Rationale In the introduction part of their article 'Learning Vocabulary through Games' in the Asian EFL Journal in 2003, Nguyen & Khuat (2003, p.2) pointed out the importance of vocabulary: In learning a foreign language, vocabulary plays an important role. It is one element that links the four skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing all together. In order to communicate well in a foreign language, students should acquire an adequate number of words and should know how to use them accurately. Uberman (1998) states that vocabulary acquisition is increasingly viewed as crucial to language acquisition.
Wilkins (1972) emphasizes that while without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed. However, Uberman (1998) also points out that learning vocabulary is often perceived as a tedious and laborious process. In the introduction about vocabulary, Hadfield (1999, p.4) said: Remembering new words is hard. Words are slippery things: before you know it, they’ve wriggled away and are gone.
It takes a lot of effort to keep them where you want them. To lighten the burden of teaching and learning vocabulary of both teachers and students, numerous methods are introduced to teach vocabulary and using games to teach vocabulary has been proved effective for years. Games have been believed to add fun to classroom, lower anxiety, give students more opportunity to develop their language skills, problem-solving skills, cooperative and social skills and so on. Games add interest to what students might not find very interesting.
Sustaining interest can mean sustaining effort (Wright, Betteridge, & Buckby, 2005). After all, Page 1 learning a language involves long-term efforts. Games bring in relaxation and fun for students, thus help them learn and retain new words more easily. Games can also lower anxiety, thus making the acquisition of input more likely (Richard-Amato, 1988, p.
In the easy, relaxed atmosphere which is created by using games, students remember things faster and better (Wierus & Wierus 1994, p. Moreover, games are highly motivating since they are amusing and at the same time challenging (Aydan Ersoz, 2000). They are highly motivating and entertaining, and they can give shy students more opportunity to express their opinions and feelings (Hansen 1994, p. They also enable learners to acquire new experiences within a foreign language which are not always possible during a typical lesson.
Furthermore, games can involve all the basic language skills, i., listening, speaking, reading, and writing and a number of skills are often involved in the same game (Lee, 1995). The learners want to take part and in order to do so must understand what others are saying or have written, and they must speak or write in order to express their own point of view or give information (Wright, Betteridge, & Buckby, 2005). In addition, games provide a context for meaningful communication. Even if the game involves discrete language items, such as a spelling game, meaningful communication takes place as students seek to understand how to play the game and as they communicate about the game: before, during, and after the game (Wright, Betteridge, & Buckby, 2005).
Games also encourage and increase cooperation (Aydan Ersoz, 2000). Many games can be played in small groups, thereby providing a venue for students to develop their skills in working with others, such as the skill of disagreeing politely and the skill of asking for help (Jacobs & Kline Liu, 1996). On the market, there are several teaching materials available about vocabulary games such as “Communication Games” & “Vocabulary Games” by Jill Hadfield (1984,1990, 1997, 1999), “Top Class Activities: 50 Fun Games and Activities by Top ELT Writers” by Series Editor: Peter Watcyn-Jones (1997). However, most of the Page 2 materials focus on introducing a variety of ready-made games in order to serve the purpose of teaching one specific language item without mentioning to the principles of using vocabulary games, their limitation and unanticipated problems.
Moreover, most games in such materials are designed without basing on any current course books and without associating closely with a typical type and age of learners. Teachers, therefore, find it difficult to apply them in reality. At Tien Giang High School for Gifted Students (TGHSGS), students, especially grade 12 students have seemed to be so absorbed in the subjects required in the university entrance exam that they ignore English while most of the teachers have used more and more games in their teaching vocabulary to students to facilitate the students’ English vocabulary learning. Nevertheless, up to now, there has been no research into it.
This reason, together with the need of finding out whether using games to teach vocabulary really helps the students at TGHSGS in their English vocabulary learning and whether it is necessary to use games to teach vocabulary at TGHSGS, has urged me to conduct the research “An Investigation into Teachers’ Perceptions and Using Games to Facilitate Students’ Learning English Vocabulary at Tien Giang High School for Gifted Students. Research aims This thesis focuses on the 3 following main objectives: - To find out the teachers’ perceptions of games in teaching English vocabulary - To explore the teachers’ using games to facilitate students’ learning English vocabulary. - To look at the difficulties that teachers meet while using games to teach English vocabulary. Scope of the study This study was carried out at TGHSGS.
Eight teachers of English and ninety grade-12 students were asked to complete the questionnaires and answer the interview questions related to using games to teach English vocabulary in the textbooks of Basic English 10, 11 & 12. Significance of the study The thesis hopes to offer a new insight into games as a practical and effective teaching device so that teachers of English can prepare students a good stock of vocabulary to be ready to take any examinations in high schools. It also contributes to the literature of using games in teaching vocabulary 1. Research question The research questions are: 1.
What are teachers’ perceptions of using games in teaching vocabulary? 2. How are games used to facilitate students’ learning English vocabulary? 3. What difficulties do teachers face in using games to facilitate students’ learning English vocabulary? 1. An overview of the thesis The thesis consists of five chapters.
