(SKKN mới NHẤT) using wordwall net based activities in teaching vocabulary for EFL students at quy hop high school

Using Wordwall.net-based activities in teaching vocabulary for EFL students at Quy Hop High school Họ và tên: Thái Thị Hạnh Giáo viên: Tiếng Anh Tổ: Văn – Ngoại ngữ Trường: THPT Quỳ H

Using Wordwall.net-based activities in teaching vocabulary

for EFL students at Quy Hop High school

Họ và tên: Thái Thị Hạnh Giáo viên: Tiếng Anh Tổ: Văn – Ngoại ngữ Trường: THPT Quỳ Hợp

CONTENT PAGE

f How to create wordwall.net- based activities 8

a Demonstration of using wordwall.net-based activities 11- 40

PART I INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

There is no doubt that vocabulary is generally and widely considered to be one of the most essential elements of a language It plays an essential role in determining whether or not students will be successful in learning a language and getting their message across Moreover, it is believed that vocabulary knowledge is vitally important for the four skills, such as listening, reading, speaking, and writing Our lack of vocabulary knowledge is more likely to result in great trouble in expressing ourselves both in speaking and writing Because of the significance of vocabulary knowledge in effective communication, vocabulary learning, and instruction are attracting considerable attention from researchers and practitioners, particularly students and teachers

Since the advent of technology from the beginning of the 21st century, technology and language learning have become terms frequently encountering next

to each other, therefore resulting in web-based tools being used in English language classrooms Many popular web tools, such as Quizlet and Kahoot, are used as experimental tools with learners to investigate to what extent they are effective in enhancing learners’ vocabulary knowledge There are a lot of research that has been carried out in the area of vocabulary learning strategies in order to determine the effective and most frequently used vocabulary learning strategies However, there is

a lack of research on specific web tools, like Wordwall.net Hence, the present study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a single educational game website; Wordwall.net on the vocabulary knowledge of high school students Wordwall.net

is an edutainment website in which there are multiple game choices, all played interactively or individually, such as information matching, picture matching, quiz, wheel of fortune, puzzles, etc designed for vocabulary practice On this website, teachers either create their own games out of ready-made templates and add up content (words and images) in the games or they make use of games created by other teachers Wordwall is particularly beneficial for mixed-level classes because it can also create a dynamic way to have class competitions For any level of learner, Wordwall has potential to be used for self-study, as you decide which content to use

in the activities You can set tasks for groups or individual learners by giving them

an access code You could even get your learners to use Wordwall to create activities for their classmates

Moreover, due to the outbreak of Covid -19, most of schools in Vietnam must organize online teaching Therefore, it is crucial to enhance students’ learning motivation through some special tools and platforms Basing on the above reasons,

I have decided to conduct a study on “Using Wordwall.net-based activities in

teaching vocabulary for EFL students at Quy Hop High school”

2 The new factors of the study

The study suggests many new games for teachers to apply in teaching vocabulary for high school students through wordwall.net platform Hence, vocabulary memorization becomes more effective for English learners

The study is expected to research the effectiveness of using interaction with a word wall as the tool to combine the five identified effective teaching strategies plus social interaction to teach vocabulary words to middle school students Theoretically, this study can be used to enrich the example of techniques in teaching English vocabulary, especially for young learners Hopefully this study will be helpful and have a contribution for further researches in the field of vocabulary teaching Practically, this study will give general description about the condition of English vocabulary teaching at high school level In addition, it will be useful for the teachers who are interested in teaching English for young learners The result of this study can be used as a consideration to improve the teaching language to young learner, especially for teaching vocabulary online

3 Scope of the study

This study focuses on the activities of teaching vocabulary based on wordwall platform (dealing with the techniques of presentation, techniques of practice, techniques of training) In this study, I will just focus on the effectiveness on the 10thgraders Hence, the data then will be analyzed through the tests of 10th grade in the school year 2021- 2022

4 Organization of the study

The study is well organized with 3 main parts: the rationale of the study, the content or the solution of the problems, and the conclusion Hopefully that the study provides a useful access to most of the teachers in teaching language

PART II: CONTENT

1 Theoretical background

a Definition of vocabulary

Vocabulary has received a special concern in language teaching, especially teaching English as a foreign language It can also be regarded as the most frequently important component for language learners since the four language skills; reading, listening, speaking, and writing need a sufficient vocabulary knowledge The term vocabulary concerns with words and words meaning It is also defined as a collection all of words in a particular language and has a form in an expression that is associated with meaning

