Communicative approach vocabulary communicatively for students at grade 10 in can tho city

CAN THO UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

COMMUNICATIVE APPROACHTEACHING VOCABULARY COMMUNICATIVELY
FOR STUDENTS AT GRADE 10 IN CANTHO CITY
B.A. Thesis

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Field of study: ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

Supervisor: Nguyen Thi Anh Tho

Student: Tran Thi Thu
Student code: 7032466
Class: NN0352 A3

Can tho, June 2007


Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively

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CONTENTS
Contents

........................................................................................................................

List of tables

........................................................................................................................

Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................
Abstract

........................................................................................................................

Introduction

......................................................................................................................1

Problem and Rationale.............................................................................................1
Thesis organization .................................................................................................6
Literature Review...................................................................................................................7
An overview about Communicative Approach........................................................7
Techniques in teaching vocabulary........................................................................14
Research Methodology: ......................................................................................................20

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Research design and procedure..............................................................................20
Sample ...................................................................................................................20
Research instruments .............................................................................................21
Research instruments .................................................................................21
Documenting the teachers’ techniques
of introducing vocabulary ................................................................25
Collecting teachers’ beliefs and their barriers
about teaching vocabulary communicatively...................................26
Research results .................................................................................................................28
Teachers’ beliefs about communicative approach
and teaching vocabulary communicatively............................................................28

Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively

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To those who do not teach vocabulary communicatively..........................32
To those who teach vocabulary communicatively.....................................33
Teachers’ problems when using visual and verbal techniques
in teaching vocabulary ..........................................................................................40
Techniques of teaching vocabulary .......................................................................41
Discussions and recommendations for further research ......................................................43
Discussions ............................................................................................................43
Limitations of the study .........................................................................................44
Recommendations for further research..................................................................45
References

....................................................................................................................46

Appendices

....................................................................................................................49

Appendix 1- Observation 1....................................................................................49

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Appendix 2- Observation 2....................................................................................51
Appendix 3- Observation 3....................................................................................53
Appendix 4- Observation 4....................................................................................54
Appendix 5- Observation 5....................................................................................57

Appendix 6- Observation 6....................................................................................60
Appendix 7- Questionnaire ....................................................................................62
Appendix 8- One chapter cited in New English Textbook 10 ...............................66


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LISTS OF THE TABLES
Table 1- Participants’ age………………………………………………….............. .…………..29
Table 2- Participants’ years of teaching……………………………….........................................29
Chart 1- The percentage of teachers acquiring the communicative approach from different
sources……………………………………………………………………………………………31
Chart 2-The time when teachers are acquainted with the communicative approach…………….32
Chart 3- The time when teachers apply the communicative approach…………………………..34
Chart 4- The reasons for applying the C.A in teaching vocabulary……………………………...35
Chart 5- Students’ progress in using vocabulary………………………………………………...36
Chart 6- The focus on lesson(s)…………………………...……………………………………..37
Chart 7- The extent and the frequency of using techniques in one vocabulary lesson………….38
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Chart 8- Tests for evaluating students’ vocabulary progress…………………………………….39
Chart 9-Problems encountered when using visual and verbal techniques ……………………...40

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms. Nguyen Thi Anh Tho
for her guidance, consideration and encouragement during the process of carrying out the study.
I would like to acknowledge all the teachers of the English department. They have
organized classes on research methodology which has orientated me on the research

implementation.


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I am grateful to my beloved members in my family for their supporting me to carry out the
research.
I am particularly indebted to the Learning Resource Center, the School of Education
Library and the English Department Library, which all have provided me with valuable sources
of material.
I would like to express my deep gratitude to the teachers and students at the nine high
schools in Cantho city, who were willing to accept my presence for classroom observations and
administer the questionnaires.
Finally, my special thanks are sincerely sent to all my friends and my roommates who
supported me while I was conducting this study.

