Paper on teaching

Which One Works Better In Teaching Vocabulary:


Flashcard or Word list



Abstract

This research is aimed at knowing the results and the students’ response to implementation of teaching vocabulary through flashcard and word list. In achieving the objective, an action research was held in Tohid guidance school in Anzali. Two intact classes consisted of 18 students in each class were chosen. All of them were elementary level of English language proficiency. To know the results of teaching vocabulary using flashcard and word list, two kinds of tests namely pre-test and post-test were given to each group and then their mean scores were compared. The results show that teaching vocabulary through flashcard is more useful way for teaching vocabulary in comparison to word list method.



PART I



Introduction

Vocabulary learning is seen as an integral area of language teaching by linguistic researchers. Vocabulary is seen as an element standing at the heart of listening comprehension (Levelt, 1989). The role played in language by vocabulary is so important that Clark (1994) refers to it as a unique window on the process of acquisition as whole. Undoubtly vocabulary has found to be one of the most important areas of every language; therefore, in recent years a lot of studies have been carried out on different aspects of vocabulary and several strategies have been developed for better instruction of vocabularies. There are many methods that teachers use to teach vocabulary or to encourage vocabulary self-learning by their students. Hulsti (1992), distinguishes between incidental and intentional vocabulary learning and claim that both approaches are present in foreign language learning since students learn vocabulary as part of course requirement, but also gain knowledge of words incidentally through their reading.

Research has confirmed that reading has a positive impact on developing vocabulary knowledge (Krashen, 1989). Language development is an additional benefit of reading, the indisputable linguistic gain that readers receive is new vocabulary (Nagy, Anderson & Herman, 1987).

Without an extensive vocabulary and strategies for acquiring new

vocabularies, learners often achieve less than their potential and may be discouraged from making use of language learning opportunities around them. Here are different strategies and ways of teaching new vocabulary items to language learners that are different in terms of their impact on language learners’ vocabulary learning which has rarely been investigated. Therefore, it is important to investigate different ways of vocabulary teaching and their learning and their effects on vocabulary learning.



Review of literature



Vocabulary knowledge

Lexical knowledge can be defined in a number of ways. Some researchers (Richard, 1976; Nation 1990) claim that knowing a word involves a range of inter-related “sub-knowledges” such as morphological, grammatical knowledge as well as knowledge of word meaning.

Other assume that lexical knowledge consists of progressive levels of knowledge, starting with a superficial familiarity with the words ending with the ability to use the word correctly in free pronunciation (Faerch et al. , 1984). Tests of lexical knowledge often focus on one ‘sub-knowledge’, for example, comprehension of meaning ( Nation, 1983; Meara & Baxton, 1987), production of meaning ( Laufer &Nation, 1999), or word association ( Read, 1993).

Vocabulary knowledge and vocabulary acquisition in a second language have emerged after years of neglected (Meara, 1980; Laufer, 1986) as key areas of research in the last twenty or so years, there has been a growing realization that total language proficiency consists of much more than just grammatical competence (Schmitt & Meara, 1997).

Read (1997) claims that vocabulary knowledge should not be equated with learner’s ability to use particular words in context. Following Bachman’s view of language proficiency as a set of communicative skills, Read suggests that the lexical model should incorporate lexical communicative competence in addition to knowledge of discrete lexical items. This idea is elaborated by Read and Chapelle (2001). They suggest that vocabulary should go beyond decontextualized wordlist and should be measured in such a way as to generate positive wash back on teaching and learning process.



Types of vocabulary:

1) Receptive and productive vocabulary: the term passive and active is usually used rather than receprive and productive.

Hatch and Brown (1995) stated: “ Belyayer (1963) criticized passive and active terms arguing that reading and listening should not be considered passive skills: therefore, the vocabulary needed for these skills should not be considered passive, either.” Since then linguistics and teachers have generally accepted the receptive/ productive dichotomy.

Haycraft (1987) defined receptive and productive vocabulary as:

Receptive vocabularies are words that students recognize and understand

When they occur in context, but which s/he can not produce them correctly

In speaking and writing, and productive vocabularies are words which the

Students understand , can pronounce correctly and use constructively in

Speaking and writing. (p. 44)



2) Content and function words: words can be divided into two classes of content words and function words. According to Richard et al., (1992) content words are words which refer to thing, quality, state or action which have meaning when they are used alone. Content words which are also known as ‘lexical words’ or ‘full words’ include nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs. On the other hand, function words comprise a small finite class of words which have little meaning on their own, but which show grammatical relationship in and between sentences. Function words include pronouns, articles, auxiliary verbs, prepositions, conjunctions. Function words are also known as ‘grammatical words’, ‘functions’, or ‘empty words’. Linguists refer to function words as closed class of words while content words, constitute as open class (Carter, 1987.)

