skkn tiếng anh thpt MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

PART A: INTRODUCTION
I. Why was the research paper written?
Nowadays English has become an international language, so learning
English becomes more and more important. English helps us not to be out of
date and erase the big hole of being far from many countries all over the
world. If we have English, we have a key to open the door of the world and go
ahead without hesitation. Like any other languages, vocabulary is the basic
core for learners to master. It is the most important factor for all people to
speak and write. It is the basic element for people to communicate. Without
using words we can not understand what opposite people want to deliver and
of course do not know how to send messages to them. In teaching any
languages, vocabulary becomes a very necessary part that all teachers should
pay attention to. In this seminar on methodology, I specially and straightly
focus on motivational ways of teaching vocabulary in teaching English.
Wilkin ( 1972) wrote that: “ …while without grammar, very little can be
conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed…” (p. 111- 112). This
means even we do not master grammar, or just hold a poor grammatical point,
we can communicate; but if we do not have vocabulary, we cannot express
anything in many situations. Thus, we all agree that vocabulary is very
necessary in the process of learning and teaching English.

1


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

However, most of students do not like to learn English. One of their
reasons is that they can not remember the words. Of course there are some
lazy students who never review their lessons or learn the words after classes

so they can not hold them or even there are some do not want to learn English
because they think it is too hard for them. We, English teachers, also have to
ask ourselves the questions why they are lazy or why they do not want to
learn. All students admit that if they like the subject they will try their best to
achieve good results. In contrast, they will ignore it or even hate it if they feel
it is a boring and odd thing to pay the attention.
As an English teacher in a remote and mountainous area, I really hope
that the result of this subject will be higher and higher. I have tried to apply
many ways to help my students love English by showing them how important
English is and learning English is very interesting. The first thing of all is
helping them learn vocabulary with motivational ways in order that they can
master the most important factor of English and also the base to approach
skills like reading, speaking, listening and writing.
II. What is the actual situation of teaching and learning English?, and who is
the study for?
Most students know that English plays an important role in life and also
in their study because they have to take the tests which all school do to
estimate their quantification to let them move higher or not. Of course there
are many students want to achieve English but that is not very easy for them
because they do not realize the interest in learning. They think English is a
huge pile and complex chain of knowledge and sometimes, a boring subject.

2


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

Besides, many teachers do not access the new ways of teaching. They
follow the traditional teaching methods and hold students in a hole which is
called “ passive”. They just take all from the text books and have no ideas to

make their lessons more interesting and help students understand the lessons
easily. What students should do is that just sitting, listening, doing some
exercises in the textbook and may be having a valuable chance to be invited to
stand up and say some comments. That is one of the reasons why students
consider English so boring, complex and too difficult to learn. Therefore, they
fail from the first step: learning vocabulary.
So, in my opinion, this research will help me as well as other teachers
have some new interesting ways of teaching which motivate the students to
learn vocabulary.
III.

How is the research paper organized?
This research paper has four parts:
Part A: Introduction
Part B: Development of motivating students to learn vocabulary by using
songs and writing journals.
Part C: Demonstration of some typical examples teaching vocabulary by
using songs and writing journals.
Part D: The results and the effect of the study application
Part E: Conclusion

3


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

Although I gave a lot of effort as well as much time to write this research
paper, I really know that there are something wrong and I can hardly find
them myself. I will frankly appreciate criticisms and suggestions from the
respectable professors, the fellow-teachers, the readers to whom I will be

much grateful if they take the troubles to correct me constructively and help
me have a better research paper for the next time.

4


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

PART B: DEVELOPMENT OF MOTIVATIONAL WAYS TO
TEACH VOCABULARY
I.

Theoretical background motivational ways of teaching vocabulary.
1.
Definition of vocabulary

5


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

In this research, I am going to focus on motivational ways of teaching
vocabulary, so first of all, I want to define what vocabulary is.
You may think that vocabulary is the words of a language, which is how
most people define vocabulary, and that is correct because vocabulary does
deal with words. Yet vocabulary is much more than just a single words.
Recent vocabulary studies draw on an understanding of lexis, which in
English, refer to all the words in language, the entire vocabulary of a language
“ (Barcroft, Sunderman, & Schmitt, 2001, p. 571). So it will probably not
surprise to say that vocabulary also includes lexical chunks, phrases of two or

more words, such as Good morning and Nice to meet you, which research
suggests children and adults learn as single lexical units. Phrases like these
involve more than one word but have clear, formulaic usage and make up a
significant portion of spoken or written English language usage. Also called
formulaic sequences ( Alali & Schimitt, 2012), they are central to English
vocabulary learning and therefore worth teachers’ attention as we teach
vocabulary.
So vocabulary can be defined as the words of a language, including
single items and phrases or chunks of several words which convey a particular
meaning, the way individual words do. Vocabulary addresses single lexical
items- words with special meanings- but it also includes lexical phrases or
chunks.
2.

