SKKN APPLYING WORDWALL AS a TOOL TO TEACH IDIOMS AND PHRASAL VERBS FOR THE 12th GRADE STUDENTS

NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

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TEACHING EXPERIENCE
APPLYING WORDWALL AS A TOOL TO
TEACH IDIOMS AND PHRASAL VERBS
FOR THE 12th GRADE STUDENTS.
Subject: English

School Year: 2021 -2022


NGHE AN DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
THANH CHUONG 3 HIGH SCHOOL

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TEACHING EXPERIENCE
APPLYING WORDWALL AS A TOOL TO
TEACH IDIOMS AND PHRASAL VERBS
FOR THE 12th GRADE STUDENTS.

Teacher: Hoàng Thị Hằng
Subject: English
Telephone number: 0973559382

School Year: 2021 -2022


TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART A. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1
I. REASON FOR TEACHING EXPERIENCE ........................................................ 1
1. The neccessity of applying Wordwall in teaching idioms and phrasal verbs. .... 1
2. Some difficulties of teaching and learning idioms and phrasal verbs for the
12th grade students........................................................................................................ 2
II. THE INNOVATION OF THE TEACHING EXPERIENCE ............................ 3
III. PURPOSES OF TEACHING EXPERIENCE ................................................... 4
IV. METHODS OF THE STUDY .............................................................................. 4
V. SCOPE OF THE STUDY ....................................................................................... 4
PART B. CONTENTS ................................................................................................. 5
Chapter 1. Theoretical and practical background.................................................... 5
I. Theoretical background ........................................................................................... 5
1. What is Wordwall application? .............................................................................. 5
2. Overview application of Wordwall. ....................................................................... 5
3. The importance of Wordwall on learning process. ............................................... 7
4. The importance of phrasal verbs and idioms. ....................................................... 8
5. The benefits applying Wordwall to teach phrasal verbs and idioms. ............... 11
II. Practical background ............................................................................................ 12
1. Factual problem...................................................................................................... 12
2. Solutions .................................................................................................................. 13
3. Experiments ............................................................................................................ 14
Chapter 2. THE TECHNIQUES .............................................................................. 15
I. Material preparation .............................................................................................. 15
1. The teacher: ............................................................................................................ 15
2. The students ............................................................................................................ 15
II. General procedure of playing games: ................................................................. 16
1. For teacher: ............................................................................................................. 16
2. For the students: ..................................................................................................... 18
Chapter 3: ILLUSTRATIONS ................................................................................. 19
I. SAMPLE TEACHING ACTIVITIES .................................................................. 19

1. Sample 1: PHRASAL VERBS .............................................................................. 19
1.1. ACTIVITY 1: Open the box............................................................................... 19
1.2 ACTIVITY 2: QUIZ ............................................................................................ 23


1.3 ACTIVITY 3: GAME SHOW............................................................................. 26
2. Sample 2: IDIOMS ................................................................................................. 30
2.1: ACTIVITY 1: AIRPLANE ................................................................................ 30
2.2: ACTIVITY 2: MATCH UP ............................................................................... 33
II. SAMPLE PRACTICING ACTIVITIES OF STUDENTS AT HOME ........... 36
1. SAMPLE 1: PHRASAL VERBS .......................................................................... 36
2. SAMPLE 2: IDIOMS ............................................................................................. 40
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND EVALUATION ................................................... 43
1. The results of pre – test and post- test .................................................................. 43
2. The test results analysis ......................................................................................... 44
3. Comparisons between pre – survey questionaires and post – survey
questionaires. .............................................................................................................. 45
4. Experiment’s effect ................................................................................................ 47
Chapter 5: Some images were taken in classes which were applied Wordwall
to teach idioms and phrasal verbs for the 12th graders. ......................................... 48
1. Images of some classes when I did not apply Wordwall in teaching ................. 48
2. Images of 4 classes: 12A3, 12D2, 12D5, and 12B when I apply Wordwall to
teach English, especially idioms and phrasal verbs. ............................................... 49
3. Images of students eargerly take part in the activities of Wordwall when
the teacher interact directly. ..................................................................................... 51
4. Images of teacher who controls and instructs students to use and do some
activities in class. ........................................................................................................ 53
5. Images of students discussing in group works ................................................... 53
PART C. CONCLUSION .......................................................................................... 55
I. Procedure................................................................................................................. 55

