The Use of Self-Generated Drawings as a Strategy for Teaching Sight Vocabulary

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a drawing approach to teaching sight vocabulary compared to a more traditional teaching method. This study involved thirty-one second graders divided into two groups. The students in the self-generated drawing group wrote the word on their paper, drew a picture about the word, and wrote a sentence about their picture utilizing the selected vocabulary word. The traditional or sentence group followed the same procedure but omitting the drawing. Both groups read their sentences aloud with the thirty minute lesson ending with a flash card reading of the three words used in that lesson. Three posttests were used to analyze data: sight word identification test, sight word maze test, and an attitude scale. A two-factor analysis of variance was used to test the hypotheses posited in this study. A t-test for independent means was used to interpret results from the attitude scales. There were no significant statistical differences between the two methods. Subjects appeared to learn sight vocabulary equally well with either method.