NGHIÊN cứu về sự yêu THÍCH của TRẺ EM CHO HOẠT ĐỘNG học từ VỰNG PHỔ BIẾN tại hội ĐỒNG ANH hà nội

Over twenty years ago, probably as a result of the radical developments triggered by the lexical approach, the field of vocabulary in language learning has been getting a lot more academic recognition. Moreover, for young learners, vocabulary is the first aspect of language to be learnt and activities to teach vocabulary, therefore, have been considered in many research. Carrying forward the trend, this study throws some light on an investigation into Upper Primary 3 students’ preferences for common activities to teach vocabulary in British Council Vietnam – an international language centre in Hanoi. To be specific, the research was conducted to find out which common vocabulary activities were preferred by Vietnamese 9 to 10yearoldstudents. Initially, the first questionnaire was utilized to ask eight different British Council teachers which were the most common vocabulary activities for each of the three recognized steps for teaching vocabulary (i.e. presentation, practice and production). Next, based on the first survey’s results, the second questionnaire was designed to research which of those common activities were forty Upper Primary 3 Vietnamese students’ favourites. Afterwards, six of these young learners were chosen to undergo interviews to serve the purpose of working out students’ responses in the questionnaires in more detail, searching more personal reasons for their preferences. After that, fifteen observations in three different Upper Primary 3 classes were accomplished to confirm the students’ opinions. The explanation of the applied methodology mitigated by the findings and discussions are presented in the fourth chapter. Finally, the researcher’s pedagogical implications along with recommendations to take full advantage of the effectiveness of vocabulary activities and preferences were suggested. The research was concluded with a hope that it will be of assistance to not only researchers, teachers, and readers who are interested in the same topic, but also students who are going to carry out the related studies in the future.

Over twenty years ago, probably as a result of the radical developments triggered

by the lexical approach, the field of vocabulary in language learning has been getting alot more academic recognition Moreover, for young learners, vocabulary is the firstaspect of language to be learnt and activities to teach vocabulary, therefore, have beenconsidered in many research Carrying forward the trend, this study throws some light

on an investigation into Upper Primary 3 students’ preferences for common activities toteach vocabulary in British Council Vietnam – an international language centre inHanoi To be specific, the research was conducted to find out which commonvocabulary activities were preferred by Vietnamese 9 to 10-year-old-students

Initially, the first questionnaire was utilized to ask eight different British Councilteachers which were the most common vocabulary activities for each of the threerecognized steps for teaching vocabulary (i.e presentation, practice and production).Next, based on the first survey’s results, the second questionnaire was designed toresearch which of those common activities were forty Upper Primary 3 Vietnamesestudents’ favourites Afterwards, six of these young learners were chosen to undergointerviews to serve the purpose of working out students’ responses in the questionnaires

in more detail, searching more personal reasons for their preferences After that, fifteenobservations in three different Upper Primary 3 classes were accomplished to confirmthe students’ opinions The explanation of the applied methodology mitigated by thefindings and discussions are presented in the fourth chapter Finally, the researcher’spedagogical implications along with recommendations to take full advantage of theeffectiveness of vocabulary activities and preferences were suggested The research wasconcluded with a hope that it will be of assistance to not only researchers, teachers, andreaders who are interested in the same topic, but also students who are going to carryout the related studies in the future

TABLE OF CONTENT PAGE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

LIST OF FIGURES TABLES AND ABBREVIATIONS vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research Title 1

1.2 Statement of the Problem and Rationale for the Research 1

1.3 Aims of the Research 3

1.4 Research Questions 4

1.5 Scope of the Research 4

1.6 Signification of the Research 5

1.7 Organization of the Research 5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 An Overview of Vocabulary 7

2.1.1 Definition of Vocabulary 7

2.1.2 The Importance of Vocabulary in Language Learning and Teaching 7

2.1.3 How Vocabulary is Learned 8

2.2 An Overview of Young Learners 8

2.2.1 Definition of Young Learners 8

2.2.2 Characteristics of young learners 9

2.3 An Overview of Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners 11

2.3.1 Principles of Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners 11

2.3.2 The Importance of Students’ Preferences to Teaching Vocabulary 13

2.3.3 Stages and Activities for Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners 14

2.3.3.1 Presentation 15

2.3.3.2 Practice 17

2.3.3.3 Production 20

2.4 Related Studies 20

2.4.1 In Vietnam 20

2.4.2 In the world 21

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Settings 22

3.2 Participants 23

3.3 Data collection methods 23

3.3.1 Questionnaires 24

3.3.2 Interview 25

3.3.3 Observation 26

3.4 Data collection procedure 26

3.5 Data analysis methods 27

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 4.1 Research Question 1: What are the common activities currently employed by British Council teachers to teach vocabulary to Young Learners, particularly the 9 to 10-year-old-students? 28

4.1.1 At presentation stage 28

4.1.1.1 Visual techniques 28

4.1.1.2 Verbal techniques 29

4.1.2 At practice stage 29

4.1.2.1 Identifying activities 29

4.1.2.2 Selecting activities 30

4.1.2.3 Matching activities 31

4.1.2.4 Sorting activities 32

4.1.2.5 Ranking and sequencing activities 32

4.1.2.6 Games 33

4.1.3 At production stage 34

4.1.3.1 Completion tasks 34

4.1.3.2 Creation tasks 35

4.2 Research Question 2: Which activities do the students perceive to be their favourites? 36

4.2.1 At presentation stage 36

4.2.1.1 Visual techniques 36

4.2.1.2 Verbal techniques 36

4.2.2 At practice stage 37

4.2.2.1 Identifying activities 37

4.2.2.2 Selecting activities 38

4.2.2.3 Matching activities 38

4.2.2.4 Sorting activities 39

4.2.2.5 Ranking and sequencing activities 40

4.2.2.6 Games 41

4.2.3 At production stage 41

4.2.3.1 Completion tasks 42

4.2.3.2 Creation tasks 42

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION

5.1 Summary of findings 44

5.2 Pedagogical Implications 45

5.3 Limitations of the study 47

5.4 Recommendations for further studies 48

REFERENCES 49

APPENDICES Appendix 1: Young Learner Courses Portfolio 55

Appendix 2: Questionnaire on the Most Common Vocabulary Activities 56

Appendix 3: Questionnaire on the Most Preferred Vocabulary Activities (English version) 64

Appendix 4: Questionnaire on the Most Preferred Vocabulary Activities (Vietnamese version) 70

Appendix 5: Student Interview Scheme 76

Appendix 6: Class Observation Checklist 82

Appendix 7: Exercise 4, Kid’s Box 5 – Pupils’ Book, Page 35 83

Appendix 8: Exercise 1, Kid’s Box 5 – Pupils’ Book, Page 26 84

LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND ABBREVIATIONS

LIST OF FIGURES PAGE

Figure 1 Junior Young Learners Courses in British Council Vietnam 22

LIST OF TABLES PAGE

Table 7 Common Ranking and Sequencing Activities 33

Table 11 Students’ Preferences for Visual Techniques 36Table 12 Students’ Preferences for Verbal Techniques 37Table 13 Students’ Preferences for Identifying Activities 37Table 14 Student’s Preferences for Selecting Activities 38Table 15 Student’s Preferences for Matching Activities 38Table 16 Student’s Preferences for Sorting Activities 39Table 17 Student’s Preferences for Ranking and Sequencing Activities 40

Table 19 Student’s Preferences for Completion Activities 42

Table 20 Student’s Preferences for Creation Activities 43

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

BC British Council

CEF the Common European Framework

EFL English as a First Language

IWB Interactive Whiteboard

JYL Junior Young Learners

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

This first chapter gives a rough idea of statement of the problem and rationale for the paper together with its scope and significance Especially, the aims are pointed out with two research questions which construct the direction for this study Finally, the chapter summarizes with an outline of the rest of the research.

