Improving English vocabularies for grade 8th students at Ky Tan secondary school through applying games and using bilingual Sunflower magazine & VOA Special English

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Order
	CONTENTS
Page
1
INTRODUCTION
2
1.1
Rationale
2
1.2
The aim of research
3
1.3
 The object of study
 3
1.4
The methods of study
3
2
CONTENTS
4
2.1
Theoretical background
4
2.2
 Problems emerged before the Study was acted
6
2.3
 Solutions
7
2.4
The result of applying new solutions.
16
3
CONCLUSIONS
17
3.1
Conclusion
17
3.2
Recommendations
18
 REFERENCE MATERIALS
19
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
 Vietnam is on its way to integrate deeper with friends around the world. So learning English - the common language of the world has become urgent need than ever. It is the bridge that connects the world's cultures, brings people closer together. The Ministry of Education and Training implemented the project "Teaching and learning foreign languages ​​in the national education system", in the period 2008 – 2020 is a change for teachers and learners to approach English in the future to meet the authentic demand in the era of integration. 
As a teacher of English, I soon absorb this important role of learning English and take an effort to teach myself and teach students to meet the demand of new approach. 
 	In any foreign language, the role of the vocabulary is very important. We can't understand the language without understanding vocabulary, or through vocabulary units. But that does not mean that you only understand individual lexical units that are independent of each other but we can only master the language through dialectical relationships between vocabulary units. Thus, learning vocabulary and practicing vocabulary skills is a leading factor in the transmission and acquisition of a language in general and English in particular.
In secondary schools, teachers teach students along with other subjects on the basis of equipping the students with the necessary skills and techniques to train the knowledgeable, skillful, dynamic and creative forms for students. This requires teachers not only to pay attention to transferring textbooks knowledge, but also help most students do understand the importance of vocabulary because they are lazy to learn vocabulary or use it. On the other hand, the new knowledge of the language is so far away from the mother tongue, which students feel afraid of learning. Therefore, what the teachers have to do is to make the vocabulary no longer a "problem" for the students. 
After many years teaching English at secondary school, coping with a lot of difficulties that students have in learning vocabulary such as limited vocabulary in reading and writing, spelling mistakes and misunderstandings, I applied some new ways to change the learning attitude and results of students. In this study, I would like to clarify the way I did through the topic " Improving English vocabularies for grade 8th students at Ky Tan secondary school through applying games and using bilingual Sunflower magazine & VOA Special English” 
1.2. The aim of the study
This study aims to investigate some problems that grade 8th students often face up to in studying vocabulary. From this investigation, the writer expects to find out the best solutions to help the 8th form students at Ky Tan secondary school use and remember vocabulary effectively
1.3. The object of study:
 This study is expected to achieve the objectives:
To study of applying some games and using bilingual Sunflower Magazine and VOA Special English to improve vocabulary for students at grade 8th at Ky Tan secondary school 
1.4. The methods of study
 During the study, I used the following methods:
 - Survey and investigation are applied to investigate the quality of students when they learn vocabulary through class activities and tasks in the textbook
 - Observation is applied to observe the activities of students during the time they are included in the vocabulary activities
 - Practice is applied when the teachers organize activities for students to absorb the vocabularies.
