- Teaching reading comprehension is the way that teacher has to help studentsunderstand the definition of the words, sentences, or paragraphs that consist in thepassage or chapter and ex
Trang 1THE TABLE OF CONTENTS
s
I Opening of the theme:
I.1 The reason to choose the theme
I.2 The purpose of researching
I.3 The research subject
I.4 The research methodology
II The contents of the experience initiative
II.1 The rationale of the experience initiative
II.2 Current status of the problem before applying the experience initiative
II.3 The experience ideas in solving problem
1 Give words’ definition or explanation
2 Surrounding words
3 Causes and effects
II.4 The effect of the experience initiative for education training activities
151517
Trang 2I OPENING OF THE THEME.
I.1 THE REASON TO CHOOSE THE THEME.
- For students who study foreign language in general, or study English in particular,studying new words is very crucial and it marks the success of learners Whenever
we study English, words play an indispensable part and the first thing we mention
is to study new words New words are the basic that we construct and develop incommunication and language skills such as listening, reading, speaking and writingskill For those reasons, learning vocabulary is the vital mission in studyingprocess
- Vocabulary is the mean in which we may transfer our opinion and information toothers as well as express our feeling to the whole world Vocabularies are the basicfor developing other language skills To supply vocabulary sufficiently for students
at high schools is an essential task of teacher finding how to help students solvethat problem
- Many recent researches show that reading comprehension relates so closely tovocabulary sources Researchers and teachers claim that students are limited inusing vocabulary as well as expressing their opinions in some context That’s whythey meet many difficulties in reading the text and understand the text correctly sothey feel uncomfortable in studying this skill, which causes problems in learningEnglish less effectively
- Synonyms and antonyms belongs to a range of vocabulary One of the mostcauses that makes students encounter a number of difficulties in learning English isthat they often misunderstand synonyms and antonyms They are classified asEnglish vocabulary According to the current national exam structure, 4 multiple-choice questions related to synonyms and antonyms and some synonyms in thereading comprehension sections Besides, synonyms and antonyms are very helpful
in the essay writing and reading of exam questions However, this part ofknowledge has not been regularly taught and reviewed as other vocabularysections It is clear that insufficient vocabulary makes students less confident andleads them eliminate reading comprehension parts in studying process and theexams Those above reasons urge to me find the best way to help students solve
that problem that why I choose the theme “SOME EFFECTIVE TECHNIQUES
COMPREHENSION FOR THE 10 TH GRADE-STUDENTS AT HAU LOC 4 TH UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL”
Trang 3I.2 THE PURPOSE OF RESEARCHING
- From the above fact background shows the teachers who teach students at highschools recognize to help students overcome the hard of reading comprehensionsections, and gradually help them improve and develop reading comprehensionskills in the exams seem to have no choice apart from supplying lots of words forstudents
- In addition, it may help to increase knowledge of the target language throughexposure to new vocabulary and grammatical structures Reading comprehension isalso an important way to learn about the target culture
- Teaching synonyms and antonyms is to acquire a lifelong skill, which helpsstudents maintain a competence and fluency in the target language that may welloutlast competence and fluency in reading, speaking, listening and writing
- Depending on the background, I suppose some lessons to help my students inguessing the meaning of words in context whenever they come across new words inreading comprehension passages that they do not stop and check the meaning ofwords in their dictionary or ask others
This study is conducted to help 10th grade-students of Hau Loc 4th Uppersecondary school to understand and know how to use synonyms and antonymsmore clearly Furthermore, it helps students gradually improve skills relating to thispart of the knowledge in the exams
I.3 THE RESEARCH SUBJECT.
- Students at Hau Loc 4th Upper secondary school
- Grade 10 consist of 169 students (4 classes: 10A6, 10A7, 10A8, 10A9)
- 169 students of classes took part in the test
- After the research, teacher finds the change of students’ competence in graspingsynonyms and antonyms as well as in reading comprehension
I.4 THE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.
For having full and exact data to answer the question that is mentioned, I have
to combine two research methods:
- Analysing and comparing the number of students taking exams through exercisesrelating to synonyms and antonyms before and after the research
- Using questionnaire
The theme is divided into three stages:
- The first stage: supply the theory and example
- The second stage: practicing
- The third stage: testing
Trang 4II THE CONTENT OF THE EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE.
II.1 THE RATIONALE OF THE EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE.
For the most Upper secondary schools in Vietnam, English is also a newsubject, especially a difficult subject for the rural and suburb students Whereas,English all over the world is too far developed Students in other parts of the worlduse and speak English fluently as well as use English as their mother tongue So,the mission here is that teacher must spend much time on searching or looking fordata that relates to the topic of the lesson and update information to supply thelesson
Here is the rationale of the experience initiative
* Based on the methods of teaching reading comprehension.
