Some methods for teaching vocabulary in pre reading helping class 11c2 at nhu xuan 2 high school be motivated in the reading lessons

THANHHOA
HOADEPARTMENT
DEPARTMENTOF
OFEDUCATION
EDUCATIONAND
ANDTRAINING
TRAINING
THANH

NHUXUAN
XUANII
IIHIGH
HIGHSCHOOL
SCHOOL
NHU

THE INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE

THE THESIS:
SOME METHODS FOR TEACHING VOCABULARY IN PREREADING HELPING CLASS 11C2 AT NHU XUAN II HIGH
SCHOOL BE MOTIVATED IN THE READING LESSONS.
THE INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE

THE THESIS:
SOME METHODS FOR TEACHING VOCABULARY IN PREREADING HELPING CLASS 11C2 AT NHU XUAN II HIGH
SCHOOL BE MOTIVATED IN THE READING LESSONS.
Author: Pham Thi Lien
Occupation: Teacher
Field ( Subject): English

Author: Pham Thi Lien

Occupation: Teacher
Field ( Subject): English

THANH HOA, 2018

THANH HOA, 2019


TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I: INTRODUCTION
I.1. Reasons for choosing the thesis
I.2. Objectives
I.3. Participants
I.4. Methods of the study
PART II: CONTENTS OF THE THESIS
II.1. Rationale which affects to the thesis
II.1.1. Students' language level
II.1.2. Teacher's teaching method
II.1.3. Time limitations
II.1.4. Material limitations
II.1.5. The reading program for the grade 11th at Nhu Xuan II high
school
II.2. Reality before implementing the thesis
II.3. Some methods for teaching vocabulary in pre-reading
effectively helping students be motivated in the reading lessons
II.3.1. Preparation
II.3.2. Choose words to teach
II.3.3. Teaching vocabulary combined with pronunciation
II.3.4. Choose the best way to teach and show the meaning of new
words

II.3.4.1. Using real objects
II.3.4.2. Using situations
II.3.4.3. Using pictures
II.3.4.4. Using spoken laguage
II.3.4.5. Using body laguage
II.3.4.6. Using prefixes, suffixes, root words
II.3.4.7. Translating
II.3.5. Create appropriate activities to check vocabulary
II.3.5.1. Gap-filling
II.3.5.2. Matching
II.3.5.3. Multiple - choice question
II.3.5.4. Rub out and remember
II.3.5.5. Slap the board
II.3.5.6. What and where

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II.3.5.7. Jumbled words
II.3.5.8. Noughts and Crosses
II.3.5.9. Bingo!
II.4. Results after applying the research with the teaching activities,
my colleagues and my school
PART III: CONCLUSION, SUGGESTIONS.
III.1. Conclusion
III.2. Suggestions

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PART I: INTRODUCTION
I.1. Reasons for choosing the thesis.
As you know, English is an international language which is used by a lot
of
countries all over the world. It also becomes main language in
communicating among different people in different countries in the world.
With the trend of integrating, Vietnam has been promoting their abilities
in all aspects. Therefore, in education, Vietnam really pays attention to teaching
and learning English all schools in Vietnamese educational system. English is
also becomes a chore subject in national educational system. From those, we see
the importance of teaching and learning English in the development and
integration of our country.
English is a device for communicating and integrating with many
countries in our region and in the world, a device for approaching modern
technology and science and exchanging economics, politics and culture between
our country and others in the region and in the world.
In Vietnam, nowadays students begin to learn English at primary school.
In high school, they continue the learning program from primary school to
secondary school. They learn English with four skills such as writing, listening,
speaking and reading along with language focus to continue improving their
skills and knowledge. Furthermore, they also prepare the best knowledge for
their most important examination of graduating or use the knowledge for higher