The importance of vocabulary

6


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

In order to progress in a foreign language, students need to be able to
understand what they are hearing and reading. That is, the input must be
comprehensible in order for it to be useful and meaningful to the students and
help with acquisition (Krashen, 1982), but if students do not understand a
sizable portion of the vocabulary in the language that they are reading or
hearing, then this language is not comprehensible and therefore cannot be
useful for acquisition. Many argue that vocabulary is one of the most
important-if not the most important components in learning a foreign
language, and foreign language curricula must reflect this. In general, without

vocabulary, people can hardly communicate with each other. Much more than
grammar, vocabulary is the key for students to receive and send messages in
communication. And , it is also the best friend for students to get high marks
in their tests and examinations.
So we can see clearly that vocabulary is very important in the process of
teaching and learning English. What we should do is to help students have
best ways which are suitable to them to learn vocabulary and besides, teach
them vocabulary in interesting methods.
3.

Definition of motivation

7


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

Motivation has been defined in various ways and by different authors.
Gareth Jones, Jennifer George and Charles Hill (2000: 427) define motivation
as “psychological forces that determine the direction of a person’s behaviour
[...], a person’s level of effort, and a person’s level of persistence in the face of
obstacles”. David Myers (1996: 297) defines motivation as “a need or desire
that serves to energize behaviour and to direct it towards a goal.”
Frank Hawkins (1993: 132-133) defines it as “what drives or induces a
person to behave in a particular fashion [...] the internal force which initiates,
directs, sustains and terminates all important activities. It influences the level
of performance, the efficiency achieved and the time spent on an activity.” All
of the definitions refer to stimuli that trigger the motivational process.
Hawkins identifies also the properties of motivation such as it being an
internal process with different roles in influencing behaviours (such as

directing, initiating, sustaining or terminating it), and with different degrees of
expression at the level of intensity, quality and speed in which the behaviour is
carried out.
All of the above definitions are true, one could even summarize and
create a general definition saying that motivation is what drives us to perform
an action.

8


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

However, in this thesis one should also distinguish one more definition,
concerning the foreign language learning process. Kyösti Julkunen (in 2001:
29) claims that “in the classroom context, motivation can be seen as a
continuous interaction process between the learner and the environment. [...]
Its main role is in controlling and directing an activity [...], coordinating
various operations towards an object or goal, motivation transforms a number
of separate reactions into significant action. Learners build object-directed
means-end structures [...].”
Motivation is vital in language learning process because it determines
whether the action of foreign language acquisition is undertaken by the learner
and to what extent he is ready to continue this intelectual effort. This is the
reason why so many scientists and researchers have devoted such a great deal
of attention to motivation.
Moreover, there are many ways that we can use to motivate the students
to learn vocabulary but here, I just mention to the most effective ones: using
songs and writing journals.
II. Using songs and writing journal in teaching vocabulary
1.

Using songs to motivate the students to learn vocabulary
1.1 Why songs are used as a motivational way of teaching
vocabulary?

9


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

Jeremy Harmer (2001: 242-45) names music “a powerful stimulus” for
language learning. He classifies the song as one of the tools for teaching
vocabulary. It is a versatile technique, as it enables the teacher to present the
words graphically (printed song lyrics), verbally (listening to the song) and
contextually (song lyrics) at the same time. The song can change the students’
mood and it can positively influence their motivation for vocabulary learning.
As Harmer (2001:242) states, “it can make a satisfactory connection between
the world of leisure and the world of learning.”
Students memorize vocabulary more willingly that is linked to real life
situations, their own experience and interests, so they remember it for a longer
period of time if not for a lifetime. Of course, the song can also be used for
practicing correct pronunciation, accent and intonation, as well as the
grammar structures. Some scientists, like Dee Dickinson (1993) or Robert
Zatorre (in Jensen 1998: 35-36), support the thesis that the influence of music
on both hemispheres of the brain is undeniable, thus the text combined with
music has probably better effect on the students’ minds and their language
acquisition process than the text alone.
Some experiments have been taken in the field of vocabulary acquisition
through the song. Suzanne Medina (1993: 1-8) conducted an experiment on
elementary school. There were four experimental groups. The first one
listened to the spoken version of the story with the pictures used to illustrate

the main ideas of the story, the second group also listened to the spoken
version of the story but without illustrations. The third group listened to the
sung version of the story with the illustrations shown and the fourth group
listened to the sung version of the story without pictures.

