CANDIDATE’S STATEMENT
I hereby certify that this thesis is my own work and effort and that it has not been
submitted anywhere for any award.1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my gratitude to all the people who gave me the possibility to
complete this thesis.
First of all, I would like to express my sincere and deep gratitude to my supervisor,
Dr. Hà Cẩm Tâm for her invaluable advice, careful instruction and helpful
encouragement during the process of writing this minor thesis.
Secondly, I would also like to express my sincere thanks to all of my lecturers in the
Faculty of Post- graduate Studies, the University of Foreign Languages and
International Studies for useful lectures and suggestion that have inspired and
helped me much in the clarifications of my study.
My special thanks also go to all teachers and students at Smart-kids school in Bac
Ninh province who contribute to the idea budget and spent time completing
observation and tests.
Finally yet importantly, I would also like to express my genuine appreciation to my
friends and my family for their unending support and words of encouragement. If
there had not been great help from the above people, the study could not have been
fulfilled.
2
ABSTRACT
Vocabulary is one of the important elements in teaching English. In acquiring a
foreign language, learning vocabulary is considered as one of important tasks. At
Smart-kids school, learning and teaching vocabulary is a major concern, too. In an
attempt to investigate the effect of pictures in teaching vocabulary the study has
been conducted in the form of an action research. The participation of the study
comprised 30 kindergarten students. They were randomly assigned into two

1.1.1.4. Review 7
1.1.2. Techniques in vocabulary teaching 7
1.1.3. Factors affecting vocabulary retention 9
1.1.3.1. Memory 9
1.1.3.2. Motivation 11
1.1.3.3. Person-dependent factors 13
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1.2. Pictures in teaching vocabulary 15
1.2.1. The meaning of pictures 15
1.2.2. The types of pictures 16
1.2.3. Issues of using pictures in teaching vocabulary 17
1.2.4. Activities using pictures in teaching vocabulary 19
1.2.5. Review of previous studies on using pictures in teaching vocabulary 20
CHAPTER 2. METHODOLOGY 22
2.1. Research question 22
2.2. Informants 22
2.3. Planning 23
2.4. Acting 24
2.5. Observing 25
2.6. Reflecting 25
CHAPTER 3. DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 26
3.1. Classroom observation 26
3.1.1. Memory 26
3.1.2. Interest 28
3.1.3. Classroom interaction 31
3.2. Test result 33
3.2.1. The progress tests 33
3.2.2. The final test 34
3.3. Finding and comments 36
PART C. CONCLUSION 39

teaching and learning, speaking is always believed to be the most vital skill and in
teaching speaking, vocabulary is the most important thing. “If language structures
make up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital
organs and the flesh.”(Harmer 1993: 153). Cook’s (2000) conclusion is also
consistent with Wilkins in that “Grammar provides the overall patterns, vocabulary
the material to put into those patterns”. Or some authors, led by Lewis (1993) argue
that vocabulary should be at the center of language teaching, because ‘language
consists of grammaticalised lexis, not lexicalised grammar’. From the statement, it
can be seen that vocabulary functions as a cornerstone without which any language
could not exist. Speaking would be meaningless and perhaps impossible having
only structure without vocabulary. Therefore, the English teacher has to be able to
organize teaching and learning activities; they have to give materials by using a
suitable technique and master the lesson effectively. Especially in learning
vocabulary, teachers must make the students able to memorize such words in
English language and group of new words. Celce Maria stated that research in first
and second language acquisition suggest that initial teaching priorities for language
areas should be vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation. Therefore, the English
teacher has to be able to organize teaching and learning activities and they have to
give materials by using a suitable technique and master the lesson effectively.
Especially in learning vocabulary, teachers must make the students able to
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memorize such words in English language and group of new words. The statements
above mean, vocabulary is important to teach and teachers must try to find the most
effective way to help learners retain new words in long term memory.
As a teacher at Smart-kids schools, I realize that teaching vocabulary is
major concern because at the age of five, students cannot write or read and the
effective way to teach is through pictures. Therefore, I choose this topic to
understand more about the effectiveness of using picture in teaching vocabulary.
2. Aims and significance of the study
This study is aimed at finding out the effectiveness of using picture in

