Luận văn using dialogues to teach vocabulary for the second year non english major students at hanoi university of industry

AIMS OF TUE STUDY ‘rhe study is aimed at: * Examining the feasibility of using dialogues to teach vocabulary for the second- year non-Bnglish major students in Hanoi Universily of Tudusi

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY-HA NOL UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST —- GRADUATE STUDIES

USING DIALOGUES TO TEACH VOCABULARY FOR THE

SECOND-YEAR NON-ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

SU DUNG DOAN HOI THOAI DE DAY TU VUNG CHO SINH VIEN

KHONG CHUYEN TIENG ANH NAM THU HAI CUA TRUONG

ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THES

: English Teaching Methodology

: ñ0 14 10

TTanai — 2013

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSIT Y-HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST — GRADUATE STUDIES

— `

VU THU TRANG

USING DIALOGUES TO TEACH VOCABULARY FOR THE

HANOL UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

SU DUNG DOAN HOI THOAI DE DAY TU VUNG CHO SINH VIEN

KHONG CHUYEN TIENG ANH NAM THU HAI CUA TRUONG

ĐẠI HỌC CÔNG NGHIỆP HÀ NỘI

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field : English Teaching Methodology Code : 60 14 10

Supervisor CAN ‘THE CHANG DUYEN, MA

Hanoi — 2013

5 Scope of the study

6 Significance of the study

7 Design of the study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Teaching vocabulary in context

1.1 Definition of context

1.2 Context and vocabulary teaching & learning

1.3, Guessing and inferencing strategy

CHAPTER II: ENGLISH TEACHING AND LEARNING CONTEXT

AT HANOL UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

2.1 Students and their background

2.2 Teachers and teaching methods

2.3, Material and facilities

2.4 Remarks ou dialogues in the course baok

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Rationale for the use of an action research

3.2 Action research procedure

3.3 Background of the study

3.3.1 Participants

3.3.2 Dala collection imstruments

3.3.2.1 Test

3.3.3.2 Group Trierview

3.3.4 Data collection procedure

CIIAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS

ie »

4.1, The result of the pre-test and post-test

42 The result of group interview

4.2.1, Students’ opinions of the effect of using dialogues to learn vocabulary

4.2.2 Preference of aclivilies and exercises related to dialogue

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 RATIONALE

Hammer (1991) states “If language structure makes up the skeleton of Ianguage, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and flesh” It is clearly seen from

this statement that vocabulary is central to language and is of great significance in

language Jeaming, In the past, the importance of vocabulary teaching and learning was generally neglected for a long time, yet in recent years, the nature of vocabulary and its

role in learning and teaching has been an imcreasingly inleresting lopic of discussion for researches, teachers, curriculum designers, theorists and others imvolved in second language learning Accordingly, numerous research studies related to this topic have been camied oul It comes to a conclusion based on the rescarch findings that “Through

research the scholars are finding that lexical problems frequently interfere with communication: communication breaks down when people do not use (he right words " (Allen 1983) ‘This highlights the significance of vocabulary in classroom teaching, for

without vocabulary it is hardly possible to communicate

When teaching the second-year students at llanoi University of industry, the writer finds out that vocabulary learning is a big problem to the students For young leamers, perhaps it is less difficull to learn voesbulary items for the [ist time thant to consolidate and remember them We often hear young leamers complain that they keep learning and forgetting When English language young learners are acquiring ew vocabulary, they need concrete methods to collect, store, and retrieve words for retention and future use Therefore, it is necessary to find out effective methods to help young leamers relain new words in long-term memory According to Oxford and Crookall (1988), leammg words in context is an effective vocabulary learning strategy and a main approach to improve vocabulary knowledge This has urged the researcher to carry out

this action research

2 AIMS OF TUE STUDY

‘rhe study is aimed at:

* Examining the feasibility of using dialogues to teach vocabulary for the second- year non-Bnglish major students in Hanoi Universily of Tudusiry

* Measuring the effectiveness of this vocabulary teaching technique on students’

vocabulary acquisition

Hopefully, based on the results of the study, the research aimns to offer English teachers

some suggestions for the better usc of dialogues in their classes

3 RESEARCH QUESTION

The research was to seek answers to the following question

1 What is the students’ attitude toward Icarning vocabulary through dialogues’?

2 “To what extent does using dialogues to teach vocabulary affect students’ vocabulary acquisition?”

4, RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

To obtain the aims mentioned above, an action research is chosen for the study In

this action research, pre-test and post-test are designed and used as data collection instruments The pre-test was exploited to gain the overview abaut student’s vocabulary

level before the study The post-lesl was administered to the students afler four weeks in

which dialogues wore applied to help students learn vocabulary to measure the impact or effectiveness of this technique on students’ vocabulary acquisition Collected scores were thon processed and analyzed by T-teat Paired Sample Tn addition, a group itderview was

conducts to get more in-depth data,

5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

It is impossible to cover every aspect of language theory and practice in this study Therefore, the study focuses on using dialogues to leach vocabulary for the second-year non-English major students in Hanoi University of Industry

6 SIGNIFICANCE O¥ THE STUDY

‘The results of this action research will help the author to improve her approaches

to vocabulary teaching Those resulls can also be helpful to other teachers in the

university or in other universities which have the same problems (vocabulary teaching & leaming) with the university where this research was conducted

7 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

The research includes three main paris: Parl A, Part B and Part C

Part A: Introduction presents the rationale, the aims of the study, the research question, the method of the study, the scope of the study, the significance of the study and the design of the study

Part B: Development, consists of four chapters

© Chapter 1: literature review

* Chapter 2; English teaching and leaming context at Hanoi University of Industry

© Chapter 3; methodology

© Chapler 4: data analysis and discussion

Part C: Conclusion provides summary of major findings, implication, as well as presents limitation and suggestion for further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Teaching vocabulary in context

1.1, Definition of context

Context is an important concept Therefore, there have been many different

definitions about context

The word “context” comes from Latin words “co”, which means “together” and

“text”, which means words, sentences Thus we can define that “context is the circumstance in which the word is used” In other words, it is the relationship between a word and other words around it

In the light of linguistics, David Nunan (1993°7) points out in his book that “context refers to the siluation giving rise lo the discourse and within which the discourse is

embedded”,

Another as noted by Nguyen Hoa (2000: 39), “context scoms to be the minimal stretch of language that helps to understand what is written and spoken”

Tn the light of human commumication, Hymes (1974) views contexts as a Triter of

the range of possible interpretations, and, on the other hand, a supporter of the intended inlerprelation onlcxL can be soon as information and in tum, information 13 that, which

reduces uncertainly

Tn this study, context is delined as a particular linguistic environment where

a particular word is used and interpreted semantically and pragmatically In other words,

in linguistics, context carries tremendous importance in disambiguation of meanings as well as in understanding the actual meaning of words Consequently, if learners cannot contextualize new words, the words are of little value and if meaning is not

contextualized, i will be nol easy for leamers to memorize in addition to use new words

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appropriately As a result, using context to teach vooabulary is considered as one of

ofleclive vocabulary leaching techriquc

1.2 Context and vocabulary teaching & learning

Learning vocabulary is an important factor in fluent second language (L2) speech

Researchers have tried to find effective ways of teaching L2 vacabulary to L2 learners

Different methods like glosses, mnemonic devices, and morphological and syntactic analyses are some examples of the attempts of second language teaching researchers

lo find practical ways of teaching 1.2 vocabulary (Min, 2008) From among all the

proposed methods, contextualization has received special attention, Webb (2007) points

to the fact that different aspects of a word like its semantic relationships, syntagmatic and

paradigmatic associations, and oven ils collocational behavior can be learned through

context

It is believed that context can have a positive effect on vocabulary acquisition of L2 leamers Researchers like Engelbert and Theuerkauf (1999) refer to the positive effect

of context on vocabulary learning reported m the literature Corrigan (2007) loo claims

