Experience in teaching vocabulary for primary students

A INTRODUCTION REASON FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC The thesis teaching vocabulary to young learners deals with the need of a teacher to know his or her learners and to understand their needs and problems Other issue mentioned in the thesis is the question of motivation and including fun and games into the teaching process The last issue the thesis deals with is the usage of different methods and approaches for teaching young learners “Why? What is it good for? Is it good for them at all? Do they really need it? Is it not only a useless worry? Why we have to make them learn something more than what they really need and have to? How much hope shall we place in it?” These are the most frequent questions I have been thinking about I have discussed them with many pupils, teachers and parents Reactions and opinions were, of course, different I have been teaching English for many years at a primary school I have to admit that at the beginning I doubted about any acquisition for young learners and many arguments seemed cogent to me During the time I began to realize chances and occasions that English language can offer to children and I started to be a big fan of teaching English to young learners I ran against a lot of troubles that I would like to share in my final thesis and also I would like to share some ideas for teaching vocabulary to young learners At the beginning during the discussions with my colleagues we found out that some kind of conception was needed, next we pointed out that there were missing good textbooks or materials, also didactic aids and methodology books Frequent complain of many teachers is that it is extremely difficult to teach children that seem to lack the basic talent for learning languages Therefore I would like to refer to the possibilities which teaching a foreign language to young learners brings The aim of this work is to show several ways that can be used for teaching vocabulary to young learners I would like to show why and how teaching vocabulary to young learners can be more efficient I divided my thesis into the theoretical and the practical part – the practical part follows the theoretical part In the theoretical part I will introduce the aim of this thesis, then I will try to describe who is a young learner In the next chapter I will focus on what is vocabulary and how it is learned and also the ways how vocabulary can be presented In the second part of my thesis I would like to present my system of work and also different methods I use while teaching I will enclose some materials and games that I use in my lessons In conclusion I will briefly summarize my thesis After that follows the list of sources - books (used literature) which I used for my thesis and the appendices where I included some materials and exercises with the keys After exploring and accumulating the experiences from colleagues, I have some experiences in teaching reading comprehension and achieved quite effective results The students are more interested in learning English and more confident in doing their reading exercises This improves that my methods are right With the passion and the love for teaching English, I have studied and developed the research: "Experience in teaching vocabulary for primary students " THE PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH - The research applies the methods of teaching vocabulary to involve students in learning English well - Creating the language circumstance to communicate in English and promote students to actively participate in communicative activities; offering some solutions and methods for teaching vocabulary - Exchanging and sharing some experiences in teaching vocabulary for primary students RESEARCH TASKS - Systematizing some theoretical issues about the procedures and activities in teaching vocabulary in English Primary program according to the communicative approach - Exploring the present situation of teaching vocabulary at Primary School and suggesting some techniques in teaching vocabulary to develop skills for primary students, helping them be more confident to communicate in English RESEARCH TIME AND LOCATION Research Time : School Year 2014-2015 Research Location: Dong Ninh Primary School Research Object: " Experience in teaching vocabulary for primary students " The respondents of the research: With this research I focused on the primary student, especially the students of class B CONTENT RATIONALE 1.1 Young learner - who is a young learner? A young learner – who is he or she? This term covers a wide age range, this can be anybody from the age of three to the age of eighteen There is a big difference between what a –three-year-old child can and what a child of fifteen can We should consider their development too Some children develop faster, others need more time Teaching young learners requires the knowledge of knowing all the development differences Understanding these differences can help me as a teacher to develop methods and a system of work that I will use in the process of teaching Of course, it is not possible to say that every child of six will know this and that But it is possible to pick out some characteristics which I as a teacher should know and should be aware of I have decided to focus on young learners – age group 7-11 I have chosen this age group because I like working with young learners From my own personal experience I have to admit that learners at this age are grateful when someone invests time in them The results are seen quite easily and of course teachers demand this kind of satisfaction These children still want to learn something new When they know it, they are happy to present it and they feel more important I remember a girl - 5th grades - who was able to “communicate” with a native speaker Her joy was the best reward for me It is generally known that the Czech system officially allows children to start learning a foreign language in the 4th grade In the Czech Republic children have started learning a foreign language in the 4th grade so far However, according to the new school curricula, which are starting to be adopted from September 2006, the children will start a year earlier and in some schools the foreign language will be introduced from the 1st grade In the 7th grade they will have to start learning a second foreign language In my opinion, the sooner they start the better for them Their brain and memory is ready for learning and most of them can learn quite well There have been many disputes and discussions over this I think these debates will be run over and over because nobody is able to say the exact time for beginning to learn foreign languages From my personal