Using group work to teach vocabulary to 12th form students

Using group work activities to teach vocabulary to 12th form students Table of contents Part a: introduction 1. The reasons for the study 2. The aims of the study 3. The methods of the study 4. The scope of the study 5. The design of the study Part b: development Chapter 1: Theoretical background 1.1 Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) 1.1.1 CLT and its origin 1.1.2. The role change of the teacher and learner in CLT 1.2. Vocabulary teaching. 1.2.1. The importance of teaching vocabulary 1.2.2. Teaching vocabulary through communicative activities. Chapter 2: Group work and vocabulary teaching. 2.1. Group work. 2.2 The advantages of group work in teaching vocabulary 2.2.1. Vocabulary is acquired more easily in group. 2.2.2. Group work promotes learners' responsibility and autonomy. 2.2.3. Group work generates interactive language. NguyÔn ThÞ ¸nh NguyÖt 40 A2 1 Using group work activities to teach vocabulary to 12th form students 2.3. The disadvantages of group work in teaching vocabulary 2.3.1. Students tend to use their native language. 2.3.2. Teacher cannot monitor all groups at once. 2.3.3. Students make noise. 2.4. Preparation and organization of groups 2.4.1 Preparation 2.4.2. Group work organization 2.5. Group work implementation in classroom. 2.5.1. Selecting appropriate group techniques. 2.5.2. Planning group work 2.5.3. Monitoring the task Chapter 3: Suggested group work activities for Teaching vocabulary to 12th form students 3.1 Teaching and learning vocabulary situation at high schools in Vietnam 3.1.1. The traditional method of teaching 3.1.2. Almost no communicative activities in teaching vocabulary 3.1.3. Large class. 3.2. Suggested group work activities for teaching vocabulary to 12 th form students 3.2.1. Guess my word. 3.2.2. Word matching. 3.2.3. How is your vocabulary? 3.2.4. Matching exercises. NguyÔn ThÞ ¸nh NguyÖt 40 A2 2 Using group work activities to teach vocabulary to 12th form students 3.2.5. Let's go shopping. 3.2.6. Catalogues 3.2.7. Repetition made enjoyable. 3.2.8. Find the right definition. 3.2.9. Noughts and crosses. 3.2.10. Collocation Bingo 3.2.11. Word building. 3.2.12. What is it? 3.3. Particular examples of using group work. 3.3.1. Lesson 2. 3.3.2. Lesson 7. 3.3.3. Review lesson 1 3.3.4. Lesson 11. Part c: conclusion. NguyÔn ThÞ ¸nh NguyÖt 40 A2 3 Using group work activities to teach vocabulary to 12th form students Part A: Introduction 1. The reasons for choosing the study: It is the experience of most language teachers that vocabulary knowledge is the single most important area of second language competence. No matter how well the students learn grammar, no matter how successfully the sound of L2 is mastered, without words to express, communication in second language cannot happen in any meaningful way. Thus, teaching and learning vocabulary successfully is the concern of all teachers and learners of second language. In the late 20 th century, linguists, teachers and learners have witnessed the "birth" of a new way of teaching foreign language, the so-called "Communicative Language Teaching". Consequently, the method of teaching has changed to cater for the new purpose of learning and teaching language: to understand and to be understood in communication. Actually, teaching vocabulary in particular, and foreign language in general in high schools in Vietnam is not totally renewed. In Vietnam, vocabulary is taught mainly through reading. Each course book has a list of words with translation. Teachers must prepare carefully to master these words and students try to memorize these words, unsure about which meanings should be remembered. The text seems to be the only mean of providing the context for new words. Students have no chance to use or practise the words. As a result, learners forget words easily. Moreover, teaching vocabulary is not considered to be an important part, especially in 12 th form that prepares for Graduation and University Entrance Examination. NguyÔn ThÞ ¸nh NguyÖt 40 A2 4 Using group work activities to teach vocabulary to 12th form students The effort of this thesis is trying to find the way to create interest for teachers in teaching vocabulary, is trying to help students learn and practise new words in natural way by using group work activity. Having students work in groups not only makes all students involved in learning but also gives students a chance to practise and use new words in different contexts. Gradually, students can call on the words they want to use to express their thinking, their feeling easily, fluently and of course accurately. There are many reasons for choosing the study but the above reasons are the main ones that encourage me to choose the thesis: "Using group work to teach vocabulary to 12 th form students" 2. The aims of the study: The thesis has been done in order to make a contribution to the improvement and innovation of teaching vocabulary. The thesis is also aimed at suggesting some group work activities to teach vocabulary in the 12 th form. 3. The methods of the study. In order to complete the thesis I have used different methods as follow: • Analytic methods • Statistic methods. • Systematic methods. • Descriptive methods. 4. The scope of the study: NguyÔn ThÞ ¸nh NguyÖt 40 A2 5 Using group work activities to teach vocabulary to 12th form students This thesis is about using group work to teach vocabulary in the 12 th form. 5. The design of the study. Apart from acknowledgements, table of contents, the thesis consists of three main parts: Part A: "Introduction" presents the reasons for choosing the study, the aims, the methods, the scope of the study and also its design. Part B: "Development" consists of three chapters. The first chapter provides the theoretical background. Firstly, a basic understanding about communicative language teaching is introduced, that is about its origin, the change role of teacher and learner. Secondly, I emphasise the importance of vocabulary teaching and some advantages of teaching vocabulary through communicative activities. The second chapter provides some advantages and some disadvantages of group work in teaching vocabulary. The third chapter mentions some problems in teaching and learning vocabulary in high schools in Vietnam. This chapter also provides some group activities used to teach vocabulary in the 12th form and some particular lessons are taken as examples of teaching vocabulary using group work activities. Part C: " Findings and Conclusion" NguyÔn ThÞ ¸nh NguyÖt 40 A2 6 Using group work activities to teach vocabulary to 12th form students Part B: development Chapter 1: Theor etica l background 1 . 