(LUẬN văn THẠC sĩ) improving learning english vocabulary through games an action research

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 3: The vocabulary teaching plan 28 Table 7: Improvement in Chi‟s learning vocabulary 34 Table 11: Improvement in Long‟s vocabulary 36 Table 15: Percentag

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

VŨ PHƯƠNG THẢO

IMPROVING LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY THROUGH GAMES: AN ACTION RESEARCH

NÂNG CAO VIỆC HỌC TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG ANH THÔNG QUA CÁC

TRÒ CHƠI NGÔN NGỮ: NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG

M.A THESIS

CODE: 60 14 10

HANOI – 2011

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

DEPARTMENT OF POST GRADUATE STUDIES

VŨ PHƯƠNG THẢO

IMPROVING LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY THROUGH GAMES: AN ACTION RESEARCH

NÂNG CAO VIỆC HỌC TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG ANH THÔNG QUA CÁC

TRÒ CHƠI NGÔN NGỮ: NGHIÊN CỨU HÀNH ĐỘNG

M.A THESIS

CODE: 60 14 10 SUPERVISOR: PHẠM MINH TÂM, M.Ed

HANOI – 2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CANDIDATE‟S STATEMENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND ABBREVIATIONS………

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the Study and Research Problem Statement ………

1.2 Research Aims and Research Questions………

1.3 Scope of the Study

1.4 Methodology of the Study

1.5 Design of the Study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW…………

2.1 Overview of Vocabulary Teaching ………

2.1.1 The Definitions of Vocabulary

2.1.2 Principles in Vocabulary Teaching

2.1.3 Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary

2.1.3.1 Techniques for Presenting New Vocabulary ………

2.1.3.1.1 Visual Techniques……… … … ……….…………

2.1.3.1.2 Verbal Techniques ………

2.1.3.1.3 Student-centred ……… ……… ……… ………

2.1.3.2 Techniques for Consolidating and Checking Vocabulary………

2.2 Overview of Language Games

2.2.1 The Definitions of Language Games

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2.2.2 Types of Language Games

2.2.3 Perspectives on Exploiting Games in ELT…… …………

2.2.4 Reasons to Use Games in EFL Classroom ……… ………… …

2.3 Relationship between Games and Language Teaching ……… …

2.4 Common Games in Teaching Vocabulary………

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Context …… ……… …

3.2 Research Questions …… ……… …

3.3 Research Approach ……… ……….…

3.4 Participants ……… ……… …

3.5 Research Instruments ……… ………

3.5.1 Pre-test and Post test……….……… ……… …

3.5.2 Vocabulary Games ………

3.5.2.1 Vocabulary Games for Checking ………

3.5.2.2 Vocabulary Games for Practice ………

3.5.2.3 Vocabulary Games for Revision or Warm-up ……….………

3.5.3 Questionnaire ……… ……… …

3.6 Data Collection Procedure ……… ……… …

3.6.1 Pre-test ……… ……… ………

3.6.2 Post-test……… ……… …………

3.6.3 Questionnaire……… ……… …

3.7 Data Analysis Procedure ……… ………

3.7.1 Data from pre-test and post test ……….……… …

3.7.2 Data from questionnaire ………

3.8 Conclusive Remarks ……… ………

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CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION.……….……… ……… …

4.1 Findings …… ……… …

4.1.1 Research question 1……… ……… ……

4.1.1.1 Results …… ……… ………

4.1.1.2 Discussion ……… ………

4.1.2 Research question 2 ……… ………

4.1.3 Research question 3 ……… ………

4.2 Implications ……… ………

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION

5.1 Summary of the study………

5.2 Limitations………

5.3 Suggestions for further studies ……… ………

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Games exploited for teaching vocabulary ……… ………

Appendix 2: Pre-tests and post-tests………

Appendix 3: Questionnaires………

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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

Table 3: The vocabulary teaching plan

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Table 7: Improvement in Chi‟s learning vocabulary

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Table 11: Improvement in Long‟s vocabulary

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Table 15: Percentage of improvement

37 Table 16: Data collected from questions 4 and 5 of the questionnaire 38 Table 17: Data collected from questions 1, 2, 3 and 6 of the questionnaire 39 Figure 1: The students‟ attitudes towards language games 40 Figure 2: Students‟ participation in language games

