Ref. code: 25605521320019PXY A CASE STUDY OF LEARNING VOCABULARY THROUGH PICTURES BY MISS WATCHAREE PAISART A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING LANGUAGE INSTITUTE THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY ACADEMIC YEAR 2017 COPYRIGHT OF THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY
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Ref. code: 25605521320019PXY
A CASE STUDY OF LEARNING VOCABULARY
THROUGH PICTURES
BY
MISS WATCHAREE PAISART
A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF
PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
LANGUAGE INSTITUTE
THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY
ACADEMIC YEAR 2017
COPYRIGHT OF THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY
Ref. code: 25605521320019PXY
A CASE STUDY OF LEARNING VOCABULARY
THROUGH PICTURES
BY
MISS WATCHAREE PAISART
A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF
PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
LANGUAGE INSTITUTE
THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY
ACADEMIC YEAR 2017
COPYRIGHT OF THAMMASAT UNIVERSITY
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Dissertation Title A CASE STUDY OF LEARNING
VOCABULARY THROUGH PICTURES
Author Miss Watcharee Paisart
Degree Doctor of Philosophy
Major Field/Faculty/University English Language Teaching
Language Institute
Thammasat University
Dissertation Advisor Assistant Professor Watjana Suriyatham, Ed.D
Academic Years 2017
ABSTRACT
This research is a mixed-method case study aiming to investigate if
pictures help students remember words and how students remember words by
learning through pictorial input. The study consisted of seven volunteers who enrolled
in an ESP course in a Thai university. They were required to learn vocabulary in a
specific course for 45 words via a pictorial teaching material. The pretest and posttest
scores of the study were compared by T-test from Wilcoxon sign-ranked test. The
result showed that the posttest scores were significantly different from the pretest
scores at the 0.05 level. This showed that the use of picture had an effect on word
retention. However, the data derived from the main tool of the study, stimulated recall
protocol showed interesting findings which discovered another aspect of vocabulary
learning through picture. Cognitive process of students’ vocabulary learning which
were unrevealed was discovered vertically to open to broader perspectives of how
picture use in vocabulary teaching and learning affects students’ word retention. The
qualitative inquiry from the stimulated recall protocol showed that apart from picture
use, students employed variety of strategies to help them remember words.
Keywords: Pictorial input, Word memory, Stimulated recall protocol
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I could not be successful in my Ph.D study without many people
surrounding me. First of all my greatest supports for my study are my mom, my dad,
and all family members. With their great care, support and understanding, I could get
through difficult time. Apart from my family, my moral supports are from my beloved
friends. One of them has just passed away during my study who I felt so deeply
depressed for she could not have a chance to see my graduation like today but I am
certain she must be smiling somewhere in heaven for my success. I also appreciate
my Ph.D classmates who have shared my every moment during our study. Special
thanks to Ajarn Duangta Jaipetch; who arranged to push me on the Ph.D program
registration in the very beginning. Additionally, I would like to thank all lecturers in
the Ph.D program who teached me during the course. Many thanks to my supervisor,
Asst. Prof. Dr. Watjana Suriyatham who leads me to the appropriate direction so I can
walk along to the correct path until the end, without her support I could not make this
happen. Also, I have to say thank you Ms. Kobkorn Panmuang and the LITU staff for
facilitating me throughout the semester. Moreover, thanks to my KMUTNB
colleagues who had to work hard for me when I took leave to pursue my Ph.D study. I
also have to give credits to all my experts (Assoc. Prof. Dr. Piyatida Changpueng,
Asst. Prof. Dr. Supalak Nakornsri, Asst. Prof. Dr. Paradee Praphruetkij, Asst. Prof.
Dr. Raveewan Wanchid, and Dr. Karnchanoke Wattanasin) who helped comment on
my research materials. Besides, thank you to Dr. Ariyadhorn Fongpaiboon who stands
by me all the time and also helped me check some part of the research. My heartfelt
gratitude is to the proposal defense and final defense committee who tried to help me
find the very best solution for my full research dissertation. Last but not least, the
other groups of people who I could not forget are the volunteers from both the pilot
and the main study who are willing to participate in the research conduction. Without
their participation, I could not get useful and interesting information for the study.
Miss Watcharee Paisart
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ABSTRACT (1)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (2)
LIST OF TABLES (7)
LIST OF FIGURES (8)
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS (9)
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background of the Study 1
1.2 Statement of Problem 3
1.3 Purpose of the Study 4
1.4 Significance of the Study 5
1.5 Research Questions 5
1.6 Research Design 6
1.7 Theoretical Framework 6
1.8 Limitation and Scope 6
1.9 Definition of Terms 7
1.9.1 Stimulated Recall Protocol 7
1.9.2 Word Retention 8
1.9.3 Picture Use 8
1.10 Summary 9
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CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 10
2.1 Introduction to Language Learning, Vocabulary, and
Acquisition
10
2.1.1 Why Learn a Language? 10
2.1.2 Importance of Vocabulary 12
2.1.3 How to Learn Vocabulary 19
2.1.4 Vocabulary Strategies 20
2.1.5 Picture Use in English Teaching 23
2.2 Language Learning and Acquisition 26
2.3 Cognitive Processes 35
2.4 Memory / Retention 47
2.4.1 Types of Memory 48
2.4.2 Pattern of Memory Processes 53
2.4.3 Memory Problem 57
2.4.4 Memory Support 59
2.5 Metacognitive Process 61
2.6 Previous Studies of Picture Use on Word Retention 62
2.6.1 Critique of Studies 62
2.6.2 Research Gap 71
CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 73
3.1 Research Design 73
3.2 Participants 76
3.3 Material and Tools 78
3.3.1 Teaching Material 78
3.3.2 Pretest 83
3.3.3 Posttest 84
3.3.4 Stimulated Recall Protocol 84
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3.4 Methodology 87
3.5 Data Analysis 89
CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 91
4.1 Results on the Effect of Picture Use on Students' Word
Retention
92
4.2 Results on How Students Learn to Remember Words with the
Support of Pictorial Material Input
94
4.2.1 What Kinds of Pictures Best Affect Memory 95
4.2.2 What Factors or Cognitive Processing Strategies Involved
in Remembering Words with the Support of Pictorial
Material Input
104
4.3 Discussion 117
4.3.1 The Effect of Picture Use on Vocabulary Teaching 117
4.3.2 Cognitive Processing Strategies Involved in
Remembering Words
121
4.3.3 False Memory or Falsely Recalled
126
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 128
5.1 Conclusions of the Research Results and Findings 128
5.1.1 The Quantitative Data 128
5.1.2 Qualitative Data 130
5.2 Recommendations of the Study 132
5.2.1 Limitation of the Study 132
5.2.2 Recommendation for Further Study 134
5.2.3 Contribution to English Language Teaching 135
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REFERENCES 137
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A Example of Pretest 144
APPENDIX B Example of Teaching Material 145
APPENDIX C Example of Form for Expert to Check 146
APPENDIX D Example of Transcription 147
APPENDIX E Example of Transcription (translated version) 148
APPENDIX F Consent Form 149
BIOGRAPHY 150
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LIST OF TABLES
Tables Page
1 The comparison of the means for the pretest and posttest 93
2 The comparison of pretest and posttest scores 93
3 Kinds of pictures that best affect memory 96
4 How far and how close each category is to the target number 100
5 Kinds of pictures that best affect memory for stronger and weaker
volunteers
102
6 Frequencies of the time each volunteer used to get the correct
meanings of words
105
7 The final findings of words that volunteers could recall 109
8 Total findings with frequencies and percentages of occurence and
examples of excerpts from the stimulated recall protocol from
volunteers
109
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figures Page
1 Cognitive process 43
2 Information processing model 44
3 The multi-component conceptualization of Working Memory (WM) 46
4 Working memory model 55
5 Memory process model 56
6 Steps of preparation of the picture use in the study 83
7 Steps of research implementation 89
8 Graphs representing how close each type of picture is compared to
the target number (or expected number)
101
9 The comparison of patterns the strong and weak volunteers have on
types of words they applied to recall words correctly
103
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
Symbols/Abbreviations Terms
WM
STM
LTM
Working Memory
Short Term Memory
Long Term Memory
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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
English is one of the most popular and widely used languages in the
world (Prentice, 2016), although, according to Ethnologue (2017), it is ranked third in
terms of number of users, after both Chinese and Spanish (ranked first and second,
respectively). English seems to be the medium language or a language used to widely
communicate apart from those languages mentioned earlier. Nevertheless, many
countries incorporate English in their educational curriculums for their students to
study and accomplish proficiency in the language. We find a similar situation in
Thailand, where English is a core subject in the national curriculum and many stake
holders have tried to seek for practical approaches to make learning effective.
Recently, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) came into effect and
incorporates 10 member states including Thailand. English is considered as a working
language for each ASEAN member state to use when communicating. As a result, a
large number of educational institutes, companies, and organizations have been
encouraging their students or their workforce to make significant gains.
The importance of English, as well as its necessity, has influenced society
in various aspects, such as education, economy, and tourism. In education, for
example, English has been promoted in many schools and universities around
Thailand: English programs, international programs, and bilingual programs have
been created and implemented with a view of making learning more efficient and
effective, with the aim of ultimately serving the need of using English well in society.
Regarding the Thai economy, English plays an important role in organizational
communication, especially when contacting foreign organizations and exchanging
goods, services and information. However, possibly the strongest area of influence is
tourism in Thailand. The English language is like a link that brings people together
from different places to meet in the same place and understand each other. All in all,
the influence of English and its importance to Thai society cannot be overlooked.
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Although English has been prominent in Thai education for a number of
years, proficiency in the language remains a problematic issue. Many Thai students
are not fluent in English, and most Thai students seem to have problems in using
English in all skills. As Fredrickson and Mala (2016) mentioned in Bangkok Post
online, citing EF (English First) English Proficiency Index 2015 “Thailand is a non-
English speaking country with very low English proficiency”. From the previous
reference, there are 70 countries around the world which are included in the study.
Out of 70 countries, Thailand is in 62nd place and 14th out of 16th place in Asia for the
level of English proficiency. From this information, it can be inferred that Thai people
still have some problems when it comes to learning and mastering the English
language. Therefore, government and people have been trying to find appropriate
ways to support more efficient and more effective English language learning.
Learning a language involves mastery of many elements for a language
learner in order that they are able to use and understand the language to a satisfactory
level. These elements include grammar, expressions, vocabulary as well as general
language skills (e.g. reading, writing). Vocabulary is clearly one that seems to play an
important role in becoming proficient in a language. Schmitt (2000) also mentioned
that vocabulary is central area for language making it fundamentally important for
language learners. If a language learner has sufficient vocabulary knowledge, he or
she is better able to utilize this knowledge alongside the four language skills (reading,
listening, speaking, writing) in a more communicative way (see Nation, 2001).
Naturally, language teachers tend to be driven to increase and improve
vocabulary knowledge among their students. However, a motivated language learner
ought also to be continuously trying to find an effective way to increase their
vocabulary knowledge. A number of research studies on vocabulary learning have
been conducted, often with a different focus and topic, and from different viewpoints
(i.e. from both the teachers’ and language learners’ perspective). It appears, therefore,
that research on vocabulary learning and usage remains an interesting and practical
area of study to some extent.
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1.2 Statement of Problem
From the above section, it discussed about the importance and necessity
of English use and the focus of the learning narrows to vocabulary which seems to be
a vital element that affect the use of four skills of English.
English teachers have to find effective and appropriate ways and
techniques to help students learn English, especially vocabulary due to the reason
stated above. There are many strategies which were discussed to be effective in
teaching, learning and memorizing vocabulary.
Nation (2001) introduced a taxonomy of vocabulary learning strategies
which separates knowledge of vocabulary aspects and deals with the learning process
for each vocabulary learning steps. Nation reports three general classes of strategies:
Planning (choosing what to focus on and when to focus on it); Sources (finding
information about words); and Processes (establishing knowledge). Schmitt (2000)
proposed a long list of vocabulary learning strategies, which he categorized in two
ways: (1) the list is divided into two major classes which are strategies useful for
initial discovery and useful for remembering words once they have been introduced,
and (2) the strategies are classified into five groupings; namely, Determination
strategies (DET), Social strategies (SOC), Memory strategies (MEM), Cognitive
strategies (COG), and Metacognitive strategies (MET). In another study, conducted
by Stoffer (1995; cited in Kudo, 1999) categories on vocabulary learning strategies
were introduced: (1) strategies involving authentic language use, (2) strategies used
for self-motivation, (3) strategies used to organize words, (4) memory strategies, (5)
strategies involving creating activities, (6) strategies used to overcome anxiety, (7)
strategies involving physical action, (8) auditory strategies, and (9) strategies used to
create mental linkages. In Yothasamutr’s work (2006), five common strategies were
revealed, as follows: (1) analyzing affixes and roots, (2) analyzing available picture or
gestures, (3) using bilingual dictionaries, (4) asking the teacher for first language
translation, (5) and asking classmates for meaning; whereas Jivanuwong’s study
(2006) showed similar strategies to those presented in Schmitt. She reported two
categories of strategies: social discovery and social consolidation. A variety of
strategies for vocabulary learning were presented under each category.
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Enhancing vocabulary knowledge, as mentioned earlier, is very important
for students. They can find their own path to increase such knowledge by themselves
or with the support of teachers through class lectures or input activities. However,
finding ways of increasing long-term retention of this knowledge is still a major-focus.
