Tài liệu Skkn activities for reviewing and enriching vocabulary knowledge.

BM 01-Bia SKKN DONG NAI EDUCATION AND TRAINING DEPARTMENT NAM HA HIGH SCHOOL Code:  THE INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE Topic: Activities for Reviewing and Enriching Vocabulary Knowledge Teacher: Research field: Education management: Teaching methodology: Other field: Attachments: Object:  TRỊNH THỊ LOAN  English  Software:  Film:  School year: 2014-2015 Page 1 Other things:  BM02-LLKHSKKN CURRICULUM VITAE I.PERSONAL INFORMATION: 1. Full name: Trinh Thi Loan 2. Date of birth: July 2nd, 1985 3. Sex: Female 4. Address: 29A/6 Nguyen Ai Quoc Street, Tan Phong, Bien Hoa, Dong Nai 5. Telephone number: 01636991371 6. Email address: [email protected] 7. Major: Teacher of English 8. Work Place: Nam ha high school II. EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND -Diploma: Bachelor in 2007 -Major in: English teaching III. SCIENTIFIC EXPERIENCE -The length of service: 8 years - The initiative experience: 1. Using English song to teach pronunciation (2012-2013) -The two following works have conducted since joining the post graduate diploma course. 2. Positive and negative learning experiences in working in groups in speaking lessons among grade 10th students at Nam Ha high school (20142015) 3. English textbook evaluation (2014-2015) Page 2 The table of content Chapter 1: Introduction 1. Back ground of the study………………………. 2. The significant of the study…………………….. 3. The study questions……………………………… Chapter 2: Review 4 4 4 of Relevant Literature 1. What is vocabulary?................................................ 5 2. Some guidelines for communicative treatment of vocabulary instruction. ………………………………………... 3. Useful principles for vocabulary review and consolidation. 5-6 6 Chapter 3: Recommend the vocabulary activities for grade eleventh students. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Word search puzzles…………………………………. Word definition ……………………………………… Word collocation…………………………………….. Word form…………………………………………… Matching…………………………………………….. Crossword…………………………………………… Scrambled letters…………………………………… Spelling bee…………………………………………. Chapter 4: Conclusion 7-9 10 11 12 13 14-15 16 17 and suggestion …………… Reference …………………………………………………… Page 3 18 19 Chapter 1: Introduction Vocabulary is considered an important tool to help students interpret their ideas and express their feelings effectively. Students’ knowing lots of lexical items ultimately lead to successes in language skills such as speaking, listening, writing and listening. It is also vocabulary that partly facilitates the movement of “passive” knowledge into “active” language use. Roughly speaking, students are getting more competent and confident in using language since they own the rich storehouse of vocabulary knowledge. In reality, those roles of knowing vocabulary seem to be marginalized in teaching and learning situations. More dangerously, the translation method becomes dominant, which navigates to the situation of L1 overuse. The textbook makes the problems worsen when presenting no room for purely teaching and learning vocabulary. As a result, teachers tend to spend very limited time on introducing the new lexical items and do not linger on vocabulary practice. In some special cases, a few teachers are more awareness of the possible potentials of vocabulary in the language family. The evidence is that they deliberately check students’ memorization on the words they have learnt. However, they do not vary the task types except for dictation technique, which is considered to be at the expense of communicative purposes. The same problems happen in my school, which urges me to do something to address the mentioned dilemmas in the domain of my school. I also hope that my work will be useful in many other educational institutes. The study is in attempt to answer the following questions: 1. What is vocabulary? 2. What are some useful techniques in introducing vocabulary? 3. When is the most suitable time for reviewing and consolidating activities? 