II. Significance ............................................................................................................ 55
III. Suggestions ........................................................................................................... 56
1. For teachers ............................................................................................................ 56
2. For the students ...................................................................................................... 56
IV. References: ........................................................................................................... 58
APPENDIX 1 .............................................................................................................. 59
APPENDIX 2 .............................................................................................................. 62
APPENDIX 3 .............................................................................................................. 65



PART A. INTRODUCTION
I. REASON FOR TEACHING EXPERIENCE
1. The neccessity of applying Wordwall in teaching idioms and phrasal
verbs.
Most of the countries in the world have been fighting the invisible enemy, which
is called Covid - 19. It considers as a dangerous disease that threatens human
beings. Due to its dangers on human life and its fast spread all over the world, most of
the countries went to lockdown. The governments of most countries required to
lockdown malls, super markets, stadium, theaters, educational institutions and so on.
Therefore, the world began to use technology extensively, not only the ICT tools
such as applications, websites, YouTube channels, webinars, and many others are
all been used during the Covid-19 pandemic. These tools enable teachers to creat the
lessons and upload the teaching materials on their shool websites, whereas the
students can use different applications such as Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft
Team, etc. During this crisis, the teachers start to organize webinars extensively,
and students can join any webinar by one of the applications. The students
exploit their time by attending webinars on different subjects. One of the best
things in the motivation of learners to study more, I think that Wordwall is a suitable
application for students to learn more effective.

Moreover, English is one of the international languages which been used all over
the world. It considers the means of communication and learning as well.
Integrate ICT with the teaching and learning methodology is a vital step toward the
improvement of teaching and learning strategies. So, apply some applications such
as Kahoot, Quizzi, and especially Wordwall is getting a lot of effectiveness in
teaching and learning English in the recent time. Besides, Technology has been used
for various purposes in indicate that education is the backbone of any society and
one of the essential factors for building any nation. Due to the importance of
education in our life, technology has been applying in the Teaching and learning
process. Information communication technology (ICT) has been used in education
during the 21 century. Most of the governments included ICT as one of the
curricula in education. It considers the modern methods which help in the growth of
higher thinking capabilities. The ICT tools regard an essential which have been
used in every classroom. It helps in enhancing the quality of education for the
teachers and the students as well.
As we know, to grade 12th students, idioms and phrasal verbs learning is
especially important because they appear in the entrance test papers. Many idioms and
phrasal verbs exist in reading passages that may prevent them from reading
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comprehension. Some idioms and phrasal verbs appear in some separate questions.
Therefore, to get high scores in the final exams to get GCSE certificate and to win a
place in the universities, students have to get a good knowledge of idioms and phrasal
verbs as well.
The purpose of this experience is to give out some positive effects of
Wordwall‟s activities about idioms and phrasal verbs to students‟ learning process.
These effects include level of students‟ engagement, language acquisition and logical
thinking. It also has the best effects on doing the test papers in the national
examination.

