NGHIÊN cứu về sự yêu THÍCH của TRẺ EM CHO HOẠT ĐỘNG học từ VỰNG PHỔ BIẾN tại hội ĐỒNG ANH hà nội

ABSTRACT
Over twenty years ago, probably as a result of the radical developments
triggered by the lexical approach, the field of vocabulary in language learning has been
getting a lot more academic recognition. Moreover, for young learners, vocabulary is
the first aspect of language to be learnt and activities to teach vocabulary, therefore,
have been considered in many research. Carrying forward the trend, this study throws
some light on an investigation into Upper Primary 3 students’ preferences for common
activities to teach vocabulary in British Council Vietnam – an international language
centre in Hanoi. To be specific, the research was conducted to find out which common
vocabulary activities were preferred by Vietnamese 9 to 10-year-old-students.
Initially, the first questionnaire was utilized to ask eight different British Council
teachers which were the most common vocabulary activities for each of the three
recognized steps for teaching vocabulary (i.e. presentation, practice and production).
Next, based on the first survey’s results, the second questionnaire was designed to
research which of those common activities were forty Upper Primary 3 Vietnamese
students’ favourites. Afterwards, six of these young learners were chosen to undergo
interviews to serve the purpose of working out students’ responses in the questionnaires
in more detail, searching more personal reasons for their preferences. After that, fifteen
observations in three different Upper Primary 3 classes were accomplished to confirm
the students’ opinions. The explanation of the applied methodology mitigated by the
findings and discussions are presented in the fourth chapter. Finally, the researcher’s
pedagogical implications along with recommendations to take full advantage of the
effectiveness of vocabulary activities and preferences were suggested. The research was
concluded with a hope that it will be of assistance to not only researchers, teachers, and
readers who are interested in the same topic, but also students who are going to carry
out the related studies in the future.

TABLE OF CONTENT PAGE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i
ABSTRACT ii
LIST OF FIGURES TABLES AND ABBREVIATIONS vii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Research Title 1
1.2. Statement of the Problem and Rationale for the Research 1
1.3. Aims of the Research 3
1.4. Research Questions 4
1.5. Scope of the Research 4
1.6. Signification of the Research 5
1.7. Organization of the Research 5
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. An Overview of Vocabulary 7
2.1.1. Definition of Vocabulary 7
2.1.2. The Importance of Vocabulary in Language Learning and Teaching 7
2.1.3. How Vocabulary is Learned 8
2.2. An Overview of Young Learners 8
2.2.1. Definition of Young Learners 8
2.2.2. Characteristics of young learners 9
2.3. An Overview of Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners 11

2.3.1. Principles of Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners 11
2.3.2. The Importance of Students’ Preferences to Teaching Vocabulary 13
2.3.3. Stages and Activities for Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners 14
2.3.3.1. Presentation 15
2.3.3.2. Practice 17
2.3.3.3. Production 20
2.4. Related Studies 20
2.4.1. In Vietnam 20
2.4.2. In the world 21
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
3.1. Settings 22
3.2. Participants 23

3.3. Data collection methods 23
3.3.1. Questionnaires 24
3.3.2. Interview 25
3.3.3. Observation 26
3.4. Data collection procedure 26
3.5. Data analysis methods 27
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1. Research Question 1: What are the common activities currently
employed by British Council teachers to teach vocabulary to Young
Learners, particularly the 9 to 10-year-old-students? 28
4.1.1. At presentation stage 28

4.1.1.1. Visual techniques 28
4.1.1.2. Verbal techniques 29
4.1.2. At practice stage 29
4.1.2.1. Identifying activities 29
4.1.2.2. Selecting activities 30
4.1.2.3. Matching activities 31
4.1.2.4. Sorting activities 32
4.1.2.5. Ranking and sequencing activities 32
4.1.2.6. Games 33
4.1.3. At production stage 34
4.1.3.1. Completion tasks 34
4.1.3.2. Creation tasks 35
4.2. Research Question 2: Which activities do the students perceive to
be their favourites? 36
4.2.1. At presentation stage 36
4.2.1.1. Visual techniques 36
4.2.1.2. Verbal techniques 36
4.2.2. At practice stage 37

4.2.2.1. Identifying activities 37
4.2.2.2. Selecting activities 38
4.2.2.3. Matching activities 38
4.2.2.4. Sorting activities 39
4.2.2.5. Ranking and sequencing activities 40
4.2.2.6. Games 41
4.2.3. At production stage 41
4.2.3.1. Completion tasks 42
4.2.3.2. Creation tasks 42
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION

5.1. Summary of findings 44
5.2. Pedagogical Implications 45
5.3. Limitations of the study 47
5.4. Recommendations for further studies 48
REFERENCES 49
APPENDICES
Appendix 1: Young Learner Courses Portfolio 55
Appendix 2: Questionnaire on the Most Common Vocabulary Activities 56
Appendix 3: Questionnaire on the Most Preferred Vocabulary Activities
(English version) 64
Appendix 4: Questionnaire on the Most Preferred Vocabulary Activities
(Vietnamese version) 70
Appendix 5: Student Interview Scheme 76
Appendix 6: Class Observation Checklist 82
Appendix 7: Exercise 4, Kid’s Box 5 – Pupils’ Book, Page 35 83
Appendix 8: Exercise 1, Kid’s Box 5 – Pupils’ Book, Page 26 84

LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES AND ABBREVIATIONS
LIST OF FIGURES PAGE

Figure 1 Junior Young Learners Courses in British Council Vietnam 22
LIST OF TABLES PAGE
Table 1 Common Visual Techniques 28
Table 2 Common Verbal Techniques 29
Table 3 Common Identifying Activities 30
Table 4 Common Selecting Activities 30
Table 5 Common Matching Activities 31
Table 6 Common Sorting Activities 32
Table 7 Common Ranking and Sequencing Activities 33
Table 8 Common Games 34
Table 9 Common Completion Activities 34
Table 10 Common Creation Activities 35
Table 11 Students’ Preferences for Visual Techniques 36
Table 12 Students’ Preferences for Verbal Techniques 37
Table 13 Students’ Preferences for Identifying Activities 37
Table 14 Student’s Preferences for Selecting Activities 38
Table 15 Student’s Preferences for Matching Activities 38
Table 16 Student’s Preferences for Sorting Activities 39
Table 17 Student’s Preferences for Ranking and Sequencing Activities 40
Table 18 Student’s Preferences for Games 41
Table 19 Student’s Preferences for Completion Activities 42

Table 20 Student’s Preferences for Creation Activities 43
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
BC British Council
CEF the Common European Framework
EFL English as a First Language
IWB Interactive Whiteboard
JYL Junior Young Learners
L1 first language

L2 second language
TA teaching assistant
UK the United Kingdom
UP Upper Primary
VNU Vietnam National University
YL young learner
YLs young learners

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
This first chapter gives a rough idea of statement of the problem and rationale
for the paper together with its scope and significance. Especially, the aims are pointed
out with two research questions which construct the direction for this study. Finally,
the chapter summarizes with an outline of the rest of the research.
1.1. Research Title
An Investigation into Young Learners’ Preferences for Common Vocabulary
Activities at British Council
1.2. Statement of the Problem and Rationale for the Research
Over twenty years ago, due to the development of the lexical approach to
language teaching, there was a development of research focus on the vocabulary field
(Li, 2008, p.100). In addition, the English Language Teaching view towards vocabulary
is shifting towards McCarthy’s whereby vocabulary is now seen as “the single, biggest
component of any language course” (McCarthy, 1990, p.8) which is inferred
vocabulary has become more important than grammar. Moreover, research (Wexler &
Cullicover, 1980; Moerk, 1992; and Clark, 2003) has proven that children learn
vocabulary – particularly content words which stand for things, actions and qualities –
long before grammar during their first language (L1) acquisition. Therefore, it is
suggested that there could be a similarity in the way children learning their second
language (L2) might assimilate language. To further corroborate this argument, Tabors
(1997, p.39) points out that in the developmental sequence for L2 acquisition, children
learn content words, followed by “telegraphic speech”, i.e. simple verb - noun

combinations, before learning grammatical functional words to build complete
sentences.
Learning English in primary school is a crucial period of time for children
because it is considered as the time when they start to experience English as well as the
time when they seem most able to learn it. Pinker (1994) indicated that the period of