According to Wikipedia, a vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's language A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning a second language Further, vocabulary is the basic of language and there is no language without vocabulary Before mastering the four language skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing, students have to learn the English components such as vocabulary, structure, and pronunciation

Words can also be defined in various ways, and estimates of vocabulary size differ depending on the definition used The most common definition is that of a

lemma (the inflected or dictionary form; this includes walk, but not walks, walked

or walking) Most of the time lemmas do not include proper nouns (names of people,

places, companies, etc.) Another definition often used in research of vocabulary size

is that of word family These are all the words that can be derived from a ground

word (e.g., the words effortless, effortlessly, effortful, effortfully are all part of the word family effort) Estimates of vocabulary size range from as high as 200 thousand

to as low as 10 thousand, depending on the definition used

Listening vocabulary

A person's listening vocabulary includes the words recognized when listening

Speaking vocabulary

A person's speaking vocabulary includes the words used in speech and is generally a subset of the listening vocabulary Due to the spontaneous nature of speech, words are often misused slightly and unintentionally, but facial expressions and tone of voice can compensate for this misuse

Writing vocabulary

The written word appears in registers as different as formal essays and social media feeds While many written words rarely appear in speech, a person's written vocabulary is generally limited by preference and context: a writer may prefer one synonym over another, and they will be unlikely to use technical vocabulary relating

to a subject in which they have no interest or knowledge

Final vocabulary

The American philosopher Richard Rorty characterized a person's "final vocabulary" as follows: All human beings carry about a set of words which they employ to justify their actions, their beliefs, and their lives These are the words in which we formulate praise of our friends and contempt for our enemies, our long-term projects, our deepest self-doubts and our highest hopes… I shall call these words a person's “final vocabulary” Those words are as far as he can go with language; beyond them is only helpless passivity or a resort to force

c Vocabulary mastery

It is strongly believed that mastering many vocabularies is very important for foreign language learners Without mastering it, of course, foreign language learners will have some difficulties in developing the four language skills The primary thing

in learning a language is the achievement of a vocabulary Therefore, success in learning English demands vocabulary acquisition A large vocabulary can not guarantee the learner’s competence in learning English but in adequacy of vocabulary will obstruct their chances to make success in learning English Rivers

in Nunan 1998: p 117, argues that the acquisition of an adequate vocabulary is crucial for successful second language use because without an extensive vocabulary, one will be incapable of using the structures and functions one may have learned for comprehensible communication The importance of mastering vocabulary in learning is also stated by Nunan He says that the development of a rich vocabulary

is an important element in the acquisition of a second language From the definition above, it can be concluded that vocabulary is the total numbers of words, a list or set

of words in a particular language that a person knows or uses From these definitions,

it concludes that mastery means the competency to understand and apply something learnt Vocabulary mastery is always being an essential part of English Lewis and Hill say that vocabulary mastery is important for the students It is more than grammar for communication purpose, particularly in the early stage when students

vocabulary, students will get some difficulties in using English Vocabulary mastery can be measured by the requirements of generalization being able to define words and application selecting an appropriate use of it Therefore, it can be said that vocabulary mastery is a complete skill to understand the stock of words and their meanings of a particular language

d Problems in learning vocabulary

Many studies showed that the students still faced the problems or difficulties

in vocabulary learning Kinds of difficulties faced by students in vocabulary learning were various They include:

- Almost all of the students have difficulties in pronouncing the words

- How to write and spell

- The different grammatical form of a word known as inflections was one of causes of student’s difficulties in learning vocabulary

- In addition, the students found difficulties in choosing the appropriate meaning of the words and also still confuse in using the word based on the context

- The last, the students were also still confused when they found words or expression that were idiomatic There were some factors that caused students' difficulties in learning vocabulary First, the written form is different from the spoken form in English Secondly, the number of words that students need to learn

is exceedingly large, the limitations of sources of information about words, and the complexity of word knowledge Knowing a word involves much more than knowing its dictionary definition Last but not least, the incorrect pronunciation is often caused by the lack of sound similarity between English and the students' native language

Based on the result of the answer of questionnaire given by the researcher to

100 students of grade 10 at Quy Hop High School It was found that English vocabulary is not easy to learn There are some difficulties that was found by the students in learning English vocabulary, those are they have difficulties in understanding vocabulary, they difficult to memorize English vocabulary, they difficult to pronounce English vocabulary and they said spelling make English vocabulary difficult for them

NO QUESTION YES (%) NO (%)

2 In your opinion, is it easy to learn

5 Do the pronunciation and the

spelling make English vocabulary

difficult for you?

