Experience in teaching vocabulary for primary students

A. INTRODUCTION
1. REASON FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC
The thesis teaching vocabulary to young learners deals with the need of a
teacher to know his or her learners and to understand their needs and problems.
Other issue mentioned in the thesis is the question of motivation and including
fun and games into the teaching process. The last issue the thesis deals with is
the usage of different methods and approaches for teaching young learners.
“Why? What is it good for? Is it good for them at all? Do they really need it? Is
it not only a useless worry? Why do we have to make them learn something
more than what they really need and have to? How much hope shall we place in
it?”
These are the most frequent questions I have been thinking about. I have
discussed them with many pupils, teachers and parents. Reactions and opinions
were, of course, different. I have been teaching English for many years at a
primary school. I have to admit that at the beginning I doubted about any
acquisition for young learners and many arguments seemed cogent to me.
During the time I began to realize chances and occasions that English language
can offer to children and I started to be a big fan of teaching English to young
learners.
I ran against a lot of troubles that I would like to share in my final thesis
and also I would like to share some ideas for teaching vocabulary to young
learners. At the beginning during the discussions with my colleagues we found
out that some kind of conception was needed, next we pointed out that there
were missing good textbooks or materials, also didactic aids and methodology
books. Frequent complain of many teachers is that it is extremely difficult to
teach children that seem to lack the basic talent for learning languages.
Therefore I would like to refer to the possibilities which teaching a foreign
language to young learners brings.
The aim of this work is to show several ways that can be used for teaching
vocabulary to young learners. I would like to show why and how teaching
vocabulary to young learners can be more efficient.

I divided my thesis into the theoretical and the practical part – the
practical part follows the theoretical part. In the theoretical part I will introduce
the aim of this thesis, then I will try to describe who is a young learner. In the
next chapter I will focus on what is vocabulary and how it is learned and also the
ways how vocabulary can be presented..
In the second part of my thesis I would like to present my system of work
and also different methods I use while teaching. I will enclose some materials
and games that I use in 9 my lessons. In conclusion I will briefly summarize my
thesis. After that follows the list of sources - books (used literature) which I used
for my thesis and the appendices where I included some materials and exercises
with the keys.

1


After exploring and accumulating the experiences from colleagues, I have
some experiences in teaching reading comprehension and achieved quite
effective results. The students are more interested in learning English and more
confident in doing their reading exercises. This improves that my methods are
right. With the passion and the love for teaching English, I have studied and
developed the research: "Experience in teaching vocabulary for primary
students "
2. THE PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH.
- The research applies the methods of teaching vocabulary to involve
students in learning English well.
- Creating the language circumstance to communicate in English and
promote students to actively participate in communicative activities; offering
some solutions and methods for teaching vocabulary.
- Exchanging and sharing some experiences in teaching vocabulary for
primary students.

3. RESEARCH TASKS
- Systematizing some theoretical issues about the procedures and
activities in teaching vocabulary in English Primary program according to the
communicative approach.
- Exploring the present situation of teaching vocabulary at Primary School
and suggesting some techniques in teaching vocabulary to develop skills for
primary students, helping them be more confident to communicate in English.
4. RESEARCH TIME AND LOCATION
Research Time : School Year 2014-2015.
Research Location: Dong Ninh Primary School
Research Object: " Experience in teaching vocabulary for primary
students "
The respondents of the research: With this research I focused on the
primary student, especially the students of class 4.
B. CONTENT
1 . RATIONALE
1.1. Young learner - who is a young learner?
A young learner – who is he or she? This term covers a wide age range,
this can be anybody from the age of three to the age of eighteen. There is a big
difference between what a –three-year-old child can do and what a child of
fifteen can do. We should consider their development too. Some children
develop faster, others need more time. Teaching young learners requires the
knowledge of knowing all the development differences. Understanding these
differences can help me as a teacher to develop methods and a system of work
that I will use in the process of teaching. Of course, it is not possible to say that
every child of six will know this and that. But it is possible to pick out some
characteristics which I as a teacher should know and should be aware of.
2

I have decided to focus on young learners – age group 7-11. I have chosen
this age group because I like working with young learners. From my own
personal experience I have to admit that learners at this age are grateful when
someone invests time in them. The results are seen quite easily and of course
teachers demand this kind of satisfaction. These children still want to learn
something new. When they know it, they are happy to present it and they feel
more important. I remember a girl - 5th grades - who was able to
“communicate” with a native speaker. Her joy was the best reward for me.
It is generally known that the Czech system officially allows children to
start learning a foreign language in the 4th grade. In the Czech Republic children
have started learning a foreign language in the 4th grade so far. However,
according to the new school curricula, which are starting to be adopted from
September 2006, the children will start a year earlier and in some schools the
foreign language will be introduced from the 1st grade. In the 7th grade they
will have to start learning a second foreign language. In my opinion, the sooner
they start the better for them. Their brain and memory is ready for learning and
most of them can learn quite well. There have been many disputes and
discussions over this. I think these debates will be run over and over because
nobody is able to say the exact time for beginning to learn foreign languages.
From my personal experience, I achieved quite good results with kindergarten
children so I do not see any problems for older learners. I think if very young
learners are able to achieve good results, I think the older ones can do it too.
I would like to point out some characteristics about this age group:
- They are happy when they can play.
- They love to share their experiences, they love when people pay
attention to them and their talking.
- They are able to talk about what they are doing.
- They use imagination a lot.
- They can think, argue, discuss and they are able to interact with both
children and adults. They are able to concentrate for certain time.

