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The Effects of using Pictures on EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Retention

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DOI: 10.55217/103.v13i1.555

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 International Journal of Emerging Trends in Social Sciences
ISSN: 2521-3539
Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 1-13, 2022
DOI: 10.55217/103.v13i1.555

The Effects of using Pictures on EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Retention

Dao Ra Ta Na1
Nguyen Huynh Trang2

Tra Vinh University, Vietnam.

1

Email: ratanatv@mail.com
University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
2

Email: trangnh@ueh.edu.vn

Abstract

Innovation is necessary for improvement. This inspirational saying Keywords:

triggered the author to try new things for enhancement. This study Attitudes
explored the effect of using pictures to instruct vocabulary in EFL Effects
Using pictures
classrooms. At the same time, the EFL students’ attitudes toward this Vocabulary retention.
instruction were also examined. To have the data for the study, a group
of 70 seventh-graders at Duyen Hai Ethnic Boarding Junior High Copyright:
School in Tra Vinh province were recruited as participants. The study © 2022 by the authors. This article is an
open access article distributed under the
had two parts. The first part of the study dealt with the intervention of terms and conditions of the Creative
vocabulary instruction in the two groups of students. 35 students were Commons Attribution (CC BY) license
chosen for the experimental group, and the other 35 for the control group. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
The experimental group was exposed to vocabulary instruction with Publisher:
pictures while the control group was taught with the traditional Scientific Publishing Institute
vocabulary teaching method (without using pictures). Both groups had
undergone the pretest, posttest, and delayed tests. The results showed that Received: 14 July 2022
Revised: 30 August 2022
both groups’ scores on vocabulary tests improved, but the experimental Accepted: 12 September 2022
group’s scores were higher than that of its counterparts. Then, the study Published: 28 September 2022
also had the result of the experimental students’ attitudes toward the
intervention of using pictures to teach vocabulary. They had a positive ( Corresponding Author)

attitude toward this teaching strategy. Finally, based on the results of the
study, some suggestions and limitations of the study were proposed.

Funding: This study received no specific financial support.

Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

1. Introduction
Nowadays, English is considered an international language, which is used to communicate between people
around the world. In Vietnam, most people use English as a foreign language for studying and business
transactions with their partners worldwide. Due to those reasons, English has been taught at different levels
of education from primary education to tertiary education as a compulsory subject. According to the National
Foreign Language Project 2020, the primary purpose of teaching and learning English is to develop the
learners’ communicative competence based on learner-centered communicative teaching methods (Pdfcoffee,
2022).
In learning a foreign language, the primary goal of many learners is to acquire the language skills:
listening, speaking, reading, writing, and other components of language including vocabulary, structure,
pronunciation, etc. In the early stages of second/foreign language learning, vocabulary is one of the most
important aspects of any language that needs to be discussed with great care and attention. It plays a vital role
in language learning. Wilkins (1972) claimed that without vocabulary, little information is conveyed, and

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International Journal of Emerging Trends in Social Sciences, 2022, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 1-13

limited information is gained with limited grammar. It is essential to know the vocabulary to learn the four
skills. Vocabulary is one of the essential aspects of learning English and nothing can be transmitted without
vocabulary. Therefore, learning vocabulary is an essential component of learning new languages in general
and is the first step in learning English in particular.
According to English teaching and learning theory, the ability to use English combines knowledge and
skills. Vocabulary knowledge, therefore, plays a vital role in improving language proficiency. Sadiku (2005)
reported that a learner cannot master the four skills unless he masters the vocabulary. It is evident that the
more vocabulary English as a foreign language (EFL) learners have, the fewer barriers they meet in their
communication. Della and Hocking (1992) confirmed the importance of vocabulary in communication. In
particular, with some grammar, learners can speak fluently, but without vocabulary, learners find it
challenging to identify the information they are trying to express. Therefore, the role of vocabulary
knowledge in improving the four skills cannot be denied. Likewise, students need a good vocabulary for simple
communication. Vocabulary education is an important area for students because vocabulary is crucial in
foreign language learning. Cameron (2001) found that vocabulary plays a vital role in young learners'
language acquisition. Therefore, teaching vocabulary to young learners should not only convey words and
meanings but also help them memorize words. Great attention must be taken to applying appropriate teaching
methods and techniques. Moreover, regarding biological and psychological characteristics, children tend to
connect to their environment. They are more interested in real-life reflection materials and objects than
abstract concepts. In addition to teaching methods and supportive strategies, teaching materials in general and
visual aids, in particular, are essential for improving vocabulary retention for young learners.
Teaching vocabulary for young learners using visual aids in general and pictures, in particular, is one
pedagogical approach that attracts the attention of not only English teachers but also many learners who are
concerned. Using pictures to teach vocabulary is considered to be an effective way to motivate EFL learners,
and using pictures is considered one of the teaching methods that are commonly used in the teaching and
learning process. Chesla (as cited in Al-Khresheh, Khaerurrozikin, and Zaid (2020)) said humans are very
visually oriented, so they can remember much better when we can see, hear or read visual things.
To find out an applicable and practical teaching method that I hope to help increase the vocabulary
learning outcomes here, the researcher would like to research the effects of using pictures on EFL learners’
vocabulary retention was conducted and guided by the following questions:
1. To what extent do pictures affect EFL learners’ vocabulary retention?
2. What are the EFL learners’ attitudes toward using pictures in learning vocabulary?

