HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY

TRẦN HƯƠNG THU

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF USING GAMES IN TEACHING
VOCABULARY FOR THE FIRST YEAR ENGLISH LANGUAGE
TEACHING EDUCATION STUDENTS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE
FACULTY AT HANOI PEDAGOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2

(SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT OF THE
DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF ARTS IN ENGLISH)

SUPERVISOR: DO THI THANH DUNG

HA NOI, 2017


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Every book has a story, and this one involves lot of helpful people. I would
like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Mrs Do Thi Thanh Dung,
M.A., whose insights and thoughtful comments have guided me to do this work,
and who has seriously directed me with her competence, generosity, and patience. I
am thankful to my teachers in the FLF at HPU2 for giving comments for my thesis,
and thanks to Mr Le Huy Hoang for helping me to collect materials at other
university.
I also wish to thank the students of the speaking group of K42 English
Language Teaching Education for joining in my vocabulary games and responding
to my questionnaires.
Last but not least, I‟m truly grateful to my family, my love and my friends
who are always beside me for their special help during the time I was doing the

English Language Teaching Education students of Foreign Language Faculty at
Hanoi Pedagogical University 2.
I certify that no part of this study has been copied or reproduced by me from
any other person‟s work without acknowledgements and that the study is originally
written by me under serious guidance from my supervisor.
Date submitted: April 2017
Student

Supervisor

Tran Huong Thu

Do Thi Thanh Dung, M.A

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
L2

Second language

HPU2

Hanoi Pedagogical University Number 2

CLT

Communicative language teaching


2. An overview on using games in language learning .............................................15
2.1 Definition of games ............................................................................................15
2.2 Advantages of using games in learning vocabulary ..........................................15
2.2.1. Games create high motivation .......................................................................16
2.2.2. Games can increase student - student communication and promote active,
student - centered learning. .....................................................................................17
2.2.3. Games can act as a testing mechanism and provide immediate feedback ....18
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2.3. Teacher‟s Roles .................................................................................................19
2.4 Drawbacks of using games in language classes ................................................20
2.5 Game selection and steps of applying a game ...................................................23
2.5.1 Game selection ................................................................................................23
2.5.2 Steps of applying a game ................................................................................24
2.6 Sample games ....................................................................................................26
CHAPTER TWO: METHODOLOGY ....................................................................27
Introduction of the Chapter ......................................................................................27
1. Subject of the study ..............................................................................................27
2. Instruments for the thesis .....................................................................................27
2.1. Observation .......................................................................................................27
2.2. Survey questionnaire .........................................................................................28
2.3 Tests....................................................................................................................29
3. Procedure of a game - based activity ...................................................................31
4. Data analysis methodology ..................................................................................32
4.1. Quantitative method ..........................................................................................32
4.2. Qualitative method ............................................................................................33
5. Procedures for Data Collection ............................................................................33
Conclusion of the Chapter .......................................................................................35
CHAPTER THREE..................................................................................................36

Table 2: Checklist of assessing a game…………………………………………...28
Table 3: Planning of using tests in the thesis……………………………………...36
Table 4: Survey questionnaire result on the students‟ attitude toward vocabulary
games………………................................................................................42

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PART ONE
INTRODUCTION
I. Rationales for the study
English is an international language used by a lot of people in the world. It
also has a role as a mean to learn about science and technology in facing
globalization era. Any sources of science using English as their language, so if
people do not master English, difficulties will be found. By mastering this
language, the number of misunderstanding of communication with others can be
reduced. So English plays an important part in creating mutual understanding,
promoting science and technology development as well as reinforcing foreign
affairs among countries. Therefore, there is a special need for teaching and
learning English all over the world. In Vietnam, English has been taught at every
education level.
In English language learning, vocabulary is extremely important so
vocabulary is always received a great deal of attention. Vocabulary is one of
linguistic features which influences the communicate competence. Teaching
vocabulary is important to make students are able to communicate by using
language that learnt. Learners have to master English vocabularies before
improving other English skills. They will be not able to express themselves clearly
and effectively if they do not master vocabulary before. McCarthy and O‟Dell
(2001:6) state that English has very large words, which adds greatly to our
opportunities to express the meaning in different styles. The teachers must be able

