SKKN Some experience in teaching students to learn collocations in the new 11th English textbook at Le Viet Thuat High School
In recent years, English has become very popular language around the world. There are more than 700 million English users in the world which is a terrible number to prove the importance of English. Also, learning English becomes easy with everything around our life. We can study with Internet which helps us chat with foreign friends and search information. We can also walk the park and exchange with foreign travelers. A crucial reason for people to travel to English speaking countries for learning English is that learning from native speakers will enable them to acquire the level of proficiency required to clear international English tests. Subsequently, a good level of English helps people to acquire a resident status in the first world countries. For example, students who want to go abroad to study need the IELTS cerfificate with the diferent levels from 5.5 to 7.0. In Viet nam, some universities require students having this IELTS cerfificate will be admitted to directly. Learning English not only provides access to information but also open a world of opportunities.
In the IELTS Reading test, Vocabulary is an important factor for candidates to be able to read and understand information in the Reading test. In addition to common vocabulary, the ability to understand and use collocations also helps candidates increase the speed and accuracy of information processing when reading text. In the IELTS Speaking and Writing, These are two exams that require candidates to actively show off their vocabulary to get high scores. Indeed, Lexical Resource - vocabulary is one of the four criteria for determining the score of the Speaking and Writing test. Indeed, in Band 7 of the Lexical Resources criterion in the Speaking test, candidates are required to “uses some less common and idiomatic vocabulary and shows some awareness of style and collocation”, and for the Writing test it is “uses less common lexical items with some awareness of style and collocation”- that is, in addition to using less popular words, candidates must pay attention to collocations and idioms in the context and how to combine words. Thus, learning collocations and idioms is essential for candidates taking the speaking and writing exams, especially those aiming to score 7.0 or above in 2 skills.
Tóm tắt nội dung tài liệu: SKKN Some experience in teaching students to learn collocations in the new 11th English textbook at Le Viet Thuat High School

ds that go with the phrases. eg: Verb + Nouns To make............./To do ............./To have ............./To take ................. ............................. Therefore, it is easy for students to remember collocations they have learned and they can do exercises effectively. To make the lesson more effective, I used many methods to help students do the exercises easily by using software for students to do multiple-choice exercises, giving pictures, play kinds of games and giving handouts as well to students. However, in the limit of topic, I cannot represent all the methods specifically when teaching students to learn collocations. 39 IV. THE RESULTS OF THE STUDY Students who first started out with these types of collocations are very confused because the lessons in the new 11th English textbook have a lot of fairly advanced vocabulary. Once they have got used to the types of collocations, everything seems to be smoothly to them. As a result, from the post-test with collocations in units of the textbook (see appendix 1), students of class 11D2 scored higher than class 11A1. When asked about the difficulty level of the collocations, the students in grade 11D2 said that it was easier because they had the opportunity to become familiar with the types of collocations. Moreover, they love learning vocabulary much more, remembering words in context. Good study of collocations will help to learn skills effectively. Here are the statistics of the two classes. Mark ≥ 8.5 Mark 6.4 ─ 8.4 Mark 5.0 ─ 6.4 Mark < 5.0 Total 11A1 5 student accounting for 17 % 7 students accounting for 24% 13 students accounting for 44% 5 students accounting for 25 % 30 students accounting for 100 % 11D2 20 students accounting for 45% 13 students accounting for 29% 7 students accounting for 16 % 5 students accounting for 10% 45 students accounting for 100 % The table above shows us that the number of students getting excellent and good marks in Grade 11D2 have doubled those in 11A1. The marks around the average level seem to have risen. These figures prove that once thoroughly taught, students can perform remarkably better than before. C. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS I. Meaning of themes for teaching and learning collocations This study gives our teachers more visibility into teaching collocations in English in a more effective way. Teachers can choose to adapt them to suit their abilities. Therefore, students will feel more excited and the quality of tests will be improved. In addition, the students no longer have as many difficulties as before, many of them are able to use collocations to learn any skills and communicate with each other naturally without being interrupted because they know how to use collocations in the cases. Students can apply collocations to the exercises and the tests effectively. 