Given the need to find effective ways of increasing long-term vocabulary
retention for English language learners, the present research focuses on the use of
pictures. After reviewing some literatures, it is interesting to study in details if the use
of picture can really help the students to remember words. Therefore, this study has
been put in a focus.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The purpose of the study is to systematically investigate the use of pictures
in promoting long-term vocabulary retention. Many research studies have reported the
usefulness and the effectiveness of picture use in vocabulary learning. However, very
few studies to date have attempted to elicit students’ thoughts on how they could
remember new words. Students may have some important insights to share about this
process. Given this study aims to investigate the underlying factors on word learning
and retention, variables are not strictly controlled in the study because the researcher
would like to explore what is involved in the students’ learning and memorization
process.
For the population of the study, the researcher used a group of students
who study English for a specific purpose. These students reported that they need to
study as many words as possible because they need to use the word they learn in the
course in their career paths in the future. Therefore, vocabulary knowledge, for them
is highly necessary and the words they learn in the course are practical for them.
The location of the study was a university setting, in Prachinburi Province,
because there is a course which can be managed to suite the research plan there. The
students who enroll in this course are the selected population of the study because
their desire to learn vocabulary in a specific purpose is much higher than students who
study several English courses in Bangkok according to their designated careers, which
tends to require daily English usage mainly. Their scope of English use is for working
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in international service industries directly while other students tend to work in other
fields which are not mainly about English environment. Then, their needs to learn
ESP vocabulary for this group of students are likely to be stronger than other groups
of students.
1.4 Significance of the Study
The contribution of the study’s results can be drawn to incorporate in the
teaching plan for vocabulary learning. At the very least, the findings should help
teachers understand more about the use of a new resource (namely pictures), in
vocabulary teaching to see if they really help students retain words over the long-term
as mentioned previously in the discussion of the effectiveness of pictures for
vocabulary learning. Additionally, some useful information that can be found may
help teachers to focus on or make use while planning to teach vocabulary for their
students.
1.5 Research Questions
The study seeks to answer the following questions:
(1) Do pictures help students to remember words?
(2) How do the pictures help students retain words in memory?
• Are there any other factors involved?
• What kinds of pictures are most memorable? (e.g. drawing,
realistic, cartoon, pictures with text, and outstanding pictures)
• Are there any differences between good and weak students in
using types of pictures to remember words?
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1.6 Research Design
The research design of the study was mixed-method case study since
aspects from both quantitative and qualitative approaches are deemed supportive of
each other. The use of a case study provided the necessary focus on a specific area of
study in order to facilitate scrutiny of the underlying factors which cannot be easily
noticed or observed. Many studies have investigated the effectiveness of picture use
for word learning and the effect on students’ memory, yet. Very few studies have
actually provided any insight into the details of students’ thinking processes. It is
therefore timely and useful to gather qualitative data about the use of pictures on word
retention by focusing on the students’ thinking process. This study hopes to reveal a
clearer picture and more detailed information about how pictures help in long-term
word retention. Finally, while other research studies have tended to show the positive
side of picture effects on word memory, the present study should help to explain how
pictures influence memory or how students learn vocabulary through pictures.
1.7 Theoretical Framework
The researcher aimed to study the processes underlying the influence of
pictures on learning and remembering words. The technique employed in order to
elicit the required information is very important. “Stimulated Recall Protocol” is the
technique employed in the current study and will be applied to all subjects who
volunteer to take part in the study. Further details regarding this technique will be
provided in Chapter 3.
1.8 Limitation and Scope
Due to the limited duration of the study and the feasible design of the
research, it is plausible that there are several limitations of the study. These will be
discussed in turn below.
The first limitation concerns the limited scope of the vocabulary that was
learnt. As a result of subject selection, which was focused only on students who were
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enrolled in the English for Service Industry course, the vocabulary items were mainly
about English for a specific purpose (i.e., English for the Service Industry). Hence, the
vocabulary items in the current study are not particularly diverse in nature.
The second point concerns subject selection. Since the study focuses on
the group of students who are “Tourism and Hotel” fields, the characteristics of the
subjects may be different from other students, such as students from the faculties of
engineering, science, technical education, and so forth. Thus, the result of the study
might be used to explain the phenomenon for students in this field or students who
have similar characteristics rather than students from other fields.
Another limitation concerns the parts of speech for vocabulary use. Only
nouns were focused on in the current study because it is easier to find pictures that
match with this particular part of speech. Other parts of speech were not included
because of this practical reason. It might be argued that the use of these specific words
in the current research were not sufficiently various in type. It might be more
interesting if further research could be done into different types of word or parts of
speech, so different angles can be discovered.
The final limitation is the duration of the study. Since the study was
focused on word retention, the impact of picture use on word retention was researched.
However, due to the time constraint in the dissertation timeline, the researcher could
not spend much time to measure students’ memorization as long as expected. A
semester is the most feasible time for the study. Therefore, it might be more
challenging and interesting if the study time could be prolonged in order to measure
students’ retention over a longer-term period than the one used currently.
1.9 Definition of Terms
There are a number of important and relevant terms used throughout the
study. These are defined below.
1.9.1 Stimulated Recall Protocol
This is employed as a framework, and the instrument for the data
collection of the research. This was done with the volunteers of the study, who were
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trained fairly informally with the “Stimulated Recall Protocol” technique. The
volunteers finished their posttest for the course, with the researcher then checking
their answers. Following this, they were asked questions on how they could remember
words or what might be reasons why they could not remember words. The stimulus of
the study would be pictures that they had in their posttest. The volunteers would have
pictures in hand as a stimulus to think about their reasons why and how they could or
could not think about matching the words to the pictures.
1.9.2 Word Retention
Due to the time constraint in the study as discussed earlier in the
limitation of the study, word retention defined here refers to one complete semester.
The researcher aimed to find out how the students could remember word after they
have studied the English for Service Industry course. While the students would study
naturally without any other treatment except the use of pictures to explain about the
vocabulary they need to know in each unit.
1.9.3 Picture Use
Picture use mainly focused on nouns for practical reasons. This
aided-stimulus selection and aided the researcher to find pictures that more easily
matched the words. The pictures were employed in the pretest and posttest of the
study. Also, they were presented while studying in each unit in order to be inputs for
students while they studied the course. The pictures consisted of a total of 45 words (5
words x 9 units). They were categorized into five different kinds of pictures:
(1) Cartoon or animated pictures
(2) Realistic pictures
(3) Outstanding pictures
(4) Drawing pictures or Line drawing pictures
(5) Pictures with words or texts written on or Pictures embedded with
words
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1.10 Summary
This research study was designed to cast more light on qualitative data
with the mixed method of both quantitative and qualitative inquiries on the use of
pictures on word retention with a group of volunteers from the Tourism and Hotel
Department, in a university in Thailand. The duration of the study was one semester
due to the time constraint in research conduction. “Stimulated Recall Protocol” was
applied to collect data of the study. This study aimed to get deeper and clearer details
or information on the effect of picture use on word retention.
In the next chapter, a survey of relevant theories and previous research
findings are presented. Following this, Chapter 3 provides details of the methodology,
Chapter 4 discusses the results and discussion, and Chapter 5 provides conclusion and
recommendations of the study.
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CHAPTER 2
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1 Introduction to Language Learning, Vocabulary, and Acquisition
2.1.1 Why Learn a Language?
It is hard to dispute that knowing many languages nowadays can be
an advantage in many fields or careers. For example, if someone works as a tour
guide, to be able to communicate in many languages would help facilitate his or her
job because of the greater opportunities for guiding tourists from many different
countries and understanding them better than if the guide used only one language
(e.g., English). If someone works as a doctor, he or she could help his or her
international patients better than if he/she used only one language. As a teacher, if he
or she could understand many languages, that teacher would be able to work
coorporately with many schools or build academic networks from various
organizations around the world. Knowing many languages could contribute to
receptive and productive activities which could enhance efficiency, not only for
educational aspects but also for various additional purposes. As Merritt (2013)
discussed in The Telegraph on 19 June 2013, "Learning a foreign language is more
than just a boost to your CV or handy for travelling. It will make you smarter, more
decisive and even better at English."
Merritt also mentioned about the benefits of knowing many
languages as explained in the items below.
2.1.1.1 Being smarter
When someone learns a language, he or she has to do many
things so as to remember things in the language, then they have to negotiate the
meaning, and finally communicate by the language. Therefore, their brains would be
practiced to do many things to accomplish these steps. These steps lead to skills that
they could apply to be used in other problem-solving tasks which they could transfer
afterwards.
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2.1.1.2 Building multitasking skills
From a study of the Pennsylvania State University on
children to let them switch tasks from two systems of speech between writing and
structure, it was revealed that they could do both activities. They could switch easily
between each different structure. Moreover, in one study, an interesting result was
revealed in that people who used a driving stimulator (who speak more than one
language) produced fewer errors while driving.
2.1.1.3 The relation of the average age and Alzheimer’s disease
and dementia
It was mentioned in many studies about the average age of
people who speak one language comparing to who speak more than one language on
the ratio to have Alzheimer or dementia. The findings suggest that onset of
Alzheimer’s disease is around 71.4 years for people knowing only one language,
while people who speak more than one single language have a later stage onset of
Alzheimer’s disease, around 75.5 years.
2.1.1.4 Memory improves
It was mentioned that when people learn a language, they
need to remember the language rules and vocabulary. This leads to the exercise of the
brain and causes memory improvement. Many studies showed the results that people
who learn many languages would be able to remember shopping lists, names, and
directions somewhat better.
2.1.1.5 Becoming more perceptive
From a study at Spain’s University of Pompeu Fabra, it was
found that people who learn an additional language are better at observing things in
their surroundings. Moreover, they could easily and more quickly spot irrelevant
information.
2.1.1.6 Decision making skills improve
A study from the University of Chicago showed that people
who know many languages were found to be more confident in making decisions, and
that the same decisions were also more rationale. It was believed that language
learning causes people to face more complicated things in the language, so this in turn
influences the ability of the judgment.
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2.1.1.7 Improving English
To learn a language (this article raises English as an
example), people would focus more on grammar, conjugations, and sentence
structure, in addition to other important things in order to learn a language well. Thus,
they pay more attention to the language and are more likely to have more awareness
regarding it.
From the above description on the importance of learning a
language, it is obvious that there are many beneficial and positive points in learning a
language. When learning a language, there are many aspects to study and explore,
such as grammar, sentence structure, parts of speech, idiom, stress and intonation,
tenses, and vocabulary, which will be focused in the following part.
Although vocabulary does not represent the whole things or aspects
in learning a foreign language, it is considered very important to having a
communicative conversation (Wallace, 1982). The next part discusses the importance
of vocabulary and shows how it plays crucial role in knowing a language and what
contribution that could lead to.
2.1.2 Importance of Vocabulary
Vocabulary is considered an important aspect of language learning,
especially in learning English. It helps in communication. People rely more on
vocabulary than grammar when they want to communicate. As Wilkins (1972, p. 111-
112) argues, “without grammar, little can be conveyed; without vocabulary, nothing
can be conveyed”. From only a few words in a sentence, people can guess what the
sentence will be about. Sometimes, only a single word can show what the speaker or
the writer wishes to express. Thus, it can be said that vocabulary is one of the most
crucial elements in English of all skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
Vocabulary is certainly be used to present or convey ideas in both
receptive and productive aspects of English language learning. The spoken or written
language is understandable if people select the correct or appropriate words for their
sentences. At the same time, in reading and listening, if the words employed are
known or meaningful for the readers or listeners, communication is more likely to be
successful.
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In speaking, people need to communicate or present their ideas to
others. It can be imagined that even if the grammar is incorrect, but with the link of
vocabulary used in presentation of sentences, listeners should be able to guess what
the speakers are trying to convey. To do this, it can be said that vocabulary promotes
communicative language which is an important and necessary aspect of speaking
skill.
On the other hand, listening performance may fail if listeners have
very limited or no knowledge about any single word in the sentences that are
delivered in speech. This skill is considered somewhat difficult for people who lack
skill in listening practice, especially in English language. Therefore, if they have
difficulties catching what a speaker is trying to say, they have little chance of
understanding the idea presented. However, it can be imagined that if a listener does
not even know what the words are in a single sentence the speaker is saying, this
would mean that he or she is unable to identify the words that he or she hears,
producing a communication problem. It can be concluded that vocabulary plays a
very important role in this kind of skill also.
Apart from that discussed above, focusing on reading skills also
shows an important role for vocabulary. Knowing words can make readers understand
a text or a passage. Of course, key vocabulary would be important and necessary to
understand the reading but some words which are not key words may also have some
effect on the meaning of the sentence. The more words the readers know the more
they are likely to understand the reading. As Alsaawi (2013) mentioned people with
limited vocabulary may not be able to read with understanding. This is still a crucial
problem for readers if they do not know the meaning of a word and try to find the
appropriate meaning of a single word, they may find it difficult to select which
meaning suit the context the most. The study of Paisart (2004) about the Dictionary
Use to Facilitate Reading Comprehension found that many students chose the first
listed meaning they find in the dictionary. However, they still could not fully
understand the sentence they tried to translate since they lack strategies to choose the
most appropriate meaning from the dictionary. Therefore, as long as the students
could not get the meanings of words they need to know in order to understand a
reading text or passage, they would find themselves in a problematic situation since
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they would be blocked by unfamiliar language and they could not communicate to
others nor could they understand what others would like to express to them. This
situation is probably quite frustrating. The more meaning readers know about words,
the better the overall comprehension can be made.
Finally, writing skill which is considered the most difficult
productive skills in English. As Tangpermpoon (2008) states, it is the most difficult
skill of English for language learners to perform because it is not only about one or
two aspects to be able to write but it consists of many things such as vocabulary,
background knowledge and so on. However, in order to transfer the writers’ idea to
others, at least, the writer needs to have the ability to put words into sentences. It is
therefore difficult to discount the possibility that vocabulary is one of the main tools
to help writers present their ideas.