that seeing vocabulary items in the context provides learners with information

about the characteristic features of that word and the linguistic context in which that

specific word occurs Gardner (2007) argues thal many words in English have multiple meanings which are context-dependent When one iries ta teach those words isolated

from contexl, they lose their meanings and become vague

In the work namely “The book of Leaming and Forgetting”, Frank Smith asserts

“Teaching one word al a time out of context is the worst way of teaching vocabulary, with rapid forgetting almost guaranteed.” In his opinion, people assimilate new words from context the first time they read them, “provided that gist of the material being read

is both interesting and comprehensible Within five more encounters, the wort and ils conventional meaning are usually firmly established in the mind of the reader.”

One principle of effective vocabulary learning 1s to provide multiple exposures to

a word’s moaning This is gre al improvement im vocabulary when sindents encounter

vocabulary words often (National Reading Panel 2000) As stated by Stahl(2005),

sluderts probably have to see a word more than once to put il firmly in their long-term

momorics In other words, it is essential that vocabulary instruction provide students with

opportunities to encounter words repeatedly and in more than one context Teaching vocabulary it context is probably the most useful technique, because it, gots sludents to work out the meaning of words for themselves

Kruse (1979) made some suggestions for teaching vocabulary im conlexl

Pictures, diagrams, charts: students may relate the illustration with the item

thal is difficull Lo understand

Clues of definition: students must be taught to notice many types of useful

definition clues like parenthesis or footnotes, synonyms and antonyms

Inference clucs [rom discourse: students can benefit from example clues, summary clues and experience clues ta infer the meaning from the cantext

General aids: (his includes the function of the word such as noun, adjective,

ete

1.3 Guessing or inferencing strategy

“Guessing from contexts is the most important vocabulary learning technique and time spent practicing it is welll justified I! provides ace

te thousands of words”

(Nation, 1990:130)

Guessing unknown words from context is an important vocabulary strategy which

is studied and encouraged moat widely so language learners must know how to guess unknown words successfully Guessing meaning of unknown words from context mostly

refers lo inferring the meaning of a word from surrounding words in a wrillen text Th this

study, these forms are used interchangeably

As said by McCarthy (1990:125), “inferring involves creating a schema for the unknown word(s), based on world knowledge and previous experience, both of the world and texts In other words, inferring means drawing conclusion as to ward meaning by

following certam rational steps in the face of the evidence available.”

For example, consider the word “give” in different contexts (Anderson & Nagy,

1991),

© Jolm gave Mary a kiss

© John gave Frank five dollars

© The dovior gave the chikiren an injection

The orchestra gave a slurming performance

All of these involve some kind of transmutting with a giver and a recipient and

something langible or iulangible Bul the act giving is radically different in these cases

Each meaning of the verb “give” can be grasped through guessing strategy

Il is vilal to understand when teaching learners to make conlexlual guesswork Ihal they will not be able to guess successfully until they know about 95-98% of the other

words in the text Therefore, il is wise nol to start teaching this strategy loo carly in the

leaming process, because the learners will not know enough other words to guess successfully Teacher can help students to discover unknown-word meaning with specific

techniqntes and practice in contextual guesswork Teacher can make use of the following

general strategies for guessing meaning fom context:

1 Attempt to infer the meaning of the unknown word from the general

context procedirys he word

Ww Attempt to infer the meaning of the unfamiliar word from the general

context that, follows the word

3 Attempt to infer the moaning of the unknown word by looking at the word

parts

4 Attempt to define the word

5 Attempt to infer the meaning of the unknown word by looking for specific sues in the surrounding, context

6 Altempl Lo construct 4 coherent definition, using internal and external curs,

as well as the general ideas expressed by the passage and general world

knowledge

7 Check definition to sce if meaning is appropriate Cor cach appearance of the

word in the context

(Sternberg et al., 1983:140)