41 Figure 3: The essential features of using language games 42

ABBREVIATIONS

ELT: English Language Teaching

EFL: English Foreign Language

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the Study and Research Problem Statement

In learning a foreign language, vocabulary plays an important role It is one element that links the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing all together In order to communicate well in foreign language, students should acquire an adequate number of words and should know how to use them accurately Vocabulary is, obviously, vital for successful communication

As a teacher of English, I recognize that, although the issue of vocabulary teaching and learning is currently receiving attention of teachers and learners at our school, it

is still far from how vocabulary items can best be taught and learnt A vast amount

of teaching time in a vocabulary lesson is used by explanation, definition, students compile page upon page of word lists that they rarely have opportunity to practice Obviously, vocabulary arises in the classroom regardless of the chosen activity, and

in spite of any conscious design on the teacher‟s part As the result, students only think of vocabulary learning as knowing the primary meaning of new words In addition, the students‟ ability to use English for communication is still limited, especially for secondary students They can have a fairly good knowledge of grammar but hardly express themselves properly because of shortage of vocabulary and communicative competence That is why, for most students, learning vocabulary in language lesson is a time of failure and disappointment in which they gradually feel boring and gradual rejection of the work that the teacher is doing for them

Motivated by the idea of finding stimulating activities to help students to learn vocabulary, with the goal to create a context for vocabulary acquisition in the

classroom, the writer has chosen that games may be of some help for learning and teaching English vocabulary

All the above-mentioned reasons have inspired the writer to conduct an action

research titled “Improving learning English vocabulary through games”

1.2 Research Aims and Research Questions

The study is aimed to reach the specific data on the improvement in participants‟ vocabulary, to find out students‟ attitude towards language games and provide some criteria to choose relevant games for this purpose So as to achieve these, the research seeks answers to the following questions:

1 To what extent does the use of games in teaching vocabulary improve the students‟ learning vocabulary?

2 What are the students‟ attitudes towards the language games?

3 What are the essential features of using language games that can help improve the

students‟ vocabulary as perceived by the students?

1.3 Scope of the Study

The research will only focus on limited target population and a certain aspect of vocabulary In terms of vocabulary, the study focuses on student‟s knowledge of the meanings, forms and usage of the words In terms of target population, the subjects are 10 non-English majors studying the book Pacesetter at level Elementary, published by Oxford University Press (2000) at Sunrise school

1.4 Methodology of the Study

To answer these above questions, action research was conducted with a number of pre-tests and post-tests to solve the first main question Each test was taken by the participants for four or five days before the beginning of the unit and after finishing the unit to see the differences Furthermore, a questionnaire was also used to get the participants‟ attitudes towards the language games and the answer of the last question - the essential features of using language games that can help improve the

students‟ vocabulary as perceived by the students

1.5 Design of the Study

The thesis is divided into five main chapters:

Chapter 1 introduces the rationale, the aims, the scope, the methodology and the

design of the study

Chapter 2 provides the background of the study, including the definitions and

features of some terms such as vocabulary, principles of teaching vocabulary and types of language games

Chapter 3 demonstrates the research methods applied in the study with details on

how and why these methods were implemented in the research Besides, this chapter presents the data collected from pretests and post tests as well as from the questionnaire

Chapter 4 demonstrates the results and discussion of the study, which answer the

three research questions and then suggests the implication of the results in reality

Chapter 5 summarizes the main issues covered in the paper It presents the

limitations of the study and some suggestions for further studies in the research area

References and Appendices are presented in the last pages of the study

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Overview of Vocabulary Teaching

2.1.1 The Definitions of Vocabulary

The American Heritage Dictionary defines vocabulary as “the sum of words used

by, understood by, or at the command of a particular person or group.” It means that vocabulary is all the words of a language A person's vocabulary is the set of words they are familiar with in a language A vocabulary usually grows and evolves with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge

Michael Lewis (1993: 89) stated: vocabulary “ may be individual words, or full sentences – institutionalized utterances – that convey fixed social or pragmatic meaning within a given community”

However, what are the major aspects of vocabulary that can be taught to students?