3) Content words and abstract words: the content words themselves are composed of two groups: concrete and abstract words. Content word is a noun thet refers to a physical thing rather than a quality, state or an action. A noun which refers to a quality, state or action is called an abstract noun (Richards et al., 1992).

According to Carter (1987), concrete words are generally learned first and are easier to recall than abstract words.

Vocabulary teaching:

The majority of language learners in the early stages of language learning can not make informed choices regarding the types of vocabulary learning strategy they adopt. Therefore the responsibility is on the shoulders of teachers to help their students learn second language words well. Hence, it is important to investigate the different techniques and procedures that the teachers usually use in vocabulary teaching.

The teaching of vocabulary in language classes has been classified as planned and unplanned activities.

Unplanned activities refers to situations in which language learners ask for the meaning of vocabulary items during the lesson and the teachers tries to convey the meaning of the word and make it possible for language learners to understand it by using techniques such as mime, gesture, synonym, antonym, etc. then teacher asks some questions from the language learners that are related to that word in order to know whether they have understood the meaning of that word or not. Finally the language learners are asked to make association to consolidate the words in their memory.

In planned vocabulary teaching, language teachers make use of some predetermined techniques to teach the words to the language learners.

Oxford and Scarcella (1994) divided vocabulary teaching activities into three types: decontextualized, partially contextualized and fully contextualized. These activities are discussed below:

Decontextualized activities

These activities remove the vocabulary item from the context in which they first appeared and present them in situations free from any communicative values. These activities fall under this category: word list, flash card and dictionary use.

Word list:

They are mostly generated by students. Language learners usually arrange them alphabetically or according to their part of speech, etc. they are mostly made as reaction to vocabulary section of examinations that language learners face with. “ the assumption underlying this technique appears to be that learners do not need much, if any, context to learn vocabulary and that rote memorization is perfectly adequate.” (Oxford & Crookal, 1990, p.10)



Word lists are of two types: unpaired and paired. In unpaired word lists, target words don not have native equivalents, but in paired word lists, there are mother tongue equivalents for target words.

Flash card:

Using flash card is a popular strategy for vocabulary learning. Flash cards are commercially produced; however, the language learners frequently make them themselves. Oxford and Scarcella (1990) maintained that, they present a glorified L2-L1 word list broken into units. Using the flashcard includes: writing the L2 word on the front of the card, writing its L1meaning and using card to remind the meaning of a word.

Dictionary use:

The language learners use this strategy when they are reading a text to look up the meaning of unfamiliar words. Swaffer (1988) quoted several studies indicating that the availability of dictionaries fail to improve the language learners reading ability. There is also a tendency among language learners to memorize the entire dictionary, for example one page per day. This activity has no real-life use for vocabulary learning since vocabulary development is given importance in the light of using it in reading, writing, listening and speaking.





Partially contextualized activities:

These activities are often termed international or planned vocabulary learning or teaching. Some of these activities include: word association, word grouping, key word method, physical response.

Word association:

It consists of making association between the newly learned word and the personally meaningful words or concepts already existing in memory.

Physical response:

It is a strategy which is based on Asher’s total physical response approach involving the learners physically acting out the new words.

Key word method:

The key word method developed by Atkinson (1975), combines aural and visual imagery to facilitate vocabulary learning.

Word grouping:

This activity is similar to word lists. In that words appear in isolation with no context to demonstrate their meaning. However, the lists are organized in such a way that it builds a partial context for words. Along lists of words is divided into several lists based on the attributed that groups of words have in common.

Visual imagery:

It provides context for vocabulary learning by calling for physical senses. Using this strategy, the learner comes up with an association between a mental or on-the-page picture and a word. It follows the justification that “ most learners are capable of association of new information to concepts in memory means of meaningful visual cognitive power.” ( Oxford and Crookal, 1990, p.17)

It should be noted that imagery is a technique for linking the new words with other words or concepts in the memory based on acoustic similarities, rhymes, acronyms and other auditory means.