1.4, Contextual clues

The use of context clues plays a vital role in language acquisition Actually most

of students’ vocabuliry acquisition may be alfributabte to using context clus Conloxl

clues are “the clearly stated or implied words or phrases which help to comprehend

unfamiliar words in conlexL because they can aclivals the corresponding context lo

clarity the contextual meanings of the words concemed” (Sun & Zhou, 2005, p.49)

Context chies are divided into quite a few types depending on various

criteria and individuals In this study, the author will introduce six major types of contextual clues It includes the following types

© Definition’Rxplanation Chics Restatement/Synonym Clues

© Contrast/Antonym Clues

« Fxamples/ Tilustrations Clues

© Inference/General Context Chics

« Punctuation

‘The first type is definition or explanation clues ‘the author uses definition to

suggest the word mearmg in the text The meanmg follows the word immiedialely or

signal words such as “is, moans, called, and refers to, because” or appears between commas, parentheses, or dashes or instance: Marsha is insatiable, she can eat all day and never [eel full Here, the second part of the scnicnce (“she can cat all day and never

feel full”) is used to explain the first part of the sentence (“Marsha is insatiable”) We

can conclude, then, that “insatiable” means “incapable of being full” or “incapable of

being satisfied.”

For the second type, a word's or phrase's meaning is explained immediately following ils usc wilh the use of a synonyr or restated in easier language For example

"Lou was sent to the haberdashery to find a new suit Le needed to wear one for his

uncle’s wedding.” Reeause the senlonce says thal Lou would find a suil al the

haberdashery, then it must be a place where clothes for men are sold

Contrast or Antonym Clues is the third type Sometimes an unfamiliar word may

be used in contrast to a familiar word or group of words You can infer the meaning of

the unfamiliar word by giving it the opposite meaning of the familiar word In this type,

you can [ind signal words for contrasts: but, ant the other hand, in conlrast to, however,

although, unlike For example: Unlike Robin, who is full of life, Rachel is lackluster The

“consists of,” “for example,” or colans, commas semicolons, and dashes can also signal clues (or this type For inslance: Tn college, you can choose courses from a broad range of academic disciplines, such as history, economics, mathematics, and psychology Besides the primary meaning of the word “discipline”, in this sentence this word also has a secondary meaning The word is followed by several cxamples: history, economics, mathematics, and psychology We can conclude, then, that each of these subjects is an

example of a discipline and thal the word “discipline” rican “a branch of qstruction or

leaming.”

Sometimes a word or phrase is not immediately clarified within the same sentence Relationships, which are not directly apparent, are inferred or implied ‘The reader must lock for clues within, before, and after the sentence in which the word is used It is Inference or General Context Clues Fer example: While exploring the ancient pyramids

in Kgypt, the scientist discovered the mummy of a king buried in a sarcophagus with claborats designs Look at the details: Sarcophagus is a nom because the noun determiner “a” comes before it It’s probably a thing since a king was buried in it and because it has elaborate designs on it Now, it was found in the ancient pyramids in Egypt with a mummy in it, That mcans it’s old We can make a inference that a sarcophagus must be a coffin used in ancient times for burying the dead

The lasl type is puncluation Readers can also use clues of punctuation and type style to infer meaning, such as quotation marks (showing the word has a special meaning), dashes, parentheses or brackets (enclosing a definition), and italics (showing

the word will be defined) For example

Brackets: A tornado (a violent storm of twisting wind) struck Edmonton and caused a lot of damage

®© Commas: A tomado, a violent storm of twisting wind, struck Iidmonton

and caused a lot of damage

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¢ Dashes: A tomado — a violent storm of twisting wind — struck Edmonton and caused a lot of damage