- Teaching reading comprehension is the way that teacher has to help studentsunderstand the definition of the words, sentences, or paragraphs that consist in thepassage or chapter and explain to students how to know unfamiliar words thatappear in the passage, chapter or in a story, as well as help students analyze mainidea in the passage
- In order to understand what you are reading from an English text, you need toguess the meaning of unfamiliar words (words you do not know) from the context.This will help you read faster and easier
- To help students understand what you are reading from an English text, teacherhas to teach students the ways “extensive reading”, “fluency”, and “intensivereading”
- Apart from that, teacher never forgets some basic principles for simple readingstrategies It consists of 3 steps That is, pre-reading activities, while-readingactivities, and post-reading activities Those above steps are very necessary forteaching reading comprehension, and may help students read the text moreeffectively
* Based on definition of synonym and antonym and word guessing techniques + SYNONYM
- Teacher has to teach students how to use synonym words in the sentence andexplain to students about synonym A synonym is a word or phrase that meansexactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language Wordsthat are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym iscalled synonymy
- Teacher may refer the same thing using different word in other part of thesentence In this case, if students do not know the word that appears in the firststage, they will understand the meaning of the word that appears the second There
is a certain skill involved in choosing the most appropriate synonym, as not all arecreated equal It is important to consider the connotation of the word becausesome synonyms can inject a different meaning than the one intended For example,
Trang 5one synonym of sad is "sorrowful" however, this word carries quite a negativeconnotation Depending on the circumstance you can use it, but if you just want tosay that someone is "down" For example: “She looks sad because she has got badmarks” Then, another synonym such as "blue" (informal) or "unhappy" would bemore applicable
e.g
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.
Question 1: Let's eat some French cuisine tonight.
A food B drink C candies D sweet
Answer: A
Explanation: cuisine (noun) = food (noun): thức ăn
Key word: eat
Question 2: Tim walked cautiously through the room checking everything.
A dangerously B curiously C carefully D carelessly
Answer: C
Explanation: cautiously (adv) = carefully (adv): một cách cẩn thận
Key word: checking
+ ANTONYM.
- Besides, using teaching synonyms, teacher doesn’t forget teaching antonyms Itmeans that teacher may contrast the word that students do not know by the oppositeword or item that students know before An antonym is a word that means theopposite of another word For instance, the antonym of 'hot' may be 'cold.' The rootwords for the word 'antonym' are the words 'anti,' meaning 'against' or 'opposite,'and 'onym,' meaning 'name.' In order to understand antonyms better, let's take alook at what the word 'synonym' means A synonym is a word that has a similarmeaning to or exactly the same meaning as another word Synonyms and antonymsare exactly the opposite
- Oddly enough, to understand the meaning of a word better, we can take a look atits antonym, or opposite meaning For instance, take the word 'morose.' Thedefinition of 'morose' is 'gloomily or sullenly ill-humored.' Sometimes, evenreading a dictionary definition is not enough to give us a complete understanding of
a word Most dictionaries provide synonyms and antonyms, as well For instance,here are a few listed synonyms for the word 'morose:' 'pessimistic', 'moody,' 'sullen,''sulky.' Also, here are a few antonyms: 'cheerful' and 'optimistic.' Now we knowthat the opposite of 'morose' is cheerful and even optimistic! Taking a look at boththe synonyms and antonyms really provides us with a clearer definition
e.g
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following
Trang 6Question 1: In the trial the judge declared this person guilty of all the fact.
Answer: C
Explanation: Guity (adj): có tội >< innocent (adj): vô tội
Key words: trial, judge
Question 2: The international organization are going to be in a temporary way in
the country
A complicated B guess C permanent D soak
Answers: C
Explanation: temporary (adj): tạm thời >< permanent (adj): dài hạn
According to James Coady & Thomas Huckin (Eds.) in Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition states that key unresolved issues include the actual
mechanism of incidental acquisition, the type and size of vocabulary needed for accurate guessing, the degree of exposure to a word needed for successful
acquisition, the efficacy of different word-guessing strategies The value of
teaching explicit guessing strategies is highly evaluated
II.2 CURRENT STATUS OF THE PROBLEM BEFORE APPLYING THE EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE
- Vietnamese students in general, as well as students of Hau Loc 4th Uppersecondary school in particular, also have many difficulties in using English Theyare afraid of using English that causes difficulties in studying Besides,geographical area is one of the main reasons that creates imbalance in studyingEnglish My students come from different areas such as mountainous, ethnicminority, catholic, and remote area, they often face with many difficulties inapplying English, one of the modern subjects They think that English is what theyfind hard for them to discover
- My students come from different secondary schools, some students knew Englishquite well but some knew English a little, which lead to imbalance in knowledgewhen they go to Upper secondary school
- Students don’t care about studying English, which causes difficulty in teachingEnglish and studying it
- The lack of the attention from their families about their studying makes teacherencounter difficulties in helping students study and develop their skills in studyingEnglish as well as using English in some fields
- Besides, one of the most factors that affects students is that the lack of the massmedia and facilities also causes the difficulties for students as well as teachers Tofind out the best way to solve that problem teachers must work hard and find thebest way to attract students and help them study better Below are some ways that Iused to help my students to solve that problem and help them study better and get
Trang 7better marks in doing exercises in reading comprehension parts and especially intests.
