Using games to improve memorization of word meaning in the teaching of speaking to dmi first year students of hcmc university of industry

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: USING GAMES TO IMPROVE MEMORIZATION OF WORD MEANING IN THE TEACHING OF SPEAKING TO DMI FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS OF HCMC UNIVERSITY OF INDUSTRY in terms of the statement of Requirements for Theses in Master’s Programmes issued by the Higher Degree Committee Ho Chi Minh City, April 3rd, 2007 HUỲNH THANH NHỰT i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, HUỲNH THANH NHỰT, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses Ho Chi Minh City, April 3rd, 2007 HUỲNH THANH NHỰT ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my grateful thanks to Dr Lê Thị Thanh Thu, my thesis supervisor, for her perceptive and comprehensive guidance, invaluable comments and constructive criticism, and opportune encouragement My special thanks also go to the administrators of this master course, Mr Lê Hữu Phước, Head of the Department of Post Graduate Studies of Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, and Mr Nguyễn Huỳnh Đạt, Head of the Department of English Linguistics and Literature of Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, and their staff members I also would like to express my gratitude to Mr Tạ Xuân Tề, Rector of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, and Mr Huỳnh Trung Tâm, Head of the Department of English Language of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry, and all the lecturers of the department I am really grateful to all my friends, who have regularly helped and encouraged me for the completion of the thesis I owe a debt of gratitude to my parents and relatives for their moral support and useful advice during the time of conducting the thesis iii ABSTRACT Lots of college and university students nowadays, even though they have learned English for seven years at high schools, encounter lots of trouble when they need to speak English fluently There may be abundance of explanations for the deficiency in the speaking skill of these students Nevertheless, my personal experience has shown that most college and university students lack necessary vocabulary whenever they want to express their ideas in English Unfortunately, they easily forget even the new vocabulary they have just learned This study was carried out, as a result, to find a way of helping DMI first-year students of HCMC University of Industry overcome the problem of vocabulary memorization The aim of this study was to explore the effectiveness of communication games in class and investigate the extent to which games could help DMI first-year students of HCMC University of Industry memorize word meaning better The research methods used in this study included: (1) a quick question to be answered by raising hands in order to find out the students’ opinions about games before they were applied in class, (2) five word tests that aimed at testing the students’ memorization of word meaning after they had learned the new words with communication games, and (3) an interview with those students who had learned new words with games in order to gather information on their assessment of learning new words with games and their improvement in word meaning memorization iv The results of the study showed that communication games were really effective in helping to solve the problem of word meaning memorization of DMI first-year students of HCMC University of Industry After learning new words with games in class, their memorization of word meaning became better as they could identify more meaning of the challenging new words in the tests The study also suggested the three favored games which the students considered as the most useful and challenging, and which English teachers could make use of in their classes With the hope of improving students’ knowledge of English vocabulary, this study could be a reference for the English teacher’s teaching methods v LIST OF TABLES Page Table 3.1 – List of games applied in the research 49 Table 4.1 – Results of Test from Class DBA-8B2 53 Table 4.2 – Results of Test from Class DBA-8C1 54 Table 4.3 – Results of Test from Class DBA-8B2 56 Table 4.4 – Results of Test from Class DBA-8C1 57 Table 4.5 – Results of Test from Class DBA-8B2 59 Table 4.6 – Results of Test from Class DBA-8C1 60 Table 4.7 – Results of Test from Class DBA-8B2 62 Table 4.8 – Results of Test from Class DBA-8C1 63 Table 4.9 – Results of Test from Class DBA-8B2 65 Table 4.10 – Results of Test from Class DBA-8C1 66 Table 4.11 – Results from the second interview – Questions 1&2 68 vi LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 3.1 – Pathway of tests comparison of the two groups 46 Figure 4.1 – Percent of correct answers from Test compared between the two classes 55 Figure 4.2 – Percent of correct answers from Test compared between the two classes 58 Figure 4.3 – Percent of correct answers from Test compared between the two classes 61 Figure 4.4 – Percent of correct answers from Test compared between the two classes 64 Figure 4.5 – Percent of correct answers from Test compared between the two classes 67 Figure 4.6 – Percent of correct answers from the five tests compared between the two groups vii 71 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iii ABSTRACT iv LIST OF TABLES vi LIST OF FIGURES vii TABLE OF CONTENTS viii CHAPTER - INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background to the study 1.2 Rationale of the study 1.3 Objectives of the study 1.4 Research question 1.5 Significance of the study 1.6 Limitations 1.7 Overview of the study CHAPTER – LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Word meaning 2.2 Memorization 12 2.3 Improvement in memorization of word meaning 14 viii 2.4 Games: Definition and Classification 19 2.5 The roles of games and word meaning in the teaching of English speaking 25 2.6 Benefits of using games in the language classroom 27 2.7 Players and application of games 31 2.8 