Faculty of Education

English Department

Action research Project

- What strategies can I implement in order to improve 8th grade classroom

vocabulary learning?

By

Jorge Alexander Ovalle Marchant

This Action Research project was done to obtain the university degree of English Teacher
Tutor: Carola Pinto
Research Seminar Lecturer: Pablo Silva
December, 2016
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Table of contents

Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... 4
Abstracto ................................................................................................................................... 4
Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. 5
Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 6
Context ...................................................................................................................................... 7
Problem ..................................................................................................................................... 8
Question .................................................................................................................................... 9
Rationale ................................................................................................................................. 10
Literature review. .................................................................................................................. 12
Research methodology ........................................................................................................... 15
Action plan .......................................................................................................................... 16
Procedures for data collection .............................................................................................. 17
Interventions ....................................................................................................................... 17
Recalling information ........................................................................................................ 18
Use of images, realia and body language.......................................................................... 18
Group work and use of flashcards .................................................................................... 18
Data analysis ........................................................................................................................... 19
Exit cards (see appendix B) ............................................................................................... 19
Journal entries (See appendix C) ...................................................................................... 20
Checklist (see appendix D) ................................................................................................ 21
Reflections ............................................................................................................................... 23
Implications......................................................................................................................... 25
Conclusions ............................................................................................................................. 27
Limitations .......................................................................................................................... 28
References. .............................................................................................................................. 29
Appendix A. ............................................................................................................................ 30
Gant Chart:......................................................................................................................... 30
Appendix B ............................................................................................................................. 31
Exit card: .............................................................................................................................. 31
B.1..................................................................................................................................... 31
B.2..................................................................................................................................... 32
B.3..................................................................................................................................... 32
B.4..................................................................................................................................... 33
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B.6..................................................................................................................................... 34
Appendix C ............................................................................................................................. 35
C.1 Journal entry N°1 (before interventions) .................................................................. 35
C.2 Journal entry N°2 (starting the interventions) ......................................................... 35
C.3 Journal entry N°3 (finishing interventions) .............................................................. 35
Appendix D ............................................................................................................................. 37
D.1.- Checklist...................................................................................................................... 37
D.2 ........................................................................................................................................ 38
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Abstract
The purpose of the following Action Research is to help the researcher find some

strategies to improve his practice in order to help students to develop understanding of

instructions given by the teacher and the understanding of L2 (English) in general.

In order to accomplish the objective of this Action Research, some interventions will

be done based on students’ needs and their different capabilities.

With this action research, you will be able to know some teaching strategies in order

to improve student’s vocabulary acquisition and understanding of instructions, such as group

work, discussions, negotiation of meaning, and images.

Key words: teaching strategies, vocabulary, group work, concrete material, visual

learners, and participation.

Abstracto
El propósito de la siguiente investigación acción es ayudar al investigador a encontrar

algunas estrategias para mejorar su práctica con el fin de ayudar a los estudiantes a

desarrollar la comprensión de las instrucciones dadas por el profesor y la comprensión de la

L2 (Inglés) en general.

Para lograr el objetivo de esta Investigación Acción, algunas intervenciones se

realizarán basadas en las necesidades de los estudiantes y sus diferentes capacidades.

Con esta investigación acción, podrá conocer algunas estrategias de enseñanza para

mejorar la adquisición del vocabulario de los estudiantes y la comprensión de las

instrucciones, como el trabajo en grupo, las discusiones, la negociación de significado y las

imágenes.

Palabras clave: estrategias de enseñanza, vocabulario, trabajo en grupo, material concreto,

aprendices visuales y participación.
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Acknowledgements

In this occasion I would like to express my gratitude for all those people that

supported me during all this process of doing this action research project.

Firstly, I would like to thank my friends, thank you for all the support and

encouragement that you gave me, without you I would not be here at the end of this process

right now.

Secondly, I would like to thank my family for being such an important support

through all my life, I love you all and I hope that I will not disappoint you in the future from

now on. I really appreciate how you encourage me to follow my dreams, and how you did not

judge me for the career that I have chosen when I was a 17 year old adolescent.

And finally I would like to thank my girlfriend, without you I would not have been

able to continue during all these years, you supported me when I felt the weakest human on

earth. The most precious gratitude for you and all the support and patience that you had with

me on my most stressful moments, and when all I wanted was to give up. I love you so much,

thank you.
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Introduction

For every teacher, it is important to be aware of the own strengths and weaknesses

that one might have regarding teaching practice.

