Applying some techniques to teach how to learn Vocabulary of English effectively at Bim Son upper secondary school

Part A- INTRODUCTION
1. Reasons for choosing the research
Vocabulary represents one of most important skills necessary for teaching and learning a foreign language. It is the basis for the development of all the other skills: reading comprehension, listening comprehension, speaking, writing, spelling and pronunciation. Vocabulary is the main tool for the students in their attempt to use English effectively. When confronted with a native English speaker, when watching a movie without subtitle or when listening to a favorite English song, when reading a text or when writing a letter to a friend, we will always need to operate with words. Specially in the entrance exam recently, a number of vocabularies increasingly year by year. However, most of the students are afraid of learning vocabulary because it is very difficult to remember and boring to learn it. 
Recognizing these disadvantages. With all my effort in thinking, exploring, exchanging, discussing with other colleagues in the education sector along with the rubbing practical work experience in teaching English in high school for nearly 19 years, I strongly share some ideas, thoughts through the initiative
Applying some techniques to teach how to learn vocabulary of English effectively at Bim Son upper secondary school.
Hopefully that the results of this research will be on why vocabulary is important, on what makes words difficult, on the main reasons for which students often forget the words they learn and the method of learning vocabulary of English specialized students in Bim Son upper secondary school.
2. The objectives of the study: 
+ Improve the quality of teaching and learning of English at Bim Son upper secondary school.
+ Increase a number of new words for students
+ clarify the difficulty of vocabulary, the efficient strategies used by students in vocabulary learning, and to find what strategies have a positive effect on the students’ vocabulary learning. In addition, research will be done in order to investigate what methods the students with good learning efficiency.
3. Scope of the study
The study focuses on some classes (from 2014 to 2017) at Bim Son upper secondary school.
4. Measures carried out:
In order to get the data for the study, I design a questionnaire and ask the informants to answer. In addition, the data was collected by interviewing students. After students completed the questionnaires, the data will be calculated and analyzed in tables and figure. Along with study the textbooks, read the relevant documents, design to teach vocabulary, practise it on classes, observe, get feedback from students, based on the results achieved, learn by experiences.
Then find the best way to teach new words.
PART B - CON TENT
1. Theoretical basis:
Vocabulary is central to English language teaching because without sufficient vocabulary students cannot understand others or express their own ideas. Wilkins (1972) wrote that “... while without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” (p. 111–112). This point reflects my experience with different languages; even without grammar, with some useful words and expressions, I can often manage to communicate. Lewis (1993) went further to argue, “lexis is the core or heart of language” (p. 89). Particularly as students develop greater fluency and expression in English, it is significant for them to acquire more productive vocabulary knowledge and to develop their own personal vocabulary learning strategies. Students often instinctively recognize the importance of vocabulary to their language learning. As Schmitt (2010) noted, “learners carry around dictionaries and not grammar books” (p. 4). Teaching vocabulary helps students understand and communicate with others in English. Voltaire purportedly said, “Language is very difficult to put into words.” I believe English language students generally would concur, yet learning vocabulary also helps students master English for their purposes.
Vocabulary, as an integral part of a language, plays a crucial part in the language learning process. The primary thing in learning a language is the acquisition of a vocabulary, and practice in using it. Vocabulary is the basic factor necessary for mastering a language. The purpose that we learn second language is for communication. When we learn a language, we need to master four skills, which are listening, reading, speaking and writing. Meanwhile, vocabulary knowledge is fundamental to them. One cannot understand a sentence without knowing what most of the words mean. The lack of vocabulary knowledge affects all the four language skills.
Talking about the importance of vocabulary, the linguist David Wilkins argued that: "without grammar little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed." [6] Indeed, people need to use words in order to express themselves in any language. Most learners, too, acknowledge the importance of vocabulary acquisition. In my experience as a student, I noticed the fact that students usually find it difficult to speak English fluently. We usually consider speaking and writing activities exhausting because we keep on using the same expressions and words and very soon our conversation is abruptly interrupted due to missing words. And the main reason for such communication problems is the lack of vocabulary. Other students are confronted with the problem of forgetting the words immediately after the teacher has elicited their meaning or after they have looked them in the dictionary, and this also a cause of the lack of vocabulary. The more words students learn, the easier they memorize them.
 2. Practical background
Currently, At upper secondary schools, the new English curriculum that requires students to develop all four skills equally is being applied. Vocabulary accounts for 30-40% in the paper test. To ensure proper and adequate teaching as well as to do vocabulary well, teachers need to research, collect and use many forms for practice, conform to the conditions of each school’s facility to be able to raise the level of English for students. 
Before studying this thesis, I often give students some questions to find out differences in learning new words. 
Question 1: Do you have an interest in learning vocabulary? 
 very much B. much C. not so much D. not at all Figure 
Opinions Number Percentage
Very much 2 5%
Much 12 30%
Not so much 18 45% 
Not at all Figure 8 20%
From above table, we can deduce that less students are interested in learning vocabulary (only 5% ) as well as many students do not fell inquisitive in learning vocabulary. There could be many reasons.
