THE LEARNING ACHIEVEMENT IN ENGLISH VOCABULARY OF THE PRE- PRIMARY PUPILS USING PRESENTATIONAL MULTIMEDIA AT DECHENCHOLING MIDDLE SECONDARY SCHOOL IN THIMPHU, BHUTAN

Bal Bahadur Powrel[1] Boonsri Cheevakumjorn, Ph.D.[2] Prapatpong Senarith, Ph.D.[3]

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ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to compare the learning achievement in English vocabulary of the pre-primary pupils using presentational multimedia and normal media instructions at Dechencholing Middle Secondary School in Thimphu, Bhutan. This experimental research study used posttest-only control group design, on English vocabulary learning among pre-primary (PP) pupils. Randomized experimental group consisted of 51 pupils and the control group consisted of 51 pupils. The English vocabulary test on alphabet and phonics details was used for comparing the English vocabulary skills. The classroom engagement walk-through checklist was used for comparing the engagement of the pupils during the lesson presentations.

The t-test results from the two research instruments supported the earlier findings that the learning achievement in English vocabulary was significant. First, the English vocabulary posttest results showed significant difference (p=0.04) between the experimental and the control groups on English vocabulary Independent samples t-test scores. Second, classroom engagement walk-through checklist scores t-test results of the two groups of pre-primary pupils showed significant differences (p=0.003). The use of presentational multimedia in teaching English vocabulary helped pre-primary pupils achieve higher scores in the learning achievement in English vocabulary.

In the light of the findings of this study, it was recommended that the use of multimedia in teaching English vocabulary and phonic details to pre-primary (PP) pupils in Dechencholing Middle Secondary School was safe, meaningful and engaging.
KEY WORDS: LEARNING ACHIEVEMENT, PRESENTATIONAL MULTIMEDIA, ENGLISH VOCABULARY, ENGAGEMENT, PRE-PRIMARY, DECHENCHOLING, BHUTAN

[1] Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, Rangsit University

[2] Thesis Advisor, Committee Member, Rangsit International College.

[3] Thesis Committee, Chairperson.

Report Details by Bal Bahadur Powrel-----Master Thesis

THE LEARNING ACHIEVEMENT IN ENGLISH VOCABULARY OF THE PRE- PRIMARY PUPILS USING PRESENTATIONAL MULTIMEDIA AT DECHENCHOLING MIDDLE SECONDARY SCHOOL IN THIMPHU, BHUTAN

Bal Bahadur Powrel, Boonsri Cheevakumjorn, Ph.D. Prapatpong Senarith, Ph.D.

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ABSTRACT

KEY WORDS: LEARNING ACHIEVEMENT, PRESENTATIONAL MULTIMEDIA, ENGLISH VOCABULARY, ENGAGEMENT, PRE-PRIMARY, DECHENCHOLING, BHUTAN

1. Introduction

The world is going through a period of fast and challenging times demanding a compatible changes in the current educational environment. Technology and 21^st century educational tools had become an imperative force in articulating the theory of change. The enormous influence of 21^st century advancement in technology had impacted education and brought forward an ensemble of exciting educational opportunities. Farsighted technological interventions in educational arena could provide visible impetus in academic performance, provided the teachers insightfully evolve their teaching methods, media and content. On account of swift changes in global society, economy and technology, educational innovations should have compatible agendas to face the change boldly. The issue of teaching second language vocabulary had also become an area of research interest in the last few decades. Different approaches to teaching vocabulary stemming from the plethora of language teaching methodologies, the use of multimedia in vocabulary instruction has begun fairly recently (Erdemir, 2008).

Computers delivered multimedia presentations for entertainment, advertising, or education. Edutainment was the term used to refer to the applications which incorporate multimedia entertainment with educational objectives. Multimedia incorporates text, audio, graphics, animations, or real video into English lessons (Parveen,2011).

Facing the challenges and complexities of today's education called on developed societies to change the methods they adopted in teaching kids in kindergartens by means of using new approaches that were expected to discard traditional teaching. This entailed the introduction of modernized curricula that implements the methodology of integrated technology, especially at this critical stage of children's education (Shawareb,2011). Pre-primary teachers in Bhutan were sometimes unable to achieve the desired goals, as a result of the insufficiency of and shortages in modernized and multimedia enhanced instructional curricula and other supportive educational activities to meet pupils’ needs.

