VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

BÙI THỊ THÚY NGA

A STUDY ON USING GAMES TO TEACH VOCABULARY TO THIRD

GRADERS AT DU HANG KENH PRIMARY SCHOOL, HAI PHONG (WITH

REFERENCE TO TIENG ANH 3)

(Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng trò chơi để dạy từ vựng cho học

sinh lớp 3

tại trường Tiểu học Dư Hàng Kênh, Hải Phòng (theo sách giáo

khoa Tiếng Anh 3)

M.A. MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10

HANOI, 2012

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE STUDIES

BÙI THỊ THÚY NGA

A STUDY ON USING GAMES TO TEACH VOCABULARY TO THIRD

GRADERS AT DU HANG KENH PRIMARY SCHOOL, HAI PHONG (WITH

REFERENCE TO TIENG ANH 3)

(Nghiên cứu về việc sử dụng trò chơi để dạy từ vựng cho học

sinh lớp 3

tại trường Tiểu học Dư Hàng Kênh, Hải Phòng (theo sách giáo

khoa Tiếng Anh 3)

M.A. MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 10 Supervisor: Pr. Dr. Hoàng Văn Vân

HANOI, 2012

DECLARATION

I, Bui Thi Thuy Nga, state that the minor thesis

entitled “A study on using games to teach vocabulary to

third graders at Du Hang Kenh Primary School, Hai Phong

(with reference to Tieng Anh 3)” is the result of my own

research, and the thesis has not, partly or wholly, been

submitted to any other university or institution.

Hanoi, September 2012

Author’s signature

Bùi Thị Thúy Nga

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest

gratitude to my supervisor – Prof. Dr. Hoang Van Van,

who has given me priceless instructions, comments and

support during the process of fulfilling the thesis.

My special thanks also go to all the teachers of English

at Du Hang Kenh primary school as well as in Department

of Foreign Languages - Hai Phong Private University for

their help and constructive suggestions.

My gratitude also extends to my lecturers for their

interesting and useful lessons which encouraged me so

much.

ii

Last but not least, I would like to send my gratitude to

my family and friends for their valuable care and

encouragement.

ABSTRACT

It is common knowledge that English has become an

international language which has been used all over the

world. English plays an important role in social life

such as promoting science and technology, broadening

mutual understanding and strengthening relations between

countries and cultures. Therefore, in many countries in

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the world, in general, and in Vietnam, in particular,

English has been taught at different levels from pre-

school level to university level.

Recently, English has been taught in the light of

the communicative, learner-centered approach which gives

students more opportunities to communicate in English.

However, in many classes, teaching English in general

and teaching vocabulary in particular has not really

developed students’ ability and activeness. Students

still find it difficult to master vocabulary as

remembering a word does not simply means remembering its

meaning but also the way it is used. In the meantime,

teachers focus on grammar more than on vocabulary.

Sometimes they use purely one method, which makes the

lesson boring and ineffective.

Teaching English to adults presents difficulties,

but teaching English to young learners presents even

more difficult level. It is simply because adults and

children have different levels of understanding and

different ways of feeling and judgement. That’s why

teaching English to young learners has been paid so much

attention lately.

These problems have inspired the writing of this

thesis as an attempt to find out some useful games to

teach vocabulary to 3rd graders in primary schools.

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v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION iACKNOWLEDGEMENT iiABSTRACT iiiTABLE OF CONTENTS viPart A: Introduction 1. Rationale 1 2. Aims of the study 2 3. Methods of the study 2 4. Scope of the study 3 5. Design of the study 3Part B: DevelopmentChapter 1: Literature Review 4 1. Introduction 4 2. Vocabulary in language teaching and learning

4

2.1. Definitions of vocabulary 4 2.2. The role of vocabulary in language teaching and learning

5

2.3. What about vocabulary teachers should teach students

6

2.3.1. Aspects of meanings 6 2.3.1.1. Lexical meaning vs grammatical meaning

7

2.3.1.2. Denotational meaning vs connotational meaning

7

vi

2.3.1.3. Meaning relationships 7 2.3.2. Aspects of forms 8 2.3.3. Aspects of usage of a word 9 3. Review on some common methods associated with vocabulary teaching

9

3.1.The grammar translation method 9 3.2. The direct method 10 3.3. The reading method 11 3.4. The audio- lingual method 11 4. Principles of teaching vocabulary 11 5. Games and its application in teaching vocabulary

12

5.1. Definitions of games 12 5.2. Classification of games 13 5.3. Benefits of using games in teaching vocabulary

14

5.4. Requirements of a good game for teaching vocabulary

15

6. Teaching English to young learners vs Teaching English to adults

16

7. Concluding remarks 18Chapter 2: Current situation of teaching and learning Tieng Anh 3 at Du Hang Kenh Primary School

19

1. Introduction 19 2. Overview of the school 19 3. The English teachers 20 4. The third graders 20

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5. Overview of the textbook Tieng Anh 3 21 6. Concluding remarks 22Chapter 3: How to use games to teach vocabulary tothird graders at Du Hang Kenh Primary School (withreference to Tieng Anh 3)

23

1. Procedures in teaching a game 23 2. Class observation 24 2.1. Class 3A1 24 2.1.1. Game “Stand up when you hear” 25 2.1.2. Game “Crossword Puzzle” 26 2.1.3. Game “Bingo” 27 2.2. Class 3A2 28 2.2.1. Game “Slap the board” 28 2.2.2. Game “Pass the word” 29 2.2.3. Game “Spelling bee” 30 2.3. General comments 31 3. My teaching 31 3.1. Game “Hangman” 32 3.2. Game “Word completion” 33 3.3. Game “Jumbled words” 33 4. Teachers’ reactions and expectations aboutgames given in Tieng Anh 3

34

5. Learners’ attitudes towards using games inTieng Anh 3 through interviews

35

6. Suggestions 36 6.1 How to choose a game 36 6.2. When to use a game 36

viii

6.3. Suggested games to teach vocabulary in Tieng Anh 3

37

Part C: Conclusion1. Summary of the study 392. The limitation of the study 39 3. Suggestions for further research 40References 41Appendix 1……………………………………………Appendix 2…………………………………………..

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PART A: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale of the study

It can be seen easily that English nowadays plays an

important role than ever before. It has become an

international language which is used widely all over the

world and in all fields of social life such as economy,

technology, diplomacy, foreign trade, education and

tourism. Therefore, teaching and learning English have

become necessary for everyone.

In many countries in the world, in general, and in

Vietnam, in particular, English has been widely taught.

Recently, English has been taught in the light of the

communicative and learner-centered approach which gives

students more chances to communicate. However, both

teaching and learning English has been far away from

satisfaction. Both teachers and students face

difficulties when teaching and learning English

vocabulary. There is a common fact that a lot of

students cannot remember words and certainly cannot use

them despite teachers’ efforts as well as their own

efforts.

At Du Hang Kenh Primary School, the situation is that

the students find it hard to learn new words and that

the techniques exploited during a lesson such as role-

1

plays, reciting chants, singing songs, telling stories …

are not quite effective. Hence, there is a need to find

out more games and more techniques to teach vocabulary

in the most effective way. Games have proved themselves

not as “time filler activities” but also a factor which

can motivate students in the process of learning and

using English.

From the above-mentioned reasons, the writer would like

to carry out a research to find out the real situation

of teaching and learning English at Du Hang Kenh Primary

School, the effectiveness of using games in teaching

vocabulary to kids, which techniques are used in using

games to teach vocabulary by the teachers and to make

some suggestions for the better use of games in helping

children acquire fully English words in Tieng Anh 3.

2. Aim and objectives of the study

As the title of the thesis suggests, the aim of the

study is to make a research on how to use games to teach

vocabulary to the third graders at Du Hang Kenh Primary

School (with reference to the textbook Tieng Anh 3). To

achieve this aim, the following tasks are set for study:

examining the importance of using games to

teach English to young children; and

2

carrying out a small research to find out

how the teachers at Du Hang Kenh Primary School have

been using games to teach their students with the

current textbook Tieng Anh 3.

To make it manageable, the research raises following

questions for exploration:

1. What is the current situation of teaching and

learning English vocabulary (with reference to Tieng

Anh 3) at Du Hang Kenh Primary School?

2. What are the main difficulties of students’

learning and teachers’ teaching English vocabulary?

3. How have the teachers at Du Hang Kenh Primary

School been using games to teach vocabulary in Tieng

Anh 3?

3. Methods of the study

This study uses both qualitative and quantitative

methods which provide background data. Da ta

collections for analysis come from the teachers and

students at Du Hang Kenh Primary School by :

- Class observation

- Survey questionnaire

- Interviews

4. Scope of the study

Since the school year 2011-2012, there have been a

number of schools in Hai Phong City have used in which

3

Tieng Anh 3 to teach English to students is taught. In Le

Chan District, in the school year of 2011-2012, there

are only three primary schools using Tieng Anh 3, including

Du Hang Kenh Primary School. Although I know that

choosing all three schools for my study is a better

choice, my study focuses only on Du Hang Kenh Primary

School due to time limitation. In my study, I focus on

the use of games to teach vocabulary, more exactly to

consolidate learnt words, to third graders who are

learning Tieng Anh 3. However, I can just observe three

classes among six ones in which some games are applied

in vocabulary lessons, interview and survey five English

teachers who are teaching textbook Tieng Anh 3 and

interview thirty third graders to find out their level

of satisfaction and expectation.

