Faculty of Arts & Social Science

Department of Languages & Linguistics

USING PICTURES AND DIRECT TRANSLATION IN TEACHING VOCABULARY

Wee Soo Ying

INTRODUCTION
The once neglected hot topic, vocabulary, has gradually revived
and demands attention from the realm of language teaching.
Debates on which method is the best in teaching vocabulary are
still on-going. In recent years, the use of pictures in vocabulary
teaching has gained popularity and sparked interest among
researchers, educators and teachers yet many seem to cling on
to the mother tongue equivalents.

OBJECTIVE & SIGNIFICANCE

Enlarging language learners’ vocabulary size is
important before helping them to excel in the four
skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing. In
order to achieve this goal, methods of vocabulary
teaching must be determined. Hence, this action
research was carried out to compare the use of
pictures and the controversial direct translation
method in teaching vocabulary.

METHODOLOGY

This action research involved 28 nine-year-old students from the same classroom as
participants. It was carried out quantitatively. Two instruments involved were test and
survey. Students in the study underwent two phases of vocabulary instructions, the first
one with pictures and the second with direct translation method. A vocabulary test was
administered after each phase and results were recorded for comparison to see which
method was more effective. A survey was conducted after the end of the second vocabulary
test to examine students’ perception regarding the two methods.

FINDINGS & CONCLUSION

Students from this research had scored better in
their second vocabulary test. A statistical
significant difference was found after conducting
the paired samples t-test using the two So if the same method is
variables: Phase 1 Test and Phase 2 Test. to be utilised in lieu of
Percentage was calculated based on the results the typical translation
from the survey and apparently, the majority of method, it is expected
the students found a liking in picture-showing that their vocabulary
vocabulary lessons. size will be increased.