Skkn using wordwall net based activities in teaching vocabulary for efl students at quy hop high school

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO NGHỆ AN
TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG QUỲ HỢP
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SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM
LĨNH VỰC TIẾNG ANH
Using Wordwall.net-based activities in teaching vocabulary
for EFL students at Quy Hop High school

Họ và tên: Thái Thị Hạnh
Giáo viên: Tiếng Anh
Tổ: Văn – Ngoại ngữ
Trường: THPT Quỳ Hợp

Nghê An, tháng 4 năm 2022

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CONTENT
PART I. INTRODUCTION

PAGE
2-3

1. Rationale

2

2. The new factors of the study

3

3. Scope of the study

3

4. Organization of the study

3

PART II: CONTENT

4 - 43

1. Theoretical background

4

a. Definition of vocabulary

4

b. Types of vocabulary

4

c. Vocabulary mastery

5

d. Problems in learning vocabulary

6

e. Wordwall.net- based activities

7

f. How to create wordwall.net- based activities

8

2. Solutions and discussion

11- 43

a. Demonstration of using wordwall.net-based activities

11- 40

b. Discussion

41- 43

PART III: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

44

1. Conclusion

44

2. Suggestions

44
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PART I. INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
There is no doubt that vocabulary is generally and widely considered to be
one of the most essential elements of a language. It plays an essential role in
determining whether or not students will be successful in learning a language and
getting their message across. Moreover, it is believed that vocabulary knowledge is
vitally important for the four skills, such as listening, reading, speaking, and writing.
Our lack of vocabulary knowledge is more likely to result in great trouble in
expressing ourselves both in speaking and writing. Because of the significance of
vocabulary knowledge in effective communication, vocabulary learning, and
instruction are attracting considerable attention from researchers and practitioners,
particularly students and teachers.
Since the advent of technology from the beginning of the 21st century,
technology and language learning have become terms frequently encountering next
to each other, therefore resulting in web-based tools being used in English language
classrooms. Many popular web tools, such as Quizlet and Kahoot, are used as
experimental tools with learners to investigate to what extent they are effective in
enhancing learners’ vocabulary knowledge. There are a lot of research that has been
carried out in the area of vocabulary learning strategies in order to determine the
effective and most frequently used vocabulary learning strategies. However, there is

a lack of research on specific web tools, like Wordwall.net. Hence, the present study
aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a single educational game website;
Wordwall.net on the vocabulary knowledge of high school students. Wordwall.net
is an edutainment website in which there are multiple game choices, all played
interactively or individually, such as information matching, picture matching, quiz,
wheel of fortune, puzzles, etc. designed for vocabulary practice. On this website,
teachers either create their own games out of ready-made templates and add up
content (words and images) in the games or they make use of games created by other
teachers. Wordwall is particularly beneficial for mixed-level classes because it can
also create a dynamic way to have class competitions. For any level of learner,
Wordwall has potential to be used for self-study, as you decide which content to use
in the activities. You can set tasks for groups or individual learners by giving them
an access code. You could even get your learners to use Wordwall to create activities
for their classmates.
Moreover, due to the outbreak of Covid -19, most of schools in Vietnam must
organize online teaching. Therefore, it is crucial to enhance students’ learning
motivation through some special tools and platforms. Basing on the above reasons,
I have decided to conduct a study on “Using Wordwall.net-based activities in
teaching vocabulary for EFL students at Quy Hop High school”.

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2. The new factors of the study
The study suggests many new games for teachers to apply in teaching
vocabulary for high school students through wordwall.net platform. Hence,
vocabulary memorization becomes more effective for English learners.
The study is expected to research the effectiveness of using interaction with a

word wall as the tool to combine the five identified effective teaching strategies plus
social interaction to teach vocabulary words to middle school students.
Theoretically, this study can be used to enrich the example of techniques in teaching
English vocabulary, especially for young learners. Hopefully this study will be
helpful and have a contribution for further researches in the field of vocabulary
teaching. Practically, this study will give general description about the condition of
English vocabulary teaching at high school level. In addition, it will be useful for
the teachers who are interested in teaching English for young learners. The result of
this study can be used as a consideration to improve the teaching language to young
learner, especially for teaching vocabulary online.
3. Scope of the study
This study focuses on the activities of teaching vocabulary based on wordwall
platform (dealing with the techniques of presentation, techniques of practice,
techniques of training). In this study, I will just focus on the effectiveness on the 10th
graders. Hence, the data then will be analyzed through the tests of 10th grade in the
school year 2021- 2022.
4. Organization of the study
The study is well organized with 3 main parts: the rationale of the study, the
content or the solution of the problems, and the conclusion. Hopefully that the study
provides a useful access to most of the teachers in teaching language.