Ur (1996) (as cited in To Thu Huong et al, 2009: 81) assumed that vocabulary has eleven aspects, which are demonstrated in the table below:

1 Pronunciation What a word sounds like [ti:]

2 Spelling What a word looks like T-e-a

3 Grammar Change of form (especially if it is irregular) Ox - Oxen

4 Collocation Restrictions on how words can be used together Make trouble but Do wrong

5 Denotation The core meaning that refers the

word to the real world

Nightfall: The close of the day

6 Connotation

The additional meaning that shows people‟s emotions and attitudes towards what the word refers to

Excuse in She made an excuse for being late has a negative meaning

7 Formality Whether a word is appropriate to use

in certain contexts Thank you – Thanks

8 Synonym Words that mean the same or nearly the same bright, clever, smart

9 Antonym Words that mean the opposite Rich vs Poor

10 Hyponym Words that serve as specific

examples of a general concept Bus, car, lorry, van

11 Word building How a word is created Sink – sinkable - unsinkable

Table 1: Major Aspects of Vocabulary

For the pedagogical purposes of this paper, the researcher has chosen to use the terms vocabulary and lexis to refer to individual words (e.g library, school, etc.)

2.1.2 Principles of Teaching Vocabulary

Erin Lowry, Senior English Language Fellow (2009) shows that there are four principles for teaching and learning vocabulary

Recycling: It is vital to ensure that new vocabulary is regularly recycled/ revised,

because if students do not get the chance to put it into use they will easily begin to forget it

Motivation: It is also important to ensure teenagers are paying attention and

involved in their lessons and lots of ideas for practising vocabulary are fun

Exams: An aspect of language that is judged in examinations is the range of

vocabulary that students have, so they must be able to use vocabulary they have learnt effectively in exam situations

Communication: In order to communicate clearly and effectively a good range of

vocabulary is needed It enriches both spoken and written language

Hubbard et al (1989) and Nation (2003) (as cited in To Thu Huong et al, (2009: 91)

stated other principles First of all, teaching and practicing words in their spoken form are given first, otherwise students will try to pronounce the words as they are written After that students will remember new vocabulary better if it is presented in

a memorable way to start with and then put to regular practice Teachers always check their students have understood the new words, no matter how they have been presented Unless teachers only want their students to have a passive knowledge of the lexical items, the teachers must put them into context and get the students to practise them Moreover as with teaching anything else, revision is essential; otherwise the new words have been taught will be forgotten Furthermore, high frequency words should be given more teaching time and attention than low frequency words because they are more useful They should be fluently accessible for both receptive and productive use and become part of learners‟ active vocabulary For people beginning to learn a language, a way of quickly developing fluency is learning groups of words as units Lastly, learners should be trained in vocabulary learning strategies (using word cards, learning by means of word association, guessing meaning from context, using dictionary, etc.) for effective self-study

Obviously, all of them affirmed that revision is essential in teaching vocabulary If what students learned in the last lesson is not recycled, it will be easy for them to forget it In addition to, communication is vital because it enriches both spoken and written language And, practice is indispensable It helps learned to be trained for effective self-study

2.1.3 Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary

Vocabulary is an important part of nearly any subject Students need to develop their vocabulary base to fully communicate and comprehend a topic As they learn how to use more vocabulary properly, you will see an improvement in their writing and speaking Unfortunately, new vocabulary is not always fun to learn Worksheets and home school worksheets will only go so far, and many students find them to be tedious and boring The default way of explaining vocabulary is to give a definition,

but this does not always work efficiently because of the lack of context clues.

Therefore, using techniques in teaching vocabulary is very important

2.1.3.1 Techniques for Presenting New Vocabulary

Gairns and Redman (1986:73) showed the most common ways in which meaning of new items are conveyed in a normal teaching situation

2.1.3.1.1 Visual Techniques

Visual includes flashcards, photographs, blackboard drawing, wallcharts, and realia

They are extensively used for conveying meaning and are particularly useful for teaching concrete items of vocabulary such as food or furniture, and certain areas of vocabulary such as places, descriptions of people, actions and activities to practice activities involving student interaction

Mine and gesture are often used to supplement other ways of conveying meaning

When teaching an item such as „to swerve‟, a teacher might build a situation to illustrate it, making use of the blackboard and gesture to reinforce the concept

2.1.3.1.2 Verbal Techniques

Use of illustrative situations (oral or written): This is most helpful when items

become more abstract To ensure that students understand, teachers often make use

of more than one situation or context to check that learners have grasped the concept

Use of synonymy and definition: Teachers often use synonymy with low level

students, where inevitably they have to compromise and restrict the length and complexity of their explanations Definition alone is often inadequate as a means of conveying meaning, and clearly contextualized examples are generally required to clarity the limits of the item

Contrasts and opposites: This is a technique which students themselves use, often

asking „What‟s the opposite of ?

