence on their language learning. Young learners
always have a desire to be part of community. In Vygotsky‟s opinion (1962),
children build their knowledge on being exposed to other people and interaction
with adults. They can learn better when put into social contexts or in groups. Wendy
and Yteberg (1990) say young learners will be happier when taking part in activities
accompanied by others and can be conscious of having relation with other people.
They will stand a chance to overcome their self – centered phases if joining games
in order to reinforce their language capabilities. Interesting activities will create
pleasant atmosphere in class, which encourages learners to express themselves and

help others better in group. According to Williams (1998:7), “all learners are valued
as individuals; challenges and risks are supported; topics are relevant and
interesting; activities are meaningful and purposeful; praise is given where and
when it is due; and disciplis is firm, consistent and fair. As well as having a positive

10


effect on the learning environment in the classroom, this approach will also
encourage learners to be more tolerant of each other and others they encounter
outside the classroom”.
The last one is psychological side containing five components. First is young
learners‟ short attention span and easily getting bored according to Wendy and
Yteberg (1990). Lesson‟s activities should be designed interestingly and bountifully
to draw young learners‟ attraction. In this field, Stephen Krashen‟s affective filter
hypothesis should be recommended. He states that a learner‟s result of learning
process will depend partly on his/her feeling or emotions. A high affective learner
may not become an efficient one because of his/her anxiety or inhibitions and vice
versa, a low affective one has more chances to gain better results due to their feeling
of relaxation or well – being. They should be involved in classroom activities to
practice their English, gain better results from experience and absorb more input.
Consequently, only a favorable environment may lengthen young learners‟
concentration span and interest. Secondly, young learners have no prejudice. They
are very logical as Wendy and Yteberg (1990) argue. For instance, if the order is
“Before you go out, turn off the light”, they can understand it in this way: first step
is to turn off the light and the second one is to go out. Thirdly, young learners are
very forgetful because of their short – term attention. Therefore, it is very necessary
to have various activities to help them recall and retrieve their already known words
or language aspects. Fourthly, they are very keen on imitation and repetition. These
kinds of activities help them feel secure about not making mistakes and teachers

should set a good example for them. With repetitive and imitative activities, young
learners can follow the same thing or action whenever they want with little
differences. For instance, to teach the word “dance”, teachers can perform the action
of dancing and ask learners to do that along with saying the word “dance”. It will be
very easy for them to remember and recall this word. The last one is that young
learners are very serious because they always think what they are doing is “real”
and when in favorable language learning environment, they will freely express

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themselves and may figure out a more creative way of introducing a word or
sometimes a language aspect.
Or more clearly about the characteristics based on the age of young learners,
Slatterly, M., & Willis, J. (2001) classify them as Table 2.1:
Very Young Learners (under 7)

Young Learners (from 7 to 12)

- Gain knowledge through hearing and - Are learning to read and write in their
experience of English in the same way mother tongue.
they learn their mother tongue.

- Are developing their critical thinking.

- Learn things through mostly physical - Able to distinguish the difference
activities and some little mental ones in between reality and imagination.
an incidental way.

- Able to set up a plan and organize

- Enjoy playing with language in the how to manage an activity.
ways

of

making

sounds,

noises, - Able to work with and learn from

repetition or imitation.

others.

- Unable to read or write in their mother - Are

responsible

for

classroom

tongue as well as in the foreign language activities.
so it is essential to recycle language
through talk and play.
- Develop grammar in a gradual way due
to their exposal to the contexts in
English.

Table 2.1. Characteristics of young learners
These above characteristics play an important role in helping teachers find
appropriate methods for teaching their young learners and improving a welcoming
environment of learning.
2.4.2. Techniques of teaching vocabulary to young learners
According to Nunan (2003: 135 – 141), teachers should notice some
principles that can be applied effectively to vocabulary teaching and learning

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process. These guidelines concentrate on high frequency words in a suitable way
across the four strands of a course, which gives learners more motivation to be in
charge of their learning results. High frequency words are the ones that can be used
under any circumstances – listening, speaking, reading, writing and communicating
messages, so teachers are advised to give learners opportunities to be exposed to
these useful words and help them tell the difference between the high and low
frequency vocabulary.
Besides, Schmitt (2006: 13 – 14) also figures out several fundamental rules
of vocabulary teaching, including creating a large size of vocabulary, connecting the
new words with the already known ones, giving learners various chances of
encountering a word, boosting learners‟ awareness of deeper learning, applying new
words into reality and guiding them to absorb independent learning strategies.
From these above theories, teachers should design good strategies in teaching
vocabulary to young learners. According to Manandhar (2009: 1), there are various
ones suitable for young learners‟ vocabulary teaching as below:
- Using real things (or called relia) or pictures or mime: one of the techniques
in the Direct Method. This approach is suitable for teaching beginners or multi
language classes where translation is not a good choice to make. Moreover, it

