THE 5TH VTTN CONFERENCE

CHALLENGES and CHANGE

in ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING

Hanoi – Saturday, January 17th 2009

HOW TO MAKE

VOCABULARY LEARNING FUN

FOR PRIMARY STUDENTS

A WORKSHOPBy

NGUYEN NGOC MINH TRANGJANUARY 2009

Problems

Students need lots of vocabulary, especially in the early stages of learning English, to increase their

ability and confidence in communicating in English. However, learning vocabulary is never easy for learners. Teachers who motivate the students

learning English need to make learning vocabulary a fun, involving and active process.

OBJECTIVES

The workshop aims to:

•Provide participants with the process of young learners acquiring vocabulary.

•Provide participants with motivating techniques and practical classroom ideas for practicing and reviewing vocabulary.

Outline

1.What young learners learn vocabulary

2.Techniques and practical classroom ideas for practicing and reviewing vocabulary

What young learners learn

Learning vocabulary

vocabulary

Meaning of the word (what it means)

Form of the word (how it is pronounced)

Contextualizing of the word(When it is used)

Expanding the word(vocabulary development)

recycling the word

Techniques and classroom ideas for practicing and reviewing vocabulary

Games

Activities

Games and Activities

• Card passing

• Concentration

• Bingo

• Finding places

• Word games

• Story

• Scramble

• Spelling check

• Listening and writing

Ice breaker games

And we walk to the left

And we walk to the right

And we walk(2 times)

And we walk all night

With the heel and the toe

And the half turn around

With the heel and the toe

And the good friend found.

1. Card passing

Before class: prepare some teacher’s cards

In class:

Revise the words

Have sts read and pass the cards

Extension:

The game can be changed into competition one

2. Concentration

Before class: make a set of picture cards and word cards for each group

In class:

Sts are in groups of six

Ts give two sets of picture cards to each group and place them facedown in random order on the desk

Sts turn over two cards and find two identical cards( st read the word whenever st turn over the card)

3. Bingo

Before class: Prepare some picture cards

In class:

Have sts make three rows of three sts each

Give the card to each st

The volunteer in each group call the number and say the word

The first sts to cover three squares across, down, or diagonally wins the game

4. Finding places

Before class: - Prepare the dices with picture of places on each side of the dice.

- Prepare 6 bowls of beads

In class:

Divide the class into group of six, have each group stand under the name of the group(at the bus stop, at the bakery,…)

Each group throws the dice and moves to another place. In each place, sts need to pick up some beads( Sts repeat the words while moving)

Where are you?

At the bus stop : green

At the train station : yellow

At the airport : white

At the bakery :pink

At the bookstore :blue

At the factory :purple

5.Word games

Food Places Sports Activities

6. Story

It was Sunday. Emily didn’t go to school. She called her friend, Jenny but Jenny wasn’t at home. She was ____. She watched TV. The film was boring. Then she took a long nap. When she woke up, she had a cough…hm…hm and a run nose. She was _____ and ____. There was a bell ring at the door. Matt, Jenny came. Emily met her friends. She was ______.

How do you feel?

SadTiredSickBoredTired

7. Scramble

Before class: prepare some word cards

In class:

Work in the whole class

Revise the words of weekend activities

Have sts make a big circle in which there is one st (the caller) in the center

The caller calls out two or three words of weekend activities at random

Sts stand and exchange seats, they have to race with the st in the center to get a seat

Weekend activities

Play basketball

Walk the dog

Go fishing

Listen to music

Go out to eat

Make a cake

Draw pictures

Plant flowers

Go swimming

Read a book

Play soccer

Make dinner

Go shopping

Vacuum the carpet

Watch TV

eat out

8. Spelling check

Before class: Prepare the paper of word cards

In class:

Work in groups of 6

One st will be a caller. He/ She calls a word and the others will point. The next caller is the person who catches the word first

9. Listening and writing

Before class: Paper A4, wordcards

In class:

Work in groups of 6

Listen to music and pass the paper around the group.

When teacher stops music, Sts stop passing, hear the word from the teacher and then write down.

Thank you

Games for teachers

A E F H I L M N O P S T U W Y

P L E A S E A L W A Y S S M I L E W I T H

L I F E S O I T w I L L S M I L E

W I T H Y O U

W I S H Y O U H A P P I N E S S

References

The TKT course book

Let’s go teacher book

Primary English Language Teaching Training course

Teach English - Trainer’s handbook, Adrian Doff

Maths & science workshop in HCM city for games for teachers

Teachers from Nanyang University, Singapore for ice-breaker song.