THE IMPACT OF WEB-BASED LEITNER BOX ENHANCED WITH

SOCIAL NETWORK ON ENGLISH VOCABULARY LEARNING

YUNXIA GAO

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

DECLARATION OF THESIS / UNDERGRADUATE PROJECT

PAPER AND COPYRIGHT

Author’s full name: YUNXIA GAO

Title : THE IMPACT OF WEB-BASED LEITNER BOX ENHANCED

WITH SOCIAL NETWORK ON ENGLISH VOCABULARY

LEARNING

Academic Session : 2010/2011

I declare that this thesis is classified as :

CONFIDENTIAL (Contains confidential information under

the Official Secret Act 1972)*

RESTRICTED (Contains restricted information as specified by

the organization where research was done)*

OPEN ACCESS I agree that my thesis to be published as

online open access (full text)

I acknowledged that Universiti Teknologi Malaysia reserves the right as

follows:

1. The thesis is the property of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

2. The Library of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia has the right to make

copies for the purpose of research only.

3. The Library has the right to make copies of the thesis for academic

exchange.

Certified by :

SIGNATURE SIGNATURE OF SUPERVISOR

G28039358 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zaidatun Binti Tasir

(NEW IC NO. /PASSPORT NO.) NAME OF SUPERVISOR

Date : 20th December 2010 Date : 20

th December 2010

NOTES: * If the thesis is CONFIDENTIAL or RESTRICTED, please

attach with the letter from the organization with period and reasons for

confidentiality or restriction.

PSZ19:16(Pind. 1/97)

�

I hereby declare that I have read this thesis and in my opinion this thesis is

sufficient in terms of scope and quality for the award of the degree of Master of

Education (Educational Technology).

Signature :

Name of Supervisor : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zaidatun Binti Tasir

Date : 20TH

December 2010

THE IMPACT OF WEB-BASED LEITNER BOX ENHANCED WITH

SOCIAL NETWORK ON ENGLISH VOCABULARY LEARNING

YUNXIA GAO

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the

requirements for the award of the degree of

Master of Education (Educational Technology)

Faculty of Education

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

December 2010

ii

I declare that this thesis entitled “THE IMPACT OF WEB-BASED LEITNER BOX

ENHANCED WITH SOCIAL NETWORK ON ENGLISH VOCABULARY

LEARNING” is the result of my own research except as cited in the references. The

thesis has not been accepted for any degree and is not concurrently submitted in

candidature of any other degree.

Signature : ---------------------------------------

Name : YUNXIA GAO

Date : 20th December 2010

iii

DEDICATION

The results of this effort are truly dedicated to my beloved mother and father whose

love and support have always been there , as well as, parents taught

me to be perseverant, responsible and loyal

To my brother and sister, and my best friends for all their support, encouragement,

sacrifice, and especially for their love.

Thank you all and this work is for YOU.

iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

My deepest gratification for having completed this dissertation as planned. My

highest appreciation and thanks to my supportive supervisor: Assc. Prof.Dr Zaidatun

Binti Tasir for her continuing assistance, support, guidance, and understanding

throughout my graduate studies. Without her consistent encouragement and assistance

this dissertation would not have been possible to be completed. Her trust, patience,

knowledge, great insight, modesty, and friendly personality have always been an

inspiration for me and will deeply influence my career and future life.

Countless gratification is given to all lecturers and non academic staff in

Faculty of Education who have helped me a lot throughout my studies at the

university. A special thanks to Professor Dr. Baharuddin Aris, Dr Noraffandy

Yahaya, Assoc. Prof. Dr Mohamad Bilal Ali, Associate Professor Dr. Jamalludin

Harun,

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Siavash Ghodsi Moghaddam

for his generous help and valuable advice during the website development. Many

thanks also to all my classmates, and friends for their advices and endless support for

me to complete my studies.

I would like to give my deepest pleasure to all the students who were

involved in the studies and had given their full co-operation in helping me

throughout the research.