Scale: Once students have learnt two contrasting or related gradable items, this can

be a useful way of revising and feeding in new items

Translation: It can save valuable time that might otherwise be spent on tortuous

and largely unsuccessful explanation in English, and it can be a very quick way to dispose of low frequency items that may worry the students but do not warrant significant attention

2.1.3.1.3 Student-centred

According to Grains and Redman, this not only makes the student more responsible for his own learning but also permits greater attention to individual needs Recent developments have emphasized the importance of equipping students with the necessary strategies for dealing with skills activities In the learning of vocabulary this involves: asking others, using a dictionary and making use of context to deduce meaning and guessing from the item itself

Asking others: A student can ask the teacher or another student to explain the

meaning of an item which he has just encountered

Using a dictionary: If the student has no teacher or peer to ask, he can still solve a

number of problems by using dictionary This could be a dictionary specially written for foreign students or a bilingual dictionary

Contextual guesswork: This involves making use of the context in which the word

appears to derive an idea of its meanings or in some cases to guess from the word itself

In the next part, background knowledge on games is introduced to build up an generalization of framework for further investigation

2.1.3.2 Techniques for Consolidating and Checking Vocabulary

Techniques for this part are mostly games which encourage, entertain, teach, and promote fluency There is also a large variety of word games that are “useful for practising and revising vocabulary after it has been introduced” (Haycraft 1987) Numerous puzzles, word squares, crosswords, jigsaw tasks, picture-describing, orderings are useful especially for pair or group work More clearly, games provide a situation in which they provide a setting in which communication is essential and therefore will become stimulating and interesting way to help students acquire the target language without even realizing it That is the reason why the writer decided to choose games in teaching English vocabulary

2.2 Overview of Language Games

2.2.1 Definitions of Language Games

According to Toth (1995), a game is an activity with rules, a goal and an element of fun Games are often thought that they mean fun and enjoyable Some people may get confused by the two notions „game‟ and „play‟ Actually, they do not really refer

to the same thing but that a game consists of play governed by rules In short, games are activities with certain goals or objectives, rules and contest either between players or between players and goal Moreover, games also bring fun And that is games in general What about language games?

In general, language games mean games related to language If games help to improve different aspects such as intellectual ability, patience, then language games help to develop language skills When playing the games, students not only have fun but can also practise English, which helps to motivate students Therefore,

language games are both useful and enjoyable and can be regarded as an effective tool in teaching and learning languages or English in particular In order to get more understand about „game‟, types of games are researched

2.2.2 Types of Language Games

Hadfield (1996) explains two ways of classifying language games First, language games are divided into two types: linguistic games and communicative games Linguistic games focus on accuracy, such as supplying the correct antonym On the other hand, communicative games focus on successful exchange of information and ideas, such as two people identifying the differences between their two pictures which are similar to one another but not exactly alike Correct language usage, though still important, is secondary to achieving the communicative goal

The second taxonomy that Hadfield uses to classify language games has many more categories As with the classification of games as linguistic games or communicative games, some games will contain elements of more than one type such as sorting, ordering, arranging games, guessing games, matching games, labeling games, exchanging games

Nevertheless, as for teachers of English, games may be advisable to be used to help practise And they would be: games for grammar, games for vocabulary, games for spelling, games for listening, games for speaking, games for pronunciation, games for reading, games for writing and games for integrating skills

In brief, the most crucial factor for the teacher is to base himself on the content of the lesson to decide whether to incorporate games in this or that part of the lesson

2.2.3 Perspectives on Exploiting Games in ELT

For some teachers, when being discussed the use of games in language teaching, it

is really a new idea and they have no clue of whether using language games in teaching is useful for their students or not For those who have used or heard of language games, they belong to two groups: one for and one against using games According to the first group, all learning should be serious and solemn in nature and that if one is having fun and there is hilarity and laughter, then it is not really learning So many teachers strongly hold this opinion Hence, they do not want to sue any games in the classroom particularly in the language class They think it to

be the wastage of time in the class, or if they use games because they need them as time-filling activities