40 II. Experience - Development - Because using collocations is really difficult for all students and even teachers, teachers need to study carefully before planning a lesson and have to change the teaching ways to teach and help the students to overcome difficulties. - To gain the success, there have to require the efforts of teachers and pupils while there is still a lack of conditions for teaching equipment. Besides, the level, the art of pedagogy and the enthusiasm of the teachers will help them to overcome difficulties. - Each of us has to love this subject and study a lot of materials related to skills. Through teaching, we must learn to accumulate good experience for ourselves. - Through researching the topic, the author can be self-improvement, self-study and find the optimal materials in teaching. - This topic can be used to teach all students who want to take exams in order to get the international certificate. III. Recommendations After analyzing all activities carried out while teaching collocations for students and the results of pupils’ progress, various recommendations should be given as the petitions to the students, the English teachers, the school and Education and Training Department as follow: * For the students: - Watch English movies with subtitles regularly. They’ll help you understand English speech and even their accents. - Watching TV game shows in English. - Use mind map to learn vocabulary by topic. - When you learn a new word, write down other words that collocate with it. - Read as much as possible. Reading is an excellent way to learn vocabulary and collocations in context and naturally. Students can read sample essays, newspaper, magazines and fairy tales. - Revise what you learn regularly. Practise using new collocations in context as soon as possible after learning them. - Learn collocations in groups that work for you. You could learn them by topic or by a particular word. - Find information on collocations in any good learner's dictionary and find specialized dictionaries of collocations. - Use English - English dictionary when learning vocabulary. 41 - Apply to life: to practice writing and speaking every day to be able to use collocations to widen knowledge. * For the teachers: - Have students do exercises that contain words that are repeating collocations over and over. - Ask students to write them down alphabetically or by topic. - Guide students to learn collocations by mind map and by topic. - Have a rich vocabulary and have to explain its meaning in English, not Vietnamese - English translation or vice versa. - Practice writing and speaking using collocations on a regular basis to be effective. - When correcting lessons for students, teachers must explain in detail and clearly. * For the school: - Assign classroom teachers and teach all 3 classes in 3 years so that teachers accumulate experience and have instructional direction appropriate to the level of the student. - Create conditions for teachers to participate in study and improve their skills, participate fully in the training organized by the Department. - Create conditions for students to participate in extracurricular activities, competitions organized by English department. - The schools should organize English-speaking competitions (rhetoric) on the subject of study, at least once a year. This activity will stimulate students' learning English more. * For the Department of Education and Training: - Have a plan for professional training and professional training for teachers more often. - Provide more reference material, visual aids for the subject. - English competitions are mostly designed in the form of writing: semester exams, 10th grade entrance exams, excellent students, Olympic exams, GCSE exams, in the following years - Organizing annual seminars on innovating teaching methods because this is an opportunity for teachers to exchange, learn, share experiences about effective teaching methods to improve the quality of lectures. - It is advisable to hold English Speaking/Writing Contests or English Olympic Contests so that students have the opportunity to apply their knowledge. 42 IV. Conclusion Using flexible collocation helps learners to have natural written and spoken language like native speakers, increase efficiency in expression, as well as identify information faster and more accurately. One of the most effective ways to learn collocations is to put them in a specific context, and learners should consider applying this method to be able to manipulate collocations correctly. Collocations are a fantastic way to bring the excitement of vocabulary building into our classroom. They help our students acquire real-world or academic expressions by helping them learn language in chunks, rather than individual words. Collocations also encourage students to focus on meaning and context, rather than memorizing endless lists of words and their strict definitions. Encourage the learners a little differently by helping them see the world not as individual bits, but as groups of information rich in nuance and understanding. With this little study, I hope to provide readers with an overview of collocations and the importance of teaching and learning collocations in improving writing and speaking skills as well as applying to the tests and the national examination. However, in difficult timing condition, mistakes are unavoidable. Therefore, any suggestions and remarks from colleagues will be highly appreciated. 43 D. REFERENCES 1. Tiếng Anh 11- Student’s book - Education Publishing House and Pearson 2. Tiếng Anh 11- Work book - Education Publishing House and Pearson 3. Tiếng Anh 11- Teacher’s book - Education Publishing House and Pearson 4. English collocations in use, Intermediate and advanced level by Felicity O’Dell and Michael McCarthy. Cambridge University Press. 