real life situations through the means of individual, pair and group work activities.
It encourages students to practice the language they learn in meaningful ways. In a
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CLT classroom, playing vocabulary games is one of the activities which requires
students to actively communicate with their classmates, using the foreign language.
There are so many researches about using games which were chiefly applied in the
kindergarten, secondary and upper secondary school. However, there are not many
countries applying games to study in the university. Therefore, there is a gap in
research of using games for adults as well as students in the university.
For all reasons listed above with my own enthusiasm in vocabulary, I would
decide to choose “The effectiveness of using games in teaching vocabulary
knowledge for the first year English Language Teaching Education students of
Foreign Language Faculty at Hanoi Pedagogical University 2“ as the title of my
thesis.
II. Aim of the study
Throughout this study, the general purpose is finding more effective
methods to improve vocabulary knowledge for students of Foreign Language
Faculty (FLF) at Hanoi Pedagogical University 2 (HPU2). To be more specific, the
aim is to attain the following objectives: To test the effectiveness of using games in
improving vocabulary for students of FLF at HPU2; To investigate the
experimental student‟s attitudes towards learning vocabulary through using games.
III. Scope of the study
The main purpose of the study is to find out how much students can improve
vocabulary through using games. The general research area of the study is
vocabulary. The phenomenon is strategies for improving vocabulary by using
games for the first year English Language Teaching Education students of FLF at
HPU2 in the academic year of 2016-2017. Other aspects of vocabulary and games
are also mentioned.

The thesis was conducted with high desire that using games for teaching
and learning vocabulary will be widely used in L2 program in Viet Nam.
Simultaneously, Vietnamese students can either find interest or entertainment in
acquiring new words instead of boredom thanks to the useful games. It is hoped
that this final project report will give advantages to both teachers and students in
terms of English language as following ways:
Students: They can find interesting and active in learning vocabulary by
using games. It creates an atmosphere for students communicate and practice L2 so
games improve their vocabulary knowledge.
Teachers: It is hoped that this thesis can be an additional reading and
additional trick in teaching vocabulary, helps teachers to vary their teaching
techniques.
Readers: As an input for readers who want to improve their language
vocabulary, using games can help them to enrich their vocabulary.
VII. Design of the research
The research includes three main parts: Introduction, Development and
Conclusion
Part 1: “Introduction” is about all primary knowledge required for an essay
namely rationale for the study, research presupposition, research objectives,
research scope, research methods, design of the research work.
Part 2: “Development” consists three main chapters. Chapter 1 that
concludes things about literature review, an overview of vocabulary, and overview
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of games. While the second chapter covers all about the methodology used in the
research. The last chapter in this part is Findings and Discussion. It has data
collected from the surveys above and then gives the limitation and some suggested
solutions of using games as a way of learning vocabulary.
Part 3: “Conclusion” is mentioned with limitations of the study as well as


Vocabularies are used to express our ideas, felling, motivation and
information to the people clearly. Vocabulary is each one of English subject at
school that learnt with listening, speaking, reading, writing skills by students. In
this study, vocabulary means the students‟ ability in mastering any kind of words
or stock of words such as: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and others in teaching and
learning process and the students know how to use vocabulary in a particular
situation and regularly in their daily life.
We notice that vocabulary, lexis and word are used to refer to the same
thing. However, according to Scrinever (2005), vocabulary and lexis are different
terms. He stated that vocabulary “typically refers mainly to single words (e.g. dog,
green, wash) and sometimes to very tightly linked two-or three word combinations
(e.g. stock market, compact disc, sky blue, go off”. However, he defined lexis as “
… our internal database‟ of words and complete „ready-made‟ fixed/semifixed/typical combinations of words that we can recall and use quite quickly
without having to construct new phrases and sentences word by word from scratch
using our knowledge of grammar”. And word is a single unit of language which
means something and can be spoken or written (Oxford Advanced Learner‟s
Dictionary). So, in this paper, there is no difference in use between words and
vocabulary to refer all the words that existed in a language, which can transmit and
express ideas.
We can make a conclusion that vocabulary is the starting step to acquire any
language, because without understand vocabulary they will have difficulties in the
next learning process. Vocabulary is used to express ideas, feeling, motivation and
information to the people clearly, and it is each one of English subject at school
that learnt by students.

