TECHNIQUES OF USING VOCABULARY IN WRITING SHORT ENGLISH PARAGRAPHS FOR THE 10TH 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 Repetition Synonyms Use of Articles Use of preposition Word order Spelling Transitions III SUGGESTED TECHNIQUES OF USING VOCABULARY IN WRITING SHORT ENGLISH PARAGRAPHS Repetition of Key Words Using pronouns Synonyms Use of Articles Word order Transitions IV EXPERIMENTAL RESULT PART III: CONCLUSION AND PROPOSAL I Conclusion II Proposal Page 02 Page 02 Page 03 Page 03 Page 03 Page 04 Page 04 Page 05 Page 05 Page 05 Page 05 Page 05 page 06 Page 06 Page 06 Page 07 Page 07 Page 08 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 14 Page 17 Page 18 Page 18 Page 18 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 th 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: a To investigate students’ difficulties in using words in writing skills b To find the types of popular errors when writing English paragraphs c 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 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 10 th 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 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? A Vocabulary restriction B Grammar difficulties C Lack of ideas D Topic inappropriateness * Other ideas: - Lack of materials for consulting - Lack of teacher help Rate % 50 27 15 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 Repetition: Students have a habit of repeating unimportant words many times, which makes their paragraphs boring and unconvincing Synonyms: Writers not know synonyms instead of repeating words many times 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 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 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 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 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, notetaking is an important "pre-writing" strategy In addition, some people "freewrite," 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 notetaking 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 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 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 sitting at home In the above paragraph: The word “ Internet” is repeated times in sentence 1, 2, and The word “ information” is repeated times in sentence 2, and 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 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 example: • "Everybody got lost on the way there." • "Somebody forgot to bring the map." 10 • "No wonder so few showed up." 2.6 Reflexive pronouns refer back to the subject of the clause or sentence The reflexive pronouns used in writing English are myself, yourself, herself, himself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves For example: • "She baked a cake for herself." • "We decided to eat it ourselves." • "We heard her say, they should be ashamed of themselves." 2.7 Intensive pronouns are used to emphasize their antecedent Intensive pronouns are identical in form to reflexive pronouns For example: • "I myself find pronouns fascinating." • "They themselves think everyone should know about pronouns." • "You yourself should tell everyone how great pronouns are." Example: Write a paragraph about the reasons for studying English There are many reasons why we should learn English Firstly, English is an international language which is spoken by millions of people worldwide In education, English is the compulsory subject of many school programs For this reasons, if students want to get good results in class, they will have to make every effort to study English well In addition, most famous universities such as Oxford or Cambridge require students to use English proficiently Therefore, learning English is one of the necessary ways to provide more opportunities for them to study oversea Secondly, learning a foreign language helps learners understand and discover other cultures and customs For instance, people can read books, magazines and news to learn about various cultures because most of them are written in English Finally, learning English can help us to communicate effectively with foreigners around the world In general, English plays an important part in the modern world In the paragraph, pronoun “ which” replaces “ an international language” “ they” replaces “ students” “ them” replaces “ cultures and customs” Pronouns are useful tools to use in one‘s writing Pronouns help writers avoid repeating a noun monotonously Pronouns can be used to replace nouns that have previously been mentioned once or several times Thus, pronouns help writers reduce wordiness Pronouns help readers track essential sentence elements If readers have verbal cues to follow pronouns and transitions, they can forget connections between information in the paragraph to trace a unified sequence of ideas The paragraph in which no pronouns are used can be exhausting for the reader because it is excessively wordy, especially since long noun phrases are repeatedly used Synonyms: 11 A synonym is a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language Using synonyms is popular to improve students’ writing Example: Noun Synonym It is unquestionably the case that It is very hard to justify the payment of football players earn vast salaries…… these sums… Over the years, agriculture become more and more …… has This new type of farming is …… Nowadays, using a car is getting more This vehicle …… and more popular… In the following paragraph: Personally, I prefer life in the country to that in the city because of several reasons Firstly, rural areas bring me the peace and comfort, which is beneficial to my health Living here helps me to avoid the