5. Understanding Vocab for IELTS Writing /Understanding Vocab for IELTS Speaking Zim – School of English test Preparation. Nhà Xuất Bản Dân Trí 6. 2000 English Collocations and Idioms, Trang Anh – Phạm Thi Kieu Oanh. Nhà xuất bản Khoa học Tự nhiên và công nghệ 7. Lewis, M. 2000. Teaching collocations. London: Language Teaching Publications. 8. AN ANALYSIS OF THE USE OF COLLOCATION BY INTERMEDIATE EFL COLLEGE STUDENTS 9. for-efl-learners/ 10. 11. mira-van/ 12. 13. qua.htm 14. collocations-in-the-efl-classroom/ 15. 16. Sách bài tập trắc nghiệm Tiếng Anh 11- Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa (chủ biên) và nhiều tác giả - Nhà xuất bản giáo dục Việt Nam. Pl-1 E- APPENDICES APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS ON USING COLLOCATIONS Please tick or circle or write answer where necessary. - Age:.................... - Class:.................. - Years of studying English: . 1. Are you interested in learning English? Yes No 2. Do you think vocabulary plays an important role in learning English? a, Very important b, Important c, Normal d, Not very important e, Not important 3. How do you feel about learning vocabulary? a, Very interesting b, Interesting c, Normal d, Not very interesting e, Not interesting 4. How do you find the difficult level of the vocabulary in the new 11th grade textbook? a, Very difficult b, Difficult c, Normal d, It's not that difficult e, Not difficult 5. Do you understand collocations in English? Tick the answers you think correctly big rain heavy rain Pl-2 make a progress a decision a box be seriously affected great importance 6. Do you think it is important to learn collocations? a, Very important b, Important c, Normal d, Not very important e, Not important 7. Does your teacher often teach you collocations when he/she teaches vocabulary? Always Often Sometimes Never 8. Do you use technology to learn vocabulary? Tick the answers Ipad Smart phone Computer Other technologies:......................................................... 9. Do you have enough vocabulary? Yes No Pl-3 APPENDIX 2: A MULTIPLE CHOICE EXERCISE TO EVALUATE STUDENT RESULTS Full name: ..........................................................Class: ........... Choose the best answer 1. Most of these students are interested in ___________undergraduate studies for bachelor's degrees. A. achieving B. getting C. receiving D. pursuing 2. Experiences at work ________ their knowledge and gradually mature them. A. help B. make C. broaden D. take 3. The archaeological ________will last for several years as scholars believe that there are still relics buried in this site. A. excavations B. heritage C. nature D. geology 4. In China, there are still a lot of _________families sharing the same house. A. extent B. extension C. extended D. extensive 5. Traffic congestion in large cities seems to be an ____________problem. A. soluble B. insoluble C. solved D. resolved 6. Due to financial conflict over years, they decided to get ____. A. proposed B. engaged C. married D. divorced 7. The increased ___________can be attributed to three main factors: healthier lifestyles, better nutrition, and advances in medical science and technology. A. life expectancy B. ageing process C. nutritious diet D. stress lifestyle 8. ___________ is an increase in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere. A. climate change B. global warming C. greenhouse gases D. emissions 9. I'm in a _______ at the moment. A. date B. relationship C. romance D. argument 10. You should make a list of things to do and _________ them if you want to work effectively. A. do B. arrange C. prioritize D. approach 11. Effective ____ skills help you break each project down into the achievable tasks. A. time-keeping B. time – consuming C. time- management D. Time-line 12. Students with _________ impairments may suffer from difficulties with memory, self-expression, information processing, and other learning disabilities. A. memory B. studying C. learning D. cognitive Pl-4 13. We need to help many students with disabilities to become independent, integrate in the community and __________ success at school. A. achieve B. lose C. have D. receive 14. The right of every nation is to lead its national existence free from external ___ . A. involvement B. prevention C. interference D. interruption 15. Precisely when the first wheeled chairs were invented and used for ____ persons is unknown. A. disabled B. poor C. unhappy D. unemployed 16. He has not developed mentally as much as others at the same age. He's __________. A. mentally alert B. mentally ill C. mentally retarded D. mentally restricted 17. Copenhagen has been voted the most __________ city in the world. A. ecological friendly B. eco- friendly C. ecologically soundly D. friendly ecologically 18. He suggested playing sports when you're young, or ________yoga and t'ai chi... A. doing B. taking C. following D. practising Choose the word(s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions. 19. Many city dwellers, especially those in developing countries, still live in poverty. A. residents B. migrants C. residers D. inhabitants Choose the word(s) CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the following questions. 20. Sometimes, in order to get things done, you have to take the initiative. A. make the last decision B. make important changes C. raise the first idea D. sacrifice for others Answer: 1.D 2.C 3.A 4.C 5.A 6.D 7.A 8.B 9.B 10.C 11.C 12.D 13.A 14.C 15.A 16.C 17.B 18.D 19.B 20.C Pl-5 APPENDIX 3: SOME PICTURES OF STUDENTS ‘S DOING COLLOCATIONS IN CLASS AND ON THE INTERNET THROUGH SOFTWARE Pl-6 Pl-7 Pl-8
File đính kèm:
skkn_some_experience_in_teaching_students_to_learn_collocati.pdf