(SKKN HAY NHẤT) USING THE WEBSITE IN TEACHING TO IMPROVE THE TENTH GRADE STUDENTS’ ENGLISH VOCABULARY

Moreover, in teaching and learning English language,Vocabulary is central because without sufficient vocabulary students cannotunderstand others or express their own ideas.. I believe En

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter I INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

2 Aims of the study

3 Methods of the study

3.1 Participants

3.2 Materials

3.3 Method

4 Scope of the study

Chapter II

CONTENT

A THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1 Vocabulary in language teaching and learning

1.1 Definition of vocabulary

1.2 Components vocabulary

1.3 Methods of teaching vocabulary

2 Web-based Instruction

2.1 Definition of web-based instruction (WBI)

2.2 Types of web-based learning activities

2.3 Web-based learning and vocabulary teaching

2.4 The Computer as a Teaching Tool

3 The Moodle and Gnomio Website

3.1 Definition of Moodle

3.2 Philosophy

3.3 Advantages of moodle

B TEACHING PROCESS ON GNOMIO WEBSITE FOR IMPROVING LEARNER’ ENGLISH VOCABULARY

1 Participants

2 Materials

3 Procedure

Chapter IV CONCLUSION

4.1 Conclusion

4.2 Implication

4.3 Limitations of the study

References

Chapter I INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

Since the World Wide Web’s conceptualization as a method of makingresearch findings and scientific materials available to researchers and teachersacross the globe, it has become an indispensible tool for educators Not only hasthe web achieved making scientific findings more accessible, but also it is nowbecoming the new method of teaching As this new technology grows inacceptance and use, it is essential for educator to increase their knowledge aboutthe uses of the web in education and to stay up-to-date on the latest findings in webbased education research Moreover, in teaching and learning English language,Vocabulary is central because without sufficient vocabulary students cannotunderstand others or express their own ideas I believe English language studentsgenerally would concur, yet learning vocabulary also helps students master Englishfor their purposes The study, therefore, combines the using web based activitiesand teaching English vocabulary to make learners’ vocabulary improved

One of the recent ways in making texts more comprehensible to students is

to use computerized Moodle as Web-based language Learning (WBLL)approaches (Zhang, Wu, Wei & Wang, 2011

In addition, the study has many implications in the field of Education Due

to the dominance of lecture based traditional instruction in teaching, many studentsare loosing their interest in studies The present study will be helpful to all thosestudents whose learning styles do not match with their instructors teaching styles

Moreover, it will help to increase students’ motivations and also scholasticachievement The results of the study will inspire all the teachers to use these types

of activities in their routine teaching It is proved that web-based learning has thepotential to cater diverse needs of learners The role of the teacher will shift frominstructor to facilitator Students will be active partners in the whole teaching-learning process

It is of common knowledge that vocabulary is the most importantcomponent of language knowledge; it is one of the best predictors of languageperformance It has been found that students learn languages best when theyexperience it in context and use the language independently in speaking andwriting This means that translating a text word-for- word or memorizing lists ofwords will not necessarily help students to learn new vocabulary that they can usewhen they speak and write in English Students need to develop strategies to guessthe meaning of new words when they encounter them However, learning a newword or phrase once does not mean that the student will remember it and be able to

use it That is why students also need support in learning how to record newvocabulary and repeatedly review it If students improve their knowledge ofvocabulary, they can understand their lessons more easily and will write and speakbetter in English That is why review of the vocabulary at home is also focused inthis study.