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ABSTRACT
The communicatively composed English textbook 10 has been used in high schools for
nearly 8 months under the requirement of the Ministry of Education and Training. On the basis
of communication, the English textbook 10 is expected to be taught communicatively in
association with its content. The project, therefore, attempts to present the high school teachers’
beliefs about the communicative approach and their ways of teaching vocabulary
communicatively for the students at grade 10 in high schools in order to find the answer to the
query: to what extent teachers in high schools apply communicative approach to teach
vocabulary supplied in the English textbook 10 for their grade 10 students. The procedure for
this descriptive research consists of five stages such as to decide on the research questions, to
select the sample, to determine the methods of data collection, to collect the data and to organize

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and analyze the data. The data for the descriptive study are collected through 35 questionnaires
and 6 observations conducted at the nine high schools in Cantho city ( Phan Van Tri, Nhon Ai,
Nguyen Viet Hong, Li Tu Trong, Phan Ngoc Hien, Nguyen Viet Dung, An Binh, Chau Van
Liem and Bui Huu Nghia high schools). The data analysis shows that all the participants know
about communicative approach because of its particular characteristics as well as its
effectiveness in teaching vocabulary but only 88.57% teachers has presently applied the new
techniques like posters, cards, blackboard drawings, realia, mime and gestures, synonym,
antonyms, examples, definition. In addition, the frequency and the extent they use these
techniques are various from 20% to 90%, which helps us to conclude that most teachers in
Cantho high schools have taught vocabulary communicatively for their grade 10 students
communicatively. Some participants do not teach vocabulary because of some problems.

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INTRODUCTION
Problem and Rationale
Economic open-door policy purposed by the Government of Vietnam, a Decree issued by
the Prime Minister in 1995 together with the important event that Vietnam has recently joined
the World Trade Organization have totally increased the demands for English learners who are

expected to be able to communicate verbally with the outside world and to access technology.
Canh (1999) says that English now is a very important subject that should be compulsory
in language teaching and getting the Secondary School Education Certificate in Vietnam. To
meet the demands of "doi moi" policy, Vietnamese educational system has been appropriately
changed time to time so far, especially in the past 15 years. According to Brogan and Ha,
Vietnamese teachers and policy makers seem to agree that a good curriculum or syllabus plays
an important role in increasing the success of an English language program. Consequently, the

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Ministry of Education and Training, English Departments in universities as well as English
language course organizers have made efforts to develop effective curricula. This results in many
different curricula for English course. Said Brogan & Ha (n.d.).
Recently, which is more specified in 5 years, the English textbooks have been adjusted to
English learners' communicative needs by course designers and teachers. The content and the
organization of these textbooks, which cover grades 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, have been appropriated. As
a result of this change, students of educational departments in universities are currently taught
and trained new teaching methods. They have quite mastered the ways to present and carry out
the effective approaches they have learnt in their training courses; Moreover, Canh (1999) says
that new teacher training programs including pre-service and in-service are designed and served
with a focus on training teaching methodologies. Vietnamese teachers are interested in new


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methodologies, especially in teaching toward the communicative approach. Communicative
approach is discussed here with reference to Canale & Swain’s(1980) (as cited in Canh, 1999)
construct of communicative competence which comprises of grammatical competence,
sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence. This approach

mainly focuses on shifting from teacher-centered view to learner-centered one by taking
communicative activities (Grain & Redman, 1986; Lee, 1986).
Such a method as communicative approach which is based on the needs of English
learners is expected to be more appropriately applied in teaching English in high schools as the
most effective way ever. Unfortunately, Canh (1999) indicates not much teaching methods has
been improved in English classes. During the training courses, Vietnamese teachers show
interest in new methodologies, but after finishing those courses, they continue teaching in their
own way, using traditional methods. In contrast to what Canh said, some recently informal

