DONG NAI EDUCATION AND TRAINING DEPARTMENT
NAM HA HIGH SCHOOL
Code:

THE INITIATIVE EXPERIENCE
Topic:
Activities for Reviewing and Enriching
Vocabulary Knowledge
Teacher: TRỊNH THỊ LOAN
Research field:
Education management: 
Teaching methodology: English

Other field: 
Attachments:
Object:  Software:  Film:  Other things: 

School year: 2014-2015
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BM 01-Bia SKKN
CURRICULUM VITAE
I.PERSONAL INFORMATION:
1. Full name: Trinh Thi Loan
2. Date of birth: July 2
nd
, 1985
3. Sex: Female
4. Address: 29A/6 Nguyen Ai Quoc Street, Tan Phong, Bien Hoa, Dong Nai
5. Telephone number: 01636991371
6. Email address: [email protected]
7. Major: Teacher of English

1. Word search puzzles…………………………………. 7-9
2. Word definition ……………………………………… 10
3. Word collocation…………………………………… 11
4. Word form…………………………………………… 12
5. Matching…………………………………………… 13
6. Crossword…………………………………………… 14-15
7. Scrambled letters…………………………………… 16
8. Spelling bee…………………………………………. 17
Chapter 4: Conclusion and suggestion …………… 18
Reference …………………………………………………… 19
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Chapter 1: Introduction
Vocabulary is considered an important tool to help students interpret their
ideas and express their feelings effectively. Students’ knowing lots of lexical
items ultimately lead to successes in language skills such as speaking,
listening, writing and listening. It is also vocabulary that partly facilitates the
movement of “passive” knowledge into “active” language use. Roughly
speaking, students are getting more competent and confident in using
language since they own the rich storehouse of vocabulary knowledge. In
reality, those roles of knowing vocabulary seem to be marginalized in
teaching and learning situations. More dangerously, the translation method
becomes dominant, which navigates to the situation of L1 overuse. The
textbook makes the problems worsen when presenting no room for purely
teaching and learning vocabulary. As a result, teachers tend to spend very
limited time on introducing the new lexical items and do not linger on
vocabulary practice. In some special cases, a few teachers are more
awareness of the possible potentials of vocabulary in the language family.
The evidence is that they deliberately check students’ memorization on the
words they have learnt. However, they do not vary the task types except for
dictation technique, which is considered to be at the expense of

tend to directly introduce the needed vocabulary to their students, by doing
so they can save time for the macro skills which are widely considered to be
more important than the language elements. As a result, students are to face
with lots of obstacles stemming from insufficient knowledge of vocabulary.
Spontaneously, their work on other skills no longer runs smoothly.
Unfortunately, such frequent interruption may damages students’ learning
motivation. In my opinion, practicing and reviewing vocabulary deserves to
be paid more attention and dedication from teachers and teachers should
lend the most effective teaching techniques as well as appropriate pedagogic
approaches to enhance students’ willingness to exposure to lexical items.
As suggested by Brown. H. D (2007), vocabulary items should not be
viewed as a long, boring list of words to be learned, they should be put in
their centre role in meaningful language. He also lists some practical
principles for using communicative teaching method to treat vocabulary
instruction as follow.
- Allocate specific class time to vocabulary learning. Words are believed the
first priority to make communication work, and the basic base of language
building blocks.
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-Help students to learn vocabulary in context. The words should appear in
the context of discourse or real communication rather than isolating words.
By doing so, students can articulate the new words in meaningful contexts
that they may encounter in real life.
- Play down the role of bilingual dictionary. This help student skip from
overusing bilingual dictionary, which makes students overtly depend on it
for word quick translation.
- Encourage students to develop strategies for determining the meanings of
words.
- Engage in “unplanned” vocabulary teaching. Teachers should be conscious
that the “unplanned” vocabulary teaching can be encouraged since it relates

about five minutes, and it should happen at the beginning of the class.

