Using flash cards to teach english vocabulary for primary student

Thereare many techniques employed by teachers in teaching vocabulary and they canimprove their learners’ knowledge of vocabulary by helping them in building alarge number of words to cho

THANH HOA EDUCATION & TRAINING DEPARTMENT

THANH HOA CITY EDUCATION & TRAINING OFFICE

INDEX

1.1.The reasons for choosing the topic 1

1.2 The purposes of research 1

1.3 The object of the research 2

1.4 The methods of the search 2

2.1 Theoretical basis of the experiece initiative 3

2.2 Situation issuses before applying experience initiative 4

2.3 The sollution of implemented 5 - 6

2.4 The affect of experience initiative 7-17

2 Recommendations 17-18

REFERENCES

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1.The reasons for choosing the topic

With the general growth of society, English is becoming popular for all

of people in over the world Teaching and learning English is a problem thatthe Vietnam educations care about

English is not only taught in universities, high schools, junior highschools but also in primary school Vocabulary learning is an intrinsic part oflanguage teaching A number of researchers agree that there is very littleresearch carried out in the field of vocabulary learning and that the most

effective means of vocabulary learning is still unclear In recent years, appliedlinguists have strongly advocated vocabulary teaching because of the importantrole it plays in language learning Vocabulary is necessary for communicationand in expressing meaning through the productive and receptive skills Thereare many techniques employed by teachers in teaching vocabulary and they canimprove their learners’ knowledge of vocabulary by helping them in building alarge number of words to choose from anytime they want to convey theirintended message in different contexts.

Students, however, complain that they cannot remember the words theyhave learned To solve this problem, vocabulary learning tool The researcherbelieves that an awareness of individual differences in learning makes EFLeducators and curriculum designers more sensitive to their roles in teaching andlearning Furthermore, it will permit them to match teaching and learning so as

to develop students “potentials in EFL learning as well as to assist students tobecome cognizant of the ways they learn most effectively It also helps thestudents to develop techniques and tools to become more motivated andindependent learners The understanding of the students” beliefs of vocabularylearning and their vocabulary learning techniques use enables teachers andresearchers to design appropriate materials and activities to help them improvetheir vocabulary learning so as to enhance their lexical competence

There are many methods used to teach vocabulary for primary schoolstudents, although what is the effective method? This research aims to find outthe most effective one – using flashcards

To help primary school students memorize thousands of foreign wordsquickly and easily teacher can use flashcards to teach them However, howflashcards can improve student’s English vocabulary, and is it really effective?This study demonstrates an initial attempt to explore how teachers in juniorhigh schools use flashcards to teach English vocabulary, what the best way forthem to use flashcards is And how students of primary schools can memorizeEnglish vocabulary when their teachers use flashcards

1.2 The purposes of research

Research this topic to help teachers improve my pedagogical professionmethods and create in teaching, contribute the teaching tasks that the Party andState assigned to and the quality of teaching English in general At the sametime, students are interested in learning and motivated in activities, practice thelanguage These things contribute to improve their ability of communication inEnglish in the classroom.The teaching and learning follow morden teachingmethods become better and more efficient

1.3 The object of the research

As an English teacher at primary school, I always wondered, afteragonizing over every hour to class.Although students have a good knowledge

of grammar, when I do exercises to develop 4 skills : Listening, Speaking,Reading and Writing,they are not good at four skills They are not listening,

speaking and afraid to speak.And they often wrote the wrong word to use andmisspelled.

