New ways in teaching and learning english vocabulary that will get students engaged

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HOÁ 
TRƯỜNG THPT LƯƠNG ĐẮC BẰNG
SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM
NEW WAYS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY THAT WILL GET 
STUDENTS ENGAGED.
 Người thực hiện: Hoàng Thị Hiền
 Chức vụ: Giáo viên
 Đơn vị công tác: Trường THPT Lương Đắc Bằng
 SKKN thuộc lĩnh vực (môn): Tiếng Anh
THANH HOÁ NĂM 2017
TABLE CONTENT
Contents
Page
A. INTRODUCTION
	I. Resons for choosing the topic
 	II. Aims of the study
	III. Scope and research methodology
B. MAIN CONTENT
	I. Theoretical backgroud
	II. Practical background
	III. Methods for implementation
C. RESULT AFTER APPLYING THE STUDY
D. CONCLUSION
E. REFERENCE BOOKS
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A. INTRODUCTION
I. REASONS FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC. 
As we advance further into the 21st century, the century of modern civilization and science information technology, English is widely used as an international language and it is considered the second language of all countries in the world. Thanks to the English that people around the world know and understand each other. English is one of the languages that have rich vocabulary, so students and people who use it do not encounter difficulties. 
Vocabulary is one of the most important parts of language learning, in any case: listening, speaking, reading or writing we also need a relatively large vocabulary. Unlike the learning of grammar, which is essentially a rule based system, vocabulary knowledge is largely a question of accumulating individual items. In fact, students are "afraid" to learn new words, the use of words is limited: misspelling, using the word incorrect, inconsistent with context. Most of the students have a habit of memorizing the meaning of words. Some children just rote to deal with teacher or to volunteer to go to the board.
 All the above is because the students do not find themselves appropriate methods to learn vocabulary. As a teacher of English in Luong Dac Bang upper-secondary school in recent years, I fully understand and sympathize with the difficulties my students often encounter in the learning of English vocabulary. Somehow I want to help them overcome these difficulties. That is why I choose this topic.
I have applied these methods in teaching and learning English at my school, especially for 11th grade students and got satisfactory results. I, therefore, would like to share my own experience in this study.
II. AIMS OF THE STUDY.
To suggest some ways in teaching and learning English vocabulary.
III. SCOPE AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.
- Scope: Researching in the process of teaching English at Luong Dac Bang high school.
- Research methodology: making survey, reading reference books, applying in teaching, observing and drawing out experiences.
B. MAIN CONTENT
I. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
Principles of learning and teaching vocabulary:
However many theories about vocabulary learning process were written, it still remains the matter of memory. Thus, there are several general principles for successful teaching, which are valid for any method. According to Wallace, 1988 the principles are: 
aim – what is to be taught, which words, how many.
need – target vocabulary should respond students’ real needs and interests
frequent exposure and repetition.
meaningful presentation – clear and unambiguous denotation or reference should be assured.
Learning vocabulary is a complex process. The students’ aim to be reached in learning vocabulary process is primarily their ability to recall the word at will and to recognize it in its spoken and written form. Generally, knowing a word involves knowing its form and its meaning at the basic level. In deeper aspects it means the abilities to know its (Harmer 1993):
Meaning, i.e. relate the word to an appropriate object or context.
Usage, i.e. knowledge of its collocations, metaphors and idioms, as well as style and register (the appropriate level of formality), to be aware of any connotations and associations the word might have.
Word formation, i.e. ability to spell and pronounce the word correctly, to know any derivations (acceptable prefixes and suffixes).
Grammar, i.e. to use it in the appropriate grammatical form.
II. PRACTICAL BACKGROUND
1. The views of teachers and students.
Students:
The majority of students when are asked whether they enjoy learning English or not? The answer is yes, however, the big problem that they often meet is how to learn vocabulary effectively. Because they find that learning English vocabulary is difficult and takes more time to remember, so most students are lazy and afraid to learn.
Teachers:
Most teachers are subjective and less attentive to explore how students learn the vocabulary, the majority of teachers only briefly examine students through their reading or writing the words. This leads to a remain problem, students only learn the vocabulary to cope with the situations.
