Language games using homophones in english classes=trò chơi ngôn ngữ sử dụng từ đồng âm trong các lớp học tiếng anh

VINH UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

==== ====

LANGUAGE GAMES USING HOMOPHONES IN
ENGLISH CLASSES
(TRỊ CHƠI NGƠN NGỮ SỬ DỤNG TỪ ĐỒNG ÂM TRONG CÁC LỚP HỌC TIẾNG
ANH)

GRADUATION THESIS
FIELD: METHODOLOGY

Student:

TRẦN THỊ HẢO, 47A1

Supervisor: PHAN VÂN HƯƠNG, M.A.

VINH, 2010

i


VINH UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

==== ====

TRẦN THỊ HẢO

LANGUAGE GAMES USING HOMOPHONES IN
ENGLISH CLASSES
(TRỊ CHƠI NGƠN NGỮ SỬ DỤNG TỪ ĐỒNG ÂM TRONG CÁC LỚP HỌC TIẾNG
ANH)

GRADUATION THESIS
FIELD: METHODOLOGY

VINH, 2010

ii


Acknowledgment

For the completion of this work, I have been fortunate to receive
invaluable contributions from many people. First of all, I should like to express
my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mrs. Phan Van Huong, M.A for her
expert advice, excellent suggestions and detailed comments, without which the
work would not have been completed.
I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to all my classmates for their
various kinds of help and encouragement.
I repeat my thanks to my brother for all the useful web sites he gave to me
with constant support.
Finally, I am too aware that despite all the advice and assistance, I feel that
the project is far from perfect; it is, therefore, my sole responsibility for any
inadequacies and shortcomings that the thesis may be considered to have.

Vinh, May, 10th, 2010

Tran Thi Hao

iii


Abstract
Homophone is a topic that has been studied by a number of students in
our department. In fact, it is an interesting topic, and it is really useful for
English learners. In this thesis, the author gives the readers a brief account of
information about homonyms and homophones in terms of semantics. The
comparison of English and Vietnamese homophones is also mentioned to help
the readers know more about this topic. More importantly, the author gives
some main types of games using homophones for teaching English. These will
be illustrated by specific examples and practice to help the readers understand
and use homophones for games effectively.

iv


Abbreviations

A: answer
C.f.: compare
E.g.: example
N: noun
PP: past participle
Q: question
Sb: somebody
Vs.: versus

v


Table of Content
Page
Acknowledgement ................................................................................................i
Abstract .............................................................................................................. ii
Abbreviations .................................................................................................... iii
Table of contents ................................................................................................iv
PART I:

INTRODUCTION

1. Justification of the Study ............................................................................... 1
2. Aims of the Study .......................................................................................... 2
3. Research questions ........................................................................................ 3
4. Scope of the Study......................................................................................... 3
5. Methods of the Study .................................................................................... 4
6. Format of the Study ...................................................................................... 4
PART II:

DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.1. Word and Word Meanings ........................................................................ 6
1.1.1. The Notion of Word.................................................................................. 6
1.1.2. Characteristics of Words .......................................................................... 7
1.1.3. Word Meaning .......................................................................................... 9
1.1.3.1. Words as Meaningful Units ................................................................... 9
1.1.3.2. Components of Word-meaning ......................................................…..10

a. Denotative Meaning ...................................................................................... 10
b. Connotative Meaning .................................................................................... 10
c. Structural/ Associative Meanings .................................................................. 11
d. Categorial Meaning ....................................................................................... 13
1.2. Homonymy ................................................................................................ 13
1.2.1. Definition ................................................................................................ 13
1.2.2. Homonymy and Polysemy ..................................................................... 13

vi


1.2.3. Types of Homonyms ............................................................................... 16
1.2.3.1. Full Homonyms .................................................................................... 16
1.2.3.2. Homophones ........................................................................................ 17
1.2.3.3. Homographs ........................................................................................ 17
1.3. Language Games ...................................................................................... 17
CHAPTER 2: HOMOPHONES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE
2.1. Overall Understanding of Vietnamese and English.............................. 20
2.1.1. Language Family ................................................................................... 20
2.1.2. Language Type ....................................................................................... 20
2.1.3. Vocabulary .............................................................................................. 21
2.1.4. Grammar ................................................................................................. 21
2.2. Types of Homophones in Vietnamese and English ............................... 23
2.3. The Use of Homophones in Games in English....................................... 24
CHAPTER 3: LANGUAGE GAMES USING HOMOPHONES
3.1. Homophone Games ..................................................................................25
3.2. The Benefits .............................................................................................. 25
3.3. Types .......................................................................................................... 26
3.3.1. Visual Aid Homophone Games..............................................................26
a. Definition ....................................................................................................... 26

