Techniques of using vocabulary in writing short english paragraphs for 10TH grade students at nguyen trai high school

DEPARTMENT OF THANH HOA EDUCATION AND TRAINING
NGUYEN TRAI HIGH SCHOOL
----------------------------
EXPERIENCE INITIATIVE
TECHNIQUES OF USING VOCABULARY IN WRITING 
SHORT ENGLISH PARAGRAPHS FOR 10TH GRADE 
STUDENTS AT NGUYEN TRAI HIGH SCHOOL
 Doer: Nguyen Thi Ha
 Duty: Teacher
 Subject: English
THANH HÓA, 2019
TABLE OF CONTENT 
Part I: INTRODUCTION 
 I. Reason for choosing the theme 
 II. Aims of the experience initiative 
 III. Scope of the experience initiative 
 IV. Research methodology 
Part II: CONTENTS 
 I. Rationale 
 II. The problems of using vocabulary in paragraph writing 
 1. Repetition 
 2. Synonyms 
 3. Use of Articles 
 4. Use of preposition
 5. Word order
 6. Spelling 
 7. Transitions
 III. SUGGESTED TECHNIQUES OF USING VOCABULARY 
 IN WRITING SHORT ENGLISH PARAGRAPHS
 1. Repetition of Key Words
 2. Using pronouns
 3. Synonyms
 4. Use of Articles
 5. Word order
 6. Transitions
 IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULT 
PART III: CONCLUSION AND PROPOSAL
 I. Conclusion
 II. Proposal
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PART I: INTRODUCTION
I. Reason for choosing the theme:
 In the tendency of integration of the global economy, English is one of the effective communicative tools for everyone. The role of English is considered to be very important in the fields of economics, politics, science, culture and education. Especially, Vietnam’s official membership of WHO on 7th November 2006 opened a new door for integrating with foreign partners, tourism, study tours, etc
 Responding to the trend, English lessons are taught with four skills (speaking, reading, listening, writing) and new teaching methods to motivate students in each unit. This really helps students improve their skills beside the grammar exercises to be able to communicate foreigners. Paragraphing is an important convention of written English. It has developed as a visual way of assisting the students to follow an extended piece of writing. Paragraphs also help them to understand how the sentences are grouped together and in this way they are very useful. The sentences within a paragraph explore one specific theme while a new paragraph indicates that a new topic or idea is being addressed. Paragraphs may be long or short, but each one will develop a particular topic point, they are not a unit of length. Moreover, constructing clearly defined paragraphs is the key to a good essay. These can be seen as being rather like the bricks in a wall. It is very important that the paragraphs are sequenced in a logical order because they will provide the major building blocks for the argument in the essay.
	In fact, many students often have many basic mistakes in written works about spelling, grammar, punctuation, vocabulary and organization. Besides that, learning writing at high school has many problems at the present such as lack of vocabulary, writing skills as well as skills of using words in writing. Vocabulary is one of the important aspects of language to be used in writing skill. Errors of vocabulary are potentially more misleading than those of grammar. In writing skill, the more descriptive words students have, the more successful their writing is. However, most of the students at Nguyen Trai High School are quite confused when using vocabulary in writing short paragraphs. They may also find it difficult to choose the best words for a sentence when they are writing a paragraph. If they have a strong vocabulary and the ways of using words, these choices will be easier and they will make good writing more powerful. 
 The above mentioned reason leads to the choice of studying about experience initiative in analysing “TECHNIQUES OF USING VOCABULARY IN WRITING SHORT ENGLISH PARAGRAPHS FOR THE 10TH STUDENTS AT NGUYEN TRAI HIGH SCHOOL”.
II. Aims of the experience initiative:
 The aims of the experience initiative are:
To investigate students’ difficulties in using words in writing skills.
To find the types of popular errors when writing English paragraphs.
To give students some skills of choosing vocabulary in writing English paragraphs.
III. Scope of the experience initiative:
 The writer attempts not only to introduce some methods to apply words in writing English paragraphs to reduce students’ difficulties but also makes them more self – confident and interested in writing – English lessons, hence, developing their writing ability. The author applies into the class 10A6 at Nguyen Trai High School, Thanh Hoa.
