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

NGUYỄN HẠNH TUYẾT 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

NGHIÊN CỨU THÁI ĐỘ CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH ĐỐI VỚI VIỆC
SỬ DỤNG GIÁO CỤ TRỰC QUAN ĐỂ DẠY VÀ HỌC TỪ VỰNG
Ở TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN LÊ QUÝ ĐÔN – ĐIỆN BIÊN M.A. MINOR THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10
Hanoi, 2011
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES


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

v

LISTS OF FIGURES AND TABLES
List of figures

Pages
Figure 1:
Data collected from question 1 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 5 of the teachers’ questionnaire
21
Figure 5:
Data collected from question 9 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:

22
Table 3:
The teachers’ ways of using of visual aids to teach vocabulary and the
frequency of the teachers using these ways to teach vocabulary
23
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:

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
1. Rationale of the study
1
2. Aims of the study
2
3. Research questions
2
4. Scope of the study
2
5. Methods of the study
3
6. Design of the study
3

1.3.2.3. Mime (Gesture and Facial expressions)
9

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

APPENDIX 1
I
APPENDIX 2
IV
APPENDIX 3
VIII 1
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. 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.
However, for many students at Le Quy Don gifted high school in Dien Bien, learning
vocabulary is really a hard job. 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

which are available in class or can be easily made and applied by the teachers. The study has not
dealt with students of all levels but just 11
th
form students who have been familiar with their
teachers’ method of teaching vocabulary through visual aids since they were in grade ten.
5. 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. Besides, the researcher
conducted informal interviews with the teachers in order to supplement the survey questionnaires.
6. 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: the “Literature Review”,
“Methodology” and “Data Analysis and Discussion”
Part C: CONCLUSION: This part offers a summary of the study and some suggestions
for further study. 3
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Vocabulary
1.1.1. What is vocabulary?
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.”
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

of that word in sentence in order to understand the word clearly.
1.1.2.4. Vocabulary classified according to the frequency of use
It is impossible for teachers to teach students every new word they come across instead of
making them be aware of words with high frequency in use and those with low frequency.
Therefore students can save more time and energy to learn words they can use more frequently.
1.3. Visual aids
1.3.1. Definitions of visual aids
In the Dictionary of English Language and Culture, visual aids are defined as “something
that people can look at to help them understand, learn, remember, etc. such as a picture, map,
photograph, or film. Visual aids are often used as materials in education” (1998: 1490). Andrew
and Safia (1991) define visual aids as “anything learners can see used for different purposes in a
language class.
1.3.2. Types of visual aids
2.3.2.1. Chalkboards
Chalkboards are commonly found in most classes. They are usually black or green, cheap
to install, easy and cheap to use and very adaptable. Teachers can use them whenever they like to
teach a lesson. Hence, chalkboards are said to be the most common and helpful visual aids for
every teacher.
1.3.2.2. Real objects and presentational objects
According to Allen (1983: 4), real objects are of great value to show the meaning of a
new word, especially when the objects are available in the classroom. She reinforced that “in
most cases, a picture of something is less helpful than the thing itself”. She also gives the general
recommendation “for showing the meaning of an English noun, use the real object whenever

5
possible” (p25). Representational objects are objects that can replace real objects in case teachers
and learners cannot bring the real ones for use in classroom.
1.3.2.3. Mime (Gesture and Facial expressions)
Mime is a type of acting using only gestures and facial expressions. According to Alton
(2002), “A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication made with a part of the body, used