In fact, language learning is a hard task which can sometimes be frustrating Constant effort is required to understand, produce and manipulate the target language Therefore, language games, if used appropriately, are a very useful tool in teaching English Many teachers have used games successfully, and they belong to the second group including those who approve of using games Hadfield (1987) opined „Games should be regarded as an integral part of the language syllabus, not

as an amusing activity for Friday afternoon or for the end of term They provide, in many cases, as much concentrated practice as a traditional drill and, more importantly, they provide an opportunity for real communication, albeit within artificially defined limits, and this constitute a bridge between the classroom and the real world.‟ This suggests that when some teachers do not succeed in using games

in their lessons, perhaps it is because the game they choose is not really suitable for their lessons, or the lesson, or perhaps the teacher is not clear about how to use or run the game

To sum up, I approve the application of games in language teaching and stand for those people using language games in class The following part will mainly focus

on the advantages of games when used in teaching process or the possible reasons for incorporating games in English teaching

2.2.4 Reasons to Use Games in EFL Classroom

Many writers have proved the usefulness of incorporating games in teaching languages Lewis (1999) wrote: „Games are fun and children like to play them Through games children experiment, discover, and interact with their environment.‟ Games are highly motivating because they are amusing and interesting Games help and encourage many learners to sustain their interest and work Games also help the teacher create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful W.R Lee holds that most language games make learners use the language instead of thinking about learning the correct forms He also says that games should be treated as central to the foreign language teaching program A similar opinion is expressed by Richard Amato, who believes games to be fun but warns against overlooking their pedagogical value, particularly in foreign language teaching There are many advantages of using games; games can lower anxiety, thus making the acquisition of input more likely They are highly motivating and entertaining, and they can give shy students more opportunity to express their opinions and feelings They normally don't want to express themselves But through games their hidden potential can be discovered and they feel encouraged and secure to tell their opinions Games also enable learners to acquire new experiences within a foreign language, which are not always possible during a typical lesson Furthermore, to quote Richard Amato, 'they add diversion to the regular classroom activities, break the ice,' they do introduce new ideas In an easy and relaxed atmosphere which is created by using games, students remember things faster and better So, using games seems to be a good medicine for teaching a language in a friendly atmosphere

Actually, through playing games, students can learn English the way children learn

their mother‟s tongue without being aware they are studying Even, shy students can participate positively But a game must be more than just fun, a game should involve 'friendly' competition, it should keep all of the students involved and

interested A game should encourage students to focus on the use of language rather than on the language itself A game should give students a chance to learn, practice

or review specific language materials The justification for using games in the classroom has been well demonstrated as benefiting students in a variety of ways

2.3 Relationship between Games and Teaching Vocabulary

Games play a role in the classroom They familiarize students with a language They give students a chance to feel comfortable using it, and make lessons more enjoyable Then how games can, with all their connotations of “fun” and “play”, be put to serious pedagogic use in the language classroom?

To begin with, we must be clear what we mean when we use the word “games” Is it

a “fun” activity intended to bring a bit variety to the class and change of pace of learning but little else? Alternatively, do games also have a more serious application

in the classroom? Hadfield (1987) has given out the relationship between games and language teaching as follows:

“Games should be regarded as an integral part of the language syllabus, not as an amusing activity for Friday afternoon or for the end of term They provide, in many cases, as much concentrated practice as a traditional drill and, more importantly, they provide an opportunity for real communication, albeit within artificial defined limits, and thus constitute a bridge between the classroom and the real world” (Hadfield, 1987:5)

This suggests that the most useful place for games is the free stage of the traditional progression from presentation and practice to free communication: to be used as a culmination of the lesson, as a chance for students to use the language they have learnt freely and as a means to an end rather than an end itself They can also serve

a diagnostic tool for the teacher, who can note areas of difficulties and take appropriate remedial action

“Games also help the teacher to create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful”(Wright, 1992:1) The need for meaningfulness in language teaching has been accepted for some years Games are a convenient, effective environment in order to provide intense and meaningful practice of language Then they must be regarded as central to “a teacher‟s repertoire” They are thus not “for use solely on wet days and at the end of term” (Wright, 1992:1)