Being critical and reflective, regarding the way in which we teach, is the only way to

realized what must be improved or must be shared to be applied by others.

As a way of helping this researcher to accomplish an improvement on his teaching

practice, an action research process will be conducted.

In the following action research, the problem that will be tackled is the lack of

strategies to teach vocabulary that student teacher has, this problem will be faced by the use

of images, realia, flashcards, body language, group work and including a recalling

information section on the interventions.

On the following pages you will find the context of the school, the problem found, the

question that arose from that problem, the literature review, the data collected during the

interventions, data analysis with which will be possible to reflect upon the results this Action

Research might deliver. Finally, on the final section of this Action Research Project you will

find the reflection, the conclusions and whether it was answered or not the principal question

of this action research.

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Context

This Action Research is going to be conducted in the 8th grade A at Marcelino

Champagnat, which is an educational institution located in “La Pintana”, it is subsidized and

has an 80% of vulnerability. (Retrieved from PEI colegio Marcelino Champagnat)

The 8th grade observed is composed by 21 boys and 13 girls. The English class is

given at 14:00 until 15:30 on Tuesdays and from 8:00 until 9:30 on Fridays. The sitting

arrangement is in five individual rows that allow the teacher to move among students and

give feedback easily during lessons.

Students usually seem to be interested in English – mainly in songs, series, etc. - but

they argue that they do not understand English, thus, they do not show interest in English

classes. These students are considered disruptive among teachers, who say that they do not

usually participate in activities, regarding other subjects apart from English, and do not show

any interest in classes.

In this school English is conceived as a grammar-based and teacher-centered class;

the teacher focuses on the language structure and students are taught through sentence

construction and charts with the language focus, leaving aside topics or interactions with the

target language through integrated skills activities.

Regarding the resources available in school every classroom counts with a projector,

this might give teachers the opportunity to work using more didactic material during classes,

but some classrooms (as it is the case of 8th grade A) have their projectors broken. Thus, this

may cause the use of paper work, and overuse of whiteboard activities.
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Problem

The problem that has been found at this school has a direct relation with the low

exposure to the target language during English classes. In other words, students from the 8th

grade previously mentioned, do not understand the enough amount of words that are needed

to follow instructions, that is to say, the main problem of this 8th grade is that they have a lack

of elementary vocabulary. This affects directly the understanding of the commands and

instructions for every activity, which results on students misunderstanding of the instruction,

misbehavior or student-teacher having to explain in Spanish what was explained in English

before.

Firstly, this is demonstrated in the following specific situations: On one hand, students

tend to ask the student-teacher to use dictionaries during the whole class, asking if they

“should” translate on their notebook what the students-teacher is writing on the whiteboard or

what is written on a worksheet given to them. On the other hand, students disrupt the class

arguing that they do not understand what the students-teacher is saying and asking for a

translation.

Secondly, the problem in this course is chiefly affecting students’ learning, due to the

fact that there are some students who follow the student-teacher and have a clear interest in

what is being taught, albeit this learning process is affected by the student’s interruptions and

misbehavior during the lessons. The mentioned problem is also affecting the lessons’

development, the student-teacher usually uses half of the class to control students and to

motivate them to work or ask why they are not paying attention or copying what is on the

whiteboard, which influence the timing for activities and the slow review of the contents.
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Question

In order to develop the action research and taking into account what I have posed as the

problem, the following question arose:

- What strategies can I implement in order to improve 8th grade classroom

vocabulary learning?

As it was mentioned before, the main problem of the 8th grade A is the lack of

vocabulary that they have. This lack of vocabulary influence the understanding of

instructions, thus it needs to be tackled in order to find a way to help students improve

their vocabulary. Therefore, the question mentioned above arose in order to solve this

problem, and to find some methods that may be useful for me as a teacher when I start

doing classes in the future.

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Rationale

In order to develop any skill, it is important to have the necessary vocabulary to

unwind in each activity that can be proposed during the English lessons.

The purpose of this Action Research is to find more strategies to teach vocabulary to

students in a way that might work better for them, and to facilitate their understanding of

classroom language used by the student teacher during the class.

Also this action research is being carried out in order to help the teacher to give

students more vocabulary that may be helpful for a communicative situation.

