Đề tài: How to teach vocabulary to children at Primary school effectively HOW TO TEACH VOCABULARY TO CHILDREN AT PRIMARY SCHOOL EFFECTIVELY PART A: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale Nowadays, English plays an important role in many fields. In addition, the more developing society is, the more necessary English is. Because English can help people master a language, they will own a great knowledge. In order to carry out this, we have to learn vocabulary at first. We imagine that without vocabulary, no language exists. So vocabulary is a vital part in learning English. How to help people in general and pupils at Primary School in particular learn and use vocabulary effectively is a difficult question. At present, I am a teacher of Be Van Dan Primary School. I am teaching pupils of grade 4. I assume the responsibility for 4A, 4B, 4C, 4E. Each class has different perception so I have to select the way of teaching vocabulary differently. For weak pupils, I often translate new words directly. In contrast, I usually let good pupils guess the meanings of words. So it is essential to find out the most suitable way of teaching vocabulary in order to take advantage of pupils’ learning spirit. To upgrade my teaching skills, I have chosen the subject “How to teach vocabulary to children at Primary School effectively”. There are many studies relating to teaching and learning vocabulary in general. However, my study is more specific. It is my hope that the study will be more or less useful for those who are concerned. 2. Aims and objectives of study My study concentrates on the way to improve learning vocabulary and how to teach vocabulary most effectively at Primary School. Therefore, this study aims to: · Providing the theory on vocabulary · Finding the way of learning and teaching vocabulary · Finding out the real situation of teaching and learning vocabulary at Primary School · Giving some suggestions throughout games to improve learning vocabulary of pupil at Primary School 3. Scope of study Vocabulary is a big part in each lesson because all four skills including reading, listening, writing, and speaking need vocabulary. My topic only dealt with the problem “How to teach vocabulary to children at Primary school effectively” And I try my best to give the most suitable method of teaching vocabulary at Primary School in general and at Be Van Dan Primary School where I am working in particular. 4. The age – psychology and perception process Language is a system of grammar and vocabulary. Learning a language knows the rules of that language. Language is a set of habits which are practiced everyday. Moreover, language is described as it is used in everyday life. So learning vocabulary to children is very important. Because a child is about six years old, he reaches a period when he has acquired complete understanding of everyday utterances and complete speech habits of the language. The natural or direct language teaching method was worked out from this way of learning. A lot of people think that English should be introduced to children at Primary school because everybody knows that it is much easier to learn foreign language when he is young. Children’s mind is ready to learn many things when learning the second language. Because the perception process of each child is different, teaching method is not the same. As a teacher, I will find out the most effective way to make them attractive. 5. Method of study In order to complete this study, I myself read and consult many books from many sources such as: from the library of the English Faculty, HN Open University, from my supervisor, and from my friends. Moreover, I finish the survey questionnaires at Be Van Dan Primary School. With the help of 130 pupils in grade four (4A, 4B, 4C, 4E), I find out the pupils’ attitude towards learning vocabulary. This thing will help much more for my teaching later. Due to my lack of knowledge and experience, mistakes are something unavoidable, so comments on this graduation paper will be useful for my teaching at Primary School. 6. Research question In order to achieve the aim of this study, I set up the following research question: “How to teach vocabulary to children at Primary School effectively” 7. Design of the study The study is divided into 4 chapters Part A: Introduction · Introduction consists of rationale, aims and objects, scope, psychology-perception process, method, research question and design of the study. Part B: Development · Chapter I : Literature review talk about background of English vocabulary · Chapter II: methodology, which revises some relevant literature feature of English vocabulary and the common tendency of learning English vocabulary at Primary School. · Chapter III : Some useful suggestions to teach vocabulary to pupil at Primary School Part C: Conclusion PART B : DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Background information In this chapter, I will introduce three issues such as: the concept of vocabulary’s information, the way of giving a new word and how to check pupils’ vocabulary 1.1.1 What is vocabulary? According to the authors of Methodology Handbook, “Vocabulary is defined as a word simple enough to begin learning on the first day of a class and they are powerful enough to encourage communication from the very beginning words are small pieces of language which carry bits of meaning” Vocabulary can be defined; it is simply understood as words in a language. However, vocabulary may be a single word (cat, read) but it may be more than a single word, for example, “father-in-law or mother-in-law”, which are made up of two or more words but express a single idea. There are also multi-word idioms such as “bread and butcher”. It means that the meaning of the phrase can not be inferred from component’s word. In fact, it is extremely difficult to give an exact definition of vocabulary because there are many different definitions of vocabulary. So, the definitions above are only general concepts in relation to vocabulary. 1.1.2 The importance of teaching English vocabulary at Primary School. At present, I am teaching English vocabulary at Be Van Dan Primary School, so my goal is finding out how to teach English vocabulary to my pupils effectively. I am conscious that teaching and learning vocabulary is one of the most important parts in English because there are many different ways to teach vocabulary. Teaching vocabulary is a complex process and it consists of many steps, and aspects. Vocabulary helps pupils express what they want to talk. It makes pupils communicate more easily. If pupil knows how to arrange vocabulary together to make sentences, conversations, they will feel confident and will develop speaking ability as well as their vocabulary. In a book written by Mr. Dang Ngoc Huong, it is assumed that when using a course book or any source of teaching materials, many teachers think that every new word has been selected carefully by the course designer or writers by certain principles. One of the tasks of the teacher when teaching vocabulary is the selecting the right vocabulary the pupil need. Therefore, vocabulary must be concerned in teaching English at Primary School. 1.1.3 What need to be taught? 1.1.3.1 Form: pronunciation and spelling The learner has to know that pronunciation and spelling is very important when teaching vocabulary. When we teach a new word, pupils must imitate our pronunciation and spelling. For this reason, we need to make sure that both these aspects are accurately presented. 1.1.3 2 Grammar Teaching grammar to pupils is not less important than teaching vocabulary.Because words never stand alone, they are used in the sentence. So when presenting an item of vocabulary the teacher should provide pupils with necessary information about the word in grammar terms. For example, when teaching an adjective, we may present our pupils that an adjective adding “ly” to an adjective will turn the adjective unit an adverb (careful → carefully). 1.1.3.3 Collocation As teachers, we have to remind words with another in a given context such as “decision and conclusion”. There are two ways to express these words “to make a decision” but “to come to a conclusion” In order to master the collocations of words, both teachers and pupils need to consult dictionaries. 1.1.3.4 Meaning When running into a new word, the meaning of the word is the first thing which we know. Moreover the meaning of word is a large area for us to explore. The meaning of a word is primarily what it refers to in the real life. Commonly, we find the meaning of a word in dictionary (its denotation) but in fact, having many words do not express exactly we can only find its equivalent in meaning in Vietnamese (connotation). The association is the positive or negative attitude and feelings. For example, most British people understand the word “boy friend” a normal friend but in Vietnam, when we talk about this most people think “darling” So it is difficult for teachers to express the meaning of the word effectively because our teaching object is children at Primary School. 1.1.3.5 Word – formation Vocabulary items consist of components and parts which can separate so it is important how to make these parts become a piece of useful information. We usually teach the common prefixes such as dis -, un -, im .to change the meaning of the word and suffixes such as: -ful, -able . to change the part of speech. But our teaching object is children, perception process is low, we should give a suitable word. If we do so, our pupil will understand vocabulary well.