Some experience in teaching english vocabulary for primary students of grade 4

THANH HOA EDUCATION & TRAINING DEPARTMENT
THANH HOA EDUCATION & TRAINING OFFICE
 INITIATIVE
“ SOME EXPERIENCE IN TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR PRIMARY STUDENTS OF GRADE 4 ”
Implementer : Mai Thị Huệ
position : Teacher 
school : Quang thinh Primary school 
Subject : English 
THANH HOA , 2019
INDEX
Page
 1. BACKGROUND 
2
1.1. Rationale
2-3
1.2. Research
3
1.3. Method of the research 
3
1.4. Scope and object of the research
3-4
2. SOLUTIONS
5
2.1. Theoretical background
5
2.2. The reality of the issue 
5-6
2.3. Solutions
6
2.3.1. Rules and routines 
6-7
2.3.2. Getting attention 
7
2.3.3. Giving introductions 
7-14
a. Teaching vocabulary in general 
7- 8
b. The tips that I have applied effectively when teaching English vocabulary for students of grade 4 in my school 
9-10
c. Notice
10
d. Practice 
 11 -14
2.4. Achieved results 
14-15
2.5. The applied lesson plan 
15- 18
 3. CONCLUSION 
19
 1. BACKGROUND
1.1 Rationale 
During the school year of 2017 – 2018, the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) implemented the model teaching of English subject to the students at primary schools, in accordance with the project of foreign languages teaching in the national education system, of the period 2015 – 2020. According to the subject, the primary English program is to be applied since grade 4, with the familiar topics to the students. All four language skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing are focused; in which, listening and speaking are settled as priority. The objectives of the project are to help the students achieving Movers level, in accordance with Cambridge ESOL; using a vocabulary of roughly 300 to 500 words. In details, the students will be able to understand and use the simple words and sentences, the daily expressions; they will also be able to introduce themselves, satisfy their communication need. In such a circumstance, the innovation and application of advanced teaching methods become a vital requirement.
	Vocabulary plays an important role in learning a foreign language. It is one element that links the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing all together. In order to communicate well in a foreign language, students should acquire an adequate number of words and should know how to use them accurately.
	Even though students realize the importance of vocabulary when learning a language, most Vietnamese students learn vocabulary passively due to several reasons. First, they find the teacher's explanation for the new words’ meaning, pronunciation, spelling or grammatical functions boring. In processing learning English in the class, language learners have nothing to do in a vocabulary learning section but to listen to their teacher. Second, students only think of vocabulary learning as learning the primary meaning of new words. Therefore, they ignore all other functions of the words. Third, students usually only learn new words in their textbooks or those given by teachers during classroom lessons. For example, learners find many new words in a text and then ask the teacher to explain their meanings and usages. Forth, many Vietnamese learners do not want to take risks in applying what they have learnt. Students may recognize a word in a written or spoken form and think that they already "know the word", but they may not be able to use that word properly in different contexts or pronounce it correctly. As the result, the class is often quiet and inactive and the lessons appear to be uninteresting. Students just seat in silence, do the exercises, and wait for the correct answers from the teachers. They seem to get bored of having the same ways of learning every day. Therefore, classroom vocabulary learning activities help learners develop and use words in different contexts and make the lessons enjoyable. 
Having been teaching English to the primary students for 10 years, especially students in grade 4, I realized that in order to approach the objectives mentioned above, the teachers must work hard, research and find out the most effective teaching methods. There are a variety of issues in the procedure of teaching English to the primary students that need the serious concerns; however, what made me really puzzled was how to help them understand the vocabulary easily, get the words’ meaning and use them in communicating as well as in doing exercises. In order to do this work I have learnt a lot from the materials, from friends and colleagues, and now, I would like to present my
 “ Some experiences in teaching English vocabulary for primary students of grade 4”
1.2 Research 
The study was designed to achieve the following goals:
 1. To find out the English teachers and students’ perception and attitude towards vocabulary and the current situation of vocabulary learning and teaching 
