Using games and songs to revise and test pupils vocabulary

Using games and songs to revise and test pupils’ vocabulary Acknowledgements For the completion of the study I have received valuable contributions from many people. First of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks to Ms Nguyen Thi Van Lam, my supervisor, who has given me useful ideas, help and encouragement to shape and complete my paper. I am also deeply indebted to Mr. Christopher Staples whose useful materials and advice help me a lot in doing this thesis. I must acknowledge my debt to those who have lent me a lot of useful books for my study, especially Ms Ngoc_ a teacher from Junior Teachers Training College, Ms Hoai _a friend who I always love as my sister, Ms Tu_the librarian of Foreign Language Department and Huyen _ my best friend. I also wish to thank all the teachers and pupils at Ha Huy Tap high school and Nguyen Du high school for giving me an opportunity to carry out the survey of the study. Furthermore, I am grateful to all the teachers in Foreign Language Department whose lectures are so helpful to my study. Finally, my thanks go to my family as well as my friends for their support and encouragement without which I may loose patience and give up the study. Vinh, May 2004 Nguyen Thi Hue Nguyễn Thị Huệ - 41A3English - FLD - Vinh University 1 Using games and songs to revise and test pupils’ vocabulary Part a: introduction 1. Reasons for the Study English has always been considered as an international language . It is spoken everywhere and it is becoming more and more important subject in schools and colleges . In our country, it is taught and learnt in almost schools especially high schools. English helps pupils open the door for a wider knowledge of the world. Vocabulary is an important dimension of a language ." when most of us think about language , we first think about words . It is true that the vocabulary is the focus of language . It is in words that sounds and meanings interlock to allow us to communicate with one another and it is the words that we arrange together to make sentences, conversation and discourse of all kinds".(Pyles and Algeo, 1976 :70) In English classes in Vietnam , vocabulary seems to be ignored . Most of pupils hate learning new words as they find it difficult to remember them . A few minutes teaching in class cannot help them remember the words. Thus, it is necessary to revise and test them regularly. There are several ways of revising and testing vocabulary having been applied. A good teacher should not use the same technique everyday , which makes pupils feel bored. Games and songs are interesting activities. They can make the lesson exciting and motivate pupils. Though, not many teachers use them in their teaching or some like those activities but do not know how to organize them the most effectively. I myself will be a language teacher in the future. Like many other teachers , I want my pupils to learn well and love learning English especially vocabulary. Therefore, I have decided to choose the topic "Using games and songs to revise and test pupils' vocabulary" as my study. 2. Aims of the Study. This study is carried out with the attempt to get the aims: Nguyễn Thị Huệ - 41A3English - FLD - Vinh University 2 Using games and songs to revise and test pupils’ vocabulary - investigate the current situation of vocabulary teaching and learning, the use of games and songs in classrooms and teachers' and pupils' attitude towards this. Nguyễn Thị Huệ - 41A3English - FLD - Vinh University 3 Using games and songs to revise and test pupils’ vocabulary -give some suggestions on how to use games and songs in language teaching. -give some suggested games and songs that can be used to revise and test pupils' vocabulary. 3. Methods of the Study . In order to accomplish this thesis ,I have used several methods as follows: - statistic analysis : Collect figures and analyse how these figures show the state being searched - observation: Observe and point out the facts - explanation: Collect information from references and explain in another way -synthesis and analysis: Collect information from references and the survey and analyse the results. 4. Scope of the Study. Games and songs can be used in a lot of activities such as teaching and practising grammar points , structure, writing, speaking, intonation and vocabulary. In my study, I will not cover all those things. What I focus on is vocabulary. However , I will not discuss about teaching vocabulary , I only focus on revising and testing pupils' vocabulary through games and songs 5. Design of the Study. Apart from acknowledgements, table of contents, references and appendixes, the thesis consists of three main parts: Part A: Introduction talks about the reasons for the study, the aims, the scope, the methods and design of the study. Nguyễn Thị Huệ - 41A3English - FLD - Vinh University 4 Using games and songs to revise and test pupils’ vocabulary Part B: Contents is made up of 3 chapters. The first chapter is ‘Theoretical Background’ which tells about the background theories on vocabulary, revision and testing, games and songs. The second chapter is ‘Using games and songs to revise and test pupils' vocabulary’ which discusses on how to use games and songs in vocabulary revision and testing and gives some suggested games and songs . The last chapter is‘ The Survey’ which is about the situation of revision and testing vocabulary and the use of games and songs in high schools in Vietnam Part C: Conclusion PART B: Contents CHAPTER 1: Theoretical Background. 