TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY IN GRADES 10, 11

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Content

Page

A. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................... 1
I. Reason for choosing the topic...................................................................................................... 1
1. Theoretical basis................................................................................................................................. 1
2. Basis in reality..................................................................................................................................... 1
II. RESEARCH PURPOSES............................................................................................................ 1
III. RESEARCH OBJECTS.............................................................................................................. 1
IV. RESEARCH METHOD.............................................................................................................. 1
V. STRUCTURE OF TOPIC............................................................................................................ 1
B. CONTENT........................................................................................................................................... 1
CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH TOPIC......................................................... 1
1.1. General principles of the vocabulary teaching............................................................... 1
1.2. Steps of introducing new words............................................................................................. 2
1.3. Tips to introduce new words.................................................................................................... 3
1.3.1. Visuals............................................................................................................................................. 3
1.3.2. Mime................................................................................................................................................ 3
1.3.3. Realia:.............................................................................................................................................. 3
1.3.4. Synonym / Antonym................................................................................................................ 3
1.3.5. Translation..................................................................................................................................... 3
1.3.6. Situation or explanation......................................................................................................... 3
1.3.7. Example.......................................................................................................................................... 3
1.4. Techniques of checking vocabulary..................................................................................... 4
1.4.1. Rub out and remember............................................................................................................ 4
1.4.2. Slap the board.............................................................................................................................. 4
1.4.3. What and Where......................................................................................................................... 5
1.4.4. Matching......................................................................................................................................... 5
1.4.5. Jumbled words............................................................................................................................ 6

1.4.6. Bingo................................................................................................................................................ 6
1.4.7. Ordering.......................................................................................................................................... 6
CHAPTER 2: SPECIFIC RESEARCH CONTENT............................................................ 7
2.1. Current status of teaching vocabulary in Ethnic Minority Boarding High
School............................................................................................................................................................ 7
2.2. Experiment and experimental results.................................................................................. 8
2.2.1. Experiment.................................................................................................................................... 8
2.2.2. Experimental results.............................................................................................................. 10
2.3. Experience...................................................................................................................................... 10
C. CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 13
REFERENCE BOOKS...................................................................................................................... i
FORM OF INVESTIGATING CURRENT STATUS OF TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY
IN ETHNIC MINORITY BOARDING HIGH
SCHOOL................................................. ii


A. INTRODUCTION
I. Reason for choosing the topic
1. Theoretical basis
As we all know, 2010 - 2011 is the fifth academic year that whole
education sector implements a “two zero” campaign with four contents to
improve the quality of education, renovate textbooks, renovate teaching methods
on a comprehensive basis to develop student’s positive quality, initiative,
creativity, consider student as center. How the students understand the lesson,
acquire the lesson the fastest, how to have exciting class, attract students to help
them to master the lesson on the premises are always concerns for each teacher
in general and English teacher in particular. Especially, English becomes a
popular language all over the world at present, the aim of learning English is to
be able to use fluently to communicate. To use English, learners must have rich
vocabulary. Therefore, at present one of the ultimate needs is that teachers have