The writer stands for Wright (1992) about the idea that games can be used to give practice in all the skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking, in all the stages of the teaching – learning sequence: presentation, repetition, recombination, and free use of language and for many types of communication, e.g encouraging, agreeing, guessing, explaining

By playing games, it will be easier for students to learn something, such as new words, new structures … In addition, it would seem that what they have learnt will

be with them for a long time “The more you involve all your senses in your memory image, the more you will remember it… If you want to remember anything, all you have to do is associate it with some known or fixed items, calling upon your imagination throughout” (Ton That, 2000:2-4)

This proves that language games play a necessary part in students‟ acquisition in their learning Language games are stimulating activities to introduce new material,

to practice recently learnt language items, “to introduce or practice certain themes,

or to relax or energize a class” (Lewis and Bedson, 1999)

All in all, the application of games in language teaching is an excellent idea of teachers and educational specialists because games are means of communication and they require the players to use their language correctly As what Carrier (1985) assumes: “games provide quite extensive language practice of opportunities for both general and specific language skills and so they should be seem as and integral part

of a teaching program.”

2.4 Common Games in Teaching Vocabulary

Lucky

numbers

This game is played with the class divided into two groups The teacher sticks on the board with cards numbered on one side from 1 to 10, other side written with symbols such as a storm, a x2

or :2, a star and other bonus marks

For each of the number, students have one question If they answer the questions in cards numbered 2, 5, 7, 10, they will get points on the cards If they cannot answer the question after two times guessing, they lost their chance and change all turns to other group If they choose number 6 and can answer the question, their total mark would be multiple And it was the same with number 8, their mark would be divided

However, numbers 1, 4 are lucky numbers For each of these numbers, they will not have to answer the question but still get the points At the end of the game, the group with the higher score

is the winner Most of the questions are like:

“This word is a noun/ verb… it means: ……

What is it?” The teacher adds a rule that if students do not pronounce the words correctly, they will lose 10 points Therefore, they try their best to avoid pronunciation mistakes The game

is really fascinating and motivating

It brings the class a joyful and nervous atmosphere It helps remember the meaning

of the words However,

it takes time

d words

This game is a very popular game used for English language teaching The teacher exploits this game for vocabulary revision with students working in groups, trying to rearrange the letters

as quickly as possible to make the words For each word, the faster group gets a point and at the end of the game, the group with the most points

is the winner

The game helps ss understand the meaning

of the words In addition to, ss can write the words correctly

atmosphere is not exciting It is easy to make ss bored if they cannot find the words

After the game, ss can remember the meaning

of the words and pronounce them But the game takes a quite short time, so ss feel that it is not enough and not ready to start a new lesson

ss to copy into their notebooks and then asks them to close their notebooks The teacher rubs out the new words one at a time Each time the teacher rubs out a word in English, point to the

Ss understand the meaning of the words Moreover, the game motivates ss to

memorize the words But ss can remember

Vietnamese translation and ask “What‟s this in English?” When all the English words are rubbed out, the teacher goes through the Vietnamese list and gets the ss to call out the English word Lastly, the teacher calls ss from two teams to come to the bb and write the English words again

the words in a short term

Telephon

e game

This game is played with the class divided into two groups and made two lines The teacher whispers a word in the students‟ ears of the two groups who is standing at the end of the lines

He/ she then whispers that in the next student‟s ear and so on until the last student He/ she then runs quickly to the board and writes down the word to see if it is the same as the original message After the game, the teacher checks their result The group with more correct words is the winner This game is used for vocabulary revision

Telephone game keeps class in an exciting atmosphere at the beginning of the lesson Through the game, ss can practice their listening, speaking and writing

The game is strange for

ss Thus it makes ss excited It helps ss

pronunciation of the words But, its disadvantage is the rule If the teacher‟s instruction is not clear

the stepping-stones Ss are required to spell the words, and then speak out For each stone a word has to be spelt If it is spelt correctly it is printed

on the stone; if incorrectly, it is not written and the team makes no progress An example quoted from “Vocabulary revision for unit 4” is provided

in Appendix 1

and easy understand, ss cannot play and get bored

“Vocabulary checking for unit 3” is provided in Appendix 1

Ss can understand the meaning of the words However they do not memorize the words in

of the words but does not rub out the circle Ss are asked to repeat the word including the rubbed-out word by pointing at the empty circles

