Some experiences to teach vocabulary of reading lessons in textbook of grade 11 at quang xuong 1 high school

When encountering new words, they often stop to look up a dictionary.This habit takes a lot of time to complete a reading and makes students passive invocabulary learning, reading compre

EDUCATION AND TRAINING DEPARTMEENT

OF THANH HOA PROVINCEQUANG XUONG I HIGH SCHOOL

EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE

SOME EXPERIENCES TO TEACH VOCABULARY

OF READING LESSONS IN TEXT BOOK OF GRADE 11

AT QUẢNG XƯƠNG 1 HIGH SCHOOL.

( MỘT SỐ KINH NGHIỆM DẠY TỪ VỰNG

Ở BÀI ĐỌC TRONG CHƯƠNG TRÌNH TIẾNG ANH 11

TẠI TRƯỜNG THPT QUẢNG XƯƠNG I)

Written by : Nguyễn Thị Thanh Ngọc

SCHOOL YEAR : 2017 – 2018

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

PART I : INTRODUCTION 1.1.Reasons for choosing the topic……… 1

1.2 Aim of the study……….……… 1

1.3 Scope of the study ………2

1.4.Method of the study ……… 2

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 1 Theoretical background ……… ……… 3

2.The actual situation……… ……… 3

3 Patterns of the study………….……… 4

3.1.Preparation ……… 4

3.2.Vocabulary teaching method……… 4

3.3 Vocabulary teaching techniques ……… 4

3.4 Procedures of teaching vocabulary in a reading lesson……… 5

3.4.1 Pre-reading ……… 5

3.4.2.While – reading ……… 7

3.4.3 Post – reading ……… 14

4 Effectiveness of experience initiatives for educational activities …… 15

4.1.Effectiveness of experience initiatives……… 15

4.2.Compared to the amount of the initial survey ……… 15

4.3.The effectiveness of the measures used ……… …16

PART III: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1 Conclusions ……….… 16

2 Recommendations ……… 16

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1.Reasons for choosing the topic

English as an international language has been used for all over the world in recentyears English plays an important role in people’s communication English is ancompulsory subject in national exams

Changing teaching methods in education is the right action of teachers andstudents in teaching and learning process The change is always understood bycarrying out some specific forms The method of teaching is the forms andperformances of teachers and students in the teaching conditions in order to achievethe purpose of teaching

Vocabulary is one of five core components of reading instruction that areessential to successfully teach students how to read These core components includephonemic awareness, phonics and word study, fluency, vocabulary, andcomprehension Vocabulary knowledge is important because it encompasses all thewords we must know to access our background knowledge, express our ideas andcommunicate effectively, and learn about new concepts Students’ word knowledge islinked strongly to academic success because students who have large vocabularies canunderstand new ideas and concepts more quickly than students with limitedvocabularies The more words you know, the more you will be able to understandwhat you hear and read; and the better you will be able to say what you want to whenspeaking or writing

However, students have some difficulties in understanding a common readingbecause of vocabularies Reading texts often contain many new words while theirvocabulary is low When encountering new words, they often stop to look up a dictionary.This habit takes a lot of time to complete a reading and makes students passive invocabulary learning, reading comprehension, vocabulary memorization and practicingthem

To help students improve their vocabulary knowledge, in teaching process inEnglish grade 11 in high school, I would like to express some ways to teachvocabulary effectively so that students can overcome difficulties in vocabulary

2 Aim of the study

In the experience of this initiative, I just want to make some ways in showingmeaning of new vocabularies in a reading lesson in order to improve the quality of thelessons, help students easily understand themes and memorize new words more easily

and using them effectively Teachers can use my research to help students moreinterested in learning English

3 Scope of the study

As we know, the vocabulary of English at Upper-Secondary School students todayhave to learn a lot of vocabulary so I want to focus on this topic to explore appropriatemethods to help students better understand

I conducted my research in the teaching vocabulary of English at the 11thGrade of Quang Xuong I Upper-Secondary School in the academic year 2017-2018with the basic textbook of the Ministry of Education and Training Participatingclasses are11T1, 11C4, 11C5

4 Method of the study

To fulfill this study, a mixed use of both quantitative and qualitative methods areapplied The data are collected by means of tests