experience, I achieved quite good results with kindergarten children so I not see any problems for older learners I think if very young learners are able to achieve good results, I think the older ones can it too I would like to point out some characteristics about this age group: - They are happy when they can play - They love to share their experiences, they love when people pay attention to them and their talking - They are able to talk about what they are doing - They use imagination a lot - They can think, argue, discuss and they are able to interact with both children and adults They are able to concentrate for certain time - They understand situations and through situations – they use several senses - They are able to use language skills not even realizing them - They not realize what fact is and what fiction is sometimes - They want to learn and are happy when they learn something, then they have to share it with somebody and they are proud that they learnt something, they can show off a little bit - Often they “teach” each other - They love to be praised for what they have done and learnt, this is very important fact to keep their motivation - Very often they pretend they understand everything and they know everything Halliwell states that: - Young children are already very good at interpreting meaning without necessarily understanding the individual words - Already have great skill in using limited language creatively - Frequently learn indirectly rather than directly - Take great pleasure in creating fun in what they - Their imagination is ready - “above all take great delight in talking” (Halliwell, 1992, p 3) I agree with Halliwell and her observations My observations are the same as hers These examples of characteristics I have mentioned above are great hints how to teach young learners and what kind of methods we should use It is very important to choose the right way of teaching for these little children The teacher definitely has to be very sensitive to the children’s needs and has to prepare the lessons well We should avoid a stereotype, the 12 lessons have to be creative and lively Otherwise this could have really bad consequences for the learners´ further improvement in the language 1.2 Vocabulary 1.2.1 What is vocabulary? “Vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as the words we teach in the foreign language However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than just a single word: for example, post office, and mother-in-law, which are made up of two or three words but express a single idea A useful convention is to cover all such cases by talking about vocabulary „ items “rather than „words“ (Ur, 2003, p 60) All languages consist of words Languages emerge first as words, both historically, and in terms of the way each of us learned our first and any subsequent languages Moreover, vocabulary is still widening Even in our native language we are continually learning new words and meanings of old words For example, Czech word pošta This used to mean just the post office or simple letters but nowadays it also means emails Some words can be entirely new to us We come across completely new words that are made up according to new technologies and according to the needs of real life For example, a verb to Google is used frequently a lot Learners of a second language experience something similar Thornbury states that they can be confronted by words that are totally unfamiliar, or being used in ways that for them are novel and possibly obscure To find the right word to fit the meaning can be very frustrating, especially if the store of words is limited To summarize this, the learner while learning the vocabulary of a second language can come across several challenges: - “making the correct connections, when understanding the second language, between the form and meaning of words - When producing language, using the correct form of a word for the meaning intended ( i.e nose not noise) To meet these challenges the learner needs to: - Acquire a critical mass of words for use in both understanding and producing the language - Remember words over time, be able to recall them readily 14 - Develop strategies for coping with gaps in word knowledge, including coping with unknown words, or unfamiliar uses of known words - Have to take responsibility themselves for vocabulary expansion” (Thornbury, 2002, p 31) 1.2.2 How are words learned? “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing nothing nothing can be conveyed.” David Wilkins, linguist To know a word is one thing but we have to pause on the fact how this knowledge is acquired Thinking about little children who learn to speak, then they always start with words used for labeling, so that the concept, for example, of a cat has a name cat But of course not every animal is a cat The child needs to learn how far to extend the concept of a cat “In other words, acquiring a vocabulary requires not only labeling but also categorizing skills.” (Thornbury, 2002, p 18) The child has to realize that these common words like cat can be replaced by super ordinate terms like animals And to this category also belongs other animals, not just cats Thornbury states that the children have to develop some kind of network building – constructing some complex idea Than during this process they will realize there also exist words like synonyms, homonyms etc There are many different methods and approaches how to teach a foreign language, including vocabulary I will mention just some of them that can be used for teaching young learners - To help the learners understand it is important to visualize the item and get the pupils to repeat or use the item actively One good way of doing this is to let them see or perhaps touch the vocabulary item, for instance a house We need to let them repeat it in different ways and they should be given a chance to listen to the teacher talking about it - A little bit of shocking method is the direct method or the direct approach The mother tongue is never used, there are no translations Only target language is used in the classrooms and only complete sentences are used Culture is considered an important aspect - Suggestopedia is a very successful method in helping learners to memorize words This method stimulates the learner’s brain by music while learning but nowadays teachers seem to be leaving this method - What really works especially for young learners is the Total Physical Response method - TPR Very many children are nowadays very hyper and physically active 16 and to concentrate for a long time can be very difficult for them Using this method, games, changing topics and using a variety of activities is very appreciated by them This method is used a