Animated images and vocabulary development among lower primary learners

Abstract

Vocabulary development is a foundational literacy skill in the academic achievement for infant learners. In order to attain other learning areas, a pupil should have mastered the key aspects of vocabulary. Nonetheless, today the quality of vocabulary development among children in Uganda is still wanting. Some schools have therefore begun to adopt use of animated images to improve on the children’s ability to develop vocabulary. This study was carried out to examine the impact of animated images in managing vocabulary development among lower primary learners. The study was confined to pupils from Primary One, and followed a quantitative approach, with a quasi-experimental design. Two schools were purposively selected basing on their background in use of animated images. One hundred and sixty (160) participants, were randomly sampled where 80 were for the control group and 80 for the experimental group. Data revealed that there was a significant difference between the scores of the control and experimental groups. In conclusion, vocabulary registered a difference in performance basing on the fact that there was a sense of audio presentations that were repetitive. This therefore implies that pupils were able to perform better after being exposed to lessons of vocabulary development with animations. The study recommends that during vocabulary development lessons, animated images are designed in an accent and pronunciations learners are familiar with, which may have a bigger impact on the learners’ results.