Nghiên cứu dạy từ vựng cho trẻ em thông qua điệu bộ tại trung tâm tiếng anh hi language school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRƯƠNG HƯƠNG LAN TEACHING VOCABULARY TO THE YOUNG LEARNERS THROUGH MIMING: A STUDY AT HI! LANGUAGE SCHOOL CENTER (NGHIÊN CỨU DẠY TỪ VỰNG CHO TRẺ EM THÔNG QUA ĐIỆU BỘ TẠI TRUNG TÂM TIẾNG ANH HI! LANGUAGE SCHOOL) Minor M.A thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Hanoi - 2012 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES TRƯƠNG HƯƠNG LAN TEACHING VOCABULARY TO THE YOUNG LEARNERS THROUGH MIMING: A STUDY AT HI! LANGUAGE SCHOOL CENTER (NGHIÊN CỨU DẠY TỪ VỰNG CHO TRẺ EM THÔNG QUA ĐIỆU BỘ TẠI TRUNG TÂM TIẾNG ANH HI! LANGUAGE SCHOOL) Minor M.A thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Phạm Thị Thanh Thủy, M.A Hanoi - 2012 LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table Reasons for using miming in teaching vocabulary to young learners Table The benefits of using miming in teaching vocabulary for the teachers at Hi! Language School Center Table When the teachers use miming to teach a word? Table The learners‟ understanding the word meaning through miming Table Difficulties in applying miming in teaching vocabulary Figure The teachers‟ keenness on miming in teaching vocabulary to the young learners Figure Usefulness of miming in teaching vocabulary to the young learners Figure Importance of using miming in teaching vocabulary to the young learners Figure Necessity of using miming in teaching vocabulary to the young learners Figure The young learners‟ interest in miming in learning vocabulary Figure The young learners‟ attitudes towards usefulness of miming in learning vocabulary Figure The young learners‟ interest in miming in comparison with that of some other techniques for teaching vocabulary Figure The benefits of miming in the children‟s learning vocabulary Figure Situation of using miming in teaching Figure 10 Situation of using miming in learning Figure 11 Frequency of using miming in teaching vocabulary Figure 12 Stages at which miming is often adopted Figure 13 Time for using miming in teaching vocabulary Figure 14 Word classes used in miming to teach vocabulary Figure 15 Class organizations when vocabulary is taught via miming Figure 16 Preparation for teaching vocabulary through miming Figure 17 Ways of checking the young learners‟ understanding of the vocabulary the teachers mime Figure 18 The young learners‟ participation in the miming activities iv Figure 19 The teachers‟ using the other teaching aids in miming Figure 20 The teacher‟s combining miming with the other techniques Figure 21 The teachers‟ feeling pleased with the results from using miming in teaching vocabulary v LIST OF TERMS YL young learner YLs young learners TESOL teaching English as a second language HLSC Hi! Language School Center VNU Vietnam National University ULIS University of Languages and International Studies vi TABLE OF CONTENT PAGE DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF FIGURES TABLES AND FIGURES iv LIST OF TERMS…………………………………………………………….vi PART A: INTRODUCTION Research Title Rationale for the Research Aims of the Research Research Questions Scope of the Research Signification of the Research Design of the Research PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW An Overview of Vocabulary 1.1 Definition of Vocabulary 1.2 The Roles of Vocabulary in Language Learning and Teaching An Overview of Young Learners 2.1 Definition of Young Learners 2.2 Nature of Young Learners An Overview of Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners vii 3.1 Principles of Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners 3.1.1 Criteria for selection of vocabulary 3.1.2 What to teach? 3.2 Techniques of Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners 10 3.2.1 Techniques of presenting vocabulary 10 3.2.2 Techniques of checking and consolidating vocabulary 11 An overview of miming 12 4.1 Definition of Miming 12 4.2 The Roles of Miming in Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners 13 4.3 Related Studies 14 CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY Settings 16 Participants 16 Data collection methods 16 3.1 Questionnaires……………………… 16 3.2 Interview 17 3.3 Observation 18 Data collection procedure 18 Data analysis methods 19 CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS Research question 20 Research question 25 Research question 32 PART C: CONCLUSION Summary of findings 34 viii Pedagogical Implications 34 Limitations of the study 36 Recommendations for further studies 37 REFERENCES 38 APPENDICES I Appendix 1: Questionnaire for the teachers I Appendix 2: Questionnaire for the young learners VII Appendix 3: Interview questions for the teachers and the young learners V Appendix 4: Interview for the teachers XI Appendix 5: Interview for the young learners (Vietnamese version) XIII Appendix6: Interview for the young learners (English version) XIV