Finally, to all who have involved whether directly or indirectly, thank you

from me. All the kindness that you gave will be my greatest treasure for the whole of

my life.

v

ABSTRACT

The aim of the research is to explore the impact of the web-based Leitner Box

which is enhanced with social network on English vocabulary learning. This research

used mixed research design and the data were collected both in qualitative and

quantitative ways. The instruments include questionnaire, semi-structured interviews,

and performance tests. 35 Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s (UTM) students are

chosen randomly as the respondents for the questionnaire and 30 students from UTM

English class are chosen purposively to do the pre-test and post-test. In order to

fulfill the goal of the research, a web-based Leitner Box with social network was

created. The research covered students’ perspectives of English vocabulary learning,

the impact of web-based Leitner Box with social network as tool in learning

vocabulary, and how do students learn vocabulary through the website. From the

findings, it is discovered that students agreed that they have problems in learning

vocabulary with an overall mean = 3.98. It is also discovered that the web-based

Leitner Box has a significant positive impact on English vocabulary learning

(meanpretest =8, meanposttest =12, p = 0.000, α = 0.05). Findings from the

questionnaires also revealed that students gave positive opinions of web-based

Leitner box (mean = 4.28). In term of whether the element of social network

beneficial to students, the findings showed that the social network helps students to

learn English vocabulary in this collaborative learning environment (mean = 4.28).

From the research, the students claimed that the web-based Leitner Box and the

social network make the vocabulary learning process much easier and more

interesting by information sharing and actively participating in the collaborative

learning environment. Due to the limitation of time and internet accessibility, this

research is conducted among small respondents. For future research, this research

could be developed into a bigger scale and covered wider subjects.

vi

ABSTRAK

Tujuan kajian ini adalah mengkaji kesan yang diberikan oleh laman web

berasaskan Leitner Box yang dintegrasikan dengan rangkaian sosial dalam

mempelajari kosa kata dalam Bahasa Inggeris. Kajian ini menggunakan gabungan

reka bentuk kajian kuantitatif dan kualitatif yang melibatkan data dalam kedua-dua

bentuk. Instrumen kajian merangkumi soal selidik, temubual separa berstruktur dan

ujian pencapaian. 35 orang pelajar Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) telah

dipilih secara rawak sebagai sampel kajian yang telah menjawab soal selidik dan 30

orang pelajar UTM yang mengikuti kelas Bahasa Inggeris dipilih secara bertujuan

untuk menjawab ujian pencapaian pra dan pos. Bagi memenuhi keperluan matlamat

kajian, laman web Leitner Box dengan rangkaian sosial telah dihasilkan. Kajian ini

merangkumi perspektif pelajar terhadap pembelajaran kosa kata, kesan yang

diberikan oleh laman web berasaskan Leitner Box dengan alatan rangkaian sosial

terhadap pembelajaran kosa kata dan bagaimana pelajar mempelajari kosa kata

menerusi laman web tersebut. Dapatan kajian mendapati, pelajar bersetuju bahawa

mereka mengalami masalah dalam mempelajari kosa kata dengan min keseluruhan

adalah 3.98. Didapati juga laman web berasaskan Leitner Box memberikan kesan

positif yang signifikan terhadap pembelajaran kosa kata Bahasa Inggeris (minpra =8,

minpos =12, p = 0.000, α = 0.05). Dapatan kajian daripada soal selidik mendapati

pelajar memberikan pendapat yang positif terhadap laman web Leitner Box (min =

4.28). Dari segi sama ada rangkaian sosial memberikan faedah kepada pelajar,

dapatan kajian mendapati ianya membantu pelajar dalam mempelajari kosa kata

Bahasa Inggeris dalam suasana pembelajaran kolaboratif (min = 4.28). Berdasarkan

kajian ini, pelajar menyatakan bahawa laman web Leitner Box dan rangkaian sosial

menjadikan pembelajaran kosa kata menjadi lebuh mudah dan menarik menerusi

perkongsian dan penglibatan aktif dalam suasana pembelajaran kolaboratif. Oleh

kerana kekangan masa dan capaian Internet, kajian ini hanya dijalankan dalam

kalangan responden yang sedikit. Bagi tujuan kajian lanjutan di masa hadapan, ia

seharusnya melibatkan kumpulan responden yang lebih ramai dan skop subjek yang

lebih luas.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

DECLARATION ii

DEDICATION iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv

ABSTRACT v

ABSTRAK vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS vii

LIST OF TABLES xi

LIST OF FIGURES xii

LIST OF APPENDICES xiii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Background of Problem 4