In Vietnam in general, vocabulary teaching has not been paid due attention

to as it deserves Vocabulary has not been a particular subject for students to learnbut has been taught within lessons of reading, writing, speaking and listening Formost of teachers the common way to communicate word meaning is translationthrough word list and many learners use rote strategies as their major way ofvocabulary learning In my school, Dong Son 1 high school, in particular theproblem of vocabulary teaching and learning is more difficult The main reason isthat the classes are usually big with learners of different abilities It seems difficultfor the teachers to apply the suitable way to teach these learners Another reason isthe course book The number of new words in the book is rather large for learners

in my school and it makes the learners feel confused and difficult to remember all

of them Furthermore, the learners usually learn vocabulary passively through theirteachers' explanation They only write words on paper with translation intoVietnamese and try to learn them by heart During the lessons learners find manynew words in the text and then ask their teachers to explain the meaning and usage

As a result, the learners feel bored in vocabulary lessons and they soon forget thenew words they have learnt and this affects students getting to twelfth grade with arelatively small vocabulary, which prevents them from achieving their potential inNational exams Being a teacher of English in my school I want to makesomething significant to my students not only in English language acquisition butalso in performing better in the National exam

This study, therefore, attempts to examine the effectiveness of web-basedactivities in the mode of online classes of Gnomio website on open sourceMoodle on the vocabulary learning of students in Dong Son 1 high school

2 Aims of the study

To explore the impact of using web-based activities as a classroom resource

to improve learners’ English vocabulary in the context of 10th graders atDong Son 1 high school in Thanh Hoa Province

experimental group of 25 students in class 10A6 from Dong Son 1 high school.

The control group consists of 25 students from class 10A1 in the same school

3.2 Materials

Materials in the experimental study used 10th Grade English Textbook as themain course book However, only four units were chosen for the experiment, fromunit 9 to unit 12 The lesson plans which were used in this study were designed andselected based on the course book presented in the Gnomio website of Moodle

Moodle materials were extracted and adopted from the web-sites searched in theGoogle search engine The Moodle materials included extra glosses such aspictorial, animation, and audio-visual materials

3.3 Method

The main method is experimental research and survey questionnaires

4 Scope of the study

The study is to explore the impact of using web-based activities as aclassroom resource to improve learners’ English vocabulary in the context of 10thgraders at Dong Son 1 high school in Thanh Hoa Province, The study, therefore,focused on word pronunciation and meaning which is an integral part in languagelearning as well as in exams Other aspect of vocabulary such as: word grammar,word formation were not taken into consideration in the research The coursebook which the researcher used in the experimental course was 10th Grade EnglishTextbook, published by Viet Nam Education Publishing House

The study focuses on effective ways to teach and to learn vocabulary and onpresenting some advantages of the educational application in vocabulary lessons atDong Son 1 high school From the findings of the research, adapted tasks will begiven to improve the students ‘English vocabulary

Chapter II CONTENT

A THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This part reviews the theory related to pedagogical methods for vocabularyacquisition and offers an overview of the short history of web based instructionand learning vocabulary The study will discuss the learning vocabulary throughweb-based activities, and benefits and advantages of web-based activities forvocabulary acquisition

1 Vocabulary in language teaching and learning.

Learning vocabulary is an important aspect of language learning which inthe past has been neglected In recent years, there has been a greater understanding

of the importance of vocabulary learning to the process of language learning(Lightbown 2010) Nation (1994) identified five components of vocabularylearning:

- Meeting new vocabulary for the first time

- Establishing previously met vocabulary

Vocabulary is of great significance in expressing thoughts and ideas in interactionactivities Vocabulary acquisition is the main task of second language acquisition

This section will present vocabulary teaching and learning theory in connectionwith the study

1.1 Definition of vocabulary

There have been different definitions of vocabulary Each linguist gives hisown definition of vocabulary Peny Ur, in his book: “A course in languageteaching” defined vocabulary roughly “as the words we teach in the foreignlanguage However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word: acompound of two or three words or multi-word idioms” (Ur, 1996, p.60) Pylesand Algeo also gave their idea about vocabulary They said “when most of us thinkabout language we think first about words It is true that the vocabulary is thefocus of language It is in words that sounds and meanings interlock to allow us tocommunicate with one another, and it is words that we arrange together to makesentences, conversation and discourse of all kinds” (1970, p.96) These statementsindicate that vocabulary is the total number of the words of a language and it is anessential part of language, as Wilkins emphasized this with his saying: “withoutgrammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing conveyed”

This is all true in teaching and learning a foreign language Therefore, theteaching of vocabulary to foreign language learners has long been an area ofconcern to language teachers because learning vocabulary in a foreign language ismuch more than making form - meaning correspondences and simply filling upindividual words “Knowing a word, according to Nation (2001) means knowing atleast its forms, its meanings and its basic usage”.