Appendix 7: Data collected from the questionnaire for teachers XV Appendix 8: Data collected from the questionnaire for the young learners XXI Appendix9: Students‟ book XXI ix PART A: INTRODUCTION Research Title: Teaching vocabulary to young learners through miming: A study at Hi! Language School Center Rationale for the Research In Vietnam, English has become more and more essential in every part of life so far The need of learning English comes from different purposes including communicating with foreigners, promoting to higher positions at work, exchanging cultures with the English speaking countries, or simply entertaining, and so on That the parents send their children of early age to the international schools or English centers is a popular trend currently The reason for this might be because they want their children to get a basis of English and chances of communicating with the foreigners when they are very young At Hi! Language School Center (HLSC), this trend is seen clearly The children start learning English at the youngest age of six Unlike the classes for adults which often focus on many different aspects of language such as grammar, phonetics…, the classes for children put emphasis on providing them with vocabulary The fact is that vocabulary plays an important role in teaching and learning language, the basis for the language learners to move up the higher level of English However, for such young children, it is difficult to use verbal techniques to teach them the meaning of the words Moreover, their concentration on the teachers‟ speaking in the class is often interrupted easily Especially, all the teachers teaching the young learners here are native English speakers and know few Vietnamese words How can those teachers deal with the challenges above? Of those techniques in classrooms such as role-play, miming, singing songs, storytelling, games… miming is the technique which the teachers use quite frequently Many researches show that it is easy and effective to introduce and consolidate the vocabulary and increase the children‟s motivation It is a help for the teachers to get the shy learners into the class activity Does miming affect teaching and learning vocabulary in the same way at HLSC? What the teachers and learners there think about miming? What they apply miming in teaching vocabulary? How they apply it? Do any difficulties exist? All the questions above urge the author to the study “Teaching vocabulary to the young learners through miming: A study at Hi! Language School Center.” Aims of the Research This study aims at: - providing English language teachers a specific understanding about miming as well as when and how miming can be applied in context - investigating the Hi! Language School Center teachers and the young learners‟ attitudes towards miming in teaching and learning English vocabulary - figuring out the current situation of teaching vocabulary through miming to young learners at Hi! Language School Center; and - finding out the difficulties in teaching vocabulary to young learners through miming to young learners at Hi! Language School Center Research Questions The following questions were made to achieve the aims above: Research question 1: What are the attitudes of the teachers and the young learners (aged from to 8) at Hi! Language School Center towards miming in teaching and learning English vocabulary? Research question 2: What is the current situation of teaching vocabulary to the young learners (aged from to 8) at Hi! Language School Center? Research question 3: What are the difficulties the teachers at Hi! Language School Center often cope with when teaching vocabulary through miming to the young learners (aged from to 8)? Scope of the Research This study puts emphasis on using miming in teaching and learning vocabulary at HLSC The age range of young learners at Hi! Language School Center varies from five to twelve However, due to the limited time and small scale of the research, the author only investigated the participants‟ age range between six and eight Only thirty-eight children from three classes and six foreign teachers took part in the study APPENDIX INTERVIEW FOR THE YOUNG LEARNERS (Vietnamese version) Questions and answers: Em có thích học từ vựng thơng qua điệu khơng? (tại có/ khơng) YL1: Em thích hành động thầy buồn cười YL2: Em khơng thích phải làm điệu nhiều quá, mệt YL3: Em có em vừa học từ vừa làm hành động YL4: Em thích em phải làm điệu học từ, em chép YL5: Em có thích tham gia làm điệu bạn em thấy vui YL6: Có Vì thầy thưởng nhiều cho em em làm điệu YL7: Rất thích em đốn hết từ mà thầy làm điệu để diễn tả YL8: Em khơng thích Các bạn cười em em làm điệu YL9: Khơng thích Vì em thích chơi đập card YL 10: Có thích Thầy làm điệu em nhớ hết làm theo, thầy khen em bạn làm tốt Em thử diễn tả từ tiếng Anh sau điệu không? (book, look, happy, fast, under) The YL Book YL1 √ YL2 √ √ YL3 √ √ √ √ √ YL4 