1.3 Problem Statement

1.4 Research Objective

1.5 Research Questions

1.6 Theoretical Framework

1.7 Significance of Research

1.8 Scope of Research

1.9 Definition of Key Term

1.9.1 Leitner Box

1.9.2 Social Network

1.9.3 Collaborative learning

9

11

11

12

14

16

16

16

17

17

1.10 Conclusion 18

viii

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 19

2.1 Introduction 19

2.2 Problem in English Vocabulary Learning 19

2.3 Vocabulary Learning Approaches

2.3.1 Contextual Vocabulary Acquisition

2.3.2 Incidental Vocabulary Learning

2.3.3 Intentional Vocabulary Learning

20

21

22

22

2.4 Leitner Box Approach 23

2.5 Social Network 25

2.6 Web-based Vocabulary Learning 27

2.7 IDDIE Model 31

2.8 Conclusion 33

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 34

3.1 Introduction 34

3.2 Research Design 34

3.3 Research Procedures 35

3.4 Research Instruments 37

3.4.1 English Vocabulary Test 37

3.4.2 Semi-structured Interview 38

3.4.3 Questionnaire 38

3.5 Pilot Study 39

3.6 Data Analyze 41

3.7 Conclusion 41

CHAPTER IV WEBSITE DESIGN 42

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Analyze

4.3 Design

42

42

43

4.3.1 Information Design 44

4.3.1.1 Learning Theory 44

4.3.1.2 Content Design 47

ix

4.3.1.3 Scenarios Design 48

4.3.2 Interface Design 51

4.3.3 Interaction Design 53

4.4 Development 54

4.4.1 Software 54

4.4.1.1 Programming Environment 54

4.4.1.2 Hot Potatoes Version 6 54

4.4.1.3 Google Document and Google

Analytics

4.4.2 Programming Language

55

55

4.5 Implementation 56

4.6 Evaluation 56

4.6.1 Formative Evaluation 56

4.6.1.1 One-to-one Evaluation

4.6.1.2 Subject Matter Evaluation

57

57

4.6.2 Summative Evaluation 58

CHAPTER V

4.7 Conclusion

CONCLUSIONS AND FUTUREWORKS

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Finding

59

60

60

61

5.2.1 Demographic Data of Respondents 61

5.2.2 Students’ Opinion of English Vocabulary

Learning

5.2.3 How Students Learn English Vocabulary

Through Web-based Leitner Box

67

70

5.2.4 The Impact of Web-based Leitner Box on

English Vocabulary Learning 72

5.2.5 Students’ Perception of Social Network

Function

5.3 Conclusion

80

83

x

CHAPTER VI DISCUSSION, SUGGESTION AND CONCLUSION 84

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Discussion

6.2.1 Students’ Opinion of English Vocabulary

Learning

84

84

85

6.2.2 How Students Learn English Vocabulary

Through Web-based Leitner Box

86

6.2.3 The Impact of Web-based Leitner Box on

English Vocabulary Learning

6.2.4 Students’ Perception to the Social Network

Function

6.3 Limitation of Research

6.4 Suggestions for Future Research

6.5 Conclusion

89

92

95

96

96

REFERENCES 98

APPENDICES 107

xi

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO. TITLE PAGE

2.1

Elements of ADDIE Model

32

3.2 Distribution of Questions in Each Part 39

5.1 Gender of Respondents 62

5.2 Educational Level of Respondents 63

5.3 Year for study of Respondents 64

5.4 English Level of Respondents 65

5.5 Major of Respondents 66

5.6 Nationality of Respondents 67

5.7 Students’ Opinion of English Vocabulary Learning 69

5.8 Learning Details of the Web-based Leitner Box 71

5.9 Usage Details of this Website 72

5.10 Learners’ Opinion of Web-based Leitner Box 74

5.11 Results of Pre-test and Post-test for Class A 76

5.12 Results of Pre-test and Post-test for Class B 78

5.13 The Mean Ranks of These Two Groups 79

5.14 Mann-Whitney Test Statistics 80

5.15 The Function of Social Network 82

xi

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE NO. TITLE PAGE

1.1 Theoretical Framework Design 13

3.1 The Flowchart of the Whole Research 36

4.1 Content List 45

4.2 Video Shared by Learners 45

4.3 Forum Discussion 46

4.4 The Link to Facebook 47

4.5 Database Diagram 50

4.6 Homepage before Login 51

4.7 Homepage after Login 52

4.8 Word List 52

4.9 Leitner Box Interface 53

5.1 Frequency of Gender 62

5.2 Educational Level of Respondents 63

5.3 Year for Study of Respondents 64

5.4 English Level of Respondents 65

5.5 Different Majors of Respondents 66

5.6 Nationality of Respondents 67

5.7 Comparisons between Pre-test and Post-test of Class A 77

5.8 Comparisons between Pre-test and Post-test of Class B 78

xiii

LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX TITLE PAGE

