Vocabulary teaching in young learners’ English classes in Vietnam nowadays – The what and the how

This paper aims at studying what to teach and how to teach vocabulary in young learners’ English classes in Vietnam at the present time. It is found that the children have been taught not only the meaning but also the form of the words (spelling and pronunciation). Certain grammatical features of them, for example regular and irregular plural forms of the nouns and past forms of irregular verbs have also been taught...

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c ngo i ng xu th h i nh p Tháng 11/2014 DẠY TỪ VỰNG TIẾNG ANH CHO TRẺ EM Ở VIỆT NAM HIỆN NAY – DẠY GÌ VÀ DẠY NHƯ THẾ NÀO? Hồng Thanh Liên Trường Đại học Hà Nội Tóm t t: Cùng với phát triển phương pháp Communicative Language Teaching approach and the dạy ngoại ngữ theo hướng giao tiếp nhằm ñạt ñược goal stated in Decision 1400/QĐ-TTg dated 30 mục tiêu ñề Quyết ñịnh 1400/QĐ-TTg ngày 30 September, 2008 of the Prime Minister on the Approval tháng năm 2008 Thủ tướng Chính phủ việc of the Project entitled “Teaching and Learning Foreign phê duyệt Đề án “Dạy học Ngoại ngữ Hệ Languages in the National Education System, Period thống Giáo dục Quốc dân, giai ñoạn 2008-2020”, việc 2008-2020”, English Language Teaching in young dạy tiếng Anh cho trẻ em có bước chuyển learners’ biến ñáng kể năm gần ñây Vì vậy, dạy từ considerable changes for the past few years Teaching vựng tiếng Anh cho trẻ khác nhiều so với trước English vocabulary to young learners is, therefore, Bài viết nhằm mục đích nghiên cứu tìm thực different compared to that in the past This paper aims tế giáo viên Việt Nam dạy liên quan đến at studying what to teach and how to teach vocabulary từ vựng dạy từ vựng lớp học tiếng in young learners’ English classes in Vietnam at the Anh trẻ em Nghiên cứu cho thấy trẻ em present time It is found that the children have been ñược dạy nghĩa mà cịn dạy hình thức từ taught not only the meaning but also the form of the (cách viết cách phát âm) Một số ñặc ñiểm ngữ words pháp từ, ví dụ dạng số nhiều theo quy tắc bất grammatical features of them, for example regular and quy tắc danh từ ñược giới thiệu Ngoài ra, irregular plural forms of the nouns and past forms of nghiên cứu cho thấy giáo viên sử dụng irregular verbs have also been taught In addition, the phương pháp khác ñể dạy từ vựng cho học sinh, study reveals that teachers have used various bao gồm phương pháp sử dụng hình ảnh nhắc lại, techniques in teaching vocabulary to young learners, phương pháp trực tiếp, phương pháp giao tiếp (CLT) namely visualizing and repeating, direct method, Total sử dụng cử chỉ, ñiệu (TPR) với phương Physical Response and Communicative Language pháp dịch Anh-Việt truyền thống approach along with the traditional method (English – Abstract: Being affected by the development of classes (spelling in and Vietnam has pronunciation) undergone Certain Vietnamese translation) VOCABULARY TEACHING IN YOUNG LEARNERS’ ENGLISH CLASSES IN VIETNAM NOWADAYS – THE WHAT AND THE HOW INTRODUCTION English has been considered an international language because it is used in almost all ar eas of life, such as education, business, tourism, entertainment, and others English language, thus, becomes the first foreign language that has been taught in primary schools since the early 1990s in many countries in the world Along with this development, the National Foreign Language 2020 Project of Vietnam which demonstrates the goal of the government to build the English capacity of its workforce in order to engage in the global economy and to compete and develop regionally and globally has been approved by the Prime Minister of Vietnam on September 30, 2008 One of the main objectives of the project is to thoroughly renovate English teaching and learning throughout the country and to implement a new program on teaching and learning English at every school level and training degree, so that by the 143 Ti u ban 1: Đào t o chuyên ng year 2020 most Vietnamese graduates from vocational schools, colleges and universities will be able to well communicate in written and spoken English Teaching English in primary schools, therefore, has undergone considerable changes This also leads to an innovation in English vocabulary teaching at this school level This study aims at studying what to teach and how to teach English vocabulary to young learners at primary schools in Vietnam in recent years The paper will cover two parts, namely literature review of the study and findings of the research as well as discussion of these findings LITERATURE REVIEW Young learners A young learner can be anybody aged three to eighteen What a three-year-old child can is much different from what a fifteen-year-old one can Their development should be considered, too Some children develop faster while the others need more time It requires the teachers of the knowledge of all the development differences of the young learners Understanding these differences can help a teacher to develop appropriate methods and techniques in their teaching for the right age group in general and a certain child in particular (Přibilová, 2006) Characteristics of young learners In this paper, young learners can be understood as those aged 6-10, that is the children at primary school According to Přibilová (2006), this age group has the following characteristics Firstly, they enjoy playing while learning, so they are able to use language skills not even realizing them Second, they love to share experiences and to be paid attention to Thus, they often “teach” each other and are able to talk about what they are doing They are also very imaginary and they can not tell the difference between facts and fictions It is very important to note that they love to be praised for what they have done or learnt However, they only have a certain span of attention and often pretend they understand and 144 know everything Young learners as language learners