flash cards are more suitable for the presentation of a single concept, such as an object or an
action”. So that picture cards are considered very useful visual aids that teachers need to employ
in teaching new words during the vocabulary teaching process.
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY
2.1. Subjects of the study
2.1.1. The students
The participants for the study consist of 116 eleventh form students aged from seventeen
to eighteen from three classes 11B1, 11B5, 11B7 at LQD gifted high school in Dien Bien.
2.1.2. The teachers
All seven female teachers and one male at LQD gifted high school are chosen as
informants of the study. All these teachers aged from 27 to 37 have been teaching English for at
least three years.
2.2. The instruments
2.2.1. The questionnaires
2.2.1.1. The teachers’ questionnaire
The survey questionnaire for the teachers, consisting of 14 questions, was administered to
all eight teachers at LQD gifted high school at the beginning of March 2011. The survey was
divided into three main parts. The first five questions focus on finding out the teachers’ attitudes
towards the use of visual aids in teaching vocabulary. The second part with questions from 6 to 8
aims at exploring the extent to which visual aids have been used in teaching vocabulary. The five
following questions are raised to investigate the teachers’ problems when applying visual aids to
vocabulary teaching.
2.2.1.2. The students’ questionnaire
The students’ questionnaire, comprising of 11 questions, was delivered to 116 students at
the same time of the teacher questionnaire. Similarly, the survey for the students covered three
main points.
2.2.2. The interview for the teachers
The researcher conducts informal interviews with all teachers in order to get more
insightful information to supplement the result of the teachers’ questionnaires or to interpret
responses to questionnaires.

Very useful
25%
Very useful
Useful

Figure 3
Figure 3 shows the teachers’ evaluation on the role of visual aids in vocabulary teaching
in general. Three quarters of the teachers (75%) thought that visual aids were useful and a fourth
of the teachers (25%) highly appreciated visual aids very useful in teaching vocabulary. None of
the teachers thought that visual aids were not useful at all.
2. The extent to which visual aids have been used in teaching vocabulary

always
often
sometimes
hardly ever
never
1. present new vocabulary
50%
37.5%
12.5%
0%
0%
2. help students practise and retain
the new words
0%
0%
50%
25%
25%

Time-consuming to prepare
7
87.5%
Money consuming
4
50%
Difficulties to prepare
3
37.5%
The lack of time when using.
5
65.5%
Difficulties in finding suitable visual materials
5
62.5%
Difficulties in class management
0
0%
Table 7: The challenges faced by teachers when using visual aids to teach vocabulary
As shown in table 7 the possible problems faced by the teachers when using visual aids to
teach vocabulary. In fact, the teachers found some challenges that hindered them from using

9
visual aids in teaching vocabulary. Remarkably, 87.5% of the teachers claimed that it was time-
consuming to prepare visual aids. Also, 62.5% of the teachers said that they met difficulties in
finding suitable visual materials. Half of the teachers found the preparation of visual aids money
consuming.
3.2. Results from the students’ survey questionnaire
1. The students’ attitudes towards the use of visual aids in teaching vocabulary
The following figures and tables reflect the students’ attitudes towards the use of visual

interested in learning vocabulary through visual aids is much higher than that of those who had
neutral and uninterested attitudes (74.1% as compared to 25.9%). This fact once again confirms
that visual aids really interest the students. Accordingly, all of the students highly appreciated the
usefulness of visual aids in helping them learn vocabulary. 65% and 35% respectively evaluated
visual aids useful and very useful (Figure 8). As a result, most of the students (97.4%) said they can
learn vocabulary easier and faster thanks to visual aids. (Figure 9)
2. The extent to which visual aids have been used in vocabulary learning

Types of visual aids
always
often
sometimes
hardly ever
never
01. Pictures in the textbooks
64.7%
20.7%
10.3%
4.3%
0%
02. Pictures on power-point slides
14.7%
19.8%
50.9%
7.6%
6.9%
03. Chalkboard drawings
0%
17.2%
43.1%

33.6%
14.7%
09.Real objects & presentational objects
0%
16.4%
27.6%
25%
31%
10. Mime-facial expressions
0%
23.5%
41.4%
19.8%
15.6%

