Some techniques in teaching vocabulary at primary school

Techniques to teach English inprimary school is usually traditional teaching methods and similar activities days by days which make students become fed up with learning English.. There f

1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 The reasons for choosing the topic.

Nowadays, English plays an important role in our society In addition, themore developing society is, the more necessary English is Studying English hasbecome an essential demand for everyone, it is one of the most popular,important international language, and it is most used not only all over the worldbut also in many fields such as in business, in international conferences, or tocommunicate with foreigners when they come to our country or when we goaboard

English can help people master a language, they will own a greatknowledge In order to carry out this, we have to learn vocabulary at first Weimagine that without vocabulary, no language exists So vocabulary is a vitalpart in learning English How to help people in general and pupils at PrimarySchool in particular learn and use vocabulary effectively is a difficultquestion

At present, I am a teacher of Dong Tan Primary School I am teachingpupils of grade 3 and 4 Each class has different perception so I have to selectthe way of teaching vocabulary differently Techniques to teach English inprimary school is usually traditional teaching methods and similar activities days

by days which make students become fed up with learning English There fore,interesting techniques to teach English are necessary to help students learnEnglish vocabulary better, they also attract students’ interest on English

From above reasons, I have chosen the subject “Some techniques in teaching vocabulary at Dong Tan primary school” There are many studies

relating to teaching and learning vocabulary in general However, my study ismore specific It is my hope that students will be interested in learning Englishand the study will be more or less useful for those who are concerned

1.2 The aims of the research.

The main goal of my study is to provide some suggested techniques inteaching English vocabulary in primary school to make students more interested

in the lesson as well as to master learned knowledge of that lesson in aneffective way My study is aimed at:

To study the theory related to vocabulary, psychology features of primarystudents and some techniques for teacher to apply

To provide some suggested techniques to teach English vocabulary inprimary schools in Dong Tan school to attract students’ interest andinvolvements in lessons

1.3 The object of the research

In fact, there are a lot of techniques to teach English vocabulary forprimary school It requires much of time and effort Furthermore, Englishvocabulary includes meaning, grammar, pronunciation, and spelling In myopinion It is impractical to study such a wide range, simultaneously resourcesand my knowledge is limited, and so this study can only focus on studying

“Some techniques to teach vocabulary at Dong Tan primary school”.

1.4 The methods of the research

A lot of methods have been applied to complete this study: Collectedreferences, books and website related to teaching English and document wereanalyzed in details to from the theoretical background of this paper

A number of general research methods such as: observational methods,case-study methods, and survey methods

1.5 The new ideas of the research.

The study uses some new techniques in teaching and checking vocabulary

2 MAIN CONTENT 2.1 The theoretical basis of the research [1]

If you want your child to be a stellar student, don not limit learning to thewalls of his classroom Although the skills he is learning there are crucial to hisintellectual and social growth, your child needs your help to open up the world

of ideas His renewed joy in discovery will transfer to his schoolwork, so youwill boost his academic achievement too!

Encourage him to express his opinion, talk about his feelings, andmake choices He can pick out a side dish to go with dinner and select hisown extracurricular activities Ask for his input on family decisions, and showthat you value it

Show enthusiasm for your child's interests and encourage her to exploresubjects that fascinate her If she is a horse nut, offer her stories about riding orchallenge her to find five facts about horses in the encyclopedia

Provide him with play opportunities that support different kinds oflearning styles - from listening and visual learning to sorting andsequencing Supplies that encourage open - ended play, such as blocks, willdevelop your child’s creative expression and problem-solving skills as hebuilds He'll need lots of unstructured play time to explore them

Point out the new things you learn with enthusiasm Discuss the differentways you find new information, whether you're looking for gardening tips on theInternet or taking a night class

Ask about what he's learning in school, not about his grades or testscores Have him teach you what he learned in school today - putting the lessoninto his own words will help him retain what he learned

Help your child organize her school papers and assignments so she feels

in control of her work Check in with her regularly to make sure she's not feelingoverloaded

Celebrate achievements, no matter how small Completing a book reportcalls for a special treat; finishing a book allows your child an hour of videogames You will offer positive reinforcement that will inspire him to keeplearning and challenging himself

Focus on strengths, encouraging developing talents Even if she did notace her math test, she may have written a good poem in English class

Turn everyday events into learning opportunities Encouraging him toexplore the world around him, asking questions and making connections

2.2 The real state of the problem

At present, I am teaching English vocabulary at Dong Tan PrimarySchool, so my goal is finding out how to teach English vocabulary to my pupilseffectively I am conscious that teaching and learning vocabulary is one of themost important parts in English because there are many different ways to teachvocabulary Teaching vocabulary is a complex process and it, how to arrangevocabulary together to make sentences, conversations, they will feel confidentand will develop speaking ability as well as their vocabulary In a book written

by Mr Dang Ngoc Huong, it is assumed that when using a course book or anysource of teaching materials, many teachers think that every new word has beenselected carefully by the course designer or writers by certain principles One ofthe tasks of the teacher when teaching vocabulary is the selecting the rightvocabulary the pupil need Therefore, vocabulary must be concerned in teachingEnglish at Primary School