b. The Aim and the Object ................................................................................. 26
c. The Method and Practice ..............................................................................27
3.3.2. Homophone Quiz.................................................................................... 31
a. Definition ....................................................................................................... 31
b. The Aim and the Object ................................................................................. 31
c. The Method and Practice .............................................................................. 31
3.3.3. Riddle ...................................................................................................... 35
a. Definition ....................................................................................................... 35
b. The Aim and the Object ................................................................................. 36

vii


c. The Method and Practice ..............................................................................36
3.4. Suggested Tips for Controlling Effective Homophone Games ............ 38
PART III:

CONCLUSION

Review of the Study ......................................................................................... 40
Applications of the Study................................................................................ 41
Suggestions for Further Studies .................................................................... 41
REFERENCES
APPENDIXES

viii


PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Justification of the Study

English has become an international language and it is becoming more
and more important in all fields of our life. Learning English well is not at all
an easy task. Homophone is a difficult but interesting part of English.
Sometimes what are pronounced similarly have different meanings and totally
distinguish from each other.
Homophone plays an important role in forming the abundance and
variety of English. That also forms great interest for English learners.
Mastering 'homophone' helps us to possess a huge knowledge of English
vocabulary and the way to use them in various situations.
Knowing about homophone the students can improve their
pronunciation. When they can master a huge number of homophones, it will be
easy for them to recognize and pronounce the words accurately. Therefore,
their speaking English skill one of four main skills in studying English, is
enhanced step by step. Taking part in interesting homophone games the
students not only can relax, be more active and creative but they can also
develop their knowledge and practice their listening and speaking English.
In fact, language learning is a hard task which can sometimes be
frustrating. Constant effort is required to understand, produce and manipulate
the target language. Well-chosen games are invaluable as they give students a
break and at the same time allow students to practice language skills. Games
are highly motivating since they are amusing and challenging as well.
Furthermore, they employ meaningful and useful language in real contexts.
They also encourage and increase cooperation.
Homophone really works when the teachers want to bring the students
good knowledge of vocabulary or speaking skills and listening ones. Language

1


games are widely used by many teachers when they want to catch the students'

attention at the beginning of the class, to help them relax during the lesson, or
even in any club in terms of entertainment only. Therefore, the connection of
homophone and games is really interesting and useful in teaching. Language
games using homophones catch much attention from both teachers and
students. That can be used in classes, in clubs, between pairs, in the whole
class or among the crowd, which is really helpful to bring amusing atmosphere
with the high educational function by forming the students‟ ability to have a
good reaction, developing their intelligence, their creativity or enlarging their
knowledge of English words, and promoting language skills.
For the above mentioned reasons, the author has decided to carry out a
study entitled “Language games using homophones in English classes” with
the hope to contribute useful ways to improve languages skills in learning
English with higher pedagogical values.
2. Aims of the Study
The thesis has been done with the aims to:
- help the author and the readers to understand more deeply the subject
“lexicology and semantics” which is vital in any English course by
catching the view of homophone and some kinds of homophone, also
several important points of semantics such as word and characteristics of
word, word meanings, components of word meanings.
- enable the readers to master English vocabulary, which seems to be very
difficult to any foreign language learners, and use them effectively in many
communicative contexts.
- point out a brief account of differences between Vietnamese and English
homophones, which are resulted from the overall differences between
Vietnamese and English languages, to help the readers understand
homophones more profoundly and use them more effectively in various

2

communicative situations.
- suggest some main useful homophone games that are valuable in learning
and teaching English. From those, English learners can improve their
language skills especially speaking and listening with games in sense of
humor and high creativity.
- bring initiative for recreation in teaching and learning. Homophone games
are used in various situations such as forming activities for clubs, practical
teaching, extracurricular activities, etc to gain higher pedagogical value.
That is particularly, helpful for the third-years students of English and
more important for the fourth-year ones.
3. Research Questions
The study aims to answer the following questions:
3.1. What are homophones?
3.2. What are the main differences between Vietnamese and English
homophones? How do the differences between Vietnamese and English
language affect homophones in the two languages?
3.3. What are benefits of homophone games in learning and teaching English?
3.4. What are common types of homophone games that can be useful in
English classes? What are their benefits, objects and methods?
4. Scope of the Study
Homonymy is an interesting topic but also a complicated one. There
are many types of homonyms. This study only focuses on homophones, words
having the same pronunciation.
English has many homophones and their uses are also very abundant.
There are no rules to help you remember what homophones are, although a lot
of practice with homophone can help. Therefore, the writer only would like to
give the readers some main types of homophones which are used in games in