10


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

There were some pre-tests and two posttests to measure the amount of
vocabulary acquired by the students. The results of the experiment showed
that the combination of the sung version and the pictures was the most
effective one. This experiment supports the idea that songs can be beneficial
in terms of vocabulary acquisition and retrieval. Don Campbell (1997: 21-24)
states that music enhances memory, reasoning, spatial imagination and logical
thinking. This is partly because under the influence of music, which increases
the level of catecholamine and serotonin, neurotransmitters are involved in the
learning processes.
Music enhances and strengthens the process of remembering because it
stimulates the limbic system, which is the emotional centre in the brain closely
linked with learning. Music helps to integrate internal rhythm and external
cognitive activity and balances the emotional processes.
The song is a very specific kind of expression because it is an inseparable
combination of music and language. The song plays a major role in teaching
foreign languages. It allows students to develop all language skills and
understand the purpose of learning. It has a great potential as a teaching
resource in the process of learning and teaching foreign languages.
The song has the greatest value when it becomes an integral part of the
learning processes, when it is used regularly and frequently, not only for fun

but also to facilitate learning the language. By the effective use of the song
one should understand using it on many different levels, including the song as
a whole (music and lyrics), only the content of the song (only lyrics) or a part
of the story selected for the purpose of the lesson, or even just the theme
music.

11


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

According to Komorowska (1978: 46) songs, when used regularly, can
help to reduce or even completely eliminate some of the negative factors
hindering mastering of the language. Songs to a greater extent than other
traditional teaching techniques, arouse the students’ interest because of their
difference from traditional teaching techniques. Komorowska (2001: 98)
states that songs influence the students’ motivation. She also notices that the
students’ activity is no longer so highly dependent on external motivation
(marks) when the songs are used. Songs motivate students and create a feeling
of success in a different way than marks.
Jan Wierszyłowski (1970: 37) believes that nothing is as motivating as
success. This is one of the factors that develops, maintains and promotes
motivation in the best way. Students learn willingly when they see the
fulfillment of their hopes and their self-esteem is strengthened. Songs allow
students to experience a sense of success. When singing with understanding
the lyrics, even the weaker students can experience the feeling of success.
From this follows a conclusion that the song has a great potential as a
teaching resource in the process of learning and teaching a foreign language,
especially vocabulary. Another thing worth mentioning is the influence of
songs on the students’ memory. Some research on human memory, described

by Jan Wierszyłowski (1970: 19), shows that students remember best what
truly interests them.
1.2 What kind of songs should be chosen to teach vocabulary?
There is also another thing to consider, it is the song selection. Teachers
should choose songs carefully to have a desirable effect. When choosing an
appropriate song, one should remember to especially consider the level of

12


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

language proficiency of the students and their age. Teachers should decide
whether it should be a rock song, a pop song or something else.
Besides, the content of the songs must be clear and easy to understand.
That is terrible if students listen to the songs but they do not understand what
it is. And, teachers also should remember to choose the songs suitable to the
students. For example, the songs about the friendship, family or love can be
acceptable, but teachers can not let students listen to the songs which can lead
students to do something wrong like fighting or affect students’ spirit
negatively. Teachers should use the songs which are interesting and humorous
and sometimes meaningful to life or especially should choose ones have good
contents to help students try their best to learn or to become good people.
One more thing teachers should pay attention to when choosing songs to
teach vocabulary is that those songs must not be very hard for students. If they
listen to the song which has many difficult words or unfamiliar to them, they
will feed up with the song immediately. As the result, the activity is odd and
meaningless.
1.3 Some activities using songs to motivate students to learn
vocabulary:

1.3.1

Gap- filling:

13


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

Students will be given hand- outs prepared by the teachers in advance.
The hand- outs contain some blanks that students will listen to the song and
write down the missing words.
In this kind of activity, first of all, I usually ask students to tell me which
part of speech are needed in the blanks. This helps students to know the place
of words in the context and master more about the words they are learning, if
it is a noun, a verb, an adjective or an adverb…
Teachers should let students listen to the first time, just to listen to get the
content of the song. With the second time, students will fill in the blanks. And
for the third time, students and teachers will check if they have got the right
words.
1.3.2

Getting the words from the songs:

Teachers write down some words related to the lessons from the songs.
They are the new words that teachers need to teach. Then teachers play the
songs. Students listen and stay stop if they hear the words.
1.3.3 Choosing the words that have the same meaning or opposite
meaning with the given ones:
After students listen to the song and get some words, they need to do

more exercises related to those words. This will help students remember the
words for a long time and know what are their synonyms and what are their
antonyms.
1.3.4

Checking the spelling:

14


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

One more exercise that teachers can use to teach vocabulary to students
is correcting the spelling of the words. For example, teachers write down some
words containing both the correct and the wrong spelling ones and students’
task is to find out the incorrect ones and give their right words.
1.4 The sources to find out the songs:
Teachers can find the songs to teach students from many sources as
books, newspapers, magazines, disks, radio and especially, internet. The
internet is considered the best source because teachers can save a lot of time
and money.
2.

Developing students’ vocabulary by writing journal.
2.1 What is journal writing?

Journal writing is a learning tool based on the ideas that students write to
learn. Students use the journals to write about topics of personal interest, to
note their observations, to imagine, to wonder and to connect new information
with things they already know.

2.2 What is its purpose?

15


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

Using journals fosters learning in many ways. Students who use journals
are actively engaged in their own learning and have the opportunity to clarify
and reflect upon their thinking. When students write in journals, they can
record such things as ideas and feelings, special words and expressions they
have heard, interesting things that have happened to them or information about
interesting people. Journal writing offers students opportunities to write
without fear often associated with marking.
So, writing journals is very helpful in process of teaching and learning
vocabulary. I usually ask my students to write journals everyday to have a
deep understanding about the words they have learnt. They can use the words
to express their feelings, like, love or hate. Or just very simple, they can write
about what happened to them in a day, what they want to eat, what their
favourite colour is… Sometimes, my students also gave me some ideas about
the way I taught in the lass. They gave me advice or their secret. They share
with me their habits, their hobbies. Those things are very valuable in a
teacher’s career. Based on them, teachers can have many information about
their students, know that what they expect from the teacher, what their strong
or weak points are to help them develop their English and maybe help them in
other parts of life. Therefore, teachers will consider if they need to change
their methods of teaching to suit to their students.
2.3 When should students write their journals?

16

MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

Some teachers want their students write their journals for five minutes
at the end of the class but I totally disagree with this. I think that it is not a
suitable time for students and they do not want to be forced to do this.
Everybody does the work more effectively if they feel they like it and they are
pleased to do. So do the students in this case. The suitable place for them to do
this is at home and the time is in their free time. They see writing journals
their favourite homework.
2.4 Language students use when writing their journals?

17


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

When students write journals, I usually ask them not to use Vietnamese
because I want them to practice thinking in English. We all know that
translating is not good in learning language because they can be stuck between
the mother language and the target one. Gradually, they have to spend much
time thinking in their mother language and then again much time will be
wasted on how to translate it into the target one. So, my students just write
what they think and if they do not know how to express in English, they can
draw pictures to illustrate their ideas. It is an acceptable way in teaching and
learning English.
2.5 How to give feedback to students’ journal writing?
One more thing to remember when teachers ask students to write journals
is that teachers should collect the journals every week and read them. Students

will think that they have a person to confined and what more is they write
them responsibly. Feedback is considered very important because it is also an
element to cheer students up.

18


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

Moreover, journal writing is a completely non- threatening place for
students to practice their English, especially their vocabulary. Because of this
point, teachers should not pay much attention to their mistakes. Do not correct
what they are not right. But teacher can do this with the students who are
willing and pleased to receive the correction from teachers. In the first days of
writing, there are a lot of mistakes but later, they will develop their vocabulary
so much. Some students told me they then had many words because they
usually wrote journals. They had not care much about the objects in the house
or some names of foods or vegetable… before they wrote journals. When
writing journals, they needed to know them to tell teachers what they had
eaten or bought or helped their mothers…
Those things help me have the motivation to try my best to teach English
despite spending much time to read and reply all the journals and keep
students writing journals year after year.