2. Some difficulties of teaching and learning idioms and phrasal verbs for
the 12th grade students.
First of all, phrasal verbs and idioms are considered as a problematic area for
wide sector of EFL learners in secondary schools. The meaning of the phrasal verbs
and idioms is often very 2 different from the meanings of the two words taken
separately. In order to understand the meaning of a phrasal verb and an idiom, one
may have to refer to the dictionary. Most of the students at high school find it
challenging to use idioms and phrasal verbs in communication and to deal with the
questions relating to them. The author has conducted some pieces of interview to have
a close look to the difficulties that teachers and students have to face when teaching
and learning idioms and phrasal verb for the 12th grade students.
The second one, teaching phrasal verbs and idioms is a difficult area. Many
studies have proved that contextualization has an important positive effect on the
ability of the students to decipher the correct meaning of a phrasal verb or an idiom.
There is no specified way or a programmed manner in which a student can
learn all the phrasal verbs and idioms as well. The only way to acquire such
knowledge is byextensive reading and listening” (Al-Sibai, 2003). As proposed by
Cornell (1985), phrasal verbs and idioms are notably essential to comprehend and
communicate with native speakers since they are commonly used in spoken and
informal written language. EFL learners may find it difficult to understand and use
phrasal verbs and idioms so they tend to avoid using them.
Furthermore, phrasal verbs and idioms are considered one of most important tool
of vocabularies acquisition; and all EFL students must get familiar with them to be
fluent in English language. Unfortunately; almost all EFL learners never consider
phrasal verbs and idioms and tend to avoid them in their everyday and academic use.
Last but not least, phrasal verbs and idioms are one of the most difficult areas
for learners and teachers alike, especially in an ES/EFL context. Yet, it is a very
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fruitful feature to help communicate effectively and help students to get good marks
in the examination. Therefore, applying appropriate teaching approach need to be
considered to reduce learners‟ frustration and to promote their understanding and their
use of phrasal verbs and idioms. As a result, Wordwall is a nescessity app to teach
phrasal verbs and idioms more effectively.
Therefore, in my teaching experience, I would like to recommend this method to
help students to improve the using of phrasal verbs and idioms in English, especially
for 12th graders: “Applying Wordwall as a tool to teach idioms and phrasal verbs
for the 12th grade students”.
However, this study can‟t be perfect in limited time. Therefore, I hope that the
colleagues‟ contribution will make it more perfect.
II. THE INNOVATION OF THE TEACHING EXPERIENCE
In the span of ten years have witnessed a revolutionary change in the Information
Technology and have also changed the way of working for various IT companies.
This rapid rise in technology has offered a better design to explore the new teaching
model. As a matter of fact, technology plays a vital role in English language &
Teaching (ELT). Technology has enabled teachers to adapt to various classroom
activities, hence enhancing or encouraging the English learning process. Learning the
English language is not a piece of cake, especially idioms and phrasal verbs, you
really have to work hard for it. Information technology may assist as the real
educational structure allowing learners to learn English in a totally different way.
Besides, technology is an effective tool for learners. Learners must use technology as
a significant part of their learning process. Teachers should model the use of
technology to support the curriculum so that learners can increase the true use of
technology in learning their language skills.
The selection of Wordwall applications in the development of learning media is
due to the wonderful features found in Wordwall applications such as open the box,
random wheel, flip tiles, matching, game show quiz, maze chase, ect… that will
attract the attention of students, ranging from early childhood education, basic
education, secondary education, and higher education. Particularly, the 12th grade

students, who are too stressful with a lot of work in many subjects at high school.
Wordwall can help me to create many interesting lessons in order to motivate students
to learn more for their exams.
The idea of applying Wordwall applications in teaching and learning process has
attracted the considerable interest of many educators as well as teachers in over
around the world for a long time. However, in Vietnam the exploitation of potential
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of Wordwall in teaching idioms and phrasal verbs lessons seem to be very limited,
particularly some mountainous areas like my location. Recently, Wordwall
application seems to be one of the most effective solutions for learners‟ engagement,
motivation for language acquisition as well as logical thinking. With an
increasing degree of complexity, it is highly vital to promote deep learning.
Therefore, applying wordwall in teaching idioms and phrasal verbs for the 12 graders
has been becoming more and more facilitation today.
III. PURPOSES OF TEACHING EXPERIENCE
The aims of this study are:
- To give out a brief overview on Wordwall applications created by information
teachnology.
- To discuss the best way to teach English 12, especially idioms and phrasal
verbs.
- To give some lectures samples to teach idioms and phrasal verbs by using
Wordwall applications.
- To design some activities with Wordwall about idioms and phrasal verbs for
teaching online as well as teaching offline.
- To propose some suggestions and recommendations to attract students‟
attention in learning English.
- To reduce students‟ stress and pressure in English lessons of idioms and
phrasal verbs.

- To produce a dynamic and stimulating environment by using Wordwall.
IV. METHODS OF THE STUDY
To complete my study, I draw from experience from my own teaching,
especially in teacing for 12th grade students. I also consult a lot of documents and my
colleagues about their teaching experiences. Moreover, I carry out surveys among
grade 12 students. I also use comparative methods (Compare the differences between
my colleagues‟ periods and mine, compare the differences of the periods before and
after application).
V. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The study was going to be investigated at Thanh Chuong 3 High School for mixlevel students of grade 12. Due to the limitation of time, only four classes 12A3,12B,
12D2 and 12D5 were asked to participate in the study.
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PART B. CONTENTS
Chapter 1. Theoretical and practical background
I. Theoretical background
1. What is Wordwall application?
Wordwall is a free online tool for creating learning activities. With this tool,
teachers can enter the topic that they would like to cover in class into the Wordwall
and receive a variety of ready-made, fully customisable activities such as quizzes,
word games, maze chases and much more. You also can create your own activity
from scratch. Moreover, the majority of activities on Wordwall can be used in both
interactive and printable formats. Therefore, Wordwall is popuplar with a lot of
teacher on over the world.
Wordwall is a quick and easy to use tool to create interactive activities for your
class. This tool offers a wide variety of activities to choose from and makes learning
much more fun. Moreover, it is available in many different languages. A drawback is
that with the free account one can only create up to 5 activity types. After that, you
will have to delete activities to create new ones.