1.2 Components of vocabulary

When teaching English vocabulary, the teacher should teach some aspects ofvocabulary Ur (1998) states some aspects that the learner should be mastered andthe teacher should be taught in order to help the learners in mastering vocabulary

They include: Form (pronunciation and spelling), Grammar, Collocation, Aspect of

meaning (Denotation, connotation, appropriateness and Meaning relationship),

Word formation

1.3 Methods of teaching vocabulary

The world in which we live is becoming increasing global Therefore, “thestatus of English as an international global language stresses the need for a newapproach to English language teaching", (Le Van Canh, 2003) As mentionedabove, foreign language teaching, especially vocabulary teaching has undergonedramatics changes during the last two decades In order to fully understand thisdevelopment it is certainly worth giving a brief discussion of some major foreignlanguage teaching approaches and their role in teaching vocabulary

New words are learned through direct translation from the native language ifGrammar Translation Method is used In fact, both teachers and students ofEnglish frequently find it convenient to opt for translation Teachers commonlyattempt to explain a foreign word, phrase or sentence by giving a mother-tongueequivalent This means that translation has been used to learn the new words

Students face difficulties in how the words are used and what emotions the wordsexpress This method has generated a great number of skilled students but only ingrammar with a lot of difficulties in remembering new words and consequentlyusing them in patterns and collocations Therefore there is no connection betweenrecall of word meaning and use of words in context But not always exact

translation from one language to another is possible There are numerous lexicalitems in one language which have no equivalents in another language.

1.3.2 Direct Method

The second major foreign language teaching approach is the Direct Method

This method is useful for teaching vocabulary The words used are very commonactive and concerning everyday activities In the class - room only the targetlanguage is used to teach the students during the sessions, so it focuses on speakingand listening which enables teachers to drill students more on vocabulary Usingthis method teacher can introduce many concrete objects and pictures forillustration; therefore, it is particularly useful for teaching simple and specificwords

The Direct Method has one very basic rule No translation is allowed Infact, the Direct Method receives its name from the fact that meaning is to beconnected directly with the target language, without going through the process oftranslating into the students’ native language

The term Direct Method refers to the teaching of languages withoutresorting to translation and without using the native language The basic premise ofthe Direct Method was that second language learning should be more like firstlanguage learning The method would include lots of oral interaction, spontaneoususe of language, no translation between first and second languages, and little or noanalysis of grammar rules So, Direct Method is the method that is used in teaching

a language by using the target language without going through the translation tothe native language The teacher must use pictures, gestures, pantomimes or thetarget language that is familiar to the students to explain a word

1.3.3 Audio lingual method

This method was developed during the World War II for military purposes

There was a need for people to learn language at a satisfactory level of ability tocommunicate in as short time as possible It was a reason for an extreme solution

The overall goal was to create communicative competence in learners in shorttime The way became an extensive repetition and a variety of elaboration Theidea was to project linguistic patterns of the target language in a way to makeresponses automatic and habitual The only language used is the target language

Teacher has a central and leading role They modify drills of the exercisespractised All work is based on listening and responding over and over to teacher’sstimuli Students’ responses should become automatic, fixed The reaction timegets accelerated by reducing the need of thinking about the problem as studentsrespond partly unconsciously However their answers are expected to be correct