lot by teachers - Communicative Language Approach (Teaching) – CLT – stresses the meaning of a language in context Communicative competence is highly developed here and learners are encouraged to communicate 1.2.3 Which words and what should be taught? The significant point in teaching vocabulary is the selection of words we as teachers want to teach It is quite easy to teach concrete words at lower level and then become more abstract Thus, we need to consider the frequency too There is a choice for us; we can decide which words to teach on the basis of frequency, how often the words are used by the speaker of the language Especially with young learners words that they are familiar with and they can stick to them should be taught Very often words are taught according to themes and topics Nowadays all the course books are organized into themes and they provide vocabulary according to it If there is a theme “Animals”, then we can expect words like naming animals, also where they live, what they eat etc Words that have quite specific meaning should be avoided with young learners Ur states the learners need to be taught the form of the word, then grammar, collocations, meaning and word formation In the form pronunciation and spelling should be mentioned “The learner has to know what a word sounds like (its pronunciation) and what it looks like (its spelling).” (Ur, 1996, p 60) The grammar of a new item also needs to be taught Again, depending what level the learners are they should be taught to follow some grammatical rules For example when teaching nouns, we would like to present their plural forms, also regular and irregular (girl-girls, mousemice) When teaching verbs, maybe we would like to present their past forms, especially if the verb is irregular (forget-forgot) Word formation – using prefixes and suffixes, using hyphenated words etc is too difficult for young learners To summarize this, firstly I think that knowing the word and understanding its meaning go hand in hand Secondly, it is easier to remember concrete words like a chair or a dog than abstract words Young learners often put words together with what they can see, hear or with what they can touch But as said above they also need to know other aspects of the words they learn In my opinion, it is important to teach them all these aspects Of course, we will not teach them, for example the irregular plural form right away, but they need to know it I think that if we keep repeating the plural form “mice”, after some time most of them will not say “mouses” THE PRESENT SITUATION OF THE PROBLEM For many years, teaching vocabulary was viewed as a mastery of these skills Vocabulary followed what the study called mentioning, practicing, and assessing procedure where teachers mentioned a specific skill that students were to apply, had students practice the skill by completing workbook pages, then assessed them to find out if they could use the skill correctly Instruction did little to help students learn how or when to use the skills, nor was is ever established that this particular set of skills enabled comprehension A significant base of research, developed over many years, is available to inform educators about effective approaches to teaching children to read However, research on applying the methods of teaching vocabulary for primary students is in its infancy This reflects the fact that many teachers in Vietnam are faced with the challenge of teaching children to listen and speak in English when the students have a heritage language that is not English and they are not yet proficient in English Making this a more critical issue, several researches suggest that teachers are not receiving adequate professional development in effective strategies to teach vocabulary for students In order to make best use of the information presented in this research, many teachers might want to consider the following set of questions together in preparation for making decisions about teaching vocabulary for primary students Analysis of my school’s performance in teaching and learning vocabulary in recent years showed that students normally forget vocabulary after learning them It was a situation that was of concern and motivated a thorough examination of the school’s approach to the teaching of vocabulary Our school is a public primary school in Dong Son province It is a large school with around …… students, ranging from to 10 years old There are three to four classes in most year levels, meaning that collaboration among teachers is extremely important to ensure consistency in learning programs After several years of teaching the book Tieng Anh 3,4,5, I found that most of the students not like learning vocabulary They often forget vocabulary after the lesson * The quality survey and students’ classification: Based on the present situation of students in grade the level of all students is acquired after a few weeks of the school year with the methods of teaching vocabulary I had 40 minutes to test students in grade to survey and classify the students The following chart will show the result: Grade The numbers Excellent Good of students (A) (B) 78 17 = 22% Fair Poor Fail (C) (D) (F) 32 = 22= 28% 7=9% 41% According to the survey result, I have classified the students and immediately applied the methods and experiences which I accumulated over the years to improve the teaching and learning quality THE SOLUSION According to the present situation in English classes at my school Learning vocabulary is so difficult for all grades from to To improve this situation, I would like to present some techniques for teaching vocabulary and elicit the strategies of teaching vocabulary for primary students which I have researched and applied quite successfully at my school 3.1 Vocabulary presentation “By presentation we mean those pre-planned lesson stages in which learners are taught pre-selected vocabulary items.” (Thornbury, 2002, p 75) Firstly, we should consider how many words should be presented during the lesson This is closely connected with several factors: - The level of the pupils – beginners, intermediate etc - Their familiarity with the words – have they come across these words or are they completely new? - words difficulty – are the words abstract, are they easily pronounced, can we find similar words in the learner’s native language etc.? - can the words be easily demonstrated? - shall we use realia or anything that the pupils can become familiar with? - can pictures be used to elicit vocabulary? After the teacher chooses what items to teach, he or she should follow certain guidelines In my opinion, this includes teaching the vocabulary "in spoken form first" to prevent students from pronouncing the words in the form