5. Design of the study

The study is divided into three parts:

1. Part A – Introduction – provides the rationale for

the study, aim and objectives of the study, scope,

methodology and design of the study.

2. Part B – Development – consists of three chapters:

- Chapter 1 focuses on four main issues relating to

vocabulary in language teaching and learning, some

common methods associated with vocabulary teaching, the

4

application of games in teaching vocabulary and

teaching English to young learners.

- Chapter 2 is devoted to the provision of an

overview of current situation of teaching and learning

Tieng Anh 3 at Du Hang Kenh Primary School. Detailed

information about the teachers, students and especially

textbook Tieng Anh 3 is given there.

- Chapter 3 is concerned with collecting data from Du

Hang Kenh Primary School and analysing these data to

find out the teachers’ attitudes towards using games to

teach vocabulary to young learners, teachers’ methods

and techniques in using games to teach vocabulary and

teachers’ expectations about games given in Tieng Anh 3.

Besides, data will also be collected to find out

students’ reaction towards games in Tieng Anh 3 and their

expectations about their teachers’ teaching

methodology.

3. Part C – Conclusion – summarizes what has been

studied, points out the limitation of the thesis,

and makes some suggestions for further study.

5

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1

LITERATURE REVIEW

1. Introduction

Every language consists of sounds, vocabulary and

grammatical structures. Each of these three components

plays an equal role in language teaching and learning.

One cannot communicate in a language without the sounds

of that language. One cannot communicate in a language

without learning the vocabulary – the bricks which help

interactants to build the “communication building”.

Vocabulary is so important that British linguist David

Wilkins (1972) stated “While without grammar little can

be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be

conveyed.” Obviously, the importance of vocabulary is

undeniable. It can be seen as an element that links four

skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing

together. So as to be successful at those four skills, a

student should acquire a certain number of words and

know how to use them accurately in different situations.

There is a fact that students can “know a word” in

written forms quite well but they cannot use words in

different contexts in real life properly. In recent

years, CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) has shown

some of its advantages in helping students become more

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active. Playing vocabulary games is one common activity

in a CLT classroom. It creates more real-life chances

for students to practice their English. In this chapter,

I will give an overview of (1) vocabulary in language

teaching and learning, (2) some common methods

associated with vocabulary teaching, (3) principles of

teaching vocabulary, (4) the application of games in

teaching vocabulary (its definitions, classification,

benefits and requirements of a good game) and (5)

teaching English to young learners in comparison with

teaching English to adults.

2. Vocabulary in language teaching and learning

2.1. Definition of vocabulary

The term vocabulary appears to be a simple concept but

in fact, up to now, there have been no linguists whose

definition meets all the characteristics of vocabulary.

Thus, various definitions should be given below.

In his book A course in language teaching, Penny Ur (1996,

p.60) stated that “vocabulary can be defined, roughly,

as the words we teach in a foreign language”. He also

said “a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single

word, a compound of two or three words and multi-word

idioms”. Vocabulary seen from this view consists of all

the words in a language, regardless of the number of

words in a word. Vocabulary is used as one means to

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communicate by making utterances from words. This can be

seen in the viewpoint of Pyles and Algeo (1970, p.96).

They saw vocabulary as “the focus of language”. In their

opinion, words “allow us to communicate with one

another” and we arrange words “to make sentences,

conversations and discourse of all kinds”.

According to Morgan and Rinvolucri (1986), “A word is a

basic unit of a language denoting concepts, things and

phenomena in the society”.

Palmer (1981) also pointed “the semantic unit may be a

sequence of several words”. Word is the smallest

meaningful of language.

In short, these statements show that vocabulary is the

total number of words that exist in a language including

not only single words but also two-word items or three-

words ones or even multi-word idioms. It serves as a

means for people to communicate. Without it, mutual

understanding between people may be hard to be obtained.

2.2. The role of vocabulary in language teaching and

learning

As mentioned above, vocabulary can be considered as the

most important part of a language among three parts:

grammar, phonetics and vocabulary. It is indicated

clearly in the saying of Wilkins, a famous British

applied linguist, which echoes what Henry Sweet had said

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over one hundred years before that “without grammar,

very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing

conveyed”. This saying is also similar to the advice

given by Dellar and Hocking (Innovations, 2000) “If you

spend most of your time studying grammar, your English

will not improve very much. You will see most

improvement if you learn more words and expressions. You

can say very little with grammar, but you can say almost

anything with words!”.

Mc. Carthy (1990, p.210) also pointed that “No matter

how well the students learn grammar, no matter how

successful the sounds of second language are mastered,

without words to express a wide range of meanings,

communication in the second language just cannot happen

in any meaningful ways”. This is why teaching and

learning vocabulary can serve the communicative

purposes.

It can be seen that the rich vocabulary helps learners

do their communication better. They have words to

express their ideas and understand others’ thinking. A

rich vocabulary promotes the learning of the four

skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking.

This explains why teaching and learning vocabulary is so

important. Learning words is knowing not only its

meanings, but also its forms and its usage. Learners

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should be taught in such a way so that they can use

words to communicate successfully.

Undeniably, vocabulary teaching and learning are very

important, especially in the high time of the

communicative and learner-centered approach. Thus,

vocabulary must be paid a great attention to so that all

the learners can have a rich knowledge of vocabulary.

2.3. What about vocabulary needs to be taught to

students

When teachers teach a new English word, they should

provide the learners words at basic level, its meaning

and its form. Moreover, students should be taught about

the use of words so that they can use them

appropriately. Knowing a word means much more than

knowing its meaning “Knowing a word, means knowing at

least it forms, its meaning and its basic usage”

(Nation, 2001).

2.3.1. Aspects of meaning

2.3.1.1. Lexical meaning vs grammatical meaning

The notional words, whose meanings are lexical, name

objects, actions, qualities and have material meaning

such as book, bicycle, to cry, to smile, fast, slowly…in

themselves. They are nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs,

and so on.

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The functional words, whose meanings are grammatical,

only have their meanings in relation to other words with

which they are used. They are participles, articles or

prepositions.

2.3.1.2. Denotational meaning vs connotational meaning

In actual usage, vocabulary may differ in their

stylistic aspect. This leads to denotational meaning and

connotational meaning. Denotational meaning can be found

in dictionary. For example, “cat” denotes a kind of

animal which has four legs. While connotational meaning

is related to the attitudes of the language user, his

emotional reaction. For instance, the word “dog” to the

British, means friendship and loyalty whereas to the

Arabic, it means dirt and inferiority.

We can see that words have various types of meaning so

teachers are required to choose carefully which meaning

to teach and how many meanings to teach in a limited

class hours.

2.3.1.3. Meaning relationship

When teaching new words to students, teachers should

explain whether the words are common, formal or

informal, and so on. One thing that teachers should also

bear in their mind is that words have meaning

relationships with the others. Learning meaning

relationship is a good way to remember new words. So in

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their teaching, teachers should train their students the

sense of meaning relationships between words.

* Synonyms

Synonyms are words that mean the same or nearly the

same. For example, “interest”, “hobby” and “pastime” are

synonyms. Learners can use one word to remember the

others which have the same meanings.

* Antonyms

Antonyms are words that mean the opposite. Using

antonyms in teaching vocabulary is an effective way.

Teachers can use old words to teach new words when they

are antonyms. For instance, “generous” is an antonym of

“mean”.

* Hyponyms

Hyponyms are words that serve a specific examples of a

general concept. For example, “red”, “blue”, “yellow”,

“orange” are hyponyms of colors. Or when teaching

“mammal”, the teacher can say “dog, cat, pig”.

* Superordinates

Superordinates are general concepts that cover all

specific items. They are opposite of hyponyms. For

instance, “animal” is the superordinate of dog, lion,

fox, camel…

2.3.2. Aspects of forms

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Each English word has its pronunciation, spelling and

grammatical functions.

2.3.2.1. Spelling and pronunciation

Spelling refers to what the word looks like and

pronunciation refers to what the word sounds like.

Knowing the spelling of a word is not a difficult task.

On the contrary, knowing to pronounce correctly a word

requires the learners’ understanding in phonetics and

phonology. Students have to know the word’s stress as

well as pronunciation rules. When teaching, teachers

must be sure that both these things are presented and

learnt.

2.3.2.2. Grammar

When teaching new words, the teachers cannot ignore the

grammatical features of a word, especially when the

words are not obviously covered by general grammatical

rules.

