VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES o0o VŨ NGỌC LONG TEACHERS AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS USING GAMES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING VOCABULARY QUAN ĐIỂM CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH VỚI VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TRÒ CHƠI TRONG DẠY-HỌC TỪ MỚI M.A THESIS (MINOR) Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 01 11 HANOI – 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES o0o VŨ NGỌC LONG TEACHERS AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS USING GAMES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING VOCABULARY QUAN ĐIỂM CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH VỚI VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TRÒ CHƠI TRONG DẠY-HỌC TỪ MỚI M.A THESIS (MINOR) Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 01 11 Supervisor: Kiều Thị Thu Hương HANOI – 2014 i DECLARATION I hereby, certify the thesis entitled “Teachers and Students’ Attitude towards Using Games in Teaching and Learning Vocabulary” is the result of my own research for the Minor Degree of Master of Arts at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi. The thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions. I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the library can be accessible for the purposes of study and research. January, 2014 Vũ Ngọc Long ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I would like to show my gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility to complete this thesis. I have sincere thanks to the Post-graduate Faculty of ULIS, VNUH for giving me permission to commence and go ahead with this M.A. thesis and to use the research materials. I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Dr. Kiều Thị Thu Hương, Vice-Dean of the English Faculty – Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam, whose encouragement, guidance and support enabled me to develop an understanding of the subject and to accomplish the final version of the thesis as expected. This thesis would not be possible were it not for my lecturers in the M.A. course, namely Prof. Dr. Hoàng Văn Vân, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lê Hùng Tiến, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Võ Đại Quang, Dr. Hà Cẩm Tâm, Dr. Nguyễn Huy Kỷ, Dr. Ngô Hữu Hoàng, Dr. Lê Văn Canh and Dr. Huỳnh Anh Tuấn. I would like to thank them for their interesting lectures, devotion, assistance and valuable hints. Especially, I owe my deepest gratitude to my parents, whose endless love and encouragement helped me finish this work. Lastly, I offer my regards and blessings to all of those who supported me in any respect during the completion of the study. iii ABSTRACT This study has been conducted to investigate Teachers and Students’ Attitude towards Using Games in Teaching and Learning Vocabulary. The subjects of the study are thirty twelfth-grade students and thirty English teachers from different high schools in Chi Linh District in the school year 2013 – 2014. The data have been collected via questionnaires. The findings exhibit that although language games enable teaching and learning vocabulary to be better, they are not often made use of in language classes. The study confirms that even though vocabulary games add interests and motivate students to learn, they have not got many opportunities to get involved in those activities. Although many high school teachers recognize the effectiveness of vocabulary games, the majority of them are not willing to design, or to conduct such activities for word teaching. Based on the findings, the researcher proposes some recommendations for teachers and students to teach and learn new words by using language games. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii ABSTRACT iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv ABBRIVIATIONS vi PART A – INTRODUCTION 1 1. Statement of the problem 1 2. Research questions 2 3. Objectives of the study 2 4. Significance of the study 2 5. Scope of the study 3 6. Design of the study 3 PART B – DEVELOPMENT 4 CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW 4 1.1. An Overview of Vocabulary Teaching 4 1.2. An Overview of Language Games 9 1.2. Classification of language games 10 1.3. Reasons for using games in vocabulary teaching 11 1.4. The previous studies 11 CHAPTER II: THE STUDY 13 2.1.1. Subjects 13 2.1.2. Data gathering instruments 13 2.1.3. Procedures 14 2.2. Findings and discussion 15 2.2.1. Findings 15 2.2.2. Discussion 27 2.2.3. Implications 28 PART C – CONCLUSION 29 3.1. Summary of the study 29 3.2. Limitations of the study 29 v 3.3. Suggestions for further studies 30 REFERENCES 31 APPENDIXES I APPENDIX 1 I APPENDIX 2 III APPENDIX 3 V vi ABBRIVIATIONS LLs: language learners 1 PART A – INTRODUCTION 1. Statement of the problem Learning vocabulary is an essential activities for people who wish to study a foreign language. Vocabulary enables language learners to produce what they want to say. With a rich source of words, it is easier for LLs to communicate exactly what they want to convey without much explanations. This is why teaching new words to student is a crucial part of language lessons. However, not all teachers put emphasis on teaching. These teachers believe that grammar should be focused on more than vocabulary. They fear that students may make mistakes in sentence building if they learn too many words before getting familiar with basic grammar rules. Some teachers even think that words would be best learned through experience, because there are not many suitable contexts for teaching words in the language classroom. The beliefs mentioned above are true to a certain extent. Without grammar rules, very little is communicated, but without words nothing is communicated, as Wilkins (1972, p. 111-112) said. The most important thing for language teachers to do is to find suitable vocabulary teaching techniques. In Chi Linh District, the translation method is officially applied to word teaching in high schools. New words are normally delivered to students with their meanings explained by teachers, which is very time-consuming. For most of the students, learning new words is a boring task. What they do is to listen to the words they need to learn, looking up for their meanings in the dictionary, and then write those words again and again. The process is repeated until language learners remember the words, yet they find it difficult to keep these words in their long term memory. It can be considered the result of a less impressive new-word learning way. Vocabulary games have been proved beneficial to word teaching. Language games can motivate students in the English vocabulary learning process. By using vocabulary games in language classrooms, teachers can help students make use of 2 their words to interact with other classmates, and get to know more words through oral communication. Besides adding elements of fun, games can help store a long lasting word source in students’ long-term memory. However, language games are quite new activities to language teachers and learners of some high schools in Chi Linh District. They are not often properly exploited. Some students say they seldom play language games in leaning words in classes. Some teachers hardly ever design any lessons including vocabulary games. Their students therefore seldom have a chance to learn new words through vocabulary games. Thus, the present study has been carried out to investigate the attitudes of teachers and learners towards games for teaching and learning vocabulary. 