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interviews conducted from my colleagues together with my teaching observation periods this

year show an evidence for this fact : many teachers in high schools do use the communicative
approach to present the lesson issues although some potential problems stated by Canh (1999)
such as the needs of the learners, the preferences of experienced teachers, and the constraints of
the school or educational setting.
Such a setting of teaching method in high schools hopes to cover all the aspects of English
language system and skills, including reading, language focus, writing, listening and speaking.
My expectation in this research is about word study or vocabulary acquisition in the field of
reading lesson.
As stated in the preface at the beginning of the textbook, English textbook 10 is composed
under the program of secondary English standard of The Ministry of Education and Training that


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continuously follows up the English 6, 7, 8 and 9. The sixteen theme- based topics included in
the textbook are very close and meaningful to students’ daily life. After every two or three units,

there will be a lesson named Test Yourself in order to help students look back and review what
they have learnt so far. Each unit is related to one specific topic and covers these following
lessons:
A. READING includes one or more sections varying from 180 words to 220
words in length. Such a relatively long passage is to help the students be acquainted
with the topic, totally providing them with variety of information and practice
language competence covered in the whole unit and to develop students’ language
skills, especially to reading skill.
B. SPEAKING: Many activities are set in appropriate and meaningful contexts
in accordance with the topic so that the students can be able to practice their speaking

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skill and communication through working individually or in pairs, in groups.

C. LISTENING: Every passage or dialogue is related to the topic of the unit. Its
main purpose is to help students to listen and take notes. Moreover, Listening also
helps students to consolidate and to correct their pronunciation and language
structures.
D. WRITING covers many kinds of exercises such as letter composing, data
description, event reports, etc to improve students’ writing skill.
E. LANGUAGE FOCUS is divided into two parts: Pronunciation and Grammar.
Pronunciation is to have students review how to utter consonants as well as vowels
contained in simple words or in the whole sentence. Grammar and Vocabulary mainly
focuses on integral structures and necessary vocabulary. These grammar points are


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practiced through drills or activities so that the students can easily master and use
them.
(Translated from Tieng Anh 10, NXB GD- Bo GD & DT)
As we can see from the appendix 8, the topic of the unit 13 is about films and cinema. The
unit focuses on five lessons including tasks and activities. All items provided in these five
lessons are in accordance with the goals introduced at the beginning of the new English textbook.
That means, reaching the target of teaching communicatively requires not only the teachers’
ability to be able to instruct these activities and tasks but also students’ contribution to the
lesson. The reading lesson, for instance, is divided into to three stages such as pre- reading, while
reading and post reading. It can be seen in the first stage, some warm up questions are given to
help them have an overall view about the lesson they are going to learn. On the basis of
“student- centered”, most activities and tasks in this lesson are to be carried out by students’ pair

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work and group work- a feature of communicative approach. Teachers’ techniques of teaching

vocabulary in the second stage is very important for the students to understand the text and then
to be able to do the three tasks. That the final stage expect students’ skill to restate the text helps
students review the text and improve their speaking skill. In fact, without vocabulary focused,
students cannot understand and perform the tasks in this unit effectively. It is more persuasive to
conclude that vocabulary is very important to the acquisition of learners in foreign language.
Carthy (1990) expresses that students cannot communicate in any meaningful way if they do not
have words to express a wide range of meaning. According to Krashen (1982), acquisition
accounts for learners know how and understand their vocabulary through their performance. That
means learners can use their vocabulary to express or describe the practical situations happening
in daily life. It is also true that learners will make mistakes if they learn the meaning of many


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words without learning how to put words in meaningful sentences. Carthy (1990) confirms on
this view that the single, biggest component of any language course is vocabulary. Learners,
therefore, seem to assume the needs of active vocabulary in such a communicative language
environment as demanded. However, vocabulary seems to be the least well catered for of all the
aspects of learning English in most high school now. It seems that some teachers in high schools
still have followed a traditional method of teaching vocabulary in high schools. Therefore,
because of the importance of vocabulary in communication to cope with current trends, the
research conducted during my teaching practice hopes to find the detailed answers for the
following questions: is communicative approach applied in teaching vocabulary for students at
grade 10 in Cantho city? If yes, to what extent? The answers for these questions have a great
significance for my confirmation on the possibility of applying the communicative method to
introduce vocabulary to high school students. The confirmation will generally state insight