4. What are specific vocabulary activities for particular units for grade eleventh students in the first semester? The next chapter refers to some literature reviews that are relevant to my mentioned concerns. By doing so, the study area becomes more clarity and convincing. Page 4 Chapter 2: Literature review What is vocabulary? According Ur. P (2012), vocabulary is referred as the lexical items of the language including some aspects; such as, form (pronunciation and spelling) meaning (denotation), grammar (certain grammar context), collocation, connotation and appropriateness. So vocabulary is not just the words in the language. It is much broader than what is familiarly attributed. In real classroom, it is important for students to internalize all the possible domains of vocabulary so that they can avoid wrongly using words and ruining their harbored meanings. Some guidelines for communicative treatment of vocabulary instruction. Obviously, students will remember the words longer once they are taught effectively, so the stage of introducing vocabulary to students strengthen the effects of the subsequent consolidation. Traditionally, teachers of English tend to directly introduce the needed vocabulary to their students, by doing so they can save time for the macro skills which are widely considered to be more important than the language elements. As a result, students are to face with lots of obstacles stemming from insufficient knowledge of vocabulary. Spontaneously, their work on other skills no longer runs smoothly. Unfortunately, such frequent interruption may damages students’ learning motivation. In my opinion, practicing and reviewing vocabulary deserves to be paid more attention and dedication from teachers and teachers should lend the most effective teaching techniques as well as appropriate pedagogic approaches to enhance students’ willingness to exposure to lexical items. As suggested by Brown. H. D (2007), vocabulary items should not be viewed as a long, boring list of words to be learned, they should be put in their centre role in meaningful language. He also lists some practical principles for using communicative teaching method to treat vocabulary instruction as follow. - Allocate specific class time to vocabulary learning. Words are believed the first priority to make communication work, and the basic base of language building blocks. Page 5 -Help students to learn vocabulary in context. The words should appear in the context of discourse or real communication rather than isolating words. By doing so, students can articulate the new words in meaningful contexts that they may encounter in real life. - Play down the role of bilingual dictionary. This help student skip from overusing bilingual dictionary, which makes students overtly depend on it for word quick translation. - Encourage students to develop strategies for determining the meanings of words. - Engage in “unplanned” vocabulary teaching. Teachers should be conscious that the “unplanned” vocabulary teaching can be encouraged since it relates to the ongoing activities. These principles urge teachers to carefully design vocabulary activities to benefits their learners and make the lessons more engaging to them. Obviously, students can easily forget all about the words if they can see it no other times. So to make sure their revisiting chance to the vocabulary they have just learnt, students should be supplemented with some kinds of reviewing and consolidating activities. This is regarded as the key point deciding on the living span of words in someone’s minds. The sequence presents some vital principles for more effective vocabulary review and consolidation. Useful principles for vocabulary review and consolidation As mentioned by Ur. P (2012) “a learner needs to re-encounter a new item several times in order to remember it permanently”. And he suggests that every lesson should stick to provide students with several vocabulary review work. His voice especially appeals the involvers when stating that the most optimum principle is to make student memorize the words when they are not totally dead in their minds. It may be done in the next lesson and some later lessons as long as it naturally permanently lives in individuals. Another essential principle focuses on the types of review tasks. In this sense, Ur drives the attention to the purpose of review tasks by saying that “tasks that review vocabulary aims to consolidate and deepen students’ basic knowledge”. In this sense, students are supposed to engage successfully, meaningfully and accurately with the target items, while teachers step back to make more rooms for students’ self- orientation, self check, and correct themselves. Page 6 Chapter 3: Recommend the vocabulary activities for grade eleventh students. I introduce the number of vocabulary tasks for students to revisit the words they have internalized from each unit in their text book. Each activity wastes about five minutes, and it should happen at the beginning of the class. Samples of activity Sample 1: Unit 1: Friendship Target vocabulary: Friendship