IV. Research methodology:
 Reading reference books. 
 Discussing with other teachers.
 Applying in teaching.
 Observing and drawing out experiences.
PART II: CONTENTS
I. Rationale:
 According to Robert Todd Carol (1990), the most important invention in human history is writing. It provides a relatively permanent record of information, opinions, beliefs, feelings, arguments, explanations, theories, etc. Writing allows us to share our communication not only with our contemporaries, but also with future generations. Writing is a skill, which is not only helpful in writing to English, but also useful to improve other considerably. In an English learning classroom, the teacher aims at developing four skills of the learner’s ability to understand to speak, to read and to write. The ability to write occupies the last place in this order, but it does mean that it is least important. Reading makes a full man, conference a ready man and writing an exact man.”, said Bacon. “It is an important tool, which enables man to communicate with others people in many ways” (Rita Rani Mandal, 2009). To students, good at writing will bring many benefits for them. Firstly, writing is a good way to increase the ability of using language. Secondly, writing is an essential tool to support other skills. If a student has a good writing ability, they can speak and read the text more effectively. Thirdly, writing is a way to approach modern information technology as well as the human knowledge. Otherwise, it is necessary to master writing skill because it can help people have good preparations when finding a job or attend English courses. Writing short paragraphs is an important factor for every student to get those benefits.
	Paragraph is a basic unit of organization in writing which a group of sentences develops one main idea. This general idea is expressed in a topic sentence, and four or five supporting sentences will expand this idea by giving explanations, details and examples to support the main idea. The number of supporting sentences in a paragraph can vary. The concluding sentence in a paragraph indicates that the paragraph is ending and summarizes important points to remember or reprises the main idea. .
	In addition to the three parts of a paragraph, a good paragraph must also have another important elements such as lexical resources; coherence; task response; grammatical range and accuracy. 
	A great vocabulary is just one essential tool in a writer’s toolbox, along with punctuation, grammar, capitalization rules, figurative language, rhyme, rhythm, vocabulary and many others. Strong vocabulary can make the writing more powerful and more effective and help the writer say exactly what he / she mean. This indispensable tool will help him / her choose the best word for every job and avoid vague words that do not give readers a good sense of his / her meaning. (Importance of a Good Vocabulary in Writing by Ron Kurtus, 2012)
	Good writers knowing how to use vocabulary at the right time will make good writing English paragraphs even more powerful. Building and techniques of using correct vocabulary in paragraphs is one of the easiest ways to improve the power of the writing and make any paragraph - writing task much easier and more convincing.
II. THE PROBLEMS OF USING VOCABULARY IN PARAGRAPH WRITING:
	The most difficult problem that many 10th grade students (50% ) at Nguyen Trai High School have is the limitation of vocabulary. This problem prevents students from improving their writing competence. In the process of observation, the researcher realizes that students are introduced a lot of vocabulary before writing, they still do not have enough vocabulary to write, so they continually ask teachers about vocabulary and make a lot of mistakes of vocabulary when writing. 
What is the most difficult problem when studying writing skill?
Rate %
A. Vocabulary restriction 
50
B. Grammar difficulties 
27
C. Lack of ideas
15
D. Topic inappropriateness
3
* Other ideas: - Lack of materials for consulting
 - Lack of teacher help 
5
The most difficult problem when studying writing skill in most of students:
 Because of the limited vocabulary, students have to face the following problems in writing English paragraphs.
1. Repetition: Students have a habit of repeating unimportant words many times, which makes their paragraphs boring and unconvincing.
2. Synonyms: Writers do not know synonyms instead of repeating words many 
times.
3. Use of Articles: An article is a word that is used with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun.
 For example: I am studying at the Ajloun University.
 Corrected Sentence: I am studying at Oxford University.
In the above example,“The” is not suitable, the writer used the wrong article.