 - Analysis, statistics, synthesis, comparation and assessment are applied to assess the progress of students when they approach the vocabulary with new methods
2. CONTENTS
2.1. Theoretical background
 Vocabulary is the most fundamental factor in learning a language. Almost every skill in the language learning process requires learners to have ample and good vocabulary. Wilkin (1972) wrote that “Without grammar, very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed” (p.111-112), which truly proves the significance of vocabulary. Vocabulary is essential and necessary for building up a good command of the language. Without good vocabulary, it is unlikely that learners could use the language correctly and with confidence. It is the first and most fundamental aspect a language learner must master before developing his or her language skills. Good vocabulary is important for passive skills (reading and listening). It enhances learners’ comprehension and understanding of the language, both in literal and figurative sense. Good vocabulary is also important for active skills (writing and speaking). Every English conversation that is marked by some idioms and phrasal verbs helps learners’ expressions becomes clear, interesting and more native-speaker-like. Essays marked by the good use of academic vocabulary make learners’ writing become more formal for important purposes. All in all, vocabulary is the core of language learning. It is important for language comprehension and expression. Moreover, on a more advanced level of language learning, e.g. as a student majoring in English, a fluent and impressive use of vocabulary in examinations can be the standard to distinguish the excellent students from the good ones. Vocabulary could be used as an instrument to measure learners’ language ability as well as their fluency. However, it is not easy to gain vocabulary at all. It is painstaking, demanding lots of efforts. Most language learners have a question “How do they study vocabulary efficiently and effectively?” Everything has its own difficulty and learning vocabulary is no exception. There are some common obstacles that language learners often encounter when they learn vocabulary. The first is retention problem. Vocabulary is hard to learn by heart and easy to forget. Some students said, “Vocabulary just can’t go inside my head” or “Water off the duck’s back”. The second difficulty that students cope with is the inability to use the words that have been learned. Students may find some words confusing. How to use words in correct contexts seems to be a big problem. The difficulty that often crops up very early in students’ learning process is that they are exposed to a vast amount of vocabulary. It is hard to prioritize a suitable range of vocabulary over the rest at certain stages of learning. In order to progress in foreign language learning, students need to be able to understand what they are encountered with the verbal communication that is they need to acquire a certain amount of words. In the very first part of his book on vocabulary, McCarthy (1990-2) wrote “It is the experience of most language teachers that the single, biggest component of any language course is vocabulary. No matter how well the students learn grammar, no matter how successful sounds of language learners are mastered, without words to express the wide ranges of meaning, communication in a language learner just cannot happen in any meaningful way”.
 This claim might be an overestimate of the role of vocabulary, and many language teachers can argue that an appropriate way of communication is far more important than words, or in other words, HOW we say something is more important than WHAT we say. However, one’s communication ability in general depends a lot on his/her vocabulary size. Because words are the stools we use to thinks, to express ideas and feelings and to learn about the world, to communicate about something very concrete to something very abstract. 
 The support for the important role of vocabulary can be found in works of nation and Coady (1997), Nassaji (2003) and Alexander (2000). In her book “ Understanding Vocabulary” (2000) Alexander wrote: “Comprehension improves when you know what the words mean”. And “The words are currency of communication. A robust vocabulary improves all areas of communication – listening, speaking, reading and writing”. These all show that the success of the student in becoming proficient in any language depend in part on the extent and richness of his/her vocabulary, so vocabulary should be taught on well-planned and regular basis. 
 During the teaching process, knowledge is the most important, but we should pay attention to the methods of teaching as well. That helps students get knowledge easier, more interested in studying. When teaching a language, especially English language, the teacher needs to do the interviews with the students who come in contact, which is the most accurate and the most complex. The first step that is to establish a language is to base on vocabulary and structures.
          - To help students remember vocabulary and use structures is very important. To do this well, the teacher needs to be creative, uses the new methods in the lessons effectively.
   - The new textbook has many advantages but also requires students to learn actively and acquire knowledge and lessons that are highly communicative. That requires them to use better listening and speaking skills. To help students, especially those who are shy, afraid of communicating with their friends, in this study, I show how to play some games and use bilingual Sunflower magazine & VOA special English to improve vocabulary and structure practice in teaching English in grade 8.
