VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
ϑ
NGUYỄN THỊ HOA
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING PICTURES IN
TEACHING VOCABULARY AT SMART-KIDS SCHOOL
IN BAC NINH PROVINCE
(Hiệu quả của việc sử dụng tranh ảnh trong việc dạy từ vựng
tại trường Smart-Kids, tỉnh Bắc Ninh)
M.A. MINOR THESIS
Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111
HANOI - 2014
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VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES
ϑ 
NGUYỄN THỊ HOA
THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING PICTURES IN
TEACHING VOCABULARY AT SMART-KIDS SCHOOL
IN BAC NINH PROVINCE
(Hiệu quả của việc sử dụng tranh ảnh trong việc dạy từ vựng
tại trường Smart-Kids, tỉnh Bắc Ninh)
M.A. MINOR THESIS
Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60140111
HANOI - 2014
ABSTRACT

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.
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Especially in learning vocabulary, teachers must make the students able to
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
teaching vocabulary at Smart-kids school based on the understanding of vocabulary
and pictures in linguistic notion and the situation of teaching and learning there.
Through this, some implications to solve these problems will be suggested.
The result of the research will be helpful for many English teachers in many
schools especially Smart-kids school in Bac Ninh province. From this, the teachers

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
1.1.1. Stages in vocabulary teaching
1.1.1.1. Presentation
The title of this stage indicates clearly its function is introducing new lexical
items to learners. As suggested by Thornbury (2002: 75-76) learners need to learn
both the meaning and the form of a new word. He also emphasizes some major
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factors subject to the number of word to be presented such as: the learner’s level
(beginner, intermediate or advanced), learner’s likely familiarity with the words.
1.1.1.2. Practice
When the teacher presents the meaning of new words, they can only become
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
exercises or activities.
1.1.1.3. Production
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.
1.1.1.4. Review
This process aims at helping students acquire active, productive
vocabularies. In the reviewing stage, students have more chance to use language
and receive feedback. It can be seen that games and communicative activities are

1.1.3.3. Person-dependent factors
According to Lightbown and Spada (1999), person-dependent factors include
age, language aptitude, intelligence, attitude and personality. Rubin and Thomson
(1994) also consider the factors including age, aptitude, attitude, personality,
learning style and past experiences. In this thesis, these factors are considered in a
logical way to understand how they affect vocabulary acquisition in second
language acquisition.
1.2. PICTURES IN TEACHING VOCABULARY
1.2.1. The meaning of pictures
According to Cobuild (1987: 1320), a picture can be defined as “a visual
representation of image painted, drawn, photographed or otherwise rendered on a
flat surface.” Meanwhile, according to Andrew Wright (1989: 29), “Picture is not
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just an aspect of method but through its representation of place, object, and people,
it is essential part of the overall experiences.”
1.2.2. The types of pictures
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.
1.2.3. Issues of using pictures in teaching vocabulary
In this part, many advantages and disadvantages of using pictures in teaching
vocabulary are considered. The use of pictures gives teachers a number of benefits.
It can be said that pictures are one of these valuable aids. They bring “images of
reality into the unnatural world of the language classroom” (Hill, 1990:1). Pictures
bring not only images of reality, but can also function as a fun element in the class.
However, using pictures in teaching language has their own limitation. That is, in

2.2. Informants
In the study, 30 kindergarten students dividing into 2 groups: the control
group and the experimental group at Smart-kids school in Bac ninh province were
employed as the participants of the research. The research time is two months in 8
periods. The researcher taught two classes the same content but in two different
ways for the vocabulary teaching. With the experimental group, the researcher
taught vocabulary using pictures but the control group received traditional
treatment. In each period, the researcher had to observe children and after 8 periods,
children took a test to check vocabulary they had learnt.
2.3. Planning
In this thesis, basing on Kemmis’s model, two classes were assigned to an
experimental group and a control group. The researcher taught the two classes the
same content but in two different ways for the vocabulary teaching. In addition, 8
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lesson plans were prepared for 8 weeks basing on the topic and the demanded new
words in the textbook: Super Kids 1.
2.4. Acting
In this study, pictures were used in teaching vocabulary. Below is my detail
action on each week with the name of the unit, kind of pictures, games and teaching
activities: pair work, group work in 8 weeks:
2.5. Observing
As being suggested, the effects of using pictures in teaching vocabulary were
observed in the treatment group and teaching and learning process in the control
group each week.
2.6. Reflecting
In carrying out the final step, the result of how the teaching learning process
runs was reflected. It means that the observation notes were collected each week
then they were classified and evaluated throughout the research
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
In this chapter, all collected data from classroom observation and tests will