Samples of activity
Sample 1: Unit 1: Friendship
Target vocabulary: Friendship
Activity: word search puzzles
Procedure:
-The teacher can create a paper-puzzle which is big enough to hang on the
board, or she can also design it on the PowerPoint.
- Students are assigned into different groups of about three or four students.
- The teacher instructs students the rules and the ways to do this puzzle.
- The winner is the one who is able to search the most correct words in the
shortest possible time.
- The teacher then shows the correct answer and gets individual group to
make as many sentences as possible using the words they have just found
out.
- For the last two minutes, students are encouraged to utilize dictionaries.
Instruction: Find and circle all of the words that are hidden in the grid
and the remaining letters spell an additional word related to friendship.
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ACQUAINTANCE
AFFECTION
AFFINITY
ALLY
AMIGO
AMITY
BOYFRIEND
BUDDY
CHUM
CLOSENESS

Instruction: Add two letters to any place of each word to form another
word with its definition given.
1. eat large in amount, size or degree

2. cool a place where children go to be educated

3. ink believe something or have an opinion or idea

4. stunt a person who is learning at a college or university,
or sometimes at school

5. art begin doing something

6. lit the brightness that comes from the sun, fire,
electrical devices, etc. that allows thing to be seen

7. change give something to someone and receive something
from them

8. all limited in size or amount when compared with
what is typical or average

9. sit go to a place in order to look at it, or to a person in
order to spend time with them

10. ring The season of the year between winter and summer

The answer:
1. Great 2. School 3. Think 4. Students 5. Start
6. Light 7. Exchange 8. Small 9. Visit 10. Spring

Target vocabulary: voluntary
Activity: word form
Procedure:
-The teacher has students form pairs. Give each pairs one worksheet
- The teacher explains the activity, students work in pairs to find the right
word form for each gap.
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- Students should use pencils, if possible, as answers may need to be erased
and changed.
-The first pair to finish the task becomes the winner.
Options/Alternatives
- T may get students to write sentences using the vocabulary from the list.
Instruction: Fill in each gap in the sentence with the correct form of the
word in brackets.
1. She does __________ work for the Red Cross two days a week.
(volunteer)
2. When shall I do the ___________ (shop)
3. They want to improve public ____________, especially education.
(serve)
4. We finished the job, but only with great ____________. (difficult)
5. Some athletes take drugs to improve their ____________.
(performance)
6. Their grandchildren are a constant source of ___________. (happy)
7. At university, you have the ____________ to do what you want. (free)
8. There is a general ____________ that things will soon get better.
(believe)
9. A _______ is a person who climbs mountains as a sports or job.
(mountain)
10. One major_____________ of the area is the lack of public transport.
(advantages)

1. i 2. c 3. f 4.j 5. a
6. h 7. b 8. e 9. d 10. a

Sample 6: Unit 6: competition
Target vocabulary: event description
Activity: crossword puzzle
Procedure:
- The teacher designs a crossword on the topic of unit 6, it should be hung in
the board center. T may also deliver each to individual group as a small card.
-The teacher gets students to form groups of three or four to do the
crossword.
- The teacher reminds students not to look up dictionary or textbook.
- Students should use pencils in case they may need to change the answers.
-The first group to finish the task becomes the winner.
Options/Alternatives
-After checking the answers as a class, T has students write sentences using
the Vocabulary from the crossword.
- The teacher encourages some students to read their sentences to the class.
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Instruction: complete the crossword puzzle with the words needed for
the gaps in sentences below.
1. People with Asthma have ____________ in breathing.
2. I’m meeting a _____________ of friends for dinner tonight.
3. She gave a superb ______________ as Lady Macbeth.
4. We have to ____________ and pray that the operation will go well.
5. Children seem to have lost their _____________ in reading.
6. She’s won a lot of beauty _____________.
7. The defending____ will play his first match of the tournament
tomorrow.
8. You’ll have the ____________ to ask any questions to the end.