In the process of teaching and research I have realized that thevocabulary system is one of the three main aspects of the language, have aspecial meaning in the teaching of a foreign language System vocabulary helpsstudents distinguish types of speaking and writing style in each particular case,therefore it makes students more confident in the process of communicationwith foreigners Howerver, most students are not aware of it and even we wholive normally do instead of teaching so many students, teachers provideknowledge Grammar helps students choose to write new words, include highlyeffective for students that create dependency and inertia

Therefore teaching vocabulary is key because there is no certainly noword language We can not train and develop the four skills: Listening,Speaking, Reading and Writing for students that are not based on thefoundation of vocabulary Volume vocabulary as much as it helps students tounderstand and communicate effectively quickly The vocabulary learning anduse on a regular basis, which is the result of the learning process For this to betrue teacher is to guide students to actively and positively in the learningactivities Teachers must find appropriate teaching methods to help studentspractice and remember well the vocabulary they have learned At the sametime, teachers must instruct students how to learn and practice self- reviewvocabulary at home to memorize vocabulary and develop their own With mylittle experience I boldly go into a topic: "using flashcards to teach English vocabulary for primary students"

1.4.The methods of the search

With this topic I have applied the following methodology

- Method of dialogue,interview

- Method of observation

- Material reseache method

- Method of survey and statistics

2 CONTENT

2.1.The oretical basis of the experience intiative

Before I start my study of the vocabulary flash card strategy on the vocabularyknowledge, it is necessary to clarify some of the concepts involved in it

* Vocabulary

A person's vocabulary is the set of words they are familiar with in alanguage A vocabulary usually grows and evolves with age, and serves as auseful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge.Language teaching specialists generally agree that vocabulary is one of themost important aspects for foreign language learners to acquire since it iscritical in conveying the meaning of a message Vocabulary, in the abstract,represents a set of words for a language or a set of words that its speakersmight use (Hatch & Brown, 1999) A word as a “single unit of language”

(Oxford Advanced Learner‟s Dictionary 2000), conveys meaning on its ownand is not part of any linguistic pattern that might change the word’s meaning

in connection with other words

* Flash Card (FC)

One strategy for learning vocabulary is the use of flash cards A flashcard is a cardboard consisting of a word, a sentence, or a simple picture on it Itshould be noted that the letters on it must be visible and large enough foreveryone sitting in the front and the back of the classroom To make sure thateveryone can see the letters on the card, it is better to write words with capitalletters Both sides of the flash card should be used in teaching vocabulary Onone side, the new word is written in L2 and perhaps with a picture beside it and

on the other side is the translation These flash cards can be made by bothteachers and learners Various kinds of flash cards are on the market.Flashcards for EFL teaching or self-study have been used for years and are auseful tool for teachers and learners Flash cards are useful for drilling newletters, syllables, words, and other information They are normally used in aclassroom, but can also be used more informally A flashcard or flash card is aset of cards bearing information, as words or numbers, on either or both sides,used in classroom drills or in private study Flash cards can bear vocabulary,historical dates, formulas or any subject matter that can be learned via aquestion and answer format Flash cards are widely used as a learning drill toaid memorization by way of spaced repetition

* Vocabulary flashcards

Vocabulary flash card or Word flash card is perhaps worth mentioning at thispoint, even though they are not actually pictures However, being used in asimilar way as picture flash card, they can often enrich the lesson

Vocabulary flash card can be fun, colorful, and creative way to aid inmemory and retention of vocabulary words Flash cards are a tried and testedteaching and learning device inside and outside the classroom, for kids andadults alike Some of these flash cards are designed to perfect your Englishwhile others can help you learn a new language entirely The key to using flashcards is to look at the word or definition on one side, and test yourself to see ifyou can remember the answer written on the other So you can perfect yourknowledge of the vocabulary on the list and improve your overall vocabulary 2.2 Situation issues before applying experience initiative

- Local governments and organizations in and outside schools are interested,help teachers in the process of work

- Itself subject teachers always get the support from the teachers andprofessional groups and colleagues.

- Most students prepare books and supplies for learning English department.