Children learn a foreign language in a natural way like when they learn their mother tongue They also learn more quickly if they are motivated by the teacher They learn by listening and repeating, imitating the teacher, doing and interacting with each other in a child-friendly atmosphere However, they often feel afraid of making mistakes (Moon, 2005) It is also proved that “the children need opportunities to try out and experiment with language, but they also need feedback to confirm or modify their hypotheses” (Moon, 2005, p 5) From the above characteristics of the children themselves and the children as language learners, it is important to note that the teachers definitely have to be sensitive to the needs of the children and have to plan the lessons well, using the appropriate way of teaching Vocabulary vocabulary - Importance of learning “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” David Wilkins, linguist Vocabulary plays an essential role in expressing ideas and thoughts Widdowson (1978) thinks that native English speakers can understand language material with correct vocabulary but not so proper in grammar rules rather than those with correct grammar rules but not so proper in vocabulary use A good range of vocabulary means better reading comprehension, ability in technical subjects and written ability “Researchers have found that word knowledge in primary school can predict how well students will be able to comprehend texts they read in high school” (Johnson C & Johnson D., nd, p.1) Challenges when learning vocabulary When learning the vocabulary of a second language, a learner can encounter such problems Chi n l
c ngo i ng xu th h i nh p as making the correct connections, when understanding the second language, between the form and meaning of words; or using the correct form of a word for the intended meaning (i.e nose, not noise) during the language production process To these challenges, the learners are supposed to get a high range of vocabulary for use in both language understanding and producing and to remember words over the time, to be able to recall them readily, and to work out strategies for coping with unknown words, or unfamiliar uses of known words (Přibilová, 2006) In addition, the language learners also have to be responsible for expanding their vocabulary (Thornbury, 2002, p.31) Particularly, for the young learners, learning vocabulary is fun but is also challenging because they can not absorb a certain number of new words at a time without repetition Cameron (2001) says that each non-native child in good learning conditions must learn up to 500 words a year, which means about 13-14 words a day “The amount of mental work done by learners affects how well a new word is engraved in memory, the more learners have to think about a word and its meaning, the more likely they are to remember it” (Cameron, 2001, p.75) Problems in vocabulary learning among children may result from the fact that vocabulary is not sufficiently connected to pupils’ real lives Their vocabulary may be extended beyond the textbook without taking their choices, interest or incidental learning through stories into consideration (Cameron, 2001) Approaches of teaching vocabulary to young learners Accoriding to Přibilová (2006), there are a variety of methods and approaches how to teach a foreign language, including vocabulary, some of which can be used for teaching young learners, namely visualizing, the direct method, suggestopedia, Total Physical Repsonse, Communicative Language Approach Visualizing Přibilová (2006) states that it is important to visualize the items and then to have the children Tháng 11/2014 repeat or use them actively so that they can understand them Visualising means letting the children see or perhaps touch the vocabulary item by using pictures, flashcards or real objects, which can help create a fun and natural learning environment The children should also be given chance to listen and repeat these words in different ways, probably by listening to the teacher or the CD player and repeat as a class, in groups, in pairs or individually Direct method In this approach, there is no mother tongue or translation from the target language into the first language Also, only complete sentences are used and culture is an important aspect In this instruction, there are many specific exercises and activities that focus the learners’ attention directly on certain words in lists, learning word parts, and vocabulary games These techniques are beneficial to all learners, especially the ones with limited personal experience with words as well as limited knowledge of words (Vacca,Vacca and Gove, 2000; Omanson et al., 1984; Jenkins, Stein, and Wysocki, 1984; McKeown et al., 1983; Kameenui, Carnine, and Freschi, 1982) This technique has also been known to good to all readers required to read a specific text and deal with vocabulary items that are necessary for the text comprehension (Herber and NelsonHerber, 1993) Suggestopedia By applying this method, the teacher can inspire a desire to learn the new words among children because the music is on while learning This is considered to be a successful way in assisting the learners in memorizing the words; however, it has become less common now in language classes (Přibilová, 2006) This can be explained by the possible distraction from the main focus of the class among learners of language Total Physical Response (TPR) This works best for young learners because many children are now very hyper and physically 145 Ti u ban 1: Đào t o chuyên ng active TPR works well with parts of the body, for example Touch your head, shoulder, knees and toes; actions (I’m washing my face or He’s jumping high); and the imperative commands (Sit down! Open your books!) The children’s short span of attention can also be a reason for the use of TPR The children have no time to get bored or distracted when they are continuously put in games or fun activities