methods of teaching vocabulary for the 10th class students in nhu xuan high school

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HÓA
TRƯỜNG TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG NHƯ XUÂN

SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

“ METHODS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY FOR THE 10th
CLASS STUDENTS IN NHU XUAN HIGH SCHOOL”

Người thực hiện: Nguyễn Văn Chuyên
Chức vụ: Giáo Viên
Đơn vị công tác: Trường THPT Như Xuân
SKKN thuộc lĩnh vực: Tiếng Anh

THANH HÓA NĂM 2016

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CONTENTS
Page

Contents

1

Cover/ bìa

2

Contents

3

Introduction

4

Contents and researching procedure

5

The teachniques for teaching
vocabulary

7

APPLICATION

8

The way to teach vocabulary of some
units in English 10

11

PRACTICAL RESULT

11

Practical result

14

CONCLUSION

15

REFERENCES

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1. Introduction.
+ The reason to choose the topic.
English plays an important role in our life. Nowadays. In the information
technology time and global integration, English is getting more and more
important and is gradually becoming the main of the international
communication. It is used in all the fields such as science, technique, economy,
culture, education ... It estimated that over 3000 people speak English as their
mother-tongue and the same number use English as their second language.
Therefore English is a essential means to everybody with their practical aims.
It is said that “ Teaching is an art and teacher is an artist that creates that art”,
so a teacher can only create that one when he is aware of their roles and the
teaching environment. In the class the teacher is not only an instructor but also
a leader, an enalyst who guides the students the different situations to make the
communicative activities more effective.
+ Purpose to research.
Although learning English is very important, students have not been aware of its
importance. Especially learning English in mountainous and remote areas is
much more difficult. Because English is a compulsory subject, students have to
study for their marks or for the examinations, they don’t study for their job or

their daily communication. Most students find learning English very boring. To
be honest our teaching method is not very good, teaching materials is not
enough.... In English, Vocabulary is a very important problem. How to teach
vocabulary effectively? That requires teachers to find out new methods, choose
appropriate words and teaching materials. For those reasons I carry out the
researching problem: “ METHODS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY FOR
THE 10th CLASS STUDENTS IN NHU XUAN HIGH SCHOOL”
+ The subjects to research: The 10th students in Nhu Xuan high school
+ the researching methods: Study the teaching materials on Internet, textbook,
the demand and likes and mentality of students.

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2. Contents and researching procedure:
* theoretical background
2.1.The principles for teaching vocabulary.
There are many different ways to teach vocabulary, but some ways are more
effective than others. Below are several priciples for teaching words.
a.Provide a context for new words
If we hear a new word in isolation, we are likely to misunderstand its
meaning. There are different kinds of contexts such as grammatical, semantic and
discourse.
b.Don’t present too many word at once
Teach a few words and allow students to practise and use them a lot.
Presentation will help students . Pracitce will help them remember. If the students
forget what has been presented, it will not be useful to them in the future.
c.Practising words in context is more important than memorizing
isolated words.
We can learn many new words without being able to use them in

communication. Students may be required to learn the meaning of words but they
must also be given the opportunity to use them productively in speaking and
writing.
d.Teach your students skills for guessing new words,especially when
reading.
The meaning of words can be inferred from different types of contexts and from
looking at the affixes ( parts) of the word.
e.Avoid translation as much as possible.
If students are always having words translated, they are really only
communicating in their own language. Not in English, also, students don’t ussually
remember vocabulary that has been translated. Only use translation as a last resort
when it would otherwise take too to communicate in English.
f.Avoid using the dictionary as much as possible
When reading or listening, students should first try to guess or ignore new words
so that they can continue without stopping. Also, using a dictionary when speaking
or listening can be more beneficially because it helps students express themselves
more clearly.
g.Remember that not all words are important
In a sentence, some words are important because they are important because
they are subject, verb, object etc…of the sentence wheareas the other are not
important to understand the sentence.
h.If a word is neccesary for understand an activity or passage, teach it to
the students beforehand.

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If it is not so necessary or important, let the students first guess at the
meaning
while they are reading or listening.Teach the meaning later or not at all.