- They understand situations and through situations – they use several
senses.
- They are able to use language skills not even realizing them.
- They do not realize what fact is and what fiction is sometimes.
- They want to learn and are happy when they learn something, then they
have to share it with somebody and they are proud that they learnt something,
they can show off a little bit.
- Often they “teach” each other.
- They love to be praised for what they have done and learnt, this is very
important fact to keep their motivation.
- Very often they pretend they understand everything and they know
everything.
3


Halliwell states that:
- Young children are already very good at interpreting meaning without
necessarily understanding the individual words
- Already have great skill in using limited language creatively
- Frequently learn indirectly rather than directly
- Take great pleasure in creating fun in what they do
- Their imagination is ready
- “above all take great delight in talking” (Halliwell, 1992, p 3)
I do agree with Halliwell and her observations. My observations are the
same as hers. These examples of characteristics I have mentioned above are
great hints how to teach young learners and what kind of methods we should
use. It is very important to choose the right way of teaching for these little
children. The teacher definitely has to be very sensitive to the children’s needs
and has to prepare the lessons well.. We should avoid a stereotype, the 12
lessons have to be creative and lively. Otherwise this could have really bad

consequences for the learners´ further improvement in the language.
1.2. Vocabulary
1.2.1. What is vocabulary?
“Vocabulary can be defined, roughly, as the words we teach in the foreign
language. However, a new item of vocabulary may be more than just a single
word: for example, post office, and mother-in-law, which are made up of two or
three words but express a single idea. A useful convention is to cover all such
cases by talking about vocabulary „ items “rather than „words“. (Ur, 2003, p 60)
All languages consist of words. Languages emerge first as words, both
historically, and in terms of the way each of us learned our first and any
subsequent languages. Moreover, vocabulary is still widening. Even in our
native language we are continually learning new words and meanings of old
words. For example, Czech word pošta. This used to mean just the post office or
simple letters but nowadays it also means emails. Some words can be entirely
new to us. We come across completely new words that are made up according to
new technologies and according to the needs of real life. For example, a verb to
Google is used frequently a lot. Learners of a second language experience
something similar. Thornbury states that they can be confronted by words that
are totally unfamiliar, or being used in ways that for them are novel and possibly
obscure. To find the right word to fit the meaning can be very frustrating,
especially if the store of words is limited.
To summarize this, the learner while learning the vocabulary of a second
language can come across several challenges:
- “making the correct connections, when understanding the second
language, between the form and meaning of words
- When producing language, using the correct form of a word for the
meaning intended ( i.e. nose not noise).

4

To meet these challenges the learner needs to:
- Acquire a critical mass of words for use in both understanding and
producing the language
- Remember words over time, be able to recall them readily 14
- Develop strategies for coping with gaps in word knowledge, including
coping with unknown words, or unfamiliar uses of known words
- Have to take responsibility themselves for vocabulary expansion”
(Thornbury, 2002, p 31).
1.2.2. How are words learned?
“Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing
nothing nothing can be conveyed.”
David Wilkins, linguist
To know a word is one thing but we have to pause on the fact how this
knowledge is acquired. Thinking about little children who learn to speak, then
they always start with words used for labeling, so that the concept, for example,
of a cat has a name cat. But of course not every animal is a cat. The child needs
to learn how far to extend the concept of a cat. “In other words, acquiring a
vocabulary requires not only labeling but also categorizing skills.” (Thornbury,
2002, p 18) The child has to realize that these common words like cat can be
replaced by super ordinate terms like animals. And to this category also belongs
other animals, not just cats. Thornbury states that the children have to develop
some kind of network building – constructing some complex idea. Than during
this process they will realize there also exist words like synonyms, homonyms
etc.
There are many different methods and approaches how to teach a foreign
language, including vocabulary. I will mention just some of them that can be
used for teaching young learners.
- To help the learners understand it is important to visualize the item and
get the pupils to repeat or use the item actively. One good way of doing this is to

let them see or perhaps touch the vocabulary item, for instance a house. We need
to let them repeat it in different ways and they should be given a chance to listen
to the teacher talking about it.
- A little bit of shocking method is the direct method or the direct
approach. The mother tongue is never used, there are no translations. Only target
language is used in the classrooms and only complete sentences are used.
Culture is considered an important aspect.
- Suggestopedia is a very successful method in helping learners to
memorize words. This method stimulates the learner’s brain by music while
learning but nowadays teachers seem to be leaving this method.
- What really works especially for young learners is the Total Physical
Response method - TPR. Very many children are nowadays very hyper and
physically active 16 and to concentrate for a long time can be very difficult for