3

English classes, based on the sameness of form according to Nguyen Hoa
(2004).
Homophones are used variably in games and the application of
homophones in games is also an important part in this research. However, in
some way, the writer only focuses on pointing out some useful games used
popularly such as riddle, visual aid homophone games and homophone quiz.
5. Methods of the Study
Writing this research, the writer uses three main methods:
summarizing, analyzing, and comparative method with three steps:

first,

studying theories relating to homophone, classifying its types with different
uses and then forming games appropriately with specific users.
The writer will summarize theoretical points relating to homophones
and then points out some main points which are necessary for highlighting the
issue we want to mention, homophone in games. Also, she will summarize the
common games using homophone, then analyze these sources to put them in a
good range of games that enables the readers to understand and use these
games in learning and teaching English effectively.
The comparative method is partly used when the writer wants to point
out some overall differences between Vietnamese and English, different points
in Vietnamese and English homophones, and the differences in use of some
homophone games.
6. Format of the Study
Apart from acknowledgement, table of content, references and appendixes,
the study consists of three main parts: introduction, development, and
conclusion. The first part, Introduction, discusses the justification, aims of the

study, scope of the study, methods of the study and format of the study. The
second part, Development, includes three chapters: chapter 1: theoretical

4


background, chapter 2: Homophones in English and Vietnamese and chapter 3:
Language games using homophones. Part 3, Conclusion, presents reviews of
the study, applications of the study and provides some suggestions for further
studies.

5


PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.1. Word and Word Meaning
1.1.1. The Notion of Word
According to Jackson, H & Ze‟ Amvela, E. 2000, the word may be
defined differently depending on whether we focus on its representation, the
thought which it expresses, or purely formal criteria. What a word is relies on
which domain the readers are interested in.
The first type of definition relies mainly on writing traditions that
separate by spaces sequences of letters or characters. Words that are
distinguished from each other by their spaces are orthographic word.
For example: in the phrase: “a beautiful girl”, there are three spaces
between each set of letters, so there are three words recognized: “a”,
“beautiful” and “girl”.
Secondly, words that are distinguished from each other by their
pronunciation are phonological words. Even that, two words have the same

spelling, but different pronunciations, they are recognized as two different
words.
For example: house (v) and house (n) are two separate words.
In addition, words that are identified by grammatical variation are
word formation. Words which represent different grammatical functions are
different words.
For example: “The”: definite article is one word and “a/ an”: indefinite
article are different words.
“House” (v) and “house” (n) are also two different words.
Fourthly, words that are identified as “items of meaning” are lexemes.

6


For example: “is/are/am” is recognized as one word because these are
different appearance of only one lexeme: “to be”.
Therefore, with the following sentence, the numbers of words are
different with the varied notion of words:
“In their conceptual world, words are at once containers, tools and
weapons, just as in the physical world a bag is container, a screw-driver is a
tool, and a gun is weapon.”
There are 34 orthographic words: i.e. sequences of letters bounded
by spaces.
There are 23 grammatical words (or 24 if you count “at” and “at
once” separately). “a” occurs 6 times, “is” 3 times, “and” twice, “in” twice
and “world” twice.
There are 19 lexemes: “is” and “are” are separate grammatical words
but belong to the same lexeme; and the following have both a singular and a
plural form: “container”, “tool”, “weapon”.
The above are some domains that the readers can base on to understand

the varied notion of the word. However, in general, words are defined as
following way: Word is an interruptible unit of structure consisting of one or
more morphemes and which typically occurs in the structure of phrases.
(Jackson, H & Ze‟ Amvela, E. 2000)
1.1.2. Characteristics of Words
Words themselves have the main following characteristics which are
considered essential in our definition of the word in English, according to
Hudson, Richard A. (1995) and Palmer, Frank R. (1986).
Firstly, the word is an indivisible/ interruptible unit. When elements are
added to a word to modify its meaning, they are never included within the
word. The respect the internal stability of the word and are added either at the
beginning as prefixes of the word or at the end as suffixes. For example, the