2.2.The teachniques for teaching vocabulary
a. Kinds of vocabulary
Vocabulary are divided into two kinds.Active vocabulary and passive
vocabulary.
-Active vocabulary are words which students can both understand and use in
communition. They are especially useful for the productive skills of speaking and
writing.
-Passive vocabulary are words which students can recognize but not
necessarily use in speaking and writing. If a student see a word in his/her passive
vocabulary, she/he will understand what it means. Passive vocabulary are
especially useful for the receptive skills of reading and listening.
In short, a teacher should express his/her students to understand words in
reading and listening before they can use those some words in speaking and
writing. When teaching, it is best to speaking words first. Later the teacher will find
the students can actively use those same words in comunication. And some words
can be active to some people but passive to others.
b.Teachniques for teaching vocabulary
+ Paraphrase or Define
We can explain a word by using a different word or a definition.
Ex:Dawn is the time of day when light first appears.
A generator is a machine for producing electrical energy.
+ Drawing
On the black board, we can draw a picture of a motorbike, rose, or clock.
Some words that will quickly convey the meaning.

clock
motorbike
rose
+ Realia or Objects

If we are teaching about nouns in semantic fields, we can bring a series of
red objects to class.
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Ex: We can use real tennis ball or hat …..etc….to teach those words.
+ Flash cards or charts
On cards, we can have a picture on one side and the words on the other.
Ex: Cards with kinds of flowers on one side and the name of the flowers on
the other.
Ex: A chart with body parts
+ Mine
Especially for action, we can act out a word to demonstrate it’s meaning.
Ex: The teacher can smile to teach the words smile.
+ Picture
We use photographs, prints, or painting to teach new words.
Ex: If we want to teach the word field, we can use the picture of the field in
Viet Nam to teach.
+ Opposites
If the students don’t know a new word but they know the opposites, we can
give them antonym.
Ex: If we want to teach the word seldom, we can use the antonym often to
teach.
+ Synomyms
We also use the synomyms to teach a new word.
Ex: If we want to teach the word hardly, we can use the synomym “almost
not”to teach.
However, the synomyms must be closed at familiar to the students.
+ Semantic field
The means of many words can be guessed by reading some sentences or

listening to something from the teacher.
Ex: 1.The students can guess the meaning of invent from 3 sentences.
Faraday invented the generator.
James Watt invented the steam engine.
Alexander Graham invented the telephone.
2.The teacher can give a context to teach the word infectious like this:
Suppose that in our class, student A got flu. Some days later, student B who
sits next to student A also had flu. So flu is an inflectious disease.
+ Guessing from stems and affixes
The meaning of some words can be understood through affixes.
Ex:
1.impracticable
im
practice
able
(not)
(practice)
(ability)
2. musician
music
ian
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(music)
(a person)
+ Translation
In this technique, the teacher can translate a new word into the students’ first
language.We can use this technique for this difficult, specified words.
Ex: foreign exchange : ngoại hối

objective criteria: tiêu chuẩn khách quan.
+ Using a dictionary
If we need to save time or communicate about a difficult word, the dictionary
might be the best option.
Ex:Compressor, neurosis….
However , we shouldn’t apply this technique a lot because it is inconvenient
for students to bring dictionaries to class.
c. Some difficulties in teaching vocabulary
+ The selection of vocabulary
There are many new words in a text, and most of them are important and
essential to comprehension. The teachers don’t know what words they should
choose to teach the students.
+ The selection of techniques for teaching vocabulary.
There are also a lot of various techniques for teaching vocabulary.They all
are interesting, multiformed, and complex. They require the teacher’s cleverness,
creativeness, and intelligence to choose appropriately.
+ The use of teaching aids in teaching vocabulary.
Teaching aids play an important role in teaching vacabulary.The way to use
them effectively is a difficult task.
+ The ability to provide a context.
Giving a context which helps the pupils understand clearly and guess the
meaning of new words is difficult.The context must be appropriate and familiar to
the students.
+ The limination of time
Vocabulary must be taught in a limited time (10-15 minutes).The duty of the
teacher is to help the students understand new words clearly in a short time.
* APPLICATION
1. The analysis of teaching vocabulary applied in the 10th form.
From the principles, the techniques and the difficulties in teaching vocabulay,
I decide to design the way to teach vocabulary of some units in English 10, each

from 10 to 15 minutes. Each unit includes two parts: 1.The reasons to choose new
words and 2. The way to teach new words. In the first part, I choose carefully the
number of words to teach, from 5 to 7 words in each unit. Some are active words,
and the others are passive words. These words may be unknown to the level of the
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pupils in the 10th form, related to the topic, essential to comprehension, repeated
alots or can’t be guessed by the pupils.
In the second part, according to active or passive words. I use different
techniques mentioned in chaper II to teach the choosen words.
2.The way to teach vocabulary of some units in English 10.
UNIT 1: A DAY IN THE LIFE OF…………
I-The reason to choose new words
In this unit, I decide to choose the following new words to teach pupils:
1.plough
2.harrow
3.plot of land
4.fellow peasants
5.local tobacco
6.take a short rest
7.transpant
8.crop
First of all, this new words are unknown to the level of students in the 10th
form and related to the topic.
-plough and harrow are essential to teach because it appears in the text.
-plot of land is neceesary to teach because they can’t be guessed by pupils.
-fellow peasants is essential to teach.
-local tobacco is neceesary to teach.
-take a short rest is difficult structure and it appears in the text.