to improve methods to help students have rich vocabulary to meet the
communication needs.
2. Basis in reality
In the process of teaching English textbooks in grade 10 and 11, I realize
that there are still some inadequacies such as the number of new words in each
lesson is too much while the teaching of vocabulary is only a part (maximum ¼)
of the duration of a lesson, so teachers don’t have enough time to provide all, if
you try to provide the full amount of new words in the lesson, you will not have
enough time to perform other activities. In addition, content of lesson’s topic is
difficult and abstract that also makes teaching words harder. Some teachers still
provide passive and inefficient new words by using mother language to
translate, so students aren’t interested in studying. That leads to the fact that the
majority of students rarely remember new words.
Chapter 1 is an overview of the research topic and chapter 2 shows the
specific research contents. The conclusion part shows contribution of the topic
and makes some suggestions.
II. RESEARCH PURPOSES
III. RESEARCH OBJECTS
IV. RESEARCH METHOD
V. STRUCTURE OF TOPIC
B. CONTENT
CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH
TOPIC 1.1. General principles of the vocabulary teaching
In order to bring into play the positive quality, initiative, creativity of the
students, the teachers need to organize the teaching process in the direction of
activating the learners' activities. At that time, the teacher is the only person who
transfers the knowledge to the students, the students want to comprehend that
knowledge then they have to learn themselves by their activities. Therefore,
when teaching vocabulary, teachers need to master the principles:
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*Teach cover of the language
Firstly, the teacher reads vocabulary for the students to listen. The teacher
always has to start with listening activity. Then, teacher provides the spelling of
the word by writing the word on the board. Finally, teacher provides the
transcription and accentuation of words.
*Teach the meaning of the word
The principle of providing English vocabulary is to make students discover
the meaning of the word without using the mother language. So students don’t
learn vocabulary passively, don’t forget words that they study the very next day.
There are many tips to teach students to understand the meaning of words such
as using real objects, pictures, examples, explanations, ...
*Teach the grammar of the word
When teaching the grammar of the word, teacher notes that the past or past
participle form of the irregular verb, special form when switching to plural
nouns and other special cases.
*Teach the use of words
For student to use the correct word, the instructor needs to show that which
words can combine together, how to use words in specific contexts and can ask
questions for student to use new words to answer.
Generally, when teaching, if teacher guarantees the four principles above,
student will be provided all the necessary vocabulary elements. However, to
teach a specific word, it is necessary to follow specific steps which will be
presented in detail as follows.
1.2. Steps of introducing new words
To introduce a new word the instructor should carry out the following
process:
First, teacher uses the appropriate skills to elicit and provide meaning of the
word, then introduces the word in English and pronounces that word three times

(require clear pronunciation). Next, teacher asks whole class to repeat in chorus (23 times), then calls some students to check (2-3 students) and corrects wrong
pronunciation. After student can read the word, teacher writes new words on the
board and provides elements as stress, transcription, part of speech.... then
checks the meaning of the word in Vietnamese. Finally, teacher asks student to
write words into notebook.
Example: Introduce “Detective” (English 10 – unit 13).
Firstly, teacher uses the example to introduce the word: "The adventure of
Sherlock home is a detective film. So what does detective man mean?". Student
answers: "Trinh tham". Teacher introduces the word which teacher want to teach
in English: "So "Trinh tham" in English is detective." Then teacher reads 3
times, asks whole class to repeat and then calls 3 students to re-read the word to
check student’s pronunciation and fix wrong errors if any. Teacher writes new
words on the board and shows students that stress of the word is on the second
syllable and part of speech is an adjective. Next, teacher asks questions to test
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the meaning of the word: "What does detective man mean?". Student answers:
"Trinh tham". Finally, teacher requires the whole class to write the word which
students have just learned in the notebook.
1.3. Tips to introduce new words
1.3.1. Visuals
1.3.2. Mime
1.3.3. Realia:
Teacher brings the real thing to class to introduce to students.

Example 1: Green bean
(English 11 – Unit 8: Celebration)

Example 2: Lucky money

(English 11 – Unit 8: Celebration)

1.3.4. Synonym / Antonym
a. Synonym
Teacher uses synonym to explain to students
Example: Decrease (English 11 – Unit 7:
Population) Decrease (v) = fall (v)
b. Antonym
Teacher uses antonym to explain to students.
Example: Increase (English 11 – Unit 7: Population)
Decrease (v) >< Increase (v)
1.3.5. Translation
Teacher translates the meaning of the word into Vietnamese for the students
Example: Conservation (English 10 – Unit 10: Conservation)
Conservation (N) = Su bao ton
1.3.6. Situation or explanation
Teacher gives the situation or explanation for the students to guess the
meaning of the word.
Example: Champion (English 10 – Unit 14: The World cup)
Teacher: You play a game. Then you win. You will be the champion. What
does the champion mean?
Student: Nha vo dich.
1.3.7. Example
Teacher gives example for the students to guess the meaning of the word.
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Example: “Cartoon film” (English 10 – unit 13): Tom and Jerry, Micky
mouse
Each technique above has its own strengths, however while teaching,

teacher needs to be flexible in combining them to explain words as quickly as
possible, not to waste time and help students remember new words easily and
effectively.
1.4. Techniques of checking vocabulary
In addition to the application of techniques to introduce words, to improve
the efficiency of teaching vocabulary, teacher also has to apply the techniques of
checking vocabulary as in diagram 2:
Jumbled words
Rub out and remember