1.1 Research Title

An Investigation into Young Learners’ Preferences for Common VocabularyActivities at British Council

1.2 Statement of the Problem and Rationale for the Research

Over twenty years ago, due to the development of the lexical approach tolanguage teaching, there was a development of research focus on the vocabulary field(Li, 2008, p.100) In addition, the English Language Teaching view towards vocabulary

is shifting towards McCarthy’s whereby vocabulary is now seen as “the single, biggestcomponent of any language course” (McCarthy, 1990, p.8) which is inferredvocabulary has become more important than grammar Moreover, research (Wexler &Cullicover, 1980; Moerk, 1992; and Clark, 2003) has proven that children learnvocabulary – particularly content words which stand for things, actions and qualities –long before grammar during their first language (L1) acquisition Therefore, it issuggested that there could be a similarity in the way children learning their secondlanguage (L2) might assimilate language To further corroborate this argument, Tabors(1997, p.39) points out that in the developmental sequence for L2 acquisition, childrenlearn content words, followed by “telegraphic speech”, i.e simple verb - nouncombinations, before learning grammatical functional words to build completesentences

Learning English in primary school is a crucial period of time for childrenbecause it is considered as the time when they start to experience English as well as thetime when they seem most able to learn it Pinker (1994) indicated that the period of

primary education is the best time for students to learn a new language and evensuggested in his ‘Critical Age Hypothesis’ that the ability to ‘acquire’ a new languagewas almost lost after puberty, being replaced instead by the ability to ‘learn’ a languagewhich is both more difficult and less effective (p.293) Moreover, in David Singleton’sbook (1995), he stated that language was best learnt young since children seemed to beable to “soak up language like a sponge” (Macaro, 2009, p.278) Possibly as a result,people these days are focusing more on primary education For instance, in the report

“Bộ GD-ĐT giới thiệu đề án ngoại ngữ Quốc gia 2020” from Vietnam News Agency

(2011), Ministry of Education and Training recently held a lot of conferences andworkshops to improve the quality of primary English language teaching, a newcurriculum has been made for English – a compulsory subject and the time allocated toEnglish lessons has been doubled to four hours per week for grades 3, 4 & 5 A newprogram called the 2020 project has also been developed in the hopes of improving allteachers’ language proficiency and teaching methodology and it targets primaryteachers most directly However, despite this growing trend for primary education,there have been very few English studies conducted by Vietnamese researchers on YLs

or children

Since we know that vocabulary is what children routinely try to learn first in anylanguage and that they are instinctively motivated to do this (i.e they do thisinstinctively), their preferences for vocabulary learning are certainly worthinvestigating Moreover, “children are active participants in their own education”(Morrison, 2009, p.109), and therefore a deeper understanding of their preferences andmotivation might lead to improved participation And finally, since interest will drivechildren into knowledge acquisition which then continues to fuel interest (Bergin, 1999,p.92), it is also hoped that understanding and catering to their preferences forvocabulary learning will also lead to improved learning in all areas of English languagestudy (e.g grammar, reading, etc.)

The British Council (BC), the United Kingdom (UK)’s international educationalorganisation, is a reputed centre of English with recognisably qualified native teachersfrom all over the world Having worked as a teaching assistant (TA) for many differentteachers for three years, the researcher has seen a wide range of vocabulary activities inthe English as a first language (EFL) context and each activity clearly gains a certainpreference from Vietnamese YLs And since, BC is directly involved in assisting withthe development of primary teaching through training project such as the PrimaryInnovations program which has been running in North, Central and South Vietnamsince 2008 [1], it is assumed that conclusions drawn in this communicative context might

be in some way transferable to the future national primary schooling system

Because of all the above reasons, and the researcher’s interest in teaching

primary students, this research is carried out on the topic of “Young Learners’ Preferences for Vocabulary Activities at the British Council”.

1.3 Aims of the research

It has been observed by the researcher that BC teachers use a variety of activities

to teach vocabulary However, the teachers (apart from their subjective observation) arenot really sure if the Vietnamese students enjoy their activities or what their favouriteactivities are This research therefore will be undertaken to find out preferred activities

to present, practice and produce new lexical items and phrases Thus, the researcher isdriven to clarify the following objectives which are expected to be fulfilled:

- The thesis provides readers with an overview of common activities that BCteachers use to present, practice and produce new lexical items and phrases.Accordingly it will equip readers with a panoramic picture of teachingvocabulary to the targeted students at this centre of English

- This research will also help the teachers and readers know whichvocabulary activities the YLs (aged 9 to 10) at BC prefer for each teaching stage

1 http://www.britishcouncil.org/accessenglish-news-vietnam-primaryinnovations.htm

Since 673 out of 681 YLs at BC are Vietnamese and learning in a monolingualcontext, hopes it to better inform all Vietnamese teachers on the target agegroup’s preferences to learning vocabulary within the communicative context

2 Which activities do these students perceive to be their favourites?

1.5 Scope of the Research

The study focuses on the students’ preferences for activities in all three stages ofteaching new vocabulary: presenting, practising and production within BC – an EFLcontext One more noteworthy point is that the research only concentrates on theteaching of content words which are fragmented into four types in keeping with thesequence of second language acquisition: concrete nouns (e.g supermarket), verbs (e.g.go), adjectives (e.g expensive) and abstract nouns (e.g happiness)

YLs studying at BC range from six to seventeen years old but this research onlydeals with teaching vocabulary to Upper Primary 3 (UP3) level students They arebetween the age of nine to ten and their level is equivalent to A2 of the CommonEuropean Framework (CEF) or Flyers according to Cambridge English for Speakers ofOther Languages Before entering the course, they are level tested and streamed using

the BC placement test and during the course, they use the textbooks Kid Box Level 5 or Incredible English Level 5 Both of these books are pitched at Flyers and the UP3

course alternates book each year This is because UP3 is the highest available level forprimary students at BC and since they cannot progress to secondary until they reachgrade 6, some strong students spend 2 consecutive years on this course

The following reasons can best explain why this age group has been chosen.First of all, since fifth grade students are the oldest primary students (Junior YoungLearners - JYL) in the Vietnamese educational system and at BC, they have had themost experience of learning English and are therefore the most able to state theirpreferences Therefore, their answers to the questionnaire and interview will be morereliable and informative than the younger students Moreover, in the BC document