they are written, placing the new items in context, and revising them A number of techniques can be adopted to present new vocabulary items Some techniques are more popular and more often used than others Also it is up to the teacher which techniques he or she decides to use but always the effectiveness of teaching should be considered I think every teacher tends to use and prefers some technique that he or she finds interesting And of course there are techniques that we as teachers try to avoid There are techniques that are particularly appropriate for certain types of words – for example actions can be explained through pantomime Another factor that is worth considering is the age of the learners Younger ones react quite well when we show them concrete illustrations, the older ones can manage pretty well abstract explanations or even definitions The presentation of new vocabulary can be classified for example according to verbal and visual techniques Among visual techniques we can find pictures - flashcards, photographs and magazine pictures, wall charts, posters, blackboard drawings, word pictures, several realia 20 that teachers can hold up or point to Mime, action and gestures can be used especially for explaining actions and times Learners can label pictures or objects or perform an action Verbal techniques consist of using illustrative situations, descriptions, synonyms and antonyms, collocations, scales, and using various forms of definition: for example, definition by demonstration (visual definition), definition by abstraction, contextual definitions, and definition by translation Explanation can become extremely difficult especially with beginner levels Another way that can be used is translation This technique is not used much recently, even though it is quick and easy but can be very discouraging for learners They cannot interact with the words Words can be organized into sets, subclasses and subcategories often aided by visual presentation Translation is one of the traditional ways of explaining the meaning of words It could be done by the teacher or with using a dictionary It has its advantages but also disadvantages Using this technique, learners can learn how to use dictionaries Most of the young learners have never used a dictionary before so it is a need to teach them to use dictionaries first They have to be told there are two parts – English-Czech and Czech English Then they have to be told about the alphabetical order and about other things they can find there In my opinion it is good to use both picture dictionaries and classical dictionaries where they find the meaning with young learners Teachers can prepare quite interesting lesson where the learners learn how to use dictionaries 3.2 Be realistic Nowadays, teachers can come across many language teaching ideas and techniques There are many of them in circulation that it is quite easy to get carried away We draw pictures, cut paper into small pieces, draw flashcards, make crosswords etc and we it even at midnight We want to be flexible, creative, sensible, we want to praise the children as much as possible but on the other hand we want to be realistic and, very honestly, our expectations are sometimes very high And we hope it will be worthwhile But sometimes something goes wrong Language classrooms are noisy; there are at least fifteen pupils – usually even more The classes with high number of students put exceptional demands on teacher’s preparation for the lesson and there is obviously a requirement of larger classrooms too Quite often the children are not “angels” We encourage them to interact, be active, creative, independent This of course leads to the fact the children will become silly and they will really enjoy it There are teachers who would never such activities again And their lessons then turn to be boring “We need to be realistic in our expectations of ourselves and the learners It does not mean, for example, we should reject the idea of pair work because our classes are big, or not very able, or poorly motivated On the contrary, being realistic should mean taking realities into account in such a way that good things can still happen.” (Halliwell, 1992, p 19) After every lesson we should ask ourselves whether the lesson was productive or unproductive and we should go back to our objectives and aims We should evaluate the lesson ourselves Or if we have an observer in the lesson, we should discuss it with him/her 3.2.1 Choosing activities It is up to the teacher mostly to choose the right activity This is not easy and teachers should spend really quality time to think about this It needs to be considered well Some language activities can stir a class Thinking about the positive way of the word “stir”, it means these activities will wake up the class, warm them up Of course, there are activities that have the opposite effect They may seem to settle the pupils Before the lesson is planned, there should be considered what kind of activities should be chosen knowing the effect of them Activities that can stir the class are, for example, oral work, games, and competitions Another aspect we should think about is activities which engage children’s minds and which keep them physically occupied We should not forget context developing activities “If we are to help the learners acquire independent second language lexicons, we need to highlight the importance of the context in which the language naturally occurs Once the idea of context playing a decisive role in the choice of language is firmly established, we can begin to introduce varieties of the language used in different contexts Many course books provide learners with plenty of opportunities to develop their own context for the language presented, for example activities like “odd one out, filling-in exercises, dialogues” etc” Another factor that teachers should bear in their minds is to keep the lessons simple We often try to make our lessons varied This is good but can lead to misunderstanding The lesson can be varied by doing lots of activities on different topics But this can mean we may produce a lesson which is a disaster, too many activities and changing the activities all the time can destroy the lesson well The children’s minds have to jump from one topic to another with not much time to let things sink in effectively We should realize some important things - “We will not help the children to develop their capacity to concentrate if we jump inconsequentially from one topic to the next - There are ways of varying the oral work so that it is making different demands on the children and therefore feels different even when the topic remains the same.” (Halliwell, 1992, p 27) Variation does not only mean changing the