Some measures to improve the teaching of vocabulary for Grade 3 students

1. Introduction
1.1. Reason for choosing topic.
    From the end of the twentieth century, humanity has entered a new era of scientific and technological revolution, which has made profound changes in all aspects of social life in the whole world. And today, on the threshold of the 21st century, the world is standing at the threshold of civilization of information technology, people not only know manual labor but must work with the mind, must conquer the pinnacle of intelligence apply science to life. Every aspect of social life is linked to the advancement of science. To achieve this, people must have the exchange of international friends. In order to do so, we must know foreign languages ​​and use it in a proficient manner. That is why I find teaching and learning foreign languages ​​in schools, especially elementary schools, a necessity and a necessity. One of the foreign languages ​​currently taught and taught in Vietnamese schools and primary schools is English. Learning foreign languages ​​today is not only to know but also to work, to exchange learning with international friends.Today, English plays an important role in communication. English is considered as a communication language globally. Therefore, learning English is very popular not only for those who are using foreign languages ​​to communicate in the workplace but it is also very necessary for primary school students, who will soon be the owners. the country. As a passionate teacher, devoted to students, I always wondered how to find a way to teach students how to understand and absorb good in the classroom. In order to be so good, the teacher must be creative and passionate about the profession, giving timely lessons to attract the attention of students and to achieve high results. Any language that communicates requires a certain vocabulary to communicate. On the other hand, for elementary school children, deep learning of the nature of a language is too difficult. We just ask them to understand and know what "English" is. What is the meaning of English in Vietnamese? In order to have a good sentence and complete grammar first of all they have to have rich vocabulary and how to use words properly. And how to learn and remember the word? This is also the reason why I think and select the topic "Some measures to improve the teaching of vocabulary for Grade 3 students" aims to show how the children, the main subject Here is a third grade student, remember a better vocabulary.
1.2. Research purposes.
The subject focuses on the use of techniques and methods of teaching vocabulary for third graders.
1.3. Research subjects.
 * Solutions to improve the quality of vocabulary teaching for third graders.
1.4. Research Methods.
   - I have conducted interviews, surveys, survey data.
   - Study relevant materials such as English textbooks 3, English handbooks ..., articles by educational researchers on relevant issues. Exchange ideas with colleagues, especially those who have experience in teaching ... From which to propose useful solutions to improve the quality of teaching vocabulary for third grade students.
   - Investigate the actual situation of the problem.
1.5. New points of experience initiative.
  - Teachers make logical games, create classy atmosphere and give birth
Fun, turn every activity into an interesting game, easy to attract students.
  - Depending on the content of each lesson, teachers may apply some of these tips in the Warm-up, Lead-in, Free-practice, Consolidation, ... sections. or immediately after teaching the vocabulary (check the student's vocabulary).
  Apply some of these tips to help children not only remember from the classroom but also help them learn and review from home. If you memorize and remember words, they will help you to be confident when you practice or communicate in English. Make them have a motive and sense of learning in this subject.
2. Content of experience initiative.
2.1. Rationale.
    In the Ministry of Education's 2008-2020 foreign language project, the specific goal of the elementary English program is that after the end of the school year, students may:
- Have a vocabulary of 500-700 words including oral and written language.
- Students can use vocabulary learned in simple communicative situations through four skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. The 3rd grade English language course has 4 lessons a week, each unit has a lot of vocabulary and grammar knowledge. So learning vocabulary and vocabulary skills is a very important factor in learning English.
- Have minimum knowledge of the English language, and through English have initial knowledge about the country, culture and people of the English speaking countries.
- Have a positive attitude towards learning English.
2.2. Realize the problem before applying the innovation initiative.
 a. Advantage:
   The student:
 - The majority of children are learning, doing homework before class, passionately speech.
 - The majority of children are learning, doing homework before class, enthusiastic expression.
 - The Board of Directors is interested in teaching.