First, it is a chore for a mind that they need to remember it so since it is their second language they would prefer not to learn vocabulary instead pushing themselves to learn English directly. Another reason could be that some teachers force their students to learn just the vocabulary rather than making them practice speaking English. Using the previous learnt vocabulary which leads students to loose interest in learning new vocabulary.
Question 2: What are your difficulties in learning vocabulary?
This chart showing the language level of Bim Son students:
 Opinion Number Percentage
Difficult to remember 18 45%
Indistinguishable from adjectives, verbs, adverbs 14 35%
Frequently misses vocabulary 8 20%
From about table, we can deduce that there are many difficulties in learning vocabulary, especially remembering vocabulary problem is popular in students. Also, indistinguishable from adjectives, verbs ,adverbs or miss vocabulary are challenges for learning vocabulary of Bim Son students
Question 3: Please tick the methods you used in English vocabulary learning.
Opinion Number Percentage
Listening and reading 10 25%
Collecting list of words 8 20%
Listening a word in a sentence 14 35%
Reading English books, magazines in spare time 8 20%
Above table shows that the methods Bim Son student used in English vocabulary learning are diversified. It is said that listening a word in a sentence is the most popular methods. However, another thought that listening and reading method or reading English books, magazines in spare time is successful for them On the whole, each student has different methods to learn vocabulary but which method is the most effective? It seems that nobody has detail answer.
The findings showed that the students still faced the problems or difficulties in vocabulary learning. Kinds of difficulties faced by students in vocabulary learning were various. Kinds of difficulties faced by the students were:
First, almost all of the students have difficulties in pronouncing the words
Second, how to write and spell. Third, the different grammatical form of a word known as inflections was one of causes of students’ difficulties in learning vocabulary. In addition, the students found difficulties in choosing the appropriate meaning of the words and also still confuse in using the word based on the context. At last, the students were also still confused when they found words or expressions that were idiomatic. There were some factors that caused students’ difficulties in learning vocabulary. They are
- the written form is different from the spoken form in English
- The number of words that students need to learn is exceedingly large
- the limitations of sources of information about words
- The complexity of word knowledge. Knowing a word involves much more than knowing its dictionary definition
- the cause of lack of understanding of grammatical of the words
- the incorrect pronunciation is often caused by the lack of sound similarity between English and the students native language.[1]
On the way to explore the experience, accumulate materials and learn from colleagues, attend extra training courses. I have applied the combination of modern teaching methods and traditional one in the vocabulary lessons effectively. 
3. The solutions
3.1. Answering the questions “Why learning vocabulary is difficult?”
Learning vocabulary is a very important part of learning a language. The more words you know, the more you will be able to understand what you hear and read; and the better you will be able to say what you want to when speaking or writing. The vocabulary we know can be divided into two groups - passive vocabulary and active vocabulary. Passive vocabulary contains all the words that you understand when you read or listen, but which you do not use (or cannot remember) in your own writing and speaking. Active vocabulary is all the words you understand, plus all the words that you can use yourself. Special problems involved in vocabulary understanding, they can also be understood by the context and the dictionary. Usually the first things you learn about a new English word are what it means and its translation in your own language. But there are other things you need to find out before you can say that you know a word like a native speaker does. For example, you have to learn: how it is spelled, how it is pronounced, how it is inflected (i.e. how it changes if it is a verb, noun or adjective), other grammar information about it, how it collocates (i.e. what other words are often used with it). Learning vocabulary seems to be one of the easiest things about learning a language, but it's also one of the hardest things to do, especially when you have reached a certain level. Learning vocabulary needs practice and time and in our days time is a problem. We can face some difficulties, such as: Deciding which words are worth learning.
There are a lot of words in English compared with many other languages, and it is impossible to know them all - even native speakers frequently meet words they have never seen before in their reading. Another problem can:
Be how to organize our vocabulary:
Most people find that it's useful to organize the vocabulary they write down in some ways, either to break the words/phrases into groups for learning, to show relationships between similar words, or to make it easier to find a particular word. Here are some ways of classifying your vocabulary that you might consider: according to alphabetical order; the order in which you found the words; topics; situations; 'families' of similar word meanings; frequency of occurrence.
Remembering vocabulary:
(Vocabulary learning has largely been construed as a memory problem) seems to be another difficulty for vocabulary learners. One of the biggest problems with vocabulary learning is that what’s ‘learned’ today is often forgotten tomorrow. 
3.2. Some suggestions to help the students improve their vocabulary items.
Learning vocabulary: it must be the most interesting element of learning a language. And perhaps the most controversial. To bring a fantastically useful advice on learning vocabulary in your target language, a bunch of experts, authors, translators were asked the following question: if there were one method for learning vocabulary that you’d recommend to the world, which one would it be? The following replies create a bomb of extremely balanced advice and give the opportunity to judge for yourself how to best go about learning more words in your target language. 