2. Overview application of Wordwall.
a. Interactives and printables
Wordwall can be used to create both interactive and printable activities. Most of
our templates are available in both an interactive and a printable version.
- Interactives are played on any web-enabled device, like a computer, tablet,
phone or interactive whiteboard. They can be played individually by students, or be
teacher-led with students taking turns at the front of the class. So, it is useful for both
teacher and students in teaching and learning Englis every day.
- Printables can be printed out directly or downloaded as a PDF file. They can
be used as a companion to the interactive or as stand-alone activities. It is convenient
for teacher to prepare the lesson if the network doesn‟t run good enough.
b. Create using templates
Our activities are created using a template system. There are a lot of templates
for teachers to create the lesson. These templates include familiar classics
like Quiz and Crossword. We also have arcade style games like Maze
Chase and Airplane, and there are classroom management tools such as Seating plan.
To make a new activity you start by selecting your template and then enter your
content. It's easy and means you can create a fully interactive activity in a only a
couple of minutes.
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c. Switching template
Once you've created an activity, you can switch it to a different template with a
single click. This saves you time and is great for differentiation and reinforcement.
For example, if you created a Match activity based on names of shapes, you could
turn it into a Crossword with the exact the same shape names. In the same way we can
turn your resource into a Quiz or a Wordsearch and many more possibilities too.
Therefore, it saves time for teachers, we only create an activity and turn it into
different other activities.

d. Edit any activity
There's no need to settle for pre-made activities. If you find an activity but it's
not quite right, you can easily customize the material to suit your class and your
teaching style. There are lots of games on community, the teachers can copy the link
and send it to their students. Students can access and do it easily and quickly.
e. Themes and options
Interactives can be presented in different themes. Each theme changes the look
and feel with different graphics, fonts, and sounds. It can motivate students to learn
more because they find learning English is not boring at all. They can be eagerly to
learn more. Each game helps students easily remember the lessons. You'll also find
further options to set a timer or change the gameplay. The printables have options too.
For example, you can change the font, or print multiple copies per page. As a result,
the teachers can encourage their students to study more, especially some difficult
topics like idioms and phrasal verbs.
f. Student assignments
As you know, homework is a big problem between teacher and student. The
students often feel bored with the traditional homework. Wordwall can help teachers
solve this problem easily. Because Wordwall activities can be used as studentcompleted assignments. When a teacher sets an assignment, students are directed to
that one activity without the distraction of visiting the main activity page. This feature
can be used in-class where students have access to their own devices, or as a way of
setting homework. Each student's results are recorded and made available to the
teacher. Therefore, the teachers can easily manage their students on learning in class
or at home.
g. Sharing with teachers
Any activity you create can be made public. This allows you to share its activity
page link via email, on social media or via other means. It also allows other teachers
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to find the activity in our Community search results, play it, and build upon it. If you

prefer you can keep activities private, which means only you can access it.
h. Embedding on a website
Wordwall activities can be placed on another website using a snippet of HTML
code. It works in the same way as the video embed feature you find on YouTube or
Vimeo, giving you a playable activity on your own site. This is a great way to
enhance your own blog or your school's virtual learning environment (VLE). This
thing helps teachers a lot in this Covid - 19 pademics. They can use Wordwall as a
useful app to teach online.
3. The importance of Wordwall on learning process.
Recently, applying Information Technology in teaching and learning English has
become more and more popular. The application of Wordwall is becoming one of
the powerful and effective tools, it can influence positive on students learning
process.
As we know, Information Technologies have affected every aspect of human
activity and have a potential role to play in the field of education and training,
specially, in distance education to transform it into an innovative form of experience.
The need of new technologies in teaching learning process grows stronger and faster.
The information age becomes an era of knowledge providing sound and unmatched
feasibility for discovery, exchange of information, communication and exploration to
strengthen the teaching learning process. Information technologies help in promoting
opportunities of knowledge sharing throughout the world. These can help the teachers
and students having up-to-date information and knowledge. Accurate and right
information is necessary for effective teaching and learning; and information
technologies (Haag, 1998; p.10) are “set of tools that can help provide the right
people with the right information at the right time.” Students are independent and they
can make best decisions possible about their studies, learning time, place and
resources. Students are able to work in collaborative and interactive learning
environments effectively communicating, sharing information and exchanging ideas
and learning experiences with all in the environment.
Besides, Information Technologies affect the teaching learning process in