From those discussions about vocabulary knowledge and all four
English skills, it can be seen that vocabulary seems to play a larger and important
aspect to all. Without vocabulary, it may be impossible to perform those four skills. It
is important to know, therefore, how to increase vocabulary knowledge among
language learners is suggested to be studied in order to find more effective ways of
encouraging language learners to master or to improve their vocabulary knowledge. It
could be assume that after having better knowledge of vocabulary, they should be able
to perform all four skills better.
Mokhtar et al. (2010) has discussed how the lack of vocabulary
knowledge can cause several obstacles in learning English. This research explained
the negative aspects of having inadequate lexical knowledge that would create
problems in reading comprehension. Problems in reading, would lead to bad reading
habits meaning that learners might not be attracted to reading and therefore do not
read often. It was mentioned that the students who could read and understand the
reading would read more and become good readers; while the students who have poor
ability in reading would read less and became poor readers. Thus, it can be seen that
inadequate vocabulary or lexical knowledge can have a negative effect on learners
reading habits. Additionally, for poorer reader, they may struggle when they need to
produce some pieces of writing, because of writing difficulties related to their poor
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reading habits. Keener writers, on the other hand, would perform better at writing
because they have done more reading.
How much vocabulary knowledge is needed to be able to effectively
perform each task? This question is interesting. According to Nation (1990), spoken
and written English were discussed to link with listening skill for English because
when listening skills were measured, they would be measured via the spoken
language and sometimes written language was a source to be produced before a
person would listen to something. Thus, both spoken and written English were
discussed to see vocabulary produced for measurement of listening skills. A
comparison of counts of spoken English, studied by Schonell, Meddleton, and Shaw
(1956); and written English, studied by Kucera and Francis (1967) were shown that
there were headwords, word types, and tokens to present different kinds of words they
studied. For Schonell et al.’s study, 4,539 headwords, 12,611 word types, and 512,
647 tokens were mentioned; while Kucera and Francis’s study showed no headwords,
25, 203 word types, and 500,000 tokens. These numbers varied according to the types
of language use; for example, formal or informal language. Moreover, the level of
language use due to English proficiency could be a factor to make this different. Apart
from these aspects, the categories of how words were grouped; for example, by
headwords, word types, or tokens might make the numerical proportions different.
For speaking skill, the size of vocabulary required for adequate
skills was discussed by West (1960), who argued that around 1,200 headwords would
be enough for a simple presentation of ideas in English. Additionally, West (1953)
also recommended the General Service List for about 2,000 words that is the goal a
learner should try to reach. Nation (1990, p. 93) did not discuss such a large number
of vocabulary that is required to speak English:
Clearly, to speak English it is not necessary to have a
large vocabulary. In developing learners’ spoken English
vocabulary it is best to give learners practice in being
able to say a lot using a small number of words.
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Nation (1990) also discussed the appropriate size of vocabulary
which is required for suitable reading comprehension skills. He mentioned about the
levels of several simplified readings. The numbers of words were from 300 to 2,000
word level. There are six stages shown below:
Stage 1 300 words
Stage 2 600 words
Stage 3 1,000 words
Stage 4 1,500 words
Stage 5 2,000 words
Stage 6 2,600 words
These stages were taken from “The Newbury House Writers’
Guide”, which Nation discusses in his article. From this presentation, it can be seen
that the average number of words a reader needs to know when reading a text or a
passage which was considered the least difficult to the most difficult levels. This
implies that the low proficient students could be able to read text with lesser words
than high proficient students. This means the low proficient students tend to have
problem in comprehending the text comparing to those who are high proficient.
However, according to Nation, knowledge of 3,000 headwords is more than sufficient
to read and comprehend an unsimplified version of a text.
Writing skill seems to be the most complicated skill, at least
compared to the other skills: listening, speaking, and reading. According to Nation
(1990), writing involves many factors; for example, spelling, word use in a sentence,
organization, and signaling in written text. Moreover, to be able to write well, there
should be enough input in head so as to be able to present attractive idea or discuss
some idea interestingly. He also suggested that around 2,000 – 3,000 headwords were
adequate for writing a text or a passage. With this amount of words, he said that many
ideas could be effectively presented.
In conclusion, he recommended that a language learner who would
love to improve himself or herself to be able to use English as well as a native English
speaker should learn about 1,000 words per year. After this, they should try to make
up the 2,000 to 3,000 word gap. Nation mentioned around 2,000 high-frequency
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words were necessary for a productive vocabulary, but also the learners need to know
how to deal with unknown words. In addition to Nation (1990), Carter (1987) has also
suggested learners know around 2,000 words having drawn this number from corpus
of 2 to 5 million words. Bongers (1947) also mentioned that the 2,000 word list here
would be found in about 80% of any written texts. The learners would be motivated to
learn these words because they might see them often.
Strategies to tackle low-frequency words should be taught to the
learners so they can cope with unknown vocabulary. Learners who have special goals
(e.g., university students) may need around 1,000 words more so that they can deal
with academic reading; a usual university requirement.
However, students find it is very problematic to learn and remember
words to be used when they need to perform each skill. Wallace (1982) mentioned
eight problems in leaning vocabulary, which are discussed below. Knowing these
problems, awareness and preparation to teach vocabulary could be put into
consideration.
1) Inability to retrieve vocabulary that has been taught
This item was said to be basic of when students learn
vocabulary, they would always forget the vocabulary when they need to use it. As a
result, they need to use other strategies (so called “repair strategies”) to accomplish
their immediate activities when they could not recall the words they need.
2) Use of vocabulary inappropriate to the given situation
Many times students know the meaning but somehow use
vocabulary items in an inappropriate context or situation because they have not
learned or been concerned about the culture or limitation of the vocabulary item’s use.
3) Use of vocabulary at the wrong level of formality
This item is similar to the above but different in the sense of its
formality. Some words are used exclusively in spoken language rather than in written
language. The level of language use could be an obstacle for the students because
sometimes they do not know what words are used in formal or informal application.
Some words can be used only with people at the same level; some should be used
only with those at the senior level. This issue is very important as well.
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4) Possessing the wrong kind of vocabulary for one’s needs
A student has his or her own interest or individual scope in
learning vocabulary; while some students need vocabulary for easy communication,
the other ones may need it for reading an academic book. Medical students may need
to learn different vocabulary from Hotel and Tourism students. Thus, if the teachers
try to teach vocabulary with no regard to this issue, it may be a waste of time for
students to learn the vocabulary that the teacher prepared.
5) Using vocabulary in an unidiomatic way
Students use vocabulary in a sentence which they should use
the correct word or words that go together as an appropriate idiom or phrase or
sentence; but they use inappropriate words instead. This could be from a problem of
idiom usage.
6) Using vocabulary in a meaningless way
When learning vocabulary, it seems that students did not learn
the vocabulary. There might be activities they need to deal with and they could use
strategies to cope with vocabulary problem so as to accomplish the tasks. For
example, when they read a passage and there were some unknown words in the
passage, they did not even have to understand the passage but they could answer
questions correctly. This is because they just identify where the answers are and use
that part to answer the questions. It was mentioned that in a traditional class where the
teacher always asks questions and needs the students to answer, this problem always
occurs. The students will just scan or try to answer the questions but tend not to be
concerned about actually learning the vocabulary.
7) Incorrect use of a dictionary
Students always stop and consult a dictionary to find words’
meanings. They ignore the strategies they need to apply when reading, such as
guessing from context, analyzing affixes, and so on. Therefore, excessive use of
dictionaries could lead to problems in learning vocabulary.
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8) Use of incorrect grammatical form, spelling, pronunciation, or
stress
In learning vocabulary, it is also important and necessary to
consider which words should be only recognized or which words should be studied
(for spelling, grammatical form, collocation of words, and so on). Therefore, in
learning about vocabulary, the teachers should help identify which words students
should learn to know clearly while some words should be taught focusing only on the
meanings.
To sum up, vocabulary knowledge is very important. The more
vocabulary the students know, the more likely it is that they can communicate and
understand the language. However, if they do not have adequate vocabulary
knowledge, strategies to cope with unknown words should be introduced to them so
they can find to deal with their limitations in vocabulary. At the same time, these
vocabulary strategies could reveal some useful learning strategies which encourage
them to learn and remember the new words. The discussion below now turns to the
type of vocabulary strategies that have arisen in the research literature.
2.1.3 How to Learn Vocabulary
Carter (1987) explained about how vocabulary is learned. He
categorized two methods: (1) direct method and (2) indirect method. In order to learn
words either direct or indirect methods, there are two approaches introduced. The first
approach is “productive approach” which can help students activate and retrieve items
of vocabulary from memory. The second approach is the “receptive approach” which
involves strategies that help students to understand and store lexical items in their
memory. The receptive approach is likely to help students comprehend the language
while the productive approach tends to encourage students to use or apply the
language. Nation (1990), in addition, explained about these two approaches. He used
the term “receptive learning” for “receptive approach” and explained that it is the
ability to recognize words and can recall their meanings. For the “productive
approach”, certainly he called, “productive learning” and tend to focus on the ability
to speak out or write the needed vocabulary which they have learned from the
receptive learning and apply it in an appropriate time. He also stated the number of
necessary words required in each application. According to Nation (1990, p. 5), "He
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says, “If learners need to cover the whole range of language skills, then a productive
vocabulary of around 3000 base words and larger receptive vocabulary is needed.”
From this statement, receptive vocabulary should be acquired or
learned more than the productive vocabulary which is said to be 3000 words.
Therefore, this implies that the vocabulary used for reading and listening or receptive
learning should be more than this number. However, in order to learn a language, two
approaches should be met, as stated by Nation (1990, p. 6), “Real vocabulary learning
comes through use, both receptive use and productive use.” So, if students do not have
a chance to cover both applications, vocabulary learning might not be successfully
learned.
2.1.4 Vocabulary Strategies
From the previous discussion, it is obvious that vocabulary
knowledge is very much important and that it should be learned by both receptive and
productive approaches. Therefore, vocabulary strategies have been continuously
promoted not only by teachers, lecturers, tutors, but also by students or learners
themselves. Many scholars have suggested a variety of strategies or ideas to help
learners increase and improve their knowledge of vocabulary. Some of them are
discussed next.
Nation (2001) introduced the taxonomy of kinds of vocabulary
learning strategies which separate knowledge of vocabulary aspects. He also
mentioned about the vocabulary learning process for each step. There were three
general classes of strategy: Planning (choosing what to focus on and when to focus on
it); Sources (finding information about words); and Processes (establishing
knowledge). These steps are likely focused on students or learners having to manage
their own vocabulary learning. They need to set goal in their minds such as what do
they need to know, like what kind of vocabulary they intend to study (e.g. general
vocabulary, or academic vocabulary, etc.). Then, when they are clear what type of
vocabulary they want to learn, they could find a resource to get the words, study them
from various aspects (spelling, meaning, usage, examples, etc.). The final step, after
they studied about an individual word, requires them to actually try to use the words.
The last step involves evaluating themselves in term of how well they have learned
the word and what they need to do to improve their self-learning.
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On the other hand, when comparing to the strategies Nation (2001)
mentioned above, Schmitt (2000) proposed a long list of vocabulary learning
strategies. The list is categorized into two ways: (1) the list is divided into two major
classes which are strategies useful for initial discovery and useful for remembering
that word once it has been introduced, and (2) the strategies are classified into five
groupings, namely Determination strategies (DET), Social strategies (SOC), Memory
strategies (MEM), Cognitive strategies (COG), and Metacognitive strategies (MET).
From what Schmitt suggested, it depends on how the vocabulary would be presented
or what to focus on when teaching or learning the vocabulary. In other words, (1) the
first way focuses on the discovery aspect (useful for initial discovery): how to get to
know words (e.g., meaning, spelling, etc.); or remembering aspect (useful for
remembering): how to help transfer words in memory. In addition to the first way,
another way (2) categorizes into five items:
• Determination strategies (DET) – this item refers to strategies
where learners try to identify the meaning of the word by themselves without support
from teachers or friends (they may guess the meaning of words by using context or
surrounding known words).
• Social strategies (SOC) – this item refers to strategies where
learners try to get some help to know words from other people (they may ask or
observe their friends or ask their teachers).
• Memory strategies (MEM) – this item refers to mental
strategies that the learners use to try to remember words they are learning or transfer
words to their memories (they may link their ideas of background knowledge to help
remember the new words).
• Cognitive strategies (COG) – this item refers to more
mechanical strategies which are not relevant to mental processing. The learners need
to study in order to learn the words (they may write the words many times until they
can remember the words, like rote learning).
• Metacognitive strategies (MET) – this item refers to
manageable strategies and similar to what Nation (2001) introduced to promote the
idea that learners need to monitor, make decision, and evaluate their learning (they
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need to choose what to learn, decide how to learn and then finally test themselves
about what they have learned).
The study of Stoffer (1995) introduced nine categories on
vocabulary learning strategies which were partly similar to Schmitt (2000). The
strategies are likely to link to the idea of multiple intelligence of Gardner (1983)
which views that people learn differently according to their individual preferences.
The strategies proposed by Stoffer are (1) strategies involving authentic language
use: learners learn to remember words by using them in their actual application, (2)
strategies used for self-motivation: learners need to find their own motivation to learn
the words well, (3) strategies used to organize words: learners need to manage to learn
the words to make them easy to remember, (4) memory strategies: learners need to
find ways to help transfer words to their memories, (5) strategies involving creative
activities: learners have to generate activities to be involved in word learning, (6)
strategies used to overcome anxiety: learners also have to find ways to manage their
anxiety to use the words they learned or their worries for not being able to learn the
words, (7) strategies involving physical action: learners may need to involve action so
as to remember words, (8) auditory strategies: learners need to hear sound while
learning the words, and (9) strategies used to create mental linkages: learners link the
words they learn to some internal image they have in mind. Those strategies show
individual differences in learning vocabulary which can be found in a student. So, it
could be considered that individual vocabulary learning strategy might be one factor
that involves in learning vocabulary.
