The ways to help students in grade 6 study english vocabulary

One of the problems ishow to effectively teach vocabulary, help students achieve their knowledgeand remember the English lessons intensively; therefore, the students have agreat opportun

THE TABLES OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Reasons for choosing the study.

We have witnessed the world with developing trends whichsignificantly extend diplomatic relationships among the nations and thecommunicative language has become one of the most urgent demands in the

14 2.4 The results in researching the reality 15

15 3.CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 16

global English has become an important communication tool for us to easilyintegrate into the world The teaching of English has been improved inmethod of the communicative, leaner –centered approach which is adaptable

to give students many opportunities to communicate in English Thus, aquestion is given that how we have to teach English courses to meet the newrequirements in the industry and maintain indefinitely its importance whichhas been recognized by society Without doubt, this requires teachers toconstantly wide their own knowledge as well as create new teaching methods

In fact, at many schools in Viet Nam, the teaching of English has not reallydeveloped students’ ability, activeness and motivation One of the problems ishow to effectively teach vocabulary, help students achieve their knowledgeand remember the English lessons intensively; therefore, the students have agreat opportunity to considerably improve their communication skills.Therefore, I choose the theme “The ways to help students in Grade 6 study English vocabulary” to present my personal experience.

1.2 The aims of study:

English has been learned everywhere recently But how do thestudents learn English and use English as a means of communication? There

is also the concern of industry and education of all teachers to teach English

All four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing are concernedand have been incorporated into the exercises and classroom activities.Having a great number of vocabulary helps students be good at four skills Wecannot train and develop four skills, including Listening, Speaking, Readingand Writing without basing on the foundation of vocabulary Because of thevocabulary’s extreme importance, creating the effective teaching method is anessential requirement

After several years of work, with many concerns and searching forinnovating teaching methods, I have increasingly awared that how to helpstudents learn and remember effectively a variety of glossaries is the mostessential thing we should do at first if we want our students to develop

perfectly all skills in English I have studied and applied the experiences thathelp Grade 6 students learn vocabulary well as follow

1.3 The subjects of study.

After several teaching years, what I have realized is that a largenumber of students are afraid of studying English and say that it is difficultfor them to be good at this subject because of a large number of vocabulary.Moreover, there is not a real language environment for them to practice itevery day In addition to this, the students lack of patience to achieve thelanguage They only learn for the exam, not for the real life Some teachersalso lack of putting real interest in their lessons According to a recent survey,more than 70% of the students reported that they are afraid of learningvocabulary They said that they only studied when having a force from theteachers or parents Because of these above situations, my theme tends to dealwith how to improve the efficiency of teaching vocabulary for students in mysecondary school through some personal experiences

1.4 The methods of study.

- My real teaching at my school

It is said that vocabulary plays an enormously important role in any languages

in the world because we use successfully languages thanks to vocabularieswhich are basically formed on the group of words Teaching and learningforeign languages in all high schools aim to eventually communication, whichmeans that teachers are trained to coordinate all skills to students However,

in order to practice regularly any specific skills, the first thing we need to do

is to equip students with a wide range of glossaries We cannot train anddevelop four skills, including Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writingwithout basing on the foundation of vocabulary Because of the vocabulary’sextreme importance, creating the effective teaching method is an essentialrequirement.

2.2 The reality of the study

The majority of Grade 6 students are deeply interested in learningEnglish and prepare books and supplies sufficiently Most parents seem to beparticularly concerned and create conditions for their children to study.Textbook in English 6 has many colorful pictures which help to increasestudents' interest in the subject A radio cassette is also prepared for thesubject with the aim at assess high chances to students to become familiarwith native speakers’ accent I have had many extensive experiences inteaching English 6

However, Grade 6 is the first grade of secondary school, students are in for abit of surprise at learning many subjects in the general as well as English inparticular while the intellectual capacity many students is failing to meet therequirements from courses Differences in characteristics between Englishand Vietnamese make students to adapt the subject slowly while manystudents, especially boys, are often distracted and less fascinated in learningboth grammar and vocabulary

The check or guide them to self-study at home sounds exceedingly difficultbecause it can be clearly seen that not almost parents know English to teachtheir children