2.2. Problems emerged before the Study was acted
 During the practical teaching process at Ky Tan Secondary School, I 
realize that my students face up to many typical difficulties. Most of them are ethnic minorities who come from the villages surrounding the school. Their parents are farmers. Their main work is doing farming. Some of them don’t take care of their children. Besides that, the students have not had the way of truly effective learning. Some students are often distracted, they do not concentrate on their study. Some of them do not have time to study at home because they have to help their parents with chores. On the other hand, most of the students don’t have the habit of learning English independently and tend to depend on the textbook with the available answers. And the students in remote areas like Ky Tan secondary school students are quite reserved. They are afraid of speaking English to each other after school. They also have few chances to communicate in English as well. This is a problem in learning English in general. Besides that, the students’ learning conditions are limited, they have no dictionaries, reference books or video tape machines that help support skills of listening, speaking, practice more. School has difficulties in facilities such as cassettes, pictures and functional room. In this school year, I have thought about changing how to help students remember vocabulary effectively and it has brought positive results.
 To have accurate basis for determining innovative solutions, find out the way to solve the problem, from the beginning of school year 2017 – 2018, I conducted a survey for students in grade 8 with three types of exercise: Choose the best answer, Fill in the gaps with suitable words from the passage; True/ False statements and obtained the following results: 
Grade
Total
Good
Fair
Medium
Weak
Poor
Amount
%
Amount
%
Amount
%
Amount
%
Amount
%
8
55
3
5,4
13
23,6
26
47,3
10
18,2
3
5,4
 By the statistical results showed that the percentage of weak students are still quite high. This indicates their reading skills are limited, so the essential problem is how to train reading skills for students to be effective, I have proposed solutions and used following methods to perform
2.3. Solutions
2.3.1. Applying games and activities to help students improve vocabulary easily.
 Teaching vocabulary helps students understand, memorise and use words appropreately in their specific contexts. Students at secondary school lever still learn chunks of English which combine vocabulary and grammatical patterns in an unanalysed way. Therefore, it is crucial to give students plenty of time to practise, memorise, recycle and extend their vocabulary and grammar in meaningful contexts. Regular recycling of vocabulary helps students meet the same words embedded in different contexts and activities again and again. When teaching vocabulary, it is important to help students recognise, practise and memorise vocabulary. These can be done by using visual aids, by allowing students to listen and repeat the words, by explain their meaning, using definitions, pictures, flashcards and translation if necessary, and finally, getting students to practise, using the word with a range of spoken or written activities which can be done individually or in pairs.
 To make students memorise vocabulary effectively, I often celebrate the games for students to attend. It helps students not only practise attentively but also relax. Here are the games and activities I usually use:
 + Bingo
+ Matching
 + Chaingame
+ Simon says
 + Hangman
+ Word square
 + Jumbled words
+ Slap the board
 + Lucky number
+ Networks
 + Jumbled letters
+ Survey
 + Noughts and crosses
+ Brainstorming
 + Rub out and remember
+ Shark attact
 + Guessing games
+ Substitution drill.
 Slap the board :
 After teaching vocabulary, teacher writes the words on the board, ask two students go to the board, stand in the same distance in front of the board. Ask another student to say the word aloud for two people slap the words. Who points more words or faster is the winner.
 Example: In "Unit 1- Tiếng Anh 8" .To help students memorize the words better, I can write these words on the board for student to practise. 
 sociable
orphanage
 character
reserved
 volunteer
humorous
annoy
b) Who's better: 
 Example 1: After finishing unit 1 (grade 8). I can give a game that helps students to check how they remember "adjectives"
 Divide the class into two groups. If one person in group 1 says a "long adjective", one person in the other group has to say a 'short adjective "The group that can't give out any words or wrong words will lose. 
Ex: I expensive exciting .......
 II short tall
Games "Networks / brainstorming" to help students brainstorm, think of activities or factors that teachers provide
 Example1. In Unit 8 - Getting started- listen and read (grade 8). To help students remember vocabulary about “country life and city life”. I divide the class into two groups. Ask them to brainstorm about the differences between country life and city life. Tell them that they will have five minutes to prepare on an extra board, when the time is over they will have to show their preperation. Which group has more correct words will win.