In addition, another reason for doing this Action Research is to help the student

teacher to develop strategies to improve the use of English language in the classroom, and

promote students participation during the English classes. Furthermore, by finding and using

more and better strategies to teach vocabulary, the student teacher might be able to help

students acquire more tools to get better in the target language.

The problem that this Action Research aims to improve/solve has a great impact in

students’ development, as the way in which the student-teacher presents the vocabulary may

help or interfere with the correct development of the class. Also, by improving the knowledge

that the student-teacher has about teaching vocabulary, he might be able to give better

instructions, and to help students learn the required vocabulary to understand commands and

instructions given by the student-teacher.

As it was mentioned in the context, this school has an 80% of student’s vulnerability

what means that students need to develop certain capabilities in order to succeed in their

lives. English is one of the tools that might be helpful for them to obtain better opportunities

when they enter to the working world.

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Through English vocabulary acquisition, students might be able to start a learning

process that might lead them to develop English as a communicative tool that may work as a

door opener into the society.

Ideally, this action research project will be helpful for the community in terms of

teaching vocabulary to students, especially for language teachers that might have vulnerable

students that may be visual learners. Also, this action research would be useful for the

community as it will show tools that might be useful on this type of context.

Finally, the main expectation in terms of the outcome that might result from this

action research is that, the student-teacher gives instructions in English 90% of the time. In

addition, it is also expected that students follow instructions in English 80 to 90% of the time.
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Literature review.

The following literature will be reviewed in order to validate this action research.

Moreover, the literature included will be considered to help me improving my practice and to

give me tools that will help me to tackle future similar situations.

First of all, students from 8th grade A are between the ages of 13 to 15 years old,

according to Piaget (1936) youngsters at this age are in the formal operational stage, that is to

say students are capable of understanding abstract ideas, they start increasing their logic

thinking and their ability to use deductive reasoning. Students at this point become capable of

distinguish different potential solutions to problems and think the world in a more scientific

way.

In order to give a little explanation of what vocabulary is, Scrivener defines

“Vocabulary typically refers mainly to single words (e.g. dog, green, wash) and sometimes to

very tightly linked two- or three-word combinations (e.g. stock market, compact disc, and sky

blue, go off).” (Scrivener, J. 2011). Taking into account the definition of vocabulary given by

scrivener, it can be said that a person needs to have some pieces of language (words) as a

base in order to commence learning a new language.

As Wilkins (1972) states, without grammar we can convey very little in conversations

and in texts, but without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed. Based on this it can be said

that, vocabulary is a crucial part when teaching or learning a new language. Seven aspects

have been listed by researchers to describe word knowledge. These aspects are known as

“types of word knowledge”, according to Schmitt (2000) are the following: written form of

the word, meaning(s) of the word, grammatical behavior of the word, spoken form of the

word, register of the word, collocations of the word, associations of the word, and finally

frequency of the word. “Most or all of them are necessary to be able to use a word in the
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wide variety of language situations one come across.”(Schmitt, N. 2000 p.5). As we can see,

there are different aspects of vocabulary that need to be taken into consideration when

teaching.

A way in which the problem mentioned in this Action research will be tackled is

through switching from a grammar based approach to a more communicative language

method. The Communicative Language Teaching approach encourages the group work

activities and students’ development based on their classmates and the negotiation of

meaning. “Group activities maximize the amount of oral interaction among students.

Students are also less likely to be inhibited when working with their peers. The teacher round

the class without being obtrusive, giving guidance and help when needed only.” (Cheng,

1980).

Implementing cooperative learning in the classroom will be one of the main

objectives of this Action research also, as students will be more exposed to the language and

this might help them to use more the required vocabulary. As Brown poses, “as students

work together in pairs and groups, they share information and come to each others’ aid. They

are a team whose players must work together in order to achieve goals successfully”.

(Brown, D. 1994). According to the previous quote and taking into account the context in

which students from 8th grade A are working, it is important to include group work. This with

the objective of making them support each other, by doing this support in the classroom

students might be more encouraged to participate and thus, learn easily as they will have a

‘support web’.