 2. To evaluate the effectiveness of the currently used classroom vocabulary learning activities in my school.
	3. To suggest how to use classroom vocabulary activities to improve vocabulary teaching and learning. 
1.3. Method of the research
In order to achieve the above-stated goals, the study was to seek answers to the following questions:
1. What are the English teachers and students’ perception and attitude towards vocabulary learning/teaching?
2. How effective are the currently used classroom vocabulary learning activities in my school?
 1.4. Scope and object of the research
Students need lots of vocabulary to increase their ability and confidence in communicating in English. However, learning vocabulary is never easy for learners. Teachers, who motivate the students learning English, need to make learning vocabulary a fun involving and active process. In order to learn and retain new words, learners should participate in different task-based activities in their classroom whether it is a guessing task, a describing exercise or conversation making. Such activities especially focus on helping learners develop and use words in different contexts by making the lesson enjoyable.
Language learning is a hard task which can sometimes be frustrating. Constant effort is required to understand, produce and manipulate the target language. Well-chosen learning activities are invaluable as they give students a break and at the same time allow students to practise language skills. Learning activities are highly motivating since they are amusing and at the same time challenging. Furthermore, they employ meaningful and useful language in real contexts. They also encourage and increase cooperation.
We consider vocabulary learning activities a way to help students not only enjoy and entertain with the language they learn, but also practice it incidentally. So, vocabulary-learning activities are useful and effective tools that should be applied in vocabulary classes. They make the lessons more interesting, enjoyable and effective.
There are, of course, many ways to motivate the students to learn English effectively. However, in this minor thesis, I would focus my research on the effectiveness of classroom vocabulary learning activities in my school in Vinh city. The reason is that my students are too passive to learn vocabulary. They need to participate more actively in learning activities. I hope that through some classroom vocabulary activities, I will find the most effective learning activities to improve students’ vocabulary learning. My students have chance to use the words productively.
The scope and object of this research are aiming to the students of the grades 4 in my school. 
 2. SOLUTIONS 
2.1 Theoretical background
It is undeniable that vocabulary, one of three components of laguages ( grammar, vocabulary, phonetics), has a main function in language. Actually, Michael Mc Cathy stated that: “no matter how well the student learns grammar, no matter how successfully the sounds of the second language are mastered, without words to express a wide language of meanings, communication in the second language just can’t happen in any meaningful way”.(Mc Cathy M, 1992 )
In learning foreign language, vocabulary plays an important role. It is one of elements that links four skills of speaking, reading, writing and listening all together. Richards and Renandya say “Vocabulary is a core component of language proficiency and provides much of the basis for how well learners speak, listen, read and write”. So, vocabulary is a main skill which should be mastered by the students to get and understand whole English skills; receptive skills (listening and reading ) and productive skills (speaking and writing ).
Moreover, the report of the National Reading Panel (2000) concluded: “ the importance of vocabulary knowledge has long been recognized in the development of reading skill”. In order to communicate well in foreign language, student should acquire a large number of words and should know how to use them correctly to express their ideas more clearly and appropriately in a wide range of situations.
Also, Lewis (1993) highlighted the significance of vocabulary as basic factor to communication. The researchers do agree that learners do not understand the meaning of key word, they cannot participate in the conversation, even if they know morphology and syntax.
Thus, it is important to apply some vocabulary learning strategies to build students’ vocabulary in order that their vocabulary are increased and improved. 
2.2. The reality of the issue 
As a primary teacher of English, I realize that there are some real problems in teaching and learning English vocabulary in my school.
2.2.1. Advantages 
With the attention of the Board of Management to help the school, the siblings preceded colleagues have created all conditions for teaching and learning English is better. There are sufficient textbooks and equipment such as tapes, discs, robot teachers, speakers, interactive whiteboard  for teaching and learning.
