skkn making use of authentic materials to improve grade 10 students’ vocabulary

SÁNG KIẾNMAKING USE OF AUTHENTIC MATERIALS TO IMPROVE GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY... Tên sáng kiến: Making use of authentic materials to improve grade 10 students’ vocabulary 2.. MAKI

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SÁNG KIẾN MAKING USE OF AUTHENTIC MATERIALS

TO IMPROVE GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY

Có đính kèm:

Năm học: 2019-2020

SÁNG KIẾN

MAKING USE OF AUTHENTIC MATERIALS

TO IMPROVE GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY

INTRODUCTION 1

1 Background /context 1

2 Rationale 1

a The importance of vocabulary 1

b The prospect of authentic materials 1

3 The scope of the research and research aims 2

CONTENTS OF THE RESEARCH 3

I REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING VOCABULARY 3

II.RESEARCH CONTENT 3

1 Research procedure/ definitions of terms 3

2 Literature review 5

3 Adaptation 6

4 Merits and defects of the study 10

5 Evaluation of the research 11

a Novelty of the research 11

b Effectiveness 11

c Applicability of the research 12

CONCLUSION 12

REFERENCES 12

APPENDIX 14

1 Student questionnaire 14

2 Teacher interview 15

2 ELF: English As A Second Language

3 IELTS: International English Language Testing System

4 TOEIC: Test of English for International Communication

5 TOEFL: Test Of English as a Foreign Language

6 SPSS: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ SÁNG KIẾN

1 Tên sáng kiến: Making use of authentic materials to improve grade 10 students’ vocabulary

2 Lĩnh vực áp dụng sáng kiến: Phương pháp dạy học bộ môn - Tiếng Anh

3 Tác giả:

- Trình độ chuyên môn: Cử nhân chuyên ngành giảng dạy tiếng Anh

- Chức vụ, đơn vị công tác: Giáo viên tiếng Anh – Trường THPT Ngô Quyền

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MAKING USE OF AUTHENTIC MATERIALS

TO IMPROVE GRADE 10 STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY

INTRODUCTION

1 Background /context

Instructional materials play a crucial role in enriching students’ vocabularywhich is later used in different situational contexts extending from dailycommunication to academic career In the scope of this study, the choice of usingauthentic materials is made with a view to enhancing students’ word powers and

to that extend they can improve their English proficiency If authentic materialsact as a driving force behind the enhancement of students’ vocabulary acquisition,they need to be promoted in teaching practice of all grades

Keywords: instructional materials, authentic materials, vocabulary knowledge, vocabulary acquisition.

2 Rationale

a The importance of vocabulary

Since communication is the ultimate goal of all languages, the development

of vocabulary cannot be neglected Lewis (1993) considers vocabulary the core orheart of language A rich vocabulary, therefore, definitely improves all aspects ofcommunication – listening, speaking, reading and writing Moreoever, the highereducation one student gets, the more complex and sufficient vocabulary he needsfor his academic purpose such as writing compositions and preparing researchreports If one Ngo Quyen high school student ever and even wants to studiesoverseas, this one should sit for SAT, in which he or she needs enoughvocabulary to be able to write a specified report after having read an extensivetext with topic ranging from aviation field to mining industry Also, this is so trueand of paramount importance for students like Ngo Quyen high school students todig deeper in vocabulary before they enter any proficiency test like IELTS orTOEFL Therefore, I aspire to seek for an innovative way of teaching andlearning vocabulary at Ngo Quyen High School so as to enlarge my students’vocabulary knowledege as much as possible

b The prospect of authentic materials

Ellis and Johnson (1994:157) defines authentic material as any kind ofmaterial taken from the real world and not specifically created for the purposes oflanguage teaching The materials, therefore, can be anything like newspapers,

brochures, tickets, TV programs, live talks movies, songs, comics and so forth.Throughout the time, researchers like Rings (1986), Peacock (1997) and Gilmore(2007) have proved that authentic materials are indispensable within the classroom

From my teaching experience, even students who score quite high in theexams at school face a great number of difficulties when they read financialreports, credit contracts, advertisements, prescriptions and so on Therefore, it isauthentic materials that offer students the chances to be exposed to the reallanguage which is used frequently by native English speakers Once they havecontact with such materials in that way, they will soon get improved with theirvocabulary competence

