AN INVESTIGATION INTO SOME TECHNIQUES USED TO TEACH VOCABULARY 6TH GRADERS AT VIET ANH SCHOOL submitted as the final paper for academic writing

Regarding speaking and writing skills, lexical items are supposed to be the productive kind of vocabulary in English.. However, there still exist some problems from both learners and tea

BINH DUONG PROVINCIAL PEOPLE’S COMMITTEE

THU DAU MOT UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN HUYNH MAI

AN INVESTIGATION INTO SOME TECHNIQUES USED TO TEACH

Submitted as the Final Paper for Academic Writing

MAJOR: ENGLISH LANGUAGE MAJOR CODE: CH19AV02

BINH DUONG PROVINCE - 08/2020

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Problem identification 1

1.1 The importance of vocabulary in learning English: 1

1.2 The reality of teaching and learning English at Viet Anh School 2

1 Thesis statement 2

2 Research questions 2

3 Significance of the study 3

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1 Definitions 4

1.1 Vocabulary 4

1.2 Teaching techniques 4

1.3 Vocabulary teaching techniques 4

2 Related literature 5

2.1 The relationship between teaching approaches, methods, strategies and techniques 5

2.2 Several methods of teaching vocabulary: 6

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY 8

1 Population 8

2 Instrument 8 REFERENCES

APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRES FOR TEACHERS

APPENDIX 2: BẢNG KHẢO SÁT CHO GIÁO VIÊN

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1 Problem identification

1.1 The importance of vocabulary in learning English

It is reasonable to assume that vocabulary plays a vital role in English learning process of each learner Lewis (1993) once stated that “ lexis is the core or heart of language” First, lexical items help learners develop four crucial skills of English: reading, listening, speaking and writing Obviously, these important language skills all require an identical material that is a wide variety of English vocabulary items In terms

of reading and listening skills, vocabulary is considered as the basic foundation of comprehension that assists learners develop awareness and firmly grasp the main viewpoints and contents of spoken and written texts such as television programs, journals, articles, works of literature,etc Regarding speaking and writing skills, lexical items are supposed to be the productive kind of vocabulary in English In other words, learners equiped themselves with the large number of common words to be able to transmit on their own the opinions and thoughts to other people through speaking and writing Second, vocabulary is also mainly used as an essential tool to help people from all over the world communicate with one another in spite of their language barrier The exploitation of vocabulary size can support learners in developing critical thinking, expressing their ideas and emotions It is strongly believed that vocabulary is much more important than grammar as learners are not able to exchange information and interact with other people without using lexical items For instance, if you say to foreigners a sentence with incorrect grammar like this “ police station where?”, they will even understand thay you would like to ask the way to the police station Thus, Wilkins (1972) proclaimed that “ without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” Indeed, vocabulary is an indispensible component in English language learning

1.2 The reality of teaching and learning English at Viet Anh School

Viet Anh School including kindergarten, primary school and high school was established in March 2008 With the primary aim is to create and supply students with a friendly, active and effective educational environment, all of the staff and teachers at Viet Anh School have always made efforts to find out and apply the best methods to teach learners from different levels Especially, the school has been attaching very great importance to English teaching and learning programme In particular, all students of this school have chances to approach and learn with foreign and Vietnamese teachers However, there still exist some problems from both learners and teachers in learning and teaching English lexical items

Basing on the observation and teaching experience at Viet Anh School,the author realize that students in 6th grade frequently encounter a lot of various difficulties during their learning process Firstly, a large number of sixth graders do not memorize or acquire the vocabulary that they have learned One of the obvious illustration of this are the bad results of their weekly tests Secondly, most students in 6th classes usually have troubles

in practicing and improving four English skills In particular, they find it hard to read, write, listen and communicate in English due to a lack of necessary vocaabulary

1 Thesis statement

Due to the above-mentioned problems, the researcher decide to make an investigation into some techniques used to teach English vocabulary for 6th graders at Viet Anh School The study is conducted to find out (1) some vocabulary-teaching techniques used most by teachers, (2) several difficulties when teachers teach vocabulary for learners and (3) and suggestions to overcome the problems

2 Research questions

(1) What techniques are used to teach vocabulary effectively for 6th graders?