I myself was involved in training program of new English textbook 4; so I master the syllabus, also the basic teaching methods. I know how to combine the teaching techniques in order that my lessons can achieve high effectiveness.
There are many changes in the structure and appearance of the textbooks, with more pictures and the topics which are more familiar to the students, so they feel excited and very positive to learn English. Especially, students are aquainted with informative technology early, they use computer, the Internet and they get a lot of English resourses from here. Moreover, they have chance to take part in many English pleasure grounds such as: English club, English Violympic, Ringing golden bell. These grounds help students develop and increase their vocabulary very much.
2.2.2. Disadvantages:
Most of the students do not realize the importance of learning English. They are shy and not active, which leads to the limitation in communication. Their parents do not show a remarkable attention to the children’s learning the subject of English since it is just an optional subject and do not affect the overall transcript result.
The ability of absorbing the second language is limited at the primary students for a variety of factors: the time in class for English is little while many students of this age still find difficult in mastering their mother language. In addition, each class is always crowded with more than 30 students, which causes difficulties in drilling and practicing the communication skills.
Also, students often learn vocabulary by reading words in English and try to remember that in Vietnamese, writing following teachers’ requests, not self- conscious his check to inculcate new words and vocabulary available. Therefore, they are forgetful and easily confused with other words. As a result, many students get bored and abandon school. 
Especially, English pronunciation is a big obstacle for students. The pronunciation in English puzzles students a lot because the same letter has different sounds. For example, the letter “a ” in “ bath ” is not pronounced in the same way of that in “ bathe”. The “ou” in “ South ” is also different from “ ou ” in “ Southern”. Besides, words that can be used in a wide range of contexts will generally be perceived more easily than their synonyms with a narrower range. Certainly, the connotations of some words may cause problems, too.
Through practical teaching of the first period of school year, I have found that the biggest difficulty of students in communicating is the ability to reflect language. This leads to their limited communicative skill.
2.3. Sollutions 
2.3.1. Rules and routines 
 At the begining of school year, I found that my students’ communicative skill has problems, and the main reason is lack of vocabulary. So, I have gradually changed methods and formality of classroom organization. Till the fourth week, I examined vocabulary for students of class 4A, 4B, 4C in order that I could know the quality and also clasified my students.
Result: 
Class
Total number
Quality 
 Excellent
 Fair 
Average 
Weak
Number of Ss
%
Number of Ss
%
Number of Ss
%
Number of Ss
%
4A
29
7
24.1
8
27.6
10
34.5
4
13.8
4B
29
8
27.6
10
34.5
9
31.0
2
6.9
4C
31
7
22.6
9
29.0
12
38.7
3
9.7
2.3.2. Getting attention
That result shows that students’ quality is not high. The main reasons are:
- Students could not write vocabulary. Most of them only imitated pronunciation but could not write words on the paper.
- Students did not know the meaning of words, so they could not manipulate in perceivable exercises.
- The time to teach and practise vocabulary for students was limited. They only learn and read through some times, there were few chances to use words in communicative situations to create the habit of reflecting language.
- I myself have changed the methods of teaching vocabulary, but could not embrace all objects, so some students were still weak.
After analyzing the reasons above, I strongly adjusted overall my teaching. Thanks to these adjustments, I changed my students’ quality better at the end of first term. From the class observation as well as from teaching and researching, I acquired valuable experience that help me to improve my teaching effectively.
2.3.3. Giving introductions 
a. Teaching vocabualy in general
* Choose vocabulary to teach
Vocabulary is an important part of learning English, and no matter what skills students need to have a certain vocabulary. However, teachers can not teach and notice all the new words appear in an article. Do not have any new words should also be brought in to teach and teach the same. When teaching vocabulary teachers need to consider:
- Active (active vocabulary): are words necessary for students to understand, recognize and use in oral and written communication. In the process of from this, teachers need to inspire, take for example, checking to make sure students understand and recognize how to use them.