II.3 THE EXPERIENCE IDEAS IN SOLVING PROBLEM.
- How to deal with the passage with many words that students do not know is a bigquestion for teacher to find the answer Through the long period of teaching, Imyself find that teacher should not teach students find out their definition indictionary In order to understand what students are reading from an English text,teacher should teach students how to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words (wordsstudents do not know) from the context That will help students read faster andeasier, which do not waste time in checking in dictionary as well as help studentsdevelop their skimming skill
There are some useful techniques that help students choose synonyms and antonyms exactly.
1 GIVE WORDS’ DEFINITION OR EXPLANATION
Teacher should give the meaning of a difficult word in the passage, then explain
it after the comma or the dash This is often used for place names, technical terms,information technology terms and other words that native speakers may not beaccustomed to There are some examples
e.g
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.
Question 1: Rare animals will become extinct if man continues killing them They
may disappear forever
A die down B die out C die of D die away
Answer: B
Explanation: extinct (adj)= die out: tuyệt chủng
Key words: disappear forever
Question 2: Rebecca wants to stain her hair purple - Her black hair turns into
purple one
A dye B change C remove D disappear
Answer: A
Explanation: stain (v) = dye (v): nhuộm
Key words: black hair turns into purple one.
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.
Question 1: Some plants and animals are referred to as tiny organisms because
they are extremely small
Trang 8A litle B big C wide D microscopic
Answer: B
Explanation: tiny (adj): nhỏ bé >< big (adj): to
Key words: they are extremely small
Question 2: Drinking water must be purified so that it doesn’t harm our health.
Polluted water can cause intestinal disease, cancer and other dangerous diseases
A tested B impure C contaminated D filtered
Answer: C
Explanation: purified(adj): được lọc, sạch >< contaminated (adj): bị ô nhiễm
Keywords: Polluted water can cause intestinal disease, cancer and other dangerous diseases.
2 SURROUNDING WORDS.
- One way that you can guess the meaning of a word beside giving definition orexplanation is the relationships of the words around it Through this techniquestudents can guess the underlined word easily For example, in the sentence: “Tomgot soak when he went in the rain without umbrella” students may guess themeaning of the word “soak” means “completely wet” because students can guesswhat happens to people who go in the rain that do not have any protection from theother facility after the rain There are some other examples in the test that helpstudents identify easily
e.g
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.
Question 1: Nam and his friends got fired after they had gone to their company too
late several times
A promoted B sacked C increased D decreased
Answer: B
Explanation: be fired = be sacked: sa thải
Key words: after they had gone to their company too late several times.
Question 2: The headquarter was washed away by the storm and a temporaryoffice was in place within hours and the injured were being helped
A put up B removed away C put off D set up
Answer: B
Explanation: be washed away =be removed away: bị cuốn trôi
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.
Question 1: He is over the moon about his examination result He has got 8.5 for
IELTS
Trang 9A stressed B satisfied C very happy D very sad
Answer: D
Explanation: be over the moon : vui mừng >< be very sad: rất buồn
Key words: has got 8.5 for IELTS
Question 2: She is a very generous old woman She has given most of her wealth
to a charity organization
A mean B kind C hospitable D amicable
Answer: A
Explanation: generous (adj): hào phóng >< mean (adj): keo kiệt
Key words: has given most of her wealth to a charity organization
3 CAUSE AND EFFECT.
- In reading comprehension, this skill is so important that students may use it toidentify the word and understand the passage that they do not know Through thecontext, they identify them easily Teacher uses this to teach for students manytimes to help them recognize the relationship between two things, or when teacherdemonstrates that one event is the result of another The world is full of causes andeffects, so it should be no surprise that literature often contains cause or effectreferences In order to understand what they are reading, students should analyzethe cause and effect as presented by the author If the effect is impossible forstudents to understand, the cause may be that the statement was unclear, soambiguous means “unclear”
e.g
Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.
Question 1: The bacteria are so microscopic that I can hardly see them.
Answer: C
Explanation: microscopic (adj) = tiny (adj): nhỏ bé
Key words: I can hardly see them.
Question 2: There was a heavy rain in HCM city, and streets were inundated with
water
A melted B boiled C moisturized D flooded
Answer: D
Explanation: inundated (adj) = flooded (adj): tràn ngập
Key words: a heavy rain
Trang 10Mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the word(s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions.
Question 1: The storm was unexpected No one was prepared for it and some
people couldn’t escape and got injured
A should be followed B may be avoided
C can be predicted D must be prevented
Answer: C
Explanation: unexpected (adj) bất ngờ ><can be predicted: có thể đoán trước
Key words: No one was prepared for it, some people couldn’t escape and got injured.
Question 2: The excursion through the jungle was perilous, some people were
killed by animals
A long B dangerous C unnecessary D safe
Answer: D
Explanations: perilous (adj): nguy hiểm >< safe (adj): an toàn
Key words: some people were killed by animals.
Here are some tasks that I have taught in Units of the 10th grade English textbook and use various kinds of exercises.
Unit 1: A day in my life……….
Part A: Reading
Match the word in column A with its synonym in column B