iii ABSTRACT This study aims at finding out the attitudes of the teachers and students at Le Quy Don gifted high school in Dien Dien towards the use of visual aids in teaching and leaning English vocabulary In the study, the quantitative and qualitative methods are employed The instruments to collect data for the study are survey questionnaires and interview After gathering and analyzing the collected data, some major findings have been revealed The first finding is that most of the teachers and students at LQD gifted high school in Dien Bien have positive attitudes towards the use of visual aids in teaching and learning vocabulary The second finding shows that most of the teachers tend to use different types of visual aids in teaching vocabulary Nevertheless, they still restrict themselves to some visual types only Moreover, their ways of exploiting visual aids to teach vocabulary is limited They just mainly focus on using visual aids to present new words This means that the teachers have not made use of visual aids to their fullest potential to aid their students or arouse their interest in leaning vocabulary The third finding is that both the teachers and students still encounter certain challenges when using visual aids in teaching and learning vocabulary It is hopeful that this study can be of some help to the teachers at LQD gifted high school and the school itself about their teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the use of visual aid in teaching vocabulary or other teachers and schools interested in the subject matter iv LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS LQD Le Quy Don (gifted high school) No Number of informants RO Real objects v LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES List of figures Pages Figure 1: Data collected from question of the teachers’ questionnaire 19 Figure 2: Teachers’ interest in using visual aids to teach vocabulary 20 Figure 3: Teachers’ evaluation of the visual aids in general 20 Figure 4: Data collected from question of the teachers’ questionnaire 21 Figure 5: Data collected from question of the teachers’ questionnaire 24 Figure 6: Data collected from question 12 of the teachers’ questionnaire 26 Figure 7: Students’ interest in learning vocabulary through visual aids 28 Figure 8: Students’ evaluation on the usefulness of visual aids in vocabulary teaching 28 Figure 9: Data collected from question of the students’ questionnaire 28 Figure 10: Students’ preference of the sources of the pictures 30 Figure 11: Students’ preference of the sources of real objects 30 Figure 12: Data collected from question 10 of the students’ questionnaire 32 Figure 13: Teachers’ attitudes towards the importance of vocabulary in language teaching 33 Figure 14: Data collected from question of the interview for the teachers 33 List of tables pages Table 1: The teachers’ evaluation of the specific visual aids 21 Table 2: The teachers’ frequency of visual aids use in teaching vocabulary 22 Table 3: The teachers’ ways of using of visual aids to teach vocabulary and the 23 frequency of the teachers using these ways to teach vocabulary Table 4: The types of visual aids and their impressions on the students 23 Table 5: The teachers’ frequent sources of getting visual aids 24 Table 6: The teachers’ reasons for using visual aids in teaching vocabulary 25 Table 7: The challenges faced by teachers when using visual aids to teach vocabulary 26 Table 8: The students’ evaluation of visual aids in facilitating their vocabulary learning 29 Table 9: The students’ evaluation on their teachers’ frequency of using visual aids to 30 vi teach vocabulary Table 10: The reasons for the students’ interest in learning vocabulary through visual aids 31 Table 11: The reasons for the students’ de-motivation in learning vocabulary through visual aids 32 Table 12: The problems faced by the students when learning vocabulary through visual aids 33 Table 13: Teachers’ favorite ways of teaching vocabulary 34 vii TABLES OF CONTENT Page number DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii ABSTRACT iii LISTS OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES v TABLE OF CONTENT vii PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale of the study Aims of the study Research questions Scope of the study Methods of the study Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Vocabulary 1.1.1 What is vocabulary? 