Teaching english vocabulary to students of classes 12c10, 12c11, 12c12 at ham rong high school

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAININGHAM RONG HIGH SCHOOL INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO STUDENTS OF CLASSES 12C10, 12C11, 12C12 AT HAM RONG HIGH SCHOOL

THANH HOA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HAM RONG HIGH SCHOOL

INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE

TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY TO STUDENTS

OF CLASSES 12C10, 12C11, 12C12

AT HAM RONG HIGH SCHOOL

Researcher: Bui Thi Hieu Function: Teacher

Work place: Ham Rong High School Research field: English

THANH HOA 2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I Showing the meaning of words visually 3

1.1 Reason for choosing the topic

Foreign language teaching at high school level in Vietnam has beengranted increasing supports from educational authorities, regarding the demand

of Vietnamese young population for better means of communication with theworld

Studies have shown that vocabulary knowledge is strongly correlated, andresearchers have found that word knowledge in high school can predict howwell students will be able to comprehend texts they read in high schools.Limited vocabularies prevent students from comprehending a text Good

readers often acquire much of their vocabulary through wide independentreading, also known as incidental learning However, explicit instructions canhelp students learn enough words to become better readers (and thus acquireeven more words) Direct vocabulary instructions are useful for students at allability levels, but it is particularly useful for beginning students who have alimited reading vocabulary, little exposure to incidental vocabulary learningoutside of schools Studies have shown that the key to increase vocabulary isexposure to new words-not an innate ability to learn from context Expertsemphasize that vocabulary development is an attainable goal If given theopportunity to learn new words as well as effective instruction, most studentscan acquire vocabulary at rate that will improve their comprehension Thisenables them to read increasingly challenging texts with fluency and betterstheir chances for success in school and afterward

For all the reasons mentioned above, I would like to devote my time andefforts to investigating some possible ways of choosing and using possiblemethods in teaching vocabulary for students of three classes 12C10, 12C11,12C12 at Ham Rong High School

1.2 The scope of the study

The study focuses on investigating some possible ways of choosing and usingmethods in teaching vocabulary for students of three classes 12C10, 12C11,12C12 at Ham Rong High School

1.3 Objectives of the study

The objectives of the study are as followed:

- To investigate the difficulties of teaching and learning vocabulary faced by thestudents, the teachers’ solutions to these difficulties, and the students’expectation by using teaching methods

- To suggest some realistic and appropriate class techniques and communicativeactivities with a view to helping teachers enhance their learners in Reading,Speaking, Listening and Writing skills

1.4 Method of the study

Questionnaires are delivered to 100 students to find out the students attitudes tospeaking learning, difficulties confronted and solutions suggested by them Then

interviews are carried out to increase the reliability of the obtained information.

1.5 Design of the study

The topic consists of three parts:

Part 1 is the introduction, which presents the rational, the scope, the objectives,

the method, and the design of the study

Part 2 consists of The basis reasoning, A factual base English, The

implementation process

Part 3 consists of some sub-parts: Finding, Conclusion and Proposals,

Suggesting activities by using possible teaching methods for students of threeclasses 12C10, 12C11, 12C12 at Ham Rong High School

2 DEVELOPMENT

2.1 The basis of reasoning

English is the most common language in the world, and it is one of the scoresubjects in schools Seeing the importance of it in international communication

as well as in the development of the international integration of Vietnam,educational sector should select English as the most dominant subject English isnot only the need for tourism, business, arts, information technology but it alsorequired in General Certificate of Secondary Education exam So every studentwhile still sitting on the couch home high schools need to have certain level ofEnglish to prepare for the exams and after graduating at least must be able tocommunicate in simple daily levels To do this we do not stop innovatingteaching methods to achieve high results for English and other subjects ingeneral This is the contribution to success in the profession of “planting” of thecountry

2.2 A factual base English

Textbooks began to innovate along with other subject from 2006 The contents

of the lessons are long and hard, more diverse and sometimes abundant It isboth difficult as well as advantageous for teachers in the teaching process Withsuch changes, I understand that teaching English is to teach how tocommunicate effectively rather than merely supplement the knowledge tostudents So, in addition to strong knowledge, teachers need to create livelyclasses, attracting the attention of the students to help them confidently in the

process of learning and speaking English.