2. Research questions The research focuses on finding the answers to the following question: What are the attitudes of teachers and learners towards using games in teaching and learning vocabulary? 3. Objectives of the study This study has been carried out in order to discover:  the attitudes of teachers towards language games in teaching vocabulary.  how teachers apply games for vocabulary teaching.  the attitudes of students towards learning vocabulary by language games.  how students get involved in using language games for word learning. 4. Significance of the study The aim of the study is to reveal the attitudes of both language teachers and learners towards language games for vocabulary teaching and learning on the one hand. On the other hand, it provides facts for teachers to compare vocabulary games with other word-teaching activities. Vocabulary games in this sense can be viewed as a positive factor contributing to making word teaching more effective. Games help increase language learners’ word-retention naturally. [...]... word learning seem to be dominant among word learning activities The finding is not surprising to us because of learners’ keenness on games 28 In conclusion, it is proved that both teachers and students have positive attitudes towards using language games in teaching and learning vocabulary Firstly, at least one-third of language teachers agree that using games in teaching words is effective They think... Findings and discussion 2.2.1 Findings 2.2.1.1 The attitudes of language teachers towards vocabulary games Question 1 Is using language games for teaching vocabulary more effective and more interesting than other activities? Chart 1 Teachers comparison of using games with other activities for teaching words As demonstrated in the chart above, about one-third of the teachers agree that using games for teaching. .. from making use of games for teaching vocabulary, may include not having enough vocabulary language game sources, not getting used to performing word games in teaching, and considering games time-consuming The data collected from students’ questionnaires have shown that at least one-third of participants like games and would choose vocabulary games as good activities in learning new words Language games. .. teach - learning the spelling and pronunciation of a word is important 7 - making use of the first language - teaching words as phrases - combining explicit teaching and incidental learning There are, of course, different principles of teaching vocabulary to language learners The researcher himself often considers six things when he practises teaching words to my language learners: (1) choosing the... It is because of students’ keenness on games, and using games in vocabulary lessons will enable students to learn words better 23 Chart 10 Students’ emotions when taking part in word games Question 3 Is learning vocabulary by playing language games more interesting than other ways such as writing for many times, learning by heart, etc.? Chart 11 Students’ attitudes towards vocabulary games compared... not interested in word games Games for learning vocabulary are, as demonstrated by the chart, still useful for 33.34 % of the participants in their learning lexis items 27 Chart 16 How language students collect vocabulary games used for learning their words 2.2.2 Discussion The study has been implemented mainly to exhibit the attitudes of language teachers and learners towards games in teaching and learning. .. teachers in word teaching 22 2.2.1.3 The attitudes of language learners towards vocabulary games Question 1 Do you like language games conducted by your teacher in learning words? Chart 9 Students’ attitudes of student towards learning words by playing games It can be inferred from the chart above that the majority of language learners love learning new words in combination with playing language games. .. realizing them are language games This is the motivation that I find investigating the attitudes of language teachers and learners towards vocabulary games interesting 1.2 An Overview of Language Games 1.2.1 Definition of language games Hadfield (1996, p v) defines language games as activities with rules, a goal and an element of fun According to the definition, games help teachers create language learning. .. learning vocabulary The researcher originally thought of language games as a powerful tool to stimulate students’ interest in word learning The data and information having gained reflex a new view on different aspects of the main study question Although high school teachers have positive views on language games for teaching vocabulary, they are not willing enough to use advantage of games in teaching. .. structures repetition and meaningful context These games cover (i) information gap games, (ii) guessing games, and (iii) search games Different kinds of language games, of course, offer language learners various learning activities They generally enable students to learn new words actively and interestingly 1.3 Reasons for using games in vocabulary teaching Toth (1995, p 6) considers games tools to create . AND LEARNING VOCABULARY QUAN ĐIỂM CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH VỚI VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TRÒ CHƠI TRONG DẠY-HỌC TỪ MỚI M.A THESIS (MINOR) Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 01. AND LEARNING VOCABULARY QUAN ĐIỂM CỦA GIÁO VIÊN VÀ HỌC SINH VỚI VIỆC SỬ DỤNG TRÒ CHƠI TRONG DẠY-HỌC TỪ MỚI M.A THESIS (MINOR) Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60 14 01. LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES o0o VŨ NGỌC LONG TEACHERS AND STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS USING GAMES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING VOCABULARY QUAN