1 : C o m m u n i c a t i v e l a n g u a g e t e a c h i n g ( C L T ) 1.1.1: CLT and its origin Communicative Language Teaching makes use of real-life situations that necessitate communication. The teacher sets up a situation that students are likely to encounter in real life. Unlike the Audio lingual method of language teaching, which relies on repetition and drills, the communicative approach can leave students in suspense as to the outcome of a class exercise, which will vary according to their reactions and responses. The real-life simulations change from day to day. Students' motivation to learn comes from their desire to communicate in meaningful ways about meaningful topics. Margie S. Berns, an expert in the field of Communicative Language Teaching, writes in explaining Firth's view that "language is interaction; it is interpersonal activity and has a clear relationship with society": "In this light, language study has to look at the use or function of language in context, both its linguistic context or what is uttered before and after a given piece of discourse, and its social or situational, context". (Berns, 1984, p5) CLT emerged from a fusion of Cognitive Psychology; Generative Grammar and Educational reforms which sought to provide more room for learner creativity and less rote learning in Europe and North America classroom in the mid 1970's. In brief, CLT could be said to be the product of educators and linguists who had grown dissatisfied with the Audio Lingual and Grammar Translation methods of foreign language instruction. NguyÔn ThÞ ¸nh NguyÖt 40 A2 7 Using group work activities to teach vocabulary to 12th form students 1.1.2: The role change of the teacher and learner in CLT The change of teaching method follows up by the change of the roles of the teacher and student. The teachers in traditional classroom take the role as controllers who stand in the front of the class controlling everything in the class. The teachers in communicative classroom will find themselves talking less and listen more; they become active facilitators of their students learning. The teachers set up the exercises, facilitating the process of learning. Teachers allow students with their guidance to find their own pathways to success. The students in traditional class are passive recipients waiting to be filled with teacher's knowledge. They are expected to respond what the teacher asks, do what the teacher wants. The students in communicative classroom are active participants; they do most of the speaking. Frequently the scene of a classroom during a communicative exercise is active, with students leaving their seat to complete a task. 1 . 2 : V o c a b u l a r y t e a c h i n g 1.2.1: The importance of teaching vocabulary "If language structures make up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and the flesh" (Jeremy Harmer). An ability to manipulate grammatical structure does not have any potential for expressing meaning unless words are used. We talk about the importance "choosing words carefully" in certain communications, but we are less concerned about choosing structures carefully, unless of course we are in a language classroom. Then structural accuracy seems to be the dominant focus. In real life, NguyÔn ThÞ ¸nh NguyÖt 40 A2 8 Using group work activities to teach vocabulary to 12th form students however, it is possible that where vocabulary is used correctly, it can cancel out structural inaccuracy, but communication's purpose is still achieved. However, for many years in the past, the importance of vocabulary teaching was not appreciated. Vocabulary was just seen as incidental to the main purpose of language teaching - namely the acquisition of grammatical knowledge about the language. Vocabulary was necessary to give students something to hang on to when learning structures, but was frequently not a main focus for learning itself. Recently, in the highlight of Communicative Approach, the importance of vocabulary teaching is highly appreciated. Methodologists and linguists have increasingly been turning their attention to vocabulary, stressing its importance in the language teaching and reassessing some of the ways in which it is taught and learnt. It is, now, clear that the acquisition of grammar - though the two are obviously interdependent - and teachers should have the same kind of expertise in the teaching of vocabulary as they do in the teaching of structure. 1.2.2: Teaching vocabulary through communicative activities. Teaching vocabulary is quite various in communicative language teaching. Teaching vocabulary through communicative activities is one of the most effective ways. Communicative activities have a well-established place within many language-learning programmes. Although the range of types of such activities is large, all provide learners with opportunities to use language to do things and in particular, to engage in meaningful interactive oral language production. Typically, their goal is to improve the fluency with which learners access their knowledge of the target language. NguyÔn ThÞ ¸nh NguyÖt 40 A2 9 Using group work activities to teach vocabulary to 12th form students In the study of the acquisition of mathematical vocabulary through the performance of split informational activities by eleven to thirteen - year - old students, Hall (1992) found that the vocabulary learning of students working on these interactive activities was greater than that of students working within a teacher - fronted arrangement with a reading focus. Figure 1 shows a sample task: Partner A Tell B how to draw this: A B Finish the sentence: AB is a --------------------- Partner B Draw the lines that A tells you about. Finish the sentence together: --------------- --------------- --------------- Vertical line Hall concluded that split information activities "can provide opportunities for talk . which increase both language knowledge and content knowledge". Hall suggests that the requirement for spoken output in these activities and the generative use of new vocabulary items are the key factors leading to acquisition of these items. Simmock (1993) studied learners' performance in ask-and-answer activities where students read a story in pairs and then respond to preset questions from their partners about the events in the story, responding as if they were the people in the story who had experienced these events. She found that learners used new NguyÔn ThÞ ¸nh NguyÖt 40 A2 10