Using group work to teach vocabulary to 12th form students

Monitoring the task Chapter 3: Suggested group work activities for Teaching vocabulary to 12th form students 3.1 Teaching and learning vocabulary situation at high schools in Vietnam 3.

Table of contents

Part a: introduction

1 The reasons for the study

2 The aims of the study

3 The methods of the study

4 The scope of the study

5 The design of the study

Part b: development

Chapter 1: Theoretical background

1.1 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

1.1.1 CLT and its origin

1.1.2 The role change of the teacher and learner in CLT

1.2 Vocabulary teaching.

1.2.1 The importance of teaching vocabulary

1.2.2 Teaching vocabulary through communicative activities

Chapter 2: Group work and vocabulary teaching.

2.1 Group work.

2.2 The advantages of group work in teaching vocabulary

2.2.1 Vocabulary is acquired more easily in group

2.2.2 Group work promotes learners' responsibility and autonomy.2.2.3 Group work generates interactive language

2.3 The disadvantages of group work in teaching vocabulary

2.3.1 Students tend to use their native language

2.3.2 Teacher cannot monitor all groups at once

2.4 Preparation and organization of groups

2.4.1 Preparation

2.4.2 Group work organization

2.5 Group work implementation in classroom.

2.5.1 Selecting appropriate group techniques

2.5.2 Planning group work

2.5.3 Monitoring the task

Chapter 3: Suggested group work activities for

Teaching vocabulary to 12th form students

3.1 Teaching and learning vocabulary situation at high schools in Vietnam

3.1.1 The traditional method of teaching

3.1.2 Almost no communicative activities in teaching vocabulary

3.2.7 Repetition made enjoyable

3.2.8 Find the right definition

3.2.9 Noughts and crosses

1 The reasons for choosing the study:

It is the experience of most language teachers that vocabulary knowledge isthe single most important area of second language competence No matter how wellthe students learn grammar, no matter how successfully the sound of L2 ismastered, without words to express, communication in second language cannothappen in any meaningful way Thus, teaching and learning vocabularysuccessfully is the concern of all teachers and learners of second language

In the late 20th century, linguists, teachers and learners have witnessed the

"birth" of a new way of teaching foreign language, the so-called "Communicative

Language Teaching" Consequently, the method of teaching has changed to cater

for the new purpose of learning and teaching language: to understand and to beunderstood in communication

Actually, teaching vocabulary in particular, and foreign language in general inhigh schools in Vietnam is not totally renewed In Vietnam, vocabulary is taughtmainly through reading Each course book has a list of words with translation.Teachers must prepare carefully to master these words and students try tomemorize these words, unsure about which meanings should be remembered Thetext seems to be the only mean of providing the context for new words Studentshave no chance to use or practise the words As a result, learners forget wordseasily Moreover, teaching vocabulary is not considered to be an important part,especially in 12th form that prepares for Graduation and University EntranceExamination

The effort of this thesis is trying to find the way to create interest for teachers

in teaching vocabulary, is trying to help students learn and practise new words in

natural way by using group work activity Having students work in groups not

only makes all students involved in learning but also gives students a chance topractise and use new words in different contexts Gradually, students can call onthe words they want to use to express their thinking, their feeling easily, fluentlyand of course accurately There are many reasons for choosing the study but the

above reasons are the main ones that encourage me to choose the thesis: " Using group work to teach vocabulary to 12 th form students"

2 The aims of the study:

The thesis has been done in order to make a contribution to the improvementand innovation of teaching vocabulary.

The thesis is also aimed at suggesting some group work activities to teachvocabulary in the 12th form

3 The methods of the study.

In order to complete the thesis I have used different methods as follow:

 Analytic methods

 Statistic methods

 Systematic methods

 Descriptive methods

4 The scope of the study:

This thesis is about using group work to teach vocabulary in the 12th form

5 The design of the study.

Apart from acknowledgements, table of contents, the thesis consists of threemain parts:

Part A: "Introduction" presents the reasons for choosing the study, the aims,

the methods, the scope of the study and also its design

Part B: "Development" consists of three chapters The first chapter provides

the theoretical background Firstly, a basic understanding about communicativelanguage teaching is introduced, that is about its origin, the change role of teacherand learner Secondly, I emphasise the importance of vocabulary teaching andsome advantages of teaching vocabulary through communicative activities Thesecond chapter provides some advantages and some disadvantages of group work

learning vocabulary in high schools in Vietnam This chapter also provides somegroup activities used to teach vocabulary in the 12th form and some particularlessons are taken as examples of teaching vocabulary using group work activities.