experiment, voicing some implications for language teachers in teaching vocabulary
and suggesting some recommendations for further studies.
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
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CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
In this chapter, relevant literature is reviewed, underlying the necessity and
the relevance of the study. In other words, background knowledge on vocabulary
teaching in general and vocabulary teaching through pictures in particular is looked
at critically to set up the theoretical framework for further investigation.
The first section of this chapter is devoted to theoretical aspects of
vocabulary teaching and the second section of this chapter is about pictures in
language teaching.
1.1. VOCABULARY TEACHING
It cannot be denied that vocabulary is one of the most important language
elements among pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. According to McCarthy
(1990:101), “vocabulary is the biggest component of any language. If you do not
know enough vocabulary you will not be able to express yourself adequately”. In
addition, “no matter how will the students learn grammar, no matter how
successfully the sounds of second language are mastered without words to express a
wider range of meaning, communication just cannot happen in any meaningful
way” (McCarthy, 1990: piii). From this, it can be said that teaching vocabulary
plays an important role, too. Although traditionally, the teaching of vocabulary
above elementary levels was mostly incidental, limited to presenting new items as
they appeared in reading or sometimes listening texts. This indirect teaching of
vocabulary assumes that vocabulary expansion will happen through the practice of
other language skills, which has been proved not enough to ensure vocabulary
expansion. Some authors, led by Lewis (1993) argue that vocabulary should be at
the center of language teaching, because “language consists of grammaticalised
lexis, not lexicalized grammar”. Nowadays it is widely accepted that vocabulary
teaching should be part of the syllabus, and taught in a well-planned and regular

student’s passive vocabulary, and students may easily forget them and do not know
how to use properly. Students’ vocabulary can only be activated effectively if the
teacher gives the learners opportunities to practise them through vocabulary
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exercises or activities. Thornbury (2002:93) underlines the popular belief that
“practice makes perfect”. In addition, he shares his opinion about the action of
moving from short-term memory into permanent memory. In order to ensure long-
term retention, words or lexical items need to be put into practice. In this case,
teacher finds a suitable way to help students with some kinds of practical exercises
to help students become more familiar with the words they have learned: matching
pictures to words, matching parts of words to other parts, using prefixes and
suffixes to build new words from given words, classifying items into lists, using
given words to complete vocabulary specific task, filling in crosswords, grids or
diagrams, filling in gaps in sentences and memory games. Besides, Thornbury
(2002: 93-94) points out that there is a variety of tasks which can be used in order to
help move words into long-term memory. They can be divided into five types in
order of least cognitively demanding to most demanding: identifying, selecting,
matching, sorting, and ranking and sequencing.
1.1.1.3. Production
Developing fluency with known vocabulary is essential to help learners
make the best use of what they have already known. In this stage, students are
advised to complete high-level tasks namely production tasks (Thornbury, 2002:
100). He recommends that learners should produce something as a product of their
own. In this way, learners will turn words from receptive to productive and put
them into long-term memory. In this stage, there are two major types that teachers
may have used very often: completion and creation. Basing on Hunt and Beglar
(2002: 261), fluency building activities recycle already known words in familiar
grammatical and organizational patterns so that students can focus on recognizing
or using words. To develop learners’ production of vocabulary, the following
activities are held such as first and second language comparisons and translation

students’ attention and desire to explore a particular topic or subject in greater
detail.
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Both McCarthy (1992: 110) and Thornbury (2004: 76) suggest two general
possibilities of arranging vocabulary presentation. The teacher provides the learners
with the meaning of the words and then progresses to introduction of their forms or
vice versa – the form is introduced first, followed up with illustration of the
meaning. In the latter, forms are often presented in text or another form of context
and students are encouraged to discover meanings and other properties of words
themselves. This type of activity is called the discovery technique (Harmer 1993:
160). There are many possibilities how to explain or illustrate the meaning of the
words. In the first place, it is necessary to mention techniques typical for ‘Direct
Method’ as Thornbury, 2004 specifies them “using real objects or pictures or
mime.” (Thornbury 2004: 78).
The same author continues that these means are especially appropriate for
teaching elementary levels, where many concrete objects are taught. These types of
presentation are usually supplemented with the use of total physical response, which
is a technique where the teacher gives commands and students perform the actions.
In total physical response, “the intention is to replicate the experience of learning
one’s mother tongue” (Thornbury 2004: 79). Techniques for using pictures are
furthermore explored as Harmer (1993: 161-162) suggests, sense relations,
definition and direct translation of words might function as yet another helpful
tool for clarifying the meaning.
Thornbury (2004) listed these options as well and furthermore included an
idea of clarifying the meaning by examples, such as “providing an example
situation” or “giving several example sentences” (Thornbury 2004: 81)
All these techniques are more or less useful for a particular situation, level
and vocabulary, the best way would be in many cases to combine them and use
several together. Besides explaining the meaning in vocabulary presentation, it is
also important to focus on forms, since the sound of words is one of the aspects