(2) What are some difficulties in teaching vocabulary for 6th graders?

(3) What suggestions can be offered to overcome difficulties in teaching vocabulary for 6th graders?

3 Significance of the study

The study is conducted as an investigation into some techniques used to teach vocabulary for students in graded 6 Furthermore, the author of the study also points out some difficulties in presenting new lexical items and offer several suggestions to overcome these problems Thus, the teachers who are in charge of teaching English for 6th graders can make use of this study as useful teaching material or reference to have a deeper understanding about the vocabulary-teaching process

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Definitions

1.1 Vocabulary

Vocabulary, as defined by Kamil and Hiebert (2005,2), is “the knowledge of meanings of words” which is concerned with at least two main forms: oral and print Vocabulary are defined as a term which deals with meanings, word uses, word formation and word grammar.(Harmer, 1991,158)

According to Hatch and Brown (1995), there are two kinds of vocabulary which includes receptive and productive vocabulary

1.2 Teaching techniques

The Academia website defines teaching techniques as the unique ways of each different teacher to carry out a particular task in the teaching process

1.3 Vocabulary teaching techniques

According to Brewster, Ellis and Girard (1992), there are some techniques to teach vocabulary for learners

1.3.1 Using objects

Using objects is a teaching technique in which pictures, real objects and demenstration are used to help learners memorize words better Thus, it is suitable for presenting new lexical items to beginners and young leaners.(Grain & Redman,1986)

1.3.2 Using games

Games may be used as instrument in teaaching and learning languages (Azimov & Shchukin, 2009) According to Hadfield (1999), there two types of language-teaching games including linguistic and communicative games Particularly, linguistic games concentrate on the accuracy of words while communicative one focus on the ability of exchanging information or ideas of the speakers

1.3.3 Using synonyms or antonyms

Using synonyms or antonyms may be defined as a vocabulary-teaching technique in which semantic meanings of words can be presented clearly by other synonyms or antonyms Moreover, learning vocabulary via synonyms or antonyms offer learners the chance to compare ansd contrast new words and their collocations (Martin, 1984)

1.3.4 Using music

The Dictionary.com defines music as “an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color” (http://Dictionary.com) in which vocabulary is transmitted to students easily and smoothly Learning languages through music provides learners with motivation, positive atmosphere, cultural, historical and linguistic knowledge.( Kuśnierek, 2016)

2 Related literature

2.1 The relationship between teaching approaches, methods, strategies and

techniques

The website Educational Research Techniques

between teaching approaches, teaching methods, teaching strategies and teaching techniques

Teaching approaches are defined as theories about language and how it can be learned The cognitive, behaviorist and constructivist appraoches are some good illustrations of this term

Teaching methods may be defined as the application of teaching appraoches in specific context of language teaching For instance, some teaching methods are The Grammar – Translation Method, The Communicative Method, Total Physical Response Method, etc

Teaching strategies can be defined as a plan of teaching activities designed to achieve the specific goals in teaching process

The above-mentioned definitions of four terms related to teaching process depict the relationship between them “Teaching approaches provide a basis for the development of teaching methods, teaching strategies also evolve to define the components of each

teaching method and the teaching techniques provide the unique ways of going about a strategy.” ((http://academia.edu)

2.2 Several methods of teaching vocabulary:

2.2.1 Using visual aids:

It is thought that using visual aids is one of the most effective techniques to teach lexical items for language learners According to Holden (1980), visual aids can become

an useful device in every phase of teaching process including presentation, practice and production Visual aids in classroom consist of a multitude of diversified types which vary from pictures, video clips, flashcards, real objects to handouts, posters, graphs,ect Teachers usually depend on the topic of vocabulary sets and learners’ characteristics to make decisions to flexibly integrate two or more different forms of visual aids in teaching and organising practice tasks Furthermore, taking advantage of the images can help learners swiftly visualise the concepts in lexical items, which makes them understand new vocabulary clearly without translating them into their mother tongue With this kind

of techniques, teachers are able to exploit students’ senses of sound and sight to make connecction between the images and texts to facilitate their vocabulary memorization