The previous idea is also connected with the zone of proximal development in which

Vygotsky poses, "ZPD is the distance between the actual developmental level as determined

by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined

through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable
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peers.”(Vygotsky, 1978). This idea helps us to support the cooperative learning in the

classroom as students that are more capable (have more vocabulary) can be used as assistants

in the classroom that might help students that are not that advantaged as them; therefore, the

teacher might be able to assist students in a more efficient way, as students will be in groups

and every group will have one ‘assistant’ in charge.

Regarding some strategies that can be used to teach vocabulary, Nation (1990) poses

that, using various forms of definition – definition by demonstration (realia, images, videos),

contextual definitions, and definition by translation – you can effectively teach vocabulary,

because students are more likely to comprehend and use words accurately if they are taught

in different ways and through diverse strategies.

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Research methodology

In order to gather evidence to support that this action research has an impact, and to

collect data from the interventions to support it, the following research methods will be used

as a way of establishing concrete results regarding students’ vocabulary learning.

First of all, one of the data collection methods that will be used in this Action research

is a journal written by the student-teacher, as Anne burns states (2009) “it allows you to

record the events and happenings in your location, your reflections, beliefs and teaching

philosophies about your practice” (89). This tool will be used in order to have a register of

changes that may happen in the classroom, as the interventions take place. Also, it will be

written after every intervention.

Dictations will be also used as a tool to collect data; this way of data collection will

help the teacher to keep a register of the written version of the words that students will be

working with. This record might show whether students are facing some spelling problems or

misunderstandings related to L1 interference.

Exit cards (see appendix B) will be also used class by class, students will have to

answer three questions that will be the same every class. By doing this the teacher will be

able to check which words may need to be rehearsed in a better way and also if the way in

which the words were taught was comfortable for students.

Finally, a check list will be used as a way of having a record about students

participation in classes, this register will be used in order to check if there is an evolution in

terms of fulfillment of the activities and by this showing an accomplishment in terms of

comprehension of the instructions during classes. In addition, most activities will be done in

groups as a way of facilitate the register of students’ evolution.

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Action plan

The action plan for this action research will be developed using the following procedure:

 Four classes will have a “recalling information” section in which students will be

asked to remember the vocabulary worked on the previous class as a way of

refreshing students’ memory.

 Vocabulary will be taught using realia, flashcards and body language, teacher will

avoid the use of the L1 when explaining the words and will just use it as a last

resource.

 Students will be asked to work in groups and every member of the group will have a

role (English checker, leader, secretary, and presenter) in order to keep all members

on task.

 Students will be asked to create flashcards that will be pasted on the walls, this with

the intention of exposing them to the language and to give them some extra visual

input and support.

 Student-teacher will check whether students finished the tasks or not, by the end of

the class he will keep a register on his notebook about the fulfillment of the activities.
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Procedures for data collection

To begin with, I started writing my journals after every intervention that I did, these

interventions were 2, one of them on October 18th and the other on October 21st, and also I

did one entry before starting my interventions. I decided to write the entries in that way as I

wanted to have the information right after my interventions, this with the objective of keeping

the most important details without having the risk of forgetting what happened in the class. In

addition, I wrote a personal perception at the final entry to have a register about my feelings

regarding the interventions, because as Penny Ur states “personal reflections are the root for

professional progress. (Ur, 2007, p. 89).

Furthermore, during the classes I collected data at the end of the class using some exit

cards -I will include the samples of two students- (See appendix C). These exit cards were

collected on three classes, one before the interventions and the others after the two

interventions.

In addition, the class before the interventions took place, the student-teacher started to

have a register about the fulfillment of the activities done in classes. The checklist was done

after every intervention, and the class after interventions took place.

Finally, dictations were not applied as some class activities took more time than

expected, so the time were not enough to apply them.

Interventions
Since the need that I had as a teacher was to find strategies to help students learn more

vocabulary; I focused my interventions on using more images, realia, body language,

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recalling information from previous classes and to increase students exposure to the target

language using flashcards pasted on the walls.

Recalling information
During the interventions it was included a recalling information part in every class,

this part of the class was done with the aim of activating the previous knowledge of students,

also it was done in order to help students keep the information “fresh” in their minds.

Use of images, realia and body language

As it was stated before in this action research, during the interventions the student-

teacher had to use images, realia and body language to explain the vocabulary and give

instructions to students. This with the aim of facilitating students understanding of

vocabulary and instructions, and to keep the class flowing smoothly. As it was quoted before,

Nation (1990) states that, by the use of various forms of definition, such as definition by

demonstration (realia, images, videos), contextual definitions, and definition by translation;

you can effectively teach vocabulary, because students are more likely to comprehend and

use words accurately if they are taught in different ways and through diverse strategies.