Grammatical features include singular and plural forms,

regularity and irregularity, transitiveness or

intransitiveness and so on. When teaching the word

“mouse”, we wish to present its plural form “mice”, or

in some cases, a noun hasn’t got its plural forms such

as fish, information…

2.3.3. Aspects of usage of a word

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To some extent, we can change the meaning of a word by

the way we use it. There are some phenomena in which the

meanings of a word may change, namely collocations,

idioms and metaphor.

Collocation is a case in which words tend to co- occur

with others with a high frequency. Nattinger (1988,

p.69) noted that “the meaning of a word has a great deal

to do with the words with which it commonly associate”.

Students can take advantage of dictionary of

collocations to know as many as possible.

Word meaning is also changed by metaphorical use or

idioms. For instance, the word “busybody” refers to

someone who interferes in the affairs of the others.

In short, the best way to teach vocabulary is to let the

learners learn to use a word in sentences or paragraphs,

not to learn it separately.

3. Review on some common methods associated with

vocabulary teaching

According to Le Van Canh (2002), “the status of English

as an international global language stresses the need

for a new approach to English language teaching”. He

also pointed that “there is no single method or approach

that can work for all teachers or for all learners or

under all conditions because teaching is socially

constructed activity” (Le Van Canh, 2004, p.95).

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Teachers should know as many approaches and methods as

possible. And they need to be flexible and sensitive

enough to choose the best ones for each situation.

3.1. The grammar translation method

This is one of the most traditional methods in the

world, dating back to the late nineteenth and early

twentieth centuries. However, it is no longer the

leading method in language education area. As its name

suggests, it emphasizes the teaching of grammar and

translation from and into target language. The principal

characteristic of this method is to focus on learning

grammatical rules and their application in translating

texts from one language to another one. Vocabulary is

presented mainly by direct translation and memorization.

Students spend most of their lesson time doing grammar

exercises while time for oral practice is very little.

Students have very few opportunities to produce

sentences themselves. They mainly learn grammar

structures and follow given ones. Obviously, there is a

discrepancy between grammar accuracy and communication.

This method to some extent has harmful effects on

students’ motivation and interests. This can be seen in

Rivers’ opinion (1981, p.29) “this method aims at

inculcating an understanding of grammar of the language

and training the students to write the new language

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accurately by regular practice in translating from the

native language”. Krashen (1984, p.128) also stated that

“This approach may be easy, cheap and useful but its

relevance is restricted because its focus is on form and

not meaning.”

One thing should be concentrated in this part is the

shift from grammar-translation method to communicative

approach which teaches students how to communicate

successfully. Communicative approach puts a great

concern on language acquisition. According to Krashen

(1981), “acquisition is a natural process, similar to

the way children develop ability in their first

language. It is subconscious process when students are

not aware of the fact that they are acquiring language

but are using the language for communication.” This

approach provides students more opportunities to

communicate using real-life situations, creates more

communicative activities for students to take part in.

In short, the main purpose of communicative approach is

to teach students to use language as a means of

communication.

3.2. The direct method

This method is very useful for teaching vocabulary

because it focuses on listening and speaking, which

enables the teacher to drill students more on

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vocabulary. The words used are very common, authentic

and concerning everyday activities. Teachers can teach

through demonstrations, objects and pictures. However,

this method is only used for teaching simple, concrete

and specific words. Teachers can exploit this method to

teach English to young learners because words at primary

level are simple. Especially nowadays teaching English

is strongly supported by the development of technology.

Instead of bringing real objects to the class, teachers

simply show the pictures on the slides. It is a great

advantage.

3.3. The reading method

This method encourages the students to make use of

dictionaries as they read the passages. It is really

useful for teaching vocabulary at advanced level because

at that level, students can consolidate their

vocabulary.

3.4. The audio-lingual method

This method emphasizes on the ability of communication,

in other words, oral proficiency. Great importance is

attached to pronunciation from the beginning. In this

method, there is much use of tapes, language labs and

visual aids. Vocabulary is strictly limited and learnt

in context. It is presented in dialogues, everyday

expressions and basic structures. The learners listen

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carefully to the teacher or tape recorder and then

repeat it. Moreover, there is little or even no

grammatical explanation. Grammar is taught mainly by

drills and examples rather than deductive explanation.

4. Principles of teaching vocabulary

According to Hubbard et al (1983) and Nation (2003),

teaching vocabulary has some principles:

If words are presented in a memorable way and

practiced regularly, students may remember them

better.

No matter how new words are presented, students

should always be checked if they have understood

the new words.

Like teaching anything else, when teaching

vocabulary, revision is essential. New words should

be revised regularly, otherwise students may forget

them.

High frequency words should be paid more attention

than low frequency ones because they are more

useful.

To help learners self- study effectively,

vocabulary learning strategies such as guessing

meaning from context, using dictionary, using word

card, using collocations…) should be trained.

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From those principles, we can see that teaching

vocabulary to young learners should be memorable and

fun, which helps kids remember words better. One more

important thing is that new words should be revised

regularly through different activities to make sure

students do not forget the words.

5. Games and its application in teaching vocabulary

5.1. Definitions of games

Games are forms of entertainment, which can be in the

form of physical activities or mental activities or

mixture of both. Hadfield (1987) gave a definition “a

game is an activity with rules, a goal and an element of

fun.” Similarly, Rixon (1981) wrote “a game consists of

play governed by rules”. Gibbs’s definition (1974) is

nearly the same “a game is an activity carried out by

cooperating or competing decision markers, seeking to

achieve, within a set of rules, their objectives.”

All these different definitions share three main

characteristics of games which are a goal, a set of

rules and players.

Games used in English classes can be considered as one

kind of games entitled language games. Greenal (1984)

defines language games as an “activity which is used to

consolidate language already taught or acquired and

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occurs during the free stage of lesson or during

occasions such as English club meeting…”

In summary, language games can be used at any stage of

the lesson to present new words, consolidate old words

or that sort of thing. Games can be physical, mental or

both. Besides, games must have a certain goal, clear

rules and players (individually, in pairs or in groups).

5.2. Classification of games

Hadfield (1987) classified games into the following

categories. However, these ways may overlap.

+ Sorting, ordering or arranging games:

+ Information gap game:

+ Guessing game:

+ Matching game:

+ Puzzle

+ Role-play game:

In the viewpoint of Lee (1986), games can be categorised

as follows:

+ Structure games: Games provide experience of the use

of particular patterns of syntax in communication such

as “What is it? Is it…?”, “What’s my name?”, “Whose is

it?”….

+ vocabulary games: Games in which the learners’

attention is focused mainly on words such as “ What’s

this/that?”, “Shopping”, “Coffee-pot”….

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+ spelling games: may be looked upon as vocabulary

games. Examples of these games are “Write what you see”,

“Write what you hear”, “Word completion”, “Crossword”,

“Spell aloud what you hear”….

+ pronunciation games: these games may base on words and

sounds (at elementary level) or even sentences (at

higher levels). For instances, “The same or different”,

“Pronunciation bingo”…

+ number games: Games help the learners to get

accustomed to the spoken forms of numbers such as “Ring

a number”, “How many”, “Number Bingo”, “ Missing

numbers”, “What’s the time now?”…..

+ listen-and-do games: In these games, the learners have

to listen and understand, then carry out some actions.

Some typical games belonging to this type are “Doing

what you’re told”, “O’Grady says”, “Face to face”….

+ read-and-do games: Some typical games are “Games with

flashcards”, “Matching games”, “Reconstructing the

story”…

+ miming and role-play: A situation is simulated in the

classroom and the participants adopt roles which belong

to it.

+ discussion games: Games in which discussion plays a

dominant role such as “ Who am I?”, “Find someone who…”,

21

Another way of classifying games is offered by Carrier

and the Centre for British Teachers:

+ Production games: These games are most appropriate for

post-practice phase of a lesson or teaching unit. When

playing these games, students can express themselves

more creatively.

+ word games: including word games, crosswords and

spelling games.

+ pronunciation games: These games practice both

pronunciation and sound discrimination in a simple way.

+ fillers (quizzes, puzzles and riddles)

+ communication games: different non-linguistic tasks to

be performed to develop students’ skills in

communication.

5.3. Benefits of using games in teaching vocabulary

Different types of methods and techniques create an

effective teaching and learning environment. Using games

in teaching is considered to be one of those techniques.

However, the effectiveness of using games in teaching is

still controversial among educators and teachers.

According to Ur (1996), when we say “game”, it refers to

something just fun, not serious. Sometimes, a number of

educators and teachers regard using games as mere time-

fillers or time-waster. As a result, many teachers are

reluctant to use games when teaching.

22

Contrary to those opinions above, many experienced

methodology writers have argued the effectiveness of

using games in teaching a foreign language. It is not a

time-filling activity. It has great value.

Wright, Betteridge, Buckly (1984) concluded that

“learning through games could encourage the operation of

certain psychological and intellectual factors which

could facilitate communication heightened self esteem,

motivation and spontaneity, reinforcing learning,

improving intonation and building confidence”.

Ersoz (2000) maintains that games are highly motivating

because they are amusing and interesting.