2. Literature Review
2.1. Vocabulary
2.1.1. Definitions of Vocabulary
In foreign language learning, vocabulary is a critical component that provides the foundation for learners’
success in other skills such as: speaking, reading, listening, and writing. There are several ways to define
vocabulary. The term vocabulary refers to the words that are known or used by a particular person or used in
a language or subject, according to the Cambridge University Press (2022). Hatch and Brown (1995) defined
vocabulary as a list or collection of specific language terms that could be used by individual speakers of a
language. In other words, the vocabulary of someone is the total number of words he/she understands and
uses when talking about a specific subject. Cameron (2001) states vocabulary is considered one of the
important areas of language knowledge for language acquisition learners. Furthermore, Mart (2012)
expressed that the important organ and the flesh of language are vocabulary.
In brief, there are a variety of ways to define vocabulary. It is a set of meaningful words and plays a
significant role in helping language learners to communicate. As seen, without it, a speaker cannot say
anything about that language.

2.1.2. Kinds of Vocabulary

According to Nemati (2010) there are active vocabulary and passive vocabulary. Active vocabulary is
words or phrases that are used by learners in their speech and writing. It is often referred to as a productive
language. Passive vocabulary is words or phrases that are grasped and understood while listening or reading.
It is called receptive vocabulary. Besides, Hatch and Brown (1995) confirmed that vocabulary has two types
which are receptive vocabulary and effective vocabulary. All words that individual learners can recognize and
understand when it is used in context rather than created, it called receptive vocabulary. Alqahtani (2015)
emphasized that the words that learners recognize when they see or meet when reading a given text but do
not use in speaking and writing are known as receptive vocabularies. It is essential that learners can
understand, pronounce words correctly, and use them in a constructive way either orally or in written form.

2.1.3. The Role of Vocabulary in Language Learning

The main purpose of language teaching and learning is to communicate through the four skills: listening,
speaking, reading, and writing. Laufer (1997) argued that vocabulary is a necessary foundation in all stages of
 International Journal of Emerging Trends in Social Sciences, 2022, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 1-13

language learning. Therefore, vocabulary is considered an additional component of the above skills.
Knowledge of vocabulary is a necessary part of the language that learners need to communicate successfully
besides a wide range of grammatical structures. This is true in teaching and learning foreign languages.
The role of vocabulary is confirmed indirectly through the problems that lack vocabulary brings,
including that learners find it difficult to acquire and use language effectively (Goulden, Nation, & Read, 1990).
It is brightening that in helping people communicate as well as in creating many different types of
discourse, vocabulary plays a heavy role. Effective teaching and learning a foreign language depends greatly
on vocabulary background. Therefore, vocabulary must be an important aspect of foreign language teaching
methods.

2.2. Vocabulary Retention

2.2.1. Definitions of Vocabulary Retention
According to Cambridge University Press. (2022) “Retention” refers to the continued use, existence,
or possession of something or someone. Retention mentions the conscious procedures that can include rote
learning, practice, and associative learning. Meaningful learning is distinguished from rote learning in the
Theory of Meaning Learning (Ausubel, 1968). He posited that rote learning is the essential process of
acquiring material as disconnected and approximately isolated entities. It involves memorizing items that have
little or no relevance to existing cognitive structures.
In contrast, meaningful learning allows learners to relate the new material to related items in their
previous knowledge. It involves the mental storage of items that have little or no relation to existing cognitive
structures.

2.2.2. Kinds of Retention

When talking about retention, one soon refers to memory. There are two types of memory. According to
Norris (2017) short-term memory is mainly used to activate long term memory. To have long-term memory,
short-term memory must be acquired first. Then, once long-term memory exists, it needs short-term memory
to activate it for recognition of things around.

2.2.3. The Process of Vocabulary Retention

The goal of vocabulary learning is to transfer lexical information from short-term memory, where it
resides during language manipulation, learners need all the linguistic information learned and transferred into
long-term memory. Although there are different types of memory such as verbal memory, visual memory, etc.,
memory operation comprises three processes, namely encoding, rehearsal, and retrieval (Richards, 2006).
Similarly, Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) show that the storage model includes encoding, storage, and retrieval.
They explain that encoding is the process of converting information into a form that can enter your memory;
furthermore, storage is explained as the period of keeping information for different periods. The final stage,
retrieval, is the stage where specific information is located and accessed when it is needed at a later time.
Moreover, Nation (2001) advocated that oral repetition of a word, and learning definition, is not as
effective as having to recall its form. He explained that with new words we need to practice and review what
we have learned; otherwise, the new input will be gradually dropped in memory. Stevick (1996) indicated that
words must be recommended and applied many times in different situations. Because of this, learners can put
learned vocabulary into their long-term memory. In addition, Davis and Squire (1984) described that giving
students time to process new information is important. Short-term memory takes as little as a few seconds to
process stimuli, while long-term memory takes longer. In other words, the teacher talking continuously for a
long time does not mean a good teaching process, and perhaps this process does not allow students to absorb
the learning process and thereby needing plenty of time to help learners retain the knowledge of things.

