HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

FACULTY OF ENGLISH

STUDENT RESEARCH PAPER

USING QUIZLET IN LEARNING ENGLISH
VOCABULARY FOR STUDENTS AT
FACULTY OF ENGLISH, HANOI NATIONAL
UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION

STUDENT’S NAME
CLASS

: Ma Hong Anh
Truong Bich Huyen
: K64A

SUPERVISOR’S NAME

: Bui Thi Anh Van (M.A)

Hanoi (03/2016)

Contents


Acknowledgement
We wish to express sincere gratitude to Ms. Bui Thi Anh Van for her
incredible support throughout the research process. Without her detailed
guidance, we would not have been able to successfully complete this

in education which does not involve only computers but also tablets,
smartphones, Internet and all other modern tools of the 21st century. Several
surveys have been conducted to validate the fact that technology using in
teaching and learning is on the rise. According to a recent survey carried out by
Versal in 2014 and 2015, teachers’ use of online tools increased by 6% (from
47% to 53%), the majority of assignments given to students is Internet-based.


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So, why is it that technology holds such a great impact on the modification of
teachers’ teaching methods? It has been proven that integrating technology into
education brings positive results in enhancing students’ motivation both
intrinsically and extrinsically. Creating activities that arouse students’ curiosity
and intrigue their interests in learning is without question a challenging task for
teachers of all subjects. Introducing technology infused lessons may prove to be a
beneficial motivator for every grade level. Because today’s students grow up
with a different digital landscape from their teachers’ (Jukes, 2008), they, most
likely, are inspired and motivated by different technology (Granito &
Chernobilsky, 2012). An average teenager would probably rather spend hours in
front of the computer’s screen than sit still for just 15 minutes reading textbooks.
Thus, it seems like a brilliant idea to incorporating education with digital media.
Today’s digital natives speak a different language than their teachers do
(Prensky, 2001). In a more digital world, online teaching tools are better for
students’ memory (Miller, 2009). Online tools that promote content creation
among students, such as videos, audio podcasts, and webpages, are more
effective strategies than traditional methods (Miller) (Granito & Chernobilsky,
2012). In conclusion, technology integrated teaching and learning methods boost
students’ motivation and enhance their academic results.
Among several ways that technology can be infused with education, we chose

effectively?

II.

Literature Review

II.1. Vocabulary learning and its importance in L2 learning.
Vocabulary is the knowledge of meanings of words. As mentioned in the
rationale, there are four main language skills to be acquired, classified into two
categories: productive skills and receptive skills. Similarly, knowledge of words
can also be categorized into two forms: productive and receptive (Kamil &
Hiebert, 2005).
Productive vocabulary is a set of words which can be used when writing or
speaking. Most of them are well-known, common and frequently used words. In
contrast, receptive or recognition vocabulary is that set of words, often less
frequent in use, for which an individual can assign meanings when reading or
listening. In general, receptive vocabulary is larger than productive vocabulary.
During the process of learning a second language, vocabulary refers to one of
four types, each of which represents a progressively increasing mastery of
vocabulary terms. These four types are listening vocabulary, speaking
vocabulary, reading vocabulary and writing vocabulary. The first two types relate


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to oral use of language, whereas the latter two are typically developed during the
school years.
Vocabulary knowledge has been recognized as a critical tool for second
language learners for the past decades. Many studies have been conducted to
have an insight into why vocabulary plays such an important role when it comes

a regular basis, for ‘‘vocabulary has traditionally been one of the language
components measured in language tests’’ (Schmitt, 1999).
Acknowledging the importance of vocabulary learning and several problems
faced by L2 learners, researchers have worked hard for the past decades to find
out the effective ways to make it easier for students to learn new words. This
research will look at a technology integrated learning method: using web-based
flashcards.
II.2. The importance of using technology in L2 learning.
As mentioned in the rationale, more and more people nowadays have access
to modern devices such as computers, tablets, smart phones. Accompanying the
diverse types of technology is the widespread use of the Internet, which has been
one of the most essential parts of most people. The most modern technologies of
the 21st century found their way into almost every part of each industry. Among
the industries that push technology forward the most belong the military or the
health care industry but the one we get in touch the most with is the
entertainment industry (Ondřej Rambousek, 2014).
Now since most students are in touch with modern technologies and they
know how to work with them, the time has come for technologies to be in the
education industry as well. They can provide many alternative ways of looking at
education (Saettler, 2004, p. 154) and help improve the old methods and evolve
the new methods of teaching. Technologies in education are not limited only to
the space of the classroom but have the ability to reach out beyond the walls of
the classroom and change many free time activities into educational activities.
In the 1960s teachers started to use tape recorders, language laboratories and
videos (Dudeney & Hockly, 2007, p.7). The next phase of using technologies in
education was Computer Assisted Language Learning also known as CALL
which appeared in the 1980s. Call is “the search for and study of applications of
the computer in language teaching and learning (Levy, 1997, p. 1). It contains
gap filling exercises, matching sentence halves or multiple-choice activities
(Beatty, New York, p. 8). These were the very first modern technology options

Input: Technology expands access to a broader range of rich target
language input than is available in the classroom and/or provided by the
curriculum, and it creates opportunities to individualize input.
•
Output and interaction: Technology expands opportunities for learners to
create their own output and to interact synchronously or asynchronously with
native speakers and more proficient peers outside of the classroom.
•
Feedback: Technology creates opportunities to give and receive
individualized, maximally effective feedback.


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•

Collaboration:

Technology

enables

collaborative,

social

learning

synchronously or asynchronously outside of the classroom.
Among several ways to integrate technology with language learning, we chose to



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•

Flashcards Mode (shown in figure 1): Users start learning terms and their

definitions by “flip” or “flow” the cards. The audio function provides learners
with a useful model of pronunciation, and it can also be slowed down. This
learning mode promotes not only learners’ productive, but also their receptive
vocabulary knowledge (Nation, 2008).

