(SKKN 2022) some techniques help the 12th grade students learn vocabulary effectively at quang xuong 1 high school

Good vocabulary is important for passive skills reading and listening.. Good vocabulary is important for active skills speaking and writing.Every English conversation that is marked by

I INTRODUCTION

1 Reason for choosing the topic

Vocabulary is the most fundermental factor in learning a language Almostevery skill in language learning process requires learners to have ample andgood vocabulary.Vocabulary is important and necessary for building up a goodcommand of the language.Without vocabulary, it is unlikely that learners coulduse the language correctly and with confidence.Therefore, Vocabulary isreagrded as the fisst and the most funfermantal aspect a language learner mustmaster before developing language skills

Good vocabulary is important for passive skills( reading and listening) Itenhances learners’comprehension and understanding of language

Good vocabulary is important for active skills ( speaking and writing).Every English conversation that is marked by some idioms and phrasal verbshelps learners’expression become clear, interesting.Essay marked by the gooduse of academic vocabulary makes learners’s writing become more formal forimportant purposes

Vocabulary knowledge is important because it encompasses all the words

we must know to access our background knowledge, express our ideas andcommunicate effectively, and learn about new concepts Students’ wordknowledge is linked strongly to academic success because students who havelarge vocabularies can understand new ideas and concepts more quickly thanstudents with limited vocabularies The more words you know, the more youwill be able to understand what you hear and read; and the better you will

be able to say what you want to when speaking or writing

However, students have some difficulties in understanding a commonreading because of vocabularies Reading texts often contain many new wordswhile their vocabulary is low When encountering new words, they often stop tolook up a dictionary This habit takes a lot of time to complete a reading and

makes students passive in vocabulary learning, reading comprehension,vocabulary memorization and practicing them.

All in all, vocabulary is the core of langugae learning It is important andnecessary for language comprehension and expression It could be used as aninstrument to measure learners’language ability as well as their fluency

2 Objectives of the study

Vocabuary play an important part in learing language Therefore, instudents’success in school, not only does vocabulary improve readingcomprehension but also support students’writing and speaking as well as learing

in the context area

In this study, I would like to show techinques in teaching vocabulary inEnglish textbook 12 for 12 grade students in order to improve the quality of thelesson, motivate students to learn vocabulary, memerize and apply themeffectively

3.Subjects of the study

- Techniques were implemented to 12 grade students

- 12 grade students of Quang Xuong 1 high school took part in the study.They were chosen as the participants of the study because they are going to takeGCSE examination and English is core subject

4 Methods of the study

In this study, I have used the following methods:

- Consolidating experiences

- Observing

- Reading documents

- Studying students’products

5 New points of the study

In my study I will introduce some new techniques in teaching vocabulary.+ drawing

+ miming and gestures

+media

+ Pictures

+ semestic field

+ symnonym and antonym

+ affixes

II CONTENTS OF THE STUDY

1 Rationale of the study

1.1 What vocabulary to teach ?

As we know, there are two types of vocabulary They are: Passivevocabulary and active vocabulary

Passive vocabulary are words which a student can recognize but notnecessarily use in speaking or writing If a student sees a word in their passivevocabulary, he/she will understand what it means Passive vocabulary words areespecially useful for receptive skills of reading and listening

Active vocabulary are words which students can both understand and use

in communication .Active vocabulary words are especially useful for theproductive skills of speaking and writing

A teacher should expect his/her students to understand words in readingand listening before they can use those same words in speaking and writing.When teaching, it is best to first train students to recognize words Later theteacher will find the students can actively use those same words incommunication

1.2 Principles for teaching vocabulary :

If teachers want students to remember new vocabulary, it needs to belearnt in context, practised, and then revised to prevent students from forgetting.Teachers must make sure students have understood the new words, which will

be remembered better if introduced in a "memorable way" (Hubbard et al.1983:50) Bearing all this in mind, teachers have to remember to employ avariety of techniques for new vocabulary teaching

- Provide a context for new words: We will help the students guess themeanings of the new words and remember easilier

- Do not present too much new words at once Teach a few words andallow students to practise and use them a lot This will help them remembernew words easily

- Practising new words in context is more important than memorizingisolated words Students may be required to learn the meanings of words butthey must also be given the opportunity to use them productively inspeaking and writing