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

1 Theoretical background

One of the oldest findings in educational research is the strong relationshipbetween vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension Word knowledge iscrucial to reading comprehension and determines how well students will be able tocomprehend the texts they read in high school Comprehension is far more thanrecognizing words and remembering their meanings However, if a student does notknow the meanings of a sufficient proportion of the words in the text, comprehension

is impossible Knowing at least 90 percent of the words enables the reader to get themain idea from the reading and guess correctly what many of the unfamiliar wordsmean, which will help them learn new words Readers who do not recognize at least

90 percent of the words will not only have difficulty comprehending the text, but theywill miss out on the opportunity to learn new words

Studies have shown that the key to increase vocabulary is exposure the newwords Vocabulary development is an attainment goal If given the opportunity tolearn new words as well as effective teaching method, most students can improvetheir vocabulary knowledge and their comprehension

2 The actual situations

Quang Xuong 1 high school is a school in rural of Quang Xuong English is acompulsory subject in the national high school examinations However, some ofstudents still do not really care about the subject for some reasons They only focus ontheir exam subjects English is a very special subject, making it difficult for them ifthey do not really concentrate and practice it regularly Besides, they are ruralstudents, the conditions for practicing English are not so great So the academicachievement of this subject is not high and there are still weak students

Result before the research in teaching The first term of school year: 2017-2018

students

good (%)

Excellent-Rather (%)

Average (%)

Weak (bad) (%)

Before investigating, proportion of weak students are high accounts for 3 to 9 percentand they are not interested in learning English especially learning vocabulary.

3 Pattern of the study

3.1.Preparation

Before starting a new lesson, both the teacher and students havegood preparation When teaching reading comprehension, the teacher should tellthe students the ways to learn new words, find the family words or build sentenceswith some words having in the lesson Depending on the levels of each class andstudents, the teacher has different requests This makes students more responsible forthe lesson, feel confidence, understand and apply it more effectively, and they thinkthat studying English becomes more and more interesting

3.2 Vocabulary teaching methods

Normally, a reading text always appears some new words, but it is notnecessary to teach all of them and teach them in the same ways The teacher shouldchoose words which need teaching and method to teach them effectively Choosingwords to teach, the teacher has to classify into two forms of vocabulary They areactive and passive vocabulary

 Active words are words which students know and use in communicating orwriting

 Passive words are word which students only know and understand when theyread a text

The ways to teach two forms of these words are not the same Active wordsrelate to 4 basic skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing The teacher,

therefore, needs to spend more time presenting and practicing, specially the ways touse the words To passive ones, however, students can only know and students don’tneed to spend much time using them

If the new words are very important to understand the content of the passageand suitable for the level of students, the teacher should explain vocabulary actively

If the words are not important but they make the students getdifficulties, the students should be taught passively- the teacher explain the newwords or translate them quickly The teacher asks the students to guess the meaning ofnew words if the words are important and easy in the passage And the teacher canignore if the words are difficult and strange and they are not related to the passage

3.3 Vocabulary teaching techniques

If the teacher only writes and explains vocabulary following dictionary, most

students cannot understand the ways to use the words in communicatingand specially with active words Besides, students have to know not only the way topronounce words, but also the way to pronounce phrases Moreover, students knowthe meaning of new words and how to use them

a Teaching pronunciation :

When students can pronounce new words well, they will write the wordscorrectly So the teacher should teach the students the best ways to read the wordsexactly

b Guessing meaning from the context:

Context is sentences which explain or definite new words Therefore,when students want to know new words, they should read the whole context This canhelp students to know more about vocabulary or their part of speech such as nouns,verbs, adjectives, adverbs… In addition, context also helps students to realize somesuggestions about the meaning of new words without stopping reading to look up thedictionary, which makes students read more quickly and better

c Show the meaning of new words:

There are some basic ways to explain the meaning of new words:

-Using real objects

- Using prefixes/ suffixes, root words

- Using definition forms, synonyms or antonyms, part of speech

3.4 Procedures of teaching vocabulary in a reading lesson.

3.4.1 Pre-reading

There are many ways used in this activity The teacher can choose each suitableway for each lesson

a Open Prediction :

The teacher show the topic and asks students to guess what the content of reading is

 Example: Unit 6: Competitions

- The teacher asks some students to put questions to other students by usingyes/no questions to guess the meaning of vocabulary:

+ Is the word a verb?

