The experience in teaching vocabulary effectively for primary studens

With my experience of teaching, I would like to introduce "The experience in learning vocabulary effectively for primary students" 1.2.. Learning vocabulary may not be the most exciting

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Reasons for choosing the topic:

English is an international language, it has a great role in many fields such

as diplomacy economy, commerce, science and technology Because of opening policies of our state and party and globalization, many and many people use foreign languages, especially English English is used by many classes in our society Following that trend, there has been an increare in teaching and learning English at primary schools in Viet Nam It gives students chance to learn an international language

English is a new and difficult subject for primary students When they first learn English, they must learn vocabulary And vocabulary is one of the important part of a foreign language In all skills such as: speaking, listening, reading and writing, we need to have vocabulary In order to have good vocabulary knowledge,we must learn hard and enrich our vocabulary day by day It is very difficult for primary students because they have not been the awareness of learning a foreign language and just because they do not feel the importantce of learning English But they have strong points such as: They can memorize the words well and they easily imitate their teachers but they don’t memorize long This makes them afraid of vocabulary and have wrong writing

of vocabulary and pronounce the words incorrectly or they are not eager to communicate with each other in English in each English lesson So how can they enrich their vocabulary? How can we make them eager to learn English ? This is a question for all of us - English teachers

With my experience of teaching, I would like to introduce "The experience in learning vocabulary effectively for primary students"

1.2 The purpose of research :

Before going into the specific issue, we agree that the mainstream methods

of teaching foreign languages is integration, meaning that new words should be taught in context Students should learn how to use new words and new structures for communication in foreign languages

Right from the beginning, teachers should consider the various procedures for teaching, testing and consolidating vocabulary

Should all the new words be taught or not? How should teachers teach vocabulary effectively? The purpose of this initiative is to help:

- Construct intuitive tools to introduce new words

- Ensure that students understand the structure, vocabulary applied to the structure to improve communication functions

- Deepen vocabulary in memory of students through the sample questions and practice exercises

- Help the lessons become more vibrant and lively.

- Students understand the new words in the classroom

- Students' vocabulary significantly increase

- The weak students use the vocabulary in simple sentences and then in more

1.3 The subject of research :

I have applied alternately to the lessons to the lessons in English textbook grade 3, 4, 5 and have performed for students in grade 4 at Dong Ve 2 Primary school

1.4 The methods of research

In order to implement this initiative, I have chosen some of the following methods:

- Reading documents that relate to the research issue

- Survey method for comments

- Testing method

- Pedagogical observation method

- Method of assessment

2 CONTENT

2.1 Rationale

The purpose of foreign language teaching is not to give students knowledge

of the language, but the ultimate goal of teaching foreign languages in general and English in particular is teaching students the ability to communicate in English The ability of students to communicate through skills: Listening, Speaking , Reading and Writing

- For any languages in the world, to communicate with it, we are required

to have vocabulary Vocabulary is an indispensable component in the language used for communication activities and an important part of the language learning

- In English we can not train and develop the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing of students without basing on the foundation of vocabulary Indeed, without a necessary variety of vocabulary, students can not speak, listen, read or write well however good they may be at structures

The findings of the “National Reading Panel” indicate that vocabulary instruction does lead to gains in comprehension, but that methods must be appropriate to the age and ability of the reader Using both indirect and direct teaching methods to build students’ oral and reading vocabularies should be a part of a balanced reading program Indirect methods would include read-alouds, shared reading and writing experiences, and independent reading Direct teaching of vocabulary should respond to the needs of the students and should actively engage them in the process (National Reading Panel, 2000)

Learning vocabulary may not be the most exciting thing students do school, but by using interesting and fun ways to teach vocabulary words, teachers can increase student interest and help with both memorization and retention

2.2 The situation of the problem:

Under the current curriculum distribution, English accounts for four periods per week in primary school Each lesson of units normally has new words In oredr to teach vocabulary more vividly and effectively, teachers should use pictures or flashcards for illustration, which enables students to easily remember words and attract their attention to the lessons

Of course, there are few difficulties in vocabulary learning I believe vocabulary is the most comprehensive and most difficult aspect of English for foreign learners to master thoroughly Students should concentrate first on learning the most frequently used and therefore most important English vocabulary for their practical real life needs