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PART II: CONTENT
1. Theoretical background
a. Definition of vocabulary
Vocabulary has received a special concern in language teaching, especially

teaching English as a foreign language. It can also be regarded as the most frequently
important component for language learners since the four language skills; reading,
listening, speaking, and writing need a sufficient vocabulary knowledge. The term
vocabulary concerns with words and words meaning. It is also defined as a collection
all of words in a particular language and has a form in an expression that is associated
with meaning.
According to Wikipedia, a vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a
person's language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a useful and
fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring an
extensive vocabulary is one of the largest challenges in learning a second language.
Further, vocabulary is the basic of language and there is no language without
vocabulary. Before mastering the four language skills; listening, speaking, reading
and writing, students have to learn the English components such as vocabulary,
structure, and pronunciation.
Words can also be defined in various ways, and estimates of vocabulary size
differ depending on the definition used. The most common definition is that of a
lemma (the inflected or dictionary form; this includes walk, but not walks, walked
or walking). Most of the time lemmas do not include proper nouns (names of people,
places, companies, etc.). Another definition often used in research of vocabulary size
is that of word family. These are all the words that can be derived from a ground
word (e.g., the words effortless, effortlessly, effortful, effortfully are all part of the
word family effort). Estimates of vocabulary size range from as high as 200 thousand
to as low as 10 thousand, depending on the definition used.
b. Types of vocabulary
There are a variety of ways to categorize vocabulary. However, according to
Wikipedia, vocabulary can be divided into their usage in language skills as follow:
Reading vocabulary
A person's reading vocabulary is all the words identified when reading. This class of
vocabulary is generally the amplest, as new words are more commonly encountered
when reading than when listening.

Listening vocabulary
A person's listening vocabulary includes the words recognized when listening
to speech. Cues such as the speaker's tone and gestures, the topic of discussion, and
the conversation's social context may convey the meaning of an unknown word.
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Speaking vocabulary
A person's speaking vocabulary includes the words used in speech and is
generally a subset of the listening vocabulary. Due to the spontaneous nature of
speech, words are often misused slightly and unintentionally, but facial expressions
and tone of voice can compensate for this misuse.
Writing vocabulary
The written word appears in registers as different as formal essays and social
media feeds. While many written words rarely appear in speech, a person's written
vocabulary is generally limited by preference and context: a writer may prefer one
synonym over another, and they will be unlikely to use technical vocabulary relating
to a subject in which they have no interest or knowledge.
Final vocabulary
The American philosopher Richard Rorty characterized a person's "final
vocabulary" as follows: All human beings carry about a set of words which they
employ to justify their actions, their beliefs, and their lives. These are the words in
which we formulate praise of our friends and contempt for our enemies, our longterm projects, our deepest self-doubts and our highest hopes… I shall call these
words a person's “final vocabulary”. Those words are as far as he can go with
language; beyond them is only helpless passivity or a resort to force.
c. Vocabulary mastery
It is strongly believed that mastering many vocabularies is very important for
foreign language learners. Without mastering it, of course, foreign language learners

will have some difficulties in developing the four language skills. The primary thing
in learning a language is the achievement of a vocabulary. Therefore, success in
learning English demands vocabulary acquisition. A large vocabulary can not
guarantee the learner’s competence in learning English but in adequacy of
vocabulary will obstruct their chances to make success in learning English. Rivers
in Nunan 1998: p. 117, argues that the acquisition of an adequate vocabulary is
crucial for successful second language use because without an extensive vocabulary,
one will be incapable of using the structures and functions one may have learned for
comprehensible communication. The importance of mastering vocabulary in
learning is also stated by Nunan. He says that the development of a rich vocabulary
is an important element in the acquisition of a second language. From the definition
above, it can be concluded that vocabulary is the total numbers of words, a list or set
of words in a particular language that a person knows or uses. From these definitions,
it concludes that mastery means the competency to understand and apply something
learnt. Vocabulary mastery is always being an essential part of English. Lewis and
Hill say that vocabulary mastery is important for the students. It is more than
grammar for communication purpose, particularly in the early stage when students
are motivated to learn the basic words. Without having proportional English
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vocabulary, students will get some difficulties in using English. Vocabulary mastery
can be measured by the requirements of generalization being able to define words
and application selecting an appropriate use of it. Therefore, it can be said that
vocabulary mastery is a complete skill to understand the stock of words and their
meanings of a particular language.
d. Problems in learning vocabulary
Many studies showed that the students still faced the problems or difficulties

in vocabulary learning. Kinds of difficulties faced by students in vocabulary learning
were various. They include:
- Almost all of the students have difficulties in pronouncing the words.
- How to write and spell.
- The different grammatical form of a word known as inflections was one of
causes of student’s difficulties in learning vocabulary.
- In addition, the students found difficulties in choosing the appropriate
meaning of the words and also still confuse in using the word based on the context.
- The last, the students were also still confused when they found words or
expression that were idiomatic. There were some factors that caused students'
difficulties in learning vocabulary. First, the written form is different from the
spoken form in English. Secondly, the number of words that students need to learn
is exceedingly large, the limitations of sources of information about words, and the
complexity of word knowledge. Knowing a word involves much more than knowing
its dictionary definition. Last but not least, the incorrect pronunciation is often
caused by the lack of sound similarity between English and the students' native
language.
Based on the result of the answer of questionnaire given by the researcher to
100 students of grade 10 at Quy Hop High School. It was found that English
vocabulary is not easy to learn. There are some difficulties that was found by the
students in learning English vocabulary, those are they have difficulties in
understanding vocabulary, they difficult to memorize English vocabulary, they
difficult to pronounce English vocabulary and they said spelling make English
vocabulary difficult for them.