“Parent Booklet” (unpublished), approximately 89% the students have studied at least

three courses from multiple teachers so they have a better awareness of the range ofvocabulary activities This helps to add reliability to the research

1.6 Significance of the Research

First and foremost, the research makes a contribution to the storage of theresearches on the issue of vocabulary teaching to students, especially to YLs, within anEFL context at Vietnam National University It serves as a reference material for otherresearchers who are keen on the topic Secondly, the research findings might contribute

to the quality of English teaching at BC since the teachers stand to gain a betterunderstanding of Vietnamese YLs’ preferences for vocabulary activities which mightlead them to experimenting and adapting vocabulary activities to better suit the needs oftheir learners And thirdly, it is hoped that the findings might help inform localVietnamese teachers and student teachers on the preferences of Vietnamese YLs’ forlearning vocabulary within a communicative context

1.7 Organization of the Research

The paper consists of five main chapters

Chapter I: “INTRODUCTION” consists of the rationale, the aims, the scope, thesignificance and the organisation of the study

Chapter II: “LITERATURE REVIEW” states the key concepts and principlesbehind vocabulary learning and YLs, and makes a revision of some earlier relevantresearches

Chapter III: “METHODOLOGY” mentions the research instruments and theprocedure employed throughout the research.

Chapter IV: “FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS” includes the results after theanalysis and some suggestions are provided

Chapter V: “CONCLUSIONS” gives a summary of findings, limitations of theresearch and some recommendations for further studies as well

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

The previous chapter has provided the rationale for the need to answer the two research questions in the clearly defined scope, which will guide the right direction for the thesis This second chapter clarifies the theories as a base for the research and at the end, a brief summary of the previous related studies will be shown

to set off the new points in this research

2.1 An Overview of Vocabulary

2.1.1 Definition of vocabulary

Generally defined, vocabulary is knowledge of words and word meanings.Laurie declared that “Vocabulary is about words” which people take, change, andcombine then use to state their thoughts (p.8) For children, vocabulary seems to be thewords that they say, words that they hear and understand, and words that they see andrecognise once they start reading (Leu & Kinzer, 1999, p 338) Hence, this paper willfocus on vocabulary as all the content words, including single words and phrases,which are used as a part of their prescribed textbook Kid’s Box 5 As stated previously,content words are defined as concrete nouns, verbs, adjectives and abstract nouns

2.1.2 The importance of vocabulary in language learning

“If language structures make up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh.” (Harmer, 2000, p.153).

Vocabulary is critical to language learning since it conveys basic meaning and istherefore fundamental to all of the four skills i.e listening, speaking, reading andwriting Moreover, multiple researchers (e.g Anderson & Freebody, 1981; Baumann,Kame‘enui, & Ash, 2003; Davis, 1942) have suggested strong links between having anextensive vocabulary and achieving school success, especially in reading Only if dostudents have a suitable range of vocabulary, they can understand what they listen to orread and express themselves precisely After years of studying the factors behind life

and career success, scientist Johnson O'Connor wrote in Atlantic Monthly in June,

1931: "An extensive knowledge of the exact meanings of English words accompaniesoutstanding success more often than any other single characteristic we have been able

to isolate and measure" (p.12) This, combined with the idea of vocabulary forming thefoundation for all other components of language learning, signifies its clear importance

2.1.3 How vocabulary is learned

Before teaching vocabulary, it is essential to understand how words are learned.According to Thornbury (2002, p.18), vocabulary acquisition of L2 is performed in

three major stages Learners always start with words absorbed through labelling, which

means matching words to the particular concepts This stage is typically true for YLs,for example, the concept of an apple has the name “apple” In the next step, students

need to learn how far to extend the concept of an apple, which means categorising.

From an apple, they start to classify friends’ apples, toy apples, pictures of apples, and

so on However, definitely not every round fruit is an apple as they can also be lemons

or oranges Thus, learners have to realize that these common words like “apple” can bereplaced by a superordinate term like “fruit” This category furthermore includes otherlower order words like “orange”, “lemon” and “watermelon”, etc Thornbury called this

process network building and these networks are thought to create logic between

thousands of available concepts therefore making them more memorable Being aware

of how words are learned is vital for teachers to facilitate effective and efficientvocabulary teaching This is the reason why vocabulary items are frequently presented

as logical ‘sets’ (e.g fruit) with a limited number (up to 8) of subordinate items

2.2 An Overview of Young Learners

2.2.1 Definition of Young Learners

According to Thornbury (2006), Young Learners are defined as “children of primary and primary school age, although it is sometimes used to include adolescents aswell” (p.250) The popular conception of Young Learners in British Council is also Pre-

pre-school learners and Primary pre-school learners but theoretically the term covers teenagersand Young adults as well To further clarify this, Young Learners have been split intofour broad bands: Lower Primary (6-8), Upper Primary (8-10), Secondary (11-14), andYoung Adult (15-17) Due to the research scope and the fact that TAs are not requiredfor Secondary learners and above, children between the ages of nine to ten or UpperPrimary has been chosen The researcher has chosen Upper Primary 3 because they arethe most capable and generally the oldest of Upper primaries in British Council

2.2.2 Characteristics of Young Learners

Slattery & Willis drew some common characteristics of children aged fromseven to twelve:

“Children are developing quickly as individuals They learn in a variety of ways – by watching, listening, doing things […] They are not able to understand grammatical rules and explanations about language […] They can generally imitate the sounds they hear quite accurately and copy the way adults speak They are naturally curious They love to play and use their imagination They are comfortable with routines and enjoy repetition They have quite a short attention span and need variety.” (Slattery & Willis, 2001, p 4)

To further expand on some of the key characteristics mentioned above:

 develop as individuals – each child has his/her own developmental pathway so

they take different interests in different tasks This difference is also evident in otherareas, e.g learning to write

 learn in a variety of ways – by watching, listening, doing things – this relates to

Multiple Intelligences whereby we each favour different channels for learning such asvisual, auditory and kinaesthetic learners

 be unable to understand grammatical rules and explanations about language –

children’s analytic skills are not yet fully developed; hence, they struggle to understand

or find value in abstract grammatical presentations Fortunately they do not need tounderstand why (as is the case with adults) and are happy to accept language as it is

 can generally imitate the sounds they hear quite accurately and copy the way adults speak – they are gifted at imitation and tend not to have any fossilized

pronunciation errors yet They are also able to memorize ‘chunks’ of language (e.g I’mfine thank you and you?) without breaking them down into their constituent parts

 be naturally curious – as mentioned before, children are instinctively

motivated to learn probably because they are learning about the world around themeveryday and language just naturally becomes another element

 love to play and use their imagination – they have not yet clearly distinguished

between work and play or reality and fantasy As a result, play and imagination canbecome powerful motivating tools when combined with actual learning

 comfortable with routines and enjoy repetition – unlike adults, YLs are most

comfortable when the conditions for learning are constant (i.e classroom environmentand procedure) and only the content (language) changes Due to the high number oftimes they need to be exposed to language in order to retain it, they are alsocomfortable with recycling or repetition of key content (e.g concrete vocabulary)

 have quite a short attention span and need variety – because of their short

attention spans and tendency to lose interest in protracted activities, YLs respond best

to a ‘stir & settle’ (Halliwell, 1992, p.20) type procedure whereby they are alternatelyexcited (e.g through games) and then calmed down (e.g by colouring) at frequent shortperiods of time throughout the lesson