Finally, many studies have reported about vocabulary learning
strategies. The study of Yothasamutr (2006) revealed five common strategies used
which are analyzing affixes and roots, analyzing available picture or gestures, using
bilingual dictionary, asking the teacher for first language translation, and asking
classmates for meaning; whereas the study of Jivanuwong (2006) showed similar
strategies presented in Schmitt (2000). She presented two categories of strategies:
social discovery and social consolidation. A variety of strategies for vocabulary
learning were presented under each category. Similar results were obtained in
Nillaphan’s (2006) study of Schmitt’s taxonomy about the vocabulary learning
strategies. She categorized learners’ levels into three levels to see their strategies
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according to their levels. The frequent use of strategies among these three groups was
determination strategies, social (discovery) strategies, social (consolidation)
strategies, memory strategies, cognitive strategies, and metacognitive strategies.
Apart from these vocabulary learning strategies that have been
discussed, there are still many more useful and practical strategies which language
learners could apply to learn a foreign language and to master vocabulary. One of the
strategies which are especially focused in this study is the use of pictures to help in
learning vocabulary. This idea is very popular and interesting because the use of
pictures in English language learning and teaching seems to be promoted in many
commercial books used in class. As seen from English books used in class in many
universities at the moment, it is difficult to argue that there are not that many
attractive and colorful pictures in every page at least, compared to English books used
in the past which were mostly textual with some books in black and white. From this
change, it might be claimed that pictures have influenced much on teaching and
learning a foreign language nowadays. Moreover, pictures have been widely used in
some present class activities to attract students’ interest and to focus them in on to
what they are going to learn; to elicit students’ background knowledge; to make the
lesson more interesting; to entertain students; and sometimes to promote and support
students’ memory. Additionally, many research studies (Carpenter & Olson, 2012;
Hashemi & Pourgharib, 2013; Hazamy, 2009) aimed to investigate the use of pictures
on word learning by comparing picture use to other strategies. The results of using
pictures from the studies tend to be the same direction which was positive and
effective in memorizing words. In the current study, the use of pictures is the major
focus for vocabulary learning.
2.1.5 Picture Use in English Teaching
Grainger (2013), in his presentation about “Power of the image – 10
ways to use photographs” in January, 26, 2013 claimed that, “we process visuals
60,000 times faster than text”. He reported that from seeing pictures, people could
understand what the aim of the message being delivered, with understanding
occurring very quickly and far above simply getting the gist of what to communicate
via a text. Berger (1972; cited in Rose, 2016, p. 3) states, “seeing comes before
words”. He explained that children who are born normally (not blind), learn things
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from what they see before they are able to speak out. Their learning arises from what
they look at and later they come to recognize it. This process of learning is mainly
from pictures (or other objects in the world), rather than text. In conclusion to this, it
could be mentioned that pictures have many benefits. Therefore, it would be
interesting to make use of pictures or visual input in teaching and learning instead of
studying via text only, in order to make a practical and effective contribution to
education. The use of pictorial and visual input could make lessons more attractive
and expose students to something closer to the real world.
The application of visual input in teaching and learning is promoted
not just only in a language class but also in many subject fields. In an engineering
class, visual input was delivered to support learning and teaching. For example, the
study of Felder and Silverman (1988) mentioned about teaching techniques to address
all learning styles on the use of visual input that before, during, and after the content
was verbally delivered, the pictures, schematics, graphs, and simple sketches liberally
would be presented. Therefore, when students learned via the use of verbal material,
they would be supported with pictorial or visual input at any time of learning (it could
be before, during, or after depending on the lesson plan). Sometimes, films,
demonstrations, or hands-on activities were implemented in class to encourage
learning or make the lessons vivid. So, this could show that picture use could help
drawing attention of students. Another example of using picture or visual input in
learning is from the study of Mason, Pluchino, and Tornatora (2013) about the online
and offline of science reading text with the use of abstract and concrete illustrations.
They use “Eye-tracking” as the methodology to study the text tracing and picture
processing. The finding of this study revealed that students who learned with the use
of picture labeled with text outperformed the students who learned without labeled
pictures. So, this could reveal that picture use has some benefit to support reading.
For English language teaching, pictorial or visual input has widely
been used as material to help teachers motivate students, such as being used as a
stimulus for a conversation class, an example for vocabulary lesson, a supporting
picture for a reading passage, and so forth.
Pictures have also been investigated in many research studies.
Schmitt’s taxonomy (see Lohasheewa, 2011) described the use of word meaning
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imagination as one of the memory strategies that could be used to learn vocabulary.
Schmitt (2000) reported an explicit learning technique on a technique called
“Keyword Method” where a learner who learns to remember a word would link the
word’s phonological form with a mental image. For example, he explained an English
speaker wanted to learn a Japanese word for sword (katana), he linked the similar
sound of “katana” to cat. Then, he formed a picture of a cat waving a sword. This
technique implies that it is easier to visualize the word. Another example is a study on
L2 vocabulary learning strategies of 4th year students, the Faculty of Fine Arts at
Rajamangala University of Technology Tawan-Ok Chakrabongse Bhuvanarth
Campus which showed that most students loved to learn new English words from
advertising board, brochures, documents, newspapers, magazines, and media. Clearly,
such sources of learning are highly visual and include many images full of pictures
(Kongthong, 2007). Whereas Poomwongpituk’s (2008) study revealed similar results
in that her subjects often read English newspapers, magazines, novels, and books;
17.39% (exposure to text more than pictures) comparing to 39.13% of those who
watched movies and other TV programs (provided more exposure to pictures). These
studies support the idea that the use of pictures and other images could motivate
learners to learn vocabulary and the materials that contain pictures could be
interesting so that teachers could adapt pictures for use as teaching materials in class.
As the preceding discussion has shown, the importance of learning
languages, the importance of vocabulary, vocabulary strategies, and picture use in
English language teaching are of fundamental importance at a practical level.
However, it is equally important to better understand how languages learned or
acquired so as to have deeper insight into how pictures influence different stages of
obtaining language competence. Relevant ideas or theories about language acquisition
will be discussed in further detail in the next section.
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2.2 Language Learning and Acquisition
This section aims to discuss about how a language is learned by
mentioning about some relevant theories which explain about this. Moreover, some
factors involve in learning a language would also be stated. The following linguists,
psychologists, and other scholars discuss “SLA or second language acquisition” at
length. The discussion here would review some of the important aspects.
Bloomfield (1933; cited in Saville-Troike, 2006, p. 24), a structuralist
explained that we learn language by separating the language into elements: phonology
(sound), morphology (words), syntax (grammar), semantics (meaning), and lexicon
(vocabulary). Therefore, in learning or teaching a language, repetition of each element
may be required.
Subsequently, the very famous theory of behaviorism was proposed
(Skinner; 1957 cited in Saville-Troike, 2006), which was an influential cognitive
model focused extensively on “habit formation” (p. 25). Some of the factors involved
in habit formation are: stimulus, response, and reinforcement. With respect to
language learning, Mitchell and Myles (2004) explained that children would copy and
memorize behavior they noticed in their surrounding environment. Therefore, it can
be said that children would learn language by imitating what their caretakers
(typically parents) would say.
Behaviorism was later heavily criticized by Noam Chomsky, a linguist.
Chomsky (cited in Mitchell & Myles, 2004, p. 12) argued that learning a language
was so complex it was impossible that it could be learned through input or imitation
alone; instead language learning or acquisition was based on something more
fundamental and biological than simple imitation and reinforcement. Chomsky states
(as cited in Mitchell & Myles, 2004, p. 12):
Human language is too complex to be learnt in its
entirety, from the performance data actually available to
the child; we must therefore have some innate
predisposition to expect natural languages to be
organized in particular ways and not others.
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Chomsky stated that learning languages is too complex to master the
differences of rules in each language and that the language itself is difficult to learn.
This implies that a language has its own specific characteristics. Chomsky went on to
propose the idea of “parameter-setting” which refers to the different aspects of
learning a language. However, children could still discover the rules in the language
even though each language has its own specific rules, so he thought that there might
be some kind of core in learning a language. This core is referred to “core of abstract
knowledge about language form, known as Universal Grammar.” Children learn a
language by utilizing their innate language learning ability and they also need to
interact with the language through environment factors.
Another theory about second language acquisition was introduced by
Krashen (cited in Mitchell & Myles, 2004, p. 44). This is referred to as “Krashen’s
Monitor Model.” Krashen states five hypotheses in learning a language, as discussed
below:
(1) Acquisition-Learning hypothesis
Krashen claims that learners would have learnt the rule but they
would not acquire it and that learning cannot turn into acquisition. He says that
acquisition was considered a subconscious process that children use in order to
acquire their first language. Moreover it is reviewed as the result of the natural
interaction with the language through the use of communication which has to be
meaningful. On the other hand, for learning, it is said to be a conscious process that
results in “knowing about”; in addition, it is the result of “classroom experience”
which requires learners to focus on form and learn the linguistic rules of the target
language. So, for this hypothesis, he sees acquisition and learning as two different
aspects: naturalistic environment which refers to language acquisition and classroom
environment which refers to classroom learning.
(2) Monitor hypothesis
Krashen devised the monitor hypothesis to explain about the
differences of individual learners in learning a language. This hypothesis mentions
about the use of monitor which could alternatively be called an editor process. It is
said that learning has only one function which is to monitor or edit. As a result of this
via learning, there would be a change to an utterance after it has been produced.
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Learners acquire the language, then they produce utterances so as to communicate
what they want. From the utterances the learners produce, finally, it leads to fluency
in using the language. However, as the monitor or editor function, it would influence
the output of the learners. Utterances would be changed before or sometimes after
they are written or spoken. There are three ways in which hypothesis can be applied:
over-user, under-user, and optimal-user. The following explanations help to make
these three types clear: over-user refers to learners who are afraid of making mistakes
all the time so these learners will block themselves from producing the language
because they are too afraid of making mistakes. On the other hand, the under-user
refers to learners who do not care much about the rules of the language and would
produce utterances or language with fluency and high speed because they do not
worry about making mistakes so they do not block themselves from using the
language. However, they might be more likely to be careless with rules. The type of
learners which seem to be ideal is “optimal-user”. This one means that monitoring is
done appropriately. Optimal users do not worry too much when it comes to making
mistakes. At the same time, they are prudent in being aligned with the language rules,
so that they can produce the language in appropriate way. What should be put in
consideration is that if the learners are producing utterances in real-time, how can the
monitor hypothesis be employed?
(3) Natural Order hypothesis
To acquire the language rules or grammar, it is said that there is
“natural order” which represents different orders to acquire the language and these
orders are various depending on each individual learner. Some learners acquire some
rules earlier than the others. In addition, some rules are acquired later and some rules
are acquired earlier.
(4) Input hypothesis
This hypothesis is linked to item 3 above, Krashen sees “Input
hypothesis” as the center of his “Second Language Acquisition” theory. He argues
that language learner development will occur if the learner receives comprehensible
input that is beyond their current linguistic competence for one step, as explained by
the “i + 1” idea. The idea of comprehensible input has been criticized because it is
unclear to judge if the input that is occurred is called “comprehensible” or not.
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(5) Affective Filter hypothesis
Learners’ attitude in learning is raised and discussed in relation to this
hypothesis. As mentioned with the “Input hypothesis”, the learner’s attitude is
considered central in learning a language, so this type of hypothesis is relevant to the
input idea. It focuses on the thins the students have to face with when learning. To
extend this idea, comprehensible input is suggested to be used in teaching or learning
a language, but if the learners do not open their mind to learn, it may not cause any
useful or effective learning.
Krashen believes that learners need to receive
comprehensible input for language acquisition to take
place. This is not sufficient, however. Learners also need
to ‘let that input in’, as it were. This is the role of the so-
called Affective Filter, which supposedly determines
how receptive to comprehensible input a learner is going
to be.
(Mitchell & Myles, 2004, p. 48)
Apart from the theories discussed above, there are some more aspects that
influence learners in learning a language. These aspects concern individual
differences and reflect factors such as age, sex, aptitude, motivation, cognitive style,
personality, and learning strategies. Each will be discussed in turn below.
(1) Age
There has been considerable discussion about the appropriate time to
learn languages. Children are likely to acquire languages better than adults. Once a
child passes a specific time, it may be difficult to learn or acquire another language.
This critical time with regards to language learning is referred to by scholars as the
“critical period.” It was said that after this period when the learners get older and pass
this period to acquire languages, their brain might lose the capacity to learn a
language. However, there are some arguments somewhat against this idea because, in
some cases, adults can quite clearly learn second languages very well. In fact, adults
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who pass this critical period stage for language learning might even be able to achieve
“native-like” proficiency.
Lenneberg (1967; cited in Saville-Troike, 2006, p. 83) claims that
language learners could produce “foreign accent” if they learn the language within the
“cut-off age.” Later than that, they could not imitate the foreign accent. Saville-Troike
(2006) compared the advantages of both younger learners and older learners in
learning languages. This comparison reveals the advantages of both types of learners
in learning languages so it could be said that no matter what age the learners are, they
could learn and acquire the language and perform well. The findings revealed that
young learners would learn “native-like” grammar with intuition because they are
very young and they have to do relatively little analytic processes when learning. This
may not block them from learning and improving the language. Moreover, they would
be more successful in informal and naturalistic learning. They tend to get simplified
input which helps facilitating them for learning. On the other hand, for older learners,
they are said to have greater learning capacity. This may be because they are more
mature when initially learning the language (i.e., some language learning stages
require greater maturity). In addition, it was said that they need formal instructional
settings to learn the language. Another point is that older learners, can more easily
apply knowledge of L1 to help them support the learning of an L2. Besides, with
greater knowledge of the real-world, they can make use of this additional knowledge
to perform things in L2 more easily, even if these aspects appear more complex.