1
primary education is the best time for students to learn a new language and even
suggested in his ‘Critical Age Hypothesis’ that the ability to ‘acquire’ a new language
was almost lost after puberty, being replaced instead by the ability to ‘learn’ a language
which is both more difficult and less effective (p.293). Moreover, in David Singleton’s
book (1995), he stated that language was best learnt young since children seemed to be
able to “soak up language like a sponge” (Macaro, 2009, p.278). Possibly as a result,
people these days are focusing more on primary education. For instance, in the report
“Bộ GD-ĐT giới thiệu đề án ngoại ngữ Quốc gia 2020” from Vietnam News Agency
(2011), Ministry of Education and Training recently held a lot of conferences and
workshops to improve the quality of primary English language teaching, a new
curriculum has been made for English – a compulsory subject and the time allocated to
English lessons has been doubled to four hours per week for grades 3, 4 & 5. A new
program called the 2020 project has also been developed in the hopes of improving all
teachers’ language proficiency and teaching methodology and it targets primary
teachers most directly. However, despite this growing trend for primary education,
there have been very few English studies conducted by Vietnamese researchers on YLs
or children.
Since we know that vocabulary is what children routinely try to learn first in any
language and that they are instinctively motivated to do this (i.e. they do this
instinctively), their preferences for vocabulary learning are certainly worth
investigating. Moreover, “children are active participants in their own education”
(Morrison, 2009, p.109), and therefore a deeper understanding of their preferences and
motivation might lead to improved participation. And finally, since interest will drive

children into knowledge acquisition which then continues to fuel interest (Bergin, 1999,
p.92), it is also hoped that understanding and catering to their preferences for
vocabulary learning will also lead to improved learning in all areas of English language
study (e.g. grammar, reading, etc.).

2
The British Council (BC), the United Kingdom (UK)’s international educational
organisation, is a reputed centre of English with recognisably qualified native teachers
from all over the world. Having worked as a teaching assistant (TA) for many different
teachers for three years, the researcher has seen a wide range of vocabulary activities in
the English as a first language (EFL) context and each activity clearly gains a certain
preference from Vietnamese YLs. And since, BC is directly involved in assisting with
the development of primary teaching through training project such as the Primary
Innovations program which has been running in North, Central and South Vietnam
since 2008
[1]
, it is assumed that conclusions drawn in this communicative context
might be in some way transferable to the future national primary schooling system.
Because of all the above reasons, and the researcher’s interest in teaching
primary students, this research is carried out on the topic of “Young Learners’
Preferences for Vocabulary Activities at the British Council”.
1.3. Aims of the research
It has been observed by the researcher that BC teachers use a variety of activities
to teach vocabulary. However, the teachers (apart from their subjective observation) are
not really sure if the Vietnamese students enjoy their activities or what their favourite
activities are. This research therefore will be undertaken to find out preferred activities
to present, practice and produce new lexical items and phrases. Thus, the researcher is
driven to clarify the following objectives which are expected to be fulfilled:
- The thesis provides readers with an overview of common activities that BC
teachers use to present, practice and produce new lexical items and phrases.

Accordingly it will equip readers with a panoramic picture of teaching
vocabulary to the targeted students at this centre of English.
- This research will also help the teachers and readers know which
vocabulary activities the YLs (aged 9 to 10) at BC prefer for each teaching stage.
1.

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Since 673 out of 681 YLs at BC are Vietnamese and learning in a monolingual
context, hopes it to better inform all Vietnamese teachers on the target age
group’s preferences to learning vocabulary within the communicative context.
1.4. Research Questions
With the above objectives, this research is composed in order to answer the two
following questions:
1. What are the most common activities currently employed by British Council
teachers to teach vocabulary to Young Learners, particularly the 9 to 10-year-old-
students?
2. Which activities do these students perceive to be their favourites?
1.5. Scope of the Research
The study focuses on the students’ preferences for activities in all three stages of
teaching new vocabulary: presenting, practising and production within BC – an EFL
context. One more noteworthy point is that the research only concentrates on the
teaching of content words which are fragmented into four types in keeping with the
sequence of second language acquisition: concrete nouns (e.g. supermarket), verbs (e.g.
go), adjectives (e.g. expensive) and abstract nouns (e.g. happiness)
YLs studying at BC range from six to seventeen years old but this research only
deals with teaching vocabulary to Upper Primary 3 (UP3) level students. They are
between the age of nine to ten and their level is equivalent to A2 of the Common
European Framework (CEF) or Flyers according to Cambridge English for Speakers of
Other Languages. Before entering the course, they are level tested and streamed using
the BC placement test and during the course, they use the textbooks Kid Box Level 5 or

Incredible English Level 5. Both of these books are pitched at Flyers and the UP3
course alternates book each year. This is because UP3 is the highest available level for
primary students at BC and since they cannot progress to secondary until they reach
grade 6, some strong students spend 2 consecutive years on this course.

