Applying some useful indirect techniques in teaching vocabulary to 12th form students

PART A: INTRODUCTION The rationale of the study Studies have shown that vocabulary knowledge is strongly correlated, and researchers have found that word knowledge in high school can predict how well students will be able to comprehend texts they read in high schools Limited vocabularies prevent students from comprehending a text Direct instructions in vocabulary can help arrest this cycle Good readers often acquire much of their vocabulary through wide independent reading, also known as incidental learning However, explicit instructions can help students learn enough words to become better readers (and thus acquire even more words) Direct vocabulary instructions are useful for students at all ability levels, but it is particularly useful for beginning students who have a limited reading vocabulary and little exposure to incidental vocabulary learning outside of schools Studies have shown that the key to increase vocabulary is exposure to new words—not an innate ability to learn from context Experts emphasize that vocabulary development is an attainable goal If given the opportunity to learn new words as well as effective instruction, most students can acquire vocabulary at rates that will improve their comprehension This enables them to read increasingly challenging texts with fluency and betters their chances for success in school and afterward From the above reasons, I choose the topic “Applying some useful indirect techniques in teaching vocabulary to 12th form students”, hopefully that it will help enhance students’ wide range of vocabulary Aims and Objectives of the study With the reasons above in my mind, the specific aims of the study accordingly are: + To present different indirect techniques in teaching vocabulary to students + To give out some practical exercises for the further practices of English vocabulary among students Objects of the study In this study, I intend to deal with something about the theory of some techniques in teaching vocabulary and the procedures when carrying out some teachniques Methods of the study With reference to its characteristics, this study can be categorized as an action research The following instruments are applied to collect data for this study: * A study on theoretical background of vocabulary and some techniques in teaching vocabulary * Personal observations by attending classes Remarkable points of the study The study tends to help improve learners’ vocabulary that they can easily apply in their language learning From that point, they will improve their English remarkably PART B: DEVELOPMENT I Theoretical background of vocabulary in language learning and teaching I.1 Definitions of vocabulary in language learning and teaching Vocabulary represents one of most important skills necessary for teaching and learning a foreign language It is the basis for the development of all the other skills: reading comprehension, listening comprehension, speaking, writing, spelling and pronunciation Vocabulary is the main tool for the students in their attempt to use English effectively I.2 The importance of vocabulary in language learning and teaching Talking about the importance of vocabulary, the linguist David Wilkins argued that: “without grammar little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” Indeed, people need to use words in order to express themselves in any language Most learners, too, acknowledge the importance of vocabulary acquisition In my experience as a teacher, I noticed the fact that students usually find it difficult to speak English fluently They usually consider speaking and writing activities exhausting because they keep on using the same expressions and words and very soon their conversation is abruptly interrupted due to missing words And the main reason for such communication problems is the lack of vocabulary Other students are confronted with the problem of forgetting the words immediately after the teacher has elicited their meaning or after they have looked them in the dictionary, and this also a cause of the lack of vocabulary The more words students learn, the easier they memorize them Vocabulary learning is the process acquiring building blocks in second language acquisition Restrepo Ramos (2015) The impact of vocabulary on proficiency in second language performance "has become […] an object of considerable interest among researchers, teachers, and materials developers"Huckin & Coady, 1999, p 182) From being a neglected aspect of language learning, vocabulary gained recognition in the literature and reclaimed its position in teaching Educators shifted their attention from accuracy to fluency by moving from the Grammar translation method to communicative approaches to teaching by using different types of techniques in teaching and learning II The reality of teaching vocabulary in every high school In fact, most teachers tend not to waste too much time demonstrating the vocabulary Instead, they often write down the new words and their meaings also on the board and ask students to read out some times to practise without putting them in the context Consequently, students often find it boring when studying, and a bit difficult to understand the meanings of words in context Obviously, they tend to forget the meanings of new words quickly and find it difficult handling those words in the real situation Therefore, this problem is well worth taking into consideration III Using different types of indirect techniques in teaching vocabulary During the time the study was carried out, I often gave some different techniques in teaching vocabulary to students The new