In addition, I would also like to add a few more points from Jayne Moon (2000)which match my experience of Young Learners at the British Council

Young learners can be categorised as:

 use language creatively – they actively process language and form hypotheses

that they were not taught (e.g I speaked to my friend on the phone yesterday) Here the

YL is forming his/her own transferable rule for the past tense Although it is wrong, theimplication is simply that the logical set of irregular verbs is not formed yet; thus, more

exposure to that language would be more beneficial than grammatical presentations

 go for meaning – as illustrated above, two YLs would intuitively understand “I

speaked to my friend yesterday” in spite of it not being English This is because they gofor meaning above form

 join in the action & have fun – as mentioned before, children have very

pronounced preferences for different Multiple Intelligences One of the preferences that

is most notable in their age group is that they love physical activities like role play,making things, TPR, etc Moreover they take great pleasure in “finding and creating fun

in what they do” (Halliwell, 1992, p 3) which implies that they like interestingactivities which let them enjoy themselves and be more involved in the lessons

2.3 An Overview of Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners

2.3.1 Principles of teaching vocabulary to Young Learners

In accordance with the characteristics laid out above, the researcher would nowlike to point out some basic principles of teaching vocabulary to Young Learners whichare expanded upon using the readings of To, H et al (2011) and McCloskey (2005)

First, since children develop as individuals, teachers should employ a broadrange of vocabulary activities within a lesson and throughout the term in order to caterfor the whole class rather than dominant individuals This applies to interests as well asability, for instance, smaller children learn to read and write at different ages; thus,teachers favouring text based vocabulary activities would be problematic A good way

to avoid problems is to use a variety of multi-dimensional activities For instance, withthe theme “Places”, teachers can let students go to Internet to look for famousattractions, or sing a song about places in a city, and design an ideal city as well

Second, since children learn in a variety of ways, teachers should find theactivities which cater to all key multiple intelligences rather than their own dominantones So if the teacher is an auditory learner, for instance, then it implies that theteacher will instinctively favour that and neglect visual or kinaesthetic modes of

vocabulary teaching It is suggested that a blend be employed both within the lessonand throughout the term The three key modes according to the researcher’s observationare Visual (e.g flashcards), Auditory (e.g description) and Kinaesthetic (e.g realia)

Third, since children are not able to understand grammatical rules, and lengthyexplanations about language, teachers should avoid more traditional ‘adult’ approaches

to vocabulary teaching and simply focus on meaning and exposure This point can besubdivided into two key points:

 Since students analytical powers are not fully developed, basic language rules

surrounding vocabulary should simply be presented and students invited tohypotheses test For illustration, when teaching articles or plurals, students will

intuitively draw conclusions from comparing ‘an apple’ with ‘a strawberry’ or

‘two apples’ with ‘two strawberries’ so long as the difference in meaning is

clear Additional advantages of this approach are that it leads to learnerautonomy and less sense of inhibition about making mistakes

 Since children are much better equipped to use a language than talk about it the focus should be on learning through doing Target vocabulary should simply

be presented and manipulated in a variety of different ways with the focal pointbeing its meaningful use In other words, teachers must offer them enjoyable,active roles in the learning experience with as many opportunities for them touse language purposefully as possible

Fourth, since children are very good mimics of pronunciation, teachers shouldwork extensively on this The sounds will be readily picked up and this might avoidsignificant problems with fossilized errors later on Teachers should use a variety ofpronunciation activities (e.g drilling, whisper drills, pronunciation blocks, etc.) as it isimportant that drilling is done without students seeing the written forms This isbecause English is phonetically inconsistent, written forms consequently can beconfusing Similarly, children are able to mimic whole phrases and therefore teachersshould not break these down into their constituent parts for analysis (as mentioned inpoint 3) so long as the meaning is clear And these phrases should also be drilled as

chunks to practice such things as sentence stress which is very important because of themonosyllabic staccato interference from L1

Fifth, since children are naturally curious, love to play and use theirimaginations, teachers should create vocabulary activities that are inherently enjoyableand motivating There are many different ways to do this, and a few good examples are:

 create some sense of challenge, for illustration, children like sorting and

sequencing (e.g word search puzzles) activities because it gives them anopportunity to use their categorising ability previously mentioned by Thornbury

 create a sense of competition, like putting children in teams with some sort of

incentive to produce the target language (e.g hot seat)

 create opportunities for collaboration, changing classroom dynamics (e.g.

teamwork, group work, and pair work, etc.) is an example Not only do thesechanges create a welcome change of pace but they also allow the students tolearn from each other as in project work (e.g designing a poster)

Sixth, since children are comfortable with routines and repetition the teachershould try to keep the classroom environment fairly stable (i.e a consistent range oftechniques and activities to present, practise and produce vocabulary) Although thismay seem boring for older learners, it is comforting for children and allows them tofocus on the content of the lesson Similarly, children are not bored by repetition andthis allows the teacher to recycle flashcards, games songs and so on throughout thewhole unit of the book or even beyond

Seventh, since children have short attention spans and need variety the teachershould use a stir & settle pattern for all teaching including vocabulary This means thateven though flashcards, running dictation, etc can be fun; the children will get overexcited or bored if they go on for too long Instead the teacher should move fromexciting presenting activities to calming practice activities (e.g colouring) and so on

2.3.2 The importance of Young Learners’ preferences into teaching and learning vocabulary

In this research, students’ preferences are considered as synonymous withstudents’ interests because the aim of the paper is to find out which activities thestudents’ are most interested in Unfortunately the paper could not be titled Younglearners’ interests in learning vocabulary because that is a totally different topic

Taking a deeper look into interests, according to Krapp et al (1992), it can bedivided into two main approaches: individual or personal approach (person centred) andsituational approach (situation centred) The individual approach answers the question

of “which activities would a particular student be interested in?” By contrast, thesituational approach investigates activities that tend to be preferred by manyindividuals, so it answers the question of “which activities will most of the students beinterested in?” Therefore, the situational approach is better for teachers since they teach

in a class of sixteen students Consequently, finding out which activities are preferred

by the majority of students is considered more important

As mentioned in YLs’ characteristics above, each child has his/her own way oflearning words, and consequently his/her own preferences From the researcher’s ownobservation, students clearly respond differently to different vocabulary activities.Understanding which activities are preferred by students can benefit teachers inpreparing lessons that attract students’ attention Moreover, when the preferredactivities are applied appropriately, interest is heightened and learning is enhanced(Baker, 1999) And once students are motivated by their preferred activities, they will

be internally motivated to learn vocabulary (Turville, 2007)

2.3.3 Stages and activities for teaching vocabulary to Young Learners

In the book called “ESL/EFL Classroom Techniques and Practices” (2011)compiled by lecturers from University and Languages and International Studies, thereare three main stages to teaching vocabulary: Presentation – Consolidation – Checking

On the other hand, according to Baker (2003) teaching vocabulary can also bedescribed as: Presentation – Practice – Production Both of these models are similar in

all but name; however, since BC teachers seem to refer to Baker’s Presentation –Practice – Production model more closely (i.e there is almost no checking/testing), theresearcher has chosen to follow Baker in the interest of efficiency.