2.3. Pictures
2.3.1. Definitions of Pictures
Pictures are a type of visual aid that can be used more effectively to develop and maintain motivation in
creating a positive attitude toward English and to teach or reinforce language skills. Multiple definitions of
pictures are given by some authors as follows:
According to Wright (1989) “Using pictures is not only one aspect of the method, but also through the
representation of places, objects, and people and it is a fundamental part of the total experience to recognize
and visualize things more effectively” (p. 29). Based on such definitions, both the students and teachers can
make use of pictures to help to teach more interesting and effective and to help the students to learn faster and
retain longer. There is a popular saying a long time ago “One picture is worth a thousand words”. The picture
is one of the education media that supports teaching-learning process in the classroom, which can be seen as a
precious means of teaching using images of reality in the unnatural world of the language classroom (Hill,
1990). Likewise, Harmer (2001) said frequently teachers were found to use many forms of pictures such as
using their drawings, book pictures, newspaper and magazine pictures, or photographs to facilitate learning.
According to Felma (as cited in Sari (2017)) pictures can be used to motivate students to learn and thereby

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helping them to think positively about their learning. Additionally, pictures help make students have a feeling
of liking to strive and thrive in their studies.
In general, pictures are used as one type of visual aids to support the classroom teacher to build their
interesting lessons and to appeal their students to their lessons. In addition, if students can use pictures
correctly, they can maximize their vocabulary learning and can memorize such loads of learned vocabulary in a
long term.

2.3.2. The Role of Using Pictures in EFL Learning and Teaching Context
Teachers should be always aware that teaching English to EFL students is not an easy task, and they
need competence and professional skills to implement a great number of tasks in the classroom. Then, teachers
can think of using pictures to optimize their teaching tasks. As known, pictures play an important role in
teaching and studying English as a foreign language or as a second language. According to Gerlach (1980)
pictures have plenty of benefits. For starters, photos are inexpensive and widely available, and they can assist
in avoiding and correcting falsehoods. Second, they provide opportunities for everyone in the community to
interact. Finally, pictures motivate students to study, read, and investigate more, as well as help them focus
their attention and make better critical judgments.
As can be seen, pictures are regarded as a favorable visual teaching approach that helps facilitate the
curiosity and enthusiasm of learners to develop a good attitude towards English learning and teaching and
more specifically in teaching and learning language vocabulary.

3. Materials and Methods

3.1. Participants
The participants recruited for the study were 70 seventh graders, including 22 males and 48 females.
Class 7/2 was assigned as the experimental group consisting of 10 males and 25 females, and class 7/1 was
selected as the control group including 11 males and 24 females. The ages of the students range from 12 to 13
years old.

3.2. Instruments
The instruments were used in this research including a pretest, a posttest, a delayed test, an attitudinal
questionnaire and semi-structured interview to collect the data. They were asked to do multiple choice
questions in the post-test and the words to be tested were about the learnt words they encountered in class.
The purpose of a delayed test aimed to compare the student’s long-term vocabulary retention. It was also used
to explore whether the participants in the experiment group were able to remember the learnt vocabulary with
pictures. To collect the data on the participants’ attitudes towards using pictures, the author designed a five-
point Likert scale to measure their degree of agreement: 1 is for strongly disagree, 2 for disagree, 3 for no idea,
4 for agree, and 5 for strongly agree. The students were free to choose the scale that best describes their
opinion. An interview with eight randomly selected students was also conducted to obtain more ideas on using
pictures to learn vocabulary. The question is “Why do you want your teacher to use pictures to teach you
vocabulary?”

3.2.1. Pretest, Post-Test

According to Dimitrov and Rumrill Jr (2003) the preferred way to compare participant groups and assess
the degree of improvement that occurs as a result of therapies or procedures is pretest-posttest designs.
To make sure that the participants’ present knowledge of vocabulary prior the intervention, a pre-test of
vocabulary was implemented for both the control and experimental groups. Vocabulary was chosen based on
the wordlist in the student textbook for the seventh graders. In the pre-test, the students in both groups were
asked to take a multiple-choice question test. Thirty new words were extracted from the English textbook for
seventh graders published by Education Publishing House were used in the test, and the students had 15
minutes to complete the test. After analysis of the result, it showed that the participants in both control and
experimental groups did not do the test well and both groups’ scores were not different, showing that they had
quite similar level of vocabulary knowledge.
After a 10-week intervention, a multiple-choice question post-test adopting these similar 30 new words
from the pre-test was conducted. These thirty words were selected to be tested as they were unknown to the
students in both groups of the students. Each correct response is worth 1.0 mark. Hence, 30 marks is the total
score of the test. The students had 15 minutes to complete the test.

3.2.2. Delayed Post-Test

Then, after two weeks from the date of taking the post-test, a delayed test was also applied to test these
same vocabulary items in the form of multiple choice questions, but the letter of the correct answer in the test
was replaced. The purpose is to see if they could remember the learnt words to obtain evidence for their
retention.
 International Journal of Emerging Trends in Social Sciences, 2022, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 1-13

3.2.3. Questionnaire
The questionnaire was used in this current study to collect data on the participants’ attitudes towards
using pictures to learn vocabulary. In this present research, the questionnaire is offered to collect data on
students’ attitudes toward using pictures on teaching EFL learners’ vocabulary retention. There were 10 items
to explore the students’ attitudes towards using pictures to learn vocabulary. The participants were instructed
to decide whether they strongly disagree, disagree, express a neutral idea, agree, or strongly agree with the
items in the questions.

3.2.4. Interviews
The interview was applied as the author wanted to see how the randomly selected participants responded
to the questions related to their attitudes toward using pictures as a vocabulary learning strategy provided by
their instructor. Eight of the students in the experimental group were invited for the interviews.