different ways. These helps the teachers in preparing lecture notes for interesting
presentation, on the one hand and facilitates the students on the other hand. Different
technologies help the teachers and students according to their respective nature and
capabilities of storage and presentation. For example, computers are used in education
for various purposes as they can store and retrieve a huge amount of information.
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Today, a lot of computer programmers invent so many applications that are effective
and useful for learning and teaching.
Moreover, the use of Information Technology, especially using some useful apps
like Wordwall in classroom has left behind the traditional methods of giving long
boring lectures. Using IT the teachers can create interesting audio and visual
presentations which will keep the students engaged and will give them a greater
understanding of all the concepts. Beside this, such methodology can give rise to
interactive sessions between students and teachers. Everyone likes watching animated
videos, taking part in interesting lessons, and doing some exciting activities. Using
Information Technology the whole classroom can be digitalised thus making both
teaching and process of learning much easier. Therefore, Wordwall is one of the best
choices in this digital era. It not only motivates students to learn more, but it also
encourages the teachers to create more interesting lessons for the classes. Particularly,
in the pandemics of Covid -19, Wordwall plays an important role in interacting
between teachers and students in many online lessons.
4. The importance of phrasal verbs and idioms.
According to many learners, learning idioms and phrasal verbs is one aspect of a
new language that needs to be considered. From new vocabulary to grammar rules,
gaining fluency in a new language can take years. Languages are full of their own
idioms and phrasal verbs, which are phrases used as figurative speech. If the learners
translate the idioms and phrasal verbs directly into another language, they will likely
not make sense at all. So, learning idioms and phrasal verbs is necessary for them to

acquire the language perfectly.
When using expressions in the conversation, the speakers add more color to their
speech and writing. It also spices up their conversations. Some idioms are funny.
Have you ever heard of “when pigs fly”? Well, that‟s not likely going to happen, but
it‟s funny to imagine. And since pigs won‟t be flying anytime soon, that‟s exactly
what the meaning of this idiom refers to: something that will never likely happen.
Also, learning idioms and phrasal verbs is helpful when the learners want to
express something short and to the point. Instead of describing an event in a lengthy
way, they can make it simple by using an idiom; native speakers will understand what
they are talking about. For instance, maybe you failed to do something and will now
be more careful to do it again. You could easily say, “Once bitten, twice shy,” and
people will understand what you mean.
Moreover, expressions set a certain tone and mood during a conversation. It
reflects one‟s point of view about a certain situation. For example, when talking about
someone who died you could say, “He kicked the bucket,” which is a polite way to
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express that an individual died. This is more tactful than to say, “He‟s worm food
now” or “He‟s on the wrong side of the grass.” These last two are less serious and
give you the feeling that the one who uses this expression is not sad about the loss.
When it comes to writing texts, using expressions will make the text come alive.
People will easily relate to your text when they recognize day-to-day sayings instead
of having to read a plain text. It also adds an extra dimension to your texts so that you
encourage your readers into figurative and abstract thinking on top of the literal
descriptions that texts normally offer.
English classes, unfortunately, do not focus enough on teaching idioms and
phrasal verbs. Students are already happy when they are able to use the language in a
literal sense. Having to spend more time on learning figurative language as well might
be discouraging to some students, but it is this figurative speech that gives the

language a deeper meaning and teaches you how the world is viewed through an
English speaker‟s eye.
Idioms and phrasal verbs are part of colloquial language. This language is used
by native speakers in informal and conversational ways. For you to understand native
speakers and truly immerse yourself in their culture, it is wise to spend some time
learning idioms and phrasal verbs. This will make it easier for you to become
involved in and contribute to conversations. There are countless idioms and phrasal
verbs in the English language. It‟s best not to try and master all of them at the same
time. Focus first on the most commonly used ones. Then, you can have everyday
conversations without being distracted when a common idiom is used. As you
progress in learning the language, you will continue to come across more sayings.
You can keep on adding them to your mental list.
By knowing idioms and phrasal verbs, the learners will feel more confident
relating to other English speakers, and it will be easier for them to understand English
TV shows, read English books and articles, and listen to English songs because most
of them are full of figurative speech. Another advantage of learning idioms is that the
learners will increase more vocabularies.
The English language is full of idioms and phrasal verbs. However, English
teachers do not always emphasize teaching these expressions. However, learning
idioms and phrasal verbs can be beneficial to learners if they want to spice up their
conversations. It‟s an easy way to express a certain point of view. Since most native
speakers use these expressions in their daily conversations, the learners will feel more
confident when speaking because they will know what they mean.
Furthermore, to be fluent in a language is not only about knowing vocabulary
and grammar; it is also being able to have conversations with native speakers and
9


understand the deeper meaning of the words and phrases used during conversations. It
is being able to think and express yourself in a figurative way as well.