Effectiveness of games in improving memorization of word meaning 35 CHAPTER – METHODOLOGY 41 3.1 Research setting 41 3.2 Subjects of the research 42 3.3 Research methods 43 3.3.1 The first interview 43 3.3.2 The word tests 44 3.3.3 The second interview 46 3.4 Research procedure 48 CHAPTER – RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Results 51 51 4.1.1 Results from the first interview 51 4.1.2 Results from the word tests 52 4.1.2.1 Results from Test (Sample test) 52 4.1.2.2 Results from Test 56 4.1.2.3 Results from Test 59 4.1.2.4 Results from Test 62 4.1.2.5 Results from Test 65 4.1.3 Results from the second interview 4.2 Discussion 68 69 ix CHAPTER - CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS 74 5.1 Conclusion 74 5.2 Suggestions 75 5.2.1 The pyramid game 75 5.2.2 The password game 76 5.2.3 The miming game 77 LIST OF REFERENCES APPENDICES x 4.1.2.5 Results from Test In this final test of the research, the two groups still performed well The control group had almost the same performance compared with the previous two tests In Test 5, the control group had quite a lot of trouble with the choices, especially between the pair of words paw (Question 4) and claw (Question 5) (See Table 4.9) Table 4.9 - Results of Test from Class DBA-8B2 (24 students) Number of Percent of correct Number of wrong Percent of wrong correct answers answers answers answers 23 95.8% 4.2% 23 95.8% 4.2% 22 91.7% 8.3% 18 75.0% 25.0% 18 75.0% 25.0% 22 91.7% 8.3% 21 87.5% 12.5% 19 79.2% 20.8% 21 87.5% 12.5% 10 20 83.3% 16.7% 11 21 87.5% 12.5% 12 19 79.2% 20.8% 13 22 91.7% 8.3% 14 20 83.3% 16.7% Question Average 86.01% 13.99% Paw and claw were so confusing because they both had the same semantic features “nail” and “an animal’s foot” It was really difficult for the students to distinguish their meanings as paw is “the foot with nails” and claw is “a nail on the foot”, which was the reason why the highest percentage of 25% of wrong answers fell into Questions and Other questions seemed also difficult for the students, which was 65 the reason why they made a lot of mistakes when giving the answers In this test, 14% of the total answers from the control group were wrong, and averagely a student had only 86% of correct answers, which was rather lower than the previous results With the help of games, the experiment group did not have much trouble as the control group in this test although some of the students also made mistakes in their Table 4.10 - Results of Test from Class DBA-8C1 (24 students) Number of Percent of correct Number of wrong Percent of wrong correct answers answers answers answers 24 100% 0% 23 96% 4% 23 96% 4% 22 92% 8% 22 92% 8% 22 92% 8% 23 96% 4% 24 100% 0% 24 100% 0% 10 23 96% 4% 11 22 92% 8% 12 24 100% 0% 13 23 96% 4% 14 24 100% 0% Question Average 96.13% 3.87% answers (See Table 4.10) In Questions and 5, only 8% of their total answers were wrong compared with 25% from the control group Especially, there were a lot of questions in this test where 100% of the total answers from the experiment group were correct In Test 5, each student of the experiment group had an average of 66 96.1% of correct answers This was not a better result than that of Tests and 4, but still showed the persuasive performance of the experiment group The average percentage of 3.9% of wrong answers might be explained by some students’ misunderstanding of the word meaning while they were taking the test As in the previous three tests, the experiment group still performed very well in Test and overcame the control group in understanding the meaning of the challenging words When having a look at Figure 4.5, we can see the experiment group defeating the control group in every question There were particularly several questions where the difference was really great For example, in Questions and 5, 92% of the total answers from the experiment group were correct whereas there Figure 4.5 - Percent of correct answers from Test compared between the two classes 120.0% 100.0% 80.0% 60.0% 40.0% 20.0% 0.0% DBA-8B2 95.8% 95.8% 91.7% 75.0% 75.0% 91.7% 87.5% DBA-8C1 100% 96% 96% 92% 92% 92% 96% 79.2% 87.5% 100% 100% 10 11 12 13 14 83.3% 87.5% 79.2% 91.7% 83.3% 96% 92% 100% 96% 100% were only 75% from the control group Also, in Questions and 12, 100% of the experiment group’s answers were correct whereas in this figure in the control group was just 79.2% As shown in Figure 4.5, Test again proved the overall superiority of the experiment group over the control group 67 4.1.3 Results from the second interview The second interview, which was conducted with the experiment group after the tests and consisted of three questions about language games, showed the students’ general acceptance of the effectiveness of playing games in class (See Table 4.11) As all of the students agreed that games could bring challenges and create an exciting atmosphere in class, 100% of the students from the experiment Table 4.11 - Results from the second interview - Questions 1&2 (25 students) Question Yes No 1) We have learnt a lot of new words and at the same time played a lot of games Do you enjoy learning in this way? 100% 0% (25 students) (no students) 84% 16% (21 students) (4 students) 2) Do you think you could remember the meaning of the new words better when we learned the words and played games in class at the same time? group asserted that they enjoyed learning new words and playing games at the same time Not all students of the group were sure, however, about their ability of memorizing the new words, but the majority (84%) of the students who believed that they remembered the new words better when learning with games was a satisfactory response from the experiment group who had experienced eleven weeks of learning word meaning with games in class The reasons why 16% of the students did not have confidence in remembering word meaning effectively might be that they either did not understand and were not sure about using the new words correctly, or did not really try to memorize the new words when they were playing games As 100% of the