Applying information technology in vocabulary teaching and learning for the first - Year English non - Major students at Thuong mai university

 Tạp chí Khoa học Ngôn ngữ và Văn hóa ISSN 2525-2674 Tập 2, Số 1, 2018 
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APPLYING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 
IN VOCABULARY TEACHING AND LEARNING 
FOR THE FIRST-YEAR ENGLISH NON-MAJOR STUDENTS 
AT THUONG MAI UNIVERSITY 
 Tran Thi Thu Hien* 
 Foreign Trade University 
Nhận bài: 15/09/2017; Hoàn thành phản biện: 19/11/2017; Duyệt đăng: 25/03/2018 
Abstract: With the development of new technologies, such as Web pages, Apps or social 
network, the language learning environment seems to be more diverse and interesting. 
The aim of this paper is to explore the use of Microsoft PowerPoint in a Thuong Mai 
classroom to help students’ English vocabulary acquisition. In the experimental group, the 
instructor used Microsoft PowerPoint lessons to teach English vocabulary while the 
instructor used the traditional semantic-map method to teach English vocabulary in the 
control group. The results showed that at the end of the semester, students who received 
the Microsoft PowerPoint vocabulary teaching instruction performed better on the post-test. 
Also, the survey found out that students agreed on using technologies in the classroom 
can help language learning. That is, using Microsoft PowerPoint in language teaching can 
not only enhances students’ learning outcomes, but also increases students’ learning 
motivation. 
Key words: English vocabulary acquisition, learning outcomes, learning motivation, 
Microsoft PowerPoint, semantic-map method 
1. Introduction 
Vocabulary is the foundation of English language learning (Adamson, 2004), (Asgari, 
2011). Having enough vocabulary can make communication more smooth and precise so that 
people can convey ideas and enhance their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills 
(Blachowicz, 2006; Cervatiuc, 2008). However, many English learners feel confused when 
they learn vocabulary because there are always new words in the articles. In addition, the 
learners fail to find appropriate words to express themselves. The worst of all, it seems like 
mission impossible for them to memorize the vocabulary no matter how much time they spend 
on reciting the words (Drent, 2008). Is there another way for everyone to learn English 
vocabulary happily? 
 There are a lot of methods to learn English vocabulary, such as using flashcards, taking 
notes, learning through affixes, and so on (Harris, 2005; Harris, 2002). There are also some 
teachers and learners use the techniques of collocations, association or extensive reading 
(Jonassen, 1998). No matter which method is being used, it is important to reach the study 
goal first and then learners can find their best vocabulary learning strategies. 
In this paper, we focused on using Microsoft PowerPoint to freshman students in a 
Thuong Mai classroom. We tried to investigate whether there is a difference in students’ 
English vocabulary acquisition performances under different teaching instructions (Microsoft 
PowerPoint and semantic-map method). 
* Email: th.hien77@gmail.com; thu.hien77@yahoo.com 
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 According to the relevant research, using the information and communication 
technologies (ICT) can not only increase students’ learning motivation, but also enhance the 
interaction features in the classroom (Lim, 2004; McCormick, 2001). That is, ICT have a great 
impact on the teaching and learning process in the 21st century. For ICT can influence the way 
students are taught and their performances by providing wider access and different interaction to 
the content (Lim, 2004; Mooij, 2007). 
 Therefore, the instructor used the Microsoft PowerPoint and semantic-map method in 
two freshman English classes, respectively. The teaching of vocabulary lasted about 15 
minutes each time. Students took the same English pre-test at the beginning of the semester and 
the English post-test at the end of the semester. In addition, a questionnaire of using Microsoft 
PowerPoint in the classroom was conducted in the class with Microsoft PowerPoint 
instruction at the end of the semester. 
 Based on the above reasons, the paper examines the following questions: 
 (1) Does the Microsoft PowerPoint enhance students’English vocabulary acquisition? 
 (2) Based on students’ attitude and needs, can ICT teaching in the classroom increase 
 their learning motivation? 
2. Literature review 
2.1. Computer-assisted language learning 
Using ICT in the classroom is a new method of teaching technique which provides 
more interaction, and makes students’ learning more effectively (Nation, 2001). During the 
teaching activities, the ICT have been applied to various aspects of pedagogies. In English 
teaching fields, this kind of computer-assisted language learning can support and extend 
English curriculum goals which make students engage in meaningful English learning 
activities, enhance their English communication skills and increase their reading and writing 
abilities (Mooij, 2007; Nation, 2001). 