(2) Sex
Females might be better when it comes to learning languages. As
Saville-Troike (2006, p. 84) states, “There is widespread belief in many western
cultures that females tend to be better L2 learners than males.” Some research reveals
real sex differences in language learning. Females appear to be better at learning
verbal fluency and in memorizing complex forms (e.g., lexicon and grammar). On
other hand, males appear to be better at speech and they have better performance in
computing compositional rules. In addition, Mack (1992; cited in Saville-Troike,
2006, p. 84) considered these differences from two sides; while females were said to
have better semantic or interpretive skills, males appear to have better automatized
skills.
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(3) Aptitude
This item is about the ability of each individual learner to learn a
language. In many years, there has been a talent for language learning which focuses
on four components. Carroll (1965; cited in Saville-Troike, 2006, p. 85) discusses an
aptitude test which involves these components:
• Phonemic coding ability
• Inductive language learning ability
• Grammatical sensitivity
• Associative memory capacity
The first component, the “phonemic coding ability” should arise in the
early stage of learning and that input should be clear, not blurred or partially
processed so as to be worthwhile for processing in learning. The next component,
“inductive language learning ability” and “grammatical sensitivity”, were mentioned
together in that these two were concerned with central processing. These two aspects
are involved with segmenting auditory input to infer structure, identify patterns, make
generalizations, recognize the grammatical function of elements, and formulate rules.
The last one, “associative memory capacity”, refers to the storage of what has been
learned, to recall it, and the ability to use it in the output.
In conclusion, aptitudes vary according to individual learner and it
does not guarantee L2 acquisition success. Skehan (1988, cited in Saville-Troike,
2006, p. 85) claims that this theory is not different from cognitive abilities.
(4) Motivation
Motivation can lead to the success in language learning. If learners
have high motivation, they tend to make more effort to learn a language. Oxford and
Ehrman (1993; see also, Dörnyei, 2001; cited in Saville-Troike, 2006, p. 86) outline
the components of motivation as follows:
• Significant goal or need
• Desire to attain the goal
• Perception that learning L2 is relevant to fulfilling the goal or meeting
the need
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• Belief in the likely success or failure or learning L2
• Value of potential outcomes/ rewards
Apart from the components outlined above, the next part discusses
different types of motivation. There are two main types of motivation: integrative and
instrumental motivations.
1) Integrative motivation
This one is based on the interest in learning L2 or concerns the desire
to learn a language. Emotional or affective factors are likely to be more involved with
integrative motivation.
2) Instrumental motivation
Instrumental motivation refers to the perception of value in learning a
language. Learners would use this motivation to push themselves to things like
occupational or business opportunities for example.
(5) Cognitive style
Two types of learners can have different cognitive styles. One type of
learners could be dependent in learning while another is independent. It has been
discussed that the dependent learners would achieve more in learning a language if
they learn by using contextualized interactive communicative experience (Saville-
Troike, 2006). They would apply the rules they know from learning a language to
input. This is the deductive processing, a top-down process. Moreover, they would
focus more on the meaning of language use rather than the form. For independent
learners, they would learn well from the decontextualized analytic environment and
formal instruction. They would learn more by bottom-up processes which means they
use the language, then get the rules of the language afterwards. Moreover, opposite to
meaning-focused learning, bottom-up learners focus on language form. Rather than
the cognitive styles discussed here, there is an argument about the processing input
used for learning also. It was mentioned that the input could have some effect on the
cognitive learning style because it influences sensory preference. The examples of
different types of input are visual, auditory, kinesthetic (movement-oriented), and
tactile (touch-oriented). Overall, however, there is no definitive answer as to which
type of language learners learning style is best. Both types of learners have a chance
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to learn well or improve in the language. It depends on each individual cognitive style
and also other factors might be involved in the learning proficiency of those learners,
namely, cultural background, prior educational experiences, possibilities of change
over time, and stages of language learning.
(6) Personality
Personality factors can also be counted into the cognitive styles
discussed above because it explains about the characteristics of the language learners.
These tend to describe learners in terms of opposite personality traits; for example,
anxious and self-confident, risk-avoiding and risk-taking, shy and adventuresome, and
so forth. Some of these traits are discussed further here. Anxiety causes problems in
learning a language because too much anxiety is likely to block learners from
successfully learning. Other scholars discuss “extrovert” characteristics in relation to
learner and how these might lead to language learning achievement. However, there
appear to be no clear evidence to support this claim. At the end of the discussion for
this item, it was mentioned that there are limited studies about the personality factors
on L2 learning outcomes so it is difficult to draw firm conclusions about this.
However, it was stated that being imaginative or creative, empathetic, and tolerant of
ambiguity are mentioned as factors that support good L2 learning.
(7) Learning strategies
Language learners may be different in L2 outcomes because of many
factors. One of those is learning strategy. Individual learning strategies may have an
effect on the learners’ motivation, cognitive styles, personality, or specific context of
use and opportunities for learning. Beside these factors, there might be age, sex, and
aptitude involved in selecting strategies. However, each learner has his or her own
learning style. Thus, it might be difficult to highlight which strategies are superior to
the other ones. O’Malley and Chamot (1987; cited in Saville-Troike, 2006, p. 91)
discussed the language learning strategies which have been claimed to be the most
widely used in second language acquisition. There are three types: metacognitive,
cognitive, and social or affective strategies.
• Metacognitive – The strategies used to control language
learning by monitoring and planning. Learners apply metacognitive strategies to
manage their learnings, for example, to rehearse linguistic components required for an
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upcoming language task; explore their own progress in learning the language and
managing how to improve it.
• Cognitive – This strategy requires learners to make use of
direct analysis of the linguistic material to learn the language. Learners would use
tasks or activities to learn or improve their language learning. Some relevant
examples are to remember a new word in L2 by linking it to the sounds of the same
item in L1; to translate from L1 to understand the L2, and so on.
• Social/ Affective – This strategy makes use of what has been
learnt in order to interact with other people or with society; namely, seeking a chance
to speak to native speakers; working with other people so as to get feedback from
others on language performance and ability.
Apart from these three strategies, age and sex have been mentioned in
influencing learners to learn a language or to perform it better than before or not. As
Saville-Troike (2006) argues younger learners may have to do the repetition to master
the language while older learners could analyze or synthesize the language rules and
make use of the language better. Regarding sex, it is likely that females are able to
perform better using social or affective strategies compared to males. In listening
activities, in particular, they tend to perform well.
In the variety of learning strategies which depends on each individual
learner, Ellis (1994; cited in Saville-Troike, 2006, p. 92) discusses about the major
characteristics of “good learners”.
Good learners should have these characteristics, as outlined below:
• Concern for language form (but also attention to meaning)
• Concern for communication
• Active task approach
• Awareness of the learning process
• Capacity to use strategies flexibly in accordance with task
requirements
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The above section discussed what have been involved in learning a
language. Then, in the next section, it is interesting and practical to discuss further
about how language learners learn and understand the language.
2.3 Cognitive Processes
Cognitive processes are involved in language acquisition. In order for
language learners to learn or acquire a language, there are many theories and
approaches which lie beneath the teaching. Cognitive theory is one of those beliefs.
According to Standage and Trappenberg (2012), cognitive neuroscience is relevant to
the process of thought. When human beings employ thinking processes, it means they
may use their brain to do things such as: (1) problem solving, (2) decision making,
and (3) recall of personal memories.
The purpose of cognitive neuroscience is trying to bridge the gap between
brain activity and cognitive functioning with the structural or mechanistic properties
of the brain. From this objective, investigations into the models of how the brain
works when performing activities are relevant to language learning, for example, it
would be interesting and practical to know which levels of the brain or cognitive
functioning or structural properties of the brain when language learners learn things or
complete certain tasks.
Mitchell and Myles (2004) explained that there are two main groups of
cognitive theorist. These two kinds of theorist and each group has different beliefs
about cognitive functioning. One group believes in innate language learning ability,
while the other does not. Instead, the theorists who do not believe in innate language
learning focus on the process of learning languages and how this leads to language
ability. Those two groups mentioned can be divided into two main ideas about how
languages are learned: (1) Processing approaches, and (2) Emergentist or
Constructionist approaches.
At the core of the processing approach is the belief that the ability to learn
a language is innate. This approach considers that language knowledge might be
special in some way. This approach investigates how second language learners learn a
language with the use of their ability to acquire or learn the second language. Their
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competence in learning the language would be examined to see how it develops
during the process of learning. Universal Grammar (UG) proposed by Noam
Chomsky (1957; cited in Michell and Myles, 2004, p. 33), is important to the idea of
innate language learning. In other words, UG means that “children have an innate
faculty that guides them in their learning of language.” Chomsky believes that a child
has their innate ability to acquire a language and that it is called ‘Language
Acquisition Device (LAD)’.
An alternative approach to the “processing approach” is the “emergentist
or constructionist approach.” This approach does not make a distinction between
competence and performance. It is believed that language use and analysis of its rules
happens at the same time. This is in contact to the processing approach which claims
that language learners analyze language rules from the production of the language
itself.
In addition to the above two approaches, Larsen-Freeman (1991)
discusses her own work in Breen (2001) about the revision of the results of the
experiments in the last decade about the learner’s contribution via the cognitive or
affective aspect. The three items mentioned below are discussed in relation to how
language learners learn the language and make themselves successful in learning.
She proposed three factors to be discussed: attribution, conceptualization,
and action. To make this easy to understand, the following parts are presented:
(1) Attribution (who the learners are)
Attribution focuses on who the learners are with information like age,
aptitude, personality, learning disabilities, and social identity.
According to the age, what has been discussed is the critical period
hypothesis and puberty. The critical period hypothesis (CPH) explains about the
period language learners should learn the second language because if it exceeds this
period, then language learning is unlikely to develop afterwards. Regarding puberty,
this is the period of age which is believed to be the most appropriate time for language
learners to learn a second language. Any later than puberty, learners would not
manage to achieve native speaker competence. However, from the studies of many
researchers (Larsen-Freeman, 2001) about these two periods to learn language, it was
found that there is no consistency in the view the second language should be learned
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with the belief of the CPH and the age of puberty as dominant factors predicting
success. While these two ideas explain the period the language should be learnt so as
to achieve effectiveness in language learning, there are some results regarding
learners who learn a second language when they are an adult. Some of these learners
can still pronounce English with an accent close to a native speaker. Therefore, it
cannot apply the above discussion about the CPH and the puberty age as the pinpoint
about the language acquisition or native-like pronunciation for language learners.
From the recent hypothesis on successful L2 learning, there are many other factors
involved in learning a language, not just a focus on the periods that are believed to be
critical. Additional factors include things such as brain organization, high motivation,
training, access to abundant and authentic L2 input, training in speech perception, and
multiple explanations (with sociocultural factors and auditory perception).
For the aptitude aspect, there are two profiles of aptitude mentioned:
analytic aptitude and memory-oriented aptitude. These two kinds of the aptitudes are
like different routes towards language learning success. Gardner, (1983; cited in
Larsen-Freeman, 2001, p. 16) also discussed “multiple intelligences” which also have
relevance to language learning. He grouped human capacities to learn language into
* (items 4, 5, and 9) these items were not the same among the two coders. One got 12 codings while another one got 9 codings. ** (item 3 and 4) these items were not the same among the first and the second codings (intracoding). The first got 12 codings while the second got 10 codings. Table 6: Frequencies of the time each volunteer used to get the correct meanings of words
The findings shown in Table 6 above represent the various factors,
or cognitive processing strategies, participants reported using in order to memorize
words they had learned in the course. This finding is not the same as in the previous
part that focused on only the correct words the participants remembered. However, in
this part, all the words they mentioned (including mistakes) were analyzed to
understand which items they used to recall the words. The answers or the recall of the
words the participants mentioned were categorized to score as will be explained
shortly. The pretest and posttest used the same score criteria to calculate the average
points each participant scored on the pretest and posttest. Here below is the
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explanation of the scoring criteria that was used with the information derived from the
participants in both the pretest and the posttest.
The words the participants recalled were not always correct in all
aspects (meaning and spelling). Some words were partially correct, while some words
were written correctly but the meanings were not accurate. Some words could be
recalled only the L1 meaning. Therefore, in order to mark these words and considered
whether they are acceptable or not, the researcher set the scoring criteria to give some
points for each recalled word. Then all scores for each participant derived from both
the pretest and posttest were calculated as detailed below:
4 points = English word, both the meaning and spelling are correct.
3 points = The spelling is incorrect but the pronunciation can be
pronounced in that word or similar to that word.
2 points = Part of the word is mentioned and correct.
1 point = The correct Thai translation was mentioned
The comparison of the scores in both the pretest and the posttest
would show how well the participants could recall words. This part of score
comparison and data presentation will be shown and discussed later.
Explaining how to come up with the data derived in Table 6, then,
the findings in the table would be presented and discussed. It was obvious that not
only pictures influenced the recall of words from memory. There are many factors or
cognitive processing strategies involved in the process of memorizing. As seen from
Table 6 above, there were twelve cognitive processing strategies which were derived
from the data analysis; coding was implemented. The researcher employed both
“inter-coding” and “intra-coding” to determine the reliability of the current study.
For inter-coding, there were two inter-coders: the researcher and an
expert. The expert was selected according to the following criteria:
• He or she should understand the objectives of this study well.
• He or she should have some experience in conducting research
using these coding techniques.
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• He or she should have some experiences in teaching English at
the university level.