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aspects about English language teaching of educational administrators; the management and
assignment of school managers and the implementation of teachers. Also, the answers help to
consider whether a communicative approach fits Vietnamese pedagogical contexts presented by
Canh (1999), which comprise of three factors: first, Vietnamese learner's communicative needs;
second, Vietnamese classroom culture and discourse, and third, the constraints in teaching
English communicatively.
The research assumes that some teachers in high schools still haven’t followed the
communicative approach to teach vocabulary for their grade 10 students. Because, as stated by
Canh (1999), pedagogical contexts in Vietnam do not always support communicative teaching
practices. We may take a long time to consider whether a communicative approach really fits
Vietnamese pedagogical contexts. Indeed, the research findings strongly support the assumption.


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Thesis organization
There are five chapters in this thesis.
Chapter one provides an overview of the need of changing the teaching method supplied in
the new English textbook 10 and the current state of teaching English at high schools. The
importance of vocabulary is also mentioned in this chapter. It then introduces the thesis
organization. The aim and the significance of the study are also included in this section.
Chapter two presents a review of literature. The two basic issues (communicative approach
and techniques to teach vocabulary) will be focused on. The research then introduces some
common techniques of teaching vocabulary towards the trend of communicative approach.
Chapter three goes in depth into the research methodology which includes descriptions of
the participants, the material, the research procedure, its instrument and the way data were
analyzed.

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Chapter four is dealt with analyzing the result of collected questionnaires and classroom

observation sheets for revealing how the teachers consider the communicative approach and to
what extent their ways of introducing vocabulary are applied.
Chapter five summarizes and interprets the result. Some limitations and recommendations
for further research are also mentioned.


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LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, an extensive review of literature on what communicative approach is
about, its contrast with the other method and how this method is applied in the field of
vocabulary are presented.
Here my discussion primarily focuses on some researchers' opinions toward
communicative approach and how we call teaching vocabulary communicatively.
. An Overview about Communicative Approach
Approaches and methods in language teaching are designed to provide a detailed account
of major twentieth-century trends in language teaching. They convey scientifically considerable
and valuable ways into the language teaching time to time. To Anthony (as cited in Richards &
Kodgers, 1986:16), approach refers to “theories about the nature of language and language
learningtâm
that serves
the source
practices
and principles
in language
teaching”.
It is the level
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at which “assumptions and belief about language and language learning are specified” He
identified and contrasted the three levels of conceptualization, which he termed approach,
method, and technique. Definition of approach is presented above while a method is procedural
that is an overall plan for the orderly presentation of language material. Moreover, within one

approach, there can be many methods. Method is the level at which theory is put into practice
and at which the particular skills and the content are chosen to be taught and the order in which
the content will be presented. Meanwhile, a technique actually takes places in a classroom. It is a
“particular trick, or contrivance used to reach to an immediate objective” said Anthony (as cited
in Richards & Kodgers, 1986: 16). Techniques- the level at which classroom procedures are
described- must be consistent with a method, and therefore in harmony with an approach as well.


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Many researchers have set their own view for evaluating and conducting communicative
approach. To Richards & Kodgers (1986), the origins of Communicative Language Teaching
(CLT) are to be found in the changes in the British language teaching tradition dating from the
late 1960s. Then, so many changes have been occurred during the years. Finally, the work of the
Council of Europe; the writings of Wilkins, Widdowson, Candlin, Christopher Brumfit, Keith
Johnson, and other British applied linguistics on the theoretical basic for a communicative or
functional approach to language teaching; the rapid application of these ideas by textbooks
writers; and the equally rapid acceptance of these new principles by British language teaching
specialists, curriculum development centers, and even governments gave prominence nationally
and internationally to what came to be referred to as the communicative Approach, or simply
Communicative Language Teaching. Both American and British proponents now see it as an
approach (not a method) "that aims to (a) make communicative competence the goal of language