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The following reasons can best explain why this age group has been chosen.
First of all, since fifth grade students are the oldest primary students (Junior Young
Learners - JYL) in the Vietnamese educational system and at BC, they have had the
most experience of learning English and are therefore the most able to state their
preferences. Therefore, their answers to the questionnaire and interview will be more
reliable and informative than the younger students. Moreover, in the BC document
“Parent Booklet” (unpublished), approximately 89% the students have studied at least
three courses from multiple teachers so they have a better awareness of the range of
vocabulary activities. This helps to add reliability to the research.
1.6. Significance of the Research
First and foremost, the research makes a contribution to the storage of the
researches on the issue of vocabulary teaching to students, especially to YLs, within an
EFL context at Vietnam National University. It serves as a reference material for other
researchers who are keen on the topic. Secondly, the research findings might contribute
to the quality of English teaching at BC since the teachers stand to gain a better
understanding of Vietnamese YLs’ preferences for vocabulary activities which might
lead them to experimenting and adapting vocabulary activities to better suit the needs of
their learners. And thirdly, it is hoped that the findings might help inform local
Vietnamese teachers and student teachers on the preferences of Vietnamese YLs’ for
learning vocabulary within a communicative context.
1.7. Organization of the Research
The paper consists of five main chapters.
Chapter I: “INTRODUCTION” consists of the rationale, the aims, the scope, the
significance and the organisation of the study.

Chapter II: “LITERATURE REVIEW” states the key concepts and principles
behind vocabulary learning and YLs, and makes a revision of some earlier relevant
researches.

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Chapter III: “METHODOLOGY” mentions the research instruments and the
procedure employed throughout the research.
Chapter IV: “FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS” includes the results after the
analysis and some suggestions are provided.
Chapter V: “CONCLUSIONS” gives a summary of findings, limitations of the
research and some recommendations for further studies as well.

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CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
The previous chapter has provided the rationale for the need to answer the
two research questions in the clearly defined scope, which will guide the right
direction for the thesis. This second chapter clarifies the theories as a base for the
research and at the end, a brief summary of the previous related studies will be shown
to set off the new points in this research.
2.1. An Overview of Vocabulary
2.1.1. Definition of vocabulary
Generally defined, vocabulary is knowledge of words and word meanings.
Laurie declared that “Vocabulary is about words” which people take, change, and
combine then use to state their thoughts (p.8). For children, vocabulary seems to be the
words that they say, words that they hear and understand, and words that they see and
recognise once they start reading (Leu & Kinzer, 1999, p. 338). Hence, this paper will
focus on vocabulary as all the content words, including single words and phrases,
which are used as a part of their prescribed textbook Kid’s Box 5. As stated previously,
content words are defined as concrete nouns, verbs, adjectives and abstract nouns.
2.1.2. The importance of vocabulary in language learning

“If language structures make up the skeleton of language, then it is vocabulary
that provides the vital organs and the flesh.” (Harmer, 2000, p.153).
Vocabulary is critical to language learning since it conveys basic meaning and is
therefore fundamental to all of the four skills i.e. listening, speaking, reading and
writing. Moreover, multiple researchers (e.g. Anderson & Freebody, 1981; Baumann,
Kame‘enui, & Ash, 2003; Davis, 1942) have suggested strong links between having an
extensive vocabulary and achieving school success, especially in reading. Only if do
students have a suitable range of vocabulary, they can understand what they listen to or
read and express themselves precisely. After years of studying the factors behind life

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and career success, scientist Johnson O'Connor wrote in Atlantic Monthly in June,
1931: "An extensive knowledge of the exact meanings of English words accompanies
outstanding success more often than any other single characteristic we have been able
to isolate and measure" (p.12). This, combined with the idea of vocabulary forming the
foundation for all other components of language learning, signifies its clear importance.
2.1.3. How vocabulary is learned
Before teaching vocabulary, it is essential to understand how words are learned.
According to Thornbury (2002, p.18), vocabulary acquisition of L2 is performed in
three major stages. Learners always start with words absorbed through labelling, which
means matching words to the particular concepts. This stage is typically true for YLs,
for example, the concept of an apple has the name “apple”. In the next step, students
need to learn how far to extend the concept of an apple, which means categorising.
From an apple, they start to classify friends’ apples, toy apples, pictures of apples, and
so on. However, definitely not every round fruit is an apple as they can also be lemons
or oranges. Thus, learners have to realize that these common words like “apple” can be
replaced by a superordinate term like “fruit”. This category furthermore includes other
lower order words like “orange”, “lemon” and “watermelon”, etc. Thornbury called this
process network building and these networks are thought to create logic between
thousands of available concepts therefore making them more memorable. Being aware