A Research Questionnaire 107

B Pre-test for Research 111

C Post-test for Research 114

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

With the high-speed development of our globalization in society and economy,

more and more countries accelerate their communication with other countries in

every field. Consequently, English, as an international language, has become a

compulsory course in primary and secondary schools, even universities in many non-

English speaking countries. Just as Yanjie Song and Robert Fox (2008) said, English

learning is important for university students in non-English speaking countries,

especially those students from English-medium (EM) universities.

Vocabulary learning is essential for English learning because vocabulary is the

basic components of English sentences (Nation, 2001). Many research findings show

that many incorrect inferences and misunderstanding of the content while reading

English materials in the academic studies are caused by poor vocabulary (Nation,

2001, Gu, 2003 & Huang, 2007). Therefore research into vocabulary learning for

English learners has been prominent and necessary.

There have been a large number of recent researches providing pedagogical

suggestions for vocabulary teaching and learning. Research shows that some of the

most common strategies for many learners are simple memorization, repetition, and

taking notes on vocabulary. (Norbert Schmitt, 2005).

2

According to Nation (2001), vocabulary learning activities generally can be

classified into two types, which are intentional and incidental learning of vocabulary.

There are many learning methods adopted by learners in each type. The former refers

to activities that aim at vocabulary development predominantly. Schmitt (2005)

suggests that English learners should pay attention to recycling, revision and memory.

There is the fact that vocabulary is learned during the implementation and practice so

that words must be met and used several times in order to be finally learned.

Another way that always be used for intentional vocabulary learning is word

pairs. The word pairs could be translation equivalents, (English to any other

languages) or word-picture pairs. Research has shown that students can successfully

learn large numbers of words using this technique and the learning seems to be

durable (Nation, 2001).

Helen (1991) introduced basic tools and strategies for building vocabulary in

her Wordforms. One of them is about how to use dictionary to learn English

vocabulary. The vocabulary learning strategy literature shows that the use of the

dictionary has a positive effect on students’ vocabulary learning in terms of their

language course studies (Nation, 2001,Gu, 2003 & Laufer,1992).

Along with the constant improvement of new technology, dictionary use via

mobile devices has become a common phenomenon. Yanjie and Robert’s (2008)

one-year multiple-case study investigated undergraduate students’ dictionary and

other uses of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) to enhance their incidental

vocabulary learning in an English-medium (EM) university. The research findings

show that the students made a variety of uses of PDAs to improve their vocabulary

learning in the course of academic studies both in- and after class. The research

results indicate that PDAs can be used in more flexible, novel and extended ways for

English as a foreign language (EFL) vocabulary teaching and learning in both formal

and informal learning environments in higher education (2008). It gives us a good

example for incidental learning.

3

One important factor to facilitating incidental learning is to increase learners’

exposure to English as much as possible (Schmitt, 2005). This can be achieved in a

number of ways: (a) increase the English usage in the classroom; (b) group work

can help learner learn new words from each other during their interactive discussions

(because not all members of a group will know the same words) (Newton, 2001); (c)

communication with proficient English users whenever possible; and (d) spending

time in an English-speaking country or environment; Milton and Meara (1995) found

that learners living in the UK for six months improved their vocabulary by an

average of 1,326 words.