Hadfield claimed that “Games should be regarded as an

integral part of the language syllabus, not as an

amusing activity for Friday afternoon or for the end of

the term”. He confirmed the effectiveness of using games

in teaching and learning English.

In the viewpoint of Richarch Amato (1988, p.147), “games

can lower anxiety, thus making the acquisition of input

more likely”.

In conclusion, there are four advantages of using games

in teaching vocabulary that can be summed up as follows:

Games can motivate the learners by bringing fun

to the classroom.

Games can provide language practice

23

Games encourage learners to communicate with

each other

Games increase the cooperation and competition

in the class

Games are undeniably useful in vocabulary classes. Using

games is an interesting and effective way to teach

vocabulary. Children can learn English through playing,

without thinking they are studying, thus they learn a

lot without stress.

5.4. Requirements of a good game for teaching vocabulary

Students may want to play games just for fun. However,

teachers should give convincing reasons when they use

games in their lessons. Teachers should not consider

games as a time-filler. They should know “which games to

use, when to use them, how to link them up with the

syllabus, textbook or programme and how, more

specifically, different games will benefit students in

different ways.” (Khan, 1996). According to Lin Hong

(2002), not all games are going to work to teach the

students language skills. If the games are just for fun

and do not have any relations to educational purposes,

they should not be used. So to find out if the game is

educationally sound, think about questions raised by

Hong:

24

Which skills does it practice? The

language skill focus could be any one of the major

skills of listening, speaking, reading or writing

What types of game is it?

What’s the purpose for using it?

Does it fit the students? How could I

simplify or make it more complex if necessary? Many

games require modification in use when the students’

needs are taken into consideration.

How much interaction and participation is

there? Maximum involvement is something we are

pursuing.

In a nutshell, a good game must have clear rules, well-

defined goals and fun.

6. Teaching English to young learners vs teaching

English to adults

There is obviously a relationship between physical

maturation and language acquisition. The more mature the

children are, the more they can acquire from a language.

Children and adults are clearly different in terms of

psychology and level of knowledge. According to Scott

and Ytreberg (1990, p.3), children of five are little

children but children of ten have both an adult side and

childish side. Children aged from eight to ten “have a

language with all the basic elements in place”. They

25

have the ability to understand abstract words and

symbols and can generalize and systematize.

It is a fact that children cannot sit still for a long

time to learn as adults. The number of words in a lesson

for children must be fewer than for adults. These

differences require suitable teaching methods and

language activities in teaching and learning a foreign

language.

Anyway, young children are different from adults in a

point that they are still learning new concepts,

developing and accumulating new things, which have a

great impact on their language acquisition. Teachers and

parents should bear in mind that young children need to

be taught in terms of individual educational needs and

interests.

According to Slattery and Willis (2001), children as

learners have the following characteristics:

Learn in a variety of ways, for example: by watching, by listening,

by imitating and by doing things. It means children

learn through what they see, what they hear in

their surrounding environment and then they

imitate by doing things. In other words,

children learn by doing things.

Are not able to understand grammatical rules and explanations

about language. This can be explained in the way

26

that children of five to ten still have limited

knowledge. They cannot understand well the rules

of a language. They can just imitate what they

see and hear. That’s why when teaching primary

school students, teachers should provide them

with sentence patterns, not grammatical rules.

The final aim is that the students can use those

sentence patterns to express their ideas.

Try to make sense of situations by making use of non- verbal

clues.

Talk in their mother tongue about they understand and do this

helps them learn. This means that they understand

everything when they use their mother tongue.

Its pedagogical implicature is that teachers

teaching children should use their mother tongue

to explain things so that they can understand.

Can generally imitate the sounds they hear quite accurately and

copy the way adults speak. This is an important thing.

Children learn quickly what they hear. They can

imitate very well. So when teaching words to

children, teachers should pay special attention

to pronunciation.

Love to play and use their imagination. It means they

love learning by playing.

27

To summarize, children learn by imitating what they see,

what they hear and they like to learn by playing things

that makes them use their imagination. Teachers should

say and do well so that their students can imitate good

things.

7. Concluding remarks

In this chapter, I have been concerned with the re-

examination of some of the key terms related to my

thesis. I have dealt with several definitions of

vocabulary, its importance in teaching and learning a

foreign language, some methods as well as approaches

exploited in teaching language in general and vocabulary

in particular such as grammar-translation approach in

comparison with communicative approach. Moreover, the

issue of games is of great concern. I have given some

definitions of games, it classification and requirements

of a good game. Also in this chapter, I recommended some

differences between teaching English to young learners

and teaching English to adults. These differences have

influences on teachers’ choosing appropriate teaching

methods and techniques. Understanding these things well

may result in better analysis in the next chapter.

CHAPTER 2

CURRENT SITUATION OF TEACHING AND LEARNING TIENG ANH 3 AT

DU HANG KENH PRIMARY SCHOOL

28

1. Introduction

Teaching and learning process cannot be a success

without teachers and learners. Evidently, teachers and

students are key determinants. That’s why in this

chapter, I will describe in details the characteristics

of English teachers and third-graders at Du Hang Kenh

Primary School. Moreover, the teaching and learning

environment also plays an important role in a successful

lesson. This resulted in an overview of the school. In

this chapter, I would like to provide a brief

description of textbook Tieng Anh 3 because the aim of my

thesis is to find out if games given in this book are

enough and effective or not. I would like to examine the

effectiveness of games in teaching vocabulary to third

graders learning this textbook. Do games in this

textbook really improve students’ use of vocabulary? In

brief, this chapter will give an overview of (1) Du Hang

Kenh Primary School, (2) English teachers, (3) third-

graders and (4) the textbook Tieng Anh 3.

2. Overview of the school

Du Hang Kenh primary school is in Le Chan district, Hai

Phong City. It is not located in the centre of the city.

It is quite small with only 30 teachers in total and 32

classrooms (only one room is provided with a projector).

In this school, mathematics and literature are still

29

considered to be the most important subjects while

English is only regarded as subsidiary one. However, in

the school-year of 2011-2012, with the support from Hai

Phong Department of Education and Training, the teaching

and learning of English here have made some progress.

Especially, in this school year, the school received a

foreign teacher who co-taught with Vietnamese teachers,

which improves students’ learning vocabulary a lot. It

is a good sign that recently the school has paid more

attention to English and decided to give more time for

extra English lessons in the afternoon.

3. The English teachers

Most of the teachers of Du Hang Kenh primary school

graduated from university. All of five English teachers

graduated from Hai Phong University. They are all women,

aged from 26 to 34. All of them are enthusiastic with

their teaching career and have at least three years of

experience in teaching English to young learners.

Through class observation and discussion, most of the

English teachers of the school follow given parts of a

unit. Some of them use traditional methods by writing

new words on the board, giving translation, get the

class to repeat and ask some students to read aloud.

There are no extra language activities for vocabulary

teaching. It should be noted here that the material

30

facilities here are backward. There is only a CD player

which supports teaching and learning English in a

classroom. This may be a reason why teaching vocabulary

is not as effective as expected.

4. The third-graders

In the school year of 2011- 2012, Du Hang Kenh primary

school had six third-grade classes. Each class had an

average of 30 students. The biggest class had the

maximum of 38 and the smallest had the minimum of 29. In

each class, the number of female students is bigger than

male ones. In three classes, there are several mentally-

deficient students which made the teaching of English

really a hard job. It should be noted here that the

students in this school do not have good learning

environment as those who are in the centre of the city.

They rarely attend extra classes. Most of them do not

have computers at home. Most of their parents are

workers. So they seldom receive any support in learning

English from their parents. From what I observed, they

learnt English mainly from class. This is a disadvantage

of these students as well as the teachers. They have to

try much more than those in bigger schools with better

learning conditions

5. Overview of the textbook Tieng Anh 3

31

For the past ten years, English has been an optional

subject in primary schools. Teaching and learning

English in primary schools has received more and more

concern and support from the government, especially when

Decision 1400/QD-TTg was issued. The initial results are

two textbooks Tieng Anh 3 and Tieng Anh 4 which were

published in 2010 by Ministry of Education and Training.

Tieng Anh 3 is designed in light of theme-based approach.

In this book, there are four main themes: Me and My

Friends, Me and My School, Me and My Family and Me and

the World Around. Each theme is divided into some topics

or units. The aims of this book are to encourage

students use language in a creative way and to

strengthen their ability to communicate.

Tieng Anh 3 consists of twenty units and four review ones

for two terms. Each unit focuses on competences,

sentence patterns, vocabulary and phonics. Due to

different contexts in different primary schools, the

school authority can choose one of three ways of

teaching the textbook. They can choose to teach two or

three or four class hours per week. At Du Hang Kenh

school, students learn English two official classes and

one extra class hour per week.