Group work and use of flashcards

Previously it was mentioned that students would be asked to work in groups with

defined roles (as a way to keep them motivated to participate in the activities), also they were

asked to create some flashcards that were pasted on the walls, these flashcards were done in

order to increase students’ exposure to the target language, these flashcards included
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classroom language and some chunks of language that were commonly used by the teacher

when giving instructions. Regrettably, flashcards were threw to the can of trash after a school

extracurricular activity was done.

Data analysis
The following data analysis aims at evaluate all the data gathered through the data

collection tools on the interventions done. Firstly, results from the interventions will be

shown and then the corresponding analysis will be done.

Exit cards (see appendix B)

This instrument was used in order to gather information about students’ perception of

the classes, and the way in which the student-teacher was teaching vocabulary. These exit

cards were applied in the 8th grade in which this action research is being carried out and their

ages go between 13 and 15 years old.

The first time the flashcards were implemented was before the interventions, and it

was with the aim of collecting students’ perceptions about the student-teacher performance

on teaching vocabulary.

On the first exit cards applied before the interventions, students answered that they

would like to have more images and better examples when learning new words, this can be

also related to what the host teacher told the student-teacher about the type of learning that is

more common in the 8th grade, which is visual learning (see appendix C).

On the second exit card that was implemented after the first intervention some

students wrote that the vocabulary was better explained than before and they could
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understand it better. Also students showed themselves more participative on the activities

done during the class (see appendix B & C)

And on the last exit card answered by students, it can be seen that by implementing

the use of images and body language some students could learn the vocabulary used in that

class “easily”.

Journal entries (See appendix C)

Firstly, on the first journal entry it can be seen that students tend to ask for

translation, and more than one explanation has to be done when explaining activities on the

English classes. Also, it is mentioned that students tend to be disruptive during classes

arguing that they do not understand the instructions.

Secondly, on the following journal entry (journal entry N°2) it is mentioned

that, student-teacher implemented the use of flashcards and images on the classroom, it is

also mentioned that students showed understanding of the instructions as they had visual

support. Based on what was mentioned in the journal entry, students showed a slight

difference from what was mentioned on the first entry.

Thirdly, on the third journal entry a big difference can be observed regarding

the first journal entry, students could follow the instructions and identify the meaning of the

words presented by the teacher without translation. Also, it can be seen that by the use of

images and body language students showed an evolution in terms of vocabulary

comprehension, and in terms of following instructions given by the teacher.

Finally, an evolution can be observed in students’ comprehension as the

implantation of images realia and body language took place, student could pass from asking
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for translation and extra explanations to the realization of activities without asking for a

dictionary or more than one explanation.

Checklist (see appendix D)

Taking into account the information presented on the checklist used by the

student-teacher, a great change can be observed from the class before the intervention and the

class after the interventions.

Firstly, on the class before the interventions it can be observed that three out

thirteen groups (some “groups” are students that wanted to work individually) did not work

due to different reasons, this “lack of participation” was perceived by the teacher as a

consequence of using the wrong strategies to explain activities and give instructions.

Secondly, on the class that the first intervention was done six out of thirteen

groups could fulfill the activities proposed for the class. In this case, an evolution from the

first class can be observed in the amount of students that could finish the activities, and as a

consequence comprehend the instructions given by the teacher since the use of images and

body language was done.

Thirdly, after the second intervention took place, ten out of thirteen groups

finished the activities without asking for a second explanation or translation of the

vocabulary. An evolution from the previous class can be observed as students could finish

activities after receiving instructions from the teacher in English using images and body

language.

Finally, on the class after the interventions took place, twelve out of thirteen

groups could finish the activities, after receiving instructions using images and body language

from the teacher. Based on this, it can be said that from the class before the interventions to
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the class after the interventions students had an evolution in terms of participation, activities

fulfillment and comprehension of instructions.

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Reflections

Since the beginning of this action research process, the focus was the improvement of

my teaching practices and strategies to teach vocabulary in a way that students could

understand it, avoiding the use of L1. At the beginning of this process, I thought that

following the same line in which students had been taught was good; thus, they would be

used to it and it would not provoke in them the feeling of anxiety that changes used to trigger.