Figure 1: Flashcard mode

•

Learn Mode: This mode (shown in figure 2) prompts the users with the

written or spoken form of one side of a card. A correct answer is put in the
“Correct” bucket, and an incorrect answer is put in the “Incorrect” bucket. If the
learners do not know the answer and select “Don’t Know”, Learn makes you
retype the answer correctly to continue. It keeps track of what learners know and
what they do not and retest them on their mistakes. At the end, Quizlet gives a
final score for learners to evaluate their progress.


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Figure 2: Learn mode


Game Mode: Quizlet keeps learning lively with two game activities,

Scatter and Gravity. In Scatter (shown in figure 5), a number of terms and their
corresponding definitions are distributed randomly over the screen. What players
need to do is matching the terms and definitions by dragging them with the
mouse in the fastest time possible. In Gravity (shown in figure 6), learners have
to type in the correct answer to destroy asteroids before they hit. Because it
requires students to actually type in the answer, the game pushes them to really
learn the materials. These two games not only enable learners to practice recall
and typing skill but also arouse competitiveness among them, for it has the High
Score Table.


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Figure 5: Scatter mode

Figure 6: Gravity mode

III.

Methods
III.1. Participants
The participants involved in this action research study consisted of 22 second

year students in class 64A, faculty of English, Hanoi National University of
Education. There were 22 girls participating in this study, and all of them major
in English. In this semester, their course aims at improving their English


resource provided by the researchers, but they would also have an insight of how
Quizlet really worked through the making of their study sets. In addition, the


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links sent to the researchers ensured their participation in the self-study activities,
making the research findings more convincing and trustworthy.
The third research instrument employed is a survey questionnaire. Each
participant was given a 10-question survey to complete after finishing activities
on Quizlet. This survey allowed the researchers to examine how the participants
evaluate the Quizlet in both fields of interest and effectiveness (see appendix III)
III.3. Data collection procedure
There are three steps of data collection procedure, which are:
Pre-testing participants’ vocabulary size
Organizing self-study activities
Conducting a survey questionnaire
Firstly, participants’ vocabulary size was tested using a vocabulary worksheet
•
•
•

mentioned in the Research Instruments. Then, they were sent a link to Quizlet
website, in which we had designed 3 sets of lexical resource on 3 familiar topics.
After 1 week of self-studying, we conducted a survey (see appendix III) to
collect all the data needed to examine the effectiveness of using Quizlet to learn
vocabulary.
III.4. Data analysis
After data were collected, we analysed them quantitatively and qualitatively
to find out the results of pre-test, then analysed and synthesized the results of

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IV.2. Students’ attitude towards the effectiveness of using Quizlet in
studying English vocabulary

Figure 8 Quizlet’s effectiveness evaluation
The ideas of participants about their own use of Quizlet are illustrated in
figure 8. It is noticeable that most participants agreed that Quizlet is an effective
tool to learn lexical resource, given the fact that 63.64% of participants highly
appreciate the experience with Quizlet.


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Figure 9 Quizlet’s Effectiveness evaluation in 4 aspects
Figure 9 shows the results from the Likert scale given to the students. In
this research, the effectiveness was evaluated in 4 aspects, according to 4 modes
of Quizlet (Flashcard mode, Speller mode, Learn mode and Game mode). It can
be seen that the Learn mode was considered the most effective learning tool,
scoring 4.55 out of 5 in the extent of effectiveness. The other 3 mode which were
Flashcard, Speller, and Game had the weighted average of 3.64, 4.09, 4.09
respectively. This proved that all 4 Quizlet study modes were of great help.


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Figure 10 Quizlet’s ease of use
Figure 10 shows how participants evaluate the Quizlet ease of use. The
result indicates that the majority of students agreed that Quizlet is not too
difficult to use (only 1 people rated Quizlet 2 points in terms of ease of use).

can be designed in Flashcard Mode, which makes it easier for the teacher to
introduce the new concepts in L2. Students should also be educated about the
effective use of Quizlet (e.g. the amount and timing of practice), and this can be
implemented through explicit strategy instruction at the beginning of a language
course. For self-studying, teachers may advise students to use flashcards for selftesting or repeated retrieval of words. Students should be required to use Quizlet


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to learn vocabulary deliberately and actively outside the classroom. More
importantly, the collaborative learning potential of Quizlet also needs to be
mentioned. Previously, learning vocabulary with flashcards is considered more of
an individual task. However, learning through Quizlet can be repurposed for
collaborative learning tasks to allow for better peer support. Some activities can
be organized to have students work collaboratively and expose them to the
interactive use of vocabulary, such as co-constructing vocabulary flashcards,
testing each other on new words, and negotiating word meanings in
communication. Ideally, the proposed technique of learning vocabulary
deliberately with Quizlet can and should be used to provide collaborative
learning opportunities for lexical development in and out of class.


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V.

Conclusions
Earlier in this paper, we have posed two research questions:

To what extent do students evaluate their interest in learning vocabulary

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Hunt, A., & Beglar, D. (2015). A framework for developing EFL reading
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Kamil, M., & Hiebert, E. H. (2005). The Teaching and Learning of Vocabulary:
Perspectives and Persistent Issues. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum
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Meara, P. (1995). The Language Teacher.
Milton, J. (2010). The development of vocabulary breadth across the CEFR
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Mofarel, A. (Vol. III, No. 3 / 2015). The Importance Of Vocabulary In Language
Learning And How To Be Taught. International Journal of Teaching and
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