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NO QUESTION

YES (%)

NO (%)

1

Do you like learning English

62%

38%

2

In your opinion, is it easy to learn
English vocabulary?

60%

40%

3

Is it difficult to remember English
vocabulary?

40%

60%

4

Is the pronunciation of English
vocabulary
difficult
to
understand?

32%

68%

5

Do the pronunciation and the
spelling make English vocabulary
difficult for you?

70%

30%

Table 1: Students’ perspective / percentage about vocabulary subject
e. Wordwall.net- based activities
Wordwall can be used to create both interactive and printable activities. Most
of the 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 teacherled with students taking turns at the front of the class. Printables can printed out

directly or downloaded as a PDF file. They can be used as a companion to the
interactive or as stand-alone activities. There are lots of interactive activities for
students to learn on wordwall.net. They include Crossword, Find the match,
Gameshow quiz, Match up, Quiz, Random wheel, Word search, Seating plan….
In addition, wordwall activities can be used as student-completed
assignments. When a teacher sets an assignment, students are directed to that
particular activity. This feature can be used in-class when students have access to
their own devices, or as a way of assigning homework.
To set an assignment, go to an activity page and click the Share button.
Choose Set Assignment to configure student access and results tracking. The next
page displays a unique access link you can communicate to your students. When the
students visit the activity through this link, their results are recorded and made
available to the teacher.
Any activity you create can also be made public. This allows you to share it
via email or another means of communication with students or colleagues. It also
allows other teachers to find the activity in the Community search results.
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Finally, Wordwall activities can be embedded into another website or learning
management system using an HTML embed code. The activity becomes playable
directly from the website in which it is embedded.
f. How to create wordwall.net- based activities
In order to create a new game activity, click the blue Create Activity button
and select a template; then, enter your desired content. Content may consist of
images, text, special symbols and LaTeX equations. Creating a fully interactive
activity only takes a few minutes and no knowledge of code or game design is
required. Therefore, most of the teachers can do it easily.

Most game templates can be accessible in different themes. Each theme alters
the look and feel of the template by implementing different graphics, fonts and
sounds. If you wish to further tweak the settings of an activity, this is possible from
the activity page. You can find an Edit Content link underneath the activity itself.
Once you have 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. This feature is available for most templates, although not all game
types can be interchanged.

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Wordwall activities can be used as assignments. You can direct students to
that activity without visiting the main activity. This feature can be used in-class
where students have access to their own devices, or as homework. How can you do
it? Go to an activity page and click the Share button. Choose Set Assignment. On
the next page, you can configure student access and results tracking. The final page
displays a unique access link. You must communicate the link to the students.
This template will be displayed:

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Once you click Set Assignment, you will read the following:

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2. Solutions and discussion
a. Demonstration of using wordwall.net-based activities
Below are activities created as the demonstration of using wordwall.net-based
activities to teach vocabulary for students at Quy Hop High School. These activities
were created to teach vocabulary in grade 10 English Textbook.
UNIT 1: FAMILY LIFE
To take unit 1: Family life for example, teacher created some activities for
students of grade 10 to revise vocabulary. Teacher used the activities such as match
up and random card to help students memorize vocabulary related to the topic:
extended family, breadwinner, divorce, single parent family, childhood, ……..
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The results by student:

UNIT 2: YOUR BODY AND YOU
- In unit 2: READING- teacher created an activity called “Missing word”. All
students were involved in the game and ranked as their competence.
READING
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After playing the game, students revised the meaning of the vocabulary such
as: promoting, harmony, yin and yang. Treatments, balance….Teacher was awarded
of the students’ performance basing on the leaderboard.

- In LISTENING LESSON, teacher created an activity called “Labelled
diagram” for them to revise words related to Food Pyramid. All students were
involved in the game and ranked as their competence.
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To learn more extensive words related to health, students were asked to do
wordsearch activity in order that they could learn more vocabulary.
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The results by student

UNIT 3: MUSIC
In unit 3: Music, before leading students to the lesson, the researched used the
game to warm up students and check their knowledge of music.
The first game used is Quiz show about some famous musicians in both
Vietnam and the world .
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The second game is Quiz about types of music and musical instruments.
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The results by student

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After LANGUAGE lesson, to help students revise and remember all the new
words, the researcher also designed the game flash cards for them to do.
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UNIT 4: FOR A BETTER COMMUNITY
In unit 4: For a better community, before leading students to the lesson, the
researched used the game FIND THE MATCH to warm up students and check their
knowledge of places in their community.
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-The researcher also created the game Find the match for students to practice
some related words before listening lesson.
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The results by student

UNIT 5: INVENTIONS
In unit 5, students also played the game to revise and remember the meaning

of vocabulary such as:
-The first game called Match up was used in Reading lesson
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The results by student

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