5


them. Using this method, games, changing topics and using a variety of
activities is very appreciated by them. This method is used a lot by teachers.
- Communicative Language Approach (Teaching) – CLT – stresses the
meaning of a language in context. Communicative competence is highly
developed here and learners are encouraged to communicate.
1.2.3. Which words and what should be taught?
The significant point in teaching vocabulary is the selection of words we
as teachers want to teach. It is quite easy to teach concrete words at lower level
and then become more abstract. Thus, we need to consider the frequency too.
There is a choice for us; we can decide which words to teach on the basis of
frequency, how often the words are used by the speaker of the language.
Especially with young learners words that they are familiar with and they can
stick to them should be taught. Very often words are taught according to themes

and topics. Nowadays all the course books are organized into themes and they
provide vocabulary according to it. If there is a theme “Animals”, then we can
expect words like naming animals, also where they live, what they eat etc.
Words that have quite specific meaning should be avoided with young learners.
Ur states the learners need to be taught the form of the word, then
grammar, collocations, meaning and word formation.
In the form pronunciation and spelling should be mentioned. “The learner
has to know what a word sounds like (its pronunciation) and what it looks like
(its spelling).” (Ur, 1996, p 60) The grammar of a new item also needs to be
taught. Again, depending what level the learners are they should be taught to
follow some grammatical rules. For example when teaching nouns, we would
like to present their plural forms, also regular and irregular (girl-girls, mousemice). When teaching verbs, maybe we would like to present their past forms,
especially if the verb is irregular (forget-forgot).
Word formation – using prefixes and suffixes, using hyphenated words
etc. is too difficult for young learners.
To summarize this, firstly I think that knowing the word and
understanding its meaning go hand in hand. Secondly, it is easier to remember
concrete words like a chair or a dog than abstract words. Young learners often
put words together with what they can see, hear or with what they can touch.
But as said above they also need to know other aspects of the words they learn.
In my opinion, it is important to teach them all these aspects. Of course, we will
not teach them, for example the irregular plural form right away, but they need
to know it. I think that if we keep repeating the plural form “mice”, after some
time most of them will not say “mouses”.
2. THE PRESENT SITUATION OF THE PROBLEM
For many years, teaching vocabulary was viewed as a mastery of these
skills. Vocabulary followed what the study called mentioning, practicing, and
assessing procedure where teachers mentioned a specific skill that students were
to apply, had students practice the skill by completing workbook pages, then
6

assessed them to find out if they could use the skill correctly. Instruction did
little to help students learn how or when to use the skills, nor was is ever
established that this particular set of skills enabled comprehension.
A significant base of research, developed over many years, is available to
inform educators about effective approaches to teaching children to read.
However, research on applying the methods of teaching vocabulary for primary
students is in its infancy. This reflects the fact that many teachers in Vietnam
are faced with the challenge of teaching children to listen and speak in English
when the students have a heritage language that is not English and they are not
yet proficient in English. Making this a more critical issue, several researches
suggest that teachers are not receiving adequate professional development in
effective strategies to teach vocabulary for students. In order to make best use of
the information presented in this research, many teachers might want to consider
the following set of questions together in preparation for making decisions about
teaching vocabulary for primary students.
Analysis of my school’s performance in teaching and learning vocabulary
in recent years showed that students normally forget vocabulary after learning
them. It was a situation that was of concern and motivated a thorough
examination of the school’s approach to the teaching of vocabulary.
Our school is a public primary school in Dong Son province. It is a large
school with around ……. students, ranging from 6 to 10 years old. There are
three to four classes in most year levels, meaning that collaboration among
teachers is extremely important to ensure consistency in learning programs.
After several years of teaching the book Tieng Anh 3,4,5, I found that most of
the students do not like learning vocabulary. They often forget vocabulary after
the lesson.
* The quality survey and students’ classification:
Based on the present situation of students in grade 4 the level of all

students is acquired after a few weeks of the school year with the methods of
teaching vocabulary. I had 40 minutes to test students in grade 4 to survey and
classify the students. The following chart will show the result:
Grade The numbers Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
Fail
of students
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(F)
4
78
0
17 = 22% 32 =
22= 28% 7 = 9%
41%
According to the survey result, I have classified the students and
immediately applied the methods and experiences which I accumulated over the
years to improve the teaching and learning quality.
3. THE SOLUSION
According to the present situation in English classes at my school.
Learning vocabulary is so difficult for all grades from 3 to 5. To improve this
situation, I would like to present some techniques for teaching vocabulary and
7

elicit the strategies of teaching vocabulary for primary students which I have
researched and applied quite successfully at my school.
3.1. Vocabulary presentation
“By presentation we mean those pre-planned lesson stages in which
learners are taught pre-selected vocabulary items.” (Thornbury, 2002, p 75)
Firstly, we should consider how many words should be presented during
the lesson. This is closely connected with several factors:
- The level of the pupils – beginners, intermediate etc.
- Their familiarity with the words – have they come across these words or
are they completely new?
- words difficulty – are the words abstract, are they easily pronounced,
can we find similar words in the learner’s native language etc.?
- can the words be easily demonstrated?
- shall we use realia or anything that the pupils can become familiar with?
- can pictures be used to elicit vocabulary?
After the teacher chooses what items to teach, he or she should follow
certain guidelines. In my opinion, this includes teaching the vocabulary "in
spoken form first" to prevent students from pronouncing the words in the form
they are written, placing the new items in context, and revising them.
A number of techniques can be adopted to present new vocabulary items.
Some techniques are more popular and more often used than others. Also it is up
to the teacher which techniques he or she decides to use but always the
effectiveness of teaching should be considered. I think every teacher tends to use
and prefers some technique that he or she finds interesting. And of course there
are techniques that we as teachers try to avoid. There are techniques that are
particularly appropriate for certain types of words – for example actions can be
explained through pantomime. Another factor that is worth considering is the
age of the learners. Younger ones react quite well when we show them concrete
illustrations, the older ones can manage pretty well abstract explanations or even
definitions.