In addition, the use of computers in language teaching also guarantees to develop 
students’ cooperation skill, communication skill, problem-solving skill and life-long learning 
ability (Mooij, 2007). In the past, English teaching in Vietnam focused on grammar and 
neglected to teach English listening and speaking skills. This resulted in students’ low learning 
motivation and poor communication skills. If the English teaching methods can be modified 
into a lively and interactive model, students’ interest in learning English should have been 
enhanced (Nation, 1990). 
Some researchers think that integrating technology into the curriculum is one of the tools 
being used in the classroom, which can help students solve their problems, have in-depth 
knowledge to the professional field and train higher level of learning outcomes (Niederhause, 
2001; Pope, 2000). By using the computer in teaching, students can learn critical thinking and 
construct their knowledge system to reach higher-order learning (Rott, 2002). 
Hence, integrating technology in English teaching can reach the following goals: train 
students’ information literacy, inspire students’ learning motivation and interests, enhance the 
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effectiveness of learning English, increase students’ communication skills, make students 
understand different culture, and strengthen students’ self-explosion and life-long learning 
ability (Schmitt, 2000). 
2.2. English vocabulary teaching methods 
There are many English vocabulary teaching strategies, such as word family, 
compound words, collocation, semantic map, affix, context clue, etc. (Shapiro, 2005). In this 
paper, the method of semantic map is used, and here is a brief introduction of this method. 
There are two main purposes for teachers to use semantic map in vocabulary teaching 
(Wang, 2012): 
 - Enable students to understand the specific content of the concept of the word. 
 - Increase students’ vocabulary by using relevant words or examples. 
For example, when teacher teaches clothes, students can come up with the relevant 
words like jeans, shorts, sweater, jacket, T-shirt, pajamas, etc. Then students can draw the 
semantic map on the blackboard. Please see Fig. 1 as an example. 
Figure 1. An example of semantic map. 
3. Research design 
3.1. Participants 
The instructor chose two freshman English classes in a private university in Thuong 
Mai University as the research subjects. There were 36 and 38 students in each class. All of 
the students were in the same English level (basic level, equivalent to CEF A2) based on 
their placement test results. Class one, with 36 students, was chosen as the experimental 
group which learned English vocabulary through Microsoft PowerPoint. Class two, with 38 
students, was chosen as the control group that learned the English vocabulary through the 
semantic-map method. 
3.2. Procedure 
According to the school schedule, there are 18 weeks per semester. After deducting the 
school holidays, mid-term and final exams, there are about 14 lectures left. Hence, the 
instructor used two different methods, the Microsoft PowerPoint and semantic-map method, 
to teach English vocabulary in two freshman English classes. Then both of the two classes 
took the same English pre-test and English post-test, which was administrated at the end of 
the course to check the students’ progress. 
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In addition, the experimental group was asked to fill out the questionnaire of using 
Microsoft PowerPoint teaching in the classroom and the questionnaire, including 8 items, is 
shown in Table 1. 
Table 1. Using Microsoft PowerPoint in the classroom 
Questions Content 
Q1 Through Microsoft PowerPoint instruction, I like English better. 
Q2 Through Microsoft PowerPoint instruction, I feel more confident in learning 
English vocabulary . 
Q3 Through Microsoft PowerPoint, I am willing to spend more time learning English 
vocabulary. 
Q4 To me, the use of Microsoft PowerPoint teaching makes me understand the 
English vocabulary better than the use of blackboard. 
Q5 The use of Microsoft PowerPoint in the classroom can’t increase my learning 
motivation. 
Q6 After school, I want to download the Microsoft PowerPoint and review the 
vocabulary. 
Q7 As a whole, I have high evaluation on the use of Microsoft PowerPoint in the 
classroom. 
Q8 In the future, I am willing to try other different technology tools, like Youtube, 
computer games or Blog, in English language learning. 
A five-point Likert-scale is used to indicate students’ statement by choosing among the 
five responses ranging from “strongly disagree to strongly agree”. The data collection was 
limited to the experimental group (N=36). 