and the teachers change topics or activities over the time (Přibilová, 2006) Communicative Teaching (CLT) Language Approach The meaning of a language in context is the focus of this approach Then the words are taught in context It is the communicative competence that is highly developed here and the learners are encouraged to communicate in the target language Vocabulary teaching approaches can also be classified into formal or planned instructions and formal instructions While the former means teaching the meaning of the words and ways to discover the meaning, with the latter instruction there is no teaching with rule or systematic approach Both of these ways help the children to engage their cognitive skills and to create opportunities for them to use the words (Linse, 2005) For vocabulary development among children, the teacher can also apply both “Direct instruction (teaching the words and their meaning such as preteaching vocabulary items) and Indirect instruction (teaching strategies to help learners figure out the meaning themselves such as teaching prefixes and suffixes)” (Linse, 2005, p 120) Words and word-related components to be taught Teachers of a foreign language in general and those of English in particular may come up with such questions as which words and what should be taught to the learners of language in general and primary school children in particular According to Cameron (2001), the young learners aged 6-10 should be taught the followings Basic level words Unlike the older children who can have an access to superordinate and subordinate vocabulary linked to basic level words they already know, they younger children should only learn the basic level words like table, classroom which can be known as the most commonly used words or words of high frequency Concrete words While older children can cope with abstract words/ topics, the younger children need concrete vocabulary Course books for young children, therefore, often lay emphasis on nouns because “they are easy to describe and often the children not have literacy skills, so the only words that can easily be featured are nouns” (Linse, 2005, p.120) Linse (2005) also states that it is also important to teach verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions as well as various lexical fields (food, jobs, drinks…) along with the nouns Words in collections The older children can learn words through pragmatic organization (style and register), but the younger ones learn words as collections That is why all the course books are now theme-based and they provide vocabulary according to it (Přibilová, 2006) According to Cameron (2001), for young children, knowing a word also includes Receptive knowledge: recognizing understanding its meaning when heard/ read and Conceptual knowledge: use it with correct meaning Grammatical knowledge: accurate use of the words Orthographic knowledge: spelling of the words Cultural content: what is significance of use in the culture, for example giving presents on Christmas day or delivering milk Ur (1996) states that the language learners 146 Chi n l
c ngo i ng xu th h i nh p should be taught form of the words (spelling and pronunciation), then grammar (singular or plural form of the words), collocations (words that go together), meaning and word formation (like using prefixes and suffixes or hyphenated words) However, for him, collocations and word formation are either too difficult or not important to the children Instead, it is more important to inform them of the meaning as well as the form and grammar of the words Nation (2001) also states that knowledge of a word can be divided into knowledge concerning its form (spoken/written), its position (grammatical patterns/collocations), its function (frequency/appropriateness), and its meaning (concept/associations) Vocabulary presentation In his bachelor work, Přibilová (2006) suggests that the teachers should bear in mind the number of words to be taught during the lesson, the guidelines in presenting the words, and several techniques of presenting the new vocabulary items Number of words to be taught In making decision about the number of words to be taught in one lesson, the teacher should consider the target language level of the students, their familiarity with the words, the word difficulty in terms of pronunciation, cultural features, spelling or concrete or abstract meaning of the words The teacher should also care about ways in which the words can be easily demonstrated or not (by using realia or pictures or verbal explanation) Vocabulary presenting guidelines In Přibilová’s opinion, the vocabulary should be taught in spoken form first so that the students can avoid pronouncing the words in the form they are written Then the new items should be placed in context, and revised later Vocabulary presenting techniques In Přibilová’s (2006) study, the techniques are classified into the followings: Tháng 11/2014 Verbal techniques: using illustrative situations, descriptions, synonyms and antonyms, and using various forms of definition: for example, definition by demonstration, contextual definitions, and definition by translation It is more difficult to give explanation this way at beginner level Visual and repetition techniques: using pictures – flashcards, photographs and magazines pictures, wall charts, posters, blackboard drawings, word pictures, several realia that the teachers can hold up and point, and then they can say out the words for the children to repeat To present actions and feelings, mime, actions and gestures can be used Learners can then label the pictures or objects or act Regarding visualizing techniques, Allen (1983) also says that there are several ways to show the meanings of an English word, through such aids as: (1) real objects (umbrellas, scissors, tools, buttons of many colors and sizes, etc); (2) drawings by the teacher or by the students; (3) demonstrations to show actions He also