UNIVERSIDAD MAYOR DE SAN ANDRES FACULTAD DE HUMANIDADES Y CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN CARRERA DE LINGÜÍSTICA E IDIOMAS COMPARING THE EFFECTIVENESS BETWEEN PAPER FLASHCARDS VERSUS FLASHCARDS SOFTWARE TO IMPROVE RECEPTIVE AND PRODUCTIVE KNOWLEDGE OF ENGLISH VOCABULARY Tesis de grado presentada para la obtención del Grado de Licenciatura POR: GUIDO ALVARO LOPEZ MAMANI TUTORA: M.Sc. LEIDY IBAÑEZ RODRIGUEZ LA PAZ – BOLIVIA 2020 I UNIVERSIDAD MAYOR DE SAN ANDRÉS FACULTAD DE HUMANIDADES Y CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN CARRERA DE LINGÜÍSTICA E IDIOMAS Tesis de grado: COMPARING THE EFFECTIVENESS BETWEEN PAPER FLASHCARDS VERSUS FLASHCARD SOFTWARE TO IMPROVE RECEPTIVE AND PRODUCTIVE KNOWLEDGE OF ENGLISH VOCABULARY Presentada por: Guido Alvaro Lopez Mamani Para optar el grado académico de Licenciado en Lingüística e Idiomas Nota numeral: ...................................................................................................................... Nota literal: .......................................................................................................................... Ha sido.................................................................................................................................. Directora a.i. de carrera: ………………………………………………. Lic. Maria Virginia Ferrufino Loza Tutora: ………………………………………………. M.Sc. Leidy Ibañez Rodriguez Tribunal: ………………………………………………. Mg.Sc. Maria Eugenia Sejas Ralde Tribunal: ………………………………………………. Mg.Sc. David Aduviri Delgado La Paz 12 de noviembre de 2020 II DEDICATORY I dedicate this work to people who believed in me and supported me. III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to the Mayor de San Andres University, especially to the Linguistics and Languages department for welcoming me and teaching me the amazing world of linguistics. Thanks to my tutor M.Sc. Leidy Ibañez Rodriguez, for all the knowledge she shared with me, for her patience and for the availability. It would not have been possible to carry out this thesis without her generous and academic help. Thanks also to all those who participated in the development of this thesis, thanks for all support provided. IV TABLE OF CONTENT DEDICATORY ....................................................................................................... III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................... IV TABLE OF CONTENT ............................................................................................ V FIGURES AND TABLES .................................................................................... VIII ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................ IX RESUMEN ............................................................................................................... X INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... XI CHAPTER I: PRELIMINARY FRAMEWORK 1.1. Statement of the problem ................................................................................... 13 1.2. Research question ............................................................................................. 14 1.3. Hypothesis ........................................................................................................ 14 1.4. Research objectives ........................................................................................... 15 1.4.1. General objective ........................................................................................... 15 1.4.2. Specific objectives.......................................................................................... 15 1.5. Justification ....................................................................................................... 16 1.6. Scope and limits of research .............................................................................. 17 1.6.1. Scope of research ........................................................................................... 17 1.6.2. Limits of research ........................................................................................... 18 CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 2.1. English language in Bolivia ............................................................................... 20 2.2. Vocabulary for students ..................................................................................... 21 2.3.1. Basic aspects of vocabulary ............................................................................ 22 2.3.2. Types of vocabulary ....................................................................................... 23 2.3.3. Teaching English vocabulary as a foreign language ........................................ 24 2.4. Vocabulary learning strategies ........................................................................... 26 V 2.5. The relevance of vocabulary learning ................................................................ 30 2.5.1. Steps in vocabulary learning process .............................................................. 31 2.5.2. Receptive and productive learning of English vocabulary ............................... 32 2.5.3. Paper flashcards and flashcard software .......................................................... 33 2.5.4. Anki: Powerful, intelligent flash cards. ........................................................... 35 2.7. Assessment of receptive and productive vocabulary .......................................... 38 2.8. English vocabulary flashcards ........................................................................... 40 2.8.1. The academic corpus ...................................................................................... 41 2.8.2. Principles of selection used in developing the academic word list ................... 43 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK 3.1. Type of research and research design ................................................................ 44 3.2.1. Type of research ............................................................................................. 44 3.2.2. Research design .............................................................................................. 45 3.3. Hypothesis system ............................................................................................. 46 3.4. Variable system ................................................................................................. 46 3.5. Operationalization of variables .......................................................................... 47 3.6. Research instruments ......................................................................................... 49 3.7. Data collection techniques ................................................................................. 52 3.8. Paper flashcard and flashcard software .............................................................. 54 3.8.1. Paper flashcard ............................................................................................... 54 3.8.2. Flashcard software.......................................................................................... 56 3.9. Population and sample....................................................................................... 60 3.9.1. Population ...................................................................................................... 60 3.9.2. Sample ........................................................................................................... 62 CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 4.1. Presentation of research participants .................................................................. 63 4.3. Validation and reliability of the instrument ........................................................ 65 VI 4.3.1. Validation of instrument ................................................................................. 65 4.3.2. Reliability of instrument ................................................................................. 68 4.4. Comparative analysis of both study groups ........................................................ 69 4.5. Hypothesis testing ............................................................................................. 73 4.6. Discussion of results.......................................................................................... 76 5. Conclusions and recommendations ....................................................................... 77 5.1. Conclusions....................................................................................................... 78 5.2. Recommendation .............................................................................................. 82 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................ 84 ONLINE REFERENCES ......................................................................................... 86 GLOSSARY ............................................................................................................ 89 ANNEX I: SUBLISTS OF THE ACADEMIC WORD LIST (AWL) ....................... 90 ANNEX II: TEST & ANSWER SHEET .................................................................. 95 ANNEX III: List of nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs for flashcards ................. 100 ANNEX IV: Anki's Guide...................................................................................... 106 ANNEX V: Paper Flashcards (Authentic format with 96 cards) ............................