Bingo
Techniques of

Ordering

checking
vocabulary

Matching

Slap the board
What and Where

Diagram 2: Techniques of checking vocabulary
1.4.1. Rub out and remember
Teacher introduces the new word into a list on the board, writes the
Vietnamese meaning next to each word. Then students copy the new words into
their notebooks and fold them. Teacher deletes a word and asks students:
"What's this in English?". Students give the answer. When all words were
deleted, teacher requires students to read all deleted words based on Vietnamese

meaning. If there is time, teacher calls students to the board and asks students
rewrite all new words which student learned. This technique helps students
memorize new words as soon as they are in class.
Example: English 10 – unit 13: Film and cinema – Part A: Reading
……………………….: century
…………………….: existence
……………………….: a series
…………………….: character
……………………….: motion
…………………….: spread
1.4.2. Slap the board
Teacher writes new words on the board but not in order. If teacher wants to
know that whether students can remember or not, teacher can write Vietnamese
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meaning or hang pictures on the board. Teacher calls two groups, each group
consists of 5 or 6 people to the board. Teacher chooses one student from each
group, distance from these students to the board is equal. Teacher reads clearly a
word in Vietnamese, students must run quickly on the board and hit the
corresponding English words. Person who hits faster and more accurately will
score point for team. Teacher continues to choose other pairs. In this technique,
if teacher reads English words, student will identify new words through
listening. If teacher uses Vietnamese meaning or pictures, teacher can check
whether student can remember the meaning of words.
Example: English 11 – unit 12: The Asian Games – Part C: Listening

Bea

Earth

connection

m

Live
transmissio
n

Freestype
swimmin
g

1.4.3. What and Where
Teacher writes new words into circles on the board but not in order. When
all new words are on the board, teacher asks student to repeat new words in the
circle. Teacher deletes a word but does not delete the circle. Teacher requires
student to read again all words including deleted words by pointing to the empty
circle. This activity continues until there are no words on the board. If there is
time, teacher calls a student to the board to write down all the learned new
words. Teacher can give student mark. By using this technique, teacher can
check student’s ability of remembering new word.
Example: English 10 – unit 14: The World cup – Part A: Reading
Defeat

Trophy

Compete

Champion

Elimination games

Tournament

1.4.4. Matching
Teacher writes new words into a column on the left, writes definitions,
meaning of words, hangs or draws pictures in the right column. Teacher requires
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students to match the words to the definition, meaning, or pictures in the right
column.
Example: English 11 – Unit 10 nature in danger
a. pollutants
a. Phá hủy
b. co-exist
b. Các chất làm ô nhiễm
c. destroy
c. Cùng tồn tại
1.4.5. Jumbled words
Teacher encloses the cardboard on which new words are wrote but letters
aren’t in order. Teacher requires students to work in group. Group that writes words the fastest, the most
correctly, will get mark. Teacher will correct if there is wrong word. Whole class reads again the words.

Example: English 11 – unit 14: Recreation
cgaompurnsd

wrildeesns

lwearfatl

Selegnpi bga

sueloitd

edepersds

1.4.6. Bingo
Teacher draws a table of 6 cells on the board. Then teacher asks students to
copy any 6 new words in learned words into the table. Teacher reads new words.
If students hear word which has in the table, students will cross that word. If
student crosses all 6 words, he/she will say "bingo". Person who says "bingo"
first is the winner. This technique can be used to test and revise new words
taught in a lesson.
Example: English 10 – Unit 15: cities
Attract
Characterise
Finance
Located
Ice-free
Harbour
1.4.7. Ordering
Teacher writes new words on the board but not in order, students will copy
to notebook. Teacher reads a paragraph. Students number words according to
order of appearance. Teacher calls student to give the answer and reread the
paragraph to check.
Example: English 11 – Unit 12: The Asia Games – Part D: Writing
“To prepare for the 22th Sea Games, we had to do a lot of things. First of
all, we built My Dinh stadium and some more sport buildings. Next, we
upgraded National sports Centre and local stadiums. Then, we widened the

training areas and road to sports building. We also promote and advertised the
preparations for the Sea Games on the radio and TV. Besides, we recruited
volunteers to serve the Games. Finally, we held a competition to choose an
official song.”
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*Answer keys: Recruited (4)
Upgraded (1)