This task is continued until all the circles are empty At the moment, ss have to remember all the words The teacher divides class into groups

It stimulates students‟ memory Furthermore,

ss can practice their pronunciation when being asked to repeat the words But ss will not remember exactly how to write the words

and asks them to come to the bb and fill in the circles with the correct words

Slap the

board

The teacher puts the new words all over the bb – not in a list After that, the teacher calls two ss from two teams to the front of the class and stand

at equal distance from the bb The next, the teacher call out one of the new words in a loud voice The two ss must run forward and slap the word on the bb and speak aloud The one who slaps the correct word first is the winner

It created an interesting and exciting lesson It stimulates ss to

remember the meaning and pronounce the word But its bad point

is that ss do not remember the words in

The game helps ss not only remember the words in a long term but also how to write them But it sometimes makes ss disappointed

if they cannot find out the word, and it takes time for preparation

Table 2: Common games in teaching vocabulary

To sum up, the exploitation of various tasks and game activities for the group of students was just to reach the goal of finding the effective ways for vocabulary teaching These games would be used in lessons during the research process in order to discover their effectiveness in teaching vocabulary

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter is aimed at providing a detail description of the action research carried out to get the results for this study First, it is begun with an introduction including the context of the study, research question, research approach and participants Then, there comes a minute account of the data collection procedures and data analysis procedures with different tasks exploited during the process

3.1 Research Context

The study was conducted in a class of ten students aged thirteen to fourteen at Sunrise school, which specializes on teaching English for children from five to seventeen years old

In terms of places, the lessons were carried out in a small classroom with the size of approximately twenty square meters, which were suitable for language learning Students were arranged into two rows of desks facing the teacher likes in many classrooms of other school in Vietnam There was a narrow way between the two rows of seats, which allowed the teacher to go around with little difficulty each time they were asked to work in pairs or in groups

In terms of time, the study was implemented in the first term of the course and lasted more than one month, including fifteen lessons, each of which was two periods long, thus, 30 periods in total During this time, the group studied English

on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday evenings, from 6p.m to 7.30p.m That was the reason why they often feel tired when coming to class after a busy day at their secondary schools

In terms of teaching materials, it includes a course book named Pacesetter, at elementary level and a supplementary exercise book, both of which were designed and edited by Derek Strange and Diane Hall, Oxford University Press (2000)

Pacesetter is a four-level course which takes teenage learners from beginners to intermediate level of English It has been written to carefully build students‟ ability

to communicate accurately, fluently and confidently in English The course book consists of fifteen units with a photo-story, a language review section in each teaching unit and end-of-unit activities, including songs and puzzles; three Consolidation units including project work information gap activities for skills work

The following unit structure is used throughout the book with some variations among the 15 units:

Topics: are carefully selected to provide natural contexts for language presentation

and to be of real interest to teenagers

Work it out: focuses on particular grammatical structures and their uses, or on

particular communicative functions

Useful English: focuses on functional groups They bring together phrases and

expressions in specific functional groups

Learn to learn: gives systematic guidance in basic language study skill: „learner

training‟

Vocabulary: focuses mainly on specific sets or areas of vocabulary and ways of

recognizing and using patterns of vocabulary and word-formation

Photo-story: shows aspects of the everyday lives and speech of young British

teenagers and the, photos, action and language give insights into British life

Set the pace: practices the everyday informal English used by British teenagers Review: provides students with a summary of new grammar in the form of clear

tables, simple explanations of use and examples

Freewheeling: offers an enjoyable, freer activity

Being designed as a supplementary material for the course book, the supplementary exercise book also consists of 15 units with the same topic referred in the course book These exercises can be used as the homework to do at home

At Sunrise school, there are fifteen teachers, who were all graduated in universities, colleges in Hanoi such as Hanoi national university, Hanoi University and Hanoi Teaching College They are from 23 to 33 years old They are official teachers at universities, colleges or schools in Hanoi and they come to teach at Sunrise as a part time job For some of the teachers, the common method of teaching is traditional teacher – centered In classes, explanation, translation and sentence making up activities are the main class activities For these teachers, teaching vocabulary involves writing new words on the board, giving translation Few of language activities are exploited for vocabulary teaching and learning Moreover, they come here to teach as a part time job, so they don‟t spend much time for preparation of teaching regularly Those are the reasons why the learners sometimes feel bored in vocabulary learning