Activity: word search puzzles Procedure: -The teacher can create a paper-puzzle which is big enough to hang on the board, or she can also design it on the PowerPoint. - Students are assigned into different groups of about three or four students. - The teacher instructs students the rules and the ways to do this puzzle. - The winner is the one who is able to search the most correct words in the shortest possible time. - The teacher then shows the correct answer and gets individual group to make as many sentences as possible using the words they have just found out. - For the last two minutes, students are encouraged to utilize dictionaries. Instruction: Find and circle all of the words that are hidden in the grid and the remaining letters spell an additional word related to friendship. Page 7 ACQUAINTANCE AFFECTION AFFINITY ALLY AMIGO AMITY BOYFRIEND BUDDY CHUM CLOSENESS COMPANION COMRADE CONFIDE EMPATHY FAVOR FONDNESS FRIENDLINESS FUN GIRLFRIEND GOOD TIMES HONESTY KINSHIP LEND LOYALTY PAL ROOMMATE SHARE SUPPORTIVE SYMPATHY TRUST Page 8 The solution Page 9 Sample 2: Unit 2: Personal experiences Target vocabulary: embarrassing experiences Activity: word definition Procedure: - T brings to class a list of uncompleted words of the topic of the unit. - Students are put into pairs or groups to discover the entire word based on the equivalent definition in the opposite column. Instruction: Add two letters to any place of each word to form another word with its definition given. 1. eat 2. cool 3. ink 4. stunt large in amount, size or degree a place where children go to be educated believe something or have an opinion or idea a person who is learning at a college or university, 5. art 6. lit or sometimes at school begin doing something the brightness that comes from the sun, fire, 7. change electrical devices, etc. that allows thing to be seen give something to someone and receive something  8. all from them limited in size or amount when compared with  9. sit what is typical or average go to a place in order to look at it, or to a person in  10. ring order to spend time with them The season of the year between winter and summer        The answer: 1. Great 6. Light 2. School 7. Exchange Sample 3: 3. Think 8. Small 4. Students 9. Visit 5. Start 10. Spring Unit 3: A party Target vocabulary: celebrations Activity: word collocation Procedure: Page 10 -The teacher has students form groups. Give each groups one worksheet. - The teacher explains the activity: students work together to find the words. - Students should use pencils, if possible, as answers may need to be erased and changed. -The first group to have the list of complete words becomes the winner. Options/Alternatives -After checking the answers as a class, T asks students to write sentences using the vocabulary from the list - The teacher encourages some students to read their sentences to the class. Instruction: Use a verb which can be collocated with the three words or phrases. 1. g ………………… 2. h ………………… 3. e………………… 4. t ………………… 5. g ………………… 6. c ………………… 7. a ………………… 8. h ………………… 9. w ………………… 10. s ………………… a card, a gift, flowers a party, a meeting, a conference yourself, the food, a film a lie, a joke, the truth engage, married, divorced birthdays, the anniversary, the National day a party, class, school soft drinks, coffee, cake a hat, shoes, a t-shirt hello, goodbye, thank you The answer: 1. Give 6. Celebrate Sample 4: 2. Hold 7. Attend 3. Enjoy 8. Have 4. Tell5. Get 9. Wear 10. Say Unit 4: Volunteer work Target vocabulary: voluntary Activity: word form Procedure: -The teacher has students form pairs. Give each pairs one worksheet Page 11 - The teacher explains the activity, students work in pairs to find the right word form for each gap. - Students should use pencils, if possible, as answers may need to be erased and changed. -The first pair to finish the task becomes the winner. Options/Alternatives - T may get students to write sentences using the vocabulary from the list. Instruction: Fill in each gap in the sentence with the correct form of the word in brackets. 