Phrasal verbs and idioms may seem complicated at first, but they can actually be
a lot of fun to learn. Following are the reasons to explain why phrasal verbs and
idioms are so important to the students‟ English language learning.
Firstly, phrasal verbs and idioms give the students a new way to express
themselves in English Language. The meaning of phrasal verbs and idioms generally
depend on the specific context in which they are used. When someone in America tell
another one to „break a leg‟, for example, they aren‟t saying that in a literal sense, but
instead are wishing her/him good luck, usually before a performance. Clearly, phrasal
verbs and idioms are particularly useful because they provide students with a new,
creative way to express themselves. Rather than saying „you should study hard”, they
could say „You should hit the books”, which is a more complex and interesting
expression. Particularly, some idioms can also be quite humorous to use, which
allows students to express themselves in a more genuine way, including showing off
their personality and sense of humor.
Secondly, understanding phrasal verbs and idioms can increase our students‟
conversational English skills. They may encounter phrasal verbs and idioms most
often in spoken or written conversation. Idioms and phrasal verbs can help them to
improve their conversational skills because it shows native speakers that they
understand the cultural meaning and context behind the expressions they are using.
This can help them feel more comfortable and confident with their conversational
abilities.
Last but not least, learning phrasal verbs and idioms can help enrich the
students‟ language and help them be more native-like. Native speakers often use these
expressions more than someone who is new to the language, simply because they are
more familiar with them and know the context in which they should be used. Phrasal
verbs and idioms are important because they are extremely common in informal
English, and unless you are familiar with their meanings, understanding informal
language will be difficult. In addition, learning to use phrasal verbs correctly will help
you sound natural in casual conversation. Learning how to use phrasal verbs and
idioms is important component to enhance English proficiency. Students admitted by

themselves about the significance of phrasal verbs in increasing quality of their
written texts. Therefore, when the students use an idiom or a verb, they sound more
like a native speaker. If we think of English as if it were a soup – the basics may be
good, but we need a little extra flavor to take it to the next level. Idioms and phrasal
verbs are the spices that the teacher can add to his/her students‟ English skills.
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Understanding the basics of English is a good start, but idioms can help the students
explore the language in a deeper, more meaningful way.
5. The benefits applying Wordwall to teach phrasal verbs and idioms.
As we know, World wall has some advantages for the learning process, such as
the colorful design of the word wall which could activate the student‟s thinking
process and students will not be bored and passive in class because they will interact
with the Wordwall. This online game serves as a continuation from lessons in school,
intending to strengthen and support memory with real-life applications. There is a
feature in the online game that records each students‟ vocabulary scores and
achievements. Also, Wordwall is the most suitable game platform for idioms and
phrasal verbs practice. It provides a wide selection of game formats that are beneficial
and appealing to the target audience, especially the high school students who are
sometime feel bored with learning with long and difficult lessons in class.
In addition, Wordwall provides an even greater avenue for interaction between
teacher and students. The teachers can easily create the lessons and send them to their
students just a few minutes. So, at the English lessons different exercises, games,
reading tests may be done quickly. As a result, Wordwall makes learning English
available to a wider range of learners as well.
To the best of the author‟s knowledge, so far there have been no studies
investing the effects of using Wordwall as an useful tool to teach and review English
idioms and phrasal verbs. The author believes that this is a good way to make full use
of the network and electric apps and increase the students‟ interaction and the

participation in learning English idioms and phrasal verbs. The author is also sure that
the students really have fun time to share and to learn with each other on Wordwall.
Below is table of comparison between traditional teaching (about idioms and
phrasal verbs) and interactive teaching using Wordwall.
Table: A comparison of traditional Teaching and Wordwall interactive teaching
in a class.
Component

Traditional teaching

Wordwall interactive teaching

1. Preparations - Consist of 35-40 students, - Consist of 35-40 students,
having their own materials.
having their own electronic
devices
such
as laptop,
smartphone, tablet, ect…
- The lessons using word
- The lessons are created by
office, powerpoint or textbook
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to explain

wordwall app by the lecturers.
- wide range of activities like
open the box, quizze, airplane

mode, ect.. are used in one
lesson.