3 The scope of the research and research aims

This mini research aims to explore the effectiveness of authentic materials

on vocabulary acquisition among Vietnamese EFL learners, especially grade 10students in Ngo Quyen High School Using authentic materials as teaching sourcecan also ensure the feasibility of lessons Therefore, the following researchquestions are presented as follows,

1 Do authentic materials benefit students’ vocabulary acquisition ?

2 How practical are authentic materials in English classes ?

CONTENTS OF THE RESEARCH

I REALITY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING VOCABULARY

Ngo Quyen High School is one of the top prestigious academic institutes inDong Nai province It has a rich tradition of work that focuses on education Eachyear, a large number of students prove to deserve such qualification by their topacademic results form the entrance examination to high school That is to say,they are generally more capable of academic competence in comparison withothers, particularly in English Having stated this, I mean to consider keepingmyself updated with the cutting-edge methodology and being able to apply thelatest findings in my lessons necessary for my teaching career

I have to admit that working with such students is not an easy task inregard to the fact their course books which were first published around 2006 arealmost outdated with inappropriate context Take grade 10’s reading section ofunit 5 an example, my students seem to be “forced” to learn about computers withillustrations relating to such things as old and irrelevant as floppy disks.Therefore, I often have to spend some time explaining what seems to be history tothem rather than deliver a complete language lesson about computers What ismore, when they take part in speaking section of unit 10, a lesson about aseemingly “new kind of zoo”, many in my class even refer to the term “safari” - atrip to see wild animals, especially in east or southern Africa Some of them evenoffer special terms like hyena, a type of wild African dog, or koala with perfectpronunciation ( /haɪˈiːnə/ and /kəʊˈɑːlə/ ) Dealing with such instances, I see that

it is hard to hold the interest of my students and broaden their knowledge,especially their vocabulary competence by only using the textbook

Furthermore, the teaching job demands innovations all the time Under myencouragement, the students always seem to thirst for knowledge in that theymight even have reference books with authors’ explanation, sample texts forwriting section as well as scripts for listening tasks This is good for students’autonomy but to some extend harms the originality of such a lesson If they start aclass without perceiving anything in advance, their mind is fresh and hence,perhaps, more appreciation of the lesson

II RESEARCH CONTENT

1 Research procedure/ definitions of terms

1.1 Research design

During the research, a population of 80 grade 10 students are drawn fromtwo classes, 40 students for each, as control and experimental group The groupattending lessons with authentic materials forms the experimental group, whilethe other with conventional lessons forms the control group

The two groups will take a pre-test to make sure that they are at the sameproficiency level At the end of the second semester, they both take the samepost-test for score collection purpose Their scores are treated as data for theresearch and will be analyzed to serve for the findings

With the participation of my colleagues, comparisons between the controlgroup and the experimental group will be made to examine the effect of authenticmaterials on students’ vocabulary improvement

1.2 Data collection procedure

a Post-test and pre-test

A pre-test will be conducted in the first week It is a vocabulary-based test,

serving to provide the researcher with learners’ competence in English and

to make sure that the two groups are at the same level

A post-test at the end of the second term for the two will examine

students’ improvement groups after 8 weeks treatment

It is noted that the students are informed about criteria and grading rubrics beforethe test to avoid any possible misunderstanding or ill preparation among students

b Classroom observations

3 colleagues from the English group will participate in the class taught withauthentic materials once each month They will observe my class and takenecessary notes which they later use for their observation reports During thelesson, all teaching and learning steps are videotaped for further analysis

c Student questionnaire

A questionnaire of 5-point Likert scale items will be given to the experimentalgroup It serves to collect the attitude of the students towards the application ofauthentic materials in vocabulary improvement Necessary instructions on howand what to do with the questionnaire are given beforehand

d Teacher interview

An interview is carried out with the participation of 3 teachers in myEnglish team to identify their attitude towards improving vocabulary by usingauthentic materials The set of questions which is sent to my colleagues a weekbeforehand is designed with close and open-ended sections The whole processwill be recorded for future analysis.