noise from vehicles such as motorbikes or cars and traffic jam at the rush hour, which can make me comfortable Secondly, people in the country is very friendly and hospitable If you live in urban areas, you can not even know your neighbors This makes you bored and lonely………… The writer use synonyms: the country = rural areas; the city = urban areas; cars = motorbikes = vehicles This is a key technique The idea is that students not repeat the word which they use another similar word or phrase Very often, they need to use phrases and not individual words to this well Use of Articles: Learning the proper use of articles is one of the most complicated aspects of the English language for non-native English speaking students in writing English paragraphs The English language has three articles: a definite article, 'the', and two indefinite articles, 'a' and 'an' Students can use the following table containing the use of articles in order to make a good paragraph Specific Uses of English Grammar Articles In this case Example Sentence Use "a"/ Mention something for the first time I have a problem "an" Something belongs to a certain group This is a table Someone belongs to a certain group She is a designer 12 Something is that kind of thing Someone is that kind of person Talk about a specific thing I've built a strong ship He is a nice guy The feeling I got was very strange Use "the" It is clear which thing are being talked I passed the test! about There is only one such thing Look at the sun Pigs can't fly Talk about something in general Diving can be difficult No article Talk about cities, countries, streets, etc We visited Italy With some rules of using articles in English, students avoid making mistakes about words in writing English paragraphs Word order: Adjectives describe nouns (nouns are people, place and things) Adjectives are a terrific way to make students’ writing a lot more interesting If students want their writing more descriptive, they need to learn how to use adjectives Adjectives add information about number, color, type, and other qualities about the nouns and pronouns in their sentences Adjectives help readers get a full picture of the things they are writing about For example: which of these two paragraphs is more descriptive and interesting Paragraph 1: Tet is one of the festivals in my country It is a holiday that celebrates the arrival of spring in Vietnam every year It usually lasts about days There are a lot of customs of Vietnamese people on Tet holiday For example, they often visit their relatives, friends and many – years – old temples Some people visit the graves of their ancestors in their homeland Before Tet holiday begins, people decorate their house with red beautiful roses to have a time with their family Furthermore, food such as Chung cake, steamed sticky rice and boiled chicken can play a role in Vietnam Perhaps, Tet is the time when members of family can gather to chat or have meals together In conclusion, Tet is a part in Vietnam Paragraph 2: Tet is one of the most important festivals in my country It is a big holiday that celebrates the arrival of spring in Vietnam every year It usually lasts about days There are a lot of popular customs of Vietnamese people on Tet holiday For example, they often visit their relatives, friends and many – year – old temples Some people visit the graves of their ancestors in their homeland Before Tet holiday begins, people decorate their house with beautiful red roses carefully to have a wonderful time with their family Furthermore, special Tet food such as Chung cake, steamed sticky rice and boiled chicken can play an 13 integral role in Vietnam Perhaps, Tet is the happiest time when members of family can gather to chat or have meals together In conclusion, Tet is the essential part in Vietnam In the first paragraph, the writer not use many adjectives or put the wrong order of adjectives (red beautiful ) or add “ s” after adjectives (many – years – old) Of course the second paragraph is more descriptive and interesting The adjectives in the second one help the reader form the picture of the festival – Tet – in his / her mind If writers want to make their writing more interesting, adding and using correct adjectives are very important Here are some different ways to use adjectives and avoid mistakes: • Adjectives describing nouns: The most common job for an adjective is describing a noun Consider the adjectives venomous, angry, and rubber in these sentences Then decide which sentence you would like to hear as they walk through the jungle There is a venomous snake on your shoulder There is an angry, venomous snake on your shoulder There is a rubber snake on your shoulder The last one, right? In these three sentences, those little descriptive words certainly make a difference Angry, venomous, and rubber all describe snake, and all of these descriptions give information that they would really like to have See how diverse and powerful adjectives can be? Adjectives describing pronouns: Adjectives can also describe pronouns (words that substitute for nouns) When they're giving information about pronouns, adjectives usually appear after the pronoun they're describing Example: There’s something strange on your shoulder (The adjective strange describes the pronoun something.) Everyone conscious at the end of Ronald’s play made a quick exit (The adjective conscious describes the pronoun everyone.) Anyone free should report to the meeting room immediately! (The adjective free describes the pronoun anyone.) • Attaching adjectives to linking verbs: Adjectives may also follow linking verbs, in this case they describe the subject of the sentence To find an adjective after a linking verb, ask the