Chapter 1 (Introduction) describes the general area to be studied in the thesis. This includes the rationale for the thesis, research aims, scope and significance of the study and research questions. In Chapter 2 (Literature review), there will be a coverage of the concepts about the process of vocabulary acquisition, the affective filter operating the process of learning vocabulary. The theory of motivation and its types and the theory of games will also be reviewed.
This chapter also presents the previous studies related to Page 4 Chapter 3 (Methodology) will describe the details of the research method, including the techniques, the participants and the instruments. In Chapter 4 (Findings and discussion), the data collected from questionnaires, interviews and class observations will be presented and analyzed thematically. Interpretations and comments will also be offered. The last chapter (Conclusion, implications, limitations and suggestions for further study) will summarize the key findings of this study, and discuss the limitations of the research.
This chapter also gives suggestions for teaching vocabulary and implications for teaching vocabulary through games and unanticipated problems that may occur for both teachers and students during a vocabulary class. This chapter will also recommend some directions for further research into using games in teaching high school students. Page 5 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ----------------------- 2. Introduction Chapter 2 goes over the theoretical basis and previous research related to vocabulary, and the use of games.
It will then point out the gap in the literature. Vocabulary This part reviews basic knowledge of words, including vocabulary definitions, the importance of vocabulary in learning a foreign language, the process of vocabulary acquisition and the affective filter in learning vocabulary. Definitions According to Webster (1913), vocabulary can be defined roughly as the words people reach in the foreign language. That is a set of words known to a person or other entity.
To Lang (1995), vocabulary is the stock or repertoire of words from which to name or describe phenomena within a language or knowledge base. Words and vocabulary are used interchangeably in this study. The knowledge of words, according to Harmer (1991), exists on various levels, which seem to be language universals, including knowing their forms, meanings, uses, formation and grammatical functions (see Figure 2. This study, as mentioned in chapter 1, aims at finding out teacher’s perceptions of games in teaching English vocabulary and teacher’s using games to facilitate students’ learning vocabulary, learning all the words required in the textbook.
However, all the aspects of a word cannot be surveyed. In this thesis, the writer only attached special importance to the aspects of knowing a word: word meaning because the knowledge of word meaning is considered one of the prerequisites of knowing a word. The study does not have the ambitions to investigate other aspects of vocabulary. “Knowing a word” can be summarized in the following way: Page 6 Spelling FORM Pronunciation MEANING Meaning in context Sense relations WORD Metaphor and idiom WORD USE Collocation WORD GRAMMAR Parts of speech Prefixes / suffixes Style and register Verb complementation, phrasal verbs WORD FORMATION Nouns: count / uncountable… Adjectives/adverbs: position, etc Figure 2.
The importance of vocabulary in learning a foreign language In leaning a foreign language, vocabulary, the knowledge of words in a language, plays a very important role. Vocabulary acquisition is usually viewed as crucial to language acquisition. Vocabulary is also considered a primordial factor in successful communication (Levelt, 1989). Grammatical knowledge allows us to generate sentences.
At the same time, we must have something to say. No matter how well the students learn grammar, the sounds of L2, without words to express a wider range of meanings, communication in an L2 just cannot happen in any meaningful way (McCarthy, 1990). Furthermore, vocabulary actually contributes to the acquisition of syntax. Then, it is also the element that links the four language skills all together (Nguyen & Khuat, 2003).
Memory in learning vocabulary Learning new words involves storing them first in people’s short-term memory (STM), and afterwards in people’s long-term memory (LTM). Then, word frequency is another factor that affects storage. Ellis (1996) proposed that short-term representation and rehearsal allows the eventual establishment of long-term sequence information for the language. Therefore, the most frequently used items are easier to retrieve.
The better the long-term storage of frequent language sequences, the more easily they can serve as labels for meaning reference. The more automatic their access, the more fluent is the resultant language use. Moreover, forgetting seems to be an inevitable process, unless learners regularly use items they have learned. Effective learning strategies should be made use of to facilitate the process of learning and recycling vocabulary.
They involve fostering learners’ motivation towards learning - lowering the affective filter that may occur during learning it. Affective filter in learning vocabulary In his theory of second language acquisition researching on affective variables in foreign language learning, Krashen (1982) employed Dulay and Burt (1977)’s metaphor of an affective filter to explain the role of motivation and emotion in language acquisition. To Krashen (1982), filter is an imaginary wall between learner and the language input. This filter includes three elements: motivation, self-confidence and anxiety (Krashen, 1987).
Motivation determines the preparedness of learners to study a language. Self-confidence encourages students to take risk so that they can acquire with full efficiency. Anxiety inhibits students a lot in absorbing the input. In learning vocabulary, the complicated characteristics of vocabulary and anxiety are the two most important factors to produce a good filter that inhibits students to get the vocabulary in.
To Tajino and Smith (2005), first, the complicated characteristics of vocabulary cause a lot of troubles to learners such as learning Page 8 problems and difficulties due to students’ first language. All these factors give more burdens to learners that make vocabulary learning demotivating and frustrating.