recommends teachers to use the real objects whenever possible when presenting the meaning of an English noun Real objects are better than pictures Translation: This technique is quick and easy but not commonly used recently because it is proved to be discouraging for the learners They can not interact with the words, and the learners will not have a habit of thinking in the target language and then producing the words and sentences in that language quickly Choosing activities to teach vocabulary There could be a variety of methods and techniques to choose from in teaching vocabulary to young children; however, teachers should be realistic because of the possible noise of the language classrooms, the large size of the class, the shortage of teaching facilities like projectors or visual aids in the language class As a result, it is the teachers to choose the right activities for the right class at the right time The activities can be 147 Ti u ban 1: Đào t o chuyên ng categorized into “settle-down” (to keep the class quiet and attentive) and “stir-up” activities (used to wake up the class) Some examples of the former are reading and drawing, whole-class listening activities, using stories or storybooks, arts and crafts activities Some examples of the latter are oral work (songs, chants and raps), mingles or surveys, movement games, using drama or acting out, competitions which can engage children’s minds and keep them physically occupied (Clarke, 2008) METHODS Objectives, subjects and the instrument of the study as well as procedure of conducting the research will be described in this part Objectives This survey aims at seeking the answers to the following questions: 1) What related to English vocabulary teachers of English teach at primary schools in Vietnam? 2) In what way is English vocabulary taught in English classes at primary schools in Vietnam? Subjects The ninety teachers involved in this survey are all English teachers at primary schools in Vietnam They all graduated from Foreign Language Teachers Training Colleges throughout the country and are teaching pupils aged to 10 at primary schools of different provinces or cities They were chosen as the population of the study based on convenience sampling Most of the answerers (95%) stated they had taken training courses on how to teach English to Young Learners (YL) in the framework of the National Foreign Language 2020 Project of Vietnam, which works to renovate teaching and learning English throughout the country and implement a new program on teaching and learning English at every school level and training degree Among those teachers who were trained on YL teaching methodology, only one person answered that he/ 148 she had never applied these methods in his/ her English teaching Just over half of the study population stated that they were now teaching in classes of 35-50 students or more than 50 students each Only a mere 9% of those questioned were teaching in classes of under 25 students Their teaching experience at primary schools also varied, as shown in the table below Table 1: Participants’ years of teaching English at primary schools in Vietnam Years of teaching Percentage Less than 63.6% 5-10 27% More than 9% Total 100% Instrument To collect the data for the survey on how to teach and what to teach about English vocabulary among primary school children, a questionnaire (see Appendix 1) and an observation note form (see Appendix 2) were developed based on relevant literature review discussed above and consideration for this English learning and teaching context at primary schools in Vietnam It is noted that the observation note form, which was used to seek further information about methods, techniques and words as well as word-associated components being taught in classes, serves the purpose of supplementing the questionnaire in gathering all the information needed for the data analysis The reason for this is the researcher wants to know if the answers from the questionnaire match with the information collected from the observation Procedure The questionnaire was designed, piloted and then delivered to 90 primary school teachers in different provinces of Vietnam who were selected based on convenience sampling Two of the teachers, however, did not give back the answers to the questionnaire After that, the researcher also Chi n l
c ngo i ng xu th h i nh p observed ten classes in which vocabulary teaching is the focus of the class, using the observation note form Then the data were collected and analysed on both qualitative and quantitative basis FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION This part presents findings of the survey as well as discussion of the findings The first part gives information about the methods of teaching English vocabulary, techniques of presenting English vocabulary adopted by the primary school teachers while the second part shows wordassociated components being taught by them English vocabulary teaching methods at primary schools 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 22.7 13.6 27.2 40.9 31.8 50 45 50 40.9 Always Often Tháng 11/2014 not have the stress of producing the language and TPR allows for low anxiety learning (Asher, 1977, cited in Pawan, nd)) Likewise, visualizing is a favourite method among teachers who believe that the young learners prefer having realia or pictures in learning vocabulary related to concrete meanings because of their being imaginative (Charteristics of Young Learners) About half of the surveyed teachers said they often used direct method while teaching vocabulary and over 10% of them always used it It can be also seen from the figure that suggestopedia was not favoured by many teachers Only one in three teachers often used it in their class This finding also goes with what stated by Přibilová (2006): suggestopedia has become less common now in language classes English vocabulary presenting techniques at Sometimes Never Figure 1: English