requires learners‟ comprehensible input. For instance, learners are expected to
perform the same actions in order to respond to command like: “Touch the green
apple” or “Put the orange under the table”. In this case, plastic fruit will be ideal.
- Using picture: pictures in relation with the things mentioned in the lesson
should be shown to young learners to help them build the images of things, people
and places in their mind.
- Using matchstick: because of children‟ curiosity and interest in lovely
things, matchstick figure will draw their attention to what teachers want to
demonstrate to them.
- Using synonyms and antonyms: the former means the words having the
same meaning with them and vice versa, the ones that possess the opposite
meanings are called the antonyms.
- Using definition: a way of obtaining the meanings of the words from a
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dictionary. One word may have its literal and figurative meaning. Therefore, it is
not easy for both teachers and learners to look for words‟ meanings in a dictionary.
However, dictionaries for learners usually give definitions which bring out reliable
model. In the case of young learners, some advanced words
- Using demonstration: actions are done by teachers to help learners connect
them to words.
- Using presenting Lexical Set/ Enumeration: words that have relation with
others in the field of meanings or grammar can be taught at the same time.
- Using games: games promote the classroom environment of learning. They
create a more ludic atmosphere for children to make them feel excited and have a
desire to be involved in classroom activities.
- Using audio/ visual: a lot of words are easily presented to children through
tape recording or video instead of using the above ways.
Furthermore, Herrel in Henriksen (1999) also sets out some effective

techniques for young learners‟ vocabulary teaching such as
- Guessing meaning from contexts includes using definition, restatement,
punctuation marks, examples, contrast and back ground knowledge.
- Teaching collocations helps them know more about words occurring with
high frequency like “strong coffee”, not “powerful coffee”.
- Teaching word family will make it easy for young learners to remember and
retrieve the words in the same topic, which develops their connection between lexical
semantics and mental lexicon. For example, topic “Family” may remind them about
words of the kinship like “mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter”, etc.
- Recycling content: teachers create meaningful contexts requiring young
learners to reuse the already known words.
- Keeping a vocabulary journal: learners have to take note or record the
words they encounter to accumulate a large size of target vocabulary, so it is easier
for them to remember and use the words.
- Eliciting: learners can recall the words in the form of definition, synonyms
or antonyms, which enables them to know the target vocabulary deeply and use

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them in a suitable way.
- Contextualization: words will be absorbed through learners‟ join in
activities of gap – filling, story - building or role – playing.
- Labelling: they will write the names of things on papers and stick them to
the mentioned objects.
- Personalization: Learners imagine they are doing an activity related to new
words like they are doing as if they were going to act out the word “row”.
- Learning words through pre – fixes and post – fixes: this technique helps
learners study words in a logical way – they can make sense of a lot of words that
are built by word parts and connect them with other like “bi” means “2” or “anti”

means “against”.
- Association: learners are able to integrate new words with already known
words to create something meaningful.
- Semantic mapping: it promotes the development of young learners‟ reading,
writing and thinking because they have to link new information with the previous
one. For instance, learners have to arrange the given words into a complete sentence
so they must find the words in suitable order of meaning and grammar.
- Categorizing words: this kind of activity requires learners to classify words
into same aspects. For example, categorize words in the field of verbs or nouns.
Some of techniques that are set up by Herrel in Henriksen (1999) are suitable
for young learners but the others are only for advanced young learners because they
require a lot of mental activities.
Several techniques of teaching vocabulary to young learners have been set
out by some researchers and used in a lot of classrooms so that they can achieve
their vocabulary acquisition at their best. The more vocabulary learners know, the
more excited they become to get involved in language activities and promote their
motivation of language learning.
2.5. Studies on teaching vocabulary to young learners through pictures
Vocabulary plays an important part in language learning because it appears

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in every language skill. Without words, human is not able to express emotion or
thought. On the part of adults, with the features of having critical thinking and
experiencing surrounding environment, they do not have any difficulty in
expressing themselves. However, on young learners‟ side, it is a matter for them to
find ways to show what they would like because of their own characteristics.
Consequently, there have existed various researches on teaching vocabulary to
young learners by using images to find out how effective this technique is.

Firstly, a case – study research named “Teaching vocabulary through
pictures to the kindergarten students” was carried out by Leny of English
Department Faculty of Tarbiyah and Teachers Training Syarif Hidayatullah State
Islamic University, Jakarta (2006). The researcher desired to find out whether
pictures could attract young learners‟ attention to study in an easier way and give
them motivation in learning. The researcher conducted the study by giving learners
two kinds of exercises, whose words related to a house, the first was that children
had to draw a picture of a house by doing “dot to dot” and color the pictures and the
second was to ask them about parts of the house and tell about it. These exercises
made children able to have various answers by their imagination. After that, to help
children remember and recall parts of a house, teacher asked them to listen to a
listening tape describing a house with its parts and gave a check mark on their
pictures, then they would sing about a part of the house using the song “that is a
window”. Based on the results of the procedure, several conclusions were drawn.
Images helped young learners make sense of difficult words easily by looking at
them and make them feel enjoyable and excited at vocabulary learning. Moreover,
looking at pictures related to the words made children able to memorize the words
by singing along with looking at the pictures, which gave them more chances to
practice pronunciation and attract their curiosity in learning new vocabulary. Also,
it offered a set of advice for having an enjoyable class situation: teachers should
choose suitable techniques and materials that met learners‟ needs, instructions
should be given in a short and clear way and new words should be presented

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