1.5 Advantages and disadvantages of cantext in vacabulary teaching and learning

Teaching and leaning vocabulary in conloxL is the most imporlant of all sourves

‘The real value of context lies in its authenticity, the benefits of which are of three different sorts As it is suggested by Monsell (1985), first of all, assessing the meaning of

a word in conlexl obliges studenls to develop strategies like anlivipating and inferring, which become highly beneficial as learning progresses because they instill an attitude of sơllrelanoe thal is the distinctive fealure of proficiency Secondly, sysicmatically meeting new vocabulary items m context emphasizes the fact that the words are actually used in discourse for purposes of communication Lastly, all the factors mentioned above

can be said to contribute lo a Isarner’s 1.2 autonomy and to facilitate the transfer of

knowledge that accompanies it, Moreover, they underline the fact that the mental

presentation of a word’s meaning improves together with successive encounters in

different contexts Thus, 4 may be subjceied to modificalion because new and {mer

semantic distinctions are added

However, this strategy also has following disadvantages In the first place, the strategy is complex and often difficult to camry out successfully, because, the learners need to know about 95% of the words in the text, (Liu, & Nation, 1985, Nation,

1990, cited in Hunt & Beglar, 1998), This puts lower proficiency students with less vocabulary at a distinct disadvantage Next, since a word may have several meanings, the use of context clues will prove effective only when a gencral meaning of a word is adequate, When the surrounding words are not familiar, when the definite meaning is required, or when the word in question is a key word, using context clues might not be a good idva Finally, incorrect inferences lead to a real misizterpretation, which has a bad influence on students’ vocabulary acquisition If students remember wrong meaning at

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seratch, they will have a serious problem using it later and they need more time to refresh

their mind & digest new word moaning

As aresull, for the teacher who teaches vocabulary using Unis approach, it is

important to consider the difficulty level of the text, the students’ vocabulary level as well as the students’ own background knowledge

2 Dialogues as a context for teaching vocabulary

2.1, Dialogue Definition

The tern, dialogue is dered from the Greek, dialogos, m which dia means

through and logos means words

William Isaacs, in his book Dialogue, calls dialogue a “flow of meaning." This

Now of meaning occurs in the context of a relationship among the people gathered to talk

Tr common sense, ‘Dialogue’ is defined as a process of conversation between Iwo

or more persons for exchanging opinions or ideas

As stated by Alexander Baid, “A dialogue is basically a stimulus/respond situation involving the reception and the production of the spoken form of the language.” ‘This definition focuses on the processes in a dialogue

Ron Forseth sees dialogue from the methodological point of view as a written

conversation belween two or more people or it can be a transcription of a real

conversation by a teacher in order to teach a language point (1997-105)

2.2, Types of dialogue

According to Rivers (1981), there are two broad categories of dialogues: grammar-

demonstralion dialogues and conversation-favilitation dialogue.

2.2.1 Grammar-demonstration dialogue

This is the kind of dialogue which is designed to demonstrate grammatical rules, and examples of rules in use They provide contextualized examples from which students

will deduce generalizations about a particular grammatical structure

For example: this dialogue focused on presenting the Near Future Tense in English

Bill Whore are you going this evening?

Jane: I am going out with my family We are going to the cinema

Bill: What are yon going to sce?

Jane: “Gone with the wind” My cousin's going with us, Lle and his wife are going

to meet us there

2.2.2, Conversation-facilitation dialogue

This type of dialogue provides leamers with useful expressions and constructions for daily conversation That helps much in creating communicative skills for learners For example: many useful expressions in telephoning presented in the following dialogue

Tn general, this (ealure imcludes stress and mtoualion Tn English, two factors are

y important because they express the feeling, emotion and attitude of speakers

Different places of stress or different intonation may cause different mearing of the same

expressions,

For example:

MA Lave you seen Ann?

™ B: Yes (Falling intonation indicates ‘I have answered your question and do not intend to add anything else”)

On

@ A Eg Have you secu Amn lately?