3.3. Research Design

The study, the first aim is to explore the effects of using pictures to enhance EFL learners’ vocabulary
retention, and the second aim is to find out the students’ attitudes toward using pictures to teach and learn
vocabulary to ammoniate vocabulary retention. To achieve the goals of the study, the study developed an
experimental qualitative orientation in which a pre-test of vocabulary was conducted to eliminate any known
words by the two groups of students. The test was in the form of asking the students to write the English
meaning for the target Vietnamese vocabulary. Then, the study used lesson plans to teach vocabulary using
only pictures in an experimental class while he used a mixed method to teach vocabulary such as using
pictures, situations, examples, antonyms/synonyms and translation) to teach the students in the control
group. Finally, a post-test of learned vocabulary was conducted to test the two groups of participants (both
experimental and control) to see how they did with the test. The test was in the form of multiple choice
questions. Next, a delayed post-test was applied, and the students were asked to take the posttest. Then, a
quantitative method was also employed. The experimental group was invited to take part in an attitudinal
survey to see how they thought about their teacher’s use of pictures to teach vocabulary in their class.
Finally, eight experimental students were invited to join the interviews.

4. Results and Discussion

4.1. Results
4.1.1. Participants’ Vocabulary Retention within the Two Groups Before and After the Intervention
The Descriptive Statistics Test was run to get the data on the EFL learners’ vocabulary retention
information before and after the intervention. The data are summarized in Table 1.

Table 1. Descriptive data of students’ vocabulary retention within the control group.
Tests done by control group N Min. Max. Mean Std. Deviation
Pretest control 35 2 10 7.06 1.846
Post-test control 35 17 25 20.40 2.117
Delayed-posttest control 35 15 23 18.51 2.063

As can be clearly seen from Table 1, the data of the descriptive test showed that the mean scores of the
post-test (M=20.04) and delay post-test (M=18.51) were much higher than that of the pre-test (M=7.06). It
can be inferred that after the intervention the students’ vocabulary retention of the control group was much
improved.
Similarly, the Descriptive Statistic test was also conducted to identify the mean scores of the experimental
group’s pre-test, post-test, and delayed posttest results. The data are summarized and presented in Table 2
below.

Table 2. Descriptive data of students’ vocabulary retention within the experimental group.
Tests done by experimental group N Min. Max. Mean Std. Deviation
Pretest Experimental 35 4 9 7.09 1.245
Post-Test Experimental 35 19 29 24.09 2.716
Delayed-Posttest Experimental 35 17 27 22.03 2.706

The mean score of the post-test (M=24.09) was much higher than that of the pre-test (M=7.09). In
addition, the mean score of the delayed post-test (M=22.03) was higher than that of the pre-test but lower
than that of the post-test. It can be concluded that after the intervention, the vocabulary retention of the
experimental group was remarkably improved.
The progress of vocabulary retention of both the control and experimental group can be summarized in
Figure 1.

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International Journal of Emerging Trends in Social Sciences, 2022, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 1-13

Figure 1. Summary of participants’ mean scores on vocabulary retention before and after the study.

Figure 1 makes it very evident that, prior to the intervention, the mean scores of the control and
experimental groups were nearly identical at 7.06 and 7.09, respectively. This low score indicated that the
participants in the two groups knew little to nothing about the meanings of the words that would be
introduced during the study. In contrast, after the intervention, the mean scores of the post-test of the control
(M=20.40) and the experimental group (M=24.09) were higher than that of the pre-test in the two groups.
The findings showed that both groups’ vocabulary retention increased after the study.

Table 3. Paired samples T-test results of the pre-test and post-test.

Std. 95% Confidence
SD: Error Interval of the
t df
Standard Mean Difference Sig.(2-
Mean deviation Lower Upper tailed)
Pretest control
-13.343 2.496 0.422 -14.200 -12.485 -31.621 34
Post-test control
Pretest
experimental-Post- -17.000 3.404 0.575 -18.169 -15.831 -29.544 34
test experimental

Table 3 illustrates the significance of mean difference of both groups. To do this, a Paired Samples T-test
was run to check whether there was a significant difference between the result of the pre-test and post-test of
the two groups. The results revealed that there was a significant difference between the mean score of the pre-
test and post-test in the control group (t=-31.621, sig.=0.000). At the same time, the results also indicated that
the pre-test and post-test results in the experimental group were significantly different from that of the
control group. It can be concluded that after the treatment both groups gained improvement in vocabulary
retention, but the experimental group was found to be highly improved.

4.1.2. Participants’ Vocabulary Retention between the Two Groups Before and After the Intervention
Comparison of participants ‘vocabulary retention between the two groups before the intervention and
presented in Table 4.

Table 4. Comparison of the two groups before the intervention.

Mean
Vocabulary test Group N Mean SD t Sig.
Difference
Pre-test Control 35 7.06 1.846 -0.029
-0.076 0.940
Experimental 35 7.09 1.245

From Table 4. it can be seen that the mean score of the experimental group before the treatment (M =
7.09; SD = 1.245) and that of the control group (M = 7.06; SD = 1.846) are found to be very equal. It can be
noticed that there is no difference between the two groups when compared (t =0.029, sig. = 0.940 > 0.05). In
other words, before the treatment, there was no difference in the initial vocabulary knowledge of the two
research groups.
 International Journal of Emerging Trends in Social Sciences, 2022, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 1-13

Comparison of participants ‘vocabulary retention between the two groups after the intervention.

Table 5. Comparison of the two groups after the intervention.

