How to deal with unfamiliar words in enlish tests for high school students

Based on the theory that language learning strategies can be taught to students, I bravely spent a number of periods to teach students some strategies to guess the meaning of words based

THANH HOA EDUCATION AND TRAINING DEPARTMENT

THACH THANH 1 HIGH SCHOOL

EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE

“HOW TO DEAL WITH UNFAMILIAR WORDS IN ENGLISH TESTS FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS”

Written by: Le Thi Huong Position: Teacher

Field: English

THANH HOA 2021

THE BRIEF OUTLINE OF EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE

1.3 The chart compares the results of the 2 tests 9

I INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the topic

For language learners in general, and for English learners in particular, learning vocabulary is an important and decisive part of learners' success or failure When it comes to learning English, vocabulary is always the first thing that comes to mind It is the basis, the foundation from which learners can continue to build and develop other language skills such as listening, speaking, reading, and writing Therefore, learning vocabulary is always considered by learners as the starting point and the most important task during the learning process

Vocabulary is the medium we use to convey our thoughts, ideas and feelings, and the means by which we know about the world around us Because vocabulary is the basis for developing other language skills, besides practicing skills such as listening, speaking, reading, writing and grammar, vocabulary development for students, especially High school students so that they are able

to pass important exams is always the main task of the teacher

Actual observations show that most students learning English often read

in English very little, because vocabulary always interferes with the reading process and makes them not understand Insufficient vocabulary has made students find reading comprehension extremely difficult, leading to psychological phenomenon of avoiding reading Through initial survey data for 12th grade students, more than 85% of our students are currently afraid of reading comprehension the most As a result, the reading comprehension section of the test is the part that students do least effectively

Based on the theory that language learning strategies can be taught to students, I bravely spent a number of periods to teach students some strategies

to guess the meaning of words based on the context when encountering new words During reading comprehension, avoid interruption because students have to stop many times to look up the dictionary or ask teachers and friends, which takes a lot of time For all the reasons, I would like to conduct my

research on the topic: “How To Deal With Unfamiliar Words In Enlish

Tests For High School Students”

2 Aims of the study

The main aims of the research are:

- To be able to develop reading comprehension skills for 12 grade students to help them do the reading part of tests and exams most effectively

through teaching and guiding them to practice skills and strategies, guess vocabulary through context

- To provide teachers and students with some interesting and helpful strategies so that they can apply them to Reading Parts or Closest/ Opposite meaning Parts in English tests in order to get the best results for their English exams

- To help students to realize their talent and abilities through each activity

- To improve my teaching skills and fulfill my career passion

3 The object of the study

The objective of the study is some useful strategies that can be used in teaching students some strategies to guess the meaning of words based on the context when encountering new words

4 Scope of the study

- Research topic for grade -12 students at Thach Thanh 1 High School

- Number of 3 classes (90 students) Which includes:

+ 30 students of class 12 A + 32 students of class 12 C + 28 students of class 12 D

- The duration of 12 periods Including:

+ 04 theory periods

+ 08 practice periods

- The study period was 4 weeks (November 2020)

The results of the study were compared and analyzed through two tests The first test was administered before the students participated in the study, the second test was administered 4 weeks after the students participated in the study

5 Method of the study

- In order to have complete and highly reliable data to answer the question, I used a combination of two research methods:

+ Analyze and compare students' scores on the Comprehension Reading Test before and after participating in the study

+ Using a questionnaire (Questionnaire)

- The research topic is divided into 3 phases:

+ Stage 1: Providing theory and illustrative examples + Stage 2: Practice

+ Stage 3: Testing

II CONTENT

HOW TO DEAL WITH UNFAMILIAR WORDS

In order to understand what you are reading from an English text, you need to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words (words you do not know) from the context This will help you read faster and easier

There are many ways that we can use to guess the meaning of unknown words Let’s examine some:

1 Definition or explanation

A writer might give the meaning of a difficult word in the passage itself The explanation might follow a comma or a dash after the difficult word This

is especially used for place names, technical terms, and other words that even native English speakers might not be familiar with For example, in the

sentence “New and knew are homophones—words that sound the same but

have a different spelling,” “words that sound the same but have a different

spelling” is the meaning of homophones In the following sentences, find the

words that mean the same as the underlined word

Ex:

a We visited Narvik, a town in the northern part of Norway

b When she fell, she broke her ulna, a bone in her arm

c When I was in Germany, I enjoyed Schweinebrauten, which is a type

of roast pork

Note:

Pay attention to some key words that are often used by writers:

Key words

is/are described as may be seen as

Ex:

a Inflation is a rise in the general level of prices you pay for things you buy

an unfamiliar word = inflation

signal word = is

the definition = a rise in the general level of prices you pay for everything you buy.

b Someone who explores and studies caves is known as a spelunker

an unfamiliar word = spelunker

signal words = is known as

definition = someone who explores and studies caves

2 Surrounding words

Another way you can guess the meaning of a word is through the relationships of the words around it For example, in the sentence, “After the heavy rain, the ground was saturated with water,” you should be able to guess

that the word saturated means “completely wet,” because that’s what happens

to the ground after a heavy rain

Ex:

a The company lures workers with high salaries and good working conditions

A organizes B fires

b In the United States, the transition from one President to the next one

is generally smooth

c The swimmer dived into the pool at one end and swam under water to the other end, where she emerged from the water

A came out B dried off

C sank to the bottom D injured herself

3 Synonym

The writer may refer to the same thing using a different word in another part of the sentence, or in a later sentence In that case, if you know the meaning of the second word, that will help you understand the meaning of the word that you don’t know “That vase looks very fragile With young children

in the house, I have to be careful with breakable things.” In these two

sentences, breakable and fragile seem to mean something similar Therefore,

you can guess that something that is fragile must break easily

Ex:

a Gary is being paid more than $400,000 per annum This yearly salary allows him to live very well

C during the summer D each year

b The company president’s veracity has been questioned, but we do not doubt his truthfulness

A honesty B ability C luck D finances

c Ms Aaron showed a lot of strength after her daughter died Everyone admired her fortitude

A sadness B courage C niceness D appearance

4 Antonym

A writer might also contrast the word that you do not know with a word

or idea that you already know In that case, since you can see the opposite of what the word means, you can guess what the word means “That statue is in a precarious position Please move it somewhere that it won’t fall.” Here,

precarious is contrasted with “somewhere that it won’t fall.” Therefore, a precarious position is a position in which something is in danger of falling

Ex:

a Most Americans are monolingual, but I don’t think that’s good Everyone should learn a second language

A speaking one language B very quiet

b At first, our problems seemed insurmountable However, now I think we’ll

be able to find solutions

A not able to be explained B not able to be solved

C not able to be understood D not able to be discussed

c Though the artist has died, her art will be immortal

d The writing style I used in my report was too colloquial, so my boss asked

me to write it in a more formal manner

5 Cause and effect

Your knowledge of cause and effect is useful in helping you understand words that you do not know “Your statement of purpose is ambiguous, so we don’t understand what you intend to do.” If the result is that the reader does

not understand, the cause may be that the statement was unclear, so ambiguous

means “unclear.”

Ex:

a The journey across the mountains was perilous, and several people were killed

b Dean forgot to turn off the water in the bathtub, and the bathroom was inundated with water

c The insects are so microscopic that you can hardly see them

6 Illustration

A writer might give an illustration related to the word that might help you understand the word For example, in the sentence, “Harry is so parsimonious that he won’t spend an extra penny if he doesn’t have to,” not

spending an extra penny is an illustration of being parsimonious You can see that parsimonious means “too careful with money.”