2.2.2 Using gestures:

Another helpful vocabulary – teaching method that is widely used by the large number of teachers is utilizing gestures, facial expressions and miming Participating in this kind of teaching techniques, learners are required to combine lexical items with their body movements so as to support their words acquisition According to the Lexical Approach developed by Michael Lewis (1993), it is better for very young learners to react to teachers’instructions and model of vocabulary by non-verbal activities Additionally, the utilization of gestures can motivate all students to engage in class activities during the lesson, which also boosts their learning process actively In fact, this way of teaching and learning does not put children under the pressure of memorizing the pronunnciation and spelling of words as they just need to follow teachers’instructions and try to imitate their gestures This benefit of the technique is obviously proved in one of the most well-known teaching methods called Total Physical Response written by James

Asher (1977) He stated that using body movements to follow the guidelines and gestures

of teachers is the fastest and simplest way to comprehend vocabulary in another different language

2.2.3 Using contexts:

According to an American psychologist and psychometrician- Robert J Sternberg (1983), providing specific vocabulary attached to contexts is the most relatively effective method in teaching English words for learners During the English teaching and learning process, there are some words that cannot be presented directly by visual aids or gestures since these kinds of words do not contain specific meaning, which sometimes confuses a large number of students Hence, teachers supply students with several contexts which comprise the target vocabulary items Some typical genres of contexts can be dialogues, stories, passages or just simply imperative sentences which are carefully designed to be suitable with the acquired words Exploiting various contexts in learning, learners cannot only deepen lexicon comprehension but also understand the forms in which words are applied into practical sentences

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

1 Population

There are totally 18 teachers invited to become the participants in the survey

The proportion of Vietnamese and foreign teachers joining the questionnaire is similar with 50% as all of the students in grade 6 at Viet Anh School are given opportunity to study with a Vietnamese teacher and a native one Because the study focuses on vocabulary-teaching techniques used for 6th graders, all the participants are teachers who take responsibility to teach grade 6 classes Thus, basing on real teaching experience, they can provide reliable and essential data for the study

2 Instrument

Questionnaires are utilized as the principal instrument to collect the essential data and opinions With the forms of closed-ended and open-ended questions, the participants can offer their viewpoints, difficulties and suggestions In particular, Question 1,2 and 3 requires the participants to choose vocabulary teaching techniques they used; Question 4 asks about some difficulties they usually encounter in teaching new words; Question 5 orders them to choose the suggested solutions they use to overcome difficulties and Question 6 is for other problems and suggestions offered by themselves

Asher, J J (1977) Learning another language through actions: The complete teacher's guidebook

Azimov, E G., & Shchukin, A N (2009) New Dictionary of methodological terms and

concepts (the theory and practice of language teaching) M.: IKAR, 448.

Brewster, J., Ellis, G., & Girard, D (1992) The primary English teacher's guide Penguin

English

Grain, R., & Redman, S (1986) Working With Words: A Guide to Teach and Learn

Vocabulary Melbourne Cambridge University pres.

Hadfield, J (1999) Intermediate vocabulary games: a collection of vocabulary games

and activities for intermediate students of English.[Contains photocopiable material].

Pearson Longman

Harmer, J (1991) The Practice of English Language Teaching Harmer J.–Harlow

Hatch, E., & Brown, C (1995) Vocabulary, semantics, and language education.

Cambridge University Press

Kuśnierek, A (2016) The role of music and songs in teaching English vocabulary to

students World Scientific News, 1(43), 1-55.

Lewis, M (1993) The lexical approach (Vol 1, p 993) Hove: Language teaching

publications

Longman Holden, S (1980) Visual Aids for Classroom Interaction Modern English

Publications.

Martin, M (1984) Advanced vocabulary teaching: The problem of synonyms The

Modern Language Journal, 68(2), 130-137.

Sternberg, R J., Powell, J S., & Kaye, D B (1983) Teaching vocabulary-building

skills: A contextual approach Classroom computers and cognitive science, 121-143 Wilkins, D A (1972) Linguistics in language teaching E Arnold, 1973.