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teaching and (b) develop procedures for the teaching of the four language skills that
acknowledge the interdependence of language and communication." Stated Richards & Kodgers
(1986). Richards and Kodgers (1986) reveal that there is no single text in it, nor any single model
that is universally accepted. Similarly to American and British proponents, Morrow and Johnson

(1981)(as cited in The communicative approach, n.d.) present the aim of communicative
language teaching mainly focuses on “communicative competence ”. To Brumfit and Johnson
(1979), communicative competence is the knowledge which contributes to using a language and
abilities to communicate effectively. Moreover, Canale and Swain (1980) (as cited in Richards &
Kodgers, 1986:71) say that communicative competence comprises of four dimensions such as
grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic
competence. Luckily, those four dimensions are the same with what Canh (1999) has said in the


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introduction above. Grammatical competence refers to what Chomsky calls linguistic
competence and what Hymes intends by what is "formally possible". It is the domain of
grammatical and lexical capacity. Richards & Kodgers (1986) state that sociolinguistic
competence refers to understanding of the social context where communication takes place,
including role relationships, the shared information of the participants, and the communicative
purpose. Discourse competence refers to ability to inteprete individual message elements in
terms of their interconnectedness and how to represent meaning in the relationship to the entire
discourse or text. Strategic competence refers to the coping strategies that communicators
employ to initiate, maintain, repair, and redirect communication.
For some, Communicative Language Teaching means little more than an integration of
grammatical and functional teaching. "One of the most characteristic features of communicative
language teaching is that it pays systematic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of

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language."(Littlewood (1981: 1), as cited in Richards & Kodgers (1986:66)). For others, it means
using procedures where learners work in pairs and groups employing available language
recourses in problem-solving tasks. To support this view, a national primary English syllabus

(Syllabuses for Primary Schools 1981) defines the focus of the syllabus as the "communicative
functions, which the forms of the language serve". Joining to this forum, Yalden (1983)- as cited
in Richards & Kodgers (1986: 66), offers her discussion of communicative syllabus design, she
gives six Communicative Language Teaching design alternatives, ranging from a model in which
communicative exercises are grafted onto an existing structural syllabus, to a leaner-generated
view of syllabus design.


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At the level of theory, Communicative Language Teaching has a rich theoretical base. To
Richards & Kodgers (1986: 71), some characteristics of the communicative view of language are
following:
1) Language is a system for the expression of meaning.
2) The primary function of language is for interaction and communication.
3) The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses.
4) The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features,
but categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse.
(Richards & Kodgers, 1986:71)
Moreover, Howatt (1984) (as cited in Richards & Kodgers, 1986:66) distinguishes
between a "strong" and a "weak" version of Communicative Language Teaching. The weak
version, which has become “more or less standard practice in the last ten years, stresses the

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importance of providing learners with opportunities to use their English for communicative
purposes and, characteristically, attempts to integrate such activities into a wider program of
language teaching”. The "strong" version of communicative teaching, on the other hand,
advances the claim that language is acquired through communication, so that it is not merely a

question of activating an existing but inert knowledge of the language, but of stimulating the
development of the language system itself. "If the former could be described as "learning to use"
English, the latter entails "using English to learn it" " (Howatt, 1984: 279, as cited in Richards &
Kodgers, 1986:66).
Morrow (1981) (as cited in Principles of Communicative Language Teaching, n.d.)
considers 5 principles of communicative methodology, which is briefly cited as following:
1. Know what you are doing.