-transpant is essential to teach because it appears in the text.
-crop is neccesary to understand.
I divide the words abvove into two groups:
Active word: plough, harrow, take a short rest, transpant, crop.
Passive word : plot of land, fellow peasants, local tobacco.
II-The ways to teach these words
1.plough: (use a picture)
-Show students a picture about the famer ploughing and ask students:
Teacher: What is he/she doing?
Student: ông ấy đang cày.
2.harrow: (use a picture )
-Show students a picture about the famer harrowing and ask students:
Teacher: What is he/she doing?
Student: ông ấy đang bừa.
He is harrowing
3.take a short rest : (explanation): have a rest for a short time.
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4.transpant : (use a picture)
-Show students a picture about the famer transpanting and ask students:
Teacher: What is she doing?
Student: bà ấy đang cấy.
5.crop : (translation) : vụ mùa
6.plot of land: (translation) : một miếng đất, mảnh ruộng.
7.fellow peasants : (explanation): farmers working in the short time :
Nghỉ giải lao ngắn.
8.local tobacco: (translation) : thuốc lá được sản xuất tại địa phương.
UNIT 2: SCHOOL TALK
I-The reasons to choose new words.

In this unit, I decide to choose the following new words to teach pupils:
1.biography
2.maths
3.physics
4.chemistry
5.history
6.geography
7.literature
Those words are neccesary to teach because they appear in the text and help
students to understand the text.
II-The ways to teach these words
Teacher use a game to teach these words.
Ask students to work in groups and match the subject in A with the
information in B.
A
B
1.Biography
a. Poem, novel, Nguyen Du
2.Maths
b.Newton, Olm
3.Physics
c.Chemicals, HCl
4.Chemistry
d.Number, minus, pascal
5.History
e.Climate, geology
6.Geography
f.Animal, plants, DNA…
7.Literature
g. Revolution, The first World War….

-Give the correct answer: 1.f 2.d
3.b 4.c
5.g
6.e
-Give students the meaning

7.a

UNIT 9: UNDERSEA WORLD
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I- The reasons to choose new words
In this unit, I decide to choose the following new words to teach pupils.
1.bay
2.mystery
3.beneath
4.submarine
5.marine life
6.fall into
7.water current
8.organism
9.at stake
First of all, the new words are unknown to the level of the pupils in the 10th
form and related to the topic.
Bay is essential to comprehension. It appears in the text.
Mystery is neceesary to teach because they can’t be guessed by pupils.
Beneath is a strong word to students.
Submarine is essential to comprehension and can’t be guessed by pupils.
Marine life is essential to understand. It also contribute to understand the

text and related to the title “undersea world”
Fall into is a difficult word
Water current is also necessary to understand.
Organism appears in the text and is related to the content of the text.
At stake is necessary to understand.
I divide the words abvove into two groups:
Active words: bay, beneath, fall into, organism, at stake
Passive words: mystery, submarine, marine life, water current.
II-The way to teach these words
1.Bay: (example) : Ha Long bay. Thai lan bay
2.Beneath : (explanation) : under sb/st
3.Fall into : (explanation): to be able to divided into sth : được chia thành
4.Organism : (explanation) : a living being : sinh vật
5.At stake : (explanation) : at risk, to be in danger : bị đe dọa
6. Mystery : (explanation) : a thing of which the cause or origin is unknown
or impossible to explain : bí ẩn
7.Submarine : (traslation) : tàu ngầm
8.Marine life : life in the sea
9.Water current : (traslation): dòng nước.

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PRACTICAL RESULT
After many years working as a teacher at Nhu Xuan high school, I had
chances to apply their own ways of teaching new vocabularies and to observe the
other teachers apply their own ways are, they have some difficulties when applying
them to teach new words.
1.Description of students’ needs.
Purposes of studying English

Students at Nhu Xuan high school

1.To get high scores in the exam
because English is a compulsory
subject.
2.To develop language skills

72/100 (72%)
20/100 (20%)

3.To apply for a job in the future

8/100

(8 %)

Usually, before deciding which is the best way to teach, teachers often come
to some conclusions what students’ need are when they learn English, the table
above shows the results of the convey on the discription of students’need that the
highest percentage falls on the needs of studying for the good grades, or for passing
the exam, there is only a minority of students who study for applying ajob and
developing skills.
2.Practical result
2.1. Paraphrase or Define
Teachers at Nhu Xuan high school
uses Defining.

