Students’ awareness of using quizlet to improve English vocabulary

eless, if you want to create your own study sets, you have to sign up. 
Once registered, users can get access to several Quizlet’s study tools, as mentioned below: 
• Flashcards Mode: Users start learning terms and their definitions by “flip” or 
“flow” the cards. The audio function provides learners with a useful model of 
pronunciation, and it can also be slowed down. This learning mode promotes not only 
learners’ productive, but also their receptive vocabulary knowledge (Nation, 2008). 
• Learn Mode: This mode prompts the users with the written or spoken form of one 
side of a card. A correct answer is put in the “Correct” bucket, and an incorrect answer is 
put in the “Incorrect” bucket. If the learners do not know the answer and select “Don’t 
Know”, Learn makes you retype the answer correctly to continue. It keeps track of what 
learners know and what they do not and retest them on their mistakes. At the end, Quizlet 
gives a final score for learners to evaluate their progress. 
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• Speller Mode: In the Speller option, learners need to type what they hear. If they 
type it correctly, they can move on to the next question. If there is a mistake in their 
answer, Speller indicates which letters users have missed so they can retry. This mode is 
perfect for people who want to revise the pronunciation and spelling of a term. 
• Test Mode: In Test Mode, Quizlet will automatically generate a random test using 
the terms and definitions from users’ set of flashcards. Learners are able to customize 
Question Types (Written, Matching, Multiple Choice, and True/False), Prompt (Term, 
Definition, or both), and Question Limit. When finishing the test, users click “Check 
Answers” at the bottom of the page to see how they did. This mode is highly beneficial as 
it can be conducted as an assessment tool in the classroom. 
• Game Mode: Quizlet keeps learning lively with two game activities, Scatter and 
Gravity. In Scatter a number of terms and their corresponding definitions are distributed 
randomly over the screen. What players need to do is matching the terms and definitions 
by dragging them with the mouse in the fastest time possible. In Gravity (shown in figure 
6), learners have to type in the correct answer to destroy asteroids before they hit. Because 
it requires students to actually type in the answer, the game pushes them to really learn the 
materials. These two games not only enable learners to practice recall and typing skill but 
also arouse competitiveness among them, for it has the High Score Table. 
3. METHODS 
3.1. Participants 
The participants involved in this action research study consisted of 22 second year 
students in class 64A, faculty of English, Hanoi National University of Education. There 
were 22 girls participating in this study, and all of them major in English. In this semester, 
their course aims at improving their English language proficiency from B1+ to B2 level 
according to Common European Framework of Reference. 
These 22 sophomores are chosen to be the subject of this action research for several 
reasons. Firstly, as their aim in the 4th semester is to develop their English language 
proficiency at B2 level, their lexical resource is of paramount importance, for it shows their 
language capacity. Research has shown that the vocabulary size of B2 level learners should 
be from 3250 to 3750 words and expressions (Milton, 2010). Therefore, it is absolutely 
crucial for 22 participants to possess a good range of vocabulary if they want to achieve the 
goal. Secondly, being class 64A’s members means that we will have great deal of time to 
observe and evaluate our classmates’ performance. 
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3.2. Research instruments 
This study is an action research that employs both qualitative and quantitative 
methods. The first research instrument employed is a pre-test. This test consisted of 45 
questions in 6 exercises. These exercises varied in types, which were jumbled words, 
crossword, matching the words with their definitions, word search, filling in the blanks, 
and finding one correct word for each picture. Student’s work was scored in order to see 
the final results. The purpose of this pre-test was to measure the vocabulary size of 22 
participants about 3 topics (School, Talking about Food and Babies & children). 
The second research instrument employed is self-study activities. The link of 3 Quizlet 
sets on https://quizlet.com was sent to all participants. Participants were asked to study 
these 3 sets outside the class. Once they had finished all 3 Quizlet sets designed by the 
researchers, they were recommended to create their own study set. Afterwards, the link of 
their study sets should be sent to the researchers. In such a way, the participants could fully 
experience every function of Quizlet. Not only were they given a chance to broaden their 
lexical resource provided by the researchers, but they would also have an insight of how 
Quizlet really worked through the making of their study sets. In addition, the links sent to 
the researchers ensured their participation in the self-study activities, making the research 
findings more convincing and trustworthy. 
The third research instrument employed is a survey questionnaire. Each participant 
was given a 10-question survey to complete after finishing activities on Quizlet. This 
survey allowed the researchers to examine how the participants evaluate the Quizlet in 
both fields of interest and effectiveness. 
3.3. Data collection procedure 
There are three steps of data collection procedure, which are: 
• Pre-testing participants’ vocabulary size 
• Organizing self-study activities 
• Conducting a survey questionnaire 
Firstly, participants’ vocabulary size was tested using a vocabulary worksheet 
mentioned in the Research Instruments. Then, they were sent a link to Quizlet website, in 
which we had designed 3 sets of lexical resource on 3 familiar topics. After 1 week of self-
studying, we conducted a survey to collect all the data needed to examine the effectiveness 
of using Quizlet to learn vocabulary. 
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3.4. Data analysis 
After data were collected, we analysed them quantitatively and qualitatively to find out 
the results of pre-test, then analysed and synthesized the results of survey questionnaire 
and write the results according to some main points: results of pre-test, students’ attitude 
towards the effectiveness of using Quizlet in learning vocabulary. 
4. FINDINGS 
After analysing and synthesizing the pre-test and survey questionnaire employed, the 
results will be now demonstrated in this part. 