3.2 Research Questions

As mentioned in the first part of the study, the targets of the study are the specific data on the improvement participants‟ learning vocabulary and the suggestions to choose the effective teaching and relevant games for vocabulary teaching These targets can be summarized into the answers to these major questions:

1 To what extent does the use of games in teaching vocabulary improve student‟s learning vocabulary?

2 What are the students‟ attitudes towards the language games?

3 What are the essential features of using language games that can help improve the

students‟ vocabulary as perceived by the students?

3.3 Research Approach

In order to reach the aims, the study was carried out with an action research method Action research, as defined in Cohen and Manion (1994:186) is “small-scale intervention in the functioning of the real world and a close examination of the effects of such an intervention” In other words, Hopkins (1985:32) and Ebbutt (1985:156) defined it as the combination of action and research in which a person attempted to understand, improve and reform practice Carr and Kemmis (1986:162) presented a different point when regarding action research as a form of

“self-reflective inquiry”

From these definitions, researchers suggested some main features of an action research as follows

- Combination of action and research

- Intervention to solve real problems in the real worlds

- Close and careful examination of the effect of the intervention

- Self-reflection of the participants on their changes, or in another words, the researcher is also a participant

Some other characteristics of action research were also stated by Hult and Lennung (1980) and McKernan (1991) as:

- Aiming at improving the quality of human actions

- Being on an on-going cycle process, i.e the feedback from data collected can be used to improve the next steps in the research

- Being formative, i.e the research may be witness the alteration in definition, aims and methodology

- Contributing to a science of education

- Being collaborative, i.e the research involves all contribution to improve the understanding and action

The features were reflected in this study Firstly, the aim of the study was to improve the current situation of English vocabulary teaching Secondly, the study would contribute to the science of language education Thirdly, the study included the researcher‟s intervention on the participants‟ vocabulary competence Fourthly, the study was formed with several uncertainties and suspicions, thus, it needed the alteration and improvement from within the research process Finally, the answer to the research question needed answering as participants reflected on their own improvement, interest and emotion during the research

In conclusion, action research is a good selection for this study on account of the suitability in target, design and characteristics of the study

3.4 Participants

The subjects of the study are a group of ten students at Sunrise school They are from thirteen to fourteen years old They come to Sunrise to learn English three times a week for three lessons Each lesson lasts ninety minutes during six months These students have finished the course of Starters level and continuously been moved to higher level, Elementary To those students, English was not their majors but a compulsory subject in their schools The purposes of their learning are different Most of them learn English here in order to pass exams and get good marks at their schools However, to some, English is one of their favorite subjects They want to develop their four skills in English And, the rest do not like learning English much but they are forced by their parents More than a half of them are male and nearly half of them are female All of them learn at their schools all day with many subjects Therefore, when coming to Sunrise they often feel exhausted

and have little time to review new words or exercises at home Thus, finding the ways not only to teach them vocabulary but still to help them learn English effectively is very necessary and considered

3.5 Research Instruments

The main research instruments used were pre-test and post-test, vocabulary games and questionnaire These instruments were fully employed and continuously to ensure the most valid and reliable data

3.5.1 Pre-tests and Post-tests

To answer the first research question about the students‟ improvement in vocabulary and to analyze results of an action research, it was essential to find out the criteria for evaluation The participants‟ competence of English vocabulary would be examined before they started each unit and after they finished that unit through a vocabulary test (see Appendix 2) The tests are gap-filling exercises consisted of eight to ten blanks Actually, gap-filling is a good way to reinforce vocabulary and allow students to encounter the vocabulary in a variety of contexts and may produce truthful results as students could not copy their classmates‟ task easily The participants had to fill in the blanks using words given in the box The tests were marked carefully for further analysis

It was important to state that the content of each pre-test and post-test were absolutely the same The tests were constructed by the researcher with reference to reliable sources such as Pacesetter Student Book, Teacher‟s Resource or Pacesetter Teacher‟s Book (2000) After that, the vocabulary tests were formed and consistently used along the whole research

3.5.2 Vocabulary Games