words were explained clearly in some ways so that students could guess the clues, understand the word meanings and they were able to use them effectively I also gave the procedure of training lessons in which students had chances practicing with the guessing technique in learning vocabulary III.1 Showing the meaning of words visually III.1.1 Using pictures and cards Picture cues are a great mechanism for teaching young Students to study Vocabularies They can combination of words and visual cues can help a young mind piece together a word There are several ways to approach it The approach shown here works with whole words First, you can plan your lesson and pick the words you'll teach your student An effective way to this is by categories For example, teach your student how to read words associated with fruit, such as apple, orange or peach Since the human mind likes to categorize things, this method helps these words gel into your young student’s mind Second, Get the corresponding picture cue cards You can obtain picture cue cards with one letter on them or with entire words on them When teaching a student to read by showing whole words, its best to look for picture cue cards that deal with life activities These packages normally have food groups and other categories in them Third, Sit the child down in a quiet place before starting the lesson The trick to getting picture cues to work is to keep a young student’s attention and have her connect a picture with a word This won’t happen if she can’t see the picture cue card or is distracted by sounds Forth, Pick up a picture cue card and say the corresponding word Make sure you explain what you are doing before the lesson Then, as you say the word and show the picture cue card, allow a time delay This time delay (1 to seconds) will allow your student to soak in the word and associate it with the image After you show the picture card, spell the word so your student will associate certain alphabetic letters with the image Next, Repeat this exercise at least two times This means you should show a picture cue card of an apple and say the word twice Repetition is a proven method of learning, so use it to your advantage Then, coordinate picture cues with spelling lessons You can this by covering up the word on the picture cue card and revealing only one letter at a time as the student says it to you This will further associate the word with the picture and help the young student learn to read Last but not least, Allow your student a chance to show off his stuff After you’ve been working with your student for a while, mix up the order of your picture cue cards and allow him to read the words back to you This will let you see if he is really learning or if he has just memorized the order of the picture cue cards ILLUSTRATED LECTURE UNIT 6- ENDANGERED SPECIES (NEW TEXTBOOK) Choose the right words or phrases which best describe the pictures CARDS: A biologist B campfire C E G Wildlife parks Botanical garden Crocodile dinosaurs D F Extinct species F H Camel PICTURES: Students’activies Ss is devided two groups, and they have to observe pictures carefully and use cards to paste in the pictures The class will be vibrant Teacher’s activities T devides the class into groups T asks Ss to paste pictures which are suitables with cards T helps Ss to discuss T gives small presents or add mark for the winning group T helps to read Suggested answers A wildlife parks P8 B dinosaurs P7 C rhinoceros P6 D biologist P1 E campfire P4 F botanical garden P2 G extinct species P4 H crocodile P3 I P5 camel III.1.2 Using videos Almost any video can be used to teach English: commercial films, TV programmers, home-made dramas and holiday films Live television programmers are NOT recommended Your method should vary according to the language point you wish to teach and the level of your student(s) Although a handset is ideal, it is not essential Position yourself near the front of the class, to one side - close enough to the video player to work the controls if you not have a handset If the video player is independent of the TV, turn it so you can work the controls easily without interfering with your students' view of the TV screen This medium can be used to pratise consolidate range of language points to introduce subject(s) for debate to encourage conversation amongst students to improve writing skills to introduce new vocabulary to develop listening skills (with visual aid) Few lessons would involve continuous viewing - even with speech-free films Strategic stopping is essential The teacher controls what students see and hear: Films, with excessive bad language, can be shown without sound If the majority of film is good, unsuitable sex or violent scenes can easily be avoided as follows plan in advance how to exploit the remainder of the film knowing the exact counter positions of scenes to be omitted ILLUSTRATED LECTURE UNIT 5: CULTURAL DIVERSITY- LISTENING Warm up: T gives a short video about a marriage in VietNam and America When Ss watch video clip, T points some important words which are shown on screen Some important words: Altar/ Master of celemony/ Banquet/ Groom/ Bridge/ Ancestor/Tray/ Schedule/ Blessing III.1.3 Using realia The main advantage of using real objects into the classroom is to make the learning experience more memorable for the learner To give a couple of simple examples, if you are going to teach vocabulary of fruit and vegetables it can be much more affective for students if they can touch, smell and see the objects at the same time as hearing the new word This would appeal to a wider range of learner styles than a simple flashcard picture of the piece of fruit or vegetable (With