My thesis is not aimed at assessing the textbook. I just

would like to focus on games given in it to teach

32

vocabulary. How do teachers exploit those games? Do

those games actually improve the students’ ability to

use vocabulary? The content of this study focuses only

on the games to teach vocabulary of this book. Its

vocabulary points are as follows:

Review of games in Tieng Anh 3

Unit Vocabulary points Games1 : Hello Hi, hello, bye, goodbye Name cards2 : My name

is...

how, spell, name,

alphabet

Circle the names

3 : How are

you?

how, thank, thanks, fine,

and

Greetings

4 : What’s

your name?

what, my, your, this,

friend

Stand up when

you hear...5 : Our

friends

yes, no, he, she, new,

that

Physical line up

6 : My

school

primary school, it,

which, one

Pass the word

7 : Places

in my school

classroom, library,

computer, music, room,

book, big, small, new,

short, long

Crossword Puzzle

8 : School

things

rubber, ruler, pencil

sharpener, pencil case,

backpack, school bag, old

Slap the board

33

9 : In my

classroom

sit (down), stand (up),

open, close, come (in),

go (out)

Circle the words

and phrases

10 : Our

break time

break time, hide- and-

seek, badminton, chess,

chat, football, puzzle,

volleyball

Bingo

11. My

family

family, father, mother,

grandmother, grandfather,

brother, sister, grandpa,

grandma, who

Family members

game

12 : How old

are you ?

year old, how, both,

numbers 1- 20

Listen, point

and say

13 : My

house

house, living room,

kitchen, dining room,

bathroom, bedroom, garden

Bingo

14 : Our

room

table, bed, desk,

picture, ball, lamp,

large, tidy, untidy,

nice, on, above, under,

Spot the

differences

34

behind, near15 : At home robot, children, read,

do, cook, sing, skate,

jump, run

Mime and guess

16 : The

weather

weather, today, sunny,

windy, rainy, cloudy,

hot, cold, fine

Spelling bee

17 : Outdoor

activities

fly a kite, play

football, cycle, boy,

girl

Spelling game

18 : Colours colour, flower, rose,

sky, sea, red, orange,

yellow, green, blue,

pink, brown, violet, like

Invisible

colours

19 : Our

pets

pet, cat, dog, bird,

tortoise, parrot, rabbit,

goldfish, fish, have got,

do, how many

Making a pet

wheel

20 : Our

toys

doll, robot, ball, ship,

car, yo-yo, new

Kim’s game

It can be seen that in each unit, there is a game at the

end of each lesson to revise words and sentence patterns

that students already learnt. However, some games are

35

used to teach speaking (Name cards, Greeting) or

practicing sentence patterns (physical line up, Kim’s

game, Mime and guess, Family members game) which are not

examined in this study.

6. Concluding remarks

To sum up, in this chapter, a brief overview was about

the current situation of teaching and learning English

in general and using games to teach vocabulary to third-

graders in particular was provided. The textbook was

briefly described and the difficulties of teachers and

students were presented. This description helps the

researcher analyze data and problem in a fairer way.

Only precise and truthful analysis can bring valuable

findings. In the next chapter, I would like to present

how data was collected and analyzed and to find out the

truth about using games to teach vocabulary to third-

graders.

CHAPTER 3

36

HOW TO USE GAMES TO TEACH VOCABULARY TO THIRD

GRADERS AT DU HANG KENH PRIMARY SCHOOL (WITH REFERENCE

TO TIENG ANH 3)

To assess the effectiveness of using games given in

textbook Tieng Anh 3 to teach vocabulary to third-graders,

my thesis involved teaching different kinds of games in

lessons so that I could see how the third-graders at Du

Hang Kenh Primary School reacted to this application of

games. In fact, I observed two third-grade classes 3A1,

3A2 in three months. Their total number of students is

71. In these two classes, I had two teachers each teach

three games (Stand up when you hear, Pass the word,

Crossword Puzzle, Slap the board, Bingo and Spelling

bee) in different units. I myself taught three games

(Hangman, Word Completion and Jumbled Words) in class

3A5. On the completion of this thesis, besides teaching

and observing classes, I used survey questionnaires for

five English teachers and interviewed thirty students to

know more about their attitudes and expectations about

games in Tieng Anh 3. In what follows, I will present

details about my class observation, my teaching and the

teachers’ and learners’ reactions and expectations

through data collected.

1. Procedures in teaching a game

37

According to Simon Greenal (1984), the teachers’ roles

vary in different situations. It depends on the size of

the class, the characteristics of the game and the level

of control the teachers choose. In a big-sized class,

teachers’ correction and interference may be obviously

limited. In a small class, when games are used as warm-

up activities or at free stage of a lesson, teachers’

interference should be as little as possible because the

students should use the opportunities to self-

experiment what they have learnt. This does not mean

that teachers just sit back and do nothing.

Evidently, each game has its own procedures. However,

based on what are written in game books by Simon Greenal

(1984), Hadfield (1999), Colin Granger (1981), Mark

Hancock (1995), there are some common steps in teaching

a game as follows:

Teachers introduce the game (its name)

Teachers explain its rules

Teachers explain its aim or objective

Teachers teach new words or revise learnt words for

students to play the game

Teachers give example or illustration (one time or

more)

Teachers divide the class into pairs or groups

38

Teachers go around the class and give help or make

suggestions if absolutely necessary

Teachers correct students’ mistakes (different ways

of correction)

Teachers check the answer

Teachers follow-up the game

As said before, the interference of teachers is

flexible. However, some things must be done by teachers

in order to make the game a success. The teachers must

give instructions simply and briefly. They should ask

students to make sure that they are clear about the

rules. If some students do not understand, teachers

should explain to the whole class again instead of one-

by-one. Only when they understand the rules, do they

play well. Teachers also should ask one or some students

to play as illustration. If necessary, examples should

be given more than one time. During the game, teachers

should go around the class, help students with words,

correct their mistakes if appropriate, give

encouragement and inspire those who are reluctant to

play. Teachers may join in with the groups who seem to

be seated to encourage them more.

Correction is of great concern when teachers play a game

in a class. There are a number of ways to correct

students’ mistakes. Teachers can have the students peer-

39

check. Students sitting next to each other or in the

same group check together. Teachers can also write down

students’ answers and give them back in a later lesson.

The most common way among primary teachers is to give

correction right at the time students make mistakes.

Teachers should keep in mind that untimely correction

may have counter effects. Encouragement should be given

much more than correction.

2. Class observation

I observed two classes 3A1 and 3A2 once a week in three

months. In these three months, I had two English

teachers in these two classes teach six games in Tieng Anh

3. The first one taught three games “Stand up when you

hear”, “Bingo” and “Crossword Puzzle”. The other taught

three games “Slap the board”, “Pass the word” and

“Spelling bee”.

2.1. Class 3A1

2.1.1. Game “Stand up when you hear”

There are 35 students, including 20 girls and 15 boys.

The female teacher graduated from university eight years

ago. She taught this game at the end of lesson 2- Unit

4: What’s Your Name. The aim of this game is to recall

the sounds learnt in the Student Book, and to have

pupils interact and take turns in pairs. Here is what I

observed and took notes.

40

After finishing teaching the first three parts of lesson

2 (Listen and repeat, Listen and tick, Read and match),

the teacher asked in Vietnamese “Các con có thích chơi

trò chơi không?” The students excitedly answered “Yes”.

Then the teacher used Vietnamese to introduce the game

to the class “Bây giờ cả lớp chúng mình sẽ chơi một trò

chơi có tên Stand up when you hear”. She continued by

asking the students about the meanings of each word in

the game’s name “Các con cho cô biết “stand up” là….,

“when” là…., “you” là….and “hear” hay “listen” là…..”.

The students answered at the same time. The teacher said

again the name of the game and explained the rules in

Vietnamese “Vậy chúng ta sẽ chơi trò “Hãy đứng lên khi

bạn nghe thấy….các con nhé. Luật chơi như sau: Các con

ngồi tại chỗ nếu nghe thấy từ có âm /th/ và đứng lên khi

nghe được các từ không phải âm /th/.”. After explaining

the rules, she asked “Các con understand chưa?”. Most of

the students said “Yes”. Surprisingly she explained the

rules again and asked one more time maybe to make sure

her students are clear. Then she herself divided the

class into five groups of seven. She added the rules

“Bạn nào làm sai thì sẽ bị out nhé các con. Đội nào còn

lại nhiều thành viên nhất sẽ thắng cuộc, làm winner. Các

con nhớ nhé”. Her introduction, explaination and group

dividing lasted for three minutes. Then she started the

41

game with the word “this”. Some of the students were

out. She continued with other words in previous lessons

“hello, Mary, Peter, name, my, is, what”. This lasted

about three minutes. During the game, she just sat near

the teacher table and monitored the class. Sometimes she

stopped to ask the students to keep silent. At the end

of the game, she complimented the winner- group 4 which

had five of seven members remained. Then she reminded

students about their homework. They said “Goodbye” to

each other.

2.1.2. Game “Crossword Puzzle”

There are 35 students, including 20 girls and 15 boys.

The female teacher graduated from university eight years

ago. She taught this game at the end of lesson 3- Unit

7: Places in my School. The aim of this game is to

consolidate new words basing on pictures given.