Before implementing the strategies that appear on this Action Research, I thought that

the context was the responsible for the lack of interest of students in the English language,

but after I started to conduct this action research I noticed that the only responsible for my

students’ lack of interest was me.

I started to wonder what would be the best way to teach vocabulary and helping

students to understand instructions without using the L1. After some conversations with my

host teacher I was told that students took a test to see the type of learners they were and most

of them resulted in visual learners.

Based on what I said before, I started to look for strategies that might be useful for

teaching vocabulary to visual learners; this is why I decided to use realia, images, flashcards

and body language while teaching vocabulary to my students. These strategies were very

different from what students were used to see in the classroom, but instead of being reluctant

to them, students showed themselves very eager to participate when images were used in

classes.

At the same time that images were used to teach vocabulary, the activities done were

mostly about negotiation of meaning, such as matching images with words, guessing the

meaning of an image, among others. Students showed very engaged when they were asked to
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go to the board and match the images with the corresponding word, this was very important

because they could have something to relate the word with, and remember it afterwards.

Moreover, it was important for them as negotiation of meaning was done as a class,

this showed students that every one of them were learning and understanding the same as the

others.

By working in groups, students could feel that they had an important role in the

classroom, this truly helped students to feel engaged with the topic of the class and with the

activities done during the same. Even though most students worked well in groups, there

were some of them that preferred to work on their own, this caused some misunderstandings

at some parts of the class, as they did not have their partners to convey a meaning when they

were confused about some words.

Group work facilitated the understanding of the words among students when there

were some words that they did not remembered, it also helped students to realize that they

had an important role in the development of the activities. Using images and realia while

presenting the vocabulary and giving instructions helped students to relate the new words

with concepts that they knew on their mother tongue. The use of body language helped

students to have an idea of the meaning of the instructions given by the teacher when images

were not enough.

Regarding participation and students’ understanding and accomplishment of activities

in classes, it can be mentioned that after implementing the use of images, realia and body

language, students improved their capability of following instructions in English. This is

demonstrated on the chart (checklist) that is attached as the appendix D. On that checklist, it

is observable that students had an evolution through time, passing from firstly not

understanding and not finishing the activities, to almost fully accomplish the activities and

receiving instructions without asking for a repetition or translation.

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Finally, in terms of the whole process, I can notice that my teaching practice has

improved, due to the fact that anxiety and frustration are no longer present in the post-classes-

application feeling; instead, I feel more engaged with the classes, with students’ development

and also with the planning’s creation. Frustration was a feeling that accompanied me for a

long time during this process, and because of the research that I made in order to improve my

practice, I can reflect that it was just my lack of knowledge and tools in terms of my teaching

practice in general, that provoked the wrong focus and mistakes that I had at the beginning of

this process.

Implications

Based on my experience and also the data that I collected, it can be highlighted the

change on students’ attitude towards English classes, students seem to value more the

language, and started to feel more capable of understanding the instructions. Also, students’

willingness to participate on the activities was improved by their new perception of their

capabilities, this willingness to participate triggered a change on students discipline also.

Moreover, students could understand that by learning English they would have an

extra tool to face the working world when the moment comes to them, they could also

understand that English is everywhere.

Even though, this Action research has not have a direct impact on the context, nor it

has had influence on other courses or subjects; I could be observe a large improvement in

terms of students’ motivation, what can consequently develop an increase on these students’

willingness to participate in other subjects, with other teacher.

Related to what I mentioned in the previous paragraph, I expect that my research and

the strategies that I applied on the course used for this Action Research, will be used by other
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language teacher in the school in order to engage other visual learners on the subjects. As

well as I expect from other teachers to implement what I apply on the 8th grade, I will use the

same strategies when facing a similar context and situation in which I might have a majority

of visual learners on the classroom.

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Conclusions

During the whole Action Research process, it has been possible to observe quite large

amount of changes in terms of my teaching practice and students learning.

Regarding the question that leaded this action research, I can say that it was answered

through the strategies included in this research. In other words, some useful strategies to

teach vocabulary are the use of images, realia, body language and group work. These

strategies were not very useful at the beginning, but by the end of the interventions and after,

they started to work progressively better allowing students understand and accomplish the

activities in classes.