 - In recent years, many students have achieved high scores in the exchange with their schools. Specifically as you: Minh Thu, Nhat Vy, Tuan Anh ....
   Teacher:
+ Through many years of experience and research teaching English I spend a lot of time and enthusiasm to study reflection as well as the effectiveness of teaching hours, especially the lesson of grasp the vocabulary of children.
 + I am hard-working, researching, referring to many documents, grammar, vocabulary ... Then I record and accumulate regularly.
+ I often exchange with the company in and outside teaching hours to learn and draw experience needed to apply.
 b. Hard:
- My school is a rural school, and library materials are limited. Therefore, there are not enough documents for students and teachers to consult, study easily, easily. Most of the students are children of farmers, the family is poor so the parents only worry about the economy do not have time to care and urge their learning so the source of good students is quite limited.
- About the distribution of the week, sometimes one session must learn two consecutive English, to load a number of words a lot. This will certainly cause some students to overload psychology, greatly affecting the next class.
- Students do not focus on English as it is optional.
- On the parents side, it is very difficult to check or guide the children to learn at home. Because it is a foreign language, not all parents know. This is also a very difficult problem in managing a student's home study.
- In addition, the way to learn vocabulary of children is also worth attention, they often learn vocabulary by reading the word in English and trying to remember the meaning in Vietnamese, there is writing practice to deal with me. , but not self-examination, to inculcate new words and capital words available. Therefore, they are very quick to forget and easily confused one word with another. Therefore, many children are tired of learning and forgetting. So I paid attention to this student's psychology.
 * The actual survey of the year I achieved the following results.
After analyzing the above difficulties, students are afraid to learn English, often not in the unit and the teaching of vocabulary in primary school has not achieved high results. In the 2017-2018 school year, when I received the 3rd grade English language teaching, I gave them the vocabulary test in December 2017. I asked them to match the English words with matching meaning. Translate words into Vietnamese, translate words into English. The results of the survey before the implementation of the subject in block 3 with the number of 120 children: 120 em:
Poits 9-10
Poits 7-8
 Poits 5-6
Poits below 5
SL
%
SL
%
SL
%
SL
%
3
2,5
55
45,8
40
33,3
22
18,4
 With such results, I see some students study seriously, have the sense to build lessons in the class and the children have achieved high results as the children: Huong, Lan, Hue, Mai .... There are not many students just learn through loudspeaker, not engraved vocabulary into memory, not practice reading, writing often, not in two-dimensional sense like children: Huan, Dat, Tien, Hong vv .......... Leading to weak points, much less.
So I decided to apply some of my vocabulary teaching experiences through my senior years and during the following classes I applied my experience presented below, so that at the end of the year I compared my results with the results. head.
2.3 Measures to Improve Vocabulary Teaching for Grade 3 Students.
2.3.1. Method 1: Principles of teaching English to children.
 Teaching children is a relatively difficult and complex task because children do not really have the sense of learning as adults and most are very playful. For children to focus on the lesson, teachers should follow the principles of teaching children, I always organize teaching activities as rich as games in the classroom. For example:
Play Kim's Game:
(Teachers can use pictures with different topics for students to play.)
Rules:
- Divide the class into 3 teams.
- Observe 6 pictures in turn.
- The teams remember and name the pictures in English for 1 minute. Written correctly each team's paintings will be 10 points.
Ex:	
-Play learning that - learn to play. This is a "Teaching without Teaching" method, I create a colorful, multi-colored playground in English for students, guide students to master the playground and step by step add to other activities.
- Activities, photos more theory. Pictures, games, musicals, plays ... are generally activities to help students participate in the environment using English naturally, not forced.
- Learning more than the syllabus. Following a curriculum will limit the creative capacity of both teachers and students. In addition, in order to diversify classroom activities, enhancement of learning is essential.
