The effect of interactive word wall on fourth grade students' vocabulary instruction and attitudes toward course

This study was carried out to investigate the effect of Interactive Word Wall (IWW) technique on fourth grade students' vocabulary instruction and attitudes toward course. Pretest-posttest with control group quasi-experimental design was used in this study. The participants of the study consisted of 42 fourth grade students at a primary school in Alanya. Vocabulary test, attitude scale and students' diaries were used as a data collection tools. The units of My Clothes and Jobs were chosen for the study. During the treatment of four weeks, experimental group was instructed through IWW while control group received the ongoing instructional program. The treatment of the study lasted 8 weeks. The vocabulary test was administered as a pretest before application and as a posttest after application. Also, attitude scale was administered as a pretest and a posttest. At the end of each lesson, students were asked to write their positive and negative thoughts about the lesson into their diary. The quantitative data obtained from the word test were analyzed with SPSS 24.0 program using parametric and non-parametric tests at the end of the study. Qualitative data obtained from student diary were analyzed through content analysis. The findings obtained from the study revealed that there was a significant difference favor of experimental group between vocabulary test mean scores of the experiment and control group obtained from the vocabulary test . The statiscal analysis also indicated no significant difference between the groups' mean scores of attitude scale. As a result of quantitative analysis, it was found that IWW has a positive effect on teaching English vocabulary to young learners, but its' no effect has been found on the permanence of the learned vocabulary and the attitudes of the students towards the English course in this study. In addition to these, as the qualitative data obtained from the English course diaries were analyzed, it can be said that the students have positive attitudes towards IWW and English course.