memory has an enormous capacity and its contents are durable over time. On the
basis of available research results, Thornbury has compiled a list of principles that
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facilitate the transfer of learning material into the long term memory. These include
multiple encounters with a lexical item preferably at spaced intervals, retrieved and
use of lexical items and cognitive depth, affective depth, personalization, imaging,
use of mnemonics and conscious attention that is necessary to remember lexical
items.
+ Repetition - repetition of encounters with a word is very important, useful
and effective. If the word is met several times over space interval during reading
activities, students have a very good chance to remember it for a long time.
+ Retrieval - another kind of repetition. Activities, which require retrieval,
such as using the new items in written tasks, help students to be able to recall it
again in the future.
+ Spacing - being useful to split memory work over a period of time rather
than to mass it together in a single block.
+ Use - putting words to use, preferably in an interesting way, is the best way
of ensuring they are added to long-term memory. This is so called “use it or lose it”
principle.
+ Cognitive depth - the more decisions students make about the word and the
more cognitively demanding these decisions are, the better the word is remembered.
+ Personal organizing - personalization significantly increased the
probability that students will remember new items. It is achieved mainly through
conversation and role-playing activities.
+ Imaging – easily visualized words are better memorable than those that do
not evoke with any pictures. Even abstract words can be associated with some
mental image.
+ Mnemonics - tricks to help retrieve items or rules that are stored in
memory. The best kinds of mnemonics hare visuals hand keyword techniques.
+ Motivation - strong motivation itself does not ensure that words will be

students want to do themselves because they are personally interested in it (e.g.
acquiring the knowledge of language). A typical example of intrinsic motivation is
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an interest or a hobby, i.e. an activity carried out for its own sake. On the contrary,
extrinsic motivation is influenced from outside. Students carry out activities
because they are expected or forced to do them. It may be the compulsory subjects
in school curriculum, a need to satisfy parents’ expectations, longing to be praised
or an idea of a better career. The ordinary motives are tangible rewards. On the
other hand, intrinsic motivation is concerned with the factors taking place inside the
classroom while extrinsic motivation is concerned with factors outside the
classroom. Harmer points out that intrinsic motivation is very important in students’
success or failure. What happens in the classroom is very important in establishing
students´ attitude to a language. In his opinion, extrinsic motivation includes
situations in which students believe that managing of the target language will be a
means for getting a better job, position or it will help them to integrate into a
particular culture environment. This stresses the fact that students’ attitude to
learning can be predominantly affected by members of a community. But other
factors participating in the learning process can also essentially affect it. They are
physical conditions, teaching methods, success or failure and especially a teacher.
All of them have an important impact on learning a foreign language.
To young learners or children, motivation in teaching and learning is
somehow different. Children do many things simply because they want to do them.
Selecting a toy or a shirt to wear is the result of "intrinsic motivation." The child
makes her own choice and achieves satisfaction from both the act of choosing and
from the opportunity to play with the toy or wear the shirt. Since the activity is
generating the motivation, it is mostly self-sustaining for as long as the child wants
to continue the activity. Children also engage in some activities because adults tell
them to, or in an effort to please another party. These activities are "extrinsically
motivated." When a child is extrinsically motivated, the reward comes from outside
the child-it has to be provided by someone else, and has to be continually given for