of how words are learned is vital for teachers to facilitate effective and efficient
vocabulary teaching. This is the reason why vocabulary items are frequently presented
as logical ‘sets’ (e.g. fruit) with a limited number (up to 8) of subordinate items.
2.2. An Overview of Young Learners
2.2.1. Definition of Young Learners
According to Thornbury (2006), Young Learners are defined as “children of pre-
primary and primary school age, although it is sometimes used to include adolescents as
well” (p.250). The popular conception of Young Learners in British Council is also Pre-

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school learners and Primary school learners but theoretically the term covers teenagers
and Young adults as well. To further clarify this, Young Learners have been split into
four broad bands: Lower Primary (6-8), Upper Primary (8-10), Secondary (11-14), and
Young Adult (15-17). Due to the research scope and the fact that TAs are not required
for Secondary learners and above, children between the ages of nine to ten or Upper
Primary has been chosen. The researcher has chosen Upper Primary 3 because they are
the most capable and generally the oldest of Upper primaries in British Council.
2.2.2. Characteristics of Young Learners
Slattery & Willis drew some common characteristics of children aged from
seven to twelve:
“Children are developing quickly as individuals. They learn in a variety of ways – by
watching, listening, doing things. […] They are not able to understand grammatical rules and
explanations about language. […] They can generally imitate the sounds they hear quite
accurately and copy the way adults speak. They are naturally curious. They love to play and
use their imagination. They are comfortable with routines and enjoy repetition. They have
quite a short attention span and need variety.” (Slattery & Willis, 2001, p. 4)
To further expand on some of the key characteristics mentioned above:
• develop as individuals – each child has his/her own developmental pathway so
they take different interests in different tasks. This difference is also evident in other
areas, e.g. learning to write.

• learn in a variety of ways – by watching, listening, doing things – this relates to
Multiple Intelligences whereby we each favour different channels for learning such as
visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learners.
• be unable to understand grammatical rules and explanations about language –
children’s analytic skills are not yet fully developed; hence, they struggle to understand
or find value in abstract grammatical presentations. Fortunately they do not need to
understand why (as is the case with adults) and are happy to accept language as it is.

9
• can generally imitate the sounds they hear quite accurately and copy the way
adults speak – they are gifted at imitation and tend not to have any fossilized
pronunciation errors yet. They are also able to memorize ‘chunks’ of language (e.g. I’m
fine thank you and you?) without breaking them down into their constituent parts.
• be naturally curious – as mentioned before, children are instinctively
motivated to learn probably because they are learning about the world around them
everyday and language just naturally becomes another element.
• love to play and use their imagination – they have not yet clearly distinguished
between work and play or reality and fantasy. As a result, play and imagination can
become powerful motivating tools when combined with actual learning.
• comfortable with routines and enjoy repetition – unlike adults, YLs are most
comfortable when the conditions for learning are constant (i.e. classroom environment
and procedure) and only the content (language) changes. Due to the high number of
times they need to be exposed to language in order to retain it, they are also
comfortable with recycling or repetition of key content (e.g. concrete vocabulary).
• have quite a short attention span and need variety – because of their short
attention spans and tendency to lose interest in protracted activities, YLs respond best
to a ‘stir & settle’ (Halliwell, 1992, p.20) type procedure whereby they are alternately
excited (e.g. through games) and then calmed down (e.g. by colouring) at frequent short
periods of time throughout the lesson.
In addition, I would also like to add a few more points from Jayne Moon (2000)

which match my experience of Young Learners at the British Council.
Young learners can be categorised as:
• use language creatively – they actively process language and form hypotheses
that they were not taught (e.g. I speaked to my friend on the phone yesterday). Here the
YL is forming his/her own transferable rule for the past tense. Although it is wrong, the
implication is simply that the logical set of irregular verbs is not formed yet; thus, more