@ B: Yes (Rising mlonation indicates ‘T want to continue the conversation, T arm

form For example, ‘dow't” “caw” and so on Furthermore, in some informal

situation, utterances are shortened by the ellipsis of some parts in utterances but the

listeners still understand the massage of the dialogue Whal’s more, there are many

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hesitating markers such as “oh”, “uhm” in the spoken language, especially in

dialogues These clamonis make the dialogue more natural

For example:

B: On the sola B: No, thanks

2.3.1.3 Syntactic features

Unlike the written language, the spoken one is not highly structured and organised and sometimes ungrammatical because of some features mentioned above However, it doesn’t make any difference for both speakers and learmers because what they focus is

whether the message is understandable or not

2.3.1.4, Objective features and situational features

In order to choose an appropriate style of language, before joining a conversation, people should take in consideration the following factors such as: whom they communicate with, in what situation the conversation takes place as well as the aims of

conversation J'or example:

« A dialogue between two people who] ¢ Or A dialogue between two

A: Excuse me! Could you tell me the time, | A: Hey, Mary, tell me the time

A: Thank you very atuch

B: You're welcome.

2.3.15 Psychological features

‘Yhere are many factors which affect the success of a dialogue such as age, occupation, cullure, speakers’ and learners’ backgroud knowledge and especially psychological factor, Psychological features refer to the interest of the participant to his/her partner and to the topic of the conversation ‘Lhis factor has a great influence in the success af speaking activity

2.3.2, Methodological features

‘A lot of educators and researchers state that using, context in general and dialogue

in particular to teach vocabulary is considered as one of effective vocabulary teaching technique In dialogue, words, phrases, useful expressions are presented nn a meaningful context, which helps students much in leammg how to use them correctly and creates a firm Tink between language and situation Moreover, leaching and learning through

dialogue not only helps teachers to attract students’ attention easier but also gives

students lots of opportunities for practice and speaking which are more preferable than doing grammatical exercises or reading and wriling tasks

2.4, Stages of teaching dialogues

2.4.1 Presentation Stage

Purposes

The presentation slage aims lo give students the opporbunilies to explore the model

dialogue So as to reach this aim, students should understand new words, expression, grammatical items as well as pronunciation, stress and intonation

‘Teacher's role

Ln this stage, the teacher works as a guide and an informant With the first role, the teacher guides students ta access to the dialogue by setting the scene for the dialogue, eliciling from the students’ knowledge, experience of the language used in the scene

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Thanks to such help, students can discover the dialogue themselves With the second role, the ieacher is the person who introduces new knowledge to students such as new words,

new expressions, new grammatical structures or pronunciation

‘At this stage, thore are some principles the teacher should keep in their mind as

follow:

* Meaning, i.e relate the word to an appropriate object ar context

+ Usage, ie knowledge of its collocations, metaphors and idioms, as well as style

and register (the appropriate Jevel of formalily),lo be aware of any connotations

and associations the word might have

« Word formation, ic ability to spell and pronounce the word correctly, to know any derivations (acceptable prefixes and suffixes),

@ Grammar, ie to use it in the appropriate grammatical form

For example: to present the word “a watch” (New Headway Pre-intermediate, Unit

1, page 12), the teacher can pick up a watch, point at it and say “This is a watch” Of

course, sludenis know al once whal a watch is.

Pictures and drawing

Pictures here include flashcards, photographs, blackboard drawings, wall charts,

pictures from the textbook, magazine and newspaper

For instance: to show the meaning of the word “plane”, the teacher tells students

to open the book New Headway Pre-intermediate at page 33 and look at the picture

and then ask them “what is this?” Thanks to the picture, students can easily

answer the question

Besides, the teacher can use simple blackboard drawings to convey word meaning

Body language (Gestures, mone, actions, facial expressions)

‘they are supplements to convey word meaning ‘his way is enjoyable and colourful so the new words will be kept in students’ Jong-lerm memory This lechrique is especially effective for teaching verbs and adjectives showing moods

For example: to teach the phrases “sit down" and “stand up” (unit 11, page 92), the teacher can do these actions in front of the class ‘fhe meaning of two phrases will be introduced easily Or some words expressing emotion like “sad” or “happy” can be taught

by facial expression

However, when using these techniques, the teacher should notice that action, mine, gestures performed by him/her must be clear and reasonable so as to avoid misunderstanding of the meaning of words

Using definitions, examples, synonyms and antonyms

In some situations, definition may be the best choice for introducing new words For example: the word Snanny” ( New Headway Pre-inlermediale, Unit 8, page 67) can

be convoyed to students by giving definition: a nanny is a person who looks after a child