students from the experiment group supported the use of games in class and 84% of them felt certain of memorizing word meaning better when 68 learning with games, each student was asked to suggest, among the games which had been applied in the class hours, the three games which according to them had proved their effectiveness and had the most attraction The result was that the pyramid game, the password game and the miming game were voted by the majority of students Twenty five students selected the pyramid game, which accounted for 100% of the votes; twenty students chose the password game, accounting for 80%; and nineteen students (76%) voted for the miming game The reason for their choice might be that they thought these games had helped them a lot more in memorizing word meaning than the others, which also fitted in with the dramatic improvement of their test results from 58.7% of correct answers in Test to 90.1% in Test and 98.8% in Test 3, when these games were employed quite many times in class Above is a complete analysis of the study results from the interviews with the experiment group and the five word tests for both groups, which were carried out during the whole time of research, from April 10th to August 5th, 2006 4.2 Discussion The results obtained from the five word tests and the interviews almost highlighted the role of games in helping the experiment group memorizing word meaning better However, to give readers a profound insight of the study results, we shall have an in-depth discussion of the two groups’ performance during the five word tests before reaching a conclusion on whether games are useful in helping DMI first-year students improve their memorization of word meaning In Test 1, both groups performed quite poorly, which might be because the first test was completely unexpected to them In the later tests, however, their performance became better The better performance of the control group might be 69 explained by the students’ better preparation for the later tests and by the fact that they had been more aware of self-study before coming to class, so they had less trouble answering the test questions afterwards The experiment group, though their initial result was worse than that of the control group, had significant improvement in the following tests Apart from the students’ efforts, the role of games was so important that the later test results of this group improved dramatically compared with the result of Test The result of Test 1, which both groups did without playing any games, showed that the two groups were not largely different in memorizing word meaning, which was shown in Tables 4.1 and 4.2, or exactly, the experiment group did more poorly (58.7% versus 62.4% of the control group) In the later tests, however, when games were regularly applied in Class DBA-8C1, the experiment group did very well and the percentage of correct answers to the test questions increased dramatically from 58.7% in Test to 90.1% in Test 2, and 98.8% in Test In each of the Tests from to 5, the average percentage of correct answers from the experiment group were always higher than that from the control group This improvement of the experiment group might also have something to with the students’ endeavors, but the more important factor that helped them get such satisfactory results could be the use of games in class Before the application of these games, the results of the experiment group in Test were rather low Since games were applied to help the experiment group improve their word meaning memorization, their test results became better and more convincing Figure 4.6 below shows a clear improvement of the experiment group throughout the five tests during research Although the performance of the experiment group did not improve continuously, with Test as the best and the others rather lower, the results indicated the experiment group’s progress due to 70 their regular superiority over the control group since language games were employed in class in Test The figure revealed that except in Test 1, the results of the experiment group in the other tests were always higher than those of the control group Actually, the performance of the experiment group did not improve steadily throughout the five tests In Test 1, the percentage of correct answers of this group was only 58.7% In Test 2, it improved to 90.1% and reached the peak of 98.8% in Test In Tests and 5, the results remained quite stable with 97.2% and 96.1% of correct answers respectively although they were a little lower than the results of Test There could be several reasons for this phenomenon of unsteady improvement First, games were just a means of helping the students memorize word meaning better, not a guarantee of 100% of the students remembering every vocabulary they learned In other words, when the students learned word meaning with games in class, they received some promise of memorizing more meaning of the new words, but no guarantee of remembering all the meaning of the new words Second, the students were tested on different vocabulary topics depending on what subject they were learning, and each topic was at a different level of difficulty The vocabulary topics in Tests and might be a little tougher than in the previous test, which was the 71 reason why their results fell slightly in Tests and The third reason might be that Tests and were conducted near the end of the semester At that time of the school year, the students might feel rather tired and worried about their final exams, so they did not have as high concentration on the tests as before A very interesting finding obtained from the research was, however, that without learning with games in class, the ability of memorizing word meaning of the control group also improved Obviously, this improvement was not as dramatic as that of the experiment group who had learned word meaning with games In Test 1, the percentage of correct answers of the control group was 62.4%, and this increased to 73.9% in Test In Test 3, it also reached the peak of 