Promote (3)
Finally (5)
Official (6)
Widened (2)

CHAPTER 2: SPECIFIC RESEARCH CONTENT
2.1. Current status of teaching vocabulary in Ethnic Minority
Boarding High School
Ethnic Minority Boarding High School was established 48 years ago, has
achieved remarkable achievement in recent years. However, for English subject,
the achievement is not still high. English subject at the school has 5 teachers. To
find out current status of teaching vocabulary in the school and to ensure
objectivity, I conducted to investigate 4 remaining teachers of foreign language
group.
Firstly, I ask them to answer the following question: "When introducing vocabulary, teachers often write
on the board, then students will read or teachers introduce words before, then students will read and teachers
write on the board." This question is asked to investigate the teacher's vocabulary teaching process.

The results are as follows:
Process of teaching new Teach the reading, then Writing on the board,

words
write on the board
then teach the reading
Quantity
2
2
Table 1: Results of investigating process of teaching new words
The table above shows that only 2 teachers are teaching students how to
read before teaching the spelling. 2 remaining teachers write on the board first
and then students will read words.
Secondly, I ask the question "Teachers show how often they use tips to teach vocabulary by ticking the
following boxes." This question is asked to investigate how often teachers use tips of teaching vocabulary. I
attain the

following results:
Level

Frequently Sometimes

Rarely

Never

Techniques
Visuals
2
2
Mime
1
3

Realia
4
Synonym / antonym
2
2
Situation & explanation
3
1
Example
2
1
1
Translation
4
Table 2: Results of investigating how often teachers use tips of teaching
vocabulary
Through table 1 we can see that techniques for introducing vocabulary use
visual tools such as visuals (use picture or draw picture on the board), mime (use
expression, manner, and action) and realia (use real things) that aren’t used
frequently, rarely used or never used. Two teachers sometimes use visuals and
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two remaining teachers rarely use. Three people never use mime tool and only
one person rarely use mime tool. Realia tool is never used. Meanwhile, the
verbal technique of introducing vocabulary is used more frequently. The most
commonly used technique is: Translation (all 4 people use frequently), next is
situation and explanation (3 people use frequently and 1 remaining people
sometimes use), third is example (2 people use regularly) and finally is synonym
/ antonym (2 people use regularly, 2 remaining people sometimes use).

The third question to investigate the student’s study of the vocabulary in
class. The question is as follows: "Teachers indicate how often to check the
student’s study of vocabulary in class by ticking the following table." The
answer is as follows:
Idea
Frequently
Sometimes
Rarely
Never
Quantity
1
1
1
1
Table 3: Results of investigating how often to check the student’s study
of vocabulary in class
Table 2 shows that the level is mostly occasional and seldom. two people
sometimes check and one people rarely check. Only one teacher regularly
checks and still one person never checks
Thus, it can be seen that the application of techniques to teach vocabulary
at the Ethnic Minority Boarding High School is quite frequent. However there
are still some points to make good: firstly, 1/3 teacher still teaches vocabulary
according to method of writing words on the board and then teaching the
reading. Meanwhile the principle of teaching vocabulary is to teach the reading
before writing on the board. As well as students learn mother language, they
must start listening and then imitate and learn spelling. Secondly, when
introducing vocabulary, teacher still uses rarely techniques of introducing words
by visual tools while students are more likely to be attracted by visual tools.
Thirdly, in addition to teaching vocabulary, teachers do not often check student’s
study of vocabulary in the classroom. Once teacher check vocabulary right in