In addition, these strategies helped my students to grow in different ways apart from

the academic aspects; group work allowed my students to feel that they really had a real role

inside the classroom and in the English class itself, the use of concrete examples helped them

to accurately understand the meaning of the words presented on classes and understand

instructions and consequently complete the activities for every class.

Moreover, the use of body language while giving instructions helped students to

realize that, there are more ways to understand the language apart from reading and listening,

it also helped them to understand instructions given by the teacher for the activities of every

class.

Finally, I expect from myself to keep growing and improving my teaching practice in

order to be able to face different contexts in which I might have students with a more varied

learning than the 8th grade used for this Action Research.
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Limitations
In terms of the limitations that this Action Research had, it can be mentioned the lack

of organization in terms of the dates in which the data was collected and also on the dates in

which the interventions were meant to be done.

Another limitation that I have noticed was my own preconception of students based

on their context, I used to think that every student in my classroom would not have interest in

English as usually children from this type of context (vulnerable context) do.

In addition, at the beginning of this process, students showed themselves very

reluctant to participate in English classes, this situation reinforced my initial perception, but

after some time and the application of the strategies mentioned in this Action Research

students changed their attitude towards English and totally changed my point of view.

Moreover, during the application of this action research project, there were some

disorganizations in terms of extracurricular activities that I did not considered while planning

my schedule. Also, there were some tests that had to be given to students that were not

directly connected to the content that students were seeing.

Finally, one of the most important limitations that I had regarding the school is that,

there were flashcards that were meant to be used as a data collection method and also as tools

to teach vocabulary to students, these flashcards were not included on this Action Research as

they were regrettably disposed after an extracurricular activity.

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References.

 Brown, H. D. (1994). Teaching by principles: An interactive approach to language

pedagogy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents.

 Cheng, W. (1980). Communicative Language Teaching: Theory and Practice. CUHK

Education Journal.

 Nation, I. S. (1990). Teaching and Learning Vocabulary. Learning Vocabulary in

Another Language.

 Schmitt, N. (n.d.). Current Perspectives on Vocabulary Teaching and Learning.

International Handbook of English Language Teaching, 827-841.

Retrieved October 5, 2016.

 Scrivener, J. (2011). Learning teaching: The essential guide to English language

teaching. Oxford: Macmillan Education

 Piaget, J. (1936). Origins of intelligence in the child. London: Routledge & Kegan

Paul.

 Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological

processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

 Wilkins, D. (1972). Linguistics in Language Teaching. London: Edward Arnold.

 PEI (2016). Colegio Marcelino Champagnat

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Appendix A.

Gant Chart:
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Appendix B

Exit card:
Which were the most difficult words for you

to understand?

Which were the easiest words for you to

understand?

What are their meanings?

Do you think the teacher could have

explained better? How?

B.1
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B.2

B.3
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B.4

B.5
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B.6
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Appendix C

C.1 Journal entry N°1 (before interventions)

Students ask for clarification of the vocabulary as they say that it was not very clear,

also they are asking for direct translation of the vocabulary.

Students are being disruptive and say that they do not understand what they have to

do.

Teacher has to explain again to students individually while monitoring them.

I can see that, students are used to translate every word using dictionary instead of

negotiating meaning, this may cause that students do not understand instructions in English as

they are used to wait for a translation of the instructions.

C.2 Journal entry N°2 (starting the interventions)

Today’s class some images were implemented to present the vocabulary to students.

Student-teacher started to use more body language when giving instructions to

students, students showed that they understood what they were supposed to do.

Students could identify the vocabulary and relate it to the images that were pasted on

the whiteboard.

Students were more participative than they were on previous classes.

C.3 Journal entry N°3 (finishing interventions)

Students followed the instructions given by the student-teacher, this time the student-

teacher used body language again while giving instructions.

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Students could identify the meaning of every word presented on the vocabulary

relating them to the images presented using the projector.

What I could infer from this class is that visual input is very useful for students’

understanding of the vocabulary, and it helps the students’ comprehension of instructions.

During the linking-images-with-words activity, students’ negotiation of meaning

exercise was observable; students seemed to be engaged while they were discussing the

corresponding word to the images, and they used these words during the whole class, what

means that they were able to comprehend and apply the vocabulary learnt on the pre stage of

the lesson.
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Appendix D

D.1. - Checklist.
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D.2