* Students:

English is still out of students’ own circle In order to be receptive to theknowledge and well- remembered, students have to have inspiration, excitementand love for the subject Specially, for English, besides remembering words withtheir meaning, form, pronunciation, students must remember structures,grammar and how to use in the real context This process of remembrance isquite difficult for primary students Moreover, there are only a few students tofind a good way to learn the language the best The others have not formed thesuitable method of learning English so learning English is very difficult forthem Students are afraid of speaking English because they are afraid of makingerrors They also don not believe their language ability This thing makesdifficulty for students to develop their language ability

*Students’ parents:

Almost students’ parents have conception that learning English fromprimary school is too early; it is not necessary for their children to spend time onthis subject Only a few parents are very interested in English but they don notknow English to teach and help their children to learn more at home Therefore,when students have difficulties in learning English, they don not receive a help

in time

* The general real state:

Dong Tan primary school does not have enough physical facilities andteaching aids for English

Three periods per a week are little Students need to practice more

The number of students in one class compared with specificcharacteristics of the subject is too many

* The result, effectiveness of the above real state:

From the above real state I have said, it affects the quality of teaching andlearning English in general and primary English particularly As for primarystudents, the quality of writing tests is not very good and students’ speaking andlistening skill are not well- developed Over one hundred students (Grade 3 andgrade 4-Dong Tan primary school) are examined before I apply activities

making learning inspiration ( at the first term) and the survey results are asfollow:

Table statistics survey results First semester 2019-2020 school year

Vocabulary can be defined; it is simply understood as words in alanguage However, vocabulary may be a single word (cat, read) but it may bemore than a single word, for example “father - in - law or mother-in-law”, whichare made up of two or more words but express a single idea There are also multi

- word idioms such as “bread and butcher” It means that the meaning of thephrase can not be inferred from component’s word In fact, it is extremelydifficult to give an exact definition of vocabulary because there are manydifferent definitions of vocabulary So, the definitions above are only general

concepts in relation to vocabulary

What vocabulary to teach?

As you know, there are two types of vocabulary They are: Passivevocabulary and active vocabulary

Passive vocabulary is words which a student can recognize but not

necessarily use in speaking or writing If a student sees a word in their passivevocabulary, he/she will understand what it means Passive vocabulary words areespecially useful for receptive skills of reading and listening

Active vocabulary is words which students can both understand and use

in communication Active vocabulary words are especially useful for theproductive skills of speaking and writing

The process of vocabulary expansion looks something like this:

Unknown - > Passive vocabulary -> Active vocabulary

A teacher should expect his/her students to understand words in readingand listening before they can use those same words in speaking and writing.When teaching, it is best to first train students to recognize words Later theteacher will find the students can actively use those same words incommunication

The importance of vocabulary:

Vocabulary represents one of most important skills necessary for teachingand learning a foreign language It is the basis for the development of all theother skills: reading comprehension, listening comprehension, speaking, writing,spelling and pronunciation Vocabulary is the main tool for the students in theirattempt to use English effectively When confronted with a native Englishspeaker, when watching a movie without subtitle or when listening to a favoriteEnglish song, when reading a text or when writing a letter to a friend, studentswill always need to operate with words In what follows, the focus of thisintroductory chapter will be on why vocabulary is important, on what makeswords difficult, on the main reasons for which students often forget the wordsthey learn and on some techniques which help them remember the vocabulary

Why is vocabulary important?

Talking about the importance of vocabulary, the linguist David Wilkins arguedthat: "without grammar little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can

be conveyed." Indeed, people need to use words in order to express themselves

in any language Most learners, too, acknowledge the importance of vocabularyacquisition In my experience as a teacher, I noticed the fact that students usuallyfind it difficult to speak English fluently They usually consider speaking andwriting activities exhausting because they keep on using the same expressionsand words and very soon their conversation is abruptly interrupted due tomissing words And the main reason for such communication problems is thelack of vocabulary Other students are confronted with the problem of forgettingthe words immediately after the teacher has elicited their meaning or after theyhave looked them in the dictionary, and this also a cause of the lack ofvocabulary The more words students learn, the easier they memorize them.The teacher has an essential role in helping students to improve their vocabulary.Unfortunately, vocabulary teaching has not been enough responsive to suchproblems, and teachers have not recognized the tremendous importance ofhelping their students to develop an extensive vocabulary If we look back in thepast, we discover that for a long time, English used teaching approaches such asDirect Method and Audio-visual method which emphasized the primaryimportance of teaching grammatical structures Since the accent was ongrammar, few words were introduced in such courses and most often, they werelimited and related to the grammar structures taught