the classroom, students will remember more vocabularies and it is easier for the
students to re-learn vocabulary at home.
In short, in my opinion, if we can overcome the disadvantages above,
surely the results of studying vocabulary of the students in particular and the
results of learning English in general will be higher.
2.2. Experiment and experimental results
2.2.1. Experiment
To know if using skills of teaching vocabulary mentioned above in a
flexible way, whether student’s study quality can be improved or not, I
conducted experiment.
Firstly, I chose two classes with the same ability in four classes I was
assigned to teach: 11B and 11G. After that, I conducted to teach unit 15: Space
conquest part A: Reading in both classes with different vocabulary introduction.
In class 11G, I taught the new words as follows: I wrote word on the board first
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and then taught how to read words, the new words were mainly introduced by
translating into Vietnamese and I didn’t check student’s study of words in class.
In class 11B I taught student how to read word, then I wrote words on the board,
I used many different techniques to introduce vocabulary and used "rub out and
remember" to check again. Detail as follows:
In unit 15: Space conquest – A: Reading, there are following new
vocabulary that teacher needs to teach: Lift off, orbit, speed, uncertainty, tragic,
rename
*Introduce “lift off”
- Teacher shows pictures to the students and asks.
Teacher: What is it about?
Students: A spacecraft is being blasted off
Teacher: In English “blasted off” is lift off. Now listen to me Lift

off (three times). Now listen and repeat. Lift off (three times)
Students: Lift off (three times)
- Teacher calls 3 students in the class to read again (If they misread, teacher
will correct right away)
- Teacher writes words on the board.
- Then teacher explains that "lift off" is a verb phrase to the students.
(Note that words have syllable which is difficult to read or students are
easy to misread, teacher needs to write clearly transcription of that syllable for
the students. For words with two or more syllables, teacher teaches accent of the
word to the students).
- Teacher checks the Vietnamese meaning of the word.
Teacher: So what does lift off mean?
Student: It means “phong len”
- Teacher require students to write word that they have just learned in
notebook.
Same steps with the remaining words. In the remaining words I used the
new word introduction techniques as follows:
+ orbit (visuals):

+ Speed (example): 40km/h, 50km/h
+ Uncertainty (antonym) Uncertainty >< Certainty
+ Tragic (explanation) Tragic means very sad. Tragic accident means that
the accident is very serious
+ Rename (example): The street was renamed TRAN HUNG DAO

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Then I used tip of "rub out and remember" to check again. In the next
lesson, I conducted to check whole class by reading the Vietnamese meaning of

the word for the student to write word, stress, and part of speech.
2.2.2. Experimental results
The results after synthesis in two classes are as follows:

Number
Class

Excellent
of
students Student %
number

11B
11G

29
24

15
7

51.7
29.2

Classification
Good
Average
Student % Student %
number

10
8

number

34.5
33.3

4
8

13.8
33.3

weak
Student %
number

0
1

0
4.2

Table 4: Experimental results in both class 11B and class11G
From the table above we can see that when applying the techniques of
teaching vocabulary in a flexible manner together with the implementation of
reasonable teaching and the combination of teaching and testing improved the
learning results of the students. Specifically as follows: at class 11B, the number
of excellent grades and good grades were higher than that of class 11G. The

excellent grade of 11B more than that of 11G was 22,5%, the good grade of 11B
more than that of 11G was 1,2%. Meanwhile, the average and weak grade
decreased significantly. In class B, there were no weak grades. The number of
average grades dropped to 19,5%.
So we can confirm the effectiveness of using techniques of teaching new
english words I gave above.
2.3. Experience.
In order to apply the techniques of teaching the vocabulary above
effectively, the following points should be noted:
Firstly, before each lesson, teacher must choose the words to teach. In each
paragraph or situation there may be new words, but not all new words need to be
taught. To choose the words to teach properly, teacher needs to answer the
following questions: "Is that word necessary to understand the situation?" "Is
that word difficult in comparison with level of the students?", “Is that word
around the subject that students are learning and is it used regularly in life?"
Teacher should note not to teach all new words, because it will not be effective
and we don’t have enough time to carry out other activities. In my experience,
only 6 to 8 new words should be taught in each session. If new word is
necessary for the understanding of the situation, but it is difficult or academic, it
doesn’t belong to positive word group. At this time, teacher should not teach,
teacher just explains to make tool for the students to understand the situation. If
there are words that can be guessed by the students, teacher should let the
students guess through the activities to clarify the paragraph or intonation
situation.
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Example: in English 10 – Unit 14: The world cup – Part A: Reading there
are following new vocabulary: tournament, globe, host nation, witness,
elimination games, jointly, finalist, trophy, champion and defeat. However, we