4.1. Pre-test 
 Most participants did not perform well on the test, receiving rather low scores ranging 
from 0-29 pts in the total of 45, whereas only 14% of the participants surpassed the 
average score. This may result from the fact that their vocabulary knowledge in the topics 
given is limited. 
For these participants all major in English, especially when they have already reached 
B1+ level, it can be seen that their vocabulary level has not met the requirement. Indeed, 
the pre-test only focused on 3 topics, yet they are all familiar topics: School, Talking about 
food, Babies & children. This proves that vocabulary studying at school is not sufficient, 
which resorts to different vocabulary learning method outside the classroom, such as 
Quizlet. 
4.2. Students’ attitude towards the effectiveness of using Quizlet in studying 
English vocabulary 
It is noticeable that most participants agreed that Quizlet is an effective tool to learn 
lexical resource, given the fact that 63.64% of participants highly appreciate the experience 
with Quizlet. In this research, the effectiveness was evaluated in 4 aspects, according to 4 
modes of Quizlet (Flashcard mode, Speller mode, Learn mode and Game mode). It can be 
seen that the Learn mode was considered the most effective learning tool, scoring 4.55 out 
of 5 in the extent of effectiveness. The other 3 mode which were Flashcard, Speller, and 
Game had the weighted average of 3.64, 4.09, 4.09 respectively. This proved that all 4 
Quizlet study modes were of great help. The result also indicates that the majority of 
students agreed that Quizlet is not too difficult to use (only 1 people rated Quizlet 2 points 
in terms of ease of use). The survey gives information about the interest of students when 
studying on Quizlet, which is unexciting to none. It is clear that Speller Mode takes the 
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lead as it accounts for 45.45% of students’ choices. The second highest mode is Game 
Mode (27.27%), while the figures for Flashcard Mode and Test Mode are 22.73% and 
4.55% respectively. The Learn Mode is the least favourite mode on Quizlet. Quizlet is 
considered to be the number 1 tool when learning new words by 7 participants (31.82%). 
The rest said that they would give it a try once in a while 
In brief, the utility of Quizlet in language learning receives positive feedback from 
second year students at K64A, FOE, HNUE. 
4.3. Implications 
Quizlet is an effective vocabulary learning tool, and it can be used in the classroom or 
outside the classroom for self-study. The implication of Quizlet in the classroom would be 
mentioned first. Teachers could use Flashcard Mode in Quizlet to present new vocabulary 
in each lesson. Not only can it substitute for paper flashcards to save time and materials, 
but also make learning more intriguing and illustrative. In addition, Quizlet could also be a 
replacement for paper glossary. Today, there are a number of teachers requiring their 
students to make glossary at home and use it to learn vocabulary by heart. With Quizlet, 
this process would become less time-consuming and more efficient. Another implication in 
the classroom is that this website can be served as a web-based homework for students. For 
example, teachers create vocabulary test on Test mode and ask students to complete it at 
home as homework. There is a feature allowing the user to see others’ progress (track who 
did what, when and with which results). This enables teachers to observe and evaluate 
students’ performance on learning new words. Secondly, Quizlet is a useful self-study tool. 
For collaborative learning, students can design vocabulary sets in groups, exchange with 
their peers and give comments on their peers’ work. Or individuals can create their own 
study sets and self-test in order to adjust their learning. Learners are able to go to Quizlet at 
any time to review words that they have learnt. To sum up, Quizlet serves as a more 
attractive way of revising vocabulary, which is practical for both teachers and students, and 
it should be integrated into both in-class and out-of-class activities. 
5. CONCLUSIONS 
This paper has successfully found out the answers to the two research questions above. 
Students at the beginning of the study took the pre-test with not very high scores, after 
trying some activities with Quizlet felt that these interesting activities enable them to study 
English vocabulary more easily and more effectively. Furthermore, in the self-study 
activities, the participants confirmed that the most efficient way to learn new words using 
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Quizlet was to design their own study sets, then exchange them with classmates. Thus, 
students would be able to learn from one another, to give feedback and comments to their 
friends. 
However, there are some limitations of this study, namely: the lack of a sufficient 
number or participants, the limited number of tasks designed for self-study which may 
result in biased findings. It is also the suggestion for later study. Those who are interested 
in this study can conduct their survey in a larger number of students of a faculty of English 
or even non-majored English students at a university, with a larger number of vocabularies 
to study and activities to try. By doing this, the study would bring about fruitful results 
later on. 
REFERENCES 
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And How To Be Taught”, International Journal of Teaching and Education, pp.21-34. 
13. Rambousek, O. (2014), Learning vocabulary with technology. 
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NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ NHẬN THỨC CỦA HỌC SINH TRONG VIỆC 
SỬ DỤNG QUIZLET ĐỂ MỞ RỘNG VỐN TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG ANH 
Tóm tắt: Nhằm đạt được một mức độ thông thạo nhất định khi học một ngoại ngữ, bên 
cạnh ngữ pháp, người học nên cần tập trung cả trong việc học từ vựng. Bởi vậy, các 
chiến lược học từ vựng đang dần nhận được nhiều sự quan tâm từ phía giáo viên và học 
sinh. Trong thời đại tin học phát triển, công nghệ đã trở thành một công cụ hiệu quả để 
học từ vựng đối với thế hệ học sinh hiện đại, năng động ngày nay. Trong vô số cách kết 
hợp việc sử dụng công nghệ thông tin vào giáo dục, trang web học từ vựng Quizlet được 
chọn làm đề tài của nghiên cứu này. 
Từ khóa: sự thông thạo, ngoại ngữ, từ vựng, flashcard điện tử, công nghệ, Quizlet, tính 
hiệu quả.