III. METHODS FOR IMPLEMENTATION 
1. Using drawing to visualize, understand and picture vocabulary: 
Drawing pictures is a brain compatible aid to learning new vocabulary. In foreign language classes, the picture can represent both the meaning and the pronunciation. 
Students can create their own set of pictorial vocabulary words or cards. When teaching new vocabulary, I always tell students to draw what comes to their mind about the given word (anything that will be helpful for them to remember the word) on the cards. Students are encouraged to keep their cards handy in a purse or pocket, so that they can review them as they wait for a bus or stand in line at the supermarket, or wait for a friend to show up for an appointment. This method is easy to study. Students can either drawing or learning, which helps them understand and inculcate the words in their mind longer. 
Example: (APPENDIX 1)
2. Applying vocabulary games:
Children, and adults, love to play games. After all the day’s planned lessons have been completed, it is not uncommon to have a few minutes to spare before the bell rings. Or, sometimes we need to divide up a long lesson with a quick, energetic break. I often use these time slots to invigorate my students and enhance their vocabulary comprehension with mini games. Games are not only entertaining, they can also be highly educational. Vocabulary games make class time a little more exciting. We can use them to review the current unit’s words or previously learned words, but keep in mind that games also make great rewards for when our students do well in class. 
2.1. Simple list
a. The rules: Divide students into two or four teams. Give each team one minute to list as many words as possible from the current unit on a piece of paper. The team with the most words wins.
b. Materials Needed:
Blank papers
Pens
2.2. Bingo
a. The rules:
- Teacher draws a box on the board and asks students to copy.
- Teacher asks students to rewrite six new words they have learnt in the box.
Example: (APPENDIX 2)
- Teacher tells students that he/ she will say some words.
- If students hear the word, they cross it out. 
- When students cross out all six words, shout “bingo”. Who says “bingo” first will be the winner.
b. Materials Needed:
Blank papers, or bingo sheets with a 4×4 grid.
Pens
* Note: - This activities can be used to check and revise the new words you have introduced during the week.
- There are some fun variations to Word Bingo. 
*Picture Bingo: Use pictures on the Bingo card and call out the words that relate.
*Synonym Bingo: Get those brains working by giving students a word that means the same thing as a word on their card.
*Antonym Bingo: This is just as it sounds. Call out the antonyms of words on their cards and see how many students get it.
3. Learning through topics:
With this method, students can systematize the words they have learned,
consolidate and remember the words deeper and longer.
Categories game: 
Students will beg to play this game once they get the hang of it! It’s a great way to fill up the last few minutes of class, too.
- Teacher has students draw four columns on their paper and write a category at the top of each column. We should choose categories that fit what students have been studying in class. (APPENDIX 3)
- Teacher chooses a random letter and writes it on the board. Give students enough time to write down a word for each category that starts with that letter. We can repeat with new letters as many times as we like.
* Note: Teacher may give students a set of all words on small separate sheets of paper for each student.	
4. Learning word families: 
A word family is the base form of a word plus its inflected forms and derived forms made from affixes. In the English language, inflectional affixes include third person -s, -ed, -ing, plural -s, possessive -s, comparative -er and superlative -est. Derivational affixes include -able, -er, -ish, -less, -ly, -ness, -th, -y, non-, un-, -al, -ation, -ess, -ful, -ism, -ist, -ity, -ize, -ment, in- . The idea is that a base word and its
inflected forms support the same core meaning, and can be considered learned words if a learner knows both the base word and the affix. 
Learning word families helps beginning learners to analyze and decode words. As learners know some of the basic word building patterns of English, particularly plural, past tense, present tense, stem + ing, stem + ed, possessive, it is more sensible to count word families than to count word types. 
For example: 
Volunteer	Agree	Excitement
 	Volunteers	Agreed	Excite
 	Volunteered	Agrees	Excited
Volunteering	Agreeing	Exciting
Voluntary	Agreement	Exciter
Voluntarily	Disagree	Excitedly
Voluntarism	Disagreeable 
UNIT 4: VOLUNTEER WORK, PART A: READING (English 11)
Task 1. The word volunteer appears in the passage in different parts of speech. Use an appopriate form of the word volunteer to complete ech of the following sentences.