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2. The whole is more than the sum of the parts.
3. The processes are as important as the forms (including information gap, choice
and feedback).
4. To learn it, do it.
5. Mistakes are not always a mistake.
All those principles stress the difference between the Communicative Approach and other
methods such as audio-lingual, grammar translation method and direct method.
As previously mentioned, each method has their own characteristics, settings and purposes
that fit various requirements of learning and teaching for periods. Here discussion concentrates
on overviews on three considerable methods, Grammar Translation, Audio-lingual and
Communicative Approach. Grammar Translation is a way of studying a language that
approaches the language first through detailed analysis of its grammar rules, followed by

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application of this knowledge to the task of translating sentences and texts into and out of the

target language. Audio-lingual, in some ways, has many definitions, which primarily focus on

drills and pattern practice designed in dialogues, providing demonstrations on sentence
structures, pronunciation, stress, rhythm, and intonation. According to Brooks (1964, cited
Richards and Rodgers, 1986:54), various kinds of drills are used, including the followings:
“repetition, inflection, replacement, restatement, completion, transposition, expansion,
contraction, transformation, integration, rejoinder and restoration”. All of these are put into
dialogues as drill and pattern- practice exercises.
According to Finochiaro and Brumfit (1983, as cited in Richards and Rodgers, 1986:67),
between Audio-lingual and Communicative Approach , there are many different features;
however, we just need to include some features as listed.


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Audio- lingual

Communicative Language Teaching

1. Structure and form are focused on

Meaning is considered the most important.

more than meaning.
2.Memorization

of

structure-based

dialogues is demanded.

Dialogues, if used, center on communicative
functions and are not normally memorized.

3. Language items are not necessarily

Conceptualization is a basic premise.

contextualized.
4.

Language

learning

is

learning

structures, sounds, or words.
5. Mastery, or “over-learning” is sought.

Language

learning

is

learning

to

communicate.
Effective communication is sought.

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6. Drilling is a central technique.

Drilling may occur, but limited.

7. Native-speaker-like pronunciation is

Comprehensive pronunciation is sought.

sought.
8. Communicative activities only come
after a long process of rigid drills and

Attempts to communicate may be encouraged
from the very beginning.

exercises.
9. The use of student’s native language is
forbidden.
10. Translation is forbidden at early
levels.
11. Reading and writing are deferred till

Judicious use of native language is accepted

where feasible.
Translation may be used where students need
or benefit from it.
Reading and writing can start from the first


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speech is mastered.

18

day, if desired.

12. The target linguistic system will be

The target linguistic system will be learned

learned through the overt teaching of the

best through the process of struggling to

patters of the system.

communicate.

13. Linguistic competence is the desired
goal.

Communicative competence is the desired

goal

14. The sequence of units is determined
only by principles of linguistic complexity.

Sequence is determined by any consideration
of content, function, or meaning which maintains
interest.

15. The teachers control the learners and
prevent them from doing anything that

Teachers help learners in any way that
motivates them to work with the language.

conflict with the theory.

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16. “Language is habit” so errors must be

prevented at all costs.
17. Accuracy, in terms of formal
correctness, is a primary goal.

Language is created by the individual often

through trial and error.
Fluency and acceptable language is the
primary goal: accuracy is judged not in the abstract
but in context.

18. Students are expected to interact with

Students are expected to interact with other

the language system, embodied in machines

people, either in the flesh, through pair and group

or controlled materials.

work, or in their writings.

Both are commonly used in foreign language teaching; however, to adjust changes in
teaching and learning, Communicative Approach is preferable to Audio- lingual.


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Totally different from Communicative approach, Grammar Translation has its own
techniques. According to Rivers (1968), in this approach the teacher gives long and elaborate
explanation and demonstration of grammatical rules in the native language. Usually, students
practices by translating prose passages from the native language to the foreign language. He also
says that, texts in the foreign language are translated into the native language orally and in
writing. Learning vocabulary depends on the texts provided with lists of words that must be
memorized by the students. To Rivers (1968), pronunciation is not always taught or somehow is
limited to a few introductory notes. Especially, the foreign language is not used in class in any
extent. This is quite contrast to the communicative approach that communicative competence

must be a desired goal. More over, in this approach, the communication skills are neglected.
There is little training in using the language actively to express one’s idea even writing.
Therefore, Grammar Translation up to now can not meet learners’ communicative needs. As a

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
result, Vietnamese educational system has changed towards communicative approach to fit these
urgent requirements for developing teaching and learning programs.

Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary
As Wilkins (2004) emphasizes, nothing can be conveyed if learners do not know vocabulary;
however, with a little grammar knowledge, something can be communicated. This view is
supported by the agreement on the great value of words in speaking of Della and Hocking (2000,
cited Thornbury, 2002). This means that vocabulary acquisition has played an important role in
learning foreign language. These are not all for vocabulary consideration. Carthy (1990)
confirms his opinion about vocabulary store from short- term to long- term that without words to
express, communication cannot happen in any meaningful way. Four above points of view prove
a certain truth and give a deep and clear look at vocabulary acquisition in foreign language


Communicative Approach- Teaching Vocabulary Communicatively

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learning. Vocabulary, therefore, is quite indispensable for language learners to communicate,
which is the desired purpose of most learners and teachers in generally. Thus, an essential part of
teaching a foreign language, of course, is teaching vocabulary effectively.
As presented by Doff (1988), showing meanings visually and giving examples are two
techniques of presenting the meaning of vocabulary. To show the meaning visually means that
teachers use real objects, pictures and miming to elicit new words. Real objects are anything that
is available in the classroom and also are objects that can be brought into the classroom. Pictures

can be created by either drawing on the blackboard or showing a drawing or a photograph.
Miming relates to the use of actions and facial expressions which are most effective in presenting
action verbs like whirl, hurl or hold and some adjective of feeling like happy, sad, angry, etc.
Giving examples is another way in which a new word is put in the context. For example, to teach
lazy, the teacher creates a contextualized sentence like this: “He gets up late, and then he does

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
nothing all day. How is he?” Doff states that examples are especially useful for showing the
meaning of abstract words.
Thornbury (2002), Hill (1990) and Allen (1983) show two categories of visual techniques: 1)
visual (flashcards, photographs, blackboard drawings, wall charts and realia) and 2) mime and
gestures. With the helps of visual aids, students convey meanings of nouns, verbs, adjectives,
and adverbs in a meaningful way. Many nouns such us tables, chairs, chalks, blackboards… for
instance, can be presented directly in the classroom without much verbal explanation, or teachers
use their gestures to describe meanings of verbs: talk, stand up, cry, smile…
According to Hill (1990), visual aids give the images of reality to the classroom setting and
can be used in most stages of a lesson, from the presentation to the production. Moreover,


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Zebrowska (1975, as cited in Uberman, 1998) presents that through visual aids vocabulary can
be stored longer in the learner’s mind.
Similarly, Gain and Redman (1986) state a more specific study on the techniques of teaching
vocabulary. They also classify presentation techniques into two groups: visual (flashcards,
photographs, blackboard drawings, wall charts and realia, mime and gestures) and verbal
(illustrative situations, synonym and definition, contrast / opposites, scales, examples of the type
and translation). Specially, illustrative situation is an extremely useful technique for introducing

abstract vocabulary. It is believed that more than one situation or context should be introduced to
learners to be sure of their deep understanding of a new item. For the use of synonym and
definition, Gain and Redman (1986) explain that synonym is applied for both levels (low and
high) to restrict the long and complex explanation. Definition, to them, must be directed by
contextualized examples to clarify the meaning of new items. Contrast/ opposite is the technique

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
in which a new item is illustrated by contrasting it with the opposite word that has already been
known by students. Scale is used only when teachers are undoubted that students have known
two contrasting or related gradable items. Examples of the time are the most successful in
illustrating the meaning of super ordinates. By listing out things like tables, chairs, beds, sofa,
etc… teachers can introduce the term furniture without many explanations. Unlike many
researchers such as Doff (1988), Hill (1990), Thornbury (2002) and Allen (1983), Gain and
Redman (1986) accept that translation can be a very effective way of conveying meaning. It can
save valuable time that might otherwise be spent on a torturous and largely unsuccessful
explanation in English. The word “ transitive” is an example, because it is an adjective we cannot
explain or use any techniques to elicit its meaning, however, to save time, we should use
translation to make it clear.