1.3 Data analysis

a Qualitative data analysis

Reports from 3 fields (classroom observation, questionnaire and teacherinterview) will be evaluated to identify trends, themes and patterns in the form ofcolored codes I will use this evaluation to perfect my teaching philosophy as well

as questionnaires and tests for the two groups before conclusion and suggestionare given with regard to the research topic

b Quantitative data analysis

The scores from both pre-test and post-test will be processed automatically

by statistical softwares SPSS and Excel are utilized based on independent samplet-test formula My colleagues and I will hold a meeting to analyze the results anddraw a conclusion on the practicability of the method

2 Literature review

In my own teaching experience, I have learnt that vocabulary plays a veryvital part in improving students’ four basic language skills Wilkins (1972) statesthat without grammar, very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary, nothingcan be conveyed In agreement with Wilkins, Richards and Renandya (2002) addthat the core component of language proficiency is vocabulary and it makes thebasis for how well learners of a language speak, listen, read, and write Theattempt to ensure learners can acquire sufficient vocabulary, therefore, is apriority to all language teachers

Nation and Meara (2010) put that intermediate level requires around 5,000word families, and at least 6,000 words are needed for advanced proficiency.When it comes to international English certificates, Chujo and Oghigian (2009)find out that a leaner needs a minimum vocabulary size of 4,000 words to gain 95percent coverage on TOEIC, or a 4,500-word vocabulary for TOEFL As EFLlearners, Vietnamese high school students really need to invest more in suchaspect of English to gain their academic purposes successfully

From a teaching perspective, learning needs appropriate strategies forimproved proficiency and greater self-confidence ( Oxford, 1990, p.1) If theEnglish learners want to have proficiency in vocabulary, they should consider the

strategy of using authentic materials Because authentic materials and activities aredesigned to “imitate the real world situations” ( Herod, 2002), the use of suchsources leads to greater interest and variety in the materials that learners deal with inthe classroom (Nunan, 1989) Once students are motivated, they have every reason

to pursue and benefit from vocabulary learning because such sources of materialhelps bring the contact to life, and ultimately makes learning and using languagemore meaningful and easier for students (Nunan, 1989) Take reading as an example,

in an investigation on the link between reading authentic novel and vocabularyacquisition, Pellicer-Sánchez and Schmitt (2010) discover that the meaning andspelling could be recognized for 84% and 76% of the words respectively, while themeaning and word class could be recalled for 55% and 63%

However, Al Nabhani (2015) points out that the vocabulary from thechosen source might not be relevant to the student's immediate needs and abovetheir levels Although the use of authentic texts may prevent lower learners fromresponding in meaningful ways and lead them to feel frustrated, confused and de-motivated ( Guariento and Morley, 2001), Miller (2005) and McNeil (1994) stillargue that authentic materials can be used even with lower level learners as long

as the choice of authentic materials is carried out sensitively

3 Adaptation.

Below are some lesson designs with authentic materials from both national andinternational sources

* Unit 5: Technology And You – Listening: Adapted from BBC news.

Task 1 Listen to the conversation between the two reporters and answer the

questions based on what you hear The recording will be spoken TWICE.

1 Why is Neil annoyed?

A His smartphone stopped working

B He didn’t finish his book

C His laptop was not good

D He was tired

2 The survey has found percent of executives said employees were using their own personal computing technologies for business purposes

3 What will the woman do if she has a problem with her laptops?

A She will try to repair her laptops

B She will call IT supporters

C She will ask her friends for help

D She will talk to other laptop users

4 Why does the man find it hard to speak with the IT department?

A Because they use a lot of technical terms

B Because they use English a lot

C Because they don’t speak clearly

D Because they don’t explain

Task 2: Listen to the conversation and fill in each of the blanks with only one

word The recording will be spoken TWICE.

Feifei: So it’s not always easy, even if it’s the office computer

Neil: No, as I’m sure You know, Feifei There are always problems, and

that’s when you need to be able to talk to your company’s IT support

– that’s information (5) But what should you say ? Oh

look, it’s Business Betty! Hi Betty, great to have you here as usual

you’re (6) and wherever you are, when you have a

technological problem you need to explain what the problem is and

(7) what the IT expert is saying to you Let’s start with the

problems

person, he or she might offer you some advice For example: You

Neil:

need to install an update Or the problem might be more

(9) to fix Or maybe it can’t be fixed at all I’m afraid.

BB: Hopefully it won’t ever be that bad ! They might give the

(10) most of us have heard at one time and which

seems to work very well: give your computer a re-boot – turn it

Neil:

Betty:

Both:

off and on again

Brilliant Betty, thanks

My pleasure So if there’s nothing else, I'll be off Bye for now

Bye Betty

Task 3 Tell the class about your problem with technology Give your

explanation and feeling of technology.

* Unit 10: Conservation – Speaking: Adapted from Safari West Wildlife

Preserve & African Tent Camp website.

WELCOME TO THE SONOMA SERENGETI.