Language is presented through conversations divided into lines that are drilled and

then turned into questions or negatives and drilled again Mostly teacher-studentinteraction is used for it is the teacher who is supplying sentences or their parts to

be ‘learned’ by drill Learning (in ALM) means forming habits It is dependent onmimicry, memorization of phrases and over learning Vocabulary is strictly limitedand learned in context Importance is given to pronunciation There is a great effort

to produce error-free utterances as they make bad habits Typical techniquesclosely associated with ALM are above all dialogue memorization and drill inmany variations Teacher’s work is very demanding in accuracy, activity andcontrol

The Audio - lingual method is very successful in improving students'comprehension and fluency in speaking the target language Here the vocabularycontent is maintained at a useful minimum for students to concentrate on taking afirm control of structures When the dialogue has been learnt its adaptation with amore personal application to the students' own situation, provide moreconsolidation of learning and provide chances for more flexible use of the material

1.3.4 Task based learning

Tasks are central to the learning activity They are meant to be the practicalpart of language use compared to exercises that focus on linguistic features Theidea is that students learn more effectively when their mind is occupied with aconcrete task offering besides concentration on language, its structures, functions

or vocabulary also other practical experience For solving the problem studentsneed to communicate in the target language and therefore use wide range oflanguage items, not only particular structure, function or vocabulary group

Framework for TBL suggests three main stages: Pre-task, Task cycle andLanguage Focus In the Pre-task stage teacher introduces the topic and task Usefulwords and phrases may be highlighted During the task cycle students plan solvingthe task and work on it When it is completed student prepare a report about theirwork to be presented to the whole class In language focus stage students analyseand discuss specific features of used or produced texts or utterances, which arethen practised Students fulfill the tasks, produce reports and discuss them withothers What is specific for TBL is the unusual order of learning process, which isreversed: students start with a task and as lately as it is completed their attention isdrawn to the language used Tasks include projects for producing posters,brochures, presentations, dramatic performances, videos etc Teacher selects tasks,encourages, facilitates, regulates and monitors

This method is very useful and works very well thanks to the mentioned reasons Communicative activities improving students’ ability tocommunicate and solving real problems are highly motivating and offer studentsreal reasons for learning the language: to be able to communicate - receive or

above-produce needed information A good balance between using receptive andproductive activities is applied, which is very useful Sometimes managing to keepthe whole class using only the target language might be difficult, especially withlow level students It is much easier when students are actually incorporated intotarget language community If they need to solve a problem there is no other optionthan to communicate with the local people Results are great Students can acquiremany structures and phrases in relatively short time and such knowledge is wellremembered.

1.3.5 Communicative Language Teaching

All of the traditional methods above were used to teach English for a longtime that made learners structure competent and communicative incompetent

However, the learners of English nowadays desire to be able to communicate withothers in the target language The learners' needs and aims seem to have changedand method of teaching has changed too In recent years communicative languageteaching (CLT) has been applied in Vietnam and it has shown its effectiveness inteaching and learning language CLT is an approach that helps learners be moreactive in real life situation through means of individual, pair and group workactivities It encourages learners to practice the language they learn in meaningfulways as it requires them to take part in a number of activities with different tasks

This helps to improve learners' communicative competence From the briefconsideration of some approaches to language teaching and their relevance tovocabulary it is obvious that each of the approaches mentioned above has its strongand weak points and their teaching procedures may sometimes overlap Manyteachers use a combination of approaches that reflect different methodologies

2 Web-based Instruction 2.1 Definition of web-based instruction (WBI)

According to Khan (1997) WBI is the application of a repertoire ofcognitively oriented instructional strategies implemented within a constructivistand collaborative learning environment, utilizing the attributes and resources of theWorld Wide Web He also defined WBI as “an innovative approach to deliveringinstruction to a remote audience, using the Web as the medium” (Khan, 1997, p

5) He considered that hypermedia- based instructional program that utilizes theattributes and resources of the World Wide Web to create a meaningfulenvironment where learning is fostered and supported (Khan, 1997, p 6)