- Teach your students skills for guessing new words, especially whenreading The meaning of words can be inferred from the different types ofcontexts and from looking at affixes (parts) of the word

- Avoid translation as much as possible If the students are always havingwords translated, they are really only communicating in their own language , not

in Eglish Also, students do not usually remember vocabulary that has beentranslated Only use translation as a last resort, when it would otherwise take toolong to communicate in English

- Avoid using the dictionary a much as possible When reading orlistening, students should first try guessing or ignoring new words so that theycan continue without stopping Also using a dictionary when speaking orlistening often slows down communication In writing, using a dictionary can bebeneficial It helps students express themselves more clearly

- Practise the new words in context first Active words are needed to teachfirst, ignore the passive words

Those are the principles for teaching vocabulary In my opinion, if all of usfollow those principles strictly, our students won’t find it difficult to remembernew vocabulary any more and we will get better feedback from our students

2 Situation before applying the study

English is a compulsory subject at school and in the GCSE exam butstudents, particularly grade 12 students, feel stressful to learn English They findmany difficulties in learning grammar, pronouncing, especially in learningvocabulary They don’t have enough words to master reading, speaking,

listening and writing skills They also have trouble in doing tests because of thelack of vocabulary Even they can’t find out any suitable methods to followwhen they want to concentrate on learning vocabulary Therefore, they ignorereading parts in tests or they complete reading parts without making sure thatwhich answer is correct although reading skill accounts for nearly half of themark in a test In addition, many teachers of English at high schools don’t spendenough time on teaching vocabulary They only pay attention to grammar orthey still use old methods when teaching news words They get students tounderstand and remember new words passively.

Quang Xuong 1 high school is a school in rural of Quang Xuong English

is a compulsory subject in the national high school examinations However,some of students still do not really care about the subject for some reasons Theyonly focus on their exam subjects English is a very special subject, making itdifficult for them if they do not really concentrate and practice it regularly.Besides, they are rural students, the conditions for practicing English are not sogreat So the academic achievement of this subject is not high and there are stillweak students

Result before the research in teaching

The first term of school year: 2021-2022

Class Number of

students

good (%)

Excellent-Rather (%)

Average (%)

Weak (bad) (%)

Before investigating, proportion of weak students are high accounts for 3

to 9 percent and they are not interested in learning English especially learningvocabulary

3 Solutions to problems

There are a lot of vocabulary problems in teaching and learning process.The factors can be caused by the individualized teacher, by the method that isused, by the less of motivation and interest of the students in learning English, or

perhaps the students have difficulties in mastering vocabulary So in this part ofthe study, I would like to focus on techniques used in presenting and checkingvocabulary to improve students’ vocabulary mastery and motivatestudents’English studies.

III TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHING VOCABULARY

There are some effective techniques for presenting the meanings ofwords

1 Drawing :

In the English language classroom, drawing is an engaging and effectiveway for learners to record, evaluate and explore language Drawing providespictures that may increase students’positive attitudes towards reading in general.The use of simple drawing techniques allows learners to master foreign in anenjoyable way So when teaching vocabulary, teacher can draw picture of word

on the board that will quickly convey the meaning

E.g:  -> happy

2 Mime and gestures: Using gestures and mime is important when it comes

to vocabulary Teacher can use them to elicit certain words and phrases fromstudents When teaching vocabulary, it is also common to associate gestureswith words to help students remember vocabulary better Using the same gestureevery time you say a particular word or phrase will help these students associatethe two

This is the way of using actions and facial expressions to show the meaning ofwords Most action verb ( sits, stand, open…) and some adjectives showingfeelings and stantus ( happy, worried…) can be taught using mine and gestures

3.Media ( using video): Almost any video can be used to teach English:

commercial films, TV programmers, home-made dramas and holiday films Thisway encourage students to guess the meaning of words

Eg:(Unit 5, text book 12)When teaching vocabulary about culturalidentity, teacher can give a short video about a marriage in VietNam and

America When students watch video, they remember important wordsthrought imagines on screen:

Altar/ Master of celemony/ Banquet/ Groom/ Bridge/ Ancestor/Tray/ Schedule/Blessing

4 Pictures: We can use pictures to communicate about many types of words.

E.g :(Unit 5, text book 12)

When teaching vocabulary about cutural diversity, teacher uses somepictures to introduce words

