The Effectiveness of Animation Program in Vocabulary Teaching

Acquiring Vocabulary by Using Animation for EFL Young Learners

-Introduction-

Thesis statement:

            Facilitating young learners with paper-based dictionaries is had not enough to acquire vocabulary learning because it just contains the verbal codes. Contrastingly, multimedia-based dictionaries using animation can be effective to learn vocabulary for young learners.

-Body-

A.    Opposing Argument 1:

·         The dynamic property of animation sometimes distracts the attention of learners from learning and viewing the animation displays.

·         Teachers and students cannot depend and use their skill in technology optimally.

Rebuttal to argument 1:

·         Employing animations in classrooms understanding the students since they relate to both visual and aural memory.

·         Computer applications affect the interdependence of students and teachers in language classrooms.

·         (Pavio, 2006) described the dual-coding states that processing language knowledge in both verbal and visual channels make learning effective. Animation functions by addressing all 5 senses and its interactivity can contribute to students’ autonomous learning.

B.     Opposing Argument 2:

·         Using media likes animation can replace the traditional method of teaching totally.

·         Linguistic in aural encountered during the editing process can frustrate students.

Rebuttal to argument 1:

·         Joy and learning combine when using animation and the education environment turns into “edutainment” (Boswood, 1997:202) .

·         As indicated in students’ self-reports animation-based technique allowed the students to use both aural and visual channels while dealing with the task. (Butler-Pascoe and Widburg, 2003, 7)

 C.    Opposing Argument 3:

·         Level of knowledge with this technology in students is highly varied (Betracourt, M 2005)

·         Animation may lack the discipline in the class during teaching process (Nishatha, 2012)

Rebuttal to argument 3:

·         The consensus is that learning new L2 words with L1 textual definitions and one more medium, either statistic graphics or dynamic animation, results in better performance than that with L1 textual alone (Chun and Plass, 1996).

·         They are two independents that interconnected system in human memory and cognition (Paivio, 1986).

·         The theory claims to predict, learners who learn vocabulary  without visual aids get lower score than those with some, such pictures (Brown, 1993; Duquette & Painchaud, 1996; Kost, Foss, & Lenzini, 1999) and videos (Neuman & Koshinen, 1992; Synder & Colon, 1988).

D.    Own Point of View:

Paper-based dictionary should not be always as the reference of vocabulary acquisition because it just focus on the verb coding and become tedious. By using animation, young learners can visualize and give many beneficial aspects.

E.     Reason:

·         Young learners more likely to use animation rather than dictionary because visualization and motion will be interesting first.

·          Where vocabulary learning is concerned, pictorial cues will help learners make associations between pictures and words, and make learning effective (Paivio, 1986) .

F.      Conclusion

Although using paper-based dictionaries will be more exist in the teaching process in some schools, using animated visualization for young learners can be more effective and memorable and also change the perception of some teachers who assume the using animation can give distraction in vocabulary learning.