Teacher elicits different parts of speech of the word “volunteer” and writes these words on the board.
Instructs students to read through the sentences provided in the task to identify the part of speech of the word to fill in each blank.
Reminds students to pay attention to the word preceding and following the blank to fill in the right form of the word.
When she retired, she did a lot of ... service for the Red Cross.
She was not fired. She left the company .. .
She needs some .. to cleen up the kitchen.
Last month the company  to donate fifty trucks to help the flooded areas.
Answer keys: 1. voluntary	 2. voluntarily	3. volunteers 
4. volunteered
Furthermore, an understanding of word families allows either the form or the meaning of unfamiliar words to be guessed with some confidence. For example, students can guess that someone using a skate-board is a skate-boarder. It is easy to remember.
5. Learning collocations:
Collocations are combinations of words that are commonly used together like absolutely fantastic, educational development, object to, give up, the rich and famous, at once, in a minute, the United States of America.
Collocation forms:
adj + noun
verb + noun
noun + verb
adv + adj
verb + adverb/ prepositional phrase
noun + noun
phrasal verbs
The best way to learn English collocations is to find the most frequently used words in the English language, write these collocations (they should be devided into topics so that it is easy to remember) on notebooks and study the most frequently used collocations with those words. 
Learning collocations helps students use the language fluently, and they are easy to identify and understand the exact meaning of the word in different concrete context. 
For example:
UNIT 10: NATURE IN DANGER, PART A: READING (English 11)
Read the passage and complete the following table.
The human race is only once small species in the living world. Many other species exist on this planet. However, human beings have a great influence on the rest of the world. They are changing the environment by building cities and villages where forests once stood. They are affecting the water supply by using water for industry and agriculture. They are changing weather conditions by cutting down trees in the forests. And they are destroying the air by adding pollutants to it.
It can be said that human beings are changing the invironment in all respects through their actions and by their habits. This has resulted in two serious consequences. The first is that many kinds of rare animals are killed. The second is that the environment where these animals are living is badly destroyed. As a result, the number of rare animals is decreasing so rapidly that they are in danger of becoming extinct.
Topic: Nature In Danger
Line
Collocations
Meaning
Example
1
human race
(noun + noun)
loài người
The human race is only once small species in the living world.
6. Miming: 
Especially for actions, we can act out a word to demonstrate its meaning. For example, when teaching the words blow, laugh, smile, cough, pain, have a headache/ toothache, kick or shoot, jump, etc. 
To check that students understand the words correctly, I often write the words on cards and asks some students to act out in front of the class, the other students have to say the word. This engages students in their learning.
7. Using pictures. 
Using appropriate photographs, prints, pictures or paintings to introduce the new words is one of the meaningful way that helps students understand and remember the words quickly. 
For example: (APPENDIX 4)
8. Providing synonyms and antonyms.
Students can explore and recall the words they have learned before by giving the synonyms and antonyms of the words.
In the class, the teacher or one student of each group gives a word or phrases and asks the other students to give their synonyms or antonyms. This activity can be conducted as a game with two groups of students. The winner should be awarded prizes, which certainly encourages students. 
At home, students will rewrite the words they have learnt in the class on their vocabulary notebooks. This method is the useful way to inculcate the words.
For example: 
UNIT 1: FRIENDSHIP, English 11.
- Teacher asks students to work in pairs and do the Task.
Match each word with the best synonyms.
1. __________ affair 	a. honest	
2. __________ constancy 	b. busines	
	3. __________ pursuit 	c. gossip
4. __________ rumour 	d. hobby, pastime
5. __________ sincere 	e.fidelity 
Key: 	1b	2e	3d	4c	5a
9. Learning logically, beginning with the last letter of the previous word. 
In the class, students are guided to make circles (6 - 8 members each). Students will play three or four minutes per round. The teacher will give the key word and the members of each group in turns will give the word that begins with the last letter of the previous word. The students who cannot give the answer in their turn will have to leave the circle. The group with most members left wins. (Students can do this activity in 15- Minute Class Meeting everyday. It is really exciting). At home, students are advised to write the list of the words again on their notebooks, and teacher will collect the books at weekends for checking. This method helps students systematize the words they have learned, so they would remember the words easily.