However, besides a number of children who learn vocabulary seriously, many students are still lazy at learning vocabulary

Moreover, it is also very difficult to check or guide them to learn at home Because English is a foreign language and parents do not always know it well It

is also very difficult to the manage students' learning at home

Also, the way students learn vocabulary is also worthy of attention

many words As a result, many students get bored with learning Therefore, teachers need pay attention to the psychology of students

I have taken a small recent survey among 4th grade students at Dong Ve II primary school by this exercise to test the students’ memory of words

*Exercise: Write a dictation

My best friend is Hoang Ha Linh She is ten years old She lives at 14 Le Cong Khai Street in ThanhHoa with her mother, father and her younger brother She is a student at Dong Ve 2 primary school He is tall and thin She has long black hair Her close friends are Van, Dung and me Her telephone number is 091.240.279

I obtained the following results:

Class Total Wrong writing ofwords Correct writing of words

4A

4B

4C

30 31 32

10 students (33,3%)

19 students (61,3%)

12 students (37,5%)

20 students (66,7%)

12 students (38,7%)

20 students (62,5%)

The result showed that the number of students who are not good at vocabulary is still comparatively high To improve the situation, I decided to try

to apply some my teaching experience to vocabulary teaching

2.3 The solution to the problem

As a English teacher, I always encourage my students to learn English and I use more interesting pictures and educational equipments and teach my students many English songs in order to get the students’ attention to their learning

How can teachers help them learn vocabulary well? Here are some

techniques

2.3.1 Learn the vocabulary by real images

When I teach lesson about the weather, there are some words about the weather : cloudy, sunny, rainy…., I draw the picture of the words about the weather

Eg: Teacher draws

  

- T reads cloudy sunny rainy

- Ss repeat (twice) cloudy sunny rainy

- T writes and reads cloudy sunny rainy

- Ss read again cloudy sunny rainy

Students:

After students read in chorus,I call each student to read the words individually

I listen and correct their pronunciation and ask them to read again the words

they pronounce incorrectly And then I ask them to play the game “ What and

Where” The aim of this game is to help students remember the pronunciation of

the words immediately

When the period has five minutes left I guide them to play the game "Slap

the board" By the end of this lesson, students will be able to help students

remember the meaning of the words I divide the class into 2 groups

Eg: The questions with “How”

Group 1 Group 2

wide metre

long deep thick

heavy high fast

bridge well

 

 

 

 

 

2.3.1.1 Learn vocabulary basing on the structure:

- When I teach comparative adjectives, I call some students to go to the board or use some pictures and ask the rest of the class to look at them then describe their friends

The girl is taller than the boy.

The boy is bigger than the girl.

- Or I use the real things to make comparison

eg: I pick two rulers and ask the students to make comparison

2.3.1.2 Learn vocabulary according to the topic

In this lesson, students remember all the words, I ask students to write down the words they have learnt:

- football

- swimming

- badminton

- tennis

- table tennis

- basketball

- base ball

- jacket

- blouse

- shirt

- trousers

- T- shirt

- jeans

- shoes

- bananas

- apples

- oranges

- mangoes

- pine- apple

- grapes

- lemon

- English

- Music

- Vietnamese

- Mathematics

- Art

- Scien

- A.T

- bread

- rice

- fish

- meat

- beef

- chicken

- noodle

Or I give some vocabulary of the topic combining real pictures This way helps them remember quickly and fully accurately

Ex: shirts,trousers,jeans, shorts, dresses … are clothes

- bananas, apples, oranges….are fruits

- rice, meat, fish …are food

( download pictures from Internet: www.google pictures of clothes; www.google pictures of food; www.google pictures of fruits )

I also ask students to revise the words they have learnt by playing games

Eg: I write down one word on the board and ask students to write all the

supporting words

By doing this, I think students remember the words easily and they find no difficulty in doing “choosing exercises”

2.3.2 Revising words by learning songs

Basing on the original songs, I can compose the other songs and ask students

to remember the words in these songs They can sing along and learn new words easily in their lessons such as: warm- up, consolidation …or when they have a rest Students can sing individually, in pairs, in groups or all class…

Eg: Revising the colour words by singing “Bac Kim Thang” song:

- Revising the words by singing “ Family Member” song:

Autumn Winter

seasons

2.3.3 Revising words at home:

“Study must be together with practice” That saying is always true.