Besides that, the teacher should make full use of the synonyms to intraduce the

meaning of the new word because “words are best taught in groups of similar meaning.” (Lewis M & ITill J, 1985:101) Or another choice for teacher is that “a word can often he

easily defined if the studeris know ils opposite” (Hay Crafl, 1978-46) For example: to

introduce the meaning of the word “fast” (Unit 2, page 16), the teacher can use the known

word “slow” (Unit 2, page 12) as its antonym

Last but not least, vocabulary can sometimes be classified into groups with a

superordinale such as animals (dog cal ), furniture (desk, chair ) and so forth With

such superordinate words, giving examples to illustrate their meaning is of great use

Translation

It is common said that translation is the quickest and easiest way to present new

words It is used to teach abstract words Yet, translation is a double-weapon that needs

clarilying by further examples in different contexts

For example

© Heis a phumber (New Headway Pre-intormecute, unit 8, page 67): Anh dy là tho

sửa Ông Hước

« 1 dịd the washing-up last night It's your tum tonight (New Headway Pre-

intermediate, ưnit 9, page 73): Tôi rủa bát tối hôm qma rồi [ôm nay đèn lượt bạn

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2.4.2 Practice Stage

Purpose

In the process of language leaming, practice is an indispensable part because “practice makes perfect.” This saying means that the more learners practice, the better they

become Therefore, at this stage the teacher must create opportunity for the students to

drill what they have learnt at the presentation stage Only by drilling, can the students use

the words correctly and make them theirs Thus main aims of this stage are:

* Tohelp students memorize the form of wards

* Tohelp students get the right pronunciation

To enable students to use words, phrases or expressions in contexts

Teacher's role

This slage consisls of lwo parts: controlled practice and guided practice In the

controlled practice, the teacher acts as a conductor who conducts what students should do

and the language slyle they are expected to produce In the guided practice, students are

given more freedom, The teacher is only the person who suggests situations, sometimes

corrects their mistakes Students are freer to make utterance but the topic and situations

are given by the teacher

Techniques

Hereafter are some useful techniques for the practice stage:

Repetition Drills

Firstly, the teacher asks students to listen to the model dialogue This aims to

provide students with correct pronunciation, stress and intonation After listening to the

model, it is effective and helpful for students at low level ta say the word in chorus, either

the whole class logether because by doing this, the Leacher gives students chance to

practise prommeiation, stress, intonation and enables them to realize how it is said from

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their friends And then the teacher may probably tell each student practice pronounce

individually This step is very important since when repeating in chorus the teacher cannot find out who pronounces wrongly, meanwhile not all students can do correctly As

a result, repeating individually helps the teacher correct students’ mistakes immediately Substitution Drills

This activity can be done orally in pairs Students make some changes in sentences

by using different words in the same structures This technique helps students to

consolidate and memorize words they have learnt

Sample 1: (New Headway Pre-intermediate, Unit 5)

B: Good moming Can I have a coffee, | following menu:

A: Here you are Anything else?

B: No thanks How much is that?

A: One pound fifty, please

Good hick 5@eyouliier SAW to you Good idea |

Wit about yeu No.of coum not “|

“Tat Oh wha ity Congtins Nie dU |

Information Gap

An information gap activity is an activity where the learners are missing the

information they need to talk to each other to find the missing information (Son, 2009)

This activity involves transferring information assigned from one student to the other

student Therefore, the application of this technique will capable of facilitating

communication in authentic and fun ways The students actively work together and share

opinion with his/her partner, help each other during the communication process,

creatively produce their own utterances

Sample 3: (New Headway Pre-intermediate, Unit 6, page 47)

According to Nelson T (1985): “The important aim of the production stage is that

of giving motivation, of giving students pleasure of success, of achieving goals in a

foreign language.” Accordingly, learners have opportunities to use the new language in

freer and more creative way in this stage The Production Stage is the most important

stage of communicative language teaching Successful Production is a clear indication

that the language learners have made the transition from "students" of the key language to