For example: 
scream – memorable – enthusiasm – mutual – lift - tension – network.. 10. Improving vocabulary by reading: 
This method helps learners practise and expand their vocabulary, because “practice makes perfect” and the more learners read, the more words they will see, and the more they will understand and remember.
C. RESULT AFTER APPLYING THE STUDY
 After a year applying methods of teaching and learning English vocabulary at Luong Dac Bang high school, I have got some satisfactory results. Most of my students have become more interested in learning English vocabulary and of course their ability to use English in communication has been improved step by step. Moreover, their learning results in English subject has got better. (as detailed in the following tables) 
 - At the beginning of the school year: 
Students
Excellent-good
Average
Weak (bad)
11 A5
25%
50%
25%
11 A10
15%
55%
30%
 - At the end of the school year: 
Students
Excellent-good
Average
Weak (bad)
11 A5
40%
52%
8%
11 A10
30%
58%
12%
D. CONCLUSION
Vocabulary teaching and learning is a large and continuing task. Although teachers can provide useful input and support to help learners deal with this, it is ultimately the learners who have to learn and carry on learning.
Vocabulary learning cannot be left to itself. It needs to be strengthened by careful planning and well-directed teaching. The methods I have given in this study can be applied in avariety of ways and in a variety of types of courses. What is most important is that a principled approach is taken to vocabulary development so that learners get the best return for their learning effort.
Surely, this study can not avoid having limitations and making mistakes. Yet I hope it will be helpful for teaching and learning English vocabulary at high school.
I sincerely thank you! 
XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ TRƯỞNG
ĐƠN VỊ
Thanh Hoa, June 8, 2017.
I declare that I worked on the above thesis on my own.
Author
Hoang Thi Hien
. 
E. REFERENCES:
1. English vocabulary in use (Michael McCarthy/ Felicity O’Dell, Cambridge University Press)
2. Harmer, Jeremy: The Practise of English Language teaching, Longman, 1993 .
3.Wallace Michael: Practical Language Teaching, Teaching Vocabulary,
Heinemann, 1988
4. Methodology handbook for English teachers in Vietnam (Ron and Carol Forseth, Ta Tien Hung, Nguyen Van Do).
5. Hirsh, D.; Nation, P. (1992), "What Vocabulary Size Is Needed to Read Unsimplified Texts for Pleasure?".
6. Bauer, L; Nation, P (1993), "Word Families" . 
APPENDIX 1:
Body parts such as 	Animals such as
– lips 	ÿ pegion
 N eye	
Emotions such as 	Things such as
 J happy 	b a bike	
 L Sad	¹ an alarm o’clock
Caution: N dangerous
APPENDIX 2:
UNIT 1: FRIENDSHIP, English 11.
Acquaintance
constancy
modest
Studious
Favourite
changeable
APPENDIX 3
TOPIC: PARTY (Unit 3, English 11)
Food
Drink
Gift
Dress
TOPIC: HOBBIES (Unit 13, English 11)
Fishing
Keeping fish
Swimming
Shopping
APPENDIX 4
A floppy cotton hat. (Unit 2: PERSONAL EXPERIENCES _ Reading, English 11)
A wad of dollar notes. (Unit 2: PERSONAL EXPERIENCES _ Reading, English 11)
A roast turkey. (Unit 8: CELEBRATIONS _ Speaking, English 11)
A sailboat (Unit 11: SOURCES OF ENERGY _ Reading, English 11)
SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HOÁ 
TRƯỜNG THPT LƯƠNG ĐẮC BẰNG
APPENDICES
(PHỤ LỤC)
NEW WAYS IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ENGLISH VOCABULARY THAT WILL GET 
STUDENTS ENGAGED.
 Người thực hiện: Hoàng Thị Hiền
 Chức vụ: Giáo viên
 Đơn vị công tác: Trường THPT Lương Đắc Bằng
 SKKN thuộc lĩnh vực (môn): Tiếng Anh
THANH HOÁ NĂM 2017