education.
As an English teacher I know the importance of English with my students,
so I always try to find out the best methods in teaching English for them. In our
school system, English is both different and characteristic subject. It makes
students curious and passionate. However, it also creates a lot of difficulties and
misunderstandings. As a result, students sometimes feel discouraged. In this
situation, teacher has a very important role to transfer the passion and the
enjoyment to their students.
When teaching English at high school, specially teaching the 11th grade at
Nhu Xuan II high school, I see that most of my student like learning English.
They also try their best to learn it in all skills and language focus but they seem
indifferent to reading skill. However, nowadays reading skill is step by step
becoming an important part in their study. As you know, this skill has been
becoming a very important part in the examination for English students for
many years. Reading skill also plays a key role of enriching English vocabulary
for learners. But students often have difficulty in understanding a common
reading because of some new vocabularies. When teaching my students, I see
that they often stop to look up a dictionary when encountering new words. This
takes a lot of time to complete a reading. Reading texts often contain many new
words. They often find there are too many new words in reading texts because
they forget or miss a word of those so they often feel confused before a
comprehension exercise. That’s why the teacher’s guide is very necessary.
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Meanwhile, the current teaching method is to make students find their own way
of learning, teacher is only a guide to show them how to read rather than prepare
all for them.From these elements, I see that I have to update and change my
method in teaching reading skill so that I can make students really like this skill
more than ever before. So as to help students improve their reading skill,

teaching vocabulary effectively is very important for them to overcome
difficulties in vocabulary.
With my own thought and my own experience in teaching English at Nhu
Xuan II high school for many years, I strongly try to give my own bright
experience: Some methods for teaching vocabulary effectively helping the 11th
grade students improve their reading skill.
With the thesis I hope that I will contribute my little experience to help
my students like and improve their reading skill in the next courses.
I.2. Objectives.
When teaching reading skill to the students in the grade 11C2 at Nhu
Xuan II high school. I found out that vocabulary stage is very important in
teaching reading skill and it also effects students' reading result, so I decided to
carry out this thesis. Firstly, I want to find out some other methods in teaching
vocabulary effectively. From changing this stage helps students improve their
reading performance result in reading skill. Secondly, I want to create my own
experiences which are useful and necessary for my teaching. The experiences
will be used in the next courses and bring out the good results in my job.
Furthermore, I also want to contribute my own experiences in teaching English
at Nhu Xuan II high school. Hopefully that the results of this study would be
shared with any colleagues who had the same problem or anyone who is
interested in this study. Last but not least, Based on the results of this action
research, some changes and new methods could be applied in some lessons I
hope that my students will love reading skill more than ever before and work
effectively in the reading lessons.
I.3. Participants.
The subjects chosen for the research include 38 students in the class 11C2
at Nhu Xuan II High School with the survey questionnaires. The research was
carried out during the first term of the academic year 2017 – 2018 at Nhu Xuan
II High School.
I.4. Methods of the study.

The study bases on teacher's main activities: teaching time in the class
The data is collected by sets of questionnaires. some were set before using
the methods and others were set after using the methods.
Other sources of data come from reading tasks from the textbooks. The
analysis of the data hopefully will bring about reliable findings useful for the
teaching of reading to students at Nhu Xuan II High School.
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PART II: CONTENTS OF THE THESIS
II.1. Rationale which affects to the thesis.
From my teaching I know clearly that students' result in receiving
vocabulary in pre-reading can be affected by some major factors which originate
from students, teachers, and other external factors.
II.1.1. Students' language level.
It can be easily seen that Nhu Xuan high school is situated at the
countryside in Bai Tranh commune, Nhu Xuan district. Most of the people here
have medium living condition, so most students learn English with very simple
ways. They only learn English from their teacher at school. These students have
medium level, few also have low level. Others, but not large a mount of students
with good living condition from their parents, find out some extra ways for
learning English such as learning outside the school, using cassette, computer
and cell phone to learn online. This group of the students has good knowledge. It
means that students' language level is different. Therefore, teacher may have
some difficulties in choosing a suitable teaching method, language and activity
which are used in a class.
II.1.2. Teacher's teaching method.
In pre-reading stage, teacher's teaching method focus on the ways which
teacher designs appropriate activities to motivate students to have
comprehension reading effectively. So the more easy and memorable way a

teacher can apply vocabulary to his students, the more interested students feel.
When students feel comfortable and interesting, they can do the reading tasks
well.
II.1.3.Time limitations.
Normally, in pre-reading stage it takes from 10 to 13 minutes to conduct
the activities. However, in some large classes with a number of students whose
English knowledge is limited, it often takes more time to conduct these activities
II.1.4. Material limitations.
In teaching lesson, facilities for displaying pictures and chart also play an
important part to help have a successful lesson. As we know English is a subject
using and updating a lot of pictures about many aspects in daily life. The use of
visual display to show these pictures in teaching and learning is an effective
way, that makes students exciting and wants to discover the subject more.
However, most schools of Vietnam don't have the best condition for students to
learn foreign language. Most classroom don't have computer screen or visual
display unit. Those surely affect students' learning result.
II.1.5. The reading program for the grade 11th at Nhu Xuan II high school.
Basing on the new textbooks designed by the Ministry of Education and
Training. English is taught with four skills and language focus which focuses on
grammar and pronunciation. The reading program at Nhu Xuan II high school is the
same as this book with the aim of improving students' abilities in reading. On English 11
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textbook, we have 16 units with 16 topics for student's reading. Different topics from 16
units provide students with a large number of new words which they need eliciting in
pre-reading stage to prepare for the next stages: while-reading and post-reading.
From the factors mentioned above, the question: “How to teach
vocabulary in pre-reading stage effectively?” is important and neccesary to
every teacher. From my old methods in teaching vocabulary with bad results, I

