VINH UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ==== ==== USING SHORT VOCABULARY GAMES AND ACTIVITIES TO INCREASE 11TH FORM STUDENTS’ INTEREST IN LEARNING ENGLISH READING SKILL (SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG VÀ TRÒ CHƠI TỪ VỰNG NGẮN NHẰM TĂNG HỨNG THÚ HỌC ĐỌC CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11) GRADUATION THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY Student: VŨ THỊ NGA, 48A_ENGLISH Supervisor: nguyÔn ThÞ BÝch HiỊn, M.A VINH, 2011 VINH UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES ==== ==== VŨ THỊ NGA USING SHORT VOCABULARY GAMES AND ACTIVITIES TO INCREASE 11TH FORM STUDENTS’ INTEREST IN LEARNING ENGLISH READING SKILL (SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG VÀ TRÒ CHƠI TỪ VỰNG NGẮN NHẰM TĂNG HỨNG THÚ HỌC ĐỌC CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11) GRADUATION THESIS FIELD: ENGLISH TEACHING METHODOLOGY VINH, 2011 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS For the completion of this study, I have been fortunate to receive invaluable contributions from many people First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, M.A Nguyen Thi Bich Hien, for her absolutely indispensable assistance, excellent suggestions, expert advice and detail critical comments, without which the study would not have been complete I would also like to give my sincere thanks to all my teachers from the Foreign Languages Department of Vinh University for their lectures and advice which are very useful for me to finish this study I am fully grateful to the help of all the teachers and students at Cua Lo I High School so that I could finish the survey for my study I also wish to thank my family and all my friends for their various kinds of help and encouragement Finally, I am all too aware that despite all the advice and assistance with all my attempts, I feel that the study is far from perfect; it is my sole responsibility for any inadequacies and shortcomings that the study may be considered to have Therefore, I would like to receive any regard and comment from you on my study Vinh, May, 2011 Vu Thi Nga TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES iv PART I INTRODUCTION1 Reasons for Choosing the Study Aims and Objectives of the Study Research Questions .2 Methods of the Study Scope of the Study Design of the Study .3 PART II DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Reading Skill .4 1.1.1 Definitions of Reading .4 1.1.2 The Importance of Reading 1.1.3 Principles for Teaching Reading in a Communicative Language Teaching Classroom 1.1.4 Stages of Teaching a Reading Text 1.2 Motivation 1.3 Vocabulary 1.3.1 Definitions .9 1.3.2 The Importance of Vocabulary .10 1.4 The Relationship between Vocabulary and Reading Skill .11 1.5 Teaching Vocabulary in Communicative Language Teaching 13 1.5.1 Principles for Teaching Vocabulary .13 1.5.2 Steps for Teaching Vocabulary .14 1.6 Short Vocabulary Games and Activities 15 1.6.1 Definitions .15 1.6.2 Why to Use Short Vocabulary Games and Activities 16 1.6.3 Common Types of Short Vocabulary Games and Activities Used in Reading Lessons 16 1.7 Summary 18 CHAPTER 2: THE SURVEY .20 2.1 Overview of the Survey 20 2.1.1 Aims of the Survey 20 2.1.2 Description of the Survey 20 2.2 Survey Result and Data Analysis .21 2.2.1 What are the Attitudes of Students and Teachers at Cua Lo I High School towards English Reading Skill and Short Vocabulary Games and Activities? .21 2.2.2 What is the Real Situation of Using Short Vocabulary Games and Activities in the English Reading Lessons for the 11th Form Students at Cua Lo I High School? .26 2.3 Summary 29 CHAPTER 3: SUGGESTIONS FOR USING SHORT VOCABULARY GAMES AND ACTIVITIES TO INCREASE 11TH FORM STUDENTS’ INTEREST IN LEARNING ENGLISH READING SKILL 31 3.1 Some Recommendations for Using Short Vocabulary Games and Activities in the English Reading Lessons .31 3.2 Suggested Short Vocabulary Games and Activities to Increase 11th Form Students’ Interest in Learning English Reading Skill 32 3.2.1 Lucky Picture 33 3.2.2 Letter Chains 35 3.2.3 Completing Network 35 3.2.4 Crossword36 3.2.5 Pantomime 38 3.2.6 What I Have? 39 3.2.7 Listen to a Song and Guessing the Missing Words 39 3.2.8 Finding the Differences 40 3.2.9 Finding Partner 41 PART III CONCLUSION 43 3.1 Recapitulation 43 3.2 Suggestions for Further Studies 43 REFERENCES 45 Appendix Appendix LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table 1: Students’ attitudes towards English and learning English 22 Table 2: The frequency of providing some short vocabulary games and activities (Result from Students) 28 Table 3: The frequency of providing some short vocabulary games and activities (Result from Teachers) 29 Figure 1: The time students spend on learning English per day .22 Figure 2: The language skills students focus on most and like most .23 Figure 3: Factors motivate students into reading lessons 23 Figure 4: Students’ idea and teachers’ idea about the level of the students’ interests in reading lessons 24 Figure 5: Factors motivate students into reading lessons (Teachers’ idea in comparison with students’ idea) 25 Figure 6: Students’ feeling about short vocabulary games and activities 26 Figure 7: The effect of short vocabulary games and activities 26 Figure 8: The frequency of providing short vocabulary games and activities in reading lessons according to teachers and students’ ideas .27 Figure 9: Stages in which short vocabulary games ad activities are used most .28 PART I: INTRODUCTION Reasons for Choosing the Study English has been the common language of the world for decades It plays an important role in all aspects of society such as communication, science, technology, education, etc Especially, English becomes an official and effective international communicative language Therefore learning and mastering English would greatly give advantage to the person concerned As a result, more and more people are studying English in order not to be left behind the development of society In education, English now