87.1%, then stayed almost the same in Tests and with 86.5% and 86% The reasons for the control group’s unsteady development may also be the same as those for the experiment group But the average results of the control group were always lower than those of the experiment group, except in Test 1, because the students of the control group did not receive any help from playing language games in class The comparison of the test results between the experiment group and the control group, with the experiment group being superior to the control group, can help conclude the idea that games are really useful in helping DMI first-year students improve their memorization of word meaning This conclusion also agreed with the experiment group’s opinions about games as most of the students believed that games helped them a lot in memorizing word meaning better, and they all asserted that they liked to learning word meaning with games in class In relation to several researchers mentioned in Chapter 2, the conclusion that games are really useful in helping DMI first-year students improve their memorization of word meaning is also corresponding to the findings in Nguyen and Khuat’s research (2003) In other words, since games “have advantages and 72 effectiveness in helping students learn vocabulary in various ways”, they can also help students memorize the meaning of English words more efficiently The justifying statistics which we could not find in Nguyen and Khuat’s research are clearly shown in this study, and so make the study more convincing The findings from this study also reinforce the results of MacLaughlin and August’s research (2000) that combining the use of games with a vocabulary development program could enhance their fourth- and fifth-grade students’ knowledge of vocabulary In fact, in order to improve the students’ knowledge of word meaning, it would be sufficient and also effective to resort only to the use of games in class, which has been illustrated in this study Combining games with another teaching technique or program would certainly further the students’ memorizing process if there were enough time and conveniences in class This study has also explained the findings in Pillai’s research (2002) on using mnemonics to solve his students’ problems of vocabulary and help them memorize English words better The visual mnemonics suggested in Pillai’s research were all created by himself and included such vocabulary topics as description, moods and emotions, confusing words… which were really effective in bridging the boundaries between words and their meanings Since games are also a form of mnemonics, they can be exploited for the same purpose with similar success In conclusion, games have proved their effectiveness in helping DMI first-year students improve their memorization of word meaning As justified in this study, the integration of games and other teaching techniques can now be made for the purpose of teaching word meaning successfully in class However, what games were the most favored in this study and should be suggested to the English teacher? The suggestions of the most beneficial games in this study will be made in the last chapter 73 Chapter CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS 5.1 Conclusion In the process of teaching and learning English speaking, vocabulary plays a really important role It would facilitate much if students can understand and are able to remember as much as possible the meaning of the new words they have learned; then they will have more chance of expressing themselves meaningfully This study has, as a result, aimed at investigating the role of games in helping DMI first-year students of HUI improve their memorization of word meaning in learning English speaking The satisfactory performance of the students and their improvement throughout the five word tests in the research have justified the effectiveness of using games for the purpose of improving word meaning memorization in class Although the students’ performance during the five word tests did not improve steadily, it showed their progress and better memorization of the meaning of new words compared with their low ability to memorize word meaning in Test 1, when games had not been employed Their efforts in doing the tests also partly contributed to their success, but without help from playing games their performance could not develop so pleasingly After eleven weeks of learning word meaning with games in class, most of the students felt really satisfied with their progress and they all enjoyed this way of learning vocabulary This study also reveals an interesting finding that, as the students have longer time of learning new words, normally their ability of memorizing word meaning 74 tends to improve gradually without any help from language games, which was the case of the control group Nevertheless, this improvement relies quite considerably on the students’ self-study and does not produce a very impressive result With the help of language games, their improvement comes better with greater results Consequently, games are, in this study, a useful tool that can help DMI first-year students of HUI improve their memorization of word meaning Various kinds of games can be used for this intent, and so the teacher assumes responsibility for finding out the most suitable games for his class Such games that were applied during research have all proved their usefulness, and should be included in the teacher’s lesson plans These games can be played over again in class with remaining challenges and an exciting atmosphere They are, in fact, not the best games for every student and class, but should serve as some teaching reference materials for language teachers 5.2 Suggestions As it has been justified that games are useful in helping DMI first-year students improve their memorization of word meaning, teachers could now employ games for this purpose in class so long as the games are suitable and carefully selected The following are the three most beneficial games which were applied