can see that students can guess globe while reading, witness is not necessary for
understanding and doing the exercises, finalist and jointly we can let the
students guess. So we will teach only 6 new words as tournament, host nation,
elimination games, trophy, champion and defeat
Secondly, teacher should apply flexibly techniques of introducing new
words. It means not to provide words mechanically, passively by putting out a
series of new words on the board. This will make students not only learn the
words ineffectively, but also make them not connect words with content of the
lesson. Instead, teacher should choose techniques of introducing new words
flexibly and integrate techniques with each other to make student interested in
learning. Although with programs of class 10 and 11, the words in the lesson
will be more abstract, we must use verbal tips of introducing new words such as:
example, translation, situation and explanation and synonym / antonym.
However, there are still concrete words that we can introduce with visual tools
(visuals, mime, realia) . Therefore, teacher should try to introduce those words
with these techniques because they attract more attention of the students. If
using verbal introductory techniques, we should use simple examples, simple
words that students learned, should avoid using regularly techniques of
introducing words by translating meaning. As far as we know, in the principle of
teaching vocabulary, teacher must find way for the students to discover the
meaning of the word without using the mother language to translate those
words. Thus, the teaching and learning of vocabulary is effective in accordance
with requirements of innovation method. If teacher can select the appropriate
tricks for each word, coordinate tips in a rhythmic and scientific way, it will
bring positive effect, avoid learning something by heart, learning by rote, not
applying words that students have just learned.
Example: English 10 – Unit 14: The world cup – Part A: Reading
As stated above, in this lesson we will teach 6 words: tournament, host
nation, elimination games, trophy, champion and defeat.
With 6 these words, we can see that trophy, host nation are specific words,

so we can apply visual to introduce words:
Trophy
Host nation

The remaining words are abstract, we use the following techniques:
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- Tournament (example): World cup, Sea Games, Asia Games are
tournaments.
- Elimination games (explain) Elimination games are the Games in which
the national football teams complete in their regions to become the 32 finalists at
the World cup.
- Champion and defeat (situation): In the final match of the world cup 2002
between Brazil and Germany. Brazil won the game 2-0. We said that Brazil
defeat Germany to become the champion.
Thirdly, when teaching words and spelling, teacher should teach students
how to read, then teacher writes words on the board to avoid situation that
students only pay attention to learn spelling without paying attention to learn
how to read, result is that students only know to write words without knowing
how to read or misread. When teaching the reading, teacher should read to
students first so that they can get used to the phonemes of the word and make
first impression in students about pronunciation of the words, make the
foundation for the students to imitate as well as they learn mother language.
Note when teaching the pronunciation, after whole class reads, teacher calls
some students to read to check whether they read correctly. If student makes a
mistake, teacher have to correct it so that other people find out wrong tone and
correct it themselves.
Example: Teach “tournament” (after introducing tournament)
Teacher: Now listen to me. Tournament (3 times).

Listen and repeat. Tournament (3 times)
Student: Tournament (3 times)
Teacher calls 3 students to read clearly words again then students will write
words on the board
Fourth, when the word appeared on the board, teacher supplies the
phonetics of the word, teacher notices that teacher only notes the main syllables
on the letters that have these syllables, and teacher shouldn’t provide all
phonetics of the word. If we do that, we will not ensure the time and launch into
the teaching of phonetics. Then, we provide stress of the word.
Example: teach tournament
Teacher: Tournament, first syllable we read is ['tɔ:] (teacher transcribes
phonetically on the upper corner of "ou") and the stress of this word is on the
first syllable. And tournament is a noun.
Fifth, after teaching all words in the lesson, teacher should use techniques
of checking again the learning of words in the class. If the lesson is long, we can
choose simple techniques such as rub out and remember, what and where,
jumbled words. If we have time or to check the words learned in the week, we
can use tips such as matching, bingo. For ordering, we use tips alternatively in
the process of teaching the listening skill that will be more effective.
Example: English 11 – Unit 14: Recreation – Part C: Listening: The
technique used to test is rub out and remember:
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……………………: campsite
……………………: wilderness
……………………: rubbish
……………………: big