3.3. Instrument 
In order to check whether the two different methods make any difference on students’ 
English vocabulary acquisition, SPSS 12.0 was used to see if there was a statistically 
significant difference in two classes’ pre-test and post-test scores. An independent samples t-
test was used for comparing the means on variable between two teaching methods. Microsoft 
PowerPoint was used in the experimental group. This software presented approximately 2000 
words and phrases which show the spelling, translation, pronunciation, and image. Besides, 
descriptive statistics was used to analyze the questionnaire of using Microsoft PowerPoint 
teaching in the classroom. The frequency percentages, means and SD were reported. 
4. Results and discussion 
4.1. Students’ Pre-Test Results 
Based on Table 2, the p value is higher than .05, and this showed that there was no 
significant difference with experimental group and control group at the beginning of the 
research. 
Table 2. The independent sample t-test of English pre-test 
 Number Mean Std Deviation Sig (2-tailed) 
Experimental group 36 62.12 10.85 .070 
Control group 38 60.16 12.79 .070 
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4.2. Students’ Post-Test Results 
According to the results in Table 3, there was a significant difference in the scores 
between experimental group (M=68.9, SD=6.7) and control group (M=62.0, SD=9.0). That 
is, the use of Microsoft PowerPoint in English vocabulary teaching has positive effect on 
students’ performance and helps students in English vocabulary acquisition. Under the 
Microsoft PowerPoint instruction, the experimental group performed better in the post-test and 
made a big progress. 
Table 3. The independent sample t-test of English post-test 
 Number Mean Std Deviation Sig (2-tailed) 
Experimental group 36 68.9 6.74 .000 
Control group 38 62.0 9.08 .000 
4.3. Questionnaire Analysis 
The results of descriptive analysis of the questionnaire (percentages, means and SD) 
were shown in Table 4. The main purpose of the questionnaire was to understand students’ 
attitude toward ICT use in the classroom. Moreover, this questionnaire was only distributed in 
the experimental group. 
Table 4. Percentages, means and standard deviation of using Microsoft PowerPoint in the classroom 
Item Percent (%) Mean SD 
 SA A N D SD 
Q1 42.86 42.86 14.29 0 0 4.29 0.20 
Q2 42.31 30.77 23.08 0 3.85 4.08 1.02 
Q3 50 46.15 3.85 0 0 4.46 0.58 
Q4 57.69 38.46 3.85 0 0 4.54 0.58 
Q5 7.69 3.85 34.62 15.38 38.46 4.26 0.70 
Q6 46.67 40 13.33 0 0 4.33 0.71 
Q7 60 33.33 6.67 0 0 4.53 0.63 
Q8 50 43.33 6.67 0 0 4.43 0.63 
For question one, 42.86% of the students showed that they liked English better through 
Microsoft PowerPoint instruction whereas 0% of them denied this statement. Next, for the 
confidence in English vocabulary learning, there were more than 2/3 of the students stated that 
they felt more confident whereas only 3.85% of them reported that they were still lack of 
confidence. Among the 8 questions, question 2 scored the lowest mean of 4.08. It might be the 
Vietnamese culture because students are shy and humble. Question 3 asked students whether 
they would spend more time on learning English vocabulary after experienced Microsoft 
PowerPoint instructions in the classroom. The result of question 3 was very positive 
because there were 96.15% of the students agreed on this item. The analysis of students’ 
understanding of English vocabulary showed that they agreed that the use Microsoft 
PowerPoint was better than the traditional blackboard lecture (mean=4.54). With regard to the 
only negative item in this questionnaire, question 5 aimed to understand if students’ learning 
motivation had increased. The results were quite interesting because half of the students 
disagreed on item 5 whereas 34.62% of the students were neutral and 11.54% of them 
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agreed on this item. Question 6 wanted to test students’ self-study attitude by asking if they 
would download the software and reviewed the lessons. The results showed that 86.67% 
of the students would do this after class whereas 13.33% of them were neutral. Question 7 
aimed to know the overall attitude among students toward the use of iPad teaching in the 
classroom, and the result scored the highest “strongly agree” of all the 8 items. That is, about 
93.33% of the students had high evaluation on the use of Microsoft PowerPoint in the classroom. 