2.3.3.1 Presentation

At this stage, teachers provide students with the pronunciation and meaning ofnew words Presentation activities for new vocabulary can be classified into visualtechniques, verbal techniques, and dictionaries (Gairns & Redman, 1986) Let us nowdeal with each in turn:

a Visual techniques: relate to visual memory, which is considered very helpful

when introducing new lexical items because it is both interesting and immediate forstudents These techniques allow vocabulary to be handled “quickly, easily and clearly”(To, H et al, 2011) Teachers can benefit from the use of:

 Images (flashcards, pictures, blackboard drawings, word pictures, word charts, posters) – these can demonstrate most concrete nouns, adjectives and verbs

effectively In BC, thanks to technology, teachers can present new words by imagesembedded in flipcharts or by drawing on the interactive whiteboard (IWB)

 realia – these let students see and understand the meaning of words in three

dimensions and through touch For example, tables and chairs in the classroom

definitely can be used to help learn the theme “My Classroom” Again it is most suited

to concrete nouns

 mime and gesture, actions – most action verbs, feeling and status adjectives are

best described by these techniques

b Verbal techniques: an alternative way of conveying the meaning of new

lexical items is simply by using different words within the same context

 illustrative situations or giving context, examples and explanations – these can

show the meaning of abstract nouns such as love, happiness, and sorrow, etc mosteffectively Giving context is also often used by teachers to try and get students to guess

the target set of new words and they frequently give a quick and correct answer Whenusing examples, it is important that they contain enough information to clearly show the

meaning of the new words In the case of presenting “hard-working”, teachers can add

“My sister is hard-working She gets up early and then does all the house work before going to school” For explanations, it is essential that simple, sharp and appropriate

sentences are used because complicated explanations can become more difficult thanthe target vocabulary itself

 definitions, descriptions – these are direct statements that teachers make to

directly show the meaning of words as in a dictionary It is a very efficient tool butdependant on students understanding of superordinate and subordinate hierarchies

 synonyms and antonyms – these quickly demonstrate the meaning of target

vocabulary by relating it to other words that the students already know A potentialproblem is when the student doesn’t know either word though, so when using thesetechniques, teachers must be careful to use synonyms and antonyms that are easier than

the original word For example: “Huge means very big and Little means very small”.

 translation – although quick and easy, this is not used so much recently as it

can be very discouraging for children because they cannot interact with the words Forthat reason, it is better if this technique is used along side other techniques such asexplanation or definition or as a means of checking understanding

c Dictionaries: these can help students learn the meanings (and pronunciation)

of unfamiliar words and expressions With adequate training, dictionaries are invaluabletools for learners, giving students independence from the teacher However, dictionariesare not commonly used with young learners in BC as there are only four per classroomwhich can create arguments, and they can also be a bit too complicated since they areregular dictionaries as opposed to picture dictionaries

In fact, the combination of different techniques is applied frequently in order to

support each other and reinforce the effectiveness of the presentation because eachtechnique has its own benefits and limitations

2.3.3.2 Practice

At the second stage – Practice, teachers help students to practice their newlylearnt words As Thornbury (2002, p.93) calculated, there are five types of tasks forconsolidating or practising vocabulary In this research, games are put as the sixth typesince they are used to strengthen the use of vocabulary as recommended by manymethodologists such as Uberman (1998), Wealand (1999), Thornbury (2002) or Baker(2003) Moreover, they are what BC teachers seem to apply most frequently at this step

a Identifying activities: are designed to let students find out new things in the

pictures or words in the texts, for example: Find five places in the city in the picture, Find five words about “Places” in the text, etc Listening out for particular pictures or

words in a recording is also a form of identification activity Besides, identificationactivities are also the tasks in which students have to unscramble anagrams like

ertupaskmre for supermarket, or search for words in a word search

b Selecting activities: these involve both recognising words and making

choices amongst them such as Odd one out This kind of task helps children to justify

their choice from reviewing learnt vocabulary items

c Matching activities: these require first identifying words and then pairing

them with a visual representation (pictures), a definition, a synonym, an antonym or acollocation Pelmanism is a memory task which engages nothing but matching Word

pairs (i.e word & picture, word & antonym… etc.) are on individual cards which are

placed face down in a random distribution, then children take turns to pick up a cardand search for its partner In BC, students can play on IWB

d Sorting activities: these let learners sort words into different categories which

can either be given or guessed The title of exercises might be Put these words into two groups – e.g places and activities, or Add extra words to each given group and so on.

e Ranking and sequencing: these ask students to put the words into some kind

of order Ordering items is a way of getting students to make judgements about wordswhich seems like “brain word” activities This may involve arranging the words in a

sequence such as with daily activities (wake up, get up, brush my teeth, wash my face, get dressed, have breakfast, etc.), or ranking items according to preference

f Games: motivate students to extend their knowledge on the vocabulary items,

so games are good stimulus for extra work Since they provide the possibility ofextensive practice and fun in a relaxed atmosphere, games should be an integral part of

a lesson There are many games which are suggested by professionals and commonlyused in BC

 Reading race – here each team takes turns reading out the selected passage

aloud, with the quickest team winning points but also with minus points for mistakes.The focus is on reading quickly but secretly more on accuracy because studentstypically lose more points than they gain

 Spelling race – here students have to spell out the given words individually.

They make a circle and each of them speaks out only one letter of given words To bespecific, once the teacher pronounces one word, the first person in the circle have tospell out the first letter of the word, then the second next to him/her continue thespelling with one letter

A different version of this game designed to work in groups in BC is that theteam have to make the given words from small cards in the delivered box of letters

 Ladder race or board run – this is done by two teams lining up to the board

and being given a topic by the teacher The first student runs to the board and writes aword, gives the marker to the second and then runs to the end of the line The wordsmust be written correctly to complete a ladder (typically 6 or 7 rungs) to score points

 Noughts and crosses – Noughts and crosses grids are drawn and labelled with

nine different words on the same topic and it can be played individually or in teams

Student/Team A is noughts and Student/Team B is crosses They have to answer aprepared question like “Where are you going to….?” (to buy a cake, to learn, etc.), andthe correct answer has the right to place their symbol The winners are the ones whohave a line of three noughts or crosses either vertically, horizontally or diagonally.