topics and materials but also the change of work we Variation comes in the forms of activity as Halliwell states Using different methods and ways of teaching should become a regular part of our lessons We can reuse materials all the time, we can come up with new things but always the activities should be simple in principle Then they can transfer to different topics and situations “Because you use them regularly you will quickly get to know the best way to set them up with your classes Because the classes know them, they will take to them easily when they appear They can become truly the core of your language teaching.” (Halliwell, 1992, p 38) 3.2.2 The role of fun and games in the lessons “By ´fun and games´ I mean all those activities that we loosely think of as involving play and enjoyment Singing, clapping hands, chanting rhymes, solving puzzles, drawing, coloring, model-making, games.” (Rixon, 1995, p 33) It is evident that young learners learn through play much easier and they enjoy it more This is quite a natural way for them to learn They play and love to play In playing together we can see elements of interaction and during 10 interacting the learners develop language skills Learning can be absorbed really well Quite often the learners not realize they are learning Fun and games should have an important role in the children’s education The language learnt by heart can often be a part of the activities For example, commands for the games can be remembered quite easily Many games can be looked at as drill exercises but they have an added fun and competition element For example, a game that works like this is well-known game “Simon says” What is a game? “A game is played when one or more players compete or co-operate for playoffs according to a set of rules.” (Jones, 1986) (Jones in Teaching English to Children) “A true game is one that frees the spirit It allows of no cares but those fictitious ones engendered by the game itself ” (Opie, I And J., 1969) (Opie, I and J in Teaching English to Children) Games are activities with rules and goals Khan states that the achievement of these goals signals the end of the game Children are very often concerned with controlling whether everybody follows the rules and whether they are not broken Piaget (1967) (Piaget in Teaching English to Children) saw children’s games as, ´the most admirable social institutions´ (Khan, 1995, p 143) It is obvious that the games need to be motivating “For young learners, motivation deriving from the factors outside the classroom, such as parental and social attitudes, is likely to be weaker than that created by events in the classroom itself Children need to be involved and even excited in order to learn effectively.” (Khan, 1995) Games may focus on oral or written part of the language; they offer a vast selection of activities Language can also be picked as a result of an enjoyable activity “Telling stories to students can result in natural language acquisition on their part.” (Rixon, 1995, p 37) Teachers can tell stories the learners are familiar with in their own language Then the learners are able to follow it better Again, the stories need to be picked carefully, the level of the learners needs to be considered and the teacher has to investigate time into preparation Teachers can come up 25 with a simple version of the story Appreciated story can be The Story of the Big Enormous Turnip Several activities can allow and involve more creative use of the language New sentences and activities can be produced by the children themselves Songs are most grateful way for this The learners can make up new verses, and then they can be extended Example - a song “This is the way, I ” or “If you are happy and you know it ” As said above games and fun are important parts of the lesson A play is in the essential nature of the child There are many possibilities for adapting games we can find The teachers should not forget the values of games and fun activities in the lessons All this can be applied to teaching vocabulary too Teachers can “play” with vocabulary while teaching it It is very appreciated by the learners 3.3 Practical part 11 In my final thesis I have decided to focus on teaching English vocabulary to young learners - age group 7-11 I would like to enclose several lesson plans and also reflect on some observations from the theoretical part I tried out all the activities described here during my teacher’s career It is evident that some learners have been learning the English language for several years, some have just started Most of the classes use the course book Cambridge English for Schools by A Littlejohn and D Hicks The younger ones not use any course books, we work with handouts that they get from me and place them into a folder These handouts are given to them so that their parents know what we learned in the lesson and can practice during the week The activities have been piloted in at least 10 classes; most of them consisted of 10 15 pupils at the age of – 11 Most of the pupils only started with learning English in the 4th grade, some started in the kindergarten All the activities reflect the level of the learners, their age and their abilities I always have to consider that in each class there are more children and some with learning disabilities I try to use English in the classes as much as possible and I want their reactions in English too, of course if possible I have to admit that it is a lot of fun to teach these children, they not have almost any troubles with motivation and as I have said in the theoretical part, they still want to learn 3.3.1 Lesson plan Topic = My family * Aims: - to get to know the learners´ families, the learners know them well so I suppose they will be very active and will want to share - The learners get to know my family - To revise some basic terminology and find out what the learners know - After the lesson the learners will know at least new words * Aids: - Pictures and photos, a family poster, pieces of paper, a story book, color pencils, handouts * Assumptions: - Learners know each other and their families - They are ready to share and are ready to play Talking about families: Today we are going to talk about families Do you live in a family? Who belongs to your family? Do you have any brothers or sisters? What is your brother’s / sister’s name? How often you see your grandmother and grandfather? Ok, now I will talk about my family (On the black board there is a family poster all the time, so that I can point to it anytime While talking, I use pictures of my family and point to the right person and repeat who he/she is For example, “this is my daughter Kristyna” I repeat the word “daughter” And so on.) 12 Working with their pictures: (The learners were supposed to bring to the class pictures of their family members I have to count on the fact, they forgot, so I distribute either my pictures or pictures from magazines.) Now, it is your time to show me who is who Is this your mother? Is this your sister? Is this your grandfather? After some time we will play a game Now, we are going to play a game and the winner gets a reward! I will say a sentence, for example:” Show me your mother!” And you have to show me your mother’s picture After each sentence I make the learners say whose picture they are showing me So I ask Who is this? Your mother, father, sister etc Reading and coloring: I distribute the handouts (Appendix I) that I have prepared for them and the color pencils and the learners will color the people While doing this I read a story about a family from a book At the end we sum up the lesson and I tell them that next lesson we will play a family pexeso Before they leave the classroom, they all have to tell me a “password” to leave I stand behind the door and as they leave I ask them for example for the word “maminka” They have to say “mother” and can leave * Evaluation: This lesson is designed for students of grade In this lesson I decided to use one of the visual methods that I talked about in the theoretical part Learners have a chance to hear and see In this lesson I decided to use the TPR method too, the children can come to black board and point to the right person on the poster I let them jump while showing me their family members; they put their hands above their heads etc This lesson can be varied in many ways, again according to the age and level of the learners and also depending on the fact how long the lesson is – 40 minutes But as I have said in the theoretical part, too much variety can spoil the lesson so this is very important factor that should be considered What needs to be said here is that during this activity the children are able to learn a phrase “This is my mother/father etc.” Because this phrase is repeated in the lesson many times, the children are able to remember it without any explanation and real “learning” It is very natural for them to learn this phrase 3.3.2 Lesson plan Topic = Colors * Aims: - to get to know the learners´ favorite colors, to get to know how they feel about colors - the learners get to know the names of the colors - to revise some basic terminology and find out what the learners know - after the lesson the learners will know at least new words including the word rainbow * Aids: 13 - Pictures, a color poster, pieces of paper, a story book, color pencils, picture of rainbow, color chalk * Assumptions: - Learners probably already know the colors - They are ready to play - Color dictation should be easy and fun for them Talking about colors: I will say several words and you tell me what I am speaking about We will it as a game called “silent post” The very first person who knows will tell me and then we will send it to others and the last person says that outloud Ok, listen up! Black, white, green, blue Well done! Now you know we will talk about colors today Do you any colors? Which one is your favorite? What does black mean for you? How you feel about yellow? What does it evoke? I will tell you a story about rainbow (While we are talking, I put the poster on the wall Every time I call out some color, I take a color chalk and draw a big circle on the board I also point out to the right color on the poster.) Working with “colors”: Let’s take your exercise books now and you can see what I draw on the board I want you to the same But to each color you will write down the name You need to be careful about the spelling! Now when you have finished, I will pick up different color pencils and you can shout out the name of the color Let’s start now (After each shout I repeat the color after them so that they have a chance to hear the pronunciation well.) Well done, now we will write a “dictation” I know you not like dictations but this one is going to be different I say:´Vezmi si yellow a nakresli sun Potom si vezmi black a nakresli three birds.´Well, are you ready?I not want you to shout or look to your friend’s paper Let’s start now Finishing up the topic: (After the learners finished their drawings, they swap the drawings with their partners and we check it together Usually they really well and are happy they were successful with their “dictation”.) Well, now exchange your drawings with your partner and let’s check it Well done, children! Now you know the English names for colors Since we still have time left, I have a special reward for you We will play a game You can see this classroom is full of colors I will shout out a name of the color and you must run to touch this color You can touch a chair, a blackboard, your friend’s trousers, anything So, are you ready? Let’s start After some minutes the learners get back to their seats and we repeat all the colors once more * Evaluation: This lesson is designed for 3rd or 4th grade learners I have to count on the fact most of the learners already know the colors from previous classes Therefore this lesson cannot be boring so that even these children would be able to be active Again, in this lesson I used one of the visual methods and also TPR The learners can hear, see and touch and later they can run in the classrooms I think 14 using TPR is very productive and learners can learn and remember it better I have to be careful because the learners try to write down the names of the colors After they have finished that, I usually check the spelling in their exercise books This topic is quite easy and children have a lot of fun with this This lesson can be varied in many ways again, as I have mentioned in lesson plan 3.3.3 Lesson plan Topic = Animals * Aims: - To get to know the basic animals in English - To revise some basic terminology and find out what the learners know - After the lesson the learners will know at least new words * Aids: - Pictures, an animal poster, color pencils, handouts, a tape recorder * Assumptions: - Learners like animals - Learners will probably know some English names of animals - They are ready to share and listen Talking about animals, brainstorming: Well, children, I will start up the lesson in a little bit different way than usually I will write something on the blackboard and you have to find out a hidden word in it You cannot talk, the winner gets a price! If you think you know, just put your hand above your head WHAT SONG PICTURE MOTHER CARD LOVE CHRISTMAS In these words you can find word, the topic of today’s lesson Well done! The word is ANIMALS! And the winner is …… ? Here is your price! What is it? Yes, it is a toy dog So as you can see, we are going to