1.1.2 Classification of vocabulary 1.1.2.1 Vocabulary classified according to the concept of morpheme 1.1.2.2 Vocabulary classified according to the meaning 1.1.2.3 Vocabulary classified according to the functions 1.1.2.4 Vocabulary classified according to the frequency of use 1.2 Vocabulary and its significant role in language teaching and learning 1.3 Visual aids 1.3.1 Definitions of visual aids 1.3.2 Types of visual aids 1.3.2.1 Chalkboards 1.3.2.2 Real objects and presentational objects 1.3.2.3 Mime (Gesture and Facial expressions) viii 1.3.2.4 Pictures 10 1.3.2.4.1 Wall pictures and wall charts 11 1.3.2.4.2 Flash cards 12 1.3.2.4.2.1 Word flash cards 12 1.3.2.4.2.2 Picture flash cards 12 1.4 Benefits of using visual aids to teach vocabulary 14 CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY 16 2.1 Research question 16 2.2 Subjects of the study 16 2.2.1 The students 16 2.2.2 The teachers 16 2.3 The instruments 17 2.3.1 The questionnaires 17 2.3.1.1 The teachers’ questionnaire 17 2.3.1.2 The students’ questionnaire 17 2.3.2 The interview for the teachers 18 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 19 3.1 Data analysis 19 3.1.1 Results from the survey questionnaires 19 3.1.1.1 Results from the teachers’ survey questionnaire 19 3.1.1.2 Results from the students’ survey questionnaire 28 3.1.2 Results from the interviews for the teachers 33 3.2 Findings and discussion 36 PART C: CONCLUSION 38 4.1 Summary of the study 38 4.2 Recommendations 38 4.3 Limitations and suggestions for further study 40 REFERENCES 41 APPENDIX I APPENDIX IV APPENDIX VIII PART A: INTRODUCTION Rationale of the study Wilkin (1972: 110) states that “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” This means that to be a competent English communicator, one must acquire a good knowledge of English grammar and have a rich amount of English vocabulary as well Vocabulary is an essential element of language Whether in speaking or writing, learners need vocabulary to communicate and understand others In many cases, learners produce grammatically incorrect sentences, but they still get their message across if they use key words appropriately In other cases, learners may feel uncomfortable because they fail to employ certain words, or not know the words to express themselves For these above reasons, we cannot deny the importance of vocabulary in learning a foreign language However, for many students at Le Quy Don gifted high school in Dien Bien, learning vocabulary is really a hard job They find it difficult to remember a huge number of new words they have encountered in each lesson It often takes them a lot of time and energy to learn vocabulary However, they cannot remember them for long Additionally, many students can not communicate or express themselves with the target language because they lack vocabulary As a result, many students often ask their teachers the same question about how they can learn vocabulary effectively As a matter of fact, what students are wondering is also a big question that always bare in the teachers’ mind which urges them try to find a suitable solution to better facilitate both the teachers’ and students’ vocabulary teaching and learning process The idea of using visual aids to better aid students learn vocabulary has been conducted at LQD gifted school by many teachers including the researcher and all agree that visual aids are of great use to aid both the teachers and their students in teaching and learning vocabulary Many students admit that they can remember new words more easily by both listening to their teachers and looking at the visuals They also get involved to the lesson more actively by guessing the words’ meaning through the visuals, describing the visuals, asking and answering questions related to the visuals, etc Therefore, students gradually retain more words and can better communicate in the target language For teachers, many agree that they can reduce their talking time of explaining new words in stead of introducing words directly through different types of visual aids From what the teachers and students have mentioned about some of benefits of visual aids, the researcher can partly know about their attitudes towards the use of visual aids in teaching and learning vocabulary This inspires the researcher to conduct the study entitled “An Investigation into Teachers’ and Students’ Attitudes towards the Use of Visual Aids in Teaching and Learning Vocabulary at Le Quy Don Gifted High School, Dien Bien.” with hope of understanding more about not only the teachers’ and students’ attitude towards the use of visual aids but also the overall problems faced by them in teaching and learning vocabulary through visual aids Hopefully, this study will be of some values to those who want to improve their vocabulary teaching, especially by means of visual aids Aims of the study: The study aims at: - Investigating the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the use of visual aids in teaching and learning vocabulary - Exploring the extent to which visual aids have been used in vocabulary teaching and learning - Finding out the possible problems faced by the teachers and students in teaching and learning vocabulary through visual aids Research questions: In order to achieve the above-stated goals, the study was carried out to seek answers to the following questions: What are the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the use of visual aids in teaching and learning vocabulary? To what extent have visual aids been used in teaching and learning vocabulary? What are the problems faced by the teachers and students when teaching and learning vocabulary through visual aids? Scope of the study This