Unfortunately, not everybody has the chance to go to an English-speaking

country to polish his or her English. Under such a situation, reading has become the

preference choice to increase a learner’s exposure to English vocabulary. There are

two kinds of reading are discussed in Norbert’s book. They are: Narrow Reading and

Extensive Reading. Reading on one subject means that much of the topic-specific

vocabulary will be repeated throughout the course of reading, which both makes the

reading easier and gives the reader a better chance of learning this recurring

vocabulary (Schmitt & Carter, 2000). Extensive reading simply means reading a lot,

and research suggests that it is very effective in terms of increasing general language

proficiency (Elley, 1991).

Helen (1991) emphasizes on using context clues to predict meaning and learn

new words. In her book, she mentioned that most of vocabulary has been learned by

seeing and hearing words in a context. As the word context implies, words are woven

together like textiles; they have a texture. By observing the surrounding text, people

can often make excellent guesses about what a word means without looking it up in

the dictionary. Furthermore, for words with multiple meanings, Contextual

Vocabulary Acquisition is particularly important (William J. Rapaport, 2000).

Another one of the popular method to learn English vocabulary is by using

flashcards. In 1972, Sebastian Leitner publishes "So lernt man lernen" in which he

describes his Leitner card box. The Leitner card file technique can be considered a

precursor of spaced repetition. In her Wordforms, Helen (1991) also emphasized the

4

importance of learning English vocabulary by using flashcards. The efficiency of

such methods with respect to retention is hard to deny (Nation, 2001).

Beside the methods mentioned above, the way of learning English vocabulary

become more colorful and efficient due to the development of Educational

Technology. More and more ways of learning vocabulary combined with technology

are provided, such as web-based learning, e-learning and blogs, etc.

1.2 Background of Problem

To be a fluent English language user, a learner is required to master four

important skills which are reading, writing, speaking and listening. All the four skills

are necessary for them to be actively involved in a global world which uses English

as the main medium of communication. However, there are some who are left

disadvantaged just because of difficulties in learning vocabulary. As mentioned

before, Vocabulary learning is crucial for English learning because vocabulary

constitutes the basic components of English sentences. Without adequate vocabulary,

it is hard to be expert in reading, writing, speaking and listening.

English almost contains the greatest number of words of any major language,

which makes learning a sufficient amount of its vocabulary a very difficult task

(Schmitt, 2005). Second language learners with knowledge of the most frequent

10,000 word families in English can be considered to have a wide vocabulary, and

Hazenburg and Hulstijn (1996) found that a vocabulary of this magnitude may be

required to cope with the challenges of university study in a second language. How

well English is finally achieved in a certain degree depends on the learning of these

vocabularies (Nation & Meara, 2002).

Expect learning of wide and varied vocabularies of individual words, English

learners have to learn how to handle a large number of multiword units (Moon, 1997,

1998; Wray, 2002). English has a great number of these multiple-word-item lexemes

5

that are used as a whole part with a single meaning (e.g., pass away, bite the dust,

kick the bucket, and give up the ghost all meaning to die). There are a number of

different kinds of multiword units, including compound words (classroom), phrasal

verbs (give up), fixed phrases (ladies and gentlemen), idioms (put your nose to the

grindstone),and proverbs (the early bird catches the worm). Although it is certainly

possible to be communicative without using these multiword units, they are a large

part of what makes proficient English speakers sound natural (Schmitt, 2005).

It is surprising, however, the fact is that relatively little attention is paid to the

problem of vocabulary acquisition in the foreign language classroom. Many teachers

leave the problem to the student as homework, and little instruction is given

regarding effective acquisition techniques. Teachers seldom give much class time to

teaching individual words, because even though you spend a lot of valuable time on

teaching vocabulary, it doesn’t make much difference in the point view of result. It is

a sheet of vocabulary that needs to learn for students, and students can learn it by

making use of abundant time after class (Anderson and Nagy, 1992).