Part C: " Findings and Conclusion"

Chapter 1: Theoretical background

1 1 : Co m m u n ic a t iv e l a ng u a ge te a c h in g ( C L T )

1.1.1: CLT and its origin

Communicative Language Teaching makes use of real-life situations thatnecessitate communication The teacher sets up a situation that students are likely

to encounter in real life Unlike the Audio lingual method of language teaching,

which relies on repetition and drills, the communicative approach can leave

students in suspense as to the outcome of a class exercise, which will varyaccording to their reactions and responses The real-life simulations change fromday to day Students' motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate inmeaningful ways about meaningful topics

Margie S Berns, an expert in the field of Communicative Language

interpersonal activity and has a clear relationship with society": " In this light, language study has to look at the use or function of language in context, both its linguistic context or what is uttered before and after a given piece of discourse, and its social or situational, context" (Berns, 1984, p5)

CLT emerged from a fusion of Cognitive Psychology; Generative Grammar

and Educational reforms which sought to provide more room for learner creativityand less rote learning in Europe and North America classroom in the mid 1970's Inbrief, CLT could be said to be the product of educators and linguists who hadgrown dissatisfied with the Audio Lingual and Grammar Translation methods offoreign language instruction

1.1.2: The role change of the teacher and learner in CLT

The change of teaching method follows up by the change of the roles of the

teacher and student The teachers in traditional classroom take the role as

controllers who stand in the front of the class controlling everything in the class.

The teachers in communicative classroom will find themselves talking less and

listen more; they become active facilitators of their students learning The teachers

set up the exercises, facilitating the process of learning Teachers allow studentswith their guidance to find their own pathways to success

The students in traditional class are passive recipients waiting to be filled

with teacher's knowledge They are expected to respond what the teacher asks, do

what the teacher wants The students in communicative classroom are active

participants; they do most of the speaking Frequently the scene of a classroom

during a communicative exercise is active, with students leaving their seat tocomplete a task

However, for many years in the past, the importance of vocabulary teaching was not appreciated Vocabulary was just seen as incidental to the main purpose

of language teaching - namely the acquisition of grammatical knowledge about thelanguage Vocabulary was necessary to give students something to hang on to whenlearning structures, but was frequently not a main focus for learning itself

Recently, in the highlight of Communicative Approach, the importance of vocabulary teaching is highly appreciated Methodologists and linguists have

increasingly been turning their attention to vocabulary, stressing its importance inthe language teaching and reassessing some of the ways in which it is taught andlearnt It is, now, clear that the acquisition of grammar - though the two areobviously interdependent - and teachers should have the same kind of expertise inthe teaching of vocabulary as they do in the teaching of structure

1.2.2: Teaching vocabulary through communicative activities.

Teaching vocabulary is quite various in communicative language teaching.Teaching vocabulary through communicative activities is one of the most effectiveways Communicative activities have a well-established place within manylanguage-learning programmes Although the range of types of such activities islarge, all provide learners with opportunities to use language to do things and inparticular, to engage in meaningful interactive oral language production Typically,their goal is to improve the fluency with which learners access their knowledge ofthe target language.

In the study of the acquisition of mathematical vocabulary through theperformance of split informational activities by eleven to thirteen - year - oldstudents, Hall (1992) found that the vocabulary learning of students working onthese interactive activities was greater than that of students working within ateacher - fronted arrangement with a reading focus Figure 1 shows a sample task:

-Vertical line

Hall concluded that split information activities " can provide opportunities for

suggests that the requirement for spoken output in these activities and thegenerative use of new vocabulary items are the key factors leading to acquisition ofthese items.

Simmock (1993) studied learners' performance in ask-and-answer activitieswhere students read a story in pairs and then respond to preset questions from theirpartners about the events in the story, responding as if they were the people in the

story who had experienced these events She found that learners used new vocabulary encountered in the reading input for the activity productively and accurately.