…………………..: waterfall

…………………...: tired
…………………...: isolation
……………………: off-road motorbike

In order for these activities to be carried out regularly, effectively, teacher
should try to guide the children to control these activities themselves. This will
help them to be more active, give them the opportunity to use these activities in
the first 15 minutes at the beginning of the class as games and at the same time
students can still review lesson.
For checking the old lesson, in my opinion, we should implement as
follows: Firstly, at the beginning of the academic year, teacher needs to stipulate
that each student who studies English should prepare not only notebook and
exercise-book but also notepad to learn new words. Teacher calls 2 or 3 students
to the board to write words, remaining students write words and characteristics
of the words in the notebook when listening teacher to read meaning. After
students write completely, they exchange notebook to next person. Next person
are responsible for grading and correcting for his/her friend. Teacher can get
mark to follow students. Teacher gets mark for two students to the board and ask
them to read the words they have written. The advantage of this way is that all
teacher have to study, must check the old lesson, not rely on.
Finally, in order to be able to have wide knowledge to communicate to the
students, each teacher has to cultivate his or her own skills, collect, study more
documents, learn colleague to improve professional skills. Besides, each teacher
should actively prepare teaching materials, collect many pictures from
newspapers, magazines or can draw to enrich his/her teaching belongings.
C. CONCLUSION
Through the above analysis we can see that if each teacher guarantees steps
when teaching vocabulary, selects the appropriate teaching skills, combines the
teaching and testing in the classroom and checks the old lesson. It can be
interesting to learn vocabulary as well as learn English for the students to

improve the quality of teaching vocabulary in particular and the quality of
teaching English in general. However, in order to achieve that goal, there should
also be a strong support from the school. Firstly, the school's board of
management should pay more attention to this subject, create condition for
teachers as well as students to use and develop all the teaching materials of the
school. Next, the school library has English reference books but most of them
are books of the old program, so it is necessary to add more reference books for
both teachers and students. In addition, the school should buy more necessary
teaching aids for English subject such as radio, discs, and pictures. Finally,
combining with the family to raise student’s awareness about the importance of
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English, in that way students don’t consider English as a subsidiary subject and
have a better learning attitude.
Above is all of my experience in the process of teaching vocabulary in
English program of class 10 and class 11 in order to create interest in learning
vocabulary for the students, improve the effectiveness of teaching vocabulary in
particular and quality of teaching English in general. Because seniority is still
young, professional experience is not much, this article will not avoid the
shortcomings. Hope colleagues to offer suggestion and discuss to complete the
article more.

XÁC NHẬN CỦA
THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ

Thanh Hóa, ngày 2 tháng 05 năm 2018
Tôi xin cam đoan đây là SKKN của mình
viết, không sao chép của người khác.
Người viết SKKN

Lương Thị Thanh Nga

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REFERENCE BOOKS
1. Jeremy Harmer: How to teach English – Oxford University Press – 2002
2. Adrian Doff: Teach English – Cambridge University Press – 1997
3. Nguyen Bang, Bui Lan Chi: English language teaching methodology – Hanoi
National University Press – 2003
4. Nguyen Hanh Dung: Method of teaching English in the high school –
Education publisher – 1999
5. Hoang Van Van: English 10 - Education publisher – 2006
6. Hoang Van Van: English 11 - Education publisher – 2006
7. James H. Mc Millan. 2001, Classroom Assessement, Principles for Effective
Instruction. A Pearson Education Company, Copyright 2001,1997 by
Allyn&Bacon
8. John M Owen, Patricia J. Roggers, Program Evaluation: Form and
Approaches, SAGE Publications, 5 April, 1999.
9. Teacher’s book, textbooks written by the Ministry of Education.

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FORM OF INVESTIGATING CURRENT STATUS OF
TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY IN ETHNIC
MINORITY BOARDING HIGH SCHOOL
Question 1: When introducing vocabulary, teachers often write words on the
board and then students read or teachers introduce words first and then students read before writing words on

the board. Teachers answer by checking ( ) in the corresponding boxes.

Teach the reading, then
Process of teaching new
words

write on the board

Write words on the
board, then teach the
reading

Question 2: Teachers show regular level of using tips to teach vocabulary by
checking ( ) in the following boxes.
Level Frequently Sometimes Rarely
Never
Techniques
Visuals
Mime
Realia
Synonym / antonym
Situation & explanation
Example
Translation
Question 3: Teachers show regular level of checking the vocabulary learning of
the students in the classroom by checking ( ) in the following boxes.
Idea
Frequently
Sometimes
Rarely

Never
Quantity
1
1
1
1

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