seen from the table that number of students remembered 3 and 4 words in the
experimental group was much higher than that in the control group.
3.1.2. Interest.
During 8 weeks of teaching, student’s participation in learning activities was
taken notes in chart below:
Chart 1: The students’ participation in class
Chart 1 showed that, in every week, students in the experimental group
joined learning activities more than that in the control group. As it was observed,
the children had very positive attitudes and reactions when the teachers used
pictures in teaching new words. Obviously, the presence of visuals played a
significant role in this activity. Its importance lied in the fact that all students tended
to watch them for the whole time, even if it was not their turn – they were usually
interested if a member of their team touched the correct picture. In addition, many
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pictures of students in joining learning activities were taken to show the learning
atmosphere in the treatment group.
3.1.3. Classroom interaction
The classroom interaction in the control group was much different from that
in the experimental group. The difference could be shown clearly in the following
chart:
Chart 2: Classroom interaction
It can be seen from the chart that, the frequency of teacher-learner interaction
and learner-learner interaction in both group was much different. Students in the
experimental group interacted with the teacher and students together much more
students in the control group.
3.2. Test result
3.2.1. The progress tests
After marking, the means of the tests were calculated and presented as
follow:
Group

better new words. The vocabulary instruction through pictures empowered Smart-
kids students in learning the relevant vocabulary.
In the observation process, students’ enthusiastic and motivation increased in
joining learning activities in both groups. However, unlike the control group
students, the students in the experimental group were free to interact with each
other. Students in the experimental group seemed to benefit from this kind of
learning, as they enlarged their vocabulary knowledge at the end of the study.
Results showed that students learned better the relevant words.
PART C: CONCLUSION
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In this part, the author intends to present the outcome of the whole thesis by
summing up the findings, limitations as well as putting forward several suggestions
for further studies.
1. Conclusion
As mentioned previously, this thesis aimed at exploring the effectiveness of
pictures in teaching vocabulary to kindergarten students. The result of the study
shows that using pictures in teaching vocabulary was more effective in helping
students in acquiring new words particular in memory, interest and interaction.
Firstly, from the observation process, using pictures in teaching vocabulary
enhanced memory of students in the experimental group than that in the control
group.
Secondly, using pictures in teaching vocabulary promoted students in the
treatment group to be interested in participating in the learning activities more than
those on the control group so the classroom situation became active and interactive
because they enjoyed and they were motivated in learning new words.
Besides, the students in the experimental group had stronger classroom
interaction and more communicative skills than those in the control group.
From the result of the test, it can be seen that the experimental group students
had significantly better vocabulary gain scores than the control group students at the
end of the study. The findings revealed that participants in the experimental group,

the syllabus. Secondly, the size of the study is rather small with only 30 students of
two classes. Therefore, the results found from the research cannot be highly
generated. Finally, the kindergarten students are so young that the researcher had
many difficulties in testing and could not use other method of data collection as
questionnaires and interview.
However, it was noteworthy that these above short-comings should always
be taken into consideration when further studies are conducted in the future.
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Though this is just a small-scaled study on the issue, it may provide some helpful
suggestions for other teachers. However, for further studies, the researcher would
like to give following suggestions. Firstly, in this study, vocabulary flash card was
used to teach vocabulary to Smart-kids students. In another research, it can be used
to teach other components of the language, such as grammar. Secondly, interested
researchers can investigate the impact of one specific type of pictures such as flash
card or wall chart.
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