7/7

(100%)

Students are fond of Defining.
20/100 (20%)
2.2. Drawing
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Teachers at Nhu Xuan high school
uses Drawing.
Students at Nhu Xuan are fond of
Drawing .

7/7

(100%)

90/100 (90%)

2.3.Relia and Object
Teachers at Nhu Xuan high school use
real objects
Students at Nhu Xuan are fond of real
objects

7/7 (100 %)
60/100 (60 %)

2.4. Flash cards or charts
Teachers at Nhu Xuan high school use

flash cards
Students at Nhu Xuan are fond of
flash cards

5/7 (67 %)
72/100 (72 %)

2.5.Mime
Teachers at Nhu Xuan high school use
Mime
Students at Nhu Xuan are fond of
Mime

5/7 (67 %)
48/100 (48 %)

2.6.Pictures
Teachers at Nhu Xuan high school use
Pictures
Students at Nhu Xuan are fond of
Pictures

7/7 (100 %)
98/100 (98 %)

2.7.Opposites
Teachers at Nhu Xuan high school use
Opposites

5/7 ( 67 %)

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Students at Nhu Xuan are fond of
Opposites

25/100 ( 25 %)

2.8.Synomyms
Teachers at Nhu Xuan high school use
Synomyms
Students at Nhu Xuan are fond of
Synomyms

4/7 (57 %)
35/100 (35 %)

2.9.Semantic field
Teachers at Nhu Xuan high school use
Semantic field
Students at Nhu Xuan are fond of
Semantic field

5/7 (67 %)
29/100 (29 %)

2.10.Guessing from stems and affixes
Teachers at Nhu Xuan high school use
Guessing from stems and affixes

Students at Nhu Xuan are fond of
Guessing from stems and affixes

4/7 (57 %)
15/100 (15 %)

2.11.Translation
Teachers at Nhu Xuan high school use
Translation
Students at Nhu Xuan are fond of
Translation

7/7 (100 %)
58/100 (58 %)

2.12.Using a dictionary
Teachers at Nhu Xuan high school use
a dictionary
Students at Nhu Xuan are fond of
a dictionary

7/7 (100 %)
39/100 (39 %)

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3. CONCLUSION
As mentioned above, teaching vocabulary is very important and necessary
because it helps the learners understand and grasp the information easily and

quickly.Moreover it also helps the learners feel more confident and pleasant in
communication. However, teaching vocabulary is a difficult task. It requires the
teachers many things such as cleverness, intelligence. Also, the teachers spend
much time choosing carefully the words they should teach, the techniques and
teaching aids. Pracically, many teachers feel confused and difficult when designing
the way to teach vocabulary. So as a teacher of English in the near future, I have to
do a research about The Way to Teach Vocabulary Applied at High School.
From the difficulties, I would like to give some suggestions for a better way
of teaching vocabulary:
+Combine different techniques at the same time to teach one new word.This
will help the students understand and master the word more deeply and quickly.
+Apply the techniques as much as possible in a unit so that the students will
not feel bored and dull when studying vocabulary:
+Translate the new words that are too difficult and abstract to the pupils.
+Let the pupils practise by making sentences, filling in the gaps, answering
the questions, so that they can remember the new words longer.
+Make a context clearly and easily understood by all the pupils in the class
so that the pupils can guess the meaning of the words.
+Picture must be colorful and vivid, and languguage must be familiar and
close to the pupils.
XÁC NHẬN CỦA THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ

Thanh Hóa, ngày 09 tháng 04 năm
2015
Tôi xin cam đoan đây là SKKN của mình
viết, không sao chép nội dung của người
khác.
(Ký và ghi rõ họ tên)

Nguyễn Văn Chuyên

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REFERENCES
(TÀI LIỆU THAM KHẢO)
1. Chuẩn kiến thức kỹ năng môn Tiếng Anh 10, 11, 12 – (Tái bản lần thứ nhất) NXB Giáo dục Việt Nam 2010.
2. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (7th edition)
3. Thiết kế bài giảng Tiếng Anh 10, NXB Hà Nội 2009
4. Thiết kế hoạt động dạy và học Tiếng Anh 10, tập II, NXB Giáo dục Hà Nội.
5. Tứ Anh – Phan Hà – May Vi Phương – Hồ Tấn, Sổ tay người dạy Tiếng Anh,
NXB Giáo Dục 2004.
6.
7.

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