Mean
Vocabulary test N Group N Mean SD t Sig.
Difference
Post-test Control 35 20.40 0.117
-3.686 -6.332 0.000
Experimental 35 24.09 0.716
Delayed post-test Control 35 18.51 0.063
-3.514 -6.110 0.000
Experimental 35 22.03 0.706

From the data shown in Table 5, it can be clearly seen that there was a significant statistical difference in
the results of the posttest (t=-6.332, sig. 0.000 <0.05) and delayed posttest (t=-6.110, sig. 0.000 <0.05) of the
control group and the experimental group after the treatment. It can be concluded that the participants’
vocabulary retention had improved after the study.

4.1.3. The Experimental Group’s Attitudes toward Vocabulary Learning Strategy they had Experienced
Before spending more time analysing individual responses of the experimental students, the author
carried out the reliability of the questionnaire. Table 6 showed the result of this purpose.

Table 6. Statistical reliability of the questionnaire.

Cronbach's Alpha N of Items
0.782 10

As can be seen in Table 6, the responses of the experimental students are reliable enough for deep analysis
with the Cronbach's Alpha of 0.782 for 10 items in the questionnaire.

Table 7. Students’ attitudes towards using pictures to teach vocabulary.

Statements N Min. Max. Mean SD.
1. Using pictures to teach vocabulary makes me feel
35 2.00 5.00 4.0286 0.78537
liking to study English more.
2. I like my teacher to use pictures to teach vocabulary
35 3.00 5.00 4.0857 0.61220
every lesson.
3. I myself like guessing the meaning of vocabulary
35 2.00 5.00 4.2000 0.79705
using pictures.
4. I like taking part in all learning vocabulary activities
35 2.00 5.00 4.0000 1.00000
using pictures.
5. The way my teacher used pictures to introduce
vocabulary helps me learn vocabulary faster and 35 1.00 5.00 4.2857 0.92582
easier.
6. The way my teacher used pictures to introduce
35 3.00 5.00 4.1429 0.60112
vocabulary helps me remember vocabulary longer.
7. I like the way my teacher used pictures to review
35 3.00 5.00 4.2857 0.57248
learnt vocabulary as it helps me memorize it better.
8. I like the way my teacher used pictures to test learnt
35 1.00 5.00 4.2571 0.95001
vocabulary in the exam papers.
9. When I learn vocabulary through pictures, I feel
35 3.00 5.00 3.8571 0.87927
motivated.
10. Overall, I definitely like to study vocabulary with
35 3.00 5.00 4.4571 0.70054
pictures.

Table 7 depicts the descriptive analysis result of the experimental students’ responses to the the attitude
questions. Overall, the experimental students have a very positive attitude towards the use of pictures to
support learning vocabulary. Only one item (Item 9: ‘When I learn vocabulary through pictures, I feel
motivated”, M=3.8571, SD=.87927) out of ten items obtained the mean score just below the scale 4 - at the
agreement point. Although so, this mean score is still quite close to the scale 4. The majority of the items tend
to receive higher agreement of the participants as follows. They are Item 3 “I myself like guessing the
meaning of vocabulary using pictures” received the mean score of 4.2000 and its standard deviation of .79705.
Item 5 “The way my teacher used pictures to introduce vocabulary helps me learn vocabulary faster and
easier” obtained the mean score of 4.2857 and its standard deviation of .92582. Item 7 “I like the way my
teacher used pictures to review learnt vocabulary as it helps me memorize it better” attained the mean score of
4.2857 and its standard deviation of .57248. Item 8 “I like the way my teacher used pictures to test learnt
vocabulary in the exam papers” was awarded the mean score of 4.2571 and its standard deviation of .95001.

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Item 10 “Overall, I definitely like to study vocabulary with pictures” obtained the mean score of 4.4571 and its
standard deviation of 0.70054.

4.1.4. Interview
Student 01 said “Learning vocabulary with pictures helps me learn the words easier, and it can also help
me easily think about an intended word”. This student also added that “It is easy to remember and it’s
interesting”.
Student 02 stated “Learning vocabulary with pictures makes the lessons more interesting and it helps us
remember words well”.
Student 03 stated “Learning vocabulary with pictures is interesting. In addition, I find it easier to learn
vocabulary with pictures, so I can remember it better”.
Student 04 said “I find it easy to understand new words when I see pictures describing them”.
Student 05 stated “I can recognize vocabulary easily if I see the picture describing it and I can guess the
meaning of it, too. Then, I can remember the words well”.
Student 06 said “Using pictures to learn vocabulary helps me remember it longer”.
Student 07 stated “As pictures are colorful, so they help learners to be creative and remember vocabulary
easier”.
Student 08 stated “Instead of only copying new words from the board, with pictures learners find it to
guess the vocabulary easier and memorize it longer. However, I prefer to learn vocabulary with pictures
download from the Internet to those in the textbook”.