For the teacher:

After six years of teaching English to primary school students, I foundthat training for effective new words is a difficult problem I may state thefollowing reasons: Teacher do not pay much attention to this stage

Teachers don’t know enough about students in general or in particularsections Activities are carried out at the group pairs Facilities lack to meet therequirements of the teaching and learning of this matter

It’s true that new words teaching at primary school is necessary forstudents to study better at higher grades to up grade on they can communicatebetter How to teach new words skill at the primary shool is not easy forteachers

To make a skills better teacher need to give enough time for students toaccess and use the method "Pre - While - Post" method in 40 minutes so thataccording to the distribution of English language program in grades 1,2 and 3,

4, 5, the section is coupled with other pieces so not enough time for teachers toguide students worked on request Thus students can not develop goodremember words skills

In the context of education and training efforts are innovative teachingmethods towards promoting proactive creativity of students in learningactivities

One of the factors that impact directly to the learning outcomes ofstudents as teaching methods So to help students with a solid foundation inscience instructional periods, student-centered, promote self-discipline toacquire all of the children Teachers should identify specific objectives of thelesson Such as that class will focus on practicing speaking skills, saysomething, use the other structure? But we should remember never skillstraining to be completely independent Usually the classes always have at leasttwo skills combined, such as listening, speaking or reading, writing orspeaking, listening, writing

Learners who learn English as a foreign language, memorizingvocabulary is a difficult problem There are now many effective methods tohelp learners in learning English vocabularies Using flashcards is one of these.However, there are also many different opinions around using flashcards Somejudge that flashcards is helpful to teach and learn vocabulary, but the others donot agree So the question is given that if flashcards have any helpful roles inteaching and learning foreign language vocabulary.

Flashcards are motivating and eye catching Howard Gardener’s multipleintelligence Gardener’s research indicates that the teachers should aim toappeal to all at the different learner types at some point during the course It isparticularly important to appeal to visual learners, as a very high proportion oflearners have this type of intelligence Flashcards can be bright and colorfuland make real impact on visual learners Especially, it is very useful to teachvocabulary for young students S.Jackson (England) said he taught adultbeginners and found that flashcards are very useful in teaching Englishvocabulary He would not like to teach “cabbage”, “lettuce”, “cucumber”,without flashcards Angela (Canada) said: “I use flashcards when teaching myyoung students who struggle with word recall” Laurence (France) an Englishteacher in a secondary school said that she used flashcards mostly with youngstudents; they were very receptive to any new methods of learning which wasnot in their book She gave an example that she taught the students in asecondary about the different parts of the body She began the lesson bydrawing a pin man on the board and asking students to tell what they call inEnglish As they answered they did not know She gave them the right wordsand made them repeat several times Afterward, she used flashcards to showthem a hand a leg…The result was really better She also said that flashcardscan make students pay more attention to the lesson Wilson (Sri Lanka) showedher students a flashcard, example, a dog’s picture and tell them that was ahorse, the students immediately tried to correct it So they could memorizethese words better and longer

According to Joanna Burden, British Council, Spain “flashcards arereally handy resource to have and can be useful at every stage of the class.They are great way to present, practice and recycle vocabulary and whenstudents become familiar with the activities used in lass, they can be given out

to early-finishers to use in small groups I sometimes get the students to maketheir own sets of mini flashcards that can be taken home for them to play with,with parents and siblings”

b Disadvantages

Although our primary school located in the center of the city, the

situations of the students face many difficulties

For the students:

The number of students is high in each class Students are not used flash cards during class

There is not enough investment in English in time Students also arenot familiar with the method of learning in English vocabulary learning as well

as how to make really effective

Through teaching to students courses of professional activities anddiscussions with colleagues, I found myself that English learning situation alsoreveals some negativeness

In general, they are not also self confident in communicating, theirremember new English vocabulary is limited use They can not to makesentences because they do not remember vocabularies

To the parents, also very difficult to check or guide them to learn aforeign language at home by subjects, parents do not know They have limitedaccess to communicate in English outside school hours

Directions to the survey quality mastering vocabulary limited schoolyear:

Table 1: QUALITY SURVEY

Class Well accomplished Accomplished Unaccomplished

Students quantity % quantity % quantity %

This is a surveytable before using flashcards to teach English vocabularies

To sum up, there are many ways to using flashcards effectively; howeverthis research took especially at the way to using flashcards to teach vocabularyfor students of grade 1,2,3,4,5 at Nguyen Van Troi primary school Differentfrom the previous study, this focus on:

- How flashcards can help students remember new English vocabulary The students’ feelings when learning English vocabulary with flashcards

2.3 The sollution of implemented

2.3.1 Context and Participants

This study was conducted at the Nguyen Van Troi Primary School inThanh Hoa city The participants were 1456 female students and male students

at the grade 1,2,3,4,5 in thirty classes All of them had studied English as acompulsory subject at school They had four periods of English per week

2.3.2 Materials

The materials used in this study included a closed-ended questionnaire.Students were asked to answer the question such as “How do you feel whenyour teacher use flashcards to teach you vocabulary?”…The answer was given

out four selects: a very interesting, b interesting; c normal; d boring All theitems in the questionnaire were written in Vietnamese At the end, the students

in all two groups were tested using the posttest

2 3.3 Procedure

At the beginning time of the first semester in the school year 2017 –

2018, I decided to examine the quality of English subjects for all students ofNguyen Van Troi Primary School by not using flashcards to teach vocabularytest

Five classes were selected with each consisting of 198 students Theclasses were similar in a number of ways:All the students were different ageand all of them studying at the same school with the different English teachers.During the treatment period, they were exposed to the same vocabulary itemsbut through different techniques The tests that were given and the time forgiving instructions were exactly similar for both the flash card and the word listgroups Because of the time limitation, ten vocabulary items were selected All

of the words were from the participants’ textbook (English 1,2,3,4,5) Group 1received instruction of vocabulary using flash cards and Group 2 received thevocabulary instruction through word lists for lesson 1 or lesson 2 Theinstruction was given in ten minutes in both sessions Finally, two days afterfinishing the procedure, a post-test was administered to both groups to seewhich group had remembered more words

2.4 The effect of experience

This study is learne about using flashcard to teach English vocabulary forprimary school The result shows that using flashcards is effective or not, thisdepends on students’ interest and the way teachers use to teach them However,what is the most effective way, in here, the way to teach and learn vocabularyfor secondary students is that using flashcards, but just using flashcards is notcompletely efficient It is necessary for the teachers to combine the flashcardsand other visual aids such as posters, board drawing, or teach vocabularies is incontext, the teachers should use all kind of skills Teachers should encouragestudents to use any words unnaturally In addition, students should also helptheir teachers in learning their previous knowledge Students learn the wordsthey are supposed to study and believe they must be making progress At least,they feel that way in class If they leave the class, they don’t remember thewords or don’t use them correctly and so are misunderstood By then, theycan’t blame the teacher, they blame themselves! So teaching vocabulary byusing flashcards is really effective when both teachers and students are goodcooperation

HOW TO LEARN VOCABULARY ?

( using flashcards to teach English vocabulary for primary students)

A few helpful tips!

A warm thank to the students at Primary School

The favorable facilities and students of Nguyen Van Troi Primary School.

*Activities using flash cards

2.4.3 Definitions

Ex: a small feline you can have at home = cat

A white drink some people have for breakfast = milk

2.4.4 Definitions with given letter

Ex: what you put on toast for breakfast:

B … utter/ B……acon / J….am / M…….armalade

A flying animal, comes out at night: B … at!

2.4.5 Mixed letters, crossword puzzle (game)

Ex:

ohtberr (family) brother

sit ysea ! ryt ti! it’s easy ! Try it!

kmli (drink) milk

2.4.6 Series = lists

freezing – very cold - cold - cool - warm – hot – boiling hotone – two – three – four – five

spring – summer – autumn (fall)-winter

2.4.7 Categories (lexical field)

clothes : jeans – shirt – shoes – boots – cap – hat – helmet -belt animals: cat – dog – cage – zoo – to feed – seeds – lettuce…