This game is played at the end of lesson 3, after three

activities “Listen and repeat, Look and say, and Write”.

The teacher asked in Vietnamese “Bây giờ các con có

thích chơi game không? Cô trò mình cùng chơi một trò

chơi mới nhé!”. Most of the students answered happily

“Yes, yes”. Some were busy doing something. Then the

teacher introduced in Vietnamese “Các con mở sách trang

53. Chúng ta sẽ chơi trò ô chữ, tên tiếng Anh là gì nhỉ?

Các con thấy trong sách chưa? Trò chơi Crossword Puzzle.

42

Chúng mình sẽ chơi trò này theo cặp. Hai bạn ngồi cạnh

nhau làm một cặp này. Ví dụ bạn Linh và bạn Huyền một

cặp, bạn Tùng và bạn Lâm một cặp. Các con đã rõ chưa?”.

After making sure that the students knew their partners,

she explained how to play the game all in Vietnamese

again “Bây giờ từng cặp các con hãy nhìn vào ô chữ trong

sách. Bên cạnh mỗi ô chữ các con có thấy một hình ảnh gì

không? Các con điền mồi chữ cái vào một ô này. Các con

có 3 phút để làm nhé. Nhóm nào làm xong đầu tiên sẽ là

winner? Ready? Ready? Ok. Start”. Then she went around

the class to encourage them to do as quickly as

possible. I realised that she did not suggest any word

to any pairs. Maybe she wanted to be fair among groups.

According to my observation, there were three groups who

did not do anything. They talked to each other. The

teacher went to them and reminded gently “Làm nhanh các

con không thua bây giờ”. Those students began to discuss

loudly. Maybe a minute after the teacher’s explanation,

one group raised their hand. The teacher stopped the

whole class and invited this group to share their work

at the front of the class. The rest of the class

observed. This was an excellent group who did all

correct. The teacher commented “Excellent” and asked

them to read all the words again. The students sometimes

made mistakes when reading words. The teacher corrected

43

at once and asked the whole class to read along. She

congratulated the winner group and asked the class to

read after her all the words in the crossword puzzle

again. Then she reminded the class about their homework

and said goodbye.

2.1.3. Game “Bingo”

There are 35 students, including 20 girls and 15 boys.

The female teacher graduated from university eight years

ago. She taught this game at the beginning of Review 2.

The aim of this game is to consolidate activities

students often do at break time.

The teacher came in. The students stood up and greeted

in English “Good afternoon”. Then the teacher wrote

the date on the right corner of the blackboard. Then

she asked the students to close their books and open

their notebooks. She introduced the game in

Vietnamese “Cô có một trò chơi rất hay có tên Bingo.

Lớp chúng mình có chơi không nhỉ?”. As usual, the

students answered “Yes”. The teacher drew a grid on

the blackboard and asked the students to copy down

the grid into their notebooks “Các con mở vở ra và

kẻ ô giống như cô trên bảng”. She waited one minute

until the students finished drawing. She continued

“Các con nghĩ cho cô sáu hoạt động mà các con thường

44

chơi trong giờ ra chơi chúng mình đã học ở bài trước

nào”. Then she called on six students to get six

words and wrote them into the grid. Then she asked

the students to copy the words into their own grids

“Các con hãy viết các từ trên bảng vào ô chữ của

mình. Các con không được viết giống vị trí cô viết

trên bảng nhé. Các con thích viết từ nào vào ô nào

cũng được”. badminton Volleyball Chess

football Chat Hide-and-seek

Then she waited two minutes for the students to copy the

words down. While waiting she walked around the class to

help some students who did not know what to do or how to

draw a grid. After that, she said in Vietnamese “Bây giờ

cô sẽ đọc bất kỳ từ nào. Nếu trong ô chữ của các con có

từ cô đọc, các con hãy gạch chéo như cô làm thế này nhé.

Bạn nào gạch được ba từ trong một hàng sẽ nói Bingo. Dãy

nào có nhiều Bingo hơn sẽ là nhóm thắng nhé. Các con

biết cách chơi chưa nào?”. Then she step by step read

out following words “volleyball, chess, chat”. Three

students said “Bingo”. She stopped and went to the

students’ tables. She asked them to read those three

words. Two of those three students could not read these

45

words correctly. Only one of them was admitted “Bingo”.

The teacher put a tick on the right corner of the

blackboard, which meant a point for Team B. Then she

continued the game for about two more minutes. She

continued asking students having Bingo to read words. I

saw that some students could not listen and cross the

words. They sat and smiled. However, the teacher could

not know because she stood quite far. At the end of the

game, she complimented Team A which had eight Bingos in

total. Then she moved to the activities in Review 2.

2.2. Class 3A2

2.2.1. Game “Slap the board”

There are 36 students in this class, including 22 girls

and 14 boys. The English teacher of this class graduated

from university four years ago. She taught this game at

the end of lesson 3- Unit 8: School things

After going through three previous activities, she wrote

down on the left side of the board eight words in the

topic “School things” such as ruler, book, rubber,

pencil, pencil case, school bag, pen, and pencil

sharpener, and asked students to read all those words

after her. Then she asked students if they wanted to

play a game in Vietnamese. Then she pasted eight

pictures of school things on the centre of the board.

Then she called two teams of three students to the

46

board. Then she explained the rules in Vietnamese “Cô sẽ

nói một câu bằng tiếng Anh ví dụ như It’s a book. Ngay khi

nghe được, các con phải đập tay ngay vào hình ảnh của từ

mà cô nhắc đến. Mỗi lần đập đúng đội con sẽ được một

điểm. Các con rõ chưa nào? Sẵn sàng chưa? Ready?

Start?”. She step by step read out ruler, rubber and so

on. She concentrated on scoring each team’s points so

she did not care about the rest of the students. The

class was very noisy. Some students really did not pay

attention to the game. Some were talking. She

complimented two teams and called other two teams. Each

turn lasted about two minutes. The game was played

twice. Then the game ended. She reminded the class of

the lesson and homework. Then they said goodbye to each

other.

2.2.2. Game “Pass the word”

There are 36 students in this class, including 22 girls

and 14 boys. The English teacher of this class graduated

from university four years ago. She taught this game at

the end of Review 3. This game is designed with the aims

to recall the vocabulary learnt in the Student Book, to

associate words and spelling, to have pupils interact

and take turns in pairs.

After finishing all activities in Review 3, teacher

moved to teaching a game. She told the students the

47

game’s name. Then she invited two groups of five

students to the center of the classroom. After choosing

group leaders, she explained the rules in Vietnamese

“Các con cùng cô quan sát xem đội nào chơi xấu nhé. Quy

định như sau: Bạn đầu hàng hay nhóm trưởng sẽ được cô

đưa cho sáu tờ giấy mà trên mỗi tờ có một từ. Bạn này

giữ nguyên tờ giấy này và nói thầm cho bạn đứng sau

biết, bạn đứng sau lại nói cho bạn kế tiếp biết và cứ

thế bạn cuối cùng chạy thật nhanh lên bảng viết cho cô

từ đó. Đội nào viết đúng hết sáu từ trong sáu tờ giấy

này sẽ là người thắng cuộc. Rõ chưa các con? Ready?

Ready là gì nhỉ? À, sẵn sàng? Cô hỏi lại này? Ready? Ok.

1.2.3. Start”. The game started. In group A, two members

did not know how to play. They could not hear the word.

They were confused. The other group was the same. All of

them were confused because they could not hear the word.

It is maybe because they did not dare to say aloud,

otherwise the other group may overhear. The teacher

stopped the game and explained once more. She asked two

groups to stand far away from each other and she stood

between them. The second time seemed to be better.

However, some students at the back of the class talked a

lot. Teacher did not ask them to stop. It lasted nearly

five minutes for two groups to write down the words.

Teacher checked the answer and congratulated the winner.

48

Then she asked them to come back to their seats. Then

the game ended.

2.2.3. Game “Spelling bee”

There are 36 students in this class, including 22 girls

and 14 boys. The English teacher of this class graduated

from university four years ago. She taught this game at

the end of lesson 2- Unit 16: The weather.

As usual, after teaching all three previous activities,

the teacher asked students if they wanted play a game.

Then she introduced the game “Spelling bee” in the

Student Book and gave instructions in Vietnamese “Lớp

mình hôm nay sẽ chơi trò Con ong đánh vần. Cô mời hai

bạn lên trên bục giảng nào. Cô mời bạn….Ai xung phong

nhỉ?”. Then she called two students, one volunteered,

one did not. Then she continued explaining in Vietnamese

“Cô sẽ nói một từ tiếng Anh, các con nghe, đánh vần rồi

viết lên bảng. Rõ chưa nào?”. After that, she said the

word “robot”. One student spelled it but very slowly.

Finally she wrote it on the board. The teacher continued

with another word “jump”. The same student could spell

but still very slowly. She asked the whole class if they

knew the alphabet and how to spell. Only some of the

students said yes. She stopped the game and revised the

alphabet for the class. After that, she continued the

game with another pair. This time was better. Then she

49

called three more pairs. At the end of the game, she

asked students to learn by heart the alphabet and

reminded them about the homework. Then they said goodbye

to each other.