Studies showed that pre-school stage was very important in the evolution and development of children, as it helped in the formation of their personality and ensuring their lifelong learning. Since childhood was the most fruitful stage which prepared children and enabled them to acquire various concepts and skills, it was advisable that educationalists and teachers worked together and cooperated to develop modernized and multimedia enhanced instructional curricula from the earliest stage, taking into account the advantage of using modern computer applications and software as an amusing and didactic tool. These sorts of tools would indeed help in managing and exploiting children's energy and potential to satisfy their desires and attitudes, rather than wasting efforts in trivialities. Modern technology became a necessary means to keep pace with the era of knowledge and development. In the case of children, it helped them to develop positive attitudes towards learning, and prepared them for future life in the age of information and concepts. Being aware of children teaching methods, educationalists and teachers were obliged to invest technology to achieve this goal. Children learned through methods that satisfied their curiosity, playing and doing various activities that encouraged them to use their senses, experimentation and positive social interaction with their peers and the adults around them (Shawareb, 2011).

As the use of multimedia in teaching vocabulary was a developing topic, this study considered it important to experiment on the Bhutanese pupils who were geographically and culturally different.

Thus, the objective of the study was to compare the learning achievement in English vocabulary of the pre-primary pupils using presentational multimedia and normal media instructions at Dechencholing Middle Secondary School in Thimphu, Bhutan.

2. Research Methodology

2.1 Research Design

This study used experimental, posttest-only control group design for the experimental and control groups. It was presented in the table below.

Table 0.1 Posttest-only control group design

STEPS	P R O CE D U R E		AIM
Step 1	Random assignment for Control Group	Random assignment for Experimental Group	To control subject characteristics threat to internal validity
Step 2	Normal treatment	Multimedia Treatment	To observe any possible change on dependent variable
Step 3	Posttest	Posttest	To measure the degree of change

2.2 Population and sample

The population was from Dechencholing Middle Secondary School in Thimphu, Bhutan. And 102 samples were from pre-primary level pupils of that school.

1. Two out of three class teachers of the class PP are purposively selected.

2. Other English teachers who are interested to observe the lessons will be given the walk-through check list.

2.3 Data Collection

While in the data collection the following ethical procedures were carried out.

1. Got the permission from the Ministry and the Dzongkhag to go to the school the researcher is interested to carry out with.

2. Got into the school as a teacher. Request the class PP classes for the duration of four weeks for the experiment.

3. Requested Principal for the permission to use IT room and equipment.

4. Requested two English teachers to accept engagement checklist.

5. Every day one teacher was requested to observe the researcher’s teaching.

2.4 Hypotheses

1. Hypothesis 1 There was no difference between the learning achievement of two treatment groups of pre- primary pupils in English vocabulary achievement post tests scores and media engagement walkthrough scores.

2. Hypothesis 2 There was a difference between the learning achievement of two treatment groups of pre- primary pupils in English vocabulary achievement post tests scores and media engagement walkthrough scores.

2.5 Data Analysis

The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS16) was used for the initial screening data and the subsequent analysis. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (means, standard deviations). Independent T-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Microsoft excel program were as follows:

1. Frequency, percentage and ANOVA were used in describing and analyzing the demographic profile and variables; and computed as test of significance of age and gender between and within the group and between- group correlations of the demographic variables. These tests were used to find out if gender, age and experience difference between the groups existed and they are correlated between the groups.

2. Independent samples t-test was utilized to compare the achievement post-test scores and descriptive and t-test statistics were utilized for engagement classroom walk through scores of the experimental and the control group observed by six teachers.

3. Result of data analysis and Discussions

3.1 Descriptive Analysis

Table 4.1 & 4.2 showed that the pupils’ demographic variables i.e., age, gender and experience are not significantly different to pose threat to the data analysis.

Table 3.1 Test of significance for groups’ age and gender distribution

	Comparison	Sum of Squares	df	F	Sig.
Age * Groups	Between Groups (Combined)	.01	1	.15	.70*
Age * Groups	Within Groups	6.51	100
Gender * Groups	Between Groups (Combined)	.039	1	.15	.69*
Gender * Groups	Within Groups	25.45	100

Note: * p>0.05

Table 3.2 Correlations of demographic data and posttest between the groups

Control Variables			Experience	Age	Gender
Between Groups	Experience	Correlation	1.000*	.282	.118
	Experience	df	0	99	99
	Age	Correlation	.282	1.000*	.032
	Age	df	99	0	99
	Gender	Correlation	.118	.032	1.000*
	Gender	df	99	99	0

Note: * is the correlation of the variables and posttest between the groups and df is the degree of freedom.