Learning words is not enough in class but also at home I ask them to learn some new words each day or spend thirty minutes each day learning new words This helps them form their good study habbit

After a period of learning vocabulary, I ask them to write down the words at home, each word must be written down five times until they remember the meaning, the pronunciation of these words By doing this, I think students will remember all the words they have learnt Beside asking them to write down the words in their book, they can write the words down anywhere if it is possible such as: a piece of paper, a board… so that they can learn the words anywhere or any time

eg:

2.3.4 Learning vocabulary anywhere

Beside learning vocabulary in class or at home, I also advise students to have a piece of paper or a small notebook, whenever they study or find new words they can write the words down in a piece of paper or a small notebook in both side: one side is in Vietnamese, the other is in English By doing this, they can learn vocabulary anywhere so they can remember the words easily It is one

of the best ways to enrich their knowledge of vocabulary Beside that, I encourage students to watch foreign films or cartoons in English so that they can practice their listening skill and they have chance to imitate the way each word that is pronounced correctly So they have good memory, pronunciation of the words

Eg:

The front side The back side

- football

- swimming

- badminton

- tennis

- table tennis

- baseball

- basketball

- bóng đá

- bơi

- cầu lông

- quần vợt

- bóng bàn

- bóng chày

- bóng rổ

Traffic lights

Đèn giao thông

Health

Sức khỏe

Headache

Đau đầu

Turn left

Rẽ trái

2.4 The effect of initiative application

Above is my experience of teaching vocabulary that I have had after many years of teaching and studying Here is the reasonable result:

I find that students are more confident, they are eager to write words They pronounce the words correctly , they are better at reading and writing skill, especially they are more self-confident in communication inside or outside classes By taking this survey, I can find each students’ weak points and strong points so that I can have the best methods of teaching which are suitable for each student’s level

* The experience:

By taking this survey, I have drawn some experiences:

In order to improve the quality of teaching, each teacher must be enthusiastic with career or try their best to study, to find the interesting methods

of teaching which attract students so that they get interes ted in each period of learning English

We should encourage students to learn English especially we must pay much attention to the weak students We should combine knowledge of many other subjects to provide the best periods of learning English to the children We can use cartoons, beautiful songs, interesting games…to help students remember the words easily.

3 THE CONCLUSIONCONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 3.1 Conclusion:

This is only the first step results in the implementation process to improve teaching methods I have learnt more from collegues, teachers who have extensive experience in teaching and education and from my own reality of teaching English in classes 4, as well as theoretical study I have experienced in innovative teaching methods

Use songs and music, real life objects, or puzzles, but the more teachers mix the better Remember the difference between recognizing and producing words: to practice recognition the words have to be supplied by teachers; then students use them to fill in blanks or match them For students to effectively and accurately produce vocabulary, they have to spontaneously recall the words

3.2 Recommendations:

3.2.1 To the leaders:

- I would like leaders to facilitate teachers study conditions, reference,

self-learning, self- training to improve and enhance the quality of teaching

- The school should provide some additional equipment for subjects like English: the pictures of each lesson in the textbook and, if possible, please provide players, video tapes, lab for English subject

- English clubs or thematic sessions on innovative teaching methods, information technology application to teaching as well as sample lessons for hard lessons should be organized regularly for teachers to be able learn and exchange experience with each other

With the positive and satisfactory results I have obtained, personally, I would like to propose to the Staff of Administrators at Dong Ve 2 primary school to facilitate the school-wide application

3.2.2 To the teachers:

- Be positive more every day, creat more gentle and comfortable learning environment

- Teacher should prepare lessons carefully before class

- Prepare content for students by establishing discussing questions and the possible suggested answers

- Play a role as a guider who helps student in learning activities

- Have students work in pairs or groups so that students can help each other

as much as possible

I also would like to encorage Vietnamese teschers to have more confidence and experience in teaching vocabulary even though we are not native speakers

of English With full advanced preparation, we can all be experts in teaching English

This is an initiative by my personal experiences drawn from practical teaching, thus, it would not be surely avoid deficiencies I personally expect the interest and comments from the leaders and colleagues