question what Sometimes a linking verb joins an adjective (or a couple of adjectives) and a noun Example Lulu’s favorite dress is orange and purple (The adjectives orange and purple describe the noun dress.) • 14 The afternoon appears gray because of the nuclear fallout from Roger’s cigar (The adjective gray describes the noun afternoon.) George’s latest jazz composition sounds awful (The adjective awful describes the noun composition.) The order of adjectives: The list below shows how the order of adjectives is usually presented • OPINION APPEARANCE AGE COLOR good usually follows new Red this order: bad antique purple size/measure beautiful old pink big/ small/ high young dark green ugly low smart two-year- navy blue shape old* dumb round/ circular/ square condition broken/ cracked ripped/ fresh rotten ORIGIN MATERIAL Korean iron Chinese brass French cotton Italian gold American wooden vegetable A number and noun as an adjective Adjectives are never plural Therefore, when the adjective contains a number and noun, the noun associated with the number is singular • Example: many – year – old temples many – years – old temples CORRECT INCORRECT Good writers avoid writing too many simple sentences about one subject When they have two short sentences about the same noun with an adjective, they can combine the sentences by putting the adjective before the noun This makes their writing more interesting Transitions: Good transitions can connect paragraphs and turn disconnected writing into a unified whole Instead of treating paragraphs as separate ideas, transitions can help readers understand how paragraphs work together, relate to one another, and build to a larger point The key to producing good transitions is highlighting connections between corresponding paragraphs By referencing in one paragraph the relevant material from previous ones, writers can develop important points for their readers 15 Sentence Transitions (Transitions within a Paragraph): Transitions between sentences help readers see the connection between one sentence and the next one Not every sentence should have a transition; rather, transitions tend to appear in every few sentences, such as when the paragraph is changing directions or bringing up a new idea One of the most common ways to make transitions is by using transition words, also known as conjunctive adverbs The chart below lists some common transition words you might use to connect the sentences within a paragraph Transition Words: Here is a chart of the transition devices (also called conjunctive adverbs or adverbial conjunctions) accompanied with a simplified definition of function again, also, and, and then, besides, equally important, finally, first, Addition further, furthermore, in addition, in the first place, last, moreover, next, second, still, too comparison also, in the same way, likewise, similarly Concession granted, naturally, of course contrast although, and yet, at the same time, but at the same time, despite that, even so, even though, for all that, however, in contrast, in spite of, instead, nevertheless, notwithstanding, on the contrary, on the other hand, otherwise, regardless, still, though, yet Emphasis certainly, indeed, in fact, of course example or illustration after all, as an illustration, even, for example, for instance, in conclusion, indeed, in fact, in other words, in short, it is true, of course, namely, specifically, that is, to illustrate, thus, truly Summary all in all, altogether, as has been said, finally, in brief, in conclusion, in other words, in particular, in short, in simpler terms, in summary, on the whole, that is, therefore, to put it differently, to summarize after a while, afterward, again, also, and then, as long as, at last, at length, at that time, before, besides, earlier, eventually, finally, time formerly, further, furthermore, in addition, in the first place, in the sequence past, last, lately, meanwhile, moreover, next, now, presently, second, shortly, simultaneously, since, so far, soon, still, subsequently, then, thereafter, too, until, until now, when Transition words are usually followed by a comma When students use a transition word to connect the ideas in two sentences, they can punctuate their sentences with either a period or a semicolon Example: Punctuation with Transition Words 16 Without word a transition Frank needed a composition course to graduate from Las Positas College He enrolled in English 1A With a transition word, a Frank needed a composition course to graduate from period and a comma Las Positas College Therefore, he enrolled in English 1A With a transition word, a Frank needed a composition course to graduate from semicolon and a comma Las Positas College; therefore, he enrolled in English 1A Example Notice the differences in the following paragraph with and without the transitions: Without Transitions One of my favorite hobbies is traveling I decided to get a job that paid me to travel because I just couldn’t afford my habit I worked for a company called Offroad where I led bicycle trips It was a really hard job I got to spend two months living and working in France’s wine country I went to the south and stood on the red carpet where they hold the Cannes Film Festival Riding bikes all summer was great, and traveling around France was incredible The job was too much work and not enough play While it fed my traveling addiction, I knew that job wasn’t for me With Transitions One of my favorite hobbies is traveling Therefore, I decided to get a job that paid me to travel because I just couldn’t afford my habit I worked for a company called Offroad where I led bicycle trips It was a really hard job I got to spend two months living and working in France’s