Another version of this game is playing with dice Student A is noughts and oddnumbers (2, 4, and 6) whereas Student B is crosses and even numbers (1, 3, and 5) Aasks B “Where are you going?”, and B has to choose where they want to place thesymbol and make a statement using the word in their chosen square e.g “I’m going tobakery to buy a cake” If correct, A wins the square Then B throws the dice and so on

 Hangman – this is usually played by teams guessing the letters of the words

given by the teachers The teachers draw dashes to represent the letters in the word and

if the suggested letter does not occur in the words, teachers draw one element of thehangman diagram

 Hot seat or Backs to the board – the class is split into teams and then

representatives from each team are selected to stand with their backs to the board Theteacher then writes a word on the board and the students with their back to the boardcannot see the word, so the others give them hints The first student with his/her back tothe board saying the word wins the point for his or her team The students then changeroles and the game continues

 Guessing words from flashcards – teachers choose a flashcard containing a

word of target vocabulary and put the card upside down Teams have to ask questions

to find out what the word is

A more interesting version of this game is teams just guess the words (likeFlashcard gambling) and which team guessing right gets bonus point but guessingwrong has minus point

 Scattergories or Team vocabulary race – here teams are given a set number of

categories (e.g places, food, jobs, etc.) and a random letter (e.g ‘a’) The first team to

think of a word for each category and write it down gets a bonus point All teams thentell the teacher their words and correct words receive points, and correct unique wordsreceive double points

 Online games – students compete in teams and they play on IWB in a variety

of games coming from the website of British Council [1]

2.3.3.3 Production

The last stage – Production helps teachers to try to get students to relate thewords to their personal experience, and produce their vocabulary in certain context Theactivities for this step can be divided into two main types: completion and creation

a Completion activities: are more generally known as gap-fills with different

formats, which are often presented as writing tasks within a provided context Open

gap-fills occur when learners fill in the gaps by drawing on their mental lexicon like thefirst letter of the words as a given clue In a closed gap-fill, on the other hand, the itemsare provided in the form of a list at the beginning of the exercise, for instance Multiplechoice tasks are also popular for this type In British Council, UP3 students are alsorequired to listen to a story or a song and fill in the gaps with a word of their choice

b Creation activities: require students to create contexts for given topic-related

words, for example, Use each of these words to write a true sentence about yourself,

or Write a short paragraph to show the direction from place A to place B, etc These

tasks will lead into speaking activities like reading aloud or comparing and explainingsentences in pairs or small groups Not all creation tasks need to start as writing tasks.Completing a survey can get students to practise speaking skills through asking andanswering or reporting BC teachers have designed many interesting activities like

Draw your favourite ‘X’ or Design your ideal ‘X’, etc which are really interesting

2.4 Related studies

2.4.1 In Vietnam

1 http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/

There has been a great deal of research investigating teaching vocabulary fromthe past to present The majority of them are about techniques in teaching vocabularyfor students in university, secondary schools, and high schools (especially 11th and 12th

form) like Nguyen (1998), Le (1999), or Pham (2000), etc Those studies aim at thetechniques to teach vocabulary in general but do not elaborate on all three stages.Besides, the focus of a lot of those studies is teaching vocabulary through games andvisual aids, or the difficulty when teaching vocabulary or only presenting words forstudents It is the same case with a recent research conducted in a centre of English byNguyen (2010) Even though she did a study on children in an EFL context, only somecommon techniques employed and the difficulties perceived by foreign teachers werepointed out There are few theses on the student’s perception and until now, there hasdefinitely been no research on students’ preferences for activities for all the three stages

in teaching vocabulary Moreover, despite conducting a thesis in British Council withthe same participants, Bui (2011) focused on increasing motivation to learn from groupwork As a result, absolutely no Vietnamese research has been done on students’preferences for vocabulary activities in British Council before

2.4.2 In the world

The situation is quite similar in the world, which means there have been anumber of studies on teaching vocabulary activities to YLs, but none especially on thetopic of this study Pribilová, L (2006) revealed several techniques and activitiesemployed to teach vocabulary to the Czech students at the age of seven to eleven andshe only applied them to show how she performed in classes However, she did notconclude if her students are interested in these activities Likewise, Rahimi andSahragard (2008) suggested some difficulties in teaching vocabulary From reflecting

on some related literature like characteristics of YLs, techniques and principles ofteaching vocabulary, they have worked out some solutions Nevertheless, the researcherhas been unable to find any studies on students’ preferences for vocabulary activities tohopefully let teachers understand more about how children like to learn vocabulary

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

The earlier chapter has presented a brief overview of theories which serves as a foundation for the whole paper along with the review of a number of related studies In this chapter, the applied methodology in order to answer the two research questions will be specifically provided together with the participants, the instruments and the data collection and analysis procedure

3.1 Settings

As mentioned before, the British Council Vietnam is UK’s internationaleducational and cultural organization and also a prestigious centre for learning English.Primary students come to learn English between the ages of seven to ten 16 students,streamed according level, are arranged into one class according to their results in a pen

& paper placement test (Grammar, Vocabulary & Writing) and an interview(Speaking) After that, they are taught by native teachers for 16 weeks (2 hours perweek), which means that they learn English in an EFL context for 32 hours per course.After 3 courses or 96 hours the students move up a level (e.g from UP2 to UP3) BCteachers undergo compulsory in service training and are regularly observed to makesure that they uniformly adhere to the strict communicative approach followed

Lower Primary 1Lower Primary 2

Lower Primary 3 – A1 (CEF)

Upper Primary 1Upper Primary 2 – A1 (CEF)

Upper Primary 3 – A2 (CEF)

In terms of English language teaching to Vietnamese YLs, BC has divided YLsinto three groups: Primary Students (grade 2-5), Secondary Students (grade 6-9), andYoung Adults (grade 10-12) (see Appendix 1) There are in total six levels for primarypupils subdivided into 2 main groups: Lower primary, which are LP1, LP2 & LP3(grade 2-3), and Upper primary, which are UP1, UP2 & UP3 (grade 4-5) For a clearervisual explanation, the chart above illustrates the position of the six English levels forPrimary Students or JYL As the interests and emotions of a 7-year-old-child are quitedifferent from a 10-year-old, the learners should study with those who are not only atroughly the same level of English proficiency but also at a similar developmental level

or age Therefore, both grade 4 and 5 are learning together at UP3 level classes Interms of the materials used, UP3 uses Kid’s Box 5 alternated on a yearly cycle withIncredible English 5 and both of these are pitched at Flyers or CEF level A2

3.2 Participants

To further enhance the validity and feasibility of the research, the researcherdecided to choose a different number of participants for each of the different researchinstruments:

- The first group of participants included the three current UP3 teachers aswell as the six other teachers who taught UP3 the previous year The reason why sixteachers typically teach these three UP3 classes per year is because the teachers change/rotate classes every term All the participants fulfilled the first questionnaire

- The second group of participants consisted of all forty Vietnamese studentsout of forty eight from three current classes All of them fulfilled the first questionnaire

- The third group which was taken from the second group comprised sixstudents (three boys and three girls) randomly chosen for the interview One boy andone girl from each class were selected using the clustering sampling method

After the questionnaire and interviews were completed, the researcher did fiveobservations in each class, therefore fifteen in total One observation took two hours –the time of a BC normal lesson lasts

3.3 Data Collection Instruments

In order for the validity and reliability of the information gathered to be assured,the use of triangle methods including questionnaire, semi-structured interview andobservation were carefully employed by the researcher with close supervision from thesupervisor as well The combination of the three methods listed previously allowed theresearcher to answer the two research questions thoroughly.