The presentation of new vocabulary can be classified for example
according to verbal and visual techniques. Among visual techniques we can find
pictures - flashcards, photographs and magazine pictures, wall charts, posters,
blackboard drawings, word pictures, several realia 20 that teachers can hold up
or point to. Mime, action and gestures can be used especially for explaining
actions and times. Learners can label pictures or objects or perform an action.
Verbal techniques consist of using illustrative situations, descriptions, synonyms
and antonyms, collocations, scales, and using various forms of definition: for
example, definition by demonstration (visual definition), definition by
abstraction, contextual definitions, and definition by translation. Explanation can
become extremely difficult especially with beginner levels.

8


Another way that can be used is translation. This technique is not used
much recently, even though it is quick and easy but can be very discouraging for
learners. They cannot interact with the words. Words can be organized into sets,
subclasses and subcategories often aided by visual presentation. Translation is
one of the traditional ways of explaining the meaning of words. It could be done
by the teacher or with using a dictionary. It has its advantages but also
disadvantages. Using this technique, learners can learn how to use dictionaries.
Most of the young learners have never used a dictionary before so it is a need to
teach them to use dictionaries first. They have to be told there are two parts –
English-Czech and Czech English. Then they have to be told about the
alphabetical order and about other things they can find there. In my opinion it is
good to use both picture dictionaries and classical dictionaries where they find
the meaning with young learners. Teachers can prepare quite interesting lesson
where the learners learn how to use dictionaries.
3.2. Be realistic

Nowadays, teachers can come across many language teaching ideas and
techniques. There are many of them in circulation that it is quite easy to get
carried away. We draw pictures, cut paper into small pieces, draw flashcards,
make crosswords etc. and we do it even at midnight. We want to be flexible,
creative, sensible, we want to praise the children as much as possible but on the
other hand we want to be realistic and, very honestly, our expectations are
sometimes very high. And we hope it will be worthwhile. But sometimes
something goes wrong. Language classrooms are noisy; there are at least fifteen
pupils – usually even more. The classes with high number of students put
exceptional demands on teacher’s preparation for the lesson and there is
obviously a requirement of larger classrooms too. Quite often the children are
not “angels”. We encourage them to interact, be active, creative, independent.
This of course leads to the fact the children will become silly and they will
really enjoy it. There are teachers who would never do such activities again. And
their lessons then turn to be boring. “We need to be realistic in our expectations
of ourselves and the learners. ... It does not mean, for example, we should reject
the idea of pair work because our classes are big, or not very able, or poorly
motivated. On the contrary, being realistic should mean taking realities into
account in such a way that good things can still happen.” (Halliwell, 1992, p 19)
After every lesson we should ask ourselves whether the lesson was productive or
unproductive and we should go back to our objectives and aims. We should
evaluate the lesson ourselves. Or if we have an observer in the lesson, we should
discuss it with him/her.
3.2.1. Choosing activities
It is up to the teacher mostly to choose the right activity. This is not easy
and teachers should spend really quality time to think about this. It needs to be
considered well. Some language activities can stir a class. Thinking about the
positive way of the word “stir”, it means these activities will wake up the class,
9

warm them up. Of course, there are activities that have the opposite effect. They
may seem to settle the pupils. Before the lesson is planned, there should be
considered what kind of activities should be chosen knowing the effect of them.
Activities that can stir the class are, for example, oral work, games, and
competitions. Another aspect we should think about is activities which engage
children’s minds and which keep them physically occupied.
We should not forget context developing activities. “If we are to help the
learners acquire independent second language lexicons, we need to highlight the
importance of the context in which the language naturally occurs. Once the idea
of context playing a decisive role in the choice of language is firmly established,
we can begin to introduce varieties of the language used in different contexts.
Many course books provide learners with plenty of opportunities to develop
their own context for the language presented, for example activities like “odd
one out, filling-in exercises, dialogues” etc”.
Another factor that teachers should bear in their minds is to keep the
lessons simple. We often try to make our lessons varied. This is good but can
lead to misunderstanding. The lesson can be varied by doing lots of activities on
different topics. But this can mean we may produce a lesson which is a disaster,
too many activities and changing the activities all the time can destroy the lesson
well. The children’s minds have to jump from one topic to another with not
much time to let things sink in effectively. We should realize some important
things.
- “We will not help the children to develop their capacity to concentrate if
we jump inconsequentially from one topic to the next.
- There are ways of varying the oral work so that it is making different
demands on the children and therefore feels different even when the topic
remains the same.” (Halliwell, 1992, p 27)
Variation does not only mean changing the topics and materials but also
the change of work we do. Variation comes in the forms of activity as Halliwell

states. Using different methods and ways of teaching should become a regular
part of our lessons. We can reuse materials all the time, we can come up with
new things but always the activities should be simple in principle. Then they can
transfer to different topics and situations. “Because you use them regularly you
will quickly get to know the best way to set them up with your classes. Because
the classes know them, they will take to them easily when they appear.... They
can become truly the core of your language teaching.” (Halliwell, 1992, p 38)
3.2.2. The role of fun and games in the lessons
“By ´fun and games´ I mean all those activities that we loosely think of as
involving play and enjoyment. Singing, clapping hands, chanting rhymes,
solving puzzles, drawing, coloring, model-making, games.” (Rixon, 1995, p 33)
It is evident that young learners learn through play much easier and they
enjoy it more. This is quite a natural way for them to learn. They play and love
to play. In playing together we can see elements of interaction and during
10