3.2.1. Never learn a single word by itself. [4],[5]
Learn groups of words that “travel” together. For instance, instead of memorizing the word “flock”, memorize the phrase “a flock of sheep”. Instead of remembering the verb “to occur ” remember the phrase “ if any problems occur”. When you remember phrases instead of single words, you ensure that you know how to use the word in at least one sentence. 
3.2.2. There’s just basically no way around memorizing a bunch of words. 
So put the words where you will see them as often as possible: on a wall, in a notebook you carry around, on your computer desktop, etc. That way you can get in more review “reps” and memorize them more easily. 
3.2.3. The next interesting method is learning languages through creative storytelling. [1]
By reading engaging stories (aimed at the student’s level) language learners can begin to build emotional and sensory contexts around new vocabulary. Instead of just studying isolated words by rote, new vocabulary can be memorized quicker and deeper because it is linked to characters, places and relationships, just like in real life. 
3.2.4. Another tip for learning vocabulary is to describe the world around you regularly in the language you’re learning. [5]
This exposes gaps in the vocabulary and gives the opportunities for active recall. For instance, one can try to describe what a man crossing the street is wearing. And then one can ask himself: Do I know the name for all his items of clothing in my target language? Do I know all of the colors? If there’s a woman pushing a pram, do I know the word for “pram” in my foreign language? When one is exposed to something he doesn’t know he needs to write it down and lock it up later. The possibilities for this method are endless. 
3.2.5. Another method is to make the target language relevant (e.g. tag familiar things around one’s home using the target language, which should also include such things as shopping lists etc.). This helps to raise the language above the level of merely a code to something that has relevance to the way you live. 
3.2.6. Embed your new language into your life and into your daily routine, not the other way around. 
Vocabulary varies with the situations in which you find yourself. All you need to do is to find a pattern with which you can repeat your newly acquired words regularly. Vary the situations and ways in which you review your vocabulary, write the words, listen to them, spell them, be creative and play with them. Don’t lock yourself in the room, as learning in such way will be exactly what you don’t want it to be: dull and isolating. Another tip: be aware of yourself and your goals. Don’t limit your studying to preconceived notions or set situations given by somebody else. What do you talk about in your native language? Saying something in your new language will become much easier once you really want to say it. Your way of learning changes with your mood. Develop a sense of what works best for you straight away. [1],[4]
3.2.7. If you’re a visual learner, a great way to improve vocabulary is by reading and writing. For reading, the fastest way to learn is to pick up a bilingual book. As you find words you don’t know, you can simply look at the translation on the facing page. Writing is helpful since it forces one to use the dictionary and look up words one is likely to need again. 
3.2.8. Pat Wyman, the founder and CEO of How To Learn. 
Com states that the best way to recall vocabulary is via pictures with association. Neuroscience says this makes memory stronger and faster. If you connect a picture of the word in your mind with what it reminds you of then when you want to recall the word, you look up and see the image and the connection of what it reminds you of. For instance, a Portuguese word Lago means lake. If you draw a log in a lake, then take a mental snapshot of it and look up during your test to recall the image, connected to the lake, you will recall that lago means lake. 
3.2.9. The founder of Unlimited Spanish, Oscar Pellus, states that the brain loves context.
 This approach to learning is about to learn full phrases instead of just words. Oscar says that it’s easy to create a picture in our minds when we see a phrase because something is happening. The more vivid the image is, the better it will be learned. Also, instead of just being limited to phrases, one can learn words through stories, through texts. Stories are built up of phrases, and therefore they have the advantages as they provide a much richer context, because many things are going on in the story. This way the brain can learn in a more subconscious, natural and deeper way, making it easier to write and speak the target language. 
3.2.10. The last, but not least is home study using language learning software.[4]
 It has become one of the most popular ways of learning a language in the modern day. There are a number of reasons for this, including study – time flexibility, a multi – faceted approach to learning and a far more affordable way to study than simply attending classes or hiring a tutor. The great thing about the newer language learning software platforms is that they utilize the best learning techniques and create an interactive package for the learner. For instance, a teacher can be present through video to motivate and engage as they would in the classroom; audio is provided for on the go learning via digital devices, and reading literature is provided to diversify the experience away from the computer. 
To conclude, there are a number of language learning methods one can employ to speed up the process of learning a new language and enriching the vocabulary. The success of the method is based on a number of factors as age, personality, amount of time one has to spare. What works for one person doesn’t work for another, and therefore it is worth considering each of the methods to determine the method best suited to personal circumstances. 
3.3. Adapting some kinds of exercises through teaching vocabulary 
If students learn new words without practice, they will forget them afterward. Thus, practice make perfect. Realizing that important point, I often give students many kinds of exercises to practise
Firstly, I teach vocabulary cling to the tasks of textbook. With this request form, the students are all passive, under develop thinking language, abuse of "good book" to cope, or students using the old books have answers already, even the teachers are doing on behalf of the students, too.
For example , when teaching the World Cup in textbook 10- Unit 14, I give them some pictures about football or famous people. From those pictures to lead to th