1.1 What is vocabulary? Nguyễn Thị Huệ - 41A3English - FLD - Vinh University 5 Using games and songs to revise and test pupils’ vocabulary 1.1.1. Definition of vocabulary. According to Ur (1996: 60): “Vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as the words we teach in the foreign language” For example: - red, green, nice, ugly, etc. (adjectives) - house, flat, book, etc. (nouns) - see, want, hope, etc. (verbs) However, an item of vocabulary may be more than a single word. For example: 'shop-keeper', 'daughter-in-law', 'short-sighted', etc. Such vocabulary items are made of two or three words but express a single idea. Moreover, there are a lot of multi-word idioms whose meanings can not be deduced from the meaning of each component word, exemplified by. - kick the bucket (= die; used humorously) - as hard as nail (= no sympathize for others) - out of this world (= outstanding/superb) Therefore, vocabulary should be seen as ‘items’ not just ‘words’. 1.1.2. Aspects of vocabulary 1.1.2.1. Spelling and pronunciation Ur, (1996: 60) says that the pronunciation of a word is what it sounds like and its spelling is what it looks like. There are fairly obvious characteristics and one or the other will be perceived by the learners when encounting the item for the first time. In teaching we need to make sure that both these aspects are accurately presented and learned. Therefore, the first thing learners should notice when learning an item of vocabulary is how to write and how to pronounce it as “part of learning a word is learning its written and spoken form” (Harmer, 1994: 157). Yet English pronunciation in relation to spelling causes a big problem to its learners because there is no one to one relation between how the word is written and how it is pronounced. For example: Letter ‘a’ can be pronounced /æ/ as in ‘hat’, ‘cat’, /ei/ as in ‘shade’, ‘paper’, / / as in ‘extra’, ‘ordinary’, etc. Another example, letter ‘g’ can be Nguyễn Thị Huệ - 41A3English - FLD - Vinh University 6 Using games and songs to revise and test pupils’ vocabulary pronounced /g/ as in ‘group’, ‘ground’, ‘go’, etc. ; /dz/ as in ‘general’, ‘gender’, ‘gin’, etc. The problem of pronunciation on its own is even more complicated especially stress interchange. Eg: a record / ‘rek d/ (n)  to record /rI kJ:d/ (v) a present / ‘prez nt/ (n)  to present /prI zent) (v) desert / ‘dez t/ (n) (adj)  to desert /dI ‘z :t/ (v) (n) The different places of stress may have different meanings. Thus, it is very important to know and pronounce correctly in the right situation. Spelling also has its own issues. Pupils need to know not only how to write a word but also how to add other morpheme to the word because there are various ways of adding morpheme in each type (inflectional and derivational morphemes and their subtypes);for example, we add a plural morpheme Book + s  books Box + es  boxes 1.1.2.2. Meaning Meaning of a language is very important. We know that communication is the most important function of a language and we can not communicate without meaning. To affirm the importance of the meaning of language, a famous saying of Roman Jokobson should be mentioned: “Language without meaning is meaningless” There are two main types of meaning found in words. They are grammatical meaning and lexical meaning. 1.1.2.2.1. Grammatical meaning Grammatical meaning, as we often think, is related to function words only. These words have little meaning on their own and show grammatical relationships and in and between sentences. For example: article (‘a’, ‘an’, ‘the’), conjunctions (‘and’, ‘but’, ‘although’, ‘because’, etc.), preposition (‘in’, ‘on’, ‘up’, etc.), interjection (‘oh’, ‘ah’, etc.) According to Hoang Tat Truong (1993:53) Nguyễn Thị Huệ - 41A3English - FLD - Vinh University 7 Using games and songs to revise and test pupils’ vocabulary Grammatical meaning is what unites words with different lexical meanings. It is the meaning recurrent in identical sets of different words. It divides words in to groups with their own grammatical features Thus, content words also have grammatical meaning. The grammatical meaning of ‘house’, ‘glass’, ‘window’, ’bicycle’, etc. is that they are concrete nouns. The grammatical meaning of ‘love’, ‘happiness’, ‘hope’, ‘passion’, etc. is that they are abstract nouns. The grammatical meaning of ‘beautiful’, ‘tall’, ‘bright’, ‘blue’, etc. is that they are adjectives; ‘wanted’, ‘cooked’, etc. are regular verbs in past tense, and ‘went’, ‘gave’, ‘brought’, etc. are irregular verbs in past simple tense. 