interacting the learners develop language skills. Learning can be absorbed really
well. Quite often the learners do not realize they are learning. Fun and games
should have an important role in the children’s education. The language learnt
by heart can often be a part of the activities. For example, commands for the
games can be remembered quite easily. Many games can be looked at as drill
exercises but they have an added fun and competition element. For example, a
game that works like this is well-known game “Simon says”.
What is a game? “A game is played when one or more players compete or
co-operate for playoffs according to a set of rules.” (Jones, 1986) (Jones in
Teaching English to Children) “A true game is one that frees the spirit. It allows
of no cares but those fictitious ones engendered by the game itself...” (Opie, I.
And J., 1969) (Opie, I and J. in Teaching English to Children) Games are
activities with rules and goals. Khan states that the achievement of these goals

signals the end of the game. Children are very often concerned with controlling
whether everybody follows the rules and whether they are not broken. Piaget
(1967) (Piaget in Teaching English to Children) saw children’s games as, ´the
most admirable social institutions´. (Khan, 1995, p 143)
It is obvious that the games need to be motivating. “For young learners,
motivation deriving from the factors outside the classroom, such as parental and
social attitudes, is likely to be weaker than that created by events in the
classroom itself. Children need to be involved and even excited in order to learn
effectively.” (Khan, 1995) Games may focus on oral or written part of the
language; they offer a vast selection of activities.
Language can also be picked as a result of an enjoyable activity. “Telling
stories to students can result in natural language acquisition on their part.”
(Rixon, 1995, p 37) Teachers can tell stories the learners are familiar with in
their own language. Then the learners are able to follow it better. Again, the
stories need to be picked carefully, the level of the learners needs to be
considered and the teacher has to investigate time into preparation. Teachers can
come up 25 with a simple version of the story. Appreciated story can be The
Story of the Big Enormous Turnip.
Several activities can allow and involve more creative use of the
language. New sentences and activities can be produced by the children
themselves. Songs are most grateful way for this. The learners can make up new
verses, and then they can be extended. Example - a song “This is the way, I ...”
or “If you are happy and you know it...”.
As said above games and fun are important parts of the lesson. A play is in the
essential nature of the child. There are many possibilities for adapting games we
can find. The teachers should not forget the values of games and fun activities in
the lessons. All this can be applied to teaching vocabulary too. Teachers can
“play” with vocabulary while teaching it. It is very appreciated by the learners.
3.3. Practical part
11

In my final thesis I have decided to focus on teaching English vocabulary
to young learners - age group 7-11. I would like to enclose several lesson plans
and also reflect on some observations from the theoretical part. I tried out all the
activities described here during my teacher’s career.
It is evident that some learners have been learning the English language
for several years, some have just started. Most of the classes use the course book
Cambridge English for Schools by A. Littlejohn and D. Hicks. The younger ones
do not use any course books, we work with handouts that they get from me and
place them into a folder. These handouts are given to them so that their parents
know what we learned in the lesson and can practice during the week. The
activities have been piloted in at least 10 classes; most of them consisted of 10 15 pupils at the age of 5 – 11. Most of the pupils only started with learning
English in the 4th grade, some started in the kindergarten.
All the activities reflect the level of the learners, their age and their
abilities. I always have to consider that in each class there are more children and
some with learning disabilities. I try to use English in the classes as much as
possible and I want their reactions in English too, of course if possible. I have to
admit that it is a lot of fun to teach these children, they do not have almost any
troubles with motivation and as I have said in the theoretical part, they still want
to learn.
3.3.1. Lesson plan 1
Topic = My family
* Aims:
- to get to know the learners´ families, the learners know them well so I
suppose they will be very active and will want to share
- The learners get to know my family
- To revise some basic terminology and find out what the learners know
- After the lesson the learners will know at least 5 new words
* Aids:

- Pictures and photos, a family poster, pieces of paper, a story book, color
pencils, handouts
* Assumptions:
- Learners know each other and their families
- They are ready to share and are ready to play
1. Talking about families:
Today we are going to talk about families. Do you live in a family? Who
belongs to your family? Do you have any brothers or sisters? What is your
brother’s / sister’s name? How often do you see your grandmother and
grandfather?... Ok, now I will talk about my family. (On the black board there is
a family poster all the time, so that I can point to it anytime. While talking, I use
pictures of my family and point to the right person and repeat who he/she is. For
example, “this is my daughter Kristyna”. I repeat the word “daughter”. And so
on.)
12