research focuses on investigating the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the use of visual aids in teaching and learning vocabulary in LQD gifted high school in Dien Bien In fact, there are many different types of visuals that can be used to help the students better learn vocabulary However, due to the minor scope of this thesis, the research only aims at several types of visual aids such as pictures, chalkboards, real objects, mime-facial expressions which are available in class or can be easily made and applied by the teachers Additionally, the study has not dealt with students of all levels but just 11th form students who have been familiar with their teachers’ method of teaching vocabulary through visual aids since they were in grade ten Methods of the study In the study, data was collected by two methods: survey and interview The survey consists of two questionnaires, one for the teachers and the other for the students The questionnaire for the teachers is to find their attitudes towards the use of visual aids in teaching vocabulary and problems they have encountered while teaching Also, the questionnaire for the students has the same purposes After that, all collected data will be synthesized and analyzed statistically Besides, the researcher conducted informal interviews with the teachers in order to supplement the survey questionnaires It is hopeful that the combination of the two methods would make the data more valid and reliable Design of the study: This study is divided into three main parts: Part A: INTRODUCTION: In this part the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the scope, the methods and the design of the study are presented Part B: DEVELPOMENT: This part consists of three chapters Chapter 1, the “Literature Review” provides the theoretical background of vocabulary, a brief view of some visual aids and the benefits of using visual aids in teaching vocabulary Chapter 2, “Methodology” presents a brief view on the subjects, the instruments and procedures to collect data employed to seek for the answers to the research questions Chapter 3, “Data Analysis and Discussion” is the main part of the study In this chapter, the data from the survey questionnaires and the interview will be analyzed and discussed Part C: CONCLUSION: This part offers a summary of the study and some suggestions for further study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Vocabulary 1.1.1 What is vocabulary? Vocabulary is a matter to which many linguists and language teachers have paid much attention, especially in providing definitions of vocabulary In fact, there are number of definitions of vocabulary due to different views on it Generally, each linguist gives his/her own definition of vocabulary depending on the criteria that he/she considers the most important in terms of semantics, linguistics, lexicology, etc Therefore, it is hard to provide an exact definition of vocabulary Below some definitions of vocabulary are presented According to The Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics, vocabulary is defined as “a set of lexemes, including single words, compound words and idioms” Otherwise, in the Oxford Advanced learner’s Dictionary, vocabulary is defined quite simple as “all the words that a person knows or uses.” Penny Ur (1996: 60) offered a definition of vocabulary “vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as the words we teach in the foreign language However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: a compound of two or three words or multi-word idioms” In Stahl’s view, vocabulary is the knowledge of words and word meanings then he offered a clear and specific definition of vocabulary by saying that “vocabulary knowledge is knowledge; the knowledge of a word not only implies a definition, but also implies how that word fits into world.” (Stahl, S.A 2005) The author emphasizes that when learning vocabulary, learners must acquire the knowledge of words or word meanings and understand how the word they have learnt can be used appropriately in the real-world situations In conclusion, although definitions of vocabulary are numerous, none can certainly cover all the aspects and ideas of what vocabulary is However, from the above definitions, we can see that the centre of vocabulary is word, so the study of vocabulary can be understood as the study of words or word meanings This is also the concept adopted in this thesis ... Aims of the study: The study aims at: - Investigating the teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards the use of visual aids in teaching and learning vocabulary - Exploring the extent to which visual... learning - Finding out the possible problems faced by the teachers and students in teaching and learning vocabulary through visual aids Research questions: In order to achieve the above-stated... speech of that word in sentence in order to understand the word clearly For example: - I want a cup of water (a noun) - Can you water the flowers for me? (a verb) In this case, students may misunderstand