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ YL5 YL6 √ YL7 √ Look Happy Under √ √ √ √ YL8 Fast √ YL9 √ √ √ YL10 √ √ √ XIII √ √ √ APPENDIX INTERVIEW FOR THE YOUNG LEARNERS (English version) Questions and answers: Do you like learning English vocabulary through miming? Why/ Why not? YL1: I really like it because the teacher‟s miming is very funny YL2: I don‟t really like it because so much miming made me very tired YL3: Yes, I Because I both learn and actions YL4: I like it because I don‟t have to write down, just mime and learn words YL5: I like it because miming with my friends makes me feel happy YL6: Yes Because the teacher gave many stars when I mimed the words well YL7: I like because I can guess all the words the teacher mimes YL8: I don‟t like it very much The other students laughed at me when I mimed YL9: I don‟t like it because I prefer to playing “slap the cards” game YL 10: Yes, I I remember all the teacher‟s mimes and them He also praised my classmates and me for doing good job Can you mime the following words? (book, look, happy, fast, under) The YL YL1 Book Look YL2 √ √ YL3 √ √ √ √ √ YL4 √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ YL5 YL6 √ YL7 √ Happy Under √ √ √ √ YL8 Fast √ YL9 √ √ √ YL10 √ √ √ XIV √ √ √ APPENDIX 7: DATA COLLECTED FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS No Questions Have you ever taught vocabulary to the young learners through miming? Answers Yes No 100% 0% very much much quite much 0.0% 17% 50.0% very useful useful quite useful not very useful useless No of teachers % How you like using miming in teaching vocabulary through miming? No of teachers % What you think of the usefulness of miming in teaching vocabulary to the young learners? not very much 33% not at all 0.0% No of teachers % What you think of the importance of miming in teaching vocabulary to the young learners? No of teachers % 17% 33% 50.0% 0.0% 0.0% very important important quite important not very important unimportant 0.0% 33% 33% 33.3% 0.0% What you think of the necessity of miming in teaching vocabulary to the young learners? very necessary necessary quite necessary not very necessary unnecessary XV No of teachers % What are your reasons for using miming in teaching vocabulary to the young learners? No of teachers % 0.0% % How often you use miming in teaching vocabulary to the young learners? 33% 0.0% 0.0% to help your young to help your to to make your learners to check the to warm up young introduce young remember children‟s the learners and the learners more other ideas the understanding classroom you feel vocabulary active while vocabulary of the lessons atmosphere relaxed easily learning easily and longer 83% What are the benefits of using miming in teaching vocabulary in your get the viewpoint? children involved easily No of teachers 67% 100% 83% 50% introduce and consolidate the help the vocabulary children help the for the learn while children feel children playing comfortable easily 50% 33% 33% help the young build up learners the remember children‟s the can be used selfvocabulary at any time confidence longer 5 100% 50% 83% 83% 100% 33% 83% a in no lessons b in few lessons c in some lessons d in every lesson XVI 10 11 12 No of teachers % 0.0% 16.7% Which stage you often use miming Presentation Practice to teach vocabulary? No of teachers % 83.3% 66.7% How long you often use miming in 6-10 1-5 minutes teaching vocabulary? minutes No of teachers % 66.7% 33.3% What kinds of words you often teach nouns verbs through miming? No of teachers % 83.3% 100.0% How you often organize work in group work pair work class? No of teachers % 16.7% 50.0% 50.0% Production 33.3% 11-15 minutes 0.0% 16-20 minutes 0.0% more than 20 minutes 0.0% adjectives adverbs prepositions 33.3% 16.7% 50.0% teams whole class individuals 66.7% 83.3% 33.3% nothing others 66.7% 0.0% learn how think of how to mime on practice What you to prepare for teaching to mime the Internet miming at vocabulary via miming? carefully or from a home 13 book No of teachers % 16.7% 16.7% XVII 33.3% 0.0% In what way you check your children‟s understanding of the word 14 you mime? No of teachers % How often you use the other teaching aids to teach vocabulary 15 through miming? No of teachers % How often you combine miming with the other techniques while 16 teaching vocabulary? No of teachers % 17 How the young learners understand the word meaning through miming? No of teachers % Ask them to Ask them to Ask them Ask them to match the make a Ask them to to say the say the word mime with sentence mime again word in in the correct using the English Vietnamese picture/ flash word you card mime 100.0% 100.0% 16.7% 50.0% 33.3% always usually sometimes rarely never 0.0% 66.7% 33.3% 0.0% 0.0% always usually sometimes rarely never 0.0% 50.0% 50.0% 0.0% 0.0% Always give correct answer Usually give correct answer Sometimes give correct answer Rarely give correct answer Never give correct answer 0.0% 83.3% 16.7% 0.0% 