- From passive (passive vocabulary): are the words that students need to understand and recognize when listening and reading. With this kind of words teachers do not need to invest a lot of time on the active application, just a quick presentation with a simple example.
Distinguish two kinds of vocabulary words to help teachers focus, systematicalize and save time if necessary.
**. Factors to clarify the introduction of new words:
Three basic elements of the language should be clarified: form (morphology), meaning (semantics), use (how to use). These elements are specified by introducing corpus diagram as follows:
Introduce new semantics (meaning)
Grammatical morphology (grammatical form)
Using (use)
Writing (spelling)
Phonetics (pronunciation)
Please regularly check the dictionary is the best way to help the teacher can identify this information explicitly.
***. The basic steps to present words:
Introduction post, introducing topics: this is an important step in teaching vocabulary . This step will determine the success of the class, it will inspire students to think of the school from going through all the newly introduced point The most important thing in introducing new words is to comply with the order: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Never start from other activities but "hear". Remember the learning process of our mother tongue, always start by listening, imitating pronunciation and then to the other activities. Please help your students have a new habit to learn from the best:
Step 1: In new 2-3 times, articulation. About the meaning of words (written or oral). Illustrated oral repeated questions to help students understand the vocabulary quickly.
Step 2: Let the class repeat a few times. (from chorus to individuals)
Step 3: The teacher writes on the board and the class read in unison. Then teacher explanation is brief and easy to understand (in English or provide meaning in English.)
Step 4: Write the examples on the board for the new meaning of the word more clearly especially for abstract words. Finally write the phrases, idioms related to the new words.
Step 5: Check students’ understanding.
Five steps presented and introduced a new basic flexible use depending on the content of each article.
b. The tips that I have applied effectively when teaching English vocabulary for students of grade 4 in my school
From actual teaching and the request for teaching English vocabulary, I have applied some effective tips which are suitable with characteristics of age, syllabus, available conditions (Powerpoint, pictures) to help my students understand vocabulary better.
*Tip 1: Using Visual Aids
Using visual aids such as pictures, posters, postcards, word calendars, realia, charts, graphic organizers, picture books, television, videos from Tunes, and computers can help students easily understand and realize the main points that they have learned in the classroom. For each visual aid, students have different responses and expressions because of their different educational and cultural background. Using visual aids can help students understand the deep meaning of a topic and realize similarities and differences between each topic.
Using visual aids can not only develop students’ literacy abilities, but also can develop their oral ability. Visual aids allow students to have a chance to brainstorm and present their ideas or thoughts. They can create their own stories in which there are no right or wrong answers. Moreover, visual aids can involve the students by providing a change from one activity to another, and from hearing to seeing. Because learners are more fascinated by gestures and movement in the classroom. 
* Using real objects:
This method requires teachers to prepare the objects in the real life before the lessons. Teacher raises thing, students look and know what the meaning is.
This tip can apply for vocabulary related to topics of body parts, things, clothes, fruits And if teacher prepare well, teaching vocabulary will become easier and save time.
 * Using pictures:
If in the lesson, teacher cannot use the realia to present vocabulary, they can also collect pictures from newspapers, magazines, down load them from Internet or use Powerpoint. 
Examples: 
+ In Unit 9: In my classroom – Lesson 1 ( English 4 )
T: Look- This is a board. (Pointing to the board): “a board... a board”
Ss:A a board.
T: (show)What is it?
Ss: A board. 
My experience : 
This is a trick taught by highly effective, direct, inspire and make a memorable impression. So when using this tip, teacher should:
- Choose simple pictures with clear purpose. 
- The real object should be introduced quickly, easily and clearly.
- Use crosswords with pictures to teach and practice vocabulary of topic which help students retentive.
b.Tip 2: Translation
This is a way to save the teachers’ time of using unsuccessful explanation in English. Many teachers find it extremly effective