A study by Newton (1993) investigated vocabulary gained throughperformance of two split and two shared information activities by two groups offour learners The learners' recognition of vocabulary in the tasks was pre-and-posttested and full transcripts were used to analyse the negotiation of this vocabularyduring task performances

Chapter 2:

Group work and vocabulary teaching

2 1 : T he de f in it io n o f g r o up wo r k

Group work is a generic term covering a multiplicity of techniques in which

two or more students are assigned a task that involves collaboration and

self-initiated language Note that what we commonly call pair work is simply group

work in groups of two It is also important to note that group work usually implies''small'' group work That is, students in groups of perhaps six or fewer Largegroupings defeat one of the major purposes for doing group work: giving studentsgreater opportunities to speak

2 2 : T h e a dv a n t ag e s o f gr o u p w or k in t e a c h ing Vo c ab u l a ry

2.2.1: Vocabulary is acquired more easily in groups

Learners involved in group can get help from each other on the meaning ofunfamiliar language, including vocabulary items they do not know Throughnegotiation, learners can continue to get additional information on an unfamiliaritem until they are satisfied that they understand it

Moreover, communicative activities generally provide a meaningful context

within which to encounter new vocabulary Having encountered the new items,learners are likely to use them productively in the activity If this requires learners

to use vocabulary in ways that are not rote repetition of the way the vocabularyappeared in the input to the task, learning will be much greater (Hall, 1992)

2.2.2: Group work promotes learner's responsibility and

Even in a relatively small class of 15 to 20 students, whole-class activityoften gives students a screen to hide behind While other people are involved in theactivity, and they are working hard, excitedly, some pay no attention to the lesson

at all Teacher cannot control all the members in the class One of the mostappropriate solutions to this problem is dividing class into small groups Lazy

students have no chance and no time to relax in small group since all members

have to make equal contribution to the work of groups Each member is involved inthe work or the lesson automatically In the other word, group work promoteslearner's responsibility and autonomy

2.2.3: Group work generates interactive language.

In so-called traditional language classes, teacher talk is dominant Groupwork helps to solve the problem of classes that are too large to offer manyopportunities to speak By one estimate, if just half of the class time were spent ingroup work activity, teacher could increase individual practice time five-fold overwhole-class traditional methodology

Closely related to the quantity of output made possible through group work

is the variety and quality of interactive language With traditional methods,language tends to be restricted to initiation only by the teacher in an artificialsetting where the whole class becomes a group interlocutor Small groups provideopportunities for student initiation, for face-to-face give and take, for practice innegotiation of meaning, for extended conversational exchanges, and for studentadoption of roles that would otherwise be impossible

2 3 : T h e d is a dv a n t ag e s o f gr o u p w or k in t e a c h ing vo c ab u l a ry

2.3.1: Students tend to use their native language

One of the biggest problems in the use of group work is the use of the mothertongue by students in groups It sometimes seems that they are unable or unwilling

to take part in activities in English Because groups where all of the students have acommon native language, it is indeed possible, that students in small groups willcovertly use their native language In fact, this is usually the primary reasonteachers give to shy away from group work

Suggestions to overcome this problem:

1) Make sure that they clearly understand that successful learners consistentlypractice using the target language in face-to-face contexts

2) Appeal to various motivational factors affecting them so that they can see somereal uses for English for their own lives

3) Get the groups to think of themselves as teams and they can try out languagewithout feeling that the whole class is watching and criticizing

2.3.2: Teachers cannot monitor all groups at once.

Let us imagine that there are 12 groups from 45 students who areworking at the same time Obviously, teacher cannot monitor all the groups at thesame time When teacher is explaining for some groups, he cannot know what othergroups are doing, and some students will be out of order Interactive learning,communicative teaching counter with the importance of meaning, purposefullanguage and real communication which in turn must allow the students to improvecreative possibilities The effective teacher will circulate among the groups, listen

to students, offer suggestions and criticism

2.3.3: Students make noise.

It is obvious that there must be a lot of noise made by students working ingroups When whole class are discussing at the same time, a big noise is not

strange However, "Do not be afraid of noise" is the message that communicative

teachers should always be aware of Because if the standard teaching techniqueinvolves the teachers questioning individual students one by one In every lesson,

no individual student will answer more than two or three questions, each lasting afew seconds Effective language teaching means giving the students a chance tospeak Carefully organised "noise" does not mean disorder or that time is beingwasted

2 4 : P r ep a r a t io n a n d o rg a n iz a t io n o f g ro u p s

2.4.1: Preparation.

Before a group activity is introduced, teachers should consider how to makegroup work more effective By doing so, teachers can appreciate the differentdemands of group work Working in groups may also be unfamiliar to students, andthey need to be prepared in advance of the task as far as is reasonably possible.Teachers should therefore consider using part of a lecture to help studentsunderstand the purpose and nature of the group exercise and the different roles thatgroup members can have Ideally, they should be provided with an opportunity to

It is obvious that desks cannot be moved in many classrooms The only way

to form group is to ask alternate rows to turn and face those in the desk behind.This creates groups of four to six

It is usual to have one member of each group acting as a leader or secretary.