10
exposure to that language would be more beneficial than grammatical presentations.
• go for meaning – as illustrated above, two YLs would intuitively understand “I
speaked to my friend yesterday” in spite of it not being English. This is because they go
for meaning above form.
• join in the action & have fun – as mentioned before, children have very
pronounced preferences for different Multiple Intelligences. One of the preferences that
is most notable in their age group is that they love physical activities like role play,
making things, TPR, etc. Moreover they take great pleasure in “finding and creating fun
in what they do” (Halliwell, 1992, p. 3) which implies that they like interesting
activities which let them enjoy themselves and be more involved in the lessons.
2.3. An Overview of Teaching Vocabulary to Young Learners
2.3.1. Principles of teaching vocabulary to Young Learners
In accordance with the characteristics laid out above, the researcher would now
like to point out some basic principles of teaching vocabulary to Young Learners which
are expanded upon using the readings of To, H. et al (2011) and McCloskey (2005).
First, since children develop as individuals, teachers should employ a broad
range of vocabulary activities within a lesson and throughout the term in order to cater
for the whole class rather than dominant individuals. This applies to interests as well as
ability, for instance, smaller children learn to read and write at different ages; thus,
teachers favouring text based vocabulary activities would be problematic. A good way
to avoid problems is to use a variety of multi-dimensional activities. For instance, with
the theme “Places”, teachers can let students go to Internet to look for famous

attractions, or sing a song about places in a city, and design an ideal city as well.
Second, since children learn in a variety of ways, teachers should find the
activities which cater to all key multiple intelligences rather than their own dominant
ones. So if the teacher is an auditory learner, for instance, then it implies that the
teacher will instinctively favour that and neglect visual or kinaesthetic modes of

11
vocabulary teaching. It is suggested that a blend be employed both within the lesson
and throughout the term. The three key modes according to the researcher’s observation
are Visual (e.g. flashcards), Auditory (e.g. description) and Kinaesthetic (e.g. realia).
Third, since children are not able to understand grammatical rules, and lengthy
explanations about language, teachers should avoid more traditional ‘adult’ approaches
to vocabulary teaching and simply focus on meaning and exposure. This point can be
subdivided into two key points:
• Since students analytical powers are not fully developed, basic language rules
surrounding vocabulary should simply be presented and students invited to
hypotheses test. For illustration, when teaching articles or plurals, students will
intuitively draw conclusions from comparing ‘an apple’ with ‘a strawberry’ or
‘two apples’ with ‘two strawberries’ so long as the difference in meaning is
clear. Additional advantages of this approach are that it leads to learner
autonomy and less sense of inhibition about making mistakes.
• Since children are much better equipped to use a language than talk about it
the focus should be on learning through doing. Target vocabulary should simply
be presented and manipulated in a variety of different ways with the focal point
being its meaningful use. In other words, teachers must offer them enjoyable,
active roles in the learning experience with as many opportunities for them to
use language purposefully as possible.
Fourth, since children are very good mimics of pronunciation, teachers should
work extensively on this. The sounds will be readily picked up and this might avoid
significant problems with fossilized errors later on. Teachers should use a variety of

pronunciation activities (e.g. drilling, whisper drills, pronunciation blocks, etc.) as it is
important that drilling is done without students seeing the written forms. This is
because English is phonetically inconsistent, written forms consequently can be
confusing. Similarly, children are able to mimic whole phrases and therefore teachers
should not break these down into their constituent parts for analysis (as mentioned in
point 3) so long as the meaning is clear. And these phrases should also be drilled as

12
chunks to practice such things as sentence stress which is very important because of the
monosyllabic staccato interference from L1.
Fifth, since children are naturally curious, love to play and use their
imaginations, teachers should create vocabulary activities that are inherently enjoyable
and motivating. There are many different ways to do this, and a few good examples are:
• create some sense of challenge, for illustration, children like sorting and
sequencing (e.g. word search puzzles) activities because it gives them an
opportunity to use their categorising ability previously mentioned by Thornbury.
• create a sense of competition, like putting children in teams with some sort of
incentive to produce the target language (e.g. hot seat).
• create opportunities for collaboration, changing classroom dynamics (e.g.
teamwork, group work, and pair work, etc.) is an example. Not only do these
changes create a welcome change of pace but they also allow the students to
learn from each other as in project work (e.g. designing a poster).
Sixth, since children are comfortable with routines and repetition the teacher
should try to keep the classroom environment fairly stable (i.e. a consistent range of
techniques and activities to present, practise and produce vocabulary). Although this
may seem boring for older learners, it is comforting for children and allows them to
focus on the content of the lesson. Similarly, children are not bored by repetition and
this allows the teacher to recycle flashcards, games songs and so on throughout the
whole unit of the book or even beyond.
Seventh, since children have short attention spans and need variety the teacher