In addition, the measures students are applying for learning glossariesare becoming fairly noticeable Students often learn vocabulary by readingwords in English and try to remember them in Vietnamese It is rote learning,which means that anything they can write in writing is also to deal with theteacher, but not self-consciously check themselves The students cannotremember vocabulary in a sustainable manner if they follow this method

because there is a wide range of words in each lesson every day, whichcontributes to their knowledge gaps, makes them bored with subjects andleads to their weak academic performance

I made a survey to find out the ability to remember in class 6A1, 6A2

According to the survey, I gained the following results:

class Ss good fair

mediu

6A1 40 5 12.5 7 17.5 10 25 10 25 8 206A2 28 2 7.1 5 17.9 6 21.5 8 28.5 7 25

2.3 Problem solutions

2.3.1 Some principles in teaching vocabulary

To make possible the introduction of new requirements in place, we need todistinguish between two basic concepts: semantic meaning and usage

The meaning of a word and how to use them are two distinctly differentconcepts For instance, there are some cases in which students can look upnew words in the dictionary and understand their meaning easily withoutknowing to use them Usage of a word depends very much on the context, thehabits of native speakers and the relationship in the cultural environment andtheir society Usage can only be understood when they are introduced in thecontext or situation where native speakers use

a.Choose words to teach:

New words always appear in each lesson with different teaching methods Weneed to consider two concepts so that we can choose words for teaching:active vocabulary and passive vocabulary

- Active vocabulary is words students understand, recognize and use incommunication and writing

- Passive vocabulary is words students only perceived when listening andreading

There is a fundamental distinction in terms of teaching and introductionbetween two these kinds Active vocabulary is related integrally to four basicskills: Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing, which illustrates that ittakes much time to introduce to students and practice more Regarding of

passive vocabulary, students might be required to understand words – stop atthe level of awareness and practical exercises are not really necessary In eachlesson, teachers should choose and decide which one belongs to active group

or passive group The number of words taught in all lessons depends on thecontent and level of the student It is highly suggested that teachers should notalways teach all new words in each lesson since we also need time to performother activities However, it is the best idea that students should be taught amaximum of 8 words in one lesson

b These factors should be clarified when introducing vocabulary

It is normally required that the teachers must specify three basic elements ofthe language when introducing new information to their students: form,meaning and usage These factors are concretized through the steps asfollows:

2.3.2 The teaching tips in the introduction new words

Teachers can use some tips suggested to introduce new words, which helpstudents learn gain knowledge actively, as follow:

a Visual

It is said that students learn new words quickly thanks to pictures theirteachers can show clearly to them

Example:

When teaching about the school things in Unit 1 My new school , we have

some vocabulary: compass, calculator, rubber, these pictures were shown so

as to elicit the meaning of the word and my students could easily find out thatthe meaning of the word was

b Mine

Example: Unit 6 Our Tet holiday – A closer lok 2

This lesson tells students about different actions To introduce the words intopic actions people should or shouldn’t do such as “climb, cheat,” .teachers can use body gestures or facial and ask students to guess the meaning

of the word

c Realia (Using visual aids)

Example: Unit 1 My new school - Getting started

To introduce things related to school stationery as ruler, pen, book we canpoint at these things on the students’ tables because they use them every day

d Situation / Explanation:

The teachers can use situations and clear explanation which help studentslearn new words effectively

For example, to introduce the word " firework" in Unit 6 A closer look 1, we

explain that this word is associated with many words such as Tetholiday,Chung cake, envelop…

e Example

We provide with students to specific examples related to the upcoming topic

or lessons, which grow great curiosity and exert strong attraction to them.Example: To introduce words related to wonders in Unit 5, we have somewords: waterfall, mountain, forest…

f Synonym / antonym

Teachers use words that were taught before and equal or opposite to words innext lesson to help students understand the meaning of those words

For example: Unit 4 Our neighberhood

After finishing introduction of "narrow", we could say "wide" is antonym of

“narrow” they have learned Therefore, the students can understand meaning

Example: Unit 4 A closer look 1, we have the word "terrible" or the word

"fantastic"

2.3.3 The methods to test and reinforce vocabulary:

a The measures for checking new words following theoretical teaching methods

It is an undeniable fact that just introducing new words is not really enough

We also have to take some steps to check and reinforce new vocabularyimmediately in class The test procedure and consolidation will encouragestudents to learn actively and efficiently

CHECKING TECHNIQUES FOR VOCABULARY

* Rub out and remember:

1-Teacher presents or elicits the vocabulary and build up the list on theblackboard

2- After each word teacher put the Vietnamese translation

3- Teacher the students to copy into their books and then close their books4- Teacher rubs out the new word one at a time

5-Eacher time teacher rub out a word in English, point to theVietnamese translation and ask “What’s this in Vietnamese?”