4.2. Discussion
4.2.1. Research Question 1: To What Extent do Pictures Affect EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Retention?
First, the author would like to discuss the intervention of this use of method (using pictures to teach
vocabulary). When learning a foreign language, the educators expect their students to learn at best. Yet, to
learn at best, both the teachers and students have to try their best. This is cooperation between them. Then, in
this thesis, the author, also a teacher in a secondary school at the Khmer Secondary Boarding school at Duyen
Hai district, Tra Vinh province really wanted to help his students to develop their English so that they can
advance their study at high school and university later. However, many aspects of a language need to be
taught and improved, which takes time. Thus, in this thesis, the author was only able to try developing his
students’ English vocabulary, so he investigated a teaching strategy called “vocabulary learning strategy”,
which he believed to help enhance vocabulary learning and retention. In this study, the author invited 70
students who were at grade 6, and they were in two different classes. The experimental class consisted of 35
students and the control class had 35 students. The control group students learned vocabulary with the
teacher, who used the traditional method (without using pictures), and the other group, experimental group,
learned vocabulary with the teacher, who used pictures to instruct the vocabulary in the pre-teach vocabulary
session. The result showed that both groups were improved. However, the mean score of the experimental
group was slightly better at doing the vocabulary post-test (the post-test score of the control: 25, the post-test
score of the experimental: 29). In addition, after 4 weeks of the vocabulary instruction (after taking the post-
test), the mean scores of the students in both groups were still high. Again, the mean score of the experimental
group were slightly higher than that of the control group students (the delayed post-test score of the control:
23, the delayed post-test score of the experimental: 27).
Through this result, using pictures to teach vocabulary continues to prove its positive side. As stated
earlier, the students in the experimental group were instructed vocabulary using pictures. In this class, the
teacher taught them to look at the pictures and guided them to think of the target words that they could guess
from seeing the pictures. They were, in addition, instructed to pay attention to everything they could see in
the picture and to the core point seen in the picture. If one student guessed incorrectly, the others students
were invited to stand up and guessed the meaning and think of the words based on the pictures. Then, when
the students were able to guess the meaning and even could spell the words correctly, the teacher gave them a
big hand. It was interesting to see the students laugh with each other, which made the class more fun. Once
the students guessed the words correctly based on the pictures, the teachers read the words aloud 2 times and
asked them to repeat the words 2 times with the whole class. Then, the teacher tried to invite 2 or 3 students
randomly to stand up read the words again individually. With clear pictures and with repetition, the students
were predicted to memorize the words longer, and they were able to do the vocabulary tests better.
With a ten-week of instruction of the target vocabulary using pictures, the result of the study was rosy.
The improvement of vocabulary memorization by the experimental group after the instruction matches with
many previous studies. Mansourzadeh (2014) conducted the comparative study to improve the participants’
vocabulary enhancement. This researcher used two methods for comparison: using pictures and audio-visual
aids to instruct vocabulary. The finding showed that the students who benefited from the class using pictures
had higher scores of vocabulary tests than those instructed with other audio-visual aids. Then, the present
result also aligns with Rohman (2016) who tested the effectiveness of the two teaching methods: using
pictures and non-using pictures to instruct vocabulary. The result showed that the seven graders, who
benefited from the class using pictures, had better scores than those in the non-picture using class.
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The current finding is also supported by many other researchers. Adnan Rasheed and Abid Elah
Mohammed (2007) found that using pictures to vocabulary worked with a group of the fifth-primary graders.
Carpenter and Olson (2012) found the participants in their study learned better when they learned vocabulary
with pictures rather than with vocabulary translation. They also discovered that the students had more
confidence in recalling the meaning of the learned words looking at pictures. The current finding also aligns
with Darabi, Azizifar, and Gowhary (2017) who discovered that using pictures to instruct vocabulary to
language learners was better than using other means of instructions, such as explanation, definitions, using
synonyms and antonyms. Maritha and Dakhi (2017) also had a positive result after the intervention of using
pictures to teach vocabulary. The participants had a better score on vocabulary test than their pre-test score.
Handayani (2018) discovered that the participants in the study had positive effects on their vocabulary
acquisition after the intervention. Jatmiko and Jauhari (2018) found the participants in the experimental group
in their study outperformed their peers in the control group. The experimental group benefited the use of
picture vocabulary learning strategy while the control group did not. The current study also accords with
Carolina (2019) who tested the participants with daily vocabulary. The experimental students took the
vocabulary instruction class while their peers in the control learned vocabulary with the teacher who used the
traditional method. Then, this researcher found the experimental students outperformed their control peers.
This present study also reflects the study conducted by Bates and Son (2020) who found the improvement of
vocabulary in the experimental students who benefited from the vocabulary instruction class, while their peers
in the control group were inferior.
In contrast, the author found some difficulties in his class. First, during instruction, some students at the
back did not pay much attention to lecture, which made him have an uncomfortable feeling while teaching.
This can negatively affect the excitement in teaching. Second, some students were not much good at pictures.
Sometimes, some of them could not guess the words through pictures as they said the pictures were strange to
them. This can be true for some, but it is hard to have all the pictures that are familiar to all students in class
as not all students have experienced similarly in their lives, which more or less influence the way that they
think about the meaning of the pictures. These difficulties are in line with the advice given by the authors like
McCarthy (1990) who advised that when using pictures to teach vocabulary, the user has to be aware of the
clearness of the pictures which help the learner guess the words easily and correctly. Thornbury (2004)
thought that the picture user should not use pictures to teach abstract words since it is hard for the learner to
guess the meaning, and it may disappoint the picture user. Then, Bates and Son (2020) considered that some
images are hard to understand. When images are chosen for the teaching aid, they should be clear and describe
the true meaning of the target pre-teach words. Therefore, the author of this thesis had selected the pictures
carefully to teach the pre-teach words in each class session. Then, in a ten-week of instruction, the target
words which were used in the pre-test, post-test, and delayed post-test were taught through using pictures,
and other words in the lessons were instructed using other means, such as explanation, giving examples, and
definitions. At the same time, the learners in the experimental class had to learn many other things in their
class, such as learning other vocabulary, grammatical structures, and doing grammar and reading exercises.
Thus, in a ten-week time, the authors hoped the experimental students were able to master all these target
words at the end of the instruction and in a longer term.