- Listening - speaking more than reading - writing. The fact that speaking skills are important, easier to learn and more imitative in learning foreign languages. And when they hear that, students have gradually built up confidence in the use of English.
- Imitate the grammar. Imitation is indispensable for children, especially in learning foreign languages. Imitation helps the learning process go faster, including the application of clumsiness to the basic sentence patterns.
2.3.2. Method 2: How to choose words to teach.
 English has hundreds of thousands of words, so teaching new words is not an easy task for foreign teachers. However, it is important to remember that an average native speaker speaks only about five thousand words in daily communication. In addition, students do not need to use all the words correctly because sometimes they just need to recognize and understand the message that words convey. Therefore, the choice of words to teach based on the frequency and use of words according to the needs of students is very important.
In today's primary school environment, when it comes to grammar, grammatical and vocabulary, vocabulary and grammar are always closely related, and are often taught to clarify meaning. together. However, teaching and introducing vocabulary is a matter that needs to be considered according to the purpose of the topic that I choose. Usually in a lesson there are always new words, and not all new words need to be taught. To pick words to teach, I consider the problem:
- active vocabulary
Passive vocabulary
We all know how to teach these two words differently. Positive involves four skills (listening - speaking - reading - writing). For this kind of word I need to invest time to introduce and give students more practice.
With passive words I just stop at the perception level, no need to invest time in the application activities. I choose and decide which word to teach as an active word and a word as a passive word.
- When teaching new words, it is necessary to clarify three basic elements of the language:
+ Form.
+ Meaning.
It is not enough for students to know how to write and define words such as dictionaries. For students to know how to use them in communication, I need to know how to pronounce words, not just words. but also know the correct pronunciation of the words in the chain of words, especially the meaning of the word.
The number of words to teach depends on the content and the level of the student. Never teach all new words, because there will not be enough time to perform other activities. However, in an elementary school classroom I should only teach a maximum of 6 words.
While choosing words to teach, I consider the following two conditions:
+ Since it is necessary to understand the text?
+ Since it is difficult compared with the level of students?
- If the word is necessary for the understanding of the text and is appropriate for the level of the student, then it is an active word, so we must teach the student the specific measures I will show below. .
- If the word is necessary for the understanding of the text but it is difficult to compare with the level of the student, then it is not an active word, so we should explain it to the students immediately.
- If the word is not necessary for understanding the text and not too difficult then you should ask students to guess.
* Steps to teach words
 Introduction, this topic is quite important step in teaching vocabulary. This step will determine the success of the class, which will elicit a reference to the words that are going to be learned through the topic that has just been introduced.
The most important thing in introducing new words is to follow the sequence: listening, speaking, reading, writing. Never start from any other "hear" activity. Remember the process of learning our mother tongue, always beginning with listening, imitation, and then to other activities. Help your students have a good habit of learning new words:
- Step 1: "listen", for students to hear new words by reading the sample or using the native voice CD is the best.
- Step 2: "Speak", after the students have heard three times, ask the students to repeat. As students repeat, they need to remind the class to repeat first, then call the individual to check and correct the mistake immediately for the children.
- Step 3: "read", write the word on the board and have students look at it to read. Have the students read the whole class, then read individually and correct the students.
- Step 4: "write", after the students have read the word correctly then you ask the students to write the word in the notebook.
- Step 5: Determine if the student understands the meaning of the word.
- Step 6: Word accents: Pronounce words and ask students to identify syllables with accent and accent marks.
- Step 7: Give the sample sentences and ask the students to identify the words of the new vocabulary.
2.3.3. Measure 3: Techniques to clarify the meaning of a word.
In English each word usually has two sides: the meaning of words and usage. The meaning of words and how they are used are two different things. There are many cases where the dictionary can understand the meaning of the word, but it is not known how to use the word. The usage of a word depends on the function of the word in the sentence, the context, the habits of the user and their relationship to the cultural and social environment. Here are some tips to clarify the meaning:
a / Visualization: real objects in the classroom, pictures, sketches, magazine collages, gestures, etc. Have a strong impact on student interest and help students remember faster, longer.