tried to find out some new methods for teaching vocabulary to help my students
improve their comprehension reading in particular and their reading skill in
general after studying some references materials such as: “Top ten” principles
for teaching reading. Ray Williams; Nuttall, C. 1982. Teaching Reading Skills in
a Foreign language. London: Heinemann; Allen V. Techniques in Teaching
Vocabulary. Oxford University Press, 1983….
II.2. Reality before implementing the thesis.
I began teaching class 11C2 with 38 students when they were at grade 10.
At that time I taught reading skill based on the design of the textbook with three
stages pre, while and post stage sometimes four stages consisting warm-up. I
didn't change anything in the textbook. In pre-reading stage, after getting
students to have a through look on the reading text, I started to teach my
students some new words in the reading text by writing them on the board and
explain their meanings in a simple and quick way: translating.Next I helped my
students to pronounce the words and I continued the lesson with the tasks
already designed in the textbook. From my teaching, I saw my students reading
bad. They didn't like this skill because when they read the text and did the tasks
required, they appalled with the number of new words they met in the text.
Whenever they met a new word that they didn’t know, they stopped to look it up
in the dictionary. This took them much time and as a result, they didn’t have
enough time to complete the tasks in while – reading and post – reading. This
also made them feel bored and afraid of reading skill.
I thought of this much and I also asked my colleagues for how they taught
this skill. They gave me the same steps as I did. I decided to implement a survey
asking my students some questions in order to know exactly the cause of this
problem and to find out the solution as well as the better methods in teaching
reading.In my survey, 38 students in class 11C2 were asked to give their answer
to the questions from the teacher then handed in their papers to the teacher. After
the survey, teacher statisticed students' answers to find out the cause. There were
the results of the survey.

Question 1: "What make(s) you not satisfied with and interested in a reading
lesson?"
a. It takes me time to look up new words which I don’t know.
b. I don't do the tasks well.
c. I don't feel being motivated enough.
d. You choose all.
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Choice
a
b
c
d
Nnumber
0
0
0
38
Percent(%)
0%
0%
0%
100%
As can be seen from the table,most students thought they were lack of
many things in the reading lesson . From the information collected, I was aware
of the importance and the influence of pre - reading stage in students’ reading.
Question 2: "What factors do you want your teacher change in a reading
lesson?"
a. Teacher should create pre-reading stage effectively and attractively.

b. Teacher should speak louder.
c. Teacher should create the tasks in while-reading and post-reading more
easier.
d. Teacher should change his/her mood and teacher's lifestyle.
Choice
a
b
c
d
Number
28
2
5
3
Percent(%)
73,68 %
5,26 %
13,16 %
7,9 %
The results in the table shows that most of the students thought that
teacher should change pre-reading stage by creating it effectively and
attractively with the highest rate accounted to 73,68%. The number of students
who thought that teacher should speak louder and teacher should change his/her
mood and teacher's lifestyle accounted low rate with 5,26 % and 7,9 %. Others
accounted a small rate with 13,16%.
From these causes and students' ideas. I think I should change my method
in teaching reading skill, specially in teaching pre-reading stage.
II.3. Some methods for teaching vocabulary in pre-reading effectively to
help students be motivated in the reading lessons.
With the results from the convey I conducted with my students, I see that