6- When all the English words are rubbed out teacher go through theVietnamese list and get the students to call out the English words

7- If there is time, the teacher will get the students to come to the blackboard and write the English words again

*Note: It helps learners to memories new vocabulary.

Example: English 6-Unit 5 –Lesson 1

1-………… : kì nghỉ 5-………….: điểm đến

2-………….: thành cổ 6-………… : thăm

3-………… : vịnh 7-………… : bãi biển

4-………… : ở

*- Slap the board:

1-Teacher puts the new words in English on the black board in bubbles –not

4- Teacher chooses a student from each team and they stand at equal distancefrom the blackboard.

5- Teacher calls out one of the new word in a low voice in Vietnamese

6- Two students must run forward and slap a word the word in English on theboard

7- The one who slaps the correct word first is the winner If students areplaying in teams ,the win team gets a mark

8- Then teacher ask two more students to come forward … etc

* Note: There are two points to remember in S the B If you use onlyEnglish , learners are only recognizing the word in through listening.However if you use Vietnamese translation or picture you can check themeaning of the new vocabulary

Example: Unit 6 Getting started

Checking vocabulary: slap the board

*What and where:

1- Teacher writes the new words in the circles on the black board not in a list.2- When all the words are on the board, teacher ask the students to repeat thewords in circles

3- Teacher rubbed out one of the words but doesn’t rub out the circles

4- Teacher gets the students to repeat the words including the rubbed outwords by pointing at the empty circles

5- Teacher rubs out another word but leaves the circles

6- Teacher point the word or empty circles, students read and have toremember all the words

7 - Continues till the cycles are empty

8 - Techer ask the students (6 or 8 at the time 0 to come to bb and fill in thecircles with the correct words

* Note: This check technique is good for learners to remember the new

words and also good for revision of vocabulary

* Matching:

1 - The teacher writes the new words in the list on the left hand side of the bb

2 - The teacher writes the definitions, translation or draws pictures on theright hand side of the board

3 - The teacher asks the students to come to the broad match the items on theleft with those on the right by drawing a line between them

* Jumbled words:

1-The teacher sticks 6 flashcards with jumbled words on the bb

2-T-asks Ss to rewrite the words in the right order

3-The teacher tells students that the first two groups with the right word willget two points

4 -The teacher corrects them

5 - The teacher asks students to read again

Example: Unit 5 Getting started

*- Answer keys:

1-desert 3-forest 5- waterfall

2-mountain 4- beach 6-river

*- Note: This checking

F- Bingo:1- Teacher draw technique helps students remember deeply thewords they have leant.box on board and asks students to copy

2-Teacher asks students to rewrite 6 new words they have learnt in the box Example:

desert

beachmountain waterfall

3- Teacher tells students that she/ he will say some words (8-10-12-15)

4- If students hear the word, they cross it out

After limited time, who has most word say Bingo

b Review vocabulary through some games

In addition to the familiar tips which have been mentioned above, I havestudied and applied some following interesting games in many lessons withthe aim at making the lessons more extremely attractive and helping studentsmemorize vocabulary quickly and more efficient

* Remember my name

- The teacher divides the class into 2 teams and then invite about 3 to 5students who are representatives of the two teams (depending on the amount

of new words each lesson) to stand up before class

- Each student himself will play as a character by using the word they havelearnt

Example: Group 1 Group 2

S1: I am a chair S1: I am a lamp

S2: I am a table S2: I am a bookshelf S3: I am a television S3: I am acouch

- After their introduction completely finishes, in turn, the two teams determinethe name of the opposing team by pointing at them and say:

- You are a chair

-

Or the teacher gives questions and asks students answer:

Teacher: What is her / his name?

Student: She / He is a chair