2. While tasks

- Students listen to the
lecture‟s explanation and
take note whenever
necessary.
- Teacher will not be able
to know if students are

- Students follow the lesson that
is shown on the device and
cannot move beyond the page
they are on.
- Students take part in the
activity that is shown in the
page (e.g. quizze, matching,
open the box, and so on..)

participating in solving
questions or not.
3. Post tasks

- Some boring activities or - A quiz is used to test the
presentations
students‟ understanding on the
topic being taught.
- There is no quizze to test

- Answers are submitted and
students‟ understanding.
quiz are graded immediately
- Teachers go through the quiz
questions with students and
gives immediate feedback.

From this table, we can see that, Wordwall brings a lot of benefits for teaching
English, especially in difficult condition of society as Covid -19 pandemic.
II. Practical background
1. Factual problem
Thanh Chuong 3 High school is located in a mountainous area of Nghe An
province. Its students are from more than 10 communes, many of whom belongs to
ethnic minority and most of them come from poor families. The new and strange
feelings in the new school often make them feel shy and lack self-confidence.
Another problem is that a lot of students live far from school so they have to
rent rooms near the school to study. Almost all students are provided with new smart
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phones, but their parents are too busy to manage them from learning and playing time
of their children. After school, they usually have a lot of free time. However, they
spend their time playing games, chatting with their roomates, using facebooks or even
watching films in cell phones. Some of them go to the Internet shop to play high
speed online games. Although free time is available, they sometimes go to school
without preparing new lessons as well as doing the exercises, especially the 12 th
graders.
Furthermore, parents always pay attention to children‟s learning although there
are a lot of difficulties in their lives. They have been aware of importance of learning
English, which is a big advantage for teacher here. Furthermore, most of the teachers

at my school have tried their best in innovating old teaching methods to improve the
quality in teaching English. In order to make our students interested in learning
English is a big challenge that every teacher of English at my school would really like
to achieve. students usually feel inconfident of their knowledge of English. They face
many problems in remembering new words, grammar structures, and other skills.
Consequently, they usually get bad marks in the exams, especially the 12 th graders.
They also have little background knowledge, grammar and vocabulary. The students
are aware of the importance of learning English. However, they find it difficult to
learn without the assistance of their teachers and teaching aids as well.
In addition, during the time teaching English at 4 classes: 12D2, 12A3, 12B and
12D5 I found that almost of the students here are using electronic devices too much.
They usually bring smart phone to the class to play game online, chat with their
friends, ect… So, the teacher‟s duty is to involve their students into the lessons by
designing many interesting activities for them to learn. Applying Wordwall is the best
choice to motivate and encourage the students in this period. the teacher is always
innovative and creative in their lessons in order not to make their students feel bored
with learning English. Since then their results are becoming better and better.
In a nutshell, if the teachers are always innovative in their lessons, their students
will pay more attention to the lessons and they will aslo get high marks in the exams.
2. Solutions
Today, at Thanh Chuong 3 high school, thanks to excellent managements of the
headmaster and vice-headmasters, the teaching and learning facilities has frequently
upgraded to create a favorable learning environment for students and help student to
be fully developed, especially for teaching and learning English. The library provides
students with an enormous source of learning materials and references. All of
classrooms in the school are equipped with smart TVs, computers are linked with
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wireless network, which is convenient for all of the teachers and students. As a result,

teaching and learning English in the school is becoming better and better.
In order to help the 12th grade students get better result in the exams,applying
Wordwall in teaching idioms and phrasal verbs is effective way to learn English
recently. This app can be used in online classes, offline classes, and is the best way to
set assignmnets for students.
To solve the problem, I decided to conduct a classroom action research which
focus on improving my students‟ exam results by applying Wordwall to teach idioms
and phrasal verbs. These new ways bring positive changes to my students. So, finding
effective solution is main duty of this teaching experience.
3. Experiments
The main course book for this study was Tieng Anh 12 (the old version) , the
systematic, cyclical and theme-based curriculum approved by the Ministry of
Education of Education and Training. The tittles of the 16 units and all the lessons
were mainly skill- based in five types namely reading, speaking, listening, writing and
language focus. However, During Covid 19 the teachers were encouraged to teach
mainly focused on review grammatical points to review for students. Here are some
examples and facts of using Wordwall in teaching and learning idioms and phrasal
verbs during Covid – 19 Epidemic.
I applying Wordwall to teach students about idioms and phrasal verbs in 4
classes: 12A3, 12B, 12D2 and 12D5 at Thanh Chuong 3 High School (a mountainous
school with low level in English) in school year 2021 -2022.
The following statistics at my classes when I did not apply Wordwall to teach
idioms and phrasal verbs:
Good