7


prefix un- and the suffix -able may be added to the words aware and drink,
and give unaware and drinkable respectively. We cannot insert any elements
into a word. If we divide the word into smaller parts, these then have no
meanings or different ideas from the original word.
For example: The word “cat” we can not divide it into “ca” and “t”.
Or: “cat” is different from “ca +s +t” ~ cast”
Secondly, the word may consist of one or more morphemes. When it
consists of one morpheme only, then it cannot be broken down into smaller
meaningful units, e.g. dog, hand, man, out, work. These are called „simple”
word. E.g.: dog, man, out are words that consist of only one morpheme.
When words consist of more than one morpheme, they may be either
complex or compound. Complex word may be broken down into one free
form or more bound forms: e.g. dogs, quicker are words having 2
morphemes: dog-s and quick-er. Whereas, compound words consist of more

than one free form: e.g. birth+day, black+bird, candle+stick, etc.
Thirdly, the word occurs typically in the structure of phrases. That is
morphemes are used to build words, words to build phrases, phrases to build
clauses and clauses to build sentences. This is the typical mapping, a higher
level unit may be used in a lower level unit. For example, four words: “the”,
“girl”, “with”, “glasses” can build the phrase: “the girl with glasses”. This
phrase can be used to build a full sentence. “The girl with glasses is my
sister.” Or, a clause such as who came late may be used like an adjective
(word) to modify the head noun man in the sentence such as: “the man who
came late was my brother”
Finally, the word belongs to a specific word class or part of speech,
including noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction
and interjection. Where the same form appears in more than one class, as
frequently happens in English, we regard the various occurrences as separate

8


words.
E.g.: Smoke (v) as distinct from smoke (n).
House (v) as distinct from house (n)
It may even be suggested that a word is defined by two factors: its
semantic “nucleus” and the class to which it belongs.
So far, we have mentioned four main characteristics of words: the
word is an indivisible/ interruptible unit, the word may consist of one or more
morphemes, the word occurs typically in the structure of phrases and the
word belongs to a specific word class or part of speech.
1.1.3. Word Meaning
1.1.3.1. Words as Meaningful Units
It is generally agreed that the words, phrases and sentences of

language have meanings and sentences are made up of words (phrases) of
which it is made up. Since there are quite a whole lot of definitions of the
term “word”, what the author tries to do is not to redefine something which
has become some sort of a “nightmare” for linguists. Instead, the author will
offer a working definition of what the word is, fully aware of the inherent
traps.
“Words are regarded as the smallest indivisible meaningful units of a
language which can operate independently.” (Nguyen Hoa, 2004).
In this definition, one may ask what we mean by “independently‟, for
example. At least, we know that even a sentence is not “independent” since it
has to combine with other sentences to create a communicatively meaningful
whole. Words, on the other hand, may be considered purely as forms,
whether written of spoken, or alternatively, as composite expressions, which
combine forms and meanings.

9


1.1.3.2. Components of Word-meaning
Jackson, H (1988) claims that word-meaning includes four major
components:
(a). Denotation, which includes: conceptual and referential meanings;
denotation exists by virtue of what it refers to.
(b). Connotation, including stylistic, affective, evaluative, and intensifying, is
the pragmatic communicative value the word acquires by virtue of where,
when, how, and by whom, for what purpose and in what context it is or may
be used.
(c). Structural meaning, which is the meaning a word acquires by virtue of its
membership in a system or a set; and
(d). Categorical meaning, which serves as a classificatory basis.

a) Denotative meaning
(i) Conceptual meaning (sometimes called “denotative” or “cognitive”,
denotation”).
This kind of meaning is widely assumed to be the central factor in
linguistic communication. It has a complex and sophisticated organization (it
is used to be reminded that there are two structural principles that seem to lie
at the basis of all linguistic patterning: contrastiveness and structure). E.g.
Woman= + human, -male, + adult as distinct from boy, that can be defined
as, +human, +male, - adult. For example,
* A table may be defined as a piece of furniture used for writing at.
(ii) Referential
This is the ability to refer to objects or things (often called referent)
C.f.: Can you get me a book? Vs. I bought a book this afternoon.
b) Connotative Meaning
It is the communicative value an expression has by virtue of what it
refers to, over and above its purely conceptual content. This kind of meaning