teaching vocabulary effectively in pre-reading plays a very important role in
helping students have a successful reading lesson. And I tried my best to find out
some methods which I really think that will be useful to teachers. When
applying the research, teachers should remember some notes as follows to get
the best results.
II.3.1. Preparation.
Before starting a new lesson, the teacher must have good preparation.
He/she should prepare a list of new words appearing in the reading that are
neccesary to teach students in order for them to do well in the reading. And he/
she should make the teaching learning vocabulary process clear and easy for
students to remember. With good performmance of teaching vocabulary,
students will be motivated for the tasks in the next part: while-reading and postreadingthat leads to a good and successful lesson for both students and the
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teacher. However, teaching vocabulary is not just conveying the meaning to the
students and asking them to learn those words by heart. If the teachers believe
that the words are worth explaining and learning , then it is important that they
should do this efficiently. Teachers should use different techniques and activities
in teaching English vocabulary to motivate their students, enrich their
vocabulary and enable them to speak English properly as well as do the
comprehension reading well.
II.3.2. Choose words to teach.
Normally, a reading textalways appears some new words, but it is not
neccesary to teach all of them and teach them in the same ways. The teacher
should choose words which need teaching. Choosing words to teach, the teacher
has to consider whether they are active or passive words.
- Active words are words which students know and use in communicating
or writing.
- Passive words are words which students only know and understand

when they read a text.
The ways to teach two forms of words are not the same. Active words
relate to 4 basic skills: Listening, Reading, Speaking and Writing. The teacher,
therefore, needs to spend more time presenting and practising, specially the
ways to use words. To passive ones, however, students can only know and
students don’t need to spend much time using them. So the teacher should
choose and decide which words are taught as active or passive ones. To save
much time, the teacher always endures what he/she will teaches – words
students haven’t known.
To avoid teaching words which are unnecessary, the teacher should check
students’understanding by asking some questions or asking students to give
examples with the new words. And the teacher can ignore if the words are
difficult and strange and they are not related to the passage. Teachers also should
encourage students to guess the meaning of new words if the words are
important and easy in the passage.Teacher should mark the words he/she can ask
students to guess. However, the teacher has to show students ways to guess the
meaning of new words by reading words near new words carefully and check
affixes. This not only helps students to know more about the new words and
their part of speech such as nouns, verb, adjectives, adverbs…by themselves but
also encorages them to have good habit in reading in stead of stopping reading
to look up the dictionary.
II.3.3. Teaching vocabulary combined with pronunciation.
When students can pronounce new words well, they will write the words
correctly as well as help them in speaking and listening skills. So, a part from
having a good teaching method to intruduce new words to students, the teacher
also need to teach students the best ways to read the words exactly.
II.3.4. Choose the best way to teach and show the meaning of new words.
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There are some basic ways to introduce and explain the meaning of new
words. But the teacher should not teach allnew words in the same way. There
will be a suitable way for teaching each word in the lesson if the teacher tries
his/her best to think of it and have good preparation for it. By using right and
useful techniques in teaching vocabulary, it can help create both a successful and
effective pre-reading and the whole lesson. Follows are some popular techniques
that teachers can use to teach vocabulary effectively in pre-reading of a reading
lesson:
II.3.4. 1. Using real objects.
It is a great way to use real objects to teach new words, which help
students understand and interest in learning vocabulary.By this way, students can
remember vocabulary for a long time and feel more attracted to study it.With
words used by this way to introduce, teacher has to prepare before that.
Eg1: In Unit 2: Personal experiences – Part A: Reading
When teaching new words appearing in the reading text, with the
word: “a floppy hat”, teacher can prepare areal object like this:

Eg 2: In Unit 3: A party – Part A: Reading
Teacher can use the real object: a candle to teach this word

II.3.4.2. Using situations.
With some words, teacher can use specific situations in classroom or
outside classroom to show their meaning. The situations given should be easy
and simply for students to understand.
Eg: In Unit 6: Competitions – Part A: Reading
To teach the word “representative”, teacher can use a situation like this:
Huong and Lan were the two representatives of your class taking part in the
compettition “Ring the golden bell” in our school last month.
II.3.4.3. Using pictures.
Pictures as a part of visual aids are used as a technique in teaching English

vocabulary. Pictures used to explain the meaning of vocabulary items can be
posters, postcards, flashcards, graphs, family photograph, maps or even board
drawing… With easy words, students can immediately guess the words but with
some difficult ones, students have to imagine and make a connection from the
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image to the words. Anyway, pictures help motivate students and make them to
pay attention and take apart.
Eg: In Unit 12: The Asian Games – Part A: Reading
Teacher can use pictures to teach some words related to kinds of sports:

=>Hockey

=> Fencing

=>Wrestling
=>Rugby
II.3.4.4. Using spoken languages.
With this technique, teacher can use definition forms, synonyms or
antonyms to show the meaning of new words.
Eg 1: In Unit 15 – Part A: Reading
When teaching the word “ astronaut”, teacher can use synonym to help
students know its meaning:
astronaut = spaceman
Eg 2: In Unit 10 – Part A: Reading
To introduce and show the meaning of the word “disappear”, teacher can
use antonym:
appear  disappear
II.3.4.5. Using body language.