4. Use of preposition: A preposition is a word that shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence. Students tend to think every preposition in their mother tongue and in the target language can be applied in the same way. They are such small words and frequently have direct equivalents in the mother tongue and the foreign language. As a consequence, learners of English tend to have three types of problems with prepositions: choosing the wrong preposition, omitting a needed preposition, and using a
 preposition where one is not needed. 
 For example: Education is very important at my life.
	Corrected Sentence: Education is very important in my life.
5. Word order: It is the syntactic arrangement of words in a sentence, clause, or phrase. In writing paragraphs, students pay no attention to using adjectives to describe things, events or people or they use the wrong order of adjectives.
 For example : 
 Language specially English plays an important role in society.
	Corrected Sentence:
	 Specially English Language plays an important role in society.
 It is a very common problem which is quite easy to fix.
6. Spelling: The act or process of writing words by using the letters conventionally is accepted for their formation. The difficulties students are having in writing English paragraphs could be due to letter form, letter omission, motor capability, or transference. 
 For example : I want to be a translation.
 Corrected Sentence: I want to be a translator.
7. Transitions:  Use a conjunction or conjunctive adverb to link sentences with particular logical relationships. Sometimes students confuse at the ways of using transitional words. Below are three things that students have problems about transitional words in their writing. 
	Firstly, the logical connections are not clear as they use transitions. Because transitions indicate relationships between words and ideas, they can be misused if the relationship indicated by the transitional words is unclear or does not exist.  
 Example: .The huge amount of information in books will help us a lot of in life.Therefore, with knowledge from books, we can be better- equipped to tinkle any challenge we may face
 ("Therefore” does not make sense here because it is unclear .) 
	Secondly, students overuse transitions which can have the  opposite effect and can make their writing confusing. 
 Example: 
	Writing an English paragraph can be challenging. However, there are techniques that can make the process a little easier. For example, taking plenty of notes on the subject can help the writer generate ideas. Therefore, note-taking is an important "pre-writing" strategy. In addition, some people "free-write," writing quickly for ten or twenty minutes to see what ideas arise. However, taking notes and free-writing are only the beginning. Ideas must eventually be organized in a logical way. Consequently, an outline can help the writer make sense of the rough material generated through the note-taking and free-writing process. Therefore, writing an outline is another important step in the writing process. However, some writers are able to conceptualize a sense of logical order for their ideas without actually writing an outline. Nevertheless, these writers seem to have some kind of outline in their minds. In addition, an outline should help the writer formulate a thesis for the essay. Consequently, an outline can help give focus to the essay. 
(This passage could be stronger with fewer transitional words and phrases. Especially when the transitions are used at the beginnings of sentences, they can become annoying or even confusing to readers if they are overused.)
	Thirdly, students often make some mistakes that can occur with the use of transitions. Just like any other words, transitional words and phrases must be used carefully so that they do not cause errors. Both sentence fragments and comma splices sometimes occur when transitional words are added to an essay. These two errors are illustrated below: 
 	 Sentence Fragment: Resulting in the woman's search for companionship elsewhere.
 Corrected Sentence: George seems to ignore his wife, resulting in the woman's search for companionship elsewhere.
	Comma splice: .Secondly readers can learn new words and phrases, which help improve our writing as well as our imagination. Moreover language in books are likely to be more sophisticated than our everyday conservations.
 Corrected Sentence: .Secondly, readers can learn new words and phrases, which help improve our writing as well as our imagination. Moreover , language in books are likely to be more sophisticated than our everyday conservations.
 The reason for these problems is related to negative influence from the mother tongue grammar. The 10th grade students at Nguyen Trai High School lack of practicing English writing. Techniques for using vocabulary under guidance and encouragement could enhance the students’ performance in English writing. Hence, it is advisable for high - school students to practice English writing frequently with strong vocabulary so that they can enhance their writing paragraphs.
III. SUGGESTED TECHNIQUES OF USING VOCABULARY IN WRITING SHORT ENGLISH PARAGRAPHS:
 In this part, some techniques for using words are presented to reduce the students’ difficulties and motivate them in paragraph – writing lessons at Nguyen Trai High School. The author’s own experience suggests that these techniques make students’ writing better and more persuasive.