Sample 7: Unit 7: World population
Target vocabulary: population
Activity: scrambled letters
Procedure:
-T prepares handouts of a jumbled letters in advance.
- T gets students to work in groups of three or four.
- T delivers the handouts and explains the rules: students have to reorder the
letters to make up the right words.
- The winner will be the group which builds all the correct words first.
Options/Alternatives
-After checking the answers as a class, T has students write sentences using
the vocabulary from the list.
- The teacher encourages students to read their sentences to the entire class.
Instruction: Arrange the letters to make 10 words you have learnt.
These words begin with the first letter.
1.eveosplix

2. moinlil

3. fugrei

4.rceroues

5.abeilaval

6.prentec

7.ghowtr

8.recaresh

9. exchange 10. comment
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Chapter 4: Conclusion and suggestion
Effect of application (school year: 2014-2015)
Class 11C3 (40) 11C9 (40)
The number of students claims their
interests in English before applying these
vocabulary activities
15 23
The number of students claims their
interests in English after applying these
vocabulary activities
33 39
The suggested activities are really practical to enhance students’ vocabulary
knowledge, develop their English skill abilities as well as boost their
motivation and interest in learning English .To some certain degrees, they
bridge the gap between the “up there” knowledge and language in use. In my
observation, my students are able to remember the words longer and flexibly
adapt them into their spoken speech and written form. In this sense, their
English ability is getting better and better in a short time. Teachers’
deliberated preparations for the activities remind students about the integral
part of lexical items, ultimately, they seriously intake those chunks of
language elements. However, reviewing and enriching should be done
regularly and systematically, otherwise, the results may be ruined. It is
advisable for the teacher to clearly state the instruction before letting
students do the tasks because they may get confused and maybe time passes
dully. Sometimes, teachers find that they cannot stay on this review stage
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because of time constraint. So it is suggested that the allowed time for
reviewing activities should be limited in about five or six minutes. I also


Biên hòa, ngày 09 tháng 05 năm 2015
PHIẾU NHẬN XÉT, ĐÁNH GIÁ SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM
Năm học: 2014 - 2015
–––––––––––––––––
TÊN SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM
Activities for Reviewing and Enriching Vocabulary Knowledge
- Họ và tên tác giả: Trịnh Thị Loan
- Chức vụ: Giáo viên
- Đơn vị: Trường THPT Nam Hà
Lĩnh vực: (Đánh dấu X vào các ô tương ứng, ghi rõ tên bộ môn hoặc lĩnh
vực khác)
- Quản lý giáo dục  - Phương pháp dạy học bộ môn: Tiếng Anh
- Phương pháp giáo dục  - Lĩnh vực khác: ……
Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm đã được triển khai áp dụng:
Tại đơn vị  Trong Ngành 
1. Tính mới (Đánh dấu X vào 1 trong 3 ô dưới đây)
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BM04-NXĐGSKKN
- Đề ra giải pháp thay thế hoàn toàn mới, bảo đảm tính khoa học, đúng đắn

- Đề ra giải pháp thay thế một phần giải pháp đã có, bảo đảm tính khoa học,
đúng đắn 
- Giải pháp mới gần đây đã áp dụng ở đơn vị khác nhưng chưa từng áp dụng ở
đơn vị mình, nay tác giả tổ chức thực hiện và có hiệu quả cho đơn vị 
2. Hiệu quả (Đánh dấu X vào 1 trong 5 ô dưới đây)
- Giải pháp thay thế hoàn toàn mới, đã được thực hiện trong toàn ngành có
hiệu quả cao 
- Giải pháp thay thế một phần giải pháp đã có, đã được thực hiện trong toàn
ngành có hiệu quả cao 

của tác giả và người có thẩm quyền, đóng dấu của đơn vị và đóng kèm vào
cuối mỗi bản sáng kiến kinh nghiệm.
NGƯỜI THỰC HIỆN
SKKN
(Ký tên và ghi rõ họ tên)
XÁC NHẬN CỦA TỔ
CHUYÊN MÔN
(Ký tên và ghi rõ họ tên)
THỦ TRƯỞNG ĐƠN VỊ
(Ký tên, ghi rõ
họ tên và đóng dấu)
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