wine country In addition, I went to the south and stood on the red carpet where they hold the Cannes Film Festival Riding bikes all summer was great, and traveling around France was incredible; however, the job was too much work and not enough play Thus, while it fed my traveling addiction, I knew that job wasn’t for me In the above paragraph, Therefore; In addition; however; Thus are transitions They make the paragraph much clearer and help readers see the connections between the sentences Notice that transitions not appear in every sentence, just when the connection between ideas would not be clear without them Without transitions, their writing does not flow smoothly IV EXPERIMENTAL RESULT: 17 In this method, I realized most students worked harder They were eager to write the topics in English books from grade 10 th They expressed more ideas, became more active and interested in the lessons They could write short paragraphs in English with various words and flexible ways of using vocabulary Before providing techniques of using vocabulary in writing short paragraphs in English, I gave a topic of writing and asked them to write in 30 minutes After applying this method in teaching students at Nguyen Trai High School, I asked students to write a short English paragraph and had the following results of the convey from the class 10A6: Techniques of using vocabulary in writing short paragraphs Before applying the method After applying the method Repetition of Key Words 60% 90% Using pronouns 70% 90% Synonyms 30% 70% Use of Articles 80% 90% Word order 60% 80% Transitions 40% 70% With the results, I find out students’ positive feedback, which improve their writing skill more PART III: CONCLUSION AND PROPOSAL I CONCLUSION: 18 The ideas of the “Techniques of using vocabulary in writing short English paragraphs for 10th grade students at Nguyen Trai High School” I have mentioned above is ages of the process of teaching, searching, and thinking Those are based on the Ministry of Education and Training’s policy of reforming methods of teaching-learning As teachers of English at Nguyen Trai High School, we have faced many obstacles in developing the 10 th grade students’ writing skill and desired of how to improve the effectiveness of paragraph writing is really the strong motivation This study aims at investigating students’ difficulties in using vocabulary in writing skill; finding the types of popular vocabulary errors when writing English paragraphs and then introducing some ways to use words to make English paragraph writing better and improve students’ writing ability The effective use of vocabulary in writing paragraphs at high school helps students improve their writing skill There are many methods of teaching English, and each teacher has her/ his own methodology of teaching but the characteristics of teaching writing skill are the same in any languages The final purpose of every English teacher is to help students to be writers This methodology is about how to stimulate students at High School to learn English lessons actively, positively and effectively I hope this study may provide students with suitable ways of learning, and then help them obtain the improvement of writing and get more interested in learning writing skill as well I look forward to having colleagues’ contributions to my study so that I will have perfect and suitable methods of teaching English in accordance with the education reform of Ministry of Education and Training II PROPOSAL: With awareness of these limitations, it is suggested that further research be extended to: • provide students with the sources of writing materials so that students can study better • give more time for writing skill at high school for students to practice • reduce the amount of students per class instead of about 50 students in English lessons Confirmation of the Head Master of Nguyen Trai High School Thanh Hoa, April 10 th 2019 I declare that the work contained in this initiative is result of my own research Nguyen Thi Ha REFERENCES Hoa, H.X., et al (2004) Tài Liệu Bồi Dưỡng Giáo Viên Dạy Sách Khoa Lớp 10,11,12 – Môn Tiếng Anh The Ministry of Education and Training 19 Byrne, D (1996) Teaching writing skills UK: Longman Group Mourtaga, K (2010, October) Poor writing in English: A case of the Palestinian EFL learners in Gaza Strip Ridha, N (2012) The Effect of EFL Learners’ Mother Tongue on their Writings in English Simbwa, E (1987) Investigating Writing Errors among University Students in Uganda White, R., and Arndt, V (1991) Process writing London, UK: Longman Wang Hong Xia (2012) 15 Day’s Practice for IELTS Writing IELTS – Writing strategies for the IELTS tests Phương pháp dạy tiếng Anh Trung học phổ thông (written by Nguyễn Hạnh Dung) 10 Sách giáo khoa, sách giáo viên, sách tham khảo tiếng Anh lớp 12 11 Hướng dẫn ôn tập thi tốt nghiệp THPT năm học 2011 – 2012, 2012 – 2013, 2013 – 2014, 2014 – 2015 12 The Student Success Guide: Writing Skills (1990) 13 Cooperative Learning Strategies to Enhance Writing Skill by Rita Rani Mandal 14 Importance of a Good Vocabulary in Writing by Ron Kurtus (revised March 2012) Websites: http://www.dcielts.com/ielts-writing/cohesion-and-avoiding repetition http://www.myenglishteacher.net/adjectivesorder.html 20 ... 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. .. CONCLUSION: 18 The ideas of the Techniques of using vocabulary in writing short English paragraphs for 10th grade students at Nguyen Trai High School I have mentioned above is ages of the process of teaching,... teaching, searching, and thinking Those are based on the Ministry of Education and Training’s policy of reforming methods of teaching-learning As teachers of English at Nguyen Trai High School,