+ Is it a noun?

+ Does it begin with “c”?

+ To work with weak students, the teacher should give some more suggestions:Does it have 11 letters? or Is it about an animal/ a plant…?

- The students take turns to put questions and the student who gives the correct

answer with the shortest time will be the winner.

a Jump words

Dividing class into 3 or 4 groups, the teacher delivers hand-outs and asks students toarrange letters into the meaningful words in the reading leson

For example in unit 7 of grade 11 about Population, teacher introduce the situation of

the reading passage and give some jumped words

Key : 1.d, 2.b, 3.f, 4.e, 5.a, 6.c

3.4.2 While reading

Generally, a reading lesson usually has some new words, and all of them cannot

be explained in the same way The teacher needs to select and decides which wordsare active and others are passive

a Using real objects:

The teacher can use real objects in class or take some pictures, diagrams…to

classroom or draw some pictures on the board Besides, the teacher can use bodylanguages

For example: To teach some new words in reading lesson of unit 15, teacher can usepicture , gesture to show the meaning

- Gestures: swimming, driving a car, accompanying

The teacher can show the pictures or real things to teach new words, which

helps students understand and interest in learning vocabulary By this way, studentscan remember vocabulary for a long time and feel more attracted to study it

b Using prefixes/ suffixes, root words:

One method of understanding the meanings of new words is to analyze thedifferent parts of the word and the meanings of those parts Many new words are

formed by adding an affix to the beginning or end of a Latin or Greek root or root

word When affixes are added to the beginning of roots or root words, they are

called prefixes For example, the most common prefix is un-, which meant not or opposite of If you add un- to the word happy, the new word becomes unhappy, which means not happy When affixes are added to the end of roots or root words, they are called suffixes The most common suffixes are -s and -es, which mean more than one (or the plural) of the word Adding -es to wish, changes the meaning o the word to more than one wish So this is considered a good and easy way to teach vocabulary.

The teacher can use prefixes or suffixes to show the meaning of new words

Common Prefixes

fore- before; front of foreshadow, forearm

in-, im-, il-, ir- not indirect, immoral, illiterate, irreverent

semi- half; partly; not fully semifinal

under- under; too little underestimate

 The teacher can use suffixes to teach vocabulary

Common Suffixes

-al, -ial having characteristics of universal, facial

-ed past tense verbs; adjectives the dog walked,

the walked dog

-er, -or one who; person connected with teacher, professor

-ing verb forms;present participles sleeping

ion, tion,

-ation,-tion act; process

submission, motion, relation, edition

-ive, -ative,

-itive adjective form of noun

sensitive

Furthermore, the teacher can use root words to teach vocabulary Try to use

common roots with common words This way must be repeated and repeated day byday The teacher ought to do it slowly and frequently Some common roots:

Common root

ambi both ambiguous, ambidextrous

contra/counter against contradict, encounter

scrib/scribe to write inscription, prescribe

b.Using definition forms, synonyms or antonyms, part of speech

The teacher can use both Vietnamese and English to show the meaning of newwords The teacher can use definition forms, synonyms or antonyms

For example : To teach vocabulary in Unit 6, teacher can use definition for explaining + Representative : A person chosen or appointed on behalf of another person or group

+ Annual : happening or done once very year

+ Stimulate : encourage or make something more active

+Spirit : enthusiasm and energy

+ In all : altogether or as a total

+ Smoothly : without difficulties or problem

provide students with variety in speech or writing, making it easy for you to avoidoverusing the same word and sounding repetitive Some examples of synonymsinclude the following:

 astronaut = spaceman

 prohibit = ban

For example in unit 13 of grade 11 teacher ask students to choose the word that

has the closest meaning to the italicized word

1 There are number of things I like to do in my free time.

2 My uncle, who is an accomplished guitarist, taught me how to play

A unimpaired B skilled C ill-educated D unqualified

3 Now I can play a few simple tunes

4 I have a modest little glass fish tank where I keep a variety of small fish

A limited B excessive C conceited D moderate

5 The most important thing is to keep yourself occupied

A busy B relaxed C comfortable D free

Answer keys:

1.free (a) = leisure

2 accomplished = skilled (a)

3 simple(a) = easy (a)