According to the table 4.2, the correlation for the control variables i.e., experience, age, and gender between the two groups was 1.00 at df 99. The data showed that there was no difference in the age and gender distribution between the group and within the groups. The age and the gender of pupils in the groups were equally distributed. This meant that the control variables which may confound the result were fairly controlled.

3.2 Post test results of the experimental and the control groups

As shown in Table 3.3, for sig. (2-tailed) the p= 0.04, i.e. smaller than 0.05 it was concluded that there was a difference between the means of the two groups. Since the retrieved t-value of 2.030 was smaller than the critical value of 2.66, at df 99.9 was significant at p=0.001.

Table 3.3 Independent samples t-test for vocabulary achievement posttest

Posttest	n		SD
Experimental Group(PMM)	51	51.82	24.48
Control Group(NM)	51	41.86	25.06
Difference		9.96	0.58
Degree of freedom(df)		99.94
t value		2.03
p sig(2-tailed)		.04

Note: p<0.05 n is number of samples, PMM is presentational multimedia, NM is normal media, SD is the average difference of all the actual scores of the subjects from the mean or average of all the scores and is the mean of the scores.

The Table 3.3 showed that the SD within the group was (24.48 &25.06). This meant that if the sample had high standard deviation, it followed that sample also had high sampling process error; this would lead to the great variation in the sample types and would represent the diverse population.

The SD between the group (0.58), technically, was the average difference of all the actual scores of the subjects from the mean or average of all the scores and this was greater than 0.05. This meant that the two variances were not significantly different; i.e., the two variances were approximately equal. . This was due to the fact that most of the pupils in each group already had had experience of the current content in the pre-school learning, it could also be attributed to more number of test items (70 items) and it would also mean that the population variability was reduced. Every researcher must seek to establish a sample that is free from bias and is representative of the entire population. In this case, the researcher was able to minimize or eliminate sampling error between the groups to establish that the difference in their scores showed the effect of the treatment.

As shown in Table 4.2, for sig. (2-tailed) the p= 0.04, i.e. smaller than 0.05 it was concluded that there was a difference between the means of the two groups.

Since the retrieved t-value of 2.030 was smaller than the critical value of 2.66, at df 99.9 was significant at p=0.001.

3.3 Classroom engagement walk-through checklist result

The results of the independent samples t-test for engagement classroom walk-through checklist were as follows (Table 3.4 & 3.5)

Table 3.4 Group statistics for engagement scores of the two groups

	Group	n		SD	Std. Error Mean
Scores	Presentational Media	9	4.2	.51	.17
Scores	Normal Method	9	3.3	.50	.16

Note: n was number of observations, is the mean, SD was the standard deviation-the average difference of all the actual scores of the subjects from the mean or average.

Table 3.5 Independent samples test for engagement checklist scores

		Levene's Test for equality of variances		t-test for equality of means
		F	Sig.	t	df	Sig. (2-tailed)	Difference	Std. Error Difference
Scores	Equal variances assumed	.189	.67	3.53	16	.003	.848	.240
Scores	Equal variances not assumed			3.53	15.99	.003	.848	.240

Note: p<.05, is the mean of the scores.

The Levene's test for equality of variances showed (Sig 0.67. was greater than .05), the two variances were not significantly different; i.e., the two variances were approximately equal. The treatment variables other than the presentational multimedia, were synonymous to each other, thus the variance were not significantly different because “matching on some variables establishes equivalence on others”.

The results of the independent samples t-test for engagement classroom walk-through checklist (Table 3.4 & 3.5) showed that there was a difference between the engagement levels of the group taught by using presentational multimedia (experimental) and taught by using normal media (control). Since the p = 0.003, i.e. smaller than 0.05 it was concluded that there was a difference between the means of the two instructional methods (two groups). Since the retrieved t-value of 3.53 was smaller than the critical value of 4.02 at df 16 (sig. 2-tailed) was significant at p=0.001.Therefore, it was concluded that the pupils not only had better understanding of the target vocabulary from the presentational multimedia lessons, but also found that the presentational multimedia lessons significantly useful than the normal media instructions.