+ Use real things to teach the topic of school supplies, clothes.
School things:
* Clothes
+ Mimic gestures, gestures, facial expressions: teachers and students are always a source of visual animations that are cleverly applied will bring positive effects.
	a. happy – sad 
	b. cold – hot
	 c. stand – sit
b / Using the language learned:
- Definition, description: Students will rely on the words learned and basic understanding to guess the meaning of the word through the definition of the teacher. This technique gives students curiosity and the need to participate in the learning process and to develop listening skills for students.
+ T: It is very big and it has a long nose. What is it?
	 Ss : Is it an elephant?
	 T: Yes!
 + T: It’s small. It’s very long. What’s is it?
 Ss: Is it a snake?
 T: Yes!
	+ T: It is little and it is round. What is it?
	 Ss : Is it a yo-yo?
	 T: Yes!
c. Use synonyms, antonyms,	
We use synonyms or antonyms to clarify the meaning of a word when a student already knows the meaning of a word in a synonym.
* Synonyms
nice - beautiful, clever - intelligent,
 bookstore - bookshop, eraser - rubber, pants - trousers
* Antonym (antonym)
tall - short, thin - fat, pretty - ugly, young - old
long - short, thin - thick, new - old, big - litlle
d. Based on rules form words, create words:
Students guess the meaning of the new word formed through the root. With this rule the teacher not only help students grasp knowledge but also expand the vocabulary for students
* Work - worker, drive - driver, write - writer, read - reader
* happy - unhappy, formal - informal, patient - impatient, tit-untidy
* like-dislike, lock-unlock, agree-disagree,
- Create Scenarios: I set up simple, easy-to-understand situations in English, students can guess the situation, can imitate, use words in the context of communication and forging skills.
E.g 1: This is my brother. He's very lazy. He gets up late, and he does not do anything. I say to him, "Do not be lazy! Do your homework! "
E.g 2: I have a sister. She is very studious. She studies very hard. She stays up late to homework, and she gets up early to learn the lesson. She is the best student in the class.
- Guess the meaning of the word in the context:
Eg. My school is small. There are classrooms.
Lan's school is big. There are nineteen classrooms.
Give examples that help students understand the meaning
E.g 1: Bananas, apples, pears, grapes are fruit. 
E.g 2. Chicken, fish, rice, ice-cream are food. 
E.g 3. Tigers, elephants, lions,monkeys are wild animals . 
 Translate into the mother tongue. (Translation): Teachers use equivalent words in Vietnamese to explain meaning in English. Teachers only use this procedure when there is no other way, this trick is often used to teach abstract words, or to solve a large number of words but time is not allowed, Teachers suggest students themselves translate from there. It should be noted that if the teacher regularly uses this trick will cause students to feel monotonous, boring, not promote their thinking, creativity.
E.g. love, happiness, affection, envy ...
2.3.4. Measure 4: Coordinate multiple techniques in vocabulary teaching:
In the process of introducing new words I coordinate the techniques together. For example, setting up situations in English, students will try to hear and guess words in context, incorporating gestures, gestures and asking students to use words.
The combination of the following techniques to teach the word "run"
- Let students see pictures
     - Instructor performs the movement
- HS imitate movement
- Give the example
- Translate into Vietnamese
EX: T: Look: He can run
T: Now, look at me: I can run (GV performs "running")
T: She can run (Call 1 run)
T: Run, run
Ss: run
T: What does it mean?
Ss: Run (translated into Vietnamese)
2.3.5. Measure 5: Measures to prevent forgetting from primary students.
Forgetting new words is a common disease among elementary school children. Many students complain that despite repeatedly repeating a new word many times, even when they feel they have memorized the new word but gone to class, it goes away. Some researchers believe that the reason for forgetting information is because we do not use i