Impacts of using cartoons as an instructional tool on English communicative skills of young learners at a Vietnamese primary school

Abstract

This study examined the impact of the use of cartoons on the speaking and listening skills of students in a primary school in a rural area in Vietnam and their attitudes towards the use of cartoons as a learning tool in their English classes. The study employed an experimental research design to collect data. Participants included 70 fifth-graders divided into two groups, the control group and the experiment group. The control group was taught regular English lessons. The experiment group learned similar lessons but cartoons were added to the English lesson to practice speaking and listening skills for six weeks. Before and after the experiment, the speaking and listening skills of the two groups were measured by a pretest and a posttest. In addition, the students in the experiment group were surveyed using a questionnaire to examine their attitudes towards watching cartoons for learning purposes. The findings show the English speaking and listening skills of the students in the experimental group improved more significantly than those of the students in the control group. Besides, the students in the experiment group expressed positive attitudes towards watching cartoons in English classes. The findings had implications for English language teachers at primary schools in Vietnam and in other non-dominant English speaking countries to include visual materials in their English lessons to enhance young learners’ English proficiency.

The Effect of Video Watching in the EFL Classroom

“…His study revealed that pre-pubescent EFL students can acquire a native-like English pronunciation by watching cartoons and overcoming all mispronunciation obstacles that occur with many foreign English learners. In another study, Nhung and Dieu (2020), examined the EFL learners' communicative skills improvement with the help of cartoons as a teaching tool. It was found that in six weeks the target group, for which the English cartoons were incorporated into their English lessons, has shown much greater improvement in listening and speaking skills than the control group that had lessons without them.…”

Extramural English and Vietnamese EFL primary school students’ listening and reading proficiency in Vietnam

“…Poštić (2015) concluded that children who were exposed to English cartoons at an early age performed better in their pronunciation and communication skills than other children who were not. In Vietnam, students who watched cartoons outside the classroom outperformed students who did not in speaking and listening skills (Le & Tran, 2020). One of the reasons is that cartoon watching is regarded as a beneficial practice for young learners of English since it enhances their language abilities and motivates them to study the language.…”