2.2 Types of web-based learning activities

The theoretical base from which are drawn to design web based activities isconstructivist theory Constructivist theory has several characteristics that areeasily adopted for web based activities Some of these characteristics includelearner construction of meaning, social inter, action to help students learn, and

student-solving in real world context There are 4 types of web-based learningactivities:

-Individual Lesson Plans

Majority of online educational resources are lesson plans that teachers download and integrate

-Online Lesson Enhancements

Most popular Teachers identify online enhancements that augment their curricular goals and extend and deepen their students’ understanding

-Completely Online Courses and Curriculum

Range from courses designed and developed from major online institutions

to individual courses delivered in traditional schools

-All-Inclusive Online Courses, Curriculum, and Online Learning Environment

Provide flexibility of choosing and adapting the resources needed

Web- based activities have great potential to enhance learning, but they are oftentime- consuming to develop and implement, difficult to design in ways that havesubstantial, positive impacts on student learning

Web-based project learning is a “student- driven, teacher facilitated approach tolearning.” Students develop an inquiry based on their natural curiosity and conductresearch under the teacher’s supervision (Bell, 2010)

“Web- based project learning can enhance student motivation and promoteself-directed learning because the learning issues usually arise from problems thatattract the interest of students”(Lam, Cheng & Ma, 2008)

2.3 Web-based learning and vocabulary teaching

Web-based learning is becoming an even more powerful interactive sourcethat increases learners' knowledge and that guarantees quantity and quality oflanguage input and output Added to this, the changing role of the teacher is moreresponsive to students' self-directed learning It has also been found that theimplementation of different web-based activities develops student's skills in the use

of language Web-based activities may increase learner motivation so the resultingeffects could be beneficial to both teaching-learning processes; additionally, theyoffer opportunities for teachers to explore content resources on the net in order tointegrate them in classroom instruction at a low cost Teachers with few skills inInformation and Communication Technology (ICT) can make use of web-basedactivities cognitive brainstorming, identify real world activities, examine resources,define the task available on the web or adapt existing ones to their purposes

My study was based on the use of ICT as a tool to improve

vocabulary I consider that vocabulary is an important element in a based society; it involves decoding strings of letters or being able to enjoy orunderstand a text In fact, literacy is the ability to read, write and think critically

knowledge-2.4 The Computer as a Teaching Tool

Similarly to tape recorders and overhead projectors, also computers can beextremely useful teaching tools They have a motivating effect that few otherdevices or techniques have As an information technology teacher I have oftenexperienced students’ enthusiasm for computer programs They are highlymotivated by tasks connected with computers Scrimshaw declares that computers

“have the potential to redefine the scope of the language curriculum” (1993:

Abstract) It is without doubt that computers promote and facilitate highly effectiveand motivating new learning experiences They provide the best tools to catchstudents’ interest, and it is easier to develop language skills when students areactive If they have the opportunity to interact with the computer, their attentionrarely drops

3 The Moodle and Gnomio Website

3.1 Definition of Moodle

Moodle is an open-source virtual learning environment / VLE (also known

as a learning management system or LMS), which has been developed byeducators, for educators Moodle provides a private and secure learning space fordesigning online courses with flexible content and collaborative activities forstudents What makes Moodle unique is the fact that it is a free software based onits community, not on investors seeking returns or by selling customer data Thecore development of Moodle is funded almost entirely by the network of certifiedMoodle Partners Therefore, Moodle provides a highly cost-effective solution tosupport both individual and classroom-based learning

Moodle is a learning platform designed to provide educators, administratorsand learners with a single robust, secure and integrated system to createpersonalised learning environments

Moodle is built by the Moodle project which is led and coordinated by

Moodle HQ, an Australian company of 30 developers which is financiallysupported by a network of over 60 Moodle Partner service companies worldwide

3.2 Philosophy

The design and development of Moodle is guided by a "socialconstructionist pedagogy" From a constructivist point of view, people activelyconstruct new knowledge as they interact with their environments

Everything we read, see, hear, feel, and touch is tested against our priorknowledge and if it is viable within our mental world, may form new knowledge