THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGNHU XUAN II HIGH SCHOOL THE INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE APPLYING OLYMPIA CROSSWORD SOFTWARE IN REVIEWING VOCABULARIES TO HELP THE STUDENTS IN CLAS
Trang 1THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
NHU XUAN II HIGH SCHOOL
THE INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE
APPLYING OLYMPIA CROSSWORD SOFTWARE IN REVIEWING VOCABULARIES TO HELP THE STUDENTS IN CLASS 12B AT NHU XUAN II UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL
REMEMBER VOCABULARIES BETTER.
Author: Ha Thi Phuong Occupation: Teacher Field (Subject): English
THANH HOA, NĂM 2022
Trang 2MỤC LỤC
1 INTRODUCTION Page 1 1.1 Reasons for choosing the thesis Page 1 1.2 Objectives Page 1 1.3 Participants Page 2 1.4 Methods of the study Page 2
2 CONTENTS Page 2 2.1 Theoretical basis Page 2 2.2 Reality before implementing the thesis Page 3 2.3
The method: Applying Olympia Crossword Software in
reviewing vocabularies to help students be motivated in learning
English and remember words better
Page 4
2.3.1 Introduction of Olympia Crossword Software Page 4 2.3.2 Main functions and usage of Olympia Crossword software Page 4
a Start the software Page 5
b Open file Page 5
c Create file/Edit file Page 6
d Configuration settings Page 7 2.3.3 2.3.3 Using Olympia Crossword software in revising vocabulary
in reviewing lessons for grade 12’s students Page 8
a Vocabulary tasks designed in the textbook of English 12 Page 8
b Using Olympia Crossword software to make the Crossword
puzzle in reviewing vocabularies for the students grade 12 Page 9Example 1 Topic: Family life (Unit 1) Page 9 Example 2 Topic: EDUCATION (Unit 4 +Unit 5) Page 12 Example 3 Topic: SPORTS AND GAMES (Unit 12, Unit 13) Page 14 2.4 Results after applying the research with the teaching activities, my colleagues and my school Page 16
3 CONCLUSION, SUGGESTIONS Page 18 3.1 Conclusion Page 18 3.2 Suggestions Page 19
Trang 31 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Reasons for choosing the thesis.
In the world of the integration and development with the multilateralrelations and information explosion, English remains an important role incomprehensive development for everyone, and more important: for everystudent It is essential that we carry out effective methods in order that studentshave certain abilities in using English
From my own experience in teaching at Nhu Xuan II upper secondaryschool- a school in mountainous area of Nhu Xuan district- I see my students’difficulties in learning English There is a default thought among students isEnglish is very difficult for them to master and remembering vocabularies isalways a big trouble for them Meanwhile, English has been a core subject of thenational curriculum for a long time Especially, for the grade 12’s students, theyare under a lot of pressure in studying because they will have to finished thesecondary eduacation and prepare for the university entrance examination.These are the final year students of the high school, requiring them to have amore efficient, and more modern method of learning to prepare well beforetaking the GCSE examination It is very necessary to train them the correct andeffective learning methods
Furthermore, in learning English, remembering vocabulary plays animportant role so that they can master the language easier In fact, my students’lexical background is very little However, it is so boring to learn vocabularies
by writing down again and again to remember them This makes my studentsfeel bored and demotivated, and they will forget all words they have learnt in ashort period of time
For above reasons, it is neccessary that I design more effective activities
in order that my students will not be overwhelmed with the lessons and they areable to put what they learnt in long-term memory With the aim at helping mystudents remember english vocabularies better, I am going to present the
initiative: Applying olympia crossword software to make crossword puzzle
in reviewing vocabularies to help the students in Class 12B at Nhu Xuan II Upper Secondary School remember vocabularies better.
With the thesis I hope that I will contribute my little experience to help
my students remember vocabularies longer and know how to use them in abetter way
1.2 Objectives.
From my teaching at Nhu Xuan II Upper Secondary school, I find that mystudents, especially the students of grade 12, get a lot of trouble when learningEnglish because they are under pressure of preparing for the GCSE examination
at the end of the school year Many students dislike learning English becausethey always think that English is a very difficult subject and they cannot get highmarks Another reason is that English is not the subject that they are majoredafter they graduate high school Because of these reasons, they do not want to
Trang 4spend time learning it Therefore, I decided to carry out this thesis for somemain following purposes:
- For the most important purpose, I want to create a comfortable learningenvironment, thereby forming passion and love for the subject for my students
- Secondly, I want to help students logically synthesize vocabulary system
of some main topics in English 12’s program
- Furthermore, I want to help students enrich their lexical background tobetter serve in tests and exams
- Last but not least, I hope I can create more effective methods in teaching
to serve the next courses to improve the quality of teaching and learning for myschool
