Tgp chi KHOA HOC & CONG NGHE 136 (06) 3 8 USING COMMON KNOWLEDGE TO ILLUSTRATE THE MEANING OF WORD IN TEACHING ENGLISH Mai Van Can College of Education TNU SUMMARY Teaching English at university in Vi[.]
Tgp chi KHOA HOC & CONG NGHE 136 (06): - USING COMMON KNOWLEDGE TO ILLUSTRATE THE MEANING OF WORD IN TEACHING ENGLISH Mai Van Can College of Education - TNU SUMMARY Teaching English at university in Viet Nam, it is necessary for the lecturer to build a language environment in the classroom and avoid explainmg meanings in Vietnamese so that students have many opportunities to listen to English, leam pronrmciation, think and express ideas in the target language Working in this way, they can develop both their language competence and language performance and partly avoid negative influences of their mother tongue on the second language The lecturer can satisfy the requirement of teaching and fulfill his/her duty by making use of students' knowledge of other subjects to show the meaning of new word explicitly and correctly This is an integration in teaching, a viewpoint which has existed for a long time in the world, but is not largely applied to teaching a foreign langtiage in Viet Nam, If the teacher uses it, he will change his traditional way of teaching and motivate his students to brainstorm, imagine, and enhance the training quality The article ends with an example of teaching the text "Where in the world" taken from the New Cutting Edge series, using the viewpoint of integration Key words: common knowledge, word meaning, teaching English, ELT Ones have heard that Vietnamese teachers taught English to Vietnamese learners by using Vietnamese to explain grammatical rules and meaning As a result, Vietnamese students could not speak English or their communicative competence was very poor During the English lesson, they did not have many opportimities to hear and xmderstand the target language When they were told to say anything, they often thought in Vietnamese and translated what they wanted to say into English Learning English in this way, they could not make the native understand what they wanted to say and their writing was strongly influenced by Vietnamese culture Facing this problem, many teachers have raised the question that how they can develop their students' communicative competence, so that, after finishing the cotirse at imiversity, their students will be able to use English at work If this comes true, it will help Viet Nam incorporate with other coimtries in the region as well as in the world as our Party and Govermnent expect Language is a tool to convey information of all the branches of science In other words, it Tel: 0914 833765, Email- maivcan@gmail.com is a complete integration of all the aspects of human life, which make this world exist and develop along time Specifically, in the language, there are words about history, geography, literature, mathematics, physics, chemistry Scientists use language to report their research projects and publicise them with society Is it worth using what learners have known to help teach and leam English? Recently, a group of teachers at Thai Nguyen University of Education - Thai Nguyen University did this practice: They did not explain the lesson in Vietaamese during the English lecture All what they taught were explained in English by using common knowledge For example, to show the meaning ofthe word "easy", they asked their students to give their idea about these calculations: 3-1-2 = ? 4-^6 + = ? To specify the meaning of ugly, they suggested that their students should think about Thi No in the story of Chi Pheo by Nam Cao Teaching words referring qualities and characteristics, they associated with different people in society When the students were asked to give their comment on the way Mai Van CIn Tap chi KHOA HQC & CONG NGHE of teaching and to a test afier each lecture, the results were interesting 90% of them were pleased with what they had learnt and felt that they made progress in learning in English: this was affirmed by the score in their paper tests , , It is a fact that the students, mentioned above, , ,^ , , ^, have passed 12 years at school and the , ^L national umversify entrance exams and they have leamt English for several years, so their commonknowledge is eonsiderable Teachers of English can make use of this good point to create series of activites in EngUsh during the lecture(4) First of all, they use can knowledge of maths during the lecture as follows: Ask students to work out which number is for which adverb of frequency: 100%, 0%, 90%, 50% always, usually, sometimes, often never , , J Complete the second sentence m such a way that its meaning remains the same as the sentence printed before it t J rtrtti/ i^ • 1• , I spend 100% of my lime working on the ^ ^ ° computer m my office —* I alwavs , , , ^ My father spends 0% of his time smoking ., , ^ ^ —* My father These students spend 50% oftheir free time pUymg sports and 50% of their free time ~* y Another example is that, showing the meaning ofthe verb "prefer" and its structure, the teacher gives this sentence with typical numbers given together: Make a comparison between the numbers like tea (100%) and I like coffee (80%) - I prefer tea to coffee Make similar sentences in these situations: a) Some students