Using body language, actions or gesturesis also a good way to motivate
students in studying especially in learning vocabulary because this technique can
make them not feel bored. Students can have good memory about
vocabularybecause it relates with part of human body. So, they can be easy
remembering it.
Eg 1: In Unit 3: A party – Part A: Reading
The word:“blow out”
Eg 2: In Unit 13: Hobbies – Part A: Reading
The word: “throw away”
With these two verbs, using specific actions to show their meaning
is an effective way than any others.
II.3.4.6. Using prefixes, suffixes, root words.
With many words in English, teacher can use prefixes or suffixes to show
the meaning of new words. By using this way, teacher can use some usual
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prefixes such as un-,il-, dis-, re-…or suffixes such as -able, -er, -or, -ty, -less…
to teach different parts of speech.
Furthermore, teacher can use root words to teach vocabulary. Try to use
common roots with common words. This way must be repeated and repeated
day by day. Teacher ought to do it slowly and frequently. Some common roots:
trans (move, go): such as transport/ translate, pect (see): such as respect/ expect
…
Eg: In Unit 13: Friendship – Part A: Reading
Teacher can use prefixes : “in-” to teach students the word “incapable of”
or “un” to show the word “unselfish”.
II.3.4.7. Translating.
With wordswhich are too difficult to use one of the above techniques,
teacher can give students their Vietnamese equivalents in meaning after

introducing them.
II.3.5. Create appropriate activities to check vocabulary.
A long with teaching and showing the meaning of new words, activities
for checking vocabulary after that are very important to help students remember
the words they have learnt in the class and know how to use them corrrectly. An
interesting and appropriate activity with students’ level will help stimulate them
in the next stages of the lesson. The activity teacher chooses for his/her students
do should be based on what the words in the lesson are and students’ level as
well as their interest. In time limitations of the stage: pre-reading, teacher should
create suitable and useful activity for checking vocabulary after instructing them
to pronounce the words correctly. Teachers can apply some popular and effective
activities as follows:
II.3.5.1. Gap - filling.
In this kind of task, teacher prepares a list of sentences with a missing
word in each one. The words for students to fill in are the ones the teachers has
just taught. This activity can help students know how to use the words in
specific situations.
II.3.5.2. Matching.
Matching is a widely used activity among 3 stages: pre-reading, whilereading and post-reading and it is quite easy to students. There is a variety of
this kind of task. Teachers can choose one that is suitable for their students and
this also depends on what the words are. Follows are some samples of matching
tasks for teachers to choose:
- Matching the words with their definitions.
- Matching the words with the right pictures.
- Matching the words with their meanings.
- Matching the words with synonyms.
- Matching the words with antonyms.
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II.3.5.3. Multiple – choice questions.
Multiple – choice questionsrequire students to identify the right answers
from among a set of possible options that are presented to them. To create valid
multiple – choice items for checking vocabulary, teachers should use single,
clearly – stated questions including a total of 3 to 4 options. It may take time for
teachers to construct good multiple – choice items. Teachers, however, can
sometimes use this activity to
motivate their students.
II.3.5.4. Rub out and remember.
This activity isa good way to help students memorize new words as well
as make them more interested in the lesson. After presenting the new vocabulary
and building up a list on the board with their Vietnamese equivalents,
teacherfollows the following steps to get students to play it:
- Rub out the words once at a time
- Each time teacher rubs out a word in English, point to the Vietnamese
and ask: “What’s this in English?”
- When all the English words are rubbed out, teacher goes through the
Vietnamese list and asks students to call out the English words.
II.3.5.5. Slap the board.
Slapping the board is considered as a game which helps students
recognize new words through listening. To carry out this activity, teacher can ask
3 or 4 volunteers to play it by following these steps:
- Teacher puts the new words all over the board – not in a list
- If teacher want to check understanding, put the Vietnamese translation of
the new words or pictures on the board.
- Teacher calls out the new words one by one with loud voice.
- After teacher’s reading of each word, students must run forward and slap
the word on the board as quickly as possible.
- The student who slaps more correct words after the game will be the
winner.