Ex:

a After his long illness, Dave was so frail that he could hardly get out of bed

C unhappy D thankful

b Glen belongs to a pacifist religious group, and he is not allowed to join the army

A with many members B with strict rules

c Please replenish the supply of stationery I want you to buy letter paper and large envelopes

d I really enjoy the solitude of the mountains—being alone with nature

A closeness B height

7 Purpose or use

In some cases, the writer will mention the purpose or use of an object , and this tells you what the object is For example, in the sentence “I used a cherry pitter to remove the seeds from the cherries,” the writer tells you that a

cherry pitter is something used to remove seeds from cherries In the following

sentences, find the words that tell what the underlined object does

Ex:

a The pilot used the altimeter to see how high the plane was

b With a whisk, I stirred the eggs

c Use a spatula to turn over the pancakes.

8 Groups or examples

The writer might give groups of things or examples that tell you about the meaning of the unfamiliar words

Ex:

They marvelled at our dishwasher and dish-dryer They fell in love with the automatic coffeemaker, the microwave oven, and the food blender They wanted to take our rice cooker and toaster home with them They had never

seen such appliances before

III CONCLUSION

1 The results of the study

1.1 Results of the first test

Total: 90 students The Number of

students Percentage

According to the table above, a total of 90 students participated in the test reading comprehension before participating in the study Of which, 61 students got 5 points or more, accounting for 67.78%; 29 students have below average scores, accounting for 32.22%

1.2 Results of the second test

Total: 90 students The Number of

students Percentage

According to the above table, a total of 80 students participated in the reading comprehension test after participating in the study Of which, 87

students achieved 5 points or more, accounting for 96.67%; there are only 3 students with below average scores, accounting for only 3.33%

1.3 The chart compares the results of the 2 tests

According to the chart above, we see that before participating in the study, students were weak in reading comprehension skills The number of students who do not achieve the average score is still very high But after 4 weeks of participating in the study, we see that students have made significant progress From only 61 students scored average or higher (67.78%) increased to 87 students (96.67%) Meanwhile, the number of participating students with scores below 5 decreased significantly, from 29 students (32.22%) to only 3 students (3.33%)

2 Conclusions from the study

Basing on the results obtained in the above study, we draw the following conclusions:

- Teaching word guessing strategies for high school students in order to overcome current students' weak vocabulary helps them improve their reading comprehension in tests, exams, has brought about positive effects, and should

be widely adopted

- High school English teachers should strengthen teaching and training students more reading comprehension strategies, strategies to guess words through context, encourage them to boldly guess semantics according to logic Therefore, they should not try to provide a lot of vocabulary in the form of lists

of many words like a dictionary when they find students weak in vocabulary

61

87

29

3 0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Before participating After participating

5 points or more Less than 5 points

- The reason students do not do well in the reading comprehension part of the tests and exams is partly because they are weak in vocabulary, do not know how to rely on context to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words

3 Limitations of the study

- The number of students and teachers participating in the research topic

is limited, not completely reliable enough to be able to draw comprehensive and extensive conclusions in teaching and learning English

- The sample of students and teachers participating in the study is limited, not representative of all students and teachers today

- The results and conclusions of the research are for reference only, there should be more similar studies in other high schools for further testing and consolidation

- Limited research ability of the researcher, the researcher is also the teacher who directly implements to find the answer to the research question, so

it is difficult to avoid subjectivity

This is my personsal study, so some mistakes are unavoidable I hope to get any comments from kind-hearted colleagues so as that my research will be better

4 Recomendations:

Because the research topic is conducted in a limited and not typical context, in order for the conclusion of the topic to be applied more widely, I suggest that more similar research topics are needed in various locations in the province

Thank you so much!

THE CONFIRMATION OF

THE HEADMASTER

I hereby declare that this is my experience initiative and that no parts

of the initiative have been copied or reproduced by me from any other’s work without acknowledgement

Writer

Le Thi Huong

REFERENCES