1.3 Participants.
The subjects chosen for the research include 41 students in class 12B atNhu Xuan II Upper secondary School The research was carried out in thechecking old vocabularies of reading skill of academic schooling year 2021 –
2022 at Nhu Xuan II Upper secondary School
1.4 Methods of the study.
The study bases on teacher's main activities: through teaching time in theclass and using the methods of analysis and comparison to see the effects ofapplying the use of Olympia crossword software to make Crossword puzzle inteaching
2 CONTENTS 2.1 Theoretical basis.
How to create excitement for learners? That is an important requirement
in teaching and learning activities because teaching - learning is a complexactivity, the quality and effectiveness of the basic activity depends on learners
To achieve high quality and efficiency, learners need to have: cognitivecapacity, learning motivation, determination and interest in learning .According to research by psychologists, interest has an important role in humanactivity, it is the motivation to motivate people to participate actively in thatactivity When working with interest, even when facing difficulties, people stillfeel comfortable and achieve high efficiency In learning activities, interest plays
a very important role In fact, students' interest in subjects is directlyproportional to their learning results Therefore, creating excitement for learners
is considered a mandatory requirement for anyone doing teaching work, for anyscience subject
In this situation, the application of new teaching methods based on theviewpoints of promoting student activeness and promoting the role of students'self-study is an urgent requirement Teachers need to have a new teachingmethod that is both highly effective, and helps students easily dominateknowledge, creating interest in learning To do this, teachers need to applyteaching technologies, technical means in teaching to overcome theshortcomings of old methods, create a new quality for education - training
Trang 5Gradually applying advanced methods and modern means to the teachingprocess, ensuring the time for students self-learning and self-studying.
On September 1, 2021, the Department of Education and Training ofThanh Hoa province issued Document No 2365 / SGDĐT-GDTrH guiding theimplementation of secondary education tasks in the school year 2021-2022,which identifies one of the following tasks: implement effectively teachingmethods and forms, develop teaching plans that ensure the requirements ofteaching methods, teaching techniques, teaching equipment and curricula, andmethods of testing and assessment during the learning process In the TEMISteacher training program (Module 2), the teaching method with games is also amodern teaching method to develop the quality and capacity of students in thesubject of English
According to Nurhayati – a famous entrepreneur of Indonesia “Game isone of methods that could render students feel that certain words are importantand necessary” There are many games which can be used in teaching andlearning process One kind of game is crossword puzzle Crossword puzzlecould nurture the brain of students to memorize the new words of a new topic
By crossword puzzle, the students can obtain new vocabularies and rememberthem better
Olympia Crossword helps to prepare crossword lessons quickly, and moreconvenient with an extremely eye-catching decorative interface that will attractstudents and increase the excitement of students in lessons
2.2 Reality before implementing the thesis.
Through teaching 41 students in class 12B at Nhu Xuan II UpperSecondary School in the first semester of academic year 2021- 2022, I foundthat a large number of students passively learn due to not being able to work orrefuse to work during school hours They easily forget things that they have justlearnt Whenever being asked in English, their anwsers are always: “I don’tknow anything about English”, “It’s so difficult”, “ I’ve forgotten all” A moreawful answer is “ I am still confused at using Vietnamese, How can I masterEnglish?” These sayings make me think a lot At last, I worked out that the mainreason for this situation is that they have not been interested in the subject yet.Therefore, the important solution to overcome the situation is to find a way thathelps my students get more interested in the subject In recent years, I have alsoused crossword puzzle in a few lessons to stimulate students’s spirit in the Warm–up stage Last year, I applied Olympia crossword software to adapt task 1 inWhile-reading stage in Grade 10’s textbook, I found that students have asignificant change in consciousness and interest in the subject
In addition, the tasks of vocabulary in the textbook are designed in fewcommon forms such as matching or filling missing words They are used unit byunit; therefore, after a long time, my students feel bored and demotivated As aresult, they do not like learning vocabulary anymore, and certainly, their lexicalbackground is not improved
Trang 6In the academic schooling year 2021-2022, I decide applying OlympiaCrossword Software to make the Crossworld puzzle to make the lessons moreinteresting and help my students be more excited about learning andremembering new words effectively And it’s more important that through thisactivity, my students can enrich their lexical background to better served in testsand the exams.