This makes class management much easier Before the work beginning, be sure that

students know exactly who their group leader is and the teacher should show

which group to work with As a result, they can begin to work at once withoutwaiting for a nomination While setting up group, the mother tongue may be useful

in the first time or the second time but the students soon learn to recognizeinstructions like:

" First row, turn and face the second; Third row, turn and face the fourth, please now work in groups"

However, the final consideration when arranging the class is that partners

should be changed frequently to make sure that everyone gets an opportunity to

work with and gets to know as many different members of the class as possible.The following plan can be a good advice from the teacher:

Table 1

Table 2:

2 5 : G ro u p w o r k im p le m e n t a t io n in cl a ss r o o m

2.5.1: Selecting appropriate group techniques.

The first step in promoting successful group work is to select an appropriatetask In other words, choose something that lends itself to the group process.Lecture drills, dictations, certain listening tasks, silent reading and a lot of otheractivities are obviously not suitable for small group work

Typical group tasks include:

2.5.2: Planning group work.

Possibly the most common reason for the breakdown of group work is aninadequate introduction and lead-in to the task itself Once teachers have selected

an appropriate type of activity, their plan should include the following seven

"rules" for introducing a group technique:

1 Introduce the technique: The introduction almost always should include a

statement of the ultimate purpose so that students can apply all other directions

to that objective

2 Justify the use of small groups for the technique: Teacher should explain

explicitly why the small group is important for accomplishing the task

3 Modelling the technique: In simple techniques, modelling may not be necessary.

But for a new and complex task, teacher should make sure students know whatthey are supposed to do

A restatement of the purpose.

Rules they must follow

A time frame establishment (you have five minutes to complete the task

Roles assignment to students

5 Divide the class into groups: This statement is not as easy as it sounds In some

cases, teachers can simply number off, 1, 2, 3, 4 and specify which area of theroom to occupy But to ensure participation you may want to preassign groups inorder to account for one or two of the following:

Personality types

Interests

Prior learning experienceLevel of studying

6 Check for clarification: Before students start moving into their groups, check to

make sure they all understand their assignment

7 Set the task in motion: This part should now simply a matter of saying

something like: "OK, get into your groups and start right away in your task".

2.5.3: Monitoring the task.

Teachers' job now becomes one of the Facilitators and Resources Teachers

will be available for help and they may make a suggestion or two here and there tokeep student on task but that students are to carry out the task on their own

A few don'ts:

* Do not sit at teacher's desk and grade papers

* Do not leave the room and take the break

* Do not spend an undue amount of time with one group

* Do not correct students' errors unless asked to do so

Chapter 3:

Suggested group work activities for teaching

3 1 : T e a c h in g a n d le a r n in g v o ca b u la r y s it u a t io n

A t h ig h sc h oo l s in V ie t na m

3.1.1: The Traditional Teaching Method.

Accepting "gifted" schools, books are written in English only and the teachersalso teach students in English The teaching method is applied widely in the class

time is translation method Most parts of the class time, both teachers and

students speak the mother tongue The vocabulary is translated into the mothertongue Teachers teach grammar, structures and explain in the mother tongue Thetext is also translated into the mother tongue after being read several times

have the habit of speaking English They are often confused when expressing theirideas in English.

3.1.2: Almost no communicative activities in teaching

vocabulary

If students want to master English, they must have rich vocabulary stock Butteaching vocabulary is not regarded as an important process in high schools Athigh schools, a lesson is taught for three periods but many things need to bementioned So the teacher only focuses on grammar, structures, especially students

in 12th form that prepares for Graduation and Entrance University examinations.The only thing teacher helps students is teaching grammar so that they can pass the

examinations Vocabulary is ignored or taught inadequately Almost using no

communicative activities.

In Viet Nam, vocabulary is taught mainly through reading Each coursebooks has a list of words with translation Teachers must prepare carefully tomaster these words and students try to memorize these words, unsure about whichmeanings should be remembered The texts seem to be the only mean of providingnew vocabulary As a result, learners forget words easily

Methodologists and linguists, after taking many researches, have come to

conclusion that: teaching vocabulary through communicative activities helps students remember words faster and better, helps students use words frequently and accurately.