3.3.1 Questionnaires

As the study focuses on investigating current commonly used activities inteaching vocabulary to YLs at BC, the main medium of this research is thequestionnaire This allows for collecting data from a wide group of participants which

is necessary for quantitative research There were two questionnaires delivered to theparticipants (one to teachers and the other to students)

The first questionnaire (see Appendix 2) was designed to find the answer to thefirst research question i.e which five activities the nine teachers most commonly use topresent, practice and produce vocabulary This questionnaire was conducted for theteachers to just tick common activities according to their perceptions There are tenquestions in three parts in this questionnaire:

- Part 1, question 1-2: to find out the most common activities at presentationstage

- Part 2, question 3-8: to find out the most common activities at practice stage

- Part 3, question 9-10: to find out the most common activities at productionstage

The questionnaire was in English and expressed into pedagogical terminology

In addition, explanations for some difficult terms were given in the questionnaire tomake sure it comprehensible From the results of the first questionnaire, the researcherdetermined the five most commonly employed activities – as perceived by the teachers– for each of the three stages of teaching vocabulary

The second questionnaire was utilized for 40 students to answer the secondresearch question; in other words, which three common vocabulary activities thestudents prefer most This questionnaire was based on the results of the first

questionnaire, which means it was then delivered to investigate which three out of thefive most common vocabulary activities were the students’ favourites for presenting,practising and producing vocabulary As can be seen in Appendix 3, there are threeparts to this questionnaire The first (question 1-2) deals with the students’ favouriteactivities to present new words, the second (question 3-8) for activities to practise thosewords, and the third (question 9-10) is for the activities applied to produce the learntwords The items were arranged from the most to the least common activities and all ofthe questions are designed for the students to simply put a tick next to the face that mostclosely represented their opinion, for example:

3.3.2 Interview

Considered as the supportive medium of the research, semi-structured interview(Appendix 5) was done after delivering the questionnaires As stated by Mackey &Gass (2005, p.173), the most obvious strength of interviews is the interaction whichprovokes researchers to “elicit additional data in case initial answers are unclear,incomplete, off-topic, or not specific enough” Therefore, six of the forty students wereinterviewed using the questions for background information and the ten questions toanswer the students’ preferences for activities in the second questionnaire inVietnamese Moreover, for the activities were favoured or disliked, the researcher askedthe students to give the reasons All of the interviews were recorded in order to beanalysable later

3.3.3 Observation

As far as the study is concerned, the data gathered from the questionnaires andinterviews, to some extent, were not enough In this case, the questionnaires andinterviews were followed by observations in three classes in order for the researcher tofully analyse the information the students gave The observation checklist (Appendix 6)was employed to examine the students’ behaviour whilst doing their most favouriteactivities From observation, the researcher could partially confirm the accuracy of theinformation given by the students

3.4 Data collection procedure

In this study, four main phases, in which each phase involved one suitable method

of study, were conducted under meticulous instruction and revision from the researcherand the supervisor

In the first phase, the first questionnaire was prepared and designed with theinvaluable help of the supervisor Furthermore, the researcher consulted two differentteachers teaching the level below (UP2) in order to pilot the questionnaire beforedelivery After that, the questionnaire was modified in order to ensure reliability and

‘user friendliness’ Next, the questionnaire was delivered to the nine teachers to becompleted After one week, nine questionnaires were collected in order to be analyzed

to find out which were the most commonly used vocabulary activities

The second phase involved the second questionnaire which was designedaccording to the results of the first questionnaire Then the researcher asked forpermission from the teachers of the three UP3 classes to deliver the questionnaire in tenminutes during the break for each class The researcher monitored and assisted thestudents to do the questionnaire In the end there were 35 valid questionnaires out of thetotal of 40 to discover what the students’ most favourite learning activities were Theother 5 students did not accomplish one to two questions in their surveys

The third phase was short interviews (10 minutes) with the randomly chosenparticipants: 3 boys and 3 girls from the three classes As most of the information hadbeen collected through questionnaires, the interview was simply used to add depth and

validity to the study Four interviews before their lessons and two in the break timewere taken and recorded

The fourth phase engaged designing an observation checklist and observing thethree classes for 5 weeks 15 observations totalling 30 hours were done to find out moredetails about the students’ behaviour whilst doing their stated favourite activities

3.5 Data analysis methods

The data collected from the questionnaires was quantitative data, so thedescriptive statistics method was the most suitable for the researcher to provide simplesummaries to each question To analyze the questionnaires, the descriptive statisticsmethod of mean and standard deviation were used Mean is calculated to describe thecentral tendency (which activities are preferred by the majority of students) Fromlikert scale questions, mean is computed by following formula:

 Mean: M = sum of values / number of values

A very high mean shows which activities were commonly used by the teachers

in the first questionnaire whereas in the second one, it shows which activities werestrongly favoured by the students

For the interviews and observation checklist, qualitative analytical strategies areemployed This method helped the researcher clarify the main purpose of this piecewhich is to highlight the students’ preferences for vocabulary activities Moreover, theuse of qualitative analytical strategies helped the researcher to make inferences and thenlater write a discussion about the students’ reasons for their chosen favourite activities.Besides, it also helped the researcher to investigate the attitudes and behaviours of theparticipants while doing activities to make sure that the result of this study istrustworthy

CHAPTER FOUR: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

In the chapter before, the methodology employed to accomplish this study has been reported with explanations for the selection of participants in a specific setting,

research instruments, the procedure of data collection and data analysis In this chapter, all the data gathered is analyzed and discussed carefully to answer two research questions with insurance of the validity and reliability of the research Tables are taken advantage of for the best appearance of studied data

4.1 Research Question 1: What are the Common Activities Currently Employed by British Council Teachers to Teach Vocabulary to Young Learners, Particularly the 9 to 10-year-old-students?

The data collected from the questionnaires done by the eight teachers ispresented to describe the frequency of vocabulary activities to teach vocabulary to UP3students As all the activities’ names that are difficult to comprehend are explained inthe first questionnaire, the researcher only clarifies again some of them if necessary

4.1.1 At presentation stage

4.1.1.1 Visual techniques

Among these eight visual techniques,

Flashcards and Images embedded in the flipchart are the most regularly employed.