When an expert was found who met these criteria, the coding
method was discussed and it was explained what should be focused upon and what
would be ignored. This was designed to ensure that the two coders agreed on how to
make this happen with the same direction of understanding. After that, the
transcriptions of all volunteers were printed out for both the researcher and the expert
(another coder). These two coders did the coding separately within the committed
deadline they agreed with each other. Lastly, the two coders compared their results
From the separate codings, the researcher found 12 factors or
cognitive processing strategies while the expert found 9 factors that overlapped with
the researcher’s codings. The “Intercoder Reliability Coefficiency” formula by Holsti
(1969) was used to calculate for the reliability value between the two coders. The
following formula shows how the reliability value was derived.
Reliability = 2 M
Ni + Nj
M = the number of coding decisions on which the two judges are in
agreement
Ni = the number of coding decisions made by judges 1
Nj = the number of coding decisions made by judges 2
Reliability = 2 (9) = 18 = 0.857 or = 0.86
9 + 12 21
The above reliability value was derived from the intercoder as
explained; however, to confirm the reliability value in another way, the researcher,
also compared the codings twice (i.e., “intracoder” reliability). The researcher initially
analyzed the transcription and marked for the codings and then left the findings for a
while, a period of approximately ten months. After that, the researcher re-coded the
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data before comparing the initial codings with the final codings. On the initial coding,
the researcher found 12 factors or cognitive processing strategies, while on the second
occasion 10 factors were identified. The intracoder reliability test is displayed below:
Number of items coded the same in the first and second coding
Number of items coded in the first coding
= 10 = 0.83
12
It was mentioned in Lombard et al (2004) that there was no
standard for interpreting the level of reliability. However, Neuendorf (2002, p. 145)
stated that there are “rules of thumb” which have been applied to many
methodologies. A “coefficients of .90 or more would be acceptable to all, for .80 or
more would be acceptable for most cases and if it was below this point, there might be
some inacceptable points to be discussed.” In this study, the reliability compared
between the two coders or intercoders was 0.86 while it was 0.83 for the intracoder
reliability analysis. Therefore, this coding is considered as reliable with a high
coefficiency rating on both tests.
These codings were the findings of the research question on
“how” the participants could remember or recall words. From the inter-coding and the
intra-coding, the coders might not call a specific finding with the same thing, but
considering the concept of each item, the similar ones would be grouped and agreed
to call those findings from each coder or each intra-coding with the same thing if the
concept of each item goes in the same direction. These 12 items were the finalized
findings agreed by both coders.
From the above parts, the findings from both intercoding and
intracoding were checked for reliability and those finding were reliable. However, in
order to present the findings in a better comprehensible way, the researcher concluded
the findings from Table 7 again. Some items which have too small numbers of
frequency and that they overlap with some items, they would be put together and
calculated into percentage so as to make the findings more meaningful. Moreover,
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some finding in the table which is considered a different category (falsely recalled or
false memory = does not support vocabulary memory) would be separated to discuss
in a different part from all of the findings. Therefore, Table 7 in the following
presents the final findings from the stimulated recall protocol for cognitive processing
strategies involved in memory words.
No Findings V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V7 Total
1 link the words to visual images 11 17 3 8 7 5 13 (64)
29.90%
2 picture + studying 1 2 2 0 1 0 0 (6)
2.80%
3 L1 translation 3 0 4 2 1 0 8 (18)
8.41%
4 reviewing after studying in class 4 4 14 3 8 0 4 (37)
17.28%
5
known/seen from other sources or other subjects which were studied during the semester 11 10 10 16 8 11 8
(74) 34.57%
6 imagination 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 (4)
1.86%
7 interest 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 (3)
1.40%
8 link the words to other English words with similar sound 1 0 0 1 0 0 1
(3) 1.40%
9 link the words to one’s own experience 3 1 0 0 0 1 0
(5) 2.33%
TOTAL 36 38 33 30 25 18 34 214
Table 7: The final findings of words that volunteers could recall
The following table shows the 9 findings derived from the stimulated
recall protocol. The information in Table 8 would be shown in cooperate with the
examples of extracts from the volunteers’ answers for clearer understanding.
No Findings Total of frequency Examples
1 link the words to visual images
64 (29.90%)
[the word: boarding pass] “This word……I remembered from the picture here.” [V.1]
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No Findings Total of frequency Examples
2 picture + studying
6 (2.80%)
[the word: property] “This word should be….Ummmm…..Prop….Property….I remembered the picture of this word and I also studied this word when I prepared for the midterm test.” [V.2]
3 L1 translation 18 (8.41%)
[the word: taboo] “This word is Koh-Ham or Pid-Kod….Rabieab…. I could not remember English word. The English word sounds strange to me so I could not remember it.” [V.7]
4 reviewing after studying in class
37 (17.28%)
[the word: ashtray] “ I remembered this word by studying. I let my friends tell me the words, then, I write them on a paper. I write the word and say the words many times until I remember them.” [V.3]
5 known/seen from other sources or other subjects which were studied during the semester
74 (34.57%)
[the word: therapist] “I’ve studied this word in Spa subject also. So, when I found this word again in this subject, I could remember the word well.” [V.5]
6 using imagination
4 (1.86%)
[the word: transfer] “I imagined to when I wrote this word in my vocabulary notebook. I saw myself writing the word on a piece of paper. It is spotted on the page. I could see it clearly.” [V.2]
7 interest 3 (1.40%)
[the word: ashtray] “I remember this word because I used to wonder how this one is called in English. So, when I knew it, I remembered it quickly at that time without studying more on it outside the class.” [V.6]
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No Findings Total of frequency Examples
8 link the words to other English words with similar sound
3 (1.40%)
[the word: favor] “I remember this word because it is pronounced similar to the word I know, flavor. Then, when I heard this word in class while you were teaching, I could remember the word. [V.4]
9 link the words to one’s own experience
5 (2.33%)
[the word: gate] “I remember this word because I think back to when I were on board I had to stand by at a gate. I used the word ‘gate’ instead of Thai word, so I can remember the word when you firstly taught me.” [V.6]
TOTAL 214
Table 8: Total findings with frequencies and percentages of occurrence and examples
of excerpts from the stimulated recall protocol from volunteers
There were the 9 findings that volunteers disclosed during the stimulated
recall protocol interview. They applied these items when recalling the words. The
total frequency refers to the number of words recalled by that item from each
participant. Each item was provided with an example of word recalled in that specific
item and the excerpt of the participants’ answers. The nine items were:
1. Link the words to visual images
There were 64 words or 29.90% recalled by this item. The volunteers
linked the words they learned with the pictures they saw. Then, when taking the
posttest, they could link back from the pictures they saw with the words they could
remember.
2. Using picture and studying
There were six words or 2.80% recalled by this item. The volunteers
tried to remember the picture used with the studied words. However, when they had
time, they would try to remember the words using another strategy, such as writing or
saying the words many times, until they could remember the words.
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3. L1 translation
There were 18 words or 8.41% recalled by this item. The volunteers
mentioned that they could not recognize the pictures but they could remember what
the words were. However, only Thai vocabulary popped up in their memory. They
could not remember any English words.
4. Reviewing after studying in class
There were 37 words or 17.28% recalled by this item. The volunteers
spent time on studying the words they learned. Many of them wrote the words many
times until they could remember them. Some of the participants reported saying the
words many times until they could recognize them. Some participants reported
writing and saying the words. Therefore, this item means the students tried to study
the words when they had time in order to help them learn the words.
5. Known or seen from other sources or other subjects which were
studied during the semester
There were 74 words or 34.57% recalled by this item. This item is
similar to “Using pictures and the words were known or seen”, but there was no use
of pictures reported here that helped remember those words. The volunteers studied
this English course and learned the words in the course; while at the same time, other
subjects in the same semester also introduced the same words (only some words)
because of the relevant field of study. The volunteers have not known these words
before. They just studied in this semester but they found the words several times by
several subjects, repeated over and over. Then, when they saw the words they learned
in this English course, they might not remember them immediately but studying them
again, they could remember them and those words were finally known or seen.
6. Using imagination
There were four words or 1.86% recalled by this item. Some
volunteers used their imagination when they wrote the words in their vocabulary book
and they tried to remember the words this way. Subsequently, when they thought back
to some words, they imagined the page they wrote the words on and they could
visualize the words clearly.
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7. Interest
There were three words or 1.40% recalled by this item. Some
volunteers could remember the words because they were interested in those words
before. They may have been eager to know these words in Thai or in English before
studying. Once they studied these words in class, they said they could remember the
words immediately without studying the words or reviewing them regularly.
8. Linking the words to other English words with similar sound
There were three words or 1.40% recalled by this item. To remember
the newly learned words, the volunteers linked the words to the sounds of the words
they knew before. Thus, when recalling the words, it was easy for them to think of the
words.
9. Linking the words to one’s own experience
There were five words or 2.33% recalled by this item. While studying
the new words, the volunteers tried to link the idea of the words with their own
experience that they used to have so as to help them remember the words easily. This
depends on the general background or knowledge that an individual person has of the
world.
The above were the final findings found in the stimulated recall protocol
on how students learned vocabulary with the support of picture use. However, there is
also a finding which shows a mistake when they try to remember words. It is “false
memory” or could also be called “falsely recalled.” There were 29 words or 11.94%
of the words recalled represented a false memory recall. In other words, this means
that the volunteers misunderstood that the words they could remember were the
correct words. However, the words they thought were not correct but they just thought
about the words that looked similar to the concept of the words actually presented.
The words were wrong anyway.
The next section discusses the findings relating to what the students used
in order to remember words. Examples of the volunteers’ reasons in applying the
above findings would be presented in items in order to see the data more clearly.
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4.2.2.1 Link the words to visual images
While studying words, the students tried to link the words
with the pictures provided in the teaching material. They mentioned that they could
remember the words because they could remember the pictures.
[the word: boarding pass]
“This word……I remembered from the
picture here.”
[Volunteer 1]
[the word: call light]
“This word, “call light” I remembered the
picture you taught and you also showed a
video clip about this in class, so I could
remember the word.”
[Volunteer 3]
4.2.2.2 Pictures and studying
Students learned words with the use of pictures to
help remember the words. Additionally, they also studied the words by
themselves using their own various techniques.
[the word: property]
“This word should be…Umm..Prop…
Property….I remembered the picture of this word
and I also studied this word when I prepared for
the midterm test.”
[Volunteer 2]
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4.2.2.3 L1 translation
When encoding words, the students remembered the Thai
meaning. Thus, when they saw the picture in the posttest they could only think of the
Thai meanings, not the English meanings.
[the word: taboo]
“This word is Koh-Ham or Pid-
Kod….Rabieab….I could not remember English
word. The English word sounds strange to me so
I could not remember it.”
[Volunteer 7]
4.2.2.4 Reviewing after studying in class
Students learned words by applying their own techniques to remember the words.
[the word: ashtray]
“ I remembered this word by studying. I let
my friends tell me the words, then, I write
them on a paper. I write the word and say the
words many times until I remember them.”
[Volunteer 3]
4.2.2.5 Known or seen from other sources or other subjects which
were studied during the semester
This item does not necessarily mean that the students already
know the words they are studying. However, it was mentioned by some students that
the words they studied looked familiar to them, yet they still could not remember the
word. During the semester, they also studied some of the words in another subject.
While studying the words, it is likely that they had a chance to repeat the words again
which led to more successful remembering.
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[the word: therapist]
“I’ve studied this word in Spa subject also. So,
when I found this word again in this subject, I
could remember the word well.”
[Volunteer 5]
4.2.2.6 Using imagination
While studying the words, the students reported that they
formed images to other things they could link to the words; for example, a student
imagined a vocabulary book they used to write down the word. Then, when seeing
pictures and they would like to say the English words aloud, they imagined the
notebook again and were able to visualize the words they wrote in that imaginary
notebook
[the word: transfer]
“I imagined to when I wrote this word in my
vocabulary notebook. I saw myself writing the
word on a piece of paper. It is spotted on the
page. I could see it clearly.”
[Volunteer 2]
4.2.2.7 Interest
The students are interested in knowing the words, so when
they studied the words in class they can remember the words.
[the word: ashtray]
“I remember this word because I used to wonder
how this one is called in English. So, when I
knew it, I remembered it quickly at that time
without studying more on it outside the class.”
[Volunteer 6]
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4.2.2.9 Link the words to one's own experience
When learning new words, students link the words to their
own experiences; or when they studied the words, and later they have a chance to see
or explore the words in real life, they, were able to remember the words better.
[the word: gate]
“I remember this word because I think back to
when I were on board I had to stand by at a gate.
I used the word ‘gate’ instead of Thai word, so I
can remember the word when you first taught
me.”
[Volunteer 6]
4.3 Discussion
After the presentation of the findings in the above part, this paragraph
aims to discuss the main findings in more detail. These points are interesting and may
reveal some important issues that require further exploration.
4.3.1 The Effect of Picture Use on Vocabulary Teaching
As seen from the previous section about the result of the pictorial
input on word retention, it could be said that the pictures have an important effect on
remembering words. From the comparison of the pretest and the posttest in the current
chapter 4, the results clearly show that picture use affects students’ word retention in a
positive way. Similar results have been reported in literatures e.g. the study of Rokni
and Karimi (2013) which was discussed in Chapter 2 that the group of participants
who used visual instruction did better than the group using textual instruction in
learning vocabulary. Thus, it seems clear that picture use can help in word learning
and retention. Moreover, pictures can also encourage learners to pay more attention to
the lesson because they attract students’ interest in a much better way than studying
text in isolation. This could be proved by some studies, e.g. The study of
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Poomwongpituk (2008) showed that students preferred to learn with picture exposure
than text exposure.
As a result of the picture use, it is recommended that they be
implemented in classroom teaching or in foreign language learning. However, there
might be some questions about the kinds of pictures that should be used because there
are many kinds of picture available. Therefore, to explore the different types of
picture that could be presented to students in class is an interesting area to explore
further.