Communicative activities can be simple games, role-play, dialogue Somecommunicative activities almost need no preparation, but there are some that

require careful preparation of teacher However, it is worth for teacher's preparation

if the effectiveness of class is increased

Choosing a appropriate communicative activity is necessary because it helpsboth teachers and learners to get closer to the purpose of teaching a foreignlanguage by communicative approach: students can understand and can beunderstood in their communication

3.1.3: Large class:

At present, the number of students is increasing while that of schools standsstill Thus, the classes become bigger with the number of students of class aboutfrom 40 to 60 at each which causes teachers difficulties, they can not pay attention

to each student, they do not know whether students understand or not Sometimes,the classes are noisy and very difficult to persuade the class to use English; teachercannot control the class

Large classes also cause difficulty in teaching vocabulary The final aim of

learning a foreign language is communicative competence In order to establish

this ability, the teacher should give students chances and conditions to learn andpractise vocabulary But in big classes, it is difficult to cover all students, that is ahindrance in teaching-learning process

In order to solve the problem, teachers should find effective ways of teaching.There are many ways and techniques for teaching vocabulary and each teacher hashis own preferred ways and techniques for teaching However, the main aim isteaching students how to use vocabulary effectively in communication especially atpresent when communication approach to teaching and learning is the maintendency

- Class time: 10 -15 minutes

- Preparation time: 10 minutes

- Resources: Three words per student

Procedure:

1 Teacher selects 12 vocabulary items that she would like the students to revise Then divide students into groups of four, distribute three different words from the list to students and give to each student in the group the full list of 20 words.

Ask students not to show their particular words to the others

2 Teacher uses four volunteers from the class, demonstrate how to do the task.Have student A explain, demonstrate, or give an example of the meaning of one

of the three words, without using the given words, students B, C, D must guesswhich word is in the list, then circle the correct word In turn, each studentexplains the meanings of their three words in the same way

3 Upon completion, quickly elicit which of the 20 words were chosen Select somestudents to share their responses

3.2.2: Word matching.

Requirement:

- Aim: practise antonyms and synonyms

- Class time: 10 - 15 minutes

- Preparation time: 10 minutes

- Resources: pair words either synonyms or antonyms.

Procedure:

1 Teacher prepares a list of related words They can be antonyms or synonyms

2 Teacher divides students into groups of 4 Teacher reads half of list Students inthe groups together try to find the rest of list as quickly as possible Therepresentative of each group writes their answers on the broad It is OK if there

is an argument Providing that finally teacher gives the correct answer

Example of lists:

Hot - cold pass - fail ancient - modern Knife -fork sharp - dull sunset - sunrise Wet - dry fast - slow bright - dark

Noisy - quiet clean - dirty cat - mouse

Aunt - uncle right - wrong sell - buy

3.2.3: How is your vocabulary?

Requirements

- Aim: check vocabulary knowledge of students

- Class time: 10 - 15 minutes

- Preparation time: None

- Resources: papers, pens, and blackboard.

Procedure:

1 Divide the students into six groups The size of groups may vary depending onthe total number of the class.

2 Teacher writes 3 vowels, 7 consonants on the board, divides the board into six

equal parts All groups have 2 minutes to write as many words as possible from

the given letters After 2 minutes, representatives of every group write theirwords on the broad Group with largest number of words is the winner of firstround Of course, only words, which are "legal", are accounted

3 In the second round, in their groups, students try to write sentences that use the

words just written on the broad and some other extra words

4 Therefore, the way of deciding the winner is quite different The group that canuse as many words from the list they have written down is the winner of 2ndround, not the group of the largest number of sentences

5 In the third round, in four minutes, students with their groups try to use the

sentences they have got to write a logical paragraph The winner of this round

is the group that can use many given sentences to make a meaningfulparagraph

6 Teacher should have some small rewards for the winner of each round This

will make the atmosphere more exciting

3.2.4: Matching exercises:

Requirements:

- Aim: Learn new words quickly, using resources.

- Class time: 10 minutes.

- Preparation time: 20 minutes.

1 Divide the learners into groups

2 Give them a list of words from the textbook and a list of definitions that need

3.2.5 Let's go shopping.

Requirements:

- Aims: Improve vocabulary for shopping.

Practise verbal skills in a real-life setting

- Class time: 15 minutes.

- Preparation time: 15 minutes.

- Resources: Local daily newspapers with sales, advertisements.

Procedure:

1 Cut out pictures with prices of food items, clothes, and other items for sale.

2 Organize pictures into different folders

3 Distribute the pictures to the students

4 Point to, read and pronounce a few unfamiliar items at the beginning of class