2.3 The implementation process

Over a number of years of teaching, my colleagues and I have found that withnew textbook, we should have the choice to fit teaching supplies effectively These are some methods I have applied to teach in school, which depend oneach lesson and time In my initiative experience, I focus on four main methodswith exercises in the form of Gap - filling and Multiple- choice

I SHOWING THE MEANING OF WORDS VISUALLY

1 USING PICTURES AND CARDS

Picture cues are a great mechanism for teaching young students to studyvocabularies They can combination of words and visual cues can help a youngmind piece together a word There are several ways to approach it The approachshown here works with whole words First, you can plan your lesson and pickthe words you'll teach your students An effective way to do this is bycategories Second, get the corresponding picture cue cards You can obtainpicture cue cards with one letter on them or with entire words on them Whenteaching a student to read by showing whole words, it’s best to look for picturecue cards that deal with life activities These packages normally have foodgroups and other categories in them Third, sit the child down in a quiet placebefore starting the lesson The trick to getting picture cues to work is to keep ayoung student’s attention and have her connect a picture with a word Thiswon’t happen if she can’t see the picture cue card or is distracted by sounds.Fourth, pick up a picture cue card and say the corresponding word Make sureyou explain what you are doing before the lesson Then, as you say the word andshow the picture cue card, allow a time delay This time delay (1 to 3 seconds)will allow your student to soak in the word and associate it with the image Afteryou show the picture card, spell the word so your student will associate certainalphabetic letters with the image Next, repeat this exercise at least two times.This means you should show a picture cue card of an apple and say the wordtwice Repetition is a proven method of learning, so use it to your advantage.Then, coordinate picture cues with spelling lessons You can do this by covering

up the word on the picture cue card and revealing only one letter at a time as the

student says it to you This will further associate the word with the picture andhelp the young student learn to read Last but not least, allow your student achance to show off his stuff

These are some activities which help students guess the meaning of vocabularywhich is related to the lesson

ILLUSTRATED LECTURE

Unit 9: Deserts- Speaking (page 99)

Choose the right words or phrases, which best describe the pictures.

Dessert Grass Date palm

Crocodile Lizard Frog

Teacher divides the class into 2 groups.

Teacher asks students to paste pictures, which are suitable with cards

Teacher helps students to discuss

Teacher gives small presents or adds mark for the winning group

Teacher helps to read

2 USING MEDIA

Almost any video can be used to teach English: commercial films, TVprogrammers, home-made dramas and holiday films Live television

programmers are NOT recommended Your method should vary according to

the language point you wish to teach and the level of your student(s) Although ahandset is ideal, it is not essential Position yourself near the front of the class, toone side - close enough to the video player to work the controls if you do nothave a handset If the video player is independent of the TV, turn it so you canwork the controls easily without interfering with your students' view of the TVscreen This medium can be used to practice consolidate range of languagepoints to introduce subject(s) for debate to encourage conversation amongst

students to improve writing skills to introduce new vocabulary to developlistening skills (with visual aid) Few lessons would involve continuous viewing

- even with speech-free films Strategic stopping is essential The teachercontrols what students see and hear: Films, with excessive bad language, can beshown without sound If the majority of film is good, unsuitable sex or violentscenes can easily be avoided as follows plan in advance how to exploit theremainder of the film knowing the exact counter positions of scenes to beomitted

ILLUSTRATED LECTURE

Unit 2: Cultural diversity - Listening (page 24)

Warm up:

Teacher gives a short video about a marriage in Vietnam and America

When students watch video clip, T points some important words, which areshown on screen

Some important words:

Altar/ Master of ceremony/ Banquet/ Groom/ Bridge/ Ancestor/Tray/ Schedule/Blessing

3 USING REAL OBJECTS

The main advantage of using real objects into the classroom is to make thelearning experience more memorable for the learner To give a couple of simpleexamples, if you are going to teach vocabulary of fruit and vegetables it can bemuch more affective for students if they can touch, smell and see the objects atthe same time as hearing the new word This would appeal to a wider range oflearner styles than a simple flashcard picture of the piece of fruit or vegetable.(With very young learners, classroom management can become trickier if youbring in real objects as excitement levels tend to rise Last year one of mystudents bit into an onion we were passing round I’m sure he hasn’t forgottenthat class!)