very young learners, classroom management can become trickier if you bring in real objects as excitement levels tend to rise Last year one of my students bit into an onion we were passing round I’m sure he hasn’t forgotten that class!) A second example would be if you are going to teach some functional language for asking for the timetable for a train You could use a fictitious timetable or you could use a real one from the local train station, one from the internet, or if you’re really organised, some you brought back from your last trip to the UK This way you expose students to more language than simply the times and destinations They will see information about prices, discounts, bank holidays etc ILLUSTRATED LECTURE UNIT 5: CULTURAL DIVERSITY- WRITING - Ask students to write about one of the most important features that define Vietnamese cultural identity- Non la - T brings the “ Nón lá” ( conical leaf hat) - T shows it in front of the class - T asks Ss to guess which is “leaf, rim, ribs, shape” Ss learn vocabularies by watching realia III.1.4 Using mine This is the way of using actions and facial expressions to show the meaning of words Most action verb ( sits, stand, open…) and some adjectives showing feelings and stantus ( happy, worried…) can be taught using mine ILLUSTRATED LECTURE UNIT 3: WAYS OF SOCIALISING- READING Warm up: Vocabularies Some words teacher can express by actions: Clap: T claps in front of the class and asks Ss what it means “ Vỗ tay” Shake hand: T shakes hands with one student in the class and aks Ss what is she doing “ Bắt tay” Wave: T also “waves” and makes Ss understand his/her actions III.2 Word meanings from context Using examples, situations, or explanations is another ways of showing what word mean Most abstract words ( love, happiness…) can be taught effectively in context There are some points to consider when using this method Besides, it is not necessary to give a complicated explanation, the meaning can be shown by simple sentences The teacher can ask Ss to find the meaning by guessing the meaning of sentences which are around ILLUSTRATED LECTURE UNIT 1: HOME LIFE- READING T asks ss to see in the book and pay attention to the sentences “ The main responsibility is to wash the dishes and take out the gabage” I also look after the boys” Depennds on the sentences T aks Ss to guess the meaning of words “responsibility, look after” III Using synonyms or antonyms Synonyms are different words with similar or identical meanings They are interchangeable For example: Car and automobile Antonyms are words with opposite or nearly opposite meanings.For example: Large and small This is a nice warm up game using synonyms and antonyms You can make it as difficult or easy as you wish, depending on the level of your students Hand out a list of words to each student There should be two columns next to each word, label the heading of each column, synonym and antonym You can make up your own lists using words you've already taught Thesaurus.com is a useful tool for this exercise Then read out the synonyms and antonyms of those words The students have to write these words next to the word they are the same or the opposite of ILLUSTRATED LECTURE 10 UNIT 6: FUTURE JOB- SPEAKING Find each pair of antonym from the following: Boring Rewarding Dangerous Difficult Easy Fascinating Unsastified Grotesque T adds words in the board or give small handouts to ask Ss to match Fantastic Safe Ss guess and match T checks corrected answers T helps SS to read voca and explains Suggested answers Boring Rewarding Dangerous Difficult Fantastic Fascinating Unsastified Safe Easy grotesque III.4 Definitions and translations Applied linguists have for some time suggested that communicative competence includes a major component, usually termed strategic competence, the development of which largely determines the learner's fluency and conversational skills Practising teachers, however, are usually unaware of the significance of this competence, and hardly any activities have been developed to include strategy training in actual language teaching The aim of this article is to bridge the gap between theory and practice by first describing strategic competence and then presenting language exercises to facilitate its development III.4.1 Definition ILLUSTRATED LECTURE UNIT 10: ENDANGERED SPECIES- READING Task :The nouns in column A all appear in the passage Match each of them with a suitable definition in column B A B 11 Extinction a The existence of a larger number of differnet kinds of animal and plants which make a balanced Habitat envitonment b The act of preventing something from being Biodiversity lost, wasted, damaged or destroyed c a situation in which a plant, an animal, a way of Conservation life stops existing d The natural eviroment in which a plant or animal lives T asks Ss to work in groups Ss guess and match the word which is suitable with its definition T suggests Ss find words in the text and guess the meaning T checks the answer Suggested answers: 1.c 2.d 3.a 4.b III.4.2 Translation ILLUSTRATED LECTURE UNIT 9: DESERTS- READING Task 1: Give the Vietnamese equivalents to the following words or phrases English Stretch Sandy Aerial survey Royal Geography society of Australia Australia Aborigine Dune Sloping Steep Hummock 10 Crest 11 Spinifex Vietnamese Kéo dài Thổ dân Úc Hội hoàng gia địa lý Úc Cồn cát Đỉnh Có cát Dốc thoai thoải Lá nhọn Gò đống Dốc đứng Phỏng vấn khơng 12 T asks Ss to work in groups Ss guess and match the word which is suitable with its definition T suggests Ss find words in the text and guess the meaning T checks the answers Suggested answers: English 12 Stretch 13 Sandy 14 Aerial survey 15 Royal