4.2.2. Research Question 2: What are the EFL Learners’ Attitudes toward the use of Pictures in Learning Vocabulary?
This finding is aligned with that found by Al-Ja’afari and Region (2009) whose participants (the fifth,
sixth graders, and their English teachers) were in support of using pictures to assist in learning vocabulary.
They thought pictures could help bring excitement to the classroom. In addition, pictures help them memorize
vocabulary. These students’ attitude is also similar to that of the teachers found in (Dolati & Richards, 2012).
The teachers regarded the importance of using pictures to stipulate the learner’s vocabulary learning. Maritha
and Dakhi (2017) found the participants were interested in learning vocabulary using pictures. Maritha and
Dakhi (2017) also found the participants in their study were pleased with vocabulary learning strategy. They
showed their positive opinion toward the use of pictures to guide vocabulary learning. Handayani (2018)
experimental students expressed their interest in the vocabulary learning sessions. They were enthusiastic
about the sessions of using pictures to instruct vocabulary. The participants in the study conducted by Bates
and Son (2020) also had a positive attitude toward learning vocabulary through pictures. Finally, the current
finding also aligns with Pertiwi (2021)’s study which investigated the effectiveness of using pictures to
instruct vocabulary. In terms of vocabulary test achievement, the experimental students who studied with the
instructor who applied pictures to their vocabulary teaching sessions outperformed those who studied with the
teacher who did not apply pictures to teaching vocabulary.
In the same vein, the participants in this study, who were randomly chosen for the interviews, also
provided the study with many supportive views on using pictures to learn vocabulary. As reported in the
result section, eight students were selected and their responses were seen to prove what they had rated their
agreement on a five-point Likert scale. That means they agreed pictures can help them learn vocabulary. Now
the author would like to briefly discuss their points of view on using pictures to learn vocabulary. Many had
the same idea that using pictures helps them learn new words easily and helps them remember the words
better. Remarkably, most of them also considered that learning vocabulary with pictures is interesting. One

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student said they could learn how to describe the vocabulary by seeing pictures. One student confirmed that
she could memorize the words easily through pictures. One student considered pictures are colorful, which
made them creative. Interestingly, one student preferred pictures on the Internet instead of those in the text
books.
Although so, the classroom should bring some negative sides of using pictures to teach vocabulary to
their students. In fact, it is difficult to use pictures to teach abstract words as mentioned by Thornbury (2004).
Pictures work best when they are used to teach concrete words. McCarthy (1990) said pictures could not
convey all the intended meaning of all words (as known words can be concrete or abstract, words can be used
for communication purposes, words can be about technical issues). Finally, not all words can be easily taught
using pictures as the target meaning cannot be understood by picture description as mentioned by Bates and
Son (2020). This study also found eight words were not suitable to explain through pictures.
All in all, the study found that pictures were used in teaching simple or concrete words and the majority
of the participants were young learners although some studies were about the EFL learners. Therefore, when
using pictures to teach simple and concrete words, pictures can maximize their effectiveness of learning
vocabulary.

5. Conclusion and Suggestion

5.1. Conclusion
The thesis entitled “The Effect of Using Pictures on EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Retention” was carried
out to investigate the effectiveness of using pictures to teach vocabulary to a group of the sixth-graders at a
Khmer boarding secondary school in Duyen Hai, a rural district in Tra Vinh University. The author recruited
a group of 70 students from this school, and they were in two different classes. The experimental class
consisted of 35 students, and the other class comprised a group of 35 control group students. They were all
invited to take the pre-test for the study. The author administered the pre-test to see their knowledge of the
chosen vocabulary that was going to be used as the pre-test vocabulary during the school term. The test result
showed that both groups lacked knowledge of these vocabularies and produced a quite low result. Then, the
author designed his own lesson plans for each group; one group benefited from the class using pictures to
instruct the target vocabulary, and the other attended the class applying the traditional method. The
intervention took place in 10 weeks with full participation of the students in the first semester. The result
showed that when the students in both groups were instructed either with the picture-strategy or without
picture-strategy had much improvement. This showed that the students cooperated and both methods worked
well. The only difference was that the experimental student group seemed to slightly surpass their peers in the
control group. Then, as the aim of this study was to see the students’ ability to retain the words that they
learn from both classrooms, the author had the students in both groups to sit the delayed post-test. They were
all able to participate, and the result was seen quite positive in both groups. However, their vocabulary
retention ability seemed weaker. After two weeks, they were unable to do the test as well as they did in the
post-test.
The second research question to be found in this thesis is about the students’ attitudes toward use of
pictures to learn vocabulary. The study employed 10 questions to ask them about this. The result showed that
the students agreed with the usefulness of using pictures to instruct vocabulary. All the questions received the
level of “agreement”, from Scale 4, and only one statement obtained just close to Scale 4, but it was also
considered “agreement”.
In order to make the thesis result less biased, the author also had eight students participate in the
interview. They volunteered for the study. The questions mainly focused on the vocabulary learning strategy
using pictures to instruct vocabulary. These eight experimental students had two common ideas that were
concluded here. The first idea, they considered that using pictures to teach vocabulary in class helped them
memorize the words better. In this thesis, the post test result has proved such statement to be true. Then, they
said that using pictures to teach vocabulary helped them to retain the words that they have learned. But, in
fact, in this study, they seemed not to do well at the delayed post-test because their scores were lower than
those in the post-test. This delayed test was carried out just two weeks after the intervention. However, if the
delayed post-test had been carried out in a long term, their vocabulary retention might have reduced more.
Therefore, this retention ability should be further investigated.
Finally, the experimental students seemed to be interested in the teacher’ use of pictures to teach
vocabulary. Many of them said they were happy with this strategy. They said “Using pictures to teach
vocabulary is interesting”. Thus, pictures not only help improve the learner’s ability to memorize the
vocabulary learning process, but also bring the learners’ motivation to learn the language.