"users" of the language

Teacher's role

Production is seen as the culmination of the language learning process, whereby

the leamers have slarted to become imdepeucdent users of the language rather than

students of the language The teacher's role here is to somchow facilitate a realistic

situation or activity where the students instinctively feel the need to actively apply the

language they have been practicing The teacher does not correct or become involved

unless students directly appeal to himvher to do so

Techniques

The techniques mostly used in this stage are pair works and group works due to these

activities provides the students with an environment within which they can communicate easily and freely and within they can work together independently and productively

These techniques are:

©) Word-games such as crossword pave, riddle, odd inan out, Kim’s game & so on

® Dialogues, dramas and role plays, for example, students play the parts of a hotel

receptionist and a guest, acting out a problem

Topic discussion, debates, problem-solving

2 Toformation-gap exercises

2 Giving map directions: students have Lo give and follow circelions on a map Lo sec

where they end up

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CHAPTER UL: ENGLISI TEACHING AND LEARNING CONTEXT AF UANOL

UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY

Teacher's role, leamers’ background, their needs, learning environment and material play an important role in leamer’s success or failure in leaming a forcign language In this chapter, the author would like to give a brief overview on learners and their background at Hanoi University of Industry Further, the materials and facilities for language teaching are also assessed,

2.1, Students and their background

English is a main and compulsory subject in the training program of this university The subject includes six periods a week from the fist year program to third year ‘The aims of this subject is that after three years, students will have general knowledge of grammar and struclure, an active vouabulary of different Lopies which help

them feel confident in daily communication

The majorities of students are aged from eighteen to lwenly-one and hey come

from the North provinces such as Mai Duong, ‘Thai Binh, ac Ninh, Phu ‘Iho, ect Most

of them are from rural areas where their communication skill in English is limited It is

the fact thal teaching and Jearniry: conditions at different schools over the country differ greatly, so students entering the university have mixed level of English Most of them

have learnt English for six years (from secondary school to high school) Yel, their

English knowledge especially vocabulary is still poor Most of them are not interested in leaming English because their level of knowledge is low, and foreign language seems to

be too difficult for them to learn well Moreover, they are not sludents of English, ard they do not devote themselves to learning English ‘I'he fact is that many of them study English reluctantly in order to meet the teacher’s requirements or to pass the examination, which is regarded ns the biggesl problem which students face up la The other problem is that there is no language environment for students to practice English because their

classmates and roommates do not like speaking English and they do not have chances to

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meet and talk to English native speakers During, class time activities, the teacher talks to

much while students are passive in parlicipaling in the activities Besides thal, class is (0

large to teach language: each class includes from 40 to 55 students with mixed-levels, different motivation and expectations of leaning English The above are the reasons why

it is difficult for teachers to apply suitable method far alll of these students

2.2 Teachers and teaching methods

This university has approximately 100 teachers of English inchuding full-time and

part-time All of these teachers are graduated from universities of language with the

English major

For most of the teachers, the common method of teaching 1s traditional teacher-

centred In classes, explanation, translation and sentence making up activities are the main class activities Through call observation and discussion, it 1s obvious thal mast of the teachers are deeply influenced by grammar-translation method Therefore, their lessons focus on grammatical structures and translation and they don’t focus on

vocabulary leaching For these teachers, teaching vocabulary involves in wrilimg new

words on the board, giving translation, getting the class to repeat the word in chorus, ask

students to read words aloud As a matter of fact, there are no language vocabulary

activities for vouabulary (caching and earning That is the main reason why the learners

usually feel bored in vocabulary leaming,

2.3 Material and faci

The facilities used for teaching and learning foreign language are nol well- invested, Worse than that, the university does not still have a language lab for students to leam English and only have radios for students to practice listening Moreover overhead projectors are newly equipped in cach classroom bul most of them cannol work well Besides, the library cannot provide other preference materials such as books or magavines excepl the mam course books Such poor teaching and learning conditions creates many difficulties for both teachers and students

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