2.3. General comments

From the observation of teaching six games in two

classes, I realized that these primary teachers are very

enthusiastic and responsible for their job. They

virtually followed the teaching procedures provided in

Teacher’s Book, except for some steps. In all six games,

the teachers introduced the games’ names and their

rules. During the games, they walked around the class

and gave help. However, sometimes teachers concentrated

on a group of the class and ignored the others, which

indeed demotivated the students. Also sometimes,

teachers paid too much attention on the pronunciation

and mistake correction. Students might feel

uncomfortable and lose interest. Teachers should be

sensitive enough to correct students’ mistakes timely.

It comes to my mind that if teachers are well- prepared

for the games, their students will have more time to

play a game. For example, in the game “Bingo”, students

spent nearly two or three minutes to draw a grid and

filled words in. In this game, teachers can prepare the

grids for students. Another example is the game

50

“Hangman”. If the teacher had used powerpoint, they

would have saved more time rather than drawing hangman

diagram on the blackboard. Besides, because of a rather

big class size, teachers in some cases could not manage

the class well. In both classes, there were some

students who did not really participate actively in the

games.

To sum up, teaching a game requires some techniques and

steps. Teachers should always explain the rules clearly,

give help, make suggestions, and encourage everyone to

join in. The matter of students’ mistakes correction

should be taken into consideration. At the end of the

game, checking should be done. The winner has to be

praised and the loser encouraged. In some cases,

teachers should ask students to take notes of what they

have learnt in the game.

3. My teaching

I had opportunities to teach class 3A5 three games in

three class hours in the only classroom which had a

projector in the school. There are 34 students in this

class, 18 girls and 16 boys. The three games I taught

are “Hangman”, “Word Completion” and “Jumbled Words”.

The aim of these games is to revise words students have

learnt in previous lessons.

3.1. Game “Hangman”

51

I taught this game at the beginning of review 2. I came

in the class and greeted students in English. They

greeted me in English too. I introduced the game in

Vietnamese “Các con đã bao giờ được chơi trò Hangman

chưa? Hangman có nghĩa là treo cổ ấy”. I saw some

reserved and frightened faces. I continued “Các con đừng

sợ. Không phải là mình treo cổ như các con nghĩ đâu. Trò

chơi này chỉ mô phỏng hình ảnh đó thôi. Để cô giải thích

rõ hơn này. Cô sẽ gợi ý cho các con một từ. Cô sẽ cho

các con biết từ đó có bao nhiêu chữ cái. Các con đoán

từng chữ cái trong từ đó. Nếu đoán đúng thì không sao.

Nếu sai cô sẽ lần lượt vẽ từng bộ phận của hangman. Các

con nhìn lên màn hình nhé”. Then I showed on the slide

the hangman diagram and continued “Hangman của nhóm nào

xong trước là nhóm ấy thua nhé”. Then I gave an example

on the slide. Then I asked them again to make sure they

knew the rules. I started the game with choosing two

groups. Then I instructed in Vietnamese the first word

“Đây là một từ thuộc chủ đề School things, và có sáu chữ

cái”. The students in group A gave the wrong answer “p”

and group B gave correct answer “rubber”. We continued

with five more words until the hangman diagram of group

A was finished. The games lasted for five minutes. All

the students were very happy. During the game, I walked

52

around the classroom to remind students to pay attention

to the game.

3.2. Game “Word Completion”

This game was taught at the end of lesson 3- Unit 19:

Our pets. I used powerpoint in this game.

After greeting the students, I asked them to tell me all

the words in the topic “Our pets” they have learnt

before. I called four students. Two of them gave answers

quickly but the others were very shy. I encouraged them

“Nào, con cố gắng nhớ xem con đã học được những con vật

gì nào? Bạn H vừa kể được ba con rồi nhé: dog nay, cat

này, rat nữa này. Con có nhớ con nào không nào?”. After

that, I showed on the slide pictures of pets and their

words and asked the whole class to read them aloud. Then

I gave them two minutes in groups of five to learn by

heart these words. And then I introduced and explained

the game’s rules in Vietnamese “Hôm nay cô sẽ cho các

con chơi trò Điền chữ cái còn thiếu trong một từ. Cô sẽ

đưa ra trên màn hình một từ nhưng từ đó lại bị thiếu mất

một vài chữ cái. Các con hãy giúp cô điền các chữ cái

còn thiếu nhé. Nhóm nào đoán đúng trước sẽ ghi điểm và

đương nhiên nhóm nào nhiều điểm hơn sẽ thắng. Nhớ nhé.

Các con để ý thật tinh xem từ còn thiếu chữ cái nào

nhé.” Then I showed the words in turns “d_g, ca_,

r_bb_t, g_ldf_sh, p_rr_t, t_rto_s_e”. Whenever a group

53

added the letters correctly, I complimented them “Good”,

“Very good”, or “Excellent”. They seemed to be happy. At

the end of the game, I asked them to read one more all

the words.

3.3. Game “Jumbled Words”

This is the last game I taught at the beginning of

Review 4 when the students learnt nearly all units in

the textbook. At that time, they had a number of English

words. And there are a variety of games suitable for

them. The aims of this game are to consolidate letters

in each word, to revise spelling and pronunciation, and

to make sentences basing on learnt patterns. I used

powerpoint to teach this game.

At the start, I asked them how many units they had

learnt and which topic they liked best. Different

answers were given. I chose “Toys”, the latest topic. I

showed the pictures of some toys on the slide and asked

them to read out the words twice. Then I called three

students to read again. And then I introduced the game

“Jumbled words” in Vietnamese “Các con hôm nay sẽ được

chơi một trò chơi mới. Trò chơi này cũng giống như trò

chơi hoàn thành từ lần trước. Các con phải nhớ được

trong từ đó có những chữ cái nào. Cô sẽ chia lớp thành

hai nhóm, mỗi dãy một nhóm. Nhóm nào sắp xếp được trước

sẽ được điểm. Chúng mình thử chơi một lần nhé. Lần này

54

không tính”. I gave the word “a c r”. Very quickly one

student said “car”. I congratulated her and asked again

if my students understood the rules. Then we continued

with other words. The class was noisy but I observed

that all of the students got involved in the game. After

each word completed, I asked the students to read it

aloud. At the end of the game, I checked the scores and

complimented both groups in Vietnamese “Các con hôm nay

chơi rất ngoan. Cô khen lớp mình. Chúng mình cố gắng

phát huy nhé”.

4. Teachers’ reactions and expectations about games

given in Tieng Anh 3

After observing classes, I carried out a small survey to

know more about teachers’ attitudes and expectations

about games given in Tieng Anh 3.

A b c d

1 What do you think of games

given in Tieng Anh 3?

a. very useful and

interesting

b. rather useful and

20% 20% 60% 0

55

Questions

Options

interesting

c. useful and interesting

d. not useful and interesting

at all

2 Which of the games below do

you use often? (You can

choose more than one option)

a. Bingo

b. Spelling bee

c. Crossword puzzle

d. Circle words and phrases

100% 60% 80% 80%

3 Which games do you think

should be used as

supplementary ones? (You can

choose more than one option)

a. Hangman

b. Word completion

c. Jumbled words

100% 100% 100%

Table 1: Teachers’ attitude towards games given in Tieng

Anh 3

As what is stated in Table 1, all of the teachers find

games in Tieng Anh 3 interesting and useful. They use

bingo games, spelling bee, crossword puzzle and word

circling very often. There is a fact that many students

like bingo and crosswords. These games encourage the

students to remember words easily. Besides, these games

56

have variants that can be applied to different levels of

students and different topics in different amount of

time.

Also from Table 1, we can see some games are thought to

be used by the teachers as supplementary ones. Notably

all of the teachers choose all three games. When being

interviewed, one teacher said that these games can be

used at any stage of lesson and for any topic. It is

fact that these games are used flexible. There are many

more games which can be used to supplement main

activities.

5. Learners’ attitudes towards using games in Tieng Anh 3

through interviews

After using those games to teach vocabulary to my

students, I had the teachers of three classes interview

ten randomly- chosen students of each class, using four

questions below:

1. Do you like your teachers’ games?

2. Do you find your teachers’ teaching games

interesting?

3. How often do you want to play games?

4. Among those games, which ones do you like?

For the first and the second questions, most of the

students raised up their hands. Then I asked those who

raised hands for the third question. All of them said

57

they often wanted to play games because games were fun

and they could both learn and play at the same time.

After that, I asked them the last question. The answers

varied. Some of them liked Bingo; some liked Spelling Bee,

some liked Crossword Puzzle and some liked Pass the Word. The

reason the children gave is very simple “I like it”.

That’s the way the children are.

It is notable here that although the learning conditions

are not really good, the effectiveness of games is

highly appreciated. Students’ positive attitudes towards

games may show that they like games. This also may mean

that they really want to play games in their classrooms.

