Helping students use some tips while doing exercises about synonyms and antonyms in the national high school graduation exam

The effort of this study is to try to give some contribution to improve the quality of teaching English at high schools by “Helping students use some tips while doing exercises about syn

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Reason for choosing the research

Nowadays, in Vietnam, English is used more and more widely It brings us chances to keep up with the development of the modern age Therefore, teaching and learning English, especially at upper secondary schools play a very important role

In any languages, vocabulary is considered one of the most essential elements of language We can hardly use grammar appropriately if we do not comprehend the meaning exactly So poor knowledge of English vocabulary can effect both the learning and teaching of English Thus, it is necessary to apply new methods of teaching and learning to improve the situation

Synonyms and antonyms are categorized into English vocabulary According to the current national high school graduation exam questions, multiple choice questions related to this section account for about 14% (about 7 sentences out of 50 multiple choice questions including questions about synonyms and some antonyms in the closest and opposite meaning as well as in the reading comprehension) Besides, understanding and using antonyms and synonyms effectively can improve our writing skills and vocabulary knowledge However, this part of the knowledge has not been regularly taught and revised like other vocabulary sections

Therefore, in this study, I would like to give some suggestions for using synonyms and antonyms effectively The effort of this study is to try to give some contribution to improve the quality of teaching English at high schools

by “Helping students use some tips while doing exercises about synonyms and antonyms in the national high school graduation exam”.

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

1.2.1 Aims

- To study the principles in teaching synonyms and antonyms.

- To investigate the causes of difficulties that teachers and students are

facing with teaching and learning synonyms and antonyms, so that teachers can helpstudents to enhance their overall command of language in order to answer synonyms and antonyms questions in the national high school graduation exam

- To designsome exercises about synonyms and antonyms from class 12

English book and introduce examples of synonyms and antonyms in the multiple choice test recently

- To increase the effectiveness in teaching and learning English and help

students to get good scores in the nationalhigh school graduation exam

1.2.2 Objectives

The study is carried out to answer the following questions:

- What are synonyms and antonyms?

- Principles in teaching synonyms and antonyms

- Designing some exercises about synonyms and antonyms from class 12 English book

- Examples of synonyms and antonyms in the multiple choice test recently

1.3 Scope of the study

In teaching English vocabulary, synonyms and antonyms are large sections Within the scope of this study, I would like to focus on designing some exercises about synonyms and antonyms from class 12 English book

As time is limited, the survey is carried out on a small scale to 12th form students: 12A4, 12A7 in the school year 2018 – 2019

1.4 Method of the study

In order to carry out this study, it is mainly based on the data and information collected from surveys, observation and direct interviews from my colleagues It is also based on a number of reference books about the use of synonyms and antonyms in teaching English Furthermore, my actual teaching at Dang Thai Mai high school provides the great practical contribution to the study

1.5 New points of the study

Synonyms and antonyms are important parts of teaching and learning English vocabulary Many experience initiatives of the authors have mentioned effective vocabulary teaching methods, but no author has ever studied on synonyms and antonyms in detail Especially, in this study, I design some exercises about synonyms and antonyms from class 12 English book and introduce examples of synonyms and antonyms in the multiple choice test recently as tips for students while doing exercises about synonyms and antonyms in the national high school graduation exam

2 CONTENTS 2.1.Theoretical background

2.1.1 Definition of synonyms

According to language dictionaries, synonyms are words that have similar meanings Synonyms are divided into two categories: complete synonyms and incomplete synonyms The first is the words with the same meaning, used equally and can be substituted for each other in most cases The second type are words that mean the same thing but still differ somewhat in expressive nuances (expressing emotions, attitudes ) or ways of acting When using these words,

we must consider the options reasonably.[1]

2.1.2.Definition of antonyms

Antonyms are contradictory words Similar to synonyms, we also have two types of antonyms that are completely antonyms and incompletely ones

From the above concepts, there are some points we need to note as follows: Whether the words are considered to be synonymous or completely opposite, there are differences between them and cannot be used in lieu of each other in case Therefore, in addition to teaching and learning the meaning of words, we need to pay attention to the context in which synonyms or antonyms can be used.[1]

2.1.3 Principles in teaching synonyms and antonyms

Due to the time constraints, I only included in this section some principles

of teaching synonyms and antonyms that I have applied and found them effective

The first principle: All teachers' instructions must be detailed, clear and

specific If the instructions are not specific and generic, students will not know how to perform their tasks and the task is easy to fail The most important part

of this section is to guide students to find resources to look up synonyms and antonyms and quick and effective ways to look up