From the study, the different kinds of pictures that best support
students’ word retention was also investigated. Not in general, but the study focused
on the patterns of picture use to help word retention for both high proficiency and low
proficiency participants. It is interesting to see that the pattern of these two groups of
volunteers overlaps quite clearly, with most of the patterns going in the same
direction. Within all pictures studied in this research, the researcher can group them
into three categories by using the comparison of patterns displayed by the two groups.
(1) The most effective pictures
For this item, there are two kinds of picture that were reported
to be the best ones to affect students’ memory on words.
• The pictures with words inside
• Realistic pictures
The pictures which can be used to present in the vocabulary
lesson or to help teachers implement them to support students’ memory should be the
pictures which include a “word” or “phrase” inside. Students said that they could
remember the words in the pictures.
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[the word: turbulence]
“I remember only Thai meaning for this word but
for the English word and the spelling of the word, I
remember that it is written in the picture so I just
remember to look at the word on the picture.”
[Volunteer 4]
[the word: debt]
“This word I remember that it is written here in the
picture. I just remember you explained that it is like
a burden you put on your back. So, I remember the
picture here and remember what you explained in
the class but cannot remember the word and how to
spell it.”
[Volunteer 5]
However, a participant mentioned she did not remember the
words or phrases inside the picture. She used the picture to trigger her memory about
the word but did not remember that the word itself was shown in the picture.
[the word: turbulence]
“I did not focus on the word mentioned in the
picture. I just remembered that this picture means
the plane is flying and has problem because it is
shaking and shaking. So this word is turbulence.”
[Volunteer 1]
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[the word: vacant]
“I remember this word is vacant. I remember it is
similar to vacancy because I link to what you have
said in class. So I remember two times for vacant
and vacancy. And if you close this word, I can still
remember this word because I study on this word
before taking a test.”
[Volunteer 7]
Apart from the pictures with words inside, the “realistic
picture” is recommended to present to students while teaching since it helps them to
remember words. The realistic picture may have a special characteristic which looks
real and the participants can link it to their real life. Therefore, it is easy for them to
remember.
(2) Pictures that are quite effective
There are also two kinds of pictures that are effective to be
implemented in vocabulary lesson even though they are not considered the most
influential ones like the above items. Nevertheless, these pictures are also beneficial
on word retention. They are:
• Cartoon or animated pictures
• Drawing pictures
These two kinds of pictures share some common
characteristics. That is, they look attractive but not realistic. Cartoons, animated
pictures and drawings were created to attract people who like some kinds of artistic
features. These kinds of pictures would be useful especially, when realistic pictures
cannot be shown or found for some reason. Cartoons or animated pictures, and
drawings can help to fulfill any vocabulary learning objectives.
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(3) The least effective picture
The least effective type of picture was the outstanding pictures.
According to the “outstanding” characteristic, it might be difficult and abstract for
participants to interpret or understand the pictures. While this one is outstanding for
some persons, other people may not see such characteristics and feel that the picture
looks normal. It is hard to judge whether one picture is outstanding or not.
If the research study ends at this stage and the final conclusion
is made that the use of picture affects the students’ memory on words, then, some
unrevealed information which hides beneath the picture use and word memory would
be covered. Picture use would be reported to support students’ word memory whereas
some other factors which may be involved in learning and remembering memory
might be missed, even if they play an important role in memory.
The findings from the stimulated recall protocol were able to
reveal some of the underlying details of how students learn to remember words rather
than using only pictures as stated in the above part. The next section details some of
the underlying factors or cognitive processing strategies. Actually, nine factor or
cognitive processing strategies were discovered, as discussed earlier in this chapter,
but the proceeding discussion highlights a few key items to discuss further.
4.3.2 Cognitive Processing Strategies Involved in Remembering
Words
As stated before, there are nine findings that the researcher found
and that they were underlying students’ word memory. The following findings show
some special features that the researcher would like to draw attention to.
4.3.2.1 Link the word to visual image
This one is most relevant to the topic of the study that the
students use pictures to help learn words. It has been shown quite consistently in
Chapter 2 (topic 2.6) that pictorial input can help students remember words. The
difference in scores between the pretest and the posttest was statistically significant,
indicating that memory benefited from the pictorial input during the classes.
This result is compatible with the findings of Mason,
Pluchino, and Tornatora (2013) that the pictorial input had positive effect on the
students’ learning. For this study, it affects vocabulary learning while for Mason et
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al’s on reading comprehension. They conducted research on the “effects of picture
labeling on science text processing and learning. They grouped their participants into
three groups so as to assign them to read a text: (1) text with a labeled illustration, (2)
text with an unlabeled illustration, and (3) text only. The participants studied the text
with the random item which the researchers assigned. The data taken from the pretest,
immediate posttest and delayed posttest revealed that all students had equivalent
factual knowledge. No matter what groups they were in, they could read and get equal
knowledge from the reading. However, studying the results from both the immediate
posttest and the delay posttest, it can be obviously seen that the group which read the
text with the labeled illustration outperformed the rest of the groups, namely the group
with pictures but no label on the reading text and the group which has to read by text
only.
4.3.2.2. Known or seen from other sources or other subjects
which were studied during the semester
Students’ access to vocabulary is a strategy that is
unavoidable and cannot be controlled. As human beings are unpredictable and
uncontrollable, it is not like the scientific pure experiment in a laboratory which
everything can be controlled. Therefore, background knowledge or students’
accessibility to the vocabulary could have some effect on vocabulary retention. While
some students had greater exposure or more opportunities to learn English words,
some other students may have relied on quite limited prior knowledge.
In this study, there are other subjects which the students
have to participate in during the same semester. Those subjects may provide
additional exposure to the critical target words that are assigned for study in the ESP
course that the researcher teaches. Assuming, the students see the same words many
times in a week or frequently hear the words from each subject in the semester, their
memory may for certain words may become enhanced relative to other words.
Schmitt (2000) gives some strategies about vocabulary
learning which may help explain this phenomenon. He mentioned about memory
strategy which learners need to link their idea of background knowledge to help them
remember new words. The subject they are learning (ESP course) can be linked to
other subjects to help them activate some vocabulary knowledge in other subjects.
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4.3.2.3. Reviewing after studying in class
Students’ habits in reviewing or studying words are a factor
or cognitive processing strategy determined largely by individual differences in
learning styles and aptitudes. If this one is minimized in that it can be managed in the
sense that teachers assign students to spend time after class working on developing
their vocabulary knowledge. Reviewing enhances memorization. From strategies of
vocabulary learning proposed by Schmitt (2000) this could be the combination of
cognitive strategies and metacognitive strategies to help themselves remember words.
The same points were supported by Stoffer (1995) on the strategies learners can use to
organize words and make themselves easy to remember words. Students who are
involved more in the vocabulary learning process remembered better. However, this is
not as easy as it sounds. It is not simply the case of letting students spend time
working on to-be-learned words; in fact, there are many things involved in learning
words, such as attention, motivation, and so on. Certainly, these things cannot be built
or put in students if they do not want to as Stoffer (1995) stated that learners should
employ strategies used for self-motivation to encourage themselves to learn well on
words. These factors are likely out of direct control of the teacher. The students who
spend more time on reviewing words they have studied in class tend to have more
chance to remember words compared to other students who do not.
4.3.2.4 L1 Translation
Many students remember the words they learn but only in
terms of Thai meaning. When seeing pictures that were used in class, they could think
of only the Thai meaning. English words were not recalled. In these cases, when they
were shown the pictures and when English words were presented at the same time,
they did understand what the pictures want to communicate. However, after they
interpret the meanings of the pictures, they tended to remember the Thai meanings for
the words. So, when seeing the pictures, they remind them Thai meanings which they
put in their storage system. This might be explained by “primary memory” of
Ranganath, Libby and Wong (2012) about their experience which influences new
knowledge. In this case, L1 has some effect on learning words. Therefore, in order to
help students remember English vocabulary, there might be other supporting
strategies involved.
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4.3.2.5 Link the words to one's own experience
It is difficult to argue against the notion that one’s experience
in life differs from person to person. While some students had the chance to travel
abroad and use English in different context, other students may have never had the
opportunity to go anywhere. In other cases, a student may enjoy surfing the internet to
read about things that they are interested in. This student is clearly aligning himself or
herself to the broader and wider world. He or she is exposed to many things that
cannot be learned or found in books only used in class. On the other hand, other
students may read many books, and gain experience that way. Overall, each
individual’s experience and knowledge of the world can differ and arise from
different sources and this kind of personal knowledge and experiences could affect the
vocabulary learning and retention. Actually, for language learners, the more they are
exposed to reading, the more they could learn vocabulary.
Therefore, when learning words, each student would link the
words to their own experience which the language teachers cannot control.
4.3.2.6 Using imagination
This item is interesting even if there was only one participant
in the study that mentioned this during the stimulated recall protocol. This is an
outstanding case because the participant could remember words because she linked
her memory back to the picture she imagined in her head to when she was working on
her vocabulary book and writing the words she learned in the notebook. When she
sees pictures, she could think of the words but they did not just pop up in her head
only, she could see the words she wrote, together with the spelling she noted down in
the notebook. So, this is not relevant to the pictures shown in class but about the
imagination the students have in their mind. This could be a kind of vocabulary
strategies which could be found in an individual language learner.
From the previous sections in 4.3.1, The effect of picture use
of vocabulary teaching and 4.3.2, Cognitive processing strategies involved in
remembering words, some results discussed in these two parts could be linked to a
literature presented earlier in Chapter 2. According to Gathercole and Alloway (2008),
they stated ways to support memory. One of the suggestions is to increase the
meaningfulness and familiarity of the material. From the previous discussion on the
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“pictures that best affect memory”, there are two types of pictures mentioned: (1)
pictures with words inside, and (2) realistic pictures. It could be seen that the pictures
with word inside are likely to be meaningful to the students because the words they
are learning are written inside the picture. For the realistic picture material, the
characteristic of the realistic picture are obvious that they look real for the students.
The reality of the picture helps the students to be familiar to the picture use. This kind
of familiarity characteristic also plays important role in the finding. Out of the nine
findings, one obvious vocabulary strategy shows that the students remember the
words they learn because those words were “known or seen from other sources or
other subjects.” That means when they learned the words at the very beginning of the
lesson, those words only look familiar for them but they still could not remember the
word. The familiarity would make the students focus on the words, then, when they
see the words again in class or any sources they are likely to remember that they have
seen the words before and this increases a chance for them to remember the words.
Additionally, other findings which could be linked to this theory of familiarity are the
use of L1 translation and the strategy that the students link the words they learn to the
similar English sound that they know. These strategies could also explain by their
familiarity to their native language, which is Thai so they remember the words they
learn with Thai meaning as their encoding step. When they see pictures, students
interpret what they are seeing at that moment in Thai so they remember Thai words
instead of English. This could be noticed when they see the picture or the pictorial
input again in the posttest and they could think of only Thai words or L1 translation
only, not the English words as expected. The same as when the students try to
remember words by linking the sound to the similar words. They also applied
“similarity” rules to aid their memory.
Therefore, the similarity or meaningfulness could be a factor
to help support the students’ memory.
From the theory of cognitive process, Macphail (1998)
mentioned about selective attention which is about individual interest. This could be
linked to many strategies found in the study which the students used to remember
words such as link to visual pictures, know or seen from other sources or subjects,
imagination, interest, and link to own experience. In addition, to put the information
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learned into long-term memory, the students need to rehearse many times until the
information is moved from the short-term memory to long-term memory. This is to
explain why some students spend time reviewing the words they learned after class in
order to remember them.
Personal experience is one factor that could be involved in
learning and remembering words. Greene (1987) stated about the old and new
knowledge interaction. He mentioned that the working memory works as a way that
links the new knowledge and old knowledge together. This could be used to explain
why the students use these strategies in learning words: (1) They have known or seen
the words from other sources or subjects, words that look familiar in a subject could
be learned and remembered if they are repeated again in another subject or source; (2)
They link to other English similar sound because linking the new words they learned
to the old words they know could facilitate their memory; (3) They link the words
they learned to their own experience, this is easy for students who have enough
background knowledge but might be unfair for students who do not have enough
background knowledge
The above discussions to some relevant literatures could help
explain the phenomena that were found in the study why employing such strategies
can facilitate learning and remembering the vocabulary. However, there could be
some mistake during the vocabulary learning and recalling as will be discussed in the
following part.
4.3.3 False memory or falsely recalled
When students are certain that they remember the correct words
from the pictures, it needs to be checked again if the words were correct or not
because sometimes the picture may be misunderstood among students. One picture
can be interpreted in many ways so during the time the language teachers give input
(pictorial input) to students; it depends on what the students keep in their memory
(what they were encoding while learning). As discussed above, when students are
exposed to the input, they would merge many strategies (background knowledge,
experience, L1 interference, and so on) to facilitate their actual learning and with their
actual learning and storage of vocabulary items into memory.
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The memory process mentioned by Malim (1994) about the stages
of memory process which consisted of three stages: learning, storing, and retrieving.
To move from each stage, there should not be any mistakes otherwise there might be
some problems in memory. The false memory or falsely recalled might result from
mistakes that occur during the process of memory in some stages. Therefore, it is
necessary for language teachers to find practical way to check for the correctness in
each lesson to avoid this problem.
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CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This chapter presents the conclusions and the recommendations of the
study. All the findings derived from the study have already been presented in Chapter
4. In this chapter, the main findings and results will be concluded and discussed as
highlights of the study and how the information can be contributed to English
vocabulary learning. Moreover, recommendations of the study are presented to show
what the limitations of the study are and in case interested people need to study
further, what aspects they should consider about.