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In addition, Harmer (1991) defines a further technique in presenting vocabulary, which is
explanation. Intermediate students can use explanation, and the explanation of word meanings
must include introducing any facts of word use. For example, if we are giving an explanation to
the meaning of mate (friend), we have to show that it is a colloquial word used in informal
contexts, and that it is more often used for males than females.
According to Lado, besides some techniques that have just been introduced so far,

presentation technique also consists of parts of words. He holds the view that the parts of
complex and compound words may be more common than the words themselves. Separating
such words into their component parts helps to clarify new words’ meaning. From this technique,
students are able to use their previous knowledge to speculate the meaning of new words.
Two other ways to introduce new words’ meaning are in context and outside the classroom
(Haycraft, 1986). If the word occurs in the text or passage, the meaning can be often deduced

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
when the other words in the sentence are already known. For instance, ‘I need the frying pan so
that I can make the omelet’. It is obvious that frying pan is a new word which its meaning can be
referred to a flat- shape cooker. Haycraft (1986) declares vocabulary is taught in a living context
if the teacher takes his class outside to introduce words for things that can be seen in a shop or in
the street. According to Ying (2001), guessing vocabulary from context is the most frequent way
to discover the meaning of new words. In addition to these views, researchers (Kruse 1979,
Nation 1980, Oxford and Grookall 1988) agree that learning words in context and not in isolation
is an effective vocabulary learning strategy (as cited in Ying, 2001, 19). This means that a
combination of giving words’ meanings together with real contexts will promote the results for
introducing vocabulary.


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Last but not least, Lewis (1992) states the view that teachers can vary the ways to explain the
new words’ meaning by demonstration, realia, drawing or sketching, synonym / antonym,
explanation or translation. The final technique, which helps to add to the variety of presentation
techniques, is the dictionary. By requesting students to use dictionaries for looking up the
meaning of a certain word, teachers show them a very important skill- dictionary using.
Moreover, students will benefit from examples with new words used in the context, its

pronunciation or part of speech, etc.
In short, with an effort to make students’ vocabulary learning effective and interesting, some
representative researchers have suggested many different methods of presenting new words.
To sum up, Haycraft synthesizes all of these above techniques that include twelve techniques
for presenting vocabulary in class, and then he gives specific guidelines for each technique as
their names listed following.

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
1. In context

2. Create a context
3. Descriptions or definition
4. Outside the classroom
5. Objects
6. Drawing
7. Mime
8. Opposites
9. Synonyms
10. Translation
11. Pictures / flashcards


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12. Wall charts
13. Word games
Not very different from Haycraft, professors in Cantho university such as Bang Nguyen et al
(2003) also give their techniques of teaching vocabulary including 8 techniques: Visuals, Mime,

Realia, Situation/ Explanation, Example, Synonym/ Antonym, Translation and Word formation.
These techniques are quite different in their names; however, they are similar in terms of
methodology. To me, all of them are positive teaching ways in which students can learn new
words in a lively and active way.
The communicative approach emphasizes using vocabulary meaningfully in contexts. That
learners are expected to be able to use their target language to communicate with others. Also,
the importance of fluency and pronunciation in communication are considered. That means, to
obtain these goals, the teachers have to know how to teach vocabulary or use appropriate

Trung tâm Học liệu ĐH Cần Thơ@Tài liệu học tập và nghiên cứu
techniques to teach vocabulary communicatively. That students can or cannot acquire vocabulary
depends upon teachers’ ways and techniques of teaching vocabulary. Obviously, within pictures,
flashcards, realia,…or examples, situations,… teachers can successfully call their students’
attention and effectively convey new items to them. Thus, I would like to conduct my research
on the two potential techniques: visual technique and verbal technique. An analysis on how high
school teachers’ teaching methods are being applied in eliciting the meaning of new words to
their students will be raised through data collection from English teachers in Cantho high
schools. The results will help to find the specific answers for the following research questions:
1. Is communicative approach applied in teaching vocabulary for students at grade 10 in
Cantho city?
2. If yes, to what extent?