overall success because of a longer exposure to the language. He also provides
some explanations of the research results. The studies do not support the critical
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period hypothesis, which states that children can acquire a language naturally and
with no effort to some ages. The starting age is important only as far as
pronunciation is concerned. It can be said that each age brings some advantages and
disadvantages to the learning process and the decision when to start learning a
foreign language depends on the situation of the individual learner. Students are
taught in all age groups and teachers’ task is to use appropriate methods to suit the
demands of a given age group.
Intelligence has been defined in many different ways including logic,
abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication, learning, having
emotional knowledge, retaining, planning, and problem solving. The studies on
intelligence show a strong relationship between intelligence and acquisition of a
foreign language but only as far as academic skills are concerned. Learners with
high intelligence quotient achieve better results on language tests. It is proved that
intelligence can predict the rate and success of second language acquisition in the
formal language classroom. “The ability to perform well in standard intelligence
tests correlates highly with school related second language learning, but is unrelated
to the learning of a second language for informal and social functions” (Spolsky,
1989: 103).
Attitude takes a very important role in language acquisition. Gardner and
Lambert have investigated a number of different attitudes, which were classified by
Stern (1983:376-377) into three types:
+ Attitudes towards the community and people who speak second language
+ Attitudes towards learning and language concerned
+ Attitudes towards languages and language learning in general.
Certain personality characteristics and general interest in foreign languages
of learners can influence them in a positive or negative way. It is also important
how they feel about learning a particular language in a particular course and from a

indicates that the pictures has exchanged and represented the real object into a
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simple device which has displayed a series of places, objects, person or even
experience.
1.2.2. The types of pictures
Pictures can be categorized basing on their size and design. Due to teaching
purposes, teachers have to consider carefully which types of pictures are needed.
According to Brazyna Szyke (1981), pictures are divided into two main
types. The first type is that pictures of individual persons or thing may be used
mainly at the elementary level to introduce or test vocabulary items. For example, a
house, a dog, a man, a girl. The second type is that pictures of situations in which
person and object are “in action” between objects and people can be perfect
teaching aid for introducing or reviewing grammatical or structures. For example:
football, meeting, market.
Additionally, Betty Morgan Bowen (1973: 13-31) has different ways to
classify pictures in the book “Look Here! Visual Aids in Language Teaching”.
The first type of pictures is wall charts and wall pictures. Most wall charts
consist of combination of visual and verbal material. They aim at giving
information on topic. A wall picture, on other hand, is simply a large illustration of
a scene or event, or a set of scenes or events (Bowen, 1973). Good wall pictures are
relevant, easy to recognize, suitable size and easy to understand. The best of storing
wall pictures and wall charts is to display on the classroom wall. The difference
between wall charts and wall pictures is the way they are used. Wall pictures are
often used for the whole class but wall charts are most part unsuitable for whole
class teaching because they are usually complex, with printing too small to be seen
by the learners.
The second type is sequence pictures. They are series of pictures on a single
subject. They “reveal their story or theme like a strip cartoon, in a connected set of
illustrations” for good selection and display the teacher needs make the titles and
captions large enough to read, or omit them all together and do the describing

student participation. Pictures meet with a wide range of use not only in acquiring
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vocabulary, but also in many other aspects of foreign language teaching. Wright
(1990: 4-6) demonstrated this fact on an example, where he used one compiled
picture and illustrated the possibility of use in five different language areas. His
example shows employing pictures in teaching structure, vocabulary, functions,
situations and all four skills. Furthermore he pointed out that “potential of pictures
is so great that only a taste of their full potential can be given” in his book
(Wright 1990: 6). To be more specific, beside lessons where pictures are in the
main focus, they might be used just as a “stimulus for writing and discussion, as an
illustration of something being read or talked about, as background to a topic and so
on” (Hill, 1990: 2). There are many reasons of using pictures. As Wright (1990: 2)
pointed out, they are motivating and drawing learners’ attention, providing a sense
of the context of the language and giving a specific reference point or stimulus.
Additionally, Hill (1990:1) listed several advantages of pictures, such as
availability, cheap, flexibility - easily kept, useful for various types of activities.
However, using pictures in teaching language has their own limitation. The
first is that in teaching vocabulary, pictures are not suitable or sufficient for
demonstrating the meaning of all words (Thornbury, 2004: 81). It is very difficult to
illustrate the meaning of some words, especially the abstract ones such as ‘opinion’
or “impact”. The second is that it cost much time in finding the right pictures for a
specific type of activity for a beginning teacher who lacks his or her own collection.
Therefore, how we can use pictures effectively is a major concern. It demands
teachers using general methodological knowledge in a flexible way. It is important
to find a balance and not to use pictures or visuals only but to combine them with
other techniques and different types of stimuli such as movement, verbal stimuli
and sound. Moreover, pictures used for demonstration of the meaning should be
repeatedly connected with the spoken and subsequently also written form of the
word of language.
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