1. She does __________ work for the Red Cross two days a week. (volunteer) 2. When shall I do the ___________ (shop) 3. They want to improve public ____________, especially education. (serve) 4. We finished the job, but only with great ____________. (difficult) 5. Some athletes take drugs to improve their ____________. (performance) 6. Their grandchildren are a constant source of ___________. (happy) 7. At university, you have the ____________ to do what you want. (free) 8. There is a general ____________ that things will soon get better. (believe) 9. A _______ is a person who climbs mountains as a sports or job. (mountain) 10. One major_____________ of the area is the lack of public transport. (advantages) The answer: 1.Voluntary 2. Shopping 5. Performances 6. Happiness 9. Mountaineer 10. Advantage Sample 5: 3, services 4. Difficulties/difficulty 7. Freedom 8. Belief Unit 5: Illiteracy Page 12 Target vocabulary: Illiteracy Activity: Matching Procedure: - The handouts should be printed out and distributed to students. - The teacher explains the activity, students work in pairs to do the matching -After checking the answers with the whole class, the teacher asks students to make sentences using pairs of antonyms. Options/ alternatives - The teacher calls on some pairs to read out their sentences. - The teacher makes copies the good sentences on the board. Instruction: Matching a word in A with a word in B to make a pair of antonyms. A B 1. Male 2. literate 3. forget 4. increase 5. suitable 6. remote 7. minority 8. relevant 9. substantial 10. next a. Unsuitable b. majority c. majority d. insignificant e. irrelevant f. remember g. last h. near i. female j. decrease The answer: 1. i 6. h Sample 6: 2. c 7. b 3. f 8. e 4.j 9. d 5. a 10. a Unit 6: competition Target vocabulary: event description Activity: crossword puzzle Procedure: Page 13 - The teacher designs a crossword on the topic of unit 6, it should be hung in the board center. T may also deliver each to individual group as a small card. -The teacher gets students to form groups of three or four to do the crossword. - The teacher reminds students not to look up dictionary or textbook. - Students should use pencils in case they may need to change the answers. -The first group to finish the task becomes the winner. Options/Alternatives -After checking the answers as a class, T has students write sentences using the Vocabulary from the crossword. - The teacher encourages some students to read their sentences to the class. Instruction: complete the crossword puzzle with the words needed for the gaps in sentences below. 1. People with Asthma have ____________ in breathing. 2. I’m meeting a _____________ of friends for dinner tonight. 3. She gave a superb ______________ as Lady Macbeth. 4. We have to ____________ and pray that the operation will go well. 5. Children seem to have lost their _____________ in reading. 6. She’s won a lot of beauty _____________. 7. The defending____ will play his first match of the tournament tomorrow. 8. You’ll have the ____________ to ask any questions to the end. 9. There was a lot of _____________ in preparation for the Queen’s visit. 10. A penalty in the last minute of the game leveled the ___________ 2-2. 11. Ladies and gentlemen, could I have your ___________, please? 12. She never lost her ___________ for teaching. 1 2 3 4 5 C O M P E Page 14 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 T I T I O N S The answer: 1. Difficulty 2. Group 3. Performance 4. Hope 5. Enjoyment 6. Contests 7. Champion 8. Opportunity 9. Activity 10.Score 11.Attention 12.Enthusiasm Sample 7: Unit 7: World population Target vocabulary: population Activity: scrambled letters Procedure: -T prepares handouts of a jumbled letters in advance. - T gets students to work in groups of three or four. - T delivers the handouts and explains the rules: students have to reorder the letters to make up the right words. Page 15 - The winner will be the group which builds all the correct words first. Options/Alternatives -After checking the answers as a class, T has students write sentences using the vocabulary from the list. - The teacher encourages students to read their sentences to the entire class. Instruction: Arrange the letters to make 10 words you have learnt. These words begin with the first letter. 1.eveosplix  2. moinlil  3. fugrei  4.rceroues  5.abeilaval  6.prentec  7.ghowtr  8.recaresh  9.briht  10.rkna  The answer: 1. 3. 5. 7. 9. explosive figure available growth birth Sample 8: 2. million 4. resource 6. percent 8. research 10.rank Unit 8: celebrations Target vocabulary: population Activity: Spelling bee Procedure: -Teacher dictates ten words that the students may have difficulty in spelling, or that students have been recently taught. Ss write them down. Page 16 - T asks Ss to compare the answers in pairs and decide which spelling they think is right. - T gives the correct answer and then takes notes any words that students have particular difficulties with for later review. Options/Alternatives - T may read L1 and students dictate equivalent L2, or directly say L2. Introduction: Listen carefully and write the words down on a piece of paper. You will hear each word twice. 