like English (70%) and they like French (30%) —» Some students b) Lan likes playing football (80%) and Lan likes watching football (60%) 136 (06): - -^ Lan c) Farmers like living in the country (60%) and they like living in the city (40%) _^ Farmers ^ ^ ,• , , ^ * ^ classroom of English, knowledge of chemistry also helps the teacher indicate the j *• • , u* Tmeanmg of words refermg to substances For i ^ ^- ^.i T,- ^ example, not mentionmg the Vietnamese : ^ , , •"'=^"8 of hydrogen oxygen nitrogen, '^^''='™' sodium sulphune ae,d, salt, he ^ ' ^ ^ "• O N, Ca, S HjSO, NaCI on the board Showing the meanmg of the word of chemical, he uses some formulas: NaNO,, HNO^CaCOj as examples Knowledge of physics does the same if the teacher uses it to illustrate the meaning of words For example, to explain the meaning °f "boi'", Ihe teacher says that warter does this when it is 100 C : or the meaning of ^ "^^^^^"' ^^^^^ ^^^^ ^ ^ ^'^^^ '^ '^ ^^- '^° ^^^^ *^^ meaning of "flexible", the lecturer 3sks students to think about a feature of ,, rubber, • ^ English lesson can contain words about different aspects of life and it requires the , , , ,, i-.-cr jru, teacher to use knowledge ofdifferent fields to , - ^ „ make it meamngnil Dealing with words refemng countries and their location on the ^ ^ j ^ ^^p ^^ their climate, the teacher can ask students questions about geography, history, politics :e.g Which country has the largest population in die world? Which country has the largest area? In which continent is Viet Nam? Now, it is summer in Australia, which summer is it in Viet Nam and ^(^.j ^ ^ , , , ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^^^^^ j y ,^, October Revelution take place? ,„ addition, the teacher can ask students to give a topic to each of the following groups °^ " " d s : a) Asia, Europe, America, Africa, Aatarctica ' ' ' ">« Sahara, the Gobi, the Sudan Tap chi KHOA HQC & CONG NGHE c) Marxism socialism d) tropical, Leninism, capitalism temperate, Another means, not less important, which helps teachers expose the meaning of word effectively is using Vietnamese culture They can use concrete things to explain the meaning of abstract things For example, when teaching the word "wonder", they ask students to think about Ha Long Bay, teaching words: well-known, famous, they use Thai Nguyen tea or Tnmg Nguyen coffee as instances, teaching words: unification, independence, they say that Viet got this in Spring 1975 136 (06): - It is safe to say that knowledge of all the fields of life can help the teacher explain an English lesson successfially and make it become interesting This integration(2) combines English with other subjects at school and develops learners' competence comprehensivefy as it considers knowledge of other subjects as a means to teach English In order to this, the teacher should have a good knowledge of both nature and society, be well-quaUfied and flexible while working An example of teaching English according to this viewpoint is shown as follows: Teaching plan for "Where in the world:" Module 9, vocabulary and reading, New Cutting Edge; Pre-Intermediate Wliere in the world: is ehe country with the most extreme climate? Two of the hottest and coldest temperature* ever recorded were in the same country - Acgentinn A temperature of 49°C was recorded In the town of Ktvadavla on 11th December 1905 and -33°C In SarmlentoConly llSkmawayJin June 1907 - chai'sa difference of SZ-C! can you find iJhe Yellow River, th« Black Sea and Greenland and yvby thev have tiiose namesJ The Yellow River is the second longesr rivet in China It cartles millions of tons of-yrfJowMndfrorothedeeetw of centcml China, which give tho river a yellowiah colour The Black Sea tiet between six countri^, including Russia, Turkey and Ukraine - buc ir cercilnly isn't black! The name probably ctiraes from the black clouds which can cause xcuinis in the area And Greenland - che world's largest island apart:froiTiAustralia - is mure white than Breen (B5% ia permanently covered in snow and ice) One idea f( that die first people who arrived there aaw it in spiinit c:an you find a lake where the water is ffalty? The Dead Sea is not reallv a sea but a lake Water comci into it from the River Jordan, but becauie the I^ad Scs is tower than the land around It, it cannot flow out The hot desert sun evaporates the water sa quickly aa itflowsin, leaving salt and other mIncrcJs As a result, the Dead Sea i6 seven times aaltter than the sea, and people can easily float on it' you find die country with the world's IcMifEest coastline? Caiuda hiu the world'a longest coastline - just over 240,000 km (dii« is nearlyfiverimes longer than the nesct counity Indonesia) As a single line, die coastline wouU go tound the Eatth six timesL C i5 the world's longest mountain In Saudi America, the Andes stretch more than 7,000 km from Lake Maracaibo in the north to Tierra del Fuego in the soudi - the whole length of die continenr and a distance greater Chan New York to Londotl In the Andes you can also And the world's highest volcano (Nevado 0)os del Salado on the border between Chile and Ateentlna} and the wodd's highestlake (Lake Tltlcaca) Mai Van Can Tap chi KHOA HOC & CONG NGH$ 136 (06): 3-8 I n t h e c i t y o f " V e r v i c e i n t H e n o - r t H - « a s r of" I t a l y I