0.0% XVIII others 50.0% How you feel about your teaching vocabulary to the young learners at Hi! very pleased 18 Language School Center? No of teachers % What are your difficulties in teaching vocabulary to Hi! Language School Center‟s young learners through miming? a over-sized classes b too noisy classes c the children get out of your control when all the children mime pleased 17% 50.0% No of teachers % 0% 67% 67% 50% 83% 0% 100% h your mime is not clear and leads to some different words 100% i your choice of word to mime is sometimes inappropriate 100% d miming could be used for the children who are kinaesthetic, it is not 19 appropriate for the other types e Some children feel shy in front of their classmates f the children feel bored g students‟ short attention span XIX pleased to some extent not pleased at (i.e slightly all pleased) 33% 0.0% j you feel shy when miming in front of many children 0% k words in the course book is too hard to be adapted mime 0% 100% No of teachers 67% a Limited the number of the learners in each class 0% b spend appropriate amount of time on miming 100% c manage the class as a whole or big teams 67% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 67% l not many abstract words can be mimed m others What should the teachers to deal with these problems? d give clear, simple, and funny 20 instructions and mime e choose appropriate words to mime f use miming in combination with the other techniques g use the other teaching aids to support your miming h combine mime with the other techniques i think of how to mime more carefully before class time % XX No APPENDIX 8: DATA COLLECTED FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRE FOR YOUNG LEARNERS Questions Answers Do you know how to use miming in learning Yes No vocabulary? No of students 38 % 100% 0% In what way you like miming when your teacher very much much quite much not very much not at all uses it in teaching vocabulary? No of students 19 % 21.1% 50% 18.4% 10.5% 0% What you think of the usefulness of miming in very useful useful quite useful not very useful useless learning vocabulary? No of students 11 17 10 0 % 28.9% 44.7% 26.3% 0% 0% Via what way you prefer flash cards songs miming story telling games to learn? No of students 33 19 31 17 38 % 86.8% 50% 81.6% 44.7% 100% What are the benefits of learning vocabulary through miming? No of students % others 10 26.3% get more fun learn vocabulary more easily and better remember vocabulary longer widen the knowledge of vocabulary feel more selfconfident others 35 92.1% 28 73.7% 33 86.8% 25 65.8% 22 57.9% 13.2% XXI How often does your teacher use miming in teaching vocabulary? No of students % When the teacher teaches vocabulary through miming, you often: No of students % When does the teacher use miming to teach vocabulary? No of students % 10 How does your teacher check your understanding the word meaning? No of students % How long does your teacher use miming to teach a in very few lessons b in few lessons c in some lessons d in every lesson 0% 13% 22 58% 10 26% like and join in only join in when you are called on join in depend on whether you like or not like at that time not like and reluctantly join in not like and not join in 29 76% 13% 8% 3% 0.0% a when introducing the new vocabulary b when practicing the words via miming c at any time 22 58% 17 45% 38 100% Ask them to Ask them to match the mime make a sentence with the correct using the word picture/ flash you mime card Ask them to mime again Ask them to say the word in English Ask them to say the word in Vietnamese 38 100% 38 100% 21% 25 66% 1-5 minutes 6-10 minutes 11-15 minutes 16-20 minutes XXII 16 42% more than 20 minutes others 11 29% vocabulary? 11 12 No of students % How you often organize work in class? No of students % How often you use the other teaching aids to teach vocabulary through miming? No of students % How often you guess the correct word meanings? 13 No of students % 21 55% 15 39% 5% 0% 0% group work pair work teams whole class individuals 24% 22 58% 15 39% 33 87% 16 42% always usually sometimes rarely never 0% 23 61% 15 39% 0% 0% Always give correct answer Usually give correct answer Sometimes give correct answer Rarely give correct answer Never give correct answer 27 11 0 0% 71% 29% 0% 0% XXIII APPENDIX 8: FAMILY AND FRIENDS – CLASS BOOK (P20 – 25) XXIV XXV XXVI XXVII ... CỨU DẠY TỪ VỰNG CHO TRẺ EM THÔNG QUA ĐIỆU BỘ TẠI TRUNG TÂM TIẾNG ANH HI! LANGUAGE SCHOOL) Minor M.A thesis Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Phạm Thị Thanh Thủy, M.A... young learners at Hi! Language School Center; and - finding out the difficulties in teaching vocabulary to young learners through miming to young learners at Hi! Language School Center Research... vocabulary to the young learners (aged from to 8) at Hi! Language School Center? Research question 3: What are the difficulties the teachers at Hi! Language School Center often cope with when teaching