This is partly due to the enthusiasm, responsibility and

creativeness of the teachers who are devoted to their

teaching. They always encourage their students to take

part in the games and help them during the games.

However, there is a fact that a minority are shy and

hesitant to play games. Teachers should motivate them

more and give more interesting games to change their

mind.

3. Suggestions

3.1. How to choose a game

Choosing a good game is a hard job for any teacher. When

choosing a game, the teacher should take some factors

into consideration, such as number of students, their

58

level of proficiency, their interests, their feelings

and needs, timing, learning topic and classroom

settings. The level of difficulty must be equal to the

level of the students. If the game is too easy, it may

be boring. If it is too hard, it may dispirit students.

In some cases, students want to play games in groups but

in others, they want to play individually. Also in some

classes, students want to play games to learn more new

words, while in other they just want play games to

revise old words. It is teachers that understand their

learners and choose the appropriate games.

3.2. When to use a game

Actually, there is no fixed time for using games in

teaching. Teachers can use games at the stage of

presentation, practice, production or even revision.

Traditionally, games are used as warm-up activities or

fill-in ones when there is some time left before the

class ends or consolidation activities. According to Mc

Callum (1980), “games can be used in any language

teaching situation and with any skill area whether

reading, writing, listening or speaking”. Hadfield

(1987) held the same point of view “Games can be used at

any stage of the lesson once the target language has

been introduced and explained. They serve both as a

memory aid and repetition drill and as a chance to use

59

language freely, as a means to an end rather than an end

itself”. He also affirmed that “the most useful place

for these games is at the free stage of the traditional

progression from presentation through practice to free

communication, to be used as a culmination of the

lesson, as a chance for students to use language they’ve

learnt freely.”

The role of games is highly appreciated. Games must be

played as a part of the lesson. They must contribute to

the success of the lesson to some extent. They should

not be regarded as marginal activity. This is stated in

Lee’s opinion (1979), “games should not be regarded as

marginal activity filling in odd moments when the

teacher and class have nothing better to do. Games ought

to be the heart of teaching foreign languages.”

Rixons (1981) suggested in his book that “games can be

used at all stages of the lesson, provided that they are

suitable and carefully chosen.” His opinion is very

clear. When to use a game depends on the purposes of the

teachers and the features of the games.

3.3. Suggested games to teach vocabulary in Tieng Anh 3

* Lee, W.R (1986):

+ Remembering: Teachers have members from each team to

draw simple sketches and their English words on the

board. The class is given a few moments to look at the

60

words. Then teacher rubs them out. The class looks at

the drawings and writes them from memory.

+ Word- race: Each group has the same picture. In a

limited time, each group has to write down the names of

as many things as possible.

+ Write what you see: There are various ways to play

this game (copying words, Kim’s game…)

+ Write what you hear: There are different ways to play

this game (“What’s your word?”, “Second tries”,...)

+ Stepping stones: A river and some stepping stones are

drawn on the board. For each stone, a word has to be

spelt. The river and stepping stones can be replaced by

ladders.

+ The same or different: The teacher says two words or

sentences and the learners decide if they are the same

or different.

+ How many: Somebody claps a number of times and then

ask “How many?”. The members of each team have to draw

the same number of stars or circles.

+ Matching games: There are pictures and simple words,

phrases or sentences. The words and sentences have to be

put under the correct picture.

* Michael Carrier and the Centre for British Teachers:

+ Sharks: This is a variation of Hangman game.

61

+ Word chain: The teacher says or writes a word and asks

students to give another word beginning with the last

letter of that word. No repetition of words is allowed.

Good - door- red- dog – green

+ Odd man out: A list of words or pictures is given. All

but one item in the list must have something in common.

The players decide which word is the odd man out and why.

+ Words from word: The teacher chooses a word,

containing at least two vowels and a mixture of

consonants. The students have to make other words from

the letters it contains. Students can word individually,

in pairs or in groups.

Elephant: Ant, hat, let…..

62

PART C: CONCLUSION

1. Summary of the study

The study is aimed at investigating the situation of

teaching and learning vocabulary in Tieng Anh 3 at Du Hang

Kenh Primary School to find out how the teachers there

have been using games to teach vocabulary and what types

of games should be used to teach vocabulary to young

learners. In fact, the study contains a literature

review which summarises all theoretical points related

to teaching vocabulary in general, teaching vocabulary

to young learners, using games in teaching a foreign

language as well as in teaching vocabulary, especially

using games to teach vocabulary to third graders. This

part set a solid background for the study.

Secondly, the study has reliable subjects for data

collection and analysis. Methodology of data collection

is presented clearly in part two. Also, findings and

discussions are given for each research question. The

study shows that using games to teach vocabulary to

young learners is indeed effective and interesting. Both

teachers and students realize that and confirm that.

However, teachers should be sensitive enough to choose a

good game, which at the same time educate and entertain

their students. Teachers should prepare students with

necessary things to exploit the games most effectively.

63

An outstanding finding in this study is that both

teachers and students appreciate games provided in Tieng

Anh 3. They have a positive attitude towards them. It may

not be appropriate to generalize the outcomes of this

minor thesis to other contexts because different

contexts have different features. However, based on what

I have collected and observed, I confirm that the use of

games in Tieng Anh 3 encourages students’ interaction,

word memorization and enhances students’ motivation.

In conclusion, using games can be considered as a good

way to teach vocabulary to young learners in a relaxed

and comfortable learning environment.

2. The limitation of the study

Due to the limitation of time for research and the

limited knowledge of the researcher, the study

inevitably has mistakes. The subjects for collecting and

analyzing data are rather small. The thesis just works

with 105 third- grade students and five English

teachers. That’s why the findings are not as many as

expected. It is hoped that in the future the researcher

can carry out a research in all primary schools in Hai

Phong city at which this book is taught.

Another limitation that cannot be ignored is that the

number of games applied in class for data analysis is

not enough. In fact, there are a variety of games that

64

can be used. I hope to have more time to applying all

those games.

3. Suggestions for further research

In this minor thesis, some games for teaching vocabulary

to third graders learning Tieng Anh 3 have been suggested.

However, there may be many other games that both help

learners remember and use words better and entertain

them as well. It is highly suggested that more games

should be invented and exploited to help students learn

vocabulary in the most interesting and useful way.

Further research should focus on:

a selection of games for kids,

a selection of games for third graders,

different selections of games for different

levels/grades,

the use of games in teaching different English

skills: speaking, reading and writing,

the effectiveness of games in building

learners’ confidence, and

the use of games in the light of communicative

approach of teaching.

65

66

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APPENDIX 2

CLASS OBSERVATION SHEET

1. Date:………………………….2. Class:………………….. Number of students:……….Male:……….Female:…………3. Unit:…………………………Lesson:…………4. Classroom: Number of tables:…………..and chairs:………... Tables are arranged traditionally or in theshape of letter U, L or O or others (please specify…………………………………………) (Circle the right way of arrangement)5. Teaching equipment and references (Please tick the right column)

Yes No1 Cassette player2 Video clips3 Visual aids4 Pictures or flashcards5 Other references (magazine, newspaper,

book…)

6. The use of English and Vietnamese of the teacherin class (Please tick the right column)

Yes No1 Teacher speaks English all the time

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2 Teacher speaks Vietnamese all the time3 Teacher speaks English most of the time4 Teacher speaks Vietnamese most of the

time 5 Teacher speaks English half the time

7. Teacher’s procedures in using games to teach vocabulary (Please tick the right column)

Yes No1 Teacher introducuces the game’s name and

objectives2 Teacher teaches new words or revises

words for students to play the game 3 Teacher explains the rules of the game

(if yes, how many times:…………….)4 Teacher gives example or illustration5 Teacher lets the students play game

individually6 Teacher devides the class into pairs7 Teacher divides the class into groups

(If yes, please specify the number of students in each group:……………)

8 Teacher himself/ herself sorts students

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into groups9 When students are playing the game,

teacher goes around the class to offer help to those in need

10 When students are playing, teacher sits at one place and says nothing

11 Teacher corrects students’ mistakes whilethey are playing

12 Teacher checks the answer13 Teacher compliments the winners and

losers at the end of the game14 Teacher has presents for the winner when

the game ends15 Teacher revises words used in the game

when the game ends

APPENDIX 1

QUESTIONNAIRE FOR TEACHERS

This questionnaire is designed with an aim to survey

teachers’ attitudes and expectations about the games

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given in textbook Tieng Anh 3 at Du Hang Kenh primary

school.

Your answers play an important part in my study.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation!

Please circle the answer you choose.

1. What do you think of games given in Tieng Anh 3?

a. very useful and interesting

b. rather useful and interesting

c. useful and interesting

d. not useful and interesting at all2. Which of the games below do you use often? (You

can choose more than one option)

a. Bingo

b. Spelling bee

c. Crossword puzzle

d. Circle words and phrases3. Which games do you think should be used as

supplementary ones? (You can choose more than

one option)

a. Hangman

b. Word completion

c. Jumbled words

- The end-

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Thank you once again

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