talk about animals today What animals you know? What is your favorite animal? Have you ever been to the zoo? Do you like big animals? Are you scared of any? Do you know any exotic animals? Do you have an animal at home? (During this talking I write down on the blackboard all the animals the learners name and distribute pictures of animals among the children I get ready the tape recorder.) Listening: Now, we will listen to a tape recorder You are going to hear several sounds of animals and I want you to write their names on a piece of paper You will hear sounds and I think you will know all of them To make it easier I distributed a set of pictures among you and you will hear all these animals So, you can just write down number to each picture Do you understand? (The learners are ready to listen now.) Well done, you are very good! Now we will listen again but this time you not have the pictures You 34 must guess which animals you hear (This is a little bit more difficult but the sounds are of wellknown animals so the children will not have any troubles with it.) Project: Now, imagine you are going to take a friend of yours to the zoo soon and you want to give him/her a tour So you need to know some animals and also something about them So now, make groups of and each group has to prepare a poster You can either draw or glue animals, you can write about them – what they eat, where they live, anything you like If you need help, you can either ask me or, because you can work with dictionaries, you can use them (Usually the learners want to be creative and work on their own; they not need my help Also usually this activity takes longer time, so I let them work in the next lesson too * Evaluation: This lesson is designed for 3rd or 4th grade Right at the beginning of the lesson the learners have a chance to brainstorm Again, everybody is included, each child can talk and I pay attention to this If somebody remains quiet, I ask questions – Lan, you know any animals?, Nam, what is your favorite animal? etc Through brainstorming, the learners usually remember at least new word Then they have to guess the hidden word, which is not as easy for them Of course, if nobody is able to guess this word, I help them This is very active time, therefore after this activity I need to calm them down and we listen to the sounds of animals All the sounds are of known animals, so the children not usually have any troubles with this Then I let them be creative and let them work on the project I not tell them which animals they have to choose or what exactly needs to be written there or how exactly it has to be done I usually have examples with me in the lesson, so I can show them so that they get ideas This lesson can be varied in many ways and can be done with younger learners too Probably the hidden word would be too difficult for them, so the teacher would have to come up with a different activity The topic is also very grateful and from my personal experience the children always have a lot of fun with it 3.3.4 Lesson plan Topic = The Weather * Aims: - To understand the text about weather - To find out the odd words - to revise some basic terminology - After the lesson the learners will know new words * Aids: - Reading texts, flashcards, a poem Assumptions: - Learners already know some weather terminology - The learners usually are not as willing to talk so I have to ask right and direct questions 16 Talking about weather: Good morning, children! (I look very tired and I am not happy I assume the children will ask me what is wrong with me If not, I have to say it myself.) I am not happy today, I am tired and I would like to be at home in my bed with a hot cup of tea and my favorite book This is all because of the weather Do you like this kind of weather? What you like to in this kind of weather? What is your favorite season? Why? Do you prefer hot weather to cold weather? etc Reading: Now, we will read a short text about the weather and then we will talk about it You will have to answer some questions too I will write the questions on the blackboard I distribute the texts and I read first The children just listen After that, each child reads a line We talk about the text and after that they answer the questions all by themselves Poem: Well, because you have been working hard, now it is time to learn a short poem I will write it on the blackboard When this is done, we start learning the poem The learners can see the whole poem on the blackboard, I read it out loud and then we read it together Every time we read it, I erase word, so that the children would have to memorize it Odd one out: Thank you very much for your work today and so that you can practice these new words at home, I have to give you homework You all know this type of exercise, so all you have to is to find the odd word out This won’t take you long So, enjoy it and see you next lesson Bye bye! * Evaluation: This activity is designed for 5th grade In the theoretical part I talk about CLT as a way of teaching vocabulary to young learners This lesson makes use of it This lesson is done completely in English and the communicative competence is highly encouraged and used here I have to admit this is not easy but I as a teacher have to adjust my vocabulary and talking to the learners´ level I have to be really well prepared for this lesson The lesson does not have to seem interesting to the learners at first but later they start to like it Working with a text is important for them, looking for information is another way to learn the language At the end they memorize the poem by heart and I have to confess that 99% of the class always remembers the poem Usually next lesson I go on in this topic, I work with the learned vocabulary and I build on it The efficiency of the research After applying successfully the methods and procedures to teach vocabulary, the students’ improvement in pronunciation can be seen clearly The result in the first semester of the school year 2014-2015 shows the increase in the percentage of students who can remember vocabulary and use them correctly The significance of the methods of teaching vocabulary can be seen 17 when examining the percentage of students with a reading age above their chronological age since the program’s implementation The number of students assigned to be improving their skills Comparing with the result survey at the beginning, I find that the recent result is better than the old one The following chart will show the result: Grade The numbers Excellent Good Fair Poor Fail of students (A) (B) (C) (D) (F) 78 16=20.5 32 = 41% 26= 4= 5.2% % 33.3% In conclusion, the changing of the students’ learning vocabulary has been a resounding success The consistency and clarity it has