1. Repetition of Key Words:
	Repeating key words in a paragraph is an important technique for achieving cohesion. Of course, careless or excessive repetition is boring and is a source of clutter. However, once used skillfully and selectively, as in the paragraph below, this technique can hold sentences together and focus the reader's attention on the central idea.
Example: Write a paragraph about the influence of the Internet on our life. 
 The Internet is one of the most important technological breakthroughs of the 20th century. The Internet changed my way of finding information and making friends. Firstly, the most important thing is the amount and diversity of information. Spending hours in libraries is no more necessary. I have everything I need at home. Secondly, this information could be taken as fast as never before. I just go to Google and type what I want to read about; then it shows me a thousand of links about it. Finally, I can find the most interesting people from all over the world using the Internet. We can discuss films, science or even help each other in solving different problems. For example, Internet helps me in studying English because I can communicate with native and advanced speakers using the e-mail, forums and Skype. And all these things I can do sitting at home.
 In the above paragraph: 
	The word “ Internet” is repeated 4 times in sentence 1, 2, 8 and 9. 
	The word “ information” is repeated 3 times in sentence 2, 4 and 5.
Needless repetition that only clutters our writing should be avoided. But the careful repetition of key words can be an effective strategy for fashioning cohesive paragraphs.
2. Using pronouns:
	Pronouns are used in place of nouns. The purpose of pronouns is to avoid repetition and make sentences easier to understand. There are seven types of pronouns that both English writers and for those who use English as a second language must recognize: the personal pronoun, the demonstrative pronoun, the interrogative pronoun, the relative pronoun, the indefinite pronoun, the reflexive pronoun, and the intensive pronoun.
2.1. Personal pronouns refer to a specific person or thing. Their form changes to indicate a person, number, gender, or case.
Subjective personal pronouns are pronouns that act as the subject of a sentence. If you are learning English as a second language, remember that the subjective personal pronouns are I, you, she, he, it, we, you, and they. For example:
"I walked directly to the party."
"You showed up late; she was annoyed."
"He thought you had forgotten; we knew you were just behind."
Objective personal pronouns are pronouns that act as the object of a sentence. The objective personal pronouns are me, you, her, him, it, us, you, and them. 
For example:
* "The police officer told my brother and me to slow down."
* "He pointed to the pedestrians and said to be careful of them."
* "The police officer said there are a lot of speedy motorists like us."
Possessive personal pronouns are pronouns that show possession. They define a person, or a number of people, who owns a particular object. Here are the possessive personal pronouns: mine, yours, hers, his, its, ours, and theirs. For example:
"Is this book yours or his?"
"All the books are mine."
"Nobody's house has as many books as theirs, not even ours."
2.2. Demonstrative pronouns point to and identify a noun or a pronoun. This and these refer to things that are nearby in space or time, while that and those refer to things that are farther away in space or further away in time. For example:
"This is the dress I will wear; that is the one I wore yesterday."
“That is not true."
"Please pay for those."
2.3. Interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions. The interrogative pronouns are who, whom, which, and what. It is important to remember that who and whom are used to refer to people, while which is used to refer to things and animals. Who acts as the subject, while whom acts as the object. For example:
"Which is the best restaurant?"
"What did he tell you?" 
"Whom should we invite?"
2.4. Relative pronouns are used to link one phrase or clause to another phrase or clause. The relative pronouns are who, whom, that, and which. The compounds whoever, whomever, and whichever are also commonly used as relative pronouns. For example:
"Whoever added the bill made a mistake."
"The bill, which included all our meals, was larger than expected."
"The waiter who served us doesn't know how to add."
2.5. Indefinite pronouns refer to an identifiable, but not specified, person or thing. An indefinite pronoun conveys the idea of all, any, none, or some. If you are learning English as a second language, remember the following common indefinite pronouns: all, another, any, anybody, anyone, anything, each, everybody, everyone, everything, few, many, nobody, none, one, several, some, somebody, and someone. For examp