in the research: the pyramid game, the password game, and the miming game All these three games can be employed in speaking classes and are suitable for students from elementary to intermediate levels 5.2.1 The pyramid game To begin the game, the teacher needs to put his students into two groups and draw a pyramid on the board as below 75 100 40 20 10 Two students (one from each of the groups) will come to the front of the class They stand facing their classmates and are not allowed to look at the board The teacher writes a word in one space of the pyramid, starting from the space at the bottom left-hand corner The two students at the front will listen to their groups explaining the word given in the space No action or Vietnamese language is permitted The first student at the front who can get the given word and say it aloud correctly is the winner of the round and receives the corresponding points for his or her group Then, the next two students will come to the front When the spaces at the first row of the pyramid are all filled, the teacher moves on to the second row with more points for a correct answer The most points are 100 for the final most difficult word The group with more points at the end of the game is the winner 5.2.2 The password game To make the game more challenging, the teacher can put his students into two groups One student will come to the front at a time to transmit a word The teacher gives a noun, an adjective or an adverb to the student It is more convenient to use a card The student then attempts to transmit this word to his or her group by suggesting other connected words, using only one word at a time 76 The group try to guess the word after each prompting word If they can get the word right after the first prompting word, they score 100 points for their group After the second prompting word, they score 80 points… After the fifth prompting word, they score only 20 points for their correct guess, and if they cannot give the answer, they must lose their turn For lower levels, the teacher can put on each card the word together with suggested associations for the student to give, for example: The word is sheep You can use these words to suggest it: wool mountain grass white 5.2.3 The miming game In this game, the teacher divides the class into two teams The students from each team take it in turns to mime a word When the student comes to the front, the teacher gives him or her a word, either by writing the word down or by giving a prepared card containing the word The student tries to mime the word so that his or her team can identify it Within thirty seconds, the team must give the correct answer by saying the word aloud If they cannot, the other team will have a chance to guess the word The team which has more correct answers is the winner This game should be the most successful with words referring to physical actions However, it is also possible to mime jobs, feelings, objects… 77 The three games suggested above are just among the many games which can be employed for the purpose of improving students’ memorization of word meaning Since these games have proved their effectiveness in this research, they should be included in any teachers’ lesson plans The conclusion on the effectiveness of games in improving word meaning memorization has restated, with convincing statistical data, the finding in Nguyen and Khuat’s research about the role of games in class, and added some suggestions to MacLaughlin and August’s vocabulary program as well as Pillai’s research on developing his students’ vocabulary knowledge It also adds games to language teachers’ methods of teaching as a technique for increasing their students’ knowledge of new words besides those techniques that have been employed Yet, the following requirements should certainly be met for a successful game-based class First, most students must enjoy playing language games and support the use of games in class as they will cooperate eagerly in class activities Second, the games must be challenging and can create an exciting atmosphere in class Challenges are an important factor that will arouse the students’ interest and keep them concentrate all their efforts Third, the games must be meaningful and focus on a certain language point, for example vocabulary review, because many students are well aware and demanding and never play games that contain just fun and no linguistic purposes Finally, there should be various games for the same teaching purpose and the games need changing in every class hour for novelty and avoidance of boredom Although the research was conducted in the field of teaching English speaking, its results were similarly of great value to the improvement of word meaning memorization in the teaching of such other skills as listening, reading and writing Vocabulary is essential to every skill of English, and as the majority of English language learners usually have trouble with meaning of words, memorizing 78 successfully a great deal of word meaning may contribute a lot to the process of developing the skills proficiency In every research survey, the subjects are very important for the research to be valid and for its results to be reliable The choice of two classes of DBA first-year students as the subjects was sufficient for this research, and the results obtained from the tests for these two classes were really convincing To make the study results more general to English learners, however, the study needs further investigation with a larger and more diverse number of subjects The study also suggests the three most useful and challenging games which can be employed for the purpose of improving students’ memorization of word meaning in class In fact, these games have been approved of by most of the students among a lot of games that were applied in the research The number of games that are suitable for the improvement of word meaning memorization is so large, and more games could be suggested in further research into improving students’ memorization of word meaning in the future 79