afforded in teaching vocabulary for primary students has been worth the time and effort My students are capable and ready for explicit teaching of vocabulary and are highly motivated by their success in learning English C CONCLUSION In my final thesis, as the title prompts, I deal with the subject of teaching vocabulary to young learners When teaching young learners, the teacher has to be strong at the knowledge but also needs to connect with the children They need to feel the teacher likes them and wants to teach them something new As said in the theoretical part, the results are seen easily and the learners at this age are very grateful when someone invests time in them The teacher has to know his or her pupils It is important to understand their needs, their expectations with which each child comes to the lessons, also ways how to motivate them and last but not least their learning style All this the teacher is learning while working with the learners The teachers get to know their families, their hobbies and interests and just basic information about the learners Also, especially nowadays, we as teachers have to consider the learning disabilities too There are more and more children with these problems and we as teachers need to help them to enjoy the lessons and help them to learn too The teacher needs to understand their differences, their cultural and family background etc In the Theoretical Part I have mentioned some characteristics of young learners I wanted to show that working with them offers many possibilities and we can use many methods and approaches During my teacher’s training I have learned that it is important to learn about their personalities and also to get to know them Every learner is different and we need to view each person individually I also talk about vocabulary – what it is, how it can be taught, which words should be taught and ways that vocabulary can be presented In the Practical Part, there are several lesson plans From the theory, I tried to show how some methods and approaches can be used in the lessons while teaching young learners I also tried to show that variety is important 18 because young learners get bored if they the same activities in the same way all the time The Practical Part proved what I mentioned in the theory I have to admit that in practice I tried out all the lesson plans and it worked well Sometimes, some activity took longer time so the learners were assigned homework The focus of this thesis is the personality of young learners and teaching vocabulary to them Testing and assessment will be the theme of my next future research This research investigated the methods of teaching vocabulary for primary students, lesson delivery and sequence of content and learning expectations used by teachers of English at Dong Ninh Primary School This research brings broader understanding of strategies for teaching vocabulary to students whose first language is not English The rationale for the study stems from the need to gain greater international perspective of the teaching of English learners Results reflect analysis of classroom observation field notes of 45 students of class 4A D RECOMMENDATIONS To the leaders To enhance the capacity of teachers in teaching English, the leaders should organize the training courses for the English teachers regularly Through the training courses, teachers have the opportunity to exchange and learn their experiences Acknowledgments I am grateful the experts of Dong Son Education and Training Office, my colleagues at Dong Ninh Primary School, for providing helpful comments for the research I also would like to encourage Vietnamese teachers to have more confidence and experience in teaching reading comprehension even though we are not native speakers of English Dong Son Education and Training Office Dong Son, April 16th 2015 I swear this thesis is written by me without copying content from others Written by Pham Van Tu 19 References Vietnamese Educational Publisher - Tieng Anh (2009) Ministry of Education and Training BRUMFIT, Christopher; MOON, Jayne; TONGUE, Ray: Teaching English to Children From Practice to Principle Longman Group Essex, 1995 309 s ISBN- 0-17-556889-8 DOFF, Adrian Teach English: A training course for teachers Cambridge University Press, 1988 345 s ISBN 0- 18-34232-9 HALLIWELL, Susan: Teaching English in the Primary Classrooms UK: Longman Group Essex, 1992 169 s ISBN-0-582-07109-7 HARMER, Jeremy The Practice of English Language Teaching UK: Longman, 2005, 370 s ISBN 0-582-40385-5 KHAN, Julia: Using games in teaching English to young learners In: BRUMFIT, Christopher; MOON, Jayne; TONGUE, Ray (edd.) Teaching English to Children Longman Group Essex, 1995, s 142-157 REDMAN, Stuart: A Way with Words Vocabulary Development Activities for Learners of English.Book Cambridge University Press, 1991 124 s ISBN-0- 521-35919-8 REDMAN, Stuart: A Way with Words Vocabulary Development Activities for Learners of English Book Cambridge University Press, 1991 124 s ISBN-0- 521-35921-X RIXON, Shelagh: Young Learners of English: Some Research Perspectives Longman Essex, 1999 110 s ISBN-0-582-42082-2 10 SCOTT, Wendy A.; YTREBERG, Lisbeth H: Teaching English to Children Essex: Longman, 1991 11 THORNBURY, Scott: How to teach vocabulary Longman Essex, 2002 185 s ISBN-0-582-42966-8 11 UR, Penny A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and theory.UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005 375 s ISBN-052144994-4 12 WRIGHT, Tony Roles of Teachers & Learners.UK: Oxford University Press, 1996 160 s ISBN 0-19-437133-6 44 Other resources : http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk http://www.longman.com/young_learners http://www.eslkidstuff.com 20 INDEX A: INTRODUCTION REASON FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC THE PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH RESEARCH TASKS RESEARCH TIME AND LOCATION B CONTENT RATIONALE THE PRESENT SITUATION OF THE PROBLEM THE SOLUSION 3.1 Vocabulary presentation 3.2 Be realistic 3.3 Practical part The efficiency of the research C CONCLUSION D RECOMMENDATIONS Page 1 2 2 11 17 18 19 21 ... approach - Exploring the present situation of teaching vocabulary at Primary School and suggesting some techniques in teaching vocabulary to develop skills for primary students, helping them be more... consistency and clarity it has afforded in teaching vocabulary for primary students has been worth the time and effort My students are capable and ready for explicit teaching of vocabulary and are highly... in English and promote students to actively participate in communicative activities; offering some solutions and methods for teaching vocabulary - Exchanging and sharing some experiences in teaching