II.3.5.6. What and where.
“What and where” is also a great way for students to memorize new
vocabulary. It follows the same produre as for “ Rub out and remember” and
“Slap the board”. Followings are steps for playing this game:
- Teacher writes each word in a circle on the board, not in a list.
- When all the words are on the board, rub out one of the words but do not
rub out the circles.
- Teacher gets students to repeat the words including the rubbed – out
word by pointing.
- Teacher continues to rub out another word but leaves the circle.
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- Then points to the words left including empty circles, students reads.
- Teacher continues until all the circles are empty and students now have
to remember all the words.
- Finally, teacher asks students to come to the board and fill in the circles
with the correct words.
II.3.5.7. Jumbled words.
In some lessons, teacher can use this activity to help students learn by
heart new words by giving some words with jumbled letters, then asks students
to go to the board to write the correct words.
II.3.5.8. Noughts and Crosses.
This activity may take time, so teacher should consider whether to use it
or not depending on the content of the lesson and time limitations. This activity
is often for classes with more good students because they have to make
sentences with the words given. To act out this activity, teacher can follow these
steps:
- Teacher draws a table with 3 rows and 3 columns in it on the board
and marks each cell with a number from 1 to 9.

- Teacher divides class into 2 groups. One is “noughts” – “O” and the
other is “crosses” – “X”.
- One group starts by choosing a numbered - cell in a table, teacher
gives the word in that cell and asks students to make a sentence with it.
If the sentence is correct, teacher puts “O” or “X” in that cell.
- The first group to get three -in -a -row (across, down, diagonally) will
be the winner.
II.3.5.9. Bingo!
Using this activity to check vocabulary can help students feel comfortable
and interested. It is also an easy way to get students to practise listening to new
words and match sounds with spelling.
- With the words that teacher has just presented to students on the board,
teacher asks them to choose 5 words ( or how many words if teacher wants) to
copy on the scratch paper.
- Teacher reads out the words in any order.
- Each time the student has one of the words the teacher reads, he/she puts
a tick next to that word.
- The first student to tick all 5 words shouts “Bingo!”
II.4. Results after applying the research with the teaching activities, my
colleagues and my school.
To see the effect of these methods in teaching vocabulary in pre-reading
of a reading lesson, I would like to show you how I changed my traditional
methods which I had already applied in the previous school years. Instead of
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only teaching new words of the reading lesson by writing them on the board and
explaining their meanings in a simple way – explanation, I tried my best to have
a good preparation before having the lessons with my students. I chose the
words in the reading text being really neccesary to teach and tried to find the

best way to introduce and show the meaning of each new word as well as the
activity for checking vocabulary which was suitable and fascinating to my
students in each lesson. Moreover, during students’ work in the next stages:
while-reading and post-reading, I didn’t forget to remind my students that if they
get any other new words in the reading text, they can guess their meanings
basing on the context by reading words near new words carefully and check
affixes or they can even ignore the new words that are not important to the
reading.
After the first term of the academic school year 2017 – 2018 applying the
research with my students in reading lessons with the reading texts given in
English 11 textbook, I saw my students’ possitive attitude and results. They
seemed to be more interested in learning the lesson. They were also more active
and eager to do the tasks in the next stages: while-reading and post-reading and
as a result, we had a good lesson - for both students and the teacher. Follows are
two examples I have applied to class 11C2 at my school. I hope that you can see
the changes in teaching vocabulary in pre-teaching and the possitive attitude
from my students in each lesson.
Example 1: Unit 4: Volunteer work – Part A: Reading
Step 1: Introducing and showing the meaning of new words.
With the reading text given in the textbook, teacher can choose the
following words to teach students:
- Volunteer (n/v)
- Voluntary (a)
- Voluntarily (adv)
 Using a situation: Last summer, Minh volunteered to moutainous areas to
teach poor children without benefit. He worked as a volunteer.
- Orphanage (n)
 Using explanation: Orphanage is a place where children without parents
live.
- Handicapped (a)

 Using a picture and a sentence to show students the word and its meaning:
These children are handicapped.

12


- Natural disaters ( noun phrase)
 Using some pictures and a sentence like this to tell students: These
pictures are about natural disaters.

- Take part in (verb phrase)
 Using synonym: = participate in = join (in)
- Mow (v)
 Using actions to describe the word.
Or using a picture and a sentence to illustrate the word: The man in this
picture is mowing the lawns.