is an important subject It is compulsory not only in teaching and learning but also in many examinations However, it is not easy to master a foreign language Learning English is not an exception Learning English means that students have to learn many sub-skills such as speaking, listening, reading and writing As other skills, reading is a very important skill Reading not only helps students widen their knowledge, but also enables them to develop other language skills The author herself is fond of finding the attitudes of the teachers and the students in high school towards reading lessons In addition, motivation is one of the most important factors that affect the success of the learning process, especially in second language acquisition So, maintaining the students’ interest during the lesson is very important Without motivation, it is very difficult for students to get the best result from studying Motivation also plays an important role in the reading lesson It raises a question for the teacher: “How to motivate students or how to increase the students’ interest during the lesson?” Short vocabulary games and activities are one of good choices for this problem Teaching vocabulary is an important part in reading lessons In fact, the stock of vocabulary in each lesson in general, and in reading lessons in particular is so large, but the time for vocabulary is limited Therefore, using short vocabulary games and activities is a good way not only to teach students vocabulary or to help them understand more about the reading text but also help to increase their interest during the lessons Last but not least, the author is trained to be a teacher of English in the near future The author considers this study as a good opportunity to understand students’ attitudes towards learning English in general and reading skill in particular, to have the knowledge about short vocabulary games and activities and to know how to make the reading lesson more interesting for the students so that her dream to be a good and understanding teacher will come true For the reasons mentioned above, the author decides to choose the topic “Using Short Vocabulary Games and Activities to Increase 11th Form Students’ Interest in Learning English Reading Skill” as the study of her graduation thesis Aims and Objectives of the Study The aims and objectives of the study are as follows: - To provide some basic knowledge about reading skill, vocabulary and short vocabulary games and activities - To make an investigation into the real situation of using short vocabulary games and activities in English reading lessons at Cua Lo I High School - To provide some suggested short vocabulary games and activities to partly increase 11th form students’ interest in English reading lessons Research Questions The aims of this study are to find out the answers to the three following research questions: * What are the attitudes of students and teachers at Cua Lo I High School towards English reading skill and short vocabulary games and activities? * What is the real situation of using short vocabulary games and activities in the English reading lessons for the 11th form students at Cua Lo I High School? * What are some suggestions for using short vocabulary games and activities to increase students’ interest in English reading lessons? Method of the Study To finish this study, the author has used quantitative and qualitative methods First, the author collected and analyzed the materials which refer to Reading Skill, Vocabulary, and Vocabulary Games and Activities in English reading classes Then, she conducted a survey to get information about the real situation of using short vocabulary games and activities in reading lessons at Cua Lo I High School After that, the author analyzed and synthesized the collected data Finally, the author suggested some short vocabulary games and activities in English reading classes for the 11 th form students Scope of the Study Due to the limitation of a graduation thesis, the study only concerns short vocabulary games and activities in English reading lessons The subjects of the study are teachers and 11th form students at Cua Lo I High School in Cua Lo town, Nghe An province Design of the Study Apart from Acknowledgement, Table of Content, List of Tables and Appendices, the thesis consists of three main parts Part I is “INTRODUCTION” which consists of the author’s reasons for choosing the study, aims, research questions, method, scope, and design of the study Part II entitled “DEVELOPMENT” includes three chapters Chapter 1, “Theoretical Background”, provides some background knowledge about Reading skill In addition, the author briefly introduces Vocabulary and Vocabulary games ad activities Chapter is titled “The Survey” This chapter mainly focuses on the situation of using short vocabulary games and activities in English reading classes for 11th form students at Cua Lo I High School Chapter entitled “Suggested Short Vocabulary Games and Activities to Increase 11th Form Students’ Interests in Learning English Reading Skill” provides several suggestions for the teachers in using short activities and games in the reading lessons It also introduces some short activities and games in the author’s experimental lessons Part III is “CONCLUSION” in which the author summarizes the main points in the study and suggests some topics for further studies 10 ... ACTIVITIES TO INCREASE 11TH FORM STUDENTS’ INTEREST IN LEARNING ENGLISH READING SKILL (SỬ DỤNG CÁC HOẠT ĐỘNG VÀ TRÒ CHƠI TỪ VỰNG NGẮN NHẰM TĂNG HỨNG THÚ HỌC ĐỌC CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 11) GRADUATION THESIS... School in Cua Lo town, Nghe An province 2.1.2.1 Survey Questionnaire for Students Students taking part in the survey are in grade 11 (49 students from class 11 A3 and 51 students from class 11. .. activities in English reading classes for 11th form students at Cua Lo I High School Chapter entitled “Suggested Short Vocabulary Games and Activities to Increase 11th Form Students’ Interests in Learning