The main source is English-English dictionaries and dictionaries specializing in synonyms and antonyms Students can look up dictionaries with printouts or dictionaries on the internet The quick way to look up for compound words not

in the dictionary is to look up from the root, then determine the definition of the same word prefix, its suffix.[2]

The second principle: Get students centered, boldly assign tasks to groups

of students to learn about synonyms and antonyms in specific lessons This principle helps students take the initiative, actively participate in the lesson and help develop their teamwork skills and presentation skills

Assigning the study of synonyms and antonyms in a certain lesson to students causes students to brainstorm, actively embark on a task and thereby actively memorize vocabulary The work assigned to the student group will ease the pressure In addition, students can also support and help each other to complete the task The presentation part can be spoken in Vietnamese or English,

depending on the choice of the groups, which helps develop the presentation skills.[2]

The third principle: Focus on monitoring the progress of groups, compare

and evaluate results

Monitoring the progress of each group will help teachers evaluate and comment more accurately on the results of each group In addition, teachers can promptly provide appropriate help for disadvantaged groups

Comparing, comparing and evaluating the results of each group of students or even each student in the group will create more motivation for them to try to complete their tasks.[2]

The fourth principle: Teachers play a major role in synthesizing,

modifying, and supplementing the results of groups

After the results of the groups have been evaluated, they need to be fully integrated, edited and supplemented before the teacher returns the final product

to the students This is the period when teachers play a key role to ensure that they provide adequate and accurate knowledge to their students.[2]

The fifth principle: Regular checks, comments and evaluations that each

individual student uses the knowledge of synonyms, in contrast, learns to speak and write English

This is the principle of "learning with practice", to encourage students to use the knowledge they already have in speaking and writing production skills This must be done regularly to form a habit of using a student's foreign language.[2]

2.2 The status of problem

2.2.1 Students, their background and learning conditions

The informants for the study consists of 82 students in the twelveth form (age 17-18) from two classes 12A4 and 12A7, and 8 teachers of English at Dang Thai Mai High School

The first reason for my selection is that my selected participants are accessible All these students have learnt English for more than four years at secondary schools as they started to learn English when they were in grade 6 Most of them have got familiar with teaching and learning methods at middle level

The second reason is our awareness of the completeness and reliability of the data collected We must be well-informed about the real situation of teaching and adapting English vocabulary at our school

In addition, the main method used was the VocabularyTranslation Method The students may be good at learning by heart English vocabulary but they can not use them effectively in the multiple choice tests

2.2.2 Teachers and their working condition

Most teachers in the survey are female aged from twenty- six to forty They have been teaching English for at least three years They usually teach classes with 39 to 45 students and each of them is in charge of three or four classes Meanwhile, teaching facilities are poor and backward Therefore, the main

teaching material of the teachers is the textbook for students Teachers sometimes have difficulties in designing exercises about synonyms and antonyms from English book

It can be found that the teachers have to work hard but the results seem not to be satisfactory This is a great problem

2.2.3 Analysis of the data

There is a quick questionnaire designed for students from two classes 12A4 and 12A7 to gather necessary information about using synonyms and antonyms

to do exercises Students are encouraged to express their own opinions about their ability to apply synonyms and antonyms in the multiple choice tests

This data is collected from students:

Student

s total

Know how to do exercises about synonyms and antonyms

Have difficulties in doing exercises about synonyms and antonyms

Impossible to distinguish synonyms from antonyms

Table 1: Analysis of the data collected from students before applying the research

It can be seen from the table that only 36,6% know how to do exercises about synonyms and antonyms to practise fluently whereas 26,8% find it difficult 36,6% say they are impossible to distinguish synonyms from antonyms

The following data is the result of the multiple choice test in the first semester before applying the research:

Class Number of students Excellent- good (%) Average (%) Weak (bad) (%)

Table 2: Analysis of the data collected from the result of the multiple choice test in the first semester before applying the research:

These figures show that it is really necessary to change the way to teach new vocabulary so that students are able to practise effectively