Step 2: Instructing students how to pronounce the words.
After eliciting and showing new words to students, teacher helps them
pronounce the words correctly several times. Then teacher can spend some
minutes getting students to do the task as follow to check vocabulary:
Step 3: Checking vocabulary.
- Match an English word with the appropriate picture:
1. Orphanage
Picture a:

2. Handicapped

Picture b:

3. Volunteer

Picture c:

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4. Natural disaters

Picture d:

5. Mow

Picture e:

 Suggested answers: 1c, 2e, 3d, 4a, 5b.
- Or Rub out and remember.
Example 2: Unit 8: Celebrations – Part A: Reading
Step 1: Introducing and showing the meaning of new words.
From the reading text in the textbook, teacher can choose some important
words which need teaching to students:
- Agrarian (a)
 Using synonym: agrarian people = farmers
- Banner (n)
 Using a picture:

Teacher shows students the picture and tells students that: This is a red
banner to welcome Tet.
- Peach blossom ( noun phrase)
 Using a picture:

14


- Kumquat tree (noun phrase)
 Using a picture:

- Stickey rice (noun phrase)
 Using real object:

- Red envelope (noun phrase)
 Using real object:

- Possitive comments (noun phrase)
 Using a situation: On our English test last week, Nam was the only
student in our class to get mark 10 and I gave him positive comments on
his test paper.
- Pray for (v)
 Using actions or body language to express the word.
Step 2: Instructing students how to pronounce the words correctly.
After eliciting and showing new words to students, teacher helps them
pronounce the words correctly several times. Then teacher can spend some
minutes getting students to do the task as follow to check vocabulary:
Step 3: Checking vocabulary.
- Match an English word with the appropriate picture:
15


1. Stickey rice

Picture a:

2. Banner

Picture b:

3. Agrarian people

Picture c:

4. Red envelope

Picture d:

5. Kumquat tree

Picture e:

6. Beach blossom

Picture f:

 Suggested answers: 1c, 2e, 3d, 4f, 5a, 6b.
- Or Slap the board.
With the two examples metioned above and in fact I applied these to my
students at class 11C2, I saw that they worked effectively in the whole lesson. In
the first stage, after being led to the new lesson, they had a through look on the
reading text with new words introduced in interesting ways by teacher, then they
played a game to check vocabulary they had just learnt, which made them feel
16

excited and be motivated to work in the next stages. They were eager to do the
tasks required in both while-reading and post-reading and as the biggest gift they
sincerely gave to their teacher, most of them were well-done. The lesson,
therefore, was also considered successful because everything is suitable and
fascinating to students from the first to the last stage.
Comparing with old methods I had applied to my students before that and
after using new methods in pre-reading, I can present some changes in my
students’ attitude and results as follow:
Before
After
- Students didn't work effectively - Students worked effectively. New
because new words they got from words teacher elicited them in
teacher difficult to remember and interesting and fascinating ways and
they were confused with other new they knew strategies to not worry
words they didn’t know in the text. about any other new words they met.
So they weren't motivated.
- Students weren't motivated.
- Students were motivated.
- Students' attitude for the reading - Students felt exciting because they
lesson wasn't good. They felt boring were active in a lot of activities
so they weren't active in their before reading.
reading.
- Students' result for the lesson
- Students' result for the lesson was
wasn't good. Because most of them
good because most of them
couldn't complete their comprehencompleted their comprehension reasion reading smoothly.
ding well.

After using the new methods in teaching pre-reading and reading skill for
class 11C2, I also produced some research questions to know exactly its effect
and students' result in that lesson.
Question 1: " What do you think of the activities in pre-reading stage today?
a. very boring
b. boring
c. interesting and challenging
d. very interesting
Choice
a
b
c
d
Number
0
0
23
15
Percent
0%
0%
60,52%
39,48%
From the table, we can see that most students loved pre-reading stage on
that day. 60,52% of the students said that the stage was interesting and
challenging. 39,48% of the students really loved it because they thought it very
interesting. From teacher's statistic, the pre-reading stage of the two lessons was
effective when being used the new methods.
17