A second example would be if you are going to teach some functional languagefor asking for the timetable for a train You could use a fictitious timetable oryou could use a real one from the local train station, one from the internet, or ifyou’re really organized, some you brought back from your last trip to the UK

This way you expose students to more language than simply the times anddestinations They will see information about prices, discounts, bank holidaysetc.

ILLUSTRATED LECTURE

Unit 2: Cultural diversity – Writing (page 25)

Teacher brings the “Nónlá” (conical leaf hat)

Teacher shows it in front of the class

Teacher asks students to guess which is “leaf, rim, ribs, shape”

Students learn vocabularies by watching real objects

4 USING MINE

This is the way of using actions and facial expressions to show the meaning ofwords Most action verb (sits, stand, open…) and some adjectives showingfeelings and status (happy, worried…) can be taught using mine

ILLUSTRATED LECTURE

Unit 3: Ways of socializing-Reading (page 30)

Warm up: Vocabularies

Some words teacher can express by actions:

Clap: Teacher claps in front of the class and asks students what it means

“Vỗtay”

Shake hand: Teacher shakes hands with one student in the class and asksstudents what is he/ she doing “Bắttay”

Wave: Teacher also “waves” and makes students understand his/her actions

II WORD MEANINGS FROM CONTEXT

Using examples, situations, or explanations is another ways of showing whatword mean Most abstract words (love, happiness…) can be taught effectively incontext There are some points to consider when using this method Besides, it isnot necessary to give a complicated explanation, the meaning can be shown bysimple sentences The teacher can ask students to find the meaning by guessingthe meaning of sentences, which are around

ILLUSTRATED LECTURE

Unit 1: Home life - Reading (page 12)

Teacher asks students to see in the book and pay attention to the sentences

“The main responsibility is to wash the dishes and take out the garbage”.

“I also look after the boys”

Depending on the sentences teacher asks students to guess the meaning of words

“responsibility”, “look after”

III USING SYNONYMS OR ANTONYMS

Synonyms are different words with similar or identical meanings They areinterchangeable

For example: car and automobile

Antonyms are words with opposite or nearly opposite meanings

For example: large and small

This is a nice warm up game using synonyms and antonyms You can make it asdifficult or easy as you wish, depending on the level of your students Hand out

a list of words to each student There should be two columns next to each word,label the heading of each column, synonym and antonym You can make upyour own lists using words you've already taught Thesaurus.com is a useful toolfor this exercise Then read out the synonyms and antonyms of those words Thestudents have to write these words next to the word they are the same or theopposite of

ILLUSTRATED LECTURE

Unit 6: Future Job - Speaking: Task 2 (page 66)

Find each pair ofantonym from the following:

boring rewarding dangerous difficult fantastic easy fascinating unsatisfied grotesque safe

Teacher adds words in the board or give small handouts to ask students to matchStudents guess and match

Teacher checks corrected answers

Teacher helps students to read vocabulary and explains

IV DEFINITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS

Applied linguists have for some time suggested that communicativecompetenceincludes a major component, usually termed strategiccompetence, thedevelopment of which largely determines thelearner's fluency and

conversational skills Practicing teachers,however, are usually unaware of thesignificance of this competence,and hardly any activities have been developed toinclude strategytraining in actual language teaching The aim of this articleis tobridge the gap between theory and practice by first describingstrategiccompetence and then presenting language exercisesto facilitate its development.

1 DEFINITION

ILLUSTRATED LECTURE

Unit 10: Endangered species - Reading (page 107)

Task: The nouns in column A all appear in the passage Match each of them with a suitable definition in column B

extinction a The existence of a larger number of different kinds of

animal and plants which make a balanced environmenthabitat b The act of preventing something from being lost,

wasted, damaged or destroyedbiodiversity c a situation in which a plant, an animal, a way of life

stops existingconservation d The natural environment in which a plant or animal lives

Teacher asks students to work in groups

Students guess and match the word, which is suitable with its definition

Teacher suggests students find words in the text and guess the meaning

Teacher checks the answer

2 TRANSLATION:

ILLUSTRATED LECTURE

Unit 9: Deserts- Reading task 1 (page 98)

Task 1: Give the Vietnamese equivalents to the following words or phrases

4 Royal Geography society of

Australia

cồncát