2. Working with their pictures:
(The learners were supposed to bring to the class pictures of their family
members. I have to count on the fact, they forgot, so I distribute either my
pictures or pictures from magazines.) Now, it is your time to show me who is
who. Is this your mother? Is this your sister? Is this your grandfather? After
some time we will play a game. Now, we are going to play a game and the
winner gets a reward! I will say a sentence, for example:” Show me your
mother!” And you have to show me your mother’s picture. After each sentence I
make the learners say whose picture they are showing me. So I ask. Who is this?
Your... mother, father, sister etc.
3. Reading and coloring:
I distribute the handouts (Appendix I) that I have prepared for them and
the color pencils and the learners will color the people. While doing this I read a

story about a family from a book. At the end we sum up the lesson and I tell
them that next lesson we will play a family pexeso. Before they leave the
classroom, they all have to tell me a “password” to leave. I stand behind the
door and as they leave I ask them for example for the word “maminka”. They
have to say “mother” and can leave.
* Evaluation:
This lesson is designed for students of grade 3. In this lesson I decided to
use one of the visual methods that I talked about in the theoretical part. Learners
have a chance to hear and see. In this lesson I decided to use the TPR method
too, the children can come to black board and point to the right person on the
poster. I let them jump while showing me their family members; they put their
hands above their heads etc. This lesson can be varied in many ways, again
according to the age and level of the learners and also depending on the fact how
long the lesson is – 40 minutes. But as I have said in the theoretical part, too
much variety can spoil the lesson so this is very important factor that should be
considered.
What needs to be said here is that during this activity the children are able to
learn a phrase “This is my mother/father etc.” Because this phrase is repeated in
the lesson many times, the children are able to remember it without any
explanation and real “learning”. It is very natural for them to learn this phrase.
3.3.2. Lesson plan 2
Topic = Colors
* Aims:
- to get to know the learners´ favorite colors, to get to know how they feel
about colors
- the learners get to know the names of the colors
- to revise some basic terminology and find out what the learners know
- after the lesson the learners will know at least 7 new words including the
word rainbow
* Aids:

13


- Pictures, a color poster, pieces of paper, a story book, color pencils,
picture of rainbow, color chalk * Assumptions:
- Learners probably already know the colors
- They are ready to play
- Color dictation should be easy and fun for them
1. Talking about colors:
I will say several words and you tell me what I am speaking about. We
will do it as a game called “silent post”. The very first person who knows will
tell me and then we will send it to others and the last person says that outloud.
Ok, listen up! Black, white, green, blue... Well done! Now you know we will
talk about colors today. Do you any colors? Which one is your favorite? What
does black mean for you? How do you feel about yellow? What does it evoke? I
will tell you a story about rainbow... (While we are talking, I put the poster on
the wall. Every time I call out some color, I take a color chalk and draw a big
circle on the board. I also point out to the right color on the poster.)
2. Working with “colors”:
Let’s take your exercise books now and you can see what I draw on the
board. I want you to do the same. But to each color you will write down the
name. You need to be careful about the spelling!... Now when you have finished,
I will pick up different color pencils and you can shout out the name of the color.
Let’s start now... (After each shout I repeat the color after them so that they have
a chance to hear the pronunciation well.) Well done, now we will write a
“dictation”. I know you do not like dictations but this one is going to be
different. I say:´Vezmi si yellow a nakresli sun. Potom si vezmi black a nakresli
three birds.´Well, are you ready?I do not want you to shout or look to your
friend’s paper. Let’s start now...
3. Finishing up the topic:

(After the learners finished their drawings, they swap the drawings with
their partners and we check it together. Usually they do really well and are
happy they were successful with their “dictation”.) Well, now exchange your
drawings with your partner and let’s check it... Well done, children! Now you
know the English names for colors. Since we still have time left, I have a special
reward for you. We will play a game. You can see this classroom is full of
colors. I will shout out a name of the color and you must run to touch this color.
You can touch a chair, a blackboard, your friend’s trousers, anything. So, are you
ready? Let’s start... After some minutes the learners get back to their seats and
we repeat all the colors once more.
* Evaluation:
This lesson is designed for 3rd or 4th grade learners. I have to count on the fact
most of the learners already know the colors from previous classes. Therefore
this lesson cannot be boring so that even these children would be able to be
active. Again, in this lesson I used one of the visual methods and also TPR. The
learners can hear, see and touch and later they can run in the classrooms. I think
14


using TPR is very productive and learners can learn and remember it better. I
have to be careful because the learners try to write down the names of the colors.
After they have finished that, I usually check the spelling in their exercise
books. This topic is quite easy and children have a lot of fun with this. This
lesson can be varied in many ways again, as I have mentioned in lesson plan 1.
3.3.3. Lesson plan 3
Topic = Animals
* Aims:
- To get to know the basic animals in English
- To revise some basic terminology and find out what the learners know
- After the lesson the learners will know at least 5 new words

* Aids:
- Pictures, an animal poster, color pencils, handouts, a tape recorder
* Assumptions:
- Learners like animals
- Learners will probably know some English names of animals
- They are ready to share and listen
1. Talking about animals, brainstorming:
Well, children, I will start up the lesson in a little bit different way than
usually. I will write something on the blackboard and you have to find out a
hidden word in it. You cannot talk, the winner gets a price! If you think you
know, just put your hand above your head.
WHAT
SONG
PICTURE
MOTHER
CARD
LOVE
CH R I S T M A S
In these words you can find 1 word, the topic of today’s lesson... Well
done! The word is ANIMALS! And the winner is ……..? Here is your price!
What is it? Yes, it is a toy dog. So as you can see, we are going to talk about
animals today. What animals do you know? What is your favorite animal? Have
you ever been to the zoo? Do you like big animals? Are you scared of any? Do
you know any exotic animals? Do you have an animal at home? (During this
talking I write down on the blackboard all the animals the learners name and
distribute pictures of animals among the children. I get ready the tape recorder.)
2. Listening:
Now, we will listen to a tape recorder. You are going to hear several
sounds of animals and I want you to write their names on a piece of paper. You
will hear 5 sounds and I think you will know all of them. To make it easier I