The final question wanted to know if students wanted to try other ICT tools in the future. The 
results turned out to be good due to nobody disagreed on this item and approximately 93.33% 
of the students wanted to continue to use the ICT tools in the future. 
4.4. Discussion 
 The findings of this paper are summarized as follows: 
 (1) The Microsoft PowerPoint created significant progress in students’ English 
vocabulary acquisition. 
The current research tended to understand students’ progress and attitude in English 
vocabulary acquisition under the Microsoft PowerPoint teaching. The findings in this paper 
showed very positive results. First of all, the experimental group, who learned English 
vocabulary through the Microsoft PowerPoint instruction, performed better in the English 
post-test than the control group. Table III showed that the final exam average score of the 
experimental group (M=68.9) was higher than that of the control group (M=62). The 
independent sample t-test showed that there was a significant difference between the 
experimental group and the control group (p=.000<.05). This also proved that the proposed 
teaching method (using Microsoft PowerPoint in the classroom) is effective. 
 (2) Using ICT teaching in the classroom had positive effects on students’ English learning 
motivation. 
Another major finding in this paper was that students’ learning motivation was 
increased in the ICT classroom. The research explored students’ attitude toward the use of ICT 
in the classroom. According to items 3, 5 and 6 in the questionnaire, students were more 
active for English vocabulary learning. Moreover, based on item 1 and item 2, students’ 
attitude toward English was changed, and there were more students who wanted to learn 
English. 
 (3) The use of Microsoft PowerPoint teaching created a relaxed learning environment. 
In English vocabulary teaching, the effectiveness of vocabulary acquisition depends 
on the method the teacher uses and teacher’s enthusiasm (Yun, 2011). Since the development 
of English vocabulary acquisition is a long-term work, the learning should not be limited to 
in-class lectures. Instead, teachers should encourage students to develop self-study habits and 
increase students’ learning motivation. By using the ICT, students will feel familiar and 
relaxed in the classroom. In this paper, the use of Microsoft PowerPoint in English 
vocabulary teaching provided lots of pictures, words, sentences, audio-files and pronunciation 
practices in the traditional classroom. It was totally different from the traditional teacher-
centered lecture. With the use of Microsoft PowerPoint, there were more interactions 
between the teacher and students, and students seemed to be more focused during the lectures. 
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According to the research, the visual effects provided by the ICT really help the increase in 
students’ learning motivation (Mooij, 2007), (Nation, Learning Vocabulary in Another 
Language, 2001). The results of this paper were corresponded with these previous researches. 
Hence, the Microsoft PowerPoint provided a meaningful learning interface in the traditional 
Vietnamese classroom. Instead of memorizing the word by word, students got more chances to 
think and apply the words. Also, the learning responsibility has been transferred from 
teacher to students. Moreover, students can download the software after class and review the 
lessons at any time, any place. It is like seamless learning and if the teacher can use this kind 
of ICT tools in the classroom, it can be beneficial for both teachers and students. 
(4) The ICT teaching had influenced students’ willingness of using computers in English 
learning. 
Based on the results of the questionnaire, students wanted to try different ICT in future 
study. After the instructor used the Microsoft PowerPoint to teach English vocabulary in the 
classroom, students seemed to understand how to apply the ICT in learning and this is in line 
with the previous research findings (Rott, 2002; Schmitt, 2000). 
5. Conclusion and Implications 
According to the research results, the instructor believes that using Microsoft 
PowerPoint in English teaching has positive effect on students and the results were as 
follows: 
 (1) The effectiveness of using Microsoft PowerPoint in students’ English vocabulary 
acquisition had been approved. 
 After using Microsoft PowerPoint in English vocabulary teaching, the experimental 
group showed a great performance on the post-test than the control group. Hence, it is believed 
that applying ICT method in English teaching has its positive effectiveness. 
 (2) Students’ attitude toward ICT in the classroom was positive. 
 According to the results of the questionnaire, the experimental group felt motivated, 
delighted and interested in using Microsoft PowerPoint to learn English vocabulary. 
 (3) The teachers are encouraged to use more ICT applications in the classroom in the 
future. 
 Based on item 10 in the questionnaire, students are willing to learn English by using 
different ICTs. Therefore, teachers need to realize this trend and apply more ICTs in English 
language teaching in the future not only t