Geography society of Australia 16 Australia Aborigine 17 Dune 18 Sloping 19 Steep 20 Hummock 21 Crest 22 Spinifex Vietnamese Kéo dài Có cát Phỏng vấn khơng Hội hồng gia địa lý Úc Thổ dân Úc Cồn cát Dốc thoai thoải Dốc đứng Gò đống Đỉnh Lá nhọn IV Exercises for training vocabulary IV.1 Gap-filling Gap-fills are an excellent way to reinforce vocabulary, and allow the student to encounter the vocabulary in a variety of contexts The exercises can be worked on individually or in pairs in class, or can be assigned as homework to be quickly reviewed in class IV.1.1 The Standard Multi-Word Gap-Fill Gap-fill exercises can take various forms; the most common is the standard multi-word exercise with a number of sentences and words to choose from A short example exercise with sentences is shown below 13 IV.1.2 The Gap-Fill with Clues in Root Form A challenging variation of the above exercise is a gap-fill exercise in which the words which are gapped are presented in their root form In this way, students have to choose the correct word from the contexts given, and supply the appropriate form of the word, such as a different derivation or different tense A short example exercise with sentences is shown below IV.1.3 Multiple Contexts for One Word 14 Another variation which can help students to understand the various derivations for a word is a gap-fill exercise with several different contexts for word, each showing a different form or derivation A short example exercise with sentences is shown below IV.1.4 Listening Practice with Gap-Fills Gap-fill exercises can be presented as listening exercises In this exercise, students hear the sentence rather than reading it, and have to choose the appropriate answer A short example exercise with sentences is shown below The next day in class, students can be shown the sentences that they heard in the language lab At this time, they can see if what was said is the same as what they thought they heard It also offers an additional opportunity to review and learn the target vocabulary 15 ILLUSTRATED LECTURE UNIT 10- ENDANGERED SPECIES- LISTENING Conmplete each of the sentences with the correct form of the words below: Peaceful Plants Plant eating In trees A few female Civil war * HAND-OUT General (1)……………., gentle, social, and …………… (2) Group members The silverback, one or two sub- adult males, ……… (3) Food ………………… (4) and worms Place for sleeping Nest……………(5) or………………………………… Cause of being endangered 7……………… , hunters killing them for food, ………………… Suggested answers: peaceful planting eating a few females and their young plants and a few insects in trees in glasses civil war forest being cut down 16 IV Multiple choice Multiple choice is a form of assessment in which respondents are asked to select the best possible answer (or answers) out of the choices from a list However, the most serious disadvantage is the limited types of knowledge that can be assessed by multiple choice tests Multiple choice tests are best adapted for testing well-defined or lower-order skills Problem-solving and higher-order reasoning skills are better assessed through short-answer and essay tests However, multiple choice tests are often chosen, not because of the type of knowledge being assessed, but because they are more affordable for testing a large number of students This is especially true in the United States where multiple choice tests are the preferred form of high-stakes testing ILLUSTRATED LECTURE UNIT 1: HOME LIFE- READING Task : Choose the sentences A,B,C thwt is nearest in meaning to the sentences given There are many factors contributing to air pollution A Air pollution results in many consequences B Air pollution is the result of burning forests C Factors contributing to air pollution are numerous D Air pollution is contributing to these phenomena As television programmes become more popular, they seem to get worse A The more popular be come television programmes, the worse they seem B.The popular television programmes, the worse they seem C.The more popular television programmes become, the worse they seem D.The most popular television programmes become, the worst they seem I don’t think Jerry will win the tennis match A In my opinion, Jerry will not likely to win the tennis match B I will never think Jerry will win the tennis match C The fact is that Jerry won’t win the tennis match D Jerry will win the tennis match, I don’t think that He only feels happy whenever he doesn’t have much work to A The more he works, the happier he feels B He feels happier and happier with his job C The less he works, the happier he feels D His work makes him feel happy Neither Jane nor Susan can dance well 17 A Both Jane and Susan can dance well B Jane can’t dance well and Susan can’t either C Jane can’t dance well but Susan can D Susan can’t dance well but Jane can It took him three hours to his homework A He spent three hours doing his homework B He did his homework three hours ago C He finished his homework three hours ago D He did his homework at three o’clock The last time I saw Rose was five months ago A I haven’t seen Rose three years ago B I haven’t seen Rose since three years C I haven’t seen Rose for three years D I hasn’t seen Rose for three years “Let’s go on a walking holiday!” said Jane A Jane allowed us to go on a walking holiday B Jane invited us to go on a walking holiday C Jane wanted us to go on a walking holiday D Jane suggested going on a walking holiday V Result of the study In order to find out the effectiveness of the techniques, some tests were given to 90 students to check their understanding of vocabulary, in comparison with the pre-tests Very good Good Medium Low Very (>9) (>8) (>6) (>5) (