Another big problem of vocabulary learning is that learners may forget the

vocabulary easily without revision and usage for a long time. Based on the Norbert

Schmitt’s theory, the vocabulary that learned through incidental learning must be met

and used multiple times in order to be master eventually. He emphasizes more on

recycle, revision and memory due to the typically pattern of forgetting which is

illustrated in his book (N. Schmitt, 2000). Even though it is certainly possible to

learn thousands of words by explicit memorization, however, students may find these

methods tedious and discouraging (Krashen, 2004).

According to Schmitt( 2005), one of the important factors to facilitating

incidental learning is to maximize learners’ exposure to English. Many people try to

improve their vocabulary through talking with other people. Unfortunately, implicit

vocabulary acquisition through conversation is fraught with a different set of

problems. As one well-respected Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theorist notes,

beginners are often quite hesitant to show their unprofessional English to a native

speaker (Krashen, 1982). Even without considering of timidity, for many in the

6

United States, opportunities to practice speaking a foreign language outside of the

classroom are rare (Ian, Brandon & Stephanie, 2009).

As mentioned before, many researchers emphasis the importance of learning

vocabulary through reading. They hold the opinion that learners should guess the

meaning of new words according the context it falls in or learning English

vocabulary by Narrow Reading and Extensive Reading (Elley, 1991; Schmitt &

Carter, 2000; Norbert Schmitt, 2005). While it seems more palatable for the student

to learn new words through reading and conversation, the process can be quite slow

for beginners who have little foundation to infer the meaning of new word from

context (Ian, Brandon & Stephanie, 2009).

In 1972, Sebastian Leitner put forward the “Leitner Box” theory. After this,

more and more researches related were conducted. People apply this theory in many

different learning. Use of flashcards has occasionally come under attack, especially

for stressing memorization over comprehension, and alternatives to their use have

been investigated (Merrill & Salisbury 1984; Klein & Salisbury 1987).

Helen (1991) also mentioned the vocabulary cards as the tools for memory and

mastery in her book wordforms. In her book, she stated in this way:

“Vocabulary cards are tools that will

increase your efficiency in mastering new items.

They have been used very effectively in learning

foreign languages. Cards are preferable to

notebook pages because they can be used as flash

cards to memorize words. And you can easily

discard unneeded cards once you have

committed the words to memory, keeping your

working pile current.”

7

Furthermore, it has been shown that vocabulary flashcards are effective in

improving both reading speed and comprehension (Tan & Nicholson 1997).

Concurrently, some flashcard lovers emphasis that flashcard should be improved

with more fun (Nicholson, 1998).

On-line flash card programs promoting intentional memorization techniques to

intelligent reading environments, e.g. Gamper and Knapp (2002), which give the

student a myriad of tools to deal with vocabulary items in an incidental acquisition

setting. On the flashcard side, a small community is quite interested in optimal

scheduling algorithms (Cooley, 2001). Ian, Brandon & Stephanie (2009) also

mentioned that the prohibitively expensive commercial Software package, which is

lack of customizability, brings the discussion back to freely available, easily

personalizable flash cards. Flash cards can be tailored to an individual’s learning

needs, which are highly Customizable.

Nowadays, due to the fast-development of social network and online learning

technology, it has become a requirement for all the educators of 21st century to

integrate educational technology in their teaching and learning. English learners have

more choices to be self-educated through internet. All kinds of online-learning

programs and information resources are easily available in order to satisfy learners’

different need.

According to Mishra (2004):

“The emerging Internet technology has

made it possible for the increasing powerful

computer-based authoring tools. The trend has

also influenced the online communication thus,

created more readily available resources on the

net. This is especially true for learners who

require more assistance in learning outside their

academic hours. The existence of the advance

8

Internet 3.0 Technology has allowed access to an

online learning and references through various

tools online.”

In 2004, Palombella and Johnson in light of their students' interest in flashcards

in general, and their desire to give them study tools that grab their attention, that they

made hypermedia flashcards (h-cards). Each h-card is a web page that shows the

"front" of a flashcard, and reveals the "back" when the user moves the pointer to the

appropriate area.