5.2. Suggestions
5.2.1. For Language Teachers
First, the classroom teacher needs to be a passionate and dedicated educator. Why? It usually takes time
to select the vocabularies which are used to teach. The teacher has to take time to design colourful pictures
which need colour copies and they may cost a lot. Then, if the school has better equipment like a hang-over
 International Journal of Emerging Trends in Social Sciences, 2022, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 1-13

projector, it will condition the teacher well in both savings and making the pictures clear on the screen, so the
students will feel happy to learn, and they will be able to recognize the meaning of the picture easily. As Felma
(cited in Sari (2017)) mentioned, pictures can either motivate or demotivate the learners. As known, unclear
pictures can demotivate the learner as he or she is getting upset with guessing the meaning. At the same time,
(Harmer, 2001) also recommended that it depends on the teacher’s ability to bring images to the classroom.
Many teachers who are good at drawing can draw simple pictures on the board, which help them to save time,
save money spent on printing colour photos and sometimes make the class laugh with such kinds of pictures.
Second, when selecting vocabulary to teach, the classroom teacher needs to think about concrete words
first as they can be easily taught by many ways, not just using pictures. For example, the teacher can use the
“realia” technique to teach vocabulary. This can be not less interesting, such as using a toy cell phone to teach
the word “cell phone” or to teach the verb “to call”, “to telephone” or “to make a phone call”. This suggestion
had been mentioned by Wright (1989) who had suggested many ways of teaching vocabulary.

5.2.2. For State-Schools

As the world is integrated and more students have run for learning English to improve themselves and to
open more opportunities for themselves, the state-school should invest more money in installing modern
equipment in classrooms so that both the teachers and learners can take advantage of it to facilitate their
teaching and learning.
First, the school library should offer a variety of engaging visual aids in general, especially pictures
pertaining to the new terms in the classes for both the teacher and pupils to use if necessary in order to help
students activate and self-improve their prior knowledge.
Second, the state-school should buy more projectors to help bring visual, vivid colorful lessons into place.
As known, with clear pictures and scripts, the learners will be able to get to the main points easily and make
them motivated in learning.
Third, the state-school should invest more money in installing the internet router in all the buildings so
that both the teacher and students can have access to updated lessons and information related to their learning
and teaching.
Finally, the state-school should install one large flat screen in each classroom so that both the teacher and
students can use it to show lessons clearer and more vividly. They can watch illustration video clips and
pictures on the screen. From there, they can understand the lessons better.

5.2.3. For Students

Students who are interested in visual aids will have more benefits from this strategy. However, what
about students who are not interested in learning with visual aids? For example, those who are fond of note-
taking will like to take notes instead of seeing things. So, the teacher can add some short explanation to the
pictures as well to help such preference.
Pictures usually have target spots, so students’ ought to be aware of these spots to get the meaning of the
pictures. Thus, knowing such target spots, students will find it easy to get the meaning of each picture.

5.2.4. Limitations
This study has some limitations needed to be aware.
Firstly, the students in the state school usually do not have much time to study official English in class.
They have only three periods or English instruction per week, and they also must study many other subjects
in class. With this load of study, the students were unable to put all their effort and time in their English
practice. Therefore, the participants in both classes seemed not to prioritize in their English. If they had had
more time, and if they were not distracted by other subjects, they could have done better at the post-test and
the delayed post-test.
Secondly, the author were only able to choose 30 words to teach with pictures in the experimental class
and with the traditional method in the control class in a 10-week time, so it seemed that this vocabulary load is
not large enough. For future research, it should bring this issue into discussion for more reliable results. If
more words had been used, their retention of vocabulary could be more challenged.
Thirdly, the students must also learn other parts of the language, such as learning other grammatical
structures which are integrated in the language skills. There are many of them which made them exhausted
and distracted from my study sometimes. Thus, the study could have produced a better result if they were
more focused on this study.
Fourthly, in order to see how the experimental students thought about the use of pictures to teach
vocabulary, the author also had the experimental group answer the survey question. the result showed that
they were pleased with this strategy. All the responses received the scale from 4 (except Item 9, M= 3.8571).
However, the scale still falls in the range of agreement scale, which showed that these students prefer this
strategy.
Fifthly, unlike a true experiment, this study, which is an experiment, may have some limits in terms of
generalization to the entire population of secondary school pupils. The study had a small sample size, with

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only 70 participants who were equally divided in both the control and experimental groups. Although the
students shared some matching qualities with the population, such as level and proficiency, the findings cannot
be applied to all secondary school students in Tra Vinh province or Vietnam in general.
Sixth, the experimental duration was limited because the treatment was only ten weeks long; therefore, it
was unlikely to be long enough to evaluate whether or not the improvement could be consistent and sustained
over a longer period of time.
Seventhly, some of the students who were not interested in taking the test or filling out the questionnaire
simply gave their responses immediately and perhaps they did not give much thought about the answers to the
questions in the three tests, and the questionnaire or even the interview. As a result, the results' reliability and
validity may be influenced negatively.
Finally, after completing the questionnaire, the researcher noticed that pictures are sometimes more
appropriate for primary students. Hence, future research can take all these limitations into consideration.

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