should use a stir & settle pattern for all teaching including vocabulary. This means that
even though flashcards, running dictation, etc. can be fun; the children will get over
excited or bored if they go on for too long. Instead the teacher should move from
exciting presenting activities to calming practice activities (e.g. colouring) and so on.
2.3.2. The importance of Young Learners’ preferences into teaching
and learning vocabulary

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In this research, students’ preferences are considered as synonymous with
students’ interests because the aim of the paper is to find out which activities the
students’ are most interested in. Unfortunately the paper could not be titled Young
learners’ interests in learning vocabulary because that is a totally different topic.
Taking a deeper look into interests, according to Krapp et al. (1992), it can be
divided into two main approaches: individual or personal approach (person centred) and
situational approach (situation centred). The individual approach answers the question
of “which activities would a particular student be interested in?” By contrast, the
situational approach investigates activities that tend to be preferred by many
individuals, so it answers the question of “which activities will most of the students be
interested in?” Therefore, the situational approach is better for teachers since they teach
in a class of sixteen students. Consequently, finding out which activities are preferred
by the majority of students is considered more important.
As mentioned in YLs’ characteristics above, each child has his/her own way of
learning words, and consequently his/her own preferences. From the researcher’s own
observation, students clearly respond differently to different vocabulary activities.
Understanding which activities are preferred by students can benefit teachers in
preparing lessons that attract students’ attention. Moreover, when the preferred
activities are applied appropriately, interest is heightened and learning is enhanced
(Baker, 1999). And once students are motivated by their preferred activities, they will
be internally motivated to learn vocabulary (Turville, 2007).
2.3.3. Stages and activities for teaching vocabulary to Young

Learners
In the book called “ESL/EFL Classroom Techniques and Practices” (2011)
compiled by lecturers from University and Languages and International Studies, there
are three main stages to teaching vocabulary: Presentation – Consolidation – Checking.
On the other hand, according to Baker (2003) teaching vocabulary can also be
described as: Presentation – Practice – Production. Both of these models are similar in

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all but name; however, since BC teachers seem to refer to Baker’s Presentation –
Practice – Production model more closely (i.e. there is almost no checking/testing), the
researcher has chosen to follow Baker in the interest of efficiency.
2.3.3.1. Presentation
At this stage, teachers provide students with the pronunciation and meaning of
new words. Presentation activities for new vocabulary can be classified into visual
techniques, verbal techniques, and dictionaries (Gairns & Redman, 1986). Let us now
deal with each in turn:
a. Visual techniques: relate to visual memory, which is considered very helpful
when introducing new lexical items because it is both interesting and immediate for
students. These techniques allow vocabulary to be handled “quickly, easily and clearly”
(To, H. et al, 2011). Teachers can benefit from the use of:
• Images (flashcards, pictures, blackboard drawings, word pictures, word
charts, posters) – these can demonstrate most concrete nouns, adjectives and verbs
effectively. In BC, thanks to technology, teachers can present new words by images
embedded in flipcharts or by drawing on the interactive whiteboard (IWB).
• realia – these let students see and understand the meaning of words in three
dimensions and through touch. For example, tables and chairs in the classroom
definitely can be used to help learn the theme “My Classroom”. Again it is most suited
to concrete nouns.
• mime and gesture, actions – most action verbs, feeling and status adjectives are
best described by these techniques.

b. Verbal techniques: an alternative way of conveying the meaning of new
lexical items is simply by using different words within the same context.
• illustrative situations or giving context, examples and explanations – these can
show the meaning of abstract nouns such as love, happiness, and sorrow, etc. most
effectively. Giving context is also often used by teachers to try and get students to guess