19


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

PART C: DEMONSTRATION

SOME TYPICAL EXAMPLES USING SONGS AND WRITING JOURNALS IN
TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY

20


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

I. EXAMPLES OF USING SONGS TO TEACH VOCABULARY:
Teachers can use songs to teach vocabulary at the beginning of the
lessons as warm- up activities or after the lessons like post parts to revise the
vocabulary.
Both the two ways are very good because they have their own benefits. If
teachers use the songs as warm- up part to lead into the new lessons, students
will have the time to relax with music, and they have some words prepared for
their new reading parts. And, if teachers use it as the free practice, students
can check again their vocabulary.
There are some examples that I have used to teach vocabulary by songs:
Grade 10:
Unit 12: Music
Lesson 1: Reading
Warm- up:
-First of all teacher ask students to list the kinds of music that they know.
- Then teacher collects students’ answers: pop music, folk music, rock ’n’
roll, classical music, jazz…
-

Teacher lets students listen to five different pieces of songs and asks

students to tell her what kinds of music they are.

- The teacher can download the songs thought the internet and use cassette
player or computer to play them. The teacher stops when students give the
correct answer:

21


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

1. The song: Moi Trau- > Folk music.
2. We will rock you-> Rock’n’ roll
3. Until you-> Pop music
4. Don’t know why-> Jazz
5. Moon sonata -> Classical music
Here, students just need to listen to music, they even do not need to know
the words of the songs but they can give the words that related to the topic and
the unit about kinds of music.
Grade 10:
Unit 12: Music
Lesson 3: Listening
Warm- up:
- Teacher asks students to sing the song “ Tien Quan Ca”.

22


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

-

Then teacher asks students what it is; students may know the

answer in English, that is good. But if they even do not know, they can answer
in Vietnamese.
- Teacher gets the word: Vietnam National Anthem to teach students.
- Besides, teacher can ask them more about the person who wrote this
song- Van Cao to get the word: musician.
- Then teacher leads into the new lesson.
Grade 10:
Unit 13: Films and Cinema
Lesson 4: Writing
Warm- up:
- Teacher lets students listen to the song: My heart will go on.
- Teacher asks them if they know the name of the song , then gets its
name and asks them more about the content of the film Titanic.
For example:
Is Titanic a happy or a tragic love story film?
Maybe before the teacher asks them question, they do not know what the
word “tragic” means but here they can understand that it is opposite to the
word happy and immediately choose it as their answer.
Grade 10:
Unit 14: the world cup
Lesson 1: reading
Warm- up:
- Teacher lets students listen to 4 pieces of songs :
1. World Cup Willy - Lonnie Donegan
2. Gloryland - Daryl Hall, Sounds of Blackness
3. The Cup of Life - Ricky Martin
23

MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

4. Waka Waka (This time for Africa) – Shakira
Teacher asks the students the event related to those songs and gets the
word: World Cup to teach students.

Grade 11:
Unit 1: Friendship
Lesson 1: Reading
Post- reading:
Because through the reading lesson, the students learnt some words
related to friendship, this is the time that teacher can check and consolidate
their vocabulary.
-

Teacher delivers the hand- out to the students.

-

Teacher asks students to listen and complete the song.

-

First of all, teacher asks students to tell him/ her the part of

speech each blank needs and lets them guess the words.
-

Teacher plays the CD Player and students listen and write

down the information.
-

Teacher calls students to go to the board and write down.

-

Teacher checks the answers with the whole class.

* The content of the song:
A little faith
Brightens a rainy day
Life is difficult you can't go away
Don't hide yourselves in the corner
You have my place to stay
24


MOTIVATIONAL WAYS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY

Sorrow is gonna say goodbye
Opens up
You'll see the happy sunshine
Keep going on with your dream
Chasing tomorrow's sunrise
The spirit can never die
Sun will shine my friend
Won't let you cry my dear
Seeing you shed a tear

Make my world disappear
You'll never be alone in darkness
See my smile my friend
We are with you holding hands
You have got to believe
You are my destiny
We've meant to be your friends
That's what a friend should be
* The content of the hand- out:
A little ……
Brightens a rainy day
Life is ……….. you can't go away
Don't hide yourselves in the ………..
You have my ………… to stay
25