Quite

Normal

Class

Number

%

Number

%

Number

%

3

7.8 %

12

32%

23

60.2 %

1

2.7 %

10

27.7%

25

69.6 %

12A3
( 38 students)
(inapplicable)
12B
(36 students)
(inapplicable)
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12D2
(41 students)

3

7.3 %

23

56.1%

15

36.6 %

1

2.4 %

6

14.6%

34

83 %

(inapplicable)
12D5
(41 students)
(inapplicable)
(Figure 1: The results of learning English before applying Wordwall)
The table shows the statistics of classes 12A3, 12B, 12D2, 12D5 about testing of
idioms and phrasal verbs exercise‟s results when I have not applied the Wordwall. As
can be seen, a lot of students in these classes can not remember about idioms and
phrasal verbs in English well enough. The good students who can do the test about
idioms and phrasal verbs make up below 10 %. On the other hand, the number of
normal and low level students account for more than 50 % in these classes. In reality,
they are lack of capability in testing skills, especilaly some difficult topics like idioms
and they usually get bored with the subject and get bad marks in the final exams. So,
applying Wordwall to teach idioms and phrasal berbs is a new way to motivate
students and help them pay more attention to the subject.
Chapter 2. THE TECHNIQUES
I. Material preparation
1. The teacher:

In order to use Wordwall application teachers have to prepare carefully the
following things before teaching:
- Verify that the teacher and students have WIFI internet access for all devices.
- Be sure that all students have already had laptops, smartphones, or tablets with
wifi access.
- Log in your account and send link to the students if teaching online. If teaching
offline at class, the teachers can open the Wordwall on the computer and let students
play directly.
- Preparing lesson plan before hand.
- Preparing handouts if necessary.
2. The students
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- The laptops, smart phones, or tablets connected with the Internet.
- Text book
- Notebooks
II. General procedure of playing games:
1. For teacher:
Step 1. Access the website: />
Step 2:
- If you don‟t have your account, you sign up with your email address
- If you have already had an account, log in with your email, or name
Step 3:
-The teachers click to the “Create Activity” if they want to create the new exercise for
students

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- The teachers choose the interactives (game modes) and create the exercise
- For the Free mode, the teachers can be only created 5 activities. If they want to
create more, they should delete the previous ones or edit content.

-If the teacher wants to get more resources for students to learn. They can visit to the
“Community” and search for it.

-There are a lot of materials for teacher to choose, not only English but also other
subjects.
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Step 4:
-Teachers share the game to their students by copying the link and send it to them.
- If teachers want to organise an offline class, Teachers can show it on the computer
or print it for student to do it. Students can play the game directly in front of class
with the teachers‟direction.

In the lessons, it is really necessary for teacher to pay attention to the following
procedure before starting Wordwall because they are important factors to help you
carry out the activities successfully:
- Asking students for interest and ready
- Introducing the activity
- Giving instructions and setting the rules
- Modeling
- Checking understanding to get feedback from students
- Shouting "start''
- Monitoring the game
- Evaluating and declaring the winner of the game
If the teacher using Wordwall to give homework to students, set the deadline and ask

students send their result to the teachers.
2. For the students:
- Be sure that the students have their own laptop, smartphones or tablets with the
internet access.
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- Students click the links their teacher sent like this:
/>- Students enter their names if the teacher requires and play the game on the wordwall
- Students can play the game directly in front of the class with the teacher‟s
monitoring
*There are a large number of interactives (game modes) for teachers choose to create
the activity as well as let students play in different game modes.

- For each activity, teachers can choose many interactives for students to play. So, the
Wordwall application is the best choice that helps teachers save time preparing the
lessons before coming to class.
Chapter 3: ILLUSTRATIONS
I. SAMPLE TEACHING ACTIVITIES
1. Sample 1: PHRASAL VERBS
1.1. ACTIVITY 1: Open the box
a. Position: This game is often used in review grammar point: phrasal verbs.
b. Participants: students can access the Internet at that time
c. Objectives: By the end of this activity, students will be able to:
- Remember the phrasal verbs of the lesson as well as the way how to use it.
- Check understanding about phrasal verbs through the game.
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d. Procedure

- Teacher copy the link and sends it to the students
- Teacher gives instructions how to play it
- Students click the link and play the game
- Students choose any box and give the correct answers

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