10


is rather unstable: that is they vary considerably according to culture,
historical period, and the experience of the individual.
There is variation according to: dialect, time (language of the 18 th
century), province (law), status (polite, colloquial, slang), modality (language
of memoranda, lectures, and jokes), singularly the style of Dickens, and the
style of Hemingway).
Connotative meaning is open-ended in the same way as our
knowledge and beliefs about the universe.
This kind of meaning may fall into:
(i) Stylistic: when associations at work concern the situation in

which the word is uttered, the social circumstances (formal, familiar,
colloquial….), the social relationships between the interlocutors (polite,
rough), and this connotation is stylistic. E.g. horse vs. steed; help vs. assist;
residence vs. house.
(ii) An emotional or affective connotation is acquired by the word
as a result of its frequent use in context corresponding to emotional situations
or because the referent conceptualized and named in the denotative meaning
is associated with emotion. For example, beseech means to ask eagerly and
also anxiously.
(iii) Evaluative connotation expresses approval or disapproval; C.f.:
magic, witchcraft and sorcery.
(iv) Intensifying connotation, which is expressive and emphatic.
E.g. magnificent, splendid, superb, terribly, extremely.
c) Structural/ associative meanings include
(i) Reflected meaning
This is the meaning which arises in cases of multiple conceptual
meaning, when one sense of a word forms part of our response to another
sense. For example, the 40th president of the US and the Great Communicator

11


both refer to Ronald Reagan. The Great Communicator sounds better, and is
more about Reagan‟ personality than his job (the 40th President of the US),
which sounds cool.
(ii) Collocative meaning
It consists of the associations a word acquires on account of the
meanings of words which tend to occur in its environment.
girl
Pretty

boy

boy
Handsome

man

woman

car

flower

airliner

There can be handsome boy and pretty woman.
It should be noted that reflected, collective, social and affective
meanings have more in common with connotative meaning that with
conceptual meaning; they all have the same open-ended, variable character,
and lend themselves to analysis in terms of scales or ranges.
(iii) Associative meaning
This is also the meaning which arises because of its association with
other meanings. For example, good vs. bad; buy vs. sell; hard vs. soft. When
a person hears the world “good” for example, he is more likely to think of
bad as well.
(iv) Thematic meaning
This is the kind of meaning which is communicated by the way in
which a speaker or writer organizes the message in terms of ordering, focus,
and emphasis.

* A man is waiting in the hall vs. There’s a man waiting in the hall
* The dog chased the cat vs. The cat was chased by the dog.
As competent learners of English, we know that the above examples
have different topics or theme. “A man is waiting in the hall.” tells us where

12


the man is, whereas “There’s a man is waiting in the hall” is an existential
sentence signaling the existence of the man.
d) Categorical meaning
Actually, categorical meaning is one part of grammatical meaning
which words derive from being a member of one category rather than another
(nouns rather than verbs and so on). Words fall into such categories as
Nouns, Verb, Adjectives, Prepositions, Conjunctions, etc.
1.2. Homonymy
1.2.1. Definition
Homonymy refers to a situation where different words happens
accidentally to have the same forms. (Nguyen Hoa, 2004)
1.2.2. Homonymy and Polysemy
Homonymy refers to a situation where different words happen
accidentally to have the same forms while polysemy designates a situation in
which a single word has a set of related meanings. Sameness of forms
generally refers to phonetic forms. However, it is necessary to distinguish
sameness of phonetics form and graphic form. As far as polysemy is
concerned, we should distinguish between polysemy proper and generality of
meaning. This is a situation where a single meaning can be used in a number
of contexts. For example, the word “right” used in the following examples:
* What she said was right.
* I believe that it was the right thing to do.

Consider the following example of homonymy:
“Mine is a long and sad tale” said the Mouse, turning to Alice, and
sighing.
“It is a long tail, certainly”, said Alice looking down with wonder at
the Mouse’s tail, but why do you call it sad?”

13


The key to the exchange is “tale” vs. “tail”. In the story, tale /teil/ can
be both long and sad but with tail /teil/, it is hard to imagine it is sad unless
one has to stretch one‟s imagination a bit further.
Homonymy and polysemy are closely related and often treated
together because, on face value, what we see its various meanings are
associated with the same forms. They are distinguished from each other in
terms of semantic relatedness. If different meanings associated with one form
are perceived as related, they constitute a polysematic word; if these
meanings are correlated in any way, they are treated as homonyms.
One-to-one relationship is not common in natural languages. Thus
homonyms are a source of ambiguity; for example.
* I met her at the bank.
“The bank” may refer to the side of a river or a financial institution. But it
is necessary to keep in mind that ambiguity is a matter of semantics rather
than pragmatics since it is not sustained by the context. In fact, the context
will disambiguate it. We can think of another sentence following the above: I
met her at the bank where she worked. Upon hearing “where she worked”,
the hearer can determine that the bank in this context means the financial
institution.
We can discuss the notion of absolute vs. partial homonymy.
Absolute homonyms should satisfy the following three conditions.