Palombella and Johnson’s research applied the flash cards in teaching and

learning in the biology class to help students to recognize different kinds of plants.

The result showed that students like using h-cards, and they enjoy having their work

associated with them. Most importantly, use of h-cards improved student

performance. Among students who earned an A for the course (n = 32), the average

score was 90% on the tests without h-cards and 96% on the test where the only study

tool was h-cards. Thus, the h-cards helped even the most successful students. They

performed the same analysis for students earning other final grades in the course.

Interestingly, the lower the overall grade a student earned in the course, the greater

the difference the h- cards seemed to make (Palombella, & Johnson, 2004). They

also encourage all the educators who are interested in online flashcards to create their

own flashcards according to their own teaching and learning demands.

Learning is a social process, even though it seems like an individual

accomplishment. Nowadays, under the great influence of information and

communication technology, this learning process has been accelerated. People can

learn more than before from the network of peers, friends, colleagues and even

family (Riel & Polin, 2004; Seely-Brown, 2002b; Lisa &Melanie, 2007).

Since our demanding of the collaboration grows, we need the tools that connect

us in social networks and support the creation of online communities (Haste, 2001;

Schrage, 1990). Online communications provides more opportunities for groups of

9

people who sharing the same interests through the network to discuss any issue

interested, to ask questions and share different perspectives or knowledge with each

other (Educom Staff, 1997; Lessin, 2001). Not only can the individual’s learning be

promoted, but also the advancing the collective knowledge of the group by actively

sharing ideas with others is also supported by the online social communities (Riel &

Polin, 2004; Lisa &Melanie, 2007).

In order to fulfill the challenges of education in 21st century and provide

English learners an online self-educated learning environment, this research will

develop a website based on the theory of Leitner Box enhanced by social network to

help English learner in learning English vocabulary. At the same time, this research

will observe the impact of the web-based learning on vocabulary acquisition.

1.3 Problem Statement

As English plays an important role in everybody’s daily life, it has become a

compulsory course in many countries; therefore English learning draw more and

more attention from both teachers and learners. For every English learner, the

problem that nobody can avoid is learning English vocabulary. Due to the large

number of the vocabulary that the learner has to master in order to be able to

communicate fluently and its characteristic of easily being forgotten without using

frequently, it has become a bottleneck for many English learners in their English

learning process.

Faced with these crucial problems in learning English, many researches on how

to learn English vocabulary were conducted and many vocabulary learning methods

were put forward, like Contextual Vocabulary Acquisition (Helen, 1991 & Rapaport,

2005), learning vocabulary by using dictionary (Helen, 1991 & Yanjie and Robert,

2008), learning vocabulary by recycle, revision and memory (Schmitt, 2005), such as

learning English vocabulary by using the Leitner Box, which emphasizes on

10

reviewing the words that have been learned according to a specific time recycle

repetition.

Concomitantly with the advancement of information communication technology,

interest in using online learning environments for language learning has grown.

Many English learning experts and researchers put forward their theories and

research results of learning English vocabulary constantly, such as the use of h-flash

cards to help students learn biology (Palombella, & Johnson, 2004), using blog-based

online journals for improving English learners’ writing skill (Ezihaslinda Ngah, 2007)

and using Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) to enhance students’ incidental

vocabulary learning (Yanjie Song and Robert Fox, 2008).

Another research on the use of Leitner Box in learning vocabulary had been

conducted by Mohammad (2009). He created his web-based Leitner Box in

2nd March, 2009. In this website, Mohammad explained the Leitner Box's Algorithm

both in words and in graphic. He also wrote:

“Leitner Box is a technique for learning

with more & better effect. This application was

created for learning English words or words of

another language.”

Unfortunately, only a few users’ feedback is available and no more further

research is conducted for this project.

Therefore, this research will study on whether the web-based Leitner Box will

help English learner in learning English vocabulary by developing a website with

social network technology. The website will be developed based on the original

theory of “Sebastian Leitner” (1972) and the related researches. At the same time, the

website will combine the new and popular social network technology in order to

increase the availability and accessibility. Through a period’s online learning, this