4. Conclusion and recommendations

4.1 Conclusion

The evidence of this research showed that when properly implemented, the use of presentational multimedia in teaching English vocabulary had a significant positive effect on pupils’ learning achievement as measured by test scores of vocabulary posttest and a classroom engagement walk-through checklist with pre-primary pupils. Results were based on the analysis of “between-group differences” because in posttest-only control group design between- group differences were used to determine treatment effects.

The results were significant at p=0.05. Though the results were significant the research design (posttest-only control group) had limitations in scope of the study. Thus, it was concluded that the learning achievement in English of the pre-primary pupils using presentational multimedia instructional method was significantly higher than using normal media instructional method at Dechencholing Middle Secondary School in Thimphu, Bhutan.

4.2 Recommendations

The results were significant at p=0.05. Though the results were significant, whilst this posttest only design did find many uses, it was limited in scope and contained many threats to validity. The main limitation of this research was the absence of the pretest. It was very poor at guarding against assignment bias, because the researcher knew very little about the individual differences within the control group and how they might have affected the outcome. Even with randomization of the initial groups, this failure to address assignment bias meant that the statistical power was weak. The results of such a study always was limited in scope and, resources permitting; thus, it was recommended that the future researchers used a more robust design, of which pretest-posttest designs were one to find the consistent results on the treatment effects. Future researchers may also experiment the use of presentational multimedia to teach English vocabulary in different population groups, samples, places and socio-economic status so that the results obtained would make the generalization broader.

In the light of the findings, the following recommendations are presented:

4.2.1 Recommendations for the future course of action

1) PP teachers could use the presentational multimedia to increase the learning achievement in English vocabulary of PP, provided the media selected meet the selection criteria (APPENDIX F&P).

2) The presentational multimedia could be used to increase the learning achievement in English vocabulary of PP, provided the pupils are new to the content, their age ranges from six to seven, their socio economic status are similar and they are from urban dwellers.

Overall, this study recommended that presentational multimedia could be a tool that could be used continuously as a means to create meaningful and engaging contexts in second language classrooms where focus could be to develop English vocabulary which specifically dealt with phonic details in urban classroom situations.

4.2.2 Recommendations for the future researchers

Whilst this posttest only design did find many uses, it was limited in scope and contained many threats to validity. It was very poor at guarding against assignment bias, because the researcher knew very little about the individual differences within the control group and how they may have affected the outcome. Even with randomization of the initial groups, this failure to address assignment bias meant that the statistical power was weak.

The results of such a study were always been limited in scope and, resources permitting; thus, future researchers used a more robust design, of which pretest-posttest designs were one. More studies could be conducted to further explore the learning achievement in English vocabulary of other class levels and subject areas with samples from diverse socio-economic status and age levels using presentational multimedia.

In nutshell, this study recommended that similar experiment was carried out at different schools where the demography, geography, history and socio-economic status are different.

6. References

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Duffy-lever Judy, Macdonald B. Jean, Ciereszko A. Ana, Mizell P. Al. Teaching and Learning with Technology. Third. USA: Pearson Education Inc, 2009. January 2012.

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Kim, Dae-Sang. "Effects of text, audio, and graphic aids in multimedia instruction on the achievement of students in vocabulary learning." 2006. ProQuest Desertatios and Theses. 2012.

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Richard D. Jones. "Classroom Walkthroughs." Education, The International Center for Leadership in. Student Engagement Teacher Handbook. U.S.A: International Center for Leadership in Education., 2009. 27-31.

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Schütz, Ricardo. "Stephen Krashen's Theory of Second Language Acquisition." 2 July 2007. http://www.sk.com.br/sk-krash.html. 2012.

Sharon E.Smaldino, James D.Russell,Robert Heinich,Michael Molendo. Instructional Technology and Media for Learning. Eighth. Ohio: Pearson, 2005.

Shawareb, Aseel. "The Effects of Computer Use on Creative Thinking Among Kindergarten Children in Jordan." Journal of Instructional Psychology (2011): 213-220.

Sherab, Kezang. "Bhutanese Teachers’ Pedagogical Orientation in the Primary Classes (PP-VI): A Factor on Quality of Education." Quality of Education in Bhutan 2009: 11-37.

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[1] Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, Rangsit University

[2] Thesis Advisor, Committee Member, Rangsit International College.

[3] Thesis Committee, Chairperson.

Bhutan 21 Century Teaching

Pages

Nov 18, 2012

Research Paper: Use of Computer Media to Teach Vocabulary to PP in Bhutan

2. Research Methodology