(i) They will be unrelated in meaning.
(ii) All their forms will be identical.
(iii) The identical forms will be grammatically equivalent.
Absolute homonyms are common enough: bank (a financial institution or
the bank of a river; sole (a fish and bottom of foot or shoe).
Partial homonyms are common, too. For example, find (v) and found (v)
are two partial homonyms. “Found” (v) may be the past form or past

14


participle form of the irregular verb “find”. Rose (n) and Rose (past tense
form of rise).
Context does have a role in making clear the meanings of homonyms.
N.N. Amosova distinguishes between lexical and grammatical context. For
example, in “The mouth of the river”, it is the world river which realizes the
meaning of the mouth. Thus this kind of context is called lexical. On the
other hand, the structure may play a central role in this. Such context is
grammatical. Consider:
* Mr. Smith probably made him marry her.
* He accepted the order, with the benevolent air.
* A few minutes later, Hyman asked to go up on deck where he said there
might be some more air.
* He laid it aside with the unmistakable air of one visualizing another’s
response to some plant or hint.
* She arrived by air on Monday.
Sources of homonyms:
(i): Disintegration of split of polysemy. The Latin “buxus” results in box (a
kind of small evergreen shrub), box (a receptacle made of wood), box v, to
put in box), box (a slap with the hand on the ear), and box (a sport term).

(ii). Convergent sound development: “sound-healthy” from zesund (healthy)
and „sound-strait” from sund (swimming), and
(iii). Borrowing (race vs. race), sound (from French –sonus- to measure the
depth).
Polysemy (multiple meaning is property of single words. Polysemy is
characteristic of most words in English.
* I run home vs. I run this office.
The criteria used to distinguish between homonymy and polysemy are the
following points. The first is relatedness of meanings, and etymology, this

15


supports the native speaker‟s untutored intuition about particular words. For
example, most native speakers would probably classify “bat” furry mammal
with membranous wings” and “bat “– implement for striking a ball in certain
games as different words. But sole (bottom of the foot) and sole (a kind of
fish) actually come from the same source. On the other hand, shock (shock of
corn) and shock (shock of hair) are from different origins.
1.2.3. Types of Homonyms
There have been many ways to classify homonyms.
Based on the grammatical function, homonyms are classified into two
main types: absolute homonyms and partial homonyms.
The first type of homonym is absolute homonyms. These are the
words that are unrelated in meaning, all their forms are identical, and their
identical forms are grammatical equivalent.
E.g.: Spell: formula of words supposed to have magic power.
Spell: period of time of weather/ activity
The second type of homonym is partial homonyms. These are the
words that are unrelated in meaning, but do not have the same grammatical

function.
E.g.:
Rose (n) and rose (v): past tense of “rise”
Found (v) and found (v): past tense of “find”
In this research, the author will follow the way based on the
sameness of form, according to Nguyen Hoa (2001) and Nguyen Hoa (2004)
and, homonym is classified with 3 main types in this division. They are: full
homonym, homophone, and homograph .
1.2.3.1. Full homonym
Full homonyms are words that are identical in both pronunciation and
spellings.

16


E.g. 1: “Bark”: outer covering of a tree and “Bark”: noise made by a
dog
“Punch”: a tool/ machine for shaping/ engraving and
“Punch”: strike with a fist
1.2.3.2. Homophone
Homophones are words that have the same pronunciation as each
other but different spellings and meanings.
E.g. 1: Air vs. heir.
“Air”: the mixture of gases that surrounds the earth and that we
breathe.
“Heir”: a person who has the legal right to receive somebody‟s
property, money or title when that person dies.
1.2.3.3. Homograph
Homographs are words that are spelt the same as each other but have
different pronunciation and meaning.

E.g. 1:

“Wind” (n) /wind/: a current of air
and “Wind” (v) /waind/: to empower a clock
or: “house” (n) /haus/ and “house” (v) /hauz/
Of three main types of homonyms divided according to the

sameness of form, in this thesis, the study is restricted to the use of
homophones in games in English classes.
1.3. Language Games
The primary goal of materials in teaching is to make classroom
activities as meaningful as possible supplying “the extralinguistic context
that helps the acquirer to understand and thereby to acquire” (Krashen and
Terrell 1983: 55), by relating classroom activities to the real world, and by
fostering real communication among the learners. Materials come from the
world of realia rather than from text books. Language games, in general, are

17