2.3 The method: Applying Olympia Crossword Software in reviewing vocabularies to help students be motivated in learning English and remember words better.
2.3.1 Introduction of Olympia Crossword Software
Olympia Crossword is one of many teaching support software for
teachers, built by VietEdusoft software development team VietEdusoft (VietIntelligent Education Technology) is a group of young Vietnamese people builtand supported by author Phan Kiet The group was established in 2012 with thedesire to help teachers get useful software products in teaching in the simplestway All products that the team build and develop are according to the followingcriteria: Simple, easy to use and completely free
2.3.2 Main functions and usage of Olympia Crossword software
We can download Olympia Crossword software and many other teachingsupport software for teachers at Website http://vietedusoft.weebly.com The latestversion is Olympia Crossword 6.1 After downloading the file[VietEduSoft]Olympia Crossword 6.1.rar, we will extract the OlympiaCrossword 6.1 folder inside this folder with 3 subfolders:
- The folder "Phan Ho Tro"
contains the system configurationfile, we need to go to this folder andrun the file named AddOXC.exeinside so that the softwareautomatically installs somenecessary configurations for thesystem Note that this only needs to
be done once, the first time you usethe software, once you have run thisfile, all subsequent uses of thesoftware do not need to do this stepanymore
- The "Chuong trinh" folder is the folder containing the executable files,
including the file Olympia Crossword 6.1.exe which is the file we need to open
to start the program
- The folder "cac bai vi du" contains a number of game files that have
been created by the author group as a template for teachers, to use these samplefiles teachers just need to use software to open files with the extension TXTfile in the folder “cards bai vi du” is the game will appear
Trang 7a Start the software
- Go to the "Programs" folder, left-click on the file named Olympia
Crossword 6.1.exe to open the software We can create a desktop shortcut forthis file so we can open the software faster next time
Screenshot of the main interface of the software
b Open file
This is the function to open the crossword file for presentation, if youhave finished designing and saving the file, you can click the "Open File"command button, find the path to where to save the crossword file with theextension txt for the presentation
Trang 8Screenshot of the interface to open the presentation file
On the presentation interface, there are command buttons with thefollowing functions:
- The horizontal words are numbered, when clicking on the numbercorresponding to the horizontal word, the question of the horizontal word willappear with a timer, and the word in the horizontal row will change to anothercolor You can click on the clock to pause or resume timing
- If students answer correctly, the teacher clicks on the command buttonwith a green checkmark to flip open the horizontal word and 1 character ofthe keyword will appear
- If the student answers incorrectly, the teacher can hide the word from thehorizontal row by clicking the red X command button ,then the word in thehorizontal row will be marked in black, as shown in the picture above, thestudent answered wrongly from the row number 3
- On the presentation interface, there are also a series of 3 function buttonsbelow as shown below:
+ The first command button: Powerpoint icon has the function tominimize the window or turn off the program
+ The second command button: the media play icon has thefunction of playing a video, the teacher can use the video to askquestions for the horizontal word
+ The third button: used to exit the slide show
c Create file/Edit file
Trang 9Screenshot of the crossword game design interface
Teachers use Create/Edit files to design or edit games After designing orediting the game, the teacher presses the floppy-shaped button to save the fileand name the file
d Configuration settings
Screenshot of the game configuration settings interface
This function allows users to change effects such as: backgrounddecoration effect, corner edge, hover effect, sound effect
Trang 10Choose to change the text color of the question, the color of the text fromthe horizontal line, the color of the cell and the key word.
Here the teacher can also set the time for the timer, the type of question toappear, and a few other parameters After the configuration is completed, clickthe blue V-shaped command button on the top to save it
- Olympia Crossword software has a Vietnamese interface and anextremely detailed installation guide comes with the installer The crosswordediting happens very quickly, and don't forget to add a countdown timer to make
it more time for the crossword puzzle game
2.3.3 Using Olympia Crossword software in revising vocabulary in reviewing lessons for grade 12’s students.
a Vocabulary tasks designed in the textbook of English 12
Bellow are the tasks that are designed in the textbook of English 12:
+ Unit 4: School Education system
+ Unit 5: Higher education
Trang 11+Unit 12: Water Sports
+ Unit 13: The 22 nd SEA GAMES
+ Unit 15: Women in society