1. agrarian 2. longevity 3. shrine 4. kumquat tree 5. preparation 6. adult 7. occasion 8. influence 9. exchange 10. comment Chapter 4: Conclusion and suggestion Effect of application (school year: 2014-2015) Class 11C3 (40) 11C9 (40) The number of students claims their interests in English before applying these vocabulary activities 15 23 Page 17 The number of students claims their interests in English after applying these vocabulary activities 33 39 The suggested activities are really practical to enhance students’ vocabulary knowledge, develop their English skill abilities as well as boost their motivation and interest in learning English .To some certain degrees, they bridge the gap between the “up there” knowledge and language in use. In my observation, my students are able to remember the words longer and flexibly adapt them into their spoken speech and written form. In this sense, their English ability is getting better and better in a short time. Teachers’ deliberated preparations for the activities remind students about the integral part of lexical items, ultimately, they seriously intake those chunks of language elements. However, reviewing and enriching should be done regularly and systematically, otherwise, the results may be ruined. It is advisable for the teacher to clearly state the instruction before letting students do the tasks because they may get confused and maybe time passes dully. Sometimes, teachers find that they cannot stay on this review stage because of time constraint. So it is suggested that the allowed time for reviewing activities should be limited in about five or six minutes. I also recommend that students should be distributed vocabulary tests, which measures their vocabulary knowledge. At that time, lexical consolidation is more focused by both teachers and students. Due to the limitation of my teaching experience, every contribution to the vocabulary activities is highly welcomed. Reference: Brown, H.D. (2007). Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. (2nd ed.). New York: Longman. Đặng Kim Anh và Đỗ Bích Hà, 2007. Rèn luyện từ vựng Tiếng anh 11. Nhà xuất bản Giáo dục. Hà Nội. Page 18 Nguyễn Thùy Trang và Lương Quỳnh Trang, 2007. Thiết kế bài giảng Tiếng anh 11. Nhà xuất bản Hà Nội. Hà Nội. Ur, P. & Wright, A. (2008). Five Minute Activities. (8th ed.).Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ur, P. (2012). A Course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. (2nd ed.).Cambridge: CUP. Website: http://www.puzzles.ca/wordsearch/friendship.html BM04-NXĐGSKKN Sở GD&ĐT Đồng Nai Trường THPT Nam Hà CỘNG HOÀ XÃ HỘI CHỦ NGHĨA VIỆT NAM Độc lập - Tự do - Hạnh phúc  Biên hòa, ngày 09 tháng 05 năm 2015 Page 19 PHIẾU NHẬN XÉT, ĐÁNH GIÁ SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM Năm học: 2014 - 2015 ––––––––––––––––– TÊN SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM Activities for Reviewing and Enriching Vocabulary Knowledge - Họ và tên tác giả: Trịnh Thị Loan - Chức vụ: Giáo viên - Đơn vị: Trường THPT Nam Hà Lĩnh vực: (Đánh dấu X vào các ô tương ứng, ghi rõ tên bộ môn hoặc lĩnh vực khác) - Quản lý giáo dục  - Phương pháp dạy học bộ môn: Tiếng Anh - Phương pháp giáo dục  - Lĩnh vực khác: ……................................. Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm đã được triển khai áp dụng: Tại đơn vị  Trong Ngành  1. Tính mới (Đánh dấu X vào 1 trong 3 ô dưới đây) -Đề ra giải pháp thay thế hoàn toàn mới, bảo đảm tính khoa học, đúng đắn  -Đề ra giải pháp thay thế một phần giải pháp đã có, bảo đảm tính khoa học, đúng đắn  -Giải pháp mới gần đây đã áp dụng ở đơn vị khác nhưng chưa từng áp dụng ở đơn vị mình, nay tác giả tổ chức thực hiện và có hiệu quả cho đơn vị  2. Hiệu quả (Đánh dấu X vào 1 trong 5 ô dưới đây) -Giải pháp thay thế hoàn toàn mới, đã được thực hiện trong toàn ngành có hiệu quả cao  -Giải pháp thay thế một phần giải pháp đã có, đã được thực hiện trong toàn ngành có hiệu quả cao  -Giải pháp thay thế hoàn toàn mới, đã được thực hiện tại đơn vị có hiệu quả cao  -Giải pháp thay thế một phần giải pháp đã có, đã được thực hiện tại đơn vị có hiệu quả  -Giải pháp mới gần đây đã áp dụng ở đơn vị khác nhưng chưa từng áp dụng ở đơn vị mình, nay tác giả tổ chức thực hiện và có hiệu quả cho đơn vị  3. Khả năng áp dụng (Đánh dấu X vào 1 trong 3 ô mỗi dòng dưới đây) - Cung cấp được các luận cứ khoa học cho việc hoạch định đường lối, chính sách: Trong Tổ/Phòng/Ban  Trong cơ quan, đơn vị, cơ sở GD&ĐT Trong ngành  Page 20