By the beginning of 1970s, there was a major change in teaching English Thefocus turned from the Direct Method and Audio-visual method to theCommunicative Approach which emphasized the importance of teachingvocabulary Students were exposed to diverse vocabulary and speakingactivities Many words began being introduced during such courses and studentswere encouraged to express themselves as much as possible

Nowadays, there is more freedom in choosing the methods to be used duringEnglish classes The English syllabus is organized around both vocabulary andgrammar structures Since there is a certain number of classes allotted for eachitem in the syllabus, teachers usually have the necessary time to insist on

teaching and practicing vocabulary Vocabulary is no longer treated as an add-onand teachers become more aware of the importance of vocabulary and attention

is paid to the grammar of words, to collocations and to word frequency.Nevertheless, students still have difficulties in expressing themselves fluentlyand still consider speaking tasks exhausting

In this part, I will introduce three issues such as: the concept ofvocabulary’s information, the way of giving a new word and how to checkpupils’ vocabulary

The process of teaching vocabulary [1],[4], [5].

There are 3 steps of teaching vocabulary

Step 1: Presenting vocabulary

Step 2: Recording vocabulary

Step 3: Checking vocabulary

Step 1: Presenting vocabulary [3]

Present pronunciation: By reading words in context, emphasize it by

some receptions

Present dictation: Write new words on the board and then helps students

copy them in their notebooks

Present the meanings of new words:

There are 9 techniques for communicating the meanings of words

1 Using real objects.[2]

This is the simplest way to achieve understanding Many new wordswhich we explain may be difficult At that time, we should give real objectsbecause real objects are better than others whenever we have them in the class.There are many real windows, doors, walls, books, pencils in the classroom

It is foolish not to use them in our teaching

For example: I can point at the table in the classroom and say: This is atable if I want to teach the word “table” word Similarly, I can show the pupils apiece of chalk and say: “this is a ruler” My pupils will not have trouble inunderstanding what a table and a ruler is

2 Flash cards or charts.[2]

We can use flash cards or charts on which we have a picture on one sideand words on the other side

Example: Flash cards with animals on them

With this, I can not only introduce new words lively but also describe words of

emotion, action like “happy, smile, sleeping, fly” by showing pictures, posters.

For example: When teaching colors, I will give a picture which has manycolors in order to introduce My pupil is seen directly It will make them observeand compare those colors

If it is easy for us to teach vocabulary when using photographs orpaintings we can indicate many kinds of words

Examples: Photograph form newspapers, magazines

Photographs about actions:

5 Using vocabulary following topics.[2]

It is quite easy for the teacher to teach vocabulary related to the topics If

we do this way, it will make the pupils learn more quickly and more memorized

In addition, it helps the pupils compare the different words in a topic

For example, I give my pupils a topic “wild animal” I will teach the pupilskinds of animals such as: bears, tigers, elephants, monkeys and so on They willfeel the lesson more interesting

Another example is, when teaching the days in a week, I should present aseries of different days such as: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

…

6 Blackboard drawing.[2]

When we run into difficult vocabulary to explain, we can draw a picture

of some words on the blackboard that will quickly convey the meanings we do

so, pupils will understand the meaning of words quickly

Examples:

To express the weather phenomena such storm, flood, rain, sunny we use

color chalk to draw these phenomenon’s Another example is body parts such as

nose, mouth, and eye, leg……or prepositions of location such as under, beside, above.

7 Guessing from context [2]

Have students guess the meanings by reading the whole sentence

E.g 3 Tigers, elephants, lions, monkeys are wild animals

8 Using synonyms and antonym.[2]

When teaching vocabulary we may use synonyms and antonyms And itdepends on each lesson Moreover, for the lecture to be more effective I usesynonyms and antonyms to teach my pupils I feel that the pupil comprehend thelesson more quickly

tall – short, thin – fat, pretty – ugly, young – old

long – short, thin – thick, new – old, big - little

However, we should be careful in using these synonyms and antonyms,since it is not always possible to find words of similar or opposite meanings

9 Using facts to describe vocabulary[2]

There are many new words which I can not express exactly by word Sothe most suitable is to use facts to describe vocabulary The pupils not only hearthe teacher’s translation but also observe phenomena by facts For example,when talking about the weather of Vietnam, I can point out phenomena such asrain, sunny, sunshine, sunset…It help the pupil have chance to access to facts.However, we should not use this way too much, we should encourage thought’spupil in stead of using facts to describe vocabulary

10 Translation into Vietnamese.[2]

For many words, specially the abstract ones, it is advisable for teacher totranslate them into Vietnamese This technique should, however, not be abused

Ex; Beautiful: xinh

It is necessary that the teacher may give an example such as “They are

very brave”

11 Using the dictionary[2]

If we need to save time or run into really difficult words, using dictionarywill be the best option

Step2 Recording vocabulary on the board [1],[2],[4],[5]