distributed a set of pictures among you and you will hear all these animals. So,
you can just write down number to each picture. Do you understand? (The
15


learners are ready to listen now.) Well done, you are very good! Now we will
listen again but this time you do not have the pictures. You 34 must guess which
animals you hear. (This is a little bit more difficult but the sounds are of wellknown animals so the children will not have any troubles with it.)
3. Project:
Now, imagine you are going to take a friend of yours to the zoo soon and
you want to give him/her a tour. So you need to know some animals and also
something about them. So now, make groups of 4 and each group has to prepare
a poster. You can either draw or glue animals, you can write about them – what
they eat, where they live, anything you like. If you need help, you can either ask
me or, because you can work with dictionaries, you can use them. (Usually the
learners want to be creative and work on their own; they do not need my help.
Also usually this activity takes longer time, so I let them work in the next lesson
too.
* Evaluation:
This lesson is designed for 3rd or 4th grade. Right at the beginning of the
lesson the learners have a chance to brainstorm. Again, everybody is included,
each child can talk and I pay attention to this. If somebody remains quiet, I ask
questions – Lan, do you know any animals?, Nam, what is your favorite animal?
etc. Through brainstorming, the learners usually remember at least 1 new word.
Then they have to guess the hidden word, which is not as easy for them. Of
course, if nobody is able to guess this word, I help them. This is very active
time, therefore after this activity I need to calm them down and we listen to the
sounds of animals. All the sounds are of known animals, so the children do not
usually have any troubles with this. Then I let them be creative and let them
work on the project. I do not tell them which animals they have to choose or

what exactly needs to be written there or how exactly it has to be done. I usually
have examples with me in the lesson, so I can show them so that they get ideas.
This lesson can be varied in many ways and can be done with younger learners
too. Probably the hidden word would be too difficult for them, so the teacher
would have to come up with a different activity. The topic is also very grateful
and from my personal experience the children always have a lot of fun with it.
3.3.4. Lesson plan 4
Topic = The Weather
* Aims:
- To understand the text about weather
- To find out the odd words - to revise some basic terminology
- After the lesson the learners will know 5 new words
* Aids:
- Reading texts, flashcards, a poem Assumptions:
- Learners already know some weather terminology
- The learners usually are not as willing to talk so I have to ask right and
direct questions
16


1. Talking about weather:
Good morning, children! (I look very tired and I am not happy. I assume
the children will ask me what is wrong with me. If not, I have to say it myself.) I
am not happy today, I am tired and I would like to be at home in my bed with a
hot cup of tea and my favorite book. This is all because of the weather. Do you
like this kind of weather? What do you like to do in this kind of weather? What
is your favorite season? Why? Do you prefer hot weather to cold weather? etc.
2. Reading:
Now, we will read a short text about the weather and then we will talk
about it. You will have to answer some questions too. I will write the questions

on the blackboard. I distribute the texts and I read first. The children just listen.
After that, each child reads a line. We talk about the text and after that they
answer the questions all by themselves.
3. Poem:
Well, because you have been working hard, now it is time to learn a short
poem. I will write it on the blackboard. When this is done, we start learning the
poem. The learners can see the whole poem on the blackboard, I read it out loud
and then we read it together. Every time we read it, I erase 1 word, so that the
children would have to memorize it.
4. Odd one out:
Thank you very much for your work today and so that you can practice
these new words at home, I have to give you homework. You all know this type
of exercise, so all you have to do is to find the odd word out. This won’t take
you long. So, enjoy it and see you next lesson. Bye bye!
* Evaluation:
This activity is designed for 5th grade. In the theoretical part I talk about
CLT as a way of teaching vocabulary to young learners. This lesson makes use
of it. This lesson is done completely in English and the communicative
competence is highly encouraged and used here. I have to admit this is not easy
but I as a teacher have to adjust my vocabulary and talking to the learners´ level.
I have to be really well prepared for this lesson.
The lesson does not have to seem interesting to the learners at first but
later they start to like it. Working with a text is important for them, looking for
information is another way to learn the language. At the end they memorize the
poem by heart and I have to confess that 99% of the class always remembers the
poem. Usually next lesson I go on in this topic, I work with the learned
vocabulary and I build on it.
4. The efficiency of the research
After applying successfully the methods and procedures to teach
vocabulary, the students’ improvement in pronunciation can be seen clearly. The

result in the first semester of the school year 2014-2015 shows the increase in
the percentage of students who can remember vocabulary and use them
correctly. The significance of the methods of teaching vocabulary can be seen
17


when examining the percentage of students with a reading age above their
chronological age since the program’s implementation. The number of students
assigned to be improving their skills. Comparing with the result survey at the
beginning, I find that the recent result is better than the old one. The following
chart will show the result:
Grade The numbers Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
Fail
of students
(A)
(B)
(C)
(D)
(F)
4
78
16=20.5 32 = 41% 26=
4= 5.2%
0
%
33.3%
In conclusion, the changing of the students’ learning vocabulary has