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1.2 Types of Vocabulary

will not be able to infer any ideas transmitted to them.
According to the book of How to Teach Vocabulary, Thornburry (2002:13)
explains, “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary
nothing can be conveyed”. This is how the linguist summed up the importance of
vocabulary learning, his view is echoed in this advice to students from a recent
course book. Allen (1983), in her book entitled Techniques in Teaching
Vocabulary says, “Students who do not learn grammar along with vocabulary will
not be able to use the language for communication”.
This means that vocabulary is also important as well as grammar. If you
spend most of your time studying grammar, your English will not improve very
much. You will see most improvement if you learn more words and expressions.
You can say very little with grammar, but you can say almost anything with words.
Acquiring a large vocabulary can benefit us in school, at work, and almost
anywhere. It will enable us to understand the others' ideas better and to have the
satisfaction or getting our thoughts and ideas across more effectively. While there
are not any magic shortcuts to learning words, the larger our vocabulary becomes,
the easier it will be to connect a new word with words we already know, and thus
remember its meaning.
In conclusion, vocabulary which is a bridge connecting speaking, listening,
reading and writing skills together plays a very important role in learning English.

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Mastering vocabulary makes the learners be easy to understand the meaning of
words when they listen, speak, read and write in English.
1.4 Techniques of Vocabulary Teaching
According to OshaSaeed Al Neyadi (2002), there are two main approaches
to vocabulary teaching: the grammar translation method and the audio-lingual
method. The first method focuses more on memorizing lists of vocabulary for

they do not learn them properly and they have no difficulty getting its meaning.
Unlike the traditional method of learning and teaching, in a CLT approach,
learners are required to take part in a number of meaningful activities with
different tasks. This is to improve learners' communicative competence by
encouraging them to be a part of the lessons themselves. Newton (2001) refers to
this approach as a way that can enable learners to manage their vocabulary
meaning and develop their communicative skills at the same time. Many experts of
language teaching methodology also agree that playing games is a good way to
learn vocabulary, especially in CLT class.
With the use of games, the teacher can create various contexts in which
students have to use the language to communicate, exchange information and
express their own opinions (Wright, Betteridge and Buckby, 1984).

1.5. Aspects of Vocabulary
One of the main goals of foreign language learners is to know, use and
expand their vocabulary knowledge. Pavicic (2008) stated that knowing a word
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refers to knowing its different features; For instance, knowing its “phonological,
orthographic, morphological, syntactic and semantic” characteristics (p. 10).
Similarly, Nation (2000) identified a number of factors needed in knowing a word,
and he summarized them in the following table (p. 40-41).
Form

Spoken

R What does the word sounds like?
P How is the word pronounced?



R In what patterns does the word occur?

functions
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P
Collocations

In what patterns must we use this word?

R What words or types of words occur with
this one?
P What words or types of words must we
use with this one?

Constraints on use
(register,
frequency…)

R Where, when and how often would we
expect to meet this word?
P Where, when and how would we use this
word?

Table 1: What is involved in knowing a word?
R: Receptive knowledge
P: Productive knowledge
Table 1 signifies that the task of being knowledgeable about a word requires

between students or to kill time. Byrne (1995) gave the definition to games as a
form of play governed by rules. They should be enjoyed and fun. They are not just
a diversion, a break from routine activities, but a way of getting the learner to use
the language in the course of the game. Similarly, in his book entitled Elementary
Vocabulary Games, Hadfield (1998:4) says, “A game is or activity with rules, a
goal, and element of fun, which is divided into two kinds; competitive games, in
which players or teams race to be the first to reach the goal, and cooperative
games, in which players or teams work together towards a common goal”.
2.2 Advantages of using games in learning vocabulary
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Neil A Mckelvie raises his voice in guidelines (June 1986:p67) that “It
seems to me that it is more important to look at why people play games than to
consider what games are or how they can be classified”.
2.2.1. Games create high motivation
Kelly Franklin, an American professor of Chio University, states in
guidelines (June 1986: p25) that “From their first year, public school students
become accustomed to sitting quietly and listening, rather than acting”. There are
many reasons for this situation. Salfnil lists two main reasons in guidelines
(December 1990; p67). Firstly, students are afraid of making mistakes so they do
not want to express any ideas. Another possible reason is that they lack the words
and phrases to express their idea in English. Games can be a great help to bring
them more words or motivations to talk. According to ShelaghRixon (1981: p5):
”The first thing that many people think of in connection with games is competition
among players…”. Thus, players are highly motivated in participating in game
playing.
As a result, games can reduce memory load of vocabulary when students‟
heads are stuff with a lot of new words. They can enrich their vocabulary quickly
by learning from their partners. Besides, many interesting situations in games can