1.1.2.2.2. Lexical meaning It is clear that lexical meaning is only concerned with content words. Lexical meaning is the relation of concept or emotion when we hear or see the word ‘house’, for example, our concept is realized and the picture or image of a house occurs to our mind. There fore, this realization is called lexical meaning (Hoang Tat Truong, 1993: 53) Therefore, a word which has lexical meaning can be identified in order to be realized. For example: ‘a ruler’ is “a straight strip of wood or plastic or metal used for measuring or for drawing straight lines"; ‘a mirror’ is “a shiny surface usually of especially treated glass or metal that reflects images". ‘Love’ (n) is "a strong felling of deep affection for somebody/something". ‘To love’ is "to have a strong affection or deep tender felling for somebody/something". Lexical meaning can be seen under the following aspects. 1.1.2.2.2.1. Denotation, connotation, appropriateness. The denotation (denotational meaning) of a word is ‘what it refers to in the real world’ (Ur, 1996 : 61). It denotes or points out things, concepts. etc. This meaning can be easily found out in a dictionary. For example, ‘cat’ denotes a small animal with soft fur, often kept as a pet or for catching mice; ‘mother’, ‘mum’ and ‘mummy’ denote female parent. The connotation (conotational meaning) of a word is ‘the associations, or positive or negative feelings it evokes’ ( Ur, 1996:61). This means that it shows Nguyễn Thị Huệ - 41A3English - FLD - Vinh University 8 Using games and songs to revise and test pupils’ vocabulary us how things, concepts, etc. are denoted. This meaning conveys the speaker’s attitude, emotion etc. and may or may not be found in a dictionary. For example: ‘mother’ ‘mum’ and ‘mummy’ share the same denotation but they have different connotations. Whereas ‘mother’ has the neutral meaning, ’mum’ and ‘mummy’ are more informal. Another example, the word ‘dog’, as understood by most British people, has positive connotations of friendship and loyalty whereas the equivalent in Arabic as understood by most people in Arab countries, has the negative meaning of dirt and inferiority. Appropriateness is how we consider and decide which words to use in certain context. It is, therefore, related to denotation and connotation. Take an example of denotation first. We know that ‘see’ and ‘look (at)’ are semantic synonyms. They both denote the action of eyes. However, we use ‘see’ to say that something ‘comes to our eyes’ whether or not we are paying attention. We use ‘look at’ to talk about concentrating, paying attention, trying to see what is there. You can 'see' something without wanting to but you can only 'look at’ something deliberately as exemplified in the following: Suddenly I saw something strange I look at the photo but I didn’t see anyone I knew. An example of connotation: ‘frugal’ and ‘stingy’, both mean ‘careful with money’. ‘Frugal’ is polite word whereas ‘stingy’ is not. A person might like to be said ‘frugal’ but never like to be said ‘stingy’. 1.1.2.2.2.2. Meaning relationship Words have meanings in relation to others. And in teaching, it is very useful to show how meaning of one item relates to the meaning of others. According to Ur (1996:62) the main relationship are as follows: - Synonyms are items that mean the same or nearly the same. For example, ‘plain’ is served as a synonym of ‘ugly’; ‘clever’ is a synonym of ‘intelligent’ - Antonyms are items that mean the opposite. Nguyễn Thị Huệ - 41A3English - FLD - Vinh University 9 Using games and songs to revise and test pupils’ vocabulary For example, ‘rich’ is an antonym of ‘poor’; ‘good’ is an antonym of ‘bad’ - Hyponyms are items that serve as specific example of a general concept. For example, ‘dog’, ‘lion’, ‘tiger’, ‘mouse’, ‘cat’ are hyponyms of ‘animal’. ‘Lily’, ‘rose’, ‘tulip’, ‘violet’, ‘daisy’ are hyponyms of ‘flowers’ - Co-hyponyms or co-ordinates are other items that are the ‘same kind of thing’. For example, ‘red’, ‘blue’, ‘green’, ‘brown’ are co-hyponyms. - Superordinates are general concepts that ‘cover’ specific items. For example, ‘Animal’ is the superordinate of ‘dog’, ‘lion’, ‘tiger’, ‘mouse’, ‘cat’, etc. ‘Flower’ is the superordinate of ‘lily’, ‘rose’, ‘tulip’, ‘violet’, ‘daisy’,etc. - Translation: words or expression in learners’ mother tongue that is more or less equivalent in meaning to the item to be taught. 1.1.2.2.2.3. Polysemy As studies have shown, the majority of English vocabulary is polysemantic (having more than one meaning). Harmer (1994:156) stated that the first thing to realize about vocabulary items is that they frequently have more than one meaning. In a dictionary, the verb ‘to set’ has 126 meanings, which is a maximum number. Many other words also have different meanings. For example: the word ‘fast’ when it is an adjective or adverb it means 'quick'or 'quickly', also when it is an adjective, it means ‘firmly fixed’ or ‘attached’. ‘Fast’ when it is a verb, means “go without certain kind of food especially for religious reasons”. Some more meanings of ‘fast’ are recorded in dictionaries. Because of the polysemy of words, when we come across an item we will have to look at the context in which it is used. 1.1.2.3. Word use The meaning of a word can be changed, stretched or limited by how it is used. ‘Metaphor’ and ‘idiom’ are the two that show us how word meaning varies by its use. Metaphor is the transference of names based on the association of similarity or more understandably, metaphor is a hidden comparison. For instance, we know that the word ‘fox’ means “a kind of wild animal of the dog Nguyễn Thị Huệ - 41A3English - FLD - Vinh University 10