2.3 Designing some exercises about synonyms and antonyms from class 12 English book

The design of the exercises is a teacher's duty to do after each knowledge section is taught in the classroom Although it is a common task, there are some things we need to pay attention to Firstly, the design of the exercise must ensure learning what to do and practice it This is to ensure the effectiveness of the exercises we create Secondly, the types of exercises that are designed must be diverse and rich with many levels from easy to difficult This helps to accommodate different student groups and inspires students

2.3.1 Matching exercises

This is an easy exercise Students only need to remember the knowledge they have learned to be able to complete this part

Unit 1: Home Life (Page 12) [3]

Exercise 1 Match the word in column A with its synonyms in colum B

3 wash the clothes c regulation

Answer key:

Exercise 1:

Exercise 2 Match the word in column A with its antonyms in colum B

Answer key:

Exercise 2:

Unit 2: Cultural Diversity (Page 20) [3]

Exercise 3 Match the word in column A with its synonyms in colum B

Answer key:

Exercise 3:

Exercise 4 Match the word in column A with its antonyms in colum B

Answer key:

Exercise 4:

Unit 3: Ways of socializing (Page 30) [3]

Exercise 5 Match the word in column A with its synonyms in colum B

Answer key:

Exercise 5:

Exercise 6 Match the word in column A with its antonyms in colum B

8 verbal language h take a message

Answer key:

Exercise 6:

2.3.2 Odd one out exercises

In this form, students must recognize a word that does not have the same meaning or antonym to the remaining words To do this exercise, students must remember groups of synonyms or antonyms

Unit 1: Home Life (Page 12) [3]

Exercise 1: Find one word that is different in meaning from the others

1 housework, household chores, domestic tasks, household duties, daily tasks

2 help, give a hand, owe, assist, aid

3 try, eliminate, endeavor, strive, make an effort, attempt

4 build, construct, put up, ruin, erect

5 child, kid, infant, gentleman

6 place, space, site, spot

7 sometimes, occasionally, frequently, from time to time

8 important, creative, vital, crucial, significant

9 hobby, interest, perseverance, taste

10 task, complement, duty, mission

Answer key:

Exercise 1:

1 daily tasks

2 owe

3 eliminate

4 ruin

5 gentleman

6 space

7 frequently

8 creative

9 perserverance

10 complement

Unit 2: Cultural Diversity (Page 20) [3]

Exercise 2: Find one word that is different in meaning from the others

1 idea, view, point of view, opinion, objection

2 love sb, fall in love with sb, interfere with sb, fall with sb, take to sb

3 choose, select, opt, pick out, reckon, decide on, agree on

4 conduct a survey, make a survey, carry out a survey, cancel a survey

5 main, key, primary, vicious, major, core

6 famous, well-known, renowned, excessive, celebrated, notable, pretigious

7 take part in, participate in, result in, engage in, join, attend

8 however, nevertheless, on the contrary, additionally, by contrast, controversially

9 rich, wealthy, middle-class, well-off, affluent

10 dangerous, disastrious, hazardous, perilous, risky

Answer key:

Exercise 2:

1 objection

2 interfere with sb

3 reckon

4 cancel a survey

5 vicious

6 excessive

7 result in

8 additionally

9 middle-class

10 disastrious

Unit 3: Ways of socializing (Page 30) [3]

Exercise 3: Find one word that is different in meaning from the others

1 terrible, awful, dreadful, accessible

2 problem, difficulty, trouble, amenity, obstacle

3 argument, appointment, row, quarrel

4 beginning, provision, start, rudiment

5 hate, detest, spark, loathe, dislike

6 friend, colleague, mate, pal, company

7 big, huge, giant, skeptical, mighty, gigantic, bulky

8 like, enjoy, love, fancy, adore, detect

9 mistake, error, fault, apology

10 attack sb’s attention, get sb’s attention, distract sb’s attention, catch sb’s attention

Answer key:

Exercise 3:

1 accessible

2 amenity

3 appointment

4 provision

5 spark

6 colleague

7 skeptical

8 detect

9 apology

10 distract sb’s attention

2.3.3 Multiple choice exercises

This exercise requires students to identify synonyms or antonyms in some options

Exercise: Choose the best word/phrase that is CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined part in each of the following questions

1 Women whose husbands do not contribute to the domestic chores are more vulnerable to illness

A able to be well protected

C able to be well known

B able to be easily hurt

D able to be equally treated

2 In many cultures, the mother is usually the homemaker while the father is the breadwinner

A the family member who is willing to share the domestic chores

B the family member who likes bread

C the family member who is responsible for childcare