Question 2: "What do you think of your reading lesson today?”
Choice
very bad
bad
fair
good
very good
Number
0
0
9
21
8
Percentage
0%
0%
23,68%
55,26%
21,06%
As can be seen from the table that the number of the students thought that
their reading result was good and very good accounted for very high rate
55,26% and 21,06%. 23,68% of the students could complete the lesson
requirement. There were no students stated that their reading performance was
bad and very bad. This rate was contrary to with the rate before changing the
methods in teaching pre-reading stage.
Question 3: "What are the good points of the pre-stage in reading lesson
today?"
a. The method in teaching pre-reading is suitable and logical, so the prereading stage is really effective for students' comprehension reading.
b. Students are motivated

c. The stage helps students to build their confidence in reading and
overcome the lack of vocabulary.
d. All are correct
Choice
a
b
c
d
Number
0
0
0
38
Percentage
0%
0%
0%
100%
All of the students agreed that the method from changing pre-stage helped
them much in their comprehension reading. From that time they began to love
learning reading skill more.
The methods are not only used in class 11C2 which I am teaching. My
colleagues also used them in their classes and got good results from their
students. From this thesis, my colleagues and I find that we love teaching
reading skill more because our students love it too. With the methods mentioned
in the thesis, we can help students perform their reading well and get good result
in their exams with this part.

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PART III: CONCLUSION, SUGGESTIONS.
III.1 Conclusion:
Like speaking, listening, writing skill and language focus, reading is an
important and essential part in teaching and learning English. Together with
other skills, reading is also being taught with three stages, pre-reading, whilereading and post-reading. However, in these stages, pre-reading stage affects
students' reading most with a lot of reasons. I have just mentioned in the thesis
such as helping students build their confidence, avoid being afraid of new words
or making students' attractiveness...When students can overcome difficulty in
vocabulary, they are very excited with what they will read and do next.
As can be seen in the thesis, because the old methods as I mentioned ever
conducted pre-reading activities didn't work effectively, so with thoughts in
changing this stage to make it effective than it ever before. I try to find out "
Some methods for teaching vocabulary in pre-reading effectively helping class
11C2 be motivated in the reading lessons".
I also think that to teach pre-reading stage effectively, teachers should
follow these things:
- Teacher should pay attention to students' abilities, students' knowledge
and students' participation in each class.
- To make the lesson successful, teachers have to create students' interest
and attractiveness by having a good preparation with words to teach
and how to teach them effectively.
- A part from the way to teach the new words, teacher should also
concentrate on the way to help students pronounce the words correctly.
- Teacher should manage the time well to be sure that there is enough
time for other stages.
- The most important factor to make pre-reading stage successful is that
teacher should prepare suitable activities for the stage by choosing
suitable techniques in teaching it.
They are all methods which derived from my own knowledge and my

own experience. Because my teaching time and my experience isn't old enough,
I can't avoid some shortages and limitations. I hope to get more ideas from other
teachers so that this thesis will be full, effective and diverse in teaching reading
skill, which helps students improve their result.
III.2. Suggestions
The thesis “Some methods for teaching vocabulary in pre-reading helping
class 11C2 at Nhu Xuan II high school be motivated in the reading lessons” is
written to share my experience in teaching vocabulary. The teacher can apply
19


different ways for different words and they depend on the teacher’s own ways. I
hope that each teacher will have good ways to teach vocabulary in particular and
teach English in general.
From my teaching at Nhu Xuan II high school, I would like to give some
following suggestions:
I hope that it will be decorated a lot of modern devices such as lab rooms
and overhead project (OHP) for teaching and learning foreign language.
Teachers at high schools have more chances to meet and exchange their
knowledge and their experience in teaching.
Last but not least, I hope that teachers never stop learning and finding out
new methods in teaching English.
I express my sincere thanks.

HEADMASTER'S CONFIRMATION

Thanh Hoa, 20th May, 2019
I insist that this initiative
experience be my own writing, not
copy the others' contents.

Phạm Thị Liên

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REFERENCES
1. Book: “Những vấn đề chung về đổi mới giáo dục Trung học phổ thông môn
tiếng Anh” ( Bộ Giáo dục và Đào tạo) – NXB Giáo Dục.
2. Textbook: “Tiếng Anh 11” ( Bộ Giáo dục và Đào tạo) – NXB Giáo Dục.
3. Downs, M.(2000). Increasing student Motivation. Teachers’ Edition 4: 8 –
13.7.
4. Teaching Reading in a Second language By Beatrice. Mikulecky, Ed.D.
5. “Top ten” principles for teaching reading. Ray Williams.
6. Nuttall, C. 1982. Teaching Reading Skills in a Foreign language. London:
Heinemann.
7. Allen V. Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary. Oxford University Press, 1983.
8. Study.com.
9. www.teachingenglish.com.
10. Busyteacher.org.