Semantic mapping:

It is the most sophisticated of the partially contextualized techniques, which draws upon some techniques mentioned before such as, word association, or visual imagery. Semantic mapping involves making a graphic argument of words in term of their relationship.

Fully contextualized activities:

These activities entail what is often associated with incidental verbal learning. It should be noted that incidental learning of vocabulary occurs when students practice four language skills: reading stories, plays, magazines, newspapers, letter, listening to the radio, TV, participation in conversations, writing message with the purpose of communication in real-life situation.

Engaging in these activities, reading is the most useful in developing L2 vocabulary since it provides multiple encounters with a variety of words.

Choosing vocabulary for teaching:

Selection of vocabulary for teaching depends on the purpose of learning, whether it is learnt for receptive use or productive use. According to Celce-Murcia (1985), “firs of all a teacher must be able to determine whether the vocabulary items at hand are needed by his/her students for active use or passive use”. (p. 224)

She further claimed that an understanding of this distinction will help teacher to choose the suitable approach for vocabulary teaching.

According to Paulston and Bruder (1976), degrees of difficulty and frequency of occurrence are the most common criteria in selection of vocabulary for productive use.

Paulston and Bruder argue that the important criterion for choosing vocabulary should be semantic saliency, the marked need for a word in order to make or understand a statement that is of importance to speakers.

Different ways for selection of vocabulary for instructional purposes have been proposed by different experts and scholars. McCarthy (1990) has mentioned two criteria for selection of words:





Frequency:

Most general books take for granted that the most frequent words in the language must be presented in the early stages of language teaching, and this is a sensible decision because they offer the learner a survival level repertoire for comprehension and production.

Frequency list, however, need to be approached with caution and careful analysis. Richards (1976) has debated fundamental questions about the pedagogical usefulness of frequency lists. The most frequent words are usually the most empty words in terms of information (i.e, grammar function words), and yet the learner needs to communicate and understand message with considerable content right from the beginning.

Learnablity:

Ease or difficulty in the learnablity of vocabulary is not concerned with the notion of frequency since the most frequent words which occur regularly can be absorbed and learnt simply but words may be easy or difficult for a variety of other reasons and may need special attention in teaching.







PART II





Subjects

This study was done at Tohid guidance school in Anzali. that ranged in age from 13 to 14. They were all students of elementary level of English language proficiency and studying New Interchange by Jack c. Richards.



Method

Two intact classes were chosen consisted of 18 students. A pre-test consisting 20 vocabulary items were given to each group in order to gain information of students’ vocabulary knowledge. Students were asked to write the meanings of vocabulary items. After administrating the pre-test, group 1 received instruction of vocabulary through flashcard and group 2 received the instruction of vocabulary through word list for two sessions. Finally, after finishing treatment a same post-test was administered to both groups to see which group has developed its vocabulary knowledge.

Scoring

After the collection of data, students’ scores were obtained by summing the correct answers. If the participants did not know the answer, they received zero and if they provided correct answer, they received 1 point. Each participant’s total score fluctuated between 0 and 20.





Analysis

After the participants’ scores were obtained from the given tests, they were analyzed. The mean of each group were calculated to and compared to show the probable differences.





Results

Pre-test scores of post-test scores of

group 1&2 group 1&2



Group 1 Group 2 Group 1 Group 2

9 8 13 9

10 10 15 11

11 10 16 12

11 11 16 12

12 12 16 13

13 12 17 14

13 13 17 15

14 14 18 15

14 14 18 15

15 14 18 16

15 15 19 16

15 15 19 16

16 16 19 18

17 17 19 18

18 17 20 18

18 18 20 19

20 19 20 20

20 20 20 20

X= 14.5 X= 14.16 X= 17.77 X= 15.38



As can be seen before giving treatment two groups are somehow homogeneous because their means are near to each other but first group’s mean increase after giving instruction through flashcards. Therefore it can be concluded that flashcards are better means for increasing vocabulary knowledge.





Conclusion

This paper is an attempt to compare two methods of teaching vocabulary in English classrooms. Namely, flashcard and word list. As it is mentioned through this paper, vocabulary learning is seen as an integral area in language teaching; therefore teachers should choose the best method for teaching vocabulary in their classrooms. At the first part of this paper different methods for teaching vocabulary are suggested and at the second part an experiment is done in which two methods of teaching vocabulary are taught in two different classrooms in order to show and prove which one of them is more useful. The results which are gained through comparing mean scores shows that students understand, memorize and remember vocabularies better through learning by flashcards.

























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