Traditional costumes Cultural identity belief

Trang phục truyền thống Bản sắc văn hóa tín ngưỡng

Cultural practices: maintain

Phong tục văn hóa duy trì

5 Antonym and symnonym :

a Antonym: are words that have the same or a similar meaning Synonyms can

provide students with variety in speech or writing, making it easy for you toavoid overusing the same word and sounding repetitive Some examples ofsynonyms include the following:

 Enormous = huge = gigantic = massive

 Injured = damaged = wounded = harmed

 Intelligent, clever, brilliant, knowledgeable

 Look, glance, see, gaze, stare

 Loyal, faithful, ardent, devoted

 Old = elderly = aged = senior

 Organization = institution= management

 Partner = associate = colleague = companion

 Polite = courteous = gracious

 Quick = fast = swift = speedy = rapid

 Risky = dangerous

 astronaut = spaceman

 prohibit = ban

b.symnonym: are words that have contrasting meanings Antonyms can be

used to help show contrast between two things or give clues to exactly what

is meant Below are some examples of antonyms:

 Tragic # Comic

 Wealth # Poverty

6 Semantic field : Semantic (or sometimes called lexical) fields are a technique

often used to keep a certain image persistent in their learners' mind They are acollection of words which are related to one another be it through their similarmeanings, or through a more abstract relation

Eg: Teaching vocabulary related to the topics in textbook.

* Urbanisation (Unit 2, text book 12): densely population, discrimination,

indusstrialisation, migrate, overload, overcrowded, umemployment,

resolution,slum……

* Green movement (Unit 3, text book 12): biomas, conservation, deplete,

geothermal, alternative, renewable, nonrenewable, fossil fuel, organic,

purification, replenish, sustainable…

* The mass media(Unit 4, text book 12): advent, cyberbullying,

documentary, medium, social netwworking, website, press, news,audience, connect, computer, tablet…

* Cultural identity(Unit 5, text book 12): cultural diversity,cultural

assimilation,culture shock,to abandon one’s own culture, traditional beliefs andcustoms.to adopt a new culture, to be in danger of extinction,to experience greatculture shock,to bring a wide range of benefits to, to have a negative/detrimentalimpact on…:, to get deeper insight into, to show great respect for,the growinginfluence of western culture,the disapearance of some minority languages,amulticultural society,people of different cultural backgrounds, tension andconflict,to instil cultural, and traditional values into somebodythe loss oftraditional cultures = the disapearance of traditional ways of life…

* Work (Unit 8, text book 12): apply for, employer,employee,

qualification, candidate, experience, salary, skill, probation, shortlist……

7 Guessing from context : Have students guess the meaning of word by reading

the whole sentence

Eg: + Online courses allow learners to study at flexible time.

+ Different learners have different learning styles.

After reading the whole sentences, students will be able to guess the meaning

of words:

Flexible: linh hoạt, linh động

Style: cách, kiểu

8 Guessing from affixes : Meaning of some words can be mastered

through affixes, prefexes Many new words are formed by adding an affix to the

beginning or end of a Latin or Greek root or root word When affixes are added

to the beginning of roots or root words, they are called prefixes When affixes are added to the end of roots or root words, they are called suffixes.The teacher

can use prefixes or suffixes to show the meaning of new words

Common Prefixes

in-, im-, il-, ir- not indirect, immoral, illiterate,

irreverent

semi- half; partly; not fully semifinal

 The teacher can use suffixes to teach vocabulary

Common Suffixes

-able, -ible is; can be affordable, sensible

-al, -ial having characteristics of universal, facial

-ed past tense verbs; adjectives the dog walked,

the walked dog

-er, -or one who; person connected

-ic having characteristics of poetic

-ing verb forms;present

-ion, -tion,

-ation,-tion act; process

submission, motion, relation, edition

-ive, -ative,

-itive adjective form of noun

active, comparative,sensitive

-ment state of being; act of contentment

-ness state of; condition of openness

-ous, -eous, -ious having qualities of riotous, courageous,

gracious

9 Translation : This will save much time ,teacher will give a similar word in

the students’ first language

Eg: academic (a): học thuật

Activate (v): kích hoạt

Ambition(n): hoài bão, khát vọng

10 Using dictionary : If we need to save time or communicate about a

difficult word, the dictionary might be the best option

IV CHECKING VOCABULARY