vocabulary teaching methods at primary schools in Vietnam – frequency of use in percentage terms 100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 4.5 13.6 27 13.6 18 13.6 13.6 45 45 50 59 63.6 Always Often 0% Sometimes Never Figure shows how frequently teachers of English at primary schools in Vietnam use different methods of teaching vocabulary As can be seen from the figure, CLT was the most popular method with nearly half of all the respondents using it often and about another half using it at all time This can be explained by the fact that the learners feel safe and motivated to learn in a CLT classroom where less emphasis is on error correction and the focus is on communication and fluency (Pawan, n.d.) TPR and visualizing were also chosen as common ways of teaching vocabulary by 77.2% and 67.7% of the study population respectively A possible reason for using TPR is that the students primary schools Figure 2: English vocabulary presenting techniques at primary schools in Vietnam – frequency of use in percentage terms Figure gives information about frequency of using vocabulary presenting techniques at primary schools in Vietnam in percentage terms It is clear that visualizing and repeating and TPR (acting, miming and drawing, colouring) attracted more of the teachers with a massive 90.6% and around 70% respectively Singing, chanting and contextual definition were also preferred by over half of the population These 149 Ti u ban 1: Đào t o chuyên ng figures indicate that the teachers care more about the children as well as their characteristics in learning English now Only a quarter of the surveyed people chose translation as a frequent presenting technique This helps to prove what Přibilová (2006) states about translation technique (being not commonly used recently because it is proved to be discouraging for the learners) English words and word-related components being taught at primary schools According to the responses from the questionnaire and information from the observation, it can be seen that just over half of them chose grammatical features of the words and nearly half picked words in collections in teaching vocabulary To this, Cameron (2001) also presents that the young learners should learn words as collections From the survey, it can also be found that the majority of the study population (from 90% to 95%) preferred meaning, spelling and pronunciation of the words Likewise, Ur (nd) states that the young learners need to be taught the form of the word (spelling and pronunciation), then grammar, collocations, meaning and word formation Yet, he also adds that collocations are still not very necessary and word formation was too difficult to learn among young learners This also goes with the findings of this study: style, cultural aspects of the words, word formation, word collocation, dictionary skills and vocabulary learning strategies were only selected by small proportions of respondents (around 10% to 30%) CONCLUSION This study deals with the subject of teaching vocabulary to young learners in Vietnam at the present time When teaching young learners, the teacher has to understand their characteristics as both children and language learners In the first main part of the study, the researcher has presented some background information about the children as language learners and their characteristics Also there has 150 been a description of vocabulary teaching methods and vocabulary presenting techniques All these help to contribute to the questionnaire and observation note form designing part The second main part shows the findings of the research as well as discussion of the findings It is found that the children have been taught not only the meaning and the form of the words but also certain grammatical features of them Regarding the techniques and methods used in teaching vocabulary to young learners, visualizing and repeating, direct method, TPR and CLT are more preferable than others The study is significant in Vietnam’s innovation in language teaching in general and vocabulary teaching in particular because it has proved that the teachers are now more open to the new approaches and techniques of teaching and National Language Teaching Project 2020 of Vietnam has worked to some extent in achieving its objectives of renovating English teaching and learning throughout the country However, this study has not yet found out if the methods and techniques adopted by teachers at primary schools in Vietnam contributed to the effectiveness of language learning among the children Therefore, there should be another research aiming at measuring this RERFERENCES Allen, V F (1983) Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary Oxford: Oxford University Press Cameron, L (2001) Teaching Languages to Young Learners Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Characteristics of Young Learners (n.d.) Retrieved August 1, 2014, from http://farwaniya03.tripod.com/id6.html Clarke, S (2008) Teacher and teacher-trainer Coimbra: British Council Retrieved August 20, 2014, from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/stirrerssettlers-primary-classroom Herber, H & J Nelson-Herber (1993) Teaching in Content Areas with Reading, Writing, and Reasoning Boston: Allyn and Bacon Moon, J (2005) Children Learning English – A Guidebook for English Language Teachers Oxford: ... an innovation in English vocabulary teaching at this school level This study aims at studying what to teach and how to teach English vocabulary to young learners at primary schools in Vietnam in. .. quickly if they are motivated by the teacher They learn by listening and repeating, imitating the teacher, doing and interacting with each other in a child-friendly atmosphere However, they often... learners They can not interact with the words, and the learners will not have a habit of thinking in the target language and then producing the words and sentences in that language quickly Choosing