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Table 9: The students’ evaluation on their teachers’ frequency of using visual aids to teach vocabulary
The data shown in table 9 are quite consistent with what collected from the teachers’
survey questionnaire. The students also found that pictures in the textbooks and ones on power-
point slides were mostly used by their teachers. Mime-facial expressions and chalkboard
drawings ranked in the middle. Picture and word flash cards were frequently used by more than
half of their teachers. Real and presentational objects, wall pictures, wall charts and posters
tended to be rarely used by their teachers.
3. The students’ problems in learning vocabulary through visual aids
Options
No. of
informants
Percentage
Learning vocabulary through visual aids is boring
0

3
37.5%
Table 13: Teachers’ favorite ways of teaching vocabulary
Table 13 illustrates the teachers’ favorite ways of teaching vocabulary. As can be seen
from the table, 87.5% of the teachers felt interested in teaching vocabulary through visual aids.
When being asked the question (Question 4: “What type(s) of visual aids do you like most
in teaching vocabulary?”, most of the teachers instantly told me that among many different types
of visual aids they enjoyed using pictures most, both pictures in the textbooks and collected ones
because pictures are not only available but also attractive to students. Question 5: What typical
problem(s) do you meet when teaching vocabulary through visual aids?

11
Most of the teacher admitted that their typical problem in applying visual aids to teach
vocabulary was their lack of time to find suitable visual material and prepare for the necessary
visual aids before each lesson. Moreover, many said that they lack time to use visual aids in class.
“We have no separate vocabulary lessons to spend much time to vocabulary teaching instead of
having to teach vocabulary together with other skills,” said Trang.
Question 6: Generally your students have positive attitudes towards learning vocabulary through
visual aids. Is it true?
When being asked to support for this statement, all of the teachers agreed that most of
their students have quite positive attitudes towards their teachers’ applying of visual aids in
vocabulary teaching.
3.4. Findings and discussion
Basing on the data collected from the survey questionnaire for both of the teachers and students
and the informal interviews with the teachers, the results show that:
Both of the teachers and students at LQD gifted high school have positive attitudes
towards the use of visual aids in teaching and learning English vocabulary. The teachers at LQD
gifted high school tend to use different types of visual aids that are tested. However, they still
restrict themselves to some types of visual aids only. Another finding is that the ways the teachers
exploit visual aids in teaching vocabulary are rather limited. As mentioned previously, the

th
form students at LQD gifted high school,
but they are not exploited to their fullest potentials. It is recommended that the teachers should
vary the types of visual aids when teaching vocabulary and also increase their frequency of using
visual aids, collect visual aids from different sources and vary their ways of using visual aids as
well.
Moreover, owing to the data collected from the questionnaires and interview, both the
teachers and the students still faced certain difficulties. For the teachers, the lack of time to
prepare and use in class and difficulties in finding suitable visual materials seem to be the most
prominent problems. How to tackle these problems really involves in the teachers’ preparation.
To save time for preparing visual aids, the teachers should know how to choose and make visual
aids quickly and economically. The best way is to collect visual aids from available sources such
as real or presentational objects and pictures from the internet, textbooks, magazines,
newspapers, etc. Moreover, it must be time-economical if the teachers can create visual aids
themselves. To use visual aids effectively with rather limited time in class, the teachers should
try to prepare all visual aids carefully in advance and schedual time for using the pre-prepared
visuals appropriately. It is much better if the teachers have good techniques and experience in
applying visual aids. In order to find suitable visual materials, it is advisable that the teachers
should specify the aim of using visual aids and what types of visuals they are going to use then

13
try to collect the most suitable ones from different sources or some mentioned above. However,
all these above recommendations for solving the teachers’ difficulties in using visual aids just
come from the teachers’ own efforts. It would be better if the teachers should be financed to take
part in more training programs to enhance their ability of exploiting visual aids by the managing
board of the school or they should be given more budgets to make more effective visual aids. For
the students, many still feel confused, distract and difficult when their teachers employ visual
aids in class to teach vocabulary, This problem, probably, is owing to the low effectiveness of the
teachers’ using visual aids, their unvaried types of visual aids applied. In order to solve these
problems, the teachers should keep improving their visual aids to become more attractive,

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