been a resounding success. The consistency and clarity it has afforded in
teaching vocabulary for primary students has been worth the time and effort. My
students are capable and ready for explicit teaching of vocabulary and are highly
motivated by their success in learning English.
C. CONCLUSION
In my final thesis, as the title prompts, I deal with the subject of teaching
vocabulary to young learners. When teaching young learners, the teacher has to
be strong at the knowledge but also needs to connect with the children. They
need to feel the teacher likes them and wants to teach them something new. As
said in the theoretical part, the results are seen easily and the learners at this age
are very grateful when someone invests time in them. The teacher has to know
his or her pupils. It is important to understand their needs, their expectations
with which each child comes to the lessons, also ways how to motivate them and
last but not least their learning style. All this the teacher is learning while
working with the learners. The teachers get to know their families, their hobbies
and interests and just basic information about the learners. Also, especially
nowadays, we as teachers have to consider the learning disabilities too. There
are more and more children with these problems and we as teachers need to help
them to enjoy the lessons and help them to learn too. The teacher needs to
understand their differences, their cultural and family background etc.
In the Theoretical Part I have mentioned some characteristics of young
learners. I wanted to show that working with them offers many possibilities and
we can use many methods and approaches. During my teacher’s training I have
learned that it is important to learn about their personalities and also to get to
know them. Every learner is different and we need to view each person
individually. I also talk about vocabulary – what it is, how it can be taught,
which words should be taught and ways that vocabulary can be presented.
In the Practical Part, there are several lesson plans. From the theory, I
tried to show how some methods and approaches can be used in the lessons
while teaching young learners. I also tried to show that variety is important

18


because young learners get bored if they do the same activities in the same way
all the time. The Practical Part proved what I mentioned in the theory.
I have to admit that in practice I tried out all the lesson plans and it worked well.
Sometimes, some activity took longer time so the learners were assigned
homework.
The focus of this thesis is the personality of young learners and teaching
vocabulary to them. Testing and assessment will be the theme of my next future
research.
This research investigated the methods of teaching vocabulary for primary
students, lesson delivery and sequence of content and learning expectations used
by teachers of English at Dong Ninh Primary School. This research brings
broader understanding of strategies for teaching vocabulary to students whose
first language is not English. The rationale for the study stems from the need to
gain greater international perspective of the teaching of English learners. Results
reflect analysis of classroom observation field notes of 45 students of class 4A.
D. RECOMMENDATIONS
1. To the leaders
To enhance the capacity of teachers in teaching English, the leaders
should organize the training courses for the English teachers regularly. Through
the training courses, teachers have the opportunity to exchange and learn their
experiences.
2. Acknowledgments
I am grateful the experts of Dong Son Education and Training Office, my
colleagues at Dong Ninh Primary School, for providing helpful comments for
the research.
I also would like to encourage Vietnamese teachers to have more

confidence and experience in teaching reading comprehension even though we
are not native speakers of English.

Dong Son Education and
Training Office

Dong Son, April 16th 2015
I swear this thesis is written by me without
copying content from others.
Written by
Pham Van Tu

19


References
1. Vietnamese Educational Publisher - Tieng Anh 4 (2009). Ministry of
Education and Training.
2. BRUMFIT, Christopher; MOON, Jayne; TONGUE, Ray: Teaching English to
Children. From Practice to Principle. Longman Group Essex, 1995. 309 s.
ISBN- 0-17-556889-8.
3. DOFF, Adrian. Teach English: A training course for teachers. Cambridge
University Press, 1988. 345 s. ISBN 0- 18-34232-9.
4. HALLIWELL, Susan: Teaching English in the Primary Classrooms. UK:
Longman Group Essex, 1992. 169 s. ISBN-0-582-07109-7.
5. HARMER, Jeremy. The Practice of English Language Teaching. UK:
Longman, 2005, 370 s. ISBN 0-582-40385-5.
6. KHAN, Julia: Using games in teaching English to young learners. In:
BRUMFIT, Christopher; MOON, Jayne; TONGUE, Ray (edd.). Teaching
English to Children. Longman Group Essex, 1995, s. 142-157.

7. REDMAN, Stuart: A Way with Words. Vocabulary Development Activities for
Learners of English.Book 2. Cambridge University Press, 1991. 124 s. ISBN-0521-35919-8.
8. REDMAN, Stuart: A Way with Words. Vocabulary Development Activities for
Learners of English. Book 3. Cambridge University Press, 1991. 124 s. ISBN-0521-35921-X.
9. RIXON, Shelagh: Young Learners of English: Some Research Perspectives.
Longman Essex, 1999. 110 s. ISBN-0-582-42082-2.
10. SCOTT, Wendy A.; YTREBERG, Lisbeth H: Teaching English to Children.
Essex: Longman, 1991
11. THORNBURY, Scott: How to teach vocabulary. Longman Essex, 2002. 185
s. ISBN-0-582-42966-8. 11. UR, Penny. A Course in Language Teaching:
Practice and theory.UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 375 s. ISBN-052144994-4.
12. WRIGHT, Tony. Roles of Teachers & Learners.UK: Oxford University
Press, 1996. 160 s. ISBN 0-19-437133-6. 44
Other resources :
1.
2. />3.

20


INDEX
A: INTRODUCTION
1. REASON FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC
2. THE PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH
3. RESEARCH TASKS
4. RESEARCH TIME AND LOCATION
B. CONTENT
1 . RATIONALE
2. THE PRESENT SITUATION OF THE PROBLEM
3. THE SOLUSION

3.1. Vocabulary presentation
3.2. Be realistic
3.3. Practical part
4. The efficiency of the research
C. CONCLUSION
D. RECOMMENDATIONS

Page
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
6
7
8
9
11
17
18
19

21