 Noisy/busy	modern
Life in the city
 kinds of goods
 entertainments
 buildings traffic jam	
Life in the country
 friendly	 peaceful
fresh air	quiet
 simple	beautiful views
Example 2:
 In Unit 3- At home (grade 8). To help students remember vocabulary about rooms in houses and things in the house. I divide the class into four groups. Ask them to brainstorm about the types of house, rooms in the house, things in the rooms. Tell them that they will have five minutes to prepare on an extra board, when the time is over they will have to show their preparation which group has more correct words will win.
	bed	 TV	sofa
 living room
 pillow bedroom
 Rooms in the house 	kitchen
 table 
 	diningroom bathroom sink
Car- racing :
With this game, the teacher can do on the table for those who have three straight lines to create two parallel tracks and the track is divided into equal rectangular boxes, depending on the time allowed, many more guys can race different.
For example:
Racer1 on
over river
 ten take
Racer 2 to
never rest
 rat no
 First, Teacher gives two words eg. Racer 1write "on", Racer 2 write "to" then if team 1 goes first they have to find the word that starts with the last letter of the competitor’s word .Opposite, team 2 have to find the word that starts with the last letter of team 1's words. From example above, "never" into the next cell over from her as the "on" have the last word is "N", similar to turn one away from the record "over" for example (to-over), turn 2 go 'rest' (over- rest), turn 1 go "river" (never - river) role, in turn ...... Players will form two thickener chains, including the mix of jointed-tail (on-never - river - rat - take .....), the race will end when the racers could not find a record of more or false from. At the beginning, teachers can give students the use, then enhanced by the use of prescribed only verbs, nouns, adjectives ... or unlimited time to think. Many other skilled racers said "forced car" that is used as the hard tails: x, y, u .... or just use a tail to force opponents to competitive. Teacher may be the referee, who counts the point and divides the class into two teams to play together
Pelmanism
 This game helps students to review vocabulary.
 Example: In Unit 7 – My neighborhood (grade 8). Review the form of regular and irregular verbs of Present perfect tense .I prepare some postcards about regular and irregular verbs of past participle, divide the class into two groups then ask them in turn to take the cards which have infinitive and past participle form of the verbs that teacher says. When time is over, which group takes more correct pairs of words, they win.
 Ex: send -> sent play -> played
 see -> seen buy -> bought
 take -> taken think -> thought
 ..................
 After playing this game, Teacher can check the understanding about the use of verbs by giving an exercise, ask students from two teams to use the correct form of the verbs above to complete the the sentences. 
 Ex: 1. I ................a letter to my friend since last week
 2. We usually ........badminton after school.
 3. He ..............his parents for a year.
 4. My father ........... me to the zoo one a week
 5. Duong . a new house for a month
f) Matching.
 Example 1: In Unit 13 (grade 8). To help students remember some phrases they've learnt, the teacher holds this game.Teacher gives two columns, column A has verbs and column B has nouns or phrases, then ask students to match the verbs in column A with suitable nouns in column B. Remember one verb can go with more than one noun. 
 A B
 cook water
 wash fire
 fetch rice
 make flowers
 arrange clothes
 Review words: 
 Example 1: In Unit 10 (grade 8). Teacher divides the class into 4 groups. The teacher gives the rules of the game: Group 1 gives a word, the other groups have to give out the other forms of that word (eg, noun, a verb, an adjective ......) the group that gives more forms of the words will win.
 Eg: Group 1: 
 Group 2: historic/ historical/ historian
 ..................
 To help students use the word form correctly, I give an exercise and ask groups to complete with the correct form of the words. The group which completes faster and correct more will win.
 Eg: 1 The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is an ......... of this famous city.
 (ICONIC)
 2. Big Ben is a major monument in London which ........... the United Kingdom. (SYMBOL)
 3.New Zealand is famous for the ...............beauty of its mountains and forests. (SCENERY)
2.3.2. Using Bilingual Sunflower magazine to improve based–on-topic vocabularies 
This is very exciting and effective activities that help student approach the vocabularies based on the topic that they absorb in each Unit.
Sunflower magazine is a kind of bilingual magazine that help readers to improve vocab