Effectiveness of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Vocabulary Notebook in Improving the Vocabulary of English Grade 10 Students

Sep 28, 2026

Uploaded by Franzy

Vocabulary is the most important component of language knowledge and one of the strongest predictors of language performance. This descriptive one-group quasi-experimental action research investigated the effectiveness of a Do It Yourself (DIY) Word Notebook for Grade 10 students in a national high school in Zambales, Philippines. Forty students participated. Pretest and posttest measured vocabulary skills in definition, spelling, parts of speech, synonym, antonym, and word usage. Before the intervention, vocabulary levels were fairly satisfactory overall, with parts of speech and definition not meeting expectations. After the intervention, scores improved to satisfactory overall, with significant differences before versus after, and differences also emerged by grouping factors.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time30 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Vocabulary learning and its importance

DIY vocabulary notebook intervention

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Original Research Article | | | --- | --- | | Effectiveness of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Vocabulary Notebook in Improving the Vocabulary of English Grade 10 Students
Frenzy B Valdez 1,2* | | | 1Buhawen National High School, Philippines
2Graduate School, President Ramon Magsaysay State University, Philippines | | | Article History
Received: 13.08.2023
Accepted: 20.09.2023
Published: 23.09.2023
Journal homepage:
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| Abstract: Vocabulary is the most important component of language knowledge; it is one of the best predictors of language performance. This descriptive one-group quasi-experimental action research aimed to determine the effectiveness of Do It Yourself (DIY) Word Notebook in improving the Vocabulary of Grade 10 students of a national high school in Zambales, Philippines. A total of 40 students served as the participants of the study. Apretest/posttest served as the main instrument in gathering data which involved the measurement of the students’ vocabulary skills in terms of Definition, Spelling, Parts of Speech, Synonym, Antonym, and Word usage. Results revealed that before the intervention, the level of vocabulary of the students is Fairly Satisfactory. In particular, the students are Fairly Satisfactory in spelling, word usage and synonym while they Did Not Meet Expectations in parts of speech and definition. After exposure to the intervention, the class improved to Satisfactory based from the post-test mean score of 32.95. In particular, the students are Very Satisfactory in spelling and parts of speech, Satisfactory in definition and synonym, and Fairly Satisfactory in word usage and antonym. It can be concluded that there is a significant difference in the vocabulary of the students before and after the implementation of the DIY Vocabulary Notebook. Likewise, there is a significant difference in the students’ vocabulary when grouped according to language use at home, ethnicity and mother’s highest educational attainment. The use of DIY Vocabulary Notebook is hereby recommended to be used in English classes.
Keywords: Action research, do-it-yourself vocabulary notebook, English instruction, language teaching, Philippines vocabulary skills. | | Copyright © 2023 The Author(s): This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium for non-commercial use provided the original author and source are credited. | | INTRODUCTION Vocabulary is the most important component of language knowledge; it is one of the best predictors of language performance. The more words you know, the more you will be able to understand what you hear and read; and the better you will be able to say what you want when speaking or writing. Without sufficient vocabulary, people cannot communicate and express their feeling both in form of spoken and written effectively. Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed (Thornbury, 2002) . It means that grammar will be useless if there are lack of vocabularies. The lack of vocabulary affects language proficiency, reading success and transfer of learning strategies. Learning vocabulary seems to be one of the easiest things about learning a language, but it’s also one of the hardest things to do. Many students nowadays get to twelfth grade with a relatively small vocabulary, which prevents them from achieving their potential (Schmitt, 2008) . There is a metaphor about the relationship of vocabulary and grammar: grammar is a string and vocabulary is the copper cash. The string is really necessary, however the coins can never be neglected. Without grammar, only limited information could be transferred, while if vocabulary is absent, nothing could pass by and then grammar is nobody. Grammar rule

FAQs

What were the main results after the intervention?

After exposure to the DIY Notebook, students’ vocabulary improved from fairly satisfactory to satisfactory overall, and there was a significant difference before and after the intervention.

Sep 28, 2026

Uploaded by Franzy