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the target set of new words and they frequently give a quick and correct answer. When
using examples, it is important that they contain enough information to clearly show the
meaning of the new words. In the case of presenting “hard-working”, teachers can add
“My sister is hard-working. She gets up early and then does all the house work before
going to school”. For explanations, it is essential that simple, sharp and appropriate
sentences are used because complicated explanations can become more difficult than
the target vocabulary itself.
• definitions, descriptions – these are direct statements that teachers make to
directly show the meaning of words as in a dictionary. It is a very efficient tool but
dependant on students understanding of superordinate and subordinate hierarchies.
• synonyms and antonyms – these quickly demonstrate the meaning of target
vocabulary by relating it to other words that the students already know. A potential
problem is when the student doesn’t know either word though, so when using these
techniques, teachers must be careful to use synonyms and antonyms that are easier than
the original word. For example: “Huge means very big and Little means very small”.
• translation – although quick and easy, this is not used so much recently as it
can be very discouraging for children because they cannot interact with the words. For
that reason, it is better if this technique is used along side other techniques such as
explanation or definition or as a means of checking understanding.
c. Dictionaries: these can help students learn the meanings (and pronunciation)
of unfamiliar words and expressions. With adequate training, dictionaries are invaluable
tools for learners, giving students independence from the teacher. However, dictionaries
are not commonly used with young learners in BC as there are only four per classroom

which can create arguments, and they can also be a bit too complicated since they are
regular dictionaries as opposed to picture dictionaries.
In fact, the combination of different techniques is applied frequently in order to

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support each other and reinforce the effectiveness of the presentation because each
technique has its own benefits and limitations.
2.3.3.2. Practice
At the second stage – Practice, teachers help students to practice their newly
learnt words. As Thornbury (2002, p.93) calculated, there are five types of tasks for
consolidating or practising vocabulary. In this research, games are put as the sixth type
since they are used to strengthen the use of vocabulary as recommended by many
methodologists such as Uberman (1998), Wealand (1999), Thornbury (2002) or Baker
(2003). Moreover, they are what BC teachers seem to apply most frequently at this step.
a. Identifying activities: are designed to let students find out new things in the
pictures or words in the texts, for example: Find five places in the city in the picture,
Find five words about “Places” in the text, etc. Listening out for particular pictures or
words in a recording is also a form of identification activity. Besides, identification
activities are also the tasks in which students have to unscramble anagrams like
ertupaskmre for supermarket, or search for words in a word search.
b. Selecting activities: these involve both recognising words and making
choices amongst them such as Odd one out. This kind of task helps children to justify
their choice from reviewing learnt vocabulary items.
c. Matching activities: these require first identifying words and then pairing
them with a visual representation (pictures), a definition, a synonym, an antonym or a
collocation. Pelmanism is a memory task which engages nothing but matching. Word
pairs (i.e. word & picture, word & antonym… etc.) are on individual cards which are
placed face down in a random distribution, then children take turns to pick up a card
and search for its partner. In BC, students can play on IWB.
d. Sorting activities: these let learners sort words into different categories which

can either be given or guessed. The title of exercises might be Put these words into two
groups – e.g. places and activities, or Add extra words to each given group and so on.

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e. Ranking and sequencing: these ask students to put the words into some kind
of order. Ordering items is a way of getting students to make judgements about words
which seems like “brain word” activities. This may involve arranging the words in a
sequence such as with daily activities (wake up, get up, brush my teeth, wash my face,
get dressed, have breakfast, etc.), or ranking items according to preference.
f. Games: motivate students to extend their knowledge on the vocabulary items,
so games are good stimulus for extra work. Since they provide the possibility of
extensive practice and fun in a relaxed atmosphere, games should be an integral part of
a lesson. There are many games which are suggested by professionals and commonly
used in BC.
• Reading race – here each team takes turns reading out the selected passage
aloud, with the quickest team winning points but also with minus points for mistakes.
The focus is on reading quickly but secretly more on accuracy because students
typically lose more points than they gain.
• Spelling race – here students have to spell out the given words individually.
They make a circle and each of them speaks out only one letter of given words. To be
specific, once the teacher pronounces one word, the first person in the circle have to
spell out the first letter of the word, then the second next to him/her continue the
spelling with one letter.
A different version of this game designed to work in groups in BC is that the
team have to make the given words from small cards in the delivered box of letters.
• Ladder race or board run – this is done by two teams lining up to the board
and being given a topic by the teacher. The first student runs to the board and writes a
word, gives the marker to the second and then runs to the end of the line. The words
must be written correctly to complete a ladder (typically 6 or 7 rungs) to score points.
• Noughts and crosses – Noughts and crosses grids are drawn and labelled with

nine different words on the same topic and it can be played individually or in teams.

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