The reason for Flashcards’ high frequency ispossible that they are tailored to the coursebook (i.e relevant vocabulary) and enoughsets are provided free for all UP3 teachers touse simultaneously Images embedded in aflipchart are popular because they areextensive (Google image), costless and easy

to incorporate into the IWB The next most

common activity is Mime (4.13), perhaps due to it being easy to do with free and lively actions to add fun and energy to the classroom Drawing on the board ranks fourth –

maybe for reason that it is limitless and amusing, and requires no preparation whereas

Realia ranks fifth with a mean of 3.68 Despite of its popularity with the students, it

purchases on the part of the teacher so this is might be why it is last in the top five

Posters are rarely used by BC teachers and the most likely reason is that they are not designed to apply with BC modern technology Likewise, Word pictures and Word charts are also exploited in the low rate

4.1.1.2 Verbal techniques

……… ………

Some of the verbal techniques listed in the table had

a very high frequency: Giving context, Examples and Descriptions It seems that the teachers would want to elicit

the meaning of new words rather than give direct answers.These three techniques can help the students to learn toinfer meanings and make them more comfortable if theyencounter unfamiliar vocabulary the next time Perhaps, that

can explain why Translation is the least commonly used.

The technique ranked as the fourth most frequent is

Definitions (4.0), just followed by Synonyms and Explanations which are evenly account for a mean of 3.78.

The researcher thinks that the above five techniques all help to develop the students’vocabulary together with listening so this is why they are often employed in class An

unexpected point for the research is that the teachers did not apply Synonyms and Antonyms at the same regularity Contrary to the common belief, Antonyms are applied less than Synonyms due to their limitation of possible words

4.5 whereas Find the words in the text is not used

regularly (2.75) One possibleexplanation is that pictures andobjects are thought to be morefun and/or challenging thanwords only Two activities

Count the thing in the picture (3.25) and Count the words in the text (1.88) are in the same situation Listen and tick the pictures (4.38) and Listen and tick the words (4.0) are not an exception; nevertheless,

both are still employed frequently might be the reason that the students actually focus

more with listening than only looking This may also explain the frequency of Raise your hand when you hear the words which is the last of the five most usual identifying

activities with a mean of 3.13

4.1.2.2 Selecting activities

Obviously in the table Odd one out is much less popular than Brainstorming The feasible explanation

is that the teachers may want to let thestudents be more active or personalisethe lesson rather than simply doing penand paper exercises The second most

frequent activity is “A to Z…” with a

mean of 3.5 which requires students towork in teams to list a particular lexicalitem for every letter of the alphabet and

it becomes extremely useful as a motivation for students to recycle their latent

Listen and tick the words that you hear 4.0

Listen and tick the pictures that you hear 4.38

Count the things in the picture 3.25

Count the words in the text 1.88

Find the things in the picture 4.5

Find the words in the text 2.75

Find the words in the word square 2.38

Raise your hand when you hear the words 3.13

Table 3: Common Identifying Activities

vocabulary Coming after that is Picture dictation that makes use of the students’ creativity along with practicing their speaking and listening skills Sound Mazes,

largely taken from the book Primary Pronunciation Box (Nixon & Tomlinson, 2005)are another most common activity in which students have to follow particular sounds(e.g past tense /d/ ending) so as to find their way out of a maze Because of includingselecting possible sounds of the target vocabulary, it is very helpful in the Practice step

Vocabulary Mazes is placed as the fifth most frequently applied activity Word snakes and Phonicolours are in the low frequency perhaps due to the age of the students, as

both of these activities are extremely popular with smaller learners

4.1.2.3 Matching activities

In the table 5,

Matching words to pictures noticeablyoutnumbers with a mean

of 4.75 It has beenobserved by the researcherthat it always appears asthe first task in theActivity book, so thatmight be the reason for itsdomination The second

most common activity is Pelmanism – which is very familiar to the students – followed

by Match the words in A to the words in B with the same degree of frequency as Match the words to their features The last activity in the top five most frequent activities was Match words to definitions which had a higher mean than Match words

to their synonyms Again, Match words to their antonyms is not used so commonly as

Match words to their synonyms, maybe because there is more synonyms of the target

vocabulary than antonyms, as mentioned before

4.1.2.4 Sorting activities

Match words to their synonyms 3.13

Match words to their antonyms 2.75

Match words in column A to words in column B 3.38

Match words to their features 3.38

Table 5: Common Matching Activities

It is clearlyrevealed in the tablethat the mostoutstanding activity is

Put the words in the right category, one of

the most well-knownsorting activities

Although Put the word cards in the right group sounds like an interesting activity, its frequency is quite low (2.5), even after Put the words together which have the same features (e.g.

supermarket, sweet shop, bakery are for shopping but park, amusement park are forrelaxing) It is a surmise that the preparation of word cards is a deterrent for teachers

and therefore it is easier just to sort the words themselves Add more words to the group is in the second rank with a mean of 3.63 This might be related to the BC

teachers’ training with making students more independent or autonomous learners

Unpredictably, Put the words in the right sound family is less frequently employed than Put the words in the right word family Perhaps nouns, verbs, and adjectives are

more recognisable for Vietnamese children than pronunciation, or perhaps younger BCteachers favour grammar over pronunciation even with YLs

4.1.2.5 Raking and sequencing activities

Listen to the story and put the pictures in the right order absolutely leads the

table of ranking and sequencing activities below with a mean of 4.88 probably becausethere is always at least one story in each textbook unit, so the preparation is at ease Theteachers just need to separate the pictures and get students to work in groups to sort

them out Nevertheless, Look at pictures and put the sentences in the gaps is the least

regular activity It is presumed by the researcher that the activity can be found not sochallenging enough for the students because of involving reading only whereas usually

Put the words in the right category 4.38

Put the word cards in the right category 2.5

Put the words in the right word family 3.5

Put the words in the right sound family 3.13

Put the words together which have the same features 3.0

Table 6: Common Sorting Activities

Rank words in order of preference 2.5

Put the words in the right sequence of a situation 4.0Listen to the story and put the pictures in the right order 4.88Look at pictures and put the sentences in the gaps to make a right story 2.13

Table 7: Common Ranking and Sequencing Activities

they listen while reading Predict the next part of the story is the second most common activity, come after by Put the words in the right sequence of a situation Once again

this might be due to the teachers encouraging critical thinking and learner autonomy.Moreover, the students like to express their ideas to display their knowledge in front of

the class so they respond well to this activity It is worthy of note that Rank words in order of preference (2.5) is the last activity in the top five most frequent activities after Rank words in order of scale (e.g big, huge, enormous) (3.38)

4.1.2.6 Games

One remarkable point in table 8 below is that three old familiar games like

Hangman (1.75), Noughts and crosses (2.125), and Ladder race (2.38) are the least

regularly employed in BC As per the researcher’s guess, the students have played thesegames so much often when they were smaller (both in BC and in school) that they are

no longer interested in them Moreover, it is also a possibility that the teachers feel the

same Hot seat, nonetheless, is applied quite frequently in the class since the students

could show their creativity and they can change seats as well, unlike when playing

Hangman or Noughts and crosses In the same frequency as Hot seat, Reading race

has taken a mean of 3.13 A possible reason for its regularity might be that it gives thestudents with different sets of skills a chance to excel, e.g points are won simply for

reading ability as opposed to vocabulary knowledge Flashcard guessing is the next

most popular game and the researcher thinks that – as with reading races – the reason is

a different set of skills are called upon In this case it is a blind luck that secures the

points and this motivates even the weakest students After Flashcards guessing is