5.1 Conclusions of the Research Results and Findings
In this part, a brief conclusion will be made to by drawing together the
findings presented in Chapter 4. There are two kinds of conclusion that the researcher
wishes to draw. These concern the quantitative part of the research study and the
qualitative part to be mentioned about. According to the research approach on the
mixed-method design, these two kinds of information reveal different aspects of the
study. While the quantitative data presents clear-cut results regarding picture use on
word retention, the qualitative data reveals more in-depth details regarding the
cognitive processes that were underlying this word retention. Taken together, these
two aspects of the research study are complementary and serve to provide more
complete conclusions to the study.
5.1.1 The Quantitative Data
As stated earlier, the quantitative data refers to the results regarding
the comparison of the pretest and the posttest. This comparison revealed a significant
difference between the two tests, with better performance observed on the posttest.
The derived critical value at .018 which is less than the set value at 2 for seven
participants shows the result that the null hypothesis is rejected. This result meant that
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the null hypothesis was rejected, leading to the conclusion that pictorial input
influences long-term word retention to some extent.
The present investigation did not only provide evidence for the
beneficial use of pictorial input on word retention. It was also able to ascertain what
types of pictures best affect memory. As discussed previously, the researcher
employed different kinds of pictures and these were grouped into five categories: (1)
cartoon or animated pictures, (2) the pictures with words inside, (3) realistic pictures,
(4) drawing pictures, and (5) outstanding pictures.
The findings of the study indicate that the pictures that best affect
participants’ memory belonged to two specific picture categories. Notably, these were
the pictures with words inside (with 30%) and the realistic picture category (with
25.38%). The category that was least effective on memory was the outstanding
pictures (with 10%). These items are interesting types of picture to be concerned with
while implementing lessons in class. While some should be employed with effective
reasons, in other cases one should be prudent when using them because it may not be
practical for the students to understand this particular kind of picture (i.e., outstanding
ones).
As the types of picture that best affect memory were studied, the
pattern use of types of picture among strong and weak students was explored.
However, similar patterns of types of picture use among these two groups of students
were found. There is no important difference among them. For this result, the
outstanding picture tends to be put aside while processing the word memory. There
were very few occasions that the participants come up with correct word when
associated with outstanding pictures. However, the most frequently used items or
patterns were from four items. They are the pictures with words inside, the realistic
pictures, and the drawings, cartoons or animated pictures. The strong and weak
proficiency students exhibited overlapping patterns of word retention for these four
items.
In addition to the results regarding the effectiveness of the use of
pictures on word retention, the different types of pictures that best affect memory, the
pattern of recall between the strong and weak students, another result regarding the
retention of words overall was discovered. This is to deal with the result of all
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obtained correct words to be compared to the rest of the words learned in the course to
see how much they could retain words from the course. It was found that even if there
were only 45 words to be studied in the course, the participants could not remember
all the words correctly. However, as discussed before about the scoring criteria to give
points for their answers, there are some words that the participants remembered which
are not all correct but still considered acceptable. Thus, these words were also
analyzed and considered as the words they remembered.
From the background of what words to be analyzed for the word
memory stated in the above paragraph, it links to the following topic to see what have
been involved in obtaining the words. The qualitative information derived from the
main data collecting tool, stimulated recall protocol, reveals some interesting points.
The findings from this part show factors or cognitive processing strategies involved in
remembering words.
5.1.2 The Qualitative Data
From the qualitative data, the researcher identified nine cognitive
processing strategies found to be factors that underlie students’ memory of words.
Picture use is one of them. However, beside the use of pictures, a larger variety of
factors or cognitive processing strategies were found.
(1) Link the words to visual images (29.90%)
(2) Picture and studying (2.80%)
(3) L1 translation (8.41%)
(4) Reviewing after studying in class (17.28%)
(5) The words were known/ seen from other sources or other
subjects which were studied during the semester (34.57%)
(6) Using imagination (1.86%)
(7) Interest (1.40%)
(8) Link the words to other English words with similar sound
(1.40%)
(9) Link the words to one’s own experience (2.33%)
These nine items were reported to be used to recall words. These
findings were obtained via the stimulated recall protocol approach, which was used to
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scrutinize participants’ cognitive processes while they were learning and also
remembering words. Among them, the first three items employed the most often than
the other findings were:
(1) The words were known or seen from other sources or other
subjects which were studied during the semester. The participants used this strategy
about 34.57% of the time to remember words. This item reveals the factors that could
not be controlled or are hard to control in real life. Among the participants in the
study, there are many things involved so it tends to be impossible to control factors or
variables that exist in participants in the same way as in an experimental study in a
laboratory. Holt and Walker (2009, p. 7) say: “…no matter how much you try to
anticipate the influences on people’s behavior, people will always find a way to
surprise you.”
From the above statement and also with this item of finding, we
might find it very difficult to control factors that may affect students’ word memory
because it is impossible to know what background or experience they have in their
lives before they study these words.
(2) The participants link the words they are learning with the visual
images. About 29.90% of the words were recalled by relating them to images. As
expected, this item was has expectedly been the main reason that helped participants
learn and remember words. From the findings, this item is ranked second overall in
terms of frequency.
(3) The next item concern reviewing after studying in class. The
participants tried to memorize the words after spending time studying them in class.
This strategy was employed in 17.28% of the cases. This item is relevant to individual
metacognitive strategies which each person would manage to study by their own.
Apart from the above three strategies mentioned, the rest of the
strategies that participants used were presented in the previous paragraph and also
discussed in Chapter 4. All of these were derived from the “stimulated recall
protocol.” The answers of all participants were transcribed from the audio source to
be in written transcription. The transcriptions of all participants were distributed to the
coders so as to analyze for the reliability of the coding. There were two kinds of
coding: (1) inter-coding, and (2) intra-coding.
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The findings highlighted in the current study were considered
“reliable” because the reliability values (R) from both the inter-coding and intra-
coding were greater than .80. The R value from the inter-coding was 0.86 and for
intra-coding it was 0.83.
The next section considers the recommendations arising from the
conclusions raised here. Recommendations are provided which should help some of
the concerned stake holders pay attention to when considering pictorial input in
foreign language teaching and learning. Finally, some suggestions for further research
will also be considered.
5.2 Recommendations of the Study
This section considers three items for the recommendations: the limitation
of the study, the recommendations for further study, and the contribution the study
makes to English language teaching. These three items should help suggest to any
interested scholar, researcher, teacher, and other people who are concerned about the
key findings and implications arising from the study.
5.2.1 Limitation of the Study
In conducting this research, there were clearly some limitations.
There are three items to be stated here.
5.2.1.1 The specific word area:
The word list used in this research is in the area of “hotel and
tourism” because to conduct the research, it needs to plan for the material use, the test
implementation, course syllabus, and the time table of the course. Therefore, there are
a number of things involved and which need to be managed. It is difficult using a
subject which involves many lecturers involved because when implementing the
teaching, there will be different steps which may affect the study. Due to this reason,
the range of the word list used in this is quite narrowly themed around hotel and
tourism. Use of other word lists use may reveal different results and findings to those
obtained in the current study. This point will be highlighted further in the
recommendations for further study in the next section.
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5.2.1.2 The time allocation in the study:
Since this course is available for students in a campus which
is far from Bangkok. The researcher also acts as a teacher who needed to travel up-
country to implement the study and the teaching. At the same time, the students have
limited time to study with the course at only three hours a time. Students naturally
study many other subjects. If stimulated recall protocol was required to do after class,
it could be done during the lunch time or in the evening where no people are in the
building. This time constraint may affect the focus or the attention in giving details
during the stimulated recall protocol because students may need to finish early so as
to prepare themselves for another subject in the afternoon, or sometimes in the
evening if it is not finished. Therefore, it might be more practical to have a class
where the process of teaching and collecting the data can be done more comfortably
so as reduce any anxiety that might exist when participating in the data collection
process.
5.2.1.3 The part of speech:
Since this course of the study consists of nouns most
frequently, the target words were primarily, nouns. Actually, there are nouns, verbs,
and some other types of word, but what was suggested during the proposal defense
was to find pictures to match with the word easily, which is necessarily easier with
nouns. Clearly, other kinds of word type may also be interesting to investigate.
To study this topic, the researcher needs to implement studying
materials which consist of word lists to be investigated. There is one course that the
researcher is responsible for in the teaching alone so this is easy to design for the
materials, the test, and the activities in class which support the research study. In a
subject that many teachers are involved, difficulty may occur due to the differences of
each individual teacher and constraint that each teacher may have. Therefore, only
one teacher who can manage only one course is so practical to investigate for the
study. As a result, this particular course is finally planned and managed so as to meet
the study objectives which have been set by the relevant people (academic committee)
of the faculty and the university. While designing the course so as to fulfill the
standard objectives which require students to have appropriate proficiency after the
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course, the researcher also needs to insert the design for investigating the current
research.
In conclusion to this limitation, it is hard to find a course that can be
managed and controlled with full design to cover the research objectives, and at the
same time also have to cover the subject objectives.
5.2.2 Recommendation for Further Study
There are four points to be suggested here for recommendations for
future studies.
5.2.2.1 As stated earlier in the limitation of the study section, the
word list of the current study was only focused on the theme of “hotel and tourism.”
Other types of subject-specific vocabulary, such as engineering, finance, or science
would also be interesting for researchers to focus upon. Moreover, the lower
frequency words or the academic word list could be considered to determine whether
participants who have relatively lower exposure to specific or groups of words would
be able to remember these words as effectively via pictorial input.
5.2.2.2 The study on other types of the parts of speech could reveal
some interesting or different findings. It can be challenging to find pictures that match
these types of word. However, it also needs the checking from the experts on the area
to help deciding on the matching so as to make sure that the word and picture use are
comprehensible and can be interpreted in the same direction.
5.2.2.3 This study found nine strategies which participants reported
employing to remember words. Thus, it might help to reveal some deep information
which is underlying into each type of items and how students use each item to encode
words in memory. To study only each particular strategy or some of them in class so
as to see if the students were randomly assigned to use each strategy to learn words,
they may show different aspects for the strategies. There might be some unrevealed
factors or interesting data inside these nine findings.
5.2.2.4 While implementing this research, the researcher found
some interesting findings where participants reported drawing picture by themselves
in order to memorize words efficiently. It might be interesting to design a lesson
where the participants were asked to draw their own pictures and see how they learn
to remember words. In doing so, such a study might reveal some different findings to
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those found in this study. On the other hand, some similar findings might be found
that are complimentary to those revealed here.
The next section focuses on the practical suggestions that can be made
regarding learning and teaching the English language with the use of pictures.
5.2.3 Contribution to English Language Teaching
5.2.3.1 Use of pictures: The main part of this research study was to
investigate whether picture use will influence word memory. The result shows that it
does help. However, scrutinizing the data more deeply, leads to the conclusion that
there are many more factors involved in learning words. The implementation of the
picture use in class should be planned well enough for clear objectives and activities.
Of course, they do help attract students’ attention and interest but it does not mean
that they will inevitably lead to the top performance of the students’ learning. One
particular research study mentioned the general ‘superiority of pictures’; while
pictures are believed to be beneficial to language classes, they might not be the most
optimal. To encourage students to learn effectively in class, there might be some other
individual factors involved, such as their background, their experience, their interest,
and so forth.
5.2.3.2 Words to be used to teach vocabulary: As seen in the results,
the types of picture that best affect word retention are the ‘pictures with words inside’
and ‘the realistic pictures’. These two types of picture should be encouraged while
teaching vocabulary. They tend to promote a good result in word memory. However,
it is not about the type of picture only. Other relevant factors, such as the activity and
clear objectives of the activity, the instruction use, the students’ attraction, attention,
interest will have some effects.
5.2.3.3 Picture to be used prudently: While the above section
suggests the types of picture to be used, this section focuses on the type of pictures
that should be avoided or not considered. The ‘outstanding pictures’ or pictures that
seem to be bizarre or strange for students should be used prudently. This is because
there might be more than one dimension in the picture. This is to say that when it aims
to be used for a reason, it might be interpreted using some other reasons because it is
hard to control the interpretation in this kind of picture. According to its special
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features, it should be explained clearly what it is used for and to what specific aspect
of knowledge.
5.2.3.4 Picture use to learn word can be more effective if used in
accordance with other factors: The results show that the participants remembered
words with other strategies or items. Those items are studying, knowing the word
before (or they have some background knowledge), and L1 translation. Thus, to make
the word learning more effective, the teacher could use pictorial material input which
include L1 translation, adding background knowledge for the words, and let students
practice doing some exercise or activity so they can rehearse the words and remember
them.
5.2.3.5 Studying the words after class: The item ranked third in the
findings reveals that ‘studying’ resulted in around 17.28% of the items recalled. It is
clear that practice or rehearsal helps students to remember words. This one is
confirmed by the memory theory that ‘rehearsal’ helps to remember things.
5.2.3.6 False memory leading to incorrect recall: When learning or
teaching about word retention, it is suggested that at the end of the class or when
finishing an activity, the teacher needs to make some conclusions again to determine
whether the students remember items correctly. If they remember incorrectly when
processing cognitive stages, they will tend to store items ineffectively. This could lead
to students misinterpreting things over the long term.
5.2.3.7 To teach vocabulary, some factors that are influential should
be considered: There are many more factors that are involved in studying, such as
sound, imagination, background knowledge or experience, L1 input, and interest.
These factors can have some impact on learning words. As a language teacher, one
needs to consider relevant factors and try to find ways of managing teaching with the
best consideration of these factors. They need to be accounted for in the lesson plan in
order to produce the most appropriate activity and teaching that stems from this.
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REFERENCES
Al-Ja’afari, I. S. (2012). Using Pictures in Teaching Vocabulary in Grade 5 and