Table 1: Students’ perspective / percentage about vocabulary subject

e Wordwall.net- based activities

Wordwall can be used to create both interactive and printable activities Most

of the templates are available in both an interactive and a printable version Interactives are played on any web-enabled device, like a computer, tablet, phone or interactive whiteboard They can be played individually by students or be teacher-led with students taking turns at the front of the class Printables can printed out directly or downloaded as a PDF file They can be used as a companion to the interactive or as stand-alone activities There are lots of interactive activities for students to learn on wordwall.net They include Crossword, Find the match, Gameshow quiz, Match up, Quiz, Random wheel, Word search, Seating plan…

In addition, wordwall activities can be used as student-completed assignments When a teacher sets an assignment, students are directed to that particular activity This feature can be used in-class when students have access to their own devices, or as a way of assigning homework

To set an assignment, go to an activity page and click the Share button Choose Set Assignment to configure student access and results tracking The next page displays a unique access link you can communicate to your students When the students visit the activity through this link, their results are recorded and made available to the teacher

Any activity you create can also be made public This allows you to share it via email or another means of communication with students or colleagues It also

Finally, Wordwall activities can be embedded into another website or learning management system using an HTML embed code The activity becomes playable directly from the website in which it is embedded

f How to create wordwall.net- based activities

In order to create a new game activity, click the blue Create Activity button and select a template; then, enter your desired content Content may consist of images, text, special symbols and LaTeX equations Creating a fully interactive activity only takes a few minutes and no knowledge of code or game design is

required Therefore, most of the teachers can do it easily

Most game templates can be accessible in different themes Each theme alters the look and feel of the template by implementing different graphics, fonts and sounds If you wish to further tweak the settings of an activity, this is possible from the activity page You can find an Edit Content link underneath the activity itself

Once you have created an activity, you can switch it to a different template with a single click This saves you time and is great for differentiation and reinforcement This feature is available for most templates, although not all game types can be interchanged

Wordwall activities can be used as assignments You can direct students to that activity without visiting the main activity This feature can be used in-class where students have access to their own devices, or as homework How can you do it? Go to an activity page and click the Share button Choose Set Assignment On the next page, you can configure student access and results tracking The final page displays a unique access link You must communicate the link to the students

This template will be displayed:

Once you click Set Assignment, you will read the following:

2 Solutions and discussion

a Demonstration of using wordwall.net-based activities

Below are activities created as the demonstration of using wordwall.net-based activities to teach vocabulary for students at Quy Hop High School These activities were created to teach vocabulary in grade 10 English Textbook

UNIT 1: FAMILY LIFE

To take unit 1: Family life for example, teacher created some activities for students of grade 10 to revise vocabulary Teacher used the activities such as match

up and random card to help students memorize vocabulary related to the topic: extended family, breadwinner, divorce, single parent family, childhood, …… https://wordwall.net/resource/31375315

The results by student:

UNIT 2: YOUR BODY AND YOU

- In unit 2: READING- teacher created an activity called “Missing word” All students were involved in the game and ranked as their competence

READING

https://wordwall.net/resource/31375416

After playing the game, students revised the meaning of the vocabulary such as: promoting, harmony, yin and yang Treatments, balance….Teacher was awarded

of the students’ performance basing on the leaderboard

- In LISTENING LESSON, teacher created an activity called “Labelled diagram” for them to revise words related to Food Pyramid All students were involved in the game and ranked as their competence

https://wordwall.net/resource/31375634

To learn more extensive words related to health, students were asked to do wordsearch activity in order that they could learn more vocabulary

https://wordwall.net/resource/31376394

The results by student

The second game is Quiz about types of music and musical instruments https://wordwall.net/resource/31378076

The results by student

After LANGUAGE lesson, to help students revise and remember all the new words, the researcher also designed the game flash cards for them to do

https://wordwall.net/resource/31377946

UNIT 4: FOR A BETTER COMMUNITY

In unit 4: For a better community, before leading students to the lesson, the researched used the game FIND THE MATCH to warm up students and check their knowledge of places in their community

https://wordwall.net/resource/31385329

-The researcher also created the game Find the match for students to practice some related words before listening lesson

https://wordwall.net/resource/31385768